Australia news LIVE: Dodgy NDIS spending exceeds $2 billion; Universities warn federal government student crackdown could cost 4500 jobs

Executive chairman of News Corp Australasia Michael Miller has hit back at claims the company is obsessed with former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, saying he has no regrets that the company published her private text messages.

Miller – who is in Australia to call on the major social media companies to have greater responsibility as the tech companies have put themselves above government and regulators – battered away questions on ABC Radio National about New Corp’s controversial practices.

Asked how the company can advocate for big tech companies to be ethical after News Corp’s British newspaper group hacked phones, Miller said it is not a practice in Australia.

“That is not in dispute, it hasn’t happened in this country we had a review by five retired judges independently, they reviewed that and that is not a practice that has existed in the Australian market and that is something which is not in question but it’s not a practice,” he said.

The company’s coverage of Higgins was another example brought up to highlight News Corp’s approach to covering stories, as the former Liberal staffer’s private text messages that were never tendered in court were published.

“I think that has been a very important case, which all media have covered with a lot of detail,” he said.

Asked if he believed the text messages of a rape victim were weaponised, Miller disagreed.

“I refute that … it was an important case where varying views were put out in the public and that Australians deserve to know all the facts behind the case as I say, it was one of national interest and I felt that we covered that, as a lot of media did, differently,” he said.

Asked if Miller has any regrets, he said he had none.

“I don’t have regrets no, I think it was a very difficult and unfortunate period for Australia, I think that there could have been a moment which we could have learnt a lot more from as a nation and it went down paths which I would say are unfortunate, as a country you haven’t yet resolved,” he said.

Miller will address the National Press Club later today.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser, the party’s first Jewish member of the House of Representatives from NSW, says he is “sick of leaders failing” to single out rising antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war, saying it exceeds any increase in Islamophobia.

Speaking on ABC Radio National this morning, Leeser also accused pro-Palestine protesters using terms such as “intifada” – an Arabic word meaning uprising but labelled by some Israelis as an antisemitic call for violence against them – of “trying to be cute” in claiming they had no malicious intent towards Jewish people when using it.

“I mean, there [were] two violent uprisings – the first and second intifadas that occurred in Israel – that involved suicide bombing and violent attacks on Jewish people. That is what that term commonly means,” he said.

Lesser, who relinquished his position on the opposition frontbench last year to campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament, was then asked whether there was also a problem with rising Islamophobia as incident reports to the Islamophobia have also risen.

“I don’t think that the level of Islamophobia is as high at the moment as the level of antisemitism, and the rapid increase in the level of antisemitism since the seventh of October,” he said.

“I think there have been times in this country where there has been heightened Islamophobia. And I think you go back after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. I remember at that time, there definitely was an increase in Islamophobia. But I haven’t seen that at this point [today]. What I am seeing … is a massive increase in antisemitism of the sort that I, as a Jewish Australian, have never experienced in my lifetime and have never seen in this country.”

Leeser later said hadn’t seen Muslims subjected to specific incidents that Jewish people had experienced in Australia in the last year – citing racist chants toward Jews at the Sydney Opera House, an inflammatory pro-Palestine demonstration in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community, and the doxxing of Jewish creatives.

“And if there were, I’d be condemning them all because we shouldn’t have that sort of fear,” Leeser said.

“But there has been this increase in antisemitism, and I am sick of leaders failing to call it out specifically and by itself, because we need to deal with it properly.”

Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite has sought to clear up confusion around who would be allowed to serve in the Australian Defence Force after the opposition accused the government of making a “dog’s breakfast” of yesterday’s announcement that foreigners would be allowed to enlist in the military.

The government was quick to clarify yesterday that only citizens from Five Eyes nations living in Australia would be eligible to enlist, after Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh contradicted an initial media release by saying that permanent residents from “any other countries” living in Australia would be able to apply to join.

Appearing on Sydney radio this morning, Thistlethwaite said the recruitment changes would target people already living in Australia who would be required to apply for citizenship within three months of joining the ADF.

“We’re talking about people who are committed to Australia, and they can’t have served in a foreign military in the last two years,” he told ABC Sydney’s Craig Reucassel.

“We’re not trying to poach people off our partners, we’re talking about people who are on a journey to citizenship in Australia.”

Thistlethwaite said the changes were part of a broader push to recruit more people to the defence force, which include scrapping a list of “silly medical conditions” that automatically prevent potential recruits from joining the military, including wearing braces or a childhood history of broken bones.

“We’ve struggled in recent years because of the competitive labour market,” he said. “Many businesses are struggling to get people to join their ranks, and the ADF is no different.”

Health Minister Mark Butler says significant National Disability Insurance Scheme fraud, including reports of dodgy providers helping participants withdraw cash for illicit drugs, are alarming but backed Minister Bill Shorten to fix the problem.

Speaking on Today, Butler said the NDIS was a terrific scheme that was providing support that wasn’t available a decade ago, but admitted “we know there’s simply too much waste”.

“There are too many rorts. There’s certainly too many dodgy providers, which is why Bill Shorten’s legislation before the parliament to clean it up and get the NDIS back on track is so important [to pass].”

Butler was then asked if Shorten was the right person to manage the scheme given he has been minister for two years now and the NDIS fraud head revealed during budget estimates on Monday that more than $2 billion was still being spent in error. Here’s what Butler said in response:

He’s absolutely the right man. He was so integral in setting up this scheme more than a decade ago. He understands it intimately. He understands the needs of Australians living with disability and their families intimately. They know him well. They trust him.

But this is a scheme that got right off track. I mean, there are thousands of unregistered providers out there too. Many of them are dodgy. Too many of them are engaged in rorts and we need the legislation passed through the parliament. We obviously have also been talking to state governments that have a role in the setting and approval of rules in this scheme. So this is not just a matter for the Commonwealth government and the Commonwealth parliament.

We need the support of state governments, which is why the prime minister talks so deeply with premiers and chief ministers at the national cabinet meeting about it.”

Butler said it was “outrageous” to hear of the fraud while many Australians were still trying to get onto the scheme with valid claims, making them understandably “furious”.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Liberal senator Jane Hume have had their breakfast television appearance cut short as the pair argued over who was to blame for a tribunal decision this week that allowed a convicted kidnapper who worked with gangland boss Tony Mokbel to remain in Australia.

On Monday, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled that Maltese-born Kevin Farrugia should have his visa restored, overturning a department decision to confirm the mandatory cancellation of his visa because of his crimes. Farrugia came to Australia at the age of 17 months.

The Coalition cited the case to pile more pressure on Immigration Minister Andrew Giles over dozens of tribunal decisions to let convicted criminals stay in Australia, blaming him for being too lenient under a rule known as ministerial direction 99.

This morning, Hume reiterated this argument when appearing on Sunrise, calling the home affairs minister “shameless” for arguing that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton – who was home affairs minister in the previous government – could have acted and cancelled the man’s visa in 2019, when Farrugia made headlines for gun crimes and his ties to Mokbel.

“I think this case actually goes right to the heart of the intense hypocrisy that we are seeing in [the] debate about detainees,” O’Neil said, claiming Dutton released 1300 convicted criminals from immigration detention while in government.

“Clare, you are shameless,” Hume responded, interrupting the minister.

Host Natalie Barr then asked Hume why the Coalition didn’t cancel Farrugia’s visa when they had the chance.

“Nat, this government is looking for any excuse, pointing to anyone else,” Hume said, later claiming Labor’s Direction 99 caused this week’s tribunal decision. “A criminal is walking our streets because of Direction 99. That I do not understand. I do not understand,” she said.

“But I do know that Peter Dutton as immigration minister cancelled 6500 visas. That is more than any minister since federation and yet somehow, Minister Giles, the most incompetent minister in the government and his senior minister – Minister O’Neil – is somehow blaming the victim, blaming the court, blaming the state, blaming Mr Dutton.”

O’Neil then interrupted and accused Hume of hypocrisy, before Barr, the Sunrise host, said: “You know what? No one likes the arguing. I think we will leave it there. See you next week.”

Three Australian universities have been named among the world’s top 20, but experts warn a proposal to limit the number of international students is a threat to progress that could take years to repair.

The University of Melbourne was named the nation’s top performer, earning 13th place in the annual QS World University Rankings released on Wednesday. Sydney University rose one place to 18th – its highest-ever ranking – just pipping its rival University of NSW in 19th place.

Monash University, which ranked 37th overall, was one of three Australian institutions with a perfect score for internationalisation.

For the 13th consecutive year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US maintained its reign at the top of the rankings run by education analysts QS.

Read how NSW universities fared here and how Victorian institutions fared here.

Universities are warning 4500 jobs could go as the government’s international student clampdown leaves a $500 million hole in their budgets and are calling for the same bipartisan support as the mining industry receives.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy will use a speech to the sector on Wednesday to accuse Labor and the Coalition of running on a “unity ticket” to slash growth in international education and to reject claims that foreign students are to blame for Australia’s housing shortage.

“The current policy approach to international education is anything but cohesive – it is policy chaos, starting last year with the rollout of visa processing changes,” Sheehy will say of Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil’s December direction to prioritise visa applications to study at top-tier universities.

“Framed as measures to shore up the sector’s integrity, we now have every reason to believe these changes were a cap by stealth on international students.”

Read more here.

Good morning, and thanks for your company.

It’s Wednesday, June 5. I’m Lachlan Abbott, and I’ll be steering our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what’s making news this morning:

• The National Disability Insurance Scheme’s head of fraud and integrity has revealed at least 5 per cent of the scheme – more than $2 billion – was being spent in error, including cases when dodgy providers have taken participants to ATMs to withdraw cash for illicit drugs.

• A convicted kidnapper who worked with gangland boss Tony Mokbel has been saved from deportation by a tribunal decision on Monday to restore his visa, sparking a blame game in federal parliament.

• The peak body for yoga teachers in Australia says the country has too many instructors despite a national skills body created by the government bending over backwards to put them on a migration list of needed occupations.

• In NSW, a major state parliament inquiry has found police should be relegated to backup support for mental health workers or not respond at all to call-outs for severely mentally ill people in crisis.

• In Victoria, The Age has revealed an offset account meant to help drive down the state’s borrowing costs was instead put into overdraft, forcing the government to repay hundreds of millions of dollars by the end of this financial year.

• In Queensland, the state’s ambulance service – Australia’s busiest – will get more than 250 new staff after an injection of almost $130 million in next week’s state budget, Premier Steven Miles announced yesterday.

• In Western Australia, an international expert has warned another supply chain crisis like the one experienced during the pandemic, and again this year after floods cut the WA-east coast rail connection, will hit once more in 2024.

• In South Australia, a teenager yesterday pleaded guilty to causing the death of SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens’ son Charlie by careless driving.

• In business news, the Australian sharemarket is poised for a flat start on Wednesday after Wall Street reversed early losses overnight in response to the latest US jobs data that reignited hopes for rate cuts soon.

• In international news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alliance raced to a majority in early vote counting in India’s six-week general election counting yesterday, but the numbers were well short of the landslide predicted in exit polls.