Live: Albanese to seek tighter rules for British backpackers in meeting with UK PM
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will seek a tightening of rules for British backpackers coming to Australia when he meets his UK counterpart this week.
Follow all the updates in our live blog.
Plibersek defends tax changes against new housing data
By Joshua Boscaini
By Joshua Boscaini
Tanya Plibersek has again defended the federal government's budget tax changes, after new data was released showing the value of homes has dropped.
Cotality data says national house prices have fallen for a seventh consecutive month, with the speed of the decline in home values tracking at the fastest pace seen over the past 40 years.
Its latest national Home Value Index (HVI) was down 1.2 per cent in October and is now 6.7 per cent below its March peak, equivalent to a decline of about $63,400 in the value of the median Australian dwelling.
But speaking to Channel Seven alongside One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, the social services minister says she thinks the changes have made housing more affordable.
"The fact that the growth in house prices is moderated, I think that means that housing will be affordable for my kids and my grandkids one day," Plibersek says.
Plibersek has also been asked about polling showing Treasurer Jim Chalmers has an approval rating of minus 16.
The social services minister has thrown her support behind Chalmers, saying the treasurer is getting the "tough stuff" done.
"The treasurer is at the forefront of that and there's been no reforming treasurer in Australian history that hasn't copped it when they've made big changes and we all support Jim, we all make decisions together," she says.
PM to seek change to UK free trade agreement at CHOGM
By Sara Tomevska
By Sara Tomevska
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will seek a tightening of rules for British backpackers coming to Australia when he meets his UK counterpart this week at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua.
In what will be his first official bilateral discussion with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Albanese will seek to reverse part of the Morrison-era UK free trade agreement (FTA) that exempts British backpackers from regional and rural work.
The 2021 decision has seen the number of British backpacker visas double to nearly 80,000 per year.
The government has already imposed a lottery system to stem the flow of working holiday-makers and issued a go-slow on processing UK backpacker visas to reduce net overseas migration.
While the FTA is already law, it's understood regional work rules could be reimposed on British working holiday-makers with the consent of the UK government.
Good morning 👋
By Joshua Boscaini
By Joshua Boscaini
Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog! It's great to have you join us for the start of a new week here on the hill.
I'm Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready for another day in federal politics news.
The prime minister has arrived in Antigua in the Caribbean to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
He's expected to meet with the new UK PM Andy Burnham and seek a change to the Australia-UK free trade agreement.
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