TRANSCRIPT
- Government set to slash $3 billion in university debt
- Labor Senator says Opposition leader is undermining Australia's security agencies by calling to ban Gaza refugees
- In tennis, Australia's Alex De Minaur back in the game for the US Open
The government is set to wipe more than $3 billion of student debt for more than 3 million Australians.
The indexation rates from last year will be replaced to match either the Wage Price Index or Consumer Price Index, after Australians were met with a student debt increase of 7.1 per cent in 2023 due to inflation.
The government in May also announced financial support for students during their placement, including in nursing, teaching and social work.
Education Minister Jason Clare says the legislation aims to assist students in the cost of living crisis and also ensure students don't miss out on university.
"Last year, when there was a big spike in inflation and a big spike in hex indexation that hit a lot of Australian students and a lot of Australians with student debt really hard. They felt it. They thought it was unfair, and so did we. So we've responded."
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Opposition leader Peter Dutton says people from Gaza should be banned from entering Australia until the war ends.
Almost 3,000 visas have been granted for people fleeing Gaza since October 7th, with more than 7,000 visas rejected.
The Opposition has criticised the security processes in place to vet people travelling from Gaza into Australia.
Labor Senator Murray Watt says the Opposition is undermining the work of Australia's security agencies.
"We have seen Peter Dutton and the coalition effectively put a vote of no confidence in our security agencies over the last couple of days. The processes and policies that are used by our security agencies to vet visas are exactly the same as they were when Peter Dutton was the minister. Why were those processes okay when he was the minister and not okay now it's just cheap politics from Peter Dutton."
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The Assistant Minister for Trade has condemned the Opposition's lack of support for the government's Future Made In Australia plan.
The government's plan aims to invest in jobs and opportunities that progress net zero goals to reduce emissions and prioritise cleaner energy.
Tim Ayres says the Coalition's opposition to the plan is not in the national interest.
"Because Australians know it's in the national interest to pass the future made in Australia legislation. Australians know we need to bring back good manufacturing jobs in our outer suburbs and in our regions, and Australians know that Peter Dutton's not capable of anything else but negative partisan politic."
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South Australia is introducing new laws to protect people from artificial intelligence videos and images online.
The state is criminalising AI content known as deepfakes, which are digitally created and altered material shared without consent.
South Australia's Attorney-General Kyam Maher and Premier Peter Malinauskus outlined the laws.
MAHER: "Up to two years in jail or $10,000 fine, and both of those double if the victim's under 17 years of age."
MALINAUSKUS: "I think everybody needs to move faster than what we are because the technology is moving faster than anyone could reasonably expected."
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Multicultural communities are calling for gambling advertising to be banned on live TV and social media.
The Multicultural Communities Council of New South Wales said gambling advertising is an enormous cost to the Australian economy through the health system, violent crime and fraud, law enforcement, and social services to name a few.
They added that gambling can have significant impacts on culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia, saying such individuals who gamble may be more likely to develop gambling problems compared to the general population.
The council said the financial difficulties that can accompany gambling add further economic hardships to communities often trying to establish themselves in a new country.
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New artificial intelligence technology could assess the quality of sperm in seconds, removing the need for invasive procedures during IVF treatments.
Monash University's technology found the model analysed sperm imaging with 93 per cent accuracy.
Current clinical practices to evaluate sperm require human analysis and chemical staining of the sperm cells which can cause damage.
This new method works on live, unstained sperm - aiming to preserve their viability.
More than eight million babies have been born worldwide using IVF, while about five per cent of Australian children are conceived through in-vitro fertilisation.'
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And in tennis,
Australia's Alex De Minaur has declared he is fit for this year's final grand slam at the US Open.
Apart from a doubles cameo at the Paris Olympics, de Minaur hasn't played since withdrawing from his scheduled Wimbledon quarter-final blockbuster with Novak Djokovic.
But the world number 10 wrote on Instagram that he has "been working hard trying to recover from my injury", announcing that he would play in the US Open.
The US Open starts on August 26, with qualifying to commence from next Tuesday.
