Key Points
- Albanese has “positive” meeting with Chinese Premier Li
- Federal Government rules out tech giants getting a pass to mine content for AI models
- Australian golfers secure the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met with China's Premier Li Qiang during the ASEAN meeting in Malaysia.
He has described their talks as 'positive'.
The meeting has held one week after the federal government criticised China for releasing two flares against an Australian military plane in over the South China Sea, while China accaused Australia of intruding its air space.
Mr Albanese says he raised the issue with Mr Li.
"Well, he heard the message very directly. I'm not here to report on what people say when I have meetings, I'm accountable for what I say, and I made the position directly clear that this was an incident and concern for Australia."
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Coalition leader Sussan Ley has raised concerns about the government-appointed CFMEU administrator, during Question Time on Monday.
It follows reports by Nine newspapers that Mark Irving has dismissed anti-corruption teams hired to investigate wrongdoing by the construction union.
The union was forced into administration by the Labor government last year, after reports the union was infiltrated by criminals and underworld figures.
When asked by Ms Ley if the government still has confidence in Mr Irving, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth defended his performance.
"This is very difficult work, this is difficult work and I had spoken with the administrator on numerous occasions about just how difficult this work is. And for him, he is absolutely committed to clean out this union."
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Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has refused to join Nationals Party colleagues at a Net Zero policy meeting today.
The regional party is reviewing its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 but Mr Joyce believes his colleagues must abandon the policy without compromise.
Speaking from the Parliament House, Mr Joyce has repeated his opposition to the net zero emissions goal.
"I'm not gonna attend any party room that believes in Net Zero, because I'm ultimately against Net Zero, I think it's hurting poor people, it is sending small businesses into insolvency, at a time of absolute stress on Australia when we've seen the Japanese Prime Minister today talking about the threats to Australia from such things arise at a totalitarian regime. We should have the capacity to defend ourselves, and that's gonna make it incredibly hard from what's been happening by the part of so called Net Zero."
Mr Joyce has reportedly been speaking with One Nation about possibly defecting to its ranks, but he says nothing has been locked in yet.
In September, the net zero policy also caused issues within the liberal party, with then-frontbencher Andrew Hastie ultimately resigning from the frontbench.
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The Albanese government has ruled out giving tech giants free rein to mine creative content for training Artificial Intelligence models.
Australian artists previously raised their concerns about the copyrights of their art works being violated by AI, after an interim report by the Productivity Commission in August proposed tech companies to be allowed to have copyright exemptions to use the content to train their A-I model.
Tom Sulston from Digital Rights Watch has told SBS that while the government's decision to scrap the text and data
mining exemption is welcome, it should not stop with professional creatives - and should also cover all Australians social media content, private information, and biometric data.
"As individuals, we still control that data, so it's important that we're allowed to say, I don't want this to be part of an AI training thing or used for something that I don't want it to be used for."
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The federal government will include NuvaRing, a contraceptive vaginal ring, in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from November 1.
Under the PBS, women now only need to pay $31.60 per script.
The price will drop again to $25 from January 1.
Assistant Health Minister Rebecca White says the government will also lower the prices of other contraceptives.
"We are also going to make it easier for (women) to I-U-Ds and implants, making sure they have access to long-acting reversal contraceptives, making sure they've got choice when it comes to birth control, making sure they can do that affordably. This will save an average woman about $400, making sure they can access choice when it comes to their reproductive health needs.”
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In golf, Team Australia has won the LPGA Tour's biennial International Crown teams event in South Korea.
The Australians defeated the United States Team, clinching the title after Minjee Lee and Hannah Green won their singles matches against Angel Yin and Yealimi Noh, respectively.
The title was sealed when Green secured victory in the second singles match on the 17th hole.
Minjee Lee says it feels great to achieve this victory.
"I finished first and I saw Hannah's hole - and then obviously we were done after that. It was really lovely. I couldn't... I am so happy I could do it with these girls. It was just fun this whole week. Playing matchplay is something different (this tournament). And we don't really get to do it too often. So, I think we all kind of a had a really fun week."
