TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says promoting trade is the priority during his attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
The election of Donald Trump has raised concerns around how his protectionist, America-first trade policies and import tariffs could mean the loss of tens of billions of dollars to the Australian economy.
Mr Albanese says working with international partners and promoting stronger trade ties has never been more important.
"Look, Australia will always support free and fair trade. We're a trading nation. One in four of Australia's jobs is trade dependent - and that will be a focus with the meetings that we will have over coming days."
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A new report documenting the experience of 3,000 migrant women on temporary visas has found 51 per cent have been sexually harassed.
Seventy-five per cent of those women did not report the incident because they feared losing their job and having their visa cancelled.
Union New South Wales - which produced the report - says the industries where workplace sexual harassment of migrant women was the highest, included the horticulture industry, hospitality, retail and the cleaning industry.
Unions New South Wales Secretary Mark Morey says significant reforms are needed to address the problem, including establishing migrant worker centres to provide legal support.
He also says there needs to also be a regular assessment of new reforms like the new Workplace Justice visa, which allows workers to stay in Australia while they pursue legal action to enforce labour rights.
"I noticed this morning the president of the Farmers Federation made a couple of comments. One of those comments was I hope Unions New South Wales has reported all these to the appropriate authorities. That shows you the problem with this issue. A massive lack of understanding. Firstly, understanding that the women have their own agency and best practices on whether or not they will report what's happened."
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Advocacy groups are calling for community-led solutions nationally to address the over-representation of Indigenous adults and children in custody.
It comes after data from the New South Wales government suggests there's a record number of Aboriginal adults in custody in the state.
In New South Wales, one in 27 Aboriginal men and one in 280 Aboriginal women are currently incarcerated.
Anaiwan man Blake Cansdale is the director of advocacy organisation ANTAR - and says the solution needs to come from the community.
"We need to fight back against populist tough-on-crime agendas which we are seeing across several state and territory governments throughout 2024. Instead of reforms that have proven to fail time and time again and which waste enormous amounts of public funds, we must be focusing on evidence-based and community-led solutions to justice issues, which are ostensibly socioeconomic and health-based issues."
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Social media platforms will be legally required to protect Australians from online harm under a plan to legislate what the federal government calls a Digital Duty of Care.
Online platforms would be required to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harms to users, under the plan.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland outlined the details of the proposed reform in a speech at the Sydney Institute.
She says the change would bring Australia into line with the approaches of the United Kingdom and European Union.
"Social media is an accelerant for information flows that can influence the upbringing of children, the health of our democracy, and the distinctiveness of our culture. As a nation of norms and values, we need to put down markers and be clear about what we want to achieve and why. The Albanese government will not cede the health of our children or our democracy to the social media economy of the 21st century."
That was SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
