Morrison announces plan to cut migrant intake

MORRISON SAYS ‘ENOUGH’ TO IMMIGRATION

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced plans to reduce Australia’s migration cap, arguing in the The Daily Telegraph’s 2018 Bradfield Oration that buses, trains and schools in Sydney and Melbourne “are full” and Australians are saying “enough, enough, enough” to population growth.

The Daily Telegraph ($) reports that Morrison, in a speech since published in full as an opinion piece ($), predicted that a new framework with state governments would lower the annual 190,000 cap, and will call on premiers and chief ministers to bring forward state and territory population plans at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Adelaide on December 12.

As The Sydney Morning Herald notes, only 162,000 permanent visas were approved of the 190,000 target in the last financial year, a result of new measures under Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

CHINA BEHIND SERIES OF CYBER THEFTS

China’s top security agency has reportedly directed a year-long surge in cyber theft of Australian companies’ intellectual property, in an apparent violation of an agreement struck between China’s Premier Li Keqiang and former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull just last year.

While cyber attacks subsided in the aftermath of the Keqiang-Turnbull agreement, a joint Fairfax and Nine News investigation has found that China’s Ministry of State Security soon launched a series of thefts referred to as “Operation Cloud Hopper”, which targeted both Australia and partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance (the US, Canada, UK and New Zealand).

Both the AFP and ASIO have stepped up coordinated responses to the threats, although they remain months behind similar US operations, while several police and officials have raised frustrations over Australian companies and universities failing to harden cybersecurity.

SUPER ACCESS FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer will today announce a suite of new Coalition measures aimed at both women and new parents, including granting people leaving abusive relationships early access to superannuation.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that O’Dwyer will deliver the first women’s economic statement at the National Press Club, where she will announce a new electronic sharing system between the ATO and Family Law Courts to help grant women in crisis quick, emergency access to superannuation assets. Other measures include streamlining the property settlement process and new funding for property dispute mediation.

Additionally, The Herald Sun ($) reports that O’Dwyer will give new parents the ability to stagger up to six weeks of paid parental leave over two years, a change from the current system which mandates primary carers take their entire 18 weeks as one block.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Chris has been giving his opinion freely on this matter for quite a while so I don’t know what got into his Wheaties this morning. Chris is his own person … he’s quite unique. And we’ll leave him to be a legend in his own lunchtime.

Josh Frydenberg

The Treasurer takes a shot at Defence Minister Christopher Pyne in the Coalition’s escalating and entirely self-imposed Israeli embassy dispute.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Steve Bannon is back on the ABC
Emily Watkins

“ABC Europe correspondent Linton Besser scored another sit-down interview with the former Breitbart editor, who’s working in Europe ahead of the European Parliament elections. Bannon is trying to pull together a bloc of far-right leaders across Europe to work together on reforming the European Union. And the ABC hasn’t wasted any effort in giving the interview a good run.”

Canary in the coalmine: inside the Latrobe Valley’s ongoing power battle
Kurt Johnson

“Nationally, the war over climate change has again frozen over but here, in the Valley, it runs hot. Ahead of the November 24 Victorian election, Premier Dan Andrews has promised six new renewable projects across regional areas while both Liberal and National candidates say a new coal-fired power station is needed in the Valley. Yet here, in the electorate of Morwell, a slew of independents have stepped up to take on the major parties. What unites them is a promise to create jobs; what divides them is what role coal will play in generating them.”

Government’s contempt for a free press on display with Assange
Bernard Keane

“But any of those charges represent a massive threat to a free press, as even outlets critical of Assange such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, have argued in the wake of the discovery. And they may indicate the Trump administration is prepared to go further than the Obama administration, which waged a relentless war on whistleblowers, in attacking the media. Even a harsh critic of liberal opponents of Trump like Glenn Greenwald has argued the Trump administration would be going beyond its predecessor in prosecuting Assange.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

‘I wouldn’t play ball’: Department of Planning manager sacked

Survey to change Lady Cilento Hospital name was ‘rigged’, LNP claims ($)

Draft energy law sets off alarm over Frydenberg’s power to break up companies

Call for Hayne to break up the banks

Jarryd Hayne arrested over alleged sexual assault on NRL grand final night

‘Claptrap’: Greens MP apologises to Buckingham after calling for him to resign

Planning veterans call on Richmond voters to turf out Richard Wynne

Door-to-door salesman and telemarketers spruiking energy banned in Andrews pledge

Australia’s ‘most important bird’ takes a step back from extinction

THE COMMENTARIAT

CBA’s one big culture problem is loud and clear: everyone is too quiet — Stephen Bartholomeusz (Sydney Morning Herald): “For anyone who’s read the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority-commissioned report on the governance, culture and accountability of Commonwealth Bank, the banking royal commission’s grilling of CBA chief executive Matt Comyn hasn’t provided revelations. It did, however, provide some insights.”

A lack of civics diminishes us all — Kenneth Wiltshire (The Australian): “As Janet Albrechtsen noted on this page recently, any attempt at civics education in schools cuts out at Year 10, two years short of the age when students must vote. She might have added citizenship education is patchy, inaccurate in parts and does not fully explain the evolution of our Westminster system of government, the concept of our federation nor the principles and values on which our Constitution was so carefully designed.”

I’m a teacher and this is why I’ll be walking off the job for refugees — Hannah Clarke (TenDaily): “In my class I have a new student, a-six-year-old boy who has spent the last five years in Australia’s refugee camp on Nauru. Having grown up on an island the size of Melbourne airport and rarely left the camp ground, our school ground was one of the largest spaces he had ever navigated. Unlike the other kids who move freely around my class room, this child wouldn’t move until I invited him to.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Melbourne

• Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten is expected to launch the Community Housing Industry Association national plan.

• A state funeral will be held for cafe owner and stabbing victim Sisto Malaspina, with mourners to hear from Governor Linda Dessau.

• Greens leader Richard Di Natale will speak with The Conversation’s Wes Mountain on “Politicising Multiculturalism” at the Australian Intercultural Society.

• Proponents on Night Time Economies will meet at the State Library to discuss the best models and initiatives to support music and outcomes for Victoria.

• RBA Governor Philip Lowe will deliver an address on “trust and prosperity” at a CEDA event.

• Duke of York Prince Andrew and judges will hear entrepreneur pitches at an event hosted by Victorian Governor Linda Dessau for the chance to progress to Andrews’ international Pitch@Palace event.

Sydney

• CBA CEO Matt Comyn continues evidence at banking royal commission hearing on policy, before chair Catherine Livingstone is set to appear.

• Tony Abbott and Alan Jones will launch Dr. Kevin Donnelly’s book How Political Correctness is Destroying Education and Your Child’s Future.

• NSW Independent MP Alex Greenwich, Greens MP Jenny Leong, and Labor MLC John Graham will host a screening and discussion of public housing documentary The Eviction at NSW Parliament House.

• Sydney Ideas will host expert panel discussion “Why are soldiers taking their own lives?” at the University of Sydney.

Canberra

• Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer will deliver the first “Women’s Economic Security Statement” at the National Press Club.

• Former Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson will help launch Meat & Livestock Australia’s four-day Red Meat 2018 conference.

• Former Australian Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs will speak in-conversation with current ACT Human Rights Commissioner Dr Helen Watchirs at a YWCA She Leads event.

Brisbane

• Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel will deliver “Quality in research: our shared concern” for The Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences 2018 John O’Hagan Lecture.

• The Queensland Council of Unions will hold a Change the Rules rally.

• Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath will launch The Queensland Family and Child Commission’s latest report, “Growing up in Queensland”.

Hobart

• 2018 Tasmanian Australian of the Year and Creative Director of Big hART Scott Rankin will launch his essay “Cultural Justice and the Right to Thrive”, published as part of quarterly arts series Platform Paper.

Perth

• Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen will discuss Federal Labor’s economic plan at a CCI breakfast.

Adelaide

• SA Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander will appear before a parliamentary crime and integrity committee.

Australia

• Hundreds of teachers across the country will walk out of school to demand kids and adult refugees on Manus and Nauru are brought to Australia for resettlement. Today is also Universal Children’s Day, the deadline human rights activists gave the federal government to evacuate children and families.