What we learned today, Tuesday 18 April
Thanks for following along on the blog today. Here is a wrap of the day’s biggest stories:
The shadow home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, announced that she is quitting the Coalition frontbench and will not recontest the next election. She also said she will not be campaigning for a no vote in the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum.
Senator James Paterson has taken up Andrews’ role, while Jacinta Price became the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians and Kerrynne Liddle the shadow minister for child protection and prevention of domestic violence as part of a Coalition cabinet reshuffle.
Guardian Australia understands that the government will not lift jobseeker payments, despite advice for a “substantial increase” from the interim economic inclusion advisory committee.
After much back and forth, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says he did not raise specific instances of alleged child abuse with Anthony Albanese but maintains that he raised broad concerns about assaults in Indigenous communities in private and in parliament.
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, praised the NDIS during a National Press Club address today, arguing it is “the difference between a life and a living death for many vulnerable Australians” and laying out six policy directions for the scheme.
The Queensland government introduced legislation to limit rent increases to once a year in a bid to “give renters a fair go”.
Australia’s international student sector has become a “Ponzi scheme” due to loopholes on work rights introduced by the former federal government that have attracted the “wrong type of student”, an inquiry has been told.
Updated
Queensland rental cap passes parliament, MP tweets
According to the Labor MP Yvette D’Ath, the Queensland government’s plan to cap rental increases to once a year has just passed parliament.
Our plan to cap rental increases just passed Parliament.
— Yvette D'Ath MP (@YvetteDAth) April 18, 2023
Earlier this afternoon, my colleague Eden Gillespie reported that the last-minute amendments to limit the frequency of rent increases were introduced into parliament to the Palaszczuk government’s electoral reform bill.
In Queensland currently, landlords can currently increase rents every six months. The new plan would bring the state in line with other Australian jurisdictions like Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales.
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