Key events
Some more detail here on the new national anti-corruption watchdog from AAP.
The integrity commission’s job is to stamp out corrupt conduct by commonwealth officials – including ministers, parliamentarians and their staff, public servants, and government contractors.
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It is independent of the government, and anyone can refer a matter. The commission will decide whether or not to investigate. They can also determine what to investigate without a referral.
Paul Brereton heads the new watchdog, who has led an investigation into criminal misconduct on the battlefield by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan.
He will give an opening speech in Canberra later today when he will set out his approach, priorities and aspirations for the body.
Joyce accuses Greens of politicising new corruption commission on first day
The federal Greens have been accused of politicising the nation’s new anti-corruption watchdog, just days after it become operational, AAP reports.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission officially started on 1 July. Senior Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce accused the Greens of politicising the commission after one of its senators made an immediate referral yesterday.
“The Greens have orally started politicising it,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.
The thing I would be really careful about it would be weaponising things before elections.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock referred consultancy firm PwC to the commission following revelations staff shared confidential tax information from the Treasury department to drum up new business.
Pocock said the PwC referral arose out of a need for transparency, denying she was politicising the commission.
“Putting in this request to the Naac to investigate corruption within PwC, I think is a very straightforward thing,” she told ABC radio.
– AAP report
‘No one is safe’: First anti-scam squad launches
The federal government is launching Australia’s first anti-scam unit today.
Its “fusion cell” units are designed to squash swindles before they can hit Australians, AAP reports.
The first unit will target investment cons – responsible for around half of the $1bn in total losses each year. It is made up of experts from government, law enforcement and the private sector, and will operate for six months initially reporting to a new national anti-scams centre.
Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones said Australians lose an average of $82,000 to investment scams.
The fight against scammers was a team effort and the partnership across government, business, and consumer organisations showed a united front, Jones said.
There is a scamdemic.
No one is safe.
The top priority of our new national anti-scams centre is to detect and disrupt scammers before they can reach Australians.
Wong names new Pacific envoy based in Fiji
Daniel Hurst
The Albanese government has appointed a special envoy for the Pacific in the latest sign of its efforts to deepen ties across the region.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced today the new role for Ewen McDonald, who has been the Canberra-based head of the Office of the Pacific for the past four years.
McDonald will have dual roles: he will be the next high commissioner to Fiji and will also be Australia’s first special envoy for the Pacific and regional affairs.
The government is expected to argue that the appointment reflects Australia’s commitment to “bring new energy and resources for a stronger Pacific family”. McDonald is understood to have been selected based on his network of existing relationships across the region.
Wong and the minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, said in a joint statement that the special envoy position would be based in Suva, Fiji, and would focus on supporting Pacific priorities:
It will enhance Australia’s ability to respond to collective challenges and strengthen our engagement with regional organisations as a member of the Pacific Islands Forum, whose secretariat is based in Suva.
The Australian government has placed a heavy emphasis on respecting existing regional architecture, notably the Pacific Islands Forum, at a time when China has shown increasing interest in expanding its influence across the region, including in security and policing. The US has been racing to respond to China’s efforts, too.
When China signed a security agreement with Solomon Islands last year, Australia’s then Labor opposition said it was the biggest foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since the second world war. Since the election, Wong has visited every member of the Pacific Islands Forum and has sought to emphasise Australia is listening to the region’s wishes.
McDonald said today that he was honoured to be appointed to the roles, adding that he had “great respect for the collective leadership of our region and the institutions that support it”.
I’m delighted I will be located in the heart of the Pacific.
Tory Shepherd
First Nations uni student enrolments double in a decade
University enrolments for First Nations students have more than doubled in a decade, new data show.
Universities Australia has released its Indigenous Strategy 2022-2025 report.
It shows there were 11,753 enrolments in 2011, and 23,967 in 2021, according to the most recent statistics. However, that is still far below the numbers for non-Aboriginal students. First Nations students made up 2.08% of the enrolments in 2021, but comprise 3.2% of the population.
UA chief executive Catriona Jackson wants the government to remove barriers to participation by guaranteeing university places to the 75% of Aboriginal people who live in urban areas – currently that support is only available to those living in rural and remote areas.
Jackson said:
Successive governments have tried to close the Indigenous education gap, yet they are still massively underrepresented in our universities.
The attainment rate for Indigenous peoples living in major urban areas is one-third of the rate for non-Indigenous Australians. This is not good enough.
Attending university is one of the greatest opportunities you can have in life, which is why we need to extend that opportunity widely.
Mostafa Rachwani
The pace of growth in housing value eases for June
More on the increases in housing value having slowed in the past month, as increased interest rates and economic uncertainty bite the market.
Sydney led the way again, with dwellings increasing in value by 1.7% in the last month, the highest increase across the country, amounting to roughly $4,262 a week. It was followed by Brisbane at 1.3%, Perth and Adelaide at 0.9% and Melbourne at 0.7%.
CoreLogic’s research director, Tim Lawless said that while values were increasing, the pace of growth had eased in June:
A slowdown in the pace of capital gains could be a reflection of a change in sentiment as interest rate expectations revise higher.
Higher interest rates and lower sentiment will likely weigh on the number of active homebuyers, helping to rebalance the disconnect between demand and supply.
Rental conditions are also beginning to ease across the country, with rent increasing by 0.7% nationally in June, the smallest monthly rise since January.
Vacancy rates across the combined capitals have risen from 1.0% earlier this year to 1.1%, but are holding well below the decade average of 2.8%.
Childcare centres raising fees is in-line with inflation, says early childhood education minister
Minister for early childhood education Anne Aly says childcare centres increasing fees pre-emptively will not cancel out the federal government’s new childcare subsidies.
Most childcare centres are raising there fees by 6-8%, Aly confirms on ABC RN this morning.
She says:
It’s pretty standard for centres to raise their costs around this time of year, in line with CPI.
It’s in-line with inflation and it’s pretty average of what the centres are charging around now. This is a very complex and mixed market, it includes NFP, community run, council run and right through to big corporates.
“..We know most centres are raising there fees by 6 – 8%.. we’ve seen [provider Goodstart’s] modelling that with that modest increase of 7%, parents are still receiving a substantial benefit from our increase to the childcare subsidy”
– Anne Aly pt 2
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) July 2, 2023
But parents say childcare centres pushing up rates as the subsidy kicks in is “crippling,” and experts warn early learning centres may seek to capitalise on government’s scheme.
You can read the full story from our higher education reporter Caitlin Cassidy here:
Sydney leads surge in house prices
Josh Taylor
Australian house prices rose by 1.1% in June, with Sydney leading the charge as every capital city except Hobart saw dwelling values go up.
But the market is still 6% lower than its peak, according to data from CoreLogic’s national home value index.
The report says median dwelling value is $45,711 below the $768,777 recorded in April 2022.
Sydney house prices increased 1.7% in June, taking the cumulative recovery to 6.7% since January. Median housing prices rose by roughly $4,262 a week in Sydney, CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless said.
He said lack of supply was keeping prices up, with the new listings in capital cities down 10% below the previous five year average.
The flow of new listings of sales is likely to be subdued during winter, and supply will remain tight over the coming months.
In terms of rental prices, the national rental index went up a further 0.7% in June but at a slower rate since January 2023. The annual growth trend for rents across the capital cities was 11.5%. Canberra was the only capital to record a fall in rents in the last year, down 2.8%, with an increase in supply and vacancy rates aiding the drop.
Overall rental vacancy rates have gone up a little in the past few months but remain well below average levels, the report states.
Indonesia looks to Australia for lithium to reach EV goals
While in Australia, Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo is expected to push for an Indonesia-Australia partnership on electric vehicles, looking to Australia as a source of lithium, AAP reports.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Gatra Priyandita said:
The first priority is to marry up Indonesian industry with [Australia’s] lithium industry.
The lithium goals is for Indonesia to become an EV powerhouse, and there is interest to find lithium partners for collaboration.
Good morning
And welcome to a new week of rolling news coverage.
Let’s kick off the day with property market numbers and some diplomacy.
Australian house prices rose by 1.1% in June. Every capital city except Hobart saw dwelling values go up, but the market is still 6% lower than its peak, according to data from CoreLogic’s national home value index. Overall rental vacancy rates have gone up a little in the past few months, but remain well below average levels, the report states. More detail from the CoreLogic report to come from Guardian Australia’s Josh Taylor.
Indonesia’s Joko Widodo is kicking off his three-day visit to Australia today as part of bilateral talks – likely his last as president. He will hold talks with prime minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney, with climate change, economic development, education and regional security issues on the agenda. Widodo’s term expires early 2024, and his succeeding president will be dealing with growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific, partly to do with Australia’s development of the AUKUS security pact with the United States and United Kingdom, AAP reports.
Stick around for the day’s news. I’m Rafqa Touma, and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. If you see anything you don’t want the blog to miss, let me know @At_Raf_ on Twitter.