Hyrox poo athlete apologises + Unpacking Ed Sheeran vs Macklemore

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:08)

Hey, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you. Happy Friday, and welcome to The Briefing. Ed Sheeran's usually considered the nice guy of pop, but this week he's copping an insane amount of backlash following his move to drop Macklemore from a run of upcoming shows in the US.

The saga, which is still going, has kicked off a conversation as well about power and influence and who should use it and when.

Catherine Strong (0:30)

Sheeran is the person who has the most power, and that is partly because he has the financial wellbeing, essentially, to take a hit. He could take a hit better than anybody else.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:41)

That chat is coming up in the second half of this episode, but first it's time for the headlines with Chris Spyrou on Friday the 18th of September.

Chris Spyrou (0:52)

Morning, Sacha. The Australian government is facing backlash to its new migration rules from farming and tourism bosses. The long-awaited overhaul to the system was announced yesterday with the hopes of hitting a net overseas migration figure of 225,000 by 2028

Now there are three main focuses of change, who arrives, who stays and who leaves.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:13)

Yeah, so under the changes to who arrives, there'll be a focus on prioritising migrants trades and teaching qualifications. International students won't be able to bring family members to Australia and backpackers will face much tougher requirements to stay in Australia longer than a year and that'll include forced work in the regions.

Chris Spyrou (1:32)

As for who stays, there'll be a slowdown in access to bridging visas. International students can only stay if they are accessing a higher degree, so there'll be no jumping from bachelor's degree to bachelor's degree and there will be a crackdown on onshore asylum claims.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:47)

And as for who leaves, there'll be a crackdown on migration agents who support non-meritorious claims and visa overstayers will be placed in detention centres with extra cash to go towards more compliance officers and 250 extra beds to house them.

Chris Spyrou (2:02)

The crackdown on visa overstayers has sparked fears of an ice style approach as seen in the US, but the Immigration Minister says it'll be a modest operation.

Tony Burke (2:10)

Overstayers at the moment have just had an attitude, some of them, of well, what are you going to do? It should be really simple. If you want to come here to visit, you apply for a visitor visa. If you want to come here permanently, you apply for a permanent visa. And if you don't have a visa in Australia, then you should leave. None of that has anything to do with our protection visa system.

Chris Spyrou (2:29)

Tony Burke on ABC's at 7.3 there, and he was kind of pretty clear about spelling out the process that if you are a visa overstayed, you still will receive that notification that you've overstayed, you'll be given a bridging visa, and then you'll be put into these facilities. The new rules are copping flak from not just within the halls of parliament though, with concerns high among regional voters who rely on the work of backpackers for things like tourism and farming.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (2:54)

Yeah, so backpackers going forward will have to enter a ballot system in order to stay here beyond a year, with a cap of 45,000 to be brought in. That's on the second year, it goes even lower for the third year. And the National Farmers Federation is warning that more consultation is needed, that the government doesn't understand just how severe the impacts will be in the regions.

And also that these changes will drive up food prices. But Burke says there are other avenues to get workers into the agriculture sector.

Tony Burke (3:21)

The government has a Pacific worker program called the Palm Visa. It's really important to us as a government and has been really effective in our relationship with the Pacific. That area is still underutilised and people want those agriculture jobs.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:35)

So Burke said after that point that there were a bunch of rules brought in fairly recently to crack down on the exploitation of Pacific Island workers.

And he claimed in his interview with 730 that the farming industry went, well, you do that, we'll just bring in backpackers to do it instead. So he has kind of hit back at the farming industry saying, you do have access to other workers, it just means you're going to have to adhere to these stricter regulations around how they're treated, making sure that they're paid right and that they have proper rest and they have places to stay. So it was interesting to hear that.