Australia news live: number of Australians missing in Nepal increases to 39; voluntary assisted dying now legal nation-wide

Back to the Greens’ David Shoebridge, who said earlier the Albanese government’s reported intervention on the annual refugee intake reflected a lack of principles.

Reports this week said the government was preparing to cut the number of refugee arrivals from 20,000 to 13,750 in 2027-28. But that news was met with anger from Labor MPs and refugee advocates. Albanese later said the change would not take place.

double quotation mark Minister Burke wouldn’t have presented those savage cuts unless he’d been through a process. And then it’s turned on its head by the prime minister in less than 24 hours. This is the problem when a political party is not acting on any core principle. There’s no principle behind what Labor’s doing here about helping people fleeing conflict, about meeting our international commitments.

The world is in tumult … And we have an obligation to do what we can to help people who are just using international law to try and seek some protection.