Albanese to meet Apple's Tim Cook in US after social media reform; Burke defends immigration policy

Home affairs minister Tony Burke has defended the time Labor has taken to release its immigration plan and laid blame with the Coalition, who he believed "might have more of an appetite for legislation". This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

Burke appeared on ABC's 7.30 program after the plan was released on Thursday, and was asked "what took you so long" given he was meant to speak at the National Press Club six weeks ago.

He said the Labor party had spent time "working through all the policy issues", and navigating the visa system was complex.

"Every part of the economy is affected by immigration these days for Australia, and so … dealing with the challenges we've got with housing supply, which is not immigration's fault, but immigration needs to be part of the answer, to do that in a way that has the softest landing for the economy is something you've got to get right," he said.

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, told 7.30 that the Coalition had "laid out what we needed as preconditions in order to be able to work with the government and they couldn't meet the preconditions".

"The numbers are too high and what we've seen from the government today is no cut to the numbers … We are a great immigrant nation. Make no mistake about it. But immigration needs to be capped based on the housing supply, the infrastructure, the services we have, and that has not been the case in recent years," Taylor said.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to meet Apple CEO Tim Cook in the US after social media reform.

According to Burke, the Labor party spent time "working through all the policy issues", and navigating the visa system is complex. He linked the delay in releasing the immigration plan to the Coalition's lack of appetite for legislation.

Taylor, in turn, said the Coalition laid out preconditions for working with the government, but the government could not meet them. He noted the need to cap immigration numbers based on housing supply, infrastructure, and services.

Thus, in Australia, immigration policy and social media reform are being discussed in parallel, and disagreements between the government and opposition continue.