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Barnaby Joyce suggests One Nation could welcome some refugees while barring other migrants

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As a member of One Nation, Barnaby Joyce told Guardian Australia’s reporter Adeshola Ore in an interview that there ‘has to be a form of temperance with people who are in imminent threat of their lives … I don’t think anyone is suggesting that if your house is completely burning down we’re going to lock the doors and keep you in there’.

Joyce’s newly adopted party advocates limiting incoming migration to Australia to those who can speak English. One Nation’s website states the party’s policy is: “If you do not speak English, under no circumstances should you be able to settle in Australia”.

Speaking to the Guardian in Armidale last week, Joyce suggests there could be an exemption for refugees under a One Nation government because they are a different cohort than “general immigration”. Asked whether the English-requirement policy would apply to refugees, the New England MP says there needs to be “a form of temperance” for people whose lives are under threat.

“I don’t think that anybody’s suggesting that if your house is completely burning down we’re going to lock the doors and keep you in there,” he says.

When asked whether there is a gap between One Nation’s policies on multiculturalism and the success of the refugee program in Armidale, Joyce – who has repeatedly declared he doesn’t “believe in multiculturalism” but rather “an Australian culture” that has “guardrails”.

A spokesperson for One Nation’s leader Hanson did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia about Joyce’s comments.

Hanson has also said a One Nation government would ban immigration from “radical Islamic countries”, but Joyce says the blacklist wouldn’t necessarily apply to entire countries. Joyce also says he had “no problem” with the current number of refugees continuing to settle in his electorate but added that the area needed “real jobs”, pointing to the empty shopfronts in the city.

Salam Qaro, a Yazidi refugee who spoke no English when he arrived in Armidale in 2019, says he hopes refugees would be exempt from the policy should One Nation succeed in having it implemented.

“If they want to include Yazidis under that policy it’s going to be very hard,” he says. “We have a good relationship with Barnaby and hopefully through him they can do some exemptions.”

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Government plans crackdown on social media algorithms

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Labor’s plan to crack down on social media algorithms faces significant opposition in federal parliament, with opposition leader Angus Taylor warning against efforts by the government to “censor” free speech online.

Communications minister Anika Wells is expected to release draft legislation creating a digital duty of care for social media users in Australia as parliament returns this week. Among new rules being considered are functions requiring popular social media platforms to allow users to turn off algorithms controlling the content in their feeds, and to better identify problematic or illegal content to protect vulnerable users including children.

Labor said they want to better protect social media users from being fed content that reinforces dangerous stereotypes and behaviours, including in areas around body image, women’s safety and child protection. Opt-out options for algorithms would give users the choice to make their social media feeds only feature content from friends and groups they choose to follow.

Fines of more than $100m would be created for breaches, with new powers given to the eSafety commissioner and researchers to investigate compliance by big platforms. Prime minister Albanese is expected to spruik the plan at the United Nations general assembly in New York later this month.

But Taylor told News24 on Sunday the government should focus on fixing problems with its under 16s social media ban before taking on new rules like the digital duty of care. The shadow home affairs minister, the outgoing Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, likened the government’s plans to dumped anti-misinformation legislation introduced during Labor’s first term in government, stating that it is going to impede on people’s rights and freedoms.

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AI and virtual interpreters providing on-demand Auslan services in regional areas to replace in-person ones

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In an attempt to fill the void, virtual services of Australia sign language interpreters, apps and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being used to bring translation services to regions that struggled to find them in the past.

But the move is having an unintended side effect, as the few registered Auslan interpreters living and working in regional areas say they are suddenly finding themselves out of work.

Live captioning is a form of AI software that records and writes out spoken conversations in real time to help users with hearing impairments access these conversations. It does not include translating responses from Auslan to spoken language, which is why captioning is not always appropriate.

Virtual interpreters can work remotely, appearing on a screen to translate what they hear via a live feed, and often working at a lower cost than in-person translators. Many interpreters said having options was good, but the effect on interpreters was not.

One interpreter said the demand [for in-person Auslan interpreters] has always been there, and especially for rural and regional people, but she said agencies were unwilling to pay travel costs and were reluctant to prioritise in-person interpreters over virtual ones.

Many organizations focusing on helping the hearing impaired also explained that not all interpreting jobs are suitable online, and If a customer’s first preference is an in-person interpreter then they will do everything possible to provide one.

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One Nation pushes for early super access for Australians paying rent or mortgage

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Australians with a mortgage or paying rent would be given a choice to divert a portion of their superannuation to their take-home pay for up to three years under a One Nation proposal.

Under the policy, the full 12 per cent compulsory super contribution would still be paid by employers, but 3 per cent would be paid directly to a person by the super fund if they opt in. The payments would also remain subject to the concessional tax rate of 15 per cent, rather than the higher personal income tax rate.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said the average full-time worker earning about $90,500 would get an extra $2,300 in their pocket each year. That works out to about $44 a week, which Hanson said would provide “breathing room”.

Health Minister Mark Butler said changing those settings would be an “absolutely terrible plan” and pointed to the Morrison government’s experiment with allowing people to access more of their super during the COVID pandemic.

But Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume dismissed the proposal as nothing more than a “headline” and said One Nation had questions to answer about how the policy would interact with a person’s super balance or their concessional caps. Nationals MP David Littleproud also said there was a serious risk of “unintended consequences” of the proposal, including the potential for higher inflation.

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