Internal Department of Health emails released under Freedom of Information laws have exposed significant turmoil over a last-minute decision to strip assessors of their power to override automated aged care recommendations.

For months, assessment staff had been reassured that human judgment could correct faulty outputs from the algorithm determining Support at Home (SaH) packages. However, just three days before the system’s scheduled rollout, health officials realized that allowing human overrides would directly violate the newly drafted Aged Care Rules 2025 legislation, which contains no legal provision for human discretion.

This unexpected legal conflict forced senior department staff into an emergency briefing with Aged Care Minister Sam Rae and Health Minister Mark Butler. In their urgent correspondence, officials warned the ministers that eliminating human override capabilities carried substantial operational risk.

Despite these warnings, the department ultimately chose to remove override powers from assessor instruction manuals rather than amend the underlying legislation to grant assessors legal flexibility. The Department of Health has yet to comment on why it opted to restrict human intervention instead of adjusting the regulatory framework.

The government is shifting its approach to reduce Australia’s net overseas migration, relying on tighter regulations for temporary visas rather than seeking opposition support for new legislation.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke delivered a long-awaited address at the National Press Club today to unveil measures specifically targeting temporary migrants seeking to bring family members to Australia, switch visa categories, or extend their stay. Following the breakdown of compromise talks with the Coalition, the federal government lacked a clear legislative path through parliament, prompting the decision to implement these changes directly through executive regulations, including modifications to visa conditions and application processes.

A central element of the overhaul is a strict ban on international students bringing family members to Australia. While the government expects overall international student enrollment numbers to remain unassigned to caps in this measure, students will effectively lose the ability to have their families accompany them during their studies. Minister Burke had originally intended to announce the policy six weeks ago but was forced to abruptly postpone his address due to disagreements among cabinet ministers over competing priorities. The government had previously hoped to pass legislation to limit the timeframe for onshore asylum claims and restrict appeal rights for international students seeking to remain in the country, but ultimately pivoted to regulatory controls after parliamentary talks stalled.

The announcement coincides with the latest migration figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics just ahead of Burke’s address. The data reveals that net overseas migration eased to 292,000 in the year to March, down from 299,000 recorded in the year to December. Net overseas migration experienced a sharp surge following the reopening of international borders after pandemic lockdowns, reaching a peak of 556,000 in September 2023. Although the numbers have noticeably declined from that record high, net migration remains above the pre-pandemic rate of approximately 250,000 per year and continues to exceed the federal government’s target of 225,000, underscoring the political pressure to curb temporary arrival figures.

The ACT government will introduce what it describes as “the single largest package of reform in Australia” to try and reduce harm caused by poker machines.

The changes include establishing mandatory account-based cashless gaming across all venues, bans on EFTPOS and ATM withdrawals for pokies in venues, and reducing the time that gaming machines can operate across a week by 15 hours. For anyone to play the pokies in the ACT, they will need to have an account with a venue and an accompanying player account card.

As part of that required account, a player will have to set a maximum loss limit. All clubs will also be required to enforce patrons to take a 15-minute break after every hour of continuous play on a poker machine.

The ACT Minister for Gaming Reform Marisa Paterson said the changes are aimed at making long-lasting improvements. But the government will not introduce a central monitoring system (CMS) as part of the cashless gaming set-up, that would link all gaming venues across the ACT.