WEBVTT - Migrants draining the nation: Angus Taylor's hard line immigration plan 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.480 For an immigration program to work in the national interest, 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.200 it must discriminate based on values. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:16.920 It's a controversial proposal, immigration based on deliberate discrimination. 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:21.040 Those who migrate from liberal democracies have a greater likelihood 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.760 of subscribing to Australian values. 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.520 Compared to Opposition leader Angus Taylor has outlined the Liberal 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:32.159 Party's hardline migration policy in a provocative speech in camera. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.960 Not everyone wanting to migrate to Australia will be a 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.800 net benefit to Australia. Indeed, some will be a net train. 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.360 Parts of the plan had echoes of Donald Trump, others 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.800 of John Howard, as Taylor made a play for one 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.239 nation's growing pool of lapsed Liberal voters. So what's in 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.239 the plan and will the libs risky move on migration 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:57.720 pay off in the polls. I'm Nicole Johnston and you're 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:03.360 listening to seven AM Today Press Gallery journalist Karen Middleton 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:14.240 on the Liberal Party's hardline new migration policy. It's Wednesday, 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:23.200 April fifteenth. Karen, We've been waiting for the Opposition's immigration 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.520 plan to come out for a while now. It's been 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.520 delayed a couple of times. We finally have it. What 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.119 changes is Angus Taylor proposing, well, we've got. 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:34.600 A bit of it, Nicole. We haven't really got the 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.360 whole lot, as the numbers are actually missing. But what 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:42.080 we have got is a framework that's true. And for example, 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.319 we have the proposal that that would be the introduction 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.440 of a safe country list, so a list of countries 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.840 whereby if people who've claimed asylum are rejected, there'll be 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.080 a list of countries that are deemed safe to return 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.720 them to, and that's supposed to fast track the refusal 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:00.880 and return process for us IS claims. 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.560 Countries on this list would be those deemed generally free 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.359 from persecution. If a citizen of Australia safe country applies 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.480 for a refugee and humanitarian visa from outside Australia, it 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.400 will be assumed to be inadmissible. 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.520 There's a proposal to reassess more than two thousand visas 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.600 issued to Palestinians since the October seven, twenty twenty three 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.520 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the war that followed that. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.200 The Garzan cohort of seventeen hundred people here on visas 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:36.000 presents a high risk to our nation. That cohort must 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:39.079 be reassisted entirely with far greater scrutiny. 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.600 Then anyone applying for visa, including tourists, would have to 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:47.720 submit their social media details to be vetted at the 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.400 Australian end before they get visas. So that sounds an 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.600 awful lot like what Donald Trump is introduced in the 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.720 United States proposal for new funding for law enforcement agencies 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.960 so they can track down and arrest and deport people 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.440 who are deemed to not fit into the Australian community 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:04.600 or who've broken the law. 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.240 If you do the wrong thing, we'll keep you out 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:09.799 or will kick you out, you will be deported. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.440 And then there are three key pillars that Angus Taylor outlined. 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.800 The first, he says, is values, Australian values. The second 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.720 is shutting the door to people who abuse the immigration 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.079 system here, and the third is showing the red light 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.320 to radicals. He said, so getting rid of people who 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.800 have come from somewhere else and are deemed to be 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:31.079 causing social unrest. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:33.280 So, Karen, if we could just go through a few 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.720 of them, pick them apart. What did you think of 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.440 the part of Taylor's announcement when he talked about this 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:44.480 screening of social media for all these or applicants, even tourists. 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.560 The Coalition will establish an enhanced Security Screening Center using 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.640 the full suite of intelligence, screening and enforcement capabilities. The 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:57.600 center will stop radicals, extremists and terrorists from entering our country. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.080 Doesn't it start to cross over into the government invading 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.920 people's privacy and how would something like that even work? 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.000 Well, it is certainly an invasion of privacy. Having said that, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.320 social media is public, so there's an implication with the 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.000 way that the Trump system works that they're digging deeper 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.440 than that. The problem here is what are they looking for? 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.960 What are the things in your social media that might 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.080 deem you not eligible to come to Australia, either as 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.880 a tourist or as a migrant. Any kind of prejudice 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.400 could be allowed to run, which is exactly what this 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.800 policy purports to be trying to stop. I guess, so 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.560 it's very unclear how it would actually work. It would 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.560 also cost a huge amount of money. I expect to 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.240 have people going through every applicants social media accounts in 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.880 detail and then writing reports about them, and then someone 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.360 making a decision about them, and then the process that 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:50.480 is involved in all of that. And I think if 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:52.800 we look at the United States. This certainly from the 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.839 outside looking in, there's a general impression that if you're 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.839 someone who's been outspoken about Donald Trump and his government, 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.400 and especially if you're someone with any kind of profile, 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.600 then you'd have to think you are a good candidate 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.480 to be screened out based on your social media. So 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.120 if that's what's going to be introduced here, then it 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.200 would be entirely up to the government of the day 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.680 what it decided the rules were and what was an 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.440 acceptable level of criticism and of whom and what wasn't. 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.120 If we could move on to the part of the 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:26.080 speech that talked about enforcement, now that was going after 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.679 visa overstayers and people who've exhausted their appeals by having 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.880 this task force to target around sixty five thousand unresolved cases, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.800 and it does start to sound like Angus Taylor is 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.880 not ruling out a us I style crackdown on immigration. 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.040 Well, I think he was asked about that on radio 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.160 and he didn't comprehensively rule it out. But again, it 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:51.480 isn't clear how that would work. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.960 We will deport people who no longer have a visa 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.800 and shouldn't be in this country. We should we should do. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.120 That with you know, like a team with vans and 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:02.360 armed police and all that. 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.320 Sort of thing. We're talking a very different thing here. 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.960 They're talking well over ten million people. We're talking about 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:09.840 sixty five thousands. So I don't know. 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.720 Under the existing system, if people either break Australian law 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.560 and their foreign citizens or they've applied for asylum or 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.120 refugee status and are rejected, then the system works to 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.000 ultimately send those people back to the country that their 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.279 country of origin or to a third country. But of 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.120 course practically that doesn't always happen. We know, and there 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.120 is a backlog of cases that have been a frustration 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.719 to successive governments, including the current one, and that goes 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.080 to this sort of safe list idea that the coalition 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.320 is talking about trying to make it easier to deport people, 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.520 but there are practical obstacles to that, not all of 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.159 which are in the control of an Australian government. 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.200 Karen, one of the main messages or themes that we 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.440 had was this issue of Australian values. 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:58.520 Australia has a non discriminatory immigration program. We don't discriminate 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:02.000 based on nationality, race, gender or faith. 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.039 But he said that we should discriminate based on values. 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:07.719 Now what's he talking about. 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.840 Well, that's an excellent question because again it's open to interpretation. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.880 Now there is a statement of Australian values that people 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:20.000 who are coming here on a shorter term basis, temporary 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:24.120 visa applicants for example, have to say that they understand 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.480 a set of values that include or read from some 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.520 of them, for unicol respect for the freedom and dignity 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.760 of the individual, freedom of religion and freedom to not 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.720 have a religion. Commitment to the rule of law, so 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.520 everyone's subject to the law and has to obey it. 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.840 Parliamentary democracy, so that the law is determined by parliament. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.880 Equality of opportunity for all people, and that's about gender, 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:51.360 sexual orientation, age, disability, race or national ethnic origin. And 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.320 then there's this idea of a fair go and they've 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:59.080 defined that as mutual respect, tolerance, compassion for those in need, 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.240 equality of opportunity for all. And then it also talks 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.000 about the English language meaning the national language, and it's 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:12.080 an important unifying element of Australian society. But what Angus 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.640 Taylor seems to be talking about is effectively legislating these values. 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.320 Now that's going to get into pretty tough territory because 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.480 if what you're making people do is sign up to 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.640 what it then becomes a legal document. And on that basis, 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.600 if they are later found to not have upheld those 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.240 values and they're going to be deported, there has to 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.280 be a legal framework for that. There has to be 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.120 specific legislation that tells us what constitutes a breach of 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.800 those values, a breach of the fair go or the 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.440 freedom and dignity of the individual. And I don't know, 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:44.400 it's sort of got the feel of a lawyer's picnic 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:45.079 about it to me. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.360 Coming up, could Taylor's hard right pivot backfire. 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.480 What we've seen in recent years, the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.200 radical Islamic preachers espousing hate with. 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.240 Impunity, Karen. In the second half of Taylor's address, he 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:16.280 talked about immigrants with quote subversive intent. So what was 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.960 he talking about there and how did he go about 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.440 linking migration to the Bondai Beach terrorist attack last year? 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.960 Well, this is interesting because we've got to remember that 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.360 the man who's been charged and who's still living, of 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.440 the two, there was a father and son accused of 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:38.800 these crimes. The father migrated to Australia from India twenty 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.920 seven years ago and has lived here ever since. The 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.360 son was born in Australia, so he's not a migrant, 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:50.240 he's an Australian. So it seems to be an attempt 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:55.360 to suggest that people of Arab background, of Muslim face 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.560 maybe are people that we should be worrying about. And 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.600 I think you're getting into dangerous territory when you're starting 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.200 to blur the lines around all of that. So people 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:10.000 with subversive intent. Our security agencies are already looking for 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.600 those people. They work extremely hard to try and make 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:14.600 sure that those people don't get into the country, and 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.600 by and large it seems they're pretty successful at it. So, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.040 you know, there are just a few kind of logic 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.600 questions around what they're actually talking about. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:30.319 Genocidal marches in major cities, anti Semitism across Australian communities. 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.280 These are the ramifications of an immigration system where standards 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:36.640 have erated. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.600 What's been the reaction to all of this so far, Well, I. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.040 Guess the earlier reaction is probably what you would expect. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.959 So the Greens are saying, you know, this is potentially 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:47.800 a revival of the wide Australia policy. 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.520 The Coalition think that reintroducing elements of the Wide Australia 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.640 policy is the way forward for Australia in twenty twenty six. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.840 That is not the way forward for Australia. Australia gains 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:00.680 so much immigration. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.400 They're concerned, particularly about the emphasis on English language and 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:08.360 whether that's supposed to be now enforced. The Labor Government 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:10.400 has said it's a race to the bottom and this 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.360 is all about trying to stem the flow of voter 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.560 support from the Coalition to one nation. 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.720 The Coalition have got zero credibility and immigration. They let 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:26.040 net migration explode after COVID and now we're just seeing 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:30.360 desperate dog whistling from Angus Taylor who's desperately trying to 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.679 compete with one nation at a race to the bottom. 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.360 I think you would expect that some of the communities 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.120 that are particularly being singled out in his speech and 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.720 identified as places of concern alike could also raise concerns 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:46.520 about it. But it will appeal to a lot of 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:51.560 people who feeling secure, who are under financial pressure, and 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:57.000 for whom migrants are the most obvious target. So there 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.480 is an undercurrent or not so undercurrent. Now it's out 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:04.040 in the open of politics around this issue, which goes 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.240 beyond just the raw economics that we usually talk about 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:08.680 in relation to migration numbers. 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.920 And so, Karen, when you take a step back from this, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.200 does it seem that Taylor is trying to move the 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.840 migration debate away from how many people come here and 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:23.920 towards what type of people the coalition thinks should be 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:25.319 allowed into Australia. 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.120 I think he wants to do both, but I think 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.920 he's doing the latter first, and that is quite deliberate. 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.880 If you look back just prior to when the Liberal 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.920 Party changed leaders and elected Angus Taylor's to replaced Susan Lee, 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.520 there was a big push from the Conservative side to 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.040 do more to try and win back those one nation voters. 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:49.040 And James Patterson, who's a significant member of the coalition 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.679 and a key Conservative, had given a speech so late 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.440 last year I think where he talked about the pathway 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.240 for the Coalition to getting back into government had to 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.880 be winning those people back and they needed to prioritize that, 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.440 and they needed to emphasize things like Australian values and 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.520 patriotism to ignite passion for the flag and to use 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.760 those kinds of issues, sort of populist nationalist issues to 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.480 attract those people's attention, come up with policy ideas that 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.880 might bring them back, and then after that worry about 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.720 things like economic policies and maybe the numbers of migrants. 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.439 So I think what we're seeing looks like the beginning 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.920 of that kind of strategy rolling out. 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.839 And so when you put it all together, the values test, 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:37.760 the social media checks, Gaza refugee reassessment, what does this 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.440 all say about where Taylor wants to take the Liberal Party. 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:46.640 Well, it's a very conservative approach to this issue, and 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.440 I think he's also wanting to hark back a bit 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.480 to that John Howard days, where John Howard managed to 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:58.400 wield this issue about levels of migration very very successfully 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:03.079 as a political where he even quoted John Howard's old 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.640 saying back from the two thousand and one election, which 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:07.600 was we will decide who comes to this country and 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.600 the circumstances in which they come. Now, that's the statement 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.640 of the obvious. Every country should do that, but it's 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.120 used in a way to, as you said earlier, bring 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.760 up ideas of the right kinds of migrants, who's the 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.120 right kind and who's not. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.840 Will decide who deserves protection and the circumstances in which 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:25.640 that protection is. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.200 And so this debate is just it's just got a 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.800 different tone about it, and I think it's drawing heavily 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.040 and what was happening in the United States. It is 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.760 a risk for the coalition because it will attract a 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:40.840 number of those people who are just talking about who 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.520 are feeling frustrated and disillusioned and are looking at parties 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.200 like one Nation, but it will probably scare a whole 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.200 lot of other people. And the question is where do 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.160 they live and where do they vote? And will it 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.760 be a net gain and a net positive for the 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.040 opposition in the long run. And I think it's interesting 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.920 to note that the new leader of the Nationals, Matt Canavan, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.800 and while he's endorsing a lot of populist ideas, he's 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.200 been very strongly against the kind of xenophobic stuff that 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.720 Pauline Hanson has been known about. You know, it's going 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.520 to be interesting to see how this all plays out 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.280 within the coalition because there are elements of this that 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.080 might be seen as giving sort of tacit approval to 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.000 that kind of language and that those kinds of ideas. 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.760 So I think there could be some robust debate inside 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.640 the Coalition about all of this and where it's headed. 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.160 And there's a big question about whether it makes us 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:36.520 more unified as a community or less. So we'll watch 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:37.240 that with interest. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.680 Karen, thank you so much for explaining it all to 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:43.200 us today. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:44.240 Thanks Nicole. 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.280 Also in the news, Quantus says it's cutting flights as 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.480 a result of the war in the Middle East, which 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:02.120 has led to soaring price of jet fuel. The airline 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.680 has announced it will reduce domestic capacity by five percent 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.640 between May and June, with most cuts affecting routes between 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.360 major capital cities. Quantus estimates its fuel bill could reach 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.400 up to three point three billion dollars, more than eight 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.560 hundred million above its previous estimate. The airline says impacted 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.800 customers who have booked with Quantus or Jetstar will be 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:29.160 offered alternative flights or a refund. And the Duke and 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.720 Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, have started an official 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:36.840 tour of Australia after arriving in Melbourne yesterday. The couple 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.760 will also visit Cameron Sydney, addressing causes that focus on 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.600 mental health, community resilience and support for veterans. Some questions 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:47.840 have been raised on how much the four day visit 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.680 will cost taxpayers, with concerns that police have been enlisted 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:55.120 to provide protection for the pair. Harry and Meghan's team 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.960 has maintained the trip is being privately funded. I'm Nicole 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.800 Johnston and this is seven am. Thanks for listening.