Live: ASIO chief says media, politicians should have done more to call out antisemitism

ASIO chief Mike Burgess has told a podcast that he, media and politicians should have done more to call out antisemitism following the October 7 attacks.Follow all the updates in our live blog. Fri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:16amFri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:16amRishworth says agriculture sector should utilise PALM scheme moreWorkplace Minister Amanda Rishworth says she doesn't accept claims food prices will rise as a result of Labor's migration overhaul.Tony Burke announced the federal government will extend a ballot scheme for backpackers in their second and third years.The National Farmers Federation has warned the government's migration shake-up will lead to higher food prices come Christmas.Rishworth told ABC News Breakfast the agriculture sector should use the PALM scheme, which she says has been underutilised."Backpackers are still going to be able to come to Australia, let's be really clear about this," Rishworth says."There are programs such as PALM that are available to the agricultural sector that could be utilised more. And so I'd encourage people to explore the PALM program."Fri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:14amFri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:14amCoalition still open to working with Labor on migration changes, Duniam saysShadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam says the Coalition is still open to working with Labor to legislate tougher migration rules.Yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke unveiled sweeping changes to Australia's migration system, tightening visa rules for international students and backpackers.But he told the National Press Club he would have liked to go further by passing legislation, and blamed the Coalition for not getting on board.Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Duniam says yesterday's announcement involved "tightening up for a few existing arrangements"."The door is still open to having discussions around more powers to be able to deal with a broken migration system. The door is certainly not closed at all. And in fact our appetite is equally if not as large, much larger," Duniam says.So what does the Coalition want to see movement on? Tightening the availability of temporary graduate visas, a "reformation" of the skilled visas list and skilled visas in line with need, Duniam says.The shadow minister also says the Coalition wants to see tightening around the third-party repatriations for people who have been charged with terror offences.Fri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:07amFri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:07amASIO boss says China is the cyber 'principal concern' for AustraliaASIO boss Mike Burgess has warned of efforts from China to hack Australia's major power and telecommunications networks, preparing to "turn them off should they need to".The warnings echo warnings from the domestic spy chief last year that Chinese hackers were "probing critical infrastructure".In comments made on a podcast with broadcaster Neil Mitchell, Burgess said the cyber-sabotage risk to Australia is very real"Nation-states hacking power and telco networks preparing for the day that they can turn them off should they need to," he said."Now be very clear about that — that's not going to happen any time soon, but in a time of conflict, nation states are preparing to do that."Burgess was then asked which country was responsible."I've spoken about this before publicly — China are preparing for this. But again, they're not going to do it any time soon," he said."China's the principal concern for Australia."Fri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:01amFri 18 Sep 2026 at 7:01amASIO boss says more should have been done to call out antisemitismThe head of Australia's domestic spy agency, ASIO, Mike Burgess, says more should have been done by politicians, the media and the broader public to address antisemitism in the wake of the October 7 terror attack.The comments are similar to those made by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson earlier this week, but the podcast was made before Richardson's speech.In a podcast with broadcaster Neil Mitchell, Burgess said more needed to be done to prevent conflation of actions by the state of Israel with Australia's Jewish community."When those behaviours are not [met with] 'that's bull***t, that shouldn't happen', what's going on?" he said."That gave permission for that to continue, and that heat gave permission for violence."But he said responsibility fell broadly, including upon himself."All of us should have stood up more. Maybe I could have shouted more," he said."Political leaders could have said this is not right. I mean, a couple of them did do that, but not many of them did. The media should have probably watched how it was reporting."By all means be critical of the state of Israel, but actually say, but we're not talking about Australians or people of Jewish faith."Fri 18 Sep 2026 at 6:55amFri 18 Sep 2026 at 6:55amGood morning 👋Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog! Thank you for joining us so early on a Friday morning.I'm Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news.We're likely to hear more reaction about the government's overhaul of the migration system announced by Tony Burke yesterday.And the PM is off to the United States today where he'll drop into Apple in California and head over to New York to lead Australia's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.Let's get right into the day and see where it takes us!