On Wednesday, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was held in Adelaide, with the Prime Minister meeting the Council for the first time since taking the leadership of the Liberal Party (and therefore Coalition government) in August 2018.
The Federal Government hoped to gain state support for the lowering of Australia’s migration rate from 190,000 to 160,000 per year, and increased controls of the location of the settlement of migrants.
State leaders, however, were unable to reach a consensus on this issue, but agreed to the establishment of a national population plan.
‘We have agreed to work towards the establishment of a national population-management framework, which would see greater sharing of information to inform annual migration programs, infrastructure programs… greater data sharing, better identification of the skills and needs across the country,’ said the Prime Minister.
The Council also signed a new National Drought Agreement to focus measures across all jurisdictions to enhance long-term preparedness and resilience.
Further, the Council re-addressed its commitments to Closing the Gap targets and arranged for a formal partnership between COAG and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives in order to facilitate more effective outcomes from the initiative.
While in South Australia, the Prime Minister announced that the Australian Space Agency headquarters would be established in Adelaide. South Australian Premier, the Hon Stephen Marshall MP, said that ‘South Australia is the ideal location for the Australian Space Agency, with a range of local space industry businesses already established here, as well as a rapidly growing defence industry sector’.
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