Julia Gillard News

PARENTS will be hit with only "modest" childcare fee hikes after the Federal Government's overhaul of the industry, says acting prime minister Julia Gillard.

JULIA Gillard wasn't kidding when she promised to give parents the most comprehensive information they've seen on how all Australian schools compare.

Australia remains committed to ensuring the 78 asylum seekers rescued at sea in Indonesian waters will disembark in Indonesia, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today announced that the Global Campus Management Group, a provider of international education in the secondary school, English language and vocational education and training sector, has entered voluntary administration.

Roy Morgan has leapt in with last weekend's face-to-face polling of 1050 respondents, showing Labor's lead has actually nudged slightly upwards: from 60.5-39.5 to 61-39. Labor's primary vote is down one point to 51 per cent, but the Coalition's is also down two to 32.5 per cent.

THE man tipped to be China's next premier, Li Keqiang, arrives in Australia tonight, marking the start of a thawing in relations between Canberra and Beijing.

Beijing is sending a top-level official to Australia this week for the first time since a series of rows sent relations plummeting between the Asian giant and one of its key suppliers of raw materials.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang receives a bouquet at the airport in Sydney, Australia, Oct.

The man tipped to be China's next premier has begun his visit to Australia, which is believed to be China's way of healing the growing fraction in the two countries' relationship.

Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang Friday voiced China's hope to intensify the dialogues and contacts with Australia so as to enhance mutual trust between the two countries.

JULIA GILLARD will take on her cabinet colleague Anthony Albanese by confirming she will fight internally to save Laurie Ferguson from political extinction.

Beijing is sending a top-level official to Australia this week for the first time since a series of rows sent relations plummeting between the Asian giant and one of its key suppliers of raw materials.

Two Tasmanian teachers have been recognised for their outstanding work by being awarded a 2009 Australian Award for Teaching Excellence.

Violence against Melbourne's Indian community has become a hotbed issue both locally and abroad following a wave of racist attacks.

UNIVERSITY bureaucrats would have danced a jig just over a week ago when a survey showed that international students rated Australia safer for study than the US or Britain.

Clockwise from far left ... Government MPs screamed when Julia Gillard spotted a Work Choices mousepad, but not before they responded in uproar to a life-size cut-out of the Prime Minister.

JULIA Gillard has changed the rules for assessing workplace agreements on taxpayer-funded construction projects, provoking employer claims there will be a return to unproductive work practices throughout the building sector.

MARK COLVIN: In a few hours the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will sit down with the Indonesian President to discuss the fate of the 78 asylum seekers being held on the Australian customs vessel the Oceanic Viking.

Australia will follow the letter of the law on where 78 asylum seekers intercepted in Indonesian waters will be sent, acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard told the Parliament on Tuesday.

Australia has something to learn from the American approach to education reform, writes Dan Harrison.