Welcome, readers, to Afternoon Update.
One Nation has cast a shadow over the federal budget and influenced decisions to reform negative gearing and taxes, with Jim Chalmers admitting many Australians are feeling economic anxieties that are “driving them to consider” rightwing populist parties.
The treasurer and Anthony Albanese have conceded that many people are locked out of the housing market and that the problem is getting worse, not better, under Labor. With Pauline Hanson’s party winning a historic byelection in Farrer – its first lower house seat win in its 30-year history – the government was alive to the threat of a populist wave of grievance similar to those in the US, UK and Europe.
“I think the housing market and the tax system is not working for a lot of Australians, and tonight, we seek to address that,” Chalmers said on Tuesday morning, hours before handing down his fifth budget.
Explore all of our 2026 Australia federal budget coverage.
Top news
Canberra teenager charged over allegedly planning ACT terror attack
Mayor of California city resigns over charges of being a foreign agent of China
Macron at Africa summit seeking allies and a foreign policy less tied to France’s colonial past
Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman … Gout Gout: Australian sprint star features on 60 Minutes in US
In pictures
Across Australia, dingoes were once widespread. Since colonisation, they have been shot, trapped, poisoned and fenced out of pastoral regions, most visibly by the 5,614km dingo fence running through Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. As dingoes vanish from parts of Australia, a new documentary is calling on governments to move away from eradication and towards solutions that benefit both farmers and animals.
What they said …
***
“The defence force trains as it fights, and necessarily there is risk in defence force training. And so, Lachlan Muddle’s sacrifice is every bit as meaningful and significant as those we’ve lost on the battlefield.” – Richard Marles
The Australian defence minister has paid tribute to Lachlan Muddle, the SAS soldier killed in a training exercise yesterday, saying the ADF had lost “one of its finest”. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the “tragic accident is a stark reminder that there are no easy days for those who defend our nation”.
Full Story
Bullying or entertainment? Inside the Kyle and Jackie O courtroom
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson may have left the airwaves but the former radio duo have now taken the show’s drama into the courtroom as they do battle in separate cases over the terminations of their $100m contracts.
Media correspondent Amanda Meade speaks to Reged Ahmad about what it’s like inside the courtroom and whether the case could herald the end of the big-name radio star’s career.
Before bed read
The annual gathering at Koovagam, described as “like a trans-Barbie world”, is rooted in an ancient poem. Five trans attenders talk about what the event means to them in light of a controversial change to the country’s gender recognition law that scrapped the right to self-identify gender and introduced medical scrutiny into the legal recognition process.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: BRIN. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
Sign up
If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here, or start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know with our Morning Mail newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland.
