What we learned: Friday 15 May
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. It’s time to go rewatch Delta Goodrem’s Eurovision performance and marvel at her pitch. Until then, here were today’s major developments:
The minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, says the government has listed the National Socialist Network, also known as White Australia, as a prohibited hate group.
The federal court upheld a landmark decision that found a women-only social media app and its founder unlawfully discriminated against Roxanne Tickle after the transgender woman was denied access to the app.
A charter plane carrying the passengers from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak, landed in Perth.
One Nation has recorded a higher primary vote than Labor and the Coalition, in post-budget polling by Roy Morgan, which finds that if an election were held tomorrow, Australia would see a hung parliament.
And 11 Australians have left Turkey on a Global Sumud Flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
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Biggest downpour of the year possible in Adelaide, Weatherzone predicts
Weatherzone is predicting Adelaide could be lashed with its wettest rainfall of the year, with up to 4omm possible over the next four days.
The weather app said on Friday that Adelaide started the year with a completely dry January and had close to average rainfall since, without any “exceptionally wet spells”.
From this Friday to next Tuesday, Adelaide could potentially see its wettest spell of the year – with the likelihood of 15 to 15mm over the five-day period, although some models are predicting as much as 40mm.
The rain that falls in Adelaide and elsewhere in SA this week will obviously help top up water storages, and it could boost water levels in Lati Thanda-Lake Eyre, where there’s extensive water to a depth of as much as 2.2 metres, according to the Lake Eyre Yacht Club.
The Bureau of Meteorology has said Adelaide can expect rainfall of up to 20mm on Friday, with up to 10mm on Saturday.
The bureau said there is a chance for a thunderstorm this afternoon or evening, with winds north-easterly at 15 to 25km/h, becoming light in the late evening.
Two people found dead in home north of Hobart
In Tasmania, two people have been found dead at a home in Campania, a wine region north of Hobart. In a statement, police said they were investigating the “serious incident” which they didn’t believe involved any other parties.
Detective inspector David Gill said emergency services were called to a property on Native Corners Road shortly after 10am.
He said ambulance officers were first on scene and notified police after locating a man and a woman deceased at the property.
Our initial investigations indicate the incident was contained to the residence, and at this stage police do not believe anyone else was involved.
A crime scene has been declared and there is no evidence of any ongoing threat to the community. Crime scene investigators and forensic services remain at the scene conducting inquiries.
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Daniel Andrews statue ‘doesn’t pass the pub test’, Victorian opposition leader says
Jess Wilson also criticised the government’s decision to spend $134,000 on a statue commemorating former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews’ more than 3,000 days in office.
The milestone was conceived by former Jeff Kennett just before the 1999 Victorian election, which he subsequently lost, depriving him of his own statue.
Wilson said Labor deliberately released the statue’s details on a Friday afternoon, which media and political insiders often refer to as the time to “take out the trash”.
She said:
They’ve chosen an opportunity on a Friday afternoon when there are other things going on … to drop out a piece of information that they’re going to spend more than $130,000 on a statue of a former premier in a cost of living crisis.
They know it doesn’t pass the pub test. They know that Victorians don’t want to see their taxpayer money being spent on this ... They think they can spin their way out of everything. I think they seriously underestimate the intelligence of Victorians.
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Victorian opposition leader reiterates call for CFMEU royal commission
As the premier appeared before estimates, the opposition leader, Jess Wilson, held a press conference, in which she reiterated her call for a royal commission into CFMEU corruption on construction sites.
Wilson told reporters the premier “refused to answer basic questions” at estimates and “failed to undertake serious investigations into why a labour hire firm has allegedly allowed a person who has been convicted of domestic violence to recruit women to put on government worksites”.
She said the premier couldn’t say if the labour hire firm which was the subject of the Age report’s allegations was still active on Big Build sites and if so, which sites. Wilson went on:
Once again [she’s] refusing to take any responsibility for the largest construction scandal in this state’s history. Only my team, the Liberals and Nationals, have a plan to clean up crime and corruption in this state, and if elected premier later this year, we will initiate a royal commission into CFMEU misconduct to understand and stamp out how this has happened for the past decade in Victoria.
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Coalition housing spokesperson says cost of tax indexation plan will be provided ‘before the election’
The shadow minister for housing and homelessness, productivity and deregulation, Andrew Bragg, has refused to put a figure on what the Coalition’s indexation plan for taxation will cost.
He told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing the numbers would be provided “with more detail as we go further into this term”.
The main point here is we want to relieve Australians from bracket creep, because that’s the thing that’s insidious, it’s a thing that is destroying innovation and incentive, and we think it’s a tax on working, and it should be relieved.
We have given a clear indication of our direction on tax reform, and all of the numbers will be provided before the election of course, so people can make up their mind.
Pressed on the Coalition’s indication it would cut migrants off from welfare payments, Bragg said “we think Australia is a great country and we think it’s a privilege to become an Australian citizen”.
If you become an Australian citizen, part of the Australian family, then you deserve to be able to use public services. Which can be particularly expensive. And we think that’s a reasonable proposition.
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More labour hire questions for Jacinta Allan
Liberal MP John Pesutto also questioned the premier on the Age report, asking whether “any of these criminals named this morning” were “currently active on big build sites”.
Allan said:
That would be a matter for Victoria police to investigate.
She also wouldn’t say how much money the labour hire firm, which was the subject of the Age report’s allegations, had made on government sites or commit to recovering those funds.
Pesutto asked: “Why give licenses to family violence perpetrators?”, to which Allan replied:
I would have to remind you that the Labour Hire Authority is an independent agency. That allegation is concerning, and it needs to be put to the Labor Hire Authority.
Pesutto responded:
You are the head of government. You run a government, can’t you guarantee that it is the policy of your government that the Labor Hire Authority will not give licenses to family violence offenders?
Allan said her government had introduced legislation that had “strengthened” the fit and proper test, affecting who is considered suitable to hold a labour hire licence.
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Jacinta Allan questioned over labour hire allegations
Dipping back into the Victorian state budget estimates, the premier, Jacinta Allan, has faced a barrage of questions over a report published this morning by the Age, which alleges a labour hire company providing female workers for state government sites had significant criminal links.
Nationals MP Jade Benham asked the premier to “guarantee” to Victorian parents that young women were “never exposed to exploitation, grooming, or unsafe environments involving violent offenders and domestic violence perpetrators” on Big Build sites.
Allan replied:
I appreciate the question and the opportunity to say very clearly to the committee and to the broader community - those allegations that have been reported on today ... about the treatment of women on work sites is appalling, it’s disgusting, and it is behavior for which I have absolutely no tolerance for.
Benham also asked the premier “When was the first time you heard about this morning’s allegation concerning Women In Construction?”
Allan replied that she would “need to check”. She went on:
The allegations of potential illegal behaviour on work sites has been reported on previously, and I have been consistent in saying that where ... allegations that have been made, they should be immediately referred [to relevant authorities].
She said the government had increased the Labour Hire Authority’s powers, resulting in the cancellation of 151 construction company licences and the blocking of 48 applications. Allan said:
When it comes to this particular company they have started a process that about not renewing this company.
She also said police had laid 88 criminal charges against indiviudals as a result of their investigations into organised crime on Big Build sites.
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How a Sydney civic masterpiece was rescued
It was once a grand old sandstone masterpiece, where returned soldiers would cram into marble corridors to anxiously await lottery draws that could change their lives.
Then the 20th century happened.
As the bureaucracy swelled, the interior Victorian grandeur of the Department of Lands building on Sydney’s Bridge Street became infested with a warren of claustrophobic cubicles. Office partitions sprung up like weeds, hiding grand Australian red cedar joinery behind particleboard. Ornate vaulted ceilings disappeared behind suspended acoustic tiles and humming fluorescent strips.
But that’s not the end of the story. On Friday, the building, which served as the engine room of New South Wales’ colonial expansion for more than a century, took out one of the top gongs at the 2026 National Trust (NSW) heritage awards.
Read more:
Continued from previous post:
Tickle said when she began her gender affirmation in 2017, she had no idea at that stage a small minority of people who had never met her “would invest an incredible amount of their own precious time and effort into ridiculing, degrading, threatening and mocking me to try to make my life as miserable as they could”.
She said:
There is so much hate and bile cast on trans and gender diverse people, simply because of who we are. Usually, by those who refuse to meet us or engage with us. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that most Australians are kind and believe in allowing everyone to be free to live their life in dignity and be free to be who they truly are.
The hate has not just affected me; it’s hurt so many other trans and gender diverse people, a number of them my friends, and it is not what the Australian community stands for. For that small minority, the decision to choose hate over friendship and community has removed them from a place they would have been welcomed, and can still be welcomed. My trans friends are some of the kindest and most empathetic people I have ever met.
I now look forward to getting on with the rest of my life, in the community that we all know and love, one that embraces freedom and equality for all women.
Tickle hopes landmark win helps ‘trans and gender diverse people and their loved ones to heal’
Roxanne Tickle has said after her landmark win was upheld in the federal court that she took legal action to show “trans people that you can be brave and that you can stand up for yourself”.
“In the process, I surprised myself at just how brave I could be,” she continued to say, outside court. “Young Roxy would be surprised but overjoyed.”
On Friday the full bench of the federal court found a women-only social media app, Giggle for Girls, and its founder, Sall Grover, unlawfully discriminated against Tickle after the transgender woman was denied access to the platform.
Tickle said in her statement after the judgement:
I’m very pleased by the outcome of my case, and I hope that it assists trans and gender diverse people and their loved ones to heal. The court unanimously found that I was unlawfully directly discriminated against. The ruling clearly reinforces what the Australian community stands for, that all women are protected from discrimination by law, trans women, cis women, lesbian women, queer women, straight women, First Nations women, women of colour, migrant women, women with disabilities, all women.
I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and that you can stand up for yourself. In the process, I surprised myself at just how brave I could be. Young Roxy would be surprised but overjoyed.
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NDIS on track for another budget overspend
The NDIS is on track for another budget overspend, new data shows, just one day after the federal government introduced sweeping changes to drastically curb the $50bn scheme’s future cost.
The latest quarterly report, released today, shows the scheme is around $350m over July 2025 budget forecasts, with a growth rate of around 11.3% in the year to March 2026.
While plan inflation was down in the quarter between January and March, there was a net increase of the number of participants on the NDIS by 13,014. The scheme now supports 774,456.
The latest figures follow a proposed overhaul of who can access the NDIS, and how much funding they can get, designed to tip around $36.2bn back into the federal budget over the next four years.
Budget papers show the government has forecast an average growth rate of 3.6% until 2030 - a figure still above the 2% figure offered by health minister, Mark Butler, last month.
Read more:
Coalition says neo-Nazi groups seeking to ‘destroy Australian way of life’
The Coalition has backed the federal government’s listing of the National Socialist Network, also known as White Australia, as a prohibited hate group.
In a statement, the shadow minister for home affairs and immigration, Jonno Duniam, described it as a “welcome development” for Australians.
It’s the second group to be listed under the laws, after the Australian chapter of Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir was categorised as a hate group earlier this year.
Duniam:
Let’s be absolutely clear, the modus operandi of these neo-Nazis is to destroy the Australian way of life. Our message to them is that your ideology of hate has no place in our society and that if your criminal organisation persists, it will be shut down and your members punished.
Australians do not want to see people avoid justice simply by tearing down a banner and re-emerging under a different name. This recommendation, along with that of Hizb ut-Tahrir, shows that the laws we backed in January of this year are responsible and effective.
Duniam said the opposition would continue to support measures that strengthen Australia’s national security.
The listing sends a clear message that organisations that seek to undermine our society and spread extremist ideology have no place in Australia.
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ECAJ responds to NSN designation as hate group
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has welcomed the designation of the National Socialist Network (NSN) as a prohibited hate group.
Co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said:
The ECAJ has been calling for this measure since 2021. We told a parliamentary committee at the time that groups like NSN were operating at a level just below the threshold required to list them as a terrorist organisation but were using social media in the same way as terrorist groups to groom and recruit impressionable young men to join them.
It doesn’t matter what they call themselves, or how they structure themselves, these groups use all the well known techniques of thuggery and menace that Nazis have always used against Jewish communities and other groups they have targeted. This announcement is welcome and will send a much-needed message that these groups and their hateful, racist ideology have no place in Australia.
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Jim Chalmers responds to the budget’s critics on our Australian Politics podcast
Political editor Tom McIlroy and economics editor Patrick Commins speak with Jim Chalmers about the criticisms that his “reforming” and “ambitious” budget, while historic, stands to benefit only a relatively small number of Australians.
Take a listen below:
More on the Dan Andrews statue
Back in 2023, when Daniel Andrews was about to reach the 3,000 day milestone, we spoke to Peter Corlett, who was commissioned to design the four premier statues near Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens.
While he wasn’t yet commissioned, he told us he had an image of Andrews in mind:
When he came out to claim credit for the last election, where he held his two fists in the air – that was a great image, a rare showing of emotion from the premier.
Other people have said it has to be of him in his North Face jacket. We’ll see.
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Victorian treasurer being grilled on cost of Suburban Rail Loop
Back at Victorian budget estimates, the treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, and the Department of Treasury and Finance secretary, Chris Barrett, are being grilled on the cost of the government’s Suburban Rail Loop project.
The budget shows the state government has already committed about $11.8bn for the first stage of the loop, known as SRL East – a 26km stretch of tunnels between Cheltenham and Box Hill – and has signed $13bn worth of construction contracts. Tuesday’s federal budget also included $3.8bn for the project.
Liberal MP Richard Riordan questioned how the government’s estimated total cost for SRL East remains at $34.5bn – several years after the release of the business case.
Symes replied:
You build in contingencies when you have projects, particularly that are going to be delivered over many years.
Barrett added:
When we do that costing, if we know that it’s happening over a long period, and in the case of Suburban Rail Loop, it’s happening over … [the] mid 2030s, we don’t just assume that whatever the cost was in 2021 is also going to be the cost of materials, say nine years later. We inflate that by an amount.
Riordan noted the federal government’s total investment in the project is $6bn – “well short” of the one-third of the total cost the state sought. Symes responded:
I don’t think you would expect a federal government to give us the entire amount when we’re not spending the entire amount right at the start.
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That’s all from me. Josh Taylor will take things from here. Enjoy your weekend!
Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle wins discrimination appeal
The federal court upheld a landmark decision that found a women-only social media app and its founder unlawfully discriminated against Roxanne Tickle after the transgender woman was denied access to the app.
In her judgment on Friday afternoon, Justice Melissa Perry upheld a August 2024 finding that Tickle was discriminated against on the basis of her gender identity, and also sided with Tickle’s cross-appeal that she experienced two instances of direct discrimination by the Giggle for Girls app and its founder Sall Grover.
The app and Grover had challenged Justice Robert Bromwich’s milestone August 2024 decision which found they had indirectly discriminated against Tickle when she was barred from the platform because they thought she was a man.
On Friday, the full bench of the federal court upheld Bromwich’s decision. Tickle was also successful in her cross-appeal, finding she was discriminated against on two instances, included excluding Tickle from access to the Giggle app on the basis of her gender related appearance, and secondly refusing to restore her access.
Tickle had her access to the app blocked in 2021 after she uploaded a selfie of herself as part of the registration process.
“The full court has found that Giggle For Girls and Ms Grover both excluded Ms Tickle from the Giggle app and refused to re-admit her on the basis of her gender-related appearance by reference to her selfie,” Perry told the court on Friday.
“This amounted to direct discrimination by reference to a characteristic that pertains to people of Ms Tickle’s gender identity, being a transgender woman,” Perry continued.
Ms Tickle has been successful in her cross appeal under the act, gender identity is defined as meaning gender-related identity and gender-related characteristics, including appearance.
The full bench of the federal court upheld the decision that the discrimination against Tickle on the grounds of her gender identity was contrary to Section 22 of the commonwealth sex discrimination act 1984 when read with section 51B of the same act.
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Work begins on Daniel Andrews statue commemorating more than 3,000 days in office
Work has begun on a statue to commemorate former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews’ more than 3,000 days in office.
The state government confirmed Meridian Sculpture, the company that created the statues of the other four Victorian premiers who reached the milestone, was selected following a standard procurement process.
The total cost of the statue is $134,304 and work is already under way.
A Victorian government spokesperson said:
Daniel Andrews led Victoria through some of its toughest moments and never stopped fighting for working people. Under a policy introduced by the Kennett government, Victorian premiers who serve more than 3,000 days in office are recognised with a statue along Treasury Place in honour of their service to the state.
The government said installation details would be finalised “closer to completion”.
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Migrants a scapegoat for poor planning, inquiry told
Migrants fill critical labour gaps, secure local jobs and enrich Australian culture, but are often wrongly blamed for longstanding challenges like housing supply, an inquiry has been told.
Far from taking work away from locals in rural areas, migrants help create overall job security, the Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive, Tim Ryan, told a parliamentary inquiry on Friday.
“The fundamental need for migrant labour is complementary to our ability to employ locals,” Ryan told the inquiry in Canberra, AAP reports.
The inquiry is examining the economic, social and cultural value of skilled migration to Australia, amid a surge in anti-immigration rhetoric.
Labor is facing intensifying pressure from One Nation and the Coalition to put a lid on migration to reduce demand for housing and services.
But changes to migrant numbers would take a significant toll on Australian producers, with a shortage of about 170,000 workers, National Farmers’ Federation workforce relations general manager, Michael Pyers, said.
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11 Australians set sail from Turkey on global aid flotilla to Gaza
Eleven Australians have left Turkey on a Global Sumud Flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The Australians departed Turkey on Thursday evening in the final phase of the mission, as part of a delegation of about 500 people on 57 vessels.
Among them are five Australians who were intercepted a fortnight ago by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) off the coast of Greece and temporarily detained. Some 22 ships were destroyed, organisers allege, and activists were held for two days before being released in Greece.
Australian Dr Bianca Pullman Webb was among them. She said “the genocide hasn’t ended”:
Challenging the siege is the least I can do as a person of conscience. Palestinians, including my medical colleagues, deserve to live and work in safety and freedom. I’m tired of the genocide and international inaction. The community on the flotilla and what we’re doing gives me hope.
The Israeli foreign ministry and the Israeli embassy were approached for comment.
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Burke says hate listing still applies if group attempts to ‘phoenix’
Burke said the listing applied despite any efforts to “phoenix”, referencing when an organisation disbands, and then tries to reform under a new name. He told reporters:
The way the legislation works and the phoenixing part of the question, once an organisation has been listed and they try to reform under a new name, effectively it is a simple regulation change and we don’t need to start the process again.
Updated
Government lists neo-Nazi group as a prohibited hate group
The minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, says the government has listed the National Socialist Network, also known as White Australia, as a prohibited hate group.
It’s the second group to be listed under the laws, after the Australian chapter of Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir was categorised as a hate group earlier this year.
Following NSN’s listing, Burke said in a press conference:
There is a very strict process for this to happen. This process can only occur when it is initiated by Asio an ministerial decision has to follow.
The ministerial decision has to be made with the approval of the attorney general and then there also has to be consultation with the opposition and all of these steps have been met.
The listing takes effect at midnight tonight. Burke said:
This means supporting, funding, training, recruiting, joining or directing this group constitutes a criminal offence with maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The National Socialist Network claims it disbanded in January before legislation to proscribe alleged “hate groups” was introduced to federal parliament after the Bondi terror attack.
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Victorian opposition uses estimates to question state’s cash deficit
As expected, the Victorian opposition is using estimates to question the cash deficit figure. The deputy chair, Liberal MP John Pesutto, quoted an auditor-general’s report stating that “a fiscal cash surplus is a sign of good financial health”. He then asked Barrett whether he agreed.
Barrett said he didn’t “entirely” as it was necessary for governments to borrow to build infrastructure.
If you were to hold yourself to never borrowing for infrastructure, which is what that statement effectively says, I think you would very substantially under invest in infrastructure in the state.
Barrett said all states were required to borrow to build infrastructure, given how little Commonwealth funding they received:
The federal government … has not historically funded urban infrastructure in a highly urbanised country like Australia the way that you might expect … And while that’s the case state governments are required to do that. If state governments are required to do that entirely on their own balance sheet and without adding any debt, you would hugely under invest.
Pesutto then asked whether Victorians should therefore expect future cash deficits, given they were a “necessary part of delivering infrastructure”. Barret replied:
I agree … The amount of that is obviously a policy choice for government.
Symes, though, stressed that the budget showed the government was moderating its infrastructure spend back to pre-pandemic levels.
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Estimates hearings begin in Victoria
While all eyes have been on the federal government’s budget this week, the Victorian government handed down its own budget last week, which brings us to the start of estimates hearings.
Today, we’ll be hearing from the treasurer, Jacyln Symes, and the premier, Jacinta Allan, as well as the minister for equality, emergency services and creative industries, Vicki Ward, later this evening.
Symes is up first, joined by officials, including the department of treasury and finance secretary, Chris Barrett.
While the budget delivered a $727m operating surplus in 2025-26 and projects surpluses averaging $1.71bn over the forward estimates, these figures exclude infrastructure and other capital spending. When factored in, Victoria is running cash deficits averaging $7.62bn over the four years.
The opposition has seized on those deficit figures, with Liberal leader Jess Wilson using her budget reply speech on Tuesday to pledge a cash surplus by 2032 if elected in November.
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Queensland Labor leader says government has ‘politicised’ parliament’s ethics committee
Queensland’s Labor leader, Steven Miles, has accused the government of having “politicised” the state parliament’s ethics processes, after he was found to have mislead parliament.
In February last year, Miles wrongly claimed that the deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, had failed to disclose a conflict of interest relating to a rail project. He quickly apologised for what he said was an inadvertent error, but parliament’s speaker, Pat Weir, said the apology was insufficient and referred him to parliament’s ethics committee.
On Thursday, two days before a byelection, it reported back, finding him in contempt of parliament.
At a press conference on Friday, Miles accused the government of abusing “its big majority”, “playing personal attacks on the eve of a byelection”, “throwing out many of the conventions that have served our state very well for a very long time”, and wasting time on an hour-long debate on the subject on Thursday evening.
“They clearly have politicised the ethics committee process. You can see that in the report and the way they carried on yesterday,” Miles said.
On Tuesday, Weir decided not to refer the education minister, John-Paul Langbroek, to the ethics committee for a response he gave to a question on notice claiming that he had not finalised the name of a new theatre by May 2025. Guardian Australia later reported that he signed a document formally approving the name in February. Weir said the briefing note was “equivocal in its language”.
Miles was asked whether Weir had imposed a double standard.
“We see very clearly that where LNP members are misleading, they are not reprimanded in any kind of way, while the LNP uses their massive majority to pull stunts like they did yesterday,” he said.
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Plane carrying passengers from hantavirus-hit cruise ship lands in Perth
A charter plane carrying the passengers from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak, has landed in Perth.
The passengers – four Australians, one Australian permanent resident, and one New Zealander – will be transported directly to the Centre for National Resilience in Bullsbrook with no community contact, where they will quarantine for an initial three-week period.
All have tested negative for hantavirus to this point. The virus has a maximum 42-day incubation period.
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Man charged over swastika tattoo in Alice Springs
A 25-year-old man has been charged over a “visible swastika tattoo” on his leg after visiting a business in Alice Springs in December 2025.
Northern Territory police yesterday arrested the man and executed a search warrant at his home, where items indicative of drug supply were seized.
The man was taken to the Alice Springs watch house and has been charged with public display of a prohibited Nazi symbol.
He has been remanded in custody to appear in Alice Springs local court today.
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Labor MP says bailout of Spirit of Tasmania operator ‘shocking’
Kerry Vincent, the state minister for infrastructure and transport, said the cash injection was to cover past capital cost overruns and was not TT-Line spending additional money, AAP adds.
Vincent said:
We know these decisions come at a difficult time, and it’s no secret the capital cost overruns have put a strain on TT-Line. This is about ensuring our vital infrastructure and a key tourism and freight link is supported and continuing to function as Tasmanians need and deserve.
Labor MP Dean Winter said the bailout was “shocking”:
The half-a-billion dollar bailout is the most shocking chapter yet of the horror novel known as the Spirits fiasco.
Tasmanians will be paying the price for the Spirits for generations to come, and every job and essential service that Eric Abetz cuts in next week’s budget is just the tip of the iceberg.
Tasmania government will give ferry operator $506m bailout
An embattled Bass Strait ferry operator, which has suffered delays and cost overruns in the delivery of two new ships, has been given a $506m government bailout, AAP reports.
The equity injection from the Tasmanian government to state-owned Spirit of Tasmania operator TT-Line will be provided over four years.
TT-Line’s delivery of two new replacement ferries, which are set to sail in October, is years behind schedule and $717m over the initial project estimate.
The saga made international headlines in 2024 after it was revealed the new ferries would have to sit idle because a new berth in northwest Tasmania wouldn’t be ready in time for the ships.
TT-Line has been forced to fork out millions to hold the ferries in berths while the new berth is being constructed. The operator was given $75m by the government in November’s interim budget, with the $506m to be included in Thursday’s 2026/27 budget.
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Former Liberal senator to host Pauline Hanson at pub
Pauline Hanson continues to attract support from Liberal ranks, with former Coalition senator Hollie Hughes to host the One Nation leader at her pub in Rydal, New South Wales this weekend.
Hughes was a federal senator from 2019 to 2025, but left the parliament after losing a preselection fight and not being re-elected last year. Hughes quit the Liberal Party in November and was strongly critical of her former colleagues for undermining then-leader Sussan Ley, who was later replaced by Angus Taylor in a party room coup.
Hughes owns a pub in Rydal, outside Lithgow. On Saturday, Hughes said Hanson would appear at the hotel for an event called “Pauline In The Pub”. A poster published on Hughes’ Facebook page states the event is sold out, and advertises: “join us for a big night!”
Hughes wrote alongside it: “Well I think Saturday night might be even more of a party!”
Several people commented on Hughes’ post, asking if she was joining One Nation. Guardian Australia has contacted Hughes to ask if she was planning on joining another party.
Rydal is in the federal seat of Calare, held by independent Andrew Gee, a former Nationals member who quit the party in 2022.
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PM rejects calls for Australia to boycott Eurovision over Israel’s inclusion
Following Delta Goodrem’s success in moving to the Eurovision grand final overnight, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said Australia should not boycott the event over Israel’s continued inclusion in the song contest.
Albanese told ABC Radio Melbourne that he spoke with Goodrem earlier in the week and hoped she would win Eurovision.
I think she’s a ripper. She’s so proud. I’ll say this about Delta Goodrem.
She’s at the stage of her career – she doesn’t need to do this at all. She’s doing this because she wanted to represent Australia. The Australian government supported her doing this as well.
Asked by host Raf Epstein if Australia, like several other countries, should have boycotted Eurovision while Israel was allowed to compete, the prime minister said: “No.”
Because we should participate. And you know, the idea – you can have a disagreement with a policy of a government. As I’ve been critical and will continue to be critical of what has happened in Gaza. That doesn’t mean that I believe Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. It does. I want it to exist side by side with a Palestinian state.
SBS drew criticism late last year when it confirmed Australia intended to compete in the competition.
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Dingoes distinct from ‘wild dogs’, research shows
Dingo DNA from before colonisation has been used to show Australia’s canines are almost 90% dingo, with just 11.7% of their DNA coming from domestic dogs.
Researchers from Adelaide University’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA and Environment Institute tested 300 dingoes and said the results resolved a disagreement over how much European dog ancestry was in the animals.
A 2023 study found more than half of Australia’s dingoes were genetically pure.
A new documentary tells how dingoes have been shot, trapped and poisoned since colonisation, penned in (or out) by the 5,614km dingo fence, and often grouped with “wild dogs” so they can be treated as pests. It argues for better human/dingo coexistence.
The Adelaide University research, published in Conservation Letters, also found there are eight genetically distinct populations of dingo, and says the technique they used is affordable and scalable, which would allow large-scale ancestry screening to be feasible for the first time.
Senior author Dr Yassine Souilmi said:
The ‘wild dog’ label hides important biological and cultural differences. A predominantly dingo individual is not the same as a stray domestic dog.
Future management should be regionally informed, and developed in close partnership with Indigenous Australian communities, for whom dingoes have been companions and kin for thousands of years.
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Australia’s housing affordability expected to worsen as homelessness soars under fossil-fuelled future
Global heating could worsen housing affordability, push up rents and quadruple homelessness in a decade without fairer housing policies and action to reduce emissions, new research has found.
Home prices and rents in Australia are influenced by a complex mix of factors, from incomes and mortgage rates to insurance premiums, available land and population.
University of Sydney researchers modelled the housing market system, using two decades of public data, and tested its response under different climate scenarios, publishing their results in Cities.
They found climate change affected housing and rental affordability under both high and low-emission scenarios, but vulnerable households were worst-hit under a fossil-fuelled future.
Read more here:
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Taylor says Labor budget declaring war on ‘aspiration’
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, is speaking at a press conference, saying his budget reply yesterday was all about making sure “young Australians have the hope of being able to buy a home and pay it off over time”.
“If we are to achieve that, we have to scrap, we have to axe Labor’s toxic taxes,” Taylor said, adding that migration needed to be dramatically reined in. He went on:
They’re going after savings. They’re going after hard-working Australians. They are declaring war on aspiration in this country.
The Coalition has pledged to repeal Labor’s changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing, which the Albanese government says are meant to address housing affordability and aid young people in their dreams of buying a home.
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Higher education union calls Coalition’s migration plan a ‘potential nightmare for universities’
The National Tertiary Eduction Union (NTEU) says the Coalition should reveal how many international students would be cut as part of its migration measures, unveiled by the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, this week.
The union said the Coalition’s plan to cut net overseas migration to about 175,000 people per year, or a 40% reduction, would be a “potential nightmare for universities”.
NTEU’s president, Alison Barnes, said in a statement:
The devil is in the lack of detail. … It’s obvious that a migration cut of that magnitude would mean going after international students, who make up a third of net overseas migration. …
Viewing international students purely through the prism of revenue completely ignores the rich cultural exchange they bring to our campuses and closer ties they create with countries in our region.
Barnes went on to say Taylor was mimicking One Nation leader Pauline Hanson rather than setting out a vision for higher education:
All sides of politics should rule out going after international students and commit to measures that properly fund universities so they can provide the world-class teaching and research we need.
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One Nation scores higher primary vote than Labor in one post-budget poll
In a turn of events this morning, One Nation has recorded a higher primary vote than Labor and the Coalition, in post-budget polling by Roy Morgan, which finds that if an election were held tomorrow, Australia would see a hung parliament.
The two-party preferred count, according to polling of 2,348 voters between 13 and 14 May, shows Labor just ahead of One Nation on 51% to 49%. Labor polls 55% against the Coalition’s 45% on a two-party preferred count of the two major parties.
The Coalition’s primary vote sits at a meagre 16.5%.
Of the key themes tested by the poll, immigration was the most dominant issue, with respondents linking migration to “housing pressure, cost of living, cultural change, infrastructure strain and loss of national identity”.
One Nation has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent months, having just swiped the seat of Farrer from the Liberals at last weekend’s byelection. But there is more than a year to go before the next national vote – so plenty can change.
There is also a lot of uncertainty in polling, so until we see more results from other pollsters aggregated together, it’s hard to say how definitive this result is for One Nation.
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Pauline Hanson cut off after running out of time delivering One Nation’s budget reply
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson said yesterday Australians were simply asking for a “country that works again” in her budget reply speech in parliament that lambasted renewable energy efforts and the Labor party, before she was cut off for running out of time.
Hanson, the leader of One Nation, claimed in her remarks that any tax offsets proposed by Labor would be “completely rubbed out” by bracket creep, saying the policies were a “trap for the next election and an advertising slogan for 2028”.
As she continued to attack the Albanese government, moving on to a section about solar panels, she was cut off.
The official Hansard of the speech reads:
It is perverse that a government and an opposition believe they can change the weather, and are prepared to waste ultimately hundreds of billions to do it …
We are covering the land with windmills and solar panels and, in turn, delivering– (Time expired)
Hanson sought leave to finish her speech, but it was not granted. The Senate was then adjourned.
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House prices to fall, economists predict
A growing number of economists have predicted house prices will fall across Australia in the coming year.
The Reserve Bank’s three interest rate hikes have pushed buyers out of the housing market, and a fourth is expected later this year. Investors are now expected to step back even further after the budget scrapped their tax breaks.
HSBC’s chief economist, Paul Bloxham, is the latest to downgrade forecasts. After prices rose nearly 9% in 2025, he had expected them to rise by up to 7% in 2026. Now Bloxham thinks they’ll fall in the next few months, unwinding earlier gains this year to stay flat by December, then fall further in 2027.
The government expects house prices to continue to rise, just slower, with prices 2% lower than they would otherwise have been, thanks to the taxes
Commonwealth Bank’s Trent Saunders thinks the drag is probably just a touch stronger, which would see house prices rise just 3% over 2026, and warns it could be almost three times stronger, leaving prices about flat this year. But if investors go scrambling for the exits, more out of fear than from the fundamentals of the tax reforms, a downturn becomes possible, he says.
Macquarie analysts are also warning of the risk of a “negative immediate impact”; NAB expects a “small decline” in prices; and AMP and UBS believe a 5% fall in the short term is credible. AMP’s Shane Oliver said:
“This will no doubt be chalked up as a win for the policy change.”
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Asylum seekers advocacy group says Angus Taylor’s speech ‘divisive and misguided’
The Asylum Seekers Centre in Sydney said the opposition leader’s budget-in-reply speech, linking housing supply to migration levels, was “sadly predictable, divisive, and misguided”.
“The opposition leader has found a scapegoat, not a solution,” Elijah Buol, chief executive of the ASC said.
Housing is a human right, and everyone in Australia should have access to safe, secure shelter – regardless of their visa status.
Buol said already, many people seeking asylum are denied income support, shut out of crisis accommodation and left with no path to stability. On some estimates, one in five people sleeping rough are non-residents on uncertain visas, including people seeking asylum.
The ASC’s own data shows that 55% of its clients have experienced homelessness since arriving in Australia.
Buol said political leaders must stop misdirecting the housing crisis towards migration for short‑term political gain:
Blaming people seeking asylum or migrants for structural housing shortages is not only misleading, it distracts from the real policy solutions we urgently need.
The consequences are severe and predictable: people who have fled persecution and trauma are pushed into homelessness, exploitation and ongoing harm.
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Sam Kerr to leave Chelsea at the end of this season
Sam Kerr will leave Chelsea at the end of the season, bringing the curtain down on one of the most brilliant, trophy-laden careers in Women’s Super League football, AAP reports.
The English giants announced on Thursday, local time, that the Matildas captain will leave after six-and-a-half years when her contract expires in the summer, with her last game for the Blues set to be an emotional occasion against Manchester United on Saturday.
“Obviously, there’s a little bit of sadness,” Kerr said, announcing her departure. She went on:
It’s leaving Chelsea, leaving the club where I’ve been for so long, leaving my teammates, leaving the fans.
But when I reflect on my Chelsea career and doing it for the last time, I just feel happy. Happy that it happened, and I feel so grateful to have played for this club for six years and won as many trophies as we could.
The decision had been widely expected, with the 32-year-old reportedly snapped up by ambitious NWSL franchise, Denver Summit, in the US last month.
But Kerr will end her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea’s all-time leading league scorer with 64 WSL goals, while her 115 strikes in all competitions has put her just one behind Fran Kirby as the Blues’ all-time leading goal scorer.
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Victoria police arrest two 16-year-olds on allegations of attempted arson attack
Victoria police have arrested two people after an alleged arson attempt in Melbourne’s CBD this morning.
Police allege two teenage boys were spotted on Flinders Lane around 4.45am running from a vehicle with a jerry can in hand. The boys allegedly smashed a window to a premises in the area and attempted to pour fuel inside before they were arrested.
The driver of a car waiting nearby left the scene, and police have been unable to locate the car or the driver.
Investigators plan to interview the two teens, both 16, today and are appealing for information from the public. Police said they are continuing to look at “all possible motivations behind” the alleged offence, including “who is involved and why”.
No charges have been filed.
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Victoria premier responds to Angus Taylor’s budget reply
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, issued a statement this morning in response to Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech, claiming his plan to cut off welfare payments to non-citizens would target older Australians from multicultural communities.
Last night, Taylor said that under a federal Coalition government, only Australian citizens would be eligible for welfare payments in Australia, cutting off access to jobseeker, the age pension, disability support, parenting payments and the national disability insurance scheme.
Allan said the policy would target long-term permanent residents on the age pension who “worked, paid taxes and raised families” in Australia, given tourists and people on temporary visas are currently ineligible for such welfare payments.
Her statement read:
It targets older Australians from multicultural communities who have given much of their lives to this country. We encourage people to become citizens – but there are reasons why some migrants don’t. Many risk losing access to their original passport, plus their rights and connections to where they were born. In my view, that doesn’t make migrants less committed to Australia. But in the Liberals’ view of the world, it’s us v them – straight out of the Trump playbook.
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‘Weak system’: Calls for tougher alcohol advertising rules after complaint against Methanol Moonshine
Public health experts and advocates are calling for tougher alcohol advertising rules after an industry watchdog dismissed a complaint against Australian brand Methanol Moonshine, then reversed its decision.
An Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (Abac) panel is now reviewing the complaint. But industry experts such as University of Technology Sydney Prof Ross Gordon say the brand-name dispute highlights flaws within Australia’s self-regulated alcohol advertising framework. Gordon said:
Abac is funded by industry.
While it includes government representatives and an independent chair, it is regarded as a system largely designed and funded by industry.
The consensus across critical marketing and public health research is that voluntary and co-regulatory alcohol marketing is consistently ineffective at protecting groups who may experience vulnerability.
Kristie Cocotis, acting CEO of Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (Fare), said Australia’s “weak system” means “community complaints are often dismissed, and even when upheld, there are few consequences for the companies at fault”.
Fare is calling for an “overarching federal law” to set clear, enforceable rules for alcohol advertising through its “Give us an ad break” campaign.
Otherwise, Cocotis said, schemes like Abac are “set up and run by alcohol companies and their lobby groups” to dictate their own marketing rules. She said:
This system fails to prioritise the health and wellbeing of Australians.
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Chalmers says shift in policy about more Australians getting ‘toehold’ into housing market
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking now, saying the government had shifted its position to help more people to get a “toehold” in the housing market, adding “too many Australians have been locked out for too long”.
He went on:
We know that people who want to defend the status quo, including in housing and in the tax system, they want to pretend that this is fundamentally about politics or they want to pretend that it’s fundamentally about the things that we’re not doing.
We came to a view on capital gains, on negative gearing and trust … we explained why we had shifted our position, and that’s because what we’re trying to do here is we’re trying to better align, the tax treatment of people who work for a living, with people who get their income in other legitimate ways.
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Albanese says Taylor’s plans can’t be taken seriously without costings
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking in Canberra after Angus Taylor’s budget reply last night.
The prime minister said:
You can come up with a whole range of things. Without any costings, they can’t be taken seriously.
The truth is they’re getting worse. The Coalition are down to 41 members of the House of Representatives.
I suspect that when we come back, that will decrease further when we come back during these budget sittings. And it is just a debacle.
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Woman dead, at least one critical after bus rollover in Whitsundays
A woman is dead and at least one person has been left with life-threatening injuries after a coach rolled on one of Australia’s most dangerous roads, AAP reports.
Emergency services were called to the intersection of the Bruce Highway and Rangemore Road at Gumlu in Queensland’s Whitsundays region about 4pm on Thursday after reports of a crash involving a bus with 29 people on board.
A woman died at the scene after suffering multiple significant traumatic injuries, a Queensland ambulance service spokesperson told AAP. A total of 19 people were taken to hospital, though police confirmed no one else had died as of Friday morning.
One person had been trapped under the bus, according to the Queensland Fire Department.
The road was closed in both directions and long delays were expected.
The Bruce Highway has long been considered one of the most dangerous roads in Australia.
Stretching from Brisbane to Cairns, the highway is used by more than 100,000 vehicles every day, according to NRMA.
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Australian retailers on notice over ‘fake discounts’ as Coles braces for record fine after landmark court ruling
Coles’ landmark federal court loss could signal the end of “fake discounts” in Australia, according to two former competition watchdog chiefs, with the supermarket giant at risk of record fines exceeding $200m.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued Coles and its rival Woolworths, accusing the supermarket giants of duping shoppers between 2021 and 2023 with “was/is” promotional pricing.
Justice Michael O’Bryan on Thursday found Coles’ “Down Down” promotions in some cases falsely led customers to believe they were enjoying a true price reduction.
All Australian retailers have been left on notice to keep their “discounts” genuine, according to Rod Sims, the former head of the consumer watchdog.
Read more here:
Labor ‘raising taxes without people actually knowing’: Taylor
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, was on RN Breakfast this morning after delivering his budget reply speech last night. The Coalition has vowed to index tax brackets to inflation, part of major tax overhaul should they come to power in the next election.
Taylor told RN that his read of the recent budget was Labor “raising taxes without people actually knowing”, adding the Australians public should have the opportunity to address taxes at an election.
“We’re going to stop that,” Taylor said. “Labor or the government shouldn’t have an automatic tax increase. If the government wants to increase taxes, it should go to an election. It should put that to the people.”
He maintained that his other major plan, to limit many welfare payments to citizens, was just about “prioritising Australians over others”.
“This is, I think, a very natural thing for a government to do,” he said.
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Passengers from hantavirus ship to land in Perth today
We’re expecting the four Australians who were on board the virus-hit cruise ship to land in Perth at around 11am local time (1pm in Sydney).
We’ll have the latest when it happens.
Read more here:
Good morning, it’s Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it and see what Friday holds.
Australia through to Eurovision final after Delta Goodrem wows Vienna
Big news to start the morning: Australia’s Delta Goodrem has qualified for the Eurovision final.
The other qualifiers from this morning’s second semi-final are Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Norway, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Czechia.
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Eurovision protests kept to minimum amid heavy police presence
It’s worth noting the controversy around this year’s Eurovision, which is likely to continue as Israel’s Noam Bettan won through to the final in the first semi two days ago.
Bettan was booed by some in the crowd during his performance in Tuesday’s first semi-final.
The 28-year-old made it through to Saturday’s final after receiving a mixed reception from the crowd before his performance began, with some members of the audience shouting during the quiet moments of his song Michelle.
Israel’s inclusion in the competition has led to a boycott from Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia.
Press Association reported this morning that protests against Israel’s inclusion have been kept to a minimum around the Wiener Stadthalle, with a heavy police and security presence, but a protest event featuring speeches and music called No Stage For Genocide is planned for Friday at Venediger Au, a play park on the city’s outskirts.
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Photos of Delta Goodrem’s performance
And just to reassure you that Delta’s performance was just as spectacular as the rehearsal, here are some more photos hot from the wires.
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Migrant advocates accuse Angus Taylor of chasing votes with ‘dog whistles, fear and division’
Advocates for migrants last night accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division”.
Taylor claimed that migrants were coming to Australia and claiming benefits before they were becoming citizens, a situation which he said Australians did not accept.
But the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said that newly arrived migrants already face strict waiting periods of up to four years before they can access most Centrelink payments, including JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and the Parenting Payment.
By the time most permanent migrants become eligible for those payments, they are already eligible to apply for Australian citizenship, it said.
Jana Favero, deputy CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said:
The Coalition’s dangerous decision to return to its harmful, failed refugee policies of the past shows what a mess they are in. They have no new policy ideas. Temporary protection visas have harmed countless people and kept many families apart for over a decade. So many are still trying to recover.
Taylor’s comments tonight are inflammatory and desperate. The fact that he feels the need to dog-whistle about mass deportations of so-called ‘overstayers’, many of whom are actually trapped in a massively blown-out court and tribunal system created through years of Coalition underfunding, shows they are far more interested in stoking fear than delivering serious policy solutions.
The language in tonight’s address misleads the nation by claiming that migrants are arriving and immediately accessing welfare payments, which is a blatant lie. In reality most of the restrictions he’s talking about already exist and there are lengthy wait periods for welfare payments.
The Coalition knows all this and is deliberately misleading Australians about how the welfare system already operates in order to whip up fear and division.
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Migration ‘will be below 200,000′ under Coalition: Taylor
Meanwhile, on with some more serious news.
Speaking on the 7:30 Report last night, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said under a Coalition government the number of migrants allowed in the country will be tied to the number of houses built.
Asked what the exact number is, he would not say, saying only it would be 40% of current migration levels.
Asked if which migrants he would cut – international students, New Zealanders, working holiday visas (which the Nationals would oppose because of its impact on agriculture) – he said:
If I may answer – it will be below 200,000. There’s no doubt about that.
And then the right mix will depend on the circumstances of the time. What is clear, what is clear, is that the number of students in this country has been at record levels.
This government lost control of that situation.
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Does Australia stand a chance in the Eurovision voting?
Of course, the judges are only half the equation – there’s also the public vote, where fans can vote by phone or SMS, up to 10 times (but not for their own country).
This is where the peculiar politics of Europe come in, because politically, culturally or geographically aligned nations will usually vote for each other.
Given Australia’s distance, we might be disadvantaged here. The top 10 from tonight’s show go on to the grand final on Sunday (Austria, as hosts, automatically qualify).
We’ll find out soon – the UK entry is on now with some nonsense, then there are three more songs before the votes start being tallied.
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Delta Goodrem performs in Eurovision semi
There was a harp. There was a sparkly dress. A lot of smoke. A crescent moon.
Yes, there was a mid-song key change, in the best traditions of Eurovision cheese.
And there was Delta, ascending into the rafters on a column that emerged proudly from her grand piano, soaring into space on a last effortless high note.
I’d say she did rather well. We’ll find out later what the judges thought.
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Photos from Delta Goodrem’s last dress rehearsal
Here are some images from Delta Goodrem’s last dress rehearsal before this morning’s semi-final. Looks like quite the production.
We’ll have a full report after the event. In the meantime, do take our Eurovision quiz.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
We start with some pop fun: Australia’s Eurovision hopes are being put to the test in Vienna, Austria, where Delta Goodrem is (at the time of writing) just about to hit the stage to perform her song Eclipse.
In more weighty news, migrant advocates have accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division” and accusing him of a “blatant lie” by saying migrants were able to access welfare payments when they arrived in Australia. More coming up.
Four Australian citizens who were aboard the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak off the coiast of Africa, will land in Perth this afternoon after the government secured a suitable aircraft and crew for the journey. More coming up.
