What we learned: Sunday 23 February
With that, we will close the blog for the afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your weekends, we’ll be back first thing tomorrow for all the latest.
Until then, here were today’s major developments:
The prime minister has announced “the biggest boost to Medicare in its history”, with an $8.5bn commitment to expand bulk billing from 11 million to 26 million people. Anthony Albanese wants nine out of 10 GP visits to be fully bulk billed for all Australians by 2030, an “ambitious” goal but one “people deserve”.
The opposition has backed Labor’s pledge and gone further, promising $9bn towards the general practice system and calling for parliament to reconvene before election to pass the Medicare legislation.
Two tropical cyclones could form off the Australian coast on Sunday – one off the north-east and the other the north-west coast – the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will fly to the United States tonight to meet the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. Chalmers will continue to push for Australia to be exempt from the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminium. Albanese has already made his case for exemption to the US president, Donald Trump.
And Pro-Palestinian groups have held a rally outside the National Gallery of Australia in opposition to the censorship of the Palestinian flag in an Indigenous art installation
Updated
Australian super on track to become second richest in the world
Australian retirees could become the richest in the world, according to new research, AAP reports.
As a voice for more than 11 million Australians, the Super Members Council says the nation’s pension assets will surpass the UK’s in 2030 and Canada’s by 2031.
The milestones will mean the collective nest egg will become the second richest in the world behind only the United States’ despite having the 55th-highest population.
The council’s analysis shows that between 2001 and 2023, Australia’s cumulative superannuation contributions were the highest among OECD countries and well above the OECD average.
Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert:
Australia has the fastest growing super system globally – twice the rate of international peers. We’re the only OECD country where spending on government-funded pension payments is falling and will continue to fall.
Funds under management in Australia are now $4.1tn, exceeding any single Sovereign Wealth Fund including Norway ($2.8tn) and China ($2.1tn).
A delegation of Australian super fund representatives is now in the US looking for new investment opportunities to further grow Australians’ super savings. The group will join Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, and Australia’s consul general in New York, Heather Ridout, in Washington DC and New York at the Superannuation Investment Summit.
Updated
