What we learned today, Wednesday 24 June
Thanks for joining us today. We’re wrapping up the blog. Here’s a reminder of today’s top stories:
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South Australia has detected its first confirmed case of a deadly strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a petrel, a migratory bird.
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Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston are examples of the “essential features of Australian monoculture”, the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, says.
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Tanya Plibersek has refuted Pauline Hanson’s claims that her comments on paid parental leave were taken out of context, saying it is “not safe” with the One Nation leader.
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The energy minister, Chris Bowen, has asked energy retailers to explain why some of their prices are going up from 1 July when they are supposed to go the other way, under the latest default market offer.
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The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says shark safety measures will include the greater use of drones, but not in every beach in the state.
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The Albanese government has ordered a new review of KPMG Australia over revelations it leaked client information and mistreated the whistleblower who raised the alarm.
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Nine Entertainment executives are meeting to consider the future of Channel Nine’s highest-paid presenter, Karl Stefanovic, after the Today show co-host published and then quickly deleted an interview with the UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
We’ll be back with more live news tomorrow morning.
Updated
Pilot dies in light plane crash in Western Australia
A pilot has died in a light plane crash in WA’s Malabaine, north-east of Perth.
Emergency services responded to reports of a light plane crash in Malabaine, about 100km north-east of Perth, at about 10.50am this morning. A statement from WA police said:
Emergency services attended and located the pilot, the sole occupant of the aircraft, deceased at the scene.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner.
Updated
Julian Leeser says Taylor ‘articulated the principles that I shared’ on multiculturalism
Leeser was asked about his colleague, opposition leader Angus Taylor, repeatedly refusing to say whether he supports multiculturalism in Australia yesterday.
Taylor has attempted to clarify comments on multiculturalism after his five non-answers on Tuesday. In a statement late on Tuesday, he indicated he did support multiculturalism in some form.
Leeser said:
I think in fairness to Angus, yesterday he said, it’s worthwhile quoting, he said: ‘We can have people from all over the world, [of] all races and religions in this country, but they must share those core values.’ I don’t know how much simpler it can be than that.
I agree with Angus Taylor 100%…. that is multiculturalism when you have people of different races and religions united by a common set of values. That’s Australia.
Asked if he was troubled that Taylor did not use the word “multiculturalism”, Leeser said he “articulated the principles that I shared”.
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Liberal MP addresses ‘the foundational values of Australia’
Opposition frontbencher, Julian Leeser, says he doesn’t understand what is meant when One Nation leader Pauline Hanson refers to a “monocultural” Australia.
Leeser was speaking to the ABC earlier.
He said:
We have a range of different cultures here, but we are united by values. It’s the values that are key and important, and those values are things like commitment to democracy, to the rule of law, to the equality of men and women. They are some of the foundational values of Australia.
So far as I’m concerned, where a person was born, what race they are, what religion they are, if they’ve got a commitment to their those values, they’re part of the Australian story.
I know what I think the Australian story is about. It’s about the Indigenous heritage, the British foundation, and the multicultural character, and we should celebrate and teach all three of those aspects of our history.
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Multicultural affairs minister responds to Hanson comments
Anne Aly, has accused One Nation leader Pauline Hanson of using the Socceroos to make her views more “palatable”.
Speaking in the Senate earlier, Hanson said the Socceroos represented her “vision of a monocultural Australia.”
Aly told the ABC:
What we’ve seen from Pauline Hanson … is nothing but contempt for migrants and refugees, and for multiculturalism.
Now she’s standing up and she’s blaming Australian people for getting it wrong, for misinterpreting her, and misunderstanding her, and using the Socceroos to try and make her her views more palatable
Aly added:
Under Pauline Hanson’s monoculturalism, there would be no soccer, there’d be no Soccerroos …
Updated
Queensland government removes KPI for winning public trust
Queensland’s government will no longer measure how much its citizens trust the police in its budget.
The state’s treasurer, David Janetzki, handed down his second budget yesterday – and a series of statements measuring the performance of government departments against key performance indicators (KPIs), known as the “service delivery statements”.
The Queensland Police Service statement reveals a range of targets have not been met, including the rate of crime victimisation, rate of repeat crime victimisation and clearance rate targets for a range of offences including murder and assault. Just 36.5% of sexual assaults are cleared within 30 days.
It also measures public opinion about the police, including “perception of police integrity” – but won’t for long.
Ten metrics have been reported for the final time this year. They have been discontinued because the country’s state and federal police have decided not to pay for the survey used as the basis for them.
The budget document reveals that only 27.1% of people feel safe travelling alone on public transport – and 61.0% feel confident reporting domestic and family violence. 53.2% of people believe police treat people fairly and equally and just 57.2% believe them to be honest.
Greens MP Michael Berkman said “public confidence to report domestic and family violence to police has fallen to the lowest rate since the measure was introduced – and Crisafulli’s solution is to just stop asking”
Hanson reveals key figures of ‘Australian monoculture’
Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston are some of the “essential features of Australian monoculture”, Pauline Hanson says, as people continue to scratch their heads about what exactly the phrase means.
As we mentioned earlier, the One Nation leader gave a short speech in the Senate before question time to congratulate politicians falling into the trap of debating what a monoculture is.
Hanson said:
You’d be forgiven for thinking I had slaughtered a sacred cow at the National Press Club last week. Monoculturalism is virtually all you’ve been able to talk about since that day. It’s exactly what I intended.
But she offered some insight into how she defines the term, which she claims is apparently a “welcoming” umbrella term to cover “all manner of difference”:
Accepting Australians means accepting our culture and the values, customs, and traditions which define it – a fair go, tolerance, secular democracy, freedom of speech and religion, and the rule of law. It means accepting our irreverence and larrikinism.
Bring back Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston. These are the essential features of Australian monoculture, and there’s nothing remotely exclusionary about them.
These values are not even especially unique. They’re accepted widely in the democratic world because they’re values, which are blind to race or gender or religion, but they’re not accepted by many who are allowed to come here, and that’s what must be addressed. Come here with your Greek salad, Italian pasta, your Chinese stir fry, your Indian curry…”
Hanson is cut off by the end but I think you get the point.
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Queensland’s treasurer says Origin ‘not doing the right thing’ by raising power prices
Queensland’s treasurer David Janetzki says Origin is “not doing the right thing” by “significantly” raising power prices, in the face of a reduced default market offer.
Last month, the Australian Energy Regulator slashed its default market offer by 7.2% for South East Queensland households. Small businesses received a 10.4% discounted default offer.
But Janetzki said the discount was not being passed on:
I’ve seen a letter to their customers that are suggesting power prices will go up significantly, significantly, and that’s not what they ought to be doing.
And so I’ll be naming them today. Origin is the first retailer that appears not to be doing the right thing.
Origin has been contacted for comment.
Australia’s chief veterinary officer on bird flu
Dr Beth Cookson, says an investigation will help determine whether the sources of the South Australian and Western Australian bird flu cases are linked:
We are still very early in the investigation phase … what we do know though is the early advice from Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness is that the two birds in Western Australia were likely to be separate inductions. So there is no indication that it was spread between those birds.
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SA premier addresses bird flu discovery
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, says the migratory bird – a southern giant petrel – was first discovered on 14 June at Knights Beach.
He said the bird had travelled to the state via Antartica.
He urged members of the public to report any birds that appear to be unwell:
It’s very, very important now that we have received a positive result from South Australia … people are very aware that they can report any signs of bird life that is unwell or dead. They can do that through our hotline
Updated
Bird flu reaches South Australia
The federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, says South Australia has detected its first confirmed case of a deadly strain of the H5n1 bird flu virus in a petrel, a migratory bird.
This is in addition to the third suspected case of the deadly bird flu in Western Australia.
Updated
Another bird flu case detected
A third migratory seabird found on the coast of Western Australia is suspected to be positive with deadly H5 bird flu.
WA’s agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis, confirmed the new case in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon after the bird was found in the Quindalup region.
The state has been investigating reports from the public of dead and unwell birds after two migratory birds near Esperance tested positive last week for the deadly strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally.
Jarvis said test samples from the third case, also from the subantarctic region, had been sent to the CSIRO for confirmation.
Updated
Papua New Guinea suspends imports of Australian poultry products
Papua New Guinea has suspended imports of Australian chicken and eggs in response to confirmation of a deadly strain of bird flu in two migratory birds found in Western Australia.
In a market advice published by the federal agriculture department, the government said the detection of the disease in wild birds did not change Australia’s highly pathogenic avian influenza-free (HPAI) status and the country remained free of HPAI according to standards set by the World Organisation for Animal Health.
The department said despite this, PNG’s National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) had on Monday suspended all poultry meat and poultry products, including egg and egg products, exported from Australia to PNG. The statement says:
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is actively engaging with PNG to resolve this issue.
Thank you all for joining me on the blog today!
I’ll leave you with the brilliant Adeshola Ore for the rest of the afternoon, and see you back here bright and early tomorrow.
Question time concludes
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
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Economy was the main game for the opposition again today, pressing the government on the latest inflation figures. The Coalition tried to pin the PM on his previous capital gains on investment properties – it took two goes, because the first question was ruled out of order.
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The government countered with a few sledges at the opposition, and some unflattering comparisons to One Nation, but they didn’t land quite as strongly as yesterday’s blows.
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The agriculture minister, Julie Collins confirmed a third bird has been infected with the H5N1 bird flu.
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Two MPs got kicked out for interjecting too much, and Milton Dick gave several warnings.
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And Jim Chalmers rejected a call to tie local council funding to 1% of federal taxation, after a warning from councils.
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Overall, a far more subdued QT after yesterday’s drama!
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After a final dixer to the local government minister, Kristy McBain, the PM calls time on QT.
Just one more to go for the week!
Allegra Spender has a question on industrial relations
asks the government to defend its workplace legislation that will allow the commonwealth to legally discriminate against businesses without an enterprise agreement or those without a union in procurement processes.
Spender says that a similar policy in Victoria was found “to have been used by the CFMU, costing taxpayers billions and supporting organised crime and weaponised.”
Amanda Rishworth, the minister for workplace relations, defends the bill and says it doesn’t impose any obligations on the commonwealth “to do anything such as require an enterprise agreement.”
We are not shutting out employers, we’re not shutting out unions, we are bringing people together, and that is why the bill is called the Co-operative Workplaces Bill,
Updated
Labor ‘pulling up the ladder’ for aspirational Australians, says opposition
Liberal MP, Zoe McKenzie, follows Alison Penfold’s script, but asks housing minister Clare O’Neil why she was able to make capital gains from a negatively geared investment property which sold for more than $1.3m in 2023 but then “pull up this ladder of opportunity for millions of aspirational Australians.”
O’Neil says the question is “beneath” McKenzie.
I respect her, and this is beneath her. It is truly beneath her.
The opposition takes umbrage at the insult, but Milton Dick says he’s already uncomfortable with the question (see earlier post here).
Before anyone can continue, Nationals MP Pat Conaghan gets kicked out of the chamber. Someone says “well done”, to which Dick says angrily, “it’s not a badge of honour to be disrespectful.”
O’Neil continues:
What is truly hypocritical here is the group of people who sit opposite me, the vast majority of whom own their own home, many of whom own investment properties, and who are continuing to lock generations of young people out of the housing market.
Third positive bird flu result, agriculture minister confirms
Julie Collins said she received confirmation of a third positive result for H5N1 bird flu just before question time from a CSIRO lab.
She said:
I’ll be receiving an update from the chief veterinary officer straight after question time and then I’ll provide an update to the public as you’d expect us to do.
The revelation came after a question from South Australian independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, who asked the prime minister about the algal bloom and the threat of H5N1 bird flu, saying an outbreak would risk the environment, tourism and agriculture.
Albanese said the government worked closely with the SA government, and would do so again if needed:
When a challenge happens we work across the board with industry, with different levels of government, and I certainly worked with them and the member and I had conversations at that time. We’ll continue to work on this challenge as well.
Collins echoed what she’s said in recent days that the development is concerning, but that the government can’t stop the spread of H5N1 as it is found in migratory birds.
We can’t stop migratory birds coming to Australia but we can be prepared.
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Alison Penfold is back
She asks the same question, almost word for word, except substituting the words “personally pocket” to “make” $200,000.
The leader of the house, Tony Burke, says that under standing orders, a member can’t ask about the private affairs of a minister or their conduct.
His shadow counterpart, Dan Tehan, disputes this and says it’s confirmed practice that questions are allowed to be asked of ministers about statements they have made in parliament, and that questions can be asked that are officially connected to the matters of public affairs – like media articles.
It’s all semantics but eventually Milton Dick rules the question in order, but warns again that he doesn’t want questions to get personal.
Anthony Albanese says he hasn’t seen the media report that relates to the question (to which someone on the opposition benches shouts ‘you’ve got a hundred staff, get one of them to send it to you’!)
The PM continues:
All of my arrangements have been declared appropriately. What we are doing here, when it comes to housing, is wanting to make sure that just as I had the opportunity way back in my 20s to own my own home over my head when I purchased a property … I want young Australians and people who are now in their 20s and in their 30s to have the same opportunity.
We are the party that want Australians to have access to their own home. Those opposite show just how desperate they are.
Updated
Milton Dick skips another Coalition question
It feels like a bit of a pattern now, with a third opposition question of the week skipped by Milton Dick, who rules it out of order.
Yesterday it was Angus Taylor’s question, today it’s Nationals MP, Alison Penfold, who asks about a report that shows the PM saved around $200,000 on the sale of three investment properties under existing capital gains tax rules.
She asks why it’s fair for him to pocket the money and then “pull up this ladder of opportunity from millions of aspirational Australians?”
Dick’s not having it and skips the opposition question entirely, meaning Labor get two dixers in a row.
‘It’s going an be an inauspicious and short leadership under the member for Hume’, says O’Neil while refusing to answer a question
We have our first booting of the day, with Labor member for Leichhardt, Matt Smith, removed for interrupting a question.
Liberal frontbencher Aaron Violi asks about Clare O’Neil’s comments on a “market correction”, versus Jim Chalmers’ explanation that she was talking generally, not technically. Is the market facing a correction, or not, he says.
Housing minister Clare O’Neil refuses to answer the question despite repeated probes from the opposition and the Speaker.
She notes house prices have risen dramatically by “400%” over the last 25 years, saying the government is pulling “every lever” available to rein in house prices.
We cannot allow that to happen again for another generation. If we do, our country will be unrecognisable to us. This has already radically transformed what it means to be aspirational in our country.
O’Neil said the Coalition are the “last people in Australia” that “can’t see that this housing market is broken”, which prompted loud interjections and then a retort from Milton Dick for many on the shadow front bench to stop yelling and “take a breath”. He tells O’Neil to go back to the question.
She doesn’t, and ends with an attack on Taylor:
I’d say again to those opposite, it is going to be an inauspicious and short leadership under the member for Hume [Taylor] I can see that. Let’s hope that the leader that follows him takes a different approach to the housing matter.
Updated
Chalmers rejects call to tie council funding to tax collection
Independent MP, Sophie Scamps, says local councils have written to federal parliament warning of a funding crisis and asks if the government will tie council funding to 1% of federal taxation.
Jim Chalmers says he’s aware of the additional funding request, but that the government won’t heed the call.
He says the government is already providing a bunch of extra funding for councils through grant programs like the stronger communities program and the active transport fund that councils apply for.
I engage with councils and local governments in good faith, because we value the important work that they do in every single community represented here, but we are already providing substantial new funding for councils in the budget, which was only six weeks or so ago.
Updated
‘Nothing darkens their mood like another fall in inflation’: Chalmers
Tim Wilson accuses the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, of “economic incompetence” over core inflation rising from 3% to 3.6% over the last year, and interest rates rising 15 times since Labor took office.
Chalmers quips back, saying “nothing darkens their mood like another fall in inflation”.
The second consecutive month we saw inflation go down in our economy, which is terribly inconvenient to those opposite.
He says that the war in Iran has pushed up inflation in our economy. He points out that it’s come down substantially, that’s also true, and in his usual ham-fisted way he attributes that to my budget settings Mr Speaker, I’m not sure that that was the point that he was trying to make. I’m not sure, but it is very kind of him, very kind of him, none the least. I appreciate him every day
Dan Tehan tries to make a point of order on relevance, but Milton Dick dismisses it.
Chalmers then ends with a personal jibe:
Yesterday I said that one of the reasons why the Liberal party is dying in the arms of the opposition leader is because he’s trying to out One Nation One Nation … to be fair to him, there is a second reason why the Liberal party is dying in his arms, and that’s the member for Goldstein [Wilson].
Updated
Key event
It’s question time!
Angus Taylor begins, asking the prime minister why Australians are continuing to pay for “Labor’s economic incompetence”, blaming the government’s spending for high inflation.
Anthony Albanese says cost of living is his government’s number one priority, and lists a bunch of changes coming into effect from 1 July – including new funding for instant asset tax write offs, as well as indexation on certain social welfare payments (which happen automatically).
Today, of all days, just one week from when a whole lot of those measures cut in, is an appropriate time to answer a question about living standards, because next week every Australian worker will get a tax cut, every worker, including a significant increase for those who are on the minimum wage. We know that those opposite were opposed to that.
Updated
What is cultural confidence?
Thank you all for your contributions to the debate on what cultural confidence is – there’s some mixed reactions.
Tim Wilson earlier said that Australia should be a “culturally confident country”.
One person in the comments section wrote “It’s phrase you can mould any way you like and if you get a bad reaction, you turn it into some other thing altogether. It’s meaningless.”
Wilson – a dedicated reader of the blog - has pointed out to me that there’s a meaning in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management which says cultural confidence:
Refers to individuals’ perception of cultural identity, belonging, and pride based on understanding, accepting, and living up to their own culture.
Hanson blames far left for taking her comments ‘into the realm of utter fantasy’
One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, says her words on monoculturism have been twisted, and in fact the Socceroos represent her vision of a monocultural Australia.
Last week, Hanson told the national press club that multicultural policy had “failed” and that Australia should be “a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural”.
In the Senate a short time ago, Hanson said monocultural wasn’t a “dirty word”.
In the past week, the far left have naturally taken my comments into the realm of utter fantasy. I was going to ban foreign food, and the Socceroos wouldn’t have beaten Turkey under my policy. What rubbish, predictable and pathetic.
The Socceroos, in fact, represent my vision of a monocultural Australia. People from different backgrounds and cultures and nations, all wearing green and gold, and representing one nation under one flag, and succeeding under the same set of rules.
Australian monoculture is not exclusive. It is welcoming. It’s an umbrella which covers all manner of difference. It’s not a dirty word.
Updated
‘Who’s in the mono?’ Ted O’Brien rejects framing of multiculturalism debate
Ted O’Brien says he rejects the framing of the multiculturalism debate when asked whether he supports multiculturalism, particularly as the shadow foreign affairs minister.
He lobs the question right back and asks what the definition of multiculturalism and monoculturalism actually are.
He claims if everyone in the audience was to write a definition down, they’d probably be different.
Who’s in the mono? I don’t know. Who decides who’s in the mono? I mean, I assume it’s government, right? And I’m a Liberal, I believe in small government, not big government. I mean, what do we have, a minister for cultural purity?
I’ve been to some countries where the state dictates people’s customs and how things should be done. I don’t know how many of you have been to North Korea, I have been to North Korea and I can tell you, it’s not the sort of place you want to live.
So for me, I think this debate’s a silly one.
He’s asked whether he would have a problem walking through parts of Australia and hearing people speaking French or Arabic or Mandarin.
“No,” he says, and adds that he learned Mandarin so he could communicate when he at one point lived in China. But he says everyone in Australia should be able to speak English.
I don’t have any problem with that. I mean, I previously had conversations in Mandarin and [in] Australia, and that’s what you do.
The thought that, Johnny, who’s at work, speaking English, can’t go home and speak Italian to his nana? That’s nuts. That’s not the sort of Australia I want to live in.
Updated
Labor’s economic model to ‘spend, tax and stoke’ inflation, says shadow treasurer
Tim Wilson’s whipped out his favourite line, describing Jim Chalmers as an arsonist “pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire” after the release of today’s inflation numbers.
He’s blaming government spending, and says “homegrown inflation” is at 4.7%.
The Albanese government’s economic model is to stoke inflation, tax inflation, and spend inflation, perpetuating a cycle that ensures Australians pay higher prices at supermarkets.
Jim Chalmers is like the cosplay arsonist pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire, burning away at the future economic prosperity of Australia.
Wilson says the inflation started going up long before conflict in the Middle East, adding “Australians don’t buy his [Chalmers’] excuses”.
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O’Brien pushes back against Hanson’s call to abandon United Nations
Ted O’Brien has subtly pushed back against One Nation’s call for Australia to abandon international bodies like the United Nations and World Health Organization.
The party’s platform says it would withdraw from the bodies and the Paris climate agreement which it claims would save up to $1bn a year.
O’Brien, the shadow foreign affairs minister, is addressing the National Press Club, and says the world’s major institutions are “sick” but they should be reformed, not abandoned.
I believe the world’s major institutions, which were created to support an international order based on liberal values, are sick and suffering a crisis of legitimacy. But I reject calls for Australia to abandon these institutions.
If liberal democracies like ours vacate the field, the vacuum will be filled by others, whose worldview and values do not necessarily align with our own. This would be against our national interests.
Australia should still fight the good fight. By working with like-minded countries to help preserve that which works and change that which can be practically fixed or improved.
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Tim Wilson accuses Labor of dividing Australians over multicultural debate
Tim Wilson says Australia should be a “culturally confident country” when asked for his perspective on multiculturalism in Australia.
At a press conference in Parliament House, the shadow treasurer said the Coalition wants people to come and commit to Australia and adopt our “central values”.
He then accused Labor of “seeking to divide Australians”.
I believe we should be a culturally confident country … People will come from all over the world, and that’s what enriches our country so long as they commit to those underlying values, which was the original intention of multiculturalism, not what we now have, which is identity politics pushed by Labor, because they want to divide the Australian community.
What we have is a Labor government that’s seeking to divide Australians. We have other political parties on the far right seeking to divide Australians.
Have a go in the comments at what you think “culturally confident country” means.
Updated
‘We don’t support an exemption for our content creators’ for AI training, says Chalmers
A little earlier we brought you David Pocock’s concerns that the government could consider allowing tech companies exemptions to mine data from Australian artists, journalists and authors to train AI models.
Chalmers denies the government is considering an exemption.
He also says he doesn’t believe that not providing an exemption will slow investment in Australia. The sector in Australia is currently booming.
Chalmers says:
We don’t support an exemption for our content creators when it comes to training by AI, my colleagues … are working through all of these sorts of challenges, but we made it really clear that we support the rights of copyright holders, content creators, to make sure that as we work through a series of really quite tricky issues when it comes to AI, that we are maximising the benefits and minimising the risks, and that includes the people who create content.
Petrol prices plunge in May, but RBA ‘vigilant’ on underlying price pressures
A nearly 12% drop in fuel prices in May helps explain why annual inflation unexpectedly eased to 4%, from 4.2%.
Petrol prices are below where they were in late February and immediately before the start of the Middle East conflict, which triggered a global oil supply shock.
The welcome fall in headline inflation masked some less welcome news in the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.
Food and non-alcoholic drink prices climbed by 3.3% in the year to May, up from 2.8% in April. The food component was driven by higher prices for meals out and takeaway, which lifted by 4%.
Government subsidies have clouded the view on inflationary pressures, most obviously in the 21% jump in electricity costs versus a year earlier when federal and state government power bill rebates were in place.
Economists and the Reserve Bank will also be focusing on the underlying measures of inflation.
On that score, the story was also less encouraging, with the trimmed mean inflation rate (which removes more volatile price moves) lifting to 3.6% from 3.4%.
That was expected, but Stephen Smith, a partner at Deloitte Access Economics, said the central bank had to “remain vigilant” as inflation by any measure remained well above the 2.5% target.
The government’s temporary fuel excise cut has masked the extent to which inflation pressures remain a problem for the Australian economy and is delaying some of the price growth pass-through to other sectors.
Updated
O’Neil was using a ‘general description’ on housing market claim, says Chalmers
Chalmers says he agrees there’s been a “softening” on house prices, but that the housing minister Clare O’Neil’s claim of a housing market “correction” was more of a general description rather than a technical definition.
Chalmers repeats the Treasury modelling which expects house prices to continue to grow but 2% slower (compared with a scenario without the tax changes).
He attributes the slowdown not just to the tax changes – which haven’t yet been legislated – but also rising interest rates and war in the Middle East.
I agree that there’s been a softening in house prices, that’s self-evident from the numbers, and the same is true of auction clearance rates, and they are for reasons which go beyond the changes in the budget … I know that there is a technical definition of a correction, it hasn’t seen the sort of percentages which are consistent with that technical definition, but I know that what Clare was describing was a general situation where house prices have softened a bit, auction clearance rates have softened a bit for reasons that go beyond the budget.
Updated
Fuel excise cut ‘part of the story’ on lower inflation rate
Jim Chalmers says the fuel excise cut, which was extended by another month at a lower rate, is part of the reason headline inflation went down, but not the only factor.
The treasurer also says the impact of war in the Middle East will continue to be felt in the economy for some time.
He adds that while the impacts were initially felt in rising petrol prices, the impacts are now “broadening in our economy”.
The government’s efforts to cut the fuel excise are part of the story, but not the whole story, even when it comes to this very welcome moderation in fuel costs reflected in the inflation figures today.
Updated
Inflation numbers ‘better than expected’, says Chalmers
Jim Chalmers says the second consecutive monthly drop in inflation is better than forecast, but the numbers still show the pressure on the economy from the conflict in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament House, Chalmers points to inflation ticking up in other parts of the world including Europe, the US and Canada.
He says the economy is “well placed” to deal with global turmoil (something he has been saying for a while).
Inflation has dropped to 4% in the year to May, from 4.2%, but after removing the most volatile price moves in the month, the central bank’s preferred measure of annual inflation climbed to 3.6% from 3.4%.
Chalmers says:
This is a very welcome set of numbers, which shows that inflation fell once again for the second month in a row. We’re not complacent about that. We know that there are still inflationary pressures in our economy, that’s reflected in the underlying measure, but these numbers today are much better than the market expected, much better than forecast, and that’s obviously a very good thing.
Updated
Bird flu requires emergency response to protect waterbirds, environment group says
A conservation group is warning the H5N1 bird flu risks harming wetland habitat across the Murray-Darling Basin and requires an emergency response.
Poultry farms in the state have gone into lockdown this week after the deadly bird flu arrived on the country’s mainland, with tests confirming a second bird also carried the disease.
In a statement, the Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance said the impact on bird populations across the Murray-Darling could be “catastrophic” without coordinated action:
The alliance’s co-national director, Craig Wilkins, said:
The already vulnerable Murray-Darling Basin is set to be the epicenter for bird flu impact due to its central role as the feeding and breeding home of so many vulnerable migratory bird species.
H5 Bird Flu is known to hit migratory wetland birds particularly hard. That means some of Australia’s best loved birds like pelicans, swans, terns and herons are directly in the cross-hairs.
The alliance says urgent action is needed across the Murray-Darling Basin, including strengthening viable water-breeding events and enhancing habitat protection and restoration.
Updated
Inflation falls to 4% during May
Inflation has dropped to 4% in the year to May, from 4.2%, in an early glimmer of hope of easing price pressures.
The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed inflation remains too high, but has eased and is likely below the realms of what the RBA and economists were expecting.
After removing the most volatile price moves in the month, the central bank’s preferred measure of annual inflation climbed to 3.6% from 3.4%.
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‘I’ve led the horse to water’: Taylor says Hanson hasn’t responded to his offer to meet
Jumping back into that interview on 2GB earlier, Angus Taylor said he has offered to meet with Pauline Hanson after the One Nation leader said she hadn’t spoken with Taylor in years.
Taylor said he was open to working with Hanson but that she hadn’t responded to his offer.
All you can do is lead a horse to water, you can’t make the horse drink … So I’ve led the horse to water. I’ve made the offer. She knows where I am, she knows where my office is. The door is always open, and in fact, the context within which I made that offer was to talk about how we oppose these toxic taxes of Labor’s, to work together to try and bring them down.
Taylor also claimed he’d “stemmed” the flow of votes to One Nation.
One Nation’s primary vote has ballooned in recent months, eclipsing both the Coalition and Labor.
2GB host, Mark Levy, was sceptical of the claim.
Taylor: Well I could argue with you over that because what we’ve seen is a collapse before then, and that collapse we’ve stemmed. But look at the end of the day …
Levy: Hang on, on that, Angus. I mean, it’s all well and good for us to talk about there being a collapse, are you seriously suggesting to me that there’s been an improvement in the polling for the Coalition?
Taylor: Well, can I say that, as I said, there was a collapse happening and we’ve stemmed that.
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KPMG to face new federal government review into ‘ethical soundness’
The Albanese government has opened a new review of KPMG Australia over revelations it leaked client information and mistreated the whistleblower who raised the alarm.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has said her department will ask Ian Watt, the former secretary of the Defence department, to head an investigation of KPMG’s “ethical soundness”.
In a letter to senator Deborah O’Neill on Thursday, Gallagher said KPMG’s culture and its governance arrangements would be investigated. Evidence to a parliamentary inquiry last Friday interrogated KPMG’s management and heard its independent board directors received direct advice from the company’s chair.
KPMG yesterday announced it would appoint an independent chair and more independent directors. It also announced reviews of its policies, audit conduct and whistleblower failings, while its chair and two partners will resign, following the CEO and former head of audit out the door.
The government’s new inquiry will check whether these responses are adequate and whether KPMG disclosed and responded to the issues appropriately, according to its terms of reference. It is set to report back by 30 September, which is when the government’s blacklist on new KPMG contracts is set to lift.
KPMG partners are also being investigated by the corporate regulator and by the peak accounting body.
The departing chair, Martin Sheppard, yesterday said he supported the need to change KPMG’s governance. He is not accused of wrongdoing.
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Taylor supports ‘a version’ of multiculturalism
Angus Taylor is still struggling to refine his messaging around multiculturalism, despite some of his colleagues offering unequivocal support.
Speaking to 2GB a little earlier this morning, Taylor said he didn’t want Australia to be monocultural, as Pauline Hanson said last week.
But he said again that he supports all Australians having “a common set of values”.
We need every Australian to believe in our system of law, to believe in our basic freedoms, to believe in our parliamentary democracy … enforcing that and making sure that people who come to this country contribute to this country and commit to it, that’s not a monoculture.
Now, you can call that whatever you like, but I just think that’s common sense. And I’d rather talk about common sense on this than these labels that people love to give. You know, it is a version of multiculturalism, but I tell you, what I’m talking about, it is not Labor’s multiculturalism where they simply say anyone can come here with any culture and it’s all OK.
Taylor goes on to say that Australia’s had “magnificent people coming from Italy and Greece and all over the world, over time”.
They all became Australian and adopted our core values even though they were still eating their food and wearing their clothes and all of those things from the place they’d come from. That’s the Australia we believe in.
You might notice that whenever Taylor talks about growing up with multiculturalism, he talks about the Europeans – Italians and Greeks – that migrated last century.
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Pocock criticises government secrecy over AI copyright deliberations
David Pocock is sounding the alarm after receiving information from a whistleblower that the government could consider changing copyright laws to allow tech giants to mine Australian data to train AI models.
Pocock said – according to the whistleblower – there are two submissions going to cabinet, one which would allow an exemption for data mining, and the other which would enforce a licensing arrangement.
The independent senator tells Sky News the tech companies want to mine data from Australian artists, authors and journalists in exchange for billions of dollars of investment in data centres.
[I] got, I think, pretty solid information that there are two different submissions going to cabinet. One is a full out exception, a text and data-mining exception. They’re basically exempt. Go for it. Don’t worry about copyright.
The other option is some sort of extension of copyright where there’s a licensing arrangement, which, you know, I think, depending on how it’s done, artists and others could come round to it, if it was on fair terms, and you could actually negotiate your copyright.
The thing I take exception to is there’s just so much secrecy with this government. Why aren’t we having this conversation with the rights holders themselves? This is their copyright. They should have a place at the table.
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NSW shark response will include drones, but not on every beach
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says shark safety measures will include the greater use of drones, but not in every beach in the state.
At yesterday’s state budget, the government flagged that shark safety measures, following multiple attacks in the past 12 months, could come be funded from a $1.1bn contingency fund.
Asked this morning if that would include the daily use of shark-spotting drones on beaches, the premier said:
The short answer is, we are looking at that. I’ll be, I’ll be honest with you, it won’t be every beach, we just can’t cover them. There are hundreds of beaches in NSW, but we think that we can make a measurable difference to the number of beaches and the hours of operation. We hope to announce something pretty soon. We’re getting the final stages of how much it will cost, how who will operate it, it’ll be surf life saving, and how we can roll it out as soon as possible.
I just want to make the point that we’ll be using technology that’s available, but hasn’t been rolled out at scale anywhere in the world.
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Send me your questions in the comments!
The comments on the blog are open, and I’d love to see your comments and questions.
If you want to know what’s going on, or you have a question about political process, please mention my name in your comment so I can find it more easily.
There’s often a lot of chatter in the section (which is great!), so when I have some time I’ll go through as many as I can.
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‘No one has been consulted’: Hume puts spotlight on extra provision in workplace relations bill
Jane Hume and her colleagues were actually at the press conference to talk about concerns over a workplace relations bill they said would have serious consequences around government contract procurement.
Stay with me, there’s some technicalities here.
The opposition says part of the bill – being debated in the House right now – is to help improve the efficiency of the Fair Work Commission in dealing with issues like unfair dismissal claims (where there’s a long backlog) – which the Coalition supports.
But they claim Labor has snuck in an extra provision that would allow the commonwealth to “discriminate in favour of businesses that have union agreements in procurement, in contracting, and in grants.”
Hume said:
We’ve already seen ACCI [Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry], we’ve seen the BCA [Business Council of Australia], we’ve seen the Master Builders Association, HIA [Housing Industry Association], all come out and say that this is an outrage, that no one has been consulted on this change, that it has gone through, it has been rushed.
It is going to fundamentally change, fundamentally affect the way the commonwealth deals with the private sector, and yet Labor, true to form, has tried to sneak this into a piece of legislation which we would otherwise support.
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‘We are a multicultural society’: deputy leader of the opposition
Shortly before her appearance on Sky News, Jane Hume stood up in front of journalists at parliament to talk about workplace laws.
Of course the questions quickly turned to Angus Taylor’s fumble on multiculturalism yesterday.
For those who have been following diligently, I won’t go back through the whole saga. But if you need to catch up, have a read here:
Hume says:
This is a ridiculous argument … I reject the politics of identity of the left on multiculturalism, but my goodness, I also reject the policy of cultural sphere from the right. We are a multicultural society. Let’s face it, we already are.
We are a multicultural society. I don’t really care where you came from. I don’t give two hoots what your country of origin is. What I care about is whether you’re going to contribute to building our nation that’s worth fighting for.
Asked why she could give such a coherent answer when her leader couldn’t, Hume says the pair are “pretty aligned on this” and that Taylor cares about Australian values.
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Hume brands eight-week NDIS inquiry ‘performative’
The deputy leader of the opposition, Jane Hume, says the government’s NDIS overhaul could “pass this week” with the cooperation of the opposition, bypassing the extra eight-week inquiry negotiated by the Greens yesterday.
Hume says the inquiry is “performative”, and lashed the Greens for taking the deal to pass the tax reforms.
The government said this morning it would look to vote on the bill in August, once the inquiry report is handed down.
Hume tells Sky News:
That eight-week inquiry into the NDIS, I think, is entirely performative. Let’s face it, those NDIS changes could pass this week, and we’ve said that we’ll work cooperatively with the government to do exactly that.
The Greens have really sold their soul on this one, and what for? A bag of beans. Not only have they said that they will rush these taxation changes through, adding something as minor as changes to the super into self-managed super funds. I mean, that’s just gratuitous and mean-spirited, but more importantly, they’ve also denied scrutiny of another dozen pieces of legislation.
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Wilson defends old paid parental leave comments, accuses Plibersek of drumming up debate
Tim Wilson has copped a bit of heat over his comments to ABC Q&A back in 2013, where on paid parental leave he said, “that is not my choice that women have children … it’s genetic”.
Social services minister Tanya Plibersek has spent the morning reminding Wilson of those controversial comments, but the shadow treasurer has pushed back.
Speaking to Sky News, Wilson said he does, in fact, support PPL, he was talking at the time about Tony Abbott’s policy which would have provided six months of paid parental leave at the person’s normal wage.
Wilson said:
I support paid parental leave, I just didn’t support – and this is the oddity, and she knows this – I didn’t support the Abbott government’s proposal on paid parental leave, and that’s what I was talking about at the time. Minister Plibersek has a long history of trying to drum these debates up.
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In pics: Albanese meets baby Zoe as the government spruiks paid parental leave extension
There’s not much politicians love more than a photo opportunity with a baby, especially when it’s tied to an announcement (call me a cynic!).
This morning Anthony Albanese couldn’t resist getting the cameras into his office to photograph him holding a cute baby, while the government spruiks the incoming extension to paid parental leave.
PPL will extend from 1 July to 26 weeks – to be shared by both parents (except in single parent families).
Here’s the very happy looking PM:
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Labor look to pass NDIS reforms in August
After securing victory yesterday, making a deal with the Greens to pass tax reforms, Labor are yet to cement their pathway to passing the NDIS overhaul.
The Greens have promised to do all they can to kill the NDIS bill entirely, but the Coalition have remained open to the changes – the government just needs to get them over the line.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says the government wants those reforms debated once the longer inquiry into the NDIS bill comes back, which is due on 14 August.
She told a press conference a little earlier:
We intend to deal with that bill in the second week of the August sitting. That is our position. The Greens understand that, we understand their position. And so it really comes down to how do we get the votes through the Senate, and that will rely on the Coalition working with us on delivering the NDIS bill.
We’re not going to convince the Greens, they’ve taken a decision. They don’t want that bill to pass.
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Bowen asks regulator to investigate big jump in power companies' supply fees
Chris Bowen has asked energy retailers to explain why some of their prices are going up from 1 July when they’re supposed to go the other way, under the latest default market offer.
What’s the DMO? Have a read here.
But long story short, households in most parts of the country are supposed to see prices fall up to 10%, according to the Australian Energy Regulator’s final offer for 2026-27.
The energy minister says that not all companies have to apply the default market offer to their prices, but he’s referred retailers to the Australian competition and consumer commission (ACCC) to look for any misconduct where those prices should be coming down.
Companies have to comply with the default market offer for their relevant default offers, but they don’t have to apply it to all their market offers. We’ve seen some companies, not all, far from it, choose to increase their fixed supply costs while reducing their per-kilowatt hour costs.
What I’ve asked the regulators to do is look at that and ensure it complies, particularly with the prohibited misconduct provisions in energy market laws, which require companies to pass on sustained reductions in energy costs through their bills.
I understand these fixed-cost increases have caused a lot of concern. People have raised them with me, quite rightly, and I’ve raised them with energy companies.
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‘We want more investors’: Bragg says CGT and negative gearing changes will scare off buyers
The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, has cast some doubt over Clare O’Neil’s claims this morning that the housing market is currently experiencing a “correction”, as auction clearance rates drop below 50%.
He tells ABC News Breakfast that despite any cooling in the market, at the bottom end where first home buyers are competing, the prices are still unaffordable for many.
It is a long game, housing, and I am not sure she is a forecaster – but what we are seeing in the entry level housing is still persistently higher prices. The government have pumped prime prices with their collapse of supply and their 5% deposits. Until we see a larger amount of housing supplied I don’t think we will see price stability or affordability.
Bragg says we need more investors in the market not less to build more homes, and that the capital gains tax and negative gearing changes will scare them off.
We want more investors. This is the bizarre thing about Labor’s dodgy deal with the Greens, they want to exempt their mates in the super funds so they can build more houses and they want to kick SMSF (self-managed super fund holders) out of the market. It seems like they want to prioritise institutional interests over people. My view would be we want to have more investment in housing, who cares who the investor is.
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Hanson importing ‘chaos and division’: Labor MP
Everyone’s having a crack at Pauline Hanson this morning – no doubt because they realise the political threat she now raises for both major parties.
Labor assistant minister for multicultural affairs, Julian Hill, says One Nation is promoting “cooker stuff” (i.e extreme and conspiracy-driven political views).
He tells Sky News:
She wants to make it easier to sack people, to cut conditions for working Australians, massive cuts to the health system, and this is cooker stuff, abolish the entire health department. But shockingly, and she’s refusing to back down on this, getting rid of paid parental leave.*
This is about importing an extreme rightwing agenda into Australia that goes against everything which everyday Australians have stood for.
It’s an appalling agenda, you may as well rename it Gina Rinehart [policy].
*Hanson said that government paid parental leave could stay, but that small businesses could fold if they had to pay PPL.
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Monthly inflation data out this morning
Consumer price data out at 11.30am this morning is expected to show inflation accelerated further in the year to May, despite another month of retreating fuel prices.
Headline inflation was 4.2% in the year to April, and Westpac and NAB economists predict it lifted to 4.4% in May.
That is well above the 2-3% range targeted by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Economists and the RBA are alive to the risk that the spike in petrol and fertiliser prices is pushing up the prices of a broader set of goods and services, especially for staples such as milk, fruit and vegetables.
The central bank’s preferred measure of underlying inflation – which removes more volatile prices – is also expected to head in the wrong direction.
CBA analysts expect the “trimmed mean” rate of inflation will climb to 3.6% in the year to May, from 3.4% in April.
The RBA held its cash rate last week after three straight increases, but has warned it is prepared to hike again if inflation proves stickier than hoped.
Financial markets before the release of this morning’s data were pricing in an almost 30% chance of a hike at the end of the RBA’s next meeting on 11 August, and a nearly 70% chance of an increase by the following meeting in November.
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Housing market experiencing a ‘correction’, O’Neil says
Jumping back to Clare O’Neil’s appearance on RN Breakfast, the housing minister said the market is currently experiencing a “correction” as auction clearance rates drop and prices in some cities fall.
O’Neil said the market is cyclical, and that the current trends are just part of that – brought on by not just the tax changes but also the outbreak of war in the Middle East, and rising interest rates in the wake of that.
She adds that there was extremely high house price growth from before the Covid pandemic until now, and the market is seeing a correction from that.
O’Neil says:
I think the housing market’s cyclical in Australia. A very uncontroversial comment. We see periods of very significant house price growth and then we see the market make a correction and that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.
She says it’s the first time in a long time that she’s picked up the Sunday paper and seen “article after article talking about first home buyers winning at auctions.”
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Children and Young People with Disability Australia calls on government to scrutinise NDIS bill
Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) welcomed yesterday’s extension to the NDIS bill inquiry while calling on the government to genuinely scrutinise its impacts on disabled children and young people.
The CYDA CEO, Skye Kakoschke-Moore, said the delay was a testament to the power of disabled people, families and advocates who refused to let unprecedented changes be rushed through parliament:
Above all else, what this development shows is that our collective advocacy cannot be ignored.
The government must now take the time to properly scrutinise how this law will impact the nearly half a million people with disability under 25 who rely on the NDIS every day.
CYDA’s submission highlighted four key areas of concern in the Bill, including:
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The requirement for a person to undertake “all appropriate treatment” without consideration of their location or financial means
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The reliance on parental responsibility and already stretched informal supports as alternatives to properly funded supports
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The reduction in funding for social and community participation
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The centralisation of power with the disability minister of the day
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Ruston pushes for overhaul to controversial aged care tool
Over to her portfolio, the shadow health and aged care minister, Anne Ruston, will introduce a private member’s bill to change the government’s controversial integrated assessment tool.
Why is it controversial? The tool uses an algorithm to determine how much funding an older person should receive under the aged care system, based on an assessor asking them questions about their physical, social and personal circumstances. But that algorithm can’t be overridden by a human, which has led to complaints against the system.
The commonwealth ombudsman is now reviewing the tool.
Ruston says her bill (which won’t pass because the government is highly unlikely to support it) will bring back human oversight to the process:
The three things it seeks to do is to restore the discretion of a human assessor to make sure that the algorithm in their professional judgment doesn’t make an error. It also requires greater transparency so that every decision that’s made, the person can know how the algorithm was used, how professional judgment was applied, so they know why they received the level of care that they got.
And we also want to make sure that anybody who has received an assessment since this algorithm computer-only decision-making mechanism has been in place, that they can have a reassessment because we believe that so many of the results have clearly been incorrect.
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‘I do support multiculturalism’: Liberal frontbencher
The Liberal shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, has done what her leader Angus Taylor could not yesterday, saying she does support multiculturalism.
Ruston is in the RN Breakfast hot seat following Clare O’Neil and says unequivocally Australia was “built on multiculturalism”.
Perhaps Ruston should have been the one answering the questions yesterday, because despite saying she and Taylor and the Coalition are “absolutely as one” in supporting multiculturalism, she’s a bit clearer than her colleagues.
She says:
Absolutely Sally, I do support multiculturalism. This country was built on multiculturalism …
I think Angus and I and the rest of the team in the Coalition are absolutely as one when we say that we want a future for Australia that is built on respecting our values and our way of life. And I think we are absolutely all on a unity ticket when it comes to what we see the future of Australia is, and the future of Australia is one that’s based on multiculturalism.
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Liberals and Nationals getting ‘eaten alive’ by One Nation, O’Neil says
Clare O’Neil has lambasted the Coalition and leader Angus Taylor for not standing up for multiculturalism yesterday.
The Labor frontbencher, speaking to ABC RN Breakfast, does not hold back in her criticism, saying the opposition are “inert, they are cowardly, they are frozen”.
She says if Taylor can’t defend multiculturalism, he should not be the leader of a mainstream political party.
I am so sick of watching the Liberals and the Nationals get eaten alive by One Nation and they are inert, they are cowardly, they are frozen. When are they going to stand up and fight against the absolutely outrageous nonsense that One Nation are spreading right around this country? You know, Pauline Hanson says there are no good Muslims in Australia. Why can’t Angus Taylor stand up and call that racism? Because that is what it is.
Asked about a recent Lowy Institute poll that found support for multiculturalism is dropping, O’Neil says that the country should be able to have a policy conversation about migration “without resorting to the kind of racism and division that we’re seeing from One Nation”.
Migration is a very important policy topic for the country. Migration has been too high, and that is why our government is bringing migration down. But let’s not say that that’s an excuse for the kind of division and racism that we are starting to see emerge as what is deemed to be a normal part of the public debate.
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‘Paid parental leave is not safe’ with Hanson, Plibersek says
Tanya Plibersek has refuted Pauline Hanson’s claims that her comments on paid parental leave were taken out of context.
Plibersek says Hanson claimed in 2017 that women “just get pregnant to get the money” and that she’s been completely unsympathetic to the financial stress of having a baby.
The social services minister is today spruiking the extension of government paid parental leave that will give parents 26 weeks – at the minimum wage rate. Four of those weeks will have to be taken by the second partner.
(This announcement isn’t a new one but the government always likes promoting its announcements a bunch of times for maximum political attention).
Plibersek says:
A few weeks ago, [Hanson] said, you know, ‘Love, if you’ve got the equipment, have the baby, take the time off work’. She’s been completely unsympathetic to the financial stress on Australian families that having a new baby brings with it. She says that at the Press Club – and obviously she’s had a negative reaction and now she’s back-pedalling. But paid parental leave is not safe with Pauline Hanson and just, by the way, it’s also not safe with the Liberals. Scott Morrison and Joe Hockey called mothers on paid parental leave rorters and double dippers.
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‘Take a deep breath’ on house prices, Plibersek says
There are always a few major themes to a sitting week, and one of the biggest threads this week has been concern over falling house prices and a cooling market.
Frontbencher Tanya Plibersek says everyone needs to take a deep breath over these reports, and reiterates figures from the Treasury department that in the longer term, house prices will grow 2% slower.
On ABC’s News Breakfast, host James Glenday says people probably don’t have a lot of faith in that modelling.
But Plibersek says that most people aren’t buying today and selling tomorrow and a slow down of prices will help young people catch up.
I think people need to take a deep breath on all of this. Our Treasury estimates are that house prices will continue to grow. They’ll grow more slowly. And that gives people the chance of home ownership. If you go to auctions at the moment, there’s still a lot of buying going on, but it’s first home buyers who are actually having a shot at the market …
Most people don’t buy a house and sell it tomorrow either. That’s the thing that we need to keep in mind. People buy a house and stay there.
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Stefanovic’s podcast with far-right activist removed from YouTube
Karl Stefanovic appears to have taken his controversial interview with British far-right activist Tommy Robinson mostly offline overnight.
The video went up on the broadcaster’s personal YouTube channel yesterday, after an earlier teaser promo on Stefanovic’s social media. It included a line in which he praised Robinson’s “tenacity and courage”
However it was not present this morning on the YouTube channel or podcast RSS feed – nor was the promo on his Instagram.
At the time of writing, Stefanovic’s feed on Elon Musk’s X platform still featured both the promo and a clip from the interview.
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Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
After landing a deal with the Greens yesterday to pass its bill to change negative gearing and capital gains tax, Labor is still trying to sell the whole thing to the public. Expect plenty more argy bargy on the changes in Parliament today, as the Coalition tries to brand the taxes as “toxic” (among other slogans).
Speaking of the Coalition, the opposition leader landed himself in a bit of trouble yesterday over his inability to back multiculturalism in Australia (after Pauline Hanson said the policy had “failed”) so we’ll be seeing more reaction to that too.
There’s plenty going on, let’s get cracking!
Greens want to ‘kill’ NDIS reform bill, McKim says
The Greens have argued Labor’s proposed reforms to the national disability insurance scheme are “punching down” on the very people the scheme is designed to protect.
Greens senator Nick McKim told the ABC’s 7:30 program on Tuesday night, “we are absolutely committed to fighting this bill with every tool in our toolkit”.
The Greens secured an eight-week delay in the passage of the NDIS reforms, in exchange for their support in passing the Labor government’s key budget tax reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
McKim said his party would continue to oppose the NDIS reforms: “we want to see this bill killed.”
We’ve delayed it for eight weeks and achieved some amendments that will take some of the worst elements out of this bill.
When this eight-week period is done, if we need another inquiry or more delay, that’s what we will be moving for.
McKim said Labor’s changes would cause harm to people currently supported by the NDIS:
[This means] the withdrawal of desperately needed supports that allow disabled Australians to live a more dignified life, and respite and relief for families who put so much into supporting disabled family members.
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New war memorial gallery will 'keep the flame of memory burning', PM says
A major new gallery at the Australian War Memorial will keep the “flame of memory” burning for future generations, the prime minister told the opening ceremony in Canberra last night, Australian Associated Press reports.
Anthony Albanese was among those on hand last night for the opening of the memorial’s atrium and Anzac Hall, a gallery that focuses mainly on Australia’s commitments to the Middle East, Afghanistan and peacekeeping operations.
Retiring chief of the defence force, David Johnston, and the next leader of the Australian military, current chief of navy, Mark Hammond, were among other dignitaries.
Albanese told those gathered they were bonded by the power of “lest we forget.”
That most unadorned of sentences that dwells within us like a heartbeat – we vow to keep the flame of memory burning so brightly that its glow reaches future generations.
Today we adjourned the parliament so that everyone who wished to could come mark the opening of this atrium and Anzac Hall, an addition to the Australian War Memorial that makes that flame burn so much brighter.
What a sublime and powerful addition it is. A bold vision turned into a reality that enhances the institution of which it is now part.
The prime minister implored attenders to “read all the words” about those who have gone before them.
Look at the faces and get lost amid the smiles, the hope and camaraderie – the counterpoint to war’s relentless, inhuman arithmetic. They are its true cost.
Yet, amid this loss and sacrifice, what pulses so powerfully is life, and an abiding sense of what is worth fighting for.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
A major new gallery at the Australian War Memorial will keep the “flame of memory” burning for future generations, the prime minister told the opening ceremony in Canberra last night. More coming up.
And with the nation on red alert for bird flu, new reports of dead birds are coming into a hotline – but so far, none have been confirmed as caused by the virus.
