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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Senator breaks ranks on Gaza – as it happened

Inflation Jim Chalmers Peter Dutton Labor
Labor senator Fatima Payman with the party’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, in September 2022.
Labor senator Fatima Payman with the party’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, in September 2022. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

What we learned today, Wednesday 15 May

We will wrap up the live blog for tonight right here. Here’s what made the news today:

Amy will be back with you tomorrow, with all the day’s news ahead of the opposition leader’s budget reply speech tomorrow night. Until then, enjoy your evening.

Updated

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has slammed the law enforcement and university reaction to the University of Melbourne protests.

Budget throws a lifeline to Australia’s live music industry

The budget has thrown a multimillion-dollar lifeline to a cultural sector plagued by multiple postponements and cancellations over the past 12 months.

Live music will receive $8.6m in additional funding, announced yesterday less than a week after a parliamentary inquiry into the music festival sector urged the government to provide emergency funding to prevent possible market collapse.

The news was greeted with relief by peak live performance organisations, including the Australian Recording Industry Association, Live Performance Australia and the music rights management organisation Apra Amcos.

“This urgent funding comes at a crucial time,” the Apra Amcos chief executive, Dean Ormston, said in a statement. Australia had lost more than a quarter of its live music venues and stages since the pandemic, he said.

Updated

Victorian LGBTQ+ health service deletes X account

The Victorian-based LGBTQ+ health service Thorne Harbour Health has announced it has permanently deleted its X account due to the level of hatred the organisation says LGBTQ+ people face on the platform.

The THH CEO, Simon Ruth, said:

We are committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of our communities. Being on a platform that defends hate speech toward LGBTIQ+ communities in the name of freedom of expression is not in alignment with our mission. It would be a disservice to our communities to maintain a presence on X.

THH pointed to studies by GLAAD and Amnesty International showing an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric on X after it was acquired by Elon Musk, blaming the reinstatement of banned accounts and the removal of protections for trans and gender diverse users.

THH will remain on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok.

X did not respond to news reports about the GLAAD report at the time. The company was approached for comment.

The announcement was timed ahead of IDAHOBIT (International Day Against LGBTQ+ discrimination) on Friday.

Updated

‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone’: budget money to help save historically valuable film

Important parts of Australia’s history are stored on film so flammable it can burn underwater, but $9.3m in the federal budget will be used to build a new storage facility for it, AAP reports.

Developed in the 1880s, nitrate cellulose film was the first motion picture format, and the world’s first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was made on nitrate in Australia in 1906.

Storing such important material comes with challenges – if kept cold and dry it can last for decades, but if it does catch fire it can burn without air, according to Rebecca Coronel from the National Film and Sound Archive.

“Nitrate film only ever gives you one opportunity, you need to maintain it, once it’s gone, it’s gone,” she told AAP.

The national collection of nitrate film is currently stored in a 1970s facility that comprises 12 small concrete vaults and is in urgent need of an upgrade.

After years of struggling to fit a growing amount of material, in 2023 it finally ran out of room for the collection.

The federal budget has allocated $9.3m over four years to upgrade and extend the facility, which will double its storage capacity and mean it can store items on behalf of other institutions.

It will also give the archive the capacity to collect more historically valuable nitrate film as it is often approached by people with old reels who don’t realise the film is a hazardous material.

Updated

Controversial deportation bill unlikely to come to Senate vote this week

Guardian Australia has seen a Labor and Greens-supported hours motion relating to which bills must be dealt with in the Senate by Thursday. There are 10 bills on it including the Administrative Review Tribunal bill, but not the government’s controversial deportation bill.

There’s been no agreement between Labor and the Coalition on the opposition’s amendments, nor to support a procedural motion guaranteeing it will come to a vote.

The Coalition and Greens argue the bill is no longer urgent because the government won the ASF17 high court case, ensuring it has the power to keep non-citizens who don’t cooperate with removal in detention.

On Friday Anthony Albanese said:

The Coalition say they support [the bill] in principle, why have they delayed it? They’ll have an opportunity to vote for it.

Seems like they won’t have an opportunity to vote for it because the Coalition and Greens don’t currently support it coming to a vote. A bit of a Catch-22 about how the Senate works. But it seems off the agenda for this week unless there is a dramatic change in the next 24 hours.

Updated

‘Palestine will be free,’ Labor senator says in interview

Fatima Payman, the Labor senator, also called for freedom from the Israeli occupation, freedom from violence and freedom from inequality “from the river to the sea”.

Payman told SBS News:

We can be on the right side of history so that when the young read about us, they can be proud Australians, knowing that their country at a time when it was needed had the moral clarity to do what is right. That the voices calling for freedom and for justice were heard. I ask you to join me to continue to call for freedom from the occupation, freedom from the violence and freedom from the inequality. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has recently expressed opposition to the use of the “river to the sea” phrase, which has become highly charged at the current time. Prominent Jewish groups have labelled the phrase as calling for full Palestinian control in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, excluding the possibility of a state of Israel.

Others, such as the Palestinian-American writer Yousef Munayyer, have argued the phrase express a desire for Palestinians to be able to “live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominated by others nor dominating them”. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he won’t compromise on full Israeli security control west of the Jordan River.

Payman was originally intended to read out her statement to a Nakba protest rally outside Parliament House in Canberra today. “But understandably there is disillusionment in the community with the parties. We will work to close this gap.”

Updated

University of Melbourne students ‘ready to link arms’ if police try to break up encampment

University of Melbourne undergraduate student Gemma O’Toole is among around 40 people occupying the middle of the Arts West building ready to link arms and, if necessary, resist police arrest.

She says the university’s acting provost, Pip Nicholson, visited protesters at about 1.30pm today warning them that they were violating the university’s rules and police would be in attendance within the hour if they did not leave.

Nicholson said in the event students had not left, “the university will make decisions that will regrettably and unavoidably escalate the tension”.

The choices you make this afternoon will have serious consequences.

Police have recently arrived on the scene and are yet to arrest any students, but O’Toole says she is prepared to face charges for their cause.

Students want the university to divest from weapons manufacturers and disclose their ties to Israel. O’Toole says they will not stop until their demands are met.

We don’t want to be at a university that funds research for war. Students have always been on the right side of history and always been met with the sort of reaction we’re getting right now.

Look at protests against South African apartheid, the Vietnam war … it continues … as we look back on these movements, people see the students were right but we still get attacked.

Updated

Labor looks for a way to let households switch to cheaper energy with a single click

Something you might have missed in yesterday’s budget – the government wants to set up a new online path for households to switch to cheaper energy plans with a single click.

It has set aside $1.8m to fast-track research into the best way to help Australians find or adopt better deals for their energy needs, in an effort to help consumers get their energy costs down.

At the moment, retailers are compelled to tell customers if they could get a better deal, but they don’t have to make it easy, so many households end up stuck on more expensive default plans – effectively paying a loyalty tax.

The government’s ideal outcome would be a single link, website or email that would send the user right to a cheaper deal.

However, we shouldn’t expect any flashy new button this year. The government hasn’t figured out how it can force retailers to help customers swap energy policies, so the new money will all go to consultation and investigation efforts.

Those will need the cooperation of the states, which are responsible for energy retailing, and the Australian Energy Market Commission, which would be in charge of any new rules.

The government will be hoping it all comes together in time to take over from its $300 rebate on households’ electricity bills, which will be paid in four parts over the coming financial year.

We’ll get a better sense of the next steps in July, when the energy ministers meet and discuss the one-click switch and other proposed changes from the budget.

Updated

Labor senator Fatima Payman breaks ranks to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza

The Labor senator Fatima Payman has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and has questioned how many deaths will be enough for the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to declare “enough”.

Breaking ranks with her party by using the label genocide, Payman told SBS News today:

My conscience has been uneasy for far too long. And I must call this out for what it is. This is a genocide and we need to stop pretending otherwise.

The lack of clarity, the moral confusion, the indecisiveness is eating at the heart of this nation. It is dividing and confusing the nation. Hundreds of thousands are on the streets, encampments are taking place across the universities. Multiculturalism is at stake. Social cohesion is at stake. I bring you not only my voice, but the voice of those who I represent and the voice of the communities that I speak to. We cannot be disconnected from the people of Australia, the young of this nation are telling us and we are silencing them. The future of this nation is speaking and we are silencing them instead of advocating for justice.

Payman said Australia should be standing up for freedom and human dignity:

I ask the prime minister and our fellow parliamentarians: how many international rights laws must Israel break for us to say enough? What is the magic number? How many lives need to be lost … how many mass graves need to be uncovered before we say enough? … How many Palestinian lives are enough to call this violence against them terrorism? How many lives does it does it take to call this a genocide?

The Israeli government maintains its military operations are a legitimate response to Hamas’s 7 October attacks and has dismissed allegations it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, saying the suggestion is “false” and “outrageous”.

The international court of justice has yet to make a substantive ruling on the genocide allegations, but said in an interim ruling in January the claims were “plausible” and ordered Israel to take all steps to prevent genocidal acts and incitement.

Updated

Stop ‘appeasing insolent children’, Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO says

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has condemned an ongoing pro-Palestine occupation at the University of Melbourne. Its co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said the time for “indulging and appeasing insolent children running amok has passed”.

If the university can’t ensure the immediate safety and security of all students and staff, the police need to. It can’t be that those who want to paralyse our institutions for their own emotional gratification prevail.

Meanwhile, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (Apan) has reaffirmed its support for encampments following disband orders from Deakin University and the Australian National University (ANU).

In a statement, the body expressed its concern for possible escalation by management at the University of Melbourne.

It is unacceptable that the ANU and University of Melbourne have threatened to penalise students involved in protests.

Protest is a vital and legitimate right within a democracy, and it is a credit to these students and university staff that they are exercising this right despite attempts by Zionist groups, the mainstream media and politicians of various stripes to smear, silence and punish them.

Updated

With the parliament settling into a bit of a lull, I am going to hand you over to Josh Taylor who will guide you through the evening.

Tomorrow is Peter Dutton’s budget-in-reply speech, which we will cover in detail – but before that, we’ll cover off the parliament day as usual. Until then, take care of you.

Updated

Mike Bowers was in question time – here is some of what he saw:

Updated

Conservationists say budget is ‘one of the worst in recent years’ for environment spending

Scientists and conservationists sharply criticised the government for not addressing a long-term funding shortfall needed to protect nature, which a state-of-the-environment report found was in poor and deteriorating health.

The top nature-related spending highlighted by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, was a reannouncement of $176m to establish two new agencies, Environment Protection Australia and Environment Information Australia.

Funding for both was included in last year’s budget.

The Biodiversity Council, an independent science organisation set up by 11 Australian universities, said the budget was “one of the worst in recent years” for new environment spending and noted Treasurer Jim Chalmers did not mention nature protection and recovery in his speech on Tuesday. The lead councillor, Prof Sarah Bekessy, said:

Continuing to run down our natural capital will ultimately come at our peril.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said nature spending was inadequate and projected to “drop disastrously”, and the government did not have a plan to meet its promise of no new extinction. “Meanwhile the threat of extinctions continues to grow,” she said.

Updated

Protesters appearing to build barricade in University of Melbourne building

The University of Melbourne has cancelled classes in its Arts West building from 3.15pm this afternoon as a result of an ongoing occupation by pro-Palestine protesters.

In a statement, the university said further advice would be provided from subject coordinators once available, and directed staff and students with concerns other than immediate security to its support services.

For the safety and security of all students and staff, please avoid the area.

This protest activity has been determined to breach university policy and protesters have been asked to vacate the building by 2.30pm. The university is working with university security and, if required, Victoria Police to ensure the safety and security of all students and staff.

Protesters have rejected the university’s requests to vacate, and are beginning to drag tables and chairs through the Arts West foyer in order to create what appears to be a barricade while chanting “all universities must divest”.

Updated

Police monitoring protest at University of Melbourne as protesters asked to leave building

Victoria police have told Guardian Australia it is monitoring a protest at the University of Melbourne and will “respond to any public order issues if required”.

Earlier this afternoon, hundreds of protesters descended on the main arts building on the Parkville campus, unofficially renaming it after a prospective Palestinian student who was killed in Gaza.

Outside the university’s Arts West building, students are chanting “Israel out of Palestine” and “long live the intifada”, while protesters continue to occupy the main entrance with banners, tents, chairs and flags.

The university’s student news paper, Farrago, posted on X that protesters have been asked to leave the building peacefully by deputy vice-chancellor, Pip Nicholson, and have been told the university does not want escalation or violence.

Guardian Australia’s Lisa Favazzo is on the scene. She has not seen any police but says security is present and students are planning for an escalation.

The University of Melbourne has been approached for comment.

Updated

Tony Burke takes a dixer on wages, where he gets to do one of his favourite things – spend three minutes yelling at the opposition about its record on wages

Burke to Angus Taylor:

I can understand why the shadow treasurer didn’t turn up to Question Time yesterday, straight after the insiders interview. Um, not sure if it was because of budget rules or at the. Yeah, I don’t know if you were locked up because of budget rules or at the request of your colleagues. It was one or the other.

And then question time ends.

Wong rejects Hanson claim about doing ‘bidding of terrorists’ on UN Palestine vote

Penny Wong explained to Pauline Hanson that the Palestinian mission at the UN represented the Palestinian Authority (not Hamas), and that the general assembly resolution backed by Australia extended “more rights as an observer”.
Hanson was unsatisfied with the answer. The One Nation leader – speaking with the protection of parliamentary privilege – asked the following supplementary question in the Senate:

An editorial in the Australian newspaper two days ago reported Hamas has welcomed the resolution that your government supported in the UN last week. Would you please explain to the Australian people why your government has done the bidding of terrorists who have committed the greatest atrocity against Jewish people since the Holocaust?

Wong replied that she did not agree with Hanson’s assertion. The foreign affairs minister told the Senate:

I’ve explained to you that a vote for two states is not a vote for Hamas, in fact it is precisely the opposite of what Hamas wants. I would make the point that they have made clear their intent.

What we have do, as an international community, is to look at how we might bring momentum to security for both Israelis and Palestinians. That is what we are doing.

And I appreciate you don’t agree with it, Senator Hanson, but that is our motivation and I think it is wrong to make the assertions that you are making about why we took that decision and why we voted as we did.

I’d make the point that our special strategic partner Japan, that the Republic of Korea, that New Zealand all took the same decision.

Updated

The LNP’s Melissa McIntosh asks Anthony Albanese:

A gym in my electorate of Lindsay has seen their energy costs go from. $13,000 to $27,500. The $325 energy bill credit will barely cover a fraction of the increase. How are Western Sydney small businesses meant to survive under Labour’s reckless energy policies causing such high costs?

Albanese:

Of course she, along with other members of the Coalition, voted against our energy price relief plan, which assisted not just members in her electorate, but assisted small businesses in her electorate as well. They voted against it. That’s right.

Like they didn’t support any of the cost-of-living measures that were put in place. And now we had further announcements last night about cost-of-living relief. And they’ve walked away from that as well and have been opposing that as well.

The member raises energy policy. Well, there’s an opportunity tomorrow night for the leader of the opposition to actually tell us the energy policy, you know, to bring it out from wherever it’s hidden, he said. He said he gave a commitment that it would be announced, that it would be announced two weeks. He gave a notice of – when was that? [That] was back nine weeks ago.

And we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting. And then he said it was going to be before the budget. We were going to know where the nuclear reactors were going to be. We were going to know, I assume tomorrow night we’ll hear who’s paying for them, how they’re going to be financed, whether they will be subsidised or whether they will be able to stand on their own two feet … because on Sunday the shadow treasurer did say, well, yeah, you shouldn’t have subsidies, it should be able to stack up.

But the leader of the opposition, when asked, “Would you subsidise nuclear?” said very clearly [that] if it provides a base load to renewables, then yes. And the shadow minister … when asked, “Isn’t that part of the problem, that it’s incredibly expensive, that you’d need government subsidies to get a nuclear industry up?” “Oh, look, there’s no doubt that you need government involved.” They’re against any government engagement to support private sector investment.

Updated

Over in Senate question time, the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, took aim at the Australian government over its vote at the UN general assembly last Friday urging the UN security council to favourably reconsider Palestine’s membership application, and to extend some observer rights in the meantime. Palestinian diplomats are sent to the UN by the Palestinian Authority (which is dominated by Fatah, a rival to Hamas). Hanson focused on Hamas in her question, telling the Senate:

Considering that Gaza has been effectively controlled by a genocidal terrorist group which invaded Israel and murdered more than 1,200 innocent people last year, how is Australia’s support for Palestine’s membership of the United Nations compatible with article 2 part 3 of the United Nations charter?

That provision says UN members “shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered”. Hanson also cited part 4 which says members “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”. Hanson asked Penny Wong: “So please explain”.

Wong, the foreign affairs minister, replied that she and the Australian government had repeatedly and unequivocally condemned the actions of Hamas, and reiterated that Hamas “has no place in the future governance of a Palestinian state”. Wong repeated the call for Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza:

The resolution that you are referencing was a resolution supported by some 143 countries, which was fundamentally about how the world was trying to overcome the cycle of violence in the Middle East and create momentum for a two-state solution.

I want to make this very clear, Senator Hanson. Hamas does not support a two-state solution. Hamas supports the destruction of the state of Israel – that is clear. So support for a two-state solution, and people might have different views about whether we should have, but it is wrong to say that voting for a resolution that supports a two-state solution is somehow supportive of Hamas. It is contrary to their views.

Updated

University of Melbourne protesters occupy and unofficially rename campus building

University of Melbourne protesters have occupied a building at the Parkville campus and unofficially renamed it after a prospective Palestinian student who was killed in Gaza.

Mahmoud Alnaouq was a young Palestinian student who was to start his studies at the university this year, according to protesters, but was killed with his family in an Israeli airstrike last year.

Hundreds of students have unfurled a banner in honour of Alnaouq at the university’s Arts West building, unofficially renaming it “Mahmoud’s Hall”.

The protesters are chanting “Palestine will be free” and “we will not stop, we will not rest”.

Updated

LNP MP Luke Howarth, who I always forget is still in the parliament, asks Anthony Albanese:

My question is to the prime minister. Respected economic journalist Alan Kohler has said it’s a big picture [budget]. Numbers that confirm this government to be an amazingly and unexpectedly big-spending one. Why are Australians paying the price for the prime minister’s weak economic leadership?

Albanese:

I thank the member for Petrie for his question. The best response to that question is to respond with some facts. In the LNP’s last budget in 2022, prior to the election … adding spending was provision for a 27.2% of spending as a percentage of GDP during Covid. After … after …

There are so many interjections I can’t hear Albanese or what any of the objectors are saying. Paul Karp, who is in the chamber, says the opposition is yelling “during Covid” which leads to arguments about Labor supporting the spending.

Milton Dick tells them all to can it.

Albanese:

It’s anger overload over there today.

… In that budget, they predicted – bear in mind in the March 2022 budget they projected in 2023/24 spending of 27.1% of GDP and going forward in 2024, 25, 26.6% on all three years.

Our spending in the 2023/24 budget compares 24.5, compared with 27.2; 25.4 under Labor, compared with their projections of 27.1 and 26.4, compared with 26.6 under the Coalition.

The biggest, the biggest ever tax take by a federal government in a single year was 2005-2006, at 24.2% of GDP.

And guess who the minister for revenue was? This bloke [Peter Dutton] here, this bloke here, he was in their last budget.

They had not a single saving, not one. Nothing whatsoever, nothing whatsoever. Our budgets have delivered $77bn in total savings, $77bn in total savings, including $27.9bn in the budget.

That was handed down last night and last night, in terms of revenue, we banked almost all the revenue upgrade in 2023-24.

The former government averaged just 40% of revenue upgrades. Those opposite promised to deliver a surplus in their first year and every year, and delivered a big duck egg.

Nothing, nothing zero out of nine. We’ve been in government for two years, and last night the treasurer announced a projected surplus of $9.3bn.

Updated

Zoe Daniel says she will launch petition to properly fund programs to end violence against women

Independent MP Zoe Daniel asks Jim Chalmers:

Since the budget all I’ve heard from domestic violence services is outrage. Women can’t access help, yet the government chose not to allocate new funding to services like Safe Steps that see more than 200 women put in motels across Victoria every night. Lack of frontline services has led to several suicides this year.

I’m launching a petition seeking both government and opposition support to properly fund programs to end violence against women. Treasurer, how many signatures do I need for government to fund these programs?

Chalmers:

Thank you to the member for Goldstein, not just for her question, but for her genuine interest and passion and compassion for women who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing domestic and family violence. I think we all understand in this house that violence against women is a national shame and it requires national action and leadership and we are prepared to provide that leadership.

In the budget last night, we invested almost $3.5bn in addressing violence against women, since coming to office, including that $925m the prime minister and some of the colleagues announced for the permanent leaving violence program.

I do want to say and I do want to acknowledge that even with that substantial investment, we all have much more work to do. We all have much more work that we need to do together because women still aren’t safe in our communities and we acknowledge that.

I think the prime minister and others have acknowledged that on multiple occasions as well.

Chalmers goes through the budget measures as well as the previously announced plan, which included previously announced measures.

Updated

Newly sworn-in Greens senator attacks Labor’s ‘subsidising’ of fossil fuels in budget

The newly sworn-in Greens senator for Victoria, Steph Hodgins-May, has made her presence felt in the Senate during question time.

After making clear “this is not my first speech”, Hodgins-May told the Senate:

My question is to the minister representing the prime minister. This weekend I’ll be door-knocking in my home area of St Kilda and I’ll hear from community members about the Albanese government’s decision to prioritise budget surplus over helping them. I’ll hear about your decision to have the budget pump almost $50bn into subsidising fossil fuels over the next 10 years when we are veering towards environmental and climate collapse, because you prioritise your corporate mates over the people who voted you in.

Minister, what should I tell my community when they ask me about this government’s betrayal of those doing it tough and selling our kids’ futures to big coal and gas companies?

The government’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, replied:

I thank the senator and congratulate her on her first question and to her swearing-in to this place.

If I may hasten to add: you are door-knocking but I suspect you’re also putting a view in that door knocking, which was as expressed in the question.

What I would say to them is this [Labor] is the only party that is offering energy price relief, this is the only party which is providing rent assistance, on the back of the biggest increase in many years another increase. This is the only party that is actually offering a transition to the clean energy future that will be implemented because, with respect, senator, your party [the Greens] thinks you can do it by press release … and slogans.

And the hard job of actually transitioning what has been a fossil fuel-dependent economy to a renewable energy economy is one we understand. And this budget invests in a future made in Australia. And do you know what that is about? It is about grasping the opportunities of net zero.

Updated

Fletcher makes dig at Parramatta MP Andrew Charlton in question on energy rebate

Paul Fletcher then gets the fun question. Poor Angus Taylor. He would have loved this.

Fletcher asks Anthony Albanese:

If we take a typical Australian, let’s call them Andrew, who recently had to relocate to Parramatta … and happens to own five houses and a newly acquired $12m beach house, will he be eligible to receive the rebate on all five houses?

Will he be eligible to receive the rebate on all five houses?

(This is a dig at Labor’s Parramatta MP, Andrew Charlton, who has one of the most diverse (and expensive) property portfolios in the parliament.

Albanese says he was “asked about energy prices” and Peter Dutton begins heckling him from across the table. Albanese says:

He’s full of hubris and anger today [Dutton]. A very bad combination, Mr Speaker. A very bad combination. Because when we had the previous energy price relief plan, they opposed it. They voted against it. When it went just to people who were on payments, when it went to low income earners. Now that we have an energy price relief plan, that goes to all Australians, they’re going to vote against that as well. They’re going to vote against that.

Last night I watched … the shadow treasurer on 7.30 … I wanted to see the treasurer on 7.30 and he was on afterwards. They gave him 30 seconds afterwards on the 7.30. And he made it very clear that he was opposed to the Future Made in Australia plan, opposed to manufacturing. But he did actually say, I thought, that he supported some of the measures.

… It was in there. But now today they are finding a way to crab walk away from giving any support to Australians. Just like when we announced our tax cuts for every Australian, first of all they said they hadn’t seen it but they were against it. Then they said they’d roll it back. Then they said we should go to an election on it. And then they voted for it. And then they voted for it. But they’re still bagging it.

Updated

Chalmers brings up Coalition record after shadow treasurer attacks ‘tax credits for billionaires’

Angus Taylor is back with another question What a day!

My question is to the prime minister. Under Labor’s budgets to date, the typical Australian household with a mortgage is more than $35,000 worse off. Why is the prime minister spending $13. 7bn on tax credits for billionaires at a time when ordinary Australian battlers are struggling to make ends meet?

There honestly has to be someone within the LNP tactics team who lives to troll Angus Taylor.

Jim Chalmers:

Spare us the questions about billionaires when those opposite, those opposite called for an election because we wanted to give Gina Rinehart a $4,500 tax cut instead of a $9,000 tax cut.

And the leader of the opposition was so furious on behalf of his mate, he called for an election over the changes we made to the tax cuts in January of this year. Spare us the pretend outrage.

They had a lot to say about class warfare in the past. This goes to the shambolic response we have seen to the budget last night, Mr Speaker. They’re casting around for all kinds of excuses, to oppose energy bill relief like they voted against it last time, Mr Speaker.

They’re looking around for all kinds of excuses, to prevent the renewable energy superpower ambitions of this country being realised in the years and the decades ahead. Now this is now two questions that the member for Hume has asked the prime minister. And it’s hard to work out, Mr Speaker, which one was worse. The first one, the first one which quoted hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, inadvertently contained that spending contains indexation of the aged pension. The member for Hume thinks this is overspending.

Taylor has a point of order that is not a point of order.

Updated

PM dodges question from Monique Ryan on ‘$5,000-per-head post-budget dinner’

Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan has the first crossbench question and she gets a bit spicy with it:

My question is for the prime minister. Prime minister, I understand that last night you attended a $5,000-per-head post-budget dinner which was hosted by the Federal Labor Business Forum. For the benefit of the house, were any fossil fuel industry lobbyists or other fossil fuel industry representatives in attendance?

Milton Dick says it is not in the standing orders and asks her to rephrase the question. Ryan does, taking out “fundraiser”.

OK. My question is for the prime minister. I understand that you attended a $5,000-a-head post-budget dinner last night. Can you tell the house, were there any fossil fuel industry lobbyists or other fossil fuel industry representatives were in attendance?

It is still barely within the standing orders, Dick says, but he will allow the prime minster to answer the parts of the question that are allowable:

Anthony Albanese:

I’ve stood and had the great honour of being the Australian Labor party candidate in 10 elections. During those 10 elections as the candidate for Grayndler, I have spent less money, less money on those 10 campaigns than the member for Kooyong did in her one.

The Labor benches (and some of the Coalition) find this hilarious.

Dick calls for order as Ryan has a point of order:

My issue, Mr Speaker, is that the prime minister has not in any way addressed the substance of my question.

Dick says that is not a point of order.

Updated

Chalmers: ‘We won’t be lectured about debt’ by opposition

Angus Taylor gets a question! What a lucky day.

After three Labor budgets, this government has added $315bn of spending, throwing more fuel on the inflationary fire. Standard & Poor’s has confirmed as a result of this budget there is almost no chance of an interest rate cut for struggling families this year. Why are Australians paying the price for this prime minister’s weak economic leadership?

Jim Chalmers is thrilled:

He’s got a lot of nerve asking about responsible economic management after the mess they left us to clean up in the budget. We won’t be lectured about debt or spending or responsible economic management from the party that left us more than a trillion dollars in Liberal party debt that we have spent our two years in office trying to clean-up, Mr Speaker.

They would not know the first thing about responsible economic management. The least familiar words in the budget last night to those opposite were the words surplus. They had nine cracks at it, Mr Speaker. They promised the surpluses in their first year and every year there after. And they came up with doughnuts, Mr Speaker. None from nine.

We have been here for two years and we’re delivering two surpluses at the same time as we provide cost-of-living relief for people and invest in the future of our economy, Mr Speaker.

If they had their way, inflation would be higher, debt and deficits would be big, wages growth would be lower and tax cuts for middle Australia would be smaller, Mr Speaker.

He then goes to the same things we have heard many times before today.

Updated

People accusing pro-Palestine protesters of stirring up disharmony are ‘gaslighting’, Faruqi tells Nakba rally

The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, also addressed the Nakba rally out the front of Parliament House in Canberra a short time ago. The Nakba, meaning “the catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians around the time of the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Faruqi told the rally – attended by about 200 people – that Australia’s major political parties should focus on stopping the violence against Palestinians in Gaza rather than attempting to discredit the Greens and student protesters:

They want to say to those who stand up for justice for Palestine that we are stirring up community disharmony. That is shameless, it is shameful. It is blatant hypocrisy, and it is gaslighting of the worst kind. That is what they’re doing in there [referring to Parliament House].

The prime minister feels that a phone call, a few words of concern, some mild-mannered criticism, and a press release is enough. Well, I think that is just pathetic – that isn’t leadership.

Faruqi also spoke out against “the media complicity that dehumanises Palestinians”. She said:

We see young people setting up Gaza solidarity encampments in campuses across Australia, in campuses across the world – they are demanding that we build peace, not war. Communities are organising across the world … and this must be the longest running weekly protest movement in Australia’s history and you should all be very proud of being part of that history.

Updated

The first dixer is a version of “Just how amazing is this budget, treasurer?” to which Jim Chalmers is giving a version of his “It is very amazing, thanks for asking” answer.

We’ll hear this a few times, so I’ll mostly save you from the ins and outs.

Updated

Question time begins

Peter Dutton kicks off question time with:

Over the last two years, the Albanese government has brought in almost 1 million people into our country. Only 265,000 homes have been built. Building activity is at an 11-year low.

We have people who are living in cars and tents at a record level and yet nothing in this budget provides support to those people. At the same time the prime minister is giving billions of dollars to billionaires.

Prime minister, why does this government have the wrong priorities and why is this prime minister so weak that he can’t provide support to Australians in need?

Anthony Albanese:

The only thing that is broader than our support for cost-of-living relief is that question from the Leader of the opposition. Because it was all over the shop.

Albanese then goes through past quotes from coalition figures including Dutton, Dan Tehan and David Littleproud talking about the challenges of migration and the need to bring people in for the workforce.

Updated

Anthony Albanese addressed that travel advice ahead of question time:

Australia values our relationship with both New Caledonia and the French State. We respect and support the process and the discussions under way between all parties.

Peter Dutton agrees and urges people to heed the advice given how quickly the situation on the ground could change.

The travel advisory for Australians headed to New Caledonia has been upgraded to ‘exercise a high degree of caution’.

That is because of the protests and demonstrations taking part in the capital. From Smart Traveller:

Political demonstrations and protests are occurring and may turn violent at short notice. A curfew has been issued for the Noumea metropolitan area from 6pm on 14 May to 6am 15 May.

There’s potential for demonstrations in other locations. Essential services are impacted and flights have been cancelled.

The La Tontouta International Airport has closed. Avoid demonstrations, public gatherings and roadblocks. Minimise movement, monitor the media and follow the advice of local authorities (see ‘Safety’).

Australians needing emergency consular assistance should contact the Australian Government’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135 (within Australia) or +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas).

CFMEU says freedom of speech ‘inalienable’ after ANU direction to pro-Palestine protesters

The CFMEU’s national secretary, Zach Smith, has criticised the Australian National University’s directions to pro-Palestine protesters, saying freedom of speech is “inalienable”.

Earlier today, pro-Palestine protestors at the ANU were advised to vacate their encampments or risk breaching the university’s code of conduct.

Smith, addressing about 200 people at a pro-Palestine rally out the front of Parliament House in Canberra this afternoon, said the ANU “should be condemned in the strongest terms” and he called “for the courage of our political leaders to call the ANU out as well”. Smith said:

I think it’s important, in that spirit, to acknowledge what happened at the ANU earlier today.

Just over the lake, only a matter of kilometres from here, the ANU, a university which is meant to be a pillar of freedom of speech, threatened student activists engaged in peaceful protest and peaceful resistance. They threatened activists engaged in peaceful protest. That is an assault on those activists but, more importantly, it is an assault on each and every one of us. And it is an assault on anyone who values democracy, who values freedom and values the right to protest and the right to resist.

Earlier today, a spokesperson for the ANU said the university expected participants to follow reasonable directions:

The university supports students’ right to protest but these activities must be safe and not cause unnecessary harm or damage to our campus or community

Updated

Vice-chancellors urged to protect right to public assembly on campus

Leading human rights organisations have written to a dozen vice-chancellors today urging universities to protect the right to public assembly on campus.

The 10 human rights and civil liberties organisations wrote to universities where pro-Palestine student encampment protests have been established and the chief executive of the Group of Eight, urging them to respect the right to public assembly and refrain from inappropriate suspensions of students, penalties on protestors or police intervention.

Signatories include Human Rights Law Centre, Australian Democracy Network, Amnesty International Australia, Grata Fund, Liberty Victoria, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, Rights Resource Network South Australia, New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project and Melbourne Activist Legal Support.

In a statement, the groups said students protesting on campuses around the world were part of a “cherished tradition” of young people leading protest movements to create positive change in the world.

That these students are facing violence for simply exercising their right to protest is an affront to the protection of human rights. Amnesty is concerned by reports that fireworks have been fired into the University of Adelaide camp and of repeated attacks on the Monash University camp. Their right to protest should be protected and students should be able to peacefully and safely protest on campus.

Updated

We are just under 15 minutes away from the budget wash up question time.

Look – let’s be honest, it is not going to be exactly edifying. We’ll cover it so you don’t have to watch –but grab what you need to get through the next hour and a bit.

The never ending war on woke means National MPs continue to forget that the people who grow soy for tofu and milk are also farmers and supposedly part of their constituency.

And also that it is farmers (backed by Nationals MPs like Bridget McKenzie) who want non-animal products labelled something other than “milk” or “meat”.

And that some of us can not process dairy and dietary requirements are just that?

Updated

Jordon Steele-John says budget shows Labor has abandoned disabled people

The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has responded to Labor’s plans to use $14.4bn in savings from curbing NDIS growth over the next four years to fund other key federal budget measures.

The NDIS actuary in December 2023 estimated the scheme’s payments would increase by $15.9bn from 2023-24 to 2027-28 but, with government intervention, that figure will reduce by $14.4bn over the next four years, bringing the increase down to just $1.5bn.

The savings, revealed in last night’s federal budget, will come from changes proposed in a bill introduced in March that will allow tweaks to rules targeting plan inflation, clarifying entry pathways for the scheme, and how funding can be used.

The papers show funding for the scheme will still increase from $44.3bn in 2023-24 to $60.7bn by 2027-28.

The Western Australian senator said the changes will lead to disabled people “not getting the support they need when they need”, accusing Labor of choosing to “abandon” them.

Steele-John said:

This government have chosen to abandon disabled people, they have abandoned NDIS workers and they are passing the buck to the millions of Australians who undertake informal carer roles.

The ALP have decided that it is more important to fund billions in handouts to weapons manufactures than it is to support our community and the many disabled people that rely on the NDIS to live happy and healthy lives.

It’s clear there is not an essential service that Labor won’t cut to fund nuclear submarines and fossil fuel handouts. This government has betrayed the disability community and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Read more about how the NDIS fared in the budget below:

Updated

Turns out one of Australia’s billionaires isn’t too happy with the $300 energy rebate

Paul Karp has stepped up to ask a question:

The Government’s own poverty experts called for a timetable to increase JobSeeker but the budget you have handed down shows there’s no increase when inflation is above target, no increase when inflation is back within the target. No increase when you deliver a surplus this year and no increase when you deliver bigger deficits in following years. You say you will consider it when it’s responsible to do so.

So my question isn’t when - my question, please, what would the economy and budget need to look like for you to further increase JobSeeker?

Chalmers does not answer the question.

Over a long period of time, you’re right we have been able to implement some not all of the recommendations of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. I think what’s missing from the question is recognition that we increased in a permanent way the JobSeeker payment in the last budget and not because we think that doing that in the last budget necessarily solved all of the pressures that people on JobSeeker are under.

We know that people are under pressure. That’s why we found so many different ways to provide cost-of-living relief to people who are vulnerable, people on low and fixed incomes and people on JobSeeker.

Whether it’s the energy rebate, whether it is the consecutive increases now to the Commonwealth rent assistance, or all of the other ways - medicines and the like, we think that there is more than one way to help people who are vulnerable and people who are on low and fixed incomes.

We have found multiple ways to do that across multiple budgets now, and we understand that good Labor Governments with hard heads and warm hearts into the future will do what they can to always help the most vulnerable people in our society.

Poverty experts, including the government’s economic inclusion committee have all said the easiest way to help people out of poverty is to give them more money.

Other experts have pointed out it also improves mental health incomes and lowers domestic and family violence, because it both takes away a key pressure point, and also gives people options to leave.

Jim Chalmers answers those questions with:

The quickest most meaningful way we could provide relief was to provide that energy bill rebate for every household, but that hasn’t prevented us from moving really substantially and in an ambitious way when it comes to electrification, when it comes to renewables at the household level.

As I said in response to [the other] question – we had initiatives in our first couple of budgets which are about households, we had incentives for small business as well.

And we have indicated, I think before … we have indicated an appetite and a willingness to consider in future budgets some of the proposals like that one that you described.

Updated

There are a couple of questions about whether or not (and why the government didn’t) consider helping to electrifying households and installing solar panels as a longer term electricity help.

Which is something that state and territory governments are doing, but mostly it helps home owners, not tenants.

There is another aspect not often considered in this debate though – rental home improvements often lead to rent increases and, in this current climate, that is something renters and the economy cannot afford.

Updated

A whole bunch of Labor MPs just left the speech – there is a division coming up in the House of Reps, where they have to vote (not a political statement).

Updated

(Continued from last post)

Chalmers:

Now, people on the highest incomes are not our focus, they’re not our concern.

But in the absence of redesigning or designing a new system of data-sharing and means testing amongst the energy retailers, we made the assessment that the best way to do it was to provide it broadly.

There are two elements to the cost-of-living package which are provided broadly – a tax cut for every taxpayer, and energy relief for every household, and there are elements of the cost of living package that are more targeted.

Almost a million renters get rent assistance. People on the concession cards and the PBS get a longer freeze in the cost of medicines, students get debt relief. Two broad parts of the cost of living package and some targeting as well elsewhere.

Updated

Treasurer quuestioned on why $300 rebates not means tested

Q: Your explanation [for why the $300 isn’t means tested] is that the energy retailers are unable to identify people by income and, therefore, won’t be able to means test it. But haven’t they already done that, treasurer? Aren’t they doing that this year with people who are on low incomes and pensioners and others and isn’t that data with the ATO and with Centrelink? And can’t that be shared? In the age of AI, quantum computing and future technologies, can’t we do that?

Jim Chalmers:

OK, so on the difference between the last energy bill rebates and the ones we announced last night, there is actually a difference between identifying people on pensions and payments which was the targeting of the first one, and the means testing by income.

It is actually a very different way of means testing and targeting. The two ways that you can do it with the existing systems are either people on pensions and payments, or the whole cohort – every household.

The ATO has tax information but they have no arrangements to share that with energy retailers. We would have to change fundamentally the data-sharing arrangements, that would take time and money in order to do that.

So the judgment that we made was that the most efficient way to give cost-of-living relief to people on low and fixed incomes, but also people on middle incomes to provide that cost-of-living relief in middle Australia as well, was to provide it to every household.

Updated

Q: [On the Future Made in Australia plan and tax credits], could you elaborate in a bit more detail, please, what these protections will be? What are the off-ramps? Why people should have confidence that their money won’t just go up in smoke?

Jim Chalmers:

The best way or the most prominent way to understand the off-ramps that we have built into the design of our Future Made in Australia package is if you think about that $22.7bn that we’re investing over the course of the next 10 years, the majority of that is production tax credits for renewable hydrogen and for refining and processing critical minerals.

Now, in both of those instances, and you asked me about off-ramps, in both of those instances, the support that we are providing by the tax system has an end point and so what we’re committing to there in the two biggest pieces by far of the Future Made in Australia package are production tax credits that end when the market for these kinds of important minerals and energy sources is what people anticipate to be normalised.

And so, for example, when it comes to the hydrogen production tax credit, that ends in 2039-40.

When it comes to the critical minerals production tax credits, similarly, that ends there.

That’s how we don’t saddle the budget forever with these really important production tax credits.

That’s the sort of off-ramp that we have working on and considering and the sorts of off-ramps that Danielle Wood (head of Productivity Commission) and others have talked about in the past.

Updated

Treasurer says RBA’s independence ‘appropriate’

Q: If CPI does fall back within the 2% to 3% band, which the budget now predicts by Christmas or not – not much later, can you see any reason why the RBA shouldn’t cut rates?

Jim Chalmers:

Well, part of my answer is the same as what I have given to Laura today and you on other occasions and probably six or 700 times of your colleagues here in the last two years.

There’s good reason why treasurers don’t get involved in that kind of prediction or pre-empting decisions taken independently.

I take responsibility for my part of this and my part of this working with Katy [Gallagher] and our team and Anthony [Albanese] and others is to make sure we’re doing what we can to manage the budget responsibly and put downward pressure on inflation.

I’m confident that’s what we have done in this budget.

Inflation has come off really substantially over the course of the last couple of years but it’s not mission accomplished because people are still hurting and so that’s why the budget’s got a big focus on the cost of living and fighting inflation.

We will do our bit and the Reserve Bank will take its decisions independently and that’s appropriate.

Updated

Treasurer deflects question on Labor pledge to lower power prices by $275 by 2025

Does the treasurer concede that the “lower your power prices by $275 by 2025” election commitment cannot be met?

I think part of the answer to your question is in the question itself – you are referring to a 2025 outcome based on a 2021 forecast.

We found a way to help people with their energy bills right now in 2024 when the pressure is on. We did it in the last budget.

We have done it a more substantial way in this budget and it’s a really crucial part of our cost of living package.

If you look at the cost-of-living package presented last night, a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, assistance with rent and medicine costs, this is all about taking pressure off people and the benefit for every household will be greater than the forecast that you have just described in your question.

Updated

Treasurer says migration ‘moderating to more normal levels’

And for the third part, Jim Chalmers says:

Third part of your question was about migration. You’re right to remind our guests here that there is a fairly substantial moderation in migration built into the budget. Net overseas migration next year will be half what it was last year.

We had that spike in the post-Covid period which was primarily students and long-term tourists, and that meant the numbers were a bit higher and now they’re moderating to more normal levels.

I think most – most people would recognise that migration has got an important role to play in our economy but it needs to be well managed and we need to make sure that we can manage the pressures.

We got a big housing package, a big infrastructure package and also in migration more specifically we have ended the Covid visa.

We’re seeing a substantial moderation in inflation in the forecasts and in the last couple of years as well, and that is largely because of how we’re managing the budget but it will also be increasingly about how we’re managing the population.

Updated

Jim Chalmers says ‘inflation our primary focus’

Chalmers continues:

One of the reasons why inflation has moderated so substantially, not the only reason, but a key reason, is because when we came to office inflation had a six in front of it and now it’s got a three in front of it.

We have gone out of our way to manage the budget in the most responsible way that we can, getting the budget in much better nick, making inflation our primary focus.

That applies to the design of our cost-of-living relief as well and there has been an effort, I think, to kind of recategorise and redefine and reclassify what inflation is in our economy.

I think people understand in the communities of this country that if you get power bills down, and you get rent a little bit down, that puts downward pressure on inflation and that’s what matters.

And the very firm advice from our departments was that the budget and particularly the cost of living package will put downward pressure on inflation without adding to inflationary pressures elsewhere in the economy.

Updated

Treasurer says he doesn’t ‘tell Governor Bullock how to do her job’

Jim Chalmers has entered the question and answer section of his National Press Club address.

First question is on inflation.

As you say, the energy rebate and other measures will by mechanical reduction in the inflation rate but can you just tell us what else in the budget will help reduce inflationary pressures? For example, what’s your feeling about halving migration, does that actually add to inflation or take away from it? And are there other factors you should be considering and she should be considering.

Chalmers says he thinks there are three parts to this question:

First of all, in relation to the Reserve Bank. All of you working journalists in the room know that I don’t make predictions or pre-empt decisions taking independently by the board. They will weigh up a whole range of factors and the commonwealth budget won’t be the only factor they weigh up. They’ll weigh up global and domestic conditions and a whole bunch of other considerations as well.

I don’t tell Governor Bullock how to do her job. She doesn’t tell me how I do my job.

We do compare notes, we discuss the fiscal position and the government strategy of being able to brief her along with the Treasury secretary on the budget in advance of handing it down, that is, I think, the normal part of working closely together as we both in our own domains do what we can to put downward pressure on inflation.

Updated

National Union of Students says Albanese government ‘needs to do better’

The National Union of Students’ national president, Ngaire Bogemann, was also highly critical:

Currently, almost 109,000 Australian students receive youth allowance, which is the government’s primary income support payment for tertiary education students. Of that, only 27,895 students also receive rent assistance. That means almost three-quarters of students receiving support will miss out on this raise – as small as it is.

We know that students are doing it tough. I see it every day when I walk on to campuses across the country, and when I see food banks run by student unions with lines out the door, and when I see services that are there to provide cost of living relief to students overwhelmed.

The government needs to do better. They must also raise other government income support payments, especially youth allowance, above the poverty line to ensure no student is left behind.

Updated

Budget condemned by Domestic Violence NSW

The deputy chief executive, Elise Phillips, from Domestic Violence NSW has also criticised the budget:

Achieving the federal government’s ambitious goal of ending gendered violence in a generation requires ambitious investment.

Yet funding for implementation of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 doesn’t match the scale of the crisis with one woman killed every four days and countless other women and children harmed every day.

This week we heard our prime minister say, “We can change it and we must change it”, yet this budget does not adequately invest in frontline domestic and family violence services.

The national plan outlines four crucial pillars – prevention, early intervention, response and recovery.

However, we are not seeing the investment across all pillars that is urgently needed. While the $925m announced by the prime minister on 1st May for the Leaving Violence Program is a welcome and necessary part of the response, there is no new funding in the budget for frontline specialist services which are struggling to provide women and children with the support they need - compromising their safety.

Updated

Jim Chalmers begins National Press Club address

Jim Chalmers has begun is National Press Club address to a sold out room (we hear there was quite the waiting list)

So far, it is everything we have heard last night and this morning.

There are quite a few of his Labor colleagues (it appears almost all of the cabinet has turned up) in the audience.

Updated

Emma Vulin addresses Victorian parliament over motor neurone disease fight

Earlier this morning in Victoria’s parliament there was a very moving contribution from Labor’s Pakenham MP, Emma Vulin, who was recently diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

In the gallery for the speech was Neale Daniher, a former Essendon player and Melbourne Football Club coach, who set up Fight MND after being diagnosed with the neurological condition in 2013.

Vulin said there are more than 2,000 Australians and more than 500 Victorians living with MND. She said that, despite her “battling the beast”, she will continue to be a voice for her community in Spring Street:

“I had a choice: I could curl up and cry, which I did do for two days, or get out and do what I need to do. Just like the legendary Neale Daniher says, ‘Don’t say, do!’ – except for me, it was, ‘Stop crying and do!’ We are fortunate to have Neale Daniher and his family with us in parliament today.”

Vulin said not long after announcing her diagnosis Neale and his wife, Jan, invited her and her husband, Matt, to their house for a chat and provided them with tips and information about the journey ahead. She said:

Thank you Neale and the entire Daniher family for opening your arms to not only me but so many.

She also thanked MND Australia and MND Victoria and urged anyone listening to make a donation to the organisations.

In closing, the disease has progressed in me to the point that my right arm is very weak, so for any of my parliamentary colleagues who see me peering at the cheese wheel in parliament in the evening, please cut a piece for me.

Updated

Budget described as having ‘nothing of substance’ for First Nations people

Community-led groups representing First Nations people, people receiving welfare, renters, students and young people have issued their score card for the Albanese government’s third budget – and given it a fail.

The groups banded together to try and have other, more marginalised voices heard during the budget wash up.

Kieran Stewart-Asheton, Traditional Owner of Wani-Wandian Country in the Yuin Nation and Black People’s Union president said there was “nothing of substance in this budget to address the atrocious conditions of First Nations people on this continent” despite nearly one in 15 Indigenous people being homeless.

Around a third of our people are stuck on welfare payments well below the poverty line with little prospect of meaningful employment.

Harry Millward, from the Renters and Housing Union, said that a third of Australia’s population rent and half of them are experiencing food insecurity – and yet they did not receive targeted attention.

Avery Howard, a spokesperson for the Unemployed Workers’ Union and a jobseeker recipient, said the government had come to power promising to leave no one behind but hadn’t brought the unemployed with them. They said:

The sex discrimination commissioner said that a raise to jobseeker and other welfare payments would ‘stop homicide’. This budget says Labor does not care about the safety of women and that they are happy for homicides to continue.

Updated

Gallagher says surpluses ‘don’t happen by accident’

And given that the next budget will show a deficit (as the spending measures like Aukus and stage-three tax cuts begin to roll through), is there a danger of heading to an election with the budget in the red?

Gallagher:

I think we’ve been open with people and honest about the pressures on the budget since we’ve came to government. We have worked hard to deliver those surpluses. They don’t happen by accident.

I know people – there’s a bit of commentary around that they just happen. They don’t.

I mean there’s no shortage of calls for spending on the budget, we’ve had to say no to a lot of things. We want those surpluses, they help with inflation in the short term.

But I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t increasing pressures. NDIS, aged care, health, defence and interest on government debt are the five key structural pressures on the budget that we need to continue to work on and reform.

Updated

Finance minister defends timing of Future Made in Australia tax breaks

Why don’t the tax breaks for the Future Made in Australia plans start until 2028?

Katy Gallagher:

So, the Future Made In Australia, you’re right, is a big part of the budget. An element of that is renewable energy superpower and that has kind of the production tax credits system that we want to put in place. The reason they don’t start until 2027 is because it’s around production.

So, you know, people need to make the investment, actually start producing green hydrogen, refining and processing the critical minerals before they can get a tax benefit from that.

So there is a couple of years there on that but, in the meantime, we’re also looking at a range of grants, equity, loans. We’ve got our National Reconstruction Fund working.

So, there is intervention and support from the government in the short term as well.

Updated

Katy Gallagher says budget providing cost-of-living relief without adding to inflation

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has spoken to Bloomberg TV, where the questions were a little more economically minded than some of what we have been treated to today.

Asked about the view of some economists that this will be an inflationary budget, Gallagher says:

Well, for a start, economists have a range of views and it’s always probably hard to find a group that agree with each other. But I think you need to look at the budget as a whole.

So, we’re delivering the first back-to-back surpluses in 16 years; we’re showing spending restraint, whether it be through savings or reprioritising across [the] budget; we’ve, you know, put back all the revenue upgrades, the vast majority of those, back to budget repair; lowered debt, lowered interest payments on that debt.

So that tells the sort of budget responsibility, kind of looking to find restraint – but we’ve also had to work out ways to provide some cost-of-living relief without adding to inflation and have a view and an eye on the future.

So this budget tries to do a lot of things but I certainly support the view that there is restraint in the budget. There’s a lot of calls on the federal budget and we had to say no to a lot of things.

Updated

The treasurer’s National Press Club address is coming up very shortly – we will only carry the new things from the speech, as you must be getting a little sick of the same lines by now, but we will cover the question and answer section in detail.

Go get yourself a little treat.

Updated

More FM gold from PM

The Adelaide FM radio Triple M interview with the prime minister transcript just dropped, so let’s see what happened within these three minutes of gold.

Topics covered included:

The hosts creating a song for Anthony Albanese.

Anthony Albanese likes music.

A game where the music stops and Albanese has to sing the next line (the Hawthorn club song plays and Albanese can sing the next line).

Albanese’s lifelong support for Hawthorn. Albanese’s second club being Sydney.

“Budget stuff”.

Housing, energy rebate, tax cuts.

The energy bill for pubs.

Inflation.

Hecs.

The host being a grandson of an Italian immigrant who thinks migration should be cut to help with the housing crisis.

Migration.

Updated

ANU pro-Palestine protesters say they were 'directed to vacate' camp

Pro-Palestine protestors at the Australian National University (ANU) have been advised to vacate their encampments or risk breaching the university’s code of conduct, becoming the second university management in Australia to crack down on the camps.

On Tuesday, students with encampments at Deakin University were similarly told to vacate, effective immediately, with management citing “safety, security and amenity of all campus users”. Deakin students have so far refused the request.

A spokesperson for ANU’s encampment said on Wednesday: “We were called in to a meeting this morning and told we hadn’t breached a code of conduct, but if we didn’t vacate on Friday we could have. It’s outrageous.”

Discussions were under way into their formal response, with a snap rally to be held on Thursday at ANU.

ANU’S branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has backed up the students. Posting on X, the branch confirmed their attendance at tomorrow’s rally.

A spokesperson for ANU said the meeting would held to discuss how students could continue to protest in a manner that ensured the “health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at ANU”.

The university has communicated its expectations to ANU students in this meeting. As per the university’s code of conduct and student discipline rule, ANU expects participants to follow these reasonable directions.

The university supports students’ right to protest but these activities must be safe and not cause unnecessary harm or damage to our campus or community.

Updated

Wages rose faster than consumer prices in the March quarter, ABS says

In the wake of the debates over whether the budget was inflationary or not, there’s some modestly calming numbers on wage increases from the Australian Bureau of Statistics today.

The wage price index for the March quarter rose 4.1% from a year earlier and 0.8% for the quarter itself. Economists had picked the WPI to come in at 4.2% and 0.9%, respectively, or in line with the December quarter.

The private sector component saw wages up 0.8% and the public sector 0.5% (which makes one wonder why the average wasn’t below 0.8%). In any case, there’s no sign of a “wage-price inflation spiral”.

Another key labour-related stat will land tomorrow with the ABS releasing figures for the jobless rate and the number of jobs added (or lost) in April. An uptick in unemployment to 3.9% from March’s 3.8% is expected by the CBA, for instance, but you’ll have to tune back here to find out in 24 hours’ time.

Updated

Budget ‘neglects’ kids’ mental health support

Children’s mental health not-for-profit Smiling Mind says a lack of investment in preventative measures in the federal budget will guarantee that Australia’s mental health crisis will continue to worsen.

Smiling Mind’s CEO, Sarah La Roche, says the cost of living crisis has a profound impact on the mental health of parents and children.

Investing in kids’ mental health services is crucial to ensure the wellbeing of future generations, yet they’ve been completely neglected in this year’s budget.

She says children with poor mental health are more likely to suffer from poor mental health as adults. Half of all adult mental health conditions first emerge before the age of 14, and 25-30% of adult mental illness can be prevented through preventative measures in childhood and adolescence.

Smiling Mind calls for federal representation and greater government accountability, which it says will “ensure our youngest and most vulnerable Australians don’t continue falling through the cracks”.

Children must be prioritised all year round and especially at budget time.”

Updated

Victorian premier applauds federal budget

Like her treasurer, Victorian premier Jacinta Allan has also praised the federal budget - mainly for the $300 energy rebate on offer. She said:

This is important recognition that it’s not just here in Victoria, it’s around the country that families and businesses and households are doing it tough because of that combination of factors around inflationary impacts – interest rate rises and some of the global pressures that are causing the costs of pretty much everything to go up.

She said it built on the $400 bonuses the state government included in its budget last week for all public school students and delivered more infrastructure funding to the state.

We have seen quite a reversal from the budgets of the former Liberal National government. This budget was a far cry from those budgets that just completely neglected and ignored Victoria. And this project is an example of that – there is not one federal dollar in this Metro tunnel project because it was consistently and repeatedly ignored and rejected by the former federal Liberal National government.

Asked if Victoria received its “fair share” of funding, given both NSW and Queensland got more, Allan replied:

We got a much fairer share than we have received for many a long year under the former federal Liberal National government.

She said she was not concerned that the federal government hadn’t invested further money in the state’s Suburban Rail Loop project, beyond a $2.2bn commitment.

Updated

Farmers walk out on Watt over live sheep exports ban

Peak farming groups including the National Farmers Federation have staged a walkout during agriculture minister Murray Watt’s post-budget speech this morning in outrage over the government’s decision to ban live sheep exports.

Just as well I didn’t talk about it early in the speech!” Watt said as about 10 people left the room.

New South Wales Farmers’ president, Xavier Martin, told Watt the decision was “absolutely shameful” as he stood up to leave the room.

Thanks for your opinion Xavier,” Watt replied.

On Saturday the government announced a $107m, five-year support package for the industry to transition away from live sheep exports by 2028 due to animal welfare concerns.

The chief executive of the National Farmers Federation, Tony Mahar, described the phase-out plan as “radical”.

Murray Watt has decided to book us on the express train to disaster, but this isn’t the final chapter in this story. We’ll keep fighting,” Mahar said in a statement Saturday.

Speaking at the post-budget speech this morning, Watt said he remained confident the government “is making the right call now to set up the sheep industry in Western Australia for the future”.

Let’s address the sheep in the room … the truth is that there are some things we don’t always agree on.

Updated

(continued from previous post)

The prime minister and the host realising they are both only children.

The budget.

Urgent care clinics.

Inflation.

The expenditure review committee being a very “dull” committee.

Surpluses.

The parliament house cafeteria.

The budget.

Will the new high price of everything now just be the price.

Inflation.

Host: You must be rapt about talking about this all day long.

Other host: Oh, my God. You’re going to say this same stuff how many times today? Oh, I would drive into a tree.

Albanese:

But this will be the highlight of my morning. There’s no one else I’m speaking to that has their photo on the Lodge mantel piece.

Host: And believe me, we’ve already started discussing your wedding gift. Got a few ideas, mate. You’re going to move that picture just over slightly. Something else going on the mantle.

Albanese: Very good.

Updated

Albanese’s FM radio blitz continues

Back on the FM radio train, the prime minister also spoke to Western Australian radio Nova 93.7.

Topics covered here:

How much the hosts love a federal budget.

Their “great friend” Anthony Albanese.

The prime minister’s visit to their studio last week and missing one of the hosts.

The prime minister “mucking around” with the then-missing host’s chair.

The host telling the prime minister not to touch his chair again.

The games the prime minister played in the studio last week.

The host’s mum, who was in hospital but will be OK.

The food at the private hospital the host’s mum was being treated at.

The host’s dad not getting the amazing rack of lamb the private hospital served his mum.

(Continued in next post)

Updated

How the keffiyeh ban in Victorian parliament unfolded

Hansard has published a draft of the exchange between the Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, and the speaker, Maree Edwards, over the wearing of the keffiyeh in parliament.

It began with the speaker ruling the chamber could wear Fight MND Beanies during a speech by the Pakenham MP, Emma Vulin, who was recently diagnosed with the neurological disease.

Edwards:

Members, thank you for assembling earlier today for the group photo. In a show of support for our colleague the member for Pakenham, I am happy for members to wear their beanies in the chamber until the beginning of statements by members. After that time the house’s normal rules will apply, and I would appreciate it if the beanies were removed.

Sandell:

On a point of order, Speaker, I would like to seek a ruling on a matter that occurred in the chamber last week. Last Tuesday you asked the member for Richmond to remove her keffiyeh scarf. I would like to seek a ruling as to whether that was for that particular point in time or whether in fact the keffiyeh is banned and not allowed to be worn in that chamber.

Edwards:

Order! The house will come to order. Political paraphernalia and badges are not allowed in the house. My ruling stands.

Sandell:

On a further point of order, I would just like to clarify: members in this place often wear items of clothing to show support for various causes, all of which could arguably be seen as political. Others wear cultural or religious items such as jewellery which could also be aligned with political views. An MP today is wearing a yellow pin, which could be perceived by some as support for the Israeli military. Others are wearing rainbow badges.

Edwards:

Member for Melbourne, this is not the appropriate forum to raise these matters. If you seek clarification, I am happy to discuss this with you in my office.

Updated

New Victorian Metro Tunnel station completed

Earlier this morning, Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, held a press conference to mark the completion of major construction at Parkville station, one of five new underground stations on the Metro Tunnel. There are just three more to complete before the tunnel opens ahead of schedule (according to its builder, this could be as early as September this year).

Allan said:

This part of the project alone is a major engineering feat. The platforms are 25 meters below the ground. The space that’s been created here below the ground is the equivalent to one-and-a-half MCGs’ worth of space and that gives you a sense of the vastness of this underground station, but also to a lot of careful thought as we were going through the design and planning stage of this project.

She said the station had 16 escalators, seven lifts and four different entrance points to connect it to the nearby Melbourne University, hospitals and research institutes:

This is a very busy part of the city that from next year will be connected to the rail network for the very first time, making it so much easier for people to be able to come and access the quality healthcare services here, to come and work here and it just takes a bit of stress off for ... people who are unwell or visiting people who are unwell.

Updated

Department chief to lead panel over new tertiary commission

The education minister has announced the composition of an advisory committee to engage with the sector on the design of a new independent tertiary commission and the move to needs-based funding.

The advisory committee will be chaired by Tony Cook, secretary of the Department of Education. Other committee members include the vice-chancellor of the University of South Australia, Prof David Lloyd, the CEO of Tafe Directors Australia, Jenny Dodd, and the senior Australian of the Year and Kungarakan elder, Prof Tom Calma.

The Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) was a key recommendation of the Universities Accord final report, to act as a steward of the tertiary education system.

The accord also recommended the development of a new “managed growth funding system” for commonwealth-supported places to increase opportunity for people from underrepresented backgrounds, and to make needs-based funding a core component of funding for higher education teaching and learning.

Jason Clare:

Under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, the number of Australians finishing high school jumped from around 40% to almost 80%. That was nation changing. Now we have to take the next step.

This budget sets a goal of 80% of the workforce with a Tafe or uni qualification by 2050, and funds key reforms to get us there.

A big part of this is helping more kids from the suburbs and regions get a crack at uni and succeed when they get there.

Updated

Budget has ‘failed’ on domestic violence

Full Stop Australia CEO Karen Bevan is also scathing of the budget’s offerings to help people escaping family and domestic violence saying the “scale of the national emergency has not been matched by the scale of the federal government’s investment in this budget”.

Two weeks ago we were talking about a national emergency and the need for a comprehensive investment in women’s safety. From that we saw and acknowledged some important first steps. But that is where progress stopped.

This budget has failed to continue driving important and necessary change.

There is no new funding for frontline services, particularly for specialist sexual violence services. There are huge funding gaps across response and recovery programs, which is where the critical work is done providing support to victim-survivors.

If we want to end gender-based violence, we need to see more than tweaks to existing programs. This national emergency will persist unless the federal government invests in front line services and responses.

Updated

‘Shameful’ lack of budget support on Indigenous family violence

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (Vals) has also responded to the budget saying that in the family violence reforms announced last night, “the rights to safety and culturally safe legal support from Aboriginal women and children were invisible”

“It is utterly shameful. This is a continuance of colonial violence against Aboriginal women, children and families,” the organisation said in a statement.

Our lives matter, we will not stop fighting for our future. Vals and the Aboriginal women, children and families we support have yet again been betrayed by the Albanese government.

After a referendum that has detrimentally impacted Aboriginal Communities and seen a rise in racism in our communities, institutions and so-called places of safety coupled with increasing violence against women, it bewilders the mind that the Albanese government has not provided vital resources to ensure the voices of Aboriginal Communities can be protected and that they can access legal help where and when they need it.

Vals had asked for an immediate injection of $50m through the national legal assistance partnership to provide culturally safe legal services. The organisation says the $44.1m to community legal services in the budget, with $15.4m going to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (Atsils) will do little to address the existing funding issues.

Instead, the Federal government invested more than double our funding ask into the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) National Criminal Intelligence System alongside improving information-sharing nationally.

In March this year, ACIC reported a $10.2m surplus and $298.4m in total revenue in their most recent annual report. It is incomprehensible as to why identified Aboriginal community need was not respected when our services save lives.

Updated

The budget reaction continues to roll in:

Greens oppose Labor’s biosecurity levy plan

The Greens will officially be standing against the government’s proposed biosecurity levy bill.

Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said while the Greens supported the spirit of what the legislation was attempting to do, it shouldn’t be farmers who had to pay

The Greens support significant and new biosecurity funding that ensures Australia has robust threat abatement measures in place to safeguard our communities, the environment and industry into the future – and we congratulate the agricultural minister for raising significant additional revenue from some key biosecurity risk creators.

But the bill the government flagged for parliament to specifically tax farmers in this regard is poor policy in both principle and design and should be rejected.

The fact this new proposed levy has zero buy-in from the agricultural sector speaks for itself – consultation on it was rushed and inadequate.

Whish-Wilson said the Greens would work with the government to find a solution, but believe the $50m the government wants the levy to raise in order to boost biosecurity measures at the border “it should look elsewhere”.

To put things in perspective, if Labor accepted the Greens’ offer on doubling the tax on gas corporations to pass the government’s PRRT changes, we would raise $500m a year, ten times the annual amount Labor is seeking from farmers.

Labor doesn’t have the guts to tax the fossil fuel corporations posting billions in profit to fund their policies and instead is looking to farmers to foot the bill.

Updated

Caulfield MP David Southwick has welcomed what he says is a ban on wearing keffiyeh in parliament (we are seeking confirmation from the speaker’s office).

Southwick, who is Jewish, says seeing the scarf was “triggering” for him:

We do not need political activists playing games in parliament, it’s not a peace sign.

Updated

(continued from previous post)

Following the ruling, Sandell issued a statement saying Victoria’s parliament was one of the only parliaments in the world to ban the keffiyeh.

She said the Greens wore the keffiyeh “in solidarity with the countless Palestinians under siege right now”.

In the midst of a potential genocide, our government should be joining the millions of people around the world calling for a permanent ceasefire. Instead, Victorian Labor has secret relationships with the Israeli ministry of defence and Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer. And today the Victorian parliament becomes one of the only parliaments in the world to ban the wearing of the keffiyeh in the chamber.

Updated

Victorian house speaker bans Greens from wearing keffiyeh in parliament

Victoria’s speaker, Maree Edwards, has told Greens MPs they are not allowed to wear the keffiyeh in parliament.

Asked by the Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, why last week she ruled that an MP had to take it off, Edwards replied that “political paraphernalia” were “not permitted in this house”.

When pressed by Sandell why the keffiyeh - a traditional piece of clothing that is linked to the Palestinian resistance movement - was being treated differently to other “cultural and religious clothing”, Edwards told Sandell the house was “not the appropriate forum” for the discussion.

She suggested they meet in her office.

Updated

Steven Bradbury awarded for bravery after rescuing teen swimmers

Steven Bradbury, who made a name for himself by being in the right place at the right time, has been presented with a bravery award by the Queensland governor, Jeanette Young, after he rescued four teenagers from rough seas at Caloundra last year.

The former speed skater was giving a surfing lesson to his son when he spotted a teenage girl in trouble in March 2023. He sent his son to get help from lifeguards before paddling out to retrieve the young woman and then heading back out to assist three more teenagers.

AOC president Ian Chesterman said:

The fact that Steven acted quickly, calmly and with such courage is so impressive. He richly deserves this recognition. We have always admired Steven for the way he has made history on the ice, but his actions last year reflect an incredible achievement – saving four young lives. I know he has talked about going into ‘Olympic mode’ as the emergency required decisive action. He always had amazing courage as an athlete and it has served him well here.

The award is the second he has received for his quick thinking and bravery - he has also been commended by governor general David Hurley in the Australian Bravery Decorations.

Bradbury won an unlikely gold at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in 2002 – Australia’s first gold medal at a Winter Games – when he came from behind to take advantage of several crashes ahead of him to cross the line first, giving rise to the term ‘doing a Bradbury’.

Updated

Budget ‘a step backward’ for suicide prevention

The national peak body for the suicide prevention sector, Suicide Prevention Australia, says the budget has left the sector “stunned and concerned with the revelation that the newly formed National Suicide Prevention Office is set to be absorbed into the machinery of government”.

In a statement, the organisation said this “signals a step backward for suicide prevention efforts in Australia at a time when we know Australians are doing it tough amidst a cost-of-living crisis”.

While the Suicide Prevention Australia CEO, Nieves Murray, welcomed the cost-of-living relief measures including energy bill relief, an increase in commonwealth rental assistance for those on low incomes, a medicines cost freeze and changes to the indexation on student loans, she has concerns.

Murray said:

A clear omission in the budget is direct investment into crisis support services to manage the distress already being felt in our local communities.

We also cautiously welcome the establishment of a national low intensity digital mental health service that is free of charge and free of need for referral. More still needs to be done to sufficiently grow and strengthen the suicide prevention peer workforce.

Groups that are disproportionally impacted by suicide received some measures but LGBTIQA+ communities were not adequately addressed in this year’s budget.

  • To get help 24/7, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 or the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007. If you or someone you know are in immediate danger, phone 000 for emergency services.

Updated

eSafety v Musk’s X battle over church attack footage set for July hearing

The federal court hearing between X and the eSafety commissioner over whether Elon Musk’s platform must remove 65 tweets containing the stabbing attack at the Wakeley church last month will be heard in late July.

At a case management hearing on Wednesday, barrister for the eSafety commissioner, Christopher Tran, said the eSafety commissioner needed time to consider the interlocutory ruling made on Monday which found that eSafety would not succeed in extending the block on the tweets globally.

Justice Geoffrey Kennett found that it could affect international relations and would potentially be ignored or disparaged by other countries.

Tran indicated that the AAT case X has launched to review the eSafety decision to order the removal could also affect the federal court case. He said if the AAT sets aside the decision, for example, it would “pull the rug” on the federal court case, while if it ruled in favour of eSafety it would raise questions on whether X could challenge the validity of the notice.

X had pushed for a tighter timeline, arguing that every day the company was not in compliance with the order it was a daily fine of up to A$785,000. Tran however, indicated that it is for the court to determine the civil penalties if eSafety wins, and the court would likely take into account that X had defended the litigation and would likely not penalise the company for doing so.

The hearing has been set down for two days on 25 and 26 July.

Updated

Here is some more from Mike Bowers’ very busy morning:

Updated

Universities welcome budget’s R&D support

Tertiary bodies have backed a strategic examination into the Research and Development (R&D) sector announced in the budget as a “once in a generation opportunity”, while urging the federal government to ramp up funding that has languished for years.

The budget also flags the establishment of an Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) as a steward of the tertiary education system. Both measures were recommended in the Universities Accord final report, handed down earlier this year.

Chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8), Vicki Thomson said the budget had “rightly focused” on cost of living relief for students, however long term investment in R&D was needed to underpin Australia’s future prosperity.

The long-term legacy of this budget, this government and its Future Made in Australia initiative will be how it delivers on the challenges in Australia’s higher education and research systems.

The Universities Accord has laid bare the structural deficiencies of research funding ... this includes a significant reliance on international student fees to subsidise government investment in research that still leaves Australia’s national investment in R&D as a percentage of GDP less than half that of the US.

The Australian Academy of Science president Chennupati Jagadish said the strategic examination was a welcome acknowledgement that a strong nation couldn’t be built with a stagnant R&D system.

It is a necessary precursor to the creation of a strategic roadmap that can direct R&D and reverse the 14-year decline in investment that has left
Australia ... uncompetitive and ill-equipped to meet our national ambitions.
The examination is ... a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create the necessary conditions for science and research to maximise its contribution to our national prosperity.

Updated

(Continued from previous post)

A different program producer from the blushing senior producer telling the prime minister the debt isn’t real because the world is ending and countries around the world all know it, so it doesn’t matter. “The debt won’t exist when the world’s done anyway”

Albanese not planning for the end of the world.

That producer not being added to the expenditure review committee (the budget razor gang that decides what is and isn’t in the budget)

Albanese ordering ‘all your little people under you’ (presumably the RBA?) to keep interest rates the same.

Albanese saying it doesn’t work like that.

Albanese being told he is the “big dog” and should just make it happen.

Albanese singing the Hawthorn team song with the team after their win on the weekend.

Hawthorn v the Saints.

AFL

Brendan Fevola (one of the hosts) kicking for charity

How good is the budget

PM ramps up the spruiking on FM

Anthony Albanese has continued his FM radio blitz (it is a strategy Bill Shorten’s team started, Scott Morrison’s team attempted and Albanese’s team have embraced, on how to get the message out to people who don’t usually think too much about politics, while not having to endure any pesky, annoying political questions).

Albanese has ramped up the strategy more than his predecessors – he went to Kyle Sandilands wedding, and hosted WA FM radio hosts at the Lodge for dinner.

First up this morning was Melbourne radio Fox FM, where the topics covered were:

The program’s senior producer being a “fan” of Albanese.

The program’s senior producer being “a bit of a nerdburger” (host comment, not Albaneses)

The program’s senior producer blushing

The tax cuts and energy rebate

Future Made In Australia

Just wiping Australia’s debt away.

Albanese: Just to get rid of it all?

Host: Yeah, but the money is not like it’s, where did you, who do you borrow it off? Like the Commonwealth Bank? Like where is it?

Albanese: No, no, it is borrowed and you do have to pay interest on it.

Host: Can’t the Government just wipe it? Hey, let’s just go start fresh.

Albanese: It doesn’t quite work that way.

Being a sensible government.

(Continued in next post)

Updated

Victorian government gives budget thumbs up

Victoria’s treasurer, Tim Pallas, has welcomed the federal budget and says he’s confident it won’t cause inflationary issues. He told reporters outside parliament:

I’ve congratulated federal treasurer on his budget. He’s tried to thread a pretty fine needle really. First and foremost it’s great to see commonwealth providing assistance to families

… I think it will have the desired effect of helping families but not peaking inflation. I also recognise the enormous work that the commonwealth have done in working with the states around national partnerships – this will still need to continue. It’s far from clear exactly how those national partnerships play out.

On infrastructure, he says with $5bn in new funding it’s an improvement on previous budgets:

If we look at it this way, $5bn of new [funding] to Victoria, out of $16.5bn worth of new announcements for the federation. So we come in about 30% of national new announced allocations. That’s a dramatic improvement in the past it’s a heck of a lot better than the 1% I was going on about when the mid year financial update came out.

Updated

Budget money to combat sexual assault at universities welcomed

The founder of End Rape on Campus (Eroc), Sharna Bremner, has been crying happy tears after the announcement in the budget of $38m towards a student ombudsman and higher education code to prevent and respond to gender based violence at universities.

I cried. Again. A lot,” she posted on X last night.

The measures were recommended in a report commissioned by the federal government to address student safety concerns. Eroc Australia and Fair Agenda, national advocates on sexual violence, have been campaigning for the recommendations in the action plan for years.

In a post on X, Eroc said student victim survivors had led the fight, while the budget signalled “just how seriously the government is taking this issue”.

Updated

Mike Bowers has been up at sparrows to capture the media carousel, and also found Jim Chalmers sneaking up behind Anthony Albanese this morning:

Updated

Student union lauds budget move on services fee

The federal government has been praised by the National Union of Students (NUS) for mandating that universities pass on 40% of the student services and amenities fee (SSAF) to student organisations in the budget.

The SSAF is a fee students pay each semester that was introduced by the federal government to fund non-academic services and supports at universities, set at around $175.

Currently, while universities are required to consult with student representatives about the distribution of SSAF revenue, they decide where it is allocated, and around six in 10 give less than 40% to student organisations, including student associations, unions and guilds.

NUS president Ngaire Bogemann said student organisations had been plugging the “gaping service provision hole” left by the federal government.

This will help the many student unions, guilds and associations across the country provide higher education students with the targeted advocacy, mental health and cost-of-living relief services they so desperately need.”

Updated

Over on the Nine network, the breakfast TV hosts were very worried about Jennys and Ginas. But not for the same reasons.

Q: How do you explain how Jenny from the block in Yorkeys Knob gets the same power rebate as Gina from Noosa?

Anthony Albanese:

Well, I’m not aware of who Jenny and Gina are, but I’m sure they’re fine Australians. And you know what? They deserve support. I’m sure they’re taxpayers and they’ll get a tax cut, and they’re householders, so they’ll get an energy bill relief.

Q: OK, so let me spell it out for you. Gina is Gina Rinehart. Does she need help with her power bill?

Albanese:

Well, Gina Rinehart is close to some people in politics, of course, in this building, as you know. I haven’t met Gina, but what we have done is make sure that every single Australian gets support. And we’ve done that because that is -

Q: But Gina doesn’t need support, PM, is the reality. There are a bunch of Australians who just don’t need the $300.

Albanese:

This is the most effective way to deliver support across the board. Gina, if she pays income tax, will also get a tax cut.

Updated

The Seven network breakfast hosts were also very concerned about the budget being inflationary.

(A moment ago, breakfast TV hosts were very concerned about cost-of-living relief, so you know, swings and roundabouts.)

Q: Can I ask a really simple question? So on average, the stage-three tax cuts works out to about $1,900 on average across Australia per year. You add on that $300 of the energy rebate. So you’re looking at $2,000, potentially, across the country for people to spend. How do you want us to spend it without pushing inflation up?

Anthony Albanese:

Well, the good news is that governments don’t tell you how to spend all of your dollars. But we know that what people overwhelmingly will spend money on, which is why we changed it so that we lower the top, the first rate from $0.19 down to $0.16. If you’re earning under $45,000 a year, you know what? You’ll spend it at the supermarket. You’ll spend it on the essentials of life, on things for your kids that you need.

That’s why we changed the tax cuts so they’re focused firmly on middle Australia, so that people on the figure that you give will be, that you just gave, will be on someone around about average incomes in the vicinity of $78,000.

We wanted to make sure that those people were looked after. They, frankly, were forgotten under the old tax cut scheme. If you were earning under $45,000, you would have got nothing and the big beneficiaries would have been people at the higher end, such as my income.

Updated

Independents criticise all-round electricity rebate

On Tuesday evening the independent senator Jacqui Lambie told ABC TV that just as she is “not comfortable with people like myself and the super rich out there that got a $4,500 tax cut”, she disapproves of the $300 going to every household.

Are we back in Covid days? We’re just chucking money, left, right and centre. You’re too lazy to do some means testing. We don’t need $300, I can assure you.

The independent senator David Pocock said Australia would “be much smarter as a country investing in household electrification where households could be saving $2,000 to $5,000 every year going forward”.

While the opposition will help pass cost-of-living measures, the Coalition has signalled a fight on the 10-year $23bn Future Made in Australia plan, rejecting its $13.7bn in production tax incentives for green hydrogen and processed critical minerals as a “handout to billionaires”.

Dutton said the Coalition “don’t support it”.

I just think people like Clive Palmer and Twiggy Forest and others … are great business people, they know how to milk a pretty weak government – and I think that’s what they’re doing at the moment.”

Those projects should be able to stand along and we support them – but now with taxpayers money, splashing billions of dollars.

Dutton will deliver his budget reply on Thursday evening, but refused to say if he is ready to release the Coalition’s delayed nuclear energy policy, which would likely require significant taxpayer support to establish civilian nuclear energy in Australia.

Dutton also criticised the “unprecedented” level of immigration with “1.67m people coming in over a five-year period” at a time of “11-year lows in building starts”. In April Guardian Australia revealed the Coalition is working on a policy to link the net migration rate to housing construction.

Updated

Dutton backs $300 energy rebate but wants means testing

Peter Dutton has confirmed the Coalition will help pass the budget’s $300 electricity rebate but joined a chorus of criticism that the $3.5bn cost-of-living measure is not means tested.

The centrepiece of Tuesday night’s budget was the electricity rebate for every household, which the treasurer and prime minister have defended as necessary because cost-of-living pressures are being felt “up and down the income scale”.

The opposition leader said on Wednesday the Coalition “will” support the $300 rebate, which will “be welcomed by some”, but complained that families and small businesses had “faced thousands of dollars’ worth of increase in their energy bills”.

Dutton told ABC TV:

The government wants to buy itself an interest rate reduction coming up to the election. But, really, as most credible economic [commentators] have pointed out, this is an inflationary budget and it is going to make it harder for interest rates to come back down.

Dutton disapproved of the fact the payment was not means tested, and said he could not understand why people on higher incomes needed that assistance.

Frankly, I think the money would be better provided to those more in need. But the government, as was the case for Labor in Queensland facing an election, they’re splashing out cash because they know they have a huge problem on their hands.

The Coalition’s support guarantees the $300 rebate and the rest of the $7.8bn cost-of-living package will sail through parliament, but the lack of means-testing has been widely criticised.

Despite the 10% increase in the maximum rate of rent assistance, the Australian Council of Social Services noted the $300 energy rebate “will be the only cash support the majority of people on jobseeker and youth allowance will receive”.

“Extending it to everyone – regardless of income – is extraordinarily wasteful,” the council said in a statement.

It does not target support to people most in need.

Updated

At the end of that speech, Sussan Ley confirmed what the Coalition would be supporting from the budget (this is on top of the $300 energy rebate Peter Dutton confirmed the opposition would support a little earlier this morning):

  • The $3.4bn to add life-changing and life-saving medicines to PBS.

  • The $1bn towards accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence.

  • The $925m for the Leaving Violence Program;

  • And for the accountants in the room, the $20,000 instant asset write-off extension to 30 June 2025 is welcome but we would like to see this restored to pre-pandemic levels of $30,000.

So, it is not all opposition in this building, but Australians deserve better than a ‘buy now pay later budget’.

Updated

Deputy opposition leader swipes at government’s character

Sussan Ley spoke at a Canberra Business Chamber and Institute of Public Accountants post-budget breakfast this morning, where Labor’s Dr Andrew Leigh was also present.

Ley opened her speech with a glowing review of Leigh:

I want to recognise Dr Andrew Leigh, who just spoke. In recognising him I would just note, as many of those here from the Canberra Business Chamber would know, he is one of the sharpest brains in Labor’s ranks.

In fact, before he was elected as an MP just down the road, Andrew was a professor of economics at the ANU, and in fact in the year he started that position in 2004, a young and ambitious 26-year-old Labor staffer would complete his PhD at the ANU: one Jim Chalmers.

Some of you may know, but just for completeness, while Andrew holds a PhD in public policy and has published over 10 books on a range of economic issues, Jim Chalmers’ PhD is in politics. In fact, it was titled “Brawler statesman: Paul Keating and prime ministerial leadership in Australia”.

Now, given the treasurer has such a publication to his name, I hope the prime minister is looking over his shoulder.

But I think 20 years on the fact that we have Andrew Leigh as an assistant minister and Jim Chalmers as the treasurer tells you a lot about the character and the priorities of the Albanese government.

Updated

Budget ‘fails people in poverty’

The Antipoverty Centre has responded to the budget as a raft of measures “dressed up as an answer to the cost of living crisis. But in every way that matters, Albanese has failed people in poverty on his third and final opportunity to ‘leave no one behind’ before he faces an election”.

Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and jobseeker recipient Jay Coonan said welfare recipients were “tired of being told the pennies we are thrown will somehow hold back the crushing weight of housing and other cost of living increases we are dealing with”.

We are unsurprised by the treasurer’s underwhelming performance tonight, but that does not stop the despair we and so many people in our community are feeling.

We are further behind now when Anthony Albanese took office and promised us things would change for the better.

What use is an ‘energy bill relief’ payment when my energy provider can turn around the next day and increase the amount I pay for electricity, as many welfare recipients experienced last year? What use is a commonwealth rent assistance ‘increase’ that has already been outstripped by my rent increase this year?

Updated

(Continued from previous post)

$23bn or so (of the stage three tax cuts) will start to flow from 1 July. How much will we pocket could be key.

Westpac, meanwhile, also sees the government “walking a fine line on spending to keep the economy on a narrow path. The cost-of-living squeeze is real, but the government does not want to stoke inflation further.”

Westpac economists say treasury’s forecast that inflation could sink to 2.75% by next June is “a little below our own but it is entirely plausible”.

They note that most of the net new spending, of about $20bn, is “frontloaded” into the next two fiscal years. Still, they say treasury’s conservative assumptions about commodity prices and the cost of borrowing may again mean the budget’s bottomline may deliver “another positive surprise”.

So perhaps the size of the fiscal swing won’t be as great as it currently looks.

Updated

Mixed reaction from economists on Labor’s inflation-taming claims

A key challenge for treasurer Jim Chalmers is convincing people that his budget is putting downward pressure on inflation – particularly when a surplus this fiscal year equal to about 0.3% of GDP swings to a projected deficit next year, as we note here.

Private economists are offering mixed reviews about the result.

CBA reckons says that budget switch “represents a larger‑than‑expected easing of fiscal policy”.

While headline inflation is still forecast to be 2.75% in 2024-25 due to specific policy measures (see below for details), the RBA is likely to remain cautious.

Halmarick said:

The risk is now more real that the first interest rate cut could be delayed and that the neutral cash rate is higher than we currently estimate due to the expansionary fiscal setting and the high level of investment in the economy.

(CBA was the most “dovish” among the big four banks, predicting three rate cuts this year until recently. They’re back to just one, in November, for now.)

NAB’s economics team is a bit more sanguine:

While the decisions taken in this year’s budget are on balance a loosening in policy, they only marginally add to the RBA’s difficulty in returning inflation to target, and our initial assessment is they do not have a material impact on our expectations for the growth outlook or the path of inflation and monetary policy.

They still expect a single RBA rate cut, late this year.

ANZ, too, is not overly fussed, saying:

The amount of net new spending in 2024-25 ($9.5bn) is consistent with our previously expressed view that the budget would contain a discretionary fiscal easing equivalent to around 0.25% to 0.5% of GDP in that year.

It therefore has no direct impact on our near-term growth, inflation or RBA forecasts. Of more importance for those forecasts will be how consumers respond to the stage-three tax cuts.

Updated

Dutton shows where Coalition wants election battle to go

Well, that was quite the hour and a half.

So you have most of the reactions now, at least politically.

The Coalition will support the $300 for the energy relief, but aren’t happy it is not means tested, but it won’t support the tax credit plan for critical minerals and green hydrogen (part of the Future Made in Australia plan, which I think we are calling FMIA).

Dutton has indicated his budget in reply speech (which will be held on Thursday at 7.30pm, and for which you can receive a ‘complimentary ticket’ to watch for the bargain price of $1,000 to $2,000 as part of a fundraising event the NSW Liberals are holding. Sitting in the gallery to watch the proceedings is free FYI) that migration and housing will feature quite predominately, so you can see where the election battle is shaping up, at least according to the Liberals.

The Greens will look at the tax credits the government is offering for new and renewable technologies, but will look at it alongside the gas strategy, which the party sees as part of the package.

Updated

Women’s rights group says Australian aid stagnating

Global women’s rights organisation ActionAid Australia has welcomed a small aid increase in the budget, but says Australia is “failing” to respond to growing crisis and instability in the world.

In a statement, the organisation said Australian aid has stagnated at 0.19% of gross national income (GNI) – below the government’s commitment of reaching 0.5% of GNI and an international obligation of 0.7%.

Executive director Michelle Higelin said:

Australia continues to be one of the least generous aid donors and on the critical issues facing women globally – climate change, conflict and gender inequality - Australia’s aid budget has once again fallen short.

From Gaza to Sudan to Afghanistan, communities on the frontline of conflict, particularly women and girls, are facing untold human suffering. Increased humanitarian assistance well beyond the small increases in the budget are urgently needed to avert famine and to deliver lifesaving food, water and other relief.

Higelin also said Australia’s climate finance commitment of $3bn over the 2020-25 period was “well below Australia’s climate finance fair share”.

The failure to significantly increase Australia’s climate finance contributions in the 2024-25 budget is a missed opportunity for Australia to demonstrate its commitment to progressive climate action.

Updated

The budget contains welcome measures in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health but structural reform is needed and a longer-term commitment to close the funding gap, says the peak body for Indigenous health services.

The chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (Naccho), Donnella Mills, welcomed a number of measures funded in the budget – including $12.8m in suicide prevention, $10m for mental health support, $11.1m to expand coverage of the Closing the Gap PBS, $94.9m to combat communicable diseases and $12.5m to facilitate the distribution of menstrual products in regional and remote First Nations communities.

These provide a critical first step after the failed referendum last year. The government needs to get a positive dialogue happening in the wake of all the misinformation and hostility that we lived through… Why should Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people expect to live 8-9 years less than other Australians?

Mills said the “cold hard fact of the matter” is that a funding gap of $4.4bn each year exists, equating to around $5000 per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person.

As we have been denied a Voice, it is up to Naccho and our counterparts to advocate for our sectors. The main message we have for governments, at the moment, is to work with us in closing the funding gap and let’s continue to work together to get the National Agreement firing.

Updated

Speaking of the energy wars, when asked when the coalition’s nuclear plan was coming, Dutton said it was “not too far away!”

Asked what that meant, the opposition leader said:

We’ll make it in due course. But I think the important point here is that we have the ability to bring interest into transition for our energy market and I think if we do that, we can bring prices down, as we see in Ontario where prices for electricity are half the price because of the nuclear power that firms up the renewables.

We can have greener electricity because there are zero emissions from nuclear and we can have reliable energy. At the moment, we’re telling businesses to stop production or ramp down production because there’s not enough energy on the network.

We’ll have a balanced approach to it, which will include renewables, which are very important, but it won’t include giving billions of dollars to billionaires at a time when most Australian families are struggling to pay the grocery bill.

Updated

Why won’t the Coalition support the tax credits for green energy and critical minerals?

Peter Dutton:

People like Clive Palmer and Twiggy Forrest are great business people and they know how to milk a weak government and that’s what they’re doing at the moment. I think we’d be better off providing for arrangements and an environment which is conducive to business investment. Those projects should be able to stand alone and we support them but not with taxpayers’ money, splashing millions of dollars at a time when the Government has created an economic crisis for families and a housing crisis for millions of Australians.

This is similar to what Jane Hume said on the Nine network a little earlier (she didn’t name people, but said something about billionaires not needing assistance) and it is important because it is obviously the new line the coalition will be taking in the energy wars.

Updated

So the opposition will be supporting the $300 energy rebate, but what about the tax credits for critical minerals and green hydrogen?

Peter Dutton:

We don’t support it because I think we should be helping, frankly, Australians who are struggling at the moment to find a house. We’ve got people living in cars and in tents.

The prime minister had nothing to say about that yesterday.

The treasurer had nothing to say about it last night.

You’ve got 1.67 million people coming in over a five-year period under this government. It’s unprecedented*. Not under any previous Liberal or Labor government have you seen immigration levels this high, and that means that with an 11-year low in building starts, you are seeing people lining up 30, 40 deep to find a rental property. People can’t buy a house at an auction for love nor money and this government spent $315 billion more, which has driven up inflation and therefore interest rates.

*The Coalition’s last budget forecast a higher rate of migration.

Updated

Given Peter Dutton said the government is trying to “buy” an interest rate cut, and Dutton wants people to have interest rate cuts, isn’t an interest rate cut a good thing no matter how it happens?

(To be clear, “buying” an interest rate cut is a political line – we are not saying it is happening.)

Dutton:

I just don’t think that’s the case. On the one hand, you’ve got the Reserve Bank governor saying there’s an inflation problem and it’s home-grown, which means that – that’s code for saying in the last two budgets, Labor policies have driven up inflation and therefore interest rates.

You’ve got every credible economic commentators overnight saying this is a disastrous budget, they’ve panned the budget, and on the other hand you have Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers saying everything is OK, there’s nothing to see here, and inflation is going to come down, which is contrary to Reserve Bank predictions.

They trumpet the fact that they’ve got a surplus in this budget but they’ve been bequeathed that from the Coalition management of the economy. Two years in surplus and every year after that, under Labor management, you end up with huge deficits and additional debt that Australian taxpayers will have to pay.

Updated

Does Peter Dutton believe that the $300 in energy relief should go to high income earners?

I don’t think so. I don’t understand why you and I on high incomes need to get that assistance.

Frankly, I think the money would be better provided by way of support to those more in need but the government, as was the case for Labor in Queensland facing an election, they’re splashing out cash because they know that they’ve got a huge problem on their hands for the average household in Australia, they’re $35,000 worse off under this government and people are paying thousands more each month for their mortgage in many cases and I think this is a Band Aid on a bullet wound and the government’s made a really bad situation for Australian families over two budgets and last night they made it worse.

(The Queensland situation he is referencing is the $1000 in energy rebates the Labor government announced at its last budget)

Might be worth pointing out that while Dutton is against $300 going to wealthier people as they don’t need the assistance, he was also against changing the stage three tax proposals, which were going to give people earning over $180,000 almost $9,000 in tax breaks.

Updated

‘Inflationary budget’ will make life harder for families – Dutton

Peter Dutton is next up on the ABC interview carousel and he is READY with his lines.

Will the Coalition support the $300 energy rebate?

We will, but we need to be honest about it. The fact is families and small businesses have faced thousands of dollars’ worth of increases in energy bills and this will be welcomed by some but it won’t compensate for the effect of the renewables-only* policy the government has implemented.

A lot of businesses at the moment are doing it tough and they’re passing costs on to consumers, which is why we’re seeing a problem with inflation.

Yes, the government wants to buy itself an interest rate reduction coming up to the election but really, as most credible economic journalists have pointed out, this is an inflationary budget and it will make it harder for interest rates to come back and it will make it more difficult for families and small businesses for longer.

*The government is backing in gas to 2050 and beyond in a strategy it announced last week.

Updated

Adam Bandt was also asked about the green subsidies and said:

Labor’s future made in Australia is a future for coal and gas past 2050.

They’ve put up in lights they’re spending on climate measures –‘$5 billion for new climate spins’ – but $50 billion in fossil fuel subsidies.

You can’t have your foot on the accelerator and the brake at the same time. So we’ll be having a look at this package when it comes to parliament.

We’ve got to take this as a package (along with the gas plan). The Greens support growing our critical minerals industry and green metals.

So does that mean in-principle support for the tax credit plan?

We’ve always said for example, the best job for a coal miner is another mining job. And so if we can find jobs for people who work in Queensland, for example, on either critical minerals project, we support that, but you’ve got to look at this as a package.

They’ve buried the money for gas in the back of the budget. The strategy is for coal and gas past 2050 Labor’s trying to hide that.

Our job when it comes to parliament is to say to Labor if you’re serious about tackling the climate crisis and growing green jobs, you can’t also be opening new coal and gas and keeping coal and gas past 2050.

And the fine print in the budget papers, shows Labor wants coal and gas past 2050.

Updated

Bandt says Labor ‘doing nothing about unlimited rent rises’

Greens leader Adam Bandt also spoke to the ABC a little earlier this morning and he had a bit to say about inflation as well:

Well, clearly the government is taking this approach because they say that will help them get inflation under control.

That is a sign that if they can do that for for energy, they can do it for rent, and I think it’ll be very difficult to start getting inflation under control if Labor keeps backing unlimited rent rises.

Again, the Reserve Bank has said rents have gone up. We’ve seen going up potentially by $46 a week. It’s a main driver of inflation, and yet Labor is doing nothing about unlimited rent rises.

And on housing, Bandt said:

We know that the billions of dollars in handouts that are going to help people who’ve already got three homes going to buy their fourth, fifth and sixth are pushing property prices out of reach of first home buyers and making life tough for renters.

Labor has failed to take on the big problems Labor’s failed to make price gouging illegal. They failed to stop unlimited rent rises, and it’s going to leave lots of people don’t further behind.

Updated

The next budget is scheduled for March, because the election has to be held by May. Anthony Albanese says that remains the plan (but both can always be moved) but repeats the same line as Jim Chalmers (almost word for word) when it comes to being asked about the politics of the budget. He then turns political:

Look, we’re focused on the economy and getting the settings right.

We’ll leave the political obsession to our opponents, who last night were saying they’d oppose making things here, oppose Australian jobs. No wonder they are known as the opposition rather than an alternative government, because they just oppose everything

Updated

Asked about the money for critical minerals and green hydrogen in the budget (for which Daniel Hurst has you covered, here), Anthony Albanese says it’s value for taxpayer money “because production tax credits reward success”.

They encourage investment and they reward success. That’s why we’ve put in place those mechanisms. This is about Australia seizing the opportunities in the transformation in the global economy. We can get this right.

There’s no country that is better positioned than Australia to take advantage of the fact that we have all the resources under the ground that will drive the global economy this century – copper, lithium, nickel, we have the lot of them. We also have – not so much this morning in Canberra – but we have the best solar resources in the world as well.

We can do that to create green hydrogen, to manufacture more things here, to create secure jobs and to grow our economy.

Updated

Is Anthony Albanese (who also holds an economics degree) hoping Michele Bullock and the RBA receive this budget favourably?

Albanese:

Our job is to get our settings right, to look after fiscal policy. We’ve done that. Michael (Rowland, the ABC host), you’ve been doing this for a while, but I tell you what – during the previous government, would you have been out here for 10 years and you wouldn’t have been talking about surpluses because they didn’t deliver one.

They delivered mugs, but they didn’t actually deliver a surplus, because they treated Australians like mugs.

They didn’t do the hard work. We’ve done the hard work.

Updated

PM says budget will moderate inflation

On the inflation prediction (the budget forecasts inflation will fall to 3% by the end of the year, which is back within the RBA’s target range; the RBA doesn’t forecast that happening until the end of next year), Anthony Albanese says:

We are basing that assessment and Treasury and Finance, on the advice that we’ve received, in part based upon the experience.

And if they are wrong?

Well we know that they didn’t get it wrong when it came to the energy price relief plan.

The opposition got it wrong by voting against it. As they voted against all of our cost-of-living measures that we’ve implemented.

We have brought inflation down from 2.1% in the March 2022 quarter – where it peaked – and then we had the Frydenberg budget that pushed a whole lot of money into the economy, a whole lot of cash payouts occurred then. And we’ve dealt with that.

We had to turn that around and we’ve done that.

So inflation is currently at an annual figure of 3.6%. That’s lower than the figure that was estimated in the mid-year forecast at the end of last year. So we know inflation is moderating. There’s more work to be done. But this budget will assist that process.

Updated

Back to the ABC and Anthony Albanese is next up on the interview carousel. He is asked the same questions as Jim Chalmers about giving the $300 energy relief to everyone, including wealthy people, rather than means testing it and gives pretty much the same answers.

He is then asked how can the government be so confident energy supplies won’t just increase the price of energy and says:

Well, we know this works, because we’ve done it. And it’s been effective. It made a difference to people. It put that downward pressure on prices, but it also had an impact on moderating inflation.

Labor taking free-to-air TV away from people, Lambie says

Also on the Seven network, independent senator Jacqui Lambie thinks that the issue of free to air television is going to be what pushes the government to the edge.

They are pushing people towards pay TV. The international cricket, Amazon has that. If you want to watch that you have to pay for that service. I tell you what … if you think that you will be able to watch Bluey for free, you are kidding yourselves.

The first thing, you will have to go searching for free TV and unless you have subscriptions to things out there, a lot of it is not ... you won’t be able to watch it. So that’s really worrying. So now they’re coming after our toddlers. They’ve done nothing for our youth, now you’re coming after our toddlers and taking Bluey away from them!*

… I don’t think the government understands much at all. We’ve seen the chicken-feed budget, a bit of money here and here, a Band-Aid budget that will deflate very quickly.

If they’re not going into an election in November they’re going to lose very badly by May next year,** especially with interest rates going over. There is only one in every 10 Australians in the last six months have bought one of these new TVs that are actually able to do this properly. But seriously, taking free TV away from people ... it’s just disgusting. I think they’re completely out of touch.

*Bluey remains on the ABC. There is legislation to update anti-siphoning laws, but there is yet to be a full solution in what is the streaming era:

**On the election front, the pathway for Labor to hold majority government is quite slim. There are redistributions in Vic and NSW which are going to be announced quite soon and that, combined with an expected swing correction in WA, will mean Labor will start the election either two or three seats behind the 2022 result. That doesn’t mean that the Coalition will take power. But the smart money is on a minority government with supply support from independents.

Updated

Coalition claims ‘sugar hit’ policies hint at early election

Liberal senator and shadow finance minister Jane Hume is also on the early election train, telling the Seven network:

Certainly, it does feel that way, doesn’t it? As I said, all those little sugar hits in there [the budget].

But the one that was really surprising was the $13.7 billion for billionaires, for people that are running companies that are into critical minerals and hydrogen.

That just seems a very strange use of taxpayers’ money. Wouldn’t it be better if instead of providing billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies for these companies, we simply got out of their way by making our industrial relations system simple, that was more energy in the system to bring prices down acceptably and we reduced approval times?

We want critical minerals and hydrogen but we don’t want to subsidise it with taxpayer money, particularly in a cost-of- living crisis.

According to the Australia Institute, fossil fuel subsidies in the last financial year hit $14.5bn. Not sure anyone who owns or runs a coal or gas company is doing it particularly tough either.

Updated

Matt Canavan also thinks the election will be called before Christmas because that is when Treasury has predicted inflation will drop to 3% and “that won’t happen”, so Canavan thinks the government will “need to get ahead of that”.

Governments tend not to hold elections over holiday periods for quite obvious reasons (it makes people angry) so that would mean November, when the global attention will be on the US presidential elections. The UK elections have to be held before January 2025, so that poll is expected to be held very soon.

Queensland will go to the polls in October (and the third-term Labor government is expected to be wiped out, with the LNP leader David Crisafulli on track to be the new premier) and WA is scheduled for a March 2025 election.

All that is to say with so many elections in the works, an election before Christmas – before any interest rate cut (if they are coming) – is highly unlikely.

Updated

LNP senator Matt Canavan has put his economist hat back on (his job before he entered politics, as much as he likes to cosplay as a coal miner) and told the Nine network the government should have cut spending if it wanted to rein in inflation.

Asked whether or not he would say that on the campaign trail, Canavan takes aims at the subsidies for renewable energy projects:

I think people are willing to, to right now, they want a government that is going to make tough decisions. These are tough times for people. And people understand that tough times, you need to make hard decisions. And this is a government that’s clearly not capable of making those hard decisions.

I mean, the $300 last night [for energy relief] is costing $3.5 billion. It’s a big cost, but the green investments they’re making are $30 billion. Yeah, we can’t afford that. It’s ridiculous. And that’s the sort of thing that should be cut.

Updated

Jim Chalmers said he had briefed RBA rovernor Michele Bullock on the budget, but has not spoken to her since he delivered it. He said she and the RBA board would “make their decisions independently” about interest rates but believes he has done his part to lower inflation.

Asked how the budget isn’t expansionary (the same question he received last year), Chalmers says:

Two things about that. First of all, the spending next year is driven largely by extending things like health programs and the cost of living package which will put downward pressure on inflation.

That is next year.

In terms of the deficits, we inherited deficits as far as the eye can see, we turned two of those deficits into surpluses. And we have got the deficits down over the forward period too. We made something like $215 billion in budget improvements, saving us a mountain of interest on the debt that we inherited from the Liberals and Nationals.

And so we have made really good progress – and I think any objective observer would acknowledge that.

Updated

Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.

It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.

Chalmers describes it as taking “the edge off these bills”, which will therefore put “downward pressure on inflation” because energy bills won’t rise quite as much.

Updated

And if it doesn’t come down to 3% by the end of the year? Will that be bad news politically?

Jim Chalmers:

I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.

Do wealthy people deserve the $300 energy rebate?

Chalmers says that obviously people on fixed incomes (like welfare) are doing it tough, but also people in the middle class are finding themselves struggling:

Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.

(Those other measures he is talking about are the PBS co-payment freeze and rental assistance.)

Updated

Treasury predicts inflation will return to the target band (2-3%) by the end of the year. The target band is what the RBA believes is the sustainable rate of inflation – where the economy can still grow, but there are not adverse impacts. It is also the underlying rate of inflation – so it is the data when you take all the volatile inputs out (anything that jumps or drops wildly in price).

The RBA predicts inflation will return to its target band at the end of next year.

With inflation currently at 3.6%, why is Chalmers so positive?

Well, the forecast in the budget is about the inflation forecast and whether or not they’re at the top of the band or not. The Treasury is now forecasting that we get inflation moderating a bit faster than they were anticipating at the end of last year and that is because the budget is designed to put downward pressure on inflation.

The Reserve Bank will take its decision about interest rates independently.

They’ll weigh up a whole range of factors, not just the commonwealth budget, but what we have shown again in the budget last night is a willingness to be part of the solution to this high inflation rather than part of the problem.

We made good progress. Inflation had a six in front of it when we came to office, it now has a three in front of it, and the budget will help it get lower.

Updated

Jim Chalmers is speaking to ABC TV, where he is asked if the government is attempting to “buy” rate cuts with its energy bill relief ($300) and the increase to rent assistance for the second year in a row.

Chalmers:

No, of course not. But you’re right to say a moment ago that the big focus in our budget is helping people with the cost of living. We found a way to provide substantial help, but also responsible help – and the combination of providing a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, rent assistance for people who receive rent assistance, collectively we hope that takes some of the pressure off people and it will put downward pressure on inflation.

Updated

Good morning

Hello and welcome to budget boxing day, where treasurer Jim Chalmers (flanked by Anthony Albanese) is walking from broadcast tent to broadcast tent around the parliament, selling the big budget messages.

Peter Dutton is also doing the big sell.

A very big thank you to Martin for taking us through the start of this very chilly Canberra morning – you have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the parliament day.

Ready? Let’s get into it.

Updated

‘Relief is at the heart of this budget’s message,’ Guardian’s political editor Karen Middleton says

In her comment on the budget, our political editor Karen Middleton says the budget is “designed to show that the government cares – that it cares about the pain you’re feeling, about the economy and about the future”.

Jim Chalmers’ three key “r” words were “relief”, “restraint” and “reform” with the $300 power-bill rebate to be paid to each household and $325 to each eligible business a nod to each of these.

Middleton writes:

A big part of the reason the Labor government decided to revamp and deliver a version of the Coalition’s planned tax cuts was because voters were telling them they hadn’t done enough to help. So relief is at the heart of this budget’s message.

Bu there was also another key purpose to the budget:

And that is for Chalmers and his colleagues to demonstrate that they feel your pain and are trying to ease it, in the hope that, come election time, you will do your bit to ease theirs.

Pro-Palestine supporters call for escalation of protests

Communities across Australia face the possibility of heightened social unrest as supporters of Palestine call for an escalation in protest action, Australian Associated Press reports.

Activist group Disrupt Wars is urging demonstrators to “shut down your city for Palestine” on Wednesday to mark the 76th anniversary of The Catastrophe.

Known in Arabic as The Nakba, the ethnic cleansing episode involved the mass displacement and dispossession of millions of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

As Israel continues its all-out ground invasion in Gaza, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee, the group has taken to social media, encouraging supporters not to “let things calm down” and to “escalate for Gaza” locally.

The calls are supported by pro-Palestine students at universities across Australia where a dozen encampments have popped up.

What the 2024 budget means for gen Z-ers to boomers

In looking for different generational perspectives on the budget, we asked our very own representatives of the boomers, Gen X, Y and Z to say what they thought.

Gen Z-er Rafqa Touma welcomes some of the changes but thinks her peers will still be anxious about affording the things their parents took for granted, while Boomer Peter Hannam sees cheaper medicine as a plus.

Read the full story here:

Budget strategy could add to inflation, rating agencies say

Australia’s commodity windfalls are masking growth in spending and new budgetary measures could be “mildly inflationary,” major ratings agency S&P says, according to Australian Associated Press.

S&P Global Ratings, which has had a AAA rating on Australia since February 2003, noted a small forecast surplus for this financial year, and a “dramatic turnaround” from massive deficits the nation was staring down at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Australia was pivoting from combating inflation to helping to support growth and its industrial base.

The rating agency said:

This change in fiscal stance could add slightly to inflation and public debt.

Strong commodity price windfalls were “papering over fiscal cracks” and the budget was tilted to “a more expansionary footing”, it found.

S&P said:

While the Labor administration estimates that it has banked (rather than recycled into new outlays) approximately 88 per cent of unexpected tax revenue upgrades since coming into office, (the) budget slightly loosens the purse strings.

Moody’s Ratings said it was still unclear how the budget measures would affect inflation. It said:

Mechanical impacts on measures of the inflation rate may be moderately offset by additional spending in the context of a still tight labour market, delaying the budget’s forecast relatively fast decline in inflation.

Looking ahead, the question is if fiscal consolidation will be sustained as structural spending pressures from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, interest payments on debt, and aged care and health spending continue to build.

More broadly, the key issue facing Australia remains its weak productivity performance and how effective spending programs such as Future Made in Australia are in allocating resources and boosting productivity growth.

Updated

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage as Labor defends its budget and the Coalition goes on the attack. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight lines before Amy Remeikis takes over again.

Jim Chalmers will be touring the TV studios today to defend his budget bet that a giveaway for households will shore up votes. A $300 energy rebate, rent assistance and cheaper medicines are all part of the package which Anthony Albanese and his treasurer surely hope creates enough winners to persuade voters to stick with Labor after what could be the last budget before the next election.

Chalmers will spruik his budget in the traditional next-day National Press Club address at 12.30 this lunchtime, but Peter Dutton will be on the attack later in his budget-in-reply speech and will no doubt cite warnings this morning from rating agencies that the measures could add to inflation. Loads of reaction and recaps coming up.

Talking of Dutton’s speech, a crossbencher has hit out after discovering that Liberal MPs are charging up to $2,000 a ticket for post-budget fundraisers in the “people’s House”. Helen Haines, a crossbencher who has been instrumental in pushing for the ban on political fundraisers within the building, said she was shocked to learn MPs were using a loophole to get round a practice believed to have been outlawed in 2022.

Today marks the 76th anniversary of what Palestinians call the “Catastrophe”, or the “Nakba” in Arabic, when millions were displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. And as Israeli forces step up their attack on Rafah, pro-Palestinian activist group Disrupt Wars is urging demonstrators to “shut down your city for Palestine”. More coming up.

Updated

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