Good morning. The debate over the stage-three tax cuts roils on ahead of this month’s budget, with one Liberal moderate suggesting they be delayed and reviewed. And cost of living pressures aren’t going away, with Russia and Saudi Arabia overnight making a bigger than expected cut to global oil production.
Liberal moderate Bridget Archer says Labor is right to be questioning the stage-three tax cuts, declaring governments have “got to have an open mind if circumstances change”. With Labor divided over whether to keep, delay, amend or axe the Morrison government’s stage-three cuts in the October or May budgets, Archer said the Albanese government needed to craft policy responses relevant to the times, rather than be hamstrung by perceptions about broken election promises.
Taxi passengers say drivers are increasingly demanding upfront cash instead of using a meter. NSW Taxi Council says it is an offence, and there is “no excuse” for drivers to charge off-meter.
Federal Liberal party vice-president Teena McQueen is facing calls to resign after she celebrated the defeat of “leftie” Liberal candidates in the May election. McQueen told the CPAC Australia conference on the weekend that “the good thing about the last federal election is a lot of those lefties are gone – we should rejoice in that”. She has been told there is “no justifiable place” on the executive for disloyalists after the comments. Nelson Savanh, a federal vice-president of the Young Liberals, called McQueen’s comments “disgraceful and disloyal”.
Australia
The number of occupations experiencing a skills shortage in Australia has almost doubled over the past year to reach a “staggering” level, new data reveals. There are 286 occupations facing national shortages, with newly listed occupations including dentists, nurses and teachers.
Disability advocates are calling for a complete overhaul of the way airlines treat passengers after a man was left feeling like a “second-class citizen” by being lifted on to a Jetstar flight in Darwin because the airport had no ramp for wheelchair users.
Australia’s military aid to Ukraine has been ramping up, but while the government has been calling Australia “the largest non-Nato contributor”, it is now becoming harder to measure. Here’s how Australia’s contributions compare with other nations.
The world
Liz Truss has promised Britons she has “got your back” and set out a plan for “growth, growth and growth” in a conference speech disrupted by protesters asking who voted for her plan.
Vladimir Putin has appeared to concede the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals in Ukraine, insisting Russia would “stabilise” the situation in four Ukrainian regions it illegally claimed as its own territory last week. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the Sydney-based Lowy Institute from Ukraine via live video link today.
Petrol prices could shoot up again after the Opec oil cartel and its allies agreed to a bigger than expected cut in oil production targets. The decision was led by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Alec Baldwin has agreed to a settlement with the family of the cinematographer shot and killed with a prop gun on the set of the western Rust.
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has called a general election for 1 November after a member of her ruling coalition threatened to withdraw its support over her handling of the country’s controversial Covid mass mink cull.
Recommended reads
Australia is entering salad days with lettuce and herbs coming down in price and blueberries the best they have been in years. With that said, it’s really asparagus that is spearheading October’s best produce.
This week in The 10 Funniest Things I Have Ever Seen (on the Internet), comedian Damien Power shares his favourite bits online and most of them are bonkers. “Obviously, this is a difficult ask as there are so many things to watch on the internet that it is literally destroying society itself, corroding our democracy and ruining our children. With this in mind, I’ve tried to put together a list of accounts, clips and people that you may not know about. I’m trying to highlight some more obscure and original content,” he says.
Like the film itself, the promo image for Thomas M Wright’s The Stranger is mesmerising and ambivalent. Is it the face of Joel Edgerton, portraying the film’s protagonist, or Sean Harris, who plays the antagonist? “And one of them is in a dream, the other in a nightmare,” Wright tells Guardian Australia.
Listen
Australia is scrapping mandatory Covid isolation, with exemptions for high-risk settings, after similar moves in the UK and other countries. This comes after the World Health Organization last month declared the end of the pandemic is “in sight” but “now is the worst time to stop running”. In today’s Full Story, epidemiologist Prof Catherine Bennett explains what Australia’s decision means for our path out of the pandemic, and disability rights activist Ashleigh Rae details how it could affect people who are vulnerable to coronavirus.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The AFL has announced a panel to investigate allegations of racism at the Hawthorn football club, but it remains unclear if the First Nations players behind the claims will participate.
Australia has beaten the West Indies in the series opening of the Twenty20 international. Aaron Finch and Matthew Wade revived Australia’s run chase before Mitchell Starc clinched the three-wicket win with a ball to spare on Wednesday in a dramatic last over of the game.
Media roundup
An emergency medical doctor has read out text messages in which he describes the state of a western Sydney hospital as “basically third world” to the parliamentary inquiry into ambulance ramping at hospitals, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. And the Financial Review brings the story of Florence, the tunnel-boring machine that has hit trouble at Snowy 2.0.
Coming up
Anthony Albanese and Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare meet.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will make an address to the Lowy Institute.
And if you’ve read this far …
A “strange and unusual” lottery draw in the Philippines that led to 433 people winning has prompted suspicion and calls for an investigation.
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