Budget night in pictures

Master builders Australia says tax changes won’t build more houses

Master builders Australia has criticised tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, and said they will decrease the number of homes built in the future.

In the budget, Treasury has speculated the changes could lead to 35,000 less homes being built over a decade.

Chief executive, Denita Wawn welcomed changes to speed up skills assessments for migrant trades workers, saying that construction workers are a key issue amongst supply.

The government’s broken promises on CGT and Negative Gearing dilutes many of the positive features of tonight’s federal budget. The opportunity that exists to turbocharge housing supply has been lost.

Budget a ‘clear shift’ on intergenerational and wealth inequality: CPD

Think tank the Centre for Policy Development says changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing announced in the budget mark a clear shift by Labor toward addressing intergenerational and wealth inequality, as well as prioritising a more resilient economy.

Research director Warwick Smith said:

While the housing affordability crisis is complex—and much more needs to be done—these reforms are a necessary and welcome intervention.

While the housing affordability crisis is complex—and much more needs to be done—these reforms are a necessary and welcome intervention.

MYOB welcomes tax plans for small business in the federal budget

Small business software provider MYOB says the federal government has brought key changes needed for the sector, including making the $20,000 instant asset write-off provisions permanent.

Small business operators and their advocates have been calling for the move for years.

Chief executive Paul Robson said MYOB’s research ahead of Tuesday night showed tax relief was among the top priorities for small business owners.

This is a practical reform that gives small and medium businesses greater certainty to invest in the tools and equipment they need to improve productivity, modernise operations and remain competitive.

We also welcome the announcement of the two-year loss carry back measure, which will provide valuable support for businesses facing fluctuating conditions.

Allowing businesses to offset current losses against previous profits can help small and medium enterprises manage uncertainty, maintain investment and retain staff during more challenging periods.

The 2026 budget winners and losers

There’s plenty to chew on from this budget – despite us having known much of its contents before today.

So who wins and who loses?

My colleagues Sarah Basford Canales and Luca Ittimani have the low down:

The business council of Australia (BCA) has given the thumbs up to the governments productivity and resilience measures in the budget, but they’re not happy about the negative gearing and CGT changes.

Chief executive, Bran Black says he’s also pleased that the government did not introduce a gas export tax.

In a statement, he said that reducing regulatory costs by more than $10bn a year is a “most welcome step”.

The Budget contains welcome resilience announcements and several important reforms long advocated by the BCA to lift business investment and living standards …

We remain concerned about the complexity and net impact of changes to CGT and negative gearing in terms of making Australia a less desirable place for investment, as well as implications for housing supply.

Ratings agency says budget does little to improve bottom line

S&P Global Ratings says the “ambitious” tax and spending changes in tonight’s budget do little to improve the budget bottom line, despite a $34.5bn boost to tax revenue over five years thanks in large part to higher commodity prices.

As the commonwealth approaches the “politically sensitive” $1 trillion debt threshold, the ratings agency questioned whether the government would be able to plan to slash NDIS spending by nearly $38bn over four years.

This limited spending growth to 2% a year, the S&P analysts noted, “would mark a dramatic turnaround” from the average 24% growth rate between 2020 and 2024.

“Fiscal performance is sound at the central-government level,” they noted, but then pointed to big-spending state governments, which could make it harder for the Reserve Bank to bring inflation back under control.

Then there were the extra billions heading into “off budget” items.

Media attention will gravitate toward Canberra’s preferred measure, the ‘underlying’ cash balance.

This metric excludes cash outflows in the form of loans or equity injections into off-budget vehicles such as the Clean Energy Finance and National Reconstruction Fund.

Such expenditure is rising, as industrial policy comes back into vogue, and could average about $24 billion per year.

‘Fallacy’, Joyce doubts home ownership benefit from budget

Barnaby Joyce says that changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax are “destroying the inspiration” Australians.

He’s also speaking to the ABC, and says that the system has historically incentivised and rewarded investment and entrepreneurship.

He also doubts the impact that the tax changes will have on first home buyers being able to enter the market. The government’s figures say that the changes will help get 75,000 Australians into home ownership.

Anyone who starts from nothing, works on the premise one of the great fruits is that late their they sell the business, the entrepreneurship for a substantial capital gain.

As far as you go with houses, this fallacy that there are a range of people out there only renting because they wanted to. [That] they are undercover first home buyers and renting because they wanted to. Now they brought in the change, they will become first home buyers. No they won’t.

Budget changes ‘won’t fix the housing crisis’, Waters

Greens leader Larissa Waters isn’t happy with the budget, accusing the government of favouring wealthy people and corporations.

She tells the ABC that grandfathering the changes “bakes in” existing inequality in the system.

This budget keeps in place of those property investor tax perks, and it does nothing for renters. So this was a real opportunity for the government to actually step up and help people, and instead, they’ve delivered a budget that simply feathers the nest of wealthy corporations and the 1%.

The fact that they’ve grandfathered in the existing unfair tax settings simply means that they’re baking that inequality in.

She says that her party will look at the finer details of the legislation, but laments that the government didn’t take the opportunity to tax corporations more – particularly the gas and resources sector.

Concerns over impact of CGT changes on start ups

Independent MP, Allegra Spender, who’s been a big advocate for tax reform, says she’s supportive of the government’s changes to negative gearing and discretionary trusts.

But she’s worried about the impact that the changes to capital gains tax will have on people investing in start ups.

She tells the ABC:

I do support reducing capital gains tax discounts but there’s some legitimate, genuinely legitimate concerns from particularly founders and early stage ventures who are asking how it might affect those groups?

Earlier on the program, budget guru Chris Richardson says that the change is “rough if you made big bucks with your start-up.”

You don’t want to discourage people from taking risk.

‘I’d be very happy doing this job till the end of the government’, Chalmers says

Jumping back to Jim Chalmers’ interview on Sky News, he’s asked whether he feels the pressure to land this budget, if he wants to be PM one day.

Like almost every other treasurer (Paul Keating, Peter Costello, you name it), you could pretty easily guess that Chalmers has his eyes on the top job – just check out his social media profile!

But Chalmers, like every politician, acts coy, and says he’s happy just where he is.

I’d be very happy doing this job till the end of the government. Very, very happy with that. That’s the first point. Second point is, I don’t see it in personal terms. I take responsibility for the decisions in the budget. I’m proud of the decisions that we’ve taken in the budget. This is about lifting living standards for every Australian. It’s not about me or anyone else.

More money to speed up environmental approvals

Much of the focus of this year’s environment budget is on reforms to Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which passed the parliament in November.

The number of measures aimed at simplifying or speeding up the environmental approval process for developers stands out.

For example:

• $47.6m over four years to progress bilateral agreements that would allow state and territory governments to take on federal decision-making responsibilities under national environmental laws (announced by Anthony Albanese at a recent mining conference in Western Australia).

• $105.9m over four years for the environment department to modernise its data systems, including through the use of AI. The government says this will “enable simpler, faster environmental approvals” and improve access to reliable information.

One of the perceived wins for conservation groups out of last year’s reforms was that native forest logging covered by regional forest agreements would be subject to new national environmental standards – removing an effective exemption from national nature laws for these operations.

There’s $28m to set up this new regime. It will fund federal departments to work with affected states to “develop landscape‐scale approval pathways to allow existing forestry operations under Regional Forest Agreements to continue under the reformed environmental laws”.

What’s in the budget for the environment?

A key plank of last year’s nature law reforms was the commitment to establish a national environmental protection agency. The agency is due to be operational on 1 July, with $250m over two years for its establishment and a workforce of 698.

The department of climate change, energy, environment and water will be expected to save $2.2bn over 14 years, largely by redirecting unspent money from existing programs, including hydrogen schemes under the Future Made in Australia program. The Australian Conservation Foundation has responded with strong criticism, describing it as the most significant cut to climate and environment programs since the Albanese government was first elected in 2022.

In energy, there’s $143m over five years for consumer programs to support the energy transition, $40m over four years for more kerbside electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the regions, and $40.5m in 2026-27 to accelerate the electrification of Australia Post’s delivery fleet.

There were concerns about the status of the Saving Native Species program, which funds conservation measures for threatened species.

Its funding was due to expire this year but has been extended with $110.8m over two years, $11.2m of which is for responding to incursions of the deadly strain of avian influenza. It’s a welcome “lifeline” said Jack Gough of the Invasive Species Council but - as per previous budgets - “nowhere near what’s needed to make the sort of transformational changes to the environment that we need”.

There’s also $21.1m over four years for activities related to water reform - which we can expect to hear more about as the government reviews the Murray Darling Basin Plan and the Water Act.

Crackdown on people weaponising the child support system

Within the budget is $183m to stop the child support system being weaponised, and protect parents and children from financial abuse.

There is now more than $1.9bn of unpaid child support in Australia. There are also almost 100,000 parents and carers in the child support system who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing family and domestic violence.

The money will go towards supporting parents entering the child support system to better collect child support, making it harder to avoid or delay making child support payments and prosecuting more people who don’t lodge their tax returns to avoid paying child support.

The government says it will introduce reforms to make the changes in coming months.

Chalmers defends budget spending, says Labor has found ‘historic’ savings

Jim Chalmers says that the government is not making the Reserve Bank’s job harder and adding to public demand with the level of spending in the budget.

The treasurer has shuffled down the press gallery corridor to speak with Sky News next.

Host, Keiran Gilbert says that the government has tipped $18.3bn more into the budget since Myefo – but Chalmers refutes that that is fuelling inflation.

If you look at the Treasury advice that we present in the Budget papers, they make it really clear we’re taking the pressure off inflation.

We’re finding an historic amount of savings. We’re getting the budget bottom line in better nick in every year, including this year, we’re getting spending as a share of the economy down from close to 27 at the start of the forward estimates to close to 26 by the end of the forward.

Wilson criticises Labor’s fifth budget, opposition won’t back negative gearing or CGT changes

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson says that the opposition set “three basic tests” – to restore living standards, improve Australia’s security and honest, and claims the government failed all three.

Wilson says the biggest problem is the lack of houses being built across the country, with 35,000 less homes being built over the decade.

He’s sitting in the hot seat on 730 with Sarah Ferguson after the treasurer, he says the opposition won’t support the capital gains tax, discretionary trusts or negative gearing changes.

But Ferguson picks him up on the $250 working Australians offset and asks if the opposition will support that. You might remember that the opposition found itself in hot water last year went it promised to rewind a small tax cut that the government promised in the last budget.

Wilson says:

We do support this measure because ultimately Australians need to be able to be protected from the consequences of Jim Chalmers’ inflation agenda. Every time the government puts forward a measure like that, it’s outstripped by inflation.

Government loses $1.3bn in revenue from tobacco excise

The tobacco black market is well and truly dominant, with the government suffering due to a loss in tax payments.

The budget says that due to an explosive black market (that obviously skirts the tobacco excise) it’s down $1.3bn over the financial year – even just compared with the December Myefo – dropping from $5.45bn to $4.13bn.

The budget also says the impact of the loss of tobacco excise will hit $8bn over the next five years.

It’s a problem the government has been warned of – and while there’s $14m in the budget to help the states “disrupt the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette markets”, they haven’t taken any more significant measures to curb the loss.

Climate Council says budget continues ‘gravy train’ for fossil fuel

The Climate Council says the budget gives the fossil fuel industry “a massive free kick” while leaving Australians exposed to global energy spikes and climate harm.

They say the budget maintains $19bn in annual subsidies and forgone tax revenue with gas export taxes remaining unchanged.

Chief executive Amanda McKenzie says:

This budget maintains the $19bn gravy train for big fossil fuel corporations. That is $19bn in the wrong direction, keeping us tied to foreign oil, rather than supporting the expansion of renewable energy solutions that Australians want to deliver a safer, cleaner, more secure energy future.

People all over the country are clamouring for a broad scale shift to cleaner, more secure solutions like rooftop solar and electric vehicles, which give us control over our own energy. Unfortunately, this budget leaves too many Australians wanting.

ACTU says tax changes ‘rebalance the scales’

The Australian Council of Trade Unions say the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax “rebalance the scales in favour of young people and workers”.

Investment properties bought after 7.30pm on budget night 2026 will no longer be able to be negatively geared from 1 July 2027 with a few exceptions: new builds and some government housing programs open to investors.

From 1 July 2027, the 50% CGT discount will be replaced by a system known as cost-base indexation, covering assets held for more than 12 months.

The peak union body welcomed the winding back of both Howard-era policies that “privileged investors and professional landlords”.

The ACTU’s president, Michele O’Neil, said:

This is a budget that finally tackles a system that’s been taxing work harder than taxing wealth.

This budget marks a shift that gives workers a fairer shot at housing stability through tax changes that will start to rebalance the rules.

It’s important to put housing back within reach for working people who have been locked out of affordable housing near where they live and work.

The reforms will help working families that have been pushed further away from their communities and whose rents and house prices are increasing faster than wages.

‘Heavy lifting on budget repair’ from spending restraint, Chalmers says

Chalmers and Gallagher have pulled together more than $60bn in savings in this budget – the majority of that from significant cuts to the NDIS.

The treasurer tells 730 that contribution is far more than the revenue raised from tax reforms.

By the end of that 10 year period, the contribution of savings is three times the contribution of our tax reform. So once again, the heavy lifting on budget repair is being done by spending restraint and savings in the budget in important areas like the NDIS.

We couldn’t sit by and let NDIS costs blow out to the extent that they were.

You can read more about the changes to the NDIS here:

Why did it take a war in the Middle East to make these significant tax changes?

Host, Sarah Ferguson puts that valid question to Chalmers – because we’ve known that the balance has been skewed against younger Australians for a while now (and there have been plenty of advocates and experts making the case for change).

On that, Chalmers says the decision was made in recent weeks.

It’s another year of too many people getting locked out of the market.

We became increasingly of the view that some of these other challenges which go beyond supply, they go to the composition of the market. They go to the fact that tax policy settings have had, I think, a negative impact on the housing market.

There’s also the question of integrity – and the fact that the government did a 180 on its previous promises not to touch the incentives. Chalmers says he doesn’t think people will be “focused” more on the positive impact of the policy decision.

I think people will be most focused on the positive change that we’re making in the tax system and in the housing market. It has obviously involved a level of political risk because we’ve come to a different view

Labor came to a ‘different view’ after promising not to touch negative gearing

Jim Chalmers says that the government’s focus on supply is the beginning of the challenge and not the end, while justifying Labor’s decision to break its promise to not touch negative gearing or capital gains tax.

It is a sticky issue for the government who were at pains to previously rule out changes to those tax incentives that have overwhelmingly benefited wealthy Australians.

Speaking to the ABC’s 730 program, Chalmers says that in the space of a couple of year the government has admittedly come to a “different view about some really important policy areas.”

The comments and commitments we made at the election reflected the government’s almost singular focus on housing supply. We’re maintaining that focus on supply, but the challenge begins there. It doesn’t end there with supply. We also need to take these decisive steps, these contentious steps to rebalance the tax system.

Having completed his speech, Jim Chalmers is running up to the press gallery where he’ll face a grilling by journalists.

He and finance minister already visited each of the press gallery offices and did a quick press conference during the lock up – and he’ll be back for even more.

We’ll bring you those interviews as they happen.

You can read the whole budget outlook from my colleague and our economics editor, Patrick Commins, here:

And if you want a breakdown of what the changes are to negative gearing, capital gains tax and discretionary trusts – and what their impacts will be - our excellent political editor, Tom McIlroy has you covered:

After all that, there’s no gas tax

Despite all the public outcry and outrage over the government’s beer excise claiming more revenue than the petroleum resource rent tax, the government decided not to put a tax on gas exports.

In fact, the PRRT is actually estimated to claim less this year than forecast in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook released in December.

In the financial year 2025-26, the government will get $1.4bn of revenue from the PRRT, $100m less than forecast in the Myefo.

In the coming financial year, 2026-27, that increases to a take of $1.9bn, a $400m improvement from Myefo, but still just a tad more than what was forecast in last year’s budget (and it’s in the context of a global fuel crisis).

And while we keep making comparisons to the beer tax, that excise is anticipated to raise $3.56bn in the 2026-27 financial year.

The PRRT revenue over the years following gets smaller – so you can expect the political pressure on the government to get more revenue from the gas companies to continue.

Teal MP welcomes negative gearing and CGT changes

Independent MPs Sophie Scamps has welcomed key measures in Tuesday night’s budget, including moves to make the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing rules less generous.

“For too many young Australians, the dream of owning a home has become a pipe dream,” she said.

This long-overdue housing tax reform is a critical step toward tackling intergenerational inequality and giving the next generation a fair shot at housing and greater hope for the future.”

But Scamps, the Mackellar MP, said Australians had been dudded on the government’s refusal to increase tax on gas exports.

Australians around the country tonight will be rightly angry that multinational gas companies will continue to make extraordinary profits from our resources while families here are struggling with cost-of-living pressures.

Yet again, big multinational corporations have been put ahead of everyday Aussies.

Other countries make sure their people get a fair return from their natural resources, and Australia must too. This must change.

What is Treasury’s worst-case scenario?

Things are looking pretty dire under Treasury’s economic worst-case scenario modelling, which would see inflation peak above 7% by the end of this year. Unemployment would also spike to more than 5%.

You might remember Jim Chalmers saying the Treasury had to modify its forecasts because the economic situation was a lot worse than originally anticipated. They’ve given us a bit of a flavour of that forecast here.

The scenario says the economy would shrink for one quarter, which means Australia would be edging towards recession – but don’t spill your drink quite yet, it takes two quarters of negative growth (ie, the economy shrinking) for a recession to be declared.

The price of oil has been sitting around US$100 a barrel, but in that scenario, it would hit US$200 a barrel – which would have a drastic impact on the price of fuel and other essential goods like fertilisers.

Chalmers says:

Treasury also presents a more severe scenario where the oil price peaks at $200 and takes three years to fall back down. We would still avoid a recession, but unemployment would spike to pre-pandemic levels and inflation would peak above 7 per cent. As Australians, we confront these serious challenges together from a position of strength.

Chalmers says budget has $63.8bn in savings

While there will be more revenue coming in from changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, Jim Chalmers says the budget has also found $63.8bn in savings.

The lion’s share of that is from major cuts announced last month to the national disability insurance scheme, which will save the budget $36.2bn over the forward estimates. This is also a big political risk for the government, with 160,000 people to be kicked off the scheme from 2028 and concerns that some won’t get the support they need.

Chalmers says the government has also exercised spending restraint in this budget to help stabilise the country against current and future shocks.

Ending the address, he says this budget fulfils the government’s obligations and responsibilities for the generations to come.

Faced with a choice between resilience or reform, this budget demonstrates our government and our country are capable of both.

Tonight, we choose the hard road of reform, not the path of least resistance.

ACOSS welcomes tax reform, but criticises lack of help for Australians on income support

The Australian council of social services says the government deserves credit for addressing inequities in the tax system.

But it says the government has made the wrong decision by leaving out people receiving income support from the $250 tax offset.

Its chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, says she is also deeply concerned about the impact of the “deep cuts” coming for the NDIS, and that people with disabilities must be at the centre of reforms.

This is a reforming budget that addresses inequities in the tax system, helps reduce home prices, boosts productivity and kicks off a transformation of our failing employment services system.

The government has made the wrong decision to prioritise another income tax cut to people who are in paid work, right up the income scale, costing the budget $3bn in the first year. The WATO (working Australians tax offset) does not help the more than 4 million people on the lowest incomes in the country who are bearing the brunt of higher unemployment and living costs.

Greens says housing tax changes ‘tinkering around the edges’

The Greens say the federal government’s proposed changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount are “tinkering around the edges” of a broken housing system.

The minor party also criticised the government for resisting pressure to introduce a gas export tax, claiming Labor has chosen “corporate profits over people”.

In a statement responding to Jim Chalmers’ budget, the Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said:

Tinkering around the edges of a broken system and spending billions for corporations and the 1%: that will be the legacy of the Albanese-Labor government.

Labor should have used this budget to claw back the obscene profits of big corporations to pay for the things we all need. Instead they’re leaving $17bn a year in the pockets of big gas corporations.

The bird’s-eye numbers from the budget papers

In 2026-27 the budget is forecast to produce a deficit of $31.5bn. It’s a far cry from the two budget surpluses recorded in Labor’s first term.

Gross debt – which is the biggest debt number – is forecast to hit $982bn this financial year. But Jim Chalmers says this will peak lower and peak earlier, and is “lower in every year for the next 11 years”.

We also have some updated immigration numbers. The government has previously announced that the permanent migration intake would remain steady at 185,000 a year, while net overseas migration (the number of people arriving in Australia minus those leaving) is forecast to drop.

The last financial year of 2024-25 saw the NOM at 305,000; this financial year it’s expected to drop to 295,000, and the 2026-27 financial year it’s forecast to drop even further to 245,000.

‘Budget of broken promises’ says opposition

We’re getting a flood of reaction to the budget as the treasurer continues his address in the House.

Seeing that we knew pretty much everything in the budget before it was printed, we’ve also already heard plenty of criticism of the measures (before they were officially announced).

Shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, calls it a “budget of broken promises”, and is particularly scathing of the impact the tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains will have on young people who want to buy an investment to get a foothold into the property market.

This is a budget of broken promises, higher taxes, lower living standards and fewer homes.

This budget is taking from the future to feed Labor’s spending addiction today by taxing growth and opportunity, and adding more debt.

It fails Australia’s future economy and has failed the basic test of restoring honesty, Australia’s security and living standards. It pulls the ladder of opportunity up from young Australians before they get their first foot on the rung.

$250 tax offset for working Australians

Every working Australian will receive a $250 tax offset each year, ongoing and automatically in your tax return from the second half of next year, Jim Chalmers says.

This might have been the final big announcement that the government was hoping to keep under wraps – but it was leaked to the media last week.

The tax offset will cost the budget $6.4bn, and is the “biggest cost-of-living measure in this budget”, Chalmers says:

This offset is targeted to workers and represents the most meaningful, permanent increase to the effective tax-free threshold since Labor last increased it more than a decade ago.

The war has exposed weaknesses and intensified longstanding domestic challenges, Chalmers says

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has begun his fifth budget address and is focusing on the impact of the war in the Middle East.

The conflict – which has had a huge impact across the globe – has increased inflation after the government was hoping the pressure was over.

Chalmers says the war has been pushing up prices, pushing down growth, and punishing Australians.

This is the most important and ambitious budget in decades. Important because the world is throwing a lot at us and this Budget is about helping Australia deal with those challenges, and ambitious because we have so much going for us, and this Budget is about Australia seizing those opportunities.

It has exposed weaknesses in the global economy and intensified longstanding challenges here at home.

We didn’t decide when this war began and have no control over when it will properly end. But how we respond is up to us.

Meanwhile, as political reporter, Josh Butler, notes, the Labor government decided to release its contentious, much-delayed response to Peta Murphy’s report on gambling on one of the biggest political news days of the year.

They dropped it while the nation’s federal political journalists were trapped in budget lockup. Which is convenient, if they were trying to bury the report.

Read his analysis here:

Journalists await their release from the budget lockup

To those new to budget night, journalists lucky enough to gain access to the hundreds of papers today will remain in lock up until 7.30pm AEST, when they are released from their six hours of captivity and the treasurer gives his budget speech.

As Jim Chalmer’s speech airs live, the stories they’ve spent today diligently working on – without mobile or internet access – are also released from embargo. Until then, many of the announcements have already been made, which you can read about in our handy explainer.

This morning, Chalmers conceded the housing market and tax system is “not working for a lot of Australians”, which he vowed would be addressed in the Labor government’s fifth budget.

But whether changing tax rules for investors, as Labor have flagged, will shrink housing supply or raise rents remains to be seen.

I will now hand the live blog to Krishani Dhanji as we get ready for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to begin delivering his budget speech at 7.30pm AEST.

Fortescue ordered to pay $150m in compensation to traditional owners

Mining company Fortescue has been ordered to pay $150m in compensation to traditional owners over cultural losses caused by the multi-billion dollar Solomon Hub iron ore mine – the largest compensation payout in native title history.

The mine, which has extracted millions of tonnes of iron ore and generated an estimated $80bn in revenue for Fortescue since operations began in 2013, was approved by the Western Australian government without the consent of the Yindjibarndi traditional owners.

Read more:

‘No agency’ and ‘no authenticity’ in halls of parliament, Fatima Payman says

The independent senator for Western Australia is also appearing at the Democracy in Colour webinar on racism. She says her time in politics has been a “tough journey” being the only hijab-wearing parliamentarian.

She says she realised the “tokenism that exists” in the halls of parliament upon being elected under a Labor ticket.

There is no authenticity, there is no agency, and the social license that’s given to certain politicians within that space to say what they want without realising the ramifications and implications it will have … really give the green light to the least adjusted Australians out there to use it.

Payman says she hadn’t received the levels of racism and Islamophobia as she did when crossing the floor against the Labor party, and reiterates her calls, alongside other colleagues of colour, for anti-racism training to be mandatory for politicians.

Senator Lidia Thorpe, Mehreen Faruqi and I have been quite vocal lately … about the death threats we’ve been receiving, the lack of understanding the AFP originally showed.

She also highlights One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s stunt to enter parliament with a burqa, as she did back in 2017, as “just horrendous”.

To see the lack of leadership from the government … gave Pauline Hanson the oxygen she was craving for.

Migrants ‘blamed for everything’ in Australia, race discrimination commissioner says

The race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman says migrants are being “blamed for everything” in Australia in the absence of facing more “courageous and difficult solutions” to the cost of living and housing crisis.

Appearing at a Democracy in Colour session titled Racism out of Politics on Tuesday evening, he says Australia has a “structural problem” with racism, pointing to a recent survey which found two-thirds of migrant workers reported being exploited, some of them severely so.

Migrants and the targeting of migrants is one example of that … That happens in part because they are not white. Because they are of different racial backgrounds and they’re dehumanised …

Migrants are being blamed for everything, from not being able to buy a house, to the cost of milk going up, to being stuck in traffic. And at the same time … they’re being exploited, so we can all enjoy the lifestyles that we have.

That blaming of migrants is just avoiding coming up with more courageous and difficult solutions, like tax reform, housing policy reform … All of this is aided and abetted by misinformation online … because racism is profitable for social media platforms.

He adds political rhetoric contributes to this as well, including racism parliamentarians have been subjected to themselves.

Government timing on Murphy report response ‘disappointing’, Costello says

The leading advocate for gambling reform, Tim Costello, says it is “very disappointing” for the government to release its response to the Peta Murphy report on gambling reform when most senior journalists are in budget lockup, when the government is only tackling four of the 31 recommendations in the report.

He told the ABC there will still be gambling ads in family-friendly shows like MasterChef and Lego Masters.

Reducing the saturation of ads, reducing it from eight ads an hour to three ads and our, would we say we cigarette ads down to just three and our job done?

He said it was disturbing that 600,000 12-to-17-year olds in Australia gambled last year, which was more than playing basketball and soccer combined.

He said the prime minister saying the balance is right “is embarrassing” as no one was stopping adults having a punt.

Costello said children are not being protected “in the interests of foreign multinational sports betting companies”.

Abbie Chatfield apologises for 2025 video after partner refused re-entry to US

Australian musician Keli Holiday was forced to cut short a US tour after officials stopped him from re-entering the country, with his partner, Abbie Chatfield, posting a lengthy apology about a joke she made about violent revolution almost a year ago.

On Friday, Holiday claimed he tried to return to the US for a show in New York, but was “detained” at the border “despite having the proper visa documentation”.

A spokesperson for Holiday stated that he was not given a reason by US authorities about why his visa had been cancelled and that this was still the case.

On Tuesday Chatfield shared a 10-minute long apology about a video she made in 2025, saying it had “come back to haunt me” and that Holiday had not even been aware of it.

In the 2025 video, Chatfield joked about Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, and the romantic attention he had subsequently received from women.

In the video Chatfield joked that “incels” should “start a revolution” if they wanted to “get pussy” like Mangione.

On Tuesday, Chatfield said the joke had been subsequently “warped” by media outlets who she said had framed her joke as a call for political violence against US president Donald Trump.

People have said that I called for the assassination of Trump. I do not want that to happen. I want to be clear. I do not believe political assassinations are positive for anybody.

I disagree with Trump’s policy, his views, all these things, but I never said his name in that video, I never said it was about him. I never called for the assassination of him. This was a punchline that was meant to be about incels and the bizarre reaction to Luigi Mangione.

Chatfield did not expressly link her apology with the entry refusal.

Guardian Australia has sought clarification if Chatfield’s social media activity was a factor in the decision.

Price’s plea to end ‘racism of low expectations’

Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says Australia can no longer “hide behind race” as she issued an emotional plea for change after the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby.

With tears welling in her eyes and her voice breaking, the NT senator paid tribute to her five-year-old niece, who was found dead in scrubland near Alice Springs on 30 April.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with her murder and has yet to enter a plea.

The Liberal senator on Tuesday said: “We cannot continue hiding behind race”.

We cannot continue pretending that lowering expectations for Aboriginal children is compassion.

It’s not compassion, it’s neglect. It’s the racism of low expectations.

Children deserve safety before ideology. Most of all, we need courage.

The senator’s plea for action contrasted with that of outspoken independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who said the girl’s family did not want her death to be politicised.

Price said she didn’t want parliament to offer its condolences while “refusing to confront the conditions that made those condolences necessary in the first place”.

“I want this parliament to put aside our political differences and stand up for what’s right for our children,” she said.

–AAP

Read more:

Eight in 10 Jewish Australian women have been exposed to antisemitism since 7 October 2023, survey finds

About 80% of Jewish Australian women say that they or an immediate family member has experienced antisemitism since 7 October 2023, a national survey has found, and one in five have been exposed to physical violence or verbal abuse.

The survey, released by the National Council of Jewish Women Australia (NCJWA) as the royal commission into antisemitism hears testimony from witnesses, was conducted over eight months using the International Holocaust Remembrance (IHRA) definition and heard from 668 women.

It found in addition to the lived experience of Jew hatred, around half the women surveyed had made changes to their daily lives because of vilification they had faced, including direct threats, antisemitic tropes and doxing and 43% were accused of being modern-day Nazis.

One survey participant said they had received death threats by phone and online, while others said their children had been bullied at school, including facing physical violence and antisemitic slurs. A survivor of the Chanukah terror attack said a post they made online about their experience “attracted cruelty and racism”.

President of the NCJWA, Lynda Ben-Menashe, said antisemitism affecting Jewish Australian women was “widespread”.

It is incredibly sad to find that so many Jewish Australian women are thinking about leaving this place which once was our haven … Jews are the canary in the mine of any population: throughout history we’ve seen that when Jewish citizens are targeted it’s a sign that social cohesion is fraying and fractured.

Union proposes package to WiseTech for AI job cuts

Last week, Guardian Australia reported that staff at the ASX-listed software company WiseTech had been waiting several months to learn if they are among the 2,000 of 7,000 staff to be cut from the company as a result of AI advancements.

The union representing the sector, Professionals Australia, has told Guardian Australia on Tuesday that it has put a redundancy package to WiseTech management since our report.

Professionals Australia director, Paul Inglis said:

Professionals Australia has put forward a redundancy package that reflects the scale of this decision, including enhanced redundancy payments, additional pay based on years of service, protection of share and equity entitlements, waiver of clawback obligations and access to outplacement and retraining support.

He said employees had “serious doubts” on whether AI systems are capable of reliably performing the full scope of work undertaken by employees whose roles are being cut

Workers are concerned that experience, judgement, accountability, and deep technical knowledge are being undervalued in decisions driven by short-term cost reduction and AI hype.

We are also increasingly concerned about the psychosocial health and safety impacts of a redundancy process that has now stretched across several months with ongoing uncertainty for employees.

Workers have described significant stress, anxiety and fear about their future, their workloads and whether they will still have jobs from week to week.

He said there are real human consequences when workers are left in limbo.

Australian technology professionals helped build this company and continue to underpin its success to this day and they deserve to be treated with the utmost respect.

WiseTech was approached for comment.

Liberal deputy leader suggests party could vote against CGT changes

Jane Hume has indicated the party could vote down expected changes to negative gearing and capital gains taxes in tonight’s budget.

Hume told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that the party’s instinct “will always be to vote against higher taxes”.

Higher taxes mean you get less of something, we want to see more houses, not fewer.

We instinctively will say if this is just a tax grab, a cash grab, because the Labor government cash-strapped, well, that is not something we can support.

Asked if a future Coalition government would repeal it, Hume said we would have to wait and see for opposition leader Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech on Thursday night.

We want to see more productivity injected into the economy so that we can grow the economy and everybody can benefit.

This idea of pitting one group, one demographic, against other demographic, we don’t think that is a recipe for not just economic growth, but a better society.

‘Hard not to be cynical’ of timing of government response to gambling report, Chaney says

Independent MP Kate Chaney has said it is hard not to be cynical about the government delivering its full response to the Peta Murphy inquiry report on gambling reform in parliament while most of the country’s political journalists are in budget lockup.

She told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that it took 1051 days for the full response, and “literally most of the political journalists in the country are locked up, so it’s hard not to be cynical about the government not wanting to draw attention to this.”

She said the reform package refers to at best three or four of the total recommendations.

Chaney said the issue is not neutralised, given polling suggests that three out of four Australians want a total ban on online gambling advertisements.

These things take time, but there is no doubt it is directionally correct to move towards a total phaseout.

On the Farrer byelection, Chaney says the Liberal party preferencing One Nation “will not go down well in my electorate”.

It is a sign that the Liberal party really doesn’t know who they are, and seem to be shifting more to the right, which will not be popular in seats.

Times are changing, but the one thing that isn’t changing is we are seeing a continuation of that long-term decline in support for the major parties.

One Nation gas proposal an ‘equity stake’, Joyce says

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce says Pauline Hanson’s proposal on gas is not a tax – as some have called for – but an equity stake for the government.

He said the government would be “equity partners” with the gas companies, and would make money from the gas they sell.

He told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:

It’s like me saying well if I am a 30% owner of your pie shop am I entitled to 30% of the profits if we make money?

Yes, you are, because you’re 30% owner of a pie shop.

It gives the people a chance to have a real asset on the balance sheet.

He said the Australian people want a better return, and an equity partnership is the best way to go.

Botched Bass Strait ferries $717m over budget

A bungled delivery of two Bass Strait ferries, in which the vessels were finished before a berth was ready, has cost $717mn more than an original business case, AAP reports.

And the overall cost to taxpayers will be even higher, with bailout money and the price tag for ongoing temporary berths not included in the figure.

The new, bigger, Spirit of Tasmania ships are expected to begin operating between the island state and Victoria in October, years behind the original schedule.

In 2024 the Tasmanian government and state-owned ferry operator TT-Line were left red-faced when it was revealed a new, larger, berth in Devonport would not be ready in time for the vessels.

TT-Line chair Ken Kanofski on Tuesday told a parliamentary committee examining the project, which began in 2018, that its cost overrun was $717m.

The figure includes a rise in the new Devonport berth build, from $90m to $493m, announced in 2025.

The $717m does not include the costs to keep the new ferries in berths while they await the completion of the new berth.

It cost roughly $6m to berth Spirit of Tasmania IV in Scotland for several months – both new vessels are now being held in Australian ports.

TT-Line also received a $75m cash injection from the state government in November.

It appears likely to get further money from the state government when the 2026/27 budget is delivered on 21 May.

TT-Line has put its financial position to the state government but neither the company or government ministers have speculated on whether more money is on the way.

Datacentres could be forced to invest in new solar and wind generation

Power hungry datacentres that are growing to meet the energy demand of artificial intelligence could be forced to invest in enough new solar and wind generation to completely cover their electricity needs.

State and federal energy ministers agreed at a meeting last week that datacentres across the country should “fully offset” their electricity demand through investments in new renewable generation and energy storage.

The push, backed by all ministers except Queensland’s, also said datacentres should provide “demand flexibility services” – steps that allow a datacentre to control the amount of electricity being drawn from the network.

Brisbane mayor halts plans for Airbnb permits; opposition calls it ‘total capitulation at the expense of renters’

Brisbane mayor Adrian Schrinner has halted a plan to require a permit to rent a house on Airbnb “at this time”.

The policy has been three years in the works. A taskforce established in 2023 recommended in 2024 that a property should only be allowed to be rented on the short-stay market with planning approval, the support of its body corporate and a 24-7 property manager.

Schrinner told a Brisbane City Council meeting on Tuesday that the idea would “not proceed at this time,” blaming the federal budget, which he said is expected to include changes to property taxes, and rising interest rates.

He said just 1% of Brisbane homes were used for short-term accommodation, and they represented just 100 complaints in the last 12 months.

Consultation revealed that short-stay accommodation services provide a broader purpose over and above tourism.

You will not tax your way out of a housing crisis and you will not regulate your way out of a housing crisis. Only building new homes will change this.

Council opposition leader Jared Cassidy accused the mayor of “total capitulation to the short-stay accommodation industry at the expense of renters”.

Considerable time and money have gone into these reforms, and it’s all been for nothing.

This LNP council’s earlier reforms promised more than 300 new rentals would go back into the market. That hasn’t happened. Now the lord mayor is using the federal budget as cover to admit his failure.

Users report issues with Google search

Google search seemed to be suffering intermittent issues this afternoon, with a massive spike in user reports to the tracking website DownDetector.

It seems to have resolved after about half an hour, and Google’s status page doesn’t appear to note any issues.

We’ll keep you posted if it keeps happening, but a mild moment of panic for users across the world.

That’s all from me. Josh Taylor will be your guide into the evening. Take care.

Albanese pledges budget will help make Australia ‘even more resilient’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking during question time ahead of the release of the budget later tonight.

He says the budget is focused on making the economy “even more resilient”, pointing to plans to increase Australia’s fuel reserve and his efforts across the world to secure fuel shipments for the nation. He said:

All we can do is to put in place every measure at our disposal, to protect Australia’s national interest, that’s what I’ve been doing.

Albanese has also been facing questions about plans to slash the capital gains tax discount and how Australians can trust the Labor government. The prime minister responded to a question from Angus Taylor, saying:

Our budget tonight will build on everything that Australia is doing to shield Australia from the worst of the global fuel crisis, but also to ensure that we come out the other side a stronger, fairer, more resilient economy.

Our budget will be true to Labor values and Australian values: fairness and aspiration as we go forward.

X marks the spot for far-right views, hate expert tells royal commission

Social media platform X has been called out in the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion for being a safe haven for far-right views.

Online hate expert Andrew Oboler from La Trobe University said the platform had morphed, now behaving like other far-right social media sites, where there are no safe speech guardrails.

He told the commission:

The platform that had the most antisemitism – that contributed the most to that aggregated data – was Gab, which is a far right platform. It’s a platform that a lot of people, for example, went to after the insurrection in the US.

There is a physical limit on how much data you can actually process in an hour. And I would say Gab is probably approaching that limit in this sample.

Those platforms (are) where the far right are. There may be other people there too, but it’s where the far right lives online, and Twitter or X was really behaving very much like the far right platforms. That’s partly (because) the platform was taking an attitude of: ‘we want to be a bastion of free speech’.

Marles says Army soldier who died in accident one of ADF’s ‘finest’

Richard Marles is speaking in parliament about the Army soldier who died yesterday, saying the ADF has lost “one of its finest”.

Marles says there will be a series of investigations both “within the defence force and beyond” to determine what took place during the accident.

The defence force trains as it fights, and necessarily there is risk in defence force training. And so, Lachlan Muddle’s sacrifice is every bit as meaningful and significant as those we’ve lost on the battlefield.

Our thoughts are very much with Lachlan Muddle’s family and with his defence family.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor also paid tribute, saying Australia had lost an “honourable man and a patriot”, adding:

Our hearts break for those closest to him.

Albanese grieves for soldier killed in parachuting accident

Prime minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Lachlan Muddle, the SAS soldier killed in a training exercise yesterday.

In a statement, the PM said: “Our hearts also go out to his Army family and the broader Defence community.”

We grieve with the family and friends of Special Air Service Regiment soldier Warrant Officer Class Two Lachlan Muddle, who died yesterday in a training accident at Jervis Bay.

Another soldier sustained minor injuries and we wish him a swift and full recovery.

Albanese said the “tragic accident is a stark reminder that there are no easy days for those who defend our nation”:

We are in the debt of every Australian who serves and puts themselves on the line for all of us. May Warrant Officer Class Two Muddle live on in every heart he touched.

This marks the 30th year of Australian fashion week.

“We’re actually the only brand who was here at the first fashion week and now for the 30th,” Schuman said.

The political presence at fashion week this year extends beyond one runway show. On Monday morning, a breakfast at Kirribilli House was held for the event’s international guests, hosted by Jodie Haydon.

Clover Moore and Sophie Cotsis, NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, spoke at the event’s Welcome to Country opening. In 2025, the NSW government launched the state’s first fashion sector strategy and its funding body Create NSW is presenting two shows during the week.

Who’s who of powerful Australian women captivated by Carla Zampatti show

On budget eve, a summit’s worth of women in leadership braved inclement weather to watch the Carla Zampatti runway show on the first night of Australian fashion week. Held on the harbour side boardwalk of Sydney’s Park Hyatt hotel, guests at the open-air show included Dame Quentin Bryce, former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore alongside the late designer’s daughter, Allegra Spender.

For decades, Carla Zampatti has been the go to label for women in positions of power. Alex Schuman, CEO of Carla Zampatti and son of the brand’s eponymous founder, said the front row is as important as the runway. “We have practically every female CEO and senior politician in the country in our front row and I think that’s really part of the spectacle,” he told Guardian Australia. “It’s about what we represent for Australian women, and that’s … empowerment.”

As the crowd waited for the show to commence, the skies opened and the umbrellas came out. On the runway the rain, if anything, helped prove how practical tailoring can be. The brand’s blazers and wide legged suit pants were none the worse for wear in the weather.

“Our customers are women who are absolutely exceptional and they’ve got a busy day ahead and they trust us with their styling,” Schuman said.

Social media creators invited to budget lockup again

Social media creators and new media personalities have again been given accreditation for the budget lockup, continuing the Labor government’s trend of giving early budget access to a wider swathe of media outlets.

The budget lockup has traditionally been the domain of mainstream and major news organisations, with Guardian Australia among the press gallery outlets given embargoed access to the budget ahead of time before the treasurer gives their speech at 7.30pm. But in recent years, the Labor government has also invited new media outlets, including those predominantly publishing on social media and for a younger audience, their own version of a budget lockup in Canberra.

It caused a minor sizzle last year when it was revealed that the Labor Party had offered some financial help for expenses to some of the creators, not all of whom accepted that assistance, but popular creators defended their inclusion and said they were speaking to different audiences – including many young people who didn’t consume traditional media.

Popular news commentary platforms Cheek Media (with 233,000 Instagram followers) and Toilet Paper Australia (116,000 followers) say they will be inside a budget lockup in Canberra, while financial advice creator Natasha Etschmann (whose @TashInvests page has 193,000 fans on Instagram) has also posted about being in Canberra on budget night.

We’ve contacted the treasury department about whether creators were again offered help with covering expenses. We’re still waiting to hear back.

‘Queenslander!: Ministers urge Chalmers to back home state in federal budget

Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers shouldn’t forget his home state, according to Queensland’s minister for transport.

A string of state ministers rose in parliament this morning to lay out the government’s wishlist for tonight’s federal budget.

“Tonight, Queenslanders will be waiting with bated breath as the Federal Labor treasurer, Jim Chalmers, hands down the 2026, federal budget,” transport minister Brent Mickelberg told parliament.

And while I’d like to think that the federal treasurer, a Queenslander, won’t forget about his home state, I must admit, I’m not holding out hope.

Mickelberg accused the Commonwealth of a “sneaking walk back” of an arrangement to fund 80% of upgrades to the state’s Bruce Highway, and slashing the Queensland section of the former coalition government’s Inland Rail project in order to back the Victorian Suburban Rail Loop project.

“If the Federal Labor government gives extra billions to their Victorian Labor mates and doesn’t give extra financial support to rail projects like the wave on the Sunshine Coast or upgrades to the Mount Isa line, it will be a slap in the face for all Queenslanders,” Mickelberg said.

Meanwhile treasurer David Janetzki and premier David Crisafulli asked for a “better deal on the GST”.

“Tonight, Queenslanders will know whether Labor backs Queensland, or whether Queensland is simply on its own,” Janetzki said.

Chalmers is the most senior Queenslander in the federal cabinet.

Victorian opposition leader vows to deliver 2032 surplus

The Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, also repeated her vow from Friday to deliver a cash surplus by 2032, along with progressively lifting the payroll tax threshold for businesses and the land tax threshold for property investors. She told parliament:

Repairing the budget is how we build the strong foundation for Victoria to have a brighter future. We cannot pretend the challenges will fix themselves. We cannot keep borrowing from the future to pay for the present. We cannot keep asking Victorians to carry the burden of Labor’s debt. So let’s take a different path. Our 10-year plan will restore confidence, reduce debt, and build a stronger Victorian economy.

Unions on Friday lambasted the opposition’s economic plan, while Labor released an attack ad claiming it amounted to more than $40bn in cuts and would put one in seven public servants out of a job.

But Wilson said in her budget reply:

Anyone who tells you that a Coalition government will lay off public servants is lying to you.

The Victorian treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, earlier on Tuesday committed to releasing the details behind the government’s “$40bn black hole” calculation:

Victorians should be very worried about what the Liberal opposition have to say [in the budget reply]. They let the cat out of the bag on Friday, when they announced what we conservatively estimate as $40bn of cuts over the next five to six years. You can’t promise a net cash surplus without stopping building. You can’t promise one in seven job cuts without making devastating cuts to the public sector. Victorians deserve an explanation of where these cuts are going to come from, because $40bm is an incredible amount that will have a huge impact on everyday Victorians.

Victorian opposition leader urges voters not to fall for ‘scare campaign’

The Victorian opposition leader and shadow treasurer, Jess Wilson, has delivered her budget reply speech to state parliament, urging voters not to fall for what she calls a “scare campaign” from the government regarding her plans to reduce the size of the public service.

On Friday, Wilson announced a plan to implement an indefinite hiring freeze across all back-office public service roles if elected in November, in an effort to bring down the state’s ballooning debt. It followed last week’s state budget, which showed debt will grow from $165.3bn in June 2026 to $199.3bn in 2029-30. By then, interest payments on state debt are forecast to total $11.82bn – or $32m a day.

Wilson told the chamber the hiring freeze, which she estimates will save $22bn over 10 years, was a “necessary step” given the “massive increase” in the public service under Labor:

The Victorian public service has grown by 60% in 10 years – adding over 20,000 bureaucrats. Given our population over the same period has only increased by 19%, this is quite simply unsustainable, and this massive increase has not delivered better outcomes for the Victorian people. These savings will be achieved through natural attrition, not layoffs.

To put it in perspective, we are talking about a reduction in size of the total VPS by 2%.

Despite those opposite’s desperate and deluded scare campaign, no one is getting sacked. Existing staff have job security under a Liberal and Nationals government.

If any crew members on that charter flight remain in Australia they will also be subject to quarantine measures, Butler said.

It’s unclear what plane and crew will work on the flight to repatriate the cruise ship passengers, but the health minister said he’s confident they’ll have a plan in place in the next 48 hours.

Health minister provides update on repatriation plans for those from hantavirus ship

The health minister, Mark Butler, is speaking about the hantavirus situation as Australia works to repatriate five Australians – four citizens and one permanent resident – and a New Zealander.

Butler said the cohort has now arrived in the Netherlands and are in hotel quarantine. Dfat is still in the process of finalising repatriation flights. Butler said:

They are in good health, they have been kept informed … about the arrangements that the Australian government is currently put in place.

The hantavirus has now been listed under the Biosecurity Act as a listed human disease, which will allow the government to subject the travellers to quarantine arrangements when they arrive back in Australia.

Butler said the additional cases reported overnight in a French national and a US citizen reflected the dynamic situation. He maintained that while there is still a risk of transmission, it is “relatively low” due to the way hantavirus spreads.

‘Biggest threat to our democracy’: Victorian government told to scrap ballot ‘aberration’

The Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, has urged the government this morning to scrap group voting tickets, after plans to register yet another political party designed to funnel votes to One Nation and other conservative parties.

Muslim Votes Matter is seeking to register as a political party – using the identical name to the grassroots group set up before the 2025 federal election – and ultimately direct preferences to One Nation. The original Muslim Votes Matter has complained to the Victorian Electoral Commission.

It follows Avi Yemini’s plan to register a “Free Palestine party” and use it to funnel votes to conservative parties, which was inspired by anti-lockdown activist Monica Smit’s announcement in February that she would seek to register a “Save the Environment party” to attempt to influence the state election result.

The plans rely on Victoria’s upper house remaining the only house of parliament in Australia still using the group voting tickets system (GVTs), in which voters can only choose one party above the line on the ballot paper. The voters’ preferences are allocated by the party if it is knocked out during counting.

Sandell told reporters GVTs were “an absolute aberration.”

She added:

They are the biggest threat to our democracy because it allows parties with a tiny percentage of the vote to deceive voters. We have already seen far-right actors openly say they will register political parties that have one name, such as Save the Environment, or Muslim Votes Matter, or the Free Palestine party, with express purpose of funnelling those votes to parties that have the exact opposite values and policies, such as the One Nation party … it is an absolute stain on our democracy. Victoria is the last state that continues to allow this dodgy practice. It must end.

Australia imposes sanctions on senior Iranian officials

Australia is imposing targeted financial penalties and travel bans on senior Iranian officials responsible for the oppression of women and girls under the regime’s crackdown on society, AAP reports.

Seven Iranians and four entities are being sanctioned in response to Tehran’s “brutal” oppression of its people, in addition to the wrongful detention of foreigners, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced on Tuesday.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed by Iranian forces as protests erupted throughout the country in January.

The exact number of deaths is highly contested, and estimates vary, with human rights groups putting the number at more than 6,000 people, and other experts suggesting that more than 30,000 people were killed.

You can read more reporting on those estimates here:

The sanctioned officials include Iran’s interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, who is also deputy commander in chief of the law enforcement forces, which is responsible for the deaths of the protesters.

Ruhollah Nasab is another high-ranking official covered by Australia’s sanctions, for his role in deploying 80,000 forces to ensure mandatory hijab-wearing by Iranian women and surveil their dress in schools, universities, public spaces and online.

The sanctions will also target Iran’s shadow banking system, which allows it to fund terrorist proxies such as Hamas, and support its ballistic missile program.

• This post was updated on 12 May 2026 to provide extra detail about the contested death toll during Iran’s January protests.

Soldier’s parachute training death reminiscent of 2024 incident

The death of a soldier during a training exercise in Jervis Bay is reminiscent of a similar accident in 2024.

In the earlier incident, ADF soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon, died during a parachute incident during a training activity in Sydney.

The 33-year-old was injured in March 2024 at the RAAF airbase at Richmond, about 50km north-west of Sydney’s CBD. He received first aid at the scene and was taken to Westmead Hospital in a serious condition but later died from his injuries.

Another army soldier died, and two others were injured, during a training accident in north Queensland in October 2025.

A year seven student is being treated in hospital after becoming trapped under a train at North Melbourne railway station.

A spokesperson for Fire Rescue Victoria said around 4pm yesterday, crews responded to multiple Triple Zero calls reporting a person trapped under a train.

Crews arrived on scene within five minutes to find one person trapped and worked swiftly to extricate the patient who was then treated by Ambulance Victoria and transported to hospital. Victoria Police was also on scene.

The ABC reported that the boy attends St Aloysius College in North Melbourne and had suffered serious injuries in the incident.

Paramedic, Alex Hemsley, told the ABC it had been a “traumatic scene” for all involved.

We transported the young person quickly under emergency conditions, lights and sirens conditions, with a pre-notification to the Royal Children’s Hospital with regards to their injuries.

Services on the Williamstown and Werribee lines were cancelled during the rescue operation.

Victorian Greens criticise failure to introduce donation reforms

The Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, has criticised the government for failing to introduce donation reforms to parliament this week.

Speaking outside parliament, she told reporters the Greens have heard “very little” from the government in the last few days after weeks of negotiations. Sandell went on:

I do not know what is holding Labor back. I can only conclude that Labor is not interested in stopping dark money flowing into politics, and want to keep a whole bunch of corporate and billionaire donors for themselves, because the Greens we have an open door, and we’ve said, come and talk to us and we would be happy to talk about laws that actually stop this dark money flowing into Victorian politics.

While the major parties are mulling increasing the donation cap, she said it shouldn’t be increased:

We think that the donation cap, which is just under $5,000, is fine where it is. That allows people to make a small donation but it does not allow corporations and billionaires to donate tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to influence our politics.

Sandell said there was a “pathway” to pass reforms via the Greens and the crossbench:

We are happy to move very quickly if they bring legislation that closes these dodgy loopholes and puts a cap on political donations, we’re happy to do that, and I don’t understand why they haven’t brought that legislation this week or last week.

More here:

Democracy Counts criticises delay in introducing new donation laws in Victoria

Democracy Counts campaign director Tom Mooney commented on our report this morning that the Victorian government won’t introduce legislation to parliament this week to plug a gap left by a high court decision that ruled the state’s donation laws unconstitutional.

The high court ruling last month invalidated the entire section of Victoria’s electoral act governing political donations – including a ban on foreign donations, caps on how much candidates and MPs can receive and disclosure requirements.

The Victorian premier committed to fast-tracking legislation through parliament but negotiations between Labor, the Liberals and Greens have stalled.

Mooney says waiting another month to reach an agreement “means another month that dodgy political donations could flow without any limit, oversight or transparency”. He went on:

With Victorian parliament sitting today we were hoping and anticipating a bill that would plug the hole allowing undisclosed donations to flow into politics ahead of the state election.

Victorians deserve to know who is funding the parties and candidates vying for their votes in November.

In the long run, we need to take a considered look at all aspects of electoral funding. But in the meantime, restoring transparency should be the number one priority for all parties.

Taylor the right person to lead, Hastie says

Andrew Hastie says Angus Taylor is the right person to lead the Coalition, despite a “significant battering” received in Saturday’s Farrer byelection.

Taylor has been plagued by poor polling results since ousting Sussan Ley in February.

“Angus is the right man to lead,” Hastie told Sky. “Our party made that very clear only three months ago.”

The expectation for Farrer was always that we were going to struggle, and the vote that we achieved, which was a significant battering from the people of Farrer on the weekend, was about what we expected.

So we’ve got work to do. It’s early stages. We’re going to keep building.

One Nation doesn’t want a coalition with the Liberals: Hastie

Senior Liberal Andrew Hastie has ruled out a coalition or governing agreement with Pauline Hanson, days after the One Nation won the critical Farrer byelection.

“I’m not open to that,” Hastie told Sky.

I don’t think One Nation wants us as a coalition partner. I don’t think we want One Nation as a coalition partner.

The feeling is mutual. We don’t want to be in coalition. They don’t want to be in coalition with us and that’s the reality.

Some Liberals flagged a possible agreement to form government with One Nation but frontbenchers including Ted O’Brien and Tim Wilson sought to walk back the comments yesterday.

Police suspect Julian Ingram died by suicide

Police believe the gunman suspected of killing his pregnant former partner in remote New South Wales took his own life likely “some time ago”.

Yesterday police found 37-year-old Julian Ingram’s body in a “decomposed state”, ending a four-month long manhunt that had been under way since January when he allegedly shot and killed Sophie Quinn, her new boyfriend and her aunt in Lake Cargelligo, about 450km west of Sydney. Ingram was on bail at the time for alleged domestic violence related offices against Quinn.

Ingram, also known as Julian Pierpoint, was last seen driving a Ford Ranger ute with council signage from the town on 22 January, shortly after the alleged shootings.

Assistant commissioner Andrew Holland told 2GB a short time ago that “there’s certain indications at this point” that Ingram took his own life.

He said it was difficult to say when he died but “given the decomposition of the body, it would appear to be some time ago”. He said the timing would form part of the coroner’s investigation.

Holland said liaison officers were in contact with the families of the three people Ingram allegedly killed immediately after his body was found. Holland said:

Obviously they have a sense of relief, but obviously there’s a sense of anger as well. It’s going to take a long time for the community and the families to get over this tragedy.

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.

Butler says Australia will likely have ‘strongest quarantine response’ of any country taking passengers back from hantavirus ship

Mark Butler, the federal health minister, just spoke about quarantine arrangements for those who were stuck aboard the MV Hondius, the ship at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak.

The four Australian citizens, one Australian permanent resident and one New Zealand citizen were due to land in the Netherlands this morning before their repatriation flight to the country is secured. Butler said the arrangements had been difficult to sort out, including finding crew willing to isolate at the end of the flight. He told the ABC:

We’re confident they’ll be back over course of this week. And it’s important that we’ve put those quarantine arrangements in place, ready to go when they do land in Australia.

Butler said the crew will need to quarantine as well on arrival. He said Australia will have strong quarantine requirements and those from the ship will need to quarantine for three weeks in purpose-built facilities before receiving advice about how best to move forward at the end of that period for the reminder of the potential 42-day incubation period for a hantavirus infection.

Butler added:

This is probably the strongest quarantine response of any country that is taking passengers back from this cruise ship.

‘Let’s build more houses … not start taxing them’, shadow finance minister says

Claire Chandler, the shadow minister for finance, spoke a moment ago.

She told RN Breakfast that the Coalition had concerns about the potential changes to the capital gains tax discount and any impacts on housing supply, adding:

You don’t make more of something by increasing taxes on it. Taxes are inherently a disincentive to create more of something.

If we need more houses in this country, let’s build more houses. Let’s not start taxing them.

‘This isn’t about generation versus generation’, finance minister says

Gallagher, the finance minister, is speaking now on RN Breakfast. She said the budget changes aren’t meant to counter housing policies that haven’t worked but are in addition to the government’s other efforts to help young people get into their own homes.

She said:

It’s all of our housing programs, 5% deposit, the Housing Australia Future Fund, the partnership we’ve had with the states and territories, the announcement made … on the weekend or yet around enabling infrastructure, $2bn to do the kind of the back end of housing development, all the connections and all of that kind of thing that state and territory and local government struggle with.

Gallagher was asked about older Australians that may be worried about the changes. She said they should think about their concerns for their children or grandchildren:

I think there is a lot of understanding across the community about governments needing to respond to try and make housing more affordable.

This isn’t about generation versus generation.

Only 10 electorates in the country where rent affordable on a median household income, report finds

Anglicare Australia’s Rental Affordability Snapshot has found there are only 10 electorates in the country where median rent is considered affordable for a household on the median income.

Using the standard benchmark of rental affordability (30% of income), the analysis compared median rents by federal electorate against median household incomes, and found that a typical household would be in rental stress in 140 electorates.

It found the only affordable electorates were McEwen, Gellibrand, Lalor, Gorton, La Trobe and Ballarat, all in Victoria, and Canberra, Fenner and Bean in the ACT.

Some of the worst results are in regional and coastal electorates previously seen as more affordable. Richmond on the NSW north coast was the worst in the country, with median rent consuming 69% of median household income.

The executive director of Anglicare Australia, Kasy Chambers, said:

This analysis shows the housing crisis is no longer something affecting only people on the lowest incomes. Even households on median incomes are being priced out of large parts of the country.

In all but 10 electorates, the median rent is now unaffordable for a household on the median income. That should ring alarm bells in every part of politics.

We need governments to stop relying almost entirely on the private market to solve this crisis. Australia urgently needs large-scale investment in public and community housing, alongside reforms that slow the growth in housing costs.

Finance minister says budget will look at all the ‘levers available’ to address housing crunch

Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, is doing the rounds this morning before the release of the budget.

She told ABC News Breakfast the budget was all about seeing deficits fall, the budget in a stronger position as well as dealing with “some of these really difficult challenges across the economy, including housing”. She added the budget was about putting “fairness at the centre”:

We’ve made it clear that we’ve been trying to look in housing. Our focus had been on supply and it remains on supply. We need to build more houses in this country.

But we also need to look at all of the different, I guess, impacts and levers available to government to respond to this housing challenge.

It’s an entrenched issue and we need to make sure that we’re all pulling all the levers available to make sure younger people can realise that dream of home ownership.

Good morning, Nick Visser here to snag the blog. Let’s dive into budget day.

Jane Hume says ‘no one wanted’ Farrer byelection

The deputy Liberal leader, senator Jane Hume, says the Coalition should be listening “very carefully” to the people of Farrer after facing a thumping loss at this weekend’s byelection.

Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Hume acknowledged it was a “tough night” for the Coalition and “the message that we heard from voters was loud and clear”.

They wanted change. Standing on a booth with teals in orange on one side and One Nation in orange on the other, both of them were saying ‘vote for change’.

Asked if the Liberal party would be “squeezed out of existence”, Hume said that’s “not our intention” and added the Coalition had been responsible for “years of prosperity and progress”.

This is … a byelection that nobody wanted. It occurred only a year after the election, after a local member had retired, after a quarter of a century which is a long time to have a seat … There was no love lost for the Labor party either. It is just that the Labor party didn’t have the balls to turn up … The Liberal party lost its way. The Coalition lost its way. We split twice in the last 12 months. There is frustration out there. We will take the result with humility.