It has been a very depressing day, so let’s call a close on it – but we will keep watching and catch you up tomorrow on anything you may have missed overnight.
Thank you to everyone who joined along with us today – we very much appreciate it. Truly – we are so humbled by how many of you choose to return to see politics covered just a little bit differently.
Until tomorrow – take care of you . Ax
Penny Wong is away from parliament and estimates this week doing Quad stuff (which is India, Australia, Japan and the US in a strategic relationship designed to push back against China) and as part of that, Australia is doing what it can do better cement relations with India and Japan.
Here is Wong on how some of that is going:
Australia and Japan are bringing our countries even closer – embedding diplomats in each other’s foreign ministries and locking in new annual talks between our most senior officials – as we mark 50 years since the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.
The two new initiatives include the establishment of annual Strategic Consultations between the Secretary of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Vice-Minister of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and a diplomatic exchange program between DFAT and MOFA.
The Strategic Consultations will put the leaders of our departments in the room together every year to progress regional security and strategic cooperation, economic resilience initiatives and people-to-people connections.
The diplomatic exchange program will see officials undertake secondments in areas of shared strategic importance, learning each other’s systems from the inside and building the trust that comes from working together day to day.
Australia and Japan are Special Strategic Partners and we are working together to help shape a better future for our region.
In these uncertain times, embedding our people in each other’s institutions and investing in formalised cooperation will bring us closer for years to come.
Fifty years on from the Basic Treaty, we are focused on writing the next chapter of our history.
Here is some of how Mike Bowers saw QT:
Andrew Leigh is perhaps not best known for his zingers – he’s the economist within the govt who loves to talk bureau of statistics and randomised control trials more than he has a reputation for coming up to the dispatch box and cosplaying Paul Keating (that’s more Tony Burke’s go).
But after listening to Tim Wilson bang on and on in his MPI about the budget, Leigh rose and began his address stating “That was a diatribe by a dying tribe”. And you gotta give him points for that one
She asks who has the ability to offer immunity from prosecution, including from “war crimes “ (gee what could this be about). Raelene Sharp KC the Director of the CDPP says she is the only one who can do it.
She also points out that she can grant immunity whenever the threshold for granting immunity has been met and that does not require having reached a point where you have enough evidence to charge someone else (presumably someone who was involved in the alleged crimes). Cash clearly seems to be trying to see whether the CDPP granted immunity “too early” in such a way as though Ben Roberts-Smith may have been denied justice.
Cash then asks if other conditions are attached to the immunity. Sharp suggests it varies but often involves providing evidence and that there is no legislative requirement to sign a document.
Cash then asks what if they provide false or misleading information? Sharp says they will be charged with doing so.
After some questions from Greens senator David Shoebridge on salaries and costs we get back to Senator Cash
She asks if the Attorney General is consulted when giving immunity for war crimes. Sharp says no, and legally “no consent [from the AG] is required”.
Sharp also says they don’t even notify the AG.
Cash is asking if the AG has any oversight/power. Sharp notes that cases are brought on behalf of the Attorney General and the AG can decide to drop a case at any point. But that the AG on war crimes the AG can provide guidelines, but that has not happened with relation to Ben Roberts-Smith (and if they were, they would have to be tabled in parliament).
Sharp also notes that when immunity is granted, the prosecution does notify the defence but make it public as such.
After the break Senator Cash comes back to the issue of B R-S and that the CDPP sent advice to the Attorney General requesting consent to charge Ben Roberts-Smith on 30 March and the AG granted it on 1 April.
Sharp notes the brief to the AG basically contains info on why they think a charge is warranted.
Cash then asks what would be the reason for an arrest to happen in a certain jurisdiction. Sharp replies that that is up to the AFP, and the CDPP doesn’t provide any advice to them on that.
Cash is trying to imply that where BR-S was arrested might affect his ability to be prosecuted etc – because it determines where the case will be held.
They then turn to changes in the definition of war crimes and the definition of whether or not a person is “hors de combat” (out of the fight). The original draft in the legislation includes “and” with three different situations. The DCPP advised the government that on review it found that this was a drafting error and it should be “or” and that this change meant the statute lined up with the actual intention of the legislation when it was introduced.
The Opposition is not in favour of the changes because it will be “retrospective” (and thus might actually make it easier to prosecute people who have already been charged.
Sharp says that she does not see it as retrospective because the intention of the law has not changed and this was just ensuring the original intention of parliament was correctly stated in the law and she doesn’t think it “shifts the goalposts” because it is a “clarification amendment” not an actual change in the law.
After this Cash moves on to ISIS brides and we can check out.
NT police commissioner Martin Dole is facing the media to explain why there will be no charges over the death in custody of Kumanjai White, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man who died after being restrained by two police officers in an Alice Springs supermarket this time last year.
Dole says:
Every effort was made to ensure the investigation was appropriately resourced and conducted in a thorough and fair manner.
As part of the investigation, the Northern Territory Police Force also engaged an independent expert to conduct a use-of-force review.”
A brief of evidence was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for their opinion.
Following consideration of all available evidence, including the independent expert report, the DPP formed the view that there was no reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution.”
Police had only just advised the family of the decision.
In a statement published on the ABC the heartbroken family said:
We have got no hope. When will we have our justice? How can we keep living like this?
Today the police turned up in Lajamanu with the acting director of public prosecutions and told the family that they are not proceeding with any charges.
“With hardly any notice, without asking permission, they just turned up in Lajamanu with their police plane.”
The community is still grieving Kumanjayi Little Baby.
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We brought you a little bit of this before, but here is some more on the protest which was held at parliament house today. Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, who greeted Australian humanitarians who were on the flotilla attempting to break Israel’s blockade on aid for Gaza yesterday, said:
Seventy five activists attended Parliament House today and assumed the stress position – on their knees with their hands behind their backs – to demonstrate just a fraction of the mistreatment inflicted by Israel against the peaceful humanitarians aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla. Three of the Australians who were aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla – Zack Schofield, Ethan Floyd, and Surya McEwen – participated in the action today.
Hundreds of humanitarians, including 11 Australians, were kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel in international waters while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. During their imprisonment, many of the Flotilla participants were abused and tortured. Today, ordinary people brought some of the truth of Israel’s brutality towards the Global Sumud Flotilla Activists into the heart of Australian politics.
Today, ordinary people brought to the Australian Parliament just some of the truth of the brutality Israel inflicted on Global Sumud Flotilla participants while they were illegally imprisoned in Israel.
Following their action today, these silent, peaceful protesters were thrown out of Parliament with a 12 month ban. It says everything that these protesters have been given 12-month bans from Parliament for disrupting ‘decorum’, while the Labor government has taken no real action to end the genocide or hold Israel to account for the abhorrent mistreatment of Australian citizens on a peaceful mission to deliver aid to Gaza.
People must be able to protest peacefully in the people’s house without being thrown out or punished.
The Prime Minister must confront the truth of Israel’s depravity, meet the flotilla activists, listen to their ordeal, and then take action by holding Israel accountable.”
The AEC will formally declare David Farley of One Nation the official winner of the Farrer by-election on Thursday.
The writ will then be returned to the parliament on Friday, and then Farley can be sworn in anytime from then.
n Parliament.
Following that answer Dan Tehan tried to make a big hoohah over not being able to table a document (you need the house to agree and they don’t have the numbers). But given he has less personality than porridge which has been stuck to the side of a pot for a week, he just comes across as having a very boring tantrum.
We then get a dixer about the information campaign the government is releasing on perimenopause and menopause, which seems about a century overdue and then Albanese ends it.
Given how much hoohah there has been over the budget in the media you would think the opposition would be able to do…something with it? But no – nothing this week has indicated that the opposition knows what it is fighting for. One, Tim Wilson wrote a book that pre-emptively agreed with some of what the government has done, so that doesn’t help – and is one of the reasons he has not been leading these attacks. Two, Angus Taylor doesn’t know who he is fighting for. And three, the criticisms they are making are overblown – rather than sticking to the ones that actually would have impact, they are over reaching making it all very easy to bat away.
Dumb and dumber.
Anthony Albanese takes a dixer on how important the relationship between Australia and India is, just so he can compare and contrast with the opposition’s racism.
Then we get the Nationals Kevin Hogan continuing the ridiculous scare campaign over the women and children returning from Syria.
There are only limited circumstances in which you can stop an Australian returning to Australia, and it is right of Australians to receive travel documents to return to Australia from Australian authorities.
The Albanese government has not repatriated anyone from these groups in Syria since 2022. This means they have not facilitated the return, but there is nothing to stop the women and children from entering Australia if they make it out of the Syrian camps.
Security agencies are involved. There have been no incidents. Charges for breaking Australian laws while overseas are being laid. And we are talking about children who have had no choice here. In some cases, the women’s choices were very limited or manipulated. Either way, there is no suggestion that anyone who has been alleged to have broken Australian laws won’t face consequences, but this idea that we just stop people from returning because it is politically expedient is dangerous.
Hogan:
My question is to the Prime Minister, following a June 2025 secret meeting, the Minister for Home Affairs committed to find a way to return ISIS sympathizers to Australia. He said the success of the first cohort arriving will be a great help to bring more to Australia. At 5:30pm today, another plane load of ISIS sympathisers will touch down on Australian soil, will the Prime Minister now admit this was all part of the Labor government’s plan.
Not mentioned in there is that the humanitarian groups who were raising issues were talking about CHILDREN or that the Morrison government which Hogan was a part of did help repatriate women and children – which was the right thing to do!
Albanese:
I make three points. Point one, I have nothing but contempt for anyone who has any sympathy for ISIS, as I would hope everyone in this chamber would agree. This should not be an issue of partisanship. Point two, the government has provided no assistance for these people. Point three, any breaches of the law will mean that these people will face the full force of the law to the extent available upon the advice of the security agencies.
The independent MP for Calare, Andrew Gee asks:
ACEREZ Energy Co, and the New South Wales government have just completely obliterated a Wiradjuri cultural site as they put in transmission lines for the Central West Arana Renewable Energy Zone, it’s a disgrace and an outrage. When I previously raised issues of grievous environmental destruction with the federal Environment Minister, investigations did not result in any action being taken. This could have been prevented. What’s it going to take to bring these vandals to heel?
Chris Bowen:
The Honorable Member raises a most serious matter. I completely agree with the points that he has made, that what has happened on the face of it is utterly unacceptable. Discuss the matter with the Minister for Indigenous Australians.
I know that we’ll discuss the matter with the New South Wales government as well, because we all have some responsibilities here, including the Commonwealth.
I’m happy to keep the Honorable Member fully advised of progress in the investigation and action that arises, but the point that he makes in that any destruction of First Nations culture is utterly unacceptable is one that I entirely agree with.
The commitment by the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs to ensuring that the Defence and Veterans’ Workshop will remain at Dowsing Point is wonderful news. Responding to my question in the Parliament today, the Minister was unequivocal about the future of the Workshop, despite the remainder of Derwent Barracks being disposed of as a part of the reform of the Defence Estate.
The Workshop has supported serving and ex-serving Defence personnel since 1980. It’s an essential service, especially in light of the findings of the recent Defence and Veteran Royal Commission. Good on the Federal Government for listening and responding appropriately.
Anara Watson
The Australian Review Tribunal (ART) commenced operations in late 2024, filling the shoes of the former Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Its job is to provide “independent reviews of decisions made by the Australian Government agencies, departments and ministers”.
Its representatives have just appeared before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, and according to officials, applications to the tribunal are outpacing finalisations.
To date, this financial years’ finalisations are as follows:
But when asked what a manageable caseload for the ART would be, Member Michael Hawkins AM, Principal Registrar of the ART, responded:
“A manageable caseload is what we are funded to achieve. If its 100% caseload that we want to achieve, we need to have 100% funding. … An issue with our funding is that we have a cap in it, which is based on our ability to accommodate members to be able to do that work. So, at the moment, our cap is 345 FTE (full-time equivalent) members which is equivalent to about 60,000 finalisations, but we’re receiving about 90,000.”
By those numbers, that would mean that the ART is going backwards by about 30,000 matters per year.
So, when do officials see that backlog being cleared? According to Hawkins, “On present numbers, I don’t.”
And while NDIS forms only part of the ART’s work, Hawkins flagged that “that is another caseload that does bother me; to quote a former prime minister, I’m ‘alert but not alarmed’ to the possibility of what lies ahead in NDIS.”
Bill Browne
Pope Leo XIV has issued a warning against dependence on Artificial Intelligence, titled Magnifica humanitas or Magnificent Humanity.
The encyclical criticises the use of AI in warfare, transhumanists who would defy natural human limits, political deepfakes and the “arms race” to develop new AI models at the expense of safety and oversight.
Magnificent Humanity also apologises for the Catholic Church’s role supporting slavery. Pope Leo is the first American pope, and his diverse background includes Black African heritage.
Encyclicals are letters laying out Catholic doctrine. This year is the 135th anniversary of the Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, an encyclical that defends trade unionism and private property against the extremes of capitalism and socialism.
On the role we can all play in creating change, however large the shared challenges are, Magnificent Humanity quotes Gandalf from JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings:
“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”
Tolkien was a Catholic, but I think the reference goes deeper.
Tech bros make superficial references to The Lord of the Rings without understanding its message.
The private spying company Palantir is named after crystal balls that deceive their users.
Autonomous weapons company Anduril Industries is named after Aragon’s sword, but Aragon led battles from the front – not behind.
Elon Musk compared “people in small town England” to hobbits in the Shire who needed to be protected by “the hard men of Gondor”. But as John Semley in Wired pointed out, by the time of The Lord of the Rings the hobbits are defending themselves and it is their humility and earnestness that allows them to thrive.
Pope Leo has quietly reminded the tech bros how superficial their understanding of Tolkien’s work is, and how insignificant the output of AI is against the works of human beings.
Tim Wilson has decided to keep pretending his gives one damn about people with a disability despite not asking at all about cuts to NDIS which will actually hurt people with a disability – including those with Down Syndrome – has suggested that because the person he asked about yesterday is an adult the PM was wrong to suggest there were not exemptions.
That’s wrong
The Special Disability Trusts are set up for adults such as
A person who has reached 16 years of age and all of the following apply:
The government has set a 30% minimum tax on discretionary family trusts including testamentary ones. These trusts are already subject to tax (because they involve income) but they are manipulated to reduce paying tax, so the government it trying to stop that – because the point of a tax system is not to provide people the opportunity to avoid paying tax!
This does not affect disabled people and certainly not special disability trusts.
If a disabled person is someone in a discretionary trust which is being used to reduce the amount of tax they, like everyone else they will have to pay a minimum 30%. But seriously if you have them in such a trust you are not doing so because you are attempting to meet the needs of your disabled child, you are trying to avoid paying tax.
The independent MP for Bradfield, Nicolette Boele asks:
The Royal Commission into Antisemitism released its interim report last month. The government accepted all 14 of the report’s recommendations. Five of these recommendations are classified. Given that there is no way for us to know the nature and the content of these five classified recommendations, how can we, this Parliament and its people, hold the government to account in implementing them?
Michelle Rowland:
I thank the Member for her question, and indeed the Royal Commission did deliver its interim report to government on 30 April. The final report will be delivered on the 14th of December. The first hearing block of witnesses commenced on the fourth of May, and the second block commenced yesterday. And I also want to put on the record again the appreciation of this parliament to members of the Jewish community who have given valuable evidence on their personal lived experiences of anti-Semitism, and thank those who have come forward to the now over 12,500 submissions that have been made for the benefit of the member and the house.
The Royal Commission has now established a dashboard tracking key elements of its proceedings, and I encourage members to visit that at asc.royal commission.gov.au
On the issue the member raises of oversight of confidential recommendations in the interim report.
The member is correct, recommendations eight to 12 of the interim report are indeed confidential.
The government has accepted all recommendations relevant to the Commonwealth, and we will work with state and territory governments to adopt a national approach to implementing all 14 of those recommendations, including those which are confidential, for the benefit of the House. Two versions of the interim report were presented by the Royal Commission.
Firstly, a declassified version suitable for public release, and a confidential version marked top secret with a number of agency code words and caveats.
In addition, Commissioner Bell issued a non-publication direction under Section 63 of the Royal Commissions Act for parts of the interim report.
The non-publication direction limits communication of security classified information in the confidential report. The direction was considered necessary, such as the sensitivity of the information shared with the Royal Commission, which includes highly classified national security information and operationally sensitive information, including as relevant to active investigations, as well as the current prosecution.
I know the Hon. member will appreciate that it is critical to not disclose any operational information relating to the criminal investigation to avoid risk of prejudicing the prosecution. I can assure the member that the government takes this direction seriously, and we take all the recommendations in the interim report seriously. Our national security agencies have robust oversight, including by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, as well as the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.
The Nationals MP for Cowper, Pat Congahan asks:
Labor’s budget of broken promises and higher taxes will cost my constituents, Ross and Cynthia, hundreds of dollars per year because of changes to private health insurance. Cynthia is recovering from breast cancer. Yesterday, the Prime Minister said it was time to be honest. Will the Prime Minister answer Cynthia and Ross’s question? Why does the Prime Minister want to continue to push us by removing the rebate we desperately need?
Sigh. The government is not removing the private health rebate (although it is worth pointing out that the private health rebate that Howard forced everyone on to takes money from public health)
The government is reducing the higher rebate people over the age of 65 received, compared to younger Australians.
Albanese:
No one is removing the rebate. The premise of the question is completely wrong. And what is what is not appropriate is to come in here and to spread this sort of information through the Parliament of Australia.
So it is very clear we are not removing the rebate, and in addition to that, what we are doing through a range of measures to assist Australians in that situation is reducing the price of medicines to $25 or if they are a pensioner or recipient down to $7.70 which we’re freezing since till 2030 we’ve increased the bulk billing rates, so they get access to a GP up to above 80% heading towards our target of 90% as well, we have $25 billion in this budget.The largest expenditure is for our new hospitals and health deal. All of these measures we have put in place to assist Australians right across the board, both in the member for Cowper’s electorate, but right across the board as well.
Tim Wilson is still trying to scare parents and loved ones of disabled children that the government is going to slug the trusts set up for their life long care with tax.
Which is pretty low.
And if there were actual issues here, you can bet we would be reporting them – because we too would be outraged.
But what the Coalition is doing is trying to scare people for no reason. Which is pretty disgusting.
As Grogs said yesterday when this happened:
Here’s the thing, the changes to trust do not affect special disability trusts (Budget Paper 2 noted):
The minimum tax will not apply to other types of trusts such as fixed and widely held trusts (including fixed testamentary trusts), complying superannuation funds, special disability trusts, deceased estates and charitable trusts. Some types of income such as primary production income, certain income relating to vulnerable minors, amounts to which non-resident withholding tax applies, and income from assets of discretionary testamentary trusts existing at announcement will also be excluded.
And you can still set up a fixed testamentary trust that will not be affected.
What has changed is using a discretionary trust (whether or not testamentary) because these are used to avoid paying tax.
Wilson returns to the question he asked yesterday and says:
I referred to the Prime Minister’s answer yesterday about Janet’s daughter, who has Down syndrome. The Prime Minister claimed Janet’s daughter was exempt because she was a vulnerable minor.
She is not. She is an adult. Is the Prime Minister slugging Australians with disability with a new 30% death tax
Albanese:
No.
Tim Wilson is warned that if he doesn’t shut up there will be no Matter of Public Importance debate after Question Time. That’s because Wilson is the one who lodged the MPI today, so if he is kicked out of the house he won’t be around to move it.
The topic is the riveting: “The Albanese government’s bad faith 2026/2027 budget of broken promises, higher taxes and fewer homes that pulls the ladder of aspiration from Australians.”
Gosh no we wouldn’t want to miss out on that.
Further to my note about how there is no likelihood at the moment of an interest rate rise next month we can also see where the market think interest rate will go.
A couple months ago, with the RBA talking about how it would cause a recession if that was what was needed, the market priced in the cash rate rising all the way to 4.85% by the end of this year.
Now it is only likely there will be one more rate rise
The opposition bizarrely yelled out to the Prime Minister that home ownership has got harder. This gave the PM an absolute free kick to point out that’s why they are changing the capital gains tax discount.
As you can see from the early 1970s to 1999 the cost of average dwelling relative to average household income barely changed. After 1999 it exploded
One small bright sign for people and the economy is that the market now predicts there is a 0% chance of a rate rise next month
Andrew Wilkie asks Matt Keogh:
My question is to the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Minister. The Defense and Veterans Workshop in Hobart has supported serving and ex-serving personnel since 1980 It’s an essential service and more important than ever if the government’s fair dinkum about addressing the Defense and Veteran Royal Commission’s findings. But, Minister, the workshop will be homeless if Durham Barracks are sold off, so what will you do about that? Does the government commit to ensuring the workshop remains in situ, or is funded to secure a new facility?
Keogh takes a while to get to the point:
Can I thank the member for Clark for his ongoing support for the veterans workshop, and for the veterans in his community. Of course, thank him for his service in the Australian Army as well.
The Defence Invention Workshop that the member mentioned at Derwent Barracks has been supporting our current and former serving defense community for decades, and they are a great facility that is providing a place for local veterans, not just to go and to connect, but to learn a new skill as well. And we’ve discussed that before.
And we, as a government, are focused on wellbeing support for our veterans at all life stages, and that is something that was emphasized by the Royal Commission into Defense and Veteran Suicide.
So I am pleased to be able to assure the member that our government is fair dinkum about addressing the recommendations of the Royal Commission. We’ve already implemented 32 of the recommendations of the Royal Commission by the end of last year, and by the end of this year, we’re on track to have implemented two thirds of those recommendations. Now, the Independent Defence Estate audit found that many defense properties have no clear or ongoing link to our capability needs for keeping our nation safe, and we need to make sure that our defense estate is fit and proper for our ADF.
In making sure we get this right, my good friend, the Assistant Minister for Defense, has been working his way around the country, consulting with those that are impacted by the defense estate audit, and they are not consultations that are about setting or forgetting.
He has held a town hall in Hobart, and as a result of the feedback from the local community, the defence and veteran workshop will remain on site at the Derwent Barracks. I am pleased that the Prime Minister was able to confirm this when he was in Hobart with Premier Rockcliffe the weekend before last, we’re working through the divestment of the site and those around the country very carefully.
We’re going to continue to consult with defense personnel, with veterans, with reservists, the wider community, and of course the families of cadets that may be impacted. It’s important that we get this right, and keeping the workshop on site at Derwent is a key part of doing that.
Alice Grundy
The Australian reported today which flight — including the flight number, time and location — four women returning to Australia who had been stuck in Syria would be on.
Only a few paragraphs later, the article refers to “chaotic scenes at Melbourne Airport” when an earlier group of women returned.
What a coincidence that there is a scrum of the public and media when outlets publish the flight details of people in the spotlight.
The article concludes with a comment from Tony Burke that “any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law”. Surely it would be better to leave legal proceedings to the government rather than trying to encourage an airport spectacle
Jim Chalmers gets a dixer so he can talk about the tax cuts in the budget and challenge the opposition:
Our tax cuts mean that an average worker could be up to $2,800 better off in the year that these tax cuts are implemented. So, the legislation on Thursday includes those new tax cuts, and it includes the changes we are making to negative gearing and capital gains, and this legislation is all about making it easier to own a first home, better aligning the tax treatment for workers and asset owners, and also funding these tax cuts.
Now, the reason these four elements are all together is because the negative gearing and capital gains tax changes fund the tax cuts for workers and for small businesses.
The package is broadly revenue neutral over the four years, and that is why these measures are all in together. By passing the core elements of the package quickly, we will give the market some certainty about the major changes while we consult on the implementation details flagged in the budget.
Now, this is not unusual, Mr. Speaker. The Howard government’s GST reforms required more than 30 bills, Mr. Speaker, and when it came to the capital gains tax changes in 1999 also around 30 bills, Mr. Speaker. So, this legislation on Thursday is a test for the Coalition.
….This legislation is a test for the coalition, and it’s a test that they have failed before. It beggars belief to remember that in the first term, the big two mistakes that they made in the first term, because of the genius of the member for Hume, was to vote against tax cuts and to block housing for Australians. Mr. Speaker, now they are showing all of the signs of repeating the exact same two mistakes that they made in the first term, Mr. Speaker.
They haven’t learned a thing, and they haven’t changed a bit since the member for Hume convinced them in the last parliament to vote against the tax cuts that this government was putting in place.
He got it badly wrong the first time, and it looks like he’s going to repeat the mistake, Mr. Speaker. So, let me be very clear. If they vote against this legislation, they are voting for higher income taxes once again. They are voting to make it harder for people to buy their first home, and when people are crying out for change in the housing market and in the tax system, they would be clinging to and voting for a broken status quo that is locking too many young Australians out of housing. mr. Speaker, they should vote for the tax cuts that working Australians need and deserve that this government is determined to give them.
Today the ABS released an irregular survey of business sentiments and conditions.
They don’t do this a lot – the last time was in 2022 and it was to get a sense of what was going on during COIVD. This time round they wanted to get a sense of how the Iran War and oil price spike was affecting businesses.
The survey covered 4 and 15 May 2026.
A large share of businesses across all industries reported less revenue in the previous 4 weeks than an increase. A majority of 53% of business in hospitality – hotels, restaurants etc – stated they had experienced a fall in revenue in the past month. I am guessing they were absolutely cheering when the RBA decided to kill business even more by raising rates again on 5 May….
Anara Watson
As I wrote during yesterday’s live blog, freedom of information laws have an important role to play in Australia’s democracy, and Australians continue to use them to hold the government to account.
Last live blog, I identified eight ways that FOI laws held governments to account.
But the hits keep on coming – here are five more since Parliament last sat.
1: Casino ambulance callouts
Data obtained from Ambulance Victoria showed that paramedics were, on average, called to the Crown Melbourne for a suspected overdose every two weeks in 2024 and 2025. Less than a fortnight ago, the ABC reported that there were 59 call outs during that period, but that no action had yet been taken by the Victorian government to curb them.
2: Scrambling after salmon deaths
The Bob Brown Foundation recently used Tasmania’s Right to Information legislation to expose the state’s handling of salmon deaths and the EPA’s oversight of the 3,000 tonnes of dead fish. The ABC reported last week that “Tasmanian regulators were having to chase the trail of mortalities … with minimal planning for an environmental event of such a scale.”
3: GBEs defying the Tasmanian government
A day later, ABC reported that Tasmanian Government Business Enterprises (GBEs) had “defied” the Premier’s request to create disclosure logs documents obtained under the state’s Right to Information laws. According to Minister for Business, Eric Abetz, of the 15 GBEs identified, nine didn’t even respond to the requests.
4: Boosting socials using taxpayer funds
The Australian revealed last week that Victorian Premier Jacinta “Allan’s office spent almost $128,000 in taxpayer funds boosting her social media posts on Facebook and Instagram over eight months”, according to documents released under Victoria’s Freedom of Information laws. That’s an average of $16,000 a month – and seemingly one of the many advantages of incumbency.
5: Delay, delay, delay
The Attorney General’s Department was exposed for delaying the release of documents sought by The Australia Institute under freedom of information, to escape facing tricky questions at the last Senate Estimates.
As the Canberra Times reported, “the department charged with administering the Freedom of Information Act delayed the broad release of documents obtained under the legislation, to do with a controversial effort to overhaul the FOI Act itself.” How ironic.
This isn’t the first time document release has been delayed to avoid scrutiny: as reported in The Guardian, Treasury bureaucrats “fessed up” earlier this year “to withholding documents that had already been approved for release until Fridays”.
This tactic is called “taking out the trash”, and it’s intended to discourage journalists from covering the release.
So, while FOI continues to pay an important role, it is increasingly strained by wilful defiance and avoidance by government agencies.
I ask again, will the Prime Minister just be honest with Australians and tell us which small businesses will be carved out from Labor’s broken promises and higher taxes.
Sigh. We do not deserve this.
Albanese:
We support small business.
That’s precisely why we had three and a half billion dollars of investment of investment to assist small business in our budget. That’s why, as well, in our budget, we had, we had, of course, tax cuts again, making five lots of tax cuts, helping people who are in small business to go ahead, and that is as well, in addition to the tax cut that we have coming in on July one, and then the tax cut next July one, and the legislation that will be bringing in to the parliament on Thursday that will include, of course, include, of course, our instant tax deduction, making an enormous difference going forward. And when it comes to small businesses, Mr. Speaker, it isn’t just the ones that I named as well.The Housing Industry Association have said this: making the instant asset write-off permanent gives housing businesses housing businesses, which are a major part of small business, the confidence to invest, grow, and lift productivity. Business New South Wales, we welcome the government delivering stability for small and medium businesses. mr. Speaker, right across the board, we have received support.
There is then the pantomime about whether or not talking about small business in response to a question on small business is relevant or not.
Albanese:
What I’m talking about is the lower taxes we’re introducing for small business, the lower taxes for
small business, some those opposite don’t seem to acknowledge even exist, whether it’s the instant asset write off, the permanent two year loss carry back, the loss refundability to help start-ups, expanding tax incentives for venture capital, or better targeting the research and development tax incentive.All of those are aimed very directly at supporting small business, because we do support small business. We do support as well the opportunity of young people getting a roof over their head, something that those opposite do not support. They support, they support entrenching inequality. We support aspiration for all.
Jack Thrower
With news of BHP climate backpedalling and an ongoing international fuel crisis, it’s worth remembering just how much diesel Australia’s mining industry is using.
Memorably, the Prime Minister urged Australians to limit fuel consumption to help “[f]armers and miners and tradies who need diesel, every single day” without mentioning that miners are actually using more than three times more diesel than our entire agriculture sector.
The industry receives about $6 billion in fuel subsidies each year through the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme (FTCS), dampening any incentive to transition away from polluting fuels. The FTCS, combined with Australia’s broken ‘safeguard mechanism’ means the discovery that the industry’s largest diesel user, BHP, is delaying its electrification plans is shocking but not surprising. It will, however, mean that the mining industry will continue its heavy reliance on imported fuel and huge carbon emissions.
It is straight into it today – which is a relief, because honestly. – the day is DRAGGING.
I hope everyone is warm and dry and feeling somewhat under control (I am currently none of those things, so we may go to some dark places today)
Angus Taylor is pretending he has any authority, which is always a fun game. You always get an insight into what some of these people were like at high school in this forum. Taylor was obviously the guy who was popular because his family had power, but quietly his teachers would talk about how insufferable he is (nothing has changed really).
There are nearly 3 million hard-working small and family businesses in Australia. Will the Albanese government carve out the hairdressers, builders, gyms, pharmacies, vets, dentists, landscapers, or childcare operators from your broken promises and higher taxes, order members on my right will cease interjecting.
Albanese:
Small business are already eligible for four different concessions, you don’t mention any of that, and none of them, none of them have changed, none of them whatsoever have changed, In addition to that, in the budget, we announced three and a half billion dollars in new measures that lower taxes for businesses to encourage investment and innovation for infrastructure, making the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent, something that’s never been done before, introducing a permanent two year loss carry bank to support resilience investment and risk taking, introducing lost refundability to help startups grow in their first years, expanding tax incentives for venture capital to unlock patient capital for young expanding firms and better targeting, in addition to all that, better targeting the research and development tax incentive.
There is a very boring back and forth over whether or not Albanese is being relevant. Dick says he is. Albanese:
In the budget, we announced three and a half billion dollars of support for small business, and they don’t want to hear about it. They want to write it off as if it didn’t happen, because it doesn’t fit the red trick of the three right-wing parties and their allies.
There are more interjections, so Albanese finishes with:
The worse they’re going, the worse they’re going, the louder they get. This is a mob who think the future is making Tony Abbott the president of Liberal Party.
A man accused of throwing a homemade bomb into an Invasion Day rally crowd has faced court for the first time since being charged.
Liam Alexander Hall, 32, is accused of engaging in a terrorist act over the incident in Perth on January 26.
Thousands of people were evacuated from Forrest Place in Perth’s city centre after police found an object containing volatile chemicals, nails and metal ball bearings.
Police allege Hall threw the explosive device from a walkway above the crowd of Indigenous people, families and supporters
The device did not detonate despite a fuse allegedly being lit.
Hall’s case has previously been heard in Perth Magistrates Court, but he was too unwell to appear on those occasions.
On Tuesday, he was present in a courtroom at a psychiatric hospital, where the three charges against him were read via a video-link.
Hall, dressed in a white shirt and black pants with unkempt hair, wasn’t required to enter a plea and said very little.
He slowly raised his hand to acknowledge his identity and softly said “yes madam” when magistrate Heidi Watson asked if he was Liam Hall.
Hall also said he understood when Ms Watson read the three charges he is facing to him for the first time.
In addition to the terrorism charge – the first in Western Australia’s history – Hall is charged with intent to harm after he allegedly “threw an improvised grenade into a protester crowd”.
Hall is also accused of making and possessing explosives.
Police will allege the incident was a nationalist and racially motivated attack targeting First Nations people at the protest.
Hall was self-radicalised and acted alone, police previously said.
He had allegedly accessed bomb-making instructions and “pro-white male” material online, and was accessing and participating in the ideology.
Hall was remanded in custody, and his case was adjourned to September 16 for committal mention in Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court.
The court previously heard Hall was in a vulnerable mental health condition and was living alone when the alleged Australia Day attack happened.
If he is found guilty of the terrorism offence, he faces life behind bars.
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beyondblue 1300 22 4636
Trump’s ongoing “It’s a deal, no it’s not why did anyone think it was a deal it will be a deal if everyone else agrees to it but I’s a not a deal although it is almost a deal very soon best deal of all time” is causing the oil market to bounce around.
Even with the drop in price yesterday after the (foolish) expectations that there was a deal, oil prices were still well above where they had been before the war began
Remember back on 17April Trump announced that Iran had “agreed to everything”. On that word, prices fell to U$90 per barrel.
That did not last.
So with Trump always hold off celebrating. Usually he announces a deal is done, then sees everyone laughing at the deal that would have been done, backs out, or he announces a deal that no one else has even seen.
Hockey just having a lil joke about how “Cuba may become another state” – i.e be subsumed into the United States.
Cuba is currently the subject of what is effectively a naval blockade by the United States – nothing less than an act of war that is creating intense suffering in Cuba.
Lol, I guess.
Asked about worries about Aukus, and particularly the delivery of Virginia Class submarines from the United States, Hockey* says the “risk has increased” and that Australia needs a “full court press” in Washington. Australia has “got to prove that we’re ready”. So it’s all about Australia not giving the Americans a reason not to deliver. The submarines are necessary because they’re a “significant deterrent” against our “frenemies” in the region.
A reminder that the rate of submarine construction in the United States is well below what it needs to be. Ben Doherty has been covering that over at Guardian Australia.
But Hockey says we don’t need “Plan B”, we just need “reinforcement of Plan A”. Cus, frenemies.
*A lobbyist with defence clients
It’s all very chummy at the Press Club, where former Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is sharing a couch with former Australian Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey* (the two now “work together”). Asked about Iran, Mulvaney says Trump has no choice but to strike a deal better than the Obama administration’s JCPOA. Which…seems unlikely.
On the midterms:
They’re discussing what losing Congress at the midterm elections in November will mean for Donald Trump. Mulvaney says “it’s sort of assumed” that Republicans will lose the House. No mention (yet, anyway) of how these midterms might not proceed as normal. Nothing to see here.
*Hockey is now a lobbyist with a special interest in defence and weapons deals with the United States. That gets left out of a lot of reporting on Hockey and it should be included in every single report which mentions him as an authority.
He finished his questions by asking:
“Minister, you’ve made a number of bold statements I disagree with. Could you provide me with the scientific proof for each of the key points you’ve made please? That’s the empirical scientific data and logical scientist points that prove cause and effect. It’s a simple thing, you’ve made bold statements. I’d like to see the evidence.”
Senator Tim Ayres responds while looking at his phone with utter disinterest at what Senator Roberts is asking:
“I’m sure the officials will be able to come up for something on notice it’s a well-worn path”
Roberts continues:
“Scientific proof being empirical scientific data and logical scientific points proving that cause and effect that human carbon dioxide affecting the climate”
The Departmental officials state that they could answer that now or take it on notice (which they do, because I guess reading out 40+ years worth of scientific research to a bloke who must be flat out counting to 10 would be rather tiresome)
The protest was against the ongoing genocide in Palestine (and on going attacks in Lebanon) by Israel. Police stopped at least a dozen protesters and held them for a short time – Mike Bowers was there as some were released to crowds waiting in the car park.
The group were taken to the underground corridors of Parliament House and were made to sit on the ground against a wall while guarded by what seemed to be every police officer in the precinct.
It is pouring rain in Canberra today – but that hasn’t stopped the protesters.
We are getting reports that about a dozen people have been stopped by police at one of the downstairs entrances to parliament.
The security guards all seem a bit jumpy, so we will find out what has gone on and let you know.
James Watson and Bill Browne
Over the weekend, a poll by RedBridge Group and Accent Research indicated that if an election were held tomorrow, One Nation would become the official Opposition (for what it’s worth) and Labor may lose its majority.
RedBridge and Accent estimate the range for seats won in this hypothetical election as:
In this hypothetical election, RedBridge and Accent predict 62 seats could change hands. The Coalition is estimated to be at risk of losing 37 seats to One Nation, and Labor a further 16 seats.
In the median (middle) scenario, Labor would have a bare majority in the House of Representatives, leaving it just one seat away from depending on independents to keep it in power.
If independents won additional House seats off Labor, as they came close to doing in 2025 in Bean and Fremantle, a power-sharing parliament would become much more likely.
The style of polling used by RedBridge, “Multi-Level Regression and Post-Stratification” (MRP), has its limitations, particularly that it can miss local stories like a good local candidate, concentrated vote or particularly strong or weak sitting MP.
Rightly or wrongly, the RedBridge poll has the party vote higher and the independent/other vote much lower than the polling aggregate. Still, it captures significant trends in Australian politics today:
1: The old two-party system is breaking up . Fewer and fewer Australians are giving their first preference to either Labor or the Liberal–National Coalition. The minor party and independent vote is growing. There is no such thing as a ‘safe seat’.
2: Australians are comfortable with power-sharing parliaments, where no one party has majority control. And as these scenarios become more likely, politicians and commentators are changing their language. Australian voters are already there. As Australia Institute research showed in 2025, more than more than twice as many Australians supported a power-sharing arrangement in this term of parliament as opposed one.
Hamdi Jama
According to Health Minister Mark Butler, some aged care providers are “rorting” the system.
But the Commonwealth also delayed plans to introduce price caps on at-home aged care services. The caps would limit how much providers can charge for things like transport, cleaning, and physical therapy, which should mean that older Australians pay less for the services they need to stay healthy.
The delay means that aged care providers can continue to charge older Australians whatever they think people will pay.
As with the NDIS and private healthcare, the Commonwealth has created a private market for aged care. So why is it surprising that private providers aim to maximise profit?
Private providers will always seek to maximise profit, that is what they exist for.
It has been five years since the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended principles, including that older people should have equal access to support and care irrespective of their location, personal circumstances or preferences. But these recommendations have not been implemented.
The proposed price caps would be a good start, but – as we have seen in everything from healthcare and childcare – private markets are not a good way to deliver essential care to vulnerable Australians. For aged care, this means leaving profit-driven companies to decide what’s best for our elders.
Anara Watson
Last night’s Four Corners revealed how BHP “sought to publicly position itself as a climate leader while internally finding reasons to put off action”.
My colleague Bill Browne also wrote a short time ago that the Office of Resources Minister Madeleine King was reportedly “open to speaking with BHP’s representatives during sporting matches”.
But if that wasn’t enough, King has just told ABC Radio National that there are no concerns from a government perspective.
The transcript speaks for itself:
SALLY SARA (Interviewer): I wanted to ask you about BHP and the revelations on last night’s Four Corners program. The allegations that the company quietly shelved billions of dollars of green projects while promising it was committed to cutting emissions. Are you concerned by those revelations?
MINISTER MADELEINE KING: BHP is committed to cutting emissions. They will make their commercial decisions, as do others. BHP and other miners are subject to the Safeguard Mechanism. I think they have about six facilities that are subject to that mechanism and how they choose to reach net zero and they have made that commitment clear. It really is a matter for BHP.
SALLY SARA. So, nothing, no concerns there from a government perspective?
MINISTER MADELEINE KING: No, because they’re doing their job.
What job is BHP actually doing?
As Four Corners noted, 92% of shareholders supported BHP’s “Climate Transition Action Plan” which would have decarbonised the Pilbara. According to their reporting, current actions are not in line with that plan.
In 2026, the biggest polluters in Australia make a mockery out of the Safeguard Mechanism. And according to the ABC, “A BHP document shows that under Australia’s carbon pricing scheme, known as the Safeguard Mechanism, it would be able to delay action for another 15 years without its finances being ‘materially impacted’.”
The good news is that the Safeguard Mechanism is up for review this year. This is the perfect opportunity to fix its “pro-fossil flaws”.
Online harassment and intimidation has been directed at witnesses who have appeared before the anti-Semitism royal commission, with at least one incident referred to police.
The commission is probing the intelligence and law enforcement response leading up to the Bondi Beach terror attack on December 14 which claimed the lives of 15 innocent people.
In a first block of hearings, witnesses from the Jewish community gave evidence about their experiences of anti-Semitism.
Commissioner Virginia Bell opened Tuesday’s hearing with a warning to those engaging in online harassment and intimidation of witnesses.
“The commission is keeping a close eye on these instances and recording these offensive social media posts,” she said.
“Quite what this undiluted level of hatred and bigotry directed towards members of the Jewish community is thought to benefit by those who post these remarks is lost on me.
“The commission has as one of its principal objects understanding and assessing the lived experience of anti-Semitism by members of the Jewish community and it is being informed by conduct of this character.”
In the lead-up to the attack, NSW Police were warned by Jewish security group, CSG, that a heightened atmosphere of anti-Semitism made a terror attack on the community likely.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker, who commands the counter-terrorism squad, told the commission on Monday she accepted a threat assessment should have been conducted for all Hanukkah events.
One of the recommendations made by the commission in an interim report released in April was that Jewish community gatherings be subject to tighter security arrangements.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess appeared as the first witness on Monday, telling the commission Jewish holy events were identified as attractive targets for terrorists months before the Bondi Beach massacre.
Mr Burgess said it was extremely hard to detect such attacks if people were not discussing plans with a broader circle, including at prayer groups.
“We aren’t all-seeing or all-knowing and we don’t aspire to be,” he said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns acknowledged the Bondi attack was an intelligence failure but defended the record of law enforcement agencies in preventing similar attacks.
He also pushed back on concerns a lack of communication between state and federal counterterrorism authorities was creating cracks for bad actors.
“We’ve clearly had a giant law enforcement and intelligence failure in December … we need to correct and make better,” he told media on Tuesday.
“These are law enforcement agencies that work with sophisticated technology and have had success in the past.
“You often don’t read about it because they’ve acted before someone’s committed horrible terrorism.”
Responding to a report by the Daily Telegraph that authorities were warned about one of the shooters via a national security hotline as early as 2007, Mr Minns said it looked like warnings were missed.
“That’s a very concerning piece of evidence that presumably will be fully investigated by the royal commission and we want to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
This morning the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (or DCCEEW) is up before estimates.
They were being asked about the drop in emissions since 2025.
Oddly the official suggested in 2024 (the most recent calendar year they have the full data for) they were 23% below 2005 level. I say oddly because the data released quarterly suggests it was 28% below.
Either way it doesn’t really matter because whatever the percentage fall almost all of the drop was due to the counting of land clearing.
In 2005 there was a huge level of land clearing – especially in Queensland. Land clearing is counted as emissions because trees of course help reduce CO2 levels. But no other country needs to use land clearing to calculate its emissions falls (well, Russia does). Back when the Kyoto agreement was being negotiated the Howard moment minister in charge at the time Robert Hill made sure that Australia would be able to include land clearing emissions in its 1990 base year. This was because in 1990 we did a shirt load of land clearing:
The “Australia clause” was agreed (back in 1998 The Australia Institute wrote about this) and even still Howard didn’t sign the Kyoto agreement. (talk about being an utter troll) *
When the Rudd government came in they did sign it but kept the Australia clause and so have every single government since.
They do this because counting land clearing in 1990 and then 2005 makes it oh so much easier to say we have reduced emissions:
Take away land clearing and actual emissions are only down 3% compared to 2005 levels.
*You can also read all about this in Where it all went wrong: The Case Against John Howard
There’s a lot of noise around today about a possible “peace deal” with Iran. Trump has been alternatively talking one up and then walking it back, and the headlines generally just follow his whims. Be very sceptical. The spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team has said that “It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion. But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.” Except that Trump makes such a claim all the time. Until he doesn’t. Or until he orders some more strikes on Iran. In “self-defence“, naturally.
There is still no resolution on the Strait of Hormuz, or on Lebanon. Trump has suggested they might be closer to dealing with the “Nuclear Dust!” (that’s not a joke – it’s how the President describes Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium). But we don’t have any information that suggests such a deal would be any better than the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration.
And the goal posts keep shifting. Trump’s latest – probably in an attempt to appease Israeli concerns about concessions – is the insistence that Arab nations sign up to the Abraham Accords to “normalise” relations with Israel. Is it an insistence, though? Or just a request? Hard to tell, when the most powerful man in the world, the one with his finger hovering over the big red button, posts “I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition”. Wot.
Bill Browne
Last night, Four Corners featured leaked documents from mining giant BHP – which show there are doubts within the company about whether it can meet its net zero by 2050 pledge. The ABC’s partner in the story, The Guardian, says the company “has backtracked on decarbonisation at a vast network of mines.
I was struck by a brief mention in The Guardian’s commentary, that along with BHP giving “charter flights, hospitality and accommodation” to Labor Resources Minister Madeleine King:
“It is also understood that King’s office had indicated it was open to speaking with BHP’s representatives during sporting matches.”
It’s a puzzling reference that raises more questions than it answers.
Why would Minister King or her staff want to meet at sporting matches, and not in her office?
Would these meetings at sporting matches be recorded in her ministerial diary, and therefore be subject to freedom of information?
If not, how would the public find out about these meetings?
As the Australia Institute has recommended in the past, ministerial diaries should be disclosed as a matter of course. State government ministers disclose their diaries; in some cases shadow ministers and chiefs of staff are required to as well.
Strict rules about what counts as a meeting, and strict transparency requirements around meetings, would give Australians confidence that if big business is lobbying ministerial offices, they are doing so openly and fairly.
Bill Browne
The Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee had to be suspended yesterday after its Labor chair, Glenn Sterle, behaved very badly.
Senator Sterle, who as chair is responsible for maintaining order and stopping the disorderly conduct of senators, instead created disorder by repeatedly criticising and interrupting Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie.
“I’ll cut you up, metaphorically,” said Senator Sterle to Senator McKenzie. He stood up to mime swapping places with the Labor minister who was sitting there waiting to be questioned, offering to “educate the ignoramus from the other side here”.
“You just lie through your teeth,” he said when Senator McKenzie tried to continue her questions.
The ABC has the full video, but has inadvertently downplayed the conflict by calling it a “clash” and a “debate”.
This is not two senators of equal rank sniping at each other.
As chair of the committee, Senator Sterle has special authority to keep senators in line – and receives extra pay commensurate with his responsibilities.
It’s not his job to defend the Labor Party or attack other senators – there are Labor government ministers sitting there waiting to be questioned who are perfectly capable of doing that.
As well as being unfitting of his position, Senator Sterle’s behaviour has also been self-defeating – drawing attention away from Senator McKenzie’s use of the travel allowance. Even her Coalition colleagues have “questioned the optics” of her use of public money.
Elsewhere in the Parliament, unparliamentary language carries stricter consequences. The House of Representatives suspended Liberal MP Phil Thompson for 24 hours for accusing the Labor Government of lying over benefits to veterans, as covered on the live blog.
Senator Sterle has apologised for “using a few of my choice words” but even then was making excuses, saying he was defending the government.
Skye Predavec
Three quarters (76%) of parents with children at independent (non-Catholic private) schools think government funding for private schools should “increase at a rate closer to the consumer price index”, according to a new poll published by Independent Schools Australia.
It’s unclear if Independent Schools Australia has thought through the implications of this result, because it would mean less money for private schools, not more.
Since 2009, the consumer price index (which tracks inflation) has gone up by 48%.
Over the same period, government funding for independent high schools has increased by 88%, from $8,300 to $15,700 per student annually.
If instead public funding for independent schools had been pegged to inflation, per-student funding would now be $12,367 annually – over $3,000 less.
Parental contributions to independent schools have increased by a similar amount to government funding: from $6,500 in 2009 to over $12,000 now 2009, well above the rate of inflation. If they had polled parents about the fees they pay, would they want those to increase closer to inflation too?
Not only did Chris Bowen have a smile today – he also had a little counting session – that’s how you know he’s in a good mood.
He smiled so hard, he created a black hole.
Despite the global upheaval caused by the Trump administration, the Australian government is trying to plough on with AUKUS as if Biden was still in charge.
On this episode of After America, Guardian Australia journalist Ben Doherty joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the likelihood of the Australia ever receiving a nuclear-powered submarine, the “dangerously undemocratic” secrecy around key elements of the AUKUS agreement, and Australia’s significantly changed strategic environment.
The estimates schedule is looking pretty boring for most of the day: but here it is:
Environment and Communications Legislation Committee
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Program 1.2: Reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (1:15pm)
Snowy Hydro Limited (2pm)
Climate Change Authority (3pm)
Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee
National Indigenous Australians Agency
Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations
Office of Township Leasing
Indigenous Business Australia (11:45am)
Central Land Council, Northern Land Council, Tiwi Land Council, Torres Strait Regional Authority (2:30pm)
Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor-General (3:15pm)
Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (10am)
Federal Court of Australia (11am)
Administrative Review Tribunal (11:30am)
Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman (12:45pm)
Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (1:30pm)
Australian Human Rights Commission (2:45pm)
National Anti-Corruption Commission (4:30pm) Brereton appears
Inspector of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (6:45pm)
Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee
Airservices Australia
Civil Aviation Safety Authority
Western Sydney Airport Corporation
Infrastructure Australia (2pm)
Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (3pm)
Bill Browne
Yesterday, the story broke that the Attorney-General’s Department had delayed the release of information to avoid being scrutinised at Senate Estimates. That was revealed in an Australia Institute freedom of information request, covered by the Canberra Times.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge accused the Department of “gaming the [FOI] Act so that the information wasn’t available”. The Department admitted that it hadn’t followed “the normal approach that we have”, but fell short of apologising or holding an investigation into how it happened.
The Department committed to tabling the email – which they did yesterday afternoon.
But by that time, the responsible team had been excused. In fact, the head of the team that sent the email had been present that morning – but did not come forward to answer questions or give assistance.
The exchange ended:
Senator SHOEBRIDGE: Let’s just get today’s timetable clear. You know, because you found out on Friday, that this is a live issue and it was going to be published on Monday.
I start asking you questions about it, and you say that you haven’t fully done an investigation. You’re having a chat with another officer. You back and forth about what you did or didn’t discuss on Friday with that other officer, and she’s just coming to join us now.
And all the while it was an email sent by an assistant director in Mr Eagle’s office. He’s mute.
And now, a couple of hours later, we have the documents actually provided to us which identified that Mr Eagle would be the person we’d want to ask questions of, and he’s hightailed it out the back. That’s the farce that’s happened today, isn’t it?
Mr Eagle has flown the coop.
Ms Jones: I wouldn’t characterise it that way. We keep officers as required by the schedule set out by the committee, and, when that schedule has concluded, they leave.
Senator SHOEBRIDGE: You couldn’t make this stuff up. But, with any more questions I’m going to ask of you, you’re going to say, ‘Well, probably Mr Eagle should respond to it, and he’s gone.’ Is that right?
AAP has this story on Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s response to the treatment of humanitarians captured by Israel while trying to break the blockade on food, medicine and water Israel has placed on Gaza:
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has told Israeli President Isaac Herzog the treatment of activists detained by Israel had been “appalling” and described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic”.
“The Prime Minister reiterated that the appalling treatment of civilians, including Canadian citizens, aboard the Gaza-bound flotilla was unacceptable, and he called for an independent investigation,” Carney’s office said in a statement on Monday.
Carney, it said, also reaffirmed Canada’s opposition to illegal Israeli settlement expansion, settler violence in the West Bank, and violence against Palestinian civilians.
Although Carney last week denounced Israel’s handling of the flotilla members, the broad scope of his condemnation on Monday underlines how strained ties have become between Israel and some of its closest allies.
The Israeli embassy in Ottawa was not immediately available for comment.
Activists released after being detained on a flotilla trying to bring aid to Gaza were subjected to abuse, organisers said, with several hospitalised with injuries and at least 15 reporting sexual assaults, including rape. Israel’s prison service denied the allegations.
Israel’s ambassador to Canada last week told the Globe and Mail newspaper that bilateral government-to-government relations were the worst they had ever been.
Separately, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said she had spoken to her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, and told him Ottawa would provide Israel evidence of the mistreatment of Canadians on the flotilla.
“I raised that denying Canadian citizens access to consular services while they were detained violates the Vienna Convention and must never happen again,” she said in a post on X.
For his part, Saar said he had told Anand the activists had been inspired by Hamas.
“I also highlighted the horrific anti-Semitic wave in Canada – an average of 19 incidents a day.
“The Canadian government must take steps against anti-Semitic incitement and attacks,” he said in a post on X.
Chris Bowen seems pretty happy in being able to talk about power prices going down – he called a press conference a little earlier to talk about the default energy price released by The Australian Energy Regulator this morning:
This is very real progress today. It’s no coincidence that 50% renewables and 414,396 home batteries installed under the cheaper home batteries policy, which are reducing prices for them, but for everyone, by reducing reliance on expensive coal and gas in the evening. One of the biggest impacts on energy prices is those nighttime peaks, when we rely much more on gas and also more on coal, which is more expensive than renewable.
So if we’re saving more of the renewable energy from the day… and using it more to flatten out, that nighttime peak and reduce prices, that is the system working.
And those 414,396 home batteries installed since the 1st of July last year, together with a big uplifting grid scale batteries and a small contribution from community batteries, are making a difference.
So as I said, there is a long way to go. There’s more work to do to keep this transition well underway.
There are plenty of challenges. internationally and domestically but the plan that we put in place is showing dividends for the Australian people we’ve always said renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy it’s the fastest to deploy it’s more reliable coal breaks down every day when the coal breaks down bills go up properly supported by storage and by transmission renewable energy leads to a more reliable more sovereign energy system and one that’s been the best interest of Australians
There is also the attempts by the Coalition to try and stir up as much drama around the return of women who married foreign fighters in Syria during the ISIS rule, and their children (who had zero choice in the matter). The media has taken to calling them ‘ISIS brides’ which is a Coalition-News Corp branding of the cohort, which is now being repeated in practically every media outlet. Women and children had returned under the Morrison government and there was not this hoohah – the security agencies are doing their thing, and while one woman has been temporarily barred from returning (and has reportedly elected to keep her child with her) on security advice, but the others were not. Some women have been charged upon their return, and at least some of the seven women due to arrive back today are also expected to face charges.
But we haven’t heard boo from any of the women or children who have returned so far, and security agencies have every eye in existence on them. We know where they are, and who they are seeing at all times.
The Albanese government has not repatriated any of the women or children since 2022 (which means they have not assisted beyond the usual rights of any Australian citizen to receive travel documentation to re-enter the nation) and the women have had to find their own way out of the Syrian refugee camps they have been living in with their children since the fall of ISIS.
Again – the children, and they are children have not had any choice in this matter.
Gorman:
They have made absolutely terrible life decisions, and they will have to live with those terrible life decisions for the rest of their lifetimes, as you’ve seen with the previous cohort. If those who return have committed crimes, they are punished or held to account for those crimes if they return to Australian soil, and that’s what I expect in this case as well.
The Sky News segment ended on Liberal MP Aaron Violi claiming the sky was falling in, because – of course it did.
For some reason, we are pretending that there is no consultation after a budget.
Patrick Gorman was sent out this morning to set out the government lines on what the final budget legislation is going to look like. In question time yesterday, the prime minister said there was ongoing consultation with the tech industry, but also the farmers’ federation and small business lobby groups and that the work was ‘ongoing’.
Gorman says it’s all business as usual:
People will always seek more information, that is very normal to happen after – what we make no apologies for – is an ambitious budget. And we are making changes, and that does have a range of changes for people in terms of how their assets will be taxed with those capital assets going forward. But a lot of people are also starting to see that some of their concerns may not be founded, or that there are new opportunities, as we’ve said, when it comes to new build housing.
It won’t be until later tonight, but now outgoing NACC chair, Paul Brereton will still face his estimates grilling despite his sudden resignation yesterday.
The Greens had successfully passed a motion to have Brereton appear and he will still have to meet that obligation, despite pulling the pin three years into his five year term as the inaugural commissioner of the anti-corruption commission.
The committee was told yesterday he would still be appearing (but that was a long time ago and I wouldn’t expect you to remember)
The Australian Energy Regulator has released its final default offer for the next year.
You can find all the details here.
It’s setting a cap which should see power prices fall. Per its release:
In the three regions where the DMO applies, the residential flat rate standing offer price will fall by between 3.4% and 5.0% in New South Wales and by 7.2% in South East Queensland compared to last year, while South Australian households will have a modest increase of 1.4%.
For smart meter households on a time of use standing offer, there are savings across all three regions, from a 1.1% decrease in South Australia to up to 10.7% in South East Queensland. New South Wales reductions range between 3.7% and 7.7%.
Small businesses will see reductions across all three DMO regions, with prices decreasing from 6.8% to 12.1% in South Australia, 10.4% to 14.0% in South East Queensland, and 9.0% to 20.9% in New South Wales, depending on whether their standing offer uses a flat rate or time of use tariff.
AER chair Clare Savage said “despite uncertainty created by conflict in the Middle East, wholesale energy costs have not increased”. That is in part, because of more renewables coming on line:
The reductions compared to last year reflect easing costs across most components of the DMO, particularly in wholesale energy, where we’ve seen lower electricity contract prices, reduced spot price volatility, and increased output from wind and battery generation during evening peaks.”
The 7am Podcast has an interview with film maker Juliet Lamont, who was one of the seven Australians on-board the Global Sumud Flotilla, who returned to Sydney yesterday, about what happened after Israeli authorities ‘detained’ them from international waters.
It’s going to be a two-part episode – you can find part one, here.
Hello and welcome back to day two of this House sitting/estimates week. It is absolutely pouring with rain in Canberra, which always makes the MPs a little more crazed than usual – they don’t tend to leave the building during the day, but they all have little morning routines of walks, or coffee shops, or gym and the rain being this heavy would have put a stop to a lot of that.
Which tends to mean they spend the day walking around like caged animals in very expensive suits.
That should make estimates even more fun. We’ll be covering all of that off, along with whatever else happens in the House – LNP MP Phil Thompson is still suspended from House duties after he refused to withdraw his comment calling Albanese and Labor a ‘liar’ yesterday over veteran entitlements, and the Coalition are still trying to find something to unite around that isn’t One Nation policies.
You’ll have a team of experts at your disposal and we have the use of Mike Bowers’ work, so you are covered over what’s important (we try to keep the guff out as much as possible, because no one needs to be that overloaded).
It is party room meeting day, so the House business won’t start for a while – so take some time to just slide into it today. I am off to get coffee number two ready.
Shall we wander in?
Comments (25)
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
15.59 AEST
The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has been up before the Legal committee and Senator Cash is immediately on to Ben Roberts-Smith. Greg Jericho She asks who has the ability to offer immunity from prosecution, including from “war crimes “ (gee what could this be about). Raelene... The Point Live
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Richard
Tue, 26.05.26
16.59 AEST
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
15.27 AEST
Coalition still trying to make political grist out of Syrian returnees Anthony Albanese takes a dixer on how important the relationship between Australia and India is, just so he can compare and contrast with the opposition's... The Point Live
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Michael Cowan
Tue, 26.05.26
15.09 AEST
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
15.28 AEST
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John Carroll
Tue, 26.05.26
14.47 AEST
Factcheck: Yes, owning a home got harder Coalition. And you’re a big reason why Greg Jericho The opposition bizarrely yelled out to the Prime Minister that home ownership has got harder. This gave the PM an absolute free kick... The Point Live
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
14.46 AEST
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Richard
Tue, 26.05.26
14.44 AEST
Coalition still pushing scare campaign. Tim Wilson is still trying to scare parents and loved ones of disabled children that the government is going to slug the trusts set up... The Point Live
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AB
Tue, 26.05.26
13.16 AEST
Over at the Dept of Climate Change estimates hearing One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts is really going hard on the flat earth society style of questions. Greg Jericho He finished his questions by asking: “Minister, you’ve made a number of bold statements I disagree with. Could you provide me with the... The Point Live
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
12.20 AEST
For-profit providers work for profit, the government feigns surprise Hamdi Jama According to Health Minister Mark Butler, some aged care providers are “rorting” the system. But the Commonwealth also delayed plans to introduce price caps on... The Point Live
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Carmel
Tue, 26.05.26
14.55 AEST
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Gregory Shearman
Tue, 26.05.26
10.15 AEST
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Gregory Shearman
Tue, 26.05.26
10.13 AEST
Canadian PM condemns treatment of humanitarians captured by Israel AAP has this story on Canadian prime minister Mark Carney's response to the treatment of humanitarians captured by Israel while trying to break the blockade... The Point Live
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Richard
Tue, 26.05.26
12.52 AEST
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Sue
Tue, 26.05.26
10.08 AEST
Canadian PM condemns treatment of humanitarians captured by Israel AAP has this story on Canadian prime minister Mark Carney's response to the treatment of humanitarians captured by Israel while trying to break the blockade... The Point Live
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
10.54 AEST
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Richard
Tue, 26.05.26
09.29 AEST
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fiona
Tue, 26.05.26
09.54 AEST
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
10.07 AEST
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
09.26 AEST
On Australians returning from Syria with their children There is also the attempts by the Coalition to try and stir up as much drama around the return of women who married foreign fighters... The Point Live
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Fiona
Tue, 26.05.26
08.36 AEST
AER releases default offer The Australian Energy Regulator has released its final default offer for the next year. You can find all the details here. It's setting a cap... The Point Live
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Richard
Tue, 26.05.26
08.36 AEST
Global Sumud Flotilla humanitarian speaks to 7am The 7am Podcast has an interview with film maker Juliet Lamont, who was one of the seven Australians on-board the Global Sumud Flotilla, who returned... The Point Live
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Sam
Tue, 26.05.26
07.48 AEST
A wave of property sellers has been hit by a buyers’ strike There is little dispute about whether property prices will cool this year – but there is a range of views on whether the change will be arctic or just chilly. The Sydney Morning Herald
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Andrew Faith
Tue, 26.05.26
07.35 AEST
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Gregory Shearman
Tue, 26.05.26
10.23 AEST
Join the conversation
I really don't think these questions are appropriate when there are outstanding criminal proceedings - Cash knows that. This is abhorrent behaviour from the Coalition.
Actually, in an unintended consequences way, Cash has surfaced the extremely serious issue of by what power does ANY officer of the Commonwealth have the authority to provide immunity from prosecution of war crimes.
A decision that there is insufficient evidence to secure a prosecution is very much a qualitative measure open to challenge. That is NOT 'immunity' which is a bulwark against further action.
The Nuremburg Trials determined that 'acting under orders' is no defence against having committed war crimes and subsequent executions underlined that. Morant and Hancock died by firing squad as the defence of 'Rule 303' was repudiated.
Any overt, or covert, action to shield BRS from legal action would be a direct abrogation of Australia's undertaking as a member of the UN subscribing to the convention against War Crimes and Cash must know that.
The right of citizens to return to their country of citizenship is pretty foundational to society. Conservatives, if they stand for anything, should support such a principle. Imagine if the situation was reversed, Syrians came to Australia to destroy it and then Syria refused to take their citizens back. We would rightly be outraged.
There has to be a better person to fulfil the role of the Manager of Opposition Business - Tehan addresses the Parliament like a petulant child who doesn't like take an answer of no from their parent.
Who? They don't have many MPs and none inspire much confidence.
I think the Opposition's attacks on the government would make more of an impression if they asked why Labor decided in July 2021 to support the then arrangements for NG and CGT. And if NG and CGT has made buying a house harder, why did Labor support those very arrangements for almost five years? And given that Labor had Treasury model changes in 2024, why didn't they release that modelling in time for the 2025 election?
So they're trying to show Labor is dishonest or lied by being blatantly dishonest themselves? Guess what are also trusts - most Harvey Normans.
Isn't there a Double Jeopardy avoidance clause prohibiting us from having to hear Potato Whine more than once in any week? Also extending to Underdone Angus?
If not, WHY not?
For any masochists wanting to read his dissenting report from the Climate Information Integrity committee a couple of months ago, I recommend several stiff drinks in preparation. It's woeful.
The other aspect in Australia is the blatant conflicts of interest. In some instances you have the same people doing the assessments and delivering the service. It's not just NDIS, job employment services can also refer people to their own programs. I have no idea why governments ever thought that was a good idea.
In fact, if you look at who is behind Redbridge, you'll find the same conflict!
So, the carveouts for businesses (mates/donors) of the CGT legislation begin. The government folds like origami, just as always.
Israeli envoy to Canada reckons there are 19 antisemitic incidents a day. How many of those "antisemitic" incidents were criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank, Syria and Iraq?
Also, how many were repetitions of the complaint of one incident? We know from the Lattouf case that the Hasbara floods the zone with identical/near identical complaints and claims each one as an discrete example of antisemitism.
This point has been exhaustively made by the Jewish Council of Australia that struggles as one of the tiny but vastly energetic group of progressive Jews that understand and seek to ameliorate the damage to the Jewish community being done by the Hasbara / Zionist Lobby. It is tedious having to go over the same ground but in the atmosphere of the Commission - in particular - it is essential that the fight continue.
So anti-semitism is not acceptable, but at what point will the Israeli Goverment accept that their own illegal and unacceptable actions are in large part responsible for the apparent uptick in antisemitism in many parts of the globe? Rather than just complaining that other countries are not taking enough action to curb it. Shades of the seeming increase in political violence in the US being in part a respoonse to Trump's violent rhetoric. Words and actions have consequences, even if they are not directed at those who use the words or take the actions.
Global anti-Semitism was rising before October 7 attacks. In the US, Charlottesville people literally chanted "Jews will not replace us", even before Covid I noticed an increase in old anti-Semitic tropes against Soros, the rise of Christian Nationalism was also happening and predictably , came with anti-Semitism. We literally have neo-Nazis...
What I have found to be particularly disturbing is that people seem to only oppose anti-Semitism when they can blame Muslims.
Patrick Gorman says: 'If those who return have committed crimes, they are punished or held to account for those crimes if they return to Australian soil.'
I think we should consult with the eminent Mr. Gorman as to whether that ruling will also apply to Australians who have gone to fight (aka 'serve', in dissembling parlance) with the IDF if it is ruled - as seems likely - by the ICC that Israel has committed genocide.
No ifs, buts, or maybes. Just equal treatment across all sectors of Australian society, to preserve social cohesion..
and all these women are seeeming to be quite willing to spend the rest of their lives in jail if it means their kids get to come to Australia for a decent rest of their lives
They, like anyone else, are entitled the presumption of innocence. I've always thought part of the reason authorities have made it difficult for them to return is because the evidence they have against them for things that were crimes at the time is actually weak. I aways remember Dr Haneef and the disgraceful treatment he received, all of it thrown out by courts and we ultimately had to compensate him.
It's really disappointing how little understanding there still is about grooming... some these now women were "married" to adult men when they were under 18.
still don't have a smart meter and they're not gonna have one here for at least 12 montsh
The focus on the despicable treatment of the Flotilla members - and the world-wide denunciation that has followed - is welcomed. Even our government has peeked out from under its hidey-blanket (the one you pull over your head to evade bogey-men) and squeaked mild disapproval.
But it should enhance, not distract, from the genocide that Israel and the USA is wreaking all over the Middle East. And on that point, given the absolutely undeniable video evidence of IDF behaviour, at what point does Australia take a blathering of overwhelmingly false assertions from an arrogant and evasive Ambassador as enough BS to simply expel him?
Oh, wait, we are talking the new, revised and dysfunctional Foreign Minister here, aren't we?
Silly me.
The article is paywalled but buried in the physical paper, in the business section of smh is that auction clearance rates have gone down and house prices declining...
Not sure if this applies to every council but I access many newspapers, local and international, through my council library.. It's a great resource and underutilized
And a very good morning to you, Amy.
Today in old Sydney town, we have rain, and then on Thursday, we have biblical flooding, so good times for all.
I think the highlight today will be Brereton before the NACC Senate Estimates. I have my Haighs and a banana, but I fear it won't be enough!
Our Dura coffee machine (a perfect cup every time... at the touch of a button) is back from the doctor and is making the most beautiful tasting coffee, the sort that makes you go back for another.
Australian coffee grown in the hills of Byron Bay and the SE QLD granite belt... best tasting coffee in the world, in my opinion.
I'll need fortification, especially after yesterday's shambles. Secretive and sneaky public servants... pathetic bleating from our politicians about the piracy, kidnapping and abuse of the Samud Flotilla sailors.... I'm gunna need a bigger cup.