What we learned today, Wednesday 27 May
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Here are the main stories of the day:
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Inflation has dropped to 4.2% in the year to April, down from 4.6%. The fall is bigger than economists’ forecasts leading into the data release but still well up on the 3.7% rate leading into the global oil shock.
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The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the better than expected inflation numbers were “encouraging” signs but the war in the Middle East is having a big impact on the economy.
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Paul Brereton, the outgoing boss of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc), has defended his controversial tenure but hit back at suggestions he contributed to the major suffering of robodebt victims.
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The NSW police assistant commissioner David Hudson has told the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion he believed giving the Community Security Group (CSG), which provides security services to the Jewish community, additional powers or privileges would be “problematic”, saying it was something police had “considerable reservations” about.
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Mutual obligations will be different for every welfare recipient, the employment minister, Amanda Rishworth, says, signalling an end to jobseekers being forced to submit “endless” applications for roles they may not be qualified for.
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Justin Stevens has resigned as ABC director of news after four years in the role, citing personal and professional reasons.
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The independent senator David Pocock says a government plan that could require podcasts sponsored by betting companies to produce two versions of the same program – so people can avoid gambling ads – is “totally unworkable” and “bonkers”.
We will see you here again for more news tomorrow.
Updated
Royal Australasian College of Physicians resolves dispute in NSW supreme court
Infighting at one of Australia’s oldest medical colleges was brought to a resolution in the NSW supreme court today.
The charities regulator last week suspended until 20 September the president-elect of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Dr Sharmila Chandran, for allegedly contravening a direction from the NSW work health and safety watchdog.
It followed months of conflict within the RACP’s board, which culminated in an extraordinary general meeting in April to which police were called.
Chandran today gave a court undertaking that she would not act as the college’s president-elect for the duration of her suspension by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
The court, under Justice François Kunc, also declared that a board meeting purportedly called by Chandran after the April EGM, for the purposes of appointing three additional board members, was invalid. The three board members were not validly appointed directors of the RACP, the court declared.
Kunc said it had “clearly been a problematic period … in the history of this organisation” and later wished the college well in “attempting to restore” the position espoused in its tagline, “Specialists. Together”.
Pocock accuses Acma of ‘going light’ on gambling companies
Acma decided not to pursue Entain in court over more than 500 breaches of BetStop rules, leading to independent senator David Pocock accusing the regulator of going light on gambling companies.
Acma could still have taken Entain to court to seek fines but the Acma chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, said:
We decided that the best compliance outcome in this case would be to get Entain to fix its systems and give us a court enforceable undertaking.
She said it was the quickest remedy, noting that Acma’s court action against Optus over the 2022 data breach is not due to be heard in the federal court until 2027.
Pocock said:
How is it that every single estimates I come here with this [there is] another wild story about Acma going easy on gambling companies when they breach their obligations?
You know, last time we were talking about how you allowed, I think it was Sportsbet, to edit the press release after you’d actually found them to have to have breached.
O’Loughlin rejected the claim:
Senator, I don’t believe we are going light on gambling companies.
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Acma defends not fining betting giant over 500 BetStop breaches
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) has confirmed it was unable to fine Entain, the company behind gambling platforms Neds and Ladbrokes, for more than 500 breaches of national self-exclusion rules.
Acma announced earlier this month it found that Entain opened accounts for and provided wagering services to people registered with BetStop and also failed to close wagering accounts for self-excluded customers.
Acma accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from the company but no fines were issued – Acma can issue fines of up to $59,400 per breach. In Senate estimates on Wednesday, the Acma chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, confirmed reporting from the Nine newspapers that Acma had not been able to fine Entain because the investigation took longer than the 12 months allowed for fines to be issued since the alleged breaches.
O’Loughlin said some of the breaches reported to Acma were quite old by the time they were reported to Acma, and at the end of the 14-month investigation period Acma could no longer issue fines.
O’Loughlin told independent senator David Pocock:
We usually try and bring these investigations in within 12 months. But with this particular investigation, we were looking at information from complainants where we’re already out of time but we thought it was important to investigate the matter fully.
The 535 breaches related to seven complainants, and 449 of them relate to breaches for each day the gambling accounts for two of those complainants remained open. Those two did not gamble using those accounts, officials said.
There were 59 contraventions related to people registered on BetStop who placed a bet with the company and four contraventions related to two people who were able to register new accounts while registered on BetStop.
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Inflation eases to 4.2% but interest rate rise still on horizon, economists warn
Inflation slowed to 4.2% in the year to April as the government’s fuel excise relief fed through to lower petrol prices, even as economists warned the Reserve Bank may still need to hike interest rates later this year to tame stubborn inflationary pressures.
You can read more on that story here:
Decision not to lay charges in Kumanjayi White case spark calls for justice reform
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Katie Kiss, says the decision by the Northern Territory director of public prosecutions not to lay charges in the Kumanjayi White case underlined the need for independent investigations of deaths in custody.
White, a 24‑year‑old Warlpiri man who lived with cognitive disabilities, died on 27 May last year during a confrontation with police in a Coles supermarket.
Police alleged White was shoplifting and said plainclothes officers had stepped in after an altercation with a security guard.
White’s family are suing NT police over the death, alleging that two officers involved acted unlawfully in apprehending him and taking him into custody.
Kiss said in a statement on Wednesday that the case underlined the need to implement outstanding recommendations handed down 35 years ago by the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Kiss said:
This case yet again highlights the urgent need to ensure that deaths in custody should be independently investigated. Police should not be investigating other police.
In the Northern Territory, the police investigate and gather the evidence about a possible crime. The DPP assesses the police evidence. Police should not be investigating other police in death in custody matters. This undermines community confidence and leads to risks of flawed investigations.
We support the calls from Aboriginal community leaders and justice advocates for justice sector reform. This case underscores the urgent need for governments to fully implement the recommendations of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Kiss said there had 634 Indigenous deaths in custody since the commission, and 16 in 2026 alone.
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Thank you all for riding along on the blog with me today!
I’ll leave you with the great Nino Bucci for the rest of the afternoon, and see you back here bright and early tomorrow.
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
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Capital gains tax and the women returning from Syria were the main game for the opposition today – again trying to corner the prime minister on carve-outs for start ups and small businesses.
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Tim Wilson had a cracker of a day, with his book getting another plug from the PM, before he was kicked out for being too loud.
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Independent Sophie Scamps asked the attorney general about the transparency of appointments to the national anti-corruption commission.
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The government was also tested on safeguards around automated AI assessment tools by independent MP Kate Chaney.
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And Anthony Albanese was asked by independent MP Andrew Wilkie to come to Hobart for a roundtable on domestic violence. He wouldn’t commit to attending but said the government is working on a second national plan to end violence against women and children.
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Question time ends
Jason Clare gets the final dixer on childcare, before the PM calls time on QT.
Just one more to go this week.
Every act of family violence ‘abhorrent and completely unacceptable’: Albanese
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie asks if the prime minister will come to Hobart to attend a roundtable on domestic violence – with two women in Tasmania killed in alleged family violence incidents in the last two weeks.
Anthony Albanese says it’s “horrific” that two women killed in the last two weeks.
He won’t commit to going to the roundtable but says the government has opened consultation for the second national plan to end family violence – which will hear from academics, experts, frontline workers, employers, community members, victims, survivors, and children and young people.
Albanese says:
Every act of domestic and family violence is abhorrent and completely unacceptable.
I’m always happy to meet constituents where it’s possible. Sometimes it’s difficult to fit 50 hours into a day but certainly I engage with the member when I’ve been in Tasmania. As he knows, the focus of the second action plan will be on what works to deliver practical and systemic solutions.
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Labor shuts down question on repatriating women and children from Syria
We’re back to the women and children who arrived from Syria last night – with Liberal MP Garth Hamilton asking point blank if the government or government agencies have provided operational support to repatriate any of the “Isis sympathisers”?
Pat Conroy, representing the minister for foreign affairs (Penny Wong), gives us a very short (both in length and tone) answer:
I’ll just repeat what the government’s already said. We have not and will not provide assistance to anyone in that cohort.
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Butler acknowledges more work to do on bone marrow donor register
Bob Katter asks the government why it hasn’t done more to act on blood cancer, and help patients find donors. He says the health minister, Mark Butler, has previously promised to grow the registry of bone marrow donors but not enough has been done.
For Katter, this seems personal – he says that 18,000 Australians have died from blood cancers in three years, including his own nephew.
Butler acknowledges that he has previously said more can be done in Australia and that the government has released some funding for organisations to “undertake additional activity to recruit new stem cell donors to that registry”.
Tomorrow is World Blood Cancer Day and the Speaker, Milton Dick, will be holding an event. Butler says:
You’re right to say there’s more that we should be doing. The registry is still relatively small and I look forward to hearing more ideas at tomorrow’s events.
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Australian women returning from Syria not arrested but remain ‘under consideration’
The Australian women who arrived in Sydney and Melbourne from Syria last night with their children have not been arrested but remain “under consideration”, the home affairs secretary has told Senate estimates.
The department is facing inquiry today and the discussion has turned to the Australian wives, widows and children of jailed or dead Islamic State fighters, who are returning to the country after being held at the al-Roj detention camp for years.
The secretary, Stephanie Foster, told senators today:
The cohort who arrived last night, none of the women were arrested on arrival, as was the case in the first cohort, but activities in both law enforcement and intelligence agencies are ongoing, and so … they remain under consideration.
Read more:
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Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh is up next and asks how many of the women and children that arrived in Australia last night from the Syrian detention camp have been arrested or charged for entering a declared terrorist zone.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, says of the two cohorts that have arrived in recent weeks, there are three currently behind bars.
Of those three who are currently behind bars: one was charged with entering a declared area, two charged with crimes against humanity.
I would remind those opposite, before we came to office, 45 people who had gone there to fight had self-managed their return.
We know that none of the women who arrived last night in Sydney and Melbourne have yet been charged. More on that in a moment.
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Where are the safeguards on AI, Chaney asks
Independent MP Kate Chaney asks the government why it hasn’t legislated a robodebt royal commission recommendation to put safeguards and oversight for automated decision-making in government.
She says that automated AI decisions are only increasing across aged care, the NDIS and social services.
The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, says the government has discussed safeguards around AI.
We don’t just hand over decision making to abstract computer programs, as was the case under robodebt, which caused such great suffering for 430,000 Australians
Those opposite came up with an automated decision-making program that was designed simply to raise revenue. It was used to attack the most vulnerable people in our community. There is certainly no way that our government would ever, would ever do such a thing.
An opposition MP shouts back at Plibersek, asking if she’s spoken to anyone in the aged care industry recently. The government has faced criticism over automated assessment tools in the industry that has no human override ability.
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Collins tells opposition to ‘stop running scare campaigns’
The Nationals deputy leader, Darren Chester, is up next and asks the government to confirm that more than half of Australian farmers are not eligible for the CGT concession and will be exposed “to massively higher tax bills when transferring family farms to their children”.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, tells Chester that the question is wrong and that primary producer income will be exempt from the new 30% tax on discretionary trusts.
They really should stop running scare campaigns and they should be presenting the farmers with the facts.
Collins says that the National Farmers Federation supports the measures in the budget:
Family farms are generational businesses built over decades and often represent a family’s life savings and retirement plan. We’re pleased the government has listened, and that’s from the National Farmers Federation.
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Wilson faces the boot by the Speaker
Tim Wilson is back and again asks the PM whether the government’s CGT policy has the same settings as 1999, when small businesses could average capital gains over five years.
Before he can even finish, Labor MP Matt Burnell is swiftly kicked out by Milton Dick.
But wait, there’s more.
Albanese tells the opposition to have a “Bex and a lie down” (that’s a vintage reference if there ever was one – my dad says that) – before Dick stops him and kicks Wilson out for being unruly.
The PM continues:
Here’s what I don’t see anyone posting about. The government give founders 43% back on every R&D dollar spent today, not in five years, not when you exit right now.
The opposition tries to make a point of order but he’s already finished his answer.
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Tim Wilson’s book gets another plug from the PM
Tim Wilson is a bit of an eager beaver, standing up for his question before Anthony Albanese finishes a dixer (he’s going over the two-and-a-half minute limit, and opposition members call “time”, which the Speaker admonishes them for).
Milton Dick says Wilson always walks to the dispatch box “in a dramatic way” and basically tells him to chill out a bit.
The shadow treasurer says to the PM that the 1999 CGT settings allowed businesses to average capital gains over five years to stop small business owners being pushed into the top tax bracket. He asks if this will be Labor’s policy.
Albanese takes the opportunity to reference a “terrific” book – Wilson’s – where he says that the CGT discount is unfair to young people. It’s been a staple of QT this week.
He adds that the Institute of Public Accountants has said that more than 90% of small business owners will “potentially qualify for some of the CGT concessions”.
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Attorney general says Nacc appointment process is merit-based
Over to the crossbench, Sophie Scamps asks whether the government will open a transparent and independent process to hire the new national anti-corruption commissioner and deputy commissioner.
As a side note, the Nacc commissioner made a pretty fiery appearance at Senate estimates last night, which you can read about here.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, says the government already has a merit-based selection process for appointments to the Nacc, which “has been followed to date and which will be followed in future”.
Candidates for appointment are assessed by a selection panel following public advertisements. Only candidates assessed as suitable by the panel are presented to me as attorney general for appointment. Candidates are then referred for consideration to the cross-party parliamentary joint committee on the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
So after all that, there’s no indication of any changes to the process.
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‘They’re always looking in the rear view mirror’
Will the prime minister index income tax brackets, asks Angus Taylor, something the opposition has vowed to do.
Anthony Albanese relishes the opportunity to talk about opposition policy (which is generally just an opening to attack the Coalition).
He goes straight to the tax cuts that the opposition voted against in the last budget.
We know that when it came to the tax cuts that were in last year’s budget, they said that they’d oppose it. They voted against it, to be fair to them, to be fair to them. They did what they said they’d do. And then, you know what they did? They took it to an election, and they got smashed.
The opposition gets up to make a point of order on relevance, but they don’t get very far.
Albanese continues:
I was asked about their tax policy, which is higher taxes, and I was asked about our policy, our policy, which is lower income taxes
If you want any indication that they’re always looking in the rear view mirror, this is the mob who just made Tony Abbott the president of the Liberal party.
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ABC news director Justin Stevens resigns
Justin Stevens has resigned as ABC director of news after four years in the role, citing personal and professional reasons.
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, said Stevens had made an “incredible commitment” to the ABC over 19 years.
Marks said:
I am grateful to have seen the strength of Justin’s editorial instincts and to have observed his commitment to the ABC and audiences. I wish him every success in the future.
In a farewell email to staff, Stevens said:
There is no more complex news organisation in the country, no more scrutinised institution, and few so laden with public expectations. In that context, I have sought to strengthen and defend our journalism without being blind to our stumbles; to meet the state of constant change in the digital age; and to improve our culture in News to one where we hold ourselves to the same standards as we do of others in the broader community.
Stevens’ resignation is effective immediately.
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Wong calls in Russian ambassador
Jumping out of QT for a moment, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says Russia’s ambassador to Australia has been called in by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in protest against Moscow’s threats against Ukraine.
The move follows a statement from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 25 May, threatening to launch a fresh wave of “systematic strikes” against targets in Kyiv.
Officials told ambassador Mikhail Petrakov that the threats were unacceptable, including warnings directed at foreign citizens and staff at embassies and international organisations.
Wong said:
Russia’s continued attacks against, and intimidation of, Ukraine are totally unacceptable.
These threats directed at foreign embassies and international organisations in Kyiv are a further demonstration of Russia’s complete disregard for international law and civilian safety.
Australia stands steadfast in its support for Ukraine and we call on Russia to end its illegal and immoral invasion.
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It’s question time!
The opposition is picking up where it left off yesterday, with Angus Taylor asking the prime minister how many of the 3 million small businesses in Australia will receive a carve out from capital gains tax changes.
Anthony Albanese give a rinse and repeat answer.
He says that there are already four carve-outs for small businesses as well as a range of tax decreases in the budget legislation.
Ninety per cent of small businesses in Australia are eligible for these concessions and they’ll continue to remain eligible. All budget measures on top of that are entirely prospective, of course. They don’t start until one July 2027 and that means, of course, that any business value that’s been built up before this date can use the old discount rules, no matter when the business owner decides to sell in the future.
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NSW police had ‘considerable reservations’ on granting CSG additional law enforcement powers, royal commission hears
NSW police assistant commissioner David Hudson has told the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion he believed giving the Community Security Group (CSG), which provides security services to the Jewish community, additional powers or privileges would be “problematic”.
In his statement, read to the commission, Hudson said CSG supplant or displace the role of the police in protecting all members of the community. He argued police held “considerable reservations” about granting additional law enforcement powers to CSG.
Hudson said:
Isolating a particular group for additional powers within our community is problematic. It creates a disconnect between groups. It can cause friction between groups if one particular element of society is afforded privileges that others aren’t.
The commission has finished public hearings for the current block but is continuing to take evidence in camera.
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Fuel prices drop in April but still far above pre-Iran war levels
More on this morning’s inflation figures, which show fuel prices fell by 7% in April, after surging by 33% in March in the immediate aftermath of the US-Israel attack on Iran.
Regular unleaded averaged $2.06 a litre in April, down from an average of $2.28/L in the month before. In contrast, diesel got more expensive, from an average of $2.56/L in March to $2.92/L in April, the ABS said.
The government cut the fuel excise in half from the start of April, but the Australian Bureau of Statistics noted that fuel prices are still 24% higher than they were in February before the global oil shock.
Jim Chalmers at a press conference left open the option to extend the 26c/L fuel excise cut beyond its expiry at the end of June, saying it was “under review”.
We’re not expecting to extend it, but we keep it under review from week to week.
As the US and Iran pursue a deal that would reopen the strait of Hormuz, global oil prices are just below $US100 a barrel, roughly 40% up on prewar levels.
The ABS said the impact of higher fuel prices was evident “in products and services with high freight and logistics costs, such as parcel delivery and building materials”.
This is reflected in price increases of 12.4 per cent for Postal services prices were up 12% in April compared to a year ago, while new building costs were up 4.7%.
Economists said the impact of higher fuel prices will feed through to a wider array of products and services over the coming months.
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Ex-Labor adviser urges business to oppose Albanese’s tax reforms
A former adviser to Kevin Rudd has called on Australian business to rise up against Labor’s tax reforms, and confirmed he is lobbying Albanese government ministers to change course.
Lachlan Harris, press secretary to the former prime minister, told Guardian Australia he had been urging private sector resistance to the reforms, which amend the tax discount on profits on the sale of assets – or “capital gains”. Harris said:
All week, I’ve been saying the same thing publicly and privately: these reforms are bad for young entrepreneurs … to any founders reading this story, pick up the phone, speak to the media, and get your voice heard.
Harris said he had been “swamped” by entrepreneurs opposed to the changes after he came out against the tax reforms, speaking to the Nine newspapers last week. He said he had gone on to lobby the federal government directly.
I’ve spoken to a few people in the government this week – MPs, ministers, staffers – and said to all of them privately exactly what I said in the paper publicly: these reforms are bad for every young kid who has a dream of starting a business.
In a young person, the desire to take a risk and start a business is a delicate thing. These reforms risk snuffing that flame out for the next generation of kids who want to start a business.
Harris, the son of the founders of supermarket chain Harris Farm, co-founded the Budgie Smugglers swimwear brand and now runs media business Revtech. He worked as an adviser to Rudd when he was prime minister, alongside his friend Andrew Charlton, who is now a federal assistant minister.
Since Harris’s public intervention, Charlton has been one of the few Labor frontbenchers to echo startups’ concerns the tax reforms could erase their tax discount.
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Treasurer needs to stop ‘victory dancing’ while inflation remains high, Tim Wilson says
The latest inflation numbers will wipe out Labor’s tax cuts by Christmas, says the opposition, accusing the government of an “active inflation agenda”.
Inflation dropped to 4.2% in the year to April, from 4.6% - after petrol prices fell from their March peaks thanks to the government’s 26-cent cut to the fuel excise.
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, says (as he has many a time) that the government needs to get spending down, and says today’s figures do nothing to “encourage interest rate cuts, cheaper prices at the supermarket or back small business to survive”
Persistent inflation reflects what Australians are living – their standards of living are falling under the Albanese active inflation agenda.
The treasurer needs to stop the victory dancing while inflation persists and get spending down.
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No ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to mutual obligations
The government will keep mutual obligations in place for jobseekers, but Amanda Rishworth says that it will take different forms for different people in the system.
It will depend on “how far someone is from the labour market”.
She tells the press club that for someone who does not have the work ready skills and is far from the labour market, “there is no point in that participant putting in endless applications before they have got those work ready skills”.
We need to actually stop thinking of this one-size-fits-all approach to mutual obligations and recognise that mutual obligations will be different depending how far someone is from the labour market and what steps they need to take, so the type of examples you’ve said will vary across the different service streams
Rishworth is also asked about some providers ignoring top-up payments to help get longer-term unemployed Australians into jobs, focusing instead on “easy wins” with people who are much more employable – so how will the government be able to turn that around?
She says that the government will overhaul the way that employment services are funded to get better outcomes for everyone.
We’ll be designing how we get that those payments correct, but it will not just be a top up of the current system that currently exists. It will be a different funding model to make sure we’re getting the outcomes we want
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Rishworth asked whether Labor considering free government-funded employment service
Rishworth is being asked whether she considered bringing back a free government-run employment service, given there had been a concentration of third-party job service providers (down to only about 40) across the country since the Commonwealth Employment Service was phased out in the late 1990s.
She dodges the direct question about whether renationalising the system was part of her thinking, but said she does want “the best people for the job”.
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Back to the National Press Club, where the employment and workplace relations minister, Amanda Rishworth’s speech continues.
She has mostly kept to the comments outlined in the story below, but has said the reforms mark the biggest change to employment services in 30 years.
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Labor MP Ali France defends electoral enrolment after Liberal senator refers her to AEC
Labor has rejected claims from Liberal senator James McGrath that government MP Ali France has a case to answer about her enrolment details, saying she is living away from her registered address while her home is being rebuilt to better suit her disability needs.
McGrath, a LNP senator from Queensland, said he had raised concerns with the Australian Electoral Commission that France’s current registered enrolment address was a vacant block of land. France is the member for Dickson, having unseated Peter Dutton at the 2025 election.
In a statement, France said she has lived at that address for five years, and that the block is currently vacant because her house was demolished in February “to build a new home that is more suited to my needs as a disabled woman”.
It should be completed by the end of the year and my son and I are very much looking forward to moving back when construction is complete. I have lived at the address for five years and will continue to live at the address into future.
The AEC’s website states: “If you are absent from your enrolled address for a period of time but have an intention to return to that address to live, you do not need to update your enrolment. This includes if you intend to rebuild your house in the event of a disaster.”
Guardian Australia has been told France lived at the property until its demolition in February.
McGrath claimed in a statement: “A Labor MP being enrolled at a vacant block of land is as dodgy as they come.”
He requested the AEC investigate the issue “with the upmost seriousness and in a timely manner.”
Updated
Amanda Rishworth is speaking at the National Press Club.
The employment minister is expected to outline plans to ease Centrelink’s much-maligned mutual obligations regime.
We published this earlier about her address:
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Opinion: News Corp noise and AI memes prove Labor is doing something meaningful. The battle lies in selling it
The annual tabling of the budget and the budget reply may have been presented as a dusty ritual, but the secret to understanding how it has landed is to recognise that the world is changing, perhaps irrevocably.
We are in a new asymmetric political contest in which a dominant party is imposing its agenda on a fragmented polity as a wounded opposition staves off a rising populist wave and a growing band of independents look to formalise their own coalition.
To the extent the government has taken a post-budget hit, it has mainly been from propagating incendiary memes that place virality over veracity.
You can read the rest of this piece here:
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Chalmers says CGT changes shouldn’t ‘introduce another layer of distortions’
Chalmers says there are already four existing carve-outs from the CGT changes for small businesses, but warns that the government shouldn’t create new distortions into the system as it consults with the startup and tech sector.
Chalmers gives my colleague Tom McIlroy’s exclusive story on comments from Paul Keating a plug. Keating has urged Labor to stick to its guns on controversial changes to capital gains tax, warning that exempting commercial assets from the changes would further “distort” the economy.
You can read that piece here:
Chalmers says:
There’s a legitimate conversation going on with the small business sector, for example, but it’s important that we apply this change broadly, so that we don’t introduce another layer of distortions.
Any government of both political persuasions consults on big, broad, ambitious tax reform packages. It would be stranger if we didn’t, and so we’re engaged in that consultation, and in order for that to be meaningful, we’re not pre-empting the outcomes.
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‘You don’t have a consultation process if you already know the outcomes’: Chalmers
Will they or won’t they give startups a carve out from capital gains tax changes – is the question on everyone’s lips, with the government to introduce legislation for the measures tomorrow.
Chalmers says it has been the government’s intention to consult on the changes with the tech sector as well as other peak organisations to get the details right.
The treasurer suggests that the government will introduce the broad reforms first, and then introduce further legislation with more of the details:
You don’t have a consultation process if you already know the outcomes …
We would like to legislate the core elements as soon as possible, we will. In order for the consultation on implementation details to be meaningful, we’ll take as much time as is necessary after that to do that, but ideally we’re talking about weeks and months rather than months and years to bed down some of these other pieces.
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Government still ‘not anticipating’ extension of fuel excise cut
Despite the impact of the 26-cent cut to the fuel excise tempering headline inflation, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers says he’s still not expecting to extend the measure.
He tells reporters that the government still expects the cut to be reversed at the end of June, but it is always being looked at:
We keep that under review, but it’s not our, we’re not anticipating extending that or expecting to extend it, but we keep it under review really from week to week.
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Inflation eases ‘more than expected’ but still a way to go, Chalmers says
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is perhaps breathing a small sigh of relief with slightly better than expected inflation numbers just released by the bureau of statistics.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament House, he says there are some “encouraging” signs but the war in the Middle East is having a big impact on the economy.
One of the biggest impacts to the numbers was the cut of the fuel excise by 26 cents per litre, which Chalmers said reduced headline inflation by half a percentage point.
Inflation came down more than expected in April, and that’s a good thing, but we know that inflation’s still too high in our economy.
We’ve had an inflation challenge in our economy, which is made worse by the war in the Middle East, and what we see in these numbers is some encouraging numbers, but also we understand that inflation is too high in these numbers, and that’s why it’s a big focus of the government. The moderation in the figures, as I said, was much better than the median expectation of the market.
He adds that the cut to the fuel excise isn’t “the whole story” with a “welcome moderation in food and in rents as well”.
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Lovett completes 500km walk for truth to Parliament House
Travis Lovett, the former Yoorrook justice commissioner, which is the country’s first formal, Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, has arrived at Parliament House in Canberra to push the government on its promise for a formal truth-telling commission.
Lovett has walked 500km from Victoria with a kangaroo skin cloak that bears the words, “Truth is not about blame, it’s about healing”.
Outside the front of parliament, Lovett speaks to the prime minister, minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, and Senate president, Sue Lines.
Lovett, addressing the crowds outside parliament, says:
This is the moment that has come to meet you, this walk has reached the steps of parliament, but it must not be allowed to end at the stone and glass of this place.
Let this be where the country turns its face towards the truth, let this be where the delay ends … I ask this country to walk the next part with us.
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Inflation drops to 4.2% in year to April
Inflation has dropped to 4.2% in the year to April, from 4.6%, after petrol prices fell from their March peaks thanks to the government’s 26-cent cut to the fuel excise.
The fall is bigger than economists’ forecasts leading into the data release, but still well up on the 3.7% rate leading into the global oil shock.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed an underlying inflation measure, which removes large price swings, ticking up to 3.4%, from 3.3%.
Financial markets before this morning’s inflation put a near-zero chance of a rate hike on 16 June, rising to about 50% by the following RBA decision on 11 August.
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‘Grossly negligent’: Westpac cops $26m penalty
Westpac has been fined $26m for grossly negligent conduct after failing to respond to customers in financial hardship, AAP reports.
Federal court judge Tim McEvoy on Tuesday found that while the bank’s conduct was not deliberate, it occurred over a relatively lengthy period, from 2017 to 2023.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission pursued Westpac in 2023 after it was found the bank had failed to respond to more than 200 online hardship requests from its customers over the six-year period.
Justice McEvoy found the requests were made by customers of Westpac and its subsidiaries St George Bank, Bank SA and Bank of Melbourne.
The customers were struggling to keep up with repayments on home loans, credit cards, personal loans, car loans and other responsibilities, justice McEvoy said:
I accept that Westpac’s contraventions in this case were very serious.
They impacted many vulnerable customers and continued over an extended period. It may in fact be said that the circumstances faced by the affected customers means that their financial vulnerability cannot be overstated.
While the contraventions were not suggested to be deliberate and arose instead from inadequate systems and operational failures, I have accepted that they were grossly negligent.
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Pocock highlights ‘bonkers’ situation facing podcasts over gambling ad opt-out
Live read sponsorships on podcasts would be included in proposed online advertising restrictions to gambling ads, communications department officials confirmed in Senate estimates, which independent senator David Pocock said would be a “bonkers” situation requiring podcasters to upload multiple versions of a podcast.
Under the proposed restrictions, streaming platforms can only have gambling ads for users who are over 18 and have logged in, and must allow users to opt out of seeing or hearing such advertisements, in order to prevent children hearing those ads.
Department officials confirmed if a podcast host has a live read, such as “we’d like to thank our sponsors”, this would be considered advertising, and if a user has opted out, they should not be able to hear it.
Pocock asked:
So then you can’t hear an entire episode?
Officials said that was a matter for the platform hosting the content.
Pocock said that is a “totally unworkable system” and continued:
Like, that is bonkers that you would be saying you can be a podcast, can be sponsored by a gambling company, you can have it in the intro, but you can’t play that to someone if they’ve opted out.
So the podcast hosts now are going to have to have two different versions of their podcast that they upload, and Spotify is somehow going to decide which one they’re going to play, to which person.
The hearing then moved on.
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Police were outgunned at Bondi massacre, royal commission hears
Police were outgunned at the Bondi massacre on 14 December, armed with 9mm Glock pistols in a gun battle against rifles carried by Islamic State-inspired gunmen, the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion has heard.
NSW police assistant commissioner David Hudson gave evidence to the commission that police officers put themselves in danger to shoot and neutralise the attackers.
Obviously, on the 14th of December, our police officers were placed at significant risk being in a gunfight armed with 9mm Glocks against long arms.
A plan to establish an armed response command – of 210 officers carrying long-arm weapons – has been “escalated”, but will still take at least another 12 months to be fully staffed, Hudson told the commission.
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Albanese declares free Mumford & Sons tickets, record cabinet
Anthony Albanese’s latest declarations to his register of interests reveal he accepted free tickets to a concert and opera, as well as official gifts from other world leaders. We keep a close eye on the register, where politicians have to declare gifts and changes to their personal information.
Prime minister Albanese this week updated his register to disclose receiving an “Art Vinyl Record Storage Cabinet from Her Excellency Ms Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister of Japan”.
He also noted receiving a “Celapa 4-Segi in Silver” from His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni AI-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali, the Sultan of Brunei, which he says was surrendered, which we understand is an ornamental metal box, that the PM said would be “donated to charity or non-for profit organisation”.
He also declared a “Framed Moon Kite” from YAB Dato’ Seri Anwar Bin Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia, which has been “surrendered [to be donated to National Collections]”.
Albanese also noted he’d accepted “sponsored travel or hospitality” including tickets to Mumford & Sons in Sydney last month, from Live Nation; as well as tickets to Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour from Opera Australia.
Albanese said in a radio interview a few weeks ago that he’d gone to Mumford & Sons with wife Jodie Haydon, telling Nova:
That was fantastic because we were in the dark so no one could see us, and no one hassled us. No one knew we were there … Fantastic gig.
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No date set for social media ban court cases
Two high court challenges to Australia’s under-16s social media ban do not have a hearing date set yet, department officials have told Senate estimates.
Reddit, and the Digital Freedom Project – a group helmed by libertarian NSW MP John Ruddick – have sought to challenge the ban in the high court on implied freedom of political communications grounds. But communications department officials could not say when the cases were likely to be heard.
Christine McClure, first assistant secretary, legal and integrity division of the department, said the next directions hearing will come on or after 25 June but would not say whether the cases would be heard this year, stating it was a “matter for the court” to set a hearing date.
The department also declined to state what the government’s position on the litigation was, aside from that the government was defending its position.
Earlier in the hearing, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson sought to challenge the government’s claim that 5 million accounts have been deactivated or restricted on the 10 platforms given two-thirds of teens under 16 have remained on social media since the ban came into effect in January.
The department referred questions on these figures – and enforcement plans against platforms – to the eSafety commissioner, who is appearing this afternoon.
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NSW police front royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion
The royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion is hearing from senior NSW police officers again, in its second block of public hearings, on Wednesday morning.
Today is likely to be the last day of public hearings this week, before the commission takes further evidence in camera.
The commission will hear from NSW police deputy commissioner, David Hudson, who holds responsibility for investigations and counter-terrorism, and assistant commissioner Kirsty Heyward, who is the commander of police prosecutions and licensing enforcement command.
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Advocates want employment overhaul to go even further
Welfare and employment groups say the government should be doing more to overhaul the mutual obligations system, ahead of Amanda Rishworth’s address to the National Press Club today.
The Community and Public Sector Union says the changes are welcome, but is “disappointed it has not gone further to overhaul the privatised model that has failed job seekers, employers and the government.”
National secretary Melissa Donnelly says Rishworth’s changes are a step in the right direction, but worries they don’t go far enough.
Australian job seekers are sick of being lectured by flashy ‘entrepreneurs’ who are milking the government for hundreds of millions of dollars and providing a broken, profit-driven service in return.
This privatisation fantasy has caused untold damage, and while today’s announcement is very welcome, progress must not stop here.
The Antipoverty Centre, which advocates for unemployed Australians and those in the welfare system, has again called for the mutual obligations system to be fully changed. Its spokesperson Jay Coonan said the “punishment” of penalties for compliance activities should be totally overhauled.
You can’t punish people into employment in an economy designed to keep at least 4% of us unemployed, especially with the RBA aggressively pursuing higher unemployment.
There are about 2.7 million payment suspension notices issued each year and a huge percentage of them are ultimately reversed because they were incorrect, at enormous personal cost to the people subjected to these penalties. If the use of suspensions is not paused immediately, any promises of a better system will ring hollow in the ears of unemployed people.
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In pictures: Taylor visits the farm
NB: Am I sorry for these terrible puns? No.
Am I embarrassed? Only a little.
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Labor has ‘rolled out the welcome mat’ to women and children returning from Syrian camp
The opposition is continuing its tirade on the government’s response to the women and children returning from the notorious Syrian al-Roj camp.
Angus Taylor has taken a little road trip to the regional NSW town of Bungendore, a short car ride from Canberra, this morning. He accuses the government of supporting the repatriation of the group – a claim that has been vehemently denied by the government many times.
The opposition leader tells reporters:
The government’s rolled out the welcome mat to people who have turned their backs on our country and our values to support ISIS. An organisation that has committed egregious brutality and atrocities.
The Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, who is also in Bungendore, takes aim at independent MP Monique Ryan who this morning said that the children returning from Syria should be treated “sensitively and gently”.
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Labor planning to ‘ram’ tax changes through Senate with help of Greens, Hume says
One of the biggest questions on the capital gains tax changes is whether there will be a carve out for startups and some small businesses.
Time is ticking, with the first tranche of the legislation to be introduced to the House tomorrow.
The deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume, says the government should allow the CGT changes to be scrutinised through a Senate inquiry. The Coalition has said that it will probably vote down the bill – despite the legislation also including the tax offsets (the $250 working Australians tax offset) that the opposition has said it does support.
Hume tells Sky News:
Why deny the Senate the opportunity to scrutinise possibly the most far-reaching cash grab tax that the parliament has seen in decades? Just the idea that you could ram this through with the help of the Greens is anathema to what it is that the Senate is here to do.
Hume is asked whether the opposition would support changes to the capital gains tax discount just for housing. She says, “there’s no way that this tax can go ahead as is. No way.”
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Opposition tying negotiations on NDIS and CGT for ‘maximum leverage’: Wilson
How are the NDIS and capital gains tax changes related?
Well it’s because the opposition is trying to tie one to the other.
Sorry, how?
So, the opposition has said that the Coalition could withhold its support for the NDIS bill unless the government agrees to an inquiry to examine the CGT and negative gearing changes.
Is that a threat?
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, was asked that very question on Sky News this morning and wouldn’t say the ‘T’ word, but that it was just for “maximum leverage”.
What we’re going to do is go through parliamentary processes on both NDIS changes and budget changes and we’re going to use maximum leverage so Australians can have a say.
We’re going to use maximum leverage and if the government wants to have a conversation around NDIS changes … then they have to actually allow the Australian people to have their say about their tax changes that they didn’t take to the Australian community.
Earlier this morning, the shadow NDIS minister, Melissa McIntosh, told RN Breakfast she “gets” the move because the opposition only has a certain number of levers to play with:
By no means, from my perspective as the portfolio holder or shadow portfolio of the NDIS, would I allow this to be a political football for people on the NDIS. I’m completely focused on ensuring that a Senate inquiry goes ahead. And if the result of negotiations in the Senate means that the NDIS Senate inquiry goes for longer, well, that’s not a bad thing in itself. It means that people get longer to have a say.
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Estimates sessions ‘like drawing teeth’, Shoebridge says
Shoebridge says there’s an even more fundamental problem at the heart of the Nacc – a lack of transparent hiring processes.
The crossbench – led by Helen Haines, a key architect of the body – have been calling for a proper merit based process for the anti-corruption body.
The Greens senator told RN Breakfast that the hiring of Brereton should not have been from “inside the Canberra club”.
It’s the fact that Labor chose to appoint somebody from inside the Canberra club and didn’t put in place and ensure that the checks and balances were there so that public confidence was maintained. And, you know, and still last night, commissioner Brereton, even after all, we know that he thinks he still has the full confidence of the Labor government and the Labor attorney general.
Shoebridge is scathing of Brereton’s answers to estimates last night, and said he “refuses to accept even the most basic propositions” and that after the session ended there were further revelations that a second investigation was under way on Brereton’s conduct.
Shoebridge says:
It’s in my experience, and it’s with many federal bureaucrats, it’s like drawing teeth. The idea that it would be a frank exchange, an open, transparent process, which is what it should be, I mean, that’s almost a dream. Like, what we get is, we get defensive non-answers, and commissioner Brereton was exhibit A in that.
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Brereton had an ‘inability to accept his own role in his downfall’: Shoebridge
Greens senator David Shoebridge was front and centre last night interrogating the outgoing National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton at Senate estimates, and has some choice words for the conduct of the public servant.
For a catch up on what went down last night – take a look here.
Shoebridge tells the ABC’s RN Breakfast there has been a huge amount of frustration from the Australian public around the handling of robodebt by the Nacc and the subsequent fallout.
He also says Brereton “absolutely should have recused himself from defence matters”.
This is a man who left office in the way he came into office with a huge amount of hubris and an inability to accept his own role in, I think, his downfall and in his resignation three years into a five-year term.
But more fundamentally, his role in setting the tone for the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which, if you were to go out and ask people across the country, you know, do they support it? I think most people would say it has utterly failed to meet the moment.
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Government funds 2026 Rugby League World Cup
The prime minister has the fun job of spruiking something a lot lighter this morning – he’s talking to commercial radio stations about the government’s support for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.
The government is putting $12.4m towards the planning, logistics and delivery of the event, which will have women’s, men’s and wheelchair tournaments.
Games will begin in Sydney in October – but will also be played in a couple of neighbouring countries. There will be 26 teams from 16 nations playing across five weeks.
Anthony Albanese told Triple M Sydney this morning:
There’s going to be games in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Townsville, and of course the great city of Newcastle as well, alongside games in PNG and New Zealand, so it will extend the rugby league season even further. And we’re investing to provide some support for those teams for the NRL, so it will be a great way to continue to back this great game after the NRL season ends.
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‘Is this just a cost shifting exercise?’, McIntosh asks on NDIS
The Coalition has agreed to support the seismic NDIS legislation through the House, but pushed for a rapid Senate inquiry to consider the changes.
The shadow minister for the NDIS, Melissa McIntosh, told the ABC’s RN Breakfast this morning she fought hard for the inquiry, to probe some of the issues and questions still unanswered over the details of the legislation.
McIntosh said she’s hearing some participants already facing cuts to their plans, well before the legislation has been passed and the changes are scheduled to take effect.
She’s also concerned about whether the states will pick up their responsibilities for providing foundation supports – a key program which will support participants who aren’t eligible for the NDIS with more moderate needs.
How do you build a foundation from nothing, which is where it is at in the state regards right now? And then the question Mark [Butler], as well, is this just a cost-shifting exercise? Are we just moving the budget, the NDIS budget, on to the health budget? … But if it’s a cost-shifting exercise, at the end of the day, Australian taxpayers still have to pay for it.
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Property tax changes will have a ‘modest affordability effect’ on house prices, O’Neil says
Continuing her media rounds across the press gallery, Clare O’Neil tells the ABC’s News Breakfast that the tax changes will have a “modest” impact on affordability.
The housing minister acknowledges that the changes are “difficult” for some people, but that “they’ll mean about 75,000 rental households become first home owning households.”
Treasury modelling in the budget estimates that the changes will slow house price growth by 2% over two years, compared to the current tax settings.
O’Neil says:
What it says is that this will have a modest affordability effect on house prices in Australia.
But at the end of the day, the thing that is driving house prices is actually not our tax sets, it’s a fundamental mismatch between how many homes we’re building and how many homes we need.
On supply, building more homes is the best thing to put downward pressure on house prices. At the moment, that project is being hit from all sides. You’re got the conflict in the Middle East, which is driving up construction costs, you’ve also got big surge in interest rates as well.
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Outgoing Nacc boss says ‘sorry’ for robodebt inquiry delays
Paul Brereton, the outgoing boss of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) has defended his controversial tenure but hit back at suggestions he contributed to the major suffering of robodebt victims.
Facing Senate estimates for the last time before he leaves the role in July, Brereton said he was wrong to be involved in consideration of referrals related to the illegal welfare debt scheme, which was the subject of a landmark royal commission.
But he hit back at Greens senator David Shoebridge, who asked if he would apologise to the victims of robodebt and the families of people who died after being issued debt notices.
In October 2024, the Nacc inspector found Brereton had engaged in misconduct when he involved himself in proceedings that rejected further investigation into senior public servants involved in robodebt, including the then human services department secretary Kathryn Campbell, who was an army reserve colleague of Brereton’s.
He defended his actions.
My involvement, such as it was in the preliminary stages of the initial robotic consideration, was entirely in good faith, in the interests of the then infant commission in providing guidance, how a very complex issue might be addressed without suggesting the outcome of that issue.
As I have said earlier, with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better if I was not involved in that at all. And, of course, I am sorry for the delay that that has caused.
However, to suggest that that is the main cause of the appalling tragedy that the robodebt victims have suffered, is, I suggest, gilding the lily on your part.
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Syrian children should be treated ‘sensitively and gently’, Ryan says
Independent MP Monique Ryan says the women and children returning from a Syrian camp should be treated gently, after they arrived in Australia last night.
There were some chaotic scenes and scuffles with media at Melbourne airport after they left the al-Roj detention camp in Syrian last week.
Ryan told the Today Show that the last thing these vulnerable children need is to deal with “an aggressive media”.
We’re talking about kids who have grown up in a camp in Syria who haven’t been exposed to Australia at all, and I would suggest that we should treat them sensitively and gently upon their arrival. And remember that there’s vulnerable kids and that the last thing they need to be subjected to on their arrival is an aggressive media.
Ryan also defended the actions of the government, saying Labor was “watching the situation closely and monitoring it”.
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Moriarty begins as US ambassador in Washington
Amid all the global unrest, and diplomatic eyes trained on Iran and the United States, Australia’s former defence secretary Greg Moriaty has begun his term as Australian ambassador in Washington.
The former public servant was tapped on the shoulder earlier this year after former prime minister Kevin Rudd announced he would be stepping down.
Moriarty posted a pic on social media this morning, after meeting with US president Donald Trump on Thursday.
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‘Are we safer with them here?’: minister grilled on return of Syrian women and children
Housing minister Clare O’Neil is being grilled on the security arrangements surrounding the women and children who returned from a Syrian detention camp to Australia last night.
Joining the Today show, she’s asked point blank, is Australia safer with the group here – she’s asked several times but O’Neil won’t give a yes or no answer.
The frontbencher tries to remind host, Sarah Abo, that this isn’t the first time women and children from the camp have returned – others returned during the Morrison era, including a group of orphans from the camp who were repatriated by the then government.
O’Neil says:
We are working with national security agencies on this. This is a difficult issue and a long running issue for the country. We are lucky to have some of the best national security agencies in the world supporting us here in Australia, and they will be monitoring this situation extremely closely.
And we do trust them to support the country to be safe.
She’s asked why the group weren’t questioned by authorities at the airport, and whether they will attend de-radicalisation programs, but O’Neil defers to the home affairs minister.
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‘Tough but necessary’ housing measures, O’Neil says
It’s a long road for the government trying to sell its ambitious budget, and housing minister Clare O’Neil has acknowledged that not everyone will be happy about the tax changes.
Speaking to Sunrise this morning, on a panel with Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash, O’Neil says the measures were the right thing to do (a similar line the PM and treasurer have made). She’s asked about new polling in the Australian Financial Review that found capital gains tax changes had a net approval rating of zero (36% of people approved, while 36% of people were against).
O’Neil didn’t seem too worried:
What they show is that lots of people are supportive of what the government is doing. And then some people don’t support what the government’s doing. That is what you’d expect to see in a budget that does some tough but necessary things for the country.
In politics, you don’t do the popular thing. You do the right thing.
New polling in Guardian Australia this morning shows just a third of Australians support negative gearing and CGT changes.
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Good morning
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
After a dramatic night of Senate estimates (see earlier posts), we have another busy day of public servant grilling and parliamentary sitting.
It’s going to be a busy one so let’s get stuck in!
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Nacc boss subject of second complaint investigation
Outgoing National Anti-Corruption Commission boss Paul Brereton is the subject of a second investigation by the organisation’s inspector.
At Senate estimates hearings last night, inspector Gail Furness revealed she had begun a second investigation into Brereton, who is due to retire from the role on 6 July.
“On 14 April 2026 I commenced a complaint investigation into a complaint I had received about the conduct of the commissioner,” Furness said.
“I commenced that investigation after I had received the commissioner’s response to the complaint. On 28 April 2026 I provided the commissioner with a copy of my draft complaint investigation report.
“I’m currently awaiting the commissioner’s submissions in response to my draft complaint investigation report.”
Furness announced in February she would again investigate the watchdog for maladministration over defence-related referrals by Brereton.
The author of the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry, he continued consulting for the inspector-general of the defence force after taking up the Nacc role in 2023 without the federal government’s knowledge.
Furness said the complaint had been made some months earlier and the complaint was not related to the first investigation.
Read more here:
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Universities grappling with ‘class size explosion’, new report suggests
University class sizes have surged since before the pandemic and student learning is in decline, a new report suggests.
The report, released today by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), surveyed more than 4,000 university staff across the nation.
It found the proportion of tutorials with 30 or more students had more than doubled since 2019, from 12% to 27%. The optimal range is considered to be between 10 and 19, but the report found just 9% of tutorials were meeting that standard.
More than eight in 10 staff surveyed said their ability to support students individually had been compromised, with just 1.7% reporting an improvement in student outcomes since 2019.
The president of the NTEU, Dr Alison Barnes, said “class size explosion is being felt at campuses nationwide”.
The real-life consequences are unmanageable workloads with students ultimately paying the price. Students aren’t getting the attention they need and their education suffers. This could have a dangerous ripple effect that we feel for generations.
Australia typically performs poorly internationally for its faculty to student ratio, with no Australian university scoring in the top 300 according to the QS World University Rankings. Its universities record an average score of 12.5/100 on QS’s “learning experience” indicator, well below the global average of 28.1.
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Reacting to the Quad meeting, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that cooperation “should not be directed against any third party”, AFP reports.
“We also do not support exclusive cliques or bloc confrontations,” she told reporters.
The Quad ministers said in a joint statement they were “seriously concerned” about the South China Sea and East China Sea and opposed “destabilising or unilateral actions” – a clear reference to Beijing.
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Quad countries announce new surveillance deal
The Quad group of countries – Australia, the United States, India and Japan – have announced a new initiative to build surveillance capabilities and critical minerals cooperation, Agence France Presse reports.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, took part in the meeting in New Delhi, and said the Quad comprised countries “who share strong values – strong, vibrant democracies” and have “many aligned interests”.
The Quad said in a joint statement members would together mobilise US$20bn in government and private money to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, including by identifying projects in the four countries.
They would also work together on two maritime initiatives – one that combines their surveillance capabilities, and another that will provide enhanced real-time information to commercial traffic at sea.
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the Quad was cooperating on assisting port development in Fiji – a key island nation in the South Pacific, where China has made a concerted push for greater influence.
“We recognise our obligation – our responsibility – to provide real choices, particularly as strategic circumstances in our region are deteriorating,” Wong said.
The Quad in a statement also set a goal of connecting South Pacific islands through undersea cables by the end of the year, integrating them economically to the four democracies rather than China.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
It was a busy night at Senate estimates with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) inspector announcing that she has launched a second investigation into the outgoing boss Paul Brereton. Gail Furness’s announcement came after Brereton hit back at suggestions he had contributed to the major suffering of robodebt victims. More on that coming up.
In addition, it was revealed at estimates that the Australian federal police and the federal government’s special investigator for war crimes allegations have asked the Nacc to investigate media leaks about the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith. More details to follow.
Overseas, there’s been a meeting of the Quad countries in New Delhi attended by Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong. They announced a deal for new cooperation on surveillance and a new port for Fiji, in a move to counter China’s influence that Beijing has not taken well. More on this soon.
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