The Victorian premier. Jacinta Allan, issued a statement this morning in response to Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech, claiming his plan to cut off welfare payments to non-citizens would target older Australians from multicultural communities.
Last night, Taylor said that under a federal Coalition government, only Australian citizens would be eligible for welfare payments in Australia, cutting off access to jobseeker, the age pension, disability support, parenting payments. the national disability insurance scheme.
Allan said the policy would target long-term permanent residents on the age pension who “worked, paid taxes. raised families” in Australia, given tourists and people on temporary visas are currently ineligible for such welfare payments.
double quotation mark It targets older Australians from multicultural communities who have given much of their lives to this country. We encourage people to become citizens – but there are reasons why some migrants don’t. Many risk losing access to their original passport, plus their rights and connections to where they were born. In my view, that doesn’t make migrants less committed to Australia. But in the Liberals’ view of the world, it’s us v them – straight out of the Trump playbook.
Dingoes distinct from ‘wild dogs’, research shows
Dingo DNA from before colonisation has been used to show Australia’s canines are almost 90% dingo. with just 11.7% of their DNA coming from domestic dogs.
Researchers from Adelaide University’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. Environment Institute tested 300 dingoes and said the results resolved a disagreement over how much European dog ancestry was in the animals.
A 2023 study found more than half of Australia’s dingoes were genetically pure.
A new documentary tells how dingoes have been shot, trapped. poisoned since colonisation, penned in (or out) by the 5,614km dingo fence, and often grouped with “wild dogs” so they can be treated as pests. It argues for better human/dingo co-existence.
The Adelaide University research, published in Conservation Letters, also found there are eight genetically distinct populations of dingo,. say the technique they used is affordable and scalable, which would allow large-scale ancestry screening feasible for the first time.
Senior author Dr Yassine Souilmi said:
double quotation mark The ‘wild dog’ label hides important biological and cultural differences. A predominantly dingo individual is not the same as a stray domestic dog.
Future management should be regionally informed,. developed in close partnership with Indigenous Australian communities, for whom dingoes have been companions and kin for thousands of years.
Australia’s housing affordability expected to worsen as homelessness soars under fossil-fuelled future
Global heating could worsen housing affordability, push up rents. quadruple homelessness in a decade without fairer housing policies and action to reduce emissions, new research has found.
Home prices. rents in Australia are influenced by a complex mix of factors, from incomes and mortgage rates to insurance premiums, available land and population.
University of Sydney researchers modelled the housing market system, using two decades of public data,. tested its response under different climate scenarios, publishing their results in Cities.
They found climate change affected housing. rental affordability under both high and low-emission scenarios, but vulnerable households were worst-hit under a fossil-fuelled future.
Taylor says Labor budget declaring war on ‘aspiration’
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, is speaking at a press conference, saying his budget reply yesterday was all about making sure “young Australians have the hope of being able to buy a home. pay it off over time”.
“If we are to achieve that. we have to scrap, we have to axe Labor’s toxic taxes,” Taylor said, adding that migration needed to be dramatically reined in. He went on:
double quotation mark They’re going after savings. They’re going after hard-working Australians. They are declaring war on aspiration in this country.
The Coalition has pledged to repeal Labor’s changes to the capital gains tax discount. negative gearing, which the Albanese government says are meant to address housing affordability and aid young people in their dreams of buying a home.
Higher education union calls Coalition’s migration plan a ‘potential nightmare for universities’
The National Tertiary Eduction Union (NTEU) says the Coalition should reveal how many international students would be cut as part of its migration measures. unveiled by the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, this week.
The union said the Coalition’s plan to cut net overseas migration to about 175,000 people per year. or a 40% reduction, would be a “potential nightmare for universities”.
NTEU’s president, Alison Barnes, said in a statement:
double quotation mark The devil is in the lack of detail. … It’s obvious that a migration cut of that magnitude would mean going after international students. who make up a third of net overseas migration. …
Viewing international students purely through the prism of revenue completely ignores the rich cultural exchange they bring to our campuses. closer ties they create with countries in our region.
Barnes went on to say Taylor was mimicking One Nation leader Pauline Hanson rather than setting out a vision for higher education:
double quotation mark All sides of politics should rule out going after international students. commit to measures that properly fund universities so they can provide the world-class teaching and research we need.
In a turn of events this morning, One Nation has recorded a higher primary vote than Labor. the Coalition, in post-budget polling by Roy Morgan, which finds that if an election were held tomorrow, Australia would see a hung parliament.
The two-party preferred count, according to polling of 2,348 voters between 13. 14 May, shows Labor just ahead of One Nation on 51% to 49%. Labor polls 55% against the Coalition’s 45% on a two-party preferred count of the two major parties.
The Coalition’s primary vote sits at a meagre 16.5%.
Of the key themes tested by the poll, immigration was the most dominant issue, with respondents linking migration to “housing pressure, cost of living, cultural change, infrastructure strain. loss of national identity”.
One Nation has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent months. having just swiped the seat of Farrer from the Liberals at last weekend’s byelection. But there is more than a year to go before the next national vote – so plenty can change.
There is also a lot of uncertainty in polling. so until we see more results from other pollsters aggregated together, it’s hard to say how definitive this result is for One Nation.
Pauline Hanson cut off after running out of time delivering One Nation’s budget reply
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson said yesterday Australians were simply asking for a “country that works again” in her budget reply speech in parliament that lambasted renewable energy efforts. the Labor party, before she was cut off for running out of time.
Hanson, the leader of One Nation, claimed in her remarks that any tax offsets proposed by Labor would be “completely rubbed out” by bracket creep, saying the policies were a “trap for the next election. an advertising slogan for 2028”.
As she continued to attack the Albanese government, moving on to a section about solar panels, she was cut off.
The official Hansard of the speech reads:
double quotation mark It is perverse that a government. an opposition believe they can change the weather, and are prepared to waste ultimately hundreds of billions to do it …
We are covering the land with windmills and solar panels and, in turn, delivering– (Time expired)
Hanson sought leave to finish her speech, but it was not granted. The Senate was then adjourned.
House prices to fall, economists predict
A growing number of economists have predicted house prices will fall across Australia in the coming year.
The Reserve Bank’s three interest rate hikes have pushed buyers out of the housing market,. a fourth is expected later this year. Investors are now expected to step back even further after the budget scrapped their tax breaks.
HSBC’s chief economist, Paul Bloxham, is the latest to downgrade forecasts. After prices rose nearly 9% in 2025, he had expected them to rise by up to 7% in 2026. Now Bloxham thinks they’ll fall in the next few months. unwinding earlier gains this year to stay flat by December, then fall further in 2027.
The government expects house prices to continue to rise. just slower, with prices 2% lower than they would otherwise have been, thanks to the taxes
Commonwealth Bank’s Trent Saunders thinks the drag is probably just a touch stronger, which would see house prices rise just 3% over 2026,. warns it could be almost three times stronger, leaving prices about flat this year. But if investors go scrambling for the exits. more out of fear than from the fundamentals of the tax reforms, a downturn becomes possible, he says.
Macquarie analysts are also warning of the risk of a “negative immediate impact”; NAB expects a “small decline” in prices;. AMP and UBS believe a 5% fall in the short term is credible. AMP’s Shane Oliver said:
“This will no doubt be chalked up as a win for the policy change.”
Asylum seekers advocacy group says Angus Taylor’s speech ‘divisive and misguided’
The Asylum Seekers Centre in Sydney said the opposition leader’s budget-in-reply speech, linking housing supply to migration levels, was “sadly predictable, divisive,. misguided”.
“The opposition leader has found a scapegoat, not a solution,” Elijah Buol, chief executive of the ASC said.
double quotation mark Housing is a human right,. everyone in Australia should have access to safe, secure shelter – regardless of their visa status.
Buol said already, many people seeking asylum are denied income support, shut out of crisis accommodation. left with no path to stability. On some estimates, one in five people sleeping rough are non-residents on uncertain visas, including people seeking asylum.
The ASC’s own data shows that 55% of its clients have experienced homelessness since arriving in Australia.
Buol said political leaders must stop misdirecting the housing crisis towards migration for short‑term political gain:
double quotation mark Blaming people seeking asylum or migrants for structural housing shortages is not only misleading. it distracts from the real policy solutions we urgently need.
The consequences are severe. predictable: people who have fled persecution and trauma are pushed into homelessness, exploitation and ongoing harm.
Sam Kerr to leave Chelsea at the end of this season
Sam Kerr will leave Chelsea at the end of the season. bringing the curtain down on one of the most brilliant, trophy-laden careers in Women’s Super League football, AAP reports.
The English giants announced on Thursday. local time, that the Matildas captain will leave after six-and-a-half years when her contract expires in the summer, with her last game for the Blues set to be an emotional occasion against Manchester United on Saturday.
“Obviously, there’s a little bit of sadness,” Kerr said, announcing her departure. She went on:
double quotation mark It’s leaving Chelsea. leaving the club where I’ve been for so long, leaving my teammates, leaving the fans.
But when I reflect on my Chelsea career and doing it for the last time, I just feel happy. Happy that it happened,. I feel so grateful to have played for this club for six years and won as many trophies as we could.
The decision had been widely expected. with the 32-year-old reportedly snapped up by ambitious NWSL franchise, Denver Summit, in the US last month.
But Kerr will end her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea’s all-time leading league scorer with 64 WSL goals. while her 115 strikes in all competitions has put her just one behind Fran Kirby as the Blues’ all-time leading goal scorer.
Victoria police arrest two 16-year-olds on allegations of attempted arson attack
Victoria police have arrested two people after an alleged arson attempt in Melbourne’s CBD this morning.
Police allege two teenage boys were spotted on Flinders Lane around 4.45am running from a vehicle with a jerry can in hand. The boys allegedly smashed a window to a premises in the area. attempted to pour fuel inside before they were arrested.
The driver of a car waiting nearby left the scene,. police have been unable to locate the car or the driver.
Investigators plan to interview the two teens, both 16, today and are appealing for information from the public. Police said they are continuing to look at “all possible motivations behind” the alleged offence, including “who is involved. why”.
No charges have been filed.
The Victorian premier. Jacinta Allan, issued a statement this morning in response to Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech, claiming his plan to cut off welfare payments to non-citizens would target older Australians from multicultural communities.
Last night, Taylor said that under a federal Coalition government, only Australian citizens would be eligible for welfare payments in Australia, cutting off access to jobseeker, the age pension, disability support, parenting payments. the national disability insurance scheme.
Allan said the policy would target long-term permanent residents on the age pension who “worked, paid taxes. raised families” in Australia, given tourists and people on temporary visas are currently ineligible for such welfare payments.
double quotation mark It targets older Australians from multicultural communities who have given much of their lives to this country. We encourage people to become citizens – but there are reasons why some migrants don’t. Many risk losing access to their original passport, plus their rights and connections to where they were born. In my view, that doesn’t make migrants less committed to Australia. But in the Liberals’ view of the world, it’s us v them – straight out of the Trump playbook.
‘Weak system’: Calls for tougher alcohol advertising rules after complaint against Methanol Moonshine
Public health experts. advocates are calling for tougher alcohol advertising rules after an industry watchdog dismissed a complaint against Australian brand Methanol Moonshine, then reversed its decision.
An Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (Abac) panel is now reviewing the complaint. But industry experts such as University of Technology Sydney Prof Ross Gordon say the brand-name dispute highlights flaws within Australia’s self-regulated alcohol advertising framework. Gordon said:
double quotation mark Abac is funded by industry.
While it includes government representatives. an independent chair, it is regarded as a system largely designed and funded by industry.
The consensus across critical marketing. public health research is that voluntary and co-regulatory alcohol marketing is consistently ineffective at protecting groups who may experience vulnerability.
Kristie Cocotis, acting CEO of Foundation for Alcohol Research. Education ( Fare ), said Australia’s “weak system” means “community complaints are often dismissed, and even when upheld, there are few consequences for the companies at fault”.
Fare is calling for an “overarching federal law” to set clear. enforceable rules for alcohol advertising through its “Give us an ad break” campaign.
Otherwise, Cocotis said, schemes like Abac are “set up. run by alcohol companies and their lobby groups” to dictate their own marketing rules. She said:
double quotation mark This system fails to prioritise the health and wellbeing of Australians.
Chalmers says shift in policy about more Australians getting ‘toehold’ into housing market
The treasurer. Jim Chalmers, is speaking now, saying the government had shifted its position to help more people to get a “toehold” in the housing market, adding “too many Australians have been locked out for too long”.
double quotation mark We know that people who want to defend the status quo, including in housing. in the tax system, they want to pretend that this is fundamentally about politics or they want to pretend that it’s fundamentally about the things that we’re not doing.
We came to a view on capital gains, on negative gearing. trust … we explained why we had shifted our position, and that’s because what we’re trying to do here is we’re trying to better align, the tax treatment of people who work for a living, with people who get their income in other legitimate ways.
Albanese says Taylor’s plans can’t be taken seriously without costings
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking in Canberra after Angus Taylor’s budget reply last night.
The prime minister said:
double quotation mark You can come up with a whole range of things. Without any costings, they can’t be taken seriously.
The truth is they’re getting worse. The Coalition are down to 41 members of the House of Representatives.
I suspect that when we come back, that will decrease further when we come back during these budget sittings. And it is just a debacle.
A woman is dead. at least one person has been left with life-threatening injuries after a coach rolled on one of Australia’s most dangerous roads, AAP reports.
Emergency services were called to the intersection of the Bruce Highway. Rangemore Road at Gumlu in Queensland’s Whitsundays region about 4pm on Thursday after reports of a crash involving a bus with 29 people on board.
A woman died at the scene after suffering multiple significant traumatic injuries, a Queensland ambulance service spokesperson told AAP. A total of 19 people were taken to hospital. though police confirmed no one else had died as of Friday morning.
One person had been trapped under the bus, according to the Queensland Fire Department.
The road was closed in both directions and long delays were expected.
The Bruce Highway has long been considered one of the most dangerous roads in Australia.
Stretching from Brisbane to Cairns, the highway is used by more than 100,000 vehicles every day, according to NRMA.
Australian retailers on notice over ‘fake discounts’ as Coles braces for record fine after landmark court ruling
Coles’ landmark federal court loss could signal the end of “fake discounts” in Australia. according to two former competition watchdog chiefs, with the supermarket giant at risk of record fines exceeding $200m.
The Australian Competition. Consumer Commission sued Coles and its rival Woolworths, accusing the supermarket giants of duping shoppers between 2021 and 2023 with “was/is” promotional pricing.
Justice Michael O’Bryan on Thursday found Coles’ “Down Down” promotions in some cases falsely led customers to believe they were enjoying a true price reduction.
All Australian retailers have been left on notice to keep their “discounts” genuine. according to Rod Sims, the former head of the consumer watchdog.
Labor ‘raising taxes without people actually knowing’: Taylor
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, was on RN Breakfast this morning after delivering his budget reply speech last night. The Coalition has vowed to index tax brackets to inflation. part of major tax overhaul should they come to power in the next election.
Taylor told RN that his read of the recent budget was Labor “raising taxes without people actually knowing”. adding the Australians public should have the opportunity to address taxes at an election.
“We’re going to stop that,” Taylor said. “Labor or the government shouldn’t have an automatic tax increase. If the government wants to increase taxes, it should go to an election. It should put that to the people.”
He maintained that his other major plan. to limit many welfare payments to citizens, was just about “prioritising Australians over others”.
“This is, I think, a very natural thing for a government to do,” he said.
Passengers from hantavirus ship to land in Perth today
We’re expecting the four Australians who were on board the virus-hit cruise ship to land in Perth at around 11am local time (1pm in Sydney).
We’ll have the latest when it happens.
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