The NSW opposition leader. Kellie Sloane, says the Minns government has missed its opportunity to improve lives in NSW in its first term as she gives her reply to this year’s budget.
The opposition has said it supports the modest cost of living measures in Tuesday’s budget, the final before the March 2027 election, but said the offering lacked a plan for growth after Treasury revised down its December growth forecast from 2.5% to 1% amid the global oil shock. rising interest.
The Coalition’s flagship policy is a significant reduction of payroll taxes for small and medium-sized businesses. Amid the threat posed by One Nation. the controversial renewable rollout in regional areas, they have announced a plan for Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, as well as an “outback” REZ in Broken Hill. They would cancel a transmission line to the New England REZ. walking back support for a project the Coalition green-lit in government.
Sloane opened her speech by quoting Eminem, drawing some eye-rolls from the government benches. She pointed to slow growth, business closures, and delays to housing targets as evidence of Labor’s missed opportunity:
double quotation mark “‘If you had one shot. one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or would you just let it slip?’ – Eminem.
Labor had their opportunity after 12 long years on the opposition benches, waiting for their moment. What did they do? They let it slip. They lost an opportunity to make a real difference, to have a vision for our state, to build on the transformative work of successive Liberal. National government who built our state and built our economy, who created opportunity, not lost it.
Jumping out of QT for a moment … Karl Stefanovic’s scheduled Friday afternoon radio show with Eddie McGuire has been pulled by ARN Media at the 11th hour after widespread criticism of his podcast interview with UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Nine Entertainment is expected to sever ties with Stefanovic but is yet to make public the details of the separation.
ARN Media recently signed Stefanovic. McGuire for national program, The Long Weekend, on Gold FM, but decided to ask him not to record the show from the UK. Sources told Guardian Australia he was unlikely to return. the threat of an advertiser boycott over anger with Stefanovic was too high.
ARN has only just settled a legal case with Kyle Sandilands who was similarly targeted by online activism. hit Kiis FM advertising revenue hard.
Earlier in the week a spokesperson for ARN distanced the company from Stefanovic’s podcast and choice of guests.
double quotation mark His external media activities, including his podcast, are undertaken in a personal capacity. are entirely separate from the network, which we have no control over.
They do not represent ARN’s views, editorial standards or programming.
Question time begins and Labor MP gets immediate boot
We’re about 60 seconds in and. after Angus Taylor’s first question, the former attorney general Mark Dreyfus gets the boot from the speaker. He slowly collects his papers, which leads Milton Dick to tell him to get out faster.
Taylor asks the prime minister why does the “leader of the dishonest Labor government want to pull up the ladder on hard-working Australians?”
The PM says the bells are ringing (due to divisions in the Senate for the tax legislation),. he says they’re ringing for the opposition:
double quotation mark We understand that Australians are under financial pressure. which is why we’re not just identifying issues, we’re actually doing something about it. And in the Senate right now. there are bells ringing, the bell is tolling for all those opposite, because those opposite are voting in the Senate, all three rightwing parties, against tax cuts for every Australian.
The tax changes also include the $250 tax cut that the government announced in the budget.
Coalition’s move to delay tax vote fails
The Greens have teamed up with the government to block the Coalition’s attempt to delay a vote on the capital gains tax. negative gearing changes.
The opposition were pushing for debate to be extended.
It means question time in the Senate will be delayed – until after all the amendments. the bill are voted on.
Despite a couple of amendments being withdrawn (including David Pocock removing his amendment dealing with the widow tax after the government said it would fix the issue in future legislation). there are still more than a dozen amendments, which will take some time to get through!
Once the bill passes the Senate. it will have to go back to the House to be passed in its amended form.
Coalition moves to suspend vote on tax changes in the Senate
The Senate had voted earlier this week to guillotine debate on the tax changes to 1:30pm today. which would bring on a vote of the bills.
It’s not 1:30pm and debate on the bills have been cut short and the Coalition isn’t happy about it.
Shadow finance minister, Claire Chandler, moves to suspend standing orders to keep interrogating the legislation. the 20 or so amendments from the opposition and crossbench that have been listed for a vote.
Chandler tells the chamber:
double quotation mark We are a chamber of scrutiny, and this is where scrutiny actually happens. But what we are seeing today is the exact opposite of that process. As I said, this bill has been rushed from the start. It has the hallmarks of legislation that has been written in haste,. when legislation is written in haste, it demands deeper scrutiny, it does not demand less.
Now the government doesn’t have the numbers in the Senate. the Greens have promised them a pathway (but the minor party have also complained heavily about how “unambitious” the reforms are), so we’ll see how this vote shakes out.
Angus Taylor says he’s ‘relatively new’ to politics
Angus Taylor says he’s relatively new in the job, particularly compared with his political rivals, Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson.
He says both were first elected in 1996, which is mostly true – Albanese certainly was – but Hanson was in federal parliament from 1996 to 1998,. then only re-entered in 2016. She did spend some time in Queensland state politics in between.
So is Taylor a newbie?
He was elected in September 2013 – nearly 13 years ago – you be the decider.
He told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia event at Parliament House today:
double quotation mark I’m relatively new as a politician. I only came in 2013, my two big rivals in the parliament came in in 1996, the same year. So I’m relatively new to this, and my whole career before that was in the private sector.
Queensland Labor leader announces plan for crime stats authority ‘free from political spin’
Queensland Labor leader Steven Miles has used his budget-in-reply speech to announce a plan for an independent authority for crime statistics.
But the opposition leader struggled to get through the hour-long speech. which is normally heard in near silence by parliamentary convention. Government MPs deliberately interrupted 20 times with points of order and repeated interjections.
The speech took an additional 17 minutes than the hour scheduled. At times Miles looked exasperated.
Manager of opposition business Mick de Brenni also accused government MPs of deliberately walking past TV cameras filming the address. interrupting their view.
Miles accused the government - elected in 2024 on a law. order platform - of “blatant misuse of police data for political benefit”.
double quotation mark Labor will establish an independent Community Safety Statistics Bureau, accountable to the parliament.
Modelled off the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics. Research, the independent office will facilitate the management and publication of crime statistics for Queenslanders – free from political spin..
It will enshrine the goal posts in legislation so that leaders can be held accountable.. it’s simple – police statistics without the politics.
Miles finished by accusing the government of wrapping the state in “Trump-style” propaganda, publicly funded billboards. TV advertising promoting its own election slogans.
double quotation mark Queenslanders deserve better than that, better than a premier who broke his vows to Queensland, better than a premier who is all spin, slogans. suppression.
Support at Home program not achieving its intended goals, estimates hears
The outgoing inspector general for aged care. Natalie Siegel-Brown, has said during her last Senate inquiry hearing that aged care Support at Home reforms are fast-tracking people’s entry into aged care.
double quotation mark Instead of being supported to age with dignity in their own home, delayed access to that very support is perversely, inevitably promoting older people’s decline. likely fast-tracking their entry into hospital and residential aged care at the expense of their human rights and at the expense of the economy.
She said her office predicted many unintended consequences in its 2025 progress report on recommendations of the aged care royal commission,. “we simply did not foresee them on the scale we are now witnessing”.
Siegel-Brown was speaking on Wednesday evening at a community affairs committee inquiry into the Support. Home program, which replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme in November.
The reforms included introducing a controversial algorithm to determine the financial support at home needs for elderly Australians. which could not be overridden by a human. Many people reported to Guardian Australia and to politicians that people were being left with inadequate support after algorithm decisions.
It eventually led to the Department of Health, Disability. Ageing quietly introducing a workaround to allow aged care assessors to reopen and amend completed assessments after they have been reviewed by a delegate. Siegel Brown said:
double quotation mark It’s unclear to me whether this change is sufficient to address concerns regarding the lack of human override across commonwealth systems.. Aged care is now the outlier in aged care. It’s a system where clinical judgment informs the data entry, but not the decision.
Over in the Senate, debate is continuing over Labor’s changes to capital gains tax. negative gearing, which have the support of the Greens.
But the finance minister. Katy Gallagher, has just announced the government will include further concessions to stop people being penalised in the event of a divorce or death.
Branded the “widow tax” – concerns were raised that, for example, if a couple owned a property that was being negatively geared. one partner died, that transfer would reset the ownership of the property and it could no longer be negatively geared.
David Pocock had put forward an amendment to make those changes. The government won’t support it, but Gallagher says the issues will now be looked at in subsequent legislation.
double quotation mark We were aware of the issues, some of the issues that Senator Pocock is raising around grandfathering. shared ownership.
And we were working through them in the usual way,. we intend to address these, the arrangements for jointly owned assets in circumstances like inheritance or divorce in subsequent legislation.
Several Sydney eastern beaches remain closed following shark sightings
Beaches in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have been closed for a third consecutive day following shark sightings.
The closures on Thursday morning followed a shark sighting alert around 6.45am at Bondi.
Drone footage posted to social media by the online platform Dronesharkapp identified a great white shark at the beach.
Other beaches in the Waverley council area, including Tamarama and Bronte, will remain closed as lifeguards continue surveillance.
Australians should speak ‘one language’, Hanson says
Pauline Hanson, after declaring Australia should be a “monocultural” state, can’t seem to quite figure out what it actually means.
Her messaging has somewhat chopped. changed over the past week, at one point saying Australia could be more like Japan, and then another day saying in the same breath that the Socceroos are an example of monoculturalism and she wants to see the return of Australia characters like Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston.
Today, she’s said that monoculture means everyone should speak English.
Hanson’s bought out posters on trucks. is parading them out the front of parliament, donned with the message “stop Labor, fire the liar” with a “donate now” tag and a QR code. She tells reporters:
double quotation mark Tony Abbott and other leaders around the world have said multiculturalism doesn’t work.
Go and research that, understand what’s happening. We are one nation, we are, and it should be one language.
Brisbane, Perth. Adelaide house prices will continue to rise over the coming year, escaping a broader downturn, property business Domain predicts.
Domain’s financial year 2027 report. out today, has forecast the median price of Perth houses will pick up about 7% or over $85,000 over the year starting July. Perth units are expected to rise by 9% or $65,000.
Brisbane house prices are expected to surge 5%. units 7%, while Adelaide is forecast to record price growth of 6% across houses and units. The pace of price growth is expected to be slower than it has been in the last year due to higher interest rates.
Prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra are forecast to fall, with houses down 5% in Sydney and 6% in Melbourne.
Domain’s chief economist, Dr Nicola Powell, said the divergence was driven by the Reserve Bank. Powell said:
double quotation mark Higher interest rates are weighing heavily on Sydney. Melbourne while more affordable segments and mid-tier cities are continuing to hold up.
Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide prices are being supported by population growth and tight rental markets, according to the report. Domain did not predict a strong investor backlash to the government’s tax reforms. noted that it would drag on prices if it eventuated.
Jarrod Bleijie. the deputy premier of Queensland, has demanded an apology from the state’s opposition leader over an allegation of racism in an ABC radio interview.
ABC journalist Ellen Fanning said Bleijie explained the state’s rumoured secret agenda to purge Indigenous representation. known as “Project Invisibility”, as being justified by the voice referendum vote.
“I think that’s the deputy premier saying the quiet part out loud,” the Labor opposition leader, Steven Miles, responded.
Fanning asked Miles if Bleijie was saying “those racist words out loud”.
Miles responded: “that’s how it reads to me”.
Bleijie told parliament on Thursday that he hadn’t been recorded in Hansard saying anything like the comment.
double quotation mark I note. Ms Fenning has offered an apology to me about this interview that she claims she had been misinformed. With her apology. I call and ask, will the leader of the opposition show leadership and do the same?
The unemployment rate has eased to 4.4% in May. from 4.5%, in a sign that the previous month’s jump in the jobless rate was not the start of a more rapid deterioration in the labour market.
With the Reserve Bank still primed to hike rates if needed over coming months, the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed employment lifted by 40,300 people in May, including an extra 5,200 full-time jobs. 35,200 in part-time employment.
The underemployment rate, which includes people with jobs. who are trying to get more work, lifted to 5.9%, from 5.8%.
Economists had predicted the jobless rate would drop back after a surprise jump in April pushed it to its highest level since late 2021 – although still below the more than 5% rates. were typical before the Covid-19 pandemic
ACCC launches legal action against debt collector
The consumer watchdog has announced court action against a major Australian debt collector, alleging it unlawfully pursued hundreds of thousands of Australians for debts in a manner that “had the potential to cause extreme emotional. financial stress”.
The Australian Competition. Consumer Commission (ACC) is taking federal court action against two related companies, debt collector ARMA Group and legal practice Force Legal, both owned by Credit Clear.
The watchdog alleges the two companies made misleading representations about 320,000 debt notices sent via email. letter or texts over more than three years.
Individuals were told they owed a debt that must be paid urgently. In fact, the debts were either no longer outstanding or were too old to be legally collected.
The ACCC’s deputy chair, Catriona Lowe, said:
double quotation mark ARMA. Force Legal’s allegedly misleading debt enforcement notices had the potential to cause extreme emotional and financial stress and concern to thousands of people, many of whom were likely experiencing vulnerabilities. We are concerned that the letters. emails which warned consumers of serious and imminent consequences of failing to pay a debt likely led some consumers to make payments they were not legally required to make. We are asking the court to order compensation for these consumers.
A Guardian Australia investigation in 2024 revealed numerous examples of concerning practices across the industry, including the chasing of a 10-year-old boy with autism, false. misleading threats, and underhanded tactics to extend the time limit on collecting debts, according to alleged victims, lawyers and debt collection insiders.
A teen accused of plotting nailbomb attacks against then opposition leader Peter Dutton. a Labor Day march has been found not guilty of preparing a terrorist act, AAP reports.
The jury returned its verdict on Thursday after two days of deliberation.
The teen. who cannot be identified for legal reasons, stood trial in Brisbane supreme court after pleading not guilty to one count of carrying out acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.
The boy was about to turn 16 when he rode his scooter around Brisbane’s suburbs in July 2024 to buy nails, metal pipes. ingredients for explosives, the jury heard.
The teen used his iPhone. laptop to search for “where is Peter Dutton located” as part of an alleged plan to use bombings to oppose the Liberal party’s then policy of building multiple nuclear power stations in Australia.
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