Circling back to the treasurer’s appearance on Insiders. Jim Chalmers was quizzed over falling housing prices in the market – good news for those hoping to enter the market.
He was asked if there was a point at which the federal government would be concerned prices have come down too far. for instance, a 10% drop.
He said Labor wasn’t targeting a “particular price” or a “particular percentage”. it was right the market had softened, “though not uniformly”.
double quotation mark There are a whole range of factors which go into house prices. auction, clearance rates, interest rates, broader economic conditions, as well as tax settings, we’ve seen house prices already begin to soften before the budget, and the same is true of auction clearance rates. And so a whole bunch of factors,. also not one homogeneous market … The Treasury assumes that prices will continue to grow but a bit more slowly. And we see no reason at this point to change those assumptions.
According to Cotality’s weekly auction results, the clearance rate is languishing below 50% in all major capital cities excluding Melbourne (50.2%). Adelaide (68.7%).
The lowest clearance rates are for Canberra (39.5%) and Brisbane (39.3%), while the combined capital cities rate is 49.2%.
You can read more about the debate here:
That brings today’s live blog to a close. Here are the top lines.
Paul Hogan reportedly described the One Nation leader. Pauline Hanson, as a “pelican”, after she praised him as an example of “Australian monoculture”.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, defended the speed of Labor’s tax reforms after securing passage with the support of the Greens.
Chalmers said Labor wasn’t watching out for a “particular percentage” before house prices came down too far amid low mortgage clearance rates.
Murray Watt said big tech has not been cooperating with the social media ban “as much as we’d like them to” as the government doubled penalties to $99m.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, announced shark-spotting drone technology would surveil 70 NSW beaches year-round.
Dfat has yet to receive any reports of Australians injured in devastating earthquakes in Venezuela.
Thanks for joining us. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.
Dfat providing assistance to ‘small number’ of Australians affected by Venezuela earthquakes
The Department of Foreign Affairs. Trade (Dfat) says it is providing assistance to a small number of Australians affected by the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela this week.
Dfat is yet to receive any reports of Australians injured in the earthquakes, whose death toll has risen to 1,430.
In a statement this afternoon, a spokesperson said:
double quotation mark Our thoughts are with the people of Venezuela. all those affected by the devastating earthquakes … Australian officials remain in close contact with local authorities, governments and partners.
The Department of Foreign Affairs. Trade (DFAT) is providing consular support to a small number of Australians who have been affected by the earthquake in Venezuela.
Australia does not have an embassy in Venezuela, limiting its ability to provide consular assistance.
Australians directly or indirectly affected by the earthquakes are being told to contact Dfat’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135 from Australia. or +61 2 6261 3305 if calling from overseas.
The actor. comedian, Paul Hogan, has reportedly described the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, as a “pelican”, after the Queensland senator praised him as an example of Australian “monoculture”.
Earlier this week, the One Nation leader used a Senate speech to say Hogan. the TV character Norman Gunston were some of the “essential features of Australian monoculture”, as she continued to try to explain the controversial, somewhat mystifying, phrase she used at her National Press Club address earlier this month.
The Australian Financial Review tracked down Hogan in his Los Angeles home to ask him what he made of it. He did not hold back:
double quotation mark She’s a pelican, yeah. Outrageous … It sounds very much like this stupid boofhead over here, Trump.
How can it be a monoculture? We’re all migrants, except the originals, who as far as we know have been [in Australia] for 60,000 years.
Hogan went on to tell the AFR Hanson was “living in the past, obviously”. The Crocodile Dundee star. 86, who lives in Venice Beach, said he wanted to “die in Australia – in a multicultural Australia!”
double quotation mark I’ve always had a very simple rule: What makes a good Australian is wanting to be one.
Pro-One Nation Facebook groups appear to be run by foreign ‘meme factories’ that monetise content
Some of the largest One Nation supporter groups on Facebook appear to be run from overseas by foreign digital creators who monetise content.
Guardian Australia examined 14 of the largest pro- One Nation public groups with at least 8,000 members,. found most were created this year.
While some groups appear to be longstanding. set up by genuine supporters, the majority are full of content overwhelmingly fed by what digital media researcher Timothy Graham said appeared to be “a foreign-run, predominantly Indonesian, for-hire engagement farm operation”.
Many of the administrators. top posters in these public groups are tagged as “digital creators” and offer subscriptions, meaning they may be making money through Facebook programs that allow forms of content to be monetised.
Read the rest of this exclusive from Ariel Bogle and Nick Evershed here:
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says he will not rule out a controversial cull of bull sharks in harbours. estuaries if numbers are higher than normal this summer.
Speaking to Sky News earlier about new shark safety funding. Minns said there would not be a cull of great white sharks, which are a protected species. He said the government was “looking at all … measures” when it came to bull sharks,. would audit their numbers when they return in warmer months.
Asked at a press conference a short while ago if he was leaning towards a cull, Minns said:
double quotation mark I know that our officials are speaking with Queensland officials to see whether there’s been an uptick in baiting in shark lines in Queensland to make sure that we’re making an informed decision,. I can’t rule it out.
If our waterways. estuaries are being overrun with bull sharks, and they’re way above the numbers that we traditionally see, then we’ve got to put swimmer safety first.
Under current rules, fishing boats and recreational fishers can catch bull sharks in small quantities. Shark behaviour experts have warned that wider culls would make no difference to the risk of attacks at beaches.
Circling back to the treasurer’s appearance on Insiders. Jim Chalmers was quizzed over falling housing prices in the market – good news for those hoping to enter the market.
He was asked if there was a point at which the federal government would be concerned prices have come down too far. for instance, a 10% drop.
He said Labor wasn’t targeting a “particular price” or a “particular percentage”. it was right the market had softened, “though not uniformly”.
double quotation mark There are a whole range of factors which go into house prices. auction, clearance rates, interest rates, broader economic conditions, as well as tax settings, we’ve seen house prices already begin to soften before the budget, and the same is true of auction clearance rates. And so a whole bunch of factors,. also not one homogeneous market … The Treasury assumes that prices will continue to grow but a bit more slowly. And we see no reason at this point to change those assumptions.
According to Cotality’s weekly auction results, the clearance rate is languishing below 50% in all major capital cities excluding Melbourne (50.2%). Adelaide (68.7%).
The lowest clearance rates are for Canberra (39.5%) and Brisbane (39.3%), while the combined capital cities rate is 49.2%.
You can read more about the debate here:
Murray Watt hopeful negative press on CGT changes will die down
Now that the government’s capital gains tax. negative gearing changes have passed, Murray Watt is asked if he’s hopeful that all the heat will die down.
Watt says he believes some of the negative media could “subside” a little,. argues that not all of it was accurate.
He says he believes “what we’ll now see is people focus on the benefits of these reforms”.
double quotation mark I think it’s likely that some of the pretty over-the-top media articles. complaints – with all due respect to our friends in the media – might subside a little bit now that the legislation has got through. Not every story that was being run in the media over the last few weeks has been accurate.
Watt again defends the changes. asked about some comments from the NSW Labor premier, Chris Minns (who said he “hopes” the reforms won’t impact innovation), the environment minister says the government doesn’t expect it to have a negative effect.
Big tech not cooperating ‘as much as we’d like them to’: Watt
Federal cabinet minister Murray Watt. says the government knows it’s needed to take more action to ensure social media giants are complying with a ban for under 16s that came into effect in December.
This morning Labor has announced it would double the penalty for breaches of the ban to $99 million.
Watt told Sky News this morning. big tech has not been cooperating with the new regulations “as much as we’d like them to”.
double quotation mark These laws were brand new, never developed anywhere in the world. And what we’ve learned is that the powers that the safety commissioner has do need to be beefed up. also to give her powers across things like age assurance tools. So things that sit outside the social media platforms themselves,. compelling them to provide information so that she can do her job even better.
Asked if he reckons the ban is working - Watt says, “I think it is”,. that the laws have already seen the deactivation of more than five million accounts.
‘It’s a difficult time around the world to be an incumbent government,’ Chalmers says
Finally. Chalmers was asked about the downfall of Keir Starmer in the United Kingdom, coinciding with a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
Australia’s Labor party is not immune from a shift to the right. with recent polls showing Pauline Hanson has overtaken Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister.
Asked what lessons Australia could take from the UK. Chalmers said: “I think what we’re seeing in the UK is a bit like what we’re seeing right around the world.”
double quotation mark The pace of change is accelerating, the global. generational pressures are intensifying, and people have got legitimate concerns about where they fit in that, and then we’ve got the anger industry, and parties of the populist right trying to make that worse rather than trying to make that better.
It is a difficult time around the world to be an incumbent government, from our point of view. We are using the power of incumbency to take real action, to deliver cost-of-living help, to deliver real change. The best antidote to anger is action … The Albanese Labour government has chosen to address those concerns rather than dismiss them.
Tech giants ‘aren’t doing enough’ to adhere to Australia’s social media ban, treasurer says
Chalmers was also asked about the federal government’s announcement today to pass legislation this week doubling fines for breaches of the social media ban. The eSafety commissioner will also have additional powers to compel information from tech giants.
Asked if this was “an acknowledgment that the current system hasn’t been doing the job”. the treasurer said “big tech companies aren’t doing enough”.
double quotation mark We’re leading the world when it comes to protecting our kids online,. we’re making really important progress, but we will do more because the big tech companies aren’t doing enough.
We will strengthen the penalties. We will strengthen the powers of the eSafety commissioner,. that’s because we recognise that the future of our kids, the safety of our kids, is too important to let the big tech companies wriggle off the hook or avoid their responsibilities.
So we will do more because the tech companies aren’t doing enough,. we’ll see that reflected in the parliament before long.
Read more about the announcement here:
Headline inflation forecast to peak lower than anticipated at 4.25%, treasurer says
On to inflation. The budget forecast that headline inflation would peak at 5% this year. As the war in the Middle East drags on, is that still the federal government’s assumption?
Chalmers says with additional progress than expected, it is now expected that inflation around the middle of the year will peak “more like four. a quarter rather than five”.
double quotation mark That is very, very welcome progress. It does show, I think, it does illustrate the progress that we’re making together in this fight against inflation. Now there’s still a lot of uncertainty in the Middle East and elsewhere. There’s still more inflation than we would like in our economy as a consequence,. we are making more progress than we anticipated.
Key to that, Chalmers concedes, is that ships will be able to pass through the strait of Hormuz.
double quotation mark We desperately need the ceasefire to stick. You know, we can’t have another false dawn when it comes to the Middle East,. particularly the strait of Hormuz.
There’ve been some really welcome developments on this front,. we’ve seen the oil price come down quite substantially as a consequence. It wasn’t that long ago that a barrel of oil was in the 120s. This morning when I looked, it was in the low 70s. So that’s welcome progress.
There’s inflationary pressures elsewhere in the economy still as well. But if you look at the progress we made on inflation during the week, the welcome developments in the Middle East,. a number of other factors. What we actually saw through the course of the last week is. the market expectations for an interest rate hike actually went substantially down.
Chalmers grilled on ‘widow’s tax’
Chalmers has also been pressed on what has been dubbed a “widow’s tax”. was removed by Labor’s budget after questioning from the independent senator David Pocock.
double quotation mark You talk about certainty, but with that haste comes the risk of unintended consequences,. one of those was this issue of negatively geared properties that are jointly held, when a couple divorce or a partner dies. It’s been dubbed the widow tax. What is gonna happen there?
Chalmers says that will be addressed in “subsequent pieces of legislation”. the federal government had been “working through it” to address it in the interim.
double quotation mark When the amendments were put before the Senate, we had to make clear that we were working through that issue,. we intend to address it in subsequent pieces of legislation, and that’s the case …
Asked what would happen in the next week if someone lost their partner. had to rearrange their affairs, Chalmers again said “we intend to address that issue”.
double quotation mark I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome,. in saying that we’re going to address it, I think we’re making it incredibly clear, that we understand that this is an issue that has been raised with us, we intend to address it.
The treasurer. Jim Chalmers, is appearing on ABC’s Insiders this morning after securing passage of tax reforms with the support of the Greens.
Asked “why the rush” when the Howard government spent more than 10 months announcing tax reforms. taking it to parliament, Chalmers says:
double quotation mark This is how we deliver cost-of-living relief and deliver real change in the tax system.
It’s not unusual for the core elements, so big tax reforms to be legislated first,. then for there to be subsequent consultation and other pieces of legislation … We’ve seen in those other episodes of tax reform in this country, and that’s what we’re seeing now.
Pressed again on the timing, Chalmers says the federal government’s objective was to “provide certainty” for investors.
double quotation mark Whenever tax reform is undertaken in this country, it’s hotly contested, it’s contentious. There are all kinds of predictions that the sky will fall in,. all other kinds of predictions, which turn out to be wrong.
We expect that to be the case again. But we’ve legislated the core elements quickly, because we want to provide that level of certainty.
Labor has to get into an ‘arm wrestle’ with One Nation, Chris Minns says
Chris Minns was also asked about how Labor should respond to the surging poll numbers of One Nation. The NSW premier told Sky “we’ve got to get into the arm wrestle”.
double quotation mark People have got every right to vote for One Nation if they want to. And if they feel that they’re the best antidote or the best medicine for what’s ailing the state or the country. that’s exactly what they’ll do. Our job is to convince them otherwise and to say, well, this is our plan for the future.
Minns said Australians were “going through an incredibly tough time”. there were “concerns” about the level of immigration after the pandemic lockdowns. But he pushed back on her unexplained calls for a “monoculture” in place of multiculturalism.
double quotation mark The populist right or far-right movement has swept through Brazil. Argentina, the United States, Hungary, Italy, perhaps France, maybe the UK. So we’d be pretty naive not to think that it could affect us here too.
One of my biggest gripes with what Hanson has been saying … is that she seems to be saying. if you support multiculturalism, then you’re also for sharia law, multiple marriages … that’s utter garbage. That’s not the view or the lived experience of people that live in Sydney, who grew up in Sydney … I wouldn’t support sharia law or any of these insane ideologies in a place like Australia,. I do believe multiculturalism’s worked.
Drone technology won’t be ‘foolproof’ but should ‘mitigate the risk’, NSW premier says
The New South Wales premier. Chris Minns, says the state government’s expansion of shark surveillance came in response to a reduction in the number of people visiting beaches amid a spate of shark attacks.
Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, he said people had been rattled by the recent attacks.
double quotation mark We now are in a situation where … we seen a reduction in the number of people who are enjoying our beaches. enjoying the Pacific Ocean, even in the winter period. So we know we want to take action … It’s not going to be foolproof. We can’t promise it won’t lead to further shark attacks in the future, but we think it’ll mitigate the risk.
Minns also reiterated his opposition to culling great white sharks to prevent future incidents. which some sectors of the community had called for following the attack on Leah Stewart at Coogee.
double quotation mark They’re a protected species. They’ve been a protected species since the 90s, and I’m not convinced it would work. I mean, the distances these sharks travel are massive. It’s not like we can knock a few off and send a message to the rest of them …
I think it’s a different situation for bull sharks. Generally they’re in our estuaries … We’re looking particularly at an audit of the number of sharks in Sydney Harbour. We want to keep people safe, particularly when there’s a higher number of people in the water.
Shark-spotting drone technology will be deployed in New South Wales year-round under a state government investment. it says will be the largest expansion of aerial shark surveillance in the world.
On Sunday, the state government announced an additional $34m in drones, including using artificial intelligence, to scale up coverage across beaches in Sydney. along the state’s coast.
Around 70 beaches will be monitored 365 days of the year, prioritising areas with high numbers of users. where shark incidents have become more common.
This expanded monitoring will start 1 July and include year-round coverage across all Sydney beaches expanding from 26 to 38. There will also be two SharkSmart listening stations in Sydney harbour to alert swimmers to the presence of tagged sharks.
The premier, Chris Minns, said people should “feel confident” visiting the state’s beaches.
double quotation mark While no one can ever promise no shark interactions, this investment is about putting more eyes in the sky so we can spot sharks earlier. give people a clear heads-up when they’re in the water. More drones in the air means we’re getting a better picture of what’s happening offshore. it means we’ll get better at seeing them.
Good morning, readers.
It’s Caitlin Cassidy here with you this Sunday morning,. we’re kicking things off with a major New South Wales state government scale-up in shark-spotting drone technology after mounting concern over rising shark bites in Australia.
The state’s premier. Chris Minns, just appeared on Sky News where he spruiked the program, which follows a shock shark attack at Sydney’s popular Coogee beach.
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