What we learned, Monday 1 June
Thanks for staying with us today. We’ll leave our live news coverage there for the evening.
Here were Monday’s top stories:
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One Nation has become the most popular party in the country, a new survey suggests. Barnaby Joyce said the party would get rid of “most of” Labor’s budget if it gained power.
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Tony Abbott, the new Liberal party president, said the poll showed the Coalition was “obviously” in competition.
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After auction clearance rates dropped and house prices fell in some cities, Jim Chalmers downplayed the role of Labor’s budget but said it may be a “good thing” for first-time buyers.
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Andrew Hastie said the fall would not be “all that encouraging” for recent buyers.
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A 13-year-old boy allegedly planned an attack on a Queensland school, police said.
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The Brisbane Broncos have stayed quiet after alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith visited the NRL team’s dressing rooms on Sunday.
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The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced an overhaul of the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.
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The Melbourne international film festival has been hacked, saying nearly 27,000 customers’ personal – but not financial – data has been accessed.
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The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, said protesters at a Brisbane Olympic site were moved on for their own safety.
See you tomorrow morning.
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Warm, wet autumn for Australia this year, says BoM
South Australia had its fourth-wettest autumn on record, with the Lake Eyre basin experiencing its highest ever autumn rainfall totals, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s seasonal summary.
The national area-averaged rainfall total was 25% above the 1961–1990 average and March, nationally, was the seventh-wettest March since 1900.
The bureau said autumn rainfall was above average for most of central Australia, extending into eastern states, and below average for Tasmania, south-west Western Australia, and pockets of the eastern mainland. Widespread flooding associated with tropical activity affected large areas of northern and central Australia several times during March.
The Northern Territory recorded its seventh-wettest autumn overall but autumn rainfall totals in the territory’s Daly River catchment were the highest on record.
Mean temperatures were in the Top 10 warmest autumns for Tasmania (third warmest), New South Wales (sixth warmest) and Victoria (equal sixth warmest). Mean maximum temperatures in Tasmania were the second-highest on record for autumn.
The bureau said there had been persistent, unusually warm conditions across the south-east of the country from late April into May, with many stations in the region setting May daily temperature records.
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Melbourne International film festival rejects online speculation after hack
The Melbourne International film festival (Miff) has provided an update on the ticket platform hack that saw an unauthorised person access to customer information, including names, emails and phone numbers for 26,782 customers.
Speculation has swirled online that a greater number of customers were affected by the hack – up to 340,000 – after reports the data had been advertised for sale on an internet forum.
Ticketholders reported issues after receiving emails and text messages” reading “:(” and “i feel like miley cyrus sometimes [sic]”.
A Miff spokesperson said today:
The claim that data relating to 340,000 MIFF customers has been accessed is incorrect. MIFF’s customer database does not contain 340,000 customer records and therefore it is not possible for 340,000 MIFF customer records to have been compromised in this incident.
Based on our current understanding, 26,782 customer records held within the Ferve ticketing platform were affected by this incident. Those affected customers have been contacted directly.
We can also confirm that the dataset impacted in this incident does not include purchase history, booking totals, membership details, credit card numbers or financial transaction data.
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13-year-old allegedly planned attack on Queensland school
Queensland police allege a 13-year-old planned an attack on a school.
He allegedly entered a business on Thursday last week in disguise and made threats. He was arrested by police at the scene. Counter-terrorism police later searched his home and, police allege, discovered evidence of a planned attack on devices seized at the house.
Acting Det Supt Jason Hindmarsh alleged the 13-year-old was “quite well advanced” in plans to cause death and grievous bodily harm.
“There was a threat to the school, and particularly our young people at that school,” he said.
Hindmarsh said the boy had no ideological motivation for the alleged offence. His motivation is “one of our key lines of inquiry,” he said.
He said police are investigating if he was radicalised online:
That’s part of our ongoing investigation as we analyse the devices.
Support will be provided for the school community, and the young alleged offender, Hindmarsh said. He said:
We’ve got counter-terrorism investigators returning to Maryborough tomorrow. We’ll be working in partnership with local frontline police, our child protection services, just to really reassure that to make the community feel safe, and to us be certain there’s no ongoing threat.
The child has been charged with a string of offences including preparation or planning to cause death or grievous bodily harm, and was refused bail at Maryborough children’s court on Monday.
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Labor says Hanson won’t back wage boosts or universal healthcare due to ‘financial backers’
Following from Andrew Hastie’s comments on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing just now, Labor’s Andrew Leigh has also stepped up the attack on Pauline Hanson and One Nation, claiming her policies are influenced by her donors.
Leigh, an assistant minister in the Albanese government, said Australians wanted things Pauline Hanson wasn’t offering them. He said:
We’ll have a Fair Work decision handed down tomorrow where Labor has backed an economically sustainable increase in wages. You don’t hear Pauline Hanson doing that because her financial backers don’t want her to back real wage increases for Australians.
You don’t see Pauline Hanson out there backing universal healthcare and the expansion of urgent care clinics right across Australia.
I think Australians, the more they get to know Pauline Hanson, will realise she is just in it for the social media grumbling and not for actually doing the hard work of serious policy.
… What she is doing is complaining about immigration, she is complaining about trust, but she is failing to put forward the solutions that would make a positive difference.
Hanson yesterday suggested minimum and award wages should not be increased this year and said workers’ rights needed an overhaul. The Fair Work Commission will announce an increase to minimum wages tomorrow.
Brisbane Broncos stay quiet after Ben Roberts-Smith invited into players’ sheds
The Brisbane Broncos are still keeping quiet after alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith visited the NRL team’s dressing rooms on Sunday.
Guardian Australia has confirmed Roberts-Smith attended yesterday’s game at Suncorp Stadium. Roberts-Smith and his daughters then visited the players’ sheds, at the invitation of Adam Walsh, the Broncos wellbeing and education manager. Walsh is a former SAS soldier, like Roberts-Smith.
The Broncos have repeatedly declined to comment on the issue, including when contacted by Guardian Australia today.
Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, faces five charges of war crime murder over allegations he killed unarmed civilians during his service with the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.
The former SAS corporal has vehemently denied the charges, saying “I categorically deny all of these allegations.”
Sunday’s game saw the Broncos lose to the Dragons 30-26 – the same scoreline visited on the reigning premiers the last two times they played the Dragons. It was the Dragons’ first win this season, after 11 consecutive losses, while the Broncos have now lost seven matches and won five.
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Hastie says Hanson doesn’t have the energy to be prime minister
Andrew Hastie has claimed Pauline Hanson lacks the energy to be prime minister, as the One Nation leader talks up her chances of higher office.
Hanson has today speculated about becoming PM, either by staying in the Senate or switching to a lower house electorate.
The Liberal frontbencher told the ABC:
I think she has to declare where she’s going to run in the lower house, if she is going to run to be prime minister, but I think it’s right to ask a few questions about her drive and commitment and her energy frankly.
He pointed to analysis in The Australian today suggesting she has attended a Senate estimates hearing on just 28 out of 239 days they’ve been held while she has been a senator. Hastie said:
Up until this point she has been running a political party but she is now talking about being prime minister. For that you need drive, you need commitment and you need energy. And I think the attendance record shows otherwise.
Hanson has today said she is physically up to the task and would drop out if she appeared to deteriorate like former US president Joe Biden. She told 2GB radio :
I’ve got more energy in me than a lot of these other people. My staff are flat out keeping up with me from 8 o’clock in the morning till 10, 11 o’clock at night. I can still run down the halls of parliament in my heels when I have to get to the chamber so don’t underestimate me … I’ve already told my staff, if I become like a Joe Biden, just tap me on the shoulder and give me the heel to move on.
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Hastie says falling house prices might not be ‘all that encouraging’ for recent buyers
Andrew Hastie has acknowledged an expected fall in Australian house prices, already hitting Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, is a “glimmer of hope” for those saving up to get into the market.
But the Liberal frontbencher said the price falls would not be good for buyers in heavy debt and at risk of owing more than what their home is now worth. Asked whether the slowing market was a good thing, Hastie told the ABC:
Well, it depends who you are. For a young Australian who has just managed to save up enough for a deposit, maybe that’s a glimmer of hope. But for young Australians who have just gotten into a house and are leveraged up to their eyeballs and they’re looking down the barrel of negative equity, I don’t think it would be all that encouraging.
Hastie said the Liberal party would solve the issue by cutting immigration and limiting new entrants in line with housing completions. He also discussed the causes of the downturn in prices, and said Labor’s budget was not the only factor:
I think confidence in the housing market has dropped since Labor’s announcement of new taxes that they ruled out before the last election, have sneakily brought in. I think that has diminished confidence.
But the larger geopolitical frame is also important. Inflation was already high before the Iran war but it’s higher and likely to get worse still.
Just before I came here I got an email from my bank saying my mortgage rate will go up in July. I imagine a lot of Australians have got the same email, so I think there is a lot of nervousness out there and that’s been reflected in the housing market.
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Hastie says Abbott will boost morale as Liberal president
Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie says Tony Abbott’s appointment to the party’s presidency will boost morale as the Coalition slides in the polls.
Hastie acknowledged the presidency was an administrative position but said that was not its limit. He told the ABC:
That is the role of the president, but it’s also a leadership position to rally the lay party.
Morale is important and I think Tony Abbott will bring a boost to morale given his stature as a former prime minister but also as a leader in the centre-right movement, so he was elected unanimously. He’s got a big task ahead but his role is largely with the lay party and I think he knows that and respects that …
The task for him is to rebuild the lay party and raise money … we need leadership at the lay party level and that is what Tony Abbott’s going to bring.
Hastie said the Liberals had to engage more Australians. He acknowledged the party has continued to struggle in polls despite Labor, its historic opponent, losing popularity after handing down its budget, saying Liberals needed to “sell” Angus Taylor’s budget reply measures.
Polls take time to reflect changes out there, I think people are still coming to terms with the budget.
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Thirteen-year-old boy charged by Queensland police
Queensland terror police have arrested and charged a teenage boy over allegedly making threats at a business in Wide Bay last week.
Police allege the 13-year-old boy made threats against customers at a business in Maryborough last Thursday.
He was charged with four offences including going armed so as to cause fear and making threats.
Detectives from the Counter Terrorism Investigation Group and Maryborough Child Protection Investigation Unit executed a search warrant at his home, and seized an electronic device.
They also charged him with preparing or planning to cause death or grievous bodily harm and possessing or controlling violent extremist material obtained or accessed using a carriage service.
He was remanded in custody and will appear in Harvey Bay childrens’ court on June 5.
Unusual low-pressure system tracking east
An unusually deep-low pressure system that brought powerful winds and heavy rain to southern Western Australia over the weekend is making its way east.
Wind gusts peaked on Sunday morning at 133km/h in Cape Naturaliste, 120km/h in Busselton and 93km/h in Perth.
To start off winter, that severe weather is moving into some southern parts of the country, with damaging wind gusts of up to 90km/h expected for large parts of southern South Australia including the Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges and Adelaide.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Ilana Cherny said windy conditions were also developing in Victoria in the Otways, Bellarine Peninsula, Mornington Peninsula and northern suburbs of Melbourne.
Cherny said the winds would extend into elevated parts of New South Wales from Tuesday and “we could even see some blizzard conditions developing for alpine New South Wales”.
But she added that the depth of the system, which made its impact in Western Australia so unusual, was gradually weakening:
It’s no longer looking quite as unusual in terms of the impacts that it’s bringing to southern and south-eastern parts, but it is still a strong winter system.
The bureau’s long-range forecast projects warmer-than-average maximum and minimum temperatures for large parts of Australia for winter and below average rainfall for much of southern, central and eastern Australia. Meteorologists are also watching for the likely development of an El Niño this winter.
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Accused Islamic State member renounces terrorist group in Melbourne court after returning from Syria
A woman accused of travelling to Syria and joining Islamic State has renounced the terror group and violent jihad, her lawyer has told a Melbourne court.
Rayann El Houli, 34, was due to apply for bail in the Melbourne magistrates court on Monday morning, but her barrister, Peter Morrissey SC, sought an adjournment.
He told the court the prosecution had raised concerns about El Houli’s risk of endangering the community, claiming there was a lack of evidence she had renounced IS.
Morrissey said he needed more time to obtain the relevant material but he was instructed to make a statement on behalf of his client.
“She renounces Isis and violent jihad,” he told the court.
She wants nothing to do with it – not now, not in the future, not directly and not indirectly, not for herself and not for the people she loves, and especially not for her children.
El Houli was on Thursday charged by Australian federal police with travelling to a declared conflict zone and joining the terrorist organisation Islamic State.
Read more here:
Victorian premier announces corruption body overhaul
Jacinta Allan has just announced an overhaul of Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, including the introduction of contentious “follow the money” powers.
Allan has just told reporters:
We are announcing today the most far-reaching overhaul of Ibac’s powers since it was established in 2012. … I am no longer satisfied that Ibac has the powers it needs to do its job in full.
Allan said the Victorian Parliamentary Integrity and Oversight Committee had offered 29 recommendations in a report on Ibac’s framework. The government is supporting 21 of those, including one that would give the commission retrospective follow-the-money powers.
Allan said:
Let me be clear: I want to follow the money investigative powers to be retrospective.
Ibac should be able to examine recent allegations and also work alongside Victoria police to ensure all criminal behaviour is investigated.
I have always maintained a zero-tolerance position on criminal behaviour in any workplace – that remains absolute.
Allegations of corruption and illegal activity on big-build work sites has been shocking.
I am personally appalled by what has happened and while these crimes were committed by a small number of individuals, the impact has been far reaching with serious consequences for workers and their families.
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Sydney 18-year-old spends night locked up over boys’ football brawl
A young man was held in custody overnight over his alleged role in a brawl and pitch invasion at an under-17s boys’ football match in Sydney’s south-west.
New South Wales police said the fight broke out at 3.30pm on Saturday at the game in a park on Iluka Street, Revesby.
Police were told players had started to fight on the field before spectators invaded the pitch to join the brawl.
An 18-year-old man sustained injuries including a bite to his back and was treated by paramedics and then taken to Liverpool hospital, police said. A 47-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and charged with affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and granted conditional bail.
Police later on Sunday arrested an 18-year-old man and took him to Bankstown police station where he was charged with being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and affray.
He was refused bail and held in custody overnight, police said. He faced Bankstown local court today where he was granted conditional bail to reappear on 25 June.
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Hanson happy for extra worker visas on top of proposed 130,000 migration cap
Pauline Hanson has said she’s happy to have more migrants than her proposed 130,000 cap if they’re in jobs where they’re needed and Australian workers aren’t available.
Hanson also said workers on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme (Palm)would not count in the cap. She told 3AW radio this morning:
Cut back the immigration to about 130,000 a year. You’d still, on top of that, have your Palm workers, have those that come in on visas to help out, work in the abattoirs or jobs that they need to do, where they can’t get Australian workers. No problem with that. But permanent residents … they say, oh, we need skilled migrants. Well, that’s an absolute lie.
Between [2022] and 23, they brought in 739,000. Only 51,605 had skills and of that only 1,800 in the construction industry.
That last line deserves a quick fact check. One number Hanson cites is the 51,605 temporary skilled visas that were granted in 2022-23, out of 8.8m temporary visas granted, according to Home Affairs. There were another 179,000 permanent migrants, about 110,000 of which were in the skilled stream. One Nation’s policy is “capping visas at 130,000 per year”, its website shows.
The other number she quotes is arrivals, which is different from grants. Out of 738,000 people arriving in Australia in 2022-23, there were 84,000 temporary and permanent skilled arrivals, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Then there were 283,000 international students, 106,000 visitor visas, 70,000 working holidaymakers, 41,000 New Zealanders, 59,000 Australians, and 90,000 others.
In 2024-25, there were 85,000 skilled, 157,000 students, 56,000 visitors, 78,000 working holidaymakers, 53,000 New Zealanders, 64,000 Australians and 74,000 others, totalling 568,000 arrivals, or 306,000 net of departures. It would take a lot of cuts to get either figure down to 130,000.
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Thank you Nick Visser and hello readers. I’ll be with you on the blog for the rest of the afternoon.
That’s all from me! Luca Ittimani will guide the blog ship from here. Take care.
Socceroos’ World Cup squad revealed
The Socceroos have named two uncapped attackers in their World Cup squad, as coach Tony Popovic rolls the dice in a bid to find an attacking spark.
Winger Cristian Volpato, the former Italy youth international, has been selected after the paperwork allowing his change of allegiance was completed, while towering striker Tete Yengi won a place after a strong year with Japanese club Machida Zelvia.
Popovic had to cut four players from his training squad to meet the 26-player limit. The unfortunate four were goalkeeper Joe Gauci, defender Kye Rowles and forwards Brandon Borrello and Martin Boyle.
Popovic said selecting 26 players was not easy.
“A range of factors has gone into selecting this final World Cup squad. Some difficult decisions had to be made – that’s the nature of major tournaments,” Popovic said.
Read more here:
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Audience member takes over from sick keyboardist at Sydney La La Land concert
At Saturday night’s performance of La La Land in Concert in Sydney, 21-year-old Sterling Nasa took the stage after Oscar-winning composer and conductor Justin Hurwitz asked if there was an “amazing sight reader” in the audience. Addressing the 2,000-strong audience, Horowitz made the call-out after the orchestra’s lead keyboardist fell ill and had to leave during interval.
Nasa suddenly found himself sitting at a keyboard he had never played before – a celeste – staring down at a complex score he had never rehearsed, including an intricate synthesiser solo.
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Australia should prepare for life without gas, thinktank warns
Australia must start preparing for life after gas or risk bill hikes, missed climate targets and manufacturers shutting up shop, warns a prominent thinktank.
AAP reports bans on new household gas connections, reworked green hydrogen incentives and a windfall profit tax on the export industry feature in the Grattan Institute’s extensive report on Australia’s deteriorating relationship with the fuel.
The thinktank says demand for both domestic and exported liquefied natural gas (LNG) product is projected to decline.
It argues an even faster drop off will be needed than implied by the federal government’s gas strategy projections to meet Australia’s international climate commitments, including net zero by 2050.
Burning gas to cook food, manufacture goods and generate electricity releases greenhouse gas emissions but so does getting it out of the ground and processing it, together amounting to roughly 20% of Australia’s carbon pollution.
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Chalmers downplays role of budget changes in auction clearance rates drop
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, spoke a moment ago about the fallout from the federal budget and said when the national accounts come out on Wednesday, they will show a “genuine investment boom” in the country’s economy.
Chalmers told reporters:
We’ve seen very strong figures through the year as well, when it comes to investment, and we’ll see that reflected in the national accounts on Wednesday …
We’ve got no shortages of challenges in a global economy and in the domestic economy, but we enter this difficult period from a position of genuine strength and extremely strong business investment.
Chalmers was asked about a drop in home auction clearance rates after announced changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing. He said there are a “number of factors at play”, but downplayed the budget’s role in home sales:
Some of those clearance rates were coming down already and the budget is not the only factor when people are thinking about those participating in those auctions.
But if we are making it easier for first home buyers to get a fair crack at auctions, then that’s a good thing …
There are other factors like interest rates and that’s why we are already seeing some movement in auction clearance rates before the budget.
Read more here:
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Antisemitism inquiry blocks government’s bid to keep documents secret
The royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion has denied the Albanese government’s bid to keep secret documents about counter-terrorism funding in the years prior to the Bondi terrorist attack.
The government made a public interest immunity claim in an attempt to avoid disclosing several cabinet documents to Virginia Bell’s inquiry.
In a submission to the commission, the secretary of the department of prime minister and cabinet, Steven Kennedy, argued cabinet ministers might not “speak with candour” if their deliberations could be made public.
In her ruling, Bell noted that the documents weren’t being released to the public – just disclosed to the commission and recipients of the confidential version of her interim report.
The ruling stated:
In the context of the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack on 14 December 2025, the question of whether intelligence and law enforcement agencies performed to maximum effectiveness requires consideration of the priority given to, and the resourcing of, counter-terrorism by each agency, particularly following the increase to the national terrorism threat level.
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Pauline Hanson says she could be PM but stay in the Senate
Pauline Hanson has speculated about becoming prime minister while staying in the Senate, as her One Nation party attracts growing popularity.
Polling has suggested One Nation could win a swag of lower house seats and Hanson yesterday said she believed she could be prime minister. Asked to elaborate on 3AW radio today, she said:
I am considering a lower house seat by all means, but nothing’s set in concrete and I haven’t made a final decision about it. But in talking to some people also, I really don’t need to have to move to the lower house. You can be prime minister from the Senate.. … [but] that’s a long way down the track. I’m not interested in that at the moment.
She cited the precedent of John Gorton, a senator elected Liberal party leader in 1967 after then-PM Harold Holt disappeared while swimming. Gorton was sworn in as PM but stayed in the Senate for three weeks, then resigned to run and win in Holt’s old electorate.
The parliamentary education office says there is no rule preventing a senator from being PM (or deputy) but it is the convention for them to be in the lower house, given government is formed there, not the Senate.
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Australia’s population to top 28 million tomorrow
Australia is awaiting its 28 millionth resident, set to arrive sometime tomorrow.
The current population clock from the Australian Bureau of Statistics stands at just over 27,999,190. With an overall increase in population of about one person every minute and 15 seconds (including births, deaths, arrivals and departures), the counter should tick over at around 6am on Tuesday, eastern time.
The country passed the 27 million milestone in September 2024, a quick jump from the previous million due to post-pandemic overseas migration.
You can check out the ABC counter yourself, here.
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Tasmanian premier declines to share details of minister’s resignation after secret court case
A Tasmanian minister has resigned after misleading parliament about her involvement in a secret court case and amassing legal fees that cost taxpayers $120,000, AAP reports.
The Tasmanian premier is refusing to offer details of a secret court case that has led to the resignation of his environment minister.
Madeleine Ogilvie resigned from cabinet on Saturday, months after telling parliament she was not party to any court cases. She admitted last week she had in fact brought a supreme court action, saying she erred while attempting to navigate a suppression order.
The details of the case are unknown, including the subject matter, the opposing party, and the timeline. The government has disclosed taxpayers had spent about $120,000 on Ogilvie’s legal fees between 2023 and 2025.
The premier, Jeremy Rockliff, avoided sharing the details at budget estimates on Monday morning. Rockliff said:
These are complex matters and I’m not going to be commenting any further … especially given the confidentiality requirements.
Ms Ogilvie has given an undertaking, as other members, have to provide full details when Ms Ogilvie is legally entitled to.
He did not share further detail when asked when he became aware of the court matter and whether he or cabinet sanctioned the use of public funds, only to say that legal fees were “within guidelines”.
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Massive Attack to tour Australia for first time in 16 years
Massive Attack are set to tour Australia for the first time in 16 years.
The influential British trip-hop group, made up of Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, will play Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in August. The upcoming tour will be the band’s fourth appearance in Australia and their first Australian shows since 2010.
Formed in Bristol in 1988, Massive Attack are pioneers of the trip-hop genre – a dark sound of hip-hop rhythms, soul samples, dub bass and atmospheric electronics. Their 1991 debut, Blue Lines, was a touchstone, among the most influential albums of its era. Their biggest hits include Unfinished Sympathy and Teardrop.
Read more here:
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Pauline Hanson calls for overhaul of ‘dogmatic’ workers’ rights system
Catching you up on some news from Sunday: Pauline Hanson has called for sweeping reforms to Australia’s workers’ rights system.
Appearing on Sky News yesterday, the One Nation leader targeted young workers and took issue with the obstacles employers face when sacking staff.
She said:
We need to have an overhaul here …
These young ones, they said, they don’t want to work. And then they’re tired by early afternoon, or they’re on their phones, or they take days off. There’s no compliance with it whatsoever. Even when they want to finish work or when they want to leave you, OK, they can just say, see you later and they’re gone.
Whereas you have to give them, you know, all these three weeks, four weeks, whatever. If not, you can’t even sack anyone, if they’re not working, if they steal from you, then you see yourself through the courts.
This has to change. It has to change. There’s a give and take in employment, and people have a right to employ who they want to. We’ve become too dogmatic.
Hanson gave the example of a time she sacked one of her own staff, saying they had to be paid four months’ wages.
It’s a scam that’s going on, and a lot of people play and the whole thing needs a complete overhaul.
In the same interview, Hanson said she believed she could do the job of prime minister and suggested the minimum wage should not be increased this year. One Nation is more popular than any other party, including Labor, according to a poll published today.
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CGT changes good for property investors if inflation high and price growth slow, Ray White says
Property investors may actually be winners from Labor’s capital gains tax changes when inflation is high and house prices aren’t rising rapidly, new Ray White analysis suggests.
Australia’s biggest real estate agency on budget night warned changes to the tax discount on profits from selling assets would mean property investing is more expensive.
Analysis from Nerida Conisbee, Ray White’s chief economist, has now found that may not always be the case.
The old CGT discount didn’t account for the difference between inflation and asset price growth. The new inflation-adjustment discount does, so when house prices are rising fast and inflation is low, investors have a bigger tax bill, Conisbee found.
But house prices are now expected to fall or plateau around Australia while inflation is expected to be above 3% for much of the next year. If higher inflation and a slower market persists, investors would save money under the new system.
Say inflation sits at 3% on average over the next few years. An investor who buys a $1.75m home under the new regime then sells it after six years, assuming a 30% income tax rate, would pay about the same amount of tax as they would under the old – assuming the home price rose by about 5.5% a year.
But if the home price rose just 5% a year, the investor pays $13,000 less in tax. If it rose just 3% a year, there is almost no inflation-adjusted profit and the investor would save $51,000 in tax.
Conisbee said:
The policy may be defensible if the aim is to tax real gains rather than inflation. But it should not be assumed to raise more tax from property investors in the near term.
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NSW losses on the pokies concentrated in some communities
The data shows losses from pokies concentrated in some communities: Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown ($198.8m), Fairfield ($186.1m) and Cumberland ($136.2m); the Central Coast ($90.7m); Wollongong ($54.6m); and Newcastle ($52.1m).
Some communities, namely Liverpool and Ryde in Sydney, have seen sharp upticks in year-on-year losses.
Wesley Mission’s Cameron said:
Behind these numbers is the money needed to pay rent, groceries and other essential bills being drained by pokies out of household pockets.
Losses have continued to climb while harm deepens. The question has never been whether reform is needed, it desperately is, but how much longer we must wait for the Minns government to step up and do the hard and desperately needed work to reduce and prevent harm.
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NSW on track to lose $10bn to pokies in 2026, Wesley Mission finds
A new analysis from the Wesley Mission finds families in NSW are being hit with a record surge in poker machine losses, with new data showing $2.37bn lost in the first three months of this year.
If continued, that rate would see people lose more than $10bn in 2026, what the body calls a “terrible milestone in NSW’s decades-long capture to the pokies industry”. That’s an average of about $26.4m every day, or just over $1.1m an hour.
Stu Cameron, the CEO of Wesley Mission, said in a statement:
There seem to be only three certainties in NSW right now: death, taxes and spiralling poker machine losses.
Quarter after quarter, the same story repeats itself – more money lost, more families under pressure, and more communities carrying the burden of gambling harm. It’s a grotesque Groundhog Day on steroids.
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Melbourne film festival hacked, with some data accessed
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) said yesterday an unauthorised person gained access to customer information, including names, emails and phone numbers during a hack of a ticketing platform.
The festival said it became aware of the incident on 29 May, quickly suspending access to the affected accounts and installing new security measures. But on 30 May there was further unauthorised access to the ticketing platform, with some customers receiving emails or SMS messages sent to them directly without authorisation.
MIFF has contacted affected customers directly with information about the incident. It believes nearly 27,000 customer records held by the platform may have been accessed. The ticketing platform does not store compete credit card information.
MIFF said in a statement:
We understand customers may be concerned by this incident and sincerely regret the uncertainty it may cause. Protecting the personal information entrusted to MIFF and its technology partners is extremely important.
We have advised affected customers to remain cautious of unexpected emails or SMS messages that appear to come from MIFF and to avoid clicking links or providing personal information unless they are confident of the source.
Despite some reports, Melbourne Writers festival did not see any evidence of unauthorised access to its own customer data.
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Victorians can access 20% off car rego and half-price public transport from today
Victoria has rolled out two cost of living measures amid the ongoing fuel crisis: 20% off car registration and half-price fares on public transport until the end of the year.
The half-price fares come on the back of free public transport across the state over the past two months, which has ended today. But the discount will apply from today until the end of December.
Under the discount, a full daily fare will cost $5.70 to travel anywhere across the state, down from $11.40.
To get 20% off your rego via a rebate, Victorians will need to have paid their registration between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 for a light vehicle for personal use. You can get the rebate for up to two vehicles in your name, and get it in full regardless of if you paid your rego in full or in instalments.
You have two months to apply, until 31 July. Applications open today.
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Students would save $3bn over a decade if Labor changed Hecs indexation date
University graduates would save more than $3bn over a decade if the government changed the date of indexation on Hecs debts, dubbed a “broken system” in its current form by independent MP Monique Ryan.
About 3 million students and graduates will see their Hecs debts increase by a combined $1bn on Monday, when they are indexed by 2.8%.
Hecs debts do not accrue interest but increase yearly based on the rate of inflation or the wage price index, to maintain the “real value” of the money owed.
Students make compulsory payments towards their Hecs, which are collected and held by the tax office, but that money is not deducted from the debt until the person has filed their tax return.
That is done after the debt indexes.
Costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office, seen by Guardian Australia, show if the government changed the indexation date from 1 June to 1 November, after compulsory payments have been paid down, it would cost the budget’s underlying cash balance $1.2bn in forgone revenue over four years.
Read more here:
Thousands of older Australians still waiting for care
More than 100,000 people are still on wait lists for in-home aged care despite wait times falling, AAP reports.
The latest quarterly data for the first three months of 2026 showed wait times go down by two weeks for high priority cases, from between 1.5 and 2.5 months to between one and two months.
Medium-priority cases have fallen from between eight and nine months to between six and seven months, while standard priority cases are down from between 10 and 11 months to between seven and eight months.
The figures also revealed 364,723 people now have access to support at home places, up almost 18,000 people on the previous quarter. But despite the increase in places, 100,191 people are still on a waitlist for approval.
The health minister, Mark Butler, conceded it was a difficult task to reduce the waitlist as the population ages. He told ABC Radio this morning:
There’s also an historic increase in demand as a particular generation comes into the aged care system, so satisfying all of that demand is going to be a very difficult job for government.
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Concept design for Brisbane Olympics stadium only 10% finished
Just 10% of the concept design for the Brisbane Olympics stadium is finished, as early works start today.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (Giica) head, Simon Crooks, was asked about timelines at a press conference held to mark the area being handed over to the agency today. Sports luminaries and the premier held a groundbreaking ceremony this morning.
“We’re at 10% concept design,” Crooks told media.
I won’t be in a situation where I’d be comfortable letting design drawings go to construction right through this year. There’s a long way to go. It’s $3.8bn of drawing.
Giica’s 100-day review recommended plans for the stadium be approved by the third quarter of 2026. But Crooks said they were still on schedule.
I’m comfortable with it … pretty well everything we’ve done the last nine months, we’ve hit (timelines). We said we’d engage the main contractor by the end of the year, and we’re on program for that.
Crooks said the organisation was working to have the stadium finished a year before the 2032 games, but wouldn’t estimate when construction would start, because planning was still in its early contractor involvement stage.
The premier, David Crisafulli, said the job could be done on time. “It’s a race against time but I have every faith that we can get it done,” he said.
This can be our moment to shine, it can be the moment where the world looks at us and says there is the state with a bright future ahead of it.
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Capital city home prices fall as experts predict Australia’s property slump could last a year
Home prices in Australia’s capital cities have begun to fall, with experts predicting the decline could last at least a year and wipe as much as 10% from values.
The median capital city home price fell in May, the first decline since January 2025, as high interest rates and inflation stretched buyer budgets, Cotality reported on Monday. Auction success hit a new low for the year.
Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra median house prices ended May lower than they were at the end of 2025. Even homes at the cheaper end in those cities fell in value, losing the momentum maintained at the start of 2026.
Read more here:
Crisafulli says protesters at Brisbane Olympic site moved on for their own safety
Queensland premier David Crisafulli says protesters and an Aboriginal tent embassy had to be moved out of Brisbane’s Victoria Park this morning for safety reasons.
The Goori Camp embassy was issued a policy direction at 1am on Monday on behalf of the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority.
It came after a series of arrests of protesters on Friday and a major rally against the project on Sunday.
Asked if they had been treated with respect, Crisafulli said
“Everyone’s got a right to protest but from midnight this becomes a construction zone,” he said.
I think most people would acknowledge that the place to do that wouldn’t be in the middle of a construction site.
Crisafulli said the “vast majority of Queenslanders” want the state government to get on with building the stadium, and said the federal government had endorsed the plan.
The construction of the Olympic stadium and aquatic centre is in the heart of Brisbane in a park that traditional owners say is a First Nations sacred site.
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Abbott plays down One Nation support in poll but says Coalition ‘obviously’ in competition
Tony Abbott, the new party president of the Liberals, said he wouldn’t get “too excited” by the poll showing One Nation’s surging support. But he told RN this morning he believes the country is in trouble and the Liberal/National Coalition is best positioned to lead the nation.
Abbott spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:
Our economy is stagnant, our society is fragmenting, our security is imperiled, and yes, we don’t believe in ourselves nearly enough. I think the current government is making all of this worse. And it’s really important that we get a better government as soon as possible. …
Obviously, we are in a degree of competition with other parties and voices on the centre-right. But in the end, our opponent, our enemy, if you like, is a really bad Labor government, a really bad Green-left-Labor government. Which in its budget, [has led an] assault on aspiration and wealth creation.
Abbott went on to say it would take “hard work” to appeal to Australians, saying the Coalition was still “by far the most credible” alternative to the current government:
The point I make is: if you normally vote Liberal, if you’re interested in public life, if you think our country is in trouble, please don’t complain on the sidelines. Join the party and make a difference.
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Press conference gathers to break ground on controversial Olympic stadium
A team of sports figures is gathered for a press conference to break ground on the controversial Olympics in Victoria Park, Brisbane.
Security is high, with the park fenced off and Queensland police patrolling the area and access to the press conference tightly controlled.
There were five arrests on Friday as a protest camp was cleared to make way for the stadium. Hundreds of protesters gathered to criticise the project yesterday.
The state says it intends to start early works on the project today.
Scores of sports figures, including Lions CEO Sam Graham and Queensland Cricket CEO Terry Svenson, and junior players from West’s Juniors AFL club are gathered to mark the milestone.
There are 28 shovels marked “I helped build Brisbane stadium” set aside.
Barnaby Joyce says One Nation would get rid of ‘most of’ Labor’s budget
Barnaby Joyce said politics in Australia have “changed” amid a new poll that shows One Nation surging in support.
Joyce spoke to Channel 7’s Sunrise this morning, saying the latest data that suggests Pauline Hanson’s party is the most popular in the country amounted to an “incredible honour”, but he said he wouldn’t get ahead of ourselves as that would be “hubris”.
Joyce added:
It’s an indicator, not a vote …
It’s not One Nation that’s changed. It’s the Australian public that’s changed and they’ve changed in waves.
It’s not an aberration. It’s real.
Speaking alongside Tanya Plibersek, Joyce said if One Nation came to power, he would get rid of the Labor government’s “climate change department” and “most of your budget”.
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Solomon Islands prime minister to visit Australia
The new prime minister of Solomon Islands, Matthew Wale, arrives in Canberra tonight, the start of a significant visit for Australian foreign policy.
Wale replaced former PM Jeremiah Manele who was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote earlier this month. The contest was widely seen as a choice between Solomon Islands continuing close ties with China, or a rebalancing relations toward Australia and western allies.
Wale has long advocated a more cautious approach on ties with Beiking and is expected to push for a closer security relationship with Australia and the United States in office.
He will touch down in Canberra on Monday night, before high-level meetings on Tuesday and talks with prime minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.
Located 1,600km north-east of Australia, Solomon Islands is considered strategically significant to Australia because of its proximity, its central location in the South Pacific, and its long history of security cooperation with Canberra.
The country also sits near major undersea cable routes that carry most of the world’s internet traffic, with the security of that digital infrastructure of key importance.
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One dead after house fire in Melbourne
A person has died and another was seriously injured after an early morning house fire in Melbourne, Australian Associated Press reports.
Emergency services were called to Newbury Street in Werribee, in Melbourne’s south-west, after reports of a fire just after midnight.
One resident died at the scene and another was taken to hospital with serious injuries, police said.
Fire crews arrived at the scene within three minutes, by which time its tiled roof was fully alight, Fire Rescue Victoria said.
A 40-year-old man was treated for burns. Authorities have not yet confirmed the age of the person who died, but media reports say it may have been a young child.
The circumstances surrounding the fire are being investigated and an arson chemist will attend the scene, police said.
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Shadow treasurer says Coalition still major player amid stagnant polling
Tim Wilson, the shadow treasurer, said the Coalition needed to be “better” in light of the One Nation polling, but said any notion the opposition was now a minor party was “cute”, but untrue.
Wilson told RN:
What Australians are right now is despairing of the state of this government. … We need to be better and make sure that we clearly communicate to the Australian community what we’re going to do. But I’m absolutely convinced that, not just we will be here in the next parliament, but we will go on to win. …
I think there’s a chunk of voters who are just going into the orange paddock of despair because there’s a lot of noise and attention there, but we need to actually make it clear where we want to take the country.
Wilson said the Coalition still needed to ensure that “we’ve got ways to connect with people where they are, and particularly to speak to key constituencies”.
Health minister says don’t read ‘too much’ into polls showing surging One Nation
Mark Butler, the federal health minister, said he wouldn’t “read too much into the numbers” showing surging support for One Nation, noting the country is two years out from the next election.
He spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:
There’ll be a million polls between now and the election day, which will determine future government.
I think we all understand that households are under enormous pressure right now. They have been for a period of time. We saw even before the war in Iran that our economy was pretty hot, building a lot of price pressures in the system, but that’s been greatly aggravated by the impact of this war in Iran. So I think you see that in the polls, you see it in private research.
People are just wanting government to deliver more relief.
One Nation the most popular party in the country, survey suggests
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is the most popular political party in the country, a survey suggests.
AAP reports the Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll, published on Monday by the Australian Financial Review, shows support for One Nation has risen four points to 31%.
Labor’s primary vote is at 28%, down three points since the poll firm’s last survey a month ago and the government’s budget that was announced on 12 May, and the coalition dropped two points to 20%.
Support for the Greens dipped one point to 12% and backing for the “other” category of parties rose two points to 9%.
Labor leads One Nation 51% to 49% on the Redbridge poll’s two-party-preferred basis, calculated by asking respondents how they would direct their preferences.
The poll of 1005 voters was conducted between Monday and Thursday, and has a 3.4% margin of error.
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Aged care waiting times coming down, Labor says
Amid persistent delays and funding challenges, some aged care wait times have started coming down, according to the federal government.
The aged care minister, Sam Rae, said every person classified as urgent priority for the Support at Home program is getting funding within one month.
High-priority case wait times have dropped by a fortnight to between one and two months while medium-priority wait times have dropped from between eight and nine months to between six and seven months. Standard priority cases currently wait seven to eight months, down from 10 to 11 months in November last year.
Rae said the median wait for an assessment is consistently under one month, and the time for in-hospital assessments remains under one day.
“While we know there’s much more to do, these numbers are encouraging signs our methodical work to secure more care for more older Australians than ever is shifting the dial,” he said.
Older people told us they want care they can trust, close to home and at a fair price. We have listened, and Labor’s getting things moving in the right direction to ensure every older Australian can get the care they deserve, sooner.
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Good morning
Happy Monday: Nick Visser here to take you through the news as we start off the week. Here’s what’s on deck:
One Nation is the most popular political party in the country, a new survey suggests. The poll, published Monday by the Australian Financial Review, shows support for Pauline Hanson’s party has risen four points, to 31%. Labor’s primary vote is at 28% and the Coalition sits at 20%.
Victorians are now eligible for two cost of living measures meant to help during the ongoing fuel crisis: 20% off vehicle registration and half-price public transportation until the end of the year. The state had instituted free public transport for the past two months, which ended on Sunday.
Stick with us, there’s more to come.
