What we learned, Wednesday 4 February
And with that, we’ll shut the blog. I hope you have a great night. We’ll be back tomorrow with more breaking news. Until then, here’s a look at today’s top stories:
It was another sitting day in federal parliament. The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, batted away questions about her leadership amid the prospect of a spill by Angus Taylor. Her other major problem – how to reconcile with the Nationals and reunite the Coalition – was also bubbling away, with ongoing conversations about how the two parties can settle their messy divorce.
Former Liberal minister, and moderate, Christopher Pyne, addressed the National Press Club in Canberra, where he said, among other things, that he thought One Nation was in a position to do “relatively well”.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer directly denied claims by rightwing political strategist Steve Bannon that he was behind Palmer’s controversial $60m advertising strategy at the 2019 federal election.
The Victorian MP and former deputy Liberal leader, Sam Groth, announced he would resign from parliament next week “to pursue other opportunities”. He’s leaving seven months earlier than planned, which will trigger a byelection.
The Queensland premier asked for an investigation into how a cardiothoracic surgeon – previously restricted from performing major heart and lung surgery by the New South Wales medical regulator – was appointed to a senior government clinical safety position.
It was announced that the two figures at the centre of the Adelaide festival controversy – Randa Abdel-Fattah and Louise Adler – would headline an alternative to the cancelled Adelaide writers’ week.
Three NSW Labor backbenchers said they would protest Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit in defiance of the premier.
A 27-year-old Melbourne man died at a ski resort in Japan, days after the death of Queensland snowboarder Brooke Day.
And the Clean Energy Council released its rooftop solar and storage report, which found solar battery installations in Australia increased four-fold in the second half of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
Updated
Government’s antisemitism taskforce backs Australian curriculum review
The federal government’s antisemitism taskforce has endorsed a review into the Australian curriculum to embed further Jewish knowledge into school study designs.
The taskforce, chaired by David Gonski, met for the second time on Tuesday alongside the special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal.
They resolved to meet monthly for the remainder of the year and made a string of endorsements, including to review the Australian curriculum and to create a Social Cohesion Hub for early childhood educators, teachers and parents.
Teqsa, the higher education regulator, also confirmed it was writing to vice-chancellors of all of Australia’s universities reminding them of the “need to ensure students’ safety and wellbeing and encouraging stronger responses to any instances of antisemitism and hate”, a communique of the meeting read.
The taskforce will next meet in early March.
Updated
NRMA calls for ebike registration and confiscation powers
The NRMA has called for a crackdown on illegal ebike and escooter use, warning that New South Wales faces a burgeoning “road safety disaster”.
After a group of ebike riders illegally crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak hour on Tuesday afternoon, NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury urged the government to implement a formal registration scheme.
He said an “all of community approach” was required to curb the trend, and that:
We need to find a way to get these kids off these bikes and absolutely get these kids off our roads.
Parents have got to stop buying kids these bikes.
Khoury added that police and council rangers should be granted the authority to confiscate bikes used illegally or by underage riders.
Updated
Thousands of bony bream deaths at Lake Menindee following heatwave
Tens of thousands of dead fish have washed up on the shore of Lake Menindee in western New South Wales in the aftermath of last week’s extreme heatwave.
Menindee resident Graeme McCrabb, one of the community members who raised the alarm about a catastrophic fish kill in the region in 2018-19, said fish started washing up on Monday night.
He estimated between 100,000 and 300,000 fish – mostly bony bream – were dead on the banks of the lake. He added:
It’s a few kilometres long, it’s lots of little bony bream. But it’s nothing like what we’ve had in the past.
McCrabb said the fish kill was small compared to the 2018-19 disaster and another mass kill in 2023 when millions of fish, including large species such as Murray cod, died in the Darling-Baaka River, primarily in Menindee’s weirs.
He said the immediate problem for the community after the latest fish kill was “the smell – they’re living there with dead fish and it’s hot”.
He said the fish deaths at the lake were likely due to the change in temperature – “from stinking hot last week to just hot this week” – with bony bream not coping well with sudden changes in temperature.
Updated
Police investigating group of ebikers after illegally riding on Sydney Harbour Bridge
NSW police are investigating a group of about 40 ebike and e-motorcycle riders who illegally crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak hour on Tuesday afternoon.
The convoy travelled along the bridge’s main deck – where cycling is prohibited – before continuing along the Western Distributor and Haymarket.
Police were called to Hickson Road at approximately 4.30pm after reports of the group riding in a “dangerous manner”.
While no pursuit was initiated, officers tracked the riders to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the botanic gardens, where the group dispersed.
No arrests or charges have been laid, but the traffic and highway patrol commander, Assistant Commissioner David Driver, confirmed on Wednesday that investigations are ongoing.
Driver said police are currently identifying participants through school uniforms and registered bikes and that:
This had potential for people to be injured and killed.
He urged parents of those involved to have a “strong conversation with their children” regarding road safety.
Updated
Hello, I hope you’ve had a nice day so far. I’ll take you through the rest of the day’s news.
Thank you all for joining me on the blog today. I’ll leave you with the lovely Catie McLeod for the rest of the afternoon.
I’ll see you back here bright and early in the morning.
Updated
Tl;dr – here’s what you missed from question time
It was another long question time today, clocking in at about 1 hour and 45 minutes, including that division.
The Liberals directed all their questions again on inflation and yesterday’s interest rate rise. The government tried to turn the heat back to the Liberals and their pre-election budget.
Ted O’Brien got booted out of the chamber for interjecting too much.
There was some curious reading happening in the chamber, and perhaps some not-so-subliminal messaging – with Andrew Hastie sitting with a copy of The Art of War on his desk, and neighbour Garth Hamilton reading Othello.
Kate Chaney asked Labor why they haven’t responded to 57 of the 78 committee reports they have received while in government. She didn’t get a very clear answer.
And of course there was a division in the chamber at the end of QT (something I’ve not seen before), but with no surprise the government had the numbers.
Updated
There’s a division during question time
During a dixer on why question time has changed, and why more questions are going to the crossbench (which is basically an excuse for the leader of the house, Tony Burke, to have a go at the Coalition), Alex Hawke stands up and says that Burke should no longer be heard.
This is a parliamentary procedure that, if voted by the chamber, would see Burke no longer allowed to speak temporarily.
While Labor obviously outnumbers the opposition, the opposition calls for a vote on the matter anyway, so now the house is sitting through a division.
It looks like a few Liberals and Nationals have left the chamber during the vote.
Updated
Richard Marles warned over unparliamentary remark
The independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who represents the Tasmanian seat of Clark, asks what will happen to the Anglesea Barracks in Hobart, and whether it will be included in the defence estate sell-off.
It takes 45 seconds for the deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, to say: “yes, Anglesea Barracks remains a critical part of the defence estate.”
Before that he goes off at the Liberals for not asking a question on the sell-off, and makes an unparliamentary remark that earns him a telling off from Milton Dick. The words in question:
The question is noteworthy in one respect – being asked at 3.30 in question time as the first non-government question which has been asked on the defence estate review. As much as it highlights the dog over here who hasn’t barked. I mean, we had the biggest reform to the defence estate in our country’s history, and we have not heard from the shadow minister.
Updated
Interest rate rises ‘would have been worse under a Liberal government’: Albanese
Can the government guarantee that there won’t be more interest rate rises, asks Liberal MP Cameron Caldwell. He says one of his constituents, Lee, wrote to him after yesterday’s rate rise, saying the rise “will kill me. My stress levels are already out of control.”
Anthony Albanese says: “I say to Lee that we understand, as a government, that many people are under financial pressure.”
The PM then says that he would tell Lee that the situation would have been worse under a Liberal government.
Updated
Nationals MP asks about government’s broken promise on energy bills
We’re back to the broken $275 energy bill reduction promise, with Nationals MP Andrew Willcox, asking when those energy prices will fall.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, again says wholesale prices dropped by 44% in the last quarter – and the key is getting more renewables into the grid. He said:
If we keep the policy settings in place that sees more of the cheapest, most reliable form of energy penetrate our energy system, we will see it continue to flow through to wholesale prices and retail prices.
Updated
Everyone’s joining in on the Coalition saga
It’s not just the government having fun with the Coalition split, the crossbench have been making light of it too.
And by crossbench I mean the independents including former Nationals MP Andrew Gee and independent Dai Le.
I think they might have their pop culture references confused though, it was Ross and Rachel from Friends who were famously “on a break”.
Updated
Ted O’Brien is booted out of the chamber
Ted O’Brien is back to ask Jim Chalmers about Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock’s comments yesterday that, “we are seeing aggregate demand, public and private, push up the limits of growth”.
Chalmers accuses O’Brien of being dishonest, and repeats his line that, “private demand recovered more quickly than they were anticipating”.
There’s now some protest from O’Brien and manager of opposition business Alex Hawke, before Milton Dick has a bit of a spray at the pair – and the chamber broadly.
We are not going to have a question time where everybody thinks it’s a free for all [and] you can say whatever you like when you like. That is not how the chamber will work.
He then yeets O’Brien out of the chamber.
Updated
Bob Katter asks about Queensland irrigation scheme
Back to questions, Bob Katter is up next, and asks the government about the Hughenden irrigation scheme, which he says his electorate has been waiting for for eight years.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, wades through Katter’s preamble, which includes something about young mothers having to work on top of being a wife, mother, chauffeur, cleaner and having to go to church on Sunday (not sure how that all relates).
On water irrigation, Chalmers says the government has provided $1.2bn for projects under the national water fund.
This government has made a $170m commitment to support the Hughenden irrigation scheme in the member’s electorate. He is right to point out that that project is waiting on a Queensland government review, which is currently under way.
Updated
A saga of Shakespearean heights in the House
Eagle eyes in the chamber have just spotted Garth Hamilton, an ally of Andrew Hastie, also reading today.
He’s sitting next to the Liberal MP, who has a copy of The Art of War on his desk.
What’s Hamilton reading?
Othello.
I’m not joking.
Updated
Prime minister defends government’s lack of response on 57 committee reports
Independent MP Kate Chaney says there have been 78 committee reports ranging from gambling to domestic violence, and asks why the government has not responded to 57 of them.
One of the most high profile of these reports that the government has not responded to is the Murphy report into online gambling, that was handed to Labor two-and-a-half years ago.
Anthony Albanese says his government deals with “orderly decision making”.
My government takes these issues seriously, which is why we engage, including it must be said, with the crossbench regularly at the regular meetings we have.
Updated
Chalmers turns government spending spotlight back on opposition
Jim Chalmers seems as if he isn’t having as much fun in question time today, compared to yesterday where every answer had a quippy jab at the opposition.
He’s asked by shadow treasurer (and shadow assistant treasurer), Ted O’Brien, whether all those economists who say government spending is contributing to inflation are wrong.
Chalmers brings the debate back to the Liberals’ pre-election costings (which showed that government debt would go up for two years before going down).
By his own logic, and you can’t take to an election a policy to spend much more and to have bigger deficits and more debt and then make the argument that the shadow treasurer is making, he’s got to choose one argument or the other.
There are a range of views about this. AMP – government spending has peaked the growth in government spending is going to add less to inflation, the Commonwealth Bank – the public sector’s contribution to growth has seized. Westpac – public sector demand growth is slowing and was negative over the first half of 2025.
Updated
Who has a copy of The Art of War on their desk?
I’ll give you one guess …
He might not be plotting a leadership spill, but headline-attracting conservative MP, Andrew Hastie, has a copy of The Art of War on his desk in question time.
Make of that what you will.
Hastie bowed out of a potential leadership contest last week, after a meeting with conservative heavy-hitters in Melbourne.
Updated
Bowen says electricity prices are falling even without household energy bill reduction
Colin Boyce, who has had a very exciting week following a failed leadership attempt in the Nationals party room, takes the next question, and asks energy minister, Chris Bowen, where Labor’s promised $275 energy bill reduction is.
We’ve been over this many times before, but for those who are new here or don’t recall the lore, Labor promised ahead of the 2022 election that household energy bills would go down by $275 by 2025.
Bowen says that wholesale prices are going down (again a very similar answer to what he gave yesterday to a very similar question):
The fact of the matter is in Queensland wholesale prices of electricity in May 22 with $347 a megawatt hour, they are now $58 a megawatt hour [lower], some of the biggest reductions we saw over the last quarter were in Queensland.
Updated
Key event
Albanese pressed to accept responsibility for ‘reckless spending’
Sussan Ley is back at the dispatch box and presses Anthony Albanese again on whether he will accept responsibility for Labor’s “reckless spending”.
Albanese says his government has been the only one in almost two decades to deliver back-to-back surpluses.
The prime minister then does a compare and contrast on former Liberal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg’s, budget (which he unsurprisingly says was worse) and says Australia’s economy still has a triple-A rating. He then takes another stab at the opposition over their decision before the last election to oppose Labor’s promised tax cuts.
Updated
Victorian MP, Sam Groth, announces resignation
Leaving federal politics for a moment, former deputy Liberal leader, Sam Groth, has issued a statement confirming he will resign from parliament next week “to pursue other opportunities”. He’s leaving seven months earlier than planned, which will trigger a byelection.
Groth’s statement continued:
Next week I will resign from the parliament of Victoria as the Member for Nepean to pursue other opportunities.
It has been an honour to serve the people of Nepean and I sincerely thank them for the trust they placed in me for the opportunity to represent our community.
I am very grateful to my staff for their professionalism, dedication and tireless work in supporting the people of Nepean.
I wish Jess and the Liberal team all the very best for the November election.
Most importantly, I thank my family, my wife Britt and our twin boys, for their unwavering love and support.
Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, will hold a press conference at 3pm.
Updated
Heat turns on to Jim Chalmers over interest rate rise
We’re staying on inflation, with Nationals MP Michelle Landry (who now sits on the crossbench), asking whether the treasurer will take responsibility for the interest rate rise and apologise.
Even if the Nationals and the Liberals are sitting apart, they’re on a unity ticket attacking the government on inflation and are asking very similar questions.
Jim Chalmers says he “takes responsibility for all aspects of my job”, but again pins the inflation blame on higher than expected private spending.
I think it is really important to recognise that the points that I have been making yesterday and today are in lockstep with the points that were made by the Reserve Bank governor. And this is what the Reserve Bank governor said in the press release announcing the decision that growth in private demand has strengthen substantially more than expected. Private demand is growing more quickly than expected.
We know that there is more work to do on inflation and productivity against the backdrop of global economic uncertainty and that is the government’s focus.
Updated
Chalmers defends government spending after rise in inflation
When will the treasurer stop spending, asks shadow treasurer (and shadow assistant treasurer), Ted O’Brien, quoting economist Shane Oliver, who has said that cutting government spending would help slow inflation.
Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says that the points made by Oliver are “not unanimously shared” by other economists, and defends the government’s budget position.
[If] his question is will the government, will the government be looking to make more savings in its fifth budget in May, the answer to that is yes.
He should tell the House how much higher inflation would be as a consequence of the member for Fairfax [O’Brien] and the member for Hume [Angus Taylor] taking to the last election a bigger deficit this year and the biggest deficit next year as well, as always they have set a little track for themselves, Mr Speaker, on this question.
What’s this about a bigger deficit? The Coalition’s pre-election costings showed that under their plan, the deficit would have gone up over two years, before then coming down.
Updated
Independent MP questions lack of time and consultation on hate speech laws
Independent MP Nicolette Boele gets the next question, as per the new question time rules, and asks the government about the lack of time and consultation on the hate speech laws that were passed last month. She asks:
What steps will the government take to ensure that lawmaking processes following future crises will not degrade democracy in this way?
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, doesn’t outline any steps to ensure the crossbench are briefed in and kept in the loop on significant emergency legislation. He says, “nothing degrades democracy more than a terror attack.”
I would love to have a situation where all legislation can be dealt with in a staged manner like [we] do with most legislation … where we don’t commence debate in the week it is introduced that’s what we normally do.
Burke says the reason the emergency legislation was so important was because the National Socialist Network (a neo-Nazi group) claimed it would shut down its operations in Australia before that legislation was introduced.
Updated
Ley takes aim at Albanese over rate rise as question time begins
Sussan Ley takes the first question and asks, will the prime minister take responsibility for yesterday’s rate rise – and adds a “yes or no” at the end to try to corner him.
Of course, because the opposition leader has a preamble to the question criticising the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and quoting an economist, it’s likely Anthony Albanese won’t give her a yes or no answer.
Lo and behold, Albanese says that private sector spending has increased.
We know that Australians are still doing it tough and we know cost-of-living pressures are real but that is why we have measures to actually address cost-of-living pressures. To take pressure from family budgets in every way that we can.
Manager of opposition business, Alex Hawke, tries to make a point of order but he gets quickly shut down. Albanese then takes the opportunity to make a dig at the Coalition.
They can’t stop talking about themselves, each and every day. Sky News does not have 30 seconds when there is not one of them sitting in the studio.
The opposition then gets a big talking to by Milton Dick, telling them to stop interjecting so much. Darren Chester and Tim Wilson both get an official warning (which means they’re on thin ice, and risk being booted out of the chamber).
What a start to the hour!
Updated
Brisbane 2032 Olympic boss says budget ‘bears no resemblance to reality’
Brisbane’s Olympic boss has conceded to international colleagues that the budget for the 2032 Games “bears no resemblance to reality”, given its expanded footprint.
But 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee president, Andrew Liveris, cut an upbeat figure in Milan as he addressed the International Olympic Committee Summit on Tuesday, stressing the event’s “north star” mantra: “Believe. Belong. Become. Brisbane, 2032”.
The Games were initially forecast to cost about $11.5bn by then Labor Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, after Brisbane was announced the host city in 2021.
Two premiers with two different centrepiece stadium visions later, the 2032 event has been spread out across the state by Liberal National party premier, David Crisafulli, whose plan involves basketball in Cairns, more than 1,700km north of Brisbane, rowing in Rockhampton about 650km up the Bruce Highway, and a new 63,000-seat stadium for athletics in the capital’s Victoria Park. Liveris said:
The delivery plan gave us, in essence, nine locations … These are nine locations that, not only have a capital consequence, but an operating consequence – and so the costing out of that … we have the big budget and that bears no resemblance to reality, especially right now.
So we are working with the IOC on the revised budget.
Updated
Zali Steggall warns government against selling off defence assets in Sydney
Teal MP Zali Steggall has warned Labor against a quiet sell off of defence assets in Sydney, saying she is concerned about the partial sale of HMAS Penguin at Balmoral, in her own electorate.
Labor is pushing ahead with sales of about $3bn in property, and a partial sale of Penguin is planned, with part of the site being retained for a defence diving facility.
The Warringah MP said:
Any proposal to dispose of part of the site raises serious questions about national security, heritage protection, environmental impacts and how public land on Sydney Harbour will be used in future,”
Public defence assets should not be quietly sold off without scrutiny. If changes to HMAS Penguin are being contemplated, they must be justified, transparent and subject to genuine community consultation.
I will continue to seek answers and will keep the community updated as further information comes to hand.
Updated
Hume sidesteps question on potential spill timing
Liberal senator Jane Hume, who worked closely with Angus Taylor in the previous parliament, was asked on Sky earlier today whether there could be a leadership spill in a matter of days.
Hume, instead of answering directly, said next week is Senate estimates, which would make a spill pretty difficult.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, as they say, but estimates means that senators aren’t able to participate in party meetings as they normally would, for the hours that they are questioning officials.
Asked point blank whether Taylor needs to either proclaim he’s running, or stand down, Hume says, “There has been no challenge laid down.”
I can understand how frustrating this must be for Liberal supporters, but what I will tell you is that our job up here right now is to hold the Labor government to account.
Updated
Queensland premier vows to implement optional preferential voting by next state election
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has also vowed to reintroduce optional preferential voting to take effect at the next election.
The Liberal National party said in opposition they planned to return to optional preferential voting, but have yet to make any moves to do so. There’s been speculation the reluctance might be due to an increase in support for One Nation in federal polling.
But Crisafulli vowed that the change will be legislated this term.
It’s something that we have to do this term, not something we have to rush to do.
Under Labor, Queensland adopted optional preferential voting at the 1992 election, but the party changed the voting system to compulsory preferential in 2016 in a last-minute vote.
Making voters number all the boxes helps Labor avoid splitting the left vote in three-cornered contests against the Greens – and the LNP avoid splitting it against One Nation or the Katters’ Australian party.
Updated
One Nation not the same party it was 25 years ago, says Pyne
Staying on Christopher Pyne at the National Press Club, the former defence minister says there has been a “stabilisation” of rightwing party One Nation over the more than 25 years of its existence.
He says with the addition of Barnaby Joyce, and jettisoning some of it’s “less palatable public pronouncements” from the 90s, One Nation has the capacity to do relatively well.
After former Liberal senator, Cory Bernardi’s, announcement that he’ll join One Nation’s Legislative Council ticket for the South Australian election, Pyne says he believes he’ll get in.
She [Pauline Hanson] has gained a great deal of experience over that time in how to appeal to the voters of Australia. So, we are seeing a stabilisation of One Nation and we now see … four senators in the Senate from One Nation, plus Barnaby Joyce.
One Nation has dropped a lot of its less palatable public pronouncements that were made back in the 1990s and the early 2000s as the party has matured. And I think they’ll do relatively well in the future. Whether they’ll get 26% of the vote or not, it’s hard to say two-and-a-half years from an election. I would be very surprised because I think the Coalition will right the ship, as I said before, by that time. If Cory Bernardi wants to go back into politics, good luck to him. It’s a democracy, it’s a free country. I’m almost certain he’ll get elected.
Updated
Pyne tells Liberal colleagues to ‘stay off the television and radio’ unless talking about Labor
Former Liberal minister, and moderate, Christopher Pyne, says Sussan Ley has been doing “a perfectly good job” as leader, but needs “clear air” from colleagues.
Speaking at the National Press Club, in his post political position as chair of the Council of the Ageing, Pyne warned other Liberals to stop airing their dirty laundry … on air.
Since May, there’s been an endless public dispute. My former colleagues probably need to stay off the television and the radio, unless they want to talk about the Labor party and the government. Their job is to oppose the government, and to point out its deficiencies, praise them when they’re right. Criticise them when they’re wrong. It’s not to endlessly talk about the internal dynamics of either the Liberal party, the leadership, or the Coalition in the press.
Pyne said he understands the pain his former colleagues are feeling since the Coalition’s historic election defeat, but tells them to keep those feelings within the party.
The best method to deal with this trauma is to keep it internally inside the party, and talk about it amongst your colleagues, but it’s not to endlessly talk about it on the ABC, or Sky, or Nine, or in The Australian.
Updated
Queensland government to introduce third round of ‘adult time, adult crime’ laws
Premier David Crisafulli has announced that the Queensland government will introduce a third tranche of “adult crime, adult time” laws early this year.
The first two rounds mean a child convicted of any of 33 laws will be sentenced as an adult. Children as young as 10 convicted of murder are given a mandatory life sentence for some offences. They also cover offences like breaking and entering, serious assault and arson.
Crisafulli said:
In the first quarter of this year, we’ll be taking the next tranche of changes to adult crime, adult time [to parliament].
It’s unclear which offences the new tranche will add.
The government also revealed the site of its first youth justice school, which will accommodate children on youth justice orders. A disused youth justice service centre will be converted for use by Ohana for youth, minister for youth justice, Laura Gerber, said. It will open for term three.
Updated
Clive Palmer accuses Steve Bannon of lying about political ads
Jumping back to that Clive Palmer press conference, Palmer directly denied claims by rightwing political strategist Steve Bannon that he was behind Palmer’s controversial $60m advertising strategy at the 2019 federal election.
A text conversation purporting to be between Bannon and an unidentified person – who appears to be convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – was among a tranche of documents released by the US Department of Justice in connection with Epstein.
Bannon, a Donald Trump loyalist and promoter of misinformation who ran the US president’s 2016 election campaign, said in the messages sent two days after the 2019 Australian election: “I had Clive Palmer do the $60 million anti china and climate change ads.”
Palmer confirmed Bannon had called him, but that the anti-China and anti-climate change ads were already running at the time. He denied Bannon had any involvement in the ads. He also said he never met Epstein.
Palmer said:
I was deep in sleep, dreaming. I picked up the phone and this fellow said, ‘It’s Steve Bannon here.’ I said, ‘Hello, Steve, are you a member of our party?’ ‘No, I’m calling from the United States.’ I said, ‘Well, we can’t talk to people in the States. We can’t take donations from overseas.’ He said, ‘I don’t want to give a donation.’ He said, ‘I’m just ringing. I’m just ringing to say you’re running a great campaign against the Chinese, keep it up.’ I said, ‘Thanks, Steve.’ … Apparently, if you go on the press reports, he wrote some sort of a text to Mr Epstein. I’ve never met Mr Epstein.
Asked why Bannon had said he was behind the ad, Palmer replied:
Well, he just lied.
Updated
Nationals respond to Liberal offer, but ‘there’s no rush’, says McCormack
The Nationals have responded to the Liberals’ offer to re-form the Coalition, says Michael McCormack, promising a “diplomatic” response.
Speaking to Sky News, McCormack says there’s “no rush” to reunite. He won’t divulge any details on whether any of the conditions set by the Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, have been accepted.
It’s [The letter has] gone back … it’s careful, it’s considered, it’s appropriate and it’s diplomatic … There’s a bit of time. There’s no rush for these sorts of things. We don’t want to do what Labor did and rush legislation through the parliament. We want to make sure that we do it in a careful, considered fashion, and that’s what our response is.
I think everyone needs to be sensible about this. We do need cool and wise heads to prevail. We can’t just keep on going like we are at the moment.
Updated
Clive Palmer to launch high court challenge against Labor’s political donations changes
Clive Palmer, who’s not often seen around parliament any more, has announced he will launch a high court challenge against Labor’s political donations legislation, which will come into effect on 1 July.
The mining billionaire, according to Australian Electoral Commission data released on Monday, was the country’s biggest political donor of the last financial year (putting a whopping $53m into his Trumpet of Patriots party).
Under the changes, individuals will be able to donate up to $50,000 per year to a political candidate, and third-party groups will also be limited to donating $50,000 a year to an individual candidate but could spend up to $11.2m annually on promotions.
To journalists at Parliament House, Palmer says:
The Australian parliament, in my view, does not have the power to stop members of federal parliament raising funds to carry out their oath of office.
Elections must be fair, and the next election, the Liberals and Labor have given themselves $41m of taxpayers’ funds.
We topped the [AEC] list of $53m or something. But I want to assure everyone here today that was our money. It wasn’t taxpayers’ money. It wasn’t your money, and taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be spent at all in advantaging one side.
Where does that $41m figure come from? Under the new legislation, there will be a substantial jump in public funding from $3.50 to $5 per vote.
Updated
Victorian government offers single day of travel – worth $11.40 – for commuters trapped on trains
The Victorian transport minister, Gabrielle Williams, has offered a single free day of travel – worth $11.40 – for commuters who were trapped on trains for up to two hours yesterday.
Williams held a doorstop at parliament a short time ago where she also apologised for the inconvenience caused, particularly for the two trains that were halted near the overhead power fault at Armadale. For one train, this was a 90-minute wait and for the other, a two-hour wait before they were helped off and had to walk to nearby Malvern station.
She said:
The government will be offering compensation to those passengers and inviting those passengers to call the Transport Victoria call centre to get a ticket, which will effectively issue them with a day’s free travel.
So for anybody who was on those services, we again apologise. We appreciate the level of inconvenience and potentially even distress that was caused.
Williams said while investigations were ongoing, there was “no indication” it was related to the ramping up of the Metro Tunnel to full capacity, which occurred a day earlier:
Early indications are, it’s not related to the Metro Tunnel or the timetable at all. It seems to be at this stage, from what we understand, a cable fault near Hawksburn.
We will get an understanding in time of exactly what’s the cause. Some of our best and brightest are working on that as we speak, so that we can make sure that we are continuing to build a rail network that is reliable and gets people to where they need to go.
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Labor’s beer excise freeze passes parliament
The government’s freeze on a beer excise has passed the House, but not without a touch of drama. The freeze, which will be in place for two years once it passes the Senate, will probably save consumers about one cent on a mid-strength pint.
The Nationals tried to move two amendments to the bill, which found support from none other than Andrew Hastie and a couple of conservative Liberal allies, including Tony Pasin, Terry Young and Ben Small. The amendment also had support from a few crossbenchers including Nicolette Boele and Andrew Wilkie.
None of the other Liberals were in the chamber to vote with the Nats.
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Rangers hunt last dingo in pack after death of Canadian backpacker
One dingo doomed to die remains at large on K’gari after wildlife rangers killed eight of its pack for their role in the death of Canadian backpacker Piper James on the world-heritage listed sand island off the Queensland coast.
A coroner’s preliminary assessment, released four days after the 19-year-old died in the early hours of 19 January after going for a dawn swim on her own, found “physical evidence consistent with drowning” as well as “injuries consistent with dingo bites” – noting these were unlikely to have been fatal bites.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the coroner was still “awaiting pathology results to further assist in determining the cause of death of Piper James” – a process expected to take several weeks.
Regardless, nine days ago the Queensland environment minister, Andrew Powell, said an entire pack of 10 animals would be euthanised – leading dingo experts to warn of an “extinction vortex” for Australia’s only native canid.
But a spokesperson for Queensland’s environment department said on Tuesday afternoon that eight dingoes had been “humanely euthanised”:
The operation is ongoing, with one dingo outstanding.
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NSW Labor MLC criticises court delay over challenge to ‘draconian’ protest restrictions
A NSW Labor MLC has criticised the courts delay to hear a legal challenge on whether controversial protest restrictions are constitutional, saying the fact it couldn’t be heard until almost two months after it was filed was “a serious issue”.
Stephen Lawrence, who is also a barrister, pointed out to ABC radio on Tuesday afternoon that the state had agreed the case could be heard on 16 January but “after the judge on duty spoke to the chief justice, it was then not listed until the end of February”. He said:
The concern I’ve got is that very serious and draconian restrictions on the right to protest and assembly have been introduced. The people who seek to protest have not had the opportunity to have the court rule on it.
I’m a little bit surprised in the modern state of New South Wales that the supreme court, the court of appeal, can’t see a case, essentially in a sort of two-month period – that’s a serious issue.
It comes as the protest restriction was extended for a fourth time on Tuesday ahead of a protest against a visit by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog. Lawrence said:
I’m just not sure that continually extending this thing to apply it to the visit of the Israeli president is actually going to make us more safe. I think it could be creating a flashpoint, and it concerns me.
Police were given the controversial power to restrict protests in 14-day increments for up to 90 days after a terror attack, after the Minns government rushed laws through parliament last year in the wake of the Bondi beach terror attack.
Groups the Blak Caucus, the Palestine Action Group (PAG) and Jews Against the Occupation ’48 filed the legal challenge against New South Wales laws restricting protests after terrorist incidents in early January, arguing the laws were invalid because they impinge on the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication.
Prof Ben Saul has applied to join the case as an amicus curiae, which would see him provide expertise on the matter as a “friend of the court”. Saul is the United Nations special rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism.
If Saul’s application to join the case is accepted, Saul told Guardian Australia he would argue that the protest restriction is at odds with Australia’s obligations to protect the freedom of peaceful assembly under international law.
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Housing ‘part of the opportunity’ from defence estate sell-off
Jumping back to the press conference in Parliament House:
Richard Marles was asked whether housing will be built on any of the sold off land.
The defence minister says while that could be the case, it was not necessarily the priority of the audit.
I expect that housing will be part of the opportunity that is created here. But I want to be really clear, that’s not why we’re doing this. [This is] around making sure we have a defence estate which is properly attuned to the capabilities of the Australian defence force.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is with Marles – the finance department will be in charge of the sell-off. Gallagher says no decisions around what the land could be used for have been made yet.
The short answer is none of those decisions have been taken.
The divestment the land is coming to [the finance department], then there will be a piece of work done about what is the most appropriate use on those sites, and it will be varied. I mean, there are some prime locations. I imagine there will be a lot of interest and a lot of views about what it can be used for … It may be that some sites are suitable for housing, obviously, other sites will have contamination, heritage restrictions, other issues that need to be worked through.
You can read more on the announcement from my colleague, Tom McIlroy, here:
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Former NSW Labor ministers fail in high court bid to overturn corruption convictions
Former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, along with Obeid’s son Moses, have failed in a high court bid to have their 2021 corruption convictions overturned.
The high court ruled on Wednesday that the trio’s appeal against their convictions should be dismissed.
The men were found guilty of a conspiracy to wilfully have Macdonald, the former NSW minerals minister, commit misconduct in public office. The conspiracy involved Macdonald granting a lucrative coal exploration licence to land owned by an Obeid family company.
The court granted the men leave to appeal on a single ground - that the prosecution case at their NSW supreme court trial was “incapable at law” of amounting to a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, given the prosecution did not allege there was an agreement for Macdonald to do a particular act of misconduct. In its judgment, the high court said:
For the reasons that follow, each appeal must be dismissed. The agreement alleged by the Crown in its indictment, as particularised during the trial, was a complete offence of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
The alleged agreement contemplated acts to be undertaken by Mr Macdonald that necessarily satisfied the elements of the predicate offence, albeit that it was not known and could not be known at the time the agreement was made what “particular acts” Mr Macdonald would undertake to bring about the objects of the agreement.
Sale of defence properties represents ‘opportunity to return billions of dollars to the government’s purse’: Richard Marles
Marles says that the government has agreed or agreed in principle to the 20 recommendations in the audit.
He says that of the 68 properties the audit recommends selling off, just one – the Pittwater annexe in Sydney – will be retained, and three others partly retained. Three have already been divested, Marles says.
He adds that the government has spent millions of dollars maintaining the buildings, including from vandalisation.
If we do nothing, we will be spending $2bn over the next 25 years, in respect of such properties, without a single contribution to defence capability, that is clearly unsustainable, and yet, on the flipside, the divestiture of these properties represents the opportunity to return billions of dollars to the government’s purse.
Three of the big-ticket properties are the Victoria Barracks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Marles says the public deserve to be able to access those significant heritage sites.
These properties are protected by law with heritage overlays, and they will exist whatever their future use is, but being opened up and being allowed to be seen by the Australian people is a tremendous heritage outcome.
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Marles announces government to sell off $3bn in defence owned property
The defence minister, Richard Marles, is announcing that the government will sell off $3bn in defence owned properties, which he calls the most “significant reform to Australia’s defence estate in our nation’s history”.
Marles says the issues around the defence estate have been known within defence circles for “a very long time”.
The sell-off comes after the government commissioned an audit of the estates. Marles says:
For any organisation, its home, its land, its infrastructure, its bricks and mortar, is fundamental to what it can do, and that is most certainly the case when it comes to defence.
What became clear was that defence as one of the largest owners of property in the country had a very significant estate, much of which was not being used.
Marles quotes from the audit:
Attempts to consolidate and rationalise property holdings in the past have been stymied by a lack of political and organisational will to overcome challenges … it is clear that maintaining the status quo is not an option.
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Victorian Liberals call train delays a ‘disgrace’
The Victorian opposition public transport spokesperson, Matthew Guy, has blamed the major delays on the train lines that travel through the Metro Tunnel yesterday on the government failing to upgrade rail power systems.
He says it was a “disgrace” that people were trapped on trains for up to two hours as a result:
Yesterday was a disgrace. It was third world conditions – 1,200 people trapped on high capacity trains in the middle of stations, and they’ve got one small ladder to get them off.
Guy says while Labor invested in the new tunnel, which only ramped up to full capacity on Monday, and the new high-capacity trains that travel through it, the power substance were “decades old”:
If you don’t upgrade those before you introduce new trains, you’re going to trip the system and on hot days in Melbourne. And I hate to break it to most people, our trains’ air conditioning systems in Melbourne are only there to suit mid-30s temperature, so when it gets warmer than that, they’re not designed for that. So when you’ve got all these new high capacity trains, which came on just two days ago into the network in full, in the big switch, you’re drawing a huge amount of power out of the system.
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Abdel-Fattah to appear with Louise Adler at ‘Not Writers’ Week’ festival in Adelaide
Stepping away from federal parliament for a moment:
Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah will appear at the Constellations or ‘Not Writers’ Week’ festival in conversation with former Adelaide writers’ week director Louise Adler on 1 March.
The Constellations event has been created at the last minute by a grassroots group of authors, publishers and booksellers in Adelaide after writers’ week was cancelled in January.
Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to appear at the writers’ festival was revoked by the board, leading to Adler resigning as director, and the festival being cancelled entirely.
Abdel-Fattah will also appear in the “Rivers of Reason: Blak & Arab Writers in Conversation” event alongside other writers including Melissa Lucashenko, Chelsea Watego, Ali Cobby Eckermann, and Daniel Nour.
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Coal lobby-backed campaign group a ‘textbook example of Liberal astroturfing’ says independent MP
Independent MP Sophie Scamps, a “teal” who ousted former Liberal Jason Falinski in a blue-ribbon Sydney seat, has attacked campaign group Australians for Prosperity that was almost entirely funded by a coal lobby group.
Guardian Australia analysis of the Australian Electoral Commission’s transparency register found Australians for Prosperity, which attacked Labor, the Greens and teal independent candidates were backed by Coal Australia. Australians for Prosperity is connected with former Liberal MPs Falinski and Julian Simmonds.
Scamps told Guardian Australia “voters deserve honesty”.
Australians for Prosperity is a textbook example of Liberal party astroturfing. While it claims to be a grassroots movement “backed by Australians”, it emerged suddenly just before the last election with the purpose of attacking teal candidates advocating for climate action …
It’s well overdue the Liberal party came up with a few policies instead of relying on misleading tactics to win support.
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In pictures: here’s who was roaming around the press gallery this morning
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More on yesterday’s Melbourne train disruptions
We have some further info from Metro Trains on yesterday evening’s peak hour delays on the lines that travel through the new Metro Tunnel, which left some commuters trapped on trains for two hours.
They have confirmed the issues began at 5pm, when a fault on the overhead power supply on the network in Armadale affected trains on the Cranbourne and Pakenham line. The fault also stopped trains going through the Metro Tunnel and a section of the Sunbury line, as Metro Trains needed to suspend the line between West Footscray and Caulfield to undertake repairs.
Metro Trains said the two trains closest to the fault were halted and passengers were required to stay on board until the situation was safe. For one train, this was a 90-minute wait and for the other, a two-hour wait before they were helped off and had to walk to nearby Malvern station.
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Albanese: Beer excise freeze a ‘cost of living measure’
The bells have rung and the House and Senate are sitting, but there’s not a whole lot of drama happening so far today.
The prime minister is giving a speech to the House on Labor’s beer excise freeze that will knock about one cent off a mid-strength pint, which he’s branded a cost-of-living measure. The beer tax will frozen for two years.
Anthony Albanese says:
It took a Labor government to freeze the beer excise making sure that this was just part of our cost of living measures that we implemented, not just talking about cost of living pressures, but doing something about it …
It’s a way of people getting through their university days or just working part-time for people when they’re raising a family as well. So good for our economy, good for our jobs, good for our local community as well. And that’s why, from the front part of the beer garden, when you raise a glass, you can do so, knowing that our government won’t be raising the price over that two years.
Again, the freeze will save about 18 cents on a 48-litre keg of mid-strength beer.
The legislative agenda is a little on the thin side at the moment, also on the notice paper is the bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) which was supposed to be established last month, and a bill to give coal mining workers long service leave.
Labor are probably pretty happy that the focus remains on the Coalition’s messy split.
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Victorian premier apologises after major delays on Metro Tunnel’s second day of full service
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has apologised for yesterday’s major delays on the lines that travel through the Metro Tunnel, which only ramped up to full capacity on Monday.
During the evening peak on Tuesday, Metro Trains suspended services on the Sunbury line and there were major delays on the Cranbourne/Pakenham lines due to a problem with overhead wires near Armadale. Both lines run through the new tunnel.
Allan says:
As Metro Trains has also done this morning, I’d like to acknowledge and apologise to those passengers who had had a really difficult experience last night as a result of a fault of the train network, and the investigations are continuing as to what was behind the cause of the disruption last night.
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Victorian government announces free ADHD top-up scripts
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a press conference this morning to announce free top-up prescriptions for people with ADHD.
Under the plan, if someone with an existing ADHD diagnosis needs a new prescription urgently and can’t see their regular doctor, they will be able to dial into the Victorian virtual emergency department and have a free consultation.
The doctor will verify their current medication and dosage and send the prescription to their local pharmacy. The one-off refill will be for at least 30 days and up to six months.
It follows the announcement of a $750,000 plan yesterday to train GPs to be able to diagnose and prescribe medication for adults and children with ADHD.
Both changes come into effect in September. Allan says:
We’re doing this because we don’t want parents or kids to get caught out. We heard from Bronwyn yesterday about how she had to keep her little boy home from school for a couple of weeks when he had run out of the medication.
The health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, says:
There are a range of reasons why people might not be able to access their medication, their script may have run out, they may have lost their script. This happens to the to all of us at any given time, but we know that there are real consequences for missing a medication that is designed to be taken every day, and that’s where the Victorian virtual emergency department … can step in to meet the needs of Victorians wherever they live.
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Nationals not a ‘faction’ of the Liberal party, says Littleproud
Conversations are ongoing over whether the Liberals and Nationals can settle their messy divorce.
The ball is now in the Nationals’ court, after Sussan Ley wrote them an offer yesterday with several conditions – the two main conditions being that shadow cabinet solidarity must be obeyed, and that the three former Nationals frontbenchers who crossed the floor face continued punishment. Ley says there will be another meeting between the two leaders today.
David Littleproud is speaking to Sky News, and says he won’t “rule anything in or out” on Ley’s conditions for the Coalition to reform, but says he wasn’t happy about those terms being made public.
I’m not going to rule anything in or out. What I’m saying is that we’ll do that behind closed doors. We’ll do that in a constructive way within our room. And I don’t intend to give a running commentary of where our room is with respect to that, I don’t think that’s respectful, not only to my room, but it’s not respectful to the Liberal party either. So the fact is, we didn’t really want any of these out in the media at all, to be candid.
Littleproud stands by his argument that there wasn’t a proper party room process before the hate speech bill (which is what kicked off the whole separation).
Shadow cabinet solidarity was one of the key sticking points when the Coalition first split in May, and Littleproud says the Nationals shouldn’t have to be “subservient” to the Liberals.
We’re not a faction of the Liberal party, we’re the National party. The Coalition is not one party, and there’s this cultural mindset in Canberra and particularly in some of the commentary, that we should be subservient. We shouldn’t have our views, but we should as National party members, we have different values, different principles, at times, on different issues, to the Liberal party, and we’re paid to come here and to express them.
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RBA rate hike ‘not one and done’, economists say
The Reserve Bank’s rate hike on Tuesday does not look like a case of “one and done”, NAB economists are warning this morning, with financial markets pricing in another move higher at the May meeting.
The Aussie dollar jumped back over 70 US cents and regained three-year highs overnight in a further sign that investors believe the RBA has further work to do to get inflation back under control in 2026.
While the RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, said that Tuesday’s rate move was an “adjustment” rather than the start of a new hiking cycle, markets are even factoring in a solid chance of a third increase by the end of the year.
NAB’s head of markets research, Skye Masters, wrote:
NAB expects the RBA to deliver another 25bps [0.25 percentage points] rate hike in the cash rate at the May meeting, and while governor Bullock did not want to signal that this was the start of a series of rate increases, NAB recognises that the risks are biased towards more than 50bps of hikes [in 2026].
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Action needed to stop private health insurers offering doctors ‘take it or leave it’ contracts, peak body says
The peak medical body is calling for regulation to prevent private health insurer’s “abuse” of their market power when creating contracts with doctors.
In a new position statement released today, the Australian Medical Association says insurers must be prohibited from offering doctors ‘take it or leave it’ contracts, which they say limits patient choice and increases out of pocket costs.
Approximately 97% of procedures performed in private hospitals are conducted by doctors working under ‘no gap’ or ‘known gap’ agreements with private health insurers.
The AMA’s federal president, Dr Danielle McMullen, said:
If a doctor does not sign because the insurer’s remuneration is too low or charges just $1 more than the insurer is willing to pay, the insurer will then slash the medical benefits they would pay to patients and blame it on doctors’ fees.
Yet for most insurers, medical benefits haven’t been indexed and the ‘known gap’ contract limit of $500 hasn’t changed for years, meaning that doctors are being asked to sign contracts that do not reflect the current costs of providing care.
This is deceptive and unfair and leads to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients.
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Chalmers pours some cold water on capital gains tax reports
As we brought you earlier this morning, there are some reports the government could be considering changes to the 50% capital gains tax discount for property investors. The tax discount is being looked at by a Greens-led Senate inquiry.
Jim Chalmers was stopped by reporters as he was walking into parliament this morning – which is notable, if I can take you briefly down memory lane. During sitting weeks, reporters used to hang out by the Senate and House entrances every morning trying to question pollies as they walked in. But there are other ways for politicians to enter parliament without facing a barrage of questions, and so this practice has somewhat diminished over time.
For Chalmers to enter through the Reps doors might mean there was something he particularly wanted to say this morning, and he used the opportunity to temper expectations on the reporting around capital gains tax discount changes.
We haven’t changed our policy on capital gains. That committee work is ongoing, and any further changes to taxes beyond those we’ve already flagged would be a matter for cabinet in the usual way.
We’ve got other priorities when it comes to tax reform, cutting income taxes, standard deduction, a fairer superannuation system from top to bottom, making sure we’re getting the multinational tax regime right. Those are our priorities. That’s something that the Senate committee is looking at … We’ve made it very, very clear that our focus in housing is on building more homes. It’s on the supply side.
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Cigarette butts Australia’s most littered individual item, Clean Up Australia annual survey finds
Cigarette butts have become Australia’s most littered item according to the annual Clean Up Australia litter report, which counts rubbish found in Australia’s streets, parks, bushlands and waterways.
Cigarette butts, which are made of plastic, accounted for 23.6% of all counted individual litter items, up 3.5% on the 2023-24 results and overtaking soft plastics wrappers (18.6%), followed by plastic bags (8.7%).
Clean Up Australia’s chair, Pip Kiernan, said the increase was “troubling” and an estimated 8.9bn butts were littered in Australia every year:
Many in our community don’t know that the butts are actually made of plastic, and when littered, they shed microfibres, leach toxic waste, and take up to 30 years to decompose.
Plastics continued to be the most common major type of litter found at 80.8% of all counted litter.
Soft plastics as a category of litter remained a significant problem, accounting for 30.5% of litter surveyed, while packaging of various types accounted for 59.5%.
Kiernan said the pervasiveness of plastic showed “we cannot simply recycle our way out of this challenge” and packaging reforms to reduce production of single-use plastics were needed.
Vapes were found at 33.5% of sites surveyed, a figure that Clean Up Australia said had increased by 23.5% over three years “highlighting the pressing need for a nationwide safe disposal system”.
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Barnaby Joyce says his defection to One Nation contributed to party’s ‘surge’ in support
Barnaby Joyce, who yesterday told the Coalition to get back together in the House of Representatives, says he’s added to the surge in support for One Nation since he defected in December.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, he also says he’s added to the “acceptability” of the fringe party.
I’m definitely part of it … I’m not going to go with faux modesty, I think I’m part of it. It gives people licence that they have the capacity to, I don’t know, go to dinner and say, “actually I’m a One Nation voter”.
On whether he thinks there will be other Nationals MPs joining Joyce in defecting to One Nation, he says:
No, I don’t. What they’re following is obviously the policies of One Nation and they’re following policies of One Nation because the policies obviously resonate with the community as reflected in the polls.
An example of Joyce’s point here is when Liberal MP Phil Thompson introduced an amendment to Labor’s antisemitism laws last month, to ban the burning of the Australian flag. His amendment looked practically identical to an amendment that Joyce was also putting forward for One Nation. Thompson’s amendment was voted down by the government, and Joyce’s was dropped because it was essentially the same.
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Meanwhile, Ted O’Brien is also making moves across the Parliamentary press gallery, and lands in the RN Breakfast studio.
He says he doesn’t buy the government’s argument that private spending is driving inflation.
I accept what the RBA governor said in the press conference yesterday that she did, which is you see both private and public spending increasing and hitting up against basically the speed limit of the economy. Both are having an enormous impact. But mostly, I believe it’s government spending because government spending has been running about four times the pace of the economy itself in the last financial year, running about twice the pace of the economy in this financial year.
So what would the opposition do? O’Brien says there need to be tighter “fiscal rules” around spending. On specific areas to cut, he says the opposition would cut the electric vehicle fringe benefits tax and net zero authority which would save around $5bn.
Government’s job to minimise pressure on households, Gallagher says
Katy Gallagher moves from one end of the ABC office to the other, now appearing on ABC News Breakfast off the back of her RN interview.
Host James Glenday says Gallagher got the “short straw” in having to front up to the media on the difficult news.
The finance minister says she understands yesterday’s rates decision will hit families hard:
The government understands the decision taken yesterday by the independent Reserve Bank will hit those homes … they’re under pressure, we understand that. So, the job for the government really is to, in the upcoming budget, continue to roll out some of the cost of living help that we’ve already rolling out. And to continue to manage, the budget in a responsible way, to minimise some of those pressures on households.
So where is the inflation coming from?
Gallagher says private sector demand is contributing to the heat in the economy:
If you go and have a look at governor’s statement and the statement on monetary policy, I mean, the surprise element if you like in the some of the pressure on inflation, the bank does put down to increase in private demand. And so, that is the issue really they’ve been grappling with in their decision.
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Will the government announce some bold economic reforms in the budget?
RN Breakfast host, Sally Sara, asks Katy Gallagher whether there will be some big, meaty economic reform come May (which is when the budget will be released).
The question gets a small, dry chuckle from Gallagher, but she sidesteps the question.
That’s why we held an economic reform roundtable as one of the first things we did on coming back to government, there was another range of ideas that came through that. And as you would expect, and I’ve heard the treasurer and the PM say this in recent days around reform, that is part of our thinking in the budget process as well.
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Labor ‘mindful’ of government role in spending, finance minister says
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is in the hot seat, taking on the morning media interviews today, and pressed on the government’s spending which is now above 27% of Australia’s GDP.
Speaking to RN Breakfast, she says there are big pressures on the budget including defence, health, aged care and NDIS.
She also defends the budget, saying the government has already found billions of dollars in savings, and last year asked the public service to find the 5% of lowest priority spending (which came with some controversy).
We are mindful of the role of government of public spending in the economy. We’ve been responsible about the decisions we’ve taken. We’ve found $114bn in savings.
If you take NDIS alone, it was growing at 22% when we came to government. We’re getting it down to 8% … I think it’s part of what we need to do is manage those big programs where they’re growing too fast, and we’re doing that. So NDIS, aged care, but there’s other areas where as finance minister, I look at all these programs and think what’s happening there and how do we get some of the growth or the increasing pressure down.
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Two-thirds of homeless youth unable to access housing services: report
Approximately 40,000 15- to 24-year-olds have nowhere to live in Australia each year, with only 3.1% accessing long-term housing, according to a new report from the Home Time Youth coalition.
With only 23.6% young people accessing medium term housing each year, the majority remain homeless, and a large proportion are turned away with no help.
The key driver of youth homelessness is domestic violence (83%), with early experiences of homelessness dramatically increasing the risk of long‑term or chronic homelessness.
The report found that youth homelessness costs the government $626m each year in avoidable health and justice system costs, and every dollar invested in youth housing returns $2.60 in community benefit.
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Australian prison population hits eight-year high, with deaths by ‘unnatural causes’ highest in five years
The number of Australians in prison has jumped to an eight-year high, while the number of prisoners who died from unnatural causes jumped to 26, with almost half of those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, new data from the Productivity Commission has revealed.
The national average daily prison population increased by 5.9% in 2024-25 to reach an eight-year high of 45,526, with real net operating expenditure hitting $5.43bn in 2024-25, an increase of 4.3% since 2023-24 and 49.3% over the last 10 years.
Across the country, 22 people died in police custody, six of whom were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is lower than 2022-23, when the total number of deaths in police custody was at an 18-year high of 41.
However, 26 people died from “unnatural causes”, including suicide, drug overdose, accidental injury or homicide, in prisons in 2024-25, the highest number in five years, 10 of whom were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
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Government spending too high, says independent MP
Independent MP Zali Steggall is also piling pressure on the government to reduce its spending, and calling for the government to take responsibility for it driving up inflation.
Speaking to the Today Show earlier this morning, Steggall says the government needs to think about where it should “readdress its spending priorities”. She says:
We need to look at the factors that are driving inflation. Of course, the RBA have identified private sector spending being too high, but we have to be clear, government spending has now risen to 28% of GDP … What do we spend on, what is helpful and supporting Australian people? And I think that’s where we really have to ask questions of the government.
Steggall is joined by Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who says it is a “bad day for Australian homeowners who are facing a big, big increase in their mortgage payments thanks to this mismanagement of our economy”.
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Coalition won’t support capital gains tax reforms
The Financial Review is this morning reporting that the government could be considering winding back the generous 50% capital gains tax deduction for property investors.
The Greens are currently conducting a federal inquiry into the tax deduction, with calls from NSW government that the policy should be reconsidered.
Staying with Ted O’Brien on Sky, he’s asked whether the opposition would support any changes to CGT. No is the short answer:
It’s what happens when you have a Labor government that’s running out of money and they just want to come after more. What do they do? They tax people ... We are not going to be joining with Jim Chalmers on trying to ping Australians for more money, because he can’t stop his spending.
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Ted O’Brien is trying to make ‘Jimflation’ happen
Having coined the term late last year, shadow treasurer and shadow assistant treasurer, Ted O’Brien is still trying to make “Jimflation” happen.
The government is feeling the heat over yesterday’s rate rise, which the Coalition says is a result of record high government spending.
So what would the Coalition cut and where would they find the savings? O’Brien, speaking to Sky News, won’t list anything as yet:
Cuts aren’t the priority here. Offsets are, and they’re very different things, and so the government has every right to determine what the spending priorities are, but with those rights come commensurate responsibilities, and that means finding room in the budget to pay for them.
Again, host Peter Stefanovic tries to push O’Brien to list where those savings would come from, but the shadow treasurer keeps it broad.
Basic principles. It [tax] needs to be lower, it needs to be fairer.
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Coalition can reform this week, under conditions: Ley
Ley is facing two challenges, the other of course is the split with the Nationals. Yesterday we reported that the Liberal leader had offered the Nats a deal that would see the three senators who crossed the floor remain off the frontbench for six months.
She says she expects to meet again with David Littleproud today.
The Coalition can reform this week but under certain conditions, and those conditions are overwhelmingly supported by the majority of my party room. And they are that shadow cabinet solidarity is mandatory. That shadow cabinet and the party room have primacy of over any individual party room, and the three senators do need to face ongoing suspensions.
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Leadership rumours are ‘ridiculous suggestions’ says Ley
Sussan Ley has swat away questions on her leadership, as the prospect of a spill by Angus Taylor lurks behind her.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Ley is asked whether she’s spoken to Taylor about that not-so-secret meeting from key senior members of the right faction on Thursday before former Liberal MP Katie Allen’s funeral.
She says Taylor is in her leadership group, “we’ve had discussions about interest [rates], about the circumstances Australians face.”
So is she concerned Taylor is plotting to replace her next week? Ley says:
These are ridiculous suggestions and they’re made by people in the media, not the conversations that I’m having with colleagues, and they’re not the focus of my team.
She tries to pivot the conversation again to focus on interest rates and inflation.
Updated
Liberal party can go it alone, says deputy leader
The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, says that, should the impasse between the Liberals and the Nationals not be resolved, the Liberal party has the talent on its own to take on the Albanese government.
Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, the deputy leader of the opposition said “there’s no doubt the voters want to ensure that we have a stable opposition, an effective opposition. There’s just no doubt about that and I can’t pretend otherwise.”
Whether that opposition is ultimately from the Liberal party holding the government to account or a reunited Liberal-National party, well, let’s wait and see.
Australia I think is best served by a Coalition but, if at the end of the day that’s not to be, then I have enormous confidence in the depth of talent within the Liberal party and, yes, I do believe we can absolutely hold what is a very poor government to account.
Battery installs increase four-fold off the back of federal subsidy, report says
Solar battery installations in Australia increased four-fold in the second half of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
The Clean Energy Council’s rooftop solar and storage report, released today, found more than 450,000 home batteries had been installed across Australia, by the end of last year.
Australians continued to embrace solar, with more than 139,000 systems installed in the latter half of 2025. That brought the number of households with solar to 4.3 million.
As a result, Australia’s share of rooftop solar continued to increase, making up 14.2% of the energy supplied to the grid in 2025, almost doubling since 2020, when it was 7.2%.
CEC CEO, Jackie Trad, said that the figures were a testament to incentives such as the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries program, launched in July, in tandem with other state-based programs in New South Wales and Western Australia, which had expanded Australia’s longstanding love of rooftop solar.
Our biggest power station now resides on the rooftops of more than 4.3 million households, which is helping to drive downward pressure on power bills for consumers and businesses, with less reliance on expensive gas or unreliable coal to power our grid.
On Tuesday, the climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, told parliament that more than 218,000 home batteries had been installed under the federal government’s subsidy scheme. That number was expected to climb to 2m by 2030, under an expansion of the program announced in December.
Updated
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji here with you for another busy day in parliament.
The government will be on the defence over the Reserve Bank’s decision to increase interest rates yesterday, having previously said publicly that the economy had “turned a corner” on inflation. There’ll be plenty of reaction to that decision today.
There’s some new data on the record number of solar batteries installed in Australian households – more on that in a moment.
And the Liberals and Nationals are still on the outs (Beckham family style, says Labor), but “constructive” talks continue – we’ll keep a close eye on any movements there.
I’ve got my coffee, I hope you’ve got yours – let’s get cracking!
