Treasurer Jim Chalmers is blaming an ‘unhinged scare campaign’ for fuelling some of the backlash to the government’s proposed crackdown on negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is blaming an ‘unhinged scare campaign’ for fuelling some of the backlash to the government’s proposed crackdown on negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Here were today’s major developments:
Jim Chalmers is blaming an “unhinged scare campaign” for fuelling some of the backlash to the government’s proposed crackdown on negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts.
Murray Watt, the federal environment minister, says he expects Australian health officials will be working with other countries as the world responds to the latest outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
The judge hearing the case of a pianist who alleges the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra unlawfully discriminated against him because of his views on Israeli forces killing Palestianian journalists says the matter will not be a “roving inquiry” over conflict in the Middle East.
The federal government has announced a major housing investment in Queensland, a deal between the Albanese government and the state government to build 50,000 homes for Queenslanders.
New South Wales police charged nearly 1,000 people during a four-day, statewide operation targeting offenders with a history of domestic violence.
Sydney will get a new trial electric ferry after the state government signed contracts to build the locally designed, Australian-made vessel.
A New Zealand man has been detained in Tahiti after an incident in which a Qantas flight attendant was allegedly bitten on an international flight.
The Australian share market has fallen to its lowest point since March as a steady resurgence in oil prices spooks investors.
Northern Territory police are urging the families of missing men to come forward after more details emerged about the remains of an Aboriginal man, believed to have died in the 1970s or 1980s, which were found more than a decade ago.
Andrew Hastie, the shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability, has labelled the federal government’s budget which included major tax reform that will help first home buyers “a war on aspiration”.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing a short time ago, Hastie said:
What the Labor government has revealed is that their budget this year is a war on aspiration, and that’s why we oppose it.
We want young Australians to have hope. We want to realise the Australian dream of home ownership, and we also want to reward entrepreneurs’ initiative and hard work, and that’s why we’re drawing such a sharp contrast with our budget in reply, which I think is totally good, last week.
Asked if he thinks it’s premature to promise to repeal the tax reform before it’s known how it will shift the dial on housing, Hastie said:
Well, the really interesting thing about Jim Chalmers’ speech last week in the parliament was that he never mentioned immigration, not once.
We’ve got a demand problem, and we’ve got a supply problem, and that’s why we’re going to peg the net overseas migration figure every year to housing completions until we can get the Australian dream of home ownership alive again.
Andrew Hastie congratulates Angus Taylor on his budget reply speech last week. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Musicians vanishing from Australia’s major productions
Musicians are disappearing from Australia’s biggest stage shows as technology usurps their roles.
The world’s highest grossing musical returned to Sydney in April with a smaller orchestra after Disney cut all four string parts from the 2026 season of The Lion King.
The string section has been replaced by KeyComp, a program developed in Germany which allows a single keyboard player to replicate entire sections of an orchestra by using a synthesiser.
The Lion King is playing at the Capitol theatre in Sydney. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
This has left live musicians out of a job, their musicality and expressiveness supplanted by recordings from Hamburg.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s president of federal musicians, James Steendam, told a NSW parliamentary inquiry into live music on Monday:
The Lion King is the highest grossing musical of all time, and despite that, they’re still deciding to cut jobs.
Musicians are earning about 25% less now – adjusted for inflation – than when Disney first brought Lion King here in 2003, so we are not the reason for any expenses that are blowing out.
[But] I now find myself largely unemployed, in some part due to Disney’s decision.
Steendam has played the violin and viola for Opera Australia, Orchestra Victoria and most recently performed almost 1,000 shows with the Australian production of Hamilton.
The demise of live music has also extended to dance, with the West Australian Ballet’s recent production of Dracula in Adelaide using a recording by the WA Symphony Orchestra, instead of hiring musicians to play live.
The MEAA has urged the NSW government to introduce rules establishing minimum orchestra requirements for performances that receive funding or tax incentives from states or state-based agencies.
NSW MP says councils should be compensated for scaling back of inland rail plan
A NSW MP whose electorate takes in areas affected by the federal government’s plan to scale back the inland rail project has said local councils affected by the decision should be urgently compensated.
The independent member for Barwon, Roy Butler, said a number of councils had spent significant amounts of ratepayer funds to prepare for the project:
Local councils stepped up and did the work to prepare for Inland Rail — only to be left with nothing to show for it.
That is simply not good enough. These communities should not be financially penalised for a project the federal government has failed to deliver.
Butler said he planned to seek details on what costs some councils had incurred, including Narrabri Shire, Warrumbungle Shire, Gilgandra Shire and Lachlan Shire.
Money spent on this undelivered project is money that now can’t be spent fixing roads and providing services like community pools and childcare, as many regional councils do.
Compensation is not optional — it’s a matter of fairness.
Melbourne sobering-up centre to close in favour of local outreach services
A dedicated sobering-up centre will shut its doors after criticism the inner city site was a “white elephant” for state taxpayers.
The 20-bed facility at Collingwood in Melbourne’s inner north will close in mid-2027 as part of a redesign of Victoria’s public intoxication services.
The co Health-run site was a key plank of the state decriminalising public drunkenness in November 2023.
Premier Jacinta Allan said it will be replaced with local outreach options, which have supported about 110,000 people in the past two-and-a-half years.
She told reporters on Monday:
We did look at the sobering-up centre as a model.
Clearly the advice has come in that the outreach service is a more effective way of providing vital healthcare support to people where and when they need it.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the Coalition had been warning for years the Collingwood site was a waste of taxpayer money, with beds largely remaining empty.
The Victorian government committed to decriminalising public drunkenness at the start of an inquest into the 2017 death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day.
Day was arrested for being drunk in a public place and died after hitting her head in a concrete cell at Castlemaine Police Station.
NT police urge families of missing men to come forward to help ID found remains
Northern Territory police are urging the families of missing men to come forward after more details emerged about the remains of an Aboriginal man, believed to have died in the 1970s or 1980s, which were found more than a decade ago.
On 1 April 2012, authorities found the skeletal remains of an Aboriginal man, believed to be in his early 30s, near Charlotte River, just off Fog Bay Road, south of Darwin, but little was known until recent forensic testing by federal authorities.
Australian federal police used advanced forensic investigation techniques, radio-carbon dating and DNA testing to uncover more about the man’s details, revealing his diet was largely marine, indicating the man may have lived in the Northern Top End or surrounding islands.
Police believed the man died between 1971 and 1982.
Detectives from the Cold Case taskforce and the Missing Person’s Unit are encouraging people to provide any information, relevant items or records that may have that might help identify the unknown man.
Detective Acting Sergeant Glen Chatto said that NT Police currently have 64 unidentified human remains and strongly encourage families of missing persons to provide DNA to their local police station.
No one should have their remains sit unidentified and no family should have to suffer the pain of not knowing what happened to their loved ones.
A DNA profile has been obtained from the remains so there is real potential for an identification to be made.
‘Disastrous’ plan to allow fracking on South Australia’s Limestone Coast is a broken promise, locals say
South Australia’s ban on fracking was meant to last another two years. But farmers, environmentalists and communities have expressed shock and dismay over laws that will open up the Limestone Coast for unconventional gas development, with some calling the move “deeply regrettable” and “environmentally disastrous”.
A 10-year moratorium on unconventional gas was introduced by the Marshall Liberal government in 2018, in response to widespread community opposition to fracking in the south-east. A parliamentary inquiry concluded the industry had no social licence, while a survey found 95% of people wanted their region to remain gasfield-free.
But on Thursday the Labor premier, Peter Malinauskas, revealed plans to overturn the ban two years early, with laws set to be introduced to the state parliament this week.
Cate Blanchett says #MeToo ‘got killed very quickly’ in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett has lamented that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in Hollywood, while speaking at the Cannes film festival.
In a wide-ranging, staged conversation on Sunday, Blanchett lamented that the tide of #MeToo has been turned in Hollywood, where she has been outspoken about gender equality.
“It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting,” said Blanchett.
There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying me too. Why does that get shut down?
What is Ebola and why is WHO treating the outbreak as a global health emergency?
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda are trying to contain an outbreak of Ebola involving – so far – 246 suspected cases and 88 deaths.
It began in Ituri province, in eastern DRC, but cases have already been detected elsewhere in the country and in neighbouring Uganda.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak “a public health emergency of international concern” and urged robust efforts to limit its spread.
Former US fighter pilot continues fight against extradition
A former US fighter pilot is appealing a decision that greenlit his extradition over claims he illegally trained Chinese military personnel, AAP reports.
Daniel Duggan was arrested at the behest of the US government in 2022 at a supermarket in regional NSW, where he lived with his wife, Saffrine, and their six children.
He has been in custody for three and a half years – nearly half in solitary confinement – over claims he breached US arms trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012.
Duggan denies the allegations and has for years resisted attempts to extradite him to the US to face charges, most recently in the federal court.
But the former fighter pilot’s appeal against the decision to approve his extradition was struck down in April.
In this undated photo provided by Saffrine Duggan, her husband, Daniel Duggan, poses for a photo. Photograph: AP
Saffrine Duggan announced on Monday the family had lodged a challenge against the federal court decision.
[We] will be continuing in our fight for Dan’s freedom and Australia’s sovereignty,” she said on Instagram.
This is about my family and all Australians.
Duggan had no criminal record or violent history but had been locked up for years without facing any Australian charges, she said.
In January Vastness Investment Group – one of the companies now being forced to divest – made an unsuccessful bid to remove Northern Minerals’ chair Adam Handley, AAP adds.
Company and government officials suspect the Chinese shareholders have been making a concerted effort to stymie the business’ efforts to establish its projects.
The Foreign Investment Review Board believes a group of Chinese individuals, who had previously been forced to sell off their holdings, had given them to Hong Kong Ying Tak – which has also been included in the latest sell-off order.
In March, Qogir – another one of the companies named by Chalmers – sold off more than 28m shares, but still retained a nearly 5% stake in Northern Minerals.
Six companies ordered to divest from Australian miner over Chinese interference concerns
Six companies – five of them headquartered in China or Hong Kong – have been forced by the government to sell off their holdings in an Australian rare earths miner amid fears of foreign interference, AAP reports.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has given the overseas-owned businesses 14 days to dispose of their shares in Northern Minerals, a company which hopes to extract dysprosium and terbium in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region.
The federal government views the rare-earths miner as a crucial part of its efforts to fight China’s hold on the global critical minerals supply chain, but Northern Minerals has been the subject of a number of boardroom tussles with wealthy shareholders.
Dysprosium and terbium are used in the manufacture of specialised magnets, which are useful for electric vehicles, wind turbines and industrial robots.
In total, the selloff from Hong Kong Ying Tak, Real International Resources, Qogir Trading and Service Co., Chuanyou Cong, Vastness Investment Group and Shongxiong Lin will affect 17.5% of the mining company’s shares, worth roughly $40m.
Chalmers said:
This decision was entirely consistent with advice from Treasury and the Foreign Investment Review Board. It’s about protecting our national interest and ensuring compliance with our foreign investment framework … We operate a robust and non-discriminatory foreign investment framework, and we will take further action if it’s necessary to protect our national interest in relation to this matter.
The Australian share market has fallen to its lowest point since March as a steady resurgence in oil prices spooks investors.
The benchmark west texas intermediate oil prices has spent nearly week above US$100 and is at US$107.90 now. Peace talks between the US and Iran have stalled and Donald Trump is voicing impatience at the deadlock.
All major Asian markets are down over 1% today and American markets are expected to fall when they open.
Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX200 is down 1.23% to 8,525 points, after falling to just 8,507 earlier in the day.
Miners BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are down 2.5% to 3% each. Macquarie is down 2.28% and NAB is down 0.8% but ANZ is flat and CBA and Westpac are edging upwards after a post-federal budget slump.
Persistent higher oil prices mean the energy sector is up, with Woodside and Santos gaming more than 2% each and Ampol and Viva gaining 1% each.
Chalmers laments ‘unhinged scare campaign’ on tax changes
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Jim Chalmers is blaming an “unhinged scare campaign” for fuelling some of the backlash to the government’s proposed crackdown on negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts.
The treasurer conceded Labor has taken a “political hit” after the latest Newspoll found a negative response to last Tuesday’s budget.
Speaking to reporters in Queensland earlier today, Chalmers said the government was prepared to wear the short-term political cost in order to attempt to fix the “broken” status quo on housing and tax.
There are no easy decisions left when it comes to making a genuine difference to housing in this country, and so we’ve taken some difficult decisions. We’ve taken a political hitfor that, we expected that.
Chalmers said the poll results were not surprising given what he described as an “unhinged scare campaign” that opponents with “partisan or commercial interests” were waging against the changes.
The treasurer, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and other senior ministers were on Monday dismissing claims that proposed changes to one form of trust – a discretionary testamentary trust – amounted to a “death tax”.
