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Growing inequality erodes social cohesion – Leigh

In his speech, Andrew Leigh will say growing inequality is an issue because it erodes social cohesion.

When wealth is concentrated among a few, society becomes fragmented. Our sense of collective responsibility diminishes, and the fabric that binds us as Australians weakens.

This approach contrasts with our predecessors, whose tax policies disproportionately benefited the highest earners, widening the gap between rich and poor. By maintaining a fair and responsible tax structure, we can fund essential public services while ensuring that the most fortunate Australians contribute their fair share.

Yet since the 1980s, Australia has seen what economists describe as a ‘Great Divergence’, reversing the gains of earlier decades.

Today, the top 1% of income earners receive nearly 10% of national income, nearly doubling their share from 40 years ago. Wealth inequality is even more extreme, with the richest 10% owning more than 60 times the wealth of the bottom 10%.

‘Palestinian civilians cannot pay the price of defeating Hamas. It has now been two weeks since humanitarian aid last entered Gaza’ says foreign minister. Follow today’s news live

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Labour-hire flight attendants to get pay boost

More than 750 domestic flight attendants funnelled to Qantas by labour-hire firms will get a hefty pay boost, AAP reports, in what is being hailed as a victory for “same job, same pay” laws.

Some of these crew will no longer need three jobs to make ends meet and put a roof over the heads of their families.

These are workers who wear the same uniform, do the same work, work the same rosters but have been paid significantly less than their colleagues. They do the same job and they deserve the same pay.

A crime scene has been established and an arson chemist will attend the scene [this] morning. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire remains ongoing.

The prime minister has ruled out imposing reciprocal tariffs on the US. Follow today’s news live

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Trump tariff decision bad for Australia-US ties – Butler

Mark Butler said the US tariff decision was “bad for our relationship” when asked whether it had a damaging effect on international relations on ABC News Breakfast a short while ago.

This is a disappointing decision. It’s a bad economic decision. It’s bad for our relationship. It’s bad for the US, ultimately, because we think that the exports we send to them - which are significantly less than the exports they send to us - are good for the US economy. They’re good for US industry. They’re particularly good for defence, which is an important area of cooperation.

We think this is a bad decision that’s disappointing, and we’ll continue to press the case for it.

We’ve only been going at this for almost seven weeks that President Trump has been back in office. We intend to continue to press the case at the highest level – particularly ambassador Rudd has been relentless in this, meeting with officials almost constantly to press the American case. We’ve had a lot of senior ministerial engagement.

Obviously the prime minister has spoken directly with the president. We’ll continue to do that. It’s not only in Australia’s interest – which for us, is the most important thing – we’re confident, we’re very sure it’s in both of our interests’ interest to continue the open trade that has characterised particularly the last 20 years under the US FTA.

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Good morning blog readers – this is Rafqa Touma, and I’ll be taking you through the day’s live news updates. Thank you to Martin Farrer for getting us rolling this morning.

More than 125,000 properties are in the dark as crews work to restore power across QLD and NSW in Alfred’s aftermath.