Category Archives: Australian politics

‘We’re concerned’: US-based prediction markets taking bets on Australian elections and Albanese’s word choices

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Regulators and gambling harm advocates have been closely watching the rise in popularity of Polymarket and Kalshi

US-based “prediction market” websites are taking tens of thousands of dollars in bets on Australian elections and even specific words the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says in parliament, with gambling harm advocates and the wagering lobby raising alarm.

Australian financial and media regulators said they were monitoring the explosion in popularity of platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, which operate financial exchanges where users buy “shares” in contracts on the outcome of events.

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Pocock open to independents forming party to counter Hanson – as it happened

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Climate activists say they have blocked two coal ships from entering Newcastle port

Climate activists say they have stopped two coal ships from entering the Port of Newcastle this morning after kayakers and a small boat entered the channel.

I grew up in the best years economically in Australia’s history, and I can’t sleep at night thinking about my 5 great-grandkids trying to live on a dead planet if we keep mining coal. I want to see more people my age standing up for what’s right.

There’s plenty of conversations going on all the time.

I think there’s so many people in politics for the right reasons and, when you’re in there, you want to say, well, how do we actually ensure that people can elect people that are going to come here and really deal with the root causes of the problems that we’re facing, because we haven’t seen that.

How do you be part of changing our country for the better? For me at the moment, that is serving people in the ACT, engaging on each issue, bringing solutions, using whatever power I have in the Senate to actually work on behalf of the people that have sent me there. As to what that looks like in the future, who knows?

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Albanese joins coalition of nations calling for an end to Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank

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Australia joins the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand in condemning illegal settlements

The Israeli government is undermining stability in the West Bank as settler violence reaches unprecedented levels, a coalition of western countries says, as its leaders call for an end to construction of Israeli settlements it says breach international law.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, Anthony Albanese and the leaders of the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand said:

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Anthony Albanese visibly emotional after defending Labor’s capital gains tax and negative gearing changes

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Prime minister launches impassioned argument in favour of much-maligned reforms announced in last week’s federal budget

A visibly emotional Anthony Albanese has launched an impassioned defence of Labor’s proposed changes to negative gearing, the capital gains tax discount and family trusts, saying he will “not allow Australia to become a country where aspiration is only for some”.

The prime minister has faced sustained criticism to the reforms, which include limiting negative gearing to new-builds while grandfathering existing properties, changing how CGT is calculated and imposing a new 30% minimum tax on discretionary trusts.

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One Nation’s rapid national expansion in disarray as ‘significant risks’ force dissolution of new branches

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Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian Australia also show new branches and members will be subject to strict gag orders

One Nation’s rapid expansion of local branches across the country is in disarray, with the party being forced to dissolve and re-establish its new network less than eight months after the ambitious roll out began.

Documents seen by Guardian Australia show the party’s new general manager, Kelvin Morton, issued a directive to the party’s branches in April ordering committee members to properly reconstitute their branches after an internal review uncovered “significant risks”.

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MPs urged to ignore fearmongering and pass Labor’s ‘long overdue’ negative gearing and CGT changes

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Exclusive: Any attempt to use the budget measures as an excuse to raise rent is opportunistic profiteering, housing advocates say

Australia’s peak community and housing groups have urged federal parliament to quickly pass Labor’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, saying the reforms would improve fairness for renters and young homebuyers.

The government may introduce its negative gearing and CGT changes into parliament as soon as the coming sitting fortnight, with hopes of passing the legislation soon after with the support of the Greens.

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‘Indefensible’: alleged child abuse survivor takes on Albanese government over $2.5bn Nauru deal

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Lawyers of Hazara man who was allegedly sexually abused by carer launch bid to prevent imminent deportation to Pacific island

The Albanese government’s $2.5bn deal with Nauru, under which hundreds of non-citizens will be sent to the tiny Pacific island, will face another legal challenge prompted by an alleged child abuse survivor.

Legal representatives for Abdul*, a Hazara man who was re-detained in immigration detention earlier this month, have launched a bid to prevent the 29-year-old’s imminent deportation to Nauru by challenging its compatibility with Australia’s constitution.

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‘Vein of racism’: race discrimination commissioner accuses One Nation and Coalition of scapegoating immigrants

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Exclusive: Australia faces a ‘pronounced political fault line’, Giridharan Sivaraman tells Brisbane seminar on human rights

One Nation and the federal opposition are “dehumanising” and “scapegoating” immigrants while drawing on a “deep vein of racism”, Australia’s federal race discrimination commissioner says.

Giridharan Sivaraman made the comments as part of a panel discussion at a Brisbane seminar on human rights, hosted by the state’s human rights commission.

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Former governor general and Brisbane’s Anglican archbishop Peter Hollingworth dies at 91

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Hollingworth, appointed governor general by John Howard in 2001, resigned over his handling of child sexual abuse in the Anglican church

Former governor general Peter Hollingworth, who resigned over his handling of child sexual abuse in the Anglican church, has died.

Hollingworth, who devoted much of his life to fighting poverty, served as the Anglican archbishop of Brisbane for 11 years from 1990, the first Australian-born person to hold the position.

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Pocock urges CGT changes as Albanese laughs off AI meme campaign

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Independent senator warns budget reform could drive tech investment offshore, as PM thanks startups for ‘very flattering’ images

Anthony Albanese has laughed off an AI-generated meme campaign against capital gains tax changes from startup founders, thanking them for “very flattering” doctored photos of him working in their businesses.

But independent politicians representing some of Australia’s startup hotspots have raised alarm over the proposed increase to capital gains tax, warning the tax changes could see innovative companies and tech firms move overseas to chase higher rewards.

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Tech founders use AI-generated images to poke fun at Anthony Albanese in protest against tax changes

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‘He’s having a great time with his new 47% equity,’ one entrepreneur jokes, warning that some startups may leave Australia behind

Tech entrepreneurs have mocked the government’s capital gains tax changes by posting AI-generated photos of Anthony Albanese as their “new founder” and warning that increased taxes could push people away from working for new businesses or send startups overseas.

Startups and entrepreneurs may yet receive a carve-out in the federal government’s planned changes to the CGT discount, with the prime minister saying he wanted to support innovation and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, revealing that consultation was continuing with the sector.

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Australia news live: Albanese congratulates Delta Goodrem on Eurovision fourth-place finish; Queensland Labor set to win Stafford byelection

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Follow the day’s news live

Jim Chalmers says the opposition’s policy to index tax brackets would cost the budget a quarter of a trillion dollars over ten years, while claiming that the government is returning bracket creep to taxpayers.

It’s a slightly tricky position, as Angus Taylor argues that Labor is “betraying” itself because the high figure is actually how much the government is keeping and spending through bracket creep ever year.

This is a Government that returns bracket creep when it is responsible to do that.

That [policy] would cost tens of billions of dollars in extra debt interest, because he’s got these uncosted, unfunded, tax announcements that he [Taylor] made in his Budget reply, which was all about trying to stave off One Nation.”

What Angus Taylor is proposing to do is to pump the most money into the economy when inflation is already at its highest.

“This betrays the fact that the government plans to raise income tax rates to the tune of $35 billion This says more about their plan than our plan ...

If Labor’s saying that they plan to raise income taxes to the tune of $250 billion in the next 10 years ... [if] that is their tax hike, that’s their planned income tax increases.”

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POV: you’re Jim Chalmers using social media to sell the most ambitious budget of your life

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Politicians still care about traditional media, but winning over people spending more of their lives online is the challenge for modern MPs

He’s up before sunrise, pounding the pavement in a cap and running shorts. He’s still up late into the night, having slipped into a comfortable sweater while he checks figures in a darkened office by lamplight, fuelled by sugar-free Red Bull.

It’s “decision week”, Jim Chalmers declares of the annual federal budget in a video that pinged around political group chats this week. The treasurer was keen to take people behind the scenes on social media.

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Australia news live: Delta Goodrem hits the stage in Eurovision semi; Angus Taylor accused of ‘dog whistle’ budget reply

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Australian pop star performs song Eclipse in second semi-final before Sunday’s final. Follow today’s news live

Advocates for migrants last night accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division”.

Taylor claimed that migrants were coming to Australia and claiming benefits before they were becoming citizens, a situation which he said Australians did not accept.

The Coalition’s dangerous decision to return to its harmful, failed refugee policies of the past shows what a mess they are in. They have no new policy ideas. Temporary protection visas have harmed countless people and kept many families apart for over a decade. So many are still trying to recover.

Taylor’s comments tonight are inflammatory and desperate. The fact that he feels the need to dog-whistle about mass deportations of so-called ‘overstayers’, many of whom are actually trapped in a massively blown-out court and tribunal system created through years of Coalition underfunding, shows they are far more interested in stoking fear than delivering serious policy solutions.

The language in tonight’s address misleads the nation by claiming that migrants are arriving and immediately accessing welfare payments, which is a blatant lie. In reality most of the restrictions he’s talking about already exist and there are lengthy wait periods for welfare payments.

The Coalition knows all this and is deliberately misleading Australians about how the welfare system already operates in order to whip up fear and division.

If I may answer - it will be below 200,000. There’s no doubt about that.

And then the right mix will depend on the circumstances of the time. What is clear, what is clear, is that the number of students in this country has been at record levels.

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NDIS cuts could leave some participants with a funding gap. How will the changes affect you?

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Proposals also grant the health minister power to change disability support rules without state or territory approval. Here’s what you need to know

Funding for some services within the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be slashed – even in cases where participants could be left with a funding gap – as part of a sweeping proposal to drastically curb the scheme’s annual growth.

The proposed changes, revealed on Thursday, will also grant the health minister, Mark Butler, god-like powers to reduce overall funding for support categories, determine pricing guides and caps for services and support, and the ability to change NDIS rules without state and territory approval for the first 12 months.

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Has Labor’s tax reform killed ‘rent-vesting’ for young Australians seeking a foothold in the housing market?

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Changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing will make the strategy of renting in a preferred area while buying a cheaper property elsewhere less attractive, experts say

Rent-vesting – a popular strategy used by young Australians to save for their first home – could be killed off by Labor’s tax changes on investment properties, experts warn.

Renters have used the strategy to keep living in their preferred area while buying a cheaper property elsewhere, hoping it will rise in price so they can sell and put the profits towards their first home.

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A Zara dress, the Jim Reaper and a communist state: how Australia’s media interpreted the budget

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The Murdoch papers sharpened their sickles and hammered Jim Chalmers’ budget for ‘the most radical redistribution of wealth since the Whitlam era’

The voters of New South Wales woke up in a communist state on Wednesday – at least according to the Daily Telegraph, which claimed that “Lying Jim” Chalmers was cackling like the devil as he gouged them with big taxes in the federal budget.

To underline this apparent sharp turn to the left, the Tele added a red hammer and sickle and used a red background.

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Aukus costs balloon with more cash and staff for submarine agency amid ongoing search for nuclear waste dump

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Labor has announced funding for Australian Submarine Agency will jump to $512m in next financial year amid concerns the sovereign submarine fleet may never arrive

The budget for Australia’s contentious Aukus deal has ballooned by more than $430m over four years, with the agency charged with securing the country’s nuclear-powered submarines requiring a massive injection of funding and staffing.

The Australian Submarine Agency’s resourcing for next financial year will jump by a third – from $385m to $512m.

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Huge cuts to national disability insurance scheme aim to save more than $36bn in budget’s largest single measure

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NDIS changes foreshadowed by health minister Mark Butler will drastically reduce access to the scheme, with nearly 700 staff positions to go at NDIA

The government expects to recoup $36.2bn by curbing the national disability insurance scheme’s growth over the next four years as it looks to return to the NDIS’s “original purpose” of supporting people with “significant and permanent disability”.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the budget’s savings package amounted to genuine economic reform, beyond the “usual nips and tucks”.

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Nationals MP Colin Boyce says he’s considering move to One Nation after ‘wake-up call’ in Farrer byelection

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Exclusive: Queensland MP says ‘I think everybody should be thinking about their political future’ after devastating result for Coalition

Nationals MP Colin Boyce is considering shifting to One Nation after the Farrer byelection saw the Coalition’s vote tank to about 20% of the primary vote.

Speaking to the Guardian in Albury after One Nation recorded its historic victory in the House of Representatives, the MP for the central Queensland seat of Flynn said the result was a “wake-up call”.

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