Coalition plan to give first home buyers access to super would benefit ‘those who already own housing’

Saul Eslake report finds plan would cause Australian property prices to rise at a faster rate

The Coalition’s plan to allow first home buyers access to their superannuation would heavily favour older and wealthier people, with the median couple aged 25 to 34 likely to be able to withdraw only $18,000.

That is the conclusion of Saul Eslake, the principal of Corinna Economic Advisory, in a report commissioned by the Super Members Council which points to “six decades of evidence” that policies to boost housing demand “result in more expensive housing to the benefit of those who already own housing”, rather than boosting ownership.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Moira Deeming agrees her trans and gender-diverse views are ‘controversial’ as cross-examination begins

Expelled Liberal MP testifies in high-stakes defamation case against Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto

Ousted Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming agreed her views on transgender and gender-diverse people were “controversial” within the party, as she began giving evidence in a high-stakes defamation battle.

Deeming is suing the state Liberal leader, John Pesutto, for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the March 2023 “Let Women Speak” rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. She was expelled from the party less than two months later after initially being suspended.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Mixed bag for Labor and the rise of the Libertarians: the key surprises in the NSW local elections

ALP faces a variety of results in what premier Chris Minns calls a ‘massive wake-up call for the major parties’, and Liverpool mayor returns amid corruption inquiry

The counting of votes has resumed to determine the makeup of New South Wales’s 128 councils for the next four years.

The main story of the local government elections was the Liberal party’s disastrous failure to lodge the paperwork to nominate more than a third of its candidates.

Continue reading...

Politics live: Senate question time spars over housing and the economy; plan for Australia to build rocket motors for ‘world’s most advanced missiles’

Follow today’s headlines live

Albanese says it’s a ‘good thing’ Trump is safe after apparent assassination attempt

Anthony Albanese has responded to news about an apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Everyone wants the democratic process to be peaceful and to be orderly. This incident in the United States is of concern, again. It is good that President Trump has said that he is safe and that the incident, the details of which are still coming out, so it’s not quite clear all of those details but what is clear is that President Trump is safe. That is a good thing.

The first round of Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund and National Housing Accord programs will deliver 4,220 social and 9,522 affordable homes, including 1,267 homes for women and children escaping domestic violence and older women at risk of homelessness.

In just the first round of these programs, the Albanese Government is directly supporting more social and affordable housing than the Liberals and Nationals did in their entire nine years in office.

Housing Australia has recommended contract negotiations for 185 projects, with construction on almost 40 per cent of the 13,742 dwellings forecast to get underway this financial year.

Round one of the programs’ funding will unlock $9.2 billion of investment in social and affordable housing across Commonwealth, State and Territory government, and the private and community housing sectors.

Continue reading...

News live: Australia’s ability to fight off deadly bird flu to be put to test in series of exercises

Julie Collins describes avian flu situation as ‘dynamic’ as she highlights concerns about the impact to wildlife and agriculture

Census to include questions on gender and sexuality

Speers finishes up by asking Chalmers about the ongoing census questions palaver.

We have listened to the community. We worked very closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. LGBTIQ+ Australians matter. They have been heard and they will count in the 2026 census.

Really the message that we want to ensure that Australians hear from us today is that we understand the feedback that we got, we listened to that, we took it very seriously, we listened very genuinely.

We said we would find the best way to do this and I believe that we have and we will and the ABS will continue to refine the actual wording of the questions now that this additional topic has been add.

We want to make sure that we are maximising this really important economic relationship with our key trading partner. It’s a relationship which is full of complexity, but also full of opportunity and I want to help the government maximise that opportunity for the Australian people, workers, businesses, employers, investors.

Continue reading...

NSW drug summit to be co-chaired by former state Liberal leader who denounced pill testing

Exclusive: Health minister says John Brogden and former deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt ‘respected across the aisle’

A former New South Wales Liberal leader who denounced pill testing as a drug reform option has been picked by the Labor government to co-chair its highly anticipated drug summit.

John Brogden AM will lead the summit, which kicks off in regional NSW in November, alongside the former deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Linda Reynolds v Brittany Higgins defamation trial to hear final arguments

The five-week trial is scheduled to conclude after Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett delivers his last remarks

Western Australia’s supreme court is on Wednesday due to hear the last arguments in the defamation trial brought by the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds against Brittany Higgins, before the judge begins his deliberations.

The five-week trial, which began at the start of August, is scheduled to conclude after Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, delivers his final remarks.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Rob Stokes declines role on committee to run NSW Liberals after being named by federal executive

Former NSW minister Stokes had not been told about committee, its composition or terms of reference ahead of the public announcement, source says

The federal Liberal executive did not tell former New South Wales planning minister Rob Stokes that he would be named as part of a three-person committee it wanted to run the state division for almost a year.

The senior party figure refused the position after the federal team demanded the state executive appoint a temporary committee of three to run the troubled division which failed to nominate candidates for some NSW councils.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Sky News’ Peta Credlin helped draft Brittany Higgins’ 2021 media statement, court told

Lawyer for Linda Reynolds tells defamation trial Credlin was told ‘completely rework wherever you see fit’

The Sky News columnist and former chief of staff to Tony Abbott Peta Credlin helped draft Brittany Higgins’ statement given to media in 2021, after her rape allegations were made public, a court has been told.

In closing arguments to Western Australia’s supreme court, where Linda Reynolds is suing Higgins for defamation, Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett on Tuesday said Higgins had a “visceral hatred” towards her former employer and exaggerated how long she had to wait for counselling support following her rape allegations to “suit” her narrative.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW Liberal Andrew Bragg claims some party colleagues may be ‘playing footsies with nimbys’

Moderate senator says the idea of new developments in established suburbs does not sit well with some Liberals

New South Wales Liberal frontbench senator Andrew Bragg has accused some of his party colleagues of “playing footsies with nimbys” for blocking real estate developments in Sydney’s suburbs that he says would help ease the housing crisis.”

The shadow assistant minister for home ownership told Guardian Australia that some Liberals were encouraging a not-in-my-back yard attitude to expanding housing stock in some metropolitan areas and obstructing measures that could help increase supply.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW Liberal council election debacle descends into accusations of factional warfare

Broadcaster Ray Hadley challenges ‘cowardly’ conservatives to ‘have a bit of courage for the sake of NSW politics’

The New South Wales Liberals’ failure to nominate in some local council elections has spilled over into accusations of factional warfare, with moderates warning a review should not be used as a pretext to dump the president, Don Harwin, or usher in federal intervention.

Brian Loughnane, the former federal Liberal director and reviewer of the 2022 election defeat, has been called in to examine the nomination failure, for which state director Richard Shields was sacked.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Enough is enough’: teal MPs call out ‘misogyny’ of Coalition MPs in question time

After an often-heated parliamentary sitting, new figures show spike in ejections of opposition members as Kylea Tink labels behaviour ‘unacceptable’

Teal MPs have called time on poor question time behaviour, claiming performances by the opposition during recent sitting weeks have been “condescending”, “aggressive” and “often misogynistic”.

Fresh figures also reveal MPs have been booted out of the nationally broadcast event for “disorderly conduct” almost 200 times since May 2022, with more than six Coalition politicians entering double digits.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Bridget Archer and Fatima Payman sign letter pushing for total ban on gambling ads as independent MPs urge free vote

More than 20 parliamentarians – including Jacqui Lambie and Lidia Thorpe – sign letter calling for blanket ban

Some 21 parliamentarians including Liberal MP Bridget Archer and former Labor senator Fatima Payman have joined a push for the government to ban all gambling ads, as independent MPs push for a free vote on a total ban.

The first letter is signed by a group of Greens, the teal MPs and other lower house independents, senators Jacqui Lambie, David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe. It calls for a “blanket ban on advertisements for online gambling”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Former NSW Coalition government was warned recycled soil products posed ‘unacceptable risks’

Exclusive: Environment watchdog advised in 2021 the material ‘should not be used broadly’, before backing away from proposals to tighten regulations

The New South Wales environment watchdog warned the former Coalition state government that a widely used recycled landscaping product posed “potential unacceptable risks to the environment and the community”.

Guardian Australia revealed in January that the Environment Protection Authority had known for more than a decade that producers of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste – known as recovered fines – were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW Liberals accuse electoral commission of breaking rules after council nomination debacle

Party threatens legal action against NSW electoral commission after requests for deadline extension rejected

The New South Wales Liberal party has accused the state’s electoral commission of breaching regulations and says it will be left with “no other option” than to take legal action if it isn’t given more time to nominate all its council candidates.

But the acting electoral commissioner, Matthew Phillips, on Sunday rejected the party’s second request for an extension. He said he did not consider it a “realistic possibility” that Liberal HQ could have been unaware of the nomination deadline, and added it would “not be appropriate” to change the election process.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW Liberal party demands extension after missing council elections deadline in ‘monumental stuff-up’

State’s electoral commission receives request from NSW Liberal president after party failed to lodge nominations for more than 130 council candidates

The New South Wales Liberal party has demanded a week-long extension to lodge nominations for more than 130 council candidates after the party missed the deadline in a “monumental stuff-up”.

The NSW Liberal party president, Don Harwin, sent a letter to the NSW electoral commission overnight after the party’s head office missed the Wednesday noon deadline to lodge the necessary paperwork to nominate all of its candidates for the local government elections on 14 September.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW councillor Nathan Tilbury all smiles after leaving Liberal party days before nomination fiasco

Independent now has ‘surprise’ backing of Liberal elder statesman and departing Hornsby mayor Philip Ruddock

While many of his former colleagues were furious this week, local councillor Nathan Tilbury has been feeling pretty happy as a former Liberal.

Two days before the party failed to nominate more than 130 candidates for next month’s New South Wales local government elections, Tilbury handed in his resignation.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Palaszczuk appointed to Australia Post board; Shorten says Dutton ‘implying all Gazans are terrorists’

Palaszczuk, who retired from politics in December after almost nine years as QLD premier, will serve a three-year term as a non-executive director. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘We have to have a constant reminder’

The committee also called for a culturally appropriate and nationally significant recognition and remembrance of murdered and disappeared First Nations women and children. Dorinda Cox said this would be “significant” if the government accepted the recommendation:

It would … have some permanent features to remind us the role that history has played for missing and murdered or disappeared women and children and First Nations women and children in this country, because there’s a story there that needs to be told, and we have to have a constant reminder.

Like we do … with the Australian war memorial of the safety that we have as a country, but also that this part of our history – this is now ingrained in and sketched into. And if we want to continue to work on this and continue to maintain safety for women and children and the most vulnerable, which is First Nations – as we know, we’re in an emergency for all women, but First Nations women and children are at the front of that – we have to have some permanent features, otherwise we become invisible.

What we hear too often is that this is a state and territory problem. States are responsible for their police forces, in particular … We have to centre our approaches and our outcomes in [addressing these issues] and we have to look at the culture of the organisations, such as police.

There’s lots of reporting on the media in relation to the attitudes of police across Australia, and that has to get better, but we have to have a measure against that – we can’t just put in the attorney general [to] have a chat to the police ministers, and nothing changes … Because if we don’t look at this in a way of wanting change, nothing ever changes.

Continue reading...

‘Mind-boggling’ nomination failure sparks sacking of NSW Liberal party state director Richard Shields

Administrative bungle leaves party without a senior leader, four weeks out from statewide elections

The New South Wales Liberals director Richard Shields has been sacked after a “mind-boggling” failure to nominate more than 130 candidates for local government elections.

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting late on Thursday night, the party’s state president, Don Harwin, said its executive had unanimously decided to terminate Shields’ employment over the fiasco.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Shocked and gutted’: NSW Liberal councillors mull legal action against own party over administrative disaster

Fallout continues over Liberal party’s failure to lodge paperwork to nominate 136 candidates in upcoming council local government elections

Disappointed New South Wales Liberal councillors are not ruling out taking legal action against the party, and others are demanding their money back after an administrative disaster that will prevent them from running in upcoming elections.

Councillors said they were “shocked” to learn through the media that the Liberal party had missed the noon Wednesday deadline to lodge the necessary paperwork to nominate 136 candidates for the 14 September local government elections.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...