Budget 2024 live updates: reaction and fallout from the Australia federal budget – latest news

Posted on by

Treasurer grilled on inflation and migration after National Press Club address. Follow today’s news and 2024 federal budget reaction live

Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.

It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.

I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.

Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.

Continue reading...

Hospital surgical teams with more women improve patient recovery, study finds

Posted on by

Researchers say that a critical mass of female anaesthesiologists and surgeons in operative teams can reduce postoperative complications

Hospital surgical teams that include more female doctors improve patient outcomes, lower the risk of serious complications and could in turn reduce healthcare costs, according to the world’s largest study of its kind.

Studies show diversity is important in business, finance, tech, education and the law not only for equity but for output. However, evidence supporting the value of sex diversity in healthcare teams has been limited.

Continue reading...

Brexit border IT outages delay import of perishable items to UK by up to 20 hours

Posted on by

Lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers held up by new checks, with retailers rejecting some orders

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.

Continue reading...

Charlise Mutten murder trial hears weeping mother’s police call to report schoolgirl missing

Posted on by

Kallista Mutten called triple zero to report daughter missing four days before nine-year-old’s body was found, NSW supreme court hears

Charlise Mutten’s crying mother said she had not seen her daughter for two days when she called police to report her missing several days before the young girl’s body was found.

Justin Laurens Stein, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the schoolgirl on or around 12 January 2022, at Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

Continue reading...

ANU warns of potential breaches if pro-Palestinian encampments aren’t dismantled

Posted on by

Comes after Deakin University similarly requested that student protesters remove camps

The Australian National University has become the second to request pro-Palestine students disband their on-campus encampments, as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) backed the protesters.

On Wednesday morning, a small group of students attended a meeting with management at the ANU in Canberra, where they said they were advised to disband their camps by Friday or risk breaching the university’s code of conduct.

Continue reading...

Singapore to get guitar-playing new PM in first transfer of power for 20 years

Posted on by

Lee Hsien Loong will stand down and hand power to his deputy Lawrence Wong at a challenging time for the city state

Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, will stand down on Wednesday and hand power to his deputy Lawrence Wong, the first change of power in the city state in two decades.

Wong, 51, a US-trained economist credited with managing the country’s response to the pandemic, will be the fourth prime minister to lead Singapore, and is the first leader to have been born after the country’s independence in 1965. He is also only the second leader who is not a member of the founding Lee family. He will be inaugurated in a ceremony on Wednesday night.

Continue reading...

New Caledonia protests: Macron urges calm as 130 arrested amid anger over voting change

Posted on by

Unrest flares as lawmakers in France support increasing the number of French nationals eligible to cast ballots in the territory’s elections

More than 130 people have been arrested in New Caledonia, the government said, after violent protests rocked the French Pacific archipelago and Paris adopted the constitutional changes that angered pro-independence forces.

Protests against the changes turned violent on Monday night, with shots fired at security forces, vehicles torched and shops looted in the worst unrest the French overseas territory has seen since the 1980s.

Continue reading...

William Crowther: controversial statue toppled in Hobart one night before removal decision due

Posted on by

Controversial monument of a Tasmanian premier who beheaded the body of an Indigenous man damaged and graffitied

A controversial statue of William Crowther has been toppled in Franklin Square, Hobart, after its legs were cut through the night before a decision on its removal.

It was dumped face-down on the ground beside its podium, which was graffitied in red with the word “decolonize” and “what goes around”.

Continue reading...

Ex-Capitol officer Harry Dunn loses congressional primary in Maryland

Posted on by

First-time candidate, who lost after pro-Israel group spent millions supporting another Democrat, defeated by senator Sarah Elfreth

Former US Capitol police officer Harry Dunn has lost his congressional primary election in Maryland, after a pro-Israel group spent millions of dollars supporting another Democrat in the crowded race.

Dunn, a first-time candidate who gained national attention after publishing a book about his experiences protecting lawmakers during the January 6 insurrection, lost to state senator Sarah Elfreth in Maryland’s third congressional district.

Continue reading...

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks to face ex-governor Larry Hogan in Maryland Senate race

Posted on by

Alsobrooks beats Dave Trone and Hogan wins Republican primary, setting up November clash that could determine control of Senate

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks will face off against former Republican governor Larry Hogan in the Maryland Senate race this November, setting up an unexpectedly competitive election in the reliably Democratic state. Republicans have a rare opportunity to flip a Senate seat in Maryland, and the outcome of that race could determine control of the upper chamber in November.

Alsobrooks and Hogan won their parties’ Senate primaries on Tuesday, as Maryland voters cast ballots in the presidential race as well as congressional elections. Joe Biden and Donald Trump easily won the state’s primaries after already securing enough delegates to capture their parties’ nominations.

Continue reading...

Future Made in Australia: what’s in the $23bn package meant to create a ‘renewable energy superpower’

Posted on by

Jim Chalmers’ budget didn’t answer all the questions about what projects will be funded but there is a lot more clarity now

The federal government has been talking up its Future Made in Australia (FMIA) policy in recent months and more detail was revealed in Tuesday night’s budget.

Here’s what we know so far.

Continue reading...

California: Newsom advances $3.3bn for mental health centers and homeless housing

Posted on by

Funds from plan, designed to build treatment centers and clinics, made available early as state grapples with homelessness crisis

California governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that $3.3bn would be made available from the state’s new mental health bond ahead of schedule to build more behavioral health treatment centers and homeless housing as the state grapples with a growing homelessness crisis.

It’s the first pot of money from a ballot measure designed to help cities, counties, tribes and developers build or renovate treatment centers and clinics, among other things. Voters passed it by a razor-thin margin in March after Newsom threw all of his political weight behind it, touting it as linchpin of the state’s efforts to reduce homelessness.

Continue reading...

Georgia protests: Thousands close major intersection in Tbilisi – as it happened

Posted on by

Georgia PM GeorIrakli Kobakhidze pushes back against sanctions threat; Heroes Square blocked by demonstrators after controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill passes. This blog is now closed.

Petre Tsiskarishvili, a secretary-general of the main opposition United National Movement and a former Georgian MP, said the election in October election is when the Georgian public should “basically go on a referendum” and make a final decision which way we want to go, the BBC reported.

“What is the aspiration of the Georgian people? Is it the European integration or these Russia style laws and this government that initiates and tables the legislation that copies the Russian style authoritarianism.”

Continue reading...

US advances $1bn Israel weapons package amid Rafah tensions

Posted on by

Package in congressional review process after Biden delayed shipment of bombs over fears they would be used to attack Rafah

The US state department has moved a $1bn package of weapons aid for Israel into the congressional review process, two US officials said on Tuesday.

The latest weapons package includes tank rounds, mortars and armored tactical vehicles, one of the officials told Reuters.

Continue reading...

How it began v how it’s going: 2024 budget shows limits of financial forecasting

Posted on by

Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are threats to the country’s outlook lurking

Financial forecasting is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a period marked by persistent inflation against a backdrop of global economic unease.

But forecasts still provide a framework for governments to build their policy and spending plans around. Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are more than a few threats to the country’s outlook lurking.

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

Continue reading...