Australia news LIVE: Men swing to support Dutton as Labor loses ground; Treasurer promises budget spending as economy slows

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has admitted the economy has slowed more than he expected, while declaring next week’s budget would not adopt a “scorched-earth austerity” approach to bring down inflation.

As the Reserve Bank board prepares to announce whether it will hit home buyers with another interest rate rise on Tuesday, Chalmers pushed back at accusations he was making life more difficult for the bank by running budget deficits over coming years.

Despite a $25 billion increase in expected tax revenues over the next four years, Chalmers is expected to announce cumulative budget deficits larger than the $73.4 billion forecast in the mid-year update in December.

The larger deficits will not materially affect the government’s debt level, which is on track to reach $904 billion this financial year, $152 billion lower than had been forecast just ahead of the 2022 election.

Here’s the latest on next week’s budget.

Male voters have turned against Labor and increased their support for the Coalition in a big political shift over the past six months, deepening the dangers for the government when it is also losing ground in battleground states.

An exclusive survey shows men have cut their support for Labor from 37 per cent in the final months of last year to 31 per cent in the first months of this year.

Women’s backing for the government fell from 36 per cent to 33 per cent over the same period, returning their Labor primary vote to the level seen at the federal election two years ago.

The Resolve Political Monitor, conducted for this masthead by Resolve Strategic, also reveals a move against Labor in the five biggest states, including a decline in its Queensland primary vote from 33 to 29 per cent since the final quarter of last year.

However, the government has gained ground in marginal seats over the past two years. Resolve director Jim Reed said the findings suggested a narrow Labor victory or a hung parliament if the results were reflected at an election.

Read more about the polling here.

After Hamas announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal, Israel said its leaders approved a military operation in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and began striking targets in the area.

Still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would send negotiators to continue talks on the deal.

The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive – but only barely – for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.

Hanging over the wrangling was the threat of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move that the United States strongly opposes and that aid groups warn will be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there.

Hamas’s abrupt acceptance of the ceasefire deal came hours after Israel ordered an evacuation of Palestinians from eastern neighborhoods of Rafah, signaling an invasion was imminent.

Netanyahu’s office said that the proposal Hamas accepted was “far from Israel’s essential demands,” but that it would nonetheless send negotiators to continue talks on a deal.

Here’s more from Matthew Knott and Reuters on the issue.

Good morning, and thanks for your company.

It’s Tuesday, May 7. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be steering our live coverage for the first half of the day.

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