From 1h ago
Good morning
Welcome to the 2024 budget day, where Australia’s 41st treasurer (41.5, if you count Scott Morrison’s second go around), Jim Chalmers, will hand down his third budget.
That’s a lot of numbers for an intro, so here is what you need to know; there will be a projected $9.3bn surplus, Treasury anticipates a return to the RBA’s inflation band (3%) by the end of the year and there is no increase to the base rate of jobseeker.
Most of everything else will be revealed at 7.30 when the treasurer takes to the floor of the parliament.
The budget lock-up starts from 1pm, so you can expect most of social media to go quiet, but not your dedicated politics blog – Politics Live will continue throughout the day and into the night, bringing you all your political news.
The parliament will sit as usual and top of the agenda will be Labor’s deportation bill, which was held up by the coalition at the last sitting of the parliament, when the opposition joined with the Greens to send the bill to a committee.
That report is back and the debate will continue in the Senate, with both sides pointing the finger at the other for the issue being created in the first place. Refugee advocates continue to say the bill’s powers are too broad and risk sending people back to countries they have no connection with, or where their lives will be in danger.
But if the government gets the coalition’s support, which is the most likely outcome, then the Greens and the crossbench’s attempts to improve the legislation will be a moot point.
We’ll bring you all those updates as they come, as well as everything else happening in the political sphere.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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Welcome to the 2024 budget day, where Australia’s 41st treasurer (41.5, if you count Scott Morrison’s second go around), Jim Chalmers, will hand down his third budget.
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That’s a lot of numbers for an intro, so here is what you need to know; there will be a projected $9.3bn surplus, Treasury anticipates a return to the RBA’s inflation band (3%) by the end of the year and there is no increase to the base rate of jobseeker.
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Most of everything else will be revealed at 7.30 when the treasurer takes to the floor of the parliament.
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The budget lock-up starts from 1pm, so you can expect most of social media to go quiet, but not your dedicated politics blog – Politics Live will continue throughout the day and into the night, bringing you all your political news.
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The parliament will sit as usual and top of the agenda will be Labor’s deportation bill, which was held up by the coalition at the last sitting of the parliament, when the opposition joined with the Greens to send the bill to a committee.
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That report is back and the debate will continue in the Senate, with both sides pointing the finger at the other for the issue being created in the first place. Refugee advocates continue to say the bill’s powers are too broad and risk sending people back to countries they have no connection with, or where their lives will be in danger.
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But if the government gets the coalition’s support, which is the most likely outcome, then the Greens and the crossbench’s attempts to improve the legislation will be a moot point.
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We’ll bring you all those updates as they come, as well as everything else happening in the political sphere.
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Ready?
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Let’s get into it.
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The man who leaked classified military documents that revealed allegations Australian soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan will find out his punishment after pleading guilty, Australian Associated Press reports.
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David McBride pleaded guilty to stealing classified material and leaking it to journalists.
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McBride","caption":"Former army lawyer David McBride.","credit":"Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP"}},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"
The prosecution has pushed for the former military lawyer to spend a minimum of two-years behind bars to reflect the severity of his crime but his lawyers argued for leniency, saying what he did was in the public interest.
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Justice David Mossop will hand down his decision in the ACT supreme court today.
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The justice also has the option to impose a suspended prison sentence or an order to serve his time in the community.
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In sentencing hearings, McBride’s barrister Stephen Odgers SC argued his “impaired emotional wellbeing” due to PTSD and substance abuse issues contributed to his decision to disclose the documents.
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McBride felt he had a public duty to do so, he contended.
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But prosecutor Trish McDonald countered this, saying McBride had maintained he did the right thing after getting his mental health under control and recovering from his abuse issues.
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McBride not only breached defence protocol but his duty as a lawyer to not disclose confidential information, she argued.
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Further, he was motivated by “personal vindication” to show he knew more than others, the prosecutor told the court.
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Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of another budget day. I’m Martin Farrer and of course the big event is later on today when the treasurer hands down his budget.
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But in the meantime there will be plenty of news to cover, from Canberra and around the country. I’ll be bringing you some of the best overnight news lines before Amy Remeikis takes the helm.
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Anthony Albanese is calling today’s budget one for “every Australian” and it projects the first back-to-back surplus since the global financial crisis. Jim Chalmers hands down the federal budget in Parliament tonight. The $9.3bn surplus for 2023-24 follows last year’s $22bn surplus. Let budget day begin.
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On the financial markets, BHP has failed for a second time to buy Anglo American after the London-listed mining rival rejected an improved offer of A$65bn. BHP is hoping that swallowing up Anglo – which has significant copper assets – will strengthen its position in the commodities sector. The price of copper has surged recently, because it is a crucial raw material as the global economy attempts to transition to low-carbon energy.
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Bosses at Woolworths will be rushing to try to have shelves restocked this morning after a “terrible” IT problem left stores empty of fruit and vegetables in parts of Queensland. Customers went on social media to comment on the bare shelves which were reminiscent of the early days of the Covid pandemic. Paul Harker, the chief commercial officer, said the problem came down to a “warehouse management system upgrade” that had gone wrong. “We’ve had a terrible IT problem,” Harker said, adding it had caused “carnage”.
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Key events
Filters BETA
Curtin MP Kate Chaney has spoken to the ABC about what her constituents wanted out of the budget:
I did a survey in the last week asking people about how cost-of-living pressures are affecting them and what they would like to see and the two things that came out on top were tax reform so it’s easier to buy a home than an investment property, and also…grocery relief and tax reform were some of the things people wanted to see.
Oh, the other thing was more social and affordable housing
Anthony Albanese has popped up on budget day to speak to Brisbane radio B105.
The topics:
‘Getting laid for the nation’ also referred to as “shag our way out of it” (Jim Chalmers telling people to have more babies)
Jim Chalmers being a proud Queenslander
The Broncos
The Rabbitohs
The budget for Albanese’s wedding (it won’t be as large as Kyle Sandilands) but it won’t have a cash bar.
The ring he designed for his partner, Jodie Haydon.
The NRL grand final ring
PNG maybe joining the NRL which the host explains as “the rumour is that it could actually help keep China away” which is a very succinct way of describing sports diplomacy.
Kokoda
Governments ‘need to respond to challenges as they arise’, McKim says
Nick McKim said he believed Australians were ready to have serious conversations about changing how things are done:
I think Australians absolutely understand that circumstances change. So since the last election, we’ve seen a record series of interest rate rises, we’ve seen rents going through the roof, we’ve seen cost-of-living pressures.
Those things happened since the last election.
People understand that governments need to respond to the challenges as they arise. And honestly, I think a government that actually took significant action to assist with cost-of-living pressures, stopping the supermarkets’ price gouging, putting dental and mental health in the Medicare, doing something serious on wiping student debt – I think those (policies) will be popular and I think they would be genuine assistance to people who need it most.
Nick McKim said he agrees with EY chief economist, Cherelle Murphy, who says that you can look after people without impacting inflation by taking the money you are spending on people who don’t need it, and redirecting it to people who do. (Therefore it is the same pool of money, but targeted differently.)
McKim:
For example, you could end the massive tax breaks for property investors who own multiple investment properties then put in place a rent freeze and a rent cap, for example.
You could tax billionaires and CEOs on the basis of their wealth and you could use that revenue to raise income support, which would lift a large number of Australians out of the grinding poverty that they experience every day.
I mean, budgets are about political choices. Labor can absolutely do those things. It’s just choosing not to.
Surplus shows Labor ‘prioritising political benefit’ over investment, Greens senator says
Does the Greens economics spokesperson, Nick McKim, welcome the surplus?
He tells ABC radio: no, no he does not. But for different reasons than Angus Taylor, obviously.
No, certainly not. I mean, what the surplus shows is that they’re prioritising their own political benefit over investing in the kind of programs that would provide genuine help to people who are really doing it tough at the moment.
So what you’re going to see in the budget tonight is that having talked up an absolute storm on things like climate change and on things like cost of living, Labor is simply not prepared to take the action necessary to respond to those challenges that the urgency and the scale that is required.
Budget not doing enough to target inflation, shadow treasurer says
Angus Taylor is still holding on to the inflation dragon (inflation is given the persona of a dragon because it needs to be “tamed” and can lay dormant for many years, before roaring back, setting the economy on fire, before it can once again be sent back to its cave. I didn’t invent the analogy, just passing on the info) as proof Labor can’t manage the economy.
Inflation is an issue across the world. This isn’t happening in isolation.
Taylor says that people seeing the budget will want to see relief from cost-of-living pressures (at the same time, though, the Coalition does not support direct payments, as they say it would be inflationary):
I think what Australians want to see in this budget and from this government is the taming of the homegrown inflation that’s been raging so much across this country. That’s the overwhelming issue we see as we get out and about.
Sabra Lane says: “it’s actually come down”. (It peaked at 7.8% in December 2022)
Taylor:
Well, it’s still well above target.
(the target band is 2-3% and inflation is currently 3.6%)
They promised that they were going to beat it. There’s no sign of that yet. It’s nowhere near the target range.
(it is 0.6% above the target range)
And of course the Reserve Bank just in the last week or so has set off the warning bells, telling us that this is a very serious problem right now. It is not beaten.
And yet the treasurer is saying everybody’s overreacting – well, Australians aren’t overreacting to the pressures they’re feeling right now.
Budget surplus a result of Coalition government policies, shadow treasurer says
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor is not giving the Labor government any credit for its second surplus.
Taylor told ABC radio that it was the work his government did that set this up for Labor:
The key to achieving ongoing buy balance is to make sure that your economy is growing faster than your spending. That’s what we did between 2013 and 2019.
The government is benefiting from from that being done during that time period.
And that ensures that you can get back to structural balance.
So no credit?
Well, the reporting we’re seeing today is that it’s a sea of red. And we’ll see – we haven’t seen the final numbers.
But that’s not what we need if you want to tame inflation.
You’ve got to get the budget back into balance. You’ve got to make sure that there’s restraint in the sense of ensuring that the economy is growing faster than spending.
So far, we haven’t seen that from Labor budgets.
Budget ‘puts people front and centre’, Chalmers says
Jim Chalmers said he wasn’t focused on the politics, but the economics:
My job is to get the economics right and I’m confident that we have in this budget, and our job as a government is to put the people front and centre and that’s precisely what we’ve done as we’ve put this budget together.
I think if you make the right decisions for the right reasons – you concentrate on the economic cycle, not the political cycle – the politics and the pundits will take care of themselves.
Chalmers flags budget investment in housing, Medicare and skills sector
Jim Chalmers has already released the information that this budget will have a surplus of $9.3bn. That’s the second surplus he has handed down (back to back) but it has been criticised by people who question why the government is refusing to raise fixed incomes, while forgoing billions in tax cuts, spending billions on Aukus, and then holding money back (a budget surplus is money governments are not spending on services).
Chalmers told ABC radio:
There’s always a lot of opinions and therefore is a lot of people who’d like you to spend more or less on a particular policy. I think that just comes with the job. What people can expect to see tonight, in addition to that primary focus on cost of living, and the focus on investing in the future and fighting inflation, is there’ll be important investments in more homes for Australians.
There’ll be big investments in Medicare and the care economy, in universities and skills and in the industries and jobs which will power the future.
Speaking of the deportation bill and Australia’s borders, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and the independent Kooyong independent MP, Dr Monique Ryan, had a “debate” on Channel Nine this morning, where McKenzie used the latest arrival of Vietnamese asylum seekers near Broome as proof Labor had “lost control of the borders”.
With a global economic downturn, increased impacts from natural disasters and climate changes, conflicts and shifts to more authoritarian governments occurring across the world, people seeking asylum is not something limited to Australia. It is happening across the world.
McKenzie trotted out the usual lines about cost cutting and not being “tough” enough on borders:
We need this government to get serious about our borders and to keep people safe. We’ve had enough.
Ryan disagreed:
We don’t know what happened during the last government in terms of how many people came to our borders, but I do know that the government has actually increased spending on border protection since it came to office in May 2022.
So what Senator McKenzie just said was not true. And, you know, the reality is that we have borders. People are always going to come to this country.
We’re going to manage them and we should manage them humanely… (McKenzie interrupts)
…no, it’s an issue. But we managed it sensitively and humanely and I think this, this faux outrage that comes from the conservatives every single time someone seeks asylum in this country is inappropriate and it’s inhumane.
Good morning
Welcome to the 2024 budget day, where Australia’s 41st treasurer (41.5, if you count Scott Morrison’s second go around), Jim Chalmers, will hand down his third budget.
That’s a lot of numbers for an intro, so here is what you need to know; there will be a projected $9.3bn surplus, Treasury anticipates a return to the RBA’s inflation band (3%) by the end of the year and there is no increase to the base rate of jobseeker.
Most of everything else will be revealed at 7.30 when the treasurer takes to the floor of the parliament.
The budget lock-up starts from 1pm, so you can expect most of social media to go quiet, but not your dedicated politics blog – Politics Live will continue throughout the day and into the night, bringing you all your political news.
The parliament will sit as usual and top of the agenda will be Labor’s deportation bill, which was held up by the coalition at the last sitting of the parliament, when the opposition joined with the Greens to send the bill to a committee.
That report is back and the debate will continue in the Senate, with both sides pointing the finger at the other for the issue being created in the first place. Refugee advocates continue to say the bill’s powers are too broad and risk sending people back to countries they have no connection with, or where their lives will be in danger.
But if the government gets the coalition’s support, which is the most likely outcome, then the Greens and the crossbench’s attempts to improve the legislation will be a moot point.
We’ll bring you all those updates as they come, as well as everything else happening in the political sphere.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
Former army lawyer David McBride to find out his fate today
The man who leaked classified military documents that revealed allegations Australian soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan will find out his punishment after pleading guilty, Australian Associated Press reports.
David McBride pleaded guilty to stealing classified material and leaking it to journalists.
The prosecution has pushed for the former military lawyer to spend a minimum of two-years behind bars to reflect the severity of his crime but his lawyers argued for leniency, saying what he did was in the public interest.
Justice David Mossop will hand down his decision in the ACT supreme court today.
The justice also has the option to impose a suspended prison sentence or an order to serve his time in the community.
In sentencing hearings, McBride’s barrister Stephen Odgers SC argued his “impaired emotional wellbeing” due to PTSD and substance abuse issues contributed to his decision to disclose the documents.
McBride felt he had a public duty to do so, he contended.
But prosecutor Trish McDonald countered this, saying McBride had maintained he did the right thing after getting his mental health under control and recovering from his abuse issues.
McBride not only breached defence protocol but his duty as a lawyer to not disclose confidential information, she argued.
Further, he was motivated by “personal vindication” to show he knew more than others, the prosecutor told the court.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of another budget day. I’m Martin Farrer and of course the big event is later on today when the treasurer hands down his budget.
But in the meantime there will be plenty of news to cover, from Canberra and around the country. I’ll be bringing you some of the best overnight news lines before Amy Remeikis takes the helm.
Anthony Albanese is calling today’s budget one for “every Australian” and it projects the first back-to-back surplus since the global financial crisis. Jim Chalmers hands down the federal budget in Parliament tonight. The $9.3bn surplus for 2023-24 follows last year’s $22bn surplus. Let budget day begin.
On the financial markets, BHP has failed for a second time to buy Anglo American after the London-listed mining rival rejected an improved offer of A$65bn. BHP is hoping that swallowing up Anglo – which has significant copper assets – will strengthen its position in the commodities sector. The price of copper has surged recently, because it is a crucial raw material as the global economy attempts to transition to low-carbon energy.
Bosses at Woolworths will be rushing to try to have shelves restocked this morning after a “terrible” IT problem left stores empty of fruit and vegetables in parts of Queensland. Customers went on social media to comment on the bare shelves which were reminiscent of the early days of the Covid pandemic. Paul Harker, the chief commercial officer, said the problem came down to a “warehouse management system upgrade” that had gone wrong. “We’ve had a terrible IT problem,” Harker said, adding it had caused “carnage”.
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