Australia politics live: Labor flags additional $1bn in budget for defence
Marles flags additional $1bn in budget for defence
The defence minister and deputy PM, Richard Marles, is at the Avalon airshow in Victoria today and has provided an update on defence spending in the budget.
He says the government will provide an additional $1bn in the budget (that’s new money), plus $9.6bn in defence funding to be spent over the next four years that was already planned.
Last year Labor said it would spend an extra $50bn over the decade to increase defence spending from about 2% of GDP to more than 2.3% of GDP.
Part of the $10.6bn sees the bringing forward of an additional $1bn, and that’s because of the need to accelerate Australia’s capability development …
The acceleration of the $1bn is really there to ensure that the very ambitious timelines that we have in relation to all of this are going to be met.
This all comes as the US is trying to get Australia to spend even more money on defence (they’re talking about Australia spending up to 3% of GDP).
Key events
Josh Butler
The Coalition’s plan to allow homebuyers to access a house deposit from their superannuation would eventually cost the budget billions in increased costs for the aged pension, Parliamentary Budget Office analysis reports.
Labor MP Daniel Mulino, the chair of the parliament’s economics committee, said the analysis shows “it will cost first home buyers more in the short term and taxpayers more in the long term”.
The Coalition’s affordable housing policy would allow Australians to access up to $50,000 from their super to buy their first home, with the money initially withdrawn from super required to be returned when the house is sold to support retirement.
The Labor government has strongly opposed the idea, proposed at successive elections, saying it would affect retirement savings. On Monday, PBO analysis was released saying the parameters of the Coalition policy could increase age pension costs by $1.4bn per year by the 2050s.
The modelling assumes 20% of renters would take up the chance to take $50,000 from their super, meaning around 300,000 people. A range of other assumptions (including on the rate of super returns, tax on super earnings, mortality rates and that people wouldn’t make extra contributions to their super to compensate for withdrawing the initial deposit).
Labor has also highlighted University of South Australia research forecasting the policy could also inflate house prices by up to 10%.
Mulino said the PBO modelling showed that “if people withdraw money from their superannuation, all taxpayers would be footing the bill with the cost of the Age Pension to grow”.
Peter Dutton’s reckless plan to force first home buyers to raid their super will push house process up by even more than the $50,000 super withdrawal he is proposing. The real solution is to build more homes and help first home buyers without forcing them to rob from tomorrow to pay for today.
Henry Belot
Stan Sport criticised over digitally inserted ads for offshore gambling company
Stan Sport has become the second major streaming service to broadcast an offshore gambling company linked to bikini-clad croupiers in as many months, drawing inquiries from the media regulator.
The broadcaster digitally imposed ads for the bookmaker 8XBet during live coverage of a 9 March game between NZ Super Rugby Aupiki clubs Matatū and Hurricanes Poua. In February, Paramount+ broadcast ads for the same bookmaker during an A-League match between Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar in New Zealand.
Both streaming companies have blamed the apparent breach of advertising policy on an unnamed third party. In 2022, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) found 8XBet allowed Australian clients to gamble, despite not having an Australian licence. The company has subsequently withdrawn from the country.
A Stan Sport spokesperson said:
Stan Sport understands that these virtual graphics were caused by a brief, one-off and unauthorised test by a third-party vendor involved with the production in NZ. We are working with our delivery partners in NZ to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
In a statement, a NZ Super Rugby Clubs spokesperson said:
This was an unfortunate human error by a third-party provider who the NZ Super Rugby Clubs work with to provide virtual advertisements and graphics on field during Super Rugby Aupiki games. We are working with the supplier to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
An Acma spokesperson said it was “seeking information from Stan so that we can consider the application of the rules in regard to these matters”.
In regard to the Paramount+ matter, we have sought information from Paramount+ and are currently considering their response.
Northern and western Queensland brace for more flooding
Inland parts of Queensland are facing “significant flooding” that could become widespread, with communities threatened to become isolated and roads likely to be blocked off.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury said on Monday afternoon isolated six-hourly rainfall of up to 90mm could hit some areas of Queensland as a low-pressure trough drew “significant moisture from the tropics”.
This is only likely to exacerbate the flash and riverine flooding that’s already unfolding in those areas, water moving over roads and access routes is likely to lead to lengthy delays or detours, and we may see … some communities being isolated or cut off, as well as impact for agriculture and industry … this situation is only beginning to develop and is likely to continue through much of this week.
Flood warnings are in place across multiple regions, with particular concern for the north tropical coast, where “grounds are wet and rivers are swollen”. The eastern interior of the NT, parts of north-eastern South Australia and far north New South Wales may also be impacted.
It comes as Western Australia faces a rare autumn heatwave and the possible development of a cyclone off the coast.
BoM forecaster Jessica Lingard told ABC radio the temperature would remain above 35C for the next five days – the first time the city had been hit with such a string of hot weather in 40 years.
The unseasonable weather was being accompanied by a tropical low forming off WA’s north-west coast – forecast to move westward as the weekend approached.
Ben Doherty
More on HMAS Sydney’s three-month deployment
We have more from Ben Doherty on the departure of HMAS Sydney for a three-month deployment that will include training exercises alongside ships from Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK.
Australian vessels and aircraft “will continue to exercise our rights to freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”, the department of defence said in a statement.
The departure of the Sydney for three months follows the circumnavigation of Australia by a flotilla of Chinese navy vessels earlier this year
The three ships – comprising the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class cruiser Zunyi and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu – possibly accompanied by an undetected nuclear submarine – sailed down the east coast of Australia in late February conducting unannounced live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea, before sailing west through the Great Australian Bight. They then sailed north, up Australia’s west coast, into the Sunda Strait, between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. All of the flotilla’s activities – including the live-fire drills – were in accordance with international law.
HMAS Sydney is one of three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers in service in the Royal Australian Navy: it carries a complement of more than 200 personnel, and a Seahawk helicopter.
“As we embark on this deployment, we are proud to represent Australia and contribute to regional stability and cooperation,” Cmdr Ben Weller, commanding officer of the Sydney, said.
Deployments such as this allow us to exercise the ship’s capability across a range of areas and alongside different partners, ensuring we’re prepared to work together in future.
Anthony Albanese has no interest in delving into the pre-election politics of Kooyong.
Asked about video footage reported today of Monique Ryan’s husband, Peter Jordan, removing a Liberal party sign, he replied:
I have no idea who Monique Ryan’s husband is.
The reporter replied that Jordan had removed a campaign sign of Amelia Hamer, the Liberal candidate for Kooyong. Both Ryan and her husband have since apologised, with Jordan suggesting he thought it was displayed illegally.
Albanese replied:
On a day where we have a $16.5bn national education announcement, I am asked about someone’s husband removing a Liberal party sign on a road somewhere!
Can I ask, is there any connection whatsoever with anyone in the Labor party with this alleged event of which I did not know? No.
The prime minister is taking questions in Melbourne after announcing a boost to Victoria’s infrastructure funding.
He is asked about a new government safety campaign on the dangers of drinking alcohol while overseas, unveiled today.
It follows the deaths of two Melbourne teenagers, Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, who died after drinking alcohol tainted with methanol in Laos last year.
Albanese said his heart went out “to the family and friends of Holly and Bianca, who lost their lives so tragically … and to their communities and to their friends”.
This was a tragedy that should not have happened and one of the things we’re doing is ramping up our advertising campaign to increase awareness of the alcohol related risks of overseas travel.
For some time young people have been warned about drugs overseas but people have thought – quite clearly wrongly – that having a drink in a bar, in this case in Laos … was a harmless thing to do.
It is fantastic for Australians to do what I did and what a lot of Australians do … we are one of the great travelling populations of the world, but it needs to be made safe. This campaign, funded by the federal government, is about doing that, is about making sure that young Australians who travel overseas are aware of the risk.
All schools in Australia will be ‘fully funded for the first time’, Albanese says
Albanese also spruiked Labor’s school funding agreement, to which all jurisdictions have now signed on after receiving the seal of approval from Queensland today.
Victoria successfully pushed the federal government to double its funding offer from a 2.5% increase to public schools to 5% in January.
Albanese:
Schools will be fully funded for the first time right throughout Australia. Victoria earlier on had signed up to our schools funding agreement, we now have every state and territory signed up in our $16.5bn of improved funding, to make sure that every child gets the best opportunity in life.
I thank the Allan government for signing up very early to that school funding agreement, to see increased funding between now and 2034.
Read more about what it all means here:
Albanese announces $125m for Melbourne road upgrades
The prime minister has been hopping all over the place today.
He just appeared in Melbourne, announcing a $125m upgrade to the Donnybrook Road and Mitchell Street intersection in the outer north, as part of Labor’s $1.2bn suburban roads blitz.
Anthony Albanese said the budget commitment came on top of infrastructure investments already announced to make sure Victoria got its “fair share” of funding after a 10-year deficit.
We want to make sure that Victoria and Melbourne’s growing suburbs get support. That’s why this weekend we’ve had the minister out there announcing support for regional roads funding, to deal with level crossings.
That’s why today, as part of our $1.2bn suburban roads blitz … we are making these commitments to make a difference so that productivity can increase, so that people can spend more time at home with their family and their kids, rather than stuck in traffic. And this important project, a $125m upgrade to the Donnybrook Road and Mitchell Street intersection, is a part of making sure that we keep up with this growing community.
The project will transform the current roundabout I’ve just been through, delivering additional lanes, a fully signalised intersection and a new bridge over the creek here … it’s part of the substantial infrastructure commitments that we’ll have in tomorrow evening’s budget. A budget that will continue to have responsible economic management whilst making a difference, providing cost of living relief, and always having own eye on the future.
Greens urge Labor to cut spending on external consultants in upcoming budget
The Greens have urged Labor to reduce spending on consultants across all departments and agencies by 15% a year after the party released new figures showing the winding back of external labour.
On Monday, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher revealed more than $2bn in budget savings, including $720m from cutting back on consultants, contractors and labour hire, as Labor tries to rebuild the capacity of public service.
It means a total of $4.7bn has been saved from winding back the use of external labour since 2022.
But Greens finance and public service spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock, said the federal government’s unwillingness to separate the amount spent on consultants from the overall spend on external contractors made it impossible to tell the actual spend.
We have no way of knowing whether the government is actually spending less on consultants or not. We need a more transparent breakdown of the spending data before we can have confidence in Labor’s claims.
They say they want to eliminate wasteful outsourcing but there is no firm commitment to the kind of long-term reduction needed to bring down Scott Morrison’s record breaking spend of $20.8bn on private contracting. The Australian Greens have recommended a 15% reduction in spending on consultants every year over five years. Labor is yet to respond.
Four people rescued after becoming stranded in SA outback
Four people stranded in the South Australian outback since Friday have been rescued uninjured.
The group left Oodnadatta by car on Friday afternoon, believed to be heading to Finke in the Northern Territory. But concerns were raised when they failed to arrive.
Shortly after 4pm on Sunday, contact was made with the missing group who had become stranded in the state’s far north after suffering mechanical issues with their car. Supplies, including food and a satellite phone, were provided.
Today, the four people were successfully retrieved and transported to Coober Pedy this afternoon. There were no reports of injuries.
HMAS Sydney departs for three-month Indo-Pacific deployment
Turning to naval news, and the Australian defence force’s HMAS Sydney has departed from Fleet Base East for a three-month regional presence deployment throughout the Indo-Pacific.
The journey of the 200-personnel trip will include participation in Exercise Bersama Shield alongside Five Power defence arrangements nations Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Adm Justin Jones, said regional presence deployments demonstrated Australia’s “ongoing commitment to supporting regional security and stability and promoting a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region”.
They highlight our contribution to the maintenance of the global rules-based order in line with our partners.
HMAS Hobart recently completed the first regional presence deployment for 2025, which included training exercises and activities with Indonesia, France and the Philippines.
Caitlin Cassidy
Thanks Krishani, I’ll be with you until stumps. Happy budget eve!
Krishani Dhanji
That’s it from me today, thanks for sticking with me on the blog. I will be back with you tomorrow to bring you the highlights and the nitty gritty of the budget.
I’ll leave you this afternoon with the wonderful Caitlin Cassidy!
Albanese says Labor ‘kicking with the wind’ in pre-budget speech to caucus
Sarah Basford Canales
The prime minister has told his federal colleagues Labor will “unashamedly stand for workers” as it prepares to unveil its final budget before the federal election.
At a party caucus meeting on Monday morning, Anthony Albanese said Labor could only deliver many of its achievements through careful economic management.
In his last speech to federal Labor members before the budget, and potentially before an election announcement later this week, the prime minister thanked the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and finance minister, Katy Gallagher, for turning “deficits into surpluses” and delivering an economy where “inflation has gone down, wages have gone up, employment is strong, and we have delivered tax cuts”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was clearly front of mind, with Albanese making a number of digs. Albanese suggested someone give Dutton a map after the Liberal leader failed to mention the opposition’s foreign policies on South Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific, India, Japan or Indonesia at a major foreign affairs event last week.
Albanese concluded with:
We’re kicking with the wind because we have a coherent set of values that are not about us – that are about a plan for Australians.
Jordyn Beazley
Curriculum alone not enough to mitigate effects of harmful pornography on children, NSW inquiry told
School programs are not a “silver bullet” to reducing the harms of children viewing harmful sexual and misogynistic content online, a NSW government hearing has heard, with department officials saying there is much that is beyond the school’s control.
Dr Paul Cahill, the executive director of curriculum at the NSW Education Standards Authority, told a hearing today into the impacts of harmful pornography on children that there were a number of programs in the curriculum aimed at reducing the harms.
But he said the evidence shows there is “very little evidence to say it can just be the curriculum doing the heavy lifting”.
“There isn’t a silver bullet to address the issue of pornography,” he said.
He continued:
The reality is pornography is part of a broader suite of things that are happening in online and offline environments, and you need to address those range of issues. So within the curriculum, we have tried to make sure that we’re addressing issues of consent … that gender based violence is a problem.
There are so many levers at play that the curriculum is one part of … there are many other parts of society, things like the notion of behaviours online in terms of misogynistic behaviour, that’s something that is well beyond the control of a curriculum, but the curriculum can lay the foundation to outline that those sort of things are detrimental to people’s wellbeing and health.
Cahill appeared at the hearing on behalf of the NSW government with Megan Kelly, the executive director of curriculum and reform at the NSW department of education.
The public hearing will continue this afternoon, with appearances from advocacy and research groups, and faith groups.
Marles flags additional $1bn in budget for defence
The defence minister and deputy PM, Richard Marles, is at the Avalon airshow in Victoria today and has provided an update on defence spending in the budget.
He says the government will provide an additional $1bn in the budget (that’s new money), plus $9.6bn in defence funding to be spent over the next four years that was already planned.
Last year Labor said it would spend an extra $50bn over the decade to increase defence spending from about 2% of GDP to more than 2.3% of GDP.
Part of the $10.6bn sees the bringing forward of an additional $1bn, and that’s because of the need to accelerate Australia’s capability development …
The acceleration of the $1bn is really there to ensure that the very ambitious timelines that we have in relation to all of this are going to be met.
This all comes as the US is trying to get Australia to spend even more money on defence (they’re talking about Australia spending up to 3% of GDP).
Video: Monique Ryan’s husband confronted after removing Liberal campaign sign from Melbourne yard
Earlier we brought you details on the confrontation between independent MP Monique Ryan’s husband, Peter Jordan, and a Coalition supporter.
Ryan and Jordan have both apologised.
You can watch the video here of Jordan trying to move a sign of the Liberal candidate for Kooyong, Amelia Hamer.
Federal budget 101: where does the money come from and where does it go?
While we’re all gearing up for the budget, you might be wondering …
Where does the money for the budget actually come from (like how much comes from my personal taxes and how much is paid by companies), and how exactly does it get spent?
If you’re curious about this and you like colourful graphs I have got the piece for you, by my colleague Patrick Commins.
