Australia politics live: Clare O’Neil tells Coalition ‘you’re never going to be Pauline Hanson’
From 52m ago 05.59 BST Labor tells Coalition ‘you’re never going to be Pauline Hanson’ The Liberal MP Henry Pike is next and asks if
From 52m ago 05.59 BST Labor tells Coalition ‘you’re never going to be Pauline Hanson’ The Liberal MP Henry Pike is next and asks if the government has acted as a guarantor for 51,000 non-citizens to buy their first home. He’s referring to the 51,000 permanent residents accessing the government’s 5% first home buyer deposit scheme. The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, confirms that Australian citizens and permanent residents are both eligible under the scheme, and accuses the opposition of engaging in a “race to the bottom” with One Nation over migration. double quotation mark Those opposite can continue racing to the bottom against One Nation, but I’ll tell you what, you can’t out One Nation, One Nation. You’re never going to be Pauline Hanson. Those opposite can point the finger and blame the problems facing our country on permanent residents. That is not the position of those of us on this side of the chamber. She warns the opposition that their words aren’t just heard in Farrer (which is the seat One Nation just picked up from the Liberals in a byelection), but in Chisholm and Reid, two Labor seats with significant migrant populations. Clare O’Neil in question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Share Updated at 06.18 BST 2m ago 06.49 BST Patrick Commins Budget has not added to inflationary pressures, RBA says Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, says the May budget has not changed the central bank’s estimates around total government spending, suggesting it has not made it’s inflation-fighting job more difficult. “What matters for inflation is demand relative to supply, and fiscal public demand adds to aggregate demand,” Bullock said at estimates. double quotation mark Our assessment is that … relative to our forecast in May, this budget is not adding anything further to public demand than it was adding in our former forecasts. Sarah Hunter, the RBA’s chief economist, added that spending by the states is “actually very important in all of this”. Share 7m ago 06.43 BST Luca Ittimani Thanks Krishani Dhanji and hello readers. Stay with us for the rest of today’s breaking news. Share 10m ago 06.40 BST Krishani Dhanji Thank you so much for joining me on the blog this sitting fortnight! I’ll leave you with the wonderful Luca Ittimani for the rest of the day’s news, take care. Share 11m ago 06.39 BST Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time The prime minister labelled Tony Abbott a resurrected dinosaur while rebuking criticisms from the opposition on its tax changes. Having just passed the House of Representatives, the opposition used most of its questions to focus on the capital gains tax reforms and housing. Clare O’Neil told the opposition they can’t “out One Nation, One Nation” as the Coalition tested the government on the 51,000 permanent residents who have accessed the 5% housing deposit scheme. The independent MP Nicolette Boele asked the government why mining giant BHP received hundreds of millions in diesel credits when it posted a $15.5bn profit last financial year. Zali Steggall asked the government why it hasn’t banned for gambling inducements as recommended by the 2023 gambling inquiry (she didn’t get an answer). Share Updated at 06.44 BST 21m ago 06.30 BST RBA governor plays down recession fears Patrick Commins The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, has played down fears the global oil shock will trigger a recession, saying the “economy is still expected to grow” even in a more severe scenario where oil prices are “significantly higher”. After three interest rate hikes this year, Bullock told Senate estimates “I recognise that this is a difficult time for many households facing cost-of-living pressures”, but that it was “important that we bring inflation under control”.
“If high inflation persists, it risks becoming embedded in price and wage-setting behaviour, particularly given the prolonged period over which underlying inflation has been above 3% since the pandemic. “That would result in more persistent inflation and would require even higher interest rates, and for longer, to return inflation to target.” There is a high degree of uncertainty about how the Middle East conflict will play out, Bullock noted, “but under a wide range of scenarios the conflict could well contribute to even higher global and domestic inflation”. “The effects of the conflict on economic activity are less certain and expected to vary across countries, but for Australia we judge that it will weigh modestly on growth” – making it harder for the central bank to manage the trade-off between inflation and economic activity, she said. double quotation mark While these are challenging conditions, the economy is still expected to grow, albeit modestly, even under these scenarios where oil prices are significantly higher than recent levels. Share Updated at 06.40 BST 31m ago 06.19 BST Anthony Albanese takes the final dixer for the fortnight and then calls time on QT. Share 32m ago 06.19 BST Crossbench tests Labor on gambling inducements Back to the crossbench, Zali Steggall asks if the government will ban gambling inducements and for inducements – it’s a follow-up to Allegra Spender’s question earlier this week (when Anika Wells didn’t say the word inducement once in her answer). Gambling inducements are incentives by operators to encourage people to open betting accounts, and gamble more. The late Peta Murphy’s report on gambling had recommended a blanket ban on the practice, as well as a ban on for inducements. Anthony Albanese takes the question and he says he refers to Wells’ earlier answer. double quotation mark We’re taking action when it comes to problem gambling, more than any government in Australian history has, and the next comprehensive level of reforms will continue to engage, and I’ll continue to engage with people on the crossbenches and across the parliament. He also doesn’t mention the word inducements once. Share Updated at 06.28 BST 37m ago 06.13 BST ‘They’re against first home buyers,’ PM says of Coalition The LNP MP Andrew Willcox asks the prime minister if he will “admit that his economic strategy has failed all Australians”. He says that yesterday Labor MP Rowan Holzberger confirmed Australians are worse off after four years of Labor. Anthony Albanese lists a bunch of case studies of people who have told him they’ve benefited from the government’s tax changes. He then clarifies what Holzberger was actually saying: double quotation mark The member for Forde that I was asked about, his question [yesterday] was about the Liberals’ closing of the car industry, that is what his comment was about, because those opposite are against jobs, they’re against living standards being improved, and they’re against first home buyers. Share Updated at 06.22 BST 45m ago 06.06 BST One Nation’s David Farley gets his first question David Farley has asked his first question to the house since he was sworn in on Tuesday. He asks the defence minister about the importance of water security for our national defence, and whether the defence department has provided formal input into the review of the Water Act, Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review or development of the Food Security Strategy. The deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, agrees with Farley that water is critical for defence but does not confirm whether the department has been involved in those reviews. double quotation mark The Defence Strategic Review made it clear that we really need to be exercising those national muscles again in terms of thinking about the future, and so that does go to the question of thinking about water security in the context of our national security, as it does in relation to food security.
Share Updated at 06.13 BST 52m ago 05.59 BST Labor tells Coalition ‘you’re never going to be Pauline Hanson’ The Liberal MP Henry Pike is next and asks if the government has acted as a guarantor for 51,000 non-citizens to buy their first home. He’s referring to the 51,000 permanent residents accessing the government’s 5% first home buyer deposit scheme. The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, confirms that Australian citizens and permanent residents are both eligible under the scheme, and accuses the opposition of engaging in a “race to the bottom” with One Nation over migration. double quotation mark Those opposite can continue racing to the bottom against One Nation, but I’ll tell you what, you can’t out One Nation, One Nation. You’re never going to be Pauline Hanson. Those opposite can point the finger and blame the problems facing our country on permanent residents. That is not the position of those of us on this side of the chamber. She warns the opposition that their words aren’t just heard in Farrer (which is the seat One Nation just picked up from the Liberals in a byelection), but in Chisholm and Reid, two Labor seats with significant migrant populations. View image in fullscreen Clare O’Neil in question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Share Updated at 06.18 BST 1h ago 05.51 BST Minister says AI chatbots will be included in digital duty of care rules Will AI chatbots be included in duty of care legislation, asks the independent MP Kate Chaney, who says “children are increasingly spending their formative years talking to AI chatbots that simulate emotional intimacy, which can cause deep psychological harm and erode critical thinking”. The communications minister, Anika Wells, gives a long preamble on the work the government has done with the under-16s social media ban and the increase in funding for the eSafety commissioner. She then reveals that yes, AI chatbots will be included under digital duty of care reforms. double quotation mark Under the digital duty of care, AI chatbots will have to adopt safety by design principles in how they develop their tools from the start, and they will have to continue to have systems in place to protect young Australians from harm. So the short answer to your question is yes. Share Updated at 05.59 BST 1h ago 05.44 BST Granny flats don’t count for favourable tax settings, O’Neil says The Nationals MP Anne Webster is next and asks the government whether granny flats will count as new builds that would allow the owner to access favourable negative gearing and CGT settings. My colleague, Pat Commins, brought you this question and answer a little earlier today from estimates, which you can see here. The short answer is no. The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, tells the house what’s out under the new-build rules according to the budget papers: double quotation mark An established property recently extended a free-standing house constructed through a knock-down rebuild, replacing an older, smaller free-standing house, a granny flat built adjacent to an established property, that isn’t eligible for negative gearing. As she finally says granny flat, we hear some calls of “bingo!” from the opposition benches. Towards the end of the answer, the Nationals MP David Littleproud gets the boot from the speaker. View image in fullscreen Clare O’Neil in question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Share Updated at 06.09 BST 1h ago 05.36 BST Chalmers rebuffs ‘extraordinary powers’ claims The Coalition, Greens and crossbench have all raised concerns over discretionary powers that will give the treasurer the ability to make changes to the CGT reforms after they’ve passed parliament. The Nationals MP Pat Conaghan asks the treasurer, “why would small businesses and farming families trust the treasurer with sweeping extraordinary powers?” Jim Chalmers says again that these are not extraordinary powers.
double quotation mark The problem that the member, that the member opposite asking the question, has is just because you can get someone to write this rubbish doesn’t make it true, Mr Speaker. It doesn’t make it true. There is nothing extraordinary about treasurers of either political persuasion settling definitions in this manner. View image in fullscreen Jim Chalmers in question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Share Updated at 05.49 BST 1h ago 05.32 BST ‘You’ll be working for him soon,’ Chalmers warns Taylor on Hastie Andrew Hastie is next and says the prime minister said the capital gains tax regime is going back to 1999 (before the 50% discount was introduced by John Howard), but the Treasury secretary, Jenny Wilkinson, today said the minimum 30% tax rate was not part of the pre-1999 system. Anthony Albanese thanks Hastie for the “support” and quotes him from an interview in March: double quotation mark I want to fight for my generation and the generations below. They see the housing market, particularly, is rigged against them. Angus Taylor shouts back and Albanese says to him, “you better listen” pointing to Hastie. From the frontbench, Jim Chalmers shouts to Taylor, seemingly making a reference to Hastie’s previous leadership ambitions, “you’ll be working for him soon, you better listen up”. View image in fullscreen Andrew Hastie in question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Hastie tries to make a point of order on relevance, and Albanese continues, making another dinosaur reference. double quotation mark He [Hastie] said this: young Australians want to tear down the system because it doesn’t work for them, and if we’re not responsive to that as a party, we may as well become extinct. Perhaps that explains the return of the great dinosaur, Tony Abbott. Hastie shakes his head and shouts, “it’s karaoke, speaker, enough karaoke”. Albanese (after another point of order from Dan Tehan) continues: double quotation mark He yabbers away, Mr Speaker, nonstop. What he should do, the leader, even if he won’t listen to people on this side of the house, he can listen to the people behind him, because soon enough you might have to. Share Updated at 05.43 BST 1h ago 05.22 BST Independent asks why BHP receives $622m in diesel credits despite posting $15.5bn profit The independent MP Nicolette Boele asks the government why it’s given $622m diesel credits to BHP in the last financial year when it posted a profit of more than $15.5bn. The energy minister, Chris Bowen, gives a fairly short answer, and says the government is focused on fuel supply while the war continues in the Middle East (it’s a similar answer the government has given when asked why it’s not introducing a tax on gas exports). He then says that the government is also focused on reducing emissions in the heavy industry – including mining “through reforms to safeguard mechanisms, which have now been operating for two years and have resulted in 5.8m tonnes of avoided emissions”. double quotation mark Importantly, [they] are projected to avoid 17bn litres of diesel being used between now and 2035 because we are putting in place the settings which will encourage those big emitters and big facilities to reduce their fuel use in a careful methodical and properly designed fashion. Share Updated at 05.30 BST
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