Now Reading:Australia politics live: Chalmers bullish on economy despite weak GDP data; Pocock scores Senate win on aged home care bill | Australia news
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Australia politics live: Chalmers bullish on economy despite weak GDP data; Pocock scores Senate win on aged home care bill | Australia news
Jim Chalmers says economy in an ‘enviable position’ after latest GDP figures
Jim Chalmers says the latest GDP figures are very welcome and shows the Australian economy is gaining momentum.
To recap, the latest national accounts figures showed the economy expanded by a stronger than expected 0.6% in the three months to June, thanks almost entirely to a big jump in consumption. But Australia did recorded its weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s, excluding the pandemic, with real GDP in 2024-25 climbing by just 1.3%.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament House, Chalmers says the growth has come from the private sector, as well as an increase in household spending – which he attributes to higher wages and tax cuts.
Our economy is in an enviable position despite all our challenges that we acknowledge and are upfront about, the comparisons with our peers show that we are in an enviable position.
Consumption is growing because real incomes are growing.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Key events
Amanda Meade
The court should take into account the significant pressure placed by former ABC chair Ita Buttrose on ABC management to sack Antoinette Lattouf and fine the broadcaster up to $350,000, the federal court has heard.
“The imperatives of deterrence call for [an] aggregate deterrent penalty in the range of $300,000-350,000,” Lattouf’s legal team has submitted in documents released by the court.
The ABC’s financial position and resources, as well as those of some of its competitors, indicates that higher penalties are required to achieve specific and general deterrence.
The ABC is asking the court to find it is liable for the much smaller penalty of up to $56,000.
The hearing has adjourned for lunch.
Amanda Meade
The ABC’s chief people officer Deena Amorelli has been cross-examined about Antoinette Lattouf’s unlawful termination at a federal court hearing into pecuniary penalties.
Justice Darryl Rangiah is hearing submissions from Lattouf and the ABC before he determines the scale of the fine for breaching the Fair Work Act.
Amorelli has told the court she was hired in early 2024 and she was not working at the ABC when Lattouf was sacked, but she did attend the nine-day federal court hearing in February and she has been nominated to represent the ABC.
Rangiah told Lattouf’s barrister Oshie Fagir his cross examination of Amorelli “has so far been a waste of time”.
I am wondering what the relevance of all of this is. I handed down a detailed judgment where I thought I indicated my view as to why the relevant processes under the enterprise agreement had not been followed.
Why does it matter if there was some separate, independent inquiry by the ABC about that issue when it’s largely dealt with?
Amorelli said she was unaware ABC managing director Hugh Marks had recently made comments to journalists about what he believed had gone wrong in the Lattouf case. Marks had not been appointed when Lattouf was terminated.
Last month Marks said the case was not easily resolved because the applicant was by that stage “funded”.
After the judgment was handed down in favour of Lattouf, the ABC released a statement saying: “We extend our sincere apologies to Ms Lattouf and wish her well in her future endeavours”.
Amorelli agreed no-one from the ABC has contacted Lattouf to apologise personally despite acknowledging the “distress occasioned her” in the statement.
The concession will mean there will be an additional cost to the budget, in bring the packages forward from 1 November, says Butler.
They’re asked a few times about the cost component of the deal and Rae initially says that the financial implications will be made clear in the MYEFO (mid year economic and fiscal outlook).
But pressed again, Butler says:
There will be an additional cost to that… I’m trying to be as honest as I can be with people that that this demand trajectory is steep, and governments, for years, not the next few years, but for years ahead, are going to have to manage what is going to be for some time, a big increase in demand.
Butler’s been put into quite an awkward position here – the government was basically filibustering in the Senate this morning trying to prolong debate to put pressure on the opposition to cave on their position.
Butler says it’s a “moving feast” – Labor voted against those amendments earlier, before 180-ing now and saying that the amendments will pass with Labor support this afternoon.
The health minister is also trying to cut David Pocock out of the deal, and says that while 20,000 packages that will be immediately released, that’s separate to the amendment that Pocock made, and it’s Anne Ruston’s amendment that was “more comprehensive”.
We’ve been negotiating with the coalition, we’ve been considering our position, and you know, at the end of the day, we have said the bill needs to pass before the end of this week, the bill did not need to pass yesterday. The bill needs to pass before the end of this week. We have been taking a sensible, measured approach to this, negotiating with the coalition
The concession means the government avoids a somewhat embarrassing vote against it in the Senate.
They already lost a vote on David Pocock’s amendment to release the 20,000 home care packages immediately.
Sam Rae has been fielding questions all week on the delays in question time, but now says he’s “very happy that we now have a bipartisan pathway to passing these bills.”
The government has said the delays followed wide consultations to ensure the sector was prepared. Butler is asked what he’d say to that now, and whether the sector’s preparedness has changed.
Butler says staffing is an issue but they have heard the sector has said they can provide those packages (the opposition has said this all week that the sector has told them they are ready for those extra packages).
Providers have said over the last little while, including in the Senate inquiry, very recently, that they are able to provide these packages if we put them into the market. Now, I guess now they have got that opportunity.
Government to support the Coalition’s amendments on the aged care bill
Chalmers hands over the baton in the blue room to Mark Butler and Sam Rae, who are waiting on the sides. (Some of the economics journos walk out and Butler jokingly calls them out as they leave).
As we’ve brought you, the government is under pressure and on a deadline to get its aged care legislation through the Senate. The main hold-up? The Coalition, Greens and crossbench pushing for home care packages to be immediately released, before the legislation is due to take effect on 1 November.
Butler says there’s been a “good” debate and discussion around those home care packages – and has made an agreement with the Coalition to pass their amendments.
We have to get this legislation through the parliament this week. If we don’t, there is simply no way we can introduce the new aged care system on the first of November.
This means 20,000 additional home care packages will be released between now and 1 November, between November and 31 December there will be another 20,000 packages released, and the remaining 43,000 packages will be released until 30 June 2026.
I think that that reflects an agreed position between the two major parties … I hope now that means we can get this legislation through the Senate.
Jim Chalmers says economy in an ‘enviable position’ after latest GDP figures
Jim Chalmers says the latest GDP figures are very welcome and shows the Australian economy is gaining momentum.
To recap, the latest national accounts figures showed the economy expanded by a stronger than expected 0.6% in the three months to June, thanks almost entirely to a big jump in consumption. But Australia did recorded its weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s, excluding the pandemic, with real GDP in 2024-25 climbing by just 1.3%.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament House, Chalmers says the growth has come from the private sector, as well as an increase in household spending – which he attributes to higher wages and tax cuts.
Our economy is in an enviable position despite all our challenges that we acknowledge and are upfront about, the comparisons with our peers show that we are in an enviable position.
Consumption is growing because real incomes are growing.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Pocock scores Senate win on aged home care bill
Things have been coming to a bit of a head in the Senate on the government’s aged care bill.
The Coalition, Greens and crossbench are trying to force the government to release home care packages before the legislation comes into effect on 1 November.
They just voted to support David Pocock’s amendment to the bill that would immediately release 20,000 home care packages. There wasn’t a division on it, but Labor recorded its opposition. But that amendment would still have to go through the House to pass – where Labor has a huge majority.
Debate on the bill has been suspended for now – but stay tuned, there’s more drama ahead this afternoon, when the vote on the whole bill with amendments takes place.
Time is running out for the government to get this through the Senate. Because the next time that both the House and Senate sit is at the end of October, if they don’t go through the Senate this week, the government risks not making its already delayed 1 November deadline for the aged care legislation to come into effect.
Daniel Andrews photographed with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping in Beijing
We have a class photo from the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war and see if you can spot a familiar Australian face in there.
Spoiler alert, it’s Daniel Andrews.
Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, China’s president, Xi Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan, and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, are among those photographed before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of the second world war in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Photograph: Sergey Bobylev/AFP/Getty Images
Australia records weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s
Patrick Commins
Australia has recorded its weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s, excluding the pandemic, with real GDP in 2024-25 climbing by just 1.3% versus the previous financial year.
But the latest national accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also showed the economy expanded by a stronger than expected 0.6% in the three months to June, thanks almost entirely to a big jump in consumption.
Households took more time off in the Easter and Anzac holidays – which were unusually close together – and spent big on travel, eating out and attending events.
Tom Lay, the ABS’s head of national accounts, said the “rebound” in growth in the June quarter followed a subdued, weather-affected start to the year.
End of financial year sales and new product releases contributed to rises in discretionary spending on goods including furnishings and household equipment, motor vehicles and recreation and culture goods.
Real GDP in the June quarter was 1.8% larger than in the same period last year, compared with the annual growth rate of 1.4% in March, the ABS figures showed.
Jim Chalmers said the national accounts “show Australia’s economy is gathering momentum in the face of global economic uncertainty”.
Sean Langcake, head of macroeconomic forecasting for Oxford Economics Australia, said “today’s data are an encouraging confirmation that heightened global uncertainty did not take a heavy toll on the economy” in the three months to June.
Still, he said, the latest quarter “may prove to be a high watermark for growth in 2025”.
Lisa Cox
Murray Watt defends approval of Glencore’s Ulan coalmine expansion
A spokesperson for the environment minister, Murray Watt,says the government remains “firmly committed to action on climate change” after a delegate from the minister’s department approved Glencore’s Ulan coalmine expansion near Mudgee in New South Wales:
We have taken strong action in our first term and will continue that work now while also ensuring that there is security of energy supply as we transition to renewables.
The spokesperson said the approval, which allows Glencore to expand the mine’s footprint and extract an additional 18.8 million tonnes of run of mine coal, came with 57 strict conditions to minimise potential impacts on matters protected under Australia’s environmental laws, such as threatened species.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act has no “climate trigger” for consideration of a project’s impacts on the climate, something conservation and climate groups have long called for.
The decision comes as a community group, the Mudgee and District Environment Group, launched a fresh legal appeal against the NSW government’s approval of the same project, arguing the state’s environmental assessment had been inadequate because it failed to consider the project’s climate impacts.
Bev Smiles from the Mudgee District Environment Group said of the federal approval:
The Albanese government continues to recklessly approve new thermal coal projects when we know they are fuelling climate change and extreme weather that is harming Australians.
It is shameful that Australia’s environmental laws fail to require climate change consideration in decisions around dangerous, polluting coalmines.
The environment minister, Murray Watt. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
PM has ‘no intention of any referendums this term’
Anthony Albanese has no intention of putting another referendum to the Australian people, even if he supports a four-year-fixed term.
After every election, the joint standing committee on electoral matters does a review of the election and makes recommendations on whether systems or processes can be improved.
Don Farrell, the special minister for state, has the power to say what that committee looks at – and one of those things is a four-year fixed term.
Albanese is well known to want that but says it would be difficult to do.
I support fixed four-year terms – always have. Referendums are pretty hard to carry in this country. And opportunism kicks in and, unless you have bipartisan support, then it’s not going to be supported. Most state and territory governments, of course, have four-year terms. I think most of them have fixed four-year terms with the exception of Tasmania, that seems to have annual elections!
(Sorry, not sorry Tasmania)
Asked whether he would seek bipartisanship with Sussan Ley, Albanese pours cold water on the whole idea.
I have no intention of any referendums this term.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Senate debates aged care legislation
While the PM speaks, the Senate is debating consequential legislation on aged care, which would ensure the new act comes into effect by 1 November.
The government has been under pressure over the delay in delivering an additional 80,000 home care packages as the waitlist for them hits 200,000.
Mark Butler says the government is committed to passing the bill this week.
I know that put a lot of pressure on the provider sector, on advocacy groups. But there was, frankly, no alternative.
Asked point blank whether the discussions include a willingness to get more of those home care packages rolled out before November, Butler says:
I’m not going to go into the content of those discussions.
PM declines to give more details on deal with Nauru
Speaking of transparency, Albanese won’t give us any more details on the memorandum of understanding signed between Australia and Nauru – ie the $400m deal to send 280 former detainees to the Pacific nation.
We have arrangements with governments. We have arrangements between governments and those arrangements are ones we enter into across the board.
Albanese has said this week there’s “nothing secret” about this plan.
Albanese denies FoI changes are breaking his promise for more transparency and accountability
Albanese gets asked about the government’s FoI changes and says he thinks people would find it surprising that you can lodge an FoI request anonymously.
He says he’s surprised that some journalists he spoke to today didn’t know that.
What that means is that there’s no way to determine whether a foreign agent or actor is putting in requests about information that are sensitive, and no way of ascertaining that … And the obvious implications of security, for example, are there for all to see.
The government’s bill will ban any anonymous lodgements of an FoI – but the security concerns don’t answer the pressing question as to why the government should be charging fees for FoIs.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and former Australian of the year Richard Scolyer at Parliament House. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
NSW police minister admits she may have ‘had the figure wrong’ on antisemitic incidents
Penry Buckley
As we have reported, the NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, briefed budget estimates in March about the number of antisemitic incidents reported under Operation Shelter in NSW. Here is what she said at the time:
There have been more than 700 antisemitic events and incidents and arrests in this city.
When asked today about the number of incidents which have been explicitly labelled as antisemitic in the state, which police suggested today was closer to 300 since the start of the operation, she said:
I may have had the figure wrong and, if I did, I apologise to the committee, but quite frankly there would be so many more incidents than have been reported and that I know for a fact.
Budget estimates has also heard that two further applications for protests on the Sydney Harbour Bridge have been made since the pro-Palestine march last month. One is under consideration and the other has been withdrawn.
Albanese says Australia ‘security partner of choice’ when asked if he’s concerned China will attend Pacific forum
Albanese is asked whether he’s concerned China will attend the Pacific Islands Forum next week in the Solomon Islands, due to its embassy based there.
It follows the decision by Solomon Islands to prevent Taiwan’s officials from attending the forum.
Albanese says the government didn’t support a change to prevent Taiwan’s officials attending but said “we recognise the Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation and they’ve made that decision”.
On whether he has concerns about China, Albanese says Australia is the “security partner of choice in the region” and reiterates that the Pacific Islands are a “family”.
We supported the previous arrangements … the Pacific Islands family, and this will be a theme where we look after our own interests and that means Australia, of course, being a security partner of choice in this region.
