Chalmers downplays role of budget changes in auction clearance rates drop
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, spoke a moment ago about the fallout from the federal budget and said when the national accounts come out on Wednesday, they will show a “genuine investment boom” in the country’s economy.
Chalmers told reporters:
We’ve seen very strong figures through the year as well, when it comes to investment, and we’ll see that reflected in the national accounts on Wednesday …
We’ve got no shortages of challenges in a global economy and in the domestic economy, but we enter this difficult period from a position of genuine strength and extremely strong business investment.
Chalmers was asked about a drop in home auction clearance rates after announced changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing. He said there are a “number of factors at play”, but downplayed the budget’s role in home sales:
Some of those clearance rates were coming down already and the budget is not the only factor when people are thinking about those participating in those auctions.
But if we are making it easier for first home buyers to get a fair crack at auctions, then that’s a good thing. …
There are other factors like interest rates and that’s why we are already seeing some movement in auction clearance rates before the budget.
Audience member takes over from sick keyboardist at Sydney La La Land concert
At Saturday night’s performance of La La Land in Concert in Sydney, 21-year-old Sterling Nasa took the stage after Oscar-winning composer and conductor Justin Hurwitz asked if there was an “amazing sight reader” in the audience. Addressing the 2,000-strong audience, Horowitz made the call-out after the orchestra’s lead keyboardist fell ill and had to leave during interval.
Nasa suddenly found himself sitting at a keyboard he had never played before – a celeste – staring down at a complex score he had never rehearsed, including an intricate synthesiser solo.
Audience member takes over from ill keyboardist at Sydney La La Land concert – video
Australia should prepare for life without gas, thinktank warns
Australia must start preparing for life after gas or risk bill hikes, missed climate targets and manufacturers shutting up shop, warns a prominent thinktank.
AAP reports bans on new household gas connections, reworked green hydrogen incentives and a windfall profit tax on the export industry feature in the Grattan Institute’s extensive report on Australia’s deteriorating relationship with the fuel.
The thinktank says demand for both domestic and exported liquefied natural gas (LNG) product is projected to decline.
It argues an even faster drop off will be needed than implied by the federal government’s gas strategy projections to meet Australia’s international climate commitments, including net zero by 2050.
Burning gas to cook food, manufacture goods and generate electricity releases greenhouse gas emissions but so does getting it out of the ground and processing it, together amounting to roughly 20% of Australia’s carbon pollution.
Chalmers downplays role of budget changes in auction clearance rates drop
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, spoke a moment ago about the fallout from the federal budget and said when the national accounts come out on Wednesday, they will show a “genuine investment boom” in the country’s economy.
Chalmers told reporters:
We’ve seen very strong figures through the year as well, when it comes to investment, and we’ll see that reflected in the national accounts on Wednesday …
We’ve got no shortages of challenges in a global economy and in the domestic economy, but we enter this difficult period from a position of genuine strength and extremely strong business investment.
Chalmers was asked about a drop in home auction clearance rates after announced changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing. He said there are a “number of factors at play”, but downplayed the budget’s role in home sales:
Some of those clearance rates were coming down already and the budget is not the only factor when people are thinking about those participating in those auctions.
But if we are making it easier for first home buyers to get a fair crack at auctions, then that’s a good thing. …
There are other factors like interest rates and that’s why we are already seeing some movement in auction clearance rates before the budget.
Antisemitism inquiry blocks government’s bid to keep documents secret
The royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion has denied the Albanese government’s bid to keep secret documents about counter-terrorism funding in the years prior to the Bondi terrorist attack.
The government made a public interest immunity claim in an attempt to avoid disclosing several cabinet documents to Virginia Bell’s inquiry.
In a submission to the commission, the secretary of the department of prime minister and cabinet, Steven Kennedy, argued cabinet ministers might not “speak with candour” if their deliberations could be made public.
In her ruling, Bell noted that the documents weren’t being released to the public – just disclosed to the commission and recipients of the confidential version of her interim report.
The ruling stated:
In the context of the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack on 14 December 2025, the question of whether intelligence and law enforcement agencies performed to maximum effectiveness requires consideration of the priority given to, and the resourcing of, counter-terrorism by each agency, particularly following the increase to the national terrorism threat level.
Pauline Hanson says she could be PM but stay in the Senate
Pauline Hanson has speculated about becoming prime minister while staying in the Senate, as her One Nation party attracts growing popularity.
Polling has suggested One Nation could win a swag of lower house seats and Hanson yesterday said she believed she could be prime minister. Asked to elaborate on 3AW radio today, she said:
I am considering a lower house seat by all means, but nothing’s set in concrete and I haven’t made a final decision about it. But in talking to some people also, I really don’t need to have to move to the lower house. You can be prime minister from the Senate.. … [but] that’s a long way down the track. I’m not interested in that at the moment.
She cited the precedent of John Gorton, a senator elected Liberal party leader in 1967 after then-PM Harold Holt disappeared while swimming. Gorton was sworn in as PM but stayed in the Senate for three weeks, then resigned to run and win in Holt’s old electorate.
The parliamentary education office says there is no rule preventing a senator from being PM (or deputy) but it is the convention for them to be in the lower house, given government is formed there, not the Senate.
Australia is awaiting its 28 millionth resident, set to arrive sometime tomorrow.
The current population clock from the Australian Bureau of Statistics stands at just over 27,999,190. With an overall increase in population of about one person every minute and 15 seconds (including births, deaths, arrivals and departures), the counter should tick over at around 6am on Tuesday, eastern time.
Tasmanian premier declines to share details of minister’s resignation after secret court case
A Tasmanian minister has resigned after misleading parliament about her involvement in a secret court case and amassing legal fees that cost taxpayers $120,000, AAP reports.
The Tasmanian premier is refusing to offer details of a secret court case that has led to the resignation of his environment minister.
Madeleine Ogilvie resigned from cabinet on Saturday, months after telling parliament she was not party to any court cases. She admitted last week she had in fact brought a supreme court action, saying she erred while attempting to navigate a suppression order.
Madeleine Ogilvie. Photograph: Rob Blakers/AAP
The details of the case are unknown, including the subject matter, the opposing party, and the timeline. The government has disclosed taxpayers had spent about $120,000 on Ogilvie’s legal fees between 2023 and 2025.
The premier, Jeremy Rockliff, avoided sharing the details at budget estimates on Monday morning. Rockliff said:
These are complex matters and I’m not going to be commenting any further … especially given the confidentiality requirements.
Ms Ogilvie has given an undertaking, as other members, have to provide full details when Ms Ogilvie is legally entitled to.
He did not share further detail when asked when he became aware of the court matter and whether he or cabinet sanctioned the use of public funds, only to say that legal fees were “within guidelines”.
Massive Attack to tour Australia for first time in 16 years
Massive Attack are set to tour Australia for the first time in 16 years.
The influential British trip-hop group, made up of Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, will play Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in August. The upcoming tour will be the band’s fourth appearance in Australia and their first Australian shows since 2010.
Formed in Bristol in 1988, Massive Attack are pioneers of the trip-hop genre – a dark sound of hip-hop rhythms, soul samples, dub bass and atmospheric electronics. Their 1991 debut, Blue Lines, was a touchstone, among the most influential albums of its era. Their biggest hits include Unfinished Sympathy and Teardrop.
Pauline Hanson calls for overhaul of ‘dogmatic’ workers’ rights system
Catching you up on some news from Sunday: Pauline Hanson has called for sweeping reforms to Australia’s workers’ rights system.
Appearing on Sky News yesterday, the One Nation leader targeted young workers and took issue with the obstacles employers face when sacking staff.
She said:
We need to have an overhaul here …
These young ones, they said, they don’t want to work. And then they’re tired by early afternoon, or they’re on their phones, or they take days off. There’s no compliance with it whatsoever. Even when they want to finish work or when they want to leave you, OK, they can just say, see you later and they’re gone.
Whereas you have to give them, you know, all these three weeks, four weeks, whatever. If not, you can’t even sack anyone, if they’re not working, if they steal from you, then you see yourself through the courts.
This has to change. It has to change. There’s a give and take in employment, and people have a right to employ who they want to. We’ve become too dogmatic.
Hanson gave the example of a time she sacked one of her own staff, saying they had to be paid four months’ wages.
It’s a scam that’s going on, and a lot of people play and the whole thing needs a complete overhaul.
In the same interview, Hanson said she believed she could do the job of prime minister and suggested the minimum wage should not be increased this year. One Nation is more popular than any other party, including Labor, according to a poll published today.
CGT changes good for property investors if inflation high and price growth slow, Ray White says
Property investors may actually be winners from Labor’s capital gains tax changes when inflation is high and house prices aren’t rising rapidly, new Ray White analysis suggests.
Australia’s biggest real estate agency on budget night warned changes to the tax discount on profits from selling assets would mean property investing is more expensive.
Analysis from Nerida Conisbee, Ray White’s chief economist, has now found that may not always be the case.
The old CGT discount didn’t account for the difference between inflation and asset price growth. The new inflation-adjustment discount does, so when house prices are rising fast and inflation is low, investors have a bigger tax bill, Conisbee found.
But house prices are now expected to fall or plateau around Australia while inflation is expected to be above 3% for much of the next year. If higher inflation and a slower market persists, investors would save money under the new system.
Say inflation sits at 3% on average over the next few years. An investor who buys a $1.75m home under the new regime then sells it after six years, assuming a 30% income tax rate, would pay about the same amount of tax as they would under the old – assuming the home price rose by about 5.5% a year.
But if the home price rose just 5% a year, the investor pays $13,000 less in tax. If it rose just 3% a year, there is almost no inflation-adjusted profit and the investor would save $51,000 in tax.
Conisbee said:
The policy may be defensible if the aim is to tax real gains rather than inflation. But it should not be assumed to raise more tax from property investors in the near term.
NSW losses on the pokies concentrated in some communities
The data shows losses from pokies concentrated in some communities: Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown ($198.8m), Fairfield ($186.1m) and Cumberland ($136.2m); the Central Coast ($90.7m); Wollongong ($54.6m); and Newcastle ($52.1m).
Some communities, namely Liverpool and Ryde in Sydney, have seen sharp upticks in year-on-year losses.
Wesley Mission’s Cameron said:
Behind these numbers is the money needed to pay rent, groceries and other essential bills being drained by pokies out of household pockets.
Losses have continued to climb while harm deepens. The question has never been whether reform is needed, it desperately is, but how much longer we must wait for the Minns government to step up and do the hard and desperately needed work to reduce and prevent harm.
NSW on track to lose $10bn to pokies in 2026, Wesley Mission finds
A new analysis from the Wesley Mission finds families in NSW are being hit with a record surge in poker machine losses, with new data showing $2.37bn lost in the first three months of this year.
If continued, that rate would see people lose more than $10bn in 2026, what the body calls a “terrible milestone in NSW’s decades-long capture to the pokies industry”. That’s an average of about $26.4m every day, or just over $1.1m an hour.
Stu Cameron, the CEO of Wesley Mission, said in a statement:
There seem to be only three certainties in NSW right now: death, taxes and spiralling poker machine losses.
Quarter after quarter, the same story repeats itself – more money lost, more families under pressure, and more communities carrying the burden of gambling harm. It’s a grotesque Groundhog Day on steroids.
Melbourne film festival hacked, with some data accessed
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) said yesterday an unauthorised person gained access to customer information, including names, emails and phone numbers during a hack of a ticketing platform.
The festival said it became aware of the incident on 29 May, quickly suspending access to the affected accounts and installing new security measures. But on 30 May there was further unauthorised access to the ticketing platform, with some customers receiving emails or SMS messages sent to them directly without authorisation.
MIFF has contacted affected customers directly with information about the incident. It believes nearly 27,000 customer records held by the platform may have been accessed. The ticketing platform does not store compete credit card information.
MIFF said in a statement:
We understand customers may be concerned by this incident and sincerely regret the uncertainty it may cause. Protecting the personal information entrusted to MIFF and its technology partners is extremely important.
We have advised affected customers to remain cautious of unexpected emails or SMS messages that appear to come from MIFF and to avoid clicking links or providing personal information unless they are confident of the source.
Despite some reports, Melbourne Writers festival did not see any evidence of unauthorised access to its own customer data.
Victorians can access 20% off car rego and half-price public transport from today
Victoria has rolled out two cost of living measures amid the ongoing fuel crisis: 20% off car registration and half-price fares on public transport until the end of the year.
The half-price fares come on the back of free public transport across the state over the past two months, which has ended today. But the discount will apply from today until the end of December.
Under the discount, a full daily fare will cost $5.70 to travel anywhere across the state, down from $11.40.
To get 20% off your rego via a rebate, Victorians will need to have paid their registration between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 for a light vehicle for personal use. You can get the rebate for up to two vehicles in your name, and get it in full regardless of if you paid your rego in full or in instalments.
You have two months to apply, until 31 July. Applications open today.
A Metro Trains service at North Melbourne Station in Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Students would save $3bn over a decade if Labor changed Hecs indexation date
University graduates would save more than $3bn over a decade if the government changed the date of indexation on Hecs debts, dubbed a “broken system” in its current form by independent MP Monique Ryan.
About 3 million students and graduates will see their Hecs debts increase by a combined $1bn on Monday, when they are indexed by 2.8%.
Hecs debts do not accrue interest but increase yearly based on the rate of inflation or the wage price index, to maintain the “real value” of the money owed.
Students make compulsory payments towards their Hecs, which are collected and held by the tax office, but that money is not deducted from the debt until the person has filed their tax return.
That is done after the debt indexes.
Costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office, seen by Guardian Australia, show if the government changed the indexation date from 1 June to 1 November, after compulsory payments have been paid down, it would cost the budget’s underlying cash balance $1.2bn in forgone revenue over four years.
Thousands of older Australians still waiting for care
More than 100,000 people are still on wait lists for in-home aged care despite wait times falling, AAP reports.
The latest quarterly data for the first three months of 2026 showed wait times go down by two weeks for high priority cases, from between 1.5 and 2.5 months to between one and two months.
Medium-priority cases have fallen from between eight and nine months to between six and seven months, while standard priority cases are down from between 10 and 11 months to between seven and eight months.
The figures also revealed 364,723 people now have access to support at home places, up almost 18,000 people on the previous quarter. But despite the increase in places, 100,191 people are still on a waitlist for approval.
The health minister, Mark Butler, conceded it was a difficult task to reduce the waitlist as the population ages. He told ABC Radio this morning:
There’s also an historic increase in demand as a particular generation comes into the aged care system, so satisfying all of that demand is going to be a very difficult job for government.
Concept design for Brisbane Olympics stadium only 10% finished
Just 10% of the concept design for the Brisbane Olympics stadium is finished, as early works start today.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (Giica) head, Simon Crooks, was asked about timelines at a press conference held to mark the area being handed over to the agency today. Sports luminaries and the premier held a groundbreaking ceremony this morning.
“We’re at 10% concept design,” Crooks told media.
I won’t be in a situation where I’d be comfortable letting design drawings go to construction right through this year. There’s a long way to go. It’s $3.8bn of drawing.
Giica’s 100-day review recommended plans for the stadium be approved by the third quarter of 2026. But Crooks said they were still on schedule.
I’m comfortable with it … pretty well everything we’ve done the last nine months, we’ve hit (timelines). We said we’d engage the main contractor by the end of the year, and we’re on program for that.
Crooks said the organisation was working to have the stadium finished a year before the 2032 games, but wouldn’t estimate when construction would start, because planning was still in its early contractor involvement stage.
The premier, David Crisafulli, said the job could be done on time. “It’s a race against time but I have every faith that we can get it done,” he said.
This can be our moment to shine, it can be the moment where the world looks at us and says there is the state with a bright future ahead of it.
Capital city home prices fall as experts predict Australia’s property slump could last a year
Home prices in Australia’s capital cities have begun to fall, with experts predicting the decline could last at least a year and wipe as much as 10% from values.
The median capital city home price fell in May, the first decline since January 2025, as high interest rates and inflation stretched buyer budgets, Cotality reported on Monday. Auction success hit a new low for the year.
Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra median house prices ended May lower than they were at the end of 2025. Even homes at the cheaper end in those cities fell in value, losing the momentum maintained at the start of 2026.
<small>Source: The Guardian</small>
