Australian news and politics live: Albanese says expanded 5 per cent home deposit scheme will help thousands

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We will be back tomorrow with live coverage of Australian news and politics.

You can read tonight’s edition of The Nightly below:

Greens leader Larissa Waters has delivered a scathing speech in the Senate claiming that the Albanese Government was “covering up” a report into climate risk in Australia.

Senator Waters accused Labor of hiding “their own analysis of the dangers we face” ahead of an expected announcement on their 2035 emissions target.

“The government is burying this report. It’s a bad news story. They don’t like the climate bad news,” she said on Monday evening.

“They’re just trying to use it as a cover to release 2035 targets that will keep big business happy.”

Senator Waters said the party had been told the final report hadn’t been released on request because it was under the protective classification of “Cabinet in confidence”.

She labelled it a “farcical excuse” saying the final report would have only informed Cabinet members and wouldn’t have included Cabinet deliberations.

The Greens have called for an inquiry into the report — known as the Climate Risk Assessment — and why it has been withheld.

Barnaby Joyce says he doesn’t want his private members bill on repealing net zero to be known as “Barnaby’s bill”.

The Nationals maverick has said he’s ploughing on with his call for the party to axe to the 2050 target on behalf of concerned constituents and clarified he wasn’t representing the Coalition in his views.

“It’s not about me. This is not Barnaby’s bill. This is a bill that I just happen to be the author of. It’s a repeal of net zero bill,” he told Sky News on Monday.

He said people in regional areas were “furious and angry” about the impacts of renewable projects and were “crying” about it “destroying” their lives.

“If you believe in net zero, it’s a situation… which brings the demolition of our industrial base,” he said.

“We have the lowest manufacturing now of the OECD. We have a cost of living crisis. We are putting people into their cars. We have record insolvencies in small businesses. And this is on the merry path to net zero.”

It comes as several State Liberal and National party branches have also voted to abolish the target.

Mr Joyce had been Nationals leader when he agreed in 2021 ahead of the Glasgow COP26 climate summit, that the minor Coalition party would support the Morrison government’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

Liberal MP Alex Hawke has used Question Time to ask the Prime Minister why he “snapped” at a journalist on Monday morning after he was asked about the Australian-US relationship and his decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Mr Hawke’s question came after Anthony Albanese claimed he had been asked 5324 questions on why he had failed to meet face-to-face with Donald Trump.

In a cheeky question, Mr Hawke asked him to table those 5324 answers and to gauge if his statehood call would increase or decrease his chances of securing a Trump meeting.

The PM responded by digging up 2011-made comments made by the Liberal leader Sussan Ley about recognising Palestinian statehood to give people in Gaza “heart”.

“They’re not my words. They’re the words of your leader,” the PM said.

“The fact that the Manager of Opposition Business asked such a flippant question about the relationship between Australia and the US or about Middle East peace. It shows how unworthy they are, those opposite.”

The PM labelled the question “childish” and added that he would continue to protect Australia’s sovereignty and act in its own national interest regardless of US views.

Independent MP for Mackellar Sophie Scamps has questioned why the government hasn’t made a final report of a February 2023 commissioned-review of public sector board appointments.

Ms Scamps questioned the Albanese Government’s commitment to transparency after sitting on the report — known as the “Briggs” report — for 18 months.

Treasurer Jim Chlamers went through a list of Albanese government actions to improve the public service before mentioning cases where women have held positions for the first time in their term.

He said the heads of the Reserve Bank, Productivity Commission and Treasury were all women.

Dr Chalmers was then pulled up by Speaker Milton Dick for talking around the issue and not answering Mr Scamps’ question about the reports.

“We’ve received the Briggs report, as the honourable member rightly points out. We are working through it in our usual considered and methodical way,” the Treasurer eventually answered.

“We’ll make the report public in due course following that careful consideration.”

Jim Chalmers has vowed to ensure foreign investment laws in Australia “keep pace” and are regularly reviewed after a US church owned company brought up $500 million of farmland in just six months.

Nationals leader David Littleproud had asked how the Mormon church was able to invest so much and expressed concern Australian farming families wouldn’t be about to compete.

The treasurer said the case was “historical” because they fell under a 2004-signed agreement.

“The settings and thresholds in this case are applicable to private investors from the US. They were established by our free trade agreement which was entered into by the Coalition 20-odd years ago and that remains the case today,” he said.

“Obviously we see these sorts of cases pop up from time to time. We spend time analysing those cases and work out whether a change is necessary.

“We’ve made recent changes. We’re making sure that our foreign investment arrangements keep pace.”

Ted O’Brien has followed up with another question about budget sustainability after the Treasurer Jim Chlamers responded to his first with a stinging blow on Coalition’s record as budget managers.

This time, Labor leader Anthony Albanese answered before handing over to his Treasurer to clarify his answer.

Mr O’Brien asked about the “fiscal rules” Jim Chalmers mentioned in his last answer to control spending and accused him of planning to “blow the lot” of the pre-election budget’s $8 billion upward revision in revenue.

“According to his own pre-election budget, the upward revision in revenue was $8 billion. He plans to blow the lot. Plus, another $26 billion,” Mr O’Brien said.

The PM thanked Dr Chalmers for his “great work” on the budget and accused the Coalition of following “rabbits” down “the hole which they dug year after year”.

“They managed to produce zero budget surpluses,” he said.

Dr Chalmers continued the sledging when he stood in response to Mr O’Brien’s second question.

“I’ll give you three numbers. Under this government we have banked 70 per cent of upward revision to revenue.

“Under those opposite it was about 40 under (John) Howard and (Peter) Costello about 30. We bank most of the upward revisions to revenue and they spend most of it.

“That’s why their fiscal rules in office weren’t worth the paper they were written on. Because they failed every single test they set for themselves.

“They said they’d deliver surpluses and they went zero for nine. Complete doughnuts.

“We delivered surpluses in our first two years in office. We’ve been able to make some good progress cleaning up the mess that was left to us by those opposite.

“I hope that these questions continue because when I was told that the member for Fairfax gave a speech about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I confess - that the word ‘Wonka’ was almost the word that came to mind.”

Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien has put a question to his counterpart Jim Chalmers about budget sustainability, asking when he’s going to “contain his spending spree”.

In a stern response, the Treasurer has going through a laundry list of fiscal failures of the Coalition when they were in office.

“It gives me the opportunity to remind the House that the three fiscal rules that those opposite took to the election. Number one; higher taxes, number two; bigger deficits, number three; more debt,” Dr Chalmers said.

“The dishonesty and the hypocrisy at the core of that question is astonishing even by their low standards. It shows that they have absolutely no idea and absolutely no shame.

“Now, we have fiscal rules to guide us in the budget. Those rules are to improve the budget position. We have fiscal rules in our budget and we have been complying with our fiscal rules.

“On our watch, we have turned big Liberal deficits into substantial Labor surpluses.”

Anthony Albanese has delivered a brutal take down of the Coalition after Barnaby’s private members bill to repeal net zero was debated in Parliament today.

The Prime Minister used a Dorthy Dixer to weigh in on the infighting his rival has been engulfed in over its climate policies.

He painted Labor as a party of “outcomes” and Coalition as one of “chaos”.

“We on this side of the House will continue to put forward positive policies that make a difference to people,” he started.

“Whether it is improving home ownership, improving the number of rentals, improving social and affordable housing, supporting greater rental assistance.

“We on this side of the House are focused on cost of living and housing.

“Those on that side, have Liberals fighting each other, the Nats fighting each other and the Liberals fighting the Nats.

“We on this side are fighting for Australians.

“They’re just fighting each other.”

Opposition leader Sussan Ley has delivered a scathing assessment of the government’s Economic Reform Roundtable in her second question to Parliament on Monday.

She slammed it as “Labor’s 3-day Canberra talk fest” and said it delivered “no real relief for Australians”, focusing on power and grocery prices.

The Prime Minister hit back by rolling through a long list of actions the Albanese Government were undertaking to help Australians face cost of living pressures.

It included a submission to the Fair Work Commission on minimum wages, changes to paid parental leave, the home battery scheme, paid prac for students and cutting student debt by 20 per cent.