Australian Politics live updates: Clive Palmer lashes court after charge dropped

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We’re finishing up our live politics blog but you can keep up to date with everything on The Nightly’s website.

Australia’s biggest business lender, NAB, forecasts Australia’s jobless rate will reach 5.4 per cent by the end of 2027 which would be the worst since April 2021 during COVID lockdowns.

“The adjustment continues to reflect slower labour demand growth being outpaced by population growth,” National Australia Bank’s head of Australian economics Gareth Spence said.

Mr Spence said the lender now anticipates, much like the CBA, growth of just 1.0 per cent in 2027, down from 1.6 per cent previously.

Australia’s biggest bank has issued a dire warning over the nation’s economic growth.

Commonwealth Bank economics expert, Belina Allen, said​​ forcast growth across the country is expected to slow to just 1.0 per cent a year in the next twelve months.​​

“A weaker economy should help inflation to get back to target over the coming 18 months but the structural pressures are still acute: continued weak productivity growth, a global AI‑induced capex boom putting pressure on interest rates and/or supply shocks are keeping inflation higher for longer,” she said.

“The RBA will be on edge, and the risk remains the need for further tightening of monetary policy in 2027.”

The forecast comes amid fears economic growth won’t return to normal trending results of 2.0 per cent until the second half of the 2028 calendar year, as an all-but-certain interest rate hike is expected on Tuesday.

One Nation has pledged to bring Victoria’s finances “out of the dark” despite refusing to release its own pre-election policy costings.

Appearing alongside Pauline Hanson, state party leader Warren Pickering on Monday announced plans to track all state expenditure on a public website if elected in November.

The website would also host all cabinet documents within 30 days of their final consideration, as pledged by the minor party in October.

Mr Pickering said transparency would “no longer be optional” under his premiership.

Read the full story here.

Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has had long-running charges of aiding and abetting in a takeover bid for a timeshare resort company dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

An Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation previously alleged the billionaire breached takeover laws in a bid to gain control of The President’s Club Ltd in 2012.

Mr Palmer was charged in 2018 with aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the company to commit the offence, however, on Monday those charges were dropped.

Palmer Leisure Coolum Pty Ltd, which the billionaire was a director of, was convicted of the offence last week, and was sentenced to a fine of $10,000.

However, in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday, the CDPP said that it would “not proceed with the charge against Mr Palmer”.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr Palmer said: “These charges were a political witch hunt, a waste of time, and came at huge expense to Australian taxpayers.”

Australia’s second-biggest bank has revealed a one per cent fall in annual profit after recently cutting about 250 jobs amid an uncertain economic backdrop.

Westpac’s net profit dipped to $6.8 billion in fiscal 2026, even as net interest income - the difference between interest earned and interest paid - rose by one per cent to $19.7 billion from a year ago.

But chief executive Anthony Miller said it was a solid result for the bank, which is in the midst of a multi-year transformation program to simplify core systems, cut operating costs, and lift its engagement with artificial intelligence.

Read the full story here.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce have erupted in a fiery on-air clash over the cost of the government’s renewable energy schemes.

During a heated Sunrise interview on Monday, Joyce pressed Plibersek to reveal the cost of the government’s Capacity Investment Scheme, accusing her of failing to provide figures she had promised during an interview five weeks earlier.

“This is a great big saving we can make,” he said.

Plibersek insisted the costs of the renewable energy transition were outlined in the federal budget, pointing to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, a government-owned green bank that invests in clean energy projects.

Read the full story here.

Labor’s primary vote has plummeted to just 27 per cent - the equal-lowest level since Anthony Albanese swept to power in 2022 - as Pauline Hanson’s One Nation remains the most popular party on 28 per cent.

Analysis from Newspoll, however, also shows that Anthony Albanese remains the preferred candidate for Prime Minister at 42 per cent, when compared to Liberal leader Angus Taylor.

The Australian also reported that net approval ratings for Senator Hanson fared better than the opposition leader at just minus one, with Mr Taylor recording a minus 10.

The polling was conducted by Pyxis Polling & ­Insights against 1200 voters last week.

Nationals’ leader Matt Canavan has officially announced his tilt for the lower house —ending long speculation he is vying to take the central Queensland seat of Capricornia.

His bid for the lower house in the wake of current Nationals MP Michelle Landry’s retirement could place him in a showdown with Pauline Hanson’s chief fixer James Ashby as One Nation eyes the seat.

“The issue is we need to keep this seat to change the government, and I want us to continue to deliver for Central Queensland,” Senator Canavan told the Courier Mail on Monday.

“I don’t think you’ll be surprised by this announcement but I’m not going to die wondering. I may very well die politically, but I’m not going to die wondering. I’ll give it my all.”

Read the full story here.