News and politics live updates: Labor Premier’s dig at PM over ‘honouring commitments’ as budget handed down

Thanks for joining us.

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

In the meantime, read the latest edition of The Nightly.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says she believes allegations from Australian women of sexual assault by Israeli forces while detained as part of a flotilla trying to reach Gaza.

In a fiery Senate Estimates exchange with Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi on Thursday, Senator Wong labelled the claims by Global Sumud Flotilla activists as “horrific”.

“My principal position is to always believe women when allegations of sexual assault are made,” Senator Wong said.

“We have made our representations to Israel at Prime Minister level and at diplomatic level in relation both to treatment and in relation to Israel’s refusal to grant consular access in accordance with its international obligations.

“Those allegations are terrible, they are horrific, and that treatment is unacceptable.

“I express my empathy to those women for whom that was done.

“If you look at my career, my view is that you should believe, and I believe, women who come forward with these assertions.”

Senator Wong also questioned if Senator Faruqi had sought consent to raise the allegations, some of which she detailed, in Parliament House on Thursday.

“I feel a difficulty in responding to specific private details in a public forum like this, it’s not the way in which I would like the discussion of these awful events to be conducted,” Senator Wong said.

Senator Faruqi responded by saying “this is public information”.

Eleven Australians were among 430 flotilla participants on the vessel attempting to deliver aid to Gaza when they were intercepted and detained on May 18.

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has warned Australia’s inability to produce the goods and services the economy demands risks causing a stagflation crisis.

Australia’s productivity, based on economic output for every hour worked, plunged by 0.6 per cent in the March quarter, which was the worst result over three months since mid-2024.

Sustained poor productivity can also lead to inflation and unemployment both being high at the same time, a situation known a stagflation, which the RBA chief admitted was a problem under questioning from Nationals leader Matt Canavan, a former Productivity Commission economist.

“It depends on what you define as stagflation but what I can say is that we are seeing the trade-off between inflation and growth go the wrong way,” Ms Bullock said.

“Inflation and unemployment go the wrong way. For every level of unemployment, what we’re experiencing is higher inflation.”

Read more.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has had pointed a dig at the Prime Minister as he handed down South Australia’s budget.

“We are honouring our commitments,” he reportedly said at at the budget lock-up.

“We are not increasing taxes in a way that’s unexpected by anybody. It’s an important principle. Not politically but as a matter of policy. We’ve been working really hard as a government over the last four and a half years to attract as much outside capital into SA as possible. The one thing business want more than anything else is stability.”

Malinuaskas’ “responsible” state budget, which is weighed down by $40 billion of net debt, will deliver cost of living relief claimed to be the highest on record for South Australians.

Read more

Anthony Albanese and Christopher Luxon will travel to Noosa in Queensland this weekend for the annual Australia–New Zealand Leaders’ Meeting.

The pair are expected to discuss “economic resilience” and cooperation between the two countries during the Iran war-prompted fuel crisis.

“As new challenges emerge, Australia and New Zealand will continue to work together to safeguard the economic prosperity and national security of both countries and the Pacific region,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday.

The tropical visit comes after the New Zealand Prime Minister hosted Mr Albanese in Queenstown in August last year.

“Australia has no closer friend, neighbour and ally than New Zealand. Our relationship is built on a rich shared history and generations of cooperation,” the PM said.

“This year we are celebrating 75 years of our Alliance under the ANZUS Treaty. Our Alliance is more important than ever in the face of global uncertainty.

It will mark Mr Luxon’s third visit to Australia since becoming PM. In 2024, he travelled to Canberra for the annual meeting.

Neo-Nazi group White Australia has lost its bid for temporary immunity from hate laws passed after the Bondi terror attack which it says will render it “extinct”.

The organisation, which has been seeking to register as a political party, had asked the High Court to temporarily block its designation as a prohibited hate group.

But on Thursday, Chief Justice of the High Court Stephen Gageler dismissed White Australia’s bid for an injunction.

White Australia is also challenging the broader constitutionality of anti-hate-speech laws passed after the Bondi Beach mass shooting.

A two-day hearing on the matter is scheduled for September.

Arguing for the injunction on Thursday, White Australia’s lawyer Peter King said the organisation’s listing as a prohibited hate group would permanently shut it down.

“Unless restrained, there will be an extinction of the organisation,” he told the High Court.

Read more.

The Chair of a Senate committee has reminded participants that their microphones “remain live” after he was caught swearing during official parliamentary proceedings on Wednesday.

Labor Senator Raff Ciccone, who heads the Senate’s Foreign Affairs and Defence committee, was recorded saying: “we’re going to break for lunch and I’ll see everyone back in one hour” before whispering “thank f..k for that”.

LANGUAGE WARNING

​

​

During the opening of the committee’s hearings on Thursday, Senator Ciccone warned fellow parliamentarians and witnesses that microphones were operating at all times.

“(I’d) also like to also remind senators and witnesses in the hearing room as we discovered earlier in the week that microphones remain live at all times unless I instruct otherwise.”

“For example a suspension, adjournment or when we do break for lunch, that did obviously not happen this week,” the Chair added, prompting laughs from those in the room.

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency ASIO and its Five Eyes partners are warning that Chinese spies are offering lucrative payments to government and military personnel as they attempt to steal sensitive secrets from the US and its allies.

In a rare joint bulletin, the intelligence agencies of Australia, the UK, the US, Canada, and New Zealand said Beijing was increasingly using professional networking sites and job platforms, including LinkedIn and Indeed, to gain access to classified information.

The statement said that China’s spies “ultimately seek to acquire privileged military, political and economic intelligence that can provide China with a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes.”

Read more

We mentioned earlier that One Nation MP David Farley missed all the votes on second reading amendments to the tax bills, along with a vote on whether to move debate on to the next stage.

He started joining the ongoing divisions around midday.

Mr Farley has told this masthead he had prior meetings as part of his induction process as a new MP.

“The preceding divisions were Mickey’s. I apologise for my absence, but it is only my third day, (I’ve) swallowed my party-administered medicine,” he said.

The first of the two tax bills has now passed the lower house.

This was the core one that contains the changes to capital gains tax discounts, negative gearing, the working Australian tax offset and the standard deduction.

MPs are now voting on amendments to a secondary bill that makes changes to tax rates to impose the 30 per cent minimum on the taxable portion of capital gains.