Australia news live: Labor and Greens condemn One Nation senators for turning backs on acknowledgments of country | Australia news

Luca Ittimani

No rate cut in July even if RBA had known about jobless jump, Michelle Bullock says

The Reserve Bank wouldn’t have cut interest rates this month even if it knew the unemployment rate was going to jump, the RBA governor has said.

The central bank’s policy board left interest rates on hold in early July, citing Australia’s strong jobs market as a factor against a third cut for 2025. June data released just over a week later showed the jobs market was weakening and an extra 33,600 people had become unemployed.

The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, told the Australian Business Economists lunch the board would not have done anything differently and the central bank had expected the jobless rate to pick up over 2025.

The June data’s lift from 4.1% to 4.3% surprised markets and economists and exceeded the RBA’s forecast for a 4.2% rate by June.

Bullock instead framed the lift as being in line with the bank’s forecast over the three months to June while downplaying the importance of slight decimal point increases. She told reporters:

If you go back a year, I think in July 24 the monthly number popped up from 4.1 … to 4.2 and everyone went [gasps theatrically] and then settled around 4.1 so monthly numbers jump around.

In her speech preceding the comments, Bullock said the RBA still thought the jobs market was a little too strong, which would risk resurgent inflation, but expected it to ease back without much more of a lift in unemployment.

You can read about the whole speech here:

Patrick Commins

Chris Bowen to host climate and energy round tables

Chris Bowen says he will host climate and energy round tables to feed into the main economic reform summit in late August.

The climate change and energy minister said he was “confident” the country was on track to achieve the 43% emissions reduction goal by 2030, and that the government was working towards announcing the 2035 target by September.

Bowen, in an interview with The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan, called the shift to green energy “the biggest economic transition our country has undertaken”. He gave an 8 August date, adding:

I’ll be holding two round tables, one on electricity and one on climate adaptation, which is going to be an increasing focus of this government and future governments.

Bowen also slammed calls this week by Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack to scrap Australia’s net zero targets. He said a net zero target was “a basic bare minimum of action” in order to “avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change”, noting:

To be debating net zero 2050 in Australia this year is like debating whether the sun should come up. It’s the most basic framework.

The minister said a decision on whether Adelaide would host the 2026 UN climate change conference (or Cop) would likely happen in November at the next conference, but that Australia had more votes than the other contender, Turkey.

Thanks to Krishani for her blog stewardship today! Nick Visser here to take you through Afternoon Briefing, and all things beef.

Krishani Dhanji

Thank you for joining me on the blog today, I will leave you with the wonderful Nick Visser for the rest of the day’s news.

TLDR: here’s what happened in question time today:

• The opposition started its line of questioning on why the PM hasn’t met with Donald Trump. They then, like yesterday, went on the attack over the government’s super tax bill.

• The deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, denied Australia is supplying Israel with weapons, in answer to a question from the independent MP Helen Haines.

• The government’s dixers were heavily wage focused, given they introduced legislation to enshrine penalty rates.

• And Liberal MP Scott Buchholz was the first member to be booted out of question time in the new parliament.

Sarah Basford Canales

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price tells Senate she is ‘sick to death’ of acknowledgments of country

Liberal senator and former shadow Indigenous affairs minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price stands to offer her contribution on the matter.

Price supports Hanson’s statements, adding she’s “sick to death” of the statements.

If you speak up against it, if you mention it, you are painted as a racist, or somebody who is a coconut or somebody who is a traitor. Imagine if we treated every single racial group in this manner in this country.

It’s horrendous, and it begins with the virtue signalling, the politicisation of a group of people in this country because of our racial heritage, and I’m sick to death of it as a woman, as a mother, as soon to be a grandmother, and as an Australian of proud heritage, whether it’s my convict ancestors or it’s my Warlpiri ancestors, I’m proud of it all.

With a final dixer on cost of living to the PM, question time wraps for the day, and the week.

PM says $4.8bn deal made to provide infrastructure funding for NSW public schools

The independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le, gets the next crossbench question, and asks why a school like Bonnyrigg public school, in her electorate, was rejected from receiving some infrastructure funding.

Anthony Albanese says public school infrastructure is funded by the state government and the commonwealth recently signed a deal with NSW which will provide an extra $4.8bn for NSW public schools.

The additional $4.8 billion overwhelmingly will go towards disadvantaged communities and toward schools where students may need the additional dollars for additional tutoring, for small class sizes, one-on-one education and small groups. It would also provide for additional resources in terms of teaching.

Labor and Greens condemn One Nation senators for turning backs on acknowledgments of country

Sarah Basford Canales

In the Senate, after Malarndirri McCarthy delivers her statement, Pauline Hanson responds, but not before half of the Labor benches vacate the chamber.

Hanson makes a number of claims but her key point is that welcome to country and acknowledge of country statements are divisive – a claim similar to those raised by the no campaign in the lead-up to the referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament.

Hanson says:

We don’t want this division in our nation. So it’s the steps that I’ve taken to speak up on behalf of those Australian people that don’t want this division. I don’t want to do have to do this –

As the One Nation leader states she doesn’t want to have to “do this”, the Greens senators say in chorus: “Don’t do it then.”

The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, stands up to condemn Hanson and her party colleagues for their actions.

Well, it’s a bit rich to get a lecture on First Nations culture from the likes of Senator Hanson and it’s also a bit rich to get a lecture about not wanting division from the likes of One Nation, it is not welcome to countries and acknowledgment of countries that is dividing the nation. It’s racism.

Assistant treasurer says super tax change will affect just 0.5% of superannuation members

Back to the house, where Ted O’Brien is up and asks the assistant treasurer:

On the 19 May, the assistant treasurer said around 10% of taxpayers will be hit by the Labor unfair super tax.

Can the assistant treasurer confirm to the house that his publicly announced 10% figure will mean at least 1.2 million Australians will be impacted by the Labor super tax?

Daniel Mulino says the policy only applies to 0.5% of superannuation members.

He then launches into an attack on the opposition for not indexing their lowering of the division 293 tax. This is an extra 15¢ in the dollar levied on super contributions of high income earners. In 2019 the opposition lowered the threshold from $300,000 to $250,000 which it didn’t index.

The opposition lodges a point of order, and Milton Dick says Mulino shouldn’t be talking about another policy that he wasn’t specifically asked about, and tells him to be relevant.

Mulino ends his response saying:

The point that I make is that there are a range of thresholds in our tax system, and what we see in our tax system is that the thresholds are reviewed from time to time. And that there was a threshold in a superannuation system that was introduced by those opposite, that was not indexed.

You can read economics editor Patrick Commins’s take on the super tax changes here:

Sarah Basford Canales

One Nation members turning backs to acknowledgment of country are ‘incredibly childish’, Indigenous affairs minister says

Heading over to the Senate for a moment, the Indigenous affairs minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, has criticised the “incredibly childish stunts” of One Nation senators who have been turning their back to acknowledgment of country statements this week in parliament.

Following Senate question time on Thursday, McCarthy delivered the statement while the minor party’s four senators watched from the crossbench.

These senators aren’t required to be in the Senate for the acknowledgment of country. In fact, they haven’t been, in the past, but they do now, whether it is for attention or for clickbait, whether it is to court offence, whether it is to stoke division, these senators have made a deliberate decision to disrespect First Nations Australians. You’d think that they would have learned lessons from the election, president. You’d think that they’d have heard the clear message from the Australian people in May. The politics of culture wars were rejected. The politics of disrespect and nastiness were rejected.

McCarthy continued:

I urge all senators to remember who you work beside, who you walk with, and even when we disagree, we have a chamber here where we can discuss in a manner that is far more respectful than we’ve seen In these previous days.

Independent MP Wilkie asks whether NDIS cuts will jeopardise access to support

The next crossbench question goes to Andrew Wilkie, who asks the NDIS minister about concerns over changes in payments for allied health professionals and cuts to payment rates for travel to regional areas. Wilkie says this could risk the access of support for people in rural and regional communities.

Mark Butler, the minister for health and the national disability insurance scheme, says:

The principal objective is that every participant gets the best possible value for money for their plan …

I stress this was an independent decision of an independent board, but it is one I support.

Butler says that in Tasmania, where Wilkie is from, there are still remote loadings in areas including Swansea and Queenstown that attract a 40% loading, and King Island, which he says attracts a 50% loading.

Chalmers says Coalition in ‘nuclear meltdown’ over net zero while defending super tax changes

In answering the question, Jim Chalmers takes a swipe at Ted O’Brien, and says the Coalition are in a “nuclear meltdown” over net zero policy.

Continuing along, Chalmers gives some more familiar lines about the government wanting to strengthen superannuation, and make the concessions more sustainable.

He reminds everyone that we’ve been talking about this legislation for more than two years.

The reason these changes are so important is because we need to make sure that the generous concessional treatment for super is sustainable. And that is why we announced this change 2.5 years ago, there’s been election between then and now.

Chalmers twists the knife after Liberal MP Scott Buchholz booted from question time

We’re back to the superannuation tax … The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, asks Jim Chalmers about reports in the Australian that some Labor MPs “hate the principle” of taxing unrealised gains.

There’s a bit of back and forth on the question and whether an MP can refer to an unknown individual.

But before Chalmers can start again, we get our first eviction from question time!

It’s Liberal MP Scott Buchholz who gets booted by Milton Dick.

Chalmers twists the knife and says “nobody knew he was on the frontbench until you asked him to leave it”.

Collins warns Littleproud against ‘undermining’ biosecurity after question on US beef imports

David Littleproud has the next opposition question, and asks if the agriculture minister can confirm that Australia’s biosecurity requirements to import US beef will be at least the equivalent of biosecurity requirements in the US to import Australian beef.

Julie Collins says the process has been done in the “usual way” and says the opposition needs to be careful about not “undermining” Australia’s biosecurity system.

That gets a huge and loud reaction from the opposition benches.

Collins says:

I would say to the member opposite that has been done in the usual way, the department has published the review on website today in the usual way, the input details required for importers will be published on the website and provided on Monday in the usual way …

So the member opposite needs to be very careful about trying to undermine Australia’s biosecurity system.

Milton Dick interjects while the shouts continue from the opposition, but when he asks if Collins wants to continue, she sits down.

More detail on the decision to lift the ban here: