Australia news live: teal maintains lead as Bradfield recount nears end; Labor launches motion to oust Tasmanian premier | Australia news

A loss by Gisele Kapterian would mean shadow ministry reshuffle

Opposition leader Sussan Ley will need to reshuffle her shadow ministry already if Boele is declared the winner of Bradfield later today.

Ley tapped Gisele Kapterian as the shadow assistant minister for technology and the digital economy last week, with an asterisk by her name. That qualifier could soon be activated.

Read more about the new shadow ministry here:

Brittany Higgins moves to PR job

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has announced she is taking on a new role with a public relations agency.

Higgins wrote on her Instagram account:

I’m so excited to be the new director of public affairs for the female-founded public relations agency Third Hemisphere.

It was so personally important to me that wherever I ended up working had values that aligned with my own.

To be in a workplace run by a fellow survivor, a working mum and someone who fundamentally believes in the importance of corporate social responsibility is a dream come true.

Australian economy grew just 0.2% in first quarter of 2025

Patrick Commins

The economy has had an underwhelming start to the year, with growth slowing to just 0.2% in the first three months of 2025, versus 0.6% in the previous quarter.

Annual growth was steady at 1.3%, the new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

Katherine Keenan, the ABS’s head of national accounts, said “economic growth was soft in the March quarter”.

GDP per capita fell 0.2% in the three months to March, after a 0.1% rise in the December quarter. Keenan said:

Public spending recorded the largest detraction from growth since the September quarter 2017.

Extreme weather events reduced domestic final demand and exports. Weather impacts were particularly evident in mining, tourism and shipping.

Cyclone Alfred, the first cyclone to hit south-east Queensland in 50 years, and associated flooding, weighed on economic activity through the three months to March.

Treasury has estimated that natural disasters through the first half of 2025 will deliver a $2.2bn blow to the economy, concentrated in the first quarter of the year.

Donald Trump’s aggressive trade tariffs continue to reverberate around the world, with the Reserve Bank flagging the heightened uncertainty over the outlook as a major factor in its decision to cut interest rates.

Kevin Bonham just said there’s only one “tiny” booth left to count in the recount for the NSW seat of Bradfield. The margin remains at 27 in Boele’s favour. Bonham said on his blog:

Not sure if there is anything else to come after that or if we could be getting a statement that the recount has finished soon.

Rockliff says the day ‘might not end well for me’

Jeremy Rockliff just appeared to acknowledge to colleagues that the numbers may be against him today if the opposition leader’s motion secures the 18 votes needed. He said:

I will fight for my last breath to ensure that we remain in government and to ensure that we continue delivering for the people of Tasmania. I will fight to my last breath. …

This day, it might not end well for me, but this day will define you.

Tasmania’s premier calls Dean Winter ‘weak leader’, ‘reckless’ over no-confidence motion

Tasmania premier Jeremy Rockliff is speaking before parliament amid a motion of no-confidence, attacking the effort led by the opposition leader Dean Winter. Rockliff just said:

I, hand on heart, can say to you that I have fought more for vulnerable people in this place than the Labor party could ever dream of. …

You demonstrated by your reckless behaviour today and your weak leadership decided that you are more important than Tasmanians.

Rockliff went on to say Winter’s move had put “so much at risk”.

Do you have any questions about politics this week?

Back to Back Barries is Guardian Australia’s political analysis podcast. Each week, veteran political journalist Barrie Cassidy and former Liberal adviser and pollster Tony Barry pull apart the spin behind the strategies.

And they want to hear from you. Send your politics questions to back2backbarries@theguardian.com and they’ll pick some to answer on this week’s episode.

Tasmania premier says no-confidence vote will force state to early election

Tasmania’s premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said yesterday the no-confidence motion would force the state to an early election. He wrote on Facebook last night:

An election just over 12 months since the last one. That’s the last thing Tasmania needs. That’s the last thing Tasmanians want. …

That’s not leadership. That’s an obsessive desire for power at any cost. Tasmania deserves better.

Tornado formed over WA yesterday

A tornado flipped a car and caused some minor damage in Western Australia yesterday. The ABC reports the weather event – which the BoM called a “coldie” – formed from a thunderstorm and caused havoc for about two minutes on Tuesday afternoon. Angeline Prasad, a forecaster for the BoM, told the ABC:

They don’t last for long, usually just a few minutes [and are] usually associated with quite vigorous thunderstorms.

Check out the video, filmed by Nathan Macgregor, below:

An update on Bradfield: Boele still up by 27 votes as recount nears end

As we reported here yesterday, the recount in Bradfield could be finalised sometime today or tomorrow. Independent Nicolette Boele is currently up by 27 votes over Liberal Gisele Kapterian, per the AEC.

Election-watcher Kevin Bonham noted last night there were just three booths remaining in the recount, two of them tiny.

An incredible new study says a population of sulphur-crested cockatoos in western Sydney have begun drinking from twist-handled public drinking fountains. Researchers published their findings in the journal Biology Letters:

Successful operation requires a coordinated sequence of actions, with only 41% of observed attempts ending in success …

To our knowledge, this behaviour has not been observed elsewhere. Altogether, this suggests that this drinking innovation has spread to form a new urban-adapted local tradition.

Cockatoos have already been observed lifting household bin lids to access food, a behaviour that has spread across southern Sydney.

Dean Winter stands to move no-confidence motion over ‘direction that this premier is taking us’

The Tasmanian opposition leader, Dean Winter, just stood before state parliament to move his no-confidence motion. Winter said:

The house has had deep concerns about the direction that this premier is taking us.

The instability of this government is the fault of one person, the premier of Tasmania. Now, the house has already let its views be known publicly and yet the premier still sits here. The debate is very important today.

Some math on Tasmania’s no-confidence vote

The numbers against Tasmania premier Jeremy Rockliff don’t look good. Opposition leader Dean Winter needs 18 votes to succeed.

Labor has 10 seats and secured the support of three crossbenchers yesterday. With the Greens support this morning and its five seats, that adds up to 18.

Raelene Cooper says Dorinda Cox has ‘done nothing for grassroots Aboriginal communities’

Raelene Cooper, a founder of Save our Songlines and a former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, said “good riddance” to former Greens senator Dorinda Cox after the latter defected to Labor this week.

Cooper, a Mardathoonera woman, had harsh words for Cox after the Albanese government gave a green light to Woodside’s extension of the North West Shelf gas project to 2070. Unesco recently deferred a decision to add an ancient rock art site in Western Australia to the world heritage list unless fossil fuel developments are stopped in the area.

Cooper said in a statement:

Senator Dorinda Cox has done nothing for grassroots Aboriginal communities or to help us protect Murujuga except put out lots of media statements that she walked away from as soon as she jumped ship to the government.

She has clearly realised that her only hope of political survival is to leave the Greens … and run to the government she has spent the past three years attacking.

Cooper went on to say Cox did not speak for the “traditional custodians of Murujuga, for Aboriginal people or for Western Australia”.

She and this government deserve each other – good riddance.

Dean Winter says Tasmanian premier’s minority government has ‘collapsed’, no-confidence motion at 10am

Dean Winter, the leader of the opposition in Tasmania, said he will move a motion of no-confidence against Jeremy Rockliff at 10am, saying the “deals the premier struck for minority government after the last election have collapsed”. Winter said in a statement:

Three independent members of the crossbench have lost confidence in the Premier due to his financial mismanagement, his appalling handling of the Spirit of Tasmania project, and his plan to privatise Tasmania’s most precious assets.

And the State Budget confirmed Tasmania would never get the change it needs under this Premier.

I confirm I will be moving a motion of no confidence at 10 am.

Rosalie Woodruff, leader of the Tasmanian Greens, will support a motion of no-confidence in premier Jeremy Rockliff’s leadership. She wrote on X:

I have spoken to the Leader of the Opposition Dean Winter and informed him that the Greens will support Labor’s motion of No Confidence in Jeremy Rockliff’s leadership.

I have informed the Premier.

Jonathan Barrett

Regulator sues Rams claiming widespread misconduct

The corporate regulator is suing Westpac-owned mortgage provider Rams Financial Group over allegations it engaged in “systemic misconduct” in arranging home loans.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleges in a statement that Rams failed to supervise its representatives properly and failed to have adequate policies and procedures in place.

Some of the alleged misconduct includes Rams franchise staff submitting false payslips from nonexistent employers and altering customers’ liabilities and expenses to help them qualify for home loans. In one example, a Rams worker allegedly manufactured a fake contract of sale for a home.

The ASIC deputy chair, Sarah Court, claimed:

This is a systemic organisational governance failure by Rams who did not adequately supervise its franchise network.

Rams allowed years of unlawful conduct to occur across its franchises, creating the opportunity for loans to be provided to customers who otherwise may not have qualified for those loans, and thereby increasing commissions earned by Rams franchisees.

ASIC has started civil penalty proceedings in the federal court against Rams, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Westpac.

Westpac said in a statement Rams would cooperate with ASIC to resolve the proceedings as quickly as possible.

Westpac said after a review of the business, the Rams business was closed to new home loan applications from 6 August 2024.

Natasha May

Second man charged after alleged murder in Sydney’s south-west

A second man has been charged following an investigation into the alleged murder of a man in Sydney’s south-west on Monday. Police allege the victim, 29, had stab wounds to his neck.

Police are yet to formally identify the man found in a Croydon Park home but said he is a Malaysian national.

As reported in the blog yesterday, a 32-year-old man was charged with murder on Tuesday and remains before the courts.

Later Tuesday evening about 6.50pm, police arrested a 36-year-old man following extensive inquiries and an appeal for public information. He has since been charged with concealing a serious indictable offence. He will appear before the courts today.