Australia news Australia news live: Husic says Labor must show ‘it’s got steel in the spine’ on gas export tax after PM resists policy change
In a wide-ranging press conference on the sidelines of Labor’s national conference, Husic also backed an Indigenous truth-telling process and hinted he would push to strengthen the party’s criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza ahead of debate on Saturday.
Husic appeared alongside the Australia Institute co-chief executive Richard Denniss and Thomas Mayo, the assistant secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, to renew calls for a 25% tax on gas exports.
Labor conference delegates are set to vote on Thursday to update the party’s platform with a commitment to extract a “fairer return” from the nation’s resources, a set of words widely interpreted as setting an expectation that the government would eventually move to raise taxes on gas exports.
Albanese rejected that interpretation in a radio interview earlier this month, ruling out any changes in the short-term as the government focuses on shoring up fuel supplies amid the Middle East conflict.
But Husic said the government would eventually have to act, such was the groundswell of public support for the policy.
He said: Labor has a chance to be able to show, particularly to the broader public, that it’s got what it takes, that it’s got the steel in the spine to be able to make a call that’s in really the nation’s long-term interest.
A lot of Australians reckon we’ve been ripped off.
Labor can stand up, seize this moment, seize the money (and) also seize the agenda long term.
Ed Husic at a press conference on the sidelines of the Labor conference in Adelaide.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Key events 26m ago One Nation selling ‘Sitdown!’ dog leads after Barnaby Joyce yells at his dog 54m ago Husic says Labor should show ‘steel in its spine’ by raising taxes on gas exports 2h ago Rabbi details surge in antisemitism since 7 October 2h ago Rabbi says security costs and rising antisemitism forcing synagogues online 2h ago Queensland government releases designs for new Olympics aquatic centre, without costings 2h ago Unemployment rate holds steady at 4.4% 3h ago Albanese announces new Fair Work court and more super for young workers 3h ago Albanese takes swipe at One Nation: ‘None of them have anything new or positive to offer’ 3h ago PM says Australians have reasons to feel ‘the economy is simply not working for them’ 3h ago ‘If you can’t govern your dog': Malinauskas takes aim at Joyce and offers warnings for rightwing movement 3h ago Labor president warns of political ‘realignment’ happening at home and abroad 5h ago Albanese shuts down new tax on gas exports, at least in the short-term 6h ago Fog descends on Brisbane, causing flight delays and one diversion 6h ago Jim Chalmers lists seven major challenges facing the Labor party 7h ago Second teacher strike disrupts public schools in Victoria 7h ago China hits back at Penny Wong’s comments about South China Sea 8h ago Welcome Push to wind back fuel tax credits A little later today, the Labor conference will debate winding back generous fuel tax credits for miners.
There has been a push inside and outside of Labor – from the rank and file, to the unions – to cap the scheme, which refunds miners, farmers and other industries the 52.6c a litre excise applied to petrol and diesel.
Whispers had spread across the caucus that Labor would wind back some of the tax credits in the most recent budget, but that was before war broke out in the Middle East and the focus moved to securing domestic fuel supply.
The Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) has put forward an amendment to the conference to, “remove disincentives for orderly decarbonisation” – ie wind back the credits.
We’ll see what happens on the floor when the 400 delegates vote whether to include it.
But it’s also worth noting that just because it’s included in the national platform, doesn’t mean the government will have to act on it.
Danila Dilba Aboriginal Health Service CEO resigns from Child and Families partnership forum citing concerns over NT Government The Ceo of Danila Dilba Aboriginal Health Service, Rob McPhee has resigned from his role as the Independent Aboriginal Chair of the Northern Territory Children and Families Tripartite Forum.
His resignation follows the NT government’s passage of controversial child protection laws on Wednesday, which weaken the Aboriginal child placement principle in child safety decision-making.
In a statement, McPhee said he accepted the role in 2023 as a “genuine partnership” between the Northern Territory, the federal government, and the Aboriginal Community Controlled sector but he can no longer continue in the role due to a lack of “respectful and transparent collaboration”.
McPhee said: Over the past two years, it has become increasingly evident that the Northern Territory Government is not committed to genuine partnership with the Forum on significant policy and legislative reform.
He cited further concerns that the NT government’s child safety planning and governance strategies lacked meaningful consultation with the Forum.
The decision by the Northern Territory government in 2025 to discontinue the Strategy without replacing it with an alternative long-term strategy or governance framework removed the Territory’s primary mechanism for shared accountability, long-term planning and collaborative governance for children and families.
Since then, significant policy and legislative reforms have continued to be developed without meaningful engagement through the Tripartite Forum.
McPhee’s resignation follows the NT Children Commissioner quitting in protest of the child protection reforms.
One Nation has been quick to capitalise on Barnaby Joyce’s viral moment yelling at his staffy-border collie Stella to sit down on live television by, you guessed it, selling dog leads. (Joyce later apologised to Stella for “verbally assaulting” her.) The “Sitdown!
Barnaby’s Dog Leads” only just launched, and won’t arrive until August, but they have already dropped in price, from $15 down to $10.
According to DeepAI’s detector, the images promoting the leads are 97% likely to be generated using artificial intelligence.
They feature the packaging of the leads, rather than the leads themselves, accompanied by an Akubra hat and a eucalyptus leaf – famously Australian things.
The website says: Every dog owner knows the feeling.
Somewhere important to be, an audience watching and a dog who has quietly decided today is not the day for instructions.
Sometimes you just have to say it loud and clear: sit down … We figured a dog owner with that kind of conviction deserved a lead to match.
As someone who treats my Labrador like a human prince and will cater to his every whim, this is not the lead for me.
What’s happening at the Labor conference?
The Adelaide Convention Centre is abuzz, with about 3,000 people in and around the venue that is hosting Labor’s national conference.
It means that the free coffee line has about a 30-minute wait.
But there are plenty of conversations happening in the queue.
Overheard was some praise for last night’s fundraising event featuring Left Right Out, described as “parliament’s best (and only) band” – led by the leader of the house, Tony Burke.
Tickets for lobbyists went for $1,000 a pop, but we’re told that tickets for staffers were much cheaper.
Apparently the place was packed - with around 150 tickets sold.
And it’s not just journalists who are keen for a little drama at the conference, a few attendees – including MPs – were heard saying that they’re also looking forward to some of the stickier issues like fuel tax credits, gas tax and gambling.
We’re told they they played Aussie pub classic singalong songs including Khe San and Flame Trees.
Labor’s Chris Bowen, Tony Burke and Michelle Rowland at the conference.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Jim Chalmers praises economy’s ‘resilience’ amid strong job figures Jim Chalmers has hailed this morning’s strong jobs figures as evidence of the economy’s “resilience” through a period of great global turbulence.
Official figures this morning showed the unemployment rate held at 4.4% in June, alongside a much stronger than expected 76,300 monthly increase in the number of employed Australians.
The participation rate, which measures the share of people aged 15 and over in the labour force, climbed to 67% and the highest in nearly a year, which explained why the jobs surge did not translate into a lower jobless rate.
“Even in the face of all this global uncertainty and volatility, unemployment remains relatively low and more jobs are being created and that reflects the resilience of Australia’s economy and the progress we’re making together,” the treasurer said, even as he recognised that “people are under pressure” from high cost of living.
Still, economists predict unemployment will creep higher this year as the economy slows, and with inflation still running too hot, the resilient labour market will keep the Reserve Bank’s finger on the interest rate-hike trigger.
Cherelle Murphy, EY’s chief economist, said that this morning’s data “will not materially change the policy picture” for the RBA: A labour market that is only gradually cooling gives the [RBA’s] board more flexibility to keep rates higher for longer, or raise them further if needed, to tame inflation.
The next RBA rates decision is on 11 August.
The Labor MP Ed Husic says the federal government has the chance to show it has “steel in its spine” by raising taxes on gas exports – just hours after Anthony Albanese ruled out adopting the policy in the near future.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP ‘I felt I had failed as a parent’: Father details impact of swastika graffiti on family home and Bondi terror attack Former NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president, Lesli Berger, described the impact antisemitic targeted attacks have had on his family during testimony to the royal commission.
Berger recalled the shock of finding an inverted Nazi swastika graffitied on his back fence in late December 2024.
The incident left his children feeling unsafe, prompting Berger to spend tens of thousands of dollars on security camera upgrades, remove his address from public records, and lock down his social media.
It’s the symbol of hatred of the political movement that wanted the extermination of the Jewish people.
It’s the political movement that killed most of my family on my father’s side.
The emotional toll escalated during the Bondi terrorist attack at a Hanukkah event.
His two younger children, aged 16 and 12, were home alone when news of the attack broke.
Fearing their home would be targeted, the children panicked.
His son called a non-Jewish friend, whose mother immediately drove over to evacuate the teenagers to her house for safety.
Fighting back tears during his testimony, Berger said the moment made him feel like he had “failed as a parent”: He didn’t feel safe...
I couldn’t believe it.
Understanding everything that I had done to help the Jewish community... at that moment, I felt that it really was all for naught.
Berger told the commission that public discussions around antisemitism often overlook the trauma inflicted on families who are not direct victims of physical violence.
It has meant that as other high-profile antisemitic attacks have happened, we have felt it more keenly.
First witnesses at NSW Liberals corruption inquiry revealed The New South Wales corruption watchdog has revealed the witnesses who will appear in the first of at least eight weeks of hearings into allegations of corruption in the state’s Liberal party.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) will hold its first public hearings as part of Operation Rosny from Monday.
After an opening statement by counsel assisting the commission Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, the first witness will be hotelier Michael O’Hara, followed later in the week by former Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw, and Robert Assaf.
Icac is investigating the central allegation that Liberal figures or lobbyists including Assaf “solicited or accepted” donations, including from prohibited donors, in amounts which were undeclared or exceeded caps, to recruit or renew members to the party – a practice known as “branch stacking”.
As part of this, Icac is investigating donations allegedly made by O’Hara’s company Paslibdan Pty Ltd on his behalf.
Dylan Whitelaw, a former Liberal parliamentary staffer, was summonsed but did not appear before a parliamentary inquiry into allegations of branch stacking in the Hills Shire council which preceded Icac’s inquiry.
He has not been named in Icac’s allegations.
O’Hara, Assaf and Whitelaw have been contacted for comment.
Rabbi tells inquiry Zionism is being weaponised as an ‘excuse’ for antisemitism Rabbi Allison Conyer said congregants across the political spectrum, including those uninvolved in politics or critical of the Israeli government, were being targeted, isolated or “cancelled”.
Conyer recounted an interfaith dialogue event, where a participant told her the term “proud Zionist” was viewed by some as equivalent to “proud terrorist”.
Rejecting the comparison, Conyer defined Zionism as “the right for self-determination in the ancestral Jewish homeland for the Jewish people”.
She said Zionism does not mean “the eradication of the Palestinian people”, adding that her movement explicitly supports a two-state solution.
Conyer said the inquiry should reject binary frameworks that demand choosing between Israelis and Palestinians, adding that there are “plenty of passionate Zionists who are also critical of Israel”.
Rabbi Allison Conyer has detailed an “exponential” surge in antisemitism across Australian demographics since 7 October 2023, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, saying that members of her community are increasingly alienated from progressive and social justice spaces.
Speaking on the escalation of public harassment, Conyer cited accounts of drivers shouting “we’re hunting Jews” at pedestrians, swastikas painted on property and a customer telling a pharmacist “you can’t trust a Jew” while bystanders did nothing.
Conyer outlined the toll on staff and synagogues across the Union for Progressive Judaism network – a movement she said is defined by its modern interpretation of traditions, ordination of female rabbis, welcoming of interfaith families and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
Almost all progressive synagogues in the region have faced bomb threats in recent years, she said.
She recalled an example from a few weeks ago where a non-Jewish staff member answered a phone call where the caller declared “all Jews should be burned”.
Conyer expressed particular concern over hostility emerging within left-wing and social justice circles where congregants previously felt safe.
She recounted the experience of a queer congregant who felt squeezed out of inclusive spaces: In a community that’s fighting binaries, she expressed that she felt there was a binary...
Whenever she tried to express just a difference of opinion, she was shut down and cancelled.
This community that made her feel so safe now became a den of bigotry.
Conyer also pointed to a left-wing student targeted as “Zionist scum”, stating: I give these two examples because this is blatant antisemitism hiding itself and using Zionism as the excuse.
Conyer highlighted breakdown of personal relationships across Australia.
Another thing that people told me over and over again is the loss of lifelong friendships … It was so bizarre that in a political situation outside of Australia, friendships were ended.
There was no agree to disagree.
There was no distinction between the actions of the Israeli government and all of Israel and all the Jewish people.
Continued in next post Workers to paint ‘size of a typical family home’ to cover up ‘Pam the Bird’ on Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge A divisive bird in Melbourne that is art to some and vandalism to others will be no more.
‘Pam the Bird’, described by Victoria Police as a “distinct cartoon bird”, was allegedly plastered onto one of the Bolte Bridge pillars by Jack Gibson-Burrell earlier this month.
He was arrested at the base of the bridge several hours later, after a considerable police response and traffic delays.
Pam the Bird graffiti seen on the eastern pylon of the Bolte Bridge after Victoria Police arrested Jack Gibson-Burrell who graffitied the bridge in Melbourne, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
Police were called to Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge at 3am on Tuesday following reports a graffiti artist had climbed up one of the 140 metre high pillars. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP Peter Munro from Transurban told ABC Radio Melbourne this morning that work would begin today to get the graffiti cleaned off the bridge.
It’s going to be a “big job”, he said, with painting crews to climb up the 140m pylon, which will take about 40 minutes via internal stairs.
They’ll then come down on ropes to do the cleanup over two days.
It’s about 200 square metres of painting.
So to give you a better context, we’re painting an area at the size of a typical family home … It wasn’t an option to clean it off, so we actually are painting over the top of it.
The cost will be taken on by Transurban.
Asked what he would say to people arguing ‘Pam the Bird’ should be left alone, he said: Our duty is to make Melbourne look great … to make sure that we keep it clean and free from graffiti.
Graffiti seen on the eastern pylon of the Bolte Bridge in Melbourne, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
Police were called to Melbourne's Bolte Bridge at 3am on Tuesday following reports a graffiti artist had climbed up one of the 140 metre high pillars. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP Turning for a moment to the royal commission into antisemitism.
Testifying today was Rabbi Allison Conyer, of the Union for Progressive Judaism, who said routine threats are disrupting daily life across the country’s network of progressive synagogues.
She outlined the financial and operational toll security threats are taking on Australian synagogues.
“Many of our communities have received, in fact, almost all of them have received bomb threats at one point or another over the last couple of years,” Conyer told the royal commission, noting that places of worship and schools now regularly practice “evacuation and lockdown drills in case of a terrorist threat”.
The financial burden of providing physical security reaches up to $50,000 per synagogue.
Conyer said that government grant processes are onerous for volunteer-run groups, and available funding quickly runs out.
I know one of our communities in Australia – because they don’t have enough money for security – has closed having in-person Sabbath services...
And they’re only doing it online.
So it’s back to Covid again.
Rabbi Allison Conyer arrives at the Melbourne hearings of the royal commission on Thursday.
Photograph: James Ross/AAP Security presence is also taking a psychological toll on families and children, driving up to a 25% drop in enrolment at some synagogue preschools and threatening their closure, she said.
Our extracurricular activity programs, some people are nervous because they see security guards.
How do you explain to a kid why you need a security guard, someone dressed like that, yet you’re still safe.
Conyer said that a homeless service run by her synagogue lost volunteers who felt unsafe after security grant funding was denied, describing an environment where security fears continually curtail community connection.
