Figures revealed in modelling commissioned by independent MP Monique Ryan. Follow the day’s news live
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11m agoHastie says Australia will be ‘supplicant state’ without US AI deal
39m ago‘Fierce intellect, integrity, compassion’: first female high court justice, Mary Gaudron remembered
46m agoVictorian premier vows ‘no more buck passing’ after motorcyclist’s pothole death
1h agoHanson’s comments on Albanese’s mum ‘completely inappropriate’: Taylor
1h agoWhat’s in One Nation’s migration policy?
2h agoPensioners to pay for half of Labor's $3bn private health savings
2h agoJoyce stands by Hanson’s comments disparaging Albanese’s mother
3h agoOne Nation reveals ‘net-negative’ migration policy
4h agoBumper weekend for auctions
4h agoLabor announces $300m grants for crisis accommodation
4h agoSave $5,000 by electrifying, organisations say
Modelling by the parliamentary budget office shows half the expected $3bn in savings to reduce the private health insurance rebate to over 65s will be paid for by pensioners.
The figures, commissioned by independent MP and doctor Monique Ryan, found that $1.6bn of the total budget savings would be met by the nearly 1.5 million age pensioners who hold private health insurance.
Private Healthcare Australia some retirees will face health insurance cost increases of more than $1,600 per year, but Labor says it only expects private health insurance for over 65s to increase by up to $250 a year and see 44,000 abandon their cover.
The PBO has confirmed what older Australians and the private health sector have feared: these cuts will disproportionately affect those least able to afford them. After paying taxes throughout their working lives and maintaining private health insurance to meet their health needs as they age, age pension recipients will bear the brunt of the government’s changes.
The PBO has confirmed what older Australians and the private health sector have feared: these cuts will disproportionately affect those least able to afford them.
After paying taxes throughout their working lives and maintaining private health insurance to meet their health needs as they age, age pension recipients will bear the brunt of the government’s changes.
Andrew Hastie has claimed Australia will become a “supplicant state” if it doesn’t make a deal with the US to get its frontier AI, suggesting the Aukus military agreement could be a suitable path.
The shadow industry minister told the Sydney Dialogue the US government’s shutdown of access to Claude Mythos in June showed Australia could be held hostage if it didn’t get local AI capacity. He said:
Without a sovereign AI frontier model here in Australia, we are going to be a supplicant state, not a sovereign state … People think it’s making memes on ChatGPT. We’re talking about the global order being changed and Australia falling behind.
Hastie said Australia was far behind in the race for development so should look to make a deal with the US as it makes its AI “arms race” against China.
We need to work on a way to get a hyperscaler down under, or multiple hyperscalers to invest in sovereign capability, the same way Ford and General Motors did 100 years ago … I think working with the United States, through Aukus if we want to use that frame, is the pathway.
He said such an outcome would be a “balancing act” as Australia would not have “complete control” but said the country could bring its policy settings to bear on the businesses that agreed to set up here. He cited a former Labor prime minister’s argument.
I think Dr Kevin Rudd was exactly right last week when he said … industry policy is now the norm not the exception … Ditch the orthodoxies of the last 40 years and wake up to the reality that is now shaping our world.
Greens call for debate on frontier AI models that ‘may make us extinct’
The Greens have gone from zero to a hundred in the Senate this morning, immediately moving to suspend standing orders to push the government to debate and legislate safety testing and transparency on frontier AI systems that could make us go extinct.
Senator David Shoebridge is moving the motion which also calls for the government to push for a global treaty on AI regulation with middle powers, including Canada, Singapore and France.
He tells the Senate the government could legislate an “ethical AI industry” that constrains the frontier model.
This morning Sam Altman and Elon Musk called for the sector to pump the breaks on “reckless” AI development
I’ll tell you what the Greens think we should be talking about, not the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill, but the fact that major players from the AI industry across the world are saying we need to slow down development of frontier models because it may make us extinct … I can’t believe anyone would vote against this motion, and I can’t believe Labor would say ‘no we don’t want to deal with an extinction risk’.
I’ll tell you what the Greens think we should be talking about, not the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill, but the fact that major players from the AI industry across the world are saying we need to slow down development of frontier models because it may make us extinct …
I can’t believe anyone would vote against this motion, and I can’t believe Labor would say ‘no we don’t want to deal with an extinction risk’.
Mary Gaudron, Australia’s first female justice of the high court of Australia, has been remembered as a woman who broke down barriers for women across Australia, for her intellect and courage.
In a social media post, the governor general, Sam Mostyn, wrote Gaudron’s distinguished career “transformed Australia’s legal landscape”.
From her upbringing in Moree NSW to her advocacy for equal pay and her distinguished service on the nation’s highest court, Justice Gaudron brought her fierce intellect, integrity, compassion and a deep commitment to justice to every role she held.
The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, also paid tribute to Gaudron on social media this morning:
Mary Gaudron changed Australia’s legal landscape. She fought for equal pay, broke down barriers for women in law and public service, and went on to become the first woman appointed to the High Court of Australia. Her intellect, integrity and courage made our country fairer and opened doors for generations of women who followed.
Victorians right to question ‘bang for our buck’ on road maintenance: Carroll
Following from our last post …
In the 50km zone around where the motorcyclist’s crash occurred, the road condition deteriorated from 1% poor or very poor in 2022 to 44% in poor or very poor condition in 2024.
Ben Carroll was pressed on how the Victorian government had let this occur. He said:
We have had a range of climatic events. We have bigger, heavier trucks travelling on our road network more than ever before. Having said that, business as usual on our roads and road resurfacing has not worked … That is why you look at the example in Western Australia, they brought road maintenance back inside of government after it was outsourced, and that has seen a vastly bigger improvement …
Carroll said the state government had invested $1bn into road maintenance and road resurfacing every year and that Victorians were right to question whether they were getting the “best bang for our buck”.
The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, was on ABC Radio Melbourne, following the death of a motorcyclist after hitting a pothole.
The 71-year-old Ballarat man was killed after striking the pothole and losing control of his bike on the Western Highway at Trawalla, near Ballarat, on Sunday.
Potholes had already emerged as a key political issue ahead of the November election, but this death has only heaped further pressure on Carroll. He told host Mary Gearin the death was a “tragedy”.
The buck does stop with us. I’ve made it very clear there cannot be any more buck passing on road maintenance. That’s why I have said, under my government, it was outsourced in the mid-1990s, I’m going to bring road maintenance back inside of government.
Property developer Jean Nassif to appear before NSW Icac
Property developer Jean Nassif is expected to appear before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) via video link from Lebanon this afternoon.
Nassif, who withdrew from a scheduled appearance on 4 September after providing a medical certificate, left Australia for Lebanon in 2022 after an investigation found dozens of defects in three separate residential developments constructed by his company Toplace.
As part of its investigation into allegations against people associated with the NSW Liberals, Icac is examining the allegation that Liberal figures anticipated receiving $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif in exchange for political outcomes, including damage to the career of NSW Liberal minister, David Elliott, and the removal of the building commissioner, David Chandler.
In June 2023, NSW police issued an arrest warrant for Nassif in relation to allegations of financial wrongdoing and “large-scale fraud” at Toplace, but he has never been charged.
Earlier this month, his daughter, Ashlyn Nassif, avoided jail time after pleading guilty in June to providing false or misleading information, the court heard she was under pressure from her father, to obtain a $150m construction loan.
He has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Angus Taylor says Pauline Hanson should apologise to Anthony Albanese over her comments criticising his mother for living in public housing for several decades.
The comments were from a podcast episode that aired in February.
Taylor tells reporters that the comments were “completely inappropriate”:
Taylor: Oh, they were inappropriate. Family should be off limits when it comes to politics. Reporter: Should she apologise? Taylor: It’s very simple and she should. She should, absolutely. I mean, family should be off limits. And they were completely inappropriate comments.
Taylor: Oh, they were inappropriate. Family should be off limits when it comes to politics.
Reporter: Should she apologise?
Taylor: It’s very simple and she should. She should, absolutely. I mean, family should be off limits. And they were completely inappropriate comments.
Taylor asks for a please-explain on One Nation’s migration policy
Angus Taylor says Pauline Hanson, Barnaby Joyce and David Farley need to explain their own migration policy, because he, for one, doesn’t understand it.
But he seems to want to avoid criticising it as hard as some of his colleagues.
At a press conference just outside Canberra, Taylor is asked multiple times what he thinks about the policy and says there are plenty of questions that remain unanswered.
But his deputy, Jane Hume, who’s standing next to him, this morning said that the policy would sent the country into recession.
Well, I don’t know what the need of overseas migration numbers are [that] they proposing. Well, they’re not, the numbers are not there year by year. What is it going to do to the overseas migration? And what does that mean for a publican in Tamworth, a farmer in Narrandera or Griffith? And what does that mean for a builder in Ipswich?
One Nation says its policy will lead to “net-negative” overseas migration for the first three years, after which the Nom will stay at 130,000.
The headline is that there will be net-negative migration for three years, with 750,000 temporary visas cut – primarily international students and the families of skilled visa holders.
Pauline Hanson says universities will get a share of up to 100,000 international students each year, while graduate visas, which allow international students to temporarily remain and work in Australia will be cut down to 20,000 and be valid for only 18 months.
To provide a little context, more than 370,000 international student visas were issued by the government in the financial year 2024-25.
Hanson is also proposing a new “high-value” study visa for PhD and select postgrad research students, which would allow them to bring dependents or family.
For temporary skilled workers, family members will now be banned from getting visas with a skilled worker, while existing family members will be allowed to remain until their visa expires, which won’t be renewed. The party says this will drop the number of temporary skilled visas – including their family members – from more than 260,000 to 160,000 over three years.
Hanson says the regions won’t be affected because existing backpacker and Palm scheme visas won’t change.
Labor MP says Anthropic and OpenAI calls should be met with scepticism
Australia’s assistant technology minister has urged scepticism of AI companies’ calls for a pause on development.
Anthropic’s chief has warned AI bots could swarm the internet within a year and his calls to “slow the pace” of AI development gained support from the head of OpenAI and Elon Musk, in a rare show of unity.
Andrew Charlton, assistant technology minister, has told the Sydney Dialogue summit not to focus on companies’ public commentary given their “extremely strong financial incentives” to maintain the trajectory of development. He said:
I am not in favour of leaving it to the companies and I’m not in favour of leaving it to the superpowers … I take that at face value but I don’t think we should care very much about what individual chief executives say or what individual executives claim they want to happen. I think we should care about what is actually happening.
Charlton recently went to a G20 meeting on AI and said safety and responsible use was a “big topic of conversation” among Australia’s economic partners.
He said Australia was not setting AI safety measures in response to one forecast of AI ability but to address a range of possible outcomes, including some “extremely dangerous” scenarios.
