Australian news and politics live: Chalmers defends tax changes amid warning younger investors could pay more

Labor can withstand the “near-term political cost” of the 2026 federal budget if it means fighting intergenerational inequity, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says as a leading finance peak body warns younger investors could pay tens of thousands more in tax over the next two decades.

Fronting an investors forum in Sydney on Tuesday, Mr Chalmers said the government wanted “to make sure we get these longer-term settings right” on capital gains, trusts and negative gearing.

“We’ve deliberately decided to take on some of these difficult economic reforms to seek the economic benefit and the intergenerational benefit, even though it has come at a near-term political cost for the government,” he told the Bloomberg Forum for Investment Managers.

Under current rules, investors get a 50 per cent discount on an asset they buy when they hold it for more than 12 months.

That means they are only taxed on 50 per cent of the profit they make.

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Anthony Albanese has come under fire after dismissing concerns about his government’s handling of surging domestic violence and murders of women.

Former Home and Away star Christie Hayes blasted Mr Albanese for his “tone-deaf” comments made during an interview on her breakfast radio show for Hit 100.9 in Hobart.

“What’s your government doing to make serious change in this country so that we eradicate this violence against women?” Hayes began by asking the Prime Minister during Monday’s pre-recorded exchange.

After Mr Albanese said he was throwing ‘everything’ at the problem, the on-air exchange took a very heated turn, with the radio host raising The Red Heart Movement’s petition for a Royal Commission into the killing of Australian women and girls, which has received more 90,000 signatures in support.

Mr Albanese responded dismissively: “There’s calls for a royal commission about everything…” but Hayes fired back: “Well, I think deaths of women is pretty paramount. Wouldn’t you say?”

“They are,” Mr Albanese responded.

“But you have to work out what a royal commission is going to do besides fund lawyers,” Mr Albanese said.

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The senior Bureau of Meteorology executive responsible for overseeing the agency during its troubled $96 million website overhaul has resigned, months after the rollout sparked widespread criticism and user disruption.

Dr Peter Stone, who served as the bureau’s chief customer officer and previously stepped in as acting chief executive, will formally exit the organisation early next year.

He will cease active duties at the end of June before taking extended leave. Stone has been with the bureau since July 2017.

His departure follows a difficult period for the agency, which faced backlash after launching a redesigned website during severe storms across southeastern Australia.

The update left many users, including farmers and fishers who rely on real-time weather data, struggling to navigate the platform.

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One of Australia’s worst diphtheria outbreaks has spread across three states amid fears the respiratory disease has claimed a life in an outback community.

The National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System reports 133 notifications of the disease in the Northern Territory since the outbreak began in March.

It has since spread to Western Australia where 79 cases have been reported plus another six in South Australia and up to five in Queensland.

NT health authorities are also awaiting results from an autopsy report about a possible diphtheria-related death in a remote territory community.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler described it as the biggest diphtheria outbreak in Australia for decades.

“There’s no question this is serious”, he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

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Planned upgrades for Australia’s Collins-class submarines to extend their service life will be dramatically wound back, with not all six of the ageing boats to receive new motors and engines before they’re eventually replaced by a nuclear-powered fleet.

The defence minister has announced the government will instead pursue an “enhanced sustainment” approach where HMAS Farncomb, one of the oldest boats, will begin a “Life of Type Extension” within days, before other submarines are individually assessed.

The LOTE program will begin at the end of the month and cost $11 billion for the entire Collins fleet but will instead use a conditions-based approach assessing each individual submarine.

“This will see a pivot in our approach that reduces risk, upgrades capability and maximises availability for the Navy. We will prioritise sustainment and accelerate upgrades for the fleet’s youngest submarines.” Richard Marles said.

“The program will reduce engineering risk by sustaining existing systems where appropriate while continuing to upgrade critical capabilities, including weapons and combat systems.”

“It has the transition to our future fleet of conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines as a key consideration,” Mr Marles told his Melbourne audience.

Under the massive AUKUS endeavour, Australia is hoping to extend the life of its Collins-class fleet, which began entering service 30 years ago, by another decade before the Navy transitions to Virginia-class nuclear boats from the United States in the 2030s.

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The Australian share market has bounced from a seven-week low after US President Donald Trump postponed new strikes on Iran.

At midday on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 66.7 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 8,572.0, while the broader All Ordinaries had climbed 66.9 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 8,802.3.

In Washington, Mr Trump said he had shelved plans for a “scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow” after appeals from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Domestically, consumer sentiment has ticked up as a spike in fuel prices eased, according to two long-running surveys conducted by ANZ and Westpac that were released separately on Tuesday, but overall consumers remained deeply pessimistic.

Nine of the ASX’s 11 sectors were higher at midday, with materials and technology both a little more than one per cent.

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Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan has blasted his own party for blaming Australia’s economic woes on migrants, warning that the rhetoric risks alienating voters.

Angus Taylor last week announced a Coalition government would strip millions of permanent residents of welfare payments, including JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.

Speaking to ABC’s Radio National on Tuesday, Senator McLachlan said the party’s use of terms such as “mass migration” stoked unnecessary division and was not reflective of core Liberal Party values.

“I think the use of the (term) ‘mass migration’ is not acceptable. It creates anxiety and fear in the community,” he said.

“That is not the Liberal way. We are a party of the centre-right that was founded on core foundations of care for the individual and wanting them to meet their aspirations, and that includes compassion and humility.”

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been mocked with memes made by small business owners across the country, who are slamming changes to the Capital Gains Tax in the Federal Budget.

Mr Albanese has been widely re-imagined in AI-generated posts as a “new business partner” in Australian businesses, a jab at Labor’s controversial changes to capital gains tax (CGT), despite earlier assurances no such reforms were planned.

Under the new policy, a revised indexation method and the removal of the longstanding 50 per cent CGT discount could see high-performing business owners taxed up to 47 per cent when selling their companies, fuelling anger across the sector.

When asked about the viral memes and tax changes on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said small businesses were “under attack...the Labor Party clearly doesn’t like small business... they want small business to help to fund their rapid growth in spending.”

See the memes here.

Three shiploads of jet fuel are heading to Australia after the Albanese government secured a deal with China.

The shipments, totalling more than 600,000 barrels or about 100 million litres, are expected to arrive from early June.

There is also 38,500 tonnes of agricultural grade urea on its way from Brunei, the PM announced this morning.

Both deals were signed under the Government’s $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, designed to help Australia’s agriculture and transport industries manage the impacts of the conflict in the Middle East.

“The additional 600,000 barrels of jet fuel will help keep Australia moving, and the extra fertiliser will help provide certainty to our farmers,” Mr Albanese said.

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The minutes noted one dissenting monetary policy board member argued the case for leaving rates on holding as the other eight voted for a hike in the wake of the Middle East conflict pushing up March’s annual pace of inflation to a near three-year high of 4.6 per cent.

“One member placed more weight on the arguments for leaving the cash rate target unchanged, judging that capacity pressures prevailing before the conflict were somewhat less than the staff had assessed,” it said.

“This member also assessed the risk of a prolonged conflict that weighed more heavily on demand to be higher.

“Finally, the member in the minority judged that there was not yet sufficient evidence to be concerned about longer term inflation expectations becoming less anchored, particularly in view of the Board’s commitment to its inflation objective having been demonstrated by the 50 basis points of tightening already delivered this year.”

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