Source : the age
The Australian economy expanded by 0.3 per cent through the first three months of the year, driven by consumer spending and businesses rolling out data centres to harness the AI revolution.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported this morning that the lift, in line with market expectations, meant annual growth eased slightly from 2.6 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Household spending lifted by 0.5 per cent last quarter, driven in part by extra expenditure on electricity and gas due to the end of government subsidies.
Spending on essentials rose by 0.8 per cent but discretionary expenditure by just 0.1 per cent.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended tax changes announced in the budget last month, during a speech in the House of Representatives in which he said Labor was united behind the policy amid community concerns over its impacts.
“Labor is the party of fairness. Importantly, Labor is the party of home ownership, and Labor is the party of lower income taxes for every working Australian,” Albanese told the chamber.
“This bill, that every single Labor member of the House of Representatives is looking forward to voting for tomorrow, delivers a new $250 Working Australians Tax Offset to over 13 million working Australians, $1000 instant tax deduction that will benefit around 6 million low- and middle-income Australians, and reforms to negative gearing and capital gains that will rebalance the tax system and finally give young people a fair crack at home ownership,” he said.
“Australians feel like the economy isn’t working for them, our government is not going to waste a single moment defending a system that everyone knows is broken, nor are we going to sit back and wring our hands and hope that something will turn up.”
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale has said he has only briefly reviewed a contentious security pact between his country and China, signed by his predecessor, which he campaigned against prior to his election.
“I’ve had to remove certain people from key positions. I haven’t been afforded a copy, even, of that agreement, until a day before I left, so I haven’t had a good look at it. I’ve had a look at it, I’ll be honest with you, but I haven’t had a good look at it,” Wale told journalists in Canberra this morning.
“I’ve been praying and fasting about it, but of course you know cabinet will need to have a look at these things. There is a non-disclosure clause in it, so I couldn’t show it to you right away, but we, we are going to be reviewing, as we are reviewing other security agreements that we have with many other countries,” he said.
The statement comes as his government and Australia announce a “comprehensive treaty” and a desire to make Australia the nation’s preferred security partner in the region.
Albanese also announced a $35 million package to support the Pacific nation’s recovery from April’s Cyclone Maila, and “deal with” ongoing energy issues.
Anthony Albanese has said Australia should be the “security partner of choice” in the Pacific, as he seeks to pen a treaty with the Solomon Islands amid rising Chinese influence in the region.
“Today is of course day one, and we’ve agreed to develop the comprehensive strategic treaty between us and we’ll work through the issues, but it will be one which identifies our mutual trust, our respect for each other, the sovereignty of both of our nations as we go forward,” Albanese said.
“We have said very clearly we want Australia to be the security partner of choice in our region, and we want the Pacific family to look after our security in this region.”
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale reiterated the statement, saying: “The first reference point in these matters is within the region, that I think is very important going forward.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is holding a joint press conference with the new Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Matthew Wale, confirming a treaty between the two nations.
“Today, we’ve committed to elevate our bilateral relationship at the request of the Solomon Islands. This will be agreed in a new comprehensive treaty underpinned by mutual trust, respect, and open dialogue,” Albanese said.
“This treaty will allow Australia and the Solomon Islands to confront global and regional challenges as partners. This is a significant body of work, and we have asked our foreign ministers to lead and drive this forward,” the prime minister said.
Wale’s visit is his first overseas since he assumed office midway through last month. He is joined by ministers in the Solomon Islands’ government, who will meet one-on-one with their Australian counterparts.
Wale said it had been “a very warm welcome to Canberra”, and joked about the poor weather in the capital this week, quoting a saying from the Solomon Islands: “The man who brings a bit of drizzle is your best friend.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the media alongside Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale. Watch what they said here.
Gulf hostilities flared anew today, with the US military saying Iranian missile attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and other regional targets were either thwarted or failed, as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran showed little progress.
Two Iranian missiles shot at Kuwait fell short or broke apart in flight, several ballistic missiles aimed at regional targets failed and three missiles heading for Bahrain were intercepted, US Central Command said.
Since the conflict began in late February, Iran has repeatedly attacked targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, where US military bases are located.
Central Command said US forces also downed Iranian drones targeting civilian shipping in regional waters and carried out strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz in response to the attempted attacks by Iran.
Matthew Wale, the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, has arrived at Parliament House ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning.
They are likely to discuss a treaty during their meeting, and are expected to address the media later today.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan claims the government does not have a strong defence strategy or capacity, suggesting it needs to invest more.
“We need to take more control of our destiny here. I just don’t think the Labor Party’s heart is in it. They just don’t seem that excited about defence, and … we’re in the, probably, in the most difficult political environment since World War II. We’ve got to rebuild our industrial capacity,” he told Today.
“Under this government, we’ve lost our capacity to make fertiliser. We’ve lost our capacity to make plastics. We’ve lost our capacity to make nickel … If we don’t have industry in this country, we won’t be able to defend ourselves.”
He also said Australia needed to continue pursuing AUKUS as part of its defence strategy, amid growing calls for the government to reconsider its participation in the pact.
“We need to pursue AUKUS, need to keep that on track.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has clarified that he does not believe boys are better than girls, after attending an anti-abortion rally in Sydney last night.
The rally comes as NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick seeks to explicitly outlaw abortions for the purpose of sex selection, a practice experts say is already outlawed. NSW Health said the practice occurred three times across the 16,000 abortions performed in 2019-2020.
In a post on Facebook following his attendance of the rally, Joyce wrote: “This law in NSW must be passed or otherwise we all accept that sex selection is appropriate. Girls are not as good as boys”.
Speaking to journalists at Parliament House in Canberra, Joyce said: “I posed the question that they’re obviously not. Have a read of it. I said if you support sex-determined abortions, then what’s happening is people are preferencing boys over girls. I actually don’t.
President of the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Nisha Khot, told The Guardian the bill was “predicated on misinformation” and laws already protected against sex-selection abortion for non-medical reasons.
Joyce disagreed with Khot’s comments, saying: “If they support the sort of unequivocal and unbiased termination that it’s not premised on sex, then support the bill”.
