Australia news LIVE: Government faces mounting pressure on gambling reforms; Burke delays immigration speech after cabinet meeting

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said the “widow’s tax” loophole in Labor’s budget changes slipped through because the consultation process was rushed.

Widows and divorcees who faced losing access to capital gains and negative gearing concessions under the budget overhaul of property taxes will be protected, Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed yesterday after a campaign from independent Senator David Pocock to close the loophole.

“We know the government, in the lead up to passing the budget, only gave two days consultation. They basically sidelined and ignored small business. Now they’ve released this updated legislation because they’ve laid landmines all across the economy that keep exploding,” Wilson told News 24.

“There are widows who are being hit by Jim Charmer’s higher taxes. But what he’s done is given an edict, basically, to the banks not to implement the law. So of course it should be done. It should have been done properly the first time.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has postponed a speech about immigration policy at the National Press Club this week.

Sources told the ABC that the speech, scheduled for Thursday, would have unveiled a package of measures that included capping backpacker numbers, restriction on asylum seeker working rights, and restricting family visas.

Immigration levels have been a divisive topic within the party, and the delay comes after a cabinet meeting on Monday. The speech remains unfinalised, the ABC reports.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has said One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is unprepared to do the “hard grinding business of government”, and has no practical responses to the challenges facing Australians.

Speaking on ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Rudd said Hanson’s approach had not changed since she entered politics more than 30 years ago.

“The easy business of politics is simply to act as a protest vector and then lace it and spice it with the politics of race,” he said. “That’s what … Hanson’s been doing ever since she emerged in my fair state of Queensland, a quarter of a century ago. Her script hasn’t changed.”

Rudd, who is now president of the US-based think tank the Asia Society, said Hanson would have no idea how to govern Australia.

“It’s very hard to do the grinding business of government, which looks after practical problems of national security … of the economy and growing it, environmental sustainability … and delivering basic services for the Australian people, including housing affordability, which has been eating away so badly at people’s standard of living over a long period of time.

“Ask this question of yourselves. What single answer does she have to any of the list of problems and challenges which I went through before?”

Iran is considering allowing European nations to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz, in a potential deescalation that could form part of a deal to normalise shipping in the waterway and ease peace negotiations with the US.

In public, Iran has repeatedly said it won’t allow foreign countries to join demining efforts in the critical transit point for oil and liquefied natural gas. But in private meetings in recent weeks Tehran has softened that stance, according to diplomats familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

Iran’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move would give the shipping and insurance industries some much-needed third-party assurance that the strait is safe after more than five months of military conflict, and could help to boost broader diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Both Qatar and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that some kind of deal, likely related to the Strait of Hormuz, is imminent. The waterway has emerged as the effective starting point for any further negotiations to take place, with a dispute over its management deadlocked for months.

Bloomberg

Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Wednesday, August 5. Here’s what you need to know this morning.

• One in five Australian bird and mammal species is at high, very high or extreme risk from the H5N1 bird flu virus spreading in Australia, according to new data from the federal environment department. Australia now has 102 confirmed detections of the strain in wild seabirds.
• A Senate inquiry into Labor’s contentious gambling package continued yesterday, as Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys dismissed senators leading an inquiry into Labor’s wagering laws as “publicity-seeking extremists”. Betting companies also denied any knowledge of claims agents were using drugs and escorts to encourage clients to gamble.
• Remember when the Bureau of Meteorology spent $96 million on a website redesign? Environment Minister Murray Watt revealed yesterday that an independent review into the BoM will look at “more than any one particular incident”, including the $96 million website redesign that left users unable to navigate the site during a spate of bad weather. The independent review will not be published until the end of March 2027.
• The US stock market rallied to records as companies kept piling up profits and oil prices eased, with the Australian sharemarket set to rise today.
• And Iran is considering allowing European nations to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz, in a potential deescalation that could form part of a deal to normalise shipping in the waterway and ease peace negotiations with the US. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said overnight that some kind of deal, likely related to the Strait of Hormuz, is imminent.