source : the age
Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Thursday, June 18. Here’s what’s making headlines today.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed down on some of his government’s budget changes. He’s announced CGT carve-outs to businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million, and will reverse tax changes on discretionary testamentary trusts after the opposition weaponised the move as a “death tax”.
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Details of the US-Iran deal have emerged, revealing the United States will immediately waive restrictions on Iranian oil exports and ultimately lift all sanctions, as well as help create a $US300 billion ($425 billion) development fund for Iran.
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One Nation says leader Pauline Hanson’s safety was compromised yesterday when a stunt banner unfurled behind her as she delivered her first-ever speech at the National Press Club in Canberra. Activist group Get Up claimed responsibility for the stunt, which has been referred to the Australian Federal Police.
- England and Ghana are winners so far today at the World Cup, while DR Congo shocked Portugal with a draw. Next up: Uzbekistan v Colombia. You can follow along on our World Cup blog here.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. apologised after a yoga event staged on the Great Wall featuring a Japanese taiko drum sparked social media backlash in China, highlighting the reputational risks facing the company in its fastest-growing major market.
The event in late May drew more than 2000 participants to practise yoga on one of China’s most iconic landmarks. But social media users objected to the use of a Japanese drum at a site widely viewed as a symbol of Chinese national identity, with commenters calling it a provocation.
A Lululemon company spokesperson said the event was “grounded in a commitment to honouring Chinese culture”.
“We deeply value the feedback received and recognise that we should have been more thoughtful and sensitive in our planning and review process for the drum performance. This has been a valuable learning for us, and we extend our sincerest apologies,” the spokesperson said.
A new review must be held to decide whether Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis is released on parole, a court has ordered.
A decision to block his parole was set aside by South Australia’s Court of Appeal on Thursday, and the parole board’s decision to free him was reinstated.
But parole administrative review commissioner Michael David, KC, has been ordered to review the case again, and Vlassakis remains in custody.
Last August, the parole board agreed to release Vlassakis, who pleaded guilty to four of the 11 murders between 1992 and 1999, but Attorney-General Kyam Maher requested a review of the decision.
The initial deal to end the war between the US and Iran will take “immediate effect” after leaders from both countries signed it, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – who helped mediate the agreement – said in a post on X.
“The signing of this agreement at the highest level of the respective governments demonstrates the commitment of both sides to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict,” Sharif said.
“As a first step, Islamic Republic of Iran will instantly reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the United States of America will immediately lift the naval blockade,” he wrote.
“I offer my heartfelt congratulations and sincere appreciation to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump whose steadfast commitment to diplomacy and preference for peaceful resolution have once again helped end a conflict that could have led to devastating consequences for the region and beyond.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has welcomed a drop in the rate of net overseas migration, saying it had “moderated substantially” under Labor’s stewardship.
“Migration was surging when we came to office and it has now moderated substantially. It was already down 45 per cent since its peak, and is lower again today,” Chalmers said in a statement.
“Today’s number came in at 301,000 through the year to December, down on the previous quarter. The facts clearly show that net overseas migration is coming down under Labor and Treasury is forecasting it to go even lower in the coming years.”
The current rate is it’s lowest since 2022, just before it peaked following the reopening of borders after the COVID pandemic. The rate has been a point of contention among political parties as migration is increasingly linked to housing and quality of life in the political debate.
Russia attacked Kyiv with missiles, local authorities said on Thursday, as they urged residents to take shelter hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with US President Donald Trump and European leaders.
A Reuters witness heard explosions in Kyiv, while authorities of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person was killed in a drone attack, as air strike alerts were issued for most of Ukraine’s territory.
“The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic missiles. Stay in safe places until the air raid alert is over!” Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said in a Telegram post early on Thursday.
In France, Zelensky said he had spoken to Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, after meeting other leaders attending a Group of Seven meeting. He described it as a “coordinating conversation” to try to end the more than four-year-long Russian war on Ukraine.
The strike on Kyiv is the second air attack by Russia this week. A 1000-year-old monastery that symbolises Ukraine’s spiritual and cultural heritage was badly damaged on Monday in a major attack by Russia that killed 10 people and drew condemnation from European leaders.
Reuters
Leader of the Nationals in the Senate Bridget McKenzie has said an Australian monoculture would be “pretty boring”, following statements from One Nation leader Pauline Hanson yesterday that multiculturalism was a “failed policy”.
“I think a monoculture would be pretty boring. We all have come from somewhere else. If you’re an Indigenous Australian, your family arrived here 50,000 years ago. My own family arrived from Denmark five generations ago,” McKenzie told journalists at Parliament House in Canberra.
“If you don’t want to build the Australian project, if you want to change Australia, then don’t come. We are very proud of who we are as a country, proud of where we’ve come from, but we all need to be united on building a safe and sustainable future in Australia,” she said.
“So I don’t accept that we need to be changing Australia, and if we’re going to bring in people from other places who want to see those values diminished, derided, torn down. Then I wouldn’t support those kind of people coming into our country.”
The parliament’s presiding officers have announced an overhaul of the parliamentary lobbyist system, first revealed in this masthead last week.
Political lobbyists and corporate representatives with privileged access to Parliament House will now be publicly identified, and their after-hours, free-reigning access will be restricted.
“As presiding officers, we are committed to maintaining the democratic openness of Parliament House, while ensuring that access to the private areas is appropriately managed, transparent, and aligned with community expectations,” speaker Milton Dick and president Sue Lines said in a statement.
Pauline Hanson’s speech at the National Press Club yesterday was “not a credible plan”, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has said, as he criticised the One Nation leader for judging people “based on the colour of their skin”.
“There are lots of questions to answer for One Nation. I judge people on their character and their conduct, that’s how the Liberal and National parties approach things. If she wants to judge people based on the colour of their skin or their race, One Nation needs to explain that,” Taylor told a Sydney press conference.
“Now, migration in this country has been too high, and the standards have been too low, and that must change, but what we favour is a values-based immigration policy, where people who come to this country adopt our core values, and that is regardless of race or religion or where they come from. We expect them to adopt those core values, that’s our position, that’s very clear,” he said.
Taylor said all migrants to Australia should learn to speak English and that welfare programs should be limited to Australian citizens only.
“The problem with what we heard yesterday is it’s not a credible plan. I mean, we hear a lot of stuff, but where’s the credible plan? I understand people are angry. I really get this … They are angry at what is happening to this country, but what we need in a response to that is a credible plan, and we didn’t get that yesterday.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has called on the government to “scrap” its entire budget, despite changes to tax measures announced today.
“This budget is in chaos. It is in tatters because the government simply got it wrong from the start. No point going on with these carve-outs. Scrap it, scrap the bill, start the budget again because they simply got it wrong,” Taylor told a Sydney press conference this morning.
“They are taking this country in the wrong direction, and some of the very hardest working people in this country are being told they are not going to get the reward for the hard work that they do every day.”
The Coalition has maintained since the budget was announced that they would oppose announced tax measures, meaning the government would be forced to negotiate with the Greens in the Senate to have the bills passed.
Net overseas migration has fallen slightly as the government continues to argue it is effectively managing migrant intake amid consistent backlash from the Coalition and One Nation.
The latest figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning, showed net overseas migration had fallen from 311,000 in the year leading up to September 2025, to 301,000 in the year leading up to December 2025. Annual population growth fell by 0.1 percentage points.
In the latest budget papers, the government flagged an anticipated rate of 295,000 in the coming financial year. One Nation wants to slash net overseas migration to a rate of 130,000 a year. While the Coalition’s final migration number has yet to be announced, figures below 200,000 have been suggested.
Net overseas migration peaked at around 556,000 in September 2023, following border closures during the COVID pandemic. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate hovered between 180,000 and 260,000.
The ABS calculated Australia’s total population at 27,800,000.
