Australia news live: Bragg defends his rogue super proposal as ‘not controversial’; ABC watchdog criticises Four Corners | Australia news
Bragg defends proposal to use super for mortgages: ‘I don’t think that’s controversial’
Andrew Bragg, the shadow housing minister, said he believes the country should be able to have “big debates” about housing after pushing a new plan yesterday that would allow people to use their superannuation as collateral to get a home loan.
The policy hasn’t been adopted by the opposition, and leader Angus Taylor said yesterday it wasn’t Coalition policy.
But Bragg told RN this morning the housing system needed a revamp, and lawmakers were responsible for hosting those ideas:
We’re a great country, and we should be able to have big debates, as we had in the 80s and 90s about national savings and housing and the like, which led, in fact, to the super guarantee. …
It’s very important that we look to calibrate the retirement and housing and superannuation systems to make sure that they’re getting the best outcomes for the Australian people.
I don’t think that’s controversial. I think that’s just our day job.
Key events
Sarah Basford Canales
Joyce speaking with ‘very, very senior Liberals’ about power-sharing deal
Barnaby Joyce says he’s been in talks with “very, very senior Liberals” over a power-sharing arrangement should One Nation win enough seats at the next federal election.
Speaking to News24 yesterday evening, the Nationals-turned-One Nation MP said there would be an expectation that the Coalition and the minor party would work together if they had the numbers to beat the Albanese government at the polls, which has a large majority of 91 federal seats.
I think we’ve been pretty clear on this. We’ve said our job is to get rid of the socialists. So either we would offer supply and confidence to the Coalition … on the premise of solid policy outcomes that we would want for that to happen, and we would want there to be clear acknowledgment that they are our policy outcomes, and we’d have a regimen then of looking at legislations that came forward … we’d expect the same deal if we had greater numbers than the Coalition.
Joyce said he’d had discussions with “very, very senior Liberals” as recently as Tuesday morning on a possible deal.
He added “we’re now cutting dice, and we’ll find out where we end up”.
Many flights delayed or cancelled, and one from Los Angeles diverted, at Sydney airport this morning amid fog
Sydney Airport confirms some flights will be delayed or cancelled this morning amid a blanket of fog that settled over the harbour city.
The airport’s website already shows a slate of domestic flights that have been delayed by an hour or more, with many others cancelled.
An international Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was also diverted to Brisbane instead.
“We advise passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline,” a Sydney Airport spokesperson said in a statement.
Bragg says it’s ‘fine’ for US to weigh in on Australian tech proposals
Andrew Bragg also spoke about the US call for American companies to be exempt from any digital duty of care rules, saying he does agree there is “a risk of censorship”.
He told RN:
There is a risk of bestowing too much power on to unelected bureaucrats. And I think there is a risk of too much regulation, which may not actually have any great impact on our economy or our society.
So I have to say, I share some of the concerns, but obviously Australia will make its own judgments on these things.
Bragg said it was “fine” that the US embassy was weighing in on the proposed laws.
I mean, we live in a free society, or at least we used to, and people are allowed to express a view. Maybe they’ll be censored by the new laws, but look, I think it’s OK for us to hear from our colleagues in other countries. That’s often the case when law reform is being undertaken.
Bragg defends proposal to use super for mortgages: ‘I don’t think that’s controversial’
Andrew Bragg, the shadow housing minister, said he believes the country should be able to have “big debates” about housing after pushing a new plan yesterday that would allow people to use their superannuation as collateral to get a home loan.
The policy hasn’t been adopted by the opposition, and leader Angus Taylor said yesterday it wasn’t Coalition policy.
But Bragg told RN this morning the housing system needed a revamp, and lawmakers were responsible for hosting those ideas:
We’re a great country, and we should be able to have big debates, as we had in the 80s and 90s about national savings and housing and the like, which led, in fact, to the super guarantee. …
It’s very important that we look to calibrate the retirement and housing and superannuation systems to make sure that they’re getting the best outcomes for the Australian people.
I don’t think that’s controversial. I think that’s just our day job.
Assistant treasurer maintains ‘appropriate protections’ needed on big tech
Daniel Mulino, the assistant treasurer, maintained the government plans to put in place “appropriate” protections on big tech after warnings from the White House against any “censorship” of protected speech.
The US warned Australia overnight its plan to boost online safety through digital duty of care laws risked becoming a method for “viewpoint-based censorship”, saying US platforms should be exempted.
Mulino told RN Breakfast this morning the duty of care shifts are meant to combat “what can at times be addictive algorithms, algorithms that can create harm”. He went on:
We have stressed that at the heart of our policy response is choice, that we’ve said that people should have the right to opt out of the algorithms, but that on the policies that we’ve put forward in their current form, that the default would be for those algorithms to be what would apply, but that people would have choice.
When pressed if Australia would consider a US carve out considering most of the big tech companies are based in the US, Mulino said the digital duty of care proposals would apply regardless of country of origin.
I would expect … that we would apply this to digital platforms no matter where their origin is, and that’s the right position to take when it comes to regulating technology in a way that is achieving the right policy outcomes.
NSW starts construction on hundreds of discounted rentals for essential workers on prime Sydney land
The NSW government has begun construction on 220 new build-to-rent apartments for Sydney’s essential workers on prime inner city land.
Paul Scully, the state minister for planning, and Rose Jackson, the minister for housing, said the units would be available at discounted market rates for health workers, teachers, police officers, firefighters and others “so they don’t have to choose between an affordable home and a long commute”. The building sits in Annandale, about a 15 minute bus ride from the Sydney CBD.
The NSW government will retain ownership of the properties, which will be built on a vacant site left empty following construction of the WestConnex tunnel. The building is expected to see its first residents by 2029.
Jackson said in a statement:
Every essential worker priced out of the community they serve is a failure of the housing system we inherited, and this is what fixing it looks like.
The Joinery Annandale means a nurse or a teacher in the Inner West does not have to choose between living near their job and being able to afford rent.
Smartglasses ban on Sydney’s eastern suburb beaches on the cards
Smartglasses could soon be banned across Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches Coogee, Clovelly and Maroubra under a motion put forward to Randwick council.
Councillor Philipa Veitch told the council meeting on Tuesday that the devices created a “gross violation of privacy and a safety risk for children and women” on beaches.
The council has already banned the technology at the Des Renford leisure centre, citing “growing community concerns” about their potential misuse.
Veitch suggested provisions for those with significant vision impairment or other disabilities.
It follows City of Sydney councillors voting to ban smartglasses at council gyms, childcare centres and pools on Monday.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get into it.
Australian parents legally empowered by digital safety reform, PM says at UN general assembly
Anthony Albanese has told the UN general assembly that “retaining sovereignty must have a digital dimension” as he spruiked his teen social media ban, opt out algorithm and AI statement.
In a speech to the coalition for children’s rights and protections in the age of AI, in New York, the prime minister said Australian parents were legally empowered by the digital safety reform.
The conversations they have had together confirm the common concerns they have about their children, that social media is robbing them of their childhood, addicting them to algorithms [and] encouraging anxieties, eating disorders and other harms.
Albanese said he wanted Australian children to “be playing football or netball, making music or reading books, finding friends face to face”.
Put simply, we must give children back their childhood.
Albanese also spoke of AI risks, including the “exploitation of children, the potential to enable biological weapons, or even the loss of control of AI systems themselves”.
In this digital age, retaining sovereignty must have a digital dimension.
It comes after the prime minister signed a declaration with 20 other world leaders urging safeguards over AI, including maintaining human control over the rapidly evolving technology.
‘Super intelligence’: Trump says AI should be renamed and rejects calls for further protections for it
Donald Trump has lashed out at countries seeking to rein in artificial intelligence, even suggesting the technology’s name should be changed to lessen anxieties, Australian Associated Press reports.
Trump’s broadside came at an awkward moment for Anthony Albanese after he urged further safeguards against AI the day before, and as his government was warned about “censorship” by the Trump administration over plans to curb the algorithms of big tech.
In an address to the UN general assembly overnight, the US president said AI should be renamed as “super intelligence”, rejecting calls for further protections for it.
He said AI had a potential to be bigger than the Industrial Revolution or the internet.
The use of the word artificial makes intelligence sound fake. It is not fake, it’s actually amazing,
The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control the artificial intelligence being spoken of.
He said the use of the technology should be actively encouraged, instead of being curtailed.
‘Culture of secrecy’ and ‘inadequate factchecking’ at Four Corners criticised by ABC watchdog
A culture of secrecy and inadequate factchecking at the ABC’s leading investigative program has been criticised by an independent watchdog, Australian Associated Press reports.
The ABC ombudsman yesterday found two episodes of the Four Corners program led by a bikie turned journalist had breached editorial standards.
Mahmood Fazal was sacked in May and has denied any wrongdoing after questions were raised regarding the anonymous sources used in the Cocaine Nation and Meth Highway episodes aired during 2023 and 2024.
Both were removed by the ABC due to accuracy concerns.
ABC chair Kim Williams elevated the allegations to ombudsman Fiona Cameron who found the national broadcaster had failed to meet its own editorial standards for accuracy, fair and honest dealing, and independence and integrity.
Audiences were given a misleading impression of who key contributors were, alleges the report from Cameron.
In both episodes, a masked figure who purportedly dealt cocaine to Sydney’s elite was featured.
Media Watch later reported Sydney-based rapper Charissa Habkouk played the role as a favour to Fazal.
Cameron confirmed this was “materially misleading” to the audience and recommended a full investigation in the use of anonymous and confidential sources.
Crack down on big money donations to parties, Grattan Institute says
Krishani Dhanji
Major parties should get less money to spend at elections, and new independents should get drastically more, says the Grattan Institute, urging a rethink of donation caps to prevent an election spending “arms race”.
Labor and the Coalition negotiated a new set of donation laws that independents called a “stitch up”, giving major parties a cap of $90m each to spend, and placing a per-electorate cap of $800,000.
A new Grattan Institute report says the major party cap should be more than halved, to $40m. It argues the $800,000 seat cap should remain for incumbents and established-party candidates, but new entrants should get an extra 50% to spend.
Grattan says the Australian Electoral Commission and Australian Bureau of Statistics spend around $30m on big campaigns such as getting Australians to enrol to vote – so they argue $40m for big parties is pretty generous.
And to give you a sense of what $90m buys – Clive Palmer spent $89m during the 2019 election.
The report says:
Big-money elections mean politicians spend more time and effort on fundraising, and political parties become reliant on major donors to fund their campaigns. This creates fertile conditions for wealthy interests to have undue influence over policy making. Capping electoral expenditure puts a ceiling on money in politics.
Political parties collectively declared almost half a billion dollars in expenditure in the year leading up to the 2025 federal election. And this was not a one-off. They declared expenditure of more than $400 million in the lead-up to both the 2022 and 2019 federal elections as well.
Under the government’s newly legislated rules, the taxpayer funding for parties increased from $3.38 for every first preference vote for parties and independents that achieved at least 4% of votes, to $5 – which Grattan argues won’t be necessary if the overall spending cap was reduced, saving public money.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
A culture of secrecy and inadequate factchecking at the ABC’s leading investigative program has been criticised by an independent watchdog. More coming up.
