Australia news live: Queensland Labor ahead in Stafford byelection despite large swing | Australia news
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Chalmers says Labor’s return from bracket is proceeding ‘responsibly’
Krishani Dhanji
Jim Chalmers While the opposition says that the policy of indexing tax brackets will cost the budget a quarter of a trillion dollars over ten years, it claims that the government is returning the tax bracket to taxpayers.
This is a bit of a difficult position because Angus Taylor He argues that Labor “betrayed” him because the high figure actually shows the amount the government brackets and spends each year.
Bracket shifting is where inflation and wage increases push taxpayers into higher tax brackets, so they are taxed more but still pay more for goods and end up going backwards.
Chalmers told the ABC’s Insider program the government was “keen” to bring back the bracket reptiles but was doing so responsibly.
This is a Government that reverts to bracket creep when it is responsible for doing so.
HE [policy] It’s going to cost tens of billions of dollars in extra debt interest because you’ve got these costless, unfunded tax filings. [Taylor] In the budget response it was all about trying to fend off One Nation.
Homeowner, David SpeersHe continued to press Chalmers on the figure and whether Labor had refunded the full monetary share accrued by the government. Chalmers dodged the question and said the refund was made “responsibly and affordably.”
Krishani Dhanji
Taylor claims tax bracket indexation will cost $250 billion over ten years
Angus Taylor He says Labor’s claims that its commitment to stick to index tax brackets will cost $250bn over ten years “betray” how much the government will charge in income tax over that period.
In his budget response, Taylor committed to indexing tax brackets to inflation and said the cost over four years would be about $22.5 billion, not $35 billion as the government claimed.
The measures will start for the first two tax brackets from 2028-29 and then for the two higher tax brackets from 2031-32.
Taylor says:
“This highlights the fact that the government is planning to raise income tax rates to $35 billion. That says more about their plan than our plan…
If Labor says they plan to increase income taxes to $250 billion over the next 10 years… [if] “This is their tax increase, this is their planned income tax increase.”
Accountant Jim Chalmers He said the government was not considering changing its stance on imposing an export tax on gas.
Labor was under pressure internally and externally to introduce a 25% export tax as part of the budget, which would generate an estimated $17 billion in revenue.
When asked if they would change their position on this tax, Chalmers said:
It’s not something we actually think about.
Obviously, there has been a lot of public debate on this issue and there are many strong views on this issue, but we have made clear that there are good reasons to prioritize our gas reservation policy and two-way supply arrangements with Asian partners.
Jim Chalmers Changes to capital gains taxes on real estate and non-real estate investments[take] One of the biggest distortions in the market.
Chalmers said:
A really big mistake was made in 1999 and it led to a massive distortion in the way Australians invested in our economy. While it made fixed housing much more attractive, it made other types of investments less attractive.
So taking that distortion out of the system is a fairer and more impartial treatment of investment, particularly capital gains, and if you look at the average over several decades, since this policy mistake was made by Howard and Costello, what you can see on average is that resident housing is overcompensated. There was insufficient compensation for the shares. This is one of the reasons why we have had such a huge increase in prices.
This is one of the reasons why so many people, especially young people, are excluded from the housing market and also why stocks have become relatively less attractive over time.
In response to this week’s poll suggesting voters are less than satisfied with the economic outlook, Chalmers said:
We didn’t do this to get positive results in the polls.
We did this to increase the rate of first home ownership, particularly among young Australians exposed to the lockout.
If you think about it, you know that this budget is full of difficult decisions, not declarations.
Jim Chalmers claims the tax reform elements of this week’s budget are “generally neutral” against forward-looking forecasts.
Asked by Insiders host David Speers how much extra tax the changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax and changes to trusts actually raise, Chalmers said the changes also “[return] what we train for workers and businesses, especially small businesses.”
Chalmers continued:
Now, over the 10-year period, capital gains and negative gearing changes are just over $40 billion, trust changes are just over $40 billion.
But there are also tax cuts, the tax cut in Australia, the carryback tax cuts for businesses over the next 10 years.
So, overall, David, if you look at that 10-year period, we noted that in net terms there were savings of about three times the tax changes, but those two specific categories were just over $40 billion each.
Taylor says ‘billions will be saved’ by cutting benefits for non-citizens
Krishani Dhanji
opposition leader, Angus TaylorHe says “billions” could be saved from eliminating welfare benefits for non-citizens, including permanent residents, but declines to say how much.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Taylor said the costs would be announced before the next election.
There are billions in savings. There is no doubt about it. Before the election, we will reveal all our expenses as in the convention, but there are billions of savings in this. And it’s all about making sure Australian taxpayers’ dollars are spent well, that Australians’ interests are focused on, and that Australians are better off.
There are several important costs and figures missing from the opposition’s plan. Taylor is also still unconfirmed by how much the Coalition will reduce its net overseas migration (NOM) target, after announcing it would tie migration intake to new housing construction.
When probed after his budget response on Thursday night, Taylor said the figure would be around 40% below current levels and below 200,000. The NOM for the last financial year 2024-25 was 306,000.
What we’re proposing here is that every year the housing minister says we’re building so many houses that the number of immigrants, the net number of overseas migration, could be X.
opposition leader Angus Taylor He was on Sky News this morning suggesting Labour’s plan to index tax thresholds could cost the budget up to $250bn over ten years.
Jim ChalmersResponding to Taylor’s comments on ABC’s Insiders, Taylor said his proposed budget approach was “irresponsible”.
The last time we cut income taxes, Angus Taylor voted against it and said he would repeal it.
Chalmers continued:
Angus Taylor would add a quarter trillion dollars to the national debt. This will cost tens of billions of dollars in extra debt interest because of the costless, unfunded tax announcements he made in his Budget response, which were intended to fend off One Nation.
Some federal policies are coming your way: we expect to hear from the treasurer. Jim Chalmers, We’ll talk about ABC’s Insiders in a moment; We will pass this on to you when it happens.
Prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is in Melbourne today and is holding a press conference at the same time as the treasurer is speaking on television. We’ll also let you know what comes out of that press.
LNP accepts Stafford by-election
premier of queensland, David Crisafulli, After a tight by-election race, he delivered Brisbane’s inner north district of Stafford to Labor.
The final result was not announced on Saturday night and while the result could be determined by postal voting, Crisafulli Accepted the Liberal National party’s candidate, Fiona Hammond, He claimed that his chances of winning were low, but that his party had gained serious momentum in this direction:
I think we’re going to be woefully inadequate, folks. I think we’ll come up painfully short, but boy, oh boy, what an incredible campaign from an incredible, incredible candidate.
With almost 80 per cent of the votes counted on Saturday evening, Labor Luke Richmond He was ahead by 768 votes late Saturday night. Labor likely to retain seat despite 4.1 per cent drop, ABC’s chief analyst says Casey Briggs He said in X:
Labor is likely to keep Stafford. There was a 4.1 per cent loss to Labor and postal votes still need to be counted. But for the LNP to win here, postal votes need to be very strongly in its favour. This is very unlikely to happen.
As the polls closed at 18:00, more than 14,000 people voted that day. Almost 42% of people chose to vote early; 13,530 in person and 3,860 by mail.
By-election in marginal electorate held following sudden death of former independent MP Jimmy Sullivan On April 9th. Sullivan was expelled from the Labor Party in May 2025 due to medical concerns.
opposition leader, Steven Miles, He said at Labour’s packed election night party last night:
I’m thrilled to tell you that Luke Richmond is Stafford’s new recruit.
The byelection was widely seen as a test of former prime minister Miles’ leadership. He has been leading the party since taking over Annastacia Palaszczuk In December 2023.
Asked whether Labor would fare better if led by someone else, Miles said on Saturday night that “that would be a decision for the meeting, but at the moment I have the support of the party to be leader”.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our Sunday live news blog. I Stephanie Convery and today I will bring you all the important news.
Firstly, Labor likely won the Queensland by-election despite a 4.1% vote loss. The party was ahead with almost 80% of votes counted for Stafford, Brisbane’s inner north, late on Saturday evening, but the final decision could be decided by postal votes. More on this in a moment.
And five people have been charged by Australian federal police as part of an investigation into allegations of online access and distribution of extremist material.
Grab yourself a coffee, I’ll bring you more on all these events shortly.
