Budget day 2024 live updates: Chalmers says ‘help is on the way’, hints at more relief for those on lowest incomes | Australian politics

Sarah Basford Canales

David McBride awaiting sentence

David McBride is awaiting his sentencing after pleading guilty last year to stealing classified documents about the Afghanistan war and leaking them to the media.

Justice David Mossop is delivering his sentencing remarks in the ACT supreme court this morning before he hands down his sentence against the former army lawyer.

At a sentencing hearing last week, the commonwealth revealed it is pursuing jail time of more than two years for McBride.

The courtroom is filled with his supporters and media, one of whom yelled “shame on the court” as the judge entered before being told to be quiet.

Prior to entering the court, McBride told a rally outside the court, “I did not break my oath to the people of Australia and to the soldiers that keep us safe”.

The sentencing will mark the end of a years-long saga beginning in 2014 when McBride began taking documents from defence offices in Canberra in a backpack, with charges first laid against him in 2018 for passing those documents on to journalists at the ABC.

National EV tax not feasible ‘unless Victoria is satisfied with it’, state treasurer says

Benita Kolovos

Following on from Paul Karp’s piece yesterday on the slow speed at which the federal government is moving to reform road user charges, Pallas says the commonwealth must work with the state on any changes.

Last year, the commonwealth intervened in a case to strike down Victoria’s electric vehicle tax, much to the anger of the state’s treasurer.

Asked if the federal government should get a move on and introduce its own tax for low and zero emissions vehicles, Pallas told reporters outside parliament:

They won’t be doing it unless the state of Victoria is satisfied with it. We control the registration system, we own the roads. I don’t think they’ll be taking the charge without it being satisfactory to the state. I’ve been very clear with the federal government about this.

He says there needs to be a national conversation “about how effectively we move to an appropriate system of charging for the use of our roads”. He goes on:

Clearly, the idea of it applying exclusively to EVs was a matter of concern. I think everybody who pays fuel excise at the moment would say they don’t want to be subject to double taxation. So we’re going to have to work constructively with the commonwealth to come up with a solution. I’m up for that. I just want the commonwealth to recognise they can’t take a windfall in fuel excise and use it to prop up the bottom line.

Fuel excise when it was originally put in by the states was about repairing the road base … to effectively pay the states for the wear and tear on the road network. That’s over time being taken away from the states, so we get less than a quarter of that money back for the wear and tear on the road base. As a government, we’ve said from the commonwealth, [we are] happy to work in cooperation with you, but the whole idea of usage charges … has to be about proper repair and maintenance of our own road network.

Queensland gender ID laws to take effect next month

Andrew Messenger

Historic legislation granting legal recognition to gender diverse Queenslanders will take force next month.

Despite being passed last year, the births, deaths and marriages registration act had yet to get the governor’s assent, the final stage before going into effect. In February Matilda Alexander from Rainbow Families said the delay was putting the reform at risk, with an election due in October.

Attorney general Yvette D’Ath announced this week that the act will take effect on 24 June.

D’Ath said:

We want all Queenslanders to feel respected and recognised for who they are.

This act ensures that people can align their legal identity with their lived identity.

It also provides for recognition of same-sex and gender diverse parents.

There has been a lot of work to prepare for these changes, including significant updates to registry IT systems, policies and practices.

But I’m pleased to say that we’re on course to commence this legislation on 24 June, which will be a momentous occasion for trans and gender diverse people across the state.

This is yet another example of our commitment to the rights of Queensland’s LGBTIQA+ community.”

The law allows people to change their sex on their birth certificate without sexual reassignment surgery, among other reforms.

Benita Kolovos

Victorian treasurer says Chalmers’ inflation estimate more accurate than Reserve Bank’s

Victoria’s treasurer, Tim Pallas, says he’d like to see cost of living “relief” in the federal budget.

He says:

There is no doubt that people are hurting at the moment. You can see it in the increasing cost of goods. Twelve interest rates in 13 months has had a cumulative effect that has been challenging for everybody. I’m pretty confident that we’re at the top end of the rate cycle now. I’m a little more confident than the Reserve Bank appears to be. I think they’re a little slow in picking up what’s happening in the market. I think the lag in the data is becoming increasingly apparent.

What is interesting is the massive disparity between the Reserve Bank’s assessment on where inflation is at and where the commonwealth thinks it’s at. I think the commonwealth is right.

Caitlin Cassidy

Rapper Macklemore joins pro-Palestine student protesters in Sydney

Dipping out of budget news for a moment, and American rapper Macklemore has paid a visit to the University of Sydney while touring Australia to declare his support for pro-Palestine student encampments.

Last week, the artist dropped a surprise political anthem “Hind’s Hall” that backed student protests in the US and called for the president to intervene on Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

“What up?” the rapper says, in a video with student protestors posted to social media.

It’s Macklemore. Just wanted to shout out all the students at Sydney University encampment. Come down. Support. Free Palestine.”

It comes as an open letter from Australian academics and professional university staff in support of student protests has exceeded 500 signatures in less than 24 hours.

The letter, drafted by Monash Staff 4 Palestine, upholds free speech on campuses and rejects media and political characterisations of the protests as antisemitic.

Josh Butler

Coalition ‘not a small-target opposition’, Taylor says

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Asked about the government’s overnight drop forecasting a $9bn surplus, Taylor said “what we need is a structural surplus, not a windfall surplus”. He pointed to the opposition opposing the Housing Australia Future Fund, the National Reconstruction Fund and the Indigenous voice referendum as spending the Coalition wouldn’t have backed, but when asked if they would seek to unwind those programs if they won election, Taylor was reticent to commit.

We’ll announce all our policies in the lead-up to the election, but we’ve opposed it in the parliament. We haven’t been frightened to take strong positions as an opposition on many issues.

Asked if the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, would give more policy direction on what a Coalition government would do, Taylor said:

We’ve seen a lot of policies already.

He seemed to draw a link between the opposition’s stand against the referendum and its yet-to-be-detailed plans on nuclear energy.

This has not been a small-target opposition, let’s be clear. We took a position on the referendum when 65% of Australians had a different view, because we took the view that if we argued the case, we’d bring Australians with us. And we did. We did and we’ll continue to do that.

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We’re moving towards a major shift of energy policy with nuclear and gas in the shorter term, alongside the renewables investment, record renewables investment we saw when we were in government, not a renewables only strategy that involves 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines, it’s going to be paid for by every Australian, I mean, these are major shifts in direction. And I’ll tell you what we’ll do, we’re going to announce our policies before the election.”

Josh Butler

Shadow treasurer calls previous Labor budgets ‘flops’

The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, says the Coalition isn’t a “small-target opposition” but wouldn’t commit to any new policies being announced in Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech this week.

Taylor was out on the morning media rounds, calling the government’s first two budgets “flops” and saying tonight’s budget needs to do more on cost of living and inflation.

He said:

Both have completely failed to beat, to tame, the cost of living crisis that we continue to see in this country. And only weeks ago, we saw new data on inflation that shows it’s going up, not down.

Meanwhile, this treasurer has said everyone is overreacting. Australians aren’t overreacting with the cost of living crisis they’re facing right now. They are seeing the real pain in their household budgets, they’ve seen a huge reduction in the purchasing power of their pay packets. And they want to see a government that has a plan to beat inflation sustainably. The test for this budget, the first and most important test, is that it has a pathway to tame inflation, having failed twice before.”

Josh Butler

Second surplus ‘not an end in itself’, Chalmers says

Chalmers went on to concede that a second surplus – the $9.8bn figure he will unveil in tonight’s budget, which was dropped out to the media overnight – was “not an end in itself”, saying it was more important to do something with it.

He said:

It’s a demonstration that we’ve been able to get the budget in much better nick, so that we can make room for our priorities including easing the cost of living and investing in a future made in Australia. A second surplus is not an end in itself. It’s an important way that we make room to help people and to invest in the future of our communities.

Asked further about what else the government was doing to ease cost-of-living relief for average Australians, beyond the tax cuts, Chalmers simply said budget-watchers should have “a very close look” at the final documents tonight, again hinting more was coming.

‘Help is on the way’ for low income earners in budget, treasurer says

Josh Butler

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says “help is on the way” when asked about further relief for those on the lowest incomes in tonight’s budget, but wouldn’t be drawn on what that might look like.

The treasurer did his usual budget morning photo op of walking in through the ministerial entrance of Parliament House, in one of the strange little budget traditions we’ve all just accepted (which also include, inexplicably, a strange focus on the treasurer’s jogging habits in the lead-up to the big day).

His entrance was almost upstaged by the prime minister, whose C1 limousine swept into the courtyard just a moment before Chalmers.

When the treasurer took the floor in front of a waiting media pack, he described his budget as one that “eases cost of living pressures, and fights inflation, and invests in a future Australia”.

Chalmers said:

The cost-of-living relief in this budget will be substantial and it will be responsible. There will be a tax cut for every taxpayer. And there will be more help to help people make ends meet.

We asked about those on the lowest incomes, like pensioners or those on jobseeker payments, who likely won’t see much help from the tax cuts. Chalmers coyly answered “help is on the way”, but didn’t give any hints.

The tax cuts are the biggest part of the cost-of-living relief in the budget, but not the only part of the cost of living relief in the budget. Our big priority here is to put the people front and centre. We know that people are doing it tough and that’s why more help is on the way tonight.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has announced targeted sanctions against Iranians and Iranian entities.

In a statement Wong said the government was imposing sanctions on another five Iranian individuals and three entities “in response to Iran’s destabilising behaviour”.

From the statement:

Senior officials sanctioned today include Iran’s Defence Minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, and the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani. The IRGC is a malignant actor that has long been a threat to international security, and to its own people.

Those sanctioned also include Iranian senior officials, businesspeople and companies that have contributed to the development of Iran’s missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs. Iran’s proliferation and provision of these technologies to its proxies has fostered instability across the region for many years.

Targeted entities include the IRGC Navy, which seized an Israeli-linked (Portuguese-flagged) civilian vessel in international waters on 13 April 2024. Australia continues to call for the immediate release of the ship and its crew.

Today’s listing means there are now 90 Iranian linked individuals and 100 Iranian linked entities sanctioned by the Albanese government.

Benita Kolovos

‘People are really excited about it’: Victoria rolling out digital driver’s licences

Victorian roads minister, Melissa Horne, is speaking outside Victorian parliament about the rollout of digital driver’s licences. She says:

People are really excited about it. We’ve done a couple of things to make sure it is as secure as possible. So over the last few months, we’ve had a group of people doing a process called red teaming. That’s basically where you get a group of hackers to come on in and actually see if they can hack the system so that we can actually make sure that this is absolutely as secure as possible.

Horne says the team of hackers found “some quirks in the software” that have been “ironed out”.

She says there are so safety features which allow people to conceal their personal details when using their digital licence:

It’s your full driver’s licence, so that you can show anyone exactly what your licence entails and all the details on that. Secondly, it [displays] an identity sort of card so that if you’re going to a post office to pick up a parcel or something like that, you may not necessarily want to disclose all the details on your driver’s licence, such as your driver’s licence number, for example, or, in the case of people probably much younger than me who need to get into a venue over when they’re over 18. They can just show the proof of age.