Key events
As I noted in my hello earlier, rain is on the brain in Sydney, with a deluge set to continue for days.
Melbourne is cold, but lovely, and Adelaide and Hobart are both expecting sunshine today. Brisbane, Perth and Canberra are in for rain.
O’Neil says housing market is ‘not functioning correctly’
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, said the issue of housing remains the “principal problem” confronting Australians, insisting the Labor government is doing all it can to tackle a market that is “not functioning correctly”.
O’Neil spoke to ABC News this morning as politicians and industry experts gather for the second day of the roundtable, where housing is expected to be a top issue.
She said:
You and I are about the same age and I remember being preoccupied by this. I remember sitting around share house table wondering if we would ever own our own home. This reflects the fact that we have a housing market that is not functioning correctly …
We’ve got a 40-year-old crisis because, for that period of time, our country has not been building enough homes and this productivity issue may seem and sound a little bit remote to people watching at home but this is really about how can we build homes faster, more quickly. Because more housing means more affordable housing for Australians.
Tom McIlroy
It’s the second day of Labor’s economic reform roundtable
The second day of Labor’s economic reform roundtable in Canberra kicks off in Canberra very soon (about 8am) with comments from the treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
On the agenda are subjects including better regulation and approvals, competition and dynamism across the national economy, and AI and innovation.
Ahead of the opening, Chalmers said:
The timing for this roundtable couldn’t be better, and the responsibility on all of us couldn’t be bigger.
Our economy is finally balanced between the progress that we’ve made on wages and inflation and living standards and the productivity that we desperately need to sustain that progress in the years and decades ahead.
When it comes to regulation, we need to make sure that it’s serving a useful purpose.
Nick Visser
Good morning, and happy rainy day to those in NSW. Nick Visser here to take over for Martin Farrer. Let’s dive in.
Man shot dead in western Sydney
A man has been shot dead in western Sydney in yet another such attack in the city.
Emergency services were called to Regiment Grove in Winston Hills at around 7pm on Tuesday night, police said, following reports of a shooting in the street.
Officers from Parramatta police area command arrived and were told by witnesses that a man had been shot while in a car.
The man was treated by NSW ambulance paramedics before being taken to hospital but he was later declared dead.
He has not been named.
The incident followed the shooting dead of a man and the attempted killing of another as they left a pub in Forest Lodge on Sunday.
Police chiefs described Sunday’s incident as an “outrageous, brazen, callous attack” in which one of the bullets fired by the assailants “narrowly missed” a female staff member.
Albanese joins Ukraine ‘Coalition of the Willing’ call
Anthony Albanese last night joined a call of leaders of Ukraine’s allies – the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” to discuss additional sanctions to increase the pressure on Russia.
Following talks at the White House yesterday in which Donald Trump showed some unity with European leaders in support of Ukraine, the call was hosted by UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and included French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson, Poland’s Donald Tusk and Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
The groups agreed that planning teams will meet US counterparts in the coming days to advance plans for security guarantees for Ukraine.
Albanese posted on X that “Australia welcomes ongoing efforts towards achieving a just and enduring peace, including yesterday’s discussions in Washington”.
Tom McIlroy
Plibersek says increase appropriate
Plibersek said the increase was appropriate “as Australians begin to feel the positive impacts of inflation easing”.
“The government will now gradually return deeming rates to pre-pandemic settings – that is, to reflect rates of return that pensioners and other payment recipients can reasonably access on their investments,” she said.
Deeming rates also feed into the calculations for payments including jobseeker and parenting support.
Under the changes, future increases will coincide with the indexation of welfare payments and will be based on advice from the Australian Government Actuary.
Plibersek also announced the latest round of indexation would push up payments including the age pension, disability support pension and carer payments by $29.70 per fortnight from 20 September.
Labor to make changes to deeming rates
Tom McIlroy
Labor will make changes to the way pension payments are calculated for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, ending a three-year freeze on deeming rates.
Deeming rates are used to calculate income from financial assets held by some 900,000 people receiving Centrelink payments, including about 450,000 older Australians on the age pension.
The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, said overnight age pension recipients had saved about $1.8bn as a result of the deeming rate freeze put in place by the former Morrison government, but that incremental rises would begin to take place from next month.
From 20 September, a deeming rate of 0.75% will apply to financial assets under $64,200 for singles, with assets over the amount deemed at a rate of 2.75%.
Federal court to hear Bruce Lehrmann appeal
Amanda Meade
Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against the federal court ruling that he was not defamed by Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson is due to be heard today.
In April last year, Justice Michael Lee found that on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in Canberra in 2019, and that Lehrmann was therefore not defamed when Wilkinson interviewed Higgins about the case on The Project.
Lehrmann is appealing on grounds including that the sexual assault described by Lee was “substantially inconsistent” with the violent rape portrayed on The Project, according to submissions to the appeal filed with the court in March.
Lehrmann’s legal team say he was denied procedural fairness because the case which was found to be true was not put to him in cross-examination.
The appeal against that finding will be heard over three days in Sydney before the full court of justices – Michael Wigney, Craig Colvin, and Wendy Abraham.
The hearing starts at 10.15am and we will be blogging updates here.
Read more about the appeal here:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the wheel.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has accused Anthony Albanese of “mismanaging” Australia’s relationship with Israel after Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out overnight, calling him a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”. More in a moment.
Labor will end the Morrison-era freeze on deeming rates in a move that will see people claiming Centrelink payments pay more in tax on their financial assets. Social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, said incremental rises would take place from next month. More shortly.
A man was shot dead in western Sydney last night in the latest shooting to hit the city. Witnesses told police the man was targeted while in a car in Winston Hills. It follows an attack in Forest Lodge on Sunday in which one man was killed and another injured. More details coming up.
And today sees the start of Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against last year’s loss in his defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson. We’ll bring you lots more on that during the day, once it gets going.