Key events
Filters BETA
“Impossible to comprehend the heartbreak”: Albanese sends condolences to Thailand
The prime minister Anthony Albanese has expressed his condolences to Thailand on behalf of Australia following the news of mass stabbing and shooting at a preschool.
Thirty-seven people have been killed, most of them young children, in an unprecedented gun and knife attack at a preschool centre in the country’s north-east.
Bandt says systemic cost of living relief will help Australians more than stage-three tax cuts
RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas now turns to asking Greens leader Adam Bandt about the stage-three tax cuts, amid speculation the government could be reconsidering their commitment.
Bandt has been outspoken about the need to scrap the tax cuts which will largely benefit the wealthiest Australians, arguing that the savings could be better spent on Greens policies like bringing dental under medicare.
Karvelas asks Bandt if he would support changes to the stage three tax cuts so people on lower incomes keep the tax cut. However, Bandt’s argument is that the government spending on “systemic cost of living relief” is what will best serve Australians.
The proposed tweaks that the government has been floating … still result in billionaires getting thousands of dollars a year in tax cuts – our view is there are better ways of dealing with the cost of living crisis.
People who are on low and middle incomes need cost of living relief, in the form of government support to reduce the cost of living, getting dental into medicare. The concern is that with wages going up so slowly and the cost of everything rising quickly, a small tax cut today is gobbled up by energy prices tomorrow.
This is about what government can do to make peoples lives better.
Greens to push government on safeguard mechanism in the senate
Greens leader Adam Bandt is now speaking to ABC Radio. My colleague Sarah Martin brought you the news a little earlier about that new analysis out from the Greens which shows that big emitters can easily pay for their emission offsets instead of reducing them.
Bandt:
The government has said that … they’re now going to take steps to put a new rule in place to cover the coal and gas corporations. What we’re concerned about that under the discussion paper the government has released, these big corporations that are bringing in billions of dollars a year in revenue won’t actually be forced to cut their pollution instead they’ll just be able to pay to offset it.
[Our analysis] suggest that many of these big polluters won’t have to cut their pollution at all and given that call and gas is what’s fast tracking the climate crisis, that is a real concern to us.
The government’s safeguard mechanism has to deal with this question of new coal and gas projects .. the government has said it would.. if we come up with a scheme that allows new coal and gas to keep opening then it’s going to make the climate crisis worse.
Are the Greens willing to hold up other legislation to strengthen the Safeguard Mechanism?
They’ll need the safeguard mechanism to have the support of the Senate.. so this is where we will push the government to tackle this question of coal and gas.
This is an area I think we can get the government to shift, that’s why a record number of people voted for us.
57 flood warnings in place for NSW, as SES receive 800 calls for assistance
NSW SES assistant commissioner Dean Story is speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning about “a concerning couple of days ahead” for the state’s weather:
There is currently 57 advice or watch and act warnings in play from the SES effecting a large part of the state. That number is set to increase in the next 24 hours as well. We’re really asking the communities and those effected areas to stay informed, monitor your local weather forecasts and the warnings.
A lot of people on the roads with the school holidays ending and events taking place around the state. Avoid unnecessary travel if you are in the effected areas. If you need to travel, plan your trip accordingly. You can use live traffic.com as a good tool to do that and never drive through flood waters.
Story says there have been “almost 800 requests for assistance” since Monday.
SES volunteers have responded to 24 flood rescues during that time also. The rainfall forecast over the next 24 hours is really concerning from a flash-flooding risk. Where the flood waters and people attempt to go drive through them, particularly in the city areas, can really ramp up that activity and increase that risk.
We’re urging the communities to stay vigilant and make the smart safety decisions for themselves and their families and one of the smartest decisions they can make is never drive through flood waters.
Budget will see ‘difficult decisions for difficult times’: treasurer
Sarah Martin
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says Australia is facing the possibility of a new “global slowdown” and the 25 October budget must be framed to prepare for any coming economic shocks.
Amid the debate over whether to proceed with the stage-three tax cuts, Chalmers said the budget would include “difficult decisions for difficult times” amid a worsening global economic climate and spending pressures domestically.
He will say in a speech at the Queensland government’s investment showcase later today:
The right calls for the right reasons – following the responsible path; not the path of least resistance.
We must be serious about rebuilding our budget buffers – particularly given the deteriorating global outlook. So, we’ll put a premium on affordable, responsible, sustainable, spending. Not fancy or flashy – but fair and future-focused.
Above all else – this budget will be about responsible economic management at home at a time of uncertainty around the world.
The budget will show that Treasury’s global growth forecasts have been downgraded by 0.75 of a percentage point in 2022, 1 percentage point in 2023 and a 0.5 of a percentage point in 2024. He says:
This means that global output will be around $2tn lower in US dollar terms by the end of 2024 than previously expected.
We aren’t being spared from the deteriorating global outlook and we shouldn’t hope to escape further storms unscathed.
Chalmers will say that the global financial crisis became a demand shock, the Covid pandemic crisis became a supply shock, and the third would be “an inflationary shock and a hard landing brought about by rapidly tightening monetary policy.”
Each is different in meaningful ways; the response should be different too.
This time our response will be more targeted, more measured, and more supply-side focussed so it isn’t counterproductive and doesn’t put extra pressure on the independent RBA.
He will also use the speech to highlight the spending pressures facing the government, with interest payments to grow at around 14% per year on average over the next four years, defence spending to grow 4.4% each year, the NDIS 12.1%, hospitals 6.1%, and aged care 5%.
Big polluters will pay for offsets instead of cutting them, Greens say
Sarah Martin
The Greens are releasing new analysis today looking at how big polluters could “easily pay for offsets” under the proposed changes to the safeguard mechanism mooted by the government.
The analysis, informed by research from the parliamentary library, shows that at current and forecast prices of carbon permits, the biggest emitters in the coal and gas sector would only have to pay “the tiniest fraction of their profits” to offset their emissions.
This will lead big polluters to buy carbon credits rather than investing in real emission reductions at their own facilities, the party claims.
Using the Capcoal thermal and metallurgical coal mine in Queensland and the North-West Shelf LNG project as case studies, the analysis looks at two measures of possible liabilities as envisaged in the government’s consultation paper: a minimum 3.5% annual decline in emissions out to 2030 or a maximum 6% decline.
Under either scenario, the cost of abatement would range from as low as 0.014% of annual profits to 1.35% of just one year’s profit for a five-year obligation.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said the liability would amount to “just coins down the back of the couch” for these coal and gas corporations. He says:
Coal and gas are the main causes of the climate crisis, but Labor’s proposed scheme lets coal and gas keep polluting by paying a pittance.
Under Labor’s proposed scheme, new coal and gas mines can still go ahead. Coal and gas corporations make obscene profits and pay very little tax, and on the current proposal, they’ll easily buy their way out of the scheme.
Good morning!
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will today outline the five biggest pressures on the budget he is due to hand down on 25 October.
The interest payments on servicing government debt tops the list, alongside aged care, disability care, hospitals and defence.
The Australian Financial Review is reporting the treasurer will use the occasion to “escalate his push to pare back the stage-three tax cuts.”
In other political news, the Greens are releasing new analysis today showing how big polluters will choose to pay for rather than cut their emission offsets under the proposed changes to the safeguard mechanism mooted by the government.
The Greens’ leader, Adam Bandt, will be speaking with ABC Radio shortly and we’ll bring you what he has to say.
In weather news, wild conditions continues to lash eastern Australia with flood warnings in place across several states.
There are 55 flood warnings across in NSW, 14 of which are watch and act. More than a dozen rivers set to flood with concern for inland towns in the state’s north and central west.
There are also warnings for heavy rainfall, thunder and flooding in Victoria, as well as a flood watches in Queensland and Tasmania.
Let’s begin.