Abbott plays down One Nation support in poll but says Coalition ‘obviously’ in competition Tony Abbott, the new party president of the Liberals, said he wouldn’t get “too excited” by the poll showing One Nation’s surging support. But he told RN this morning he believes the country is in trouble and the Liberal/National Coalition is best positioned to lead the nation. Abbott spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying: double quotation markOur economy is stagnant, our society is fragmenting, our security is imperiled, and yes, we don’t believe in ourselves nearly enough. I think the current government is making all of this worse. And it’s really important that we get a better government as soon as possible. … Obviously, we are in a degree of competition with other parties and voices on the centre-right. But in the end, our opponent, our enemy, if you like, is a really bad Labor government, a really bad Green-left-Labor government. Which in its budget, [has led an] assault on aspiration and wealth creation. Abbott went on to say it would take “hard work” to appeal to Australians, saying the Coalition was still “by far the most credible” alternative to the current government: double quotation markThe point I make is: if you normally vote Liberal, if you’re interested in public life, if you think our country is in trouble, please don’t complain on the sidelines. Join the party and make a difference. Tony Abbott. Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Luca Ittimani Pauline Hanson calls for overhaul of ‘dogmatic’ workers’ rights system Catching you up on some news from Sunday: Pauline Hanson has called for sweeping reforms to Australia’s workers’ rights system. Appearing on Sky News yesterday, the One Nation leader targeted young workers and took issue with the obstacles employers face when sacking staff. She said: double quotation markWe need to have an overhaul here … These young ones, they said, they don’t want to work. And then they’re tired by early afternoon, or they’re on their phones, or they take days off. There’s no compliance with it whatsoever. Even when they want to finish work or when they want to leave you, OK, they can just say, see you later and they’re gone. Whereas you have to give them, you know, all these three weeks, four weeks, whatever. If not, you can’t even sack anyone, if they’re not working, if they steal from you, then you see yourself through the courts. This has to change. It has to change. There’s a give and take in employment, and people have a right to employ who they want to. We’ve become too dogmatic. Hanson gave the example of a time she sacked one of her own staff, saying they had to be paid four months’ wages. double quotation markIt’s a scam that’s going on, and a lot of people play and the whole thing needs a complete overhaul. In the same interview, Hanson said she believed she could do the job of prime minister and suggested the minimum wage should not be increased this year. One Nation is more popular than any other party, including Labor, according to a poll published today. Luca Ittimani CGT changes good for property investors if inflation high and price growth slow, Ray White says Property investors may actually be winners from Labor’s capital gains tax changes when inflation is high and house prices aren’t rising rapidly, new Ray White analysis suggests. Australia’s biggest real estate agency on budget night warned changes to the tax discount on profits from selling assets would mean property investing is more expensive. Analysis from Nerida Conisbee, Ray White’s chief economist, has now found that may not always be the case. The old CGT discount didn’t account for the difference between inflation and asset price growth. The new inflation-adjustment discount does, so when house prices are rising fast and inflation is low, investors have a bigger tax bill, Conisbee found. But house prices are now expected to fall or plateau around Australia while inflation is expected to be above 3% for much of the next year. If higher inflation and a slower market persists, investors would save money under the new system. Say inflation sits at 3% on average over the next few years. An investor who buys a $1.75m home under the new regime then sells it after six years, assuming a 30% income tax rate, would pay about the same amount of tax as they would under the old – assuming the home price rose by about 5.5% a year. But if the home price rose just 5% a year, the investor pays $13,000 less in tax. If it rose just 3% a year, there is almost no inflation-adjusted profit and the investor would save $51,000 in tax. Conisbee said: double quotation markThe policy may be defensible if the aim is to tax real gains rather than inflation. But it should not be assumed to raise more tax from property investors in the near term. NSW losses on the pokies concentrated in some communities The data shows losses from pokies concentrated in some communities: Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown ($198.8m), Fairfield ($186.1m) and Cumberland ($136.2m); the Central Coast ($90.7m); Wollongong ($54.6m); and Newcastle ($52.1m). Some communities, namely Liverpool and Ryde in Sydney, have seen sharp upticks in year-on-year losses. Wesley Mission’s Cameron said: double quotation markBehind these numbers is the money needed to pay rent, groceries and other essential bills being drained by pokies out of household pockets. Losses have continued to climb while harm deepens. The question has never been whether reform is needed, it desperately is, but how much longer we must wait for the Minns government to step up and do the hard and desperately needed work to reduce and prevent harm. NSW on track to lose $10bn to pokies in 2026, Wesley Mission finds A new analysis from the Wesley Mission finds families in NSW are being hit with a record surge in poker machine losses, with new data showing $2.37bn lost in the first three months of this year. If continued, that rate would see people lose more than $10bn in 2026, what the body calls a “terrible milestone in NSW’s decades-long capture to the pokies industry”. That’s an average of about $26.4m every day, or just over $1.1m an hour. Stu Cameron, the CEO of Wesley Mission, said in a statement: double quotation markThere seem to be only three certainties in NSW right now: death, taxes and spiralling poker machine losses. Quarter after quarter, the same story repeats itself – more money lost, more families under pressure, and more communities carrying the burden of gambling harm. It’s a grotesque Groundhog Day on steroids. Melbourne film festival hacked, with some data accessed The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) said yesterday an unauthorised person gained access to customer information, including names, emails and phone numbers during a hack of a ticketing platform. The festival said it became aware of the incident on 29 May, quickly suspending access to the affected accounts and installing new security measures. But on 30 May there was further unauthorised access to the ticketing platform, with some customers receiving emails or SMS messages sent to them directly without authorisation. MIFF has contacted affected customers directly with information about the incident. It believes nearly 27,000 customer records held by the platform may have been accessed. The ticketing platform does not store compete credit card information. MIFF said in a statement: double quotation markWe understand customers may be concerned by this incident and sincerely regret the uncertainty it may cause. Protecting the personal information entrusted to MIFF and its technology partners is extremely important. We have advised affected customers to remain cautious of unexpected emails or SMS messages that appear to come from MIFF and to avoid clicking links or providing personal information unless they are confident of the source. Despite some reports, Melbourne Writers festival did not see any evidence of unauthorised access to its own customer data. Victorians can access 20% off car rego and half-price public transport from today Victoria has rolled out two cost of living measures amid the ongoing fuel crisis: 20% off car registration and half-price fares on public transport until the end of the year. The half-price fares come on the back of free public transport across the state over the past two months, which has ended today. But the discount will apply from today until the end of December. Under the discount, a full daily fare will cost $5.70 to travel anywhere across the state, down from $11.40. To get 20% off your rego via a rebate, Victorians will need to have paid their registration between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 for a light vehicle for personal use. You can get the rebate for up to two vehicles in your name, and get it in full regardless of if you paid your rego in full or in instalments. You have two months to apply, until 31 July. Applications open today. A Metro Trains service at North Melbourne Station in Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP Krishani Dhanji Students would save $3bn over a decade if Labor changed Hecs indexation date University graduates would save more than $3bn over a decade if the government changed the date of indexation on Hecs debts, dubbed a “broken system” in its current form by independent MP Monique Ryan. About 3 million students and graduates will see their Hecs debts increase by a combined $1bn on Monday, when they are indexed by 2.8%. Hecs debts do not accrue interest but increase yearly based on the rate of inflation or the wage price index, to maintain the “real value” of the money owed. Students make compulsory payments towards their Hecs, which are collected and held by the tax office, but that money is not deducted from the debt until the person has filed their tax return. That is done after the debt indexes. Costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office, seen by Guardian Australia, show if the government changed the indexation date from 1 June to 1 November, after compulsory payments have been paid down, it would cost the budget’s underlying cash balance $1.2bn in forgone revenue over four years. Read more here: Thousands of older Australians still waiting for care More than 100,000 people are still on wait lists for in-home aged care despite wait times falling, AAP reports. The latest quarterly data for the first three months of 2026 showed wait times go down by two weeks for high priority cases, from between 1.5 and 2.5 months to between one and two months. Medium-priority cases have fallen from between eight and nine months to between six and seven months, while standard priority cases are down from between 10 and 11 months to between seven and eight months. The figures also revealed 364,723 people now have access to support at home places, up almost 18,000 people on the previous quarter. But despite the increase in places, 100,191 people are still on a waitlist for approval. The health minister, Mark Butler, conceded it was a difficult task to reduce the waitlist as the population ages. He told ABC Radio this morning: double quotation markThere’s also an historic increase in demand as a particular generation comes into the aged care system, so satisfying all of that demand is going to be a very difficult job for government. Andrew Messenger Concept design for Brisbane Olympics stadium only 10% finished Just 10% of the concept design for the Brisbane Olympics stadium is finished, as early works start today. The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (Giica) head, Simon Crooks, was asked about timelines at a press conference held to mark the area being handed over to the agency today. Sports luminaries and the premier held a groundbreaking ceremony this morning. “We’re at 10% concept design,” Crooks told media. double quotation markI won’t be in a situation where I’d be comfortable letting design drawings go to construction right through this year. There’s a long way to go. It’s $3.8bn of drawing. Giica’s 100-day review recommended plans for the stadium be approved by the third quarter of 2026. But Crooks said they were still on schedule. double quotation markI’m comfortable with it … pretty well everything we’ve done the last nine months, we’ve hit (timelines). We said we’d engage the main contractor by the end of the year, and we’re on program for that. Crooks said the organisation was working to have the stadium finished a year before the 2032 games, but wouldn’t estimate when construction would start, because planning was still in its early contractor involvement stage. The premier, David Crisafulli, said the job could be done on time. “It’s a race against time but I have every faith that we can get it done,” he said. double quotation markThis can be our moment to shine, it can be the moment where the world looks at us and says there is the state with a bright future ahead of it. Luca Ittimani Capital city home prices fall as experts predict Australia’s property slump could last a year Home prices in Australia’s capital cities have begun to fall, with experts predicting the decline could last at least a year and wipe as much as 10% from values. The median capital city home price fell in May, the first decline since January 2025, as high interest rates and inflation stretched buyer budgets, Cotality reported on Monday. Auction success hit a new low for the year. Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra median house prices ended May lower than they were at the end of 2025. Even homes at the cheaper end in those cities fell in value, losing the momentum maintained at the start of 2026. Read more here: Crisafulli says protesters at Brisbane Olympic site moved on for their own safety Andrew Messenger Queensland premier David Crisafulli says protesters and an Aboriginal tent embassy had to be moved out of Brisbane’s Victoria Park this morning for safety reasons. The Goori Camp embassy was issued a policy direction at 1am on Monday on behalf of the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority. It came after a series of arrests of protesters on Friday and a major rally against the project on Sunday. Asked if they had been treated with respect, Crisafulli said “Everyone’s got a right to protest but from midnight this becomes a construction zone,” he said. double quotation markI think most people would acknowledge that the place to do that wouldn’t be in the middle of a construction site. Crisafulli said the “vast majority of Queenslanders” want the state government to get on with building the stadium, and said the federal government had endorsed the plan. The construction of the Olympic stadium and aquatic centre is in the heart of Brisbane in a park that traditional owners say is a First Nations sacred site. Post navigation কঙ্গো প্রাদুর্ভাবে 1,000 সংক্রমণের শীর্ষে ব্রাজিল সন্দেহভাজন দুটি ইবোলা কেসকে আলাদা করেছে
Abbott plays down One Nation support in poll but says Coalition ‘obviously’ in competition Tony Abbott, the new party president of the Liberals, said he wouldn’t get “too excited” by the poll showing One Nation’s surging support. But he told RN this morning he believes the country is in trouble and the Liberal/National Coalition is best positioned to lead the nation. Abbott spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying: double quotation markOur economy is stagnant, our society is fragmenting, our security is imperiled, and yes, we don’t believe in ourselves nearly enough. I think the current government is making all of this worse. And it’s really important that we get a better government as soon as possible. … Obviously, we are in a degree of competition with other parties and voices on the centre-right. But in the end, our opponent, our enemy, if you like, is a really bad Labor government, a really bad Green-left-Labor government. Which in its budget, [has led an] assault on aspiration and wealth creation. Abbott went on to say it would take “hard work” to appeal to Australians, saying the Coalition was still “by far the most credible” alternative to the current government: double quotation markThe point I make is: if you normally vote Liberal, if you’re interested in public life, if you think our country is in trouble, please don’t complain on the sidelines. Join the party and make a difference. Tony Abbott. Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP
Luca Ittimani Pauline Hanson calls for overhaul of ‘dogmatic’ workers’ rights system Catching you up on some news from Sunday: Pauline Hanson has called for sweeping reforms to Australia’s workers’ rights system. Appearing on Sky News yesterday, the One Nation leader targeted young workers and took issue with the obstacles employers face when sacking staff. She said: double quotation markWe need to have an overhaul here … These young ones, they said, they don’t want to work. And then they’re tired by early afternoon, or they’re on their phones, or they take days off. There’s no compliance with it whatsoever. Even when they want to finish work or when they want to leave you, OK, they can just say, see you later and they’re gone. Whereas you have to give them, you know, all these three weeks, four weeks, whatever. If not, you can’t even sack anyone, if they’re not working, if they steal from you, then you see yourself through the courts. This has to change. It has to change. There’s a give and take in employment, and people have a right to employ who they want to. We’ve become too dogmatic. Hanson gave the example of a time she sacked one of her own staff, saying they had to be paid four months’ wages. double quotation markIt’s a scam that’s going on, and a lot of people play and the whole thing needs a complete overhaul. In the same interview, Hanson said she believed she could do the job of prime minister and suggested the minimum wage should not be increased this year. One Nation is more popular than any other party, including Labor, according to a poll published today.
Luca Ittimani CGT changes good for property investors if inflation high and price growth slow, Ray White says Property investors may actually be winners from Labor’s capital gains tax changes when inflation is high and house prices aren’t rising rapidly, new Ray White analysis suggests. Australia’s biggest real estate agency on budget night warned changes to the tax discount on profits from selling assets would mean property investing is more expensive. Analysis from Nerida Conisbee, Ray White’s chief economist, has now found that may not always be the case. The old CGT discount didn’t account for the difference between inflation and asset price growth. The new inflation-adjustment discount does, so when house prices are rising fast and inflation is low, investors have a bigger tax bill, Conisbee found. But house prices are now expected to fall or plateau around Australia while inflation is expected to be above 3% for much of the next year. If higher inflation and a slower market persists, investors would save money under the new system. Say inflation sits at 3% on average over the next few years. An investor who buys a $1.75m home under the new regime then sells it after six years, assuming a 30% income tax rate, would pay about the same amount of tax as they would under the old – assuming the home price rose by about 5.5% a year. But if the home price rose just 5% a year, the investor pays $13,000 less in tax. If it rose just 3% a year, there is almost no inflation-adjusted profit and the investor would save $51,000 in tax. Conisbee said: double quotation markThe policy may be defensible if the aim is to tax real gains rather than inflation. But it should not be assumed to raise more tax from property investors in the near term.
NSW losses on the pokies concentrated in some communities The data shows losses from pokies concentrated in some communities: Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown ($198.8m), Fairfield ($186.1m) and Cumberland ($136.2m); the Central Coast ($90.7m); Wollongong ($54.6m); and Newcastle ($52.1m). Some communities, namely Liverpool and Ryde in Sydney, have seen sharp upticks in year-on-year losses. Wesley Mission’s Cameron said: double quotation markBehind these numbers is the money needed to pay rent, groceries and other essential bills being drained by pokies out of household pockets. Losses have continued to climb while harm deepens. The question has never been whether reform is needed, it desperately is, but how much longer we must wait for the Minns government to step up and do the hard and desperately needed work to reduce and prevent harm.
NSW on track to lose $10bn to pokies in 2026, Wesley Mission finds A new analysis from the Wesley Mission finds families in NSW are being hit with a record surge in poker machine losses, with new data showing $2.37bn lost in the first three months of this year. If continued, that rate would see people lose more than $10bn in 2026, what the body calls a “terrible milestone in NSW’s decades-long capture to the pokies industry”. That’s an average of about $26.4m every day, or just over $1.1m an hour. Stu Cameron, the CEO of Wesley Mission, said in a statement: double quotation markThere seem to be only three certainties in NSW right now: death, taxes and spiralling poker machine losses. Quarter after quarter, the same story repeats itself – more money lost, more families under pressure, and more communities carrying the burden of gambling harm. It’s a grotesque Groundhog Day on steroids.
Melbourne film festival hacked, with some data accessed The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) said yesterday an unauthorised person gained access to customer information, including names, emails and phone numbers during a hack of a ticketing platform. The festival said it became aware of the incident on 29 May, quickly suspending access to the affected accounts and installing new security measures. But on 30 May there was further unauthorised access to the ticketing platform, with some customers receiving emails or SMS messages sent to them directly without authorisation. MIFF has contacted affected customers directly with information about the incident. It believes nearly 27,000 customer records held by the platform may have been accessed. The ticketing platform does not store compete credit card information. MIFF said in a statement: double quotation markWe understand customers may be concerned by this incident and sincerely regret the uncertainty it may cause. Protecting the personal information entrusted to MIFF and its technology partners is extremely important. We have advised affected customers to remain cautious of unexpected emails or SMS messages that appear to come from MIFF and to avoid clicking links or providing personal information unless they are confident of the source. Despite some reports, Melbourne Writers festival did not see any evidence of unauthorised access to its own customer data.
Victorians can access 20% off car rego and half-price public transport from today Victoria has rolled out two cost of living measures amid the ongoing fuel crisis: 20% off car registration and half-price fares on public transport until the end of the year. The half-price fares come on the back of free public transport across the state over the past two months, which has ended today. But the discount will apply from today until the end of December. Under the discount, a full daily fare will cost $5.70 to travel anywhere across the state, down from $11.40. To get 20% off your rego via a rebate, Victorians will need to have paid their registration between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 for a light vehicle for personal use. You can get the rebate for up to two vehicles in your name, and get it in full regardless of if you paid your rego in full or in instalments. You have two months to apply, until 31 July. Applications open today. A Metro Trains service at North Melbourne Station in Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Krishani Dhanji Students would save $3bn over a decade if Labor changed Hecs indexation date University graduates would save more than $3bn over a decade if the government changed the date of indexation on Hecs debts, dubbed a “broken system” in its current form by independent MP Monique Ryan. About 3 million students and graduates will see their Hecs debts increase by a combined $1bn on Monday, when they are indexed by 2.8%. Hecs debts do not accrue interest but increase yearly based on the rate of inflation or the wage price index, to maintain the “real value” of the money owed. Students make compulsory payments towards their Hecs, which are collected and held by the tax office, but that money is not deducted from the debt until the person has filed their tax return. That is done after the debt indexes. Costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office, seen by Guardian Australia, show if the government changed the indexation date from 1 June to 1 November, after compulsory payments have been paid down, it would cost the budget’s underlying cash balance $1.2bn in forgone revenue over four years. Read more here:
Thousands of older Australians still waiting for care More than 100,000 people are still on wait lists for in-home aged care despite wait times falling, AAP reports. The latest quarterly data for the first three months of 2026 showed wait times go down by two weeks for high priority cases, from between 1.5 and 2.5 months to between one and two months. Medium-priority cases have fallen from between eight and nine months to between six and seven months, while standard priority cases are down from between 10 and 11 months to between seven and eight months. The figures also revealed 364,723 people now have access to support at home places, up almost 18,000 people on the previous quarter. But despite the increase in places, 100,191 people are still on a waitlist for approval. The health minister, Mark Butler, conceded it was a difficult task to reduce the waitlist as the population ages. He told ABC Radio this morning: double quotation markThere’s also an historic increase in demand as a particular generation comes into the aged care system, so satisfying all of that demand is going to be a very difficult job for government.
Andrew Messenger Concept design for Brisbane Olympics stadium only 10% finished Just 10% of the concept design for the Brisbane Olympics stadium is finished, as early works start today. The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (Giica) head, Simon Crooks, was asked about timelines at a press conference held to mark the area being handed over to the agency today. Sports luminaries and the premier held a groundbreaking ceremony this morning. “We’re at 10% concept design,” Crooks told media. double quotation markI won’t be in a situation where I’d be comfortable letting design drawings go to construction right through this year. There’s a long way to go. It’s $3.8bn of drawing. Giica’s 100-day review recommended plans for the stadium be approved by the third quarter of 2026. But Crooks said they were still on schedule. double quotation markI’m comfortable with it … pretty well everything we’ve done the last nine months, we’ve hit (timelines). We said we’d engage the main contractor by the end of the year, and we’re on program for that. Crooks said the organisation was working to have the stadium finished a year before the 2032 games, but wouldn’t estimate when construction would start, because planning was still in its early contractor involvement stage. The premier, David Crisafulli, said the job could be done on time. “It’s a race against time but I have every faith that we can get it done,” he said. double quotation markThis can be our moment to shine, it can be the moment where the world looks at us and says there is the state with a bright future ahead of it.
Luca Ittimani Capital city home prices fall as experts predict Australia’s property slump could last a year Home prices in Australia’s capital cities have begun to fall, with experts predicting the decline could last at least a year and wipe as much as 10% from values. The median capital city home price fell in May, the first decline since January 2025, as high interest rates and inflation stretched buyer budgets, Cotality reported on Monday. Auction success hit a new low for the year. Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra median house prices ended May lower than they were at the end of 2025. Even homes at the cheaper end in those cities fell in value, losing the momentum maintained at the start of 2026. Read more here:
Crisafulli says protesters at Brisbane Olympic site moved on for their own safety Andrew Messenger Queensland premier David Crisafulli says protesters and an Aboriginal tent embassy had to be moved out of Brisbane’s Victoria Park this morning for safety reasons. The Goori Camp embassy was issued a policy direction at 1am on Monday on behalf of the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority. It came after a series of arrests of protesters on Friday and a major rally against the project on Sunday. Asked if they had been treated with respect, Crisafulli said “Everyone’s got a right to protest but from midnight this becomes a construction zone,” he said. double quotation markI think most people would acknowledge that the place to do that wouldn’t be in the middle of a construction site. Crisafulli said the “vast majority of Queenslanders” want the state government to get on with building the stadium, and said the federal government had endorsed the plan. The construction of the Olympic stadium and aquatic centre is in the heart of Brisbane in a park that traditional owners say is a First Nations sacred site.