Labor can’t be trusted to follow through with housing promises, Hastie says

Hastie has taken aim at the Albanese government for its anticipated winding back of tax breaks for investors.

The Albanese government is widely expected to announce changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing rules in next Tuesday’s federal budget. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said they were part of reforms aimed at addressing community concerns that younger generations are being left worse off under current tax settings.

Asked about the expected policy change, Hastie said:

Labor went to the last election not having made any of these policy commitments, and now they’re changing. You know, can we trust them? And I think the answer is no.

The shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability, Andrew Hastie, says Australia deepening its strategic ties with Japan is a “good move”:

We have many common interests, particularly now with the pressure caused by the war in Iran, we have a strong economic relationship

We obviously support it.

Australia’s resources minister, Madeleine King, has been speaking to the ABC about the new strategic agreement with Japan.

Anthony Albanese, and his Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi, today announced a new agreement, which includes statements on energy and critical minerals, between the two countries.

Asked if Australia would need to consult Japan about changes to taxation on gas, King said each nation would retain its sovereignty:

Just as we wouldn’t seek to in any way interfere with Japan’s taxation regime, they wouldn’t seek to interfere with ours.

Having a collaborative approach and discussion with other countries … in no way, restricts what the Australian government does in the interests of its people.

Tesla and Polestar sales double in April amid EV surge

Tesla and Polestar car sales in Australia more than doubled last month compared to the same time period last year, data released by the national electric vehicle body shows.

As Australians brace for further fuel spikes, the Electric Vehicle Council’s monthly sales report shows Tesla and Polestar delivered 1,458 new vehicles in April. This is more than double the 702 sold in April 2025.

Tesla and Polestar’s year-to-date sales have soared by 47% – a total of 9,185 vehicles – compared with January to April 2025, the council’s data shows.

NSW is leading the national growth in 2026 with year-to-date sales up 66% compared with the same time period last year.

The co-chair of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, has given impassioned evidence to the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, saying Australia now resembled the antisemitic Soviet Union his family had fled when he was a child.

The things we’ve seen in this country replicate what happened there: the rampant abuse, the violence, the denigration, and the sheer relish with which it is inflicted on the Jewish people.

Ryvchin said, as a prominent advocate for Australia’s Jewish community, he faced consistent death threats, threats against his children and family, and “fixated individuals” who posted personal pictures online. He said being called a “Jewish dog” in the street in Sydney “stopped me in my tracks”.

Ryvchin said Jewish Australians feared the country was no longer safe for them. He told the commission he had had Jewish families call him asking “completely calmly, ‘will you tell me when it is time to go’.”

And I’ve told them I would. I told them I will call them and advise them.

I’m not going anywhere, I’m going down with the ship if that’s what is required: I love this country and I will continue to fight for the future of this country. But I completely understand those with thinking about exit strategies and plan Bs. That’s what’s necessary: history has shown how quickly things can change.

I’m going to hand you over to my colleague Adeshola Ore now, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon’s news. Thanks for your company this morning.

More on Australia-Japan joint statements of support

Some more detail has come through on the various joint statements that Australia and Japan have signed following the leaders’ meeting in Canberra on Monday.

Statements were issued to reaffirm the two countries’ commitment to support each other on economic security, energy, critical minerals, defence and security cooperation and cyber.

On energy, the statement read:

We reaffirm our commitment to strengthen energy security; support the flow of essential energy goods, including liquefied natural gas, coal and liquid fuels between our two countries; and maintain stable and transparent engagement on the trade of energy products, while enhancing predictability and transparency regarding the investment environment.

We also confirm our commitment to diversify energy sources, including through supporting the energy transition and investment and cooperation in energy efficiency.

The commitment to “support the flow” of energy is noteworthy given the debate in Australia about imposing higher taxes on gas exports.

Anthony Albanese has ruled out a new tax on existing export contracts in next week’s budget in part to avoid alienating Asian nations – such as Japan – which are heavily reliant on Australian LNG.

Search in progress for NSW bushwalker missing since Sunday

A multi-agency search is under way to find a missing bushwalker in north-west New South Wales.

According to police, Ruth Donald, 62, contacted emergency services at about 9.30pm on Sunday 3 May after becoming lost while bushwalking.

Officers from New England Police District attended an area 12km west of Drake village, near Tenterfield, and commenced a search. Police and family hold concerns for her welfare due to the rugged terrain in the area.

Ruth is described as being of Caucasian appearance, about 160cm to 165cm tall, of slim build with blonde hair. She was last seen wearing shorts, a T-shirt, a bright blue rain jacket and walking with two terrier dogs.

The search resumed at 9am today involving local police and rescue services, the dog unit, PolAir, NSW Fire and Rescue, Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service.

Police have urged anyone who might have information on the missing woman’s whereabouts to contact police or Crimestoppers.

Speaking immediately after Anthony Albanese, Sanae Takaichi said the agreement committed both countries to providing a “secure, reciprocal and stable supply of energy” amid the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz.

Australia is a major exporter of LNG to Japan, while Japan supplies Australia with about 7% of its diesel supplies.

She said:

The closure of the strait of Hormuz has been inflicting enormous impact on the Indo Pacific. We affirm that Japan and Australia will closely communicate with each other in responding with a sense of urgency.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has broken for lunch in its first day of public hearings.

Stefanie Schwartz, the president of the board of Mount Sinai College, has been giving evidence about the extraordinary security measures required by the school to keep students safe.

She will return to give further testimony after lunch.

Earlier, a witness known as AAM said the Bondi attack had convinced her she could no longer live safely in Australia.

AAM said:

We never expected Jews to be hunted on Bondi Beach.

She said Australia had once been one of the safest place in the world for Jews, but now, Jewish people were constantly worried about “what could possibly come next”:

My family and I no longer want to live in Australia. We don’t feel safe here. We don’t feel welcome.

We will move to Israel at the end of the year. For my family, we’ve had enough. It is not OK.

Anthony Albanese and Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi have been speaking to the media in the wake of their meetings this morning. Our Canberra bureau will bring you the details of the new agreements and joint statements both nations have signed shortly.

$1m reward offered for information relating to NSW woman’s 1997 disappearance

The New South Wales government and the state’s police force have announced a $1m reward for information relating to the disappearance of Marion Barter.

Barter, then aged 51, was last seen at a bus depot on Scarborough Street, near Railway Street, at Southport in Queensland on Sunday 22 June 1997, police said in a statement released earlier today.

Detectives say they believe Marion took the bus to the airport, where she left Australia for the United Kingdom, under the name Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, which she had officially changed the month before leaving.

Police are treating Barter’s disappearance as suspicious, and say they believe she may have re-entered Australia on 2 August 1997, under the name of Florabella Remakel with an incoming passenger card stating she was married and resided in Luxembourg.

Police said that, following her disappearance, an unknown person appears to have accessed a bank account belonging to Barter.

In July 2019, a formal police review of the case was conducted and the homicide squad’s unsolved homicide unit established Strike Force Jurunga, to re-investigate Barter’s disappearance.

A coronial inquest was held in Sydney and Byron Bay in June 2021. The coroner recommended the NSW police’s unsolved homicide unit continue its regular reviewing and monitoring of the case.

Police today increased the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for Barter’s disappearance or death from $500,000 to $1 million.

In a statement, Barter’s daughter, Sally Leydon, thanked police and said she hoped someone knew what had happened to her mother:

This decision shows a willingness to keep pushing for answers, and I welcome that and to those people that do know something, you should know I am not giving up until I find my Mum and justice is served.

NSW premier not yet asked to give evidence to royal commission

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says he has not yet been asked to give evidence to the royal commission into antisemitism.

Speaking at a press conference earlier, Minns said it was “an enormously emotional day” for those giving evidence to the inquiry commissioned following the Bondi terror attack, “to relive and experience what is probably the worst day in many people’s lives”.

Asked if he or other senior government ministers would be asked to give evidence, Minns said:

I haven’t been asked, but of course I would [give evidence] if I was. And I assume NSW agencies will be part of the process, I know that they’ve already been asked to give information to the commissioner, but I’ll just leave it up to the royal commission to determine witness schedules and the timetable.

On eve of 2026 budget, Victorian premier says state on track for surplus

At her press conference this morning, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, faced questions on the state’s finances ahead of Tuesday’s budget.

She was asked about an analysis released Monday by the independent thinktank the e61 Institute which found the state was struggling to reduce spending to meet its own budget forecasts.

The report also said interest payments on state debt was the state’s fastest-growing spending category, forecast to increase further from $7.7bn this financial year to $10.5bn by 2029.

Allan said the state was on track for a surplus this financial year and the next, which gave the government the “capacity” to make spending commitments including in health, building more schools and providing cost-of-living relief. She went on:

I acknowledge we’ve got to get those percentages of debt down, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

But I also do acknowledge that there are alternative approaches, which would see those levels of debt cut hard and fast. Well, to do that, you’re cutting into schools, you’re cutting into hospitals, you’re cutting into train services. You also are cutting into households at a time when they need this support more than ever before.

The approach we’re taking, which you’ll see in the budget tomorrow, is recognising that it’s important to drive down debt as a percentage of the economy, to do so through growing the economy, delivering an operating surplus, but also recognising at the same time, now is not the time to make life even harder for working people and families.

Victoria to split cost of $152m metro extension preparations with federal government

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced the state and federal governments will spend $152.7m for design and preparation works for the extension of the Metro rail network to Melton.

The funds, which will be split equally and allocated in the upcoming state and federal budgets, will be spent on site investigations, environmental assessments, planning approvals, detailed design and costings and to secure the power supply needed to electrify the line.

The former premier Daniel Andrews first promised to electrify the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines, which still operate regional V/Line trains, in 2018.

Allan on Monday said government had been taking “progressive” steps to meet the commitment, including duplicating the line between Deer Park and Melton:

You can’t get to this stage to plan for electrification works without having undertaken that important duplication, because that would just have created such a chokepoint when you wanted to come to electrifying the network.

The great thing about duplicating the line, the 17km of track between Deer Park and Melton, it meant that we could run an additional 220 weekly services from Melton as a result of that those works. So we’ve been making progressive steps.

She said the redevelopment of Sunshine station would also create “space” for the Melton trains once electrified.

Roy Morgan urges RBA to keep interest rates stable

Research company Roy Morgan has urged the Reserve Bank not to raise interest rates tomorrow, claiming that business and consumer confidence is already at or near record lows.

In a statement this morning, executives Gary Morgan, Michele Levine and Julian McCrann argued that “key economic indicators” show the Australian economy “is already in a weakened state, and perhaps already in a recession”.

They said:

If the RBA does raise interest rates tomorrow [this] would most likely plunge Australia into a ‘recession we don’t have to have’ – if we aren’t already in one.

They say their latest business confidence index, released in full today, shows it falling 14.2 points in April to a record low of only 76.5 – below the previous record low which was reached at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 of 76.9. Australian consumers are even more pessimistic, they say.

The statement continues:

A further increase to official interest rates, tomorrow, on top of two interest rate increases by the RBA already in February and March – by a total of 0.5% to 4.1% – will increase mortgage stress, real unemployment and underemployment and ensure the damage to the Australian economy is needlessly increased and a likely deep recession guaranteed …

The Reserve Bank SHOULD NOT make a historic mistake tomorrow and raise interest rates again for a third straight month that will force Australia into the ‘recession we don’t have to have.’

Wong plays down suggestions Japan could provide submarines as Aukus risk remain

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has played down reports defence talks with Japan could turn to a Japanese backup for the $368bn Aukus submarine deal with the US and UK, AAP reports.

Former senior defence official Richard Gray said in a report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that risks in the Aukus program could leave the country without a submarine.

He recommended Japan as an “attractive partner” to explore contingencies:

Thanks to its prudent industrial policies and extensive manufacturing capability, [Japan] possesses a young, large, modern, highly capable submarine fleet.

Wong said Australia would continue to focus on Aukus, telling Nine’s Today program on Monday:

We have a clear Aukus plan, that is our focus.

Having said that, we obviously will continue to work very closely with Japan.

Japan is our special strategic partner. Our relationship has grown from strength to strength over the last 50 years.

Canberra chose Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to supply its upgraded Mogami-class frigate for Australia’s navy for $10bn. Wong said the decision on the frigates with Japan indicated close defence ties between the two countries.

That’s no moon: astronomers discover 27 new potential circumbinary planets

Astronomers have discovered 27 new potential planets that orbit two stars, like the fictional desert planet Tatooine from the Star Wars universe.

To date, only about 18 circumbinary planets – which orbit around two stars – had been identified in the universe. More than 6,000 planets have been discovered that orbit single stars, like Earth does around the sun.

In a timely publication for 4 May, also known as Star Wars Day, scientists have identified nearly 30 more candidate planets, whose distances range from 650 to 18,000 light years away from Earth.

Read more about this discovery here:

Grab your tickets – it’s fundraiser dinner season

They’re dismissed as boring, little more than a “selfie” opportunity for economy nerds – or even labelled a threat to democracy.

But as budget week approaches, the major parties are once again spruiking fundraising dinners and drinks for their most loyal followers – and slugging them for thousands of dollars.

A seat at Labor’s budget night dinner on Tuesday, 12 May, with the prime minister, treasurer and senior ministers, costs $5,500, up from $5,000 last year. The event is being held somewhere in the “Canberra CBD”, according to Labor sources.

The Federal Labor Business Forum (FLBF) – a major fundraising arm for the party – will also host a more casual networking function for $2,000 per ticket. MPs and ministers are expected to attend the event likely to be held at the National Press Club.

A top-tier membership to the FLBF costs more than $100,000 and gives holders about 25% off their tickets. Companies, including Westfarmers and Sportsbet, have reportedly held top-tier memberships.

But privately, some MPs say they resent being “wheeled out” for these ritzy social galas.

Read the full story from me and Sarah Basford Canales here:

Use our loan calculator to see how a rate hike could affect you

The Reserve Bank could raise interest rates again on Tuesday, after lifting rates in February and March.

Financial markets imply there is about a two-thirds chance of a third hike, after soaring fuel prices pushed inflation to its highest rate since 2023.

For someone with an average-sized new mortgage of $736,000, paying a typical rate of 5.7%, a rate increase would add about $117 to their $4,272 monthly repayments.

Use this interest rate calculator to see what you might have to pay.

‘He shouldn’t have to do this: our government should be escorting boatloads of aid to Gaza’

The parents of Zack Schofield, one of six Australian activists detained by Israel last week after taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, have described their relief to hear from their son after he was released in Crete on Friday.

Zack’s parents Joanne Jaworowski and Peter Schofield spoke to crowds gathered in Newcastle on Sunday as dozens of people paddled and sailed across Sydney and Newcastle harbours on Sunday in a show of solidarity with the Australians who were aboard the flotilla.

Jaworowski said:

We were greatly relieved to hear from our son Zack ... Zack was on a borrowed phone, and only had a few seconds to tell us he was in hospital for medical review and that he loves us.

What we really want to know is why our government hasn’t publicly condemned the kidnapping our son and the detaining of him illegally on international waters – and also, when in heaven’s name our government will break their silence and business-as-usual as the genocide of Palestinians is perpetrated by our so-called ally, Israel.

He shouldn’t have to do this: our government should be escorting boatloads of aid to Gaza shores, overland through Egypt and Jordan, breaking the illegal blockade of food and medicine with our true international allies.

Please keep the pressure on our politicians to do the right and moral thing: break the blockade and free Palestine, so that our tender-hearted, unarmed civilians like Zack don’t have to do the work of governments to help the Palestinians.

Australia engaging with UK, France and US on opening Hormuz strait, Wong says

The Australian government is continuing to engage with the UK, France and the US on diplomatic efforts to open the strait of Hormuz, Penny Wong has said.

Speaking to ABC News this morning, the foreign minister would not be drawn on Donald Trump’s comments that the US would be escorting some stranded ships out of the strait of Hormuz as a “humanitarian gesture”.

You can read more about that here:

Wong said:

We all want the straight opened. That’s what global energy markets need, that’s what the Australian consumer needs so we do want the strait opened and oil to flow through the strait as it was prior to the conflict.

However, what I’d say on this. Obviously the US has made its intentions clear. We are engaging with the United Kingdom, France and the US on keeping the strait open or making sure the strait is opened. Those diplomatic efforts continue. What I would say is that we all have an interest in this being resolved.

We know this has affected Australians at the petrol bowser, it’s affected our economy and it’s made our need to source fuel from elsewhere imperative, which is obviously why we have been – I was in north Asia last week, in Korea, Japan and China …

We have certainly been engaging with the US and others about efforts to open the strait and to keep the strait open but obviously details of this will become clearer over to coming days.

Chalmers says Labor has appetite for more childcare reform ‘when we can afford to’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher have been speaking in Canberra about the forthcoming budget.

Gallagher said there will be “savings in every portfolio”.

Asked about comments by the prime minister over the weekend that he was rethinking plans for universal childcare, Chalmers said people “shouldn’t lightly dismiss the steps that we have already taken”:

We’ve taken some very substantial steps already when it comes to the reform of early childhood education and care, probably more than any other government when it comes to affordability and access, and recognising that early childhood education and care is more than child care, it’s more than babysitting.

And so we have substantially reoriented the way that this country thinks about early education. We’re very proud of that. And from the prime minister right down, there is an appetite to do more in that regard when we can afford to do so.

Families of victims to take stand at royal commission into Bondi shooting

The royal commission into antisemitism begins its public hearings this morning, with families of victims of the Bondi terror shooting to be the first witnesses called.

The royal commission on Sunday published its witness list for Monday, with Sheina Gutnick – daughter of Bondi terror attack victim, Reuven Morrison – the first on the schedule.

The first hearing begins at 10am, and will be live streamed.

Also to appear on Monday is Alex Ryvchin, of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. The witness list for Monday has 12 people scheduled to appear, including three given pseudonyms. Each witness is listed as speaking about their “lived experience” of antisemitism.

The first block of hearings, which will run from Monday until 15 May, will focus on historical and contemporary antisemitism, including lived experiences of antisemitism, and its impacts on Jewish Australians, according to information released by the royal commission.

The commission said over the weekend that it had received nearly 6000 submissions to the inquiry, including nearly 2000 in the previous week alone.

In a statement, it said:

More than 4,000 submitters identified as Jewish, more than 1,000 didn’t identify as Jewish, and the remaining submitters preferred not to say.

The commission said submissions included “an overwhelming amount detailing lived experience of antisemitism across various sectors including education, employment, media, health, the arts, sport and online.”