Australia news live: Chalmers flags terms for ‘contentious’ GST review as inflation data shows ‘we’ve got work to do’

Jim Chalmers flags terms of reference for ‘contentious’ GST review

Patrick Commins

Later today Jim Chalmers will release the terms of reference for the Productivity Commission’s scheduled review of the GST.

Speaking to journalists, the treasurer said “the GST distribution will always be a contentious issue”:

These terms of reference are broad enough to look into some of the issues and concerns which have been raised by the states.

The commonwealth collects GST revenue and then distributes it between the states and territories according to a complex formula managed by the Commonwealth Grants Commission.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

This formula is supposed to carve up the GST according to the needs of the different jurisdictions and their capacity to generate their own income.

This principle of “horizontal fiscal equalisation” – that the fiscally weaker states would be pulled up towards the strongest – was violated when the Morrison government, in a bid to shore up political support in the west, guaranteed a level of GST for the country’s richest state, Western Australia.

Saul Eslake, an independent economist, has described the WA GST deal (which has been supported by Labor) as “the worst Australian public policy decision of the 21st century”.

We’ll soon find out whether the PC’s terms of reference for its review of the GST distribution will include WA’s sweetheart deal.

Updated at 04.58 CEST

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Chalmers says Optus triple-zero outage ‘a disgrace’ that can ‘never happen again’

Chalmers said the government would “get to the bottom” of what happened with Optus’ triple-zero outage, adding:

What we’ve seen with Optus and with the failures from triple zero is a disgrace. And my colleagues have made that clear. These are devastating, disgraceful developments … we will get to the bottom of what’s happened here.

This can never happen again.

Updated at 04.57 CEST

Chalmers says inflation figures show ‘we’ve got a lot going for us’

Chalmers has been speaking to reporters after the release of the latest monthly inflation data. He said the latest figures showed there was still “a lot of work to do”, but reflected an economy in good standing:

We’ve got a lot of work to do. But we’ve got a lot going for us as well …

Today’s figures show the very substantial and sustained progress that we have made when it comes to underlying inflation. Despite the increased volatility in the global economy, underlying inflation is within the target range and that’s a promising result in uncertain times.

Updated at 04.51 CEST

Jim Chalmers flags terms of reference for ‘contentious’ GST review

Patrick Commins

Later today Jim Chalmers will release the terms of reference for the Productivity Commission’s scheduled review of the GST.

Speaking to journalists, the treasurer said “the GST distribution will always be a contentious issue”:

These terms of reference are broad enough to look into some of the issues and concerns which have been raised by the states.

The commonwealth collects GST revenue and then distributes it between the states and territories according to a complex formula managed by the Commonwealth Grants Commission.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

This formula is supposed to carve up the GST according to the needs of the different jurisdictions and their capacity to generate their own income.

Saul Eslake, an independent economist, has described the WA GST deal (which has been supported by Labor) as “the worst Australian public policy decision of the 21st century”.

We’ll soon find out whether the PC’s terms of reference for its review of the GST distribution will include WA’s sweetheart deal.

Updated at 04.58 CEST

Josh Taylor

Optus’s parent company backs telco following triple zero outage

The chief executive of Optus’s parent company Singtel, Yuen Kuan Moon, apologised for the triple zero outage last week, saying Singtel is supporting Optus through its transformation following chief executive Stephen Rue’s appointment in November last year.

In a statement on Wednesday, Moon said Singtel was “deeply sorry” for the outage, and “hearts go out” to the family and friends of those who died.

Moon indicated Singtel was supporting the executive team through the investigation process:

Optus is in the midst of an ongoing transformation led by Stephen Rue who was appointed 11 months ago to lead the charge.

We will continue to fully support the Optus board and management team as they work through this incident and accelerate the changes needed.

We are committed to the continued transformation of Optus to improve the processes and resiliency of the company and improve the reliability of critical services.

Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

Singtel has invested over $9.3bn in Optus in the past five years. Moon said a large portion of this investment has gone to building network infrastructure.

Moon is expected to visit Australia next week.

Updated at 04.41 CEST

Electricity prices up 25% from last year as rebates finish

Patrick Commins

A surge in electricity costs as government rebates roll off has pushed inflation to 3% in August, its highest in a year.

Household power bills have risen 25% over the past 12 months, the monthly figures from the ABS show, as subsidies lapsed in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

The new official statistics come before the Reserve Bank of Australia’s next two-day meeting starting on Monday, where the monetary policy board is expected to hold its cash rate steady at 3.6%.

The ABS’s head of price statistics, Michelle Marquardt, said a 3% rise in grocery prices and a 13% jump in tobacco costs also helped explain the rise in the headline rate of inflation.

Despite the apparent resurgence in inflation, economists and financial markets still expect interest rates to fall further, with the next cut most likely at the November meeting.

The head of the RBA’s economics division, Sarah Hunter, recently cautioned against reading too much into the monthly statistics, saying they offered an incomplete and more volatile measure of inflation than the quarterly data.

Underlying inflation – which removes large, temporary movements in prices – fell from 2.7% in July to 2.6% in the latest figures.

Updated at 04.26 CEST

Krishani Dhanji

Reports Vanuatu could sign new policing deal with China

The opposition says the government’s “failures” in the Pacific are “coming home to roost”, amid reports Vanuatu plans to sign a new policing agreement with China.

The ABC reports Vanuatu’s police minister, Andrew Napuat, said China had agreed to send 20 police motorcycles, 20 drones and other equipment to the Pacific nation. The announcement comes after Anthony Albanese left Vanuatu last week without signing the Nakamal pact between Australia and the Pacific nation.

Guardian Australia has not yet confirmed if Vanuatu is planning to sign the new agreement with China.

Anthony Albanese with Nikenike Vurobaravu, the president of Vanuatu. Photograph: The Office of The Prime Minister of Australia

The Albanese government hasn’t directly commented on the report, but a spokesperson said in a statement:

Australia is Vanuatu’s largest economic, development, security and humanitarian partner. The government is aware China continues to have a small police presence in Vanuatu.

When it comes to security, our view is well known – that Pacific security needs are the responsibility of the Pacific, as agreed by Pacific leaders.

Shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, says the government has “dropped the ball”.

Mr Albanese has been so focused on formally recognising a state partially run by terrorists that he has dropped the ball in our region.

It is extremely regrettable that Mr Albanese has been unable to get expected deals signed with both Vanuatu and PNG.

Updated at 04.19 CEST

Sarah Basford Canales

Price says she will not ‘sit back and be silent’

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price also told 2GB she and her colleagues would not “stay silent” on publicly airing their policy positions while the Liberal party finalises its policies in opposition. She said:

We don’t have much in the way of policy. We are supposed to be an effective opposition. We do want to be able to do our job, so we’re not going to sit back and be silent until such time as we have policy positions on a number of issues.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has questioned the Coalition’s effectiveness as the opposition. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Nampijinpa Price, who was dumped from the shadow ministry earlier this month, was asked whether she still had confidence in Sussan Ley as leader. She responded:

I’d love to be able to have the confidence of the leader myself … I think the fact that I’ve been demoted probably demonstrates that …

Updated at 04.09 CEST

Sarah Basford Canales

Price says Andrew Hastie will make ‘remarkable leader one day’

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has backed her Liberal colleague, Andrew Hastie, as someone who will “make a remarkable leader one day” amid rumblings the former SAS soldier could make a tilt at opposition leadership.

Nampijinpa Price was asked by 2GB this morning whether she believed Hastie had what it takes to be an opposition leader, to which she responded: “Oh, look, I think so. I think he’s passionate. He’s got conviction”.

On Hastie’s party detractors, many of whom have anonymously criticised him to the media this week, Nampijinpa Price said:

I think they probably see him as some kind of threat because he is so good at what he does, is so good at the job that he does and representing Australians.

Hastie, a Western Australian MP elected in 2015, has been increasingly vocal in recent weeks about his opposition to net zero and support for domestic manufacturing. Hastie has also previously expressed his ambition for the Liberal leadership.

Western Australian MP Andrew Hastie. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare

Updated at 03.55 CEST

Luca Ittimani

Westpac cuts 200 bank branch jobs to focus on app

Westpac will cut 200 bank teller roles, prompting union warnings the face-to-face services are shrinking further.

The branch-based jobs won’t be needed because the bank will be focusing on digital and app services, which have far higher customer satisfaction than branches or contact centres, staff were told in an email on Tuesday.

Westpac plans to update its app and spend $200m updating ATMs and branches, according to the email from the general manager of Westpac’s retail division, Damien Macrae.

Photograph: Jaimi Joy/Reuters

The Finance Sector Union has warned that the loss of face-to-face roles will hurt staff, and customers relying on branch services, with its national secretary, Julia Angrisano, saying:

Westpac is asking loyal tellers to migrate customers to digital services that ultimately eliminate their own jobs. It’s callous and shortsighted … communities still rely on face-to-face banking.

The bank has continued to hire in other divisions, with Macrae telling staff 33 branch workers had swapped to home finance in the past year. Another 200 staff will be hired to work in home and small business loans, he said.

The cuts come amid Westpac’s broader restructure to get rid of an estimated 1,500 jobs in 2025. Each of the big four is cutting jobs, with 3,500 expected to go at ANZ and hundreds already sacked at Commonwealth Bank and NAB.

Updated at 03.25 CEST

Tom McIlroy

‘Don’t verbal me’: Albanese clashes with journalist

Anthony Albanese clarified comments he made about not being able to call Donald Trump, tussling with a high-profile journalist about his access to the US president.

Before the May federal election, Albanese was asked if he had Trump’s phone number. He told a pre-election debate he did not have a direct line, saying “it’s not the way it works” when world leaders want to contact each another.

“There’s people taking notes from either side, it’s not a casual relationship,” Albanese said in April.

I don’t have Donald Trump’s number.

Australian PM Anthony Albanese says phone calls with world leaders are not ‘casual’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

After confirmation he would meet Trump at the White House next month, Nightly journalist Latika Bourke asked Albanese about the comments in New York. Bourke noted French president Emmanuel Macron had called Trump hours earlier, when his motorcade was blocked by Trump’s in downtown Manhattan.

“Don’t verbal me, don’t verbal me,” Albanese said, interrupting Bourke’s question about being able to call Trump. The PM went on:

The point I was making was between leaders of nations. You organise phone calls, you have note takers, you do it in rooms where mobiles aren’t allowed. That’s the point.

Albanese is due at the White House on 20 October.

Updated at 03.13 CEST

ABC ordered to pay Antoinette Lattouf another $150,000 for unlawful termination over Gaza Instagram post

The ABC has been ordered by the federal court to pay Antoinette Lattouf a total of $150,000 in pecuniary penalties for breaching the Fair Work Act and the ABC’s enterprise agreement when it unlawfully terminated the casual presenter for holding a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

Journalist Antoinette Lattouf. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

The pecuniary penalty is on top of a previous order to pay Lattouf compensation of $70,000.

The decision on penalties brings to an end a highly charged dispute, which began in December 2023 when the journalist’s on-air shifts were cut short three days into a five-day stint hosting ABC Radio’s Sydney Mornings.

Albanese and Trump meet briefly in New York for the first time

Tom McIlroy

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump have met for the first time, at a reception for world leaders hosted by the US president.

Ahead of a formal meeting at the White House on 20 October, Albanese and Trump spoke on Tuesday night in New York, Wednesday morning Australian time.

We are told the pair had a good conversation about their forthcoming meeting in Washington DC. Earlier in the day, Albanese said the two men had a good relationship, developed in four phone calls since Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump hosted the reception on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, along with first lady Melania Trump.

Albanese was accompanied by his partner, Jodie Haydon.

Updated at 03.27 CEST

Mark Butler says he is ‘really worried’ by Trump’s unproven comments linking autism to paracetamol use in pregnancy

Australia’s health minister has addressed Donald Trump’s “worrying” unproven claims about autism, AAP reports.

Flanked by US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US president baselessly linked autism to the use of paracetamol by pregnant women, and to childhood vaccines.

Australian health minister Mark Butler. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Health minister Mark Butler said he is “really worried” the comments will leave more than 200,000 pregnant Australian women unsure or afraid of what to do when they become sick, particularly with fever. He told Nine’s Today this morning:

I don’t want pregnant women right now to feel unsure about what to do. I don’t want women who were pregnant in the past to feel unsure or even guilty about the fact that they took a treatment that was advised to them as being safe.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Tuesday joined other medicines regulators, leading clinicians and scientists to say “robust scientific evidence” shows no causal link between the use of paracetamol in pregnancy and autism or ADHD.

Updated at 02.51 CEST

SA algal bloom ‘far too extensive’ to eradicate, senate inquiry hears

Tory Shepherd

The largest harmful algal bloom ever treated was roughly 100 sq km, a global expert told an inquiry this morning, which is a fraction of the size of South Australia’s bloom.

“Your bloom is many, many, many times bigger than that already,” Dr Donald Anderson, senior scientist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The SA bloom covers about 4,500 sq km.

Anderson told the senate inquiry into the bloom:

If you tried to do something [to eradicate it] you would be doing something no one else in the world has ever done. It’s far too extensive, too big.

South Australians living with respiratory illness have been warned of a “potential risk” posed by a toxic algal bloom dominating the state’s coastline. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

The best thing to do, he said, was to look at monitoring and forecasting abilities, provide information on and manage the effects of the bloom, and develop resources to tackle future, smaller blooms, and to protect resources such as aquaculture.

You can read more from Anderson here.

Updated at 02.40 CEST

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