Australia politics live: two Coalition MPs ejected as inflation figures dominate combative question time

Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time

The opposition tried to get the treasurer to take responsibility for the jump in inflation and put pressure on government spending. But Jim Chalmers largely stuck to his lines – that inflation is half what it was in early 2022 and the jump is in part due to state energy rebates ending.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson was ejected from QT, while Angus Taylor was warned early on in the piece that he’d quickly used up his “nine lives” and would be booted if he kept heckling.

The shadow veterans affairs minister, Darren Chester, pushed Matt Keogh on the government’s defence honours bill, which the minister accused the Coalition of trying to stoke anxiety over. Liberal MP Phillip Thompson was also booted during this exchange.

Chalmers gave assurance to independent MP Monique Ryan that the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) would not be abolished, after a report by the department.

Updated at 05.56 CET

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Luca Ittimani

Woolworths values rises by $650m despite weak supermarket sales

Woolworths has reached its highest market value in over a month despite reporting disappointing supermarket sales, as investors hope it has stopped losing customers to Coles.

The company’s capitalisation has risen by $650m to near $33.6bn after publishing updated sales data this morning, while Coles has slumped over $400m down to $30.6bn.

Woolworths’ latest sales data on growth fell below analyst expectations. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Today’s report showed Woolworths’ supermarket sales picked up less than $300m in July-September from the year prior, below analyst expectations of at least $340m. Michael Toner, an RBC analyst, said Woolworths’ bigger sales and smaller mark-ups were not translating to faster food sales growth.

Woolworths said pet and baby product sales have weakened and tobacco sales have more than halved compared to 2024, while a glut of berries and avocados weighed on fruit and vegetable revenue.

But Amanda Bardwell, Woolworths’ chief executive, struck a hopeful tone, saying customer satisfaction was picking up and sales had strengthened in October, suggesting an end-of-year improvement. She said in a statement:

While [sales were] below our aspirations and there remains more to do, we are cautiously optimistic about our key trading quarter and we have strong plans in place for our customers for the festive season.

Bardwell’s optimism will be tested tomorrow when Coles is expected to report supermarket sales growth of more than $400m, as it continues to swipe customers from its competitor. Read why Woolworths has struggled here:

Updated at 06.02 CET

Krishani Dhanji

Thank you all for following along on the blog with me today!

I’ll leave you with the fabulous Caitlin Cassidy for the rest of the afternoon, and will see you here bright and early tomorrow for the final sitting day of the week.

Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time

Liberal MP Tim Wilson was ejected from QT, while Angus Taylor was warned early on in the piece that he’d quickly used up his “nine lives” and would be booted if he kept heckling.

Chalmers gave assurance to independent MP Monique Ryan that the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) would not be abolished, after a report by the department.

Updated at 05.56 CET

Prime minister lands in South Korea

Anthony Albanese has touched down in Seoul, South Korea for the APEC summit.

Making a few comments to journalists on the runway (no questions) he says Australia does 75% of its trade with APEC nations, so it is a important series of meetings and events.

Albanese says he will also visit a cemetery where some of the Australian soldiers who died fighting in the Korean war have been laid to rest.

Some 281 Australians are laid to rest here, and an opportunity to pay tribute and my respect to them but also pay my respects to the 17,000 Australian men and women who fought here for freedom on the Korean peninsula as part of the United Nations forces defending democracy and freedom.

Updated at 05.40 CET

Patrick Commins

Jump in inflation pours cold water on interest rate cut hopes

Today’s jump in inflation may not have just delayed the next interest rate cut, but may have ruled out another cut altogether, according to the CBA.

The bank’s head of Australian economics, Belinda Allen, said it would take a substantial lift in unemployment or moderating inflation “to bring the RBA back to the easing table”.

Allen clearly doesn’t see either of these things happening anytime soon, predicting the Reserve Bank will remain on hold for the foreseeable future as they keep an eagle eye out for any sign inflation is reaccelerating.

Elsewhere, experts were downplaying the prospect of a cut this year after data showed consumer price growth jumped to 3.2% in the year to September, from 2.1% in June.

More worrying for the central bank was that underlying annual inflation, which removed the impact of big price moves like a 23% spike in electricity costs, lifted for the first time in nearly three years, to 3%.

Jonathan Kearns, the chief economist at Challenger, said “the current outlook suggests rates could remain unchanged until the middle of next year”.

Westpac’s Luci Ellis had pencilled in a rate cut next week, but said a rate cut would now be delayed until February at the earliest.

Updated at 05.32 CET

Question time ends

We get a final dixer on medicare (with references to Labor’s favourite “all you need is your medicare card …” line), and question time is over for the day! One more to go this week.

Updated at 05.18 CET

Liberal MP ejected amid battle over defence honours changes

The shadow veterans’ affairs minister Darren Chester presses Matt Keogh again on the defence honours bill. He asks whether the veterans’ affairs minister can name a single veteran who supports the bill.

(Before Chester even finishes the question, Liberal MP Phillip Thompson gets booted out of the chamber under 94a).

Keogh says he’s engaged with many ex-service organisations in developing the legislation.

I’m not going to go into chapter and verse of every individual conversation I have just to satisfy your ego.

There’s a bit of back and forth over Keogh’s use of “your” – because chamber rules and etiquette require members to refer to others by their title or electorate. Keogh then ends his answer.

I’ve had lengthy engagement in respect of this bill that will make sure that we have a tribunal that is modern, that is able to look after the concerns of our veterans, and to make sure that the tribunal is able to consider relevant evidence that is easily available to it.

Updated at 05.49 CET

Liberals love Peta Credlin while Labor cares about credibility, Bowen says

Chris Bowen loves a good jibe in question time, and takes the opportunity in a dixer to skewer the opposition over what he says is their love of Sky After Dark.

The government are also milking the uncertainty around Barnaby Joyce’s future and his discussions with One Nation.

Bowen says:

We’re about storing renewable power after dark. They’re about appeasing Sky After Dark. We’re about building policies to build the nation. They’re about building policies to beat One Nation. We’re about expert reports. They’re about The Bolt Report. We care about credibility. They care about [Peta] Credlin.

Updated at 05.16 CET

Chalmers commits to not abolishing Medical Research Future Fund

The independent Monique Ryan – a former paediatric neurologist – has been asking the government questions over the MRFF.

Previous QT questions have been around the low level of spending from the fund when it’s amassed quite a sum (which the health minister, Mark Butler, has said is being increased and looked at currently).

Today she asks the treasurer to confirm that the fund won’t be abolished after the release of a report by the department which she says was gathering opinions on options for the MRFF – including to shut it down.

Chalmers says immediately: “I can give that commitment. We won’t be abolishing the fund”:

These research funds are really important. We believe in them the important role that health and medical research plays in own community, in our economy and, most particularly, when it comes to the health of Australians and the position that we take following that review will reflect that.

Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare

Updated at 05.15 CET

Keogh says opposition ‘stoking fear and anxiety’ over defence honours recongition time limit

Moving far away from economic matters, the shadow veterans affairs minister, Darren Chester, asks the government about its defence honours bill that would set a time limit on which acts by a member of the defence force can be considered for higher recognition.

That would be limited to 20 years, meaning retrospective honours could not be considered for action that occurred before the year 2000. Chester says the NSW RSL has given evidence to the Senate inquiry into the bill and called it “disgraceful”.

The veterans’ affairs minister, Matt Keogh, says the opposition has been stoking fear and anxiety among veterans in their prosecution of this bill:

What I’ve encountered as a minister for veterans’ affairs is concerns … by the defence honours and awards tribunal about the difficulty that it has confronted over many years, over different chairpersons of that tribunal, of dealing with long historical cases in front of it and making sure that it is able to remain relevant in the work that it does to ensure that our veterans and our serving personnel can have decisions made by defence properly reviewed.

Updated at 05.05 CET

Clare talks up university study hubs to help fix geographical education gaps

Back to the crossbench: the independent MP Dai Le asks the education minister about a Western Sydney University campus in Fairfield. She asks what courses will be delivered at that campus, and whether there are any plans to cut funding from it.

Jason Clare, who represents a Western Sydney seat himself, says the hubs will allow students to study “almost any degree”:

… when that hub expands in a couple of weeks’ time, it will mean that you’ll be able to study for almost any degree at almost any university across the country. It’s one of about 69 university study hubs that are either established now or will be established over the next few months across the country.

Clare adds that while more students are studying at university, areas like Western Sydney still lag behind – and flags there will be more reforms next year to help fix that gap.

Updated at 04.54 CET

Conroy says possible smelter closure highlights need for more renewable energy in grid

Nationals MP Alison Penfold gets the next question, and asks the minister representing the industry minister about the possible closure of the Tomago aluminium smelter.

If you need a quick recap – have a read here.

Penfold frames the question around high energy prices, which Rio Tinto (the smelter’s owner) says is a considerable issue.

Pat Conroy says the government is “fighting very hard to support manufacturers”, and, like Chris Bowen yesterday, says the problem is that there needs to be more renewable energy – not less – in the energy grid.

We’re intent on speeding up the rollout of the cheapest form of new power, which is renewable energy – backed up by peaking gas. Backed up by batteries. Backed up by pumped hydro. And I’ll note the statements from Tomago’s owner, Rio Tinto, that it was the lack of availability of renewable energy that was driving some of their decisions.

Updated at 04.48 CET

Chalmers returns fire after shadow treasurer accuses Labor of ‘spending spree’

Ted O’Brien gets another go at the dispatch box, and asks if Jim Chalmers will “stop Labor’s spending spree” when “government spending is running four times faster than the economy”.

Chalmers says the question is timed “impeccably”, after rating agency Fitch just reaffirmed Australia’s AAA credit rating.

Then, because this is politics and we’re in question time, Chalmers takes a stab at the opposition again.

I think the most important thing for those watching at home to understand about the shadow treasurer’s answer is, when he talks about the difference in spending in recent years, one of the things that he’s most critical of is the fact that we have seen very substantial index of government payments, including the age pension. If the shadow treasurer thinks that indexing the age pension is wasteful spending, then he should say so.

Updated at 04.53 CET

Ted O’Brien targets treasurer over rise in inflation

The heat is still on Jim Chalmers over the higher than expected inflation numbers today.

The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, asks if Chalmers will take responsibility for the higher figures (because he likes taking credit when the numbers fall).

“I share the credit” says Chalmers, and pokes fun at O’Brien’s “rare” appearance at the dispatch box.

Chalmers then says, “I take responsibility …”, which I’m sure gets O’Brien a bit excited, but doesn’t give O’Brien the answer he probably wants.

I take responsibility for working through the challenges as they present themselves in our economy. I take responsibility for the fact that this cabinet and this government has cleaned up much of the mess that those opposite left us in the budget.

The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare

Updated at 04.36 CET

Tim Wilson ejected from question time

Milton Dick is just absolutely not having disorderly conduct today.

Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson, who was warned at the very beginning of QT to keep it “q”, has been booted for heckling while a Labor MP was asking a Dixer.

Dick doesn’t love excessive heckling during an answer but draws the line for heckling during a question (which has claimed several scalps already this week).

I’ll keep you posted for any other section 94a bootings.

Updated at 04.27 CET

Minister defends aged care changes

The aged care minister, Sam Rae, who’s managed to avoid the dispatch box recently – after a very hectic week when the government was forced to free up 20,000 home care packages – is asked about the aged care changes that come into effect on 1 November.

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie asks Rae about a pensioner in her electorate who will no longer be able to afford home care because he will now have to pay $21.87 out of pocket for each hour of cleaning, gardening, and meal preparation.

Rae says there are protections in place in the legislation to ensure people already in the aged care system are not left worse off.

The no-worse-off principle applies so anyone who was in the system before 12 September 2024 will have their contributions grandfathered. Older people having difficulty paying their co-contributions will be able to apply for very substantial hardship assistance through Services Australia and a lifetime contribution cap will apply for everybody.

Updated at 04.29 CET

Sometimes it’s what happens between questions that is more interesting than the questions and answers themselves.

After interjecting during Jim Chalmers’ answer nine times, the Speaker, Milton Dick, warns Angus Taylor (who did get a name check from the treasurer) to stop heckling.

The member for Hume interjected nine times during that answer … The member for Hume will not be interjecting given he’s used all his lives up. He won’t be interjecting for the remainder of question time. If he does, he won’t be here.

The sass is ramping up today! We’ll see if it results in any ejections from the chamber.

Updated at 04.26 CET

Coalition attacks Labor over living standards

“Why is it, when Labor fails, Australians always foot the bill?” – That’s the wording the Coalition has workshopped today.

Sussan Ley says Jim Chalmers went on a “victory lap” after last month’s inflation figures but today’s numbers show Australians are “suffering through the largest decline in living standards in the developed world”.

Chalmers never misses an opportunity to point to the Coalition’s decision at the last election not to support Labor’s so-called top up tax cuts, and today is no different.

If the opposition leader really cared about cost-of-living pressures, she wouldn’t have just gone to an election promising to increase taxes on every single taxpaying Australian worker.

Again Chalmers points to the end of the state energy rebates as a key factor in the increase in inflation – but also admits there’s more the feds can do.

We’ve made it very clear that that progress often isn’t in a straight line, as we’ve seen around the world. We know that there’s more work to do.

The opposition leader, Sussan Ley. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare

Updated at 04.30 CET

Question time begins

It’s question time!

We’re starting on the higher than expected inflation figures today and the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, accuses Labor of “economic vandalism” as food costs increase by 15%, insurance increases by 20% and electricity costs increase by almost 40% over the last year.

The acting PM, Richard Marles (Anthony Albanese is now in South Korea for the Apec meeting), defends the figures and, like Jim Chalmers, says the numbers are still about half what the inflation rate was when Labor came into power.

Marles acknowledges that “Australian households are still under pressure and we understand that the work is never done”.

But let’s be absolutely clear. At the last election, those opposite went to the election promising higher taxes, bigger deficit and bigger debt. And that’s not us saying it – that’s the PBO. Heaven knows what Robert Menzies would make of this lot.

Along with all the heckling comes a warning from Milton Dick, who says “I’ve got good hearing today”.

Updated at 04.24 CET

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