Australia news and politics live: Netanyahu warns Albanese in new attack after Hamas praise, ‘something wrong’

Australia is key to Donald Trump’s goals of weaning the US off cheap Chinese critical minerals, Australia’s envoy in Washington says.

Critical minerals are just that – minerals, such as lithium, vital for manufacturing advanced technologies, from smartphones and cars to wind turbines and defence systems.

Currently, China dominates the space, but Australia has emerged as a challenger, ruffling some feathers in Beijing.

Because of their importance to modern tech, Western countries are increasingly viewing critical minerals as a matter of national security and scrambling to bolster sovereign stockpiles and production.

In an interview overnight, Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd said that Xi Jinping’s “ideology” on China’s long-term economic development was “to ensure that the world is dependent on China while China is not dependent on the world”.

Read the full story here.

Wet and freezing weather is smashing the east and west coast of the country, bringing prolonged rain and flood warnings across three states for the rest of the week.

NSW and Queensland residents are particularly set for a gruelling Thursday, with rainfall totals forecast to nudge triple digits across the two days.

Isolated falls of up to 120mm are forecast on Thursday for the east coast and tablelands, while the city’s rain gauge collected nearly 70mm overnight. Canterbury recorded more than 50mm, and Richmond and Terrey Hills each received over 40mm.

“Large patches on the NSW east coast will continue to receive that prolonged rainfall, particularly around the Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast area, as well as Sydney and the Illawarra,” Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines said.

Read the full story.

Commonwealth Bank will reverse its controversial plan to cut dozens of jobs and replace them with an AI chatbot, admitting the move was a mistake.

Australia’s largest bank revealed last month that it would axe 45 call centre positions after rolling out an AI voicebot to handle customer queries.

But the bank has since backtracked, telling affected staff they could remain in their current roles or opt for a voluntary redundancy payout.

The decision came as CBA, despite insisting its voicebot had cut call volumes by 2000 a week, was forced to concede that calls had risen, with managers resorting to overtime and team leaders being pulled onto the phones, the Australian Financial Review reports.

A spokesperson for CBA said the decision to cut 45 roles was an “error”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said tax reform wasn’t just about revenue, it was also about incentivising investment, boosting productivity and tackling intergenerational equity issues.

“If you think about spending and you think about revenue, it’s really us recognising that when it comes to budget repair over the medium term, we know that it’s not just about pulling one lever and ignoring the others,” he said.

The mood in the room was jovial as the roundtable participants entered their 20th hour locked in together with no phones or distractions.

Nearly half clutched coffees as the long days of talks started to catch up.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has launched the third day of his economic roundtable by urging attendees to continue the spirit of openness and willingness to try and understand different points of view that wound through the first two days, even as talk turns to the tough topic of tax reform.

The Treasurer gave a big shoutout to Health Minister Mark Butler, who on Wednesday announced surprise plans to massively rein in the NDIS eligibility and further cut the growth rate of the ballooning scheme.

He said that of the seven big pressures on the budget, five were related to the care economy (interest payments on debt and Defence are the other two).

“Obviously, the spending side of the budget is key and that’s why we’re beginning there today. But there’ll also be an opportunity today to talk about our revenue,” Dr Chalmers said, noting that the revenue base was shifting both because of demographics but also shifts in the global economic shape.

Health and Disability Minister Mark Butler has clarified the reasons behind his proposed NDIS reforms.

He reiterated that the scheme was originally designed for people with permanent disabilities, not for children with mild to moderate developmental delays. However, he stressed that children with permanent or significant autism will continue to be eligible for NDIS support.

“We’ve seen something of a mission creep by the NDIS here into an area it wasn’t intended to cover. And that’s really because parents had no alternative,” Mr Butler told ABC News Breakfast.

He added that these reforms should not come as a surprise, given the NDIS review commissioned in 2022. When asked whether some children might lose support during a transition period, Mr Butler reassured parents they would not be left “to slip between stools.”

“If you’re on the NDIS now, if you enter before 2027, your child will be entitled to remain on the NDIS, subject to all the usual arrangements,” he said.

Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston isn’t happy with the lack of detail in Health Minister Mark Butler’s recent NDIS announcement, which included removing kids with autism from the system and instead moved into a new initiative.

Ms Ruston has emphasised that the Coalition wants to ensure children who need foundational support receive the help they require.

However, she criticized Mr Butler’s announcement for lacking sufficient detail, leaving parents of children with mild to moderate developmental delays uncertain about what to expect.

“Whilst there was a lot of headline in yesterday, there wasn’t a lot of detail about how this will impact parents going forward, parents with children with mild to moderate developmental challenges,” Ms Ruston told ABC Radio National on Thursday morning.

“I think the thing that concerns me most is the lack of detail and the impact that’s likely to have on many parents, many families this morning,” she added.

Health and Disability Minister Mark Butler has been asked about the timeframe for fixing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) before its social licence runs out.

It comes as yesterday, Mr Butler announced the government would invest $2 billion in “Thriving Kids,” a new initiative outside the NDIS designed to assist children with mild to moderate developmental delays and autism. This move aims to remove children with less severe disabilities from the NDIS to help control the scheme’s rapidly increasing costs.

Mr Butler emphasised the need for reform to maintain public support, saying, “I think what the community is saying is they want a sense from their government that we get the need to make change. They overwhelmingly think that this is a scheme they should be proud of that has transformed the lives of people with disabilities,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio National.

“But they’re concerned it’s costing too much and has too many inefficiencies and too many dodgy providers,” he says.’

​Read more.​

Bruce Lehrmann will return to a Sydney court on Thursday as his lawyer attempts to argue that he was “surprised” by the findings made against him in his damaging defamation suit loss to Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson.

Lehrmann has appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court following his multimillion dollar loss to Ten and Ms Wilkinson last year.

Justice Michael Lee found that Lehrmann – on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities – had raped his colleague Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House in 2019.

Lehrmann sued over Ms Wilkinson’s interview with Ms Higgins on The Project but Justice Lee made damning findings against him and he was subsequently ordered to pay $2m in Ten’s legal costs.

​Read the full story.​

Israel’s military has announced the first steps of an operation to take over Gaza City and called up tens of thousands of reservists while the Government considered a new ceasefire proposal to pause nearly two years of war.

“We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” Brigadier General Effie Defrin, Israel’s military spokesman, told reporters.

The IDF confirmed it would call up 60,000 reservists as part of the preparations for the “next phase of Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, the ground offensive that it launched in May that has seen it take control of 75 per cent of Gaza.

​Read more.​