Australian news and politics live: Chalmers defends tax changes amid warning younger investors could pay more

Three shiploads of jet fuel are heading to Australia after the Albanese government secured a deal with China.

The shipments, totalling more than 600,000 barrels or about 100 million litres, are expected to arrive from early June.

There is also 38,500 tonnes of agricultural grade urea on its way from Brunei, the PM announced this morning.

Both deals were signed under the Government’s $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, designed to help Australia’s agriculture and transport industries manage the impacts of the conflict in the Middle East.

“The additional 600,000 barrels of jet fuel will help keep Australia moving, and the extra fertiliser will help provide certainty to our farmers,” Mr Albanese said.

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The minutes noted one dissenting monetary policy board member argued the case for leaving rates on holding as the other eight voted for a hike in the wake of the Middle East conflict pushing up March’s annual pace of inflation to a near three-year high of 4.6 per cent.

“One member placed more weight on the arguments for leaving the cash rate target unchanged, judging that capacity pressures prevailing before the conflict were somewhat less than the staff had assessed,” it said.

“This member also assessed the risk of a prolonged conflict that weighed more heavily on demand to be higher.

“Finally, the member in the minority judged that there was not yet sufficient evidence to be concerned about longer term inflation expectations becoming less anchored, particularly in view of the Board’s commitment to its inflation objective having been demonstrated by the 50 basis points of tightening already delivered this year.”

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The Reserve Bank of Australia has noted government bond yields in Australia - leading to higher interest payments on debt - are higher than other countries.

The minutes of the RBA’s May 5 meeting made the observation after 10-year Australian government securities had risen to 15-year high levels above 5 per cent.

“The rise in bond yields over the preceding six months had been more pronounced in Australia than elsewhere, consistent with the progressive increase in expectations for the future policy rate over that period,” it said.

The RBA cash rate was raised by another 25 basis points on May 5 to a 15-month high of 4.35 per cent.

This marked the third increase this year, undoing the effects of three cuts last year.

Angus Taylor said he spoke to “a bunch” of small business owners over the weekend who felt that they were “under assault” from the Budget changes.

“The Labor Party clearly doesn’t like small business, and they want small business to help to fund their rapid growth in spending,” he said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume says that small businesses were “seeing their very structures under threat”.

“So many small businesses are set up using a trust structure, a perfectly legitimate, perfectly legal structure to set up to protect assets and to assist small businesses,” she said.

“Well, Jim Chalmers is accused of these people of avoiding their tax obligations. How dare he?”

There are more than 2.6 million small businesses in Australia.

The latest tax office data, from 2023, shows that about 303,000 registered trusts are used by businesses, or 11 per cent of the number of small businesses.

Angus Taylor has been pushed on a warning from one of his backbenchers that the Coalition’s rhetoric around migration alienates migrant communities.

“No, it alienates the government that’s got it wrong,” the Opposition Leader said in Penrith, western Sydney.

“This has got nothing to do with migrant communities.

“We think migration is incredibly important to this country. It always has been, and there always will be, but the numbers can’t be too high, and the standards can’t be too low.”

Mr Taylor used his Budget reply speech last week to outline a plan to link annual net overseas migration, which includes returning Australian citizens, to the number of homes built.

He said that would result in the largest cut to migration in history.

Anthony Albanese was asked about Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s assertion on Sky News on Monday night that the Coalition would “work with whoever I can work with to defeat Labor at the next election” when he was pushed to rule out a partnership with One Nation.

“The door isn’t open, there’s no door. They’re in the same room, they’re in the same policy room: One Nation and the Liberal Party and the National Party,” Mr Albanese says.

“There are now three right-wing parties in Australia, all advocating policies that aren’t in the interests of social cohesion and what’s needed to bring the country together.”

Anthony Albanese has attempted to label his changes to capital gains tax discounts as a return to a 25-year-old system.

“What we are simply doing is returning the system to what was there before 1999,” he said in Perth on Tuesday.

“When those changes were introduced, what we’ve seen since then is a massive distortion of investment towards housing away from other forms of investment, because of the changes that were made. What we’re doing is simply moving to a real gain system.

“That’s not when the normal course of business occurs. When a capital gain occurs, it’s looked at the real gains, that is, the gains less inflation as we go forward, and that’s a system that operated effectively … (until) 1999.”

The Prime Minister says the legislation for the changes to capital gains tax discounts and negative gearing will be put to Parliament when it returns in the next fortnight.

But the changes to taxation of trusts, which have attracted strong criticism over recent days, “will take longer to develop” and will be legislated later this year.

“We’ve put in place a system where if you have a fixed trust, then you’re not impacted by any of the changes which are there. We put that out very clearly, very clearly in our budget,” Mr Albanese said.

Anthony Albanese is speaking now alongside WA Premier Roger Cook at a building site in Perth.

He was asked how West Australians can trust him on the GST, given he’s broken his promise on property taxes.

“We support WA getting its fair share of the GST because that’s the right policy for the nation,” he said.

“I’ve been very consistent.”

Mr Albanese said that he’s just handed down his Budget and has been very clear in government and in opposition about support for the 2018 GST deal.

“I back WA across the board. WA has an important role to play in our economy, and we have a very strong WA contingency in our caucus,” he said.

The Premier said that “the Prime Minister’s given us a rock-solid commitment that Western Australia will share, will receive its fair share of the GST”.

Jim Chalmers has announced a second round of reforms to the foreign investment framework that includes a new target of 30 days for all low-risk applications, and further streamlining the register of foreign-owned assets.

Some low-risk transactions won’t have to go through the approvals process at all, and those who can use exemption certificates will be expanded to reduce the regulatory burden on frequent low-risk investors.

However, the most sensitive sectors and businesses will have a targeted increase in the level of screening applied.

The full list of updates is here.