Australian news and politics live: Wong seals Quad surveillance deal; Iran threatens response to US strikes
LIVE UPDATES: Australia has joined the US, India and Japan in a new Quad surveillance and critical minerals push as global tensions escalate.
Scroll down for the latest news and updates.
Kimberley Braddish and Madeline Cove are reporting live.
O’Neil: Tax changes to have ‘modest’ impact on house prices
Changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax will have a small impact on property affordability, the housing minister concedes.
The Federal Government will on Thursday introduce to parliament its changes to the taxes, to make it easier for more first home buyers to enter the market.
Under the changes, negative gearing would only be limited to new homes from July 2027, while the 50 per cent discount on capital gains tax would be replaced by a rate based on inflation from the same time period.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said while the changes would enable 75,000 more people to buy their first home over the next decade, property prices would come down as a result.
“This will have a modest affordability effect on house prices in Australia, but at the end of the day, the thing that is driving house prices is actually not our tax settings,” she told ABC TV on Wednesday.
“It’s a fundamental mismatched between how many homes we’re building and how many homes we need.
“These changes are difficult, but incredibly important for addressing the housing challenges the country faces.”
‘Not done’: O’Neil hints at more tax reform
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has hinted Labor may not be finished with tax reform, appearing to leave the door open to future action on bracket creep after Treasurer Jim Chalmers signalled the government was “not done” reshaping the system.
Pressed on ABC News Breakfast about whether the government would consider broader income tax cuts following criticism of the budget and growing calls for reform, including from NSW Premier Chris Minns, Ms O’Neil suggested more change could be on the horizon.
Asked whether reform could address intergenerational inequity and help sell the changes to voters, she replied: “There’s a lot you said that I agree with.”
She argued the government was seeking to rebalance a system that placed too much pressure on wage earners, saying, “One of the big issues we’re tackling in this budget is we’ve got a tax system which taxes workers too heavily and capital too lightly. We’re trying to rebalance that.”
“That’s why the changes to negative gearing and CGT that we’re making in the budget, that will make housing fairer for Australians, are going straight back to the Australian people in tax cuts.”
Ms O’Neil added, “The Treasurer has been pretty clear and direct with Australians. We’re not done on this yet. We want to rebalance the tax system, because if you’re at home right now, and you’re a wage earner, we believe you’ve been treated unfairly by the tax system.”
Iran fury over US ceasefire ‘violation’
Iran said the United States has violated a ceasefire after the US conducted what it called defensive strikes in southern Iran, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said negotiating a deal to halt the conflict could “take a few days”.
Iran’s foreign ministry said US strikes in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, where Iranian media reported sounds of explosions early on Tuesday, represented a “gross violation” of a tenuous ceasefire in place for nearly seven weeks.
Both sides had previously indicated progress on a memorandum of understanding that could halt the war and restart shipping through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, while giving negotiators 60 days to tackle more complex issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian media reported that the country’s negotiators had been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of dollars of frozen assets at talks in Qatar.
Following strikes against targets that the US said included boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, Mr Rubio told reporters on his plane in India’s Jaipur that the Strait of Hormuz had to be open “one way or the other”.
Wong deepens Quad ties with major new security deal
Australia has unveiled a new Quad maritime surveillance partnership with the US, India and Japan, alongside a $20 billion critical minerals push aimed at strengthening regional security and protecting supply chains amid mounting global instability.
The Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration will combine the four nations’ monitoring capabilities across the Indian Ocean and provide improved real-time information to commercial shipping.
A separate critical minerals agreement spanning mining, processing and recycling was also announced. China pushed back on the move, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning saying: “We do not support forming exclusive small groupings or bloc confrontation”.
“Any cooperation should not undermine mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries.”
Speaking in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Indo-Pacific nations must “have the capacity to know who is in (the region), what illegal fishing is occurring, what is occurring in their maritime zones, and supporting their capacity to respond”.
Senator Wong also confirmed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had briefed Quad ministers on Iran talks, adding: “I think all the countries around the table are hoping that there is an outcome which returns stability, which returns peace and which enables freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and supply to flow.”
