News and politics recap: Pat Conaghan and Andrew Wallace vote against gambling ad reforms

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has opened the door to fast-tracking a fix to the so-called “widows’ tax” as the Coalition threatens to block Labor’s $30 billion NDIS overhaul unless the issue is resolved this week.

The Government has been working to close a loophole in its tax changes affecting grandfathered negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions when properties are inherited or transferred following death or divorce.

“If the opposition’s main ask is that we pass the government’s legislation quicker, then obviously I’m up for that discussion,” Dr Chalmers told reporters at Parliament House.

He said no objections had been raised to the draft legislation released last week, potentially clearing the way for the fix to be brought forward as Labor seeks the Senate support needed to pass its NDIS reforms.

Copper has outpaced iron ore as BHP’s biggest earner, as prices for the red metal hit record highs last financial year as demand for data centres exploded.

The Big Australian on Tuesday reported underlying earnings for copper totalled $US18.2 billion ($25.6b) in the year to June 30, despite a well-flagged dip in production to 1.95 million tonnes — down 3 per cent on a year earlier.

Iron ore earnings were up one per cent to $US14.5b. Average realised prices rose 3 per cent to $US84.56 a tonne “supported by resilient Chinese demand”.

Total group-wide revenue for the year leapt $US7.5b to $US58.8b as BHP capitalised on higher copper, iron ore and steelmaking coal prices.

Net profit was up 9 per cent to $9.8b and the miner will pay out a final dividend of US99¢ a share — up from last year’s US60¢.

BHP chief executive Brandon Craig, who started in the top job on July 1, said the copper boom helped the miner top a milestone in FY26.

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One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce was forced to defend the party’s plan to slash the tobacco excise by 75 per cent, arguing soaring cigarette prices are fuelling Australia’s illegal tobacco trade and organised crime.

The party wants to dramatically cut the tax and freeze indexation in an attempt to bring the price of legal cigarettes closer to those sold on the black market.

“This is just absurd economics that if you keep on putting up the price of cigarettes you are going to get more excise,” Mr Joyce told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.

“No. If you keep on putting up the price of cigarettes, you’re going to get more mafia. That’s what you’re getting, more mafia. The only way we can deal with the criminality, the mafia that also underwrites so many other drugs, is to bring back the price of legal cigarettes to the same realm as where illegal ones are.”

Greens leader Larissa Waters has accused Pauline Hanson of bowing to the tobacco lobby over One Nation’s push to dramatically slash the tobacco excise.

Ms Waters argued the proposal would benefit major tobacco companies rather than tackle the illegal trade.

“It’s pretty clear that Pauline Hanson is doing precisely what big tobacco have been lobbying her to do,” Ms Waters told Nine.

“We see them haunting the halls of parliament here, trying to boost their profits. I mean, if you want to fight crime, fight crime. But don’t dress up fighting crime as just a premise to boost the profits of big tobacco.”

NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane backed lowering the excise but warned One Nation’s proposal was not a silver bullet for Australia’s booming black market.

“It’s not as simple as Pauline is saying and price matching the criminals. That’s just not going to work,” she says, instead calling for a nationwide crackdown on tobacconists caught selling illegal tobacco and vapes.

Packets of legal cigarettes would cost around $20 less according to a new One Nation plan to stamp out Australia’s illicit tobacco trade by slashing the current high rates of excise by 75 per cent.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson insists her party’s policy, which includes pausing indexation for three years, is not about encouraging smoking but taking on organised crime gangs and smashing the black market.

“People are sick of the firebombing, shootings, extortion and killings. They are sick of watching tobacco shops burn, while organised crime takes control of the market,” Senator Hanson said.

“Labor’s policy is failing. ABS estimates show illicit sources supplied 80 per cent of nicotine consumed in 2025, while total consumption rose almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025.”

According to One Nation, legal packets of 20 cigarettes now include excise of about $30.60, with smokers increasingly turning to tobacco from the black market.

Under its newly released policy, One Nation would cut excise by 75 per cent and pause indexation for three years, which it calculates would bring down the cost of a legal packet from $46.50 to about $21 or $22.

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This time next year American and British nuclear-powered submarines are expected to be operating out of Perth’s HMAS Stirling naval base, but as the deployments fast approach, frustrations are building between AUKUS partners.

Under this country’s optimal pathway for acquiring the nuclear-powered technology, up to four US boats and one British boat will first be based in WA from 2027 as part of Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West).

Then in the 2030s the US is scheduled to begin selling second-hand Virginia-class submarines to Australia. However last week the top AUKUS sceptic in the Trump administration stopped short of guaranteeing the on-time delivery.

During a tour of southeast Asia last week, Pentagon official Elbridge Colby declared Washington was “optimistic” but “clear-eyed” about what was needed to be done to lift the production rates of Virginia-class submarines so boats can be sold to Australia.

Repeating President Donald Trump’s declaration last year that AUKUS was “full steam ahead”, the Under Secretary said there was a “very clear understanding” between partner nations on what was needed to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

Tellingly, the Under Secretary for War did not directly answer when asked about the current production rate of Virginia-class nuclear submarines, which is languishing at about one to 1.2 boats a year, but needs to reach 2.33 to meet AUKUS requirements.

“We all know this is a historic endeavour on the part of both countries, but particularly for Australia, and that requires a real level of effort that we see the evidence for, and so we remain optimistic, but also clear-eyed, about what we all need to do to achieve that,” Mr Colby said.

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers has pushed back against suggestions rents could need to rise by 30 per cent over the next two years, after Sunrise host Natalie Barr questioned him over analysis from NAB.

Dr Chalmers stressed the figure was not a forecast and argued it did not account for a range of factors, including the Government’s housing policies and the design of its tax reforms.

“First of all, that’s not a forecast from the National Australia Bank. It’s not a forecast of what they expect to see will happen with rents over the next little while,” Dr Chalmers said.

He said Treasury had not changed the expectations outlined in the Budget, arguing the Government’s reforms needed to be judged over years rather than months.

“The best way to assess the impact of those policies is over the next couple of years, not over the first couple of months.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared the next federal election will be a “referendum on the future of superannuation”, launching an attack on the Coalition and One Nation over calls for Australians to have greater access to their retirement savings.

Speaking on Sunrise on Tuesday, Dr Chalmers warned that allowing workers to dip into super for cost-of-living pressures, mortgages or housing could have serious long-term consequences.

The debate has intensified after Pauline Hanson called for the rules around accessing super to be loosened.

“That would absolutely decimate the retirement incomes of millions of Australian workers,” Dr Chalmers said.

“This is a really important difference now between Labor, who will always back workers’ wages and super and Liberals, One Nation and the Nationals, who will always attack those things.”

He added, “As we get towards the next election, people need to understand this will be a referendum on super.”