Key events
What we learned, Friday 30 May
We will wrap up the live blog here for the evening. Here’s what made the news:
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The health minister, Mark Butler, has warned a new Covid variant is spreading around Australia and urged people to get a Covid vaccine booster.
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The make-up of the Senate has been finalised for the next three years, with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation now having a total of four Senate spots, after Warwick Stacey secured the final spot in the NSW Senate race.
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The AEC is investigating reports of a high level of informal ballots at a polling place in the town of Missabotti, NSW. The ABC reports of the 111 people who filled out ballots, 50 were declared informal and rejected from the official tally.
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The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has farewelled her late mother with a touching eulogy at a funeral in her home town of Albury.
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Up to eight people, believed to be Chinese nationals seeking asylum, have reportedly been intercepted by border officials in a remote part of the Northern Territory.
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The federal budget deficit is already running $4.8bn better than expected in the financial year to April, according to the Department of Finance’s latest monthly statements.
Enjoy your evening.
Farmers given temporary reprieve from Victorian emergency services levy
Farmers will be temporarily spared from paying a hiked emergency services levy as drought support is expanded statewide in Victoria, AAP reports.
An extra $37.7m has been earmarked for drought relief in Victoria as paddocks and dams run dry after low autumn rainfall.
A Victorian drought relief package, which includes $5000 grants, will be made available across the state after previously being limited to 24 local government areas.
Its expansion means all farmers will not pay the increased rate for the expanded emergency services levy in the 2025-26 financial year.
Their rate will remain at the same level as 2024-25 and automatically applied to notices for primary production properties.
The expansion of drought support was based on Bureau of Meteorology and Agriculture Victoria advice that the worse case for May rainfall had been realised, the premier, Jacinta Allan, said.
“All of Victoria is being now recognised as being affected by drought,” she told reporters in Fiskville on Friday.
Under the original changes to the levy from 1 July, the average annual bill was expected to rise $678 for primary producers and $63 for residential homeowners.
Spooked by the backlash, the Allan government lowered the rate for farmers and introduced rebates for CFA and SES volunteers and life members.
The expanded levy was meant raise an extra $2.1bn over the next three years to cover more emergency service agencies in the face of more frequent and intense natural disasters.
The treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, said the recent tweaks would leave the budget $73m worse off but she remained confident of delivering an operating surplus of $600m in 2025-26.
Parents warned of overdose from over-the-counter medicines
Parents grabbing over-the-counter medicine to help their children is causing a startling number of hospital visits, researchers say.
AAP reports almost 100 children and teenagers are being taken to emergency departments every day after taking over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol and antidepressants.
At least half of these visits are preventable due to being accidental or intentional overdoses or adult-only medication, University of South Australia researchers said.
The Royal Children’s Hospital emergency medicine director says intentional overdoses can be particularly concerning.
“[Paracetamol] is one of the scary medications where early on, there may be very minimal symptoms,” Dr Stuart Lewena told AAP.
It’s only going to be when the paracetamol is starting to cause damage to the liver [when] we’ll start to see symptoms of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
In the case of accidental ingestions, he said parents and carers can be “flustered, anxious, worried about the error they’ve made”, delaying treatment.
Lewena said hospitals are stretched and urged parents to keep medication out of children’s reach.
Parents should particularly keep an eye on prescription medications as one tablet can cause harm to children.
Kids are incredibly resourceful at getting to things that they know they’re not meant to get to.
It’s worthwhile having a discussion with your pharmacist or doctor to know … ‘how risky is this in my household?’
In February, the federal government changed the number of paracetamol tablets per pack from 20 to 16 in general stores and 50 in pharmacy medicine packs.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland government say nurses union hasn’t made pay counteroffer
Queensland’s state government says the nurses union has not put forward a counteroffer after rejecting a pay offer this week.
Secretary Sarah Beaman announced earlier today that the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union is “likely” to start industrial action next week.
Stage one is likely to consist of things like wearing campaign shirts and badges. It is the first strike action by the union in 23 years.
A spokesperson for the health minister, Tim Nicholls, said the government would “continue to negotiate in good faith with the union”.
It’s disappointing that the union has rejected two offers that fulfil the government’s election commitment to deliver national-leading wages and conditions for our nurses and midwives.
We will continue to negotiate in good faith with the union.
To date, a counteroffer has not been put forward by the union.
Liberals ‘lost sight of’ culture of constructive debate and openness to being challenged: Archer
Bridget Archer said a culture of being able to talk frankly and disagree with colleagues in the party may have diminished in the last term as a result of the turnover of Liberal leaders during the last Coalition government, and the sense of a need for discipline.
I think … we lost sight of the fact that we need to have these disagreements, we need to have constructive debates, we need to be open to being challenged and criticised and to challenge and criticise other views.
Archer said the Liberal party also needs to examine how it speaks to electorates across the country and the diversity of people it seeks to represent.
She said the Liberal party put too much emphasis on the no vote in the voice referendum as a signal on how people might vote in the federal election.
Archer said she wouldn’t rule out a future in politics but “not at the moment”.
Former Liberal MP Bridget Archer says party needs ‘to get back to what it means to be Liberals’
The former Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who lost her seat in the federal election earlier this month, has said the Liberal party needs to reassert its own brand, and while the Coalition is important, the Liberals and Nationals need to be two distinct parties.
She told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
I think that that’s been lost somewhere along the way, possibly with that formal alliance of the LNP in Queensland. Whereas here in Tasmania, for example, where I am, there really hasn’t been able to be a Nationals presence established. We still have, I think, a very strong Liberal brand here and I think that’s been something I have been saying for a long time, that we need to get back to what it means to be Liberals. Not going one way or the other, but actually just getting back to our sort of core values which, yes, probably and we have been most electorally successful has been in the centre.
Archer said comments that the Coalition should pull out of net zero do not land well with her:
What we shouldn’t lose sight of is not whether we have a commitment to net zero or not, it’s what we do to achieve that emissions reduction that is so important and necessary. So, we can spend a lot of time arguing about the ideology of these things or we can just get on and develop a serious plan to actually deal with the problem.
Marles says ASPI report recommending more defence spending not ‘deep in analysis’
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has described an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report on defence spending as “not a report which is particularly intellectually satisfying or, at the end of the day, ultimately deep in analysis”.
There has been a war of words exchanged between the Albanese government and the thinktank since it concluded that the level of defence spending in this year’s federal budget would make Australia less secure.
Marles told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
What we saw, in my view with the ASPI report is not a report which is particularly intellectually satisfying or at the end of the day ultimately deep in analysis …. It is the easiest thing in the world to go out there and say that you should spend more – in fact, we are; we are spending significantly more.
There [are] references to the impact of inflation; well, the impact of inflation is built into what we spend and what we are spending is way beyond inflation, but at the end of the day you only have to look at what we inherited from the former Coalition government which was $42bn worth of unfunded projects.
He said the Albanese government is fixing up “the mess” and moving forward with a very clear, strategic direction on defence.
He said ASPI should be held accountable for its conclusions, and analysis needed to be “deep and thoughtful” and “objective”.
Port of Darwin ownership did not come up in discussions with Hegseth: Marles
Richard Marles said getting the Port of Darwin back in Australian hands did not come up in his discussions with Hegseth. When asked about aid cuts made by the Trump administration, Marles said he wouldn’t go into the extent of what was spoken about in the discussion.
He said development assistance is one means to provide stability and security in our region, but it isn’t the only means. He said the previous Trump administration made a significant contribution to supporting Pacific Island countries.
So I think the importance of those countries is well understood and again, we see ourselves very much as partners with the United States and how we can move forward in that.
US raised prospect of Labor boosting defence spending: Richard Marles
Marles said Hegseth did raise the issue of defence spending, but Marles said he “wouldn’t put a number on it”, when asked whether the US wanted Australia to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, as the US has asked of its allies.
Marles said Australia is raising defence spending. He said the Australian government was open to discussion about more defence spending.
We have done a lot already. But we are absolutely up for having this conversation and we want to calibrate our defence spending to meet the strategic moment that we all face. I said this lots of times. In a rational world, defence spending is a function of strategic threat. There is definitely strategic threat in the world today and we are rational people.
Marles says Aukus moving forward and meeting timelines after meeting with US counterpart Pete Hegseth
The defence minister, Richard Marles, says he has a sense of optimism about the Australia-US relationship after meeting his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, at the Shangri Dialogue in Singapore earlier today.
Marles told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
We talked about the shared challenge we had in terms of providing security and stability within the Indo-Pacific, how we can work more closely together to do that and obviously we work very closely together right now, and to try and make our contribution to an Indo-Pacific which is underpinned by the values that Australia and the United States shares which is democracy and the rule of law, but it is a really good meeting, it built on the meeting that we had in February of this year in Washington DC, and it certainly leaves me with a sense of optimism about how we can very much work together to take this agenda forward.
He said they talked about the development of Aukus as critical to the collective security of the Indo-Pacific.
He said Aukus is moving forward and meeting its timelines.
It is a great opportunity for both of our countries and there are a whole lot of challenges in this, obviously, and we are certainly far from sanguine about meeting all of those challenges but fundamentally, Aukus is happening and we talked about how we need to maintain the momentum of that.
Federal budget deficit running better than expected, data shows
Patrick Commins
The federal budget deficit is already running $4.8bn better than expected in the financial year to April, according to the Department of Finance’s latest monthly statements.
To be clear: the nation’s finances are still in the red, just not as deeply as anticipated a couple of months ago.
The March 25 budget forecast an underlying cash deficit of $24bn in the first 10 months of 2024-25.
But the departmental figures show the actual deficit for the period came in at $19.2bn.
The rapid improvement was powered by corporate taxes coming in $3.2bn better than anticipated, the statements show.
High commodity prices may explain the larger than anticipated tax take on profits: the iron ore price is still sky high, trading at about $US96 a tonne, despite the global jitters caused by Trump’s tariffs.
The March budget predicted last financial year’s surplus of $15.8bn would flip to a $27.6bn deficit in 2024-25 – the start of a string of deficits.
“The budgetary bad news is arriving more slowly than Treasury and Finance forecast,” the independent economist, Chris Richardson, said.
Victorian Liberal deputy rejects claims of taxpayer-funded car rort
A tennis ace turned Liberal hot shot is staring down calls to quit, rejecting allegations of a drunken, taxpayer-funded car rort, AAP reports.
Victorian Liberal deputy Sam Groth used then-opposition upper house leader Georgie Crozier’s chauffeur-driven vehicle to take him and his wife home from the Australian Open in January 2024.
The trip from Melbourne Park to Rye on the Mornington Peninsula is about 100km.
The former tennis player had earlier hosted a political fundraiser with Nationals MP Jade Benham.
Groth and Benham, along with their respective spouses, then entered a party zone inside the tennis precinct, the Herald Sun reports.
The former Davis Cup representative was accused of getting “smashed” and misleading Crozier by telling her he wanted to borrow the car for a work event.
He was shadow minister for tourism, sport and events at the time and elected the party’s deputy leader in December after John Pesutto lost the leadership to Brad Battin.
In a statement on Friday, Groth confirmed he attended the event in both an official and personal capacity.
I was at the event to meet various stakeholders and attend meetings before being part of a fundraising initiative.
The accusations around intoxication are wrong.
Groth argued it was all officially disclosed and he had “nothing to hide”, but the travel allowance entry on his register of interest does not specifically mention the fundraiser.
Battin firmly stood by his deputy when asked if he should resign.
Victoria’s ministerial code of conduct says public resources must not be used for “improper personal or private advantage or benefit for themselves or any other person”, or for political party purposes.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland nurses ‘likely’ to start industrial action next week
Queensland nurses and midwives are “likely” to start industrial action next week, after rejecting a revised pay offer from the state government today.
Nurses union secretary Sarah Beaman said stage one of industrial action would include things like wearing campaign shirts and badges.
The union’s 55,000 members operate in public health facilities such as hospitals and Queensland Health clinics statewide.
“We are preparing to commence protected industrial action as early as next week,” Beaman said.
More than 96% of those who voted said yes to taking protected industrial action to protect patients and their colleagues.
Protected industrial action will likely begin in Queensland health facilities statewide next week. I would like to remind Queensland that patients and aged care resident safety remains paramount during protected industrial action which has been approved by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
Union members rejected a state government pay offer and voted to take industrial action this week. The state government updated its offer, but the union said it remains “subpar” and would reduce rights and conditions.
“The government threatened us with the removal of eight weeks’ backpay if we didn’t accept this substandard offer by close of business today. However, we continue to stand strong for a fair agreement and the backpay the government owes us,” Beaman said.
The nurses union hasn’t walked off the job since 2002. It will give three days’ notice of any industrial action.
The week of media news is here with Amanda Meade’s Weekly Beast.
Josh Butler
Hanson welcomes One Nation’s best ever election results
Pauline Hanson has welcomed her party’s best ever election result, with a fourth senator confirmed elected today.
The newly elected Warwick Stacey in NSW and Tyron Whitten in Western Australia join Hanson and the re-elected Malcolm Roberts in Queensland, taking the One Nation contingent to four in the Senate. That equals the party’s best result in the 2016 double-dissolution election.
Hanson:
Our national vote increased significantly across Australia at this election thanks to a strong campaign with great candidates, common sense policies and dedicated volunteers.
There is no more dedicated servant of Queensland than Malcolm Roberts and he’s seen off challengers from all sides to be re-elected yet again. I’m also delighted that Tyron Whitten and Warwick Stacey will be joining us on the Senate crossbench. They both have much to offer their respective states and they are great additions to our team.
This team will continue the work we have always done in parliament on behalf of the Australian people: hold this toxic Labor government to account; raise the important issues; embody the strong conservative values that built this nation; defend our democracy, rights and freedoms; and put our country and its people first.
In his first comments since being elected, Whitten said:
I’m looking forward to representing the people of WA and standing for the values that make this country great.
That’s all for me today, I’ll leave you with Josh Taylor who will guide you through the rest of today’s news. Take care.
Flood warnings for parts of South Australia
The BoM has issued flood warnings for parts of South Australia, saying river levels remain elevated as flood waters from the Warburton River reach parts of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.
Floodwaters may cut roads and access tracks, and in particular river crossings, impacting travel in the region.
The SA SES added flooding is likely to remain in the area for a few months, and warned those in the area to take care as the water recedes as roads may have been damaged.
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