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Asked whether “you’re going to squib on gambling reform” as the AFL Grand Final approaches, prime minister Anthony Albanese says the problem is “problem gambling”:
We want to act against problem gambling. We are acting. We’ve got our BetStop program. We’ve already seen a reduction in advertising. We’ve changed the designation that’s there. We’ve banned credit cards for use of online. We’ve taken a range of action, more action in our two years than has ever been taken by any government. We’re examining further proposals and we will, when we’ve finished those consultations, make an appropriate policy announcement.
Albanese says ‘Treasury don’t need to be directed’ to examine housing policies
Anthony Albanese says the Treasury “doesn’t need to be directed” when asked who requested analysis on negative gearing be brought to the government.
He says:
Treasury don’t need to be directed. They’re not schoolchildren with teachers up the front of the class, telling them what to do. I want a public service that looks at ideas, that looks at policy … And the public service, whether it’s my Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet or other departments, have units within them that examine policy, and there’s nothing unusual about that. There’s nothing special about it.
And I, frankly, can’t see why it’s an issue at all that, you know, the suggestion is – I haven’t seen anything from Treasury, I make that point – but the suggestion is that they’d look at housing policy or look at tax policy or look at our current account deficit or look at other things is, to my mind, just what the public service does.
Asked if “negative gearing has been equitable for all Australians,” Albanese says:
Well, that’s the question of whether it’s contributing to supply or not. For many people, of course, if you didn’t have investment in housing, you wouldn’t have private rentals, you would have less supply and less construction, is the concern which is there.
Our build-to-rent-scheme, for example, which will provide incentives through the tax system for more construction of housing, has been blocked in the Senate. The Greens say it’s because developers will benefit. I don’t know who they think builds medium-density housing, if not developers.
PM says his government won’t take negative gearing or capital gains tax reform to next election
Anthony Albanese has confirmed his government will not take negative gearing reform or capital gains tax reform to the next election.
Albanese was asked: “Can we just get some clarity for our viewers. Are you considering taking negative gearing reform and capital gains tax reform to the next election?”
Albanese: “No, we’re not.”
He says his government is focused on “planning for our Homes for Australia policy” and “putting that downward pressure on inflation”.
Albanese asked about negative gearing
The prime minister has moved on to talk negative gearing. Asked where he sits on potential reform, Anthony Albanese says his government’s plans to improve housing supply has been blocked “in this No-alition”:
My view is that the key to housing policy is supply, and that has been the objective of our $32bn Homes for Australia Plan, more public housing, more build-to-rent, that’s stuck in the Senate, for private rentals, more home ownership. That’s also stuck in the Senate with our Help to Buy Scheme being blocked by the Liberals and the Greens in this No-alition.
Anthony Albanese urges Australian citizens in Lebanon to leave
Jumping from Penny Wong, who was live from New York a moment ago, to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, currently speaking to ABC News Breakfast.
Asked if Australia has “a contingency plan in place if there’s an all-out war in the region”, Albanese again urges Australians in Lebanon to leave. He says:
We’ve been planning for some time but we’ve also been saying to our citizens, who are there in Lebanon – some of whom have recently travelled to Lebanon – that they should return home by commercial aircraft while that is available.
The second thing I’d say is to repeat the foreign minister’s call for a ceasefire. We need for that to occur both in Gaza as well as in Lebanon. We need the conflict not to continue to escalate, we need it to de-escalate. We need the hostages released. We need a ceasefire that’s sustainable there and we need to move towards a long-term solution as well of a two-state solution there in the Middle East.
This is a conflict that’s gone on for a long period of time, that has been very intense since the October 7 atrocities that occurred by Hamas. Hamas can’t have a role in the future of Gaza. But we sincerely want to see that conflict come to an end, and both Israelis and Palestinians – and, of course, the people of Lebanon – be able to live in peace and security with stability.
Wong joins push to 'hold Taliban to account' under international law
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has joined an international push “to hold the Taliban to account” under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Wong says:
We know the women and girls of Afghanistan are effectively being erased from public life by the various edicts the Taliban … have issued.
The steps we are taking with Germany, Canada and the Netherlands are unprecedented. We are intending to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, to which Afghanistan is a party, to take action.
The Taliban have demonstrated their contempt for human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, and they have engaged in a campaign of sustained and systematic oppression.
‘Risk Beirut airport may be closed’: Wong
Penny Wong has again urged Australians in Lebanon to leave.
Speaking live from New York, she says:
If I can … say again to the Australian Lebanese community. This is a deeply distressing situation for so many of you. I know that there are many Australians in Lebanon. There are many Australians who have relatives, family and friends in Lebanon. I again urge Australians in Lebanon to leave now. There are flight cancelations and disruptions, and there is a risk that Beirut airport may close for an extended period of time.
Please do not wait for a preferred route. Please take the first option you can to leave. We continue to monitor the situation closely. We have been working with partners on contingency plans now for many months but I again say to anyone who any Australian who is in Lebanon: please leave now.
'Need for a ceasefire in Lebanon': Wong
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, is speaking live to press from New York.
She urges “all parties should show restraint,” as Israel’s intense bombing campaign inside Lebanon stretches into a third day.
She says:
Lebanese civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hezbollah, so all parties should show restraint, de escalate and comply with UN security council resolutions. The global community has made clear that this destructive cycle must stop.
What has happened in recent days only makes an immediate ceasefire in Gaza even more urgent. You would have heard me say this before, and I say it again, Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza.
Wong says she has met with her UK counterpart, David Lammy, and discussed a “shared view that there is a need for a ceasefire in Lebanon”.
I know that this is something that will be discussed by international partners and the international community, including the security council this evening.
Lebanese Australians have condemned the governments “inaction” on the escalating violence and incursion. Read more from Mostafa Rachwani here:
Rafqa Touma
Good morning! I’ll be rolling your live blog updates today. If there is anything you don’t want us to miss, shoot it my way on X (Twitter) @At_Raf_
Lebanese Australians have watched on in horror as Israeli attacks have continued on their mother country, with many fearing for the safety of relatives they left behind.
“People feel helpless and exhausted, we are all sitting around helplessly watching … our country, our villages and homes, bombed into oblivion,” Sousan Ghecham, who lives in Sydney, says.
Many are traumatised by the attacks on a land they maintain strong ties with, they tell Mostafa Rachwani, and there is also frustration with the government for failing to hold Israel to account.
Housing affordability worsens
Daisy Dumas
There are more Australian suburbs than ever with a median home value of $1m or more, according to new data.
New CoreLogic data from August shows 29.3% out of 4,772 suburbs surveyed are now in the “million-dollar club”, with an additional 218 suburbs joining the group.
The figure has risen from a previous market peak of 26.9% in April 2022 – while at the onset of the Covid pandemic 14.3% of suburbs had a median home value of $1m or more.
Sydney dominates the country’s million-dollar suburbs, comprising almost 40% of the 1,397 suburbs with houses and apartments with a seven-figure median value.
In both Sydney and Brisbane, 46 suburbs rose above the $1m median value mark. Perth came in third position, followed by regional Queensland.
CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said the 7.1% increase in national dwelling values over the past year had added the equivalent of about $53,000 to the national median.
But rising house values were accompanied by worsening affordability.
“Despite the increase in the number of million-dollar markets, borrowers are likely to be dedicating more of their income towards servicing their mortgage”, she said.
“With an $800,000 loan balance (assuming a 20% deposit) and the current average variable mortgage rate for new owner- occupiers (6.28%), a household would need an annual income close to $200,000 to keep repayments on a $1m home under 30% of their income. This marks an increase from the around $125,000 needed prior to the first interest rate hike [in May 2022].”
Qantas passengers told to expect ‘busy period’
Qantas passengers have been warned to expect a “busy period” today, with some advised to swap to earlier flights out of Melbourne as a precaution as engineers go on strike.
The protected industrial action at Melbourne airport is by aircraft maintenance engineers teams. There are about 1,100 employees covered by these agreements, out of 2,500 engineers across Qantas.
Qantas has been notified of work stoppages in Melbourne today and on Monday 30 September, Wednesday 2 October and Friday 4 October around the country.
The union wants a 5% pay rise per year plus 15% in the first year.
The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance said the strike was “highly likely” to affect flights in all major capitals.
A Qantas spokesperson has said it put contingency plans in place and believed customers would not be affected.
However Guardian Australia has seen a message that Qantas sent to travellers out of Melbourne saying the airline was “anticipating a busy period which may affect your flight”, and advising that “to help you avoid a possible delay, we’re offering the option to change to an earlier flight, free of charge”.
Our economics columnist Greg Jericho has assembled out some superb graphics to illustrate how supermarkets have helped to keep inflation high and prolong the cost of living crisis.
The “competition” on the price of Coke and Pepsi is a great example, he says, and shows how they ensure they always have those products available at a discount, which is obviously bad news for independents.
Here’s Greg’s column:
But there is apparently one way shoppers can beat the big two, according to Choice, which has a survey today showing that Aldi shoppers save at least $15 on a basket of essential items.
Wong appeals to Israel for Zomi Frankcom audio
Daniel Hurst
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has asked the Israeli government to “respond positively” to requests from Zomi Frankcom’s family to release audio related to the fatal strikes on her aid convoy in Gaza.
The former Australian defence force chief Mark Binskin, who prepared a report for the Australian government about the killing of Frankcom and six World Central Kitchen colleagues in Israeli drone strikes in Gaza on 1 April, said Israeli authorities had allowed him to view 90 minutes of drone footage of the convoy and subsequent strikes. But Binskin noted in his final report that this was “without audio”.
Frankcom’s brother Mal told the ABC’s 7.30 program last month that he regarded the unheard audio as “another missing piece of the puzzle” because it was important to understand “the state of mind of the people making the decisions”. Mal Frankcom told 7.30 at the time:
I asked him [Binskin] about that and he said that he was told that it was in Hebrew and it wouldn’t be understood.
Wong joined the ABC’s 7.30 program from New York last night and was asked about the request for audio to be released. Wong said:
The family has called for that and I have expressed that to the Israeli government and I have expressed the view that, in the circumstances … we would seek that the Israeli government respond positively to Zomi Frankcom’s family’s requests.
Asked whether she had had any response from the Israeli side about that audio, Wong said:
Not at my level, as yet, no.
The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, said in a letter to Wong earlier this month that it was “incumbent on you to do what is necessary to obtain this audio evidence”.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer and I’m going to run through some of the best overnight stories before Rafqa Touma comes along.
Some Labor MPs say the government should not be afraid of considering reforms to negative gearing, with several caucus members saying they were “open” to fresh and bolder responses to the housing crisis. The debate over the possible reform of negative gearing – a plan rejected by voters when it was part of Labor’s manifesto at the 2019 election – has been reignited in recent weeks amid the standoff over the government’s housing bills. The thoughts of Labor MPs come as a report shows there are more Australian suburbs than ever with a median home value of $1m or more, according to new data.
Thousands of travellers face flight disruption today when hundreds of Qantas engineers stage a walkout in Melbourne over pay and conditions, according to media reports. The strike is part of industrial action that is expected to take place at major airports across Australia over the next two weeks. The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance, which is organising the action, said the strike was “highly likely” to affect flights but the airline said it had contingencies in place. More developments coming up.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has asked the Israeli government to “respond positively” to requests from Zomi Frankcom’s family to release audio related to the fatal strikes on her aid convoy in Gaza. She told ABC’s 7.30 last night that she had passed on the family’s requests but had not received any response so far “at her level”. And as Israeli attacks continue on Lebanon, we have been speaking to Lebanese Australians about the helplessness and despair they feel while their country is under attack. More coming up on both these stories.
