Australian news and politics live: Treasurer Jim Chalmers target of security scare during speech in Queensland

Protestors have gatecrashed Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ speech at a Queensland event on Tuesday.

The Labor Minister was the target of a significant security scare while delivering an address at the Queensland Media Club when two climate protestors took to the stage to interrupt.

Security guards quickly took a man and a woman off stage. Both were carrying signs calling for the government to stop supporting coal and gas.

A taxation surge that allowed the Labor Government to promise billions in infrastructure, social welfare and economic subsidies is ending, according to Jim Chalmers.

The Treasurer warned voters not to expect more big offerings in next week’s Budget — a Budget the government had not planned to deliver.

In a speech in Brisbane setting out the government’s re-election pitch, Dr Chalmers argued inflation has been beaten without a jump in unemployment or recession.

“After three difficult years, the Australian economy has turned a corner,” he told the Queensland Media Club.

Thanks to the Government’s policies, which increased spending rather than following economists’ advice to cut spending, “a soft landing is looking more and more likely,” Dr Chalmers said.

Read Aaron Patrick’s full coverage of the speech here.

An outspoken Hong Kong exile living in Australia has been targeted by anonymous leaflets allegedly posted to mosques in Adelaide and accusing him of “siding with Israel” against “Islamic terrorism”.

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that she has and will again raise the case with the Chinese authorities.

Ted Hui, a lawyer and former Hong Kong legislator, who took refuge in Australia after Beijing crushed the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, told The Nightly he had been warned about the leaflets by the authorities late last year.

He was told the flyers, which used photoshopped images of his face and place of work, had been posted anonymously from Macau, the special administrative region of China that neighbours Hong Kong.

The Nightly was unable to independently verify the leaflets were posted to Adelaide mosques from Macau but contacted the Australian Federal Police and ASIO for comment.

The one-page documents are designed using the logo of Mr Hui’s current law firm alongside his face and sections about his “professional knowledge” and a “who am I” section.

They state that he “provides assistance to local Jews” and that “I am a pro-Jewish man and siding with Israel to wage war against those [sic] Islamic terrorism.”

Read Nicola Smith’s The Nightly exclusive here.

Aussie airline passengers could soon be reimbursed if their flight is delayed.

Qantas and Virgin Airline executives have faced Senate hearings over their handling of cancelled flights, with the aim of creating more rights for passengers.

The Airline Passenger Protections Bill or “Pay on Delay” legislation will see airlines bound by a mandatory code of conduct with a minimum standard of treatment for customers, including compensation for significant delays and lost luggage.

Similar legislation has operated in the European Union since 2005.

Read the full story here.

An Australian super fund has been hit with a $10.5 million penalty for greenwashing.

The Federal Court found Active Super, formerly known as Local Government Superannuation Scheme, misled members and potential members by saying it had eradicated investments in gambling, coal mining and oil tar sands.

The fund also claimed to have eliminated Russian investments following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Justice David O’Callaghan found that between February 2021 and June 2023, Active Super actually held investments in these types of assets, including coal miners Whitehaven Coal and Coronado Global Resources.

He rejected Active Super’s argument that consumers would differentiate between direct investments and those held in pooled funds.

Read the full story here.

The murder of a much-loved water polo coach in a school bathroom did not involve a “momentary loss of control” but was carefully planned and rehearsed by her ex-boyfriend, a coroner has heard.

Lilie James was beaten to death inside St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney’s city centre just before midnight on October 25, 2023.

The 21-year-old had days earlier ended a brief relationship with her killer, colleague Paul Thijssen, who is suspected of killing himself hours after she died.

An inquest into their deaths on Tuesday revealed the Dutch-born man’s history of stalking Ms James and a prior partner, as well as a web of lies he spun about his time in Australia.

Those lies duped friends, housemates, his employer and, with numerous forged documents, Australian visa authorities.

Read the full story here.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is keeping a close eye on developments out of the US as uncertainty in the global economy complicates its decision over whether to cut the cash rate again.

AAP is reporting that RBA chief economist Sarah Hunter said the bank would remain forward-looking, with its decisions dependent on its forecasts and new data as it unfolds.

But the board must exercise its own judgment beyond the economic modelling provided to it because of risks in the economic outlook, exacerbated by global uncertainty, she told the AFR Banking Summit in Sydney.

Her comments followed a warning from global economic institution the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development that Australia faces much slower growth than previously anticipated following US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

The OECD downgraded Australia’s growth outlook for 2026 to 1.8 per cent, from 2.5 per cent.

That’s below the Reserve Bank’s prediction from its February Statement on Monetary Policy that the economy would grow at 2.3 per cent in 2026.

Read the full story here.

Asked about Peter Dutton’s plan to send Australians to a referendum to give ministers the ability to deport dual citizens who’ve committed serious crimes, the PM has blasted it as “another thought bubble that has not made it to lunchtime”.

He’s referring to the fact the Opposition Leader called for the referendum on breakfast TV this morning, as shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash walked it back.

“Peter Dutton wants to talk about anything but cost-of-living... One week before the Budget, Peter Dutton has no plans, just thought bubbles... aimed at dividing people,” Mr Albanese said.

“This is the second referendum he has called for, at the same time as he criticises referendums he has voted for.

“If you want a referendum, Parliament is sitting (next) week, he can float it (then).”

Read Ellen Ransley’s story here.

The PM has been asked about distresing revelations about the childcare sector aired by Four Corners last night, saying they are “of deep concern”.

Mr Albanese said there “needs to be certainly an investigation, and action taken wherever standards are not met”.

“State governments look after the regulation... But certainly I am sure that state governments will have a look at what has been revealed last night,” he said.

He downplayed calls, made by the Greens, for a royal commisson.

“They take years, they cost a lot of money. You do not need a royal commission to know that what was shown on TV last night was wrong”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is speaking from Gladstone in central Queensland, where he’s visiting a Rio Tinto facility and talking up Australia’s steel and aluminium industry.

In ase you’ve been living under a rock, Australian manufacturers exporting to the US have been slugged with a 25 per cent tariff after the Trump Administration declined to give any exemptions.

“We are going to make Australian steel and aluminium the best in the world and we are doing that by working with companies like Rio Tinto and BlueScope to make sure they can decarbonise, so they are in a competitive position which means there are goods and products will be in demand right throughout the world,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese has also given a forward sizzle to next Tuesday’s Budget, saying there will be “a bit more to say about buying Australian”.