Australian news and politics live: Independent Nicolette Boele provisional winner in Bradfield

Independent Nicolette Boele is the provisional winner in the Sydney electorate of Bradfield.

Ms Boele has finished ahead of Liberal Gisele Kapterian by 40 votes at the conclusion of the count.

The Australian Electoral Commission will now conduct a formal distribution of preferences for the rest of the week. In this time, scrutineers can challenge votes they believe to be miscounted or informal.

The AEC is likely to conduct a full recount as the margin is less than 100 votes.

Teal candidate Nicolette Boele has inched in front of Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian by 19 votes in the ultra-tight race for Bradfield.

Sixteen days on from the Federal election, the Sydney seat remains locked in a very close count, with Ms Boele taking the lead from the latest round of votes.

As of 3.10pm, there are 268 more envelopes to be counted.

If the final margin is fewer than 100 votes, a full recount will be triggered.

Read more here.

Trade Minister Don Farrell says Australia’s discussion around ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement with the European Union was “sounding good”.

Mr Farrell hinted there could be a breakthrough free trade pact while speaking on Sky News on Monday ahead of his meeting with EU ambassador to Australia Gabriele Visentin tomorrow.

The positive indicator comes after Mr Albanese met with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen on the sideline of Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration during his whirlwind two-and-a-half day visit.

“I’ve subsequently had a meeting with the EU ambassador and reaffirmed our commitment and heard from him (with) his commitment,” he said.

When asked how it was unfolding, Mr Farrell responded “sounding good, yep”.

Mr Albanese’s meeting in the Vatican with the EU chief marked his sixth since he became PM in May 2022.

Mr Albanese pushed for renewed momentum on a stalled Australia–EU free trade agreement — which broke down in 2023.

Agricultural access for Australian farmers and producers and the protection of product names like feta and prosecco still key sticking points.

“I think both Australia and Europe now realize that there’s a priority and an imperative to get a free trade agreement,” Mr Farrell said, hinting that compromises need to be made.

“Those geographical indicators are hard issues.

“On the one hand, the Europeans say, well, you’re using all of our names.

“On the other hand, what I say to them is, look after World War II a whole lot of Europeans came to Australia. They bought their families, they bought their culture.

“They bought their food and wine. And for them, the link with Europe is not an economic link. It’s a way that they keep in contact with their European roots.”

Trade Minister Don Farrell has revealed he made a prayer for Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor party while attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican last month.

The minister had attended the funeral on behalf of Australia on April 26 while the Prime Minister was campaigning ahead of the May 3 Federal Election.

Speaking after Mr Albanese’s trip to Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration mass at the Vatican, Mr Farrell said he made his plea while touching the late pontiff’s coffin.

“Look, we were the last people, I think, to touch the Pope’s coffin before we went out for the mass and I did say a little prayer for the Prime Minister and the Labor Party,” he told Sky News on Monday.

Just a week later, Labor celebrated a thumping win at the polls. The party has secured at least 93 seats and reduced Coalition to a historic low in the early 40s.

Mr Marles, who is also the defence minister, would not be drawn on why it took so long for Australia to start shipping tanks to Ukraine, insisting the first had left the country “some time ago”.

Overnight, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Ukrianian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the first of the donated vehicles, the retired Abrams tanks, had left Australia bound for Europe.

Mr Marles also declined to say whether US officials had raised any issues about the second-hand transfer of American technology, saying Australia had worked closely with both the US and Ukraine to get the tanks to the war zone.

“As I say, the first tranche has been on their way for some time but I’m not going to go into specific details of that,” he said.

Asked whether he was expecting the Reserve Bank to cut rates tomorrow, the acting PM wouldn’t be drawn.

“I’m not going to speculate about a rate decision,” he said.

“That’s obviously a matter for the Reserve Bank.”

Mr Marles has also been asked about Labor’s plan to increase taxes on superannuation balances over $3 million.

The proposal was first announced two years ago, but has attracted a fresh wave of criticism following Labor’s landslide election victory.

Mr Marles says there’s been a “smear campaign”.

“There’s nothing new in relation to this. And I would just further add that we’re talking about very modest changes which apply to about 0.5 per cent of superannuation, where they will still receive a tax break, they just won’t receive the extent of the tax break that they did before,” he said.

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles has been speaking in Melbourne, where he’s been asked about Oscar Jenkins.

The Australian teacher was late last week sentenced to 13 years in a Russian maximum-security prison after being convicted of fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

Mr Marles said the Government are “obviously very concerned” about his welfare, are deeply concerned by the sentence following a “sham trial”, and are calling on Russia to treat Mr Jenkins as a prisoner of war and honour the protections that go with that under international humanitarian law.

“We stand utterly opposed to the sentence that Russia have put in place,” Mr Marles said.

“We condemn Russia for the sentence.”

Victoria’s treasurer has revealed the state government will report a surplus when the budget is announced on Tuesday.

The long-awaited return to surplus has taken a $1 billion hit however as it hovers between between cost-of-living relief and paying down mounting debt.

AAP reports that Treasurer Jaclyn Symes will reveal a forecast $600 million operating surplus in 2025/26.

That is $1 billion smaller than was predicted less than six months ago.

Victoria has not posted a positive net operating result - which is day-to-day government sector running costs minus revenue and excludes spending on infrastructure projects - since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its operating surpluses are then expected to be $1.9 billion in 2026/27 and $2.4 billion in 2027/28, higher than forecast in the state’s mid-year budget update.

Returning to an operating surplus was one of the steps laid out in the government’s fiscal strategy following successive lockdowns and cost blowouts on projects such as the North East Link and West Gate Tunnel.

Ms Symes said the surplus was “just the beginning”.

Ahead of his WA trip to sound out stakeholders around his looming North West Shelf gas project decision, freshly-minted environment minister Murray Watt has claimed he has a “good relationship” with Premier Roger Cook but described him as “no shrinking violet”.

Mr Watt has declared he’ll make a call on the expansion, a decision his predecessor Tanya Plibersek delayed multiple times before she was shuffled out of the portfolio after the election.

The Labor minister will travel to Perth on Tuesday to meet with the State leader, his counterpart Matthew Swinbourn, as well as industry, business and environmental groups.

“I’ve worked with Roger Cook and a number of his ministers in previous roles, and I’ve got a good relationship. Roger’s no shrinking violet, let’s face it, in putting forward the views of his state,” he told ABC radio on Monday.

Mr Watt said had received briefings on the project and was in a “listening” phase before making the final call.

“I think all parties want to see a resolution. Of course, there’s really strong views on either side of this debate, and I can guarantee you that whatever decision I make, there’ll be some people who’ll be unhappy,” he said.

“That’s the nature of the work that I’ll be doing in this portfolio. But it is my intention to stick to the current deadline of May 31.”