News and politics live updates: Pauline Hanson blasts ‘scared’ Labor, vows to crack down on immigration ‘scam’

The Liberal Party’s only Jewish MP in Federal Parliament says the Census should have included a tick box option for Judaism to reflect the contribution of the Jews to Australia since 1788.

Julian Leeser, an Opposition frontbencher, has criticised the Australian Bureau of Statistics for failing to include an option for Judaism among 10 options in the religion section of the August 11 Census.

“I would like to see Judaism listed as a religion on the Census,” he told The Nightly.

“Jewish people have been part of this country since the First Fleet, and as a general rule I would like to make it easier, rather than harder, to be recognised and accepted as a Jewish person in this country.”

The ABS went on the offensive this week after News24 presenter Peta Credlin wrongly suggested Judaism had been dropped as a tick-box option in the 2026 Census.

Read the full story here.

ABC head of investigative journalism and current affairs Jo Puccini has resigned from the broadcaster after a string of controversial decisions on the Four Corners program.

Acting news director Donna Field announced her exit in an internal memo on Thursday acknowledging her role in helping”shape significant public interest journalism”.

Puccini’s role had approved content that Four Corners put to air, including two now deleted episodes due to accuracy concerns by ex-bikie turned reporter Mahmood Fazal “Cocaine Nation” and “Meth Highway”.

“Jo has helped shape significant public interest journalism and built high-performing teams, leading to numerous Walkley awards,” Field told staff.

An episode on ABC’s audio program Background Briefing titled “Remy was 12 when she became a drug dealer” was also removed on Friday.

Puccini held senior roles at Media Watch, Lateline, 7.30, Four Corners, the National Reporting Team and ABC Investigations.

In the internal memo, Field also included quotes provided by Puccini which expressed her pride in the journalism she “helped produce”.

“It’s been an adventure and a privilege to work at the national broadcaster,” she said.

Her exit comes after former News Director Justin Steven abruptly resigned earlier this year.

Federal ministers expected to cop a fair bit of blowback over the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the May Budget.

What they didn’t expect was the relentless hurricane of hostility they are still weathering.

It is a salient lesson in the importance of ensuring the fine detail of reforms are absolutely watertight before announcing them.

Good budgets sink in the media cycle within a week.

An absence of controversy is the best measure of success.

Thirteen weeks after this latest Budget was handed down it is still stubbornly refusing to be flushed.

Most of the so-called “unintended consequences” of the capital gains tax changes could and absolutely should have been identified in the framing of the reforms.

That they weren’t is nothing short of gob-smacking.

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The ACT Opposition leader is refusing to detail what interactions he has had with sex workers but has denied claims he messaged one during a parliamentary hearing to say “f..k my job is boring”.

An anonymous complaint was sent to the Speaker of the ACT Assembly claiming that Mark Parton had “engaged in a text message exchange with a sex worker” during a budget estimates hearing last Friday.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Canberra Liberals leader rejected the allegation but admitted to sending a message and a photo taken inside the committee hearing to other undisclosed people, which stated: “f..k my job is boring. Wanna swap.”

“I was contacted by the Standards Commissioner last night, who wrote to me to advise that he had received an anonymous complaint about me, but he had made the call not to investigate further, and he’s obliged to do that,” Mr Parton declared.

“We are talking about an anonymous complaint that has been made, that’s gone through a process, and there is no investigation.

“There is no investigation, and as such, I’m not really sure why there’s so much concern and so much interest in that”.

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Labor’s May Budget is still causing political headaches almost three months on with the Federal Government yet to fully resolve the problem of an unintended “widow’s tax”.

Draft legislation released this week fixes a problem where grandfathering for negative gearing tax breaks and the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount on an investment property wasn’t carried through when ownership was transferred in the event of a death or divorce.

But the Government is yet to release draft legislation to fix another unintended problem where assets like a house being rented out or shares would incur a capital gains tax on notional gains, before an asset is sold, in the event a spouse was widowed or a relationship broke down.

Estate planning lawyer Rachael Rofe, the principal solicitor with Rofe + Co, said any asset that went up in value would be subject to a tax on unrealised gains from July 2027 unless new legislation fixed this problem.

Read the full story here.

A baby seal has died as bird flu cases mount, sparking fears of an escalation in the deadly strain’s spread.

The pup was recovered after washing up in Warrnambool, on Victoria’s south-west coast, and had been identified as a potential bird flu case.

Authorities said they received a report of a baby seal found with possible H5 symptoms, confirming on Thursday that it had died.

It is potentially the first seal to be infected with the deadly virus on the Australian mainland.

The seal was cordoned off with traffic cones on a beach to discourage anyone from approaching it.

​Read the full story here.​

The communications minister has played down speculation the government could ditch its gambling reforms instead of collaborating on changes.

Labor’s proposed legislation has been condemned by the Coalition and Greens, removing any chance the bill could pass the Senate unamended.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the reforms are “some ways off” being abandoned altogether, saying it was normal for there to be pushback to the changes.

“This is rolling along exactly as any other piece of legislation normally does,” Ms Wells said.

The minister confirmed she was having “constructive discussions”with the coalition and the Greens but hasn’t seen any amendments from either party.

“We’d love to see this passed,” she said.

with AAP

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The Australian Broadcast Corporation has apologised for its Race Around the World episode that featured a fictional scenario involving a violent attack on businesswoman Gina Rinehart.

In a statement issued on Thursday, ABC’s managing director Hugh Marks apologised to Gina Rinehart.

The material subject to the complaint has been removed from ABC platforms.

“The ABC refers to the film in a recent episode of Race Around the World referencing Mrs Gina Rinehart AO,” Mr Marks said in a statement.

“While the Ombudsman has found that the film did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies, the ABC acknowledges the episode has fallen short of community expectations.

“The ABC apologises to Mrs Rinehart and to anyone else affected or upset by the publication of the film.

“As part of our review of this matter, we have considered whether the guidance in the ABC Editorial Policies adequately reflects current community expectations.

“We have also considered whether the relevant guidance sufficiently distinguishes between news and non-news content.

“As a result, the ABC will amend its guidance as it applies to violence.

“The film has been edited on the ABC’s platforms to remove the relevant material.”

Read more here.

Australia’s stock market has set a fresh intraday record high, soaring to just shy of 9300 points in the first 30 minutes of the opening bell on Thursday.

The S&P/ASX200 peaked at 9293.4 before losing steam and dropping back to 9270.3 by 9am.

The initial charge was led by banks and miners as they followed the lead of Wall Street overnight where the Dow Jones closed at a record high on signs of progress for a US peace deal with Iran.

But the Nasdaq registered its first decline in five sessions as SpaceX and AMD stumbled following their quarterly earnings.

Only six of the Aussie market’s 11 sectors remained in the green after the first hour, with miners rocketing more than 2 per cent and banks up 0.6 per cent as the rally faded.

Healthcare, telcos and consumers discretionaries and staples also held their gain.

IT stocks dropped one per cent and energy was off 0.9 per cent.

Among the heavyweight miners, BHP was up one per cent, Riot Tinto jumped 0.6 per cent and Fortescue leapt 1.2 per cent.

​Read more. ​

The brother of a former premier demanded thousands of dollars from the coffers of a right-wing faction he was doing recruitment work for.

Jean-Claude Perrottet - brother of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet - helped recruit conservative-minded members to the Liberal Party to exert control over certain branches.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating alleged illicit political donations and branch-stacking spearheaded by the Reformers - a conservative Christian faction among state Liberals.

The now 29-year-old Jean-Claude Perrottet was approached by Reformers co-founders Christian Ellis and Robert Assaf in 2018 and asked if he wanted to join them, the commission heard.

The ex-premier’s younger brother admitted he wanted pay for his time, at one stage arguing to be paid $12,000 for several months work.

Read the full story here.