Australia news LIVE: Chalmers’ $17 billion tax cuts clear first hurdle as Dutton flags ‘significant announcement’ in budget reply speech

That’s where we’ll leave today’s live national news coverage.

Thanks so much for joining us as we wrapped up the post-budget debate in Canberra.

Here’s a look back at what we covered today.

• After rushing new tax cuts through the lower house, Labor went on the offensive in question time, accusing the wedged Coalition of “trying to cut everything except taxes”.
• Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has flagged he will be making a significant announcement in his budget reply speech on Thursday.
• In the Senate, Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young staged a piscatorial stunt with a dead salmon to accuse the government of gutting environment laws.
• Inflation nudged down across the country in February, giving more confidence to the Reserve Bank that price pressures are easing.
• In business news, the country’s biggest super fund, AustralianSuper, has sold its $580 million shareholding in embattled tech group WiseTech.
• And abroad, as the Trump administration grapples with a security breach that saw a journalist added to a top-secret group chat, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese downplayed the incident while revealing he’s invited Trump to visit Australia.

Continuing with his appearance on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, the prime minister answered a series of questions on the US, including on the possibility of a phone call with President Donald Trump, the timing of a visit to the US, and the Signal group chat scandal in which top-secret military plans were shared with a prominent journalist.

Host Patricia Karvelas asked the PM how he was going in his efforts to get Trump on the phone, after he requested another call when Australia was denied an exemption from the US steel and aluminium tariffs.

Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese.Credit: AP, Alex Ellinghausen

“We are working with the US administration, it is not something where you are texting each other, how about a chat?” Albanese replied, shutting down the line of questioning.

While Opposition Leader Peter Dutton declared his first international trip as prime minister would be to Washington, Albanese was more vague, promising that if re-elected, he would expect a visit to the US to be among his first trips abroad.

“I have discussed with the president going to the US and I expect that certainly will be very early on in the term,” he said, before revealing he had extended an invitation to Trump to visit Australia.

“He did not come in his first term as president, but American presidents will always be welcome here as will other international visitors.”

Karvelas then turned to the Signal group chat scandal currently dominating US political debate, asking if Australia should be concerned that a Five Eyes ally was so “loose” with national security.

“It obviously is not desirable”, Albanese said. “I am sure that they regard that the same.

“Mistakes happen from time to time. The important thing is when something like that happens that you identify how it happens and put in place measures to make sure it does not happen again. The US takes security seriously, and I am sure they will respond appropriately.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the government has done its job in bringing inflation into the Reserve Bank’s target band of 2 to 3 per cent, and that he will leave next week’s rates decision to the Reserve’s independent board.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed annual inflation has sunk further, from to 2.5 to 2.4 per cent, as the RBA’s newly established monetary policy board prepares to make its first rates decision next Tuesday.

Speaking on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, the prime minister said the challenge of getting inflation down without spiking unemployment and while dealing with a cost-of-living crisis was like “landing a 747 on a helicopter pad”.

“But we have managed to do that, and we are turning a corner, and today’s inflation figures again show a further decrease in the inflation rate.”

As usual, the PM opted not to speculate on what the RBA might do next week, but noted that his government has done what it is responsible for.

“Inflation peaked at 7.8 per cent, and now it is at 2.4 per cent. It is in the lower half of the RBA band that they wanted to see, between 2 and 3 [per cent], and that has been due to the hard work that Australians have done.”

The PM is speaking to the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing as he continues to spruik the tax cuts that the government is rushing through the parliament.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during question time today.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Albanese has been asked why he’s rushing the tax cuts through, given they won’t come into effect until July 1, 2026, and there hasn’t been sufficient time to scrutinise the policy announced in the budget yesterday.

He said the reason was clear, arguing that the government wants to “provide certainty going forward”.

“We clearly have a majority in the House of Representatives and we will put it through the Senate so that people can be certain.”

The PM said the policy was a sensible reform in tandem with Labor’s other cost-of-living measures.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the incident in which the editor of The Atlantic found himself in a group chat with top Trump administration officials as they discussed a secret military strike on Houthi rebels “pretty unfortunate”.

Nova’s Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel jokingly asked the PM if he had checked all his group chats for journalists, to which Albanese jovially replied that he knew what they were referring to.

“I gotta say, that was pretty extraordinary, pretty unfortunate,” he said. “These things can happen, but of course, they shouldn’t happen.”

He said it was “rather extraordinary” for the discussions to be out there for all to see.

The country’s biggest super fund, AustralianSuper, has sold its $580 million shareholding in embattled tech group WiseTech, saying recent changes at the company failed to meet its governance expectations.

AustralianSuper said on Wednesday that it no longer held shares directly in WiseTech. The super fund has sold down a stake of about 1.9 per cent of WiseTech in recent weeks.

WiseTech founder Richard White initally stepped down as chief executive amid allegations published by this masthead.Credit: Oscar Colman

Last month, four independent directors quit the board of WiseTech after failing to agree with founder and major shareholder Richard White over his role at the company. White, who was forced to step down last year after being accused of bullying and inappropriate conduct, was elevated to executive chairman in February.

Earlier this month, the directors of WiseTech confirmed that White misled the board about his personal relationships, but his job remains secure.

AustralianSuper’s head of Australian equities, Shaun Manuell, said the fund had been invested in WiseTech since its float in 2016, and the stock had created “a significant amount of value” for fund members. But he added that the fund saw good governance as “essential to delivering the value we identify in a company”.

“As a long-term active manager, our role is to allocate members’ retirement savings to the companies we think are most likely to create value over the years to come,” Manuell said.

“We needed to see a sensible transition plan that got the balance right between governance and managing the founder’s role over time in order to continue to remain a shareholder. We have sold because recent developments have not met our expectations.”

Cracking down on enforcement will be more effective than cutting taxes on tobacco, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, as the government faces a plunge in revenue from tobacco excise, and a growing black market.

Asked about a persistent fall in tobacco excise revenue, flatlining smoking rates and the hit to the budget bottom line, Chalmers acknowledged it was a problem but rejected the idea of lowering the excise rate.

“Look, we’d rather give tax relief to every Australian taxpayer than to provide tax relief for smoking,” he said.

“There is a substantial problem in the budget when it comes to tobacco excise.”

While fewer people smoking is a positive development, Chalmers said there were also more people avoiding the tax.

“We’re seeing in organised crime and other ways, there’s been an increase in that kind of often violent tax evasion,” he said.

“And so what we’ve done in the budget … is to invest another $157 million in enforcement and compliance. We’re not convinced that by cutting taxes for smoking we’ll get the objective we want. We think the better way is to invest in enforcement, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Read more about the $31 billion hole vaping and the tobacco black market have left in the budget here.

Now that question time’s done, we can jump back to some of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ final remarks to the National Press Club that we didn’t get a chance to cover earlier.

In his speech, Chalmers said he had already budgeted for the extension of the instant asset write-off and indicated there would be further changes to come as the major parties battle to win the votes of small businesses.

Jim Chalmers during his post-budget address at the National Press Club.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The instant asset write-off allows eligible businesses to claim an immediate deduction for the business portion of an asset, such as machinery, up to a cost of $20,000. The scheme ended in July last year, but a one-year extension is before parliament.

“The extension for the instant asset write-off we’ve already budgeted for has been held up in the parliament,” Chalmers said, referring to the Coalition’s opposition to the extension on the grounds that it should be made permanent and have a higher threshold.

“I think that’s, frankly, shameful that it’s been held up, held hostage to some Senate shenanigans,” he said.

Chalmers said he was in conversation with crossbenchers to get the bill across the line but hinted there would be more information to come.

“We want to see it passed and as the prime minister indicated earlier today, we’ll have more to say about the future of the instant asset write-off in addition to that. We want to do the right thing by Australian small businesses.”

The prime minister gets up to end question time, but instead, takes the chance to taunt the opposition.

“Have you got anything?” he asks Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, goading him to ask another question.

Dutton rises and takes a few steps towards the dispatch box, but before he can speak, Albanese jumps back in.

The PM asks the Speaker that all further questions be posted on the notice paper, ending the session.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had to withdraw a remark made during question time, as tensions boiled over in the final sitting days before the election.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke was answering a question about the 1.8 million immigrants the budget forecast will come to Australia in the next five years.

Burke shifted to discuss the Coalition’s opposition to Labor’s cap on student visas, before the leader of opposition business, Michael Sukkar, rose to protest over the relevance of the answer.

When Speaker Milton Dick told the chamber to quieten down, suggesting he would deal with the point of order before returning the call to Burke, Dutton piped up.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during question time.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“Let the peacock parade continue,” he said.

“Sorry speaker,” he quickly added, withdrawing the remark.

Dick replied: “The leader of the opposition, we don’t need anything like that said.”

Burke then continued his answer, concluding by stating that “the biggest driver for any minister of net overseas migration is the number of visas they issue”.

“No one has ever issued more visas in Australian history than the leader of the opposition when he held his portfolio,” he said.

That remark sent the chamber over the edge, and there was a good 30 seconds of yelling across the chamber while Dick waited for everyone to calm down.