As it happened: Coalition matches Labor’s PBS pledge; Unemployment holds steady; WA opposition leader resigns; Aust ends assault case against PNG minister

Thanks for your company this afternoon, here’s a quick recap:

• The maximum price Australians will pay for prescription medicines listed under the government’s subsidy scheme will be reduced from $31.60 to $25 from January 1 - Labor committed to this and the Coalition quickly followed suit earlier today, guaranteeing this outcome regardless of the result of the next election.
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor is not considering any new taxes in an interview today. He also sought to take credit for new data today showing unemployment remaining steady nationwide in February
• The Opposition leader was heckled by anti-nuclear protesters while giving a foreign policy speech in Sydney this morning. In the speech Dutton said Australia should advocate for the US to restore recently cut aid funding to the Pacific. Foreign Minister Penny Wong later sought to discredit him by saying the previous government he was part of cut Australian aid to the Pacific.
• Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have continued today, along with a rocket being fired into Israel from Yemen. Wong was asked for her thoughts on Israel’s behaviour this afternoon.
• It was an eventful day in WA, with the opposition leader stepping down and a police car chase ending on a famous Perth beach.
• And the 2025 World Happiness index was published, with Finland taking out the mantle of world’s happiest country for an eighth straight year (Australia was eleventh). The news wasn’t quite as good for the US.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has sought credit for new employment figures released today, which show unemployment is steady at 4.1 per cent.

Employment fell by 53,000 and unemployment by 11,000 in February. The participation rate was down 0.4 percentage points to 66.8 per cent.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

In a statement, Chalmers said: “Low unemployment and much lower inflation is a remarkable combination when you look at our historical experience and what’s happening in other countries.

“Under Labor, unemployment is low, inflation is down, real wages are rising again, interest rates have started to come down, debt is lower and growth is rebounding solidly.”

The headline inflation rate is at 2.4 per cent, within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target range of 2 per cent to 3 per cent.

But ANZ economists Aaron Luk and Adam Boyton don’t expect this data alone to have a material influence on the RBA’s rate-setting decisions.

“We maintain our stance that this easing cycle will be a shallow one, with only one more rate cut to come in August,” they said.

In related news, the Australian share market resumed its uptrend after the US Federal Reserve left US rates unchanged as expected and shrugged-off tariff concerns.

As markets closed, the S&P/ASX200 had gained 90.6 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 7918.9, as the broader All Ordinaries rose 93.6 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 8148.9.

With AAP

The National Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children has called for a unified, bipartisan approach to make real change in the lives of those they represent.

Today is National Close The Gap Day, on which communities and schools across Australia host activities drawing attention to the Closing The Gap targets.

Catherine Liddle is chief executive of the leading body for Indigenous children and families.Credit: SNAICC.

The latest data earlier this month showed only four of the 19 targets to improve outcomes for Indigenous Australians are on track.

In a statement, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said this new data was a “wake-up call”, and that much could be achieved when all levels of government and all parties worked together.

“We have seen positive change in areas such as land rights where governments have involved Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as partners in decisions about our lives,” she said.

“We need to see change in all sectors. Our children deserve nothing less.”

Prosecutors in NSW have withdrawn an allegation that a powerful Papua New Guinea cabinet minister assaulted a woman near Bondi Beach.

PNG Petroleum Minister Jimmy Maladina, 58, was to face a hearing on Thursday over the contested allegation that he attacked a 31-year-old woman known to him in an eastern Sydney home.

Reinstated PNG Minister for Petroleum, Jimmy Maladina leaves Waverley Court with barrister Margaret Cunneen last year.Credit: Nick Moir

But prosecutors instead withdrew the single count of domestic violence-related assault occasioning bodily harm related to the July 6 incident.

Police charged the politician, who had pleaded not guilty, after being called to the property in Bondi and finding two children present and a woman with facial injuries.

Maladina stood down from cabinet after charges were laid, only to be reinstated in October after the prime minister of the resource-rich nation reportedly received legal advice about the case.

After the case was dropped, he was seen smiling with his high-profile barrister, Margaret Cunneen, in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.

A restraining order application taken out on behalf of the woman was adjourned until Monday.

When the charge was laid in July, a PNG governor said he was “deeply embarrassed” at the arrest and expressed sympathy for the alleged victim.

East Sepik Province governor Allan Bird said the allegation was deeply concerning given “violence against women in PNG has reached pandemic proportions and our women and girls continue to live in fear”.

AAP

This morning it emerged that the federal government will introduce laws to parliament next week to protect jobs at salmon farms in western Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour.

Next week will be one of the last sitting weeks of parliament before the election.

A salmon farm in Tasmania.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Salmon farming is a big issue in the seat of Braddon, which the Liberal Party won from Labor at the 2019 election and has held since.

On ABC News 24 this afternoon, Labor senator Marielle Smith denied this move was about shoring up seats in Tasmania.

“My understanding is there’s been a lot of insecurity surrounding the issues, and it has a big impact on workers in the industry. When your industry is insecure, you’re not sure and worried about your job, that has a big impact on people and the insecurity around the environment question too,” she said.

“We have always maintained we think it’s possible and preferable to have a sustainable industry, preservation for the local environment and supporting local jobs.”

Greens senator Nick McKim, on the same panel, called Smith’s answer “a load of rubbish”.

“Let’s be really clear what the salmon industry is doing in Tasmania. It’s driving an ancient iconic fish species (the Maugean skate) into extinction. That species only lives in Macquarie Harbour and there’s probably less than 100 adults of breeding age left anywhere else in the world,” he said.

“Labor came into government promising to strengthen environmental laws in Tasmania. The fossil fuel corporations ... prevented Labor from an agreement with the Greens that would have done this. Now the foreign multinational salmon farming corporations have their hooks into [Albanese].”

If you’re just hopping on the train, these stories might interest you.

First up, a three-way feud delaying construction of Melbourne’s airport rail has been put to bed.

The airport, state and federal governments signed a document agreeing to push the project forward.

Under the memorandum of understanding, senior public officials and airport management will work together to finalise construction plans.

Read more at the link above.

Further north, it’s not a case of a dispute ending, but potentially restarting: Rail unions are pushing to cut short an order suspending industrial action on Sydney’s rail network.

They claim it has failed to help resolve a protracted pay dispute with the Minns government which has left Sydney gripped by transport chaos.

A month after the “cooling-off” period was put in place, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and several others representing thousands of railway workers have applied to the Fair Work Commission to revoke the order or end the suspension on Friday.

Israeli strikes overnight and into Thursday struck several homes and killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, according to three hospitals.

The strikes hit houses in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza and the northern town of Beit Lahiya, they said.

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel this morning Australian time.Credit: AP

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the latest strikes.

Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that had halted the war and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages.

Israel blamed the renewed fighting on Hamas because the militant group rejected an Israeli-backed proposal that departed from their agreement.

More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. There have been no reports of Hamas firing rockets or carrying out other attacks.

Earlier this afternoon, Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen early on Thursday as hostilities with that nation’s Houthi rebels intensified.

Sirens sounded across several areas in Israel after the projectile was fired.

AP, Reuters

Libby Mettam has resigned as Western Australian Liberal leader after her party’s crushing defeat at the state election on March 8.

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Mettam said she would have liked to continue as leader but did not have the party’s support.

Liberal leader Libby Mettam at her function on election night.Credit: Colin Murty

“While I would have liked and hoped to continue as leader, it has become clear that I do not have that support of my colleagues to continue as leader through to the election in 2029,” she said.

“I respect the honesty and considered advice of my colleagues as I have contemplated this decision.”

Mettam shouldered some of the blame for the poor election result.

But she also said leadership speculation in November did not help her efforts.

WA Labor has won at least 44 of the 59 seats in state parliament, with a few seats still in doubt as counting continues.

Fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows Australia’s population grew by 484,000 in the 12 months to September last year.

That’s the smallest increase in two years and, as Shane Wright reports, it suggests the federal government’s efforts to bring down burgeoning immigration growth are starting to work.

You can read his full report, which includes a state-by-state breakdown of population figures.

Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, was just on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing, where she was asked for her opinion on whether Israel is breaking international law by blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The question came after Britain’s foreign secretary said this before quickly amending his words.

Here is how Wong replied when asked by ABC host Patricia Karvelas:

Wong: Well, first I want to say, Australians are rightly distressed by the ceasefire not holding. Australians are rightly distressed and horrified by the loss of life we’re seeing, including of children. We continue to urge the ceasefire to be observed. We continue to say that Hamas should release hostages, we continue to say international humanitarian assistance should flow. And of course, I have consistently – the government has consistently – urged all parties, including Israel, as a democracy, to comply with international law, including international humanitarian law.

Karvelas: Does it seem they are complying with international law? As you see it?

Wong: Look, there are – there are different roles here. We are not courts and tribunals and those – some of those questions go to those issues. But I think it is appropriate for governments to continue to talk about what international law, international humanitarian law means. It means a range of protections for civilians. We should continue to urge all parties, including Israel, to do that. And it’s regrettable that we’ve seen – we’ve never seen [Peter] Dutton talk about those obligations or the importance of international humanitarian law. As I said, we want the ceasefire to hold. We want hostages returned. We want humanitarian aid to flow.