As it happened: Unions slam ombudsman over CFMEU crackdown; millions spent on natural disaster protections

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

Here’s a look back at this afternoon’s major stories:

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out the “Robin Hood tax” put forward by the Greens while defending the government’s cost-of-living measures.

• Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has defended his decision to speak at a Brisbane CFMEU rally on Tuesday, but distanced himself from signs displayed at the protest that depicted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a Nazi.

• NSW Premier Chris Minns has criticised his federal Labor colleague Tanya Plibersek over her rejection of a proposal for a gold mine in Blayney, in the state’s central west, saying the “eleventh hour” decision was “disappointing”.

• The local sharemarket turned around its morning losses to close flat as traders digested a slightly smaller than expected deceleration in domestic inflation that briefly pushed the Australian dollar to its highest level this year.

Thanks once again for tuning in to our live coverage, this is Hannah Kennelly signing off.

The local bourse turned around its morning losses to close flat as traders digested a slightly smaller than expected deceleration in domestic inflation that briefly pushed the Australian dollar to its highest level this year.

The S&P/ASX200 had been down as much as 62.3 points, or 0.77 per cent, in late morning trading.

The local market ended the day close to where it started.Credit: AAP

But the benchmark index turned things around Wednesday afternoon to finish on the highs of the day at 8,071.4, up two-tenths of a point from Tuesday’s close.

The broader All Ordinaries dropped 5.8 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 8,291.3.

The Australian dollar was buying US67.99¢ at midday, from US67.86¢ at Tuesday’s ASX close.

Earlier in the day the Aussie had risen as high as US68.13¢, its first time trading over US68¢ since December.

AAP

When high-profile former AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan became the left-field appointee to run the nation’s biggest gambling company, Tabcorp, he was expected to be a change agent.

Three weeks into the role, he has decided not to renovate this troubled company. Instead, he is looking at a demolition and rebuild.

Former AFL boss Gillon McLachlan is now chief executive of Tabcorp.Credit: Getty Images

How this manifests in a financial sense provides some perspective on the scope of what McLachlan is doing. Under his command, Tabcorp has taken an axe to the book value of its wagering assets, writing it off by almost $1.4 billion. That’s more than the sharemarket value of the entire company, which is capitalised at $1.1 billion.

Doing so is a huge swing for McLachlan, who has experience running a sporting code, but not a gambling company, or any listed company.

To justify such a massive financial sledgehammer suggests the future earning power of these assets is meaningfully compromised.

Read Elizabeth Knight’s opinion piece here. 

Sydney’s new $21.6 billion metro extension will be closing early, with reduced services on the inner-city part of the line for the next four weeks.

Sydney Metro’s services between Chatswood and Sydenham will temporarily end by 10.30pm from Monday to Thursday.

Commuters board a metro train at Victoria Cross station in North Sydney.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The reduced hours will “support essential engineering and maintenance works during the early phases of operations”.

Commuters have been advised to check service times and plan their trips on Mondays to Thursdays. It would normally operate until 1.20am on those days.

The city-section of Sydney Metro opened on August 19 to much fanfare, and recorded more than 1 million trips in the first week.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen last week told the Sydney Morning Herald’s state political editor the line could revolutionise city living.

“There are so many new and exciting journeys you can take on the metro and people who would have never dreamt of crossing the bridge for drinks or dinner will be able to in a few minutes from the city. It is a complete game changer,” Haylen says.

Let’s cross over to some business news.

Supermarket giant Woolworths has seen its profits dip after being hit by falling sales in the second half, but its shareholders have been rewarded with a special dividend.

The supermarket giant posted a 0.6 per cent fall in profits before significant items to $1.7 billion. The company announced a special dividend of 40¢ per share, resulting in a total dividend of $1.44 per share for the 2024 financial year.

Outgoing Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci expects the trading environment to remain “challenging”.Credit: Louie Douvis

Outgoing chief executive Brad Banducci said the business lowered prices in its supermarket and Big W businesses as it grappled with lower customer satisfaction scores and lower sales in the second half, but there was improvement in the last quarter.

Read the full story here.

The building union workers who rallied in capital cities around the nation on Tuesday are right to be angry, but their anger at the Labor Party, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the ACTU is misdirected.

It’s the CFMEU bosses, such as John Setka, Darren Greenfield and Derek Christopher, who have betrayed union members.

These three union leaders are the ones who have weakened the union – and, by extension, its ability to negotiate pay rises and protect worker safety.

John Setka’s domestic violence-related behaviour risked turning the union branch he led in Victoria into a pariah, while his decision to let bikies and underworld figures into CFMEU ranks guaranteed it. Why does the latter matter?

Case study after case study, including the example of Synergy Scaffolding published by this masthead on Monday, has shown how union-backed firms with underworld links rip off workers and compromise their safety.

Read more of Nick McKenzie’s opinion piece here.

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has walked back on appearing before the Brisbane CFMEU rally, saying he does not agree with signs depicting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a nazi.

Yesterday, Chandler-Mather spoke at the CFMEU rally in Brisbane where there were signs comparing Albanese to Adolf Hitler.

The CFMEU rally in Melbourne drew an estimated 50,000 to the city streets.Credit: Jason South

In a statement, Chandler-Mather defended speaking up at the rally but added he did not agree with the signs.

“I spoke at the rally in support of the tens of thousands of construction workers, 99.9 per cent of whom have faced no allegations of wrongdoing, and yet they have all been deprived of their basic right to a democratic, independent union and natural justice,” he said.

“Of course I don’t agree with those signs, they’re offensive. However, it’s ridiculous to expect a speaker to audit every sign that appears at a rally with thousands of people in attendance.”

Earlier this morning, Workplace Minister Murray Watt accused Chandler-Mather of endorsing a union racked with allegations of violence and misogyny, which the Greens member hit back against.

“Watt is saying that because he’s led the most anti-union attack in decades, gleefully boasting about working with the Liberals on union busting legislation that may as well be written by Margaret Thatcher,” Chandler-Mather said.

“Senator Watt is desperate to focus on a game of gotcha to distract from the fact that his government is flagrantly disregarding the rule of law and separation of powers and to avoid genuinely engaging with the critique of his government.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has defended his colleague Max Chandler-Mather for speaking at the Brisbane CFMEU rally, arguing he was not defending any officials.

Yesterday, Chandler-Mather spoke at the Brisbane CFMEU rally and accused Labor of attacking “every worker in this country”.

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather addressed the Brisbane rally.Credit: AAP

This afternoon, Bandt told the National Press Club the allegations made against the CFMEU should be investigated but cannot be conflated with what Chandler-Mather was protesting.

“If someone has done something wrong, no one gets a free pass. Doesn’t matter if you work for a union or a corporation or you’re a minister in government, no one gets a free pass,” he said.

“I’d invite you to have a look at what Max actually said, because he was making the point that during the course … he was there to speak to the members, to the people who had attended the rally, not to defend any officials, those are matters for the courts to work out.”

The treasurer has doubled down on comments he made in a speech on Monday about opposition leader Peter Dutton being “divisive”.

“Our focus is on cost of living and the fight against inflation, and Peter Dutton’s focus is on dividing people, and that’s because that’s all he knows and it’s all he does,” Jim Chalmers said in an interview on Sky News.

Chalmers said the main focus of his speech on Monday was not to criticise Dutton, but that it was important to call out his counterpart’s strategy.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“And in my view, Peter Dutton’s divisiveness is his defining and disqualifying characteristic...he’s too divisive to be the prime minister of this country. It’s that simple, and I don’t regret for one second pointing that out to people.”

Chalmers said the main focus of his speech on Monday was not to criticise Dutton, but that it was important to call out his counterpart’s strategy.

“[Dutton] picks needless and unnecessary fights on national security in the hope that nobody notices,” he said.

“We’re in the third year of a three-year parliamentary term. He still has no cost of policies. He still has no economic credibility, and he hopes, by being more and more divisive, that that will distract from the fact that he doesn’t have any of that economic policy or economic credibility that people should have in the third year of a three-year parliamentary term.”

Chalmers said he “100 per cent” stood by comments he made on Monday.

“Peter Dutton is the most divisive leader we’ve seen in politics,” he said.

“I think in the modern history of this country, it’s all he knows. It’s all he does, and that should disqualify him from the prime ministership.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out the “Robin Hood tax” put forward by the Greens while defending the government’s cost-of-living measures.

Asked on Sky News about his thoughts on the Greens’ proposed tax on super profits, Chalmers said his focus was to govern as a majority.

“The Greens, their primary task is to make up numbers and put out press releases,” he said.

“We actually have to run the place, run the economy and run the country, and that means taking a responsible, and methodical approach to policy. And if the Greens really cared about more fairness in the tax system, they would support unequivocally our efforts to make multinational corporations pay their fair share of tax, our efforts to make the taxes on people with more than $3 million in superannuation fairer to fund paying the superannuation guarantee on paid parental leave.”

Chalmers also said the government’s cost-of-living measures, including rent assistance and cheaper early childhood education, were helping households, as the government continues to lag the Coalition in opinion polls on economic management.