Australian news and politics live: Jim Chalmers blames Reserve Bank for six-year low auction clearance

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers has backed a “substantial” increase to the minimum wage as millions of Aussie workers wait to learn if they will get a pay rise.

The Fair Work Commission is expected to announce any change to the minimum wage at 10am on Tuesday.

Currently, the minimum wage is $24.95 per hour, or $948 per week.

Mr Chalmers, speaking from Brisbane, said the government had called on the Commission to announce a “substantial real wage increase for millions of Australian workers”.

“Decent pay and conditions is a really important way that we help people with the cost of living,” he said.

“We’ve been very supportive throughout when it comes to increases in the minimum wage … That’s what the submission that myself and (Employment Minister) Amanda Rishworth have put in to the Fair Work Commission.”

- with NCA Newswire

Pauline Hanson is adamant she is not too old for parliament, days after the One Nation leader turned 72.

Speaking on radio on Monday, Senator Hanson said she would only retire if her health declined.

“I’ll let the people know this. I’ve already told my staff, if I become like a (former US president) Joe Biden, just tap me on the shoulder and give me the heel to move on,” Senator Hanson told 2GB radio.

“It will come down to my health. I’ve got nothing wrong with me. I take no medication, nothing. I’ve got more energy in me than a lot of these other people.”

Without saying who, Senator Hanson claimed another member of parliament should retire because of their age.

“My staff are flat out keeping up with me from eight o’clock in the morning till 10, 11 o’clock at night. I can still run down the halls of parliament in my heels when I have to get to the chamber, so don’t underestimate me,” she said.

The Queensland senator’s reference to the former US president is unsurprising given Senator Hanson’s admiration for former rival Donald Trump.

- with NCA Newswire

Has the Liberal Party gone back to the future? Or has it done the only thing it could to re-energise its base and bring people back to the fold?

Your answer probably depends on your analysis of what’s gone wrong with the Liberals.

Are voters backing community independents because the Liberals have lurched to the right? Or are they fleeing to One Nation because the Liberals have gone too woke? It’s a bit of both – and that’s a big problem.

The Coalition parties are playing catch-up but, as Angus Taylor said in his first press conference as leader, they recognise that the stakes are now change or die.

Enter Tony Abbott. He’s long been one of the best and most ruthless communicators in politics.

His style of relentless, disciplined messaging was on show again in his brief speech accepting the party presidency – where he called for a “people’s revolt”, said the Liberals should increase membership fivefold, and declared it the “patriot party” – and in subsequent media interviews.

​Read the full opinion piece.​

The United States says it carried out a series of strikes on Iranian military sites over the weekend, describing the action as “self-defense” after one of its drones was downed.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the operations targeted “radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk, Iran and Qeshm Island.”

According to the statement, the strikes were launched across Saturday and Sunday following what it called “aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters.”

“US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM says.

Officials said the response was limited and no US personnel were injured during the incident.

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers has blamed Reserve Bank interest rate rises, and not the Budget, for auction clearance rates hitting a six-year low.

“When it comes to auction clearance rates, there are a number of factors playing out there, including the last few decisions by the independent Reserve Bank, the broader economic conditions and also the policy changes in the Budget, some of those as you cited in your question … some of those clearance rates were coming down already,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.

“The Budget is not the only factor when people are thinking about those participating in some of those auctions.”

Capital city auction clearance rates at the weekend fell to 54.5 per cent, which was the lowest since April 2020 during the start of COVID, Cotality data showed.

The Reserve Bank of Australia also raised interest rates in February, March and May to a 15-month high of 4.35 per cent.

“But if we are making it easier for first-home buyers to get a fair crack at auctions, that’s a good thing.”

Pauline Hanson admits that she has always said that polls are only polls, however, after her One Nation party soared ahead, leapfrogging Labor, she says Australia is calling out for help.

“I have always said the polls are only polls, but it’s clear Australia is asking for a different direction,” Senator Hanson wrote on X.

“I want to thank you for your support and the One Nation team will be working hard to help this country every day.”

For the One Nation Leader, her task ahead is difficult, but not impossible. If she wants to be PM, she will need to run in the lower house, then keep momentum going into the next election and pull off a once unfathomable majority win.

Pauline Hanson is the politician of the moment, as Labor targets her and a Liberal makes a rare plea.

“We need to fight Labor’s Budget, we need to fight Labor and point out to the Australian people how this Budget is going to impact them,” Liberal MP Garth Hamilton told Sky News on Monday.

“She has one of the highest profiles of politicians in Australia. Please come back and work with us.”

Senator Hanson’s attendance has been brought into question after The Australian revealed she had been absent for 88 per cent of Senate estimate hearing days over the past 10 years.

“We’ve all talked about working together, the first part of that is working and showing up,” he added.

“I point out, when we first looked at Labor’s Budget, we didn’t see the death tax, that took some time to reveal, that’s what I’m talking about, we had to work through it and then that became obvious to us.

“These are things that happen and Senate estimates is the best way to do that.”

Anthony Albanese should make an honest man of himself and call a general election.

If he’s so confident he has the tax reforms right, what’s holding him back from letting the voters decide?

Instead, he stands in his bully pulpit of a 94 seat-majority and says “the election is a long way away”.

His reformist courage runs about as deep as asking the tax-and-waste Greens to vote up his package of deceit and lies.

He wants his death tax voted into law and a bigger piece of every Australian small business success.

The nature of extending the capital gains beyond existing residential property is seeing a reach back into family trusts over a century old.

It’s a dog’s breakfast. A complete mess and it doesn’t end there.

Read Cameron Milner’s opinion piece in full.

Australia’s auction clearance rates have crashed to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic six years ago in a clear sign Labor’s Budget could potentially turn off property investors for years to come and hurt renters.

In the final weekend of autumn, the combined capital city auction clearance rate dived to 54.5 per cent, which was the worst result since the final week of April 2020 during the early stages of COVID, preliminary Cotality data showed.

Labor’s Budget plan to restrict negative gearing to brand new properties from July 2027 and replace the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with a minimum 30 per cent tax on inflation-adjusted gains could discourage landlords and potentially reduce the supply of rental properties for the next two to five years, Cotality’s head of research Tim Lawless told The Nightly.

“This, in many ways, might be the policy change that sees investors becoming much less active across housing as an investment class,” he said.

“For investors in housing, capital gains have typically been the main game, so if your opportunities to maximise your capital gain are reduced, again you’ll probably find that’s a disincentive for investment demand.”

Sydney’s auction clearance rate of 51.9 per cent for the last weekend of May was also at a six-year low in a market where four in 10 buyers during the March quarter were investors before the Budget.

​Read the full story.​