AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Break their funding: McKenzie calls for penalties on universities that teach white guilt

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Original article by David Crowe
The Age – Page: Online : 24-Jun-26

National Party senator Bridget McKenzie has used a speech in London to argue that social factors – including respect for ‘Australian values’ – should be a key criteria in determining the migrant intake. McKenzie said that Australia has become "addicted" to immigration, and she argued that this carries a social cost if it does not deliver a fair outcome for families. She contended that Australia needs to curb the number of fee-paying international students, given their growing share of the nation’s population. McKenzie also called for an overhaul of the funding model for universities, particularly ones that teach students doctrines such as ‘white guilt’ and ‘climate catastrophe’. McKenzie is a former maths teacher and university lecturer.

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NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

New One Nation MP David Farley sides with teals and Greens

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Original article by Brittany Busch, Nick Newling
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 24-Jun-26

The House of Representatives has voted against an amendment to the fuel tax credit scheme that was proposed by independent MP Nicolette Boele. She sought to cap the annual rebate for mining companies at $50m and an "orderly phase-out" of fuels that are eligible under the scheme. The amendment was supported by the Greens, Teal MPs and One Nation’s recently-elected MP for Farrer, David Farley; however, both Labor and the Coalition voted against it. Meanwhile, Farley has responded to comments made by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on the need for Australia to be a "monoculture". He contended that the nation is multicultured, multiracial and multifaith; however, he agreed that migrants must "blend in" by "acting Australian".

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ONE NATION PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Labor-Greens deal clips the wings of SMSFs

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Original article by Anthony Keane, Noah Yim, Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 4 : 24-Jun-26

Treasurer Jim Chalmers estimates that changes to the rules governing the purchase of residential properties via self-managed superannuation funds will boost government revenue by about $50m over four years. Labor has agreed to scrap the limited recourse borrowing arrangements for SMSFs in return for the Greens’ support for its budget tax reform legislation in the Senate; Chalmers contends that this will only affect "a very small part" of the housing market. However, economists and financial advisers contend that the changes will make SMSFs less attractive and result in fewer new ones being established, while boosting demand for industry super funds.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS

Labor predicts budget backlash will fade

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 24-Jun-26

The federal government has secured the Greens’ support for its capital gains tax and negative gearing reforms in the Senate, in return for several concessions. Self-managed superannuation funds will be banned from borrowing to buy residential properties, while the government has agreed to extend a Senate inquiry into its National Disability Insurance Scheme reform bill for eight weeks; delaying the passage of the NDIS legislation until mid-August is expected to cost the budget hundreds of millions of dollars, given that the reforms were intended to start on 1 July. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher believes that the general public’s concerns about the tax reforms will quickly abate.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FINANCE

Pressure to stagger fuel excise increase

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Original article by Matthew Denholm
The Australian – Page: 5 : 17-Jun-26

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has indicated that the federal government will make a decision on extending the fuel excise reduction next week. The temporary halving of the excise to $0.263 per litre is slated to end on 30 June, and the Australian Trucking Association has called for the full tax to be phased in over three months to avoid a sudden spike in petrol prices. The Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association and the ServoPro industry body for independent service station operators also favour reinstating the full tax over a period of time.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION LIMITED, AUSTRALASIAN CONVENIENCE AND PETROLEUM MARKETERS ASSOCIATION, SERVPRO

KPMG referred to national anti-Corruption watchdog

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 17-Jun-26

Greens senator Barbara Pocock has referred KPMG to the National Anti-Corruption Commission in response to the accounting firm’s audit scandal. Pocock is concerned that KPMG may have breached the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct, while she contends that a temporary ban on new public contracts is inadequate. The three-month ban does not apply to extensions on existing contracts; KPMG holds some $653m worth of public contracts with the federal government. Pocock is a vocal critic of the nation’s four major accounting firms.

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KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN GREENS

Strategy of the rebellion: Joyce to take on Chalmers

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Original article by Sarah Ison, Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 17-Jun-26

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson will make her first National Press Club speech today, as the increasingly popular party prepares to allocate portfolios to its team of six MPs and senators. Former deputy prime minister and National Party defector Barnaby Joyce expects to be given the treasury portfolio; Joyce contends that he is best suited to take on Treasurer Jim Chalmers, given that he is a former accountant and served on the expenditure review committee when the Coalition was in office. Meanwhile, independent economist Saul Eslake has called for One Nation have its policies costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office; he says the party’s cost-of-living measures would not help to reduce the underlying inflation rate.

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ONE NATION PARTY, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB (AUSTRALIA), NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE

Review puts top bureaucrats’ pay under spotlight

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Original article by Nicola Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 17-Jun-26

The independent Remuneration Tribunal is undertaking a 14-month review of senior federal public servants’ remuneration packages. It will assess the salaries of the top 26 bureaucrats, whose salaries range from $816,000 to $1,035,690 a year. The tribunal is seeking feedback from the public as to whether their salaries and benefits are "appropriate", and it recently completed the first public consultation phase of the review. Departmental secretaries are entitled to a range of benefits, including domestic airline lounge memberships, business-class airfares and relocation expenses if they do not live in Canberra.

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AUSTRALIA. REMUNERATION TRIBUNAL

Compo run for foreign criminals

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Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 11-Jun-26

The High Court has rejected the federal government’s argument that it should not be liable to pay compensation to people who were held in indefinite detention. The government had contended that it should have immunity from compensation claims arising from the court’s landmark 2023 ruling in the ‘NZYQ’ case that indefinite detention is unlawful. More than 300 foreign-born criminals were released into the community as a result of that ruling. Legal experts warn that in addition to this cohort, asylum-seekers and refugees who were held in detention could also be entitled to compensation.

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HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

One Nation’s incredibly sloppy financial reports reveal more than $1m in missing or worthless assets

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Original article by Sarah Martin
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 11-Jun-26

Professor Matthew Pinnuck from the University of Melbourne says the quality of One Nation’s financial statements is "very poor and unprofessional", and raises questions about the party’s fitness for government. Professor Pinnuck’s comments are based on his assessment of the financial returns that One Nation lodged with Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading from 2016 to 2022; he says the financial statements show that One Nation had been bought and sold substantial assets over this period, but they had not been recorded on the party’s balance sheet. One Nation has not filed annual returns with the Office of Fair Trading since 2022.

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ONE NATION PARTY, QUEENSLAND. OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE