AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Coalition and One Nation’s plan to ditch net zero would not lower power prices, CSIRO report finds

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Original article by Graham Readfearn
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 15-Jul-26

The CSIRO’s annual GenCost report has found that renewables will continue to be the cheapest option for generating electricity in 2030. Both the Coalition and One Nation have advocated adding nuclear power to the nation’s energy mix, but the CSIRO has concluded that this would be the most expensive way to generate electricity among the current options. The report has also refuted claims by the Coalition and One Nation that scrapping Australia’s net-zero emissions target would result in lower electricity prices; it found that generation costs are likely to rise after 2030 regardless of Australia’s net zero policy, although prices are then likely to stabilise.

CORPORATES
CSIRO, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, ONE NATION PARTY

Chinese rare earths investors blocked

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 15-Jul-26

Northern Minerals’ executive chairman Adam Handley has welcomed the federal government’s latest move aimed at getting shareholders with Chinese links to divest their holdings. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has told the rare earths producer to disregard all votes cast by the three shareholders in question at any of the company’s meetings. It follows a recent warning from Northern Minerals that the three investors had failed to comply with an order to divest their holdings by 2 July. Northern Minerals’ undeveloped Browns Range deposit in Western Australia includes terbium and dysprosium; China accounts for 99 per cent of global supply of these heavy rare earths.

CORPORATES
NORTHERN MINERALS LIMITED – ASX NTU, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Chalmers’ great tax cut conundrum

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Original article by Thomas Henry
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 15-Jul-26

Analysis by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office has concluded that an eventual return to a budget surplus will be dependent on a number of factors. They include reining in the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, a $336bn increase in personal income tax revenue, public service job cuts and the federal government’s changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts. The PBO has used its medium-term fiscal outlook to warn that the government will need to choose between providing income tax cuts and significant spending cuts if the budget is to be returned to surplus in the next decade.

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AUSTRALIA. PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE

Right fright sees Labor go for woke

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Original article by Greg Brown, Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 8-Jul-26

The Australian Labor Party’s draft national policy platform has been amended to include a commitment to an anti-racism strategy. The revised draft platforms states that Labor will continue to oppose people who "foster extremism, hatred, ethnic division or incitement to violence". Senior Labor sources have indicated that the move to include this in the draft platform is a direct response to growing concern within the party about rising levels of racism and the growing support for One Nation. The draft platform also formalises Labor’s support for Welcome to Country ceremonies, which were not mentioned in its 2023 national platform.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ONE NATION PARTY

‘Provocative’: PM strikes back at Beijing

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 8-Jul-26

Chinese state media outlet The Global Times has defended the nation’s test-launch of a nuclear-capable missile in the Pacific, arguing that it was "both necessary and restrained". The daily tabloid also stated that countries in the Pacific region must "accept and get used to China’s nuclear program". The missile test has been criticised by the Australian government, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese describing it as a "provocative act" which risks destabilising the region. His comments were made during an official visit to the Solomon Islands, whose Prime Minister Matthew Wale urged China to "be our friend" but said "don’t threaten us". Former Home Affairs head Mike Pezzullo has questioned the timing of the missile test, which coincided with Albanese’s visit to Fiji to sign a defence agreement.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

Japan’s Iron Lady caught up in PM’s Kylie gaffe podcast

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Original article by Elizabeth Pike
The Australian – Page: 2 : 7-Jul-26

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has attracted criticism over comments he made about his Japanese counterpart during a recent podcast. Albanese’s remarks about singer Kylie Minogue have overshadowed the comments about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the same podcast, which was hosted by comedian Nikki Osborne. Takaichi visited Australia earlier this year, and presented Albanese with a gift of two prestigious Shizuoka melons. He told Osborne that Takaichi had brought a "couple of melons", and accompanied this comment with suggestive hand gestures. Takaichi is Japan’s first female prime minister, and the fruit was given to Albanese to signify Australia’s decision to lift restrictions on Japanese melon imports.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, JAPAN. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Labor flags reforms to big four firms

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Original article by Edmund Tadros, Hannah Wootton
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 16 : 1-Jul-26

The fallout from KPMG’s audit scandal is continuing, with eight of the firm’s top partners advising of their departure; the scandal had already resulted in the ousting of several key executives, including CEO Andrew Yates and chairman Martin Sheppard. Meanwhile, the federal government has released Treasury’s position paper on the regulation of accounting and consulting firms. Amongst other things, the Treasury has recommended stricter regulation of the sector, harsher penalties and imposing mandatory time limits on audit contracts. Another option that Treasury has canvassed is effectively breaking up the major accounting firms by restricting them to no more than 400 partners.

CORPORATES
KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

ALP snubs Greens, unions on teen super

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Original article by Thomas Henry, Matthew Cranston
The Australian – Page: 4 : 1-Jul-26

The Greens have moved to block a provision in payday superannuation laws that exempt businesses from making super contributions to employees under the age of 18 who work for less than 30 hours per week. However, the Senate has agreed to delay parliamentary debate on the disallowance motion, which has the support of unions and super funds. The ACTU’s assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell says it is unfair that young workers are not paid super on their wages, contending that doing so could boost their super balance by thousands of dollars when they retire. Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black opposes the motion, arguing the need for measures that make it easier rather than harder to employ people.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS, ACTU, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA

Democracy under assault from significant third parties at 2025 federal election, parliamentary inquiry finds

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Original article by Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 1-Jul-26

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has made 14 recommendations in the interim report of its 2025 federal election review. Amongst other things, the inquiry has proposed a new mandatory code of conduct for all participants at polling places; this includes so-called ‘third party’ campaigners such as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and the Advance lobby group. The committee is chaired by Labor MP Jerome Laxale, who says the conduct of some third parties at the 2025 election felt like an assault on democracy; he adds that many voters had reported "unsafe and intimidatory experiences" at polling places in targeted electorates.

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AUSTRALIA. JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL MATTERS, PLYMOUTH BRETHEN CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ADVANCE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

New IR laws open doors to more union corruption, say employers

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 30-Jun-26

Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has defended an exemption to discrimination laws that would allow the federal government to favour businesses that have union-backed enterprise agreements when awarding public contracts. The bill was passed by the Senate on Monday night, and Rishworth says it will be good for workers and will be used with discretion. However, the Australian Industry Group is concerned that the legislation has been rushed through parliament without sufficient scrutiny; CEO Innes Willox warns that it will import the ‘Victorian disease’ to Canberra, a reference to the ongoing corruption scandal regarding the state’s Big Build infrastructure program.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP