Anthony Albanese denies he tried to hide tax changes from Australians at the last election; The Opposition demands more human involvement in the allocation of aged care packages; And in sport, the Socceroos say they're working on the little things ahead of the World Cup.
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TRANSCRIPT
- Anthony Albanese denies he tried to hide tax changes from Australians at the last election.
- The Opposition demands more human involvement in the allocation of aged care packages.
- And in sport, the Socceroos say they're working on the little things ahead of the World Cup.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is denying political cowardice is behind the government's change of heart on tax reform.
The government's proposed changes to negative gearing, and its scrapping of the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount, passed the House Representatives yesterday.
But the legislation faces a battle to get through the Senate, where it will likely need the support of the Greens.
The opposition and crossbenchers are saying the measures are being rushed, and Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume, amongst others, is pointing out these policies were not part of the government's platform at the last election.
But, speaking to Sky News at the Australia's Economic Outlook Summit in Sydney, Mr Albanese says it's better to change your mind, than not proceed with reform that is needed.
"We couldn't continue to kick the can down the road. And we have made a difficult decision. We've changed our position. That's a difficult thing to do. And we understood that there would be criticism of that. But what we couldn't afford to do is to sit back and say well, we are in a position to do something about this, we know that it is an issue, but we are just going to stand still."
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The Federal Opposition is calling for more human involvement in decision-making for who receives at-home aged care funding support.
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae has become embroiled in a controversy over whether a human can override decisions made by the government's algorithm which decides whether a person can receive assistance or not.
Mr Rae says, although a human can't override a decision once the algorithm has made it, humans ultimately make the decisons, because the algorithm works with data that humans put in and review.
The Opposition's Aged Care spokeswoman, Anne Ruston, says that's nonsense, and humans should be able to override anything an algorithm does.
"I have no problem with technology being used to assist decision-making, to speed up decision-making, and get consistency in decision-making. But it shouldn't be the computer that makes the decision. There must be a human element in terms of decision-making, and the human must have the opportunity to override a decision of a computer when they think it's wrong."
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A New South Wales policeman has been sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order- a jail sentence to be served outside of jail- for his role in the death of an Indigenous teenager.
Benedict Bryant was convicted in November of dangerous driving occasioning death, after parking his unmarked police car in front of a stolen trail bike ridden by 16-year-old Jai Wright in 2022.
The 16-year-old Bunghutti youth collided with the car, being thrown off the bike, and suffering critical head injuries that resulted in his death.
The New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service says it's the first time a serving police officer in the state has been held criminally responsible for an Indigenous death during a police operation.
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Police are moving to reassure people in Queensland's Fraser Coast region of their safety, following the arrest of a 13-year-old boy for allegedly planning an attack on a local school.
The boy was charged on Monday with possessing violent extremist material, after initially being arrested for threatening people with a knife at a local business in Maryborough, around 250 kilometres north of Brisbane, on the 28th of May.
The boy has appeared in Hervey Bay Children's Court today [[5 jun]], and has been remanded in custody to appear in another children's court on the 17th of June.
Jason Hindmarsh is from the Counter-Terror unit of Queensland Police.
He says people have no further reason to be concerned.
"We have not identified any further threats to the community from our investigations. So, the community can be reassured that there is no known threat to the community at this time."
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Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week.
The visit, to occur on Monday and Tuesday will be Mr Xi's first visit to China's neighbour since 2019.
It comes as the two countries cautiously rebuild ties after years of relative isolation.
It also comes one day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un announced plans to greatly boost North Korea's nuclear forces.
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In football, Socceroos midfielder Ajdin Hrustic says coach Tony Popovic isn't trying to make any big changes in the final days leading up to the World Cup.
After a one-nil loss against Mexico last Sunday, Australia will play their final pre-World Cup match this Sunday against Switzerland in San Diego.
Their World Cup campaign begins the Sunday after that , against Turkiye in Vancouver.
The Socceroos are in camp in the California city of Oakland preparing for the tournament.
Hrsutic says they are working on the little things.
"You touch on improvements, you just touch on small little detail, what you can do better. If you look back on the game- we didn't give much away. You can always improve, and that's what we are going to do. We spoke about it- just small little touches you've got to touch up, and get ready for the next game."
