TRANSCRIPT
- The Prime Minister accuses the Greens of making it harder for first-time buyers to get into the property market
- A court orders the Dutch government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel
- A big win for the Kansas City Chiefs for this year's Superbowl.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused the Greens of standing in the way of a policy that will help first-time buyers get into the property market.
The Albanese government has repeated it will not propose any changes to negative gearing, despite the Greens' call for reform.
The Greens have demanded limits on tax discounts for property investors in exchange for their support for the government's "Help to buy" housing scheme, which will be debated in Parliament this week.
Negative gearing allows investors to deduct losses from assets against income and is mostly used for property investments.
Mr Albanese says the "Help to buy" scheme can stand on its own.
"I noticed that the Greens political party having held up funding for public housing last year, now want to hold up funding to support Help to Buy for renters to get into homeownership. That's what they say they will do. Well, I'll give the member the big tip, which is that it stands on its own, and on its merits."
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In Victoria, schools and national parks will close as people brace for catastrophic fire conditions for the first time in five years.
Hot, dry and windy conditions are forecast across the state today, with the possibility of thunderstorms and dry lightning.
A 'catastrophic' fire danger rating has been declared for the Wimmera region, 'extreme' in the Mallee and 'high' danger rating for rest of the state, except for East Gippsland.
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The Minister for Immigration has been questioned repeatedly in parliament over the government's handling of the immigration detainees who were released from indefinite detention following a high court ruling last year.
36 of the 149 people released have been told they do not need to wear ankle monitoring devices.
And documents reveal that more than half had been convicted of assault and violent crimes, including kidnapping and armed robbery.
On the potential of criminal threat from the released detainees, Andrew Giles says there are processes in place to protect Australians.
"A big part of that was setting up Operation Aegis to bring together the government, law enforcement agencies around the country, together. We also have now four layers of protection, including stringent visa conditions, electronic monitoring and curfew arrangements, as well as preventative detention arrangements. In order to manage that, we put in place a community protection board so that the decisions around community safety can be made by those best placed to decide on the merits on any issue of how to keep the community safe."
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A private member's bill has been introduced to parliament which could allow for medical professionals to provide voluntary assisted dying services through telehealth, phone or text.
Independent MP Kate Chaney, who launched the bill, says it will make access to voluntary assisted dying more equitable.
This includes for those who are terminally ill and suffering who would have to travel for face-to-face appointments.
Cameron McLaren, from Voluntary Assisted Dying Australia and New Zealand, says the changes are long overdue.
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An appeals court in the Netherlands has ordered the Dutch government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used in violations of international law during the Hamas-Israel war.
It comes after a case against the Dutch government was brought by several human rights groups, including the Dutch affiliate of Oxfam, last December.
On Monday the court said the state had to comply with the order within seven days, and dismissed a request by government lawyers to suspend the order pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Israeli defence ministry has not commented on the Dutch court ruling.
The state has eight weeks to appeal against the decision.
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Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes has won his third Super Bowl most valuable player award.
It came after he led the Chiefs to a 25-22 overtime victory against the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas.
Mahomes threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman with three seconds left in overtime and the Chiefs recovered to defeat their opposition.
He says it was a "special" win.
"It’s that championship mindset. Whenever stuff isn’t going great, we are going to continue to fight. We had times when we weren’t playing great especially the offence and we were able to step up to the occasion by defence making the stops. People are going to talk about the offence because we had those last few drives, but it was defence that kept us in the game. That’s our entire season - they’re gonna give us chances and we are going to make it happen when it counts."
Kansas City became the first team to win consecutive Super Bowls in 19 years, and the ninth overall.
