Treasury advice points to raising taxes to solve budget problems
The recommendation, which the ABC has seen, also suggests cutting spending.
The budget warning did not recommend which taxes should be raised, but did look at indirect taxes, as well as superannuation.
The Opposition is accusing the Labor government of hiding the truth about the state of the budget.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has not ruled out imposing new taxes, as his focus is turning to the upcoming economic roundtable in Canberra.
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The Age
25 minutes ago
- The Age
Albanese's China challenge: balancing trade and values
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is back in Australia after a week in China. Did he come home with more than he had when he left? Yes and no. Albanese can say he met Chinese President Xi Jinping for two hours of talks, had a banquet lunch, magnificent dinners (Paul Kelly and Powderfinger songs!) and basically mended the rift from the Scott Morrison years. The two leaders were warm in their comments towards each country. Albanese can take this as an embrace, giving rise to a feeling as warm and fuzzy as watching a panda frolic in the sun. Albanese's week was an act of diplomacy that was necessary to Australia's economic wellbeing. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, China is Australia's largest two-way trading partner. Trade with China in 2023-24 accounted for 26 per cent of our goods and services trade with the world. Two-way trade with China totalled $325 billion, of which goods and services exports were $212.7 billion. Iron ore exports to China last year alone were worth $US79.6 billion ($121 billion). The seeming harmony of the past week is a far cry from the years of Morrison's government, when China placed trade bans worth about $20 billion on exports over what it saw as Australia's hostility towards it, partly due to Morrison's view on the origins of COVID-19, though this was never the stated reason. The sanctions have since been lifted. The thawing of this latest Cold War between Australia and China should be seen as but one front on the bilateral battlefield. While it is true, as French historian Montesquieu wrote 300 years ago, that 'peace is a natural effect of trade', it is not the only factor. In dealing with China, a set of scales is always on the table. On one side is the money and trade-derived wealth, on the other is the very nature of the regime, that is, its authoritarianism, its geopolitical ambitions, its treatment of its people and minority groups within its borders, including its suppression of human rights and dissent.
Herald Sun
27 minutes ago
- Herald Sun
Tech billionaire dragged into Mark Latham scandal
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News. Former Labor leader Mark Latham joked with his ex-lover that billionaire Richard White owed her 'big money' and urged her to seek compensation for a non-disclosure agreement in new leaked texts. New messages exchanged between Mr Latham, 64, and his former fiancee Nathalie Matthews, 37, also reveal that the former Labor leader joked she should perform oral sex on Mr White. In the sordid text, he suggests she should do so to 'celebrate' after a series of board members quit the tech company in the wake of a sex scandal controversy. Mr White is not accused of any wrongdoing and does not suggest Ms Matthews and Mr White engaged in a sexual relationship, only that Mr Latham joked about his partner performing oral sex on the 70-year old billionaire. In new text messages published by The Australian, Mr Latham sent Ms Matthews a news article about the scandal engulfing the billionaire's company. 'He owes you big money,' Mr Latham wrote. Richard White, Nathalie Matthews and Mark Latham at a Cairns Conference in 2024. Picture: Supplied On October 24 – as Mr White prepared to resign as chief executive of WiseTech Global – Ms Matthews sent Mr Latham a screenshot purportedly of a message Mr White had sent her. 'Help,' Ms Matthews wrote to Mr Latham. Mr Latham replied: 'Get the compo NDA!!!' According to The Australian newspaper, Ms Matthews replied there were 'not really grounds'. 'I could kill my professional career,' she wrote. 'Remember I don't have a secure job.' The pair had a series of discussions about the billionaire with Mr Latham predicting Mr White 'coming back as CEO will make him a huge target'. On February 24, Mr Latham sent Ms Matthews a news article noting several WiseTech board members had quit. 'He will want you to suck his c**k to celebrate,' Mr Latham wrote. 'What an honour!!' He added a shocked face emoji. Mr Latham then suggested Mr White would soon be 'back as CEO' which would 'increase share price'. 'So buy 30k at 2pm today,' he wrote. 'Bargain.' When Ms Matthews jokingly questioned whether this was 'insider trading', Mr Latham replied: 'Insider f**king.' 'Haha,' he wrote. 'Not insider trading at all.' Nathalie May Matthews and Mark Latham. Picture: Instagram Ms Matthews sent Mr Latham a screenshot purportedly of a message Mr White had sent her and asked for 'Help'. Earlier today, the tech billionaire was dragged into the ugly split between Mr Latham and ex-lover Ms Matthews with a subpoena demanding both she and the Sydney businessman hand over any 'communications' that exist between them. Mr Latham's lawyer, Zali Burrows, who also acts for former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann, has lodged a subpoena for 'communications' between the WiseTech co-founder and Ms Matthews in response to her domestic abuse allegations against the NSW independent MP. Ms Matthews has also been served with a subpoena for her communications with Mr White. Mr White is not accused of any wrongdoing. Mr Latham has emphatically denied his ex-girlfriend's abuse allegations, which include a claim he once defecated on her before sex, as 'comically false and ridiculous.' does not suggest these allegations are factual, only that they have been made against a serving NSW MP and a court will hear the application later this month. Mr White, Mr Latham, and Ms Matthews have been contacted for comment. Billionaire businessman Richard White. Picture: Supplied 'Invoices' for G-strings In a separate development, fresh claims have emerged that Mr Latham borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from Ms Matthews before complaining after the couple broke up and she requested the return of personal items that 'you bought those things when you lived in the house rent free.' There is no suggestion that Mr Latham did not return the money before the demise of the relationship. He has not been charged with any offence. In his only broadcast interview on the matter Mr Latham said that he was guilty of nothing more than being 'human' and 'male.' 'The big news is I had a private life. I had a sex life and I've got to say it was fantastic,'' Mr Latham said of the relationship. But the NSW MP has dismissed as an elaborate 'in-joke' other invoices he sent her that included references to G-strings and used the acronym for LETS ROOT. In Ms Matthew's AVO application she alleges Mr Latham borrowed $20,000 from her 'on four occasions without prompt repayment.' In one transaction Ms Matthews transferred $20,000 to Mr Latham on October 11 last year and it's also understood Ms Matthews also covered at least $15,000 worth of hotels and restaurants for the couple. Nathalie May Matthews The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday that that one email sent by Mr Latham in November 2023 to Ms Matthews titled: 'Latham Emergency Timely Storage Rental of Opportunists' Things', which serves as an acronym for 'LETS ROOT.' 'For: Services, Storage, Squatting, March-November 2023, itemised as follows…' the email from Mr Latham reads. '42 nights accommodation for Nathalie Matthews (naked), 29 mornings breakfast-inner and other personal services… @$50 per night = $2,100. 'Three months storage of: two large computer screens, keyboards and cords, 11 dresses, one 'It's a Latham Thing' sloppy joe, 6 boxes of shoes (non-shiny), 9 G-strings, assorted lingerie… assorted smalls and toiletries = $2,900' his email read. Mr Latham said there had to be payment 'within 21 days', otherwise stored materials would be 'thrown in the dam… or impounded permanently.' In September 2024 Ms Matthews wrote twice to Mr Latham requesting amounts totalling $9,000 be returned. But Mr Latham said on X on Friday that is was all an elaborate joke. 'Tele really have bottomed out with story today about Nathalie Matthews/Darrough/Abdullah/Bondi/Amber finances,'' he wrote. 'They are all of her aliases listed on this in-joke Invoice which, by the way, is numbered F*K0069.' 'Open relationship' claim Mr Latham has told The Daily Telegraph the couple were always in an 'open' sexual relationship and that she was having sex with other people during the entire two-year relationship that he has described a 'situationship.' 'It was never a monogamous relationship,'' Mr Latham said. Ms Matthews told friends last year that Mr Latham had proposed marriage and that the couple lived together in a de facto relationship. Nathalie May Matthews. Picture: Instagram 'Pig' attack Mr Latham was slammed as a 'pig' earlier this week after revelations he photographed female MPs at work and joked about having 'a threesome' with NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd. In one Instagram message sent to his former partner, Mr Latham shared a photo of Ms Boyd in the parliamentary chamber, taken without her knowledge. He then shared a photo of Liberal MP Susan Carter taken from behind showing her full body and bottom, saying 'then it gets worse .... Grandma'. The disparaging comments, which were included in a trove of leaked text exchanges with his ex-lover, were condemned by colleagues on Thursday. 'Mark Latham is a pig,' Housing Minister Rose Jackson said at a press conference. She noted his previous attacks on campaigner Rosie Batty whose son was murdered in a domestic violence incident by his own father. 'This man has attacked Rosie Batty, telling her to grieve in private. This man is well known on the record, multiple times as a bigot – one of the biggest bigots in the state,' she said. 'It's extremely confronting for me to think that in a workplace there's someone who thinks it's acceptable to take photos of you and to share them with derogatory comments.' Mr Latham has not denied the text messages but insisted they were playful banter with his ex-partner. He has denied abusing Ms Matthews in any way, insisting all of their interactions were entirely consensual. She has lodged a legal application for an order to prohibit Mr Latham from contacting her claiming a sustained pattern of abuse and coercive control. Nathalie Matthews and Mark Latham. Picture: Instagram 'Pinched her bum' In another leaked text exchange, Mr Latham wrote that Liberal MP Eleni Petinos 'looked pregnant' and then claimed to have 'pinched her bum lightly'. But Ms Petinos told the Daily Telegraph that the incident never happened, and was 'an absolute fantasy'. 'That is not in the realms of possibility,' she said. 'Mark's attitude towards his colleagues is disgraceful - instead of showing respect he chooses to objectify and degrade. 'It's just grossly inappropriate - we don't walk around to be objectified everyday.' Mr Latham insisted that his message about pinching the bottom of Ms Petinos was an 'in-joke'. 'Freak off' claims Meanwhile, a Queensland sex worker claimed that Mr Latham and his then-girlfriend contacted her and even met with her at a ritzy event at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse. Carly Electric said she suspected she was contacted because the couple wanted to hire her for a threesome. In a message sent by Mr Latham to his now ex-girlfriend, he said Ms Electric was 'good rooter' and joked if she might want to be involved in a 'freak off' – the now infamous term used by Sean 'Diddy' Combs to describe threesomes where one person looks on. 'It was just implied … who comes to a sex worker and behaves this way?' Ms Electric said of the interactions. Mr Latham dismissed the discussions of freak offs as 'a prank joke.' 'Just as the Tele today ran cherry-picked messages between me and Nathalie Matthews, with no context, missing in-jokes and pranks, they are at it again,'' he said. 'Often enough between consenting adults there are 10-20 messages leading up to a prank joke. Haha.' Originally published as Mark Latham's leaked texts about billionaire Richard White
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
China pushes Albanese government to ban YouTube for kids
Sky News Digital Editor Jack Houghton says the Albanese government will make a 'restrictive and damaging' decision in line with what China wants if Labor moves to ban YouTube for kids.
