Dutton's Coalition to target cost of living ‘first and foremost'
Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume says the cost of living is the 'number one issue' for ordinary Australians.
This comes as from Donald Trump to Welcome to Countries – Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton traded barbs at the fourth and final debate.
'Australians have felt the pinch; that's the issue that a Peter Dutton-led Coalition government will first and foremost deliver on,' Ms Hume told Sky News Australia.
'By delivering a 25 per cent cut in the cost of petrol immediately and then a $1,200 tax-back package at the end of the next financial year so that we can help Australians pay their bills.'
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ABC News
4 minutes ago
- ABC News
Albanese should forget Trump's tariff war and prepare for a tax assault
If there was anything remarkable about the explosive split between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, it was that it took five months since the presidential inauguration. First, the uncomfortable scenes in the Oval Office as Musk stood behind the president while son X mocked Trump on camera, an unsubtle hint that Musk saw himself as the presidential puppeteer. Then followed the increasingly unhinged behaviour of the world's richest man, chainsaw held aloft, and his ultimate failure to deliver on the promised savings of his Department of Government Efficiency rampage. And then there was the brutal backlash from consumers for his Tesla cars, all of which pointed to an inevitable demise in the relationship. The sensational personal attacks last week, culminating in Musk highlighting the president's former relationship with the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein, attracted most of the headlines. But the damage to the Trump administration and America's reputation runs far deeper. While a temporary ceasefire in hostilities between the pair has held for several days, Musk's stinging criticisms of Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping budget measure that will slash taxes and blow out America's already-strained financial position, has focused attention on the Administration's economic ineptitude. Trump's much-vaunted trade and tariff policy has degenerated into an uncertain and confusing mess that has backfired politically and economically. Rather than shoring up the US economy, its chaotic implementation has only served to slow global growth and, disturbingly, cast doubts about America's role as the centre of international finance. To compensate, the administration has launched a new weapon in its war against the Western alliance. This time, Australia is likely to be a major casualty. They sat there in hallowed territory at the Inauguration right behind the podium, unelected either by the people or the Senate, but in the same exalted territory as Trump's hand-picked cabinet. The four giants of the tech world, modern-day Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the unconventional presence of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sandar Pichai was a statement of power and the power of money. While all the focus of Trump's first 100 days in office has been on trade and tariffs, another T word has quietly loomed large in the background. Tax. Each of the four will benefit hugely from the Big Beautiful Bill, that will slash taxes for the wealthy. But with the failure so far to deliver a coherent policy on trade, the Trump administration is about to shift weaponry in its bid to exact revenge or retaliation on nations it deems treat the US unfairly. High up on that list is Australia. Forget steel, aluminium, beef or even pharmaceuticals. The big beef from American businesses has been the trail-blazing role Australia has taken when it comes to forcing multinationals to pay tax. In the past, it was the big resource groups like Chevron. In more recent times, Australian attention has swung to tech companies like Amazon, Meta — the owner of Facebook and Instagram — and Google. In 2018, Amazon pulled in more than $1 billion in Australian sales but paid less than $20 million in tax. The following year it forked out $100 million to the Australian Tax Office but booked almost $4.8 billion in advertising revenue through its Singapore subsidiary. It's not just Australia's aggressive attitude to tax enforcement either. Australian governments have gone on the front foot demanding the tech giants pay for the journalism they plaster across their search engines and websites, an agreement Mark Zuckerberg recently junked. And don't forget the groundbreaking legislation to protect children under 16 from the excesses of social media, a development the rest of the world is eyeing intently. The tech bros, otherwise known as the broligarchs, aren't impressed. And while Trump may have fallen out of love with Elon, he's mindful of just how much influence the other three carry. It's taken a few days to surface, but buried in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is a new line of attack on what he deems to be unfriendly nations. Section 899 of the Bill deals with "retaliatory taxation". Companies and investors from "discriminatory foreign countries" buying or investing in the US could be slugged with escalating increases in US federal income tax and withholding tax. The tax penalty will rise by up to 5 per cent a year to a maximum of 20 percentage points above existing treaty rates. That has put Australian super funds and big corporations into a mild state of panic. 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The interest bill on America's huge $US36 trillion debt already is the nation's second-biggest expense. It outstrips America's massive defence spending and is bested only by social security payments. Musk certainly hasn't helped. As the head of DOGE, he promised to slash $US2 trillion from government spending which would have helped offset the revenue shortfall from the tax cuts. So far, the department claims to have saved $US160 billion but independent investigations indicate much of that claim is undocumented and unverified. Other analysis indicates government spending is now more than 6 per cent higher than this time last year during the Biden administration. Tariffs were also expected to boost revenues and shore up the budget. There is no clear indication of how much they will raise, given negotiations are ongoing. But they also would have reduced profits and curbed demand, slowing growth and pushing up unemployment. In short, rather than reduce the US budget deficit, America's position is set to deteriorate with expanded deficits and increased debt. That has money markets on edge. The US dollar continues to weaken, and market interest rates are again pushing higher, making it more expensive for the US government to borrow. It needs to refinance $US7 trillion in existing debt this year alone and will need to raise new debt to cover its growing deficits. The latest moves, using Section 899 to hit foreigners investing in the US, will only make the task more difficult as foreigners, who invest huge amounts in US government bonds, look elsewhere. Wall Street stock traders have brushed off the concerns, citing the TACO trade. (Trump Always Chickens Out). Money markets have a different philosophy. Sell America.

The Age
10 minutes ago
- The Age
ASX set to rise, Wall Street boosted by US-China talks; $A stronger
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Sydney Morning Herald
13 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
ASX set to rise, Wall Street boosted by US-China talks; $A stronger
US stocks are drifting closer to their records as the world's two largest economies begin talks on trade that could help avoid a recession. The S&P 500 was 0.3 per cent higher in late trading. The Dow Jones was up 93 points, or 0.2 per cent, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5 per cent higher. The Australian sharemarket is set to advance, with futures at 5am AEST pointing to a gain of 16 points, or 0.2 per cent, at the open. The ASX was closed on Monday for the King's birthday public holiday. The Australian dollar strengthened. It was 0.3 per cent higher at 65.25 US cents at 5.13am AEST. Officials from the United States and China are meeting in London to talk about a range of different disputes that are separating them. The hope is that they can eventually reach a deal that will lower each's punishing level of tariffs against the other, which are currently on pause, so that the flow of everything from tiny tech gadgets to enormous machinery can continue. Hopes that President Donald Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching such trade deals with countries around the world have been among the main reasons the S&P 500 has rallied so furiously since dropping roughly 20 per cent from its record two months ago. It's back within 2 per cent of its all-time high, which was set in February, and it's higher than it was before Trump shocked financial markets in April with his wide-ranging tariff announcement on what he called 'Liberation Day.' This may be the shortest sell-off following a shock of heightened volatility on record, according to Parag Thatte, Binky Chadha and other strategists at Deutsche Bank. Typically, stocks take around two months to bottom following a spike in volatility and then another four to five months to recover their losses. This time around, stocks have basically made a round trip in less than two months. But nothing is assured, of course, and that helped keep trading relatively quiet on Wall Street Monday. Loading Some of the market's biggest moves came from the announcement of big buyout deals. Qualcomm rallied 4.4 per cent after saying it agreed to buy Alphawave Semi in a deal valued at $2.4 billion. IonQ, meanwhile, rose 1.6 per cent after the quantum computing and networking company said it agreed to purchase Oxford Ionics for nearly $1.08 billion.