Australia news live: Mike Pezzullo's Iran warning; budget day in NSW, Queensland and ACT
Update:
Date: 2025-06-23T20:44:34.000Z
Title:
Content: Former home affairs secretary, Mike Pezzullo, appeared on 7:30 last night, where he was asked what Australia should be worried about in terms of any potential Iranian retaliation.
He said the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, his secretary and the counter-terrorism coordinator in home affairs would be working overtime with border agencies, investigative agencies and others to ensure that Australia is completely 'locked down' and any risk from sleep cells, sabotage or assassination is 'dealt with as best as they can'.
While he warned against sensationalising, he said there was also a risk 'dirty bombs' could be constructed. He said:
If any of that enriched uranium at whatever grade of enrichment has been secreted out of those facilities, particularly Fordow… [If that] is made available for the construction of a dirty bomb.
In other words, a radiological dispersal device, that doesn't explode with nuclear effect but can spread dangerous radiological harm over a wide area, that gives you cancer and you die a slow and painful death – I would be more worried if the regime starts to fracture, and a more militant sub-faction decides we're not going to accommodate and do something say involving a dirty bomb.
Update:
Date: 2025-06-23T20:41:19.000Z
Title: Welcome
Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before Nick Visser picks up the reins.
Former home affairs boss Mike Pezullo has warned about the risk of Iran using a 'dirty bomb' against Australia after the Albanese government backed US strikes on its nuclear facilities. Pezullo also told the ABC's 7.30 that the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, will be 'working overtime' to ensure that Australia is completely 'locked down'. We have more from Pezullo coming up, and there's sure to be more reaction after the Iranian retaliation against the US overnight.
It's a busy day in state politics, with budgets being handed down in NSW, Queensland and the ACT. In NSW, the Minns government will claim that it has stabilised the state's post-Covid debt, while in Queensland the Crisafulli government is expected to promise that there will be no austerity despite concerns about the state's finances. More details shortly.
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The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Queensland treasurer rejects budget ‘horror show' and finally exorcises Campbell Newman's ghost
Campbell Newman must be turning in his political grave. But that is clearly the point of Queensland treasurer David Janetzki's first state budget – a 'no austerity' plan that grows the public sector, increases state debt to more than $200bn and is relatively free of ideological nasties. The last time a first-term Liberal National party government in Queensland delivered its first financial plan – back in 2012 – the health minister, Tim Nicholls, and Newman sacked 14,000 public servants and cut frontline services. In the process, they hampered Queensland's conservatives at the ballot box for a decade. Janetzki describes his budget as an attempt at finding the middle ground. In reality, it is a deliberate marker from the new government to distance itself from Newman; to bury the former premier's slash-and-burn approach deep underground and encase it in concrete to prevent a zombie return. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The LNP was elected last year, largely on the back of its hardline youth crime agenda. The election tactic on most other issues was neutralisation – to adopt Labor's plans and minimise many of the economic policy differences – and the 2025 budget is true to form in that regard. Many of Labor's signature cost-of-living policies, including 50c transport fares and energy rebates, remain in place. The government has kept those promises in spite of some budgetary challenges, both real and invented. Coal royalties have tanked compared with the recent past, when Labor hiked royalty rates on super profits and made billions on the back of high export prices. Queensland's GST allocation for next year has also dropped; ironically partly because the state's coal royalties income has been strong in previous years. The LNP spent much of its first few months in power in Queensland trotting out exaggerated stories about Labor cooking the books. Those had raised some concern that the government was laying the groundwork to excuse ideological cuts as unavoidable. The government has dealt with those budgetary pressures largely by allowing state debt to continue to increase. It acknowledges that the state could be facing a credit rating downgrade. It remains to be seen what the LNP's hardliners might privately make of this budget. There remain, in the party room and within the broader party, plenty who privately want to tackle debt and rein in the public sector. For now though – as during the election campaign – there remains little public dissent about the course. The focus groups tell the party that Queenslanders want public assets in public hands and they value reasonable government spending on the services they rely on. This is a budget from a government that believes, above all else, about a second term. And one that wants to ensure the comparisons with Newman – whose 'horror show' first budget loomed over four Queensland elections – are gone for good. 'If there is one scare campaign I expect the opposition to run hardest on – I'm not even going to say the word, but what I will say is their scare campaign ends today,' Janetzki told reporters. What he was really saying was that the LNP finally now has the opportunity to step out of the spectre of 'He Who Must Not Be Named'.
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Queensland state budget 2025: LNP to boost spending and hire more frontline staff as debt projected to top $200bn
The Queensland Liberal National party's first state budget in a decade will grow the size of the public sector, increase government spending and entrench deficits for the foreseeable future. The treasurer, David Janetzki, said his 'no austerity' budget – the first by the state's conservatives since Campbell Newman lost power in 2015 – sought to end 'scare campaigns' about his party's record of job cuts and asset sales. In the process, the state's total debt is now projected to top $200bn for the first time. Among the announcements is the introduction of a home equity scheme that would allow first home buyers earning up to $150,000 a year to buy a home with a 2% deposit. The government will also continue to fund many of the cost-of-living relief measures introduced under Labor, including 50c public transport fares, sports vouchers and energy rebates. The LNP had campaigned on promises not to cut these programs and has had to find additional money to keep the cheap fares permanently. Janetzki said Labor had 'cheapened the budget papers last year to nothing more than an advertising hoarding'. 'The adults are back,' he said. Queensland's operating deficit for 2025-26 is set to top $8.6bn, up from the $5.4bn expected. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Two of Queensland's key income streams – GST revenue and coal royalties – are both expected to drop next year, ripping billions from the state's bottom line. The budget papers warn of a likely downgrade by ratings agencies as a result of the state's worsening fiscal condition: 'A long-term deterioration of Queensland's fiscal position has increased the likelihood of further heightened interest payments across the foreseeable future.' Janetzki said: 'We're being squeezed on revenues. GST and coal royalties. We're going to apply expense discipline in the years ahead.' He said state debt, on track to hit $205.7bn over the forward estimates, was lower than had been predicted under Labor. That figure is disputed: it comes from a mid-year update delivered by the new government taking into account its claims that Labor had hidden 'vast and broad' cost blowouts that had not been on the books. Compared with Labor's 2024-25 budget, debt is now forecast to be higher across the forward estimates. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The premier, David Crisafulli, and Janetzki told reporters there had been a need to increase frontline staffing levels, spending and debt to repair service delivery problems – particularly in relation to health, youth justice and policing – that had emerged under Labor. 'We are front-loading investment into jobs and services,' Janetzki said. 'Through the calm and methodical approach we've taken, we have laid down a path to surplus.' With the 2032 Olympic Games on the horizon, the government has allocated $950m over four years for the construction of an athletes' village, and $864m for 'the first minor venues projects approved for procurement'. The centrepiece announcement of budget day was a shared equity scheme for 1,000 first home buyers, covering homes up to $1m. Requiring just a 2% deposit, Janetzki called it the 'most generous in the country'. He rejected suggestions this could lead new buyers into mortgage stress. The parents of every primary school-age child will also receive $100 from 1 January next year. That comes on top of an existing $200 rebate for children's sports costs. The last time an LNP government delivered its first budget, the former premier Campbell Newman announced the sacking of 14,000 public sector workers. Under Janetzki, the headcount increases by 6,073. Most of these new workers – about 4,700 – will be within the health service. There will also be additional hiring in the Department of Education and the Queensland police service. But wages look to be likely to stall, triggering a likely fight with public sector unions who are pushing for a better pay offer. Employee expenses, the largest expense category, are contained to a 'more sustainable average annual rate of 3.5 per cent' for the four years after 2025-26, according to the budget. That figure includes both headcount and wages. The government has offered an increase of 3% next year and 2.5% for the following years.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
NSW budget 2025 winners and losers
Property developers are the big winners in the New South Wales government's 2025 budget, while injured workers' insurance is in the spotlight as Labor fights to bring down spending. The premier, Chris Minns, and the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, have found room for a handful of big-spending items but are leaving much of the state's cost-of-living support to expire. Here are the winners and losers from Tuesday's state budget. Housing developers could soon have the government as a guarantor, opt to build their own infrastructure or get permanent tax breaks on build-to-rent projects. Developers are the big winners from Labor's third budget and the beneficiaries of the government's new measures to address the housing crisis. The government will put up $1bn to buy homes in case developers can't get their sales over the line. Smaller developers had been crying out for such a system to guarantee pre-sales so they could start building projects without waiting to line up all the home buyers. About 5,000 homes are expected to be built over the next five years with the help of the guarantee. Technically, the scheme is expected to cost the government nothing at all, unless developers can't find real customers to move in – in which case the state buys the homes. The government is also allowing developers in NSW to choose to build infrastructure such as roads and parks themselves, instead of paying a levy of $12,000 per lot, also meant to speed up the construction of new housing. Those working on build-to-rent developments will also enjoy a permanent tax break, with Labor making their 50% land tax discount permanent, when it was initially set to expire in 2039. New schools, preschools and school buses are on the way for outer Sydney and regional NSW, while today's students will benefit from improved Tafe facilities. Primary schools and new public preschools will be built in Emerald Hills, Grantham Farm and West Dapto, while a new high school will be built in Wilton. The four schools are expected to accommodate 2,500 students, while another nine schools will get major upgrades. Thirteen comprehensive public schools will get a share of $50m for new libraries, laboratories and art and design workshop, targeted at gifted students. Another $2m will go to school careers fairs and work experience to encourage teenagers into trades. Sydney's outer suburbs and some coastal regions will also see more regular school bus services, with the government committing an extra $150m to add to timetables including $26m to buy new buses. People looking to work in construction will have a shot at snagging one of the 23,000 extra fee-free apprenticeships and traineeships the government will fund at a cost of $40.2m over two years. In a bid to boost housing supply and ease shortages of plumbers, carpenters and electricians, the government will also encourage 4,800 workers into residential construction over next two years by formalising qualifications for migrants and other workers with unrecognised skills and helping workers specialise into trades. Those workforce measures make up part of $300m of new spending on TAFEs for this year, along with money to repairing campuses, converting teachers from casual to permanent and moving Bankstown TAFE so it can be replaced with a new hospital – the cost of which has blown out by a further $700m. The 17,000 children living in foster care in NSW are the focus of $1bn in new spending on out-of-home care services. Foster carers will see their tax-free allowance rise by a fifth, which would see the carer of a typical 14-year-old rise paid $1,056 per fortnight, up from $880. Extra money will be invested in the system including $191.5m to recruited more than 200 new caseworkers. The measures aim to lift the decline in the number of carer households after it fell to just 12,500, leaving non-government organisations responsible for a rising share of children children in out of home care in NSW. Visitors to Western Sydney's airport will find it easier to get around the yet-to-be opened aerotropolis with new funding to build roads and install street signs. The project already has $2.55bn allocated for the next four years but will now cost nearly $150m more, including $30m to put over 1000 new green directional signs across Sydney pointing motorists to the airport precinct. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Another $50m will be spent on road upgrades, nearly $40m to plan new road connections and nearly $30m for an incident management to handle accidents and traffic delays. A new police boat, to be called the Nemesis, will be sent to sea at a cost of $46.3m allowing NSW police to conduct extended offshore operations. Law enforcement will also get an extra $6m to spend on communications and analysis equipment to as they investigate and disrupt crime. Police last year received one of the biggest pay rises granted in the NSW public sector. Cost-of-living relief is fading from the state budget as Labor's signature road toll cap expires. No new income support measures were announced and the toll relief measure, which saw the government reimburse motorists for their weekly toll costs above $60, will cease at the end of 2025. Minns decried Sydney's costly 'tollmania' before he was elected and committed $15.4m in 2025 to a new NSW Motorways body but promised reforms are yet to be announced. The previous year's budget's flagship cost-of-living measure, encouraging more doctors to bulk bill by offering lower payroll tax, remains in place but with no additions. Ahead of delivering 2025's budget, the government celebrated that NSW had the second-lowest expenditure and debt as a share of state economic activity in the country. NSW household budgets have been been stretched further than other states amid soaring living costs. The state has the second-weakest household spending per person of any state, after declining since late 2022, Commonwealth Bank has found, resulting in sluggish growth in jobs and retail sales. The government remains focused on cutting workers' compensation spending as it pushes to turn the budget to surplus. Insurance expenses have blown out by nearly $900m since the end of 2024 and is expected to rise further when the schemes are revalued, which the treasurer attributes mostly to workers' compensation. After Labor's proposed cuts to the compensation scheme were delayed by the state's parliament, the government is identifying the scheme as the leading pressure on government coffers – ahead of natural disasters, even though expenditure on natural disasters has increased more than 1,000% in the six years since the 2019-20 bushfires compared to the six years prior. The long-promised 'great koala national park' has received no additional funding despite being a centrepiece of the state government's environment policy. Mookhey told Guardian Australia the government was making progress, after putting $80m aside in the last budget for planning the first stage and was developing a forest industry action plan. Conservation groups calls to have an entire proposed 176,000-hectare site assessed and included as part of the park in northern NSW to protect it from logging have fallen on deaf ears. Since Labor's 2023 election victory, more than 10,000 football fields of forests have been cut down in the footprint of the promised park, according to a coalition of groups campaigning for urgent action.
