Blogotariat

Jim Chalmers, the Federal Treasurer, has warned that global circumstances mean that the May Budget will lack the revenue growth of last year’s budget.

Listen to Chalmers’ press conference (25m):

Watch Chalmers’ press conference (25m):

Richard Marles, the Defence Minister, has launched a new National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program.

Marles spoke today at the National Press Club. A full transcript of his speech appears below.

Watch Richard Marles at the National Press Club (72m):

The terrorism incident in Sydney last night saw the government, Federal Police and ASIO speaking out today in an attempt to calm Australians already unsettled by the Bondi shopping centre murders on Saturday.

In western Sydney overnight, a teenager with a knife entered Christ the Good Shepherd Church, an Assyrian community church in Wakely, and stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel whilst he was preaching. After members of the congregation detained the youth, live-stream video of the incident was circulated on social media. A riot ensued outside the church with NSW police coming under attack.

Justice Michael Lee of the Federal Court has found that on the balance of probabilities Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins.

In so finding, Lee found in favour of Network 10 and its truth defence. Lehrmann’s defamation claim has been rejected. Lee said: “Mr Lehrmann is not entitled to the vindication of his reputation. The respondents, however, are entitled to vindication by the entry of judgment on the statement of claim.”

Australia’s top economists overwhelmingly want Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to scrap a special deal with Western Australia that’s set to deliver it an extra A$40 billion in Commonwealth funding by the end of the decade.

Albanese pledged to maintain the special treatment for Western Australia in a visit to Perth in February. He even signed a promise on a newspaper front page and on a reporter’s arm with a marker pen.

A knife attack at the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre in Sydney has resulted in the deaths of seven people, including the killer.

The dead include four women and one male who died at the shopping centre. The mother of a nine-month old baby subsequently died in hospital. The baby was also stabbed in the attack.

The killer, a lone 40-year-old male, known to police, was shot dead by a NSW Police Inspector who was the first police officer to arrive on the scene.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw held a press conference shortly after 7pm tonight.

There are just five weeks until the budget, and the usual lists of winners and losers.

Among last year’s winners were said to be single parents, renters and first home buyers. Among the losers were said to be vapers, truckies and consultants.

How much were prices rising in January when Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said inflation was “rampant”?

The prices that give us a good steer on inflation were falling, by 0.4%.