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Australians are ‘aggrieved’ with Liberal party and 'looking for a change', Hume says
The Liberal party’s deputy leader, Jane Hume, says the South Australian election result has sent a message to her party: that the public are “looking for a change”.
The state election result over the weekend showed One Nation was able to turn some of its polling into seats in the upper and lower houses. Some within the Liberals have called the polling showing One Nation ahead of the Coalition as a “protest” or “middle finger” voting.
Hume told Sky News earlier this morning her party will “not be responding either to the left, to the right of one party or another”.
She says the Coalition will have to offer up a better policy platform to win back voters at the next election.
I think the biggest message for the federal Coalition is that Australia is looking for change. They are rightly aggrieved right now.
They are looking for solutions to their high energy bills, to an out of control immigration policy where they want sensible settings, and they want their standard of living improved and their way of life restored, I think that that is not an unacceptable or unreasonable request.
Hume says Ashton Hurn, the SA Liberal leader, fought valiantly, “after a scandal-ridden previous Coalition opposition in South Australia”.
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Andrew Messenger
One in seven Queensland families have run out of food in the last year: report
One in seven Queensland families have run out of food in the last 12 months, according to a new report from the state’s council of social services.
There are also 10,511 households with children awaiting housing on the social housing register in the state, more than 90 per cent of them single parents.
The report, commissioned by the Queensland council of social service report, suggests Queensland children are worse off than those in other states.
A coalition of 26 frontline social service groups led by Qcoss will launch a campaign today, calling for the state government to develop a families strategy to ensure every family in Queensland has what they need to help their children thrive.
Report author, Professor Karen Healy AM said:
Our research makes it clear that a there needs to be more focused attention on ensuring all families have access to material basics. Access to safe, affordable housing, health and mental health services and education must be enhanced, particularly for families with low incomes.
Tory Shepherd
Malinauskas wants GST reform
Freshly re-elected South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas told ABC radio this morning that he would use this term to advocate for GST reform. He said:
I thought it was a crying shame, to put it mildly, that … the government before mine did a deal with [former Liberal prime minister] Scott Morrison to see the Western Australians get an extra top up in GST … that was at our expense.
Malinauskas said while there is a temporary guarantee that the state “wouldn’t go backwards” he had to fight to get that extended.
The latest GST carve-up saw WA get an extra $5.5bn, prompting NSW premier Chris Minns to call for a shift to a per capita system, instead of the current system based on states’ ability to raise revenue and its fiscal needs.
Malinauskas said he did not agree with Minns’ proposition.
Andrew Messenger
All Qld schools reopened after cyclone Narelle
All Queensland schools closed for cyclone Narelle have reopened today.
About eight Cape York schools in the path of the cyclone closed on Thursday, with about 780 students affected.
State education minister John-Paul Langbroek said on Monday:
I’m pleased to announce, and it’s quite remarkable, that all schools in North Queensland that were affected in far north Queensland will be open today.
It was affecting a couple of 1000 students overall. But from Cooktown, right across the whole cape, those schools are all open.
There are nine early childhood centres that are not open today.
ASX plunges as investors weigh up Trump’s ultimatum
Jonathan Barrett
The Australian share market plunged this morning, wiping almost $60bn in value from equities in early trading after the US and Iran traded threats to destroy energy infrastructure.
Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.8% shortly after the market opened.
The index is now down 10% since the Middle East conflict erupted, representing a market correction.
The steep losses come part-way through Donald Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to Tehran to open the strait of Hormuz, a vital pathway for the world’s oil flows.
The US has threatened to “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants if Iran does not comply.
Chris Weston, the head of research at Pepperstone, said Trump’s ultimatum will define trading conditions.
If we move past the deadline, focus will quickly shift to the scale of any action against Iran and the nature of Iran’s response, particularly toward US bases and its allies.
While investors largely ignored the initial strikes against Iran, sentiment has soured due to concerns the US does not have a clean exit strategy that can guarantee a stable resumption of the oil trade, and other freight, through the crucial strait.
The ASX has been pulled around by sharp moves in the oil price, with rising energy prices fuelling global inflation, which drags down equity markets.
Penry Buckley
Minns says public servants working from home ‘wouldn’t make much of a difference’ to fuel shortages
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says asking public servants to work from home in the state “wouldn’t make much of a difference” to fuel shortages caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
At a press conference this morning, the premier was asked what the threshold would be for a statewide work from home order. He said:
The threshold suggestion for the consumers, for mums and dads who don’t work for the public service, we might have more to say about that in the coming weeks. When it comes to the New South Wales public service, our advice is that it wouldn’t make much of a difference in terms of demand, mainly because 85% of our public servants work at the coalface.
They’re not working from home. It’s not possible. Most of our employees are nurses, paramedics, police officers, firefighters. We just can’t issue that order. If we did, it would have a negligible effect in terms of fuel consumption.
Minns said 105 fuel stations were without diesel in the state, while 35 did not have any fuel at all, a slight improvement on last week. He said after the release of federal reserves and the relaxation of sulphur standards there was “more fuel available on the marketplace today than there was four weeks ago” but distribution issues remained.
This morning, he told ABC radio NSW was seeing “a major increase in public transport usage”, which he attributed to the high price of fuel. “The metro numbers are massively up, numbers we haven’t seen before,” he said.
Government calls immediate division in the Senate
The bells have basically not stopped ringing in the Senate this morning, as the government moves a suspension of standing orders to bring forward a vote on a superannuation bill.
The government’s bill is a grab-bag of measures from “[banning] advertising of certain superannuation products to new employees as part of the onboarding process” to “increasing the maximum amount of wine equalisation tax producer rebate claimable by eligible wine producers to $400,000 each financial year.” Random, I know.
Devoid of much other legislation to debate in either chamber, the government is moving to limit debate on this this bill to just 60 minutes.
The government doesn’t have the numbers in the Senate, and the Coalition is not supporting the suspension. But it looks like Labor has support from the Greens.
Peter Malinauskas says there is ‘no shame’ in being patriotic
After a resounding victory in the state election, South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas says Australians are patriotic and that patriotism shouldn’t be “co-opted” by a political group or ideology.
Speaking to ABC’s RN Breakfast this morning, Malinauskas was asked about his question to voters and other leaders: “Are you for Australia?”
He said he hasn’t met anyone who “isn’t proud of Australia and what we stand for”, but that Australia’s patriotism is “less brash and boastful than our northern hemisphere friends and a little bit more dogged and determined”.
I get frustrated, Sally, at the idea that patriotism or pride in our country can be co-opted by one particular political group or ideology. I just reject that notion … I think when we see One Nation project patriotism in their form, we shouldn’t sneer at it. But rather, I think it opens up an opportunity for others to talk about patriotism in a way that I think reflects our country in a deeper way.
I don’t think patriotism is just waving the flag. I think patriotism comes in other forms, such as sitting down with a stranger and having a cuppa and talking to one another civilly and understanding their journey here and having a welcoming approach … And I think there’s no shame in being honest about that and being patriotic ourselves.
Sarah Basford Canales
Almost half of Australians think a foreign military will attack within five years, ANU study says
Nearly half of Australians believe a foreign military will attack the country within five years, as anxiety over national security issues rises sharply, a new study suggests.
The Australian University’s Security College report found that two-thirds of those polled in 2026, including an increasing number of teenagers and young adults, were worried about national security issues.
The study was conducted between November 2024 and February 2026. It found that three in five Australians were now worried about national security, with the sharpest increase among 18 to 24-year-olds. 55% of those in that age group said they worry about national security, an increase from 22% in November 2024.
Australians feared AI-enabled attacks, disinformation, critical supply disruptions, climate change impacts, foreign interference and severe economic crises – all of which 85% or more respondents believed were likely by the end of the decade.
Australia’s involvement in a military conflict overseas was a key concern, with 69% of those polled in July 2025 considering the event likely to almost certain within five years.
Read more here:
Working from home to reduce fuel use is ‘helpful’, Plibersek says
Joining the work from home conversation this morning was the social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, who said that it would be “helpful”, but the most helpful thing that Australians could do is not buy more fuel than they need.
Speaking on Sunrise this morning, Plibersek said many Australians have already made working from home a regular part of their routine.
We’re saying that if you can reduce your fuel use, then that would be a really helpful thing to do. But certainly we’re not telling people that they must work from home.
The most helpful thing people could do is just buy the fuel they need and no more.
Labor minister says regional partners have a ‘vested interest’ in sending fuel to Australia
Matt Thistlethwaite says the prime minister has been directly negotiating with regional partners to secure fuel supplies, adding that he doesn’t believe nations will withhold fuel supplies from Australia.
Speaking to Sky News earlier, the assistant minister for foreign affairs says Australia gets much of its fuel from South Korea and Singapore, who both rely on Australia’s coal and gas exports.
Government ministers have this morning alluded to Australia’s bargaining position as a key coal and gas exporter in the region, but Thistlethwaite has gone a little further:
The beauty of Australia, Pete [Stefanovic], is that we are one of the largest distributors of LNG anywhere in the world. And South Korea gets almost all of its LNG, it’s liquefied natural gas through Australia. So, they’ve got a vested interest in ensuring that. It’s a two-way street.
I don’t think it will [be withheld]. Both nations need supplies of LNG and fuel. Australia is a very reliable distributor of LNG … So, we’ve got that advantage in that we can work with our neighbours in Asia Pacific to ensure that they have access to their energy needs and we get access to ours.
Labor ‘doing everything we can’ to secure fuel supply, Mark Butler says
Mark Butler says the government is working with regional partners to secure fuel supplies, and reiterated that of the six oil shipments to Australia that have been cancelled or deferred, in most cases, replacements are “being organised”.
Speaking to Nine earlier this morning, the health minister said it looked likely that the conflict was going to continue “for a little longer”.
He said the government was working to get supplies from “wherever possible”, including from the US where there has been an increase in shipments that “we haven’t seen for many, many years.”
We are working very hard with our regional partners. They receive energy from us, we receive liquid fuels from them. We’re doing everything we can to get supply back into Australia and at the moment those supplies are holding up pretty well.
