Australian news and politics live: Penny Wong pleads with Israel and Hamas to honour crumbling Gaza deal

Bank bosses have warned first-home buyers are still struggling to get into the market despite a surge in property interest after recent rate cuts.

The Reserve Bank in February announced a 25 basis point cut in the official cash rate - the first reduction in more than four years - saving the average borrower about $100 per month on their home loan.

The cut coincided with an abrupt turnaround in previously declining house prices, while major banks say it also led to an increase in mortgage applications.

“But it tends to be people who are already in the market, looking to refinance or to change property,” Bendigo Bank chief executive Richard Fennell told the AFR Banking Summit in Sydney on Tuesday.

“It is still really challenging for those wanting to enter the market for the first time.”

ING boss Melanie Evans wants disincentives to downsizing removed.

She said stamp duty on purchases acted as an obstacle to property sales, while the absence of inheritance or estate taxes in Australia also played a part in people staying put.

With owners incentivised to keep their homes for longer in a tax-free environment, Ms Evans said there was not enough turnover to accommodate first-time buyers.

“Listings are up a little bit this year, but they’re still eight per cent down on the five-year average,” she said.

- via Rachel Jackson at AAP

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong has urged Israel and Hamas to honour the precarious Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, after Israel launched strikes that have killed 200 people.

“Australia urges all parties to respect the terms of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and for it to be implemented in full,” Senator Wong wrote in a post on X.

“All civilians must be protected. All parties must abide by international law. Terrorist group Hamas must release all hostages immediately, unconditionally and with dignity.

“Palestinian civilians cannot pay the price of defeating Hamas. It has now been two weeks since humanitarian aid last entered Gaza.”

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Australia has expressed its disappointment to one of the US’ highest-ranking envoys after the government failed to secure an exemption from American-imposed tariffs.

Trade Minister Don Farrell spoke with US trade representative Jamieson Greer this morning to press Australia’s case for a reprieve from the 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium.

The pair discussed the approach of US President Donald Trump towards trade, ahead of a review of the policy to be revealed in April, as well as Australia’s decision not to impose retaliatory tariffs on the US in response to the economic measure.

“The US has a great trading relationship with Australia. We don’t impose a single tariff on the US, and they’ve enjoyed a healthy trade surplus in America’s favour for decades,” Senator Farrell said.

“The Albanese government will always stand up for Australia, we don’t take the easy road and we don’t back down.”

Australian steel and aluminium exports to the US are worth about $1 billion a year in total.

- via AAP’s Andrew Brown and Dominic Giannini

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has shot down suggestions AUKUS is a “really bad deal” that’s in trouble after the reemergence of Donald Trump in the White House.

Joe Spagnolo reports that Mr Marles said there were no indications from the Trump Administration that the AUKUS deal was on the rocks.

“I met with the secretary of defence just over a month ago in Washington,” Marles said in Perth this morning.

“AUKUS was a critical part of that conversation.

“You can go back and look at the comments that the secretary made on that day in support of AUKUS.”

With the return of the unpredictable Mr Trump, there are uncertainties over whether the $366 billion deal — which would see Washington selling three to five Virginia Class submarines to Canberra over the next decade — will actually happen.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said there was “no guarantee” Australia would get any nuclear powered submarines next decade because the US was failing to keep up with its own domestic demand.

“The most likely outcome of the AUKUS pillar one is that we will end up with no submarines of our own,” Mr Turnbull said.

“There will be Australian sailors serving on US submarines, and we’ll provide them with a base in Western Australia.

“We will have lost sovereignty and security and a lot of money as well.

“That’s why I say it’s a really bad deal.”

Mr Marles dismissed Turnbull’s comments.

“Respectfully, I disagree with Malcolm Turnbull,” he said.

“And it’s not a surprise to hear those words from Malcolm Turnbull.”

The Albanese government has announced $30 million will be set aside in next week’s Budget to help rebuild the Adass Israel Synagogue and community centre in Victoria after it was firebombed in an anti-Semitic attack.

A further $1.2 million will be set aside for security upgrades to the current buildings which are due to reopen this year.

The funding injection doesn’t quite match the $35 million promised yesterday by Peter Dutton for the synagogue’s rebuild, if the Coalition wins the election.

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Australian consumer confidence has dropped to its lowest point in five months, as households react to global uncertainty and the aftermath of ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index fell 3.1 points to 83.8—the first survey taken after the cyclone and the weakest result since October 2024. Confidence declined across all mainland states, with Queensland hardest hit.

ANZ economist Sophia Angala said the cyclone’s impact, combined with mounting global trade tensions, was weighing on sentiment nationally.

The weekly survey is often volatile, but this week’s drop was marked by a sharp rise in pessimism. Only 22 per cent of Australians say they are better off financially than a year ago, while 47 per cent say they are worse off.

Looking ahead, 31 per cent expect to be better off next year, but 33 per cent predict they’ll be worse off—the most negative result for that measure so far this year.

Confidence in the broader economy remains weak. Fewer than one in ten Australians (8 per cent) expect ‘good times’ over the next year, while 32 per cent expect ‘bad times’.

Buying intentions also softened. Just 24 per cent of households believe now is a good time to buy major household items, compared to 43 per cent who say it’s a bad time.

While weekly data can be noisy, the result highlights lingering caution among households despite recent rate cuts, as cost-of-living pressures and global instability continue to weigh on confidence.

​Read the full story on confidence and the RBA’s view on interest rates here.​

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been quizzed over the allocation of funds for the proposed $1.2 billion recovery fund in the wake of Cyclone Alfred.

“We’ve made the best estimate that we can,” Mr Chalmers said during the Q & A at the Queensland Media Club.

“The opposition thinks this is wasteful spending but we take another view. The damage to our farmers is significant and we think we have got it right.”

Protestors have gatecrashed Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ speech at a Queensland event on Tuesday.

The Labor Minister was the target of a significant security scare while delivering an address at the Queensland Media Club when two climate protestors took to the stage to interrupt.

Security guards quickly took a man and a woman off stage. Both were carrying signs calling for the government to stop supporting coal and gas.

A taxation surge that allowed the Labor Government to promise billions in infrastructure, social welfare and economic subsidies is ending, according to Jim Chalmers.

The Treasurer warned voters not to expect more big offerings in next week’s Budget — a Budget the government had not planned to deliver.

In a speech in Brisbane setting out the government’s re-election pitch, Dr Chalmers argued inflation has been beaten without a jump in unemployment or recession.

“After three difficult years, the Australian economy has turned a corner,” he told the Queensland Media Club.

Thanks to the Government’s policies, which increased spending rather than following economists’ advice to cut spending, “a soft landing is looking more and more likely,” Dr Chalmers said.

Read Aaron Patrick’s full coverage of the speech here.

An outspoken Hong Kong exile living in Australia has been targeted by anonymous leaflets allegedly posted to mosques in Adelaide and accusing him of “siding with Israel” against “Islamic terrorism”.

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that she has and will again raise the case with the Chinese authorities.

Ted Hui, a lawyer and former Hong Kong legislator, who took refuge in Australia after Beijing crushed the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, told The Nightly he had been warned about the leaflets by the authorities late last year.

He was told the flyers, which used photoshopped images of his face and place of work, had been posted anonymously from Macau, the special administrative region of China that neighbours Hong Kong.

The Nightly was unable to independently verify the leaflets were posted to Adelaide mosques from Macau but contacted the Australian Federal Police and ASIO for comment.

The one-page documents are designed using the logo of Mr Hui’s current law firm alongside his face and sections about his “professional knowledge” and a “who am I” section.

They state that he “provides assistance to local Jews” and that “I am a pro-Jewish man and siding with Israel to wage war against those [sic] Islamic terrorism.”

Read Nicola Smith’s The Nightly exclusive here.