Australian news and politics live: Anthony Albanese grilled on GST, CGT and Budget broken promises in Perth

Planned upgrades for Australia’s Collins-class submarines to extend their service life will be dramatically wound back, with not all six of the ageing boats to receive new motors and engines before they’re eventually replaced by a nuclear-powered fleet.

The defence minister has announced the government will instead pursue an “enhanced sustainment” approach where HMAS Farncomb, one of the oldest boats, will begin a “Life of Type Extension” within days, before other submarines are individually assessed.

The LOTE program will begin at the end of the month and cost $11 billion for the entire Collins fleet but will instead use a conditions-based approach assessing each individual submarine.

“This will see a pivot in our approach that reduces risk, upgrades capability and maximises availability for the Navy. We will prioritise sustainment and accelerate upgrades for the fleet’s youngest submarines.” Richard Marles said.

“The program will reduce engineering risk by sustaining existing systems where appropriate while continuing to upgrade critical capabilities, including weapons and combat systems.”

“It has the transition to our future fleet of conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines as a key consideration,” Mr Marles told his Melbourne audience.

Under the massive AUKUS endeavour, Australia is hoping to extend the life of its Collins-class fleet, which began entering service 30 years ago, by another decade before the Navy transitions to Virginia-class nuclear boats from the United States in the 2030s.

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The Australian share market has bounced from a seven-week low after US President Donald Trump postponed new strikes on Iran.

At midday on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 66.7 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 8,572.0, while the broader All Ordinaries had climbed 66.9 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 8,802.3.

In Washington, Mr Trump said he had shelved plans for a “scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow” after appeals from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Domestically, consumer sentiment has ticked up as a spike in fuel prices eased, according to two long-running surveys conducted by ANZ and Westpac that were released separately on Tuesday, but overall consumers remained deeply pessimistic.

Nine of the ASX’s 11 sectors were higher at midday, with materials and technology both a little more than one per cent.

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Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan has blasted his own party for blaming Australia’s economic woes on migrants, warning that the rhetoric risks alienating voters.

Angus Taylor last week announced a Coalition government would strip millions of permanent residents of welfare payments, including JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.

Speaking to ABC’s Radio National on Tuesday, Senator McLachlan said the party’s use of terms such as “mass migration” stoked unnecessary division and was not reflective of core Liberal Party values.

“I think the use of the (term) ‘mass migration’ is not acceptable. It creates anxiety and fear in the community,” he said.

“That is not the Liberal way. We are a party of the centre-right that was founded on core foundations of care for the individual and wanting them to meet their aspirations, and that includes compassion and humility.”

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been mocked with memes made by small business owners across the country, who are slamming changes to the Capital Gains Tax in the Federal Budget.

Mr Albanese has been widely re-imagined in AI-generated posts as a “new business partner” in Australian businesses, a jab at Labor’s controversial changes to capital gains tax (CGT), despite earlier assurances no such reforms were planned.

Under the new policy, a revised indexation method and the removal of the longstanding 50 per cent CGT discount could see high-performing business owners taxed up to 47 per cent when selling their companies, fuelling anger across the sector.

When asked about the viral memes and tax changes on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said small businesses were “under attack...the Labor Party clearly doesn’t like small business... they want small business to help to fund their rapid growth in spending.”

See the memes here.

Three shiploads of jet fuel are heading to Australia after the Albanese government secured a deal with China.

The shipments, totalling more than 600,000 barrels or about 100 million litres, are expected to arrive from early June.

There is also 38,500 tonnes of agricultural grade urea on its way from Brunei, the PM announced this morning.

Both deals were signed under the Government’s $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, designed to help Australia’s agriculture and transport industries manage the impacts of the conflict in the Middle East.

“The additional 600,000 barrels of jet fuel will help keep Australia moving, and the extra fertiliser will help provide certainty to our farmers,” Mr Albanese said.

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The minutes noted one dissenting monetary policy board member argued the case for leaving rates on holding as the other eight voted for a hike in the wake of the Middle East conflict pushing up March’s annual pace of inflation to a near three-year high of 4.6 per cent.

“One member placed more weight on the arguments for leaving the cash rate target unchanged, judging that capacity pressures prevailing before the conflict were somewhat less than the staff had assessed,” it said.

“This member also assessed the risk of a prolonged conflict that weighed more heavily on demand to be higher.

“Finally, the member in the minority judged that there was not yet sufficient evidence to be concerned about longer term inflation expectations becoming less anchored, particularly in view of the Board’s commitment to its inflation objective having been demonstrated by the 50 basis points of tightening already delivered this year.”

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The Reserve Bank of Australia has noted government bond yields in Australia - leading to higher interest payments on debt - are higher than other countries.

The minutes of the RBA’s May 5 meeting made the observation after 10-year Australian government securities had risen to 15-year high levels above 5 per cent.

“The rise in bond yields over the preceding six months had been more pronounced in Australia than elsewhere, consistent with the progressive increase in expectations for the future policy rate over that period,” it said.

The RBA cash rate was raised by another 25 basis points on May 5 to a 15-month high of 4.35 per cent.

This marked the third increase this year, undoing the effects of three cuts last year.

Angus Taylor said he spoke to “a bunch” of small business owners over the weekend who felt that they were “under assault” from the Budget changes.

“The Labor Party clearly doesn’t like small business, and they want small business to help to fund their rapid growth in spending,” he said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume says that small businesses were “seeing their very structures under threat”.

“So many small businesses are set up using a trust structure, a perfectly legitimate, perfectly legal structure to set up to protect assets and to assist small businesses,” she said.

“Well, Jim Chalmers is accused of these people of avoiding their tax obligations. How dare he?”

There are more than 2.6 million small businesses in Australia.

The latest tax office data, from 2023, shows that about 303,000 registered trusts are used by businesses, or 11 per cent of the number of small businesses.

Angus Taylor has been pushed on a warning from one of his backbenchers that the Coalition’s rhetoric around migration alienates migrant communities.

“No, it alienates the government that’s got it wrong,” the Opposition Leader said in Penrith, western Sydney.

“This has got nothing to do with migrant communities.

“We think migration is incredibly important to this country. It always has been, and there always will be, but the numbers can’t be too high, and the standards can’t be too low.”

Mr Taylor used his Budget reply speech last week to outline a plan to link annual net overseas migration, which includes returning Australian citizens, to the number of homes built.

He said that would result in the largest cut to migration in history.

Anthony Albanese was asked about Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s assertion on Sky News on Monday night that the Coalition would “work with whoever I can work with to defeat Labor at the next election” when he was pushed to rule out a partnership with One Nation.

“The door isn’t open, there’s no door. They’re in the same room, they’re in the same policy room: One Nation and the Liberal Party and the National Party,” Mr Albanese says.

“There are now three right-wing parties in Australia, all advocating policies that aren’t in the interests of social cohesion and what’s needed to bring the country together.”