News and politics live updates: MP admits CGT change hurts small businesses, Labor weigh ‘death tax’ backflip

Labor MP Andrew Charlton has conceded the new capital gains tax regime “doesn’t interact well” with small businesses that have a low capital base.

The comments made by the Assistant Science Minister on Nine’s Today show appear to validate the sector’s concerns about the reform.

Asked if the Budget “outcry” was “unwarranted”, Mr Charlton acknowledged the new system hurts underfunded businesses, as you need money to make money.

“The point that many start-up founders, the point that many small businesses have been making is valid,” he said.

“It’s a valid point because that new regime doesn’t interact well if you have a really low capital base because you’ve got nothing to inflate off.

“So, there are real concerns out there.”

Pauline Hanson has been caught on a hot mic making a rude remark about a journalist following a tense exchange at a press conference.

The One Nation leader muttered “I said you’re the nasty b....” after her staffer told a reporter to “shut up” as questions were being shut down.

The incident unfolded as Senator Hanson spoke to media on the sidelines of an oil and gas producers event in Adelaide.

During the press conference, she was questioned about her party’s stance on fracking, offshore drilling and upcoming Senate candidates before the interaction was abruptly cut short.

“We’re done, thank you. No, no, no. Shut up. We’re done,” adviser Richard Henderson said to a journalist as he moved to end the scrum.

“Did you just say shut up?” the reporter responded.

Footage shows Senator Hanson walking away with her team before briefly speaking with MP Barnaby Joyce, who told her she had done “very well”.

Moments later, she was heard making the off-the-cuff remark: “I said you’re the nasty b.....”

The comment drew laughter from Mr Henderson and Mr Joyce, before Senator Hanson added: “Do you want me to go back and I’ll tell her?”

She then proceeded to turn around and seemingly appeared like she was going to confront the journalist.

Angus Taylor has reiterated his stance that the governement should intervene in the return of a second group of ISIS brides.

The Opposition leader made the comment when asked if his positioning had changed following news that seven ISIS linked women and their 14 children were making their way to Australia.

It is believed the group, who have now left the Al Roj detainee camp in north-east Syria, contians all remaining Australians at the facility.

Mr Taylor said the government should do everything in its power to prevent their return.

“They [the group] turned their back on our country to support a terrorist organisation, one that has been guilty of extraordinary atrocities, including on Australians,” he said.

“So no, our perspective hasn’t changed.”

Eleven Australian acitivists who were aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla and detained by Israel have arrived in Türkiye.

The group were among hundreds of activists from countries around the world who were placed in detention after they were intercepted en route to Gaza.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek confirmed the group of Australians are now in Instanbul.

“They are out of Israel now and in Türkiye,” Ms Plibersek told the ABC.

Ms Plibersek has not yet provided details on the condition of the group following their detention.

Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked backlash on Wednesday after posting a video showing the detainees with their hands tied and their foreheads to the grouond.

Speaking on Ben-Gvir, minister Plibersek said his behaviour was “shameful” and “disgraceful”.

Australia and Turkey have flagged they will put vehicle electrification in the fast lane at the 2026 United Nations climate summit, as the world grapples with the fallout from fuel shortages stemming from conflict in the Middle East.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and his Turkish counterpart, Murat Kurum, co-hosted a ministerial meeting of 40 countries in Copenhagen on Wednesday and Thursday that will help shape the agenda of the COP31 conference in Antalya.

The annual Copenhagen talks are a pit stop on the way to the main summit and a chance to road test fresh ideas in an informal setting.

Mr Bowen and Mr Kurum nominated electrification as their big-ticket priority.

The transport sector accounts for 15 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, the UN says.

“Higher oil prices are putting pressure on all our citizens from Suva to Sydney to Stockholm,” Mr Bowen said.

The talks emphasised that the renewables rollout also helps shore up energy independence, as countries deal with the biggest oil shock in world history.

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Tanya Plibersek says she is not surprised the Coalition “weaponised” the changes outlined in the Budget in an attempt to “frighten” Australians.

The social services minister said when the government looks to make changes “political opponents will always try to weaponise” them.

“I think when most Australians take a bit of time to have a look at what we’re actually doing [they] will understand that we’re doing this for their kids and grandkids,” she told ABC News Breakfast.

“If we want young people in Australia today to have the same opportunities as their parents and grandparents had to buy a house and live in it and raise a family then we need to change what we’ve been doing in recent years.”

Health Minister Mark Butler has defended the Budget’s changes to trusts, saying it is “still” right for Australia despite ongoing critcism.

“We still think this is the right Budget for Australia,” he said.

Mr Butler said the changes in the Budget won’t effect people with existing discretionary testamentary trusts.

“This is a significant change to tax arrangements,” he told Sunrise on Friday morning.

“We’ve been clear about that. I think it’s the right package because what it does at its core is to treat all earnings, all income in broadly the same way in terms of their tax responsibilities.”

Another group of so-called “ISIS brides” are reportedly on their way to Australia.

Seven women affiliated with ISIS and their 14 children have left the Al Roj detainee camp in north-east Syria to make their way to Australia.

It is believed that this group contains all remaining Australians in the camp.

This comes days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would not provide any assistance to groups returning to Australia.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said on ABC Breakfast that the group would face “the full force of the law”.

“They’ll face the same consequences as the first group, which is, if there are any crimes they’re accused of, they’ll be taken into custody and treated with the full force of the law,” she said.

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Labor is considering a backflip on controversial changes to testamentary trusts after fierce criticism from the Coalition, who branded the proposal a “death tax”.

The proposed Budget measure would impose a minimum 30 per cent tax rate on income distributed through new discretionary trust from July 2028, including some testamentary trust established after a person’s death.

The decision has also been slammed by finacial advisers who say it would force Australians to reconsider their wills.

Now, the mounting pressure has prompted the government to signal it may revisit elements of the reform, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Tim Wilson has said Labor was implementing a “stealth death tax”.

“The biggest casualty of this budget is the truth, and their backtracking on taxing trusts suggests the government doesn’t understand their new taxes, including their stealth death tax,’” he said.