Australia news live: Dutton backs Bridget Archer; Chalmers ‘confident the worst of inflation is behind us’

Peter Dutton backs Bridget Archer to stay in face of preselection challenge

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has responded to my colleague Katharine Murphy’s story that Liberal MP Bridget Archer could face a preselection push.

Despite Archer’s streak of independence on a number of policies, Dutton backed her in.

He told reporters in Avalon:

Well, I haven’t seen those reports. Bridget Archer is an important part of our team. She works hard and she represents her community. So I want us to continue to work. There is a divergence of views in a number of issues.

In the Labor party if you cross the floor, you have to resign from the party. In our party room, there’s a greater capability. I hope we can pre-select a candidate soon for the seat of Braddon and, as we know with Gavin Pearce, he’s been an incredible local member there. I think there’s opportunity for us in Tasmania and I hope that Bridget can continue to work with her colleagues in Canberra.

Updated at 19.50 EST

Key events

Taylor is asked why he refused to support energy discounts for pensioners:

We voted against the government’s price caps which won’t work and we have seen the result on the supply side of the gas industry and I’m confident we will see a lot more than that.

But we want higher incomes for pensioners and that’s why we went to the budget in reply and laid out a pathway for pensioners to be able to do a few extra hours of work and not lose their pensions.

This would solve two problems. It would get more workers available for businesses, that’s a great thing, we need, it’s the number one thing we hear from small businesses around Australia is that Australians need workers.

Updated at 21.57 EST

Taylor has been asked about how the super policy would be modest in comparison to the tax cuts the Liberal government legislated for higher earners:

Let’s be clear. They haven’t been upfront with the Australian people about how many Australians are going to be affected. The important point here is the Treasury included a very tricky provision in what has been laid out, which is to not index the threshold.

This is tricky behaviour we are starting to see from Labor and what it means is that for someone who expects to go to the pension phase in turn, 20, 30, 40 years, that threshold in real terms will be way below what Labor has laid out.

If inflation continues to rise, that threshold in real terms will fall dramatically and the number of Australians affected will rise dramatically.

Updated at 21.53 EST

Taylor:

They are putting legislation through in this term, so this idea that they are taking this to the Australian people is deeply misleading. They are legislating it now without taking it to the Australian people. That was my point this morning.

Taylor:

The government has promised that they are going to try to fight some kind of way to relieve some of these pressures, but the reality is we have seen no relief on these pressures at all.

In fact, interest rates can either go up, the expectation is they will continue to go up. With an extra $114 billion of spending from the government in the last budget, stimulant in the economy and putting extra pressures on inflation, and interest rates.

Despite Australians paying sharply more tax in the last quarter … the government wants to tax Australians more. Make no mistake about it. Labor’s 2019 big taxing agenda is back. It is back.

Taylor says the government has broken an election promise not to touch super – despite the fact this legislation comes into effect after the next election.

Updated at 21.40 EST

Taylor is talking about the accounts data out today:

What we see in the data is the slowing economy and raging inflation in particular we have seen enormous pressures now on Australian households.

They are pulling back on the savings rates in order to be able to make ends meet. We are seeing three pressures in particular that I want to highlight that’s come out of the data.

First we know well, inflationary pressures, inflation running at almost 8%, but second-guessing very strong growth in the mortgage payments that Australians are having to pay as we see interest rates are rising, and these are put great pressures on many Australian households with a mortgage.

The third clear pressure that comes through the data is on taxation. We have seen an increase in tax payments from Australian households of over 7% in the last quarter.

Updated at 21.39 EST

We are going to go now to shadow treasurer Angus Taylor – who is speaking in Canberra.

King also flagged future legislative changes to Infrastructure Australia in her speech:

It was set up to be a rigorous, expert, independent body to provide advice to the commonwealth government about priority infrastructure investments. But over recent years, it has tried to do too many things and ended up being sidelined by a government that, frankly, wasn’t interested in its advice.

Guided by the advice of Nicole Lockwood and Mike Mrdak, our changes will put in place a stronger, more focused Infrastructure Australia.

I will soon be introducing legislation and then appointing three commissioners to lead the organisation into the future.

She says the revitalised Infrastructure Australia will:

Updated at 21.28 EST

Man accused of Cordingley murder lands in Melbourne

The man suspected of murdering Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley more than four years ago has landed in Australia after being extradited from India.

Rajwinder Singh touched down in Melbourne with a Queensland police escort on a Qantas flight from Delhi about 12.40pm today.

The 38-year-old will be taken to a magistrates’ court, where Queensland police will apply to extradite him north to be questioned over the alleged murder of Cordingley.

The Australian citizen, who denies killing Cordingley, had previously worked as a nurse and lived in Innisfail with his wife and three children.

In January he waived his right to extradition, saying outside a Delhi court:

I did not kill the woman.”

He added that he wanted to “reveal all the details” to an Australian court.

– AAP

King tasked Dr Kerry Schott to provide a review into the entire Inland Rail project. The government is yet to release the review, but in her speech King says “ it makes for gripping reading.”

Now, Inland Rail is way over budget and way behind schedule. To get it back on track, Minister [Katy] Gallagher and I, together tasked Dr Kerry Schott to provide us with a review into the entire project. She had a big project on her hands.

Katy and I are working with cabinet colleagues to finalise a response to Dr Schott’s review and will release a response together and we’ll have more to say on that in the future.

I can tell you when you see the report, it makes for gripping reading, to those who want to learn the lessons about how not to do nation-building.

Dr Schott found significant concerns about the governance and the delivery of the project. It is, frankly, a damning indictment on the National party and a salutary lesson as to why they should never have their hands on portfolios with large discretionary funds again.

Updated at 21.23 EST

Inland rail is ‘prime example’ of previous government’s failure on infrastructure, King says

The infrastructure minister, Catherine King, is addressing the National Press Club in Canberra. After speaking about the challenges climate change poses for infrastructure, King calls out the opposition’s infrastructure decisions:

The simple fact is that the past decade, where the Liberal and National party treated the infrastructure investment pipeline as their own election fund, has been one of significant lost opportunity. They chose to spend money on commuter carparks, urban congestion projects and Roads of Strategic Importance that miraculously seemed largely only to be needed in Liberal and National party seats.

That’s why I am so determined that commonwealth investment is targeted, that we invest in projects that deliver productivity growth, connect communities, future proof our routes and deliver social and economic returns. Ensuring we get the benefit underpins the decision that I, as a minister, and we, as a government, have made so far.

A prime example of the previous government’s failures and the serious impact of this is inland rail. I want to remind people the reason that inland rail was invested in in the first place: to increase our nation’s productivity, to take freight off already congested roads and to move them efficiently and safely and to get goods to market more quickly.

The previous government, I think, lost sight of this. They didn’t see it as a project that had those goals and under my predecessor [Barnaby Joyce], frankly, I think the project became something of a strange vanity project for him.

The inland rail is a project which was the subject of a major Guardian investigation last year by our rural editor Gabrielle Chan, Andy Ball, Mike Bowers and myself.

Our interactive feature enables you to travel along the route from Melbourne and Brisbane to see what the people affected by the project – which has blown out over $14bn – have to say:

Updated at 21.12 EST

Queensland police hail better recording of domestic violence

The Queensland police service responded to more than 138,000 cases of domestic and family violence in the last financial year – an increase of 15% on the previous reporting period.

But QPS domestic, family violence and vulnerable persons command inspector Melissa Dwyer says she is “really buoyed” by the figures, which she attributed, largely, to better reporting of violence against partners and family members. She said:

The way in which Queensland police service is recording the prevalence of domestic and family violence has been improved. So we have a better and truer appreciation of what is happening in Queensland homes.

Dwyer said the scourge of domestic and family violence was “inextricably linked” to youth crime, now dominating headlines and government policy in Queensland:

When we look at those statistics 138,871 DFV occurrences, it is really sobering to remember that there is a victim-survivor in every single one of those circumstances. And a perpetrator. And, invariably, there are children.

Updated at 21.00 EST

WA’s ‘Free the Nippers’ campaign takes aim at Woodside sponsorship

Parents whose children take part in Nippers in Western Australia have launched a campaign demanding Surf Lifesaving Australia WA drop its sponsorship arrangement with gas company Woodside.

More than 400 people have signed a letter for the “Free the Nippers” campaign calling for Woodside’s logo to be removed from the Nippers uniform.

Parents have been speaking out about the deal, which began in 2019 and gave Woodside naming rights to the Nippers program for 10 years.

Sustain Surf chair and Nippers parent James Anderson said using junior surf lifesaving members to advertise a fossil fuel company was unethical:

We wouldn’t let a cigarette company stick its logo on our kids, and we shouldn’t let Woodside get away with using Nippers to advertise its fossil fuel business.

He said surf life savers and surf clubs were on the climate frontline:

The majority of Australian surf clubs are built on unstable locations put at risk by rising sea levels as our beaches are being eroded. Woodside’s expanding gas extraction will fuel long-term damage to our iconic surf life saving movement, not to mention our members’ health.

Updated at 21.01 EST

The treasurer’s press conference has wrapped up but, don’t worry, there will be plenty more news out of Canberra. The infrastructure minister, Catherine King, has just stepped up to address the National Press Club. We’ll bring you what she has to say but first a few updates from my colleagues outside the capital.

Updated at 20.57 EST

Chalmers quizzed on refusal to index super cap

Phil Coorey, the political editor of the AFR, asked Jim Chalmers about his refusal to index the cap:

We had modelling down by one of the industry groups. And they say someone today who is 45 years old and plans to retire at 65, in 20 years’ time …

Chalmers:

I’m fine because I’m 45 tomorrow, not today.

(Chalmers has the same birthday as Anthony Albanese, who is 60 tomorrow.)

Coorey:

Someone who gets only 10% contribution not 15% will have an effective cap in retirement of $1.6m which is less than the tax transfer cap today of $1.7m.

Someone who is 25 years old today will have – in today’s dollars, will have a tax transfer cap of less than $1m.

So younger workers, today, people younger than me, are going to be the worse off than me when they get to retirement. Is that fair?

Chalmers:

I think one of the reasons for that is because there’s a gender gap in super as well. We have said, I think, publicly, probably countless times now, that we think there is work to do when it comes to adequacy, particularly for Australian women …

My goal here, my objective here, I’ve been really clear about, is to try and make superannuation more sustainable. Superannuation in Australia is world class. Absolutely world class.

But it’s got its imperfections. The gender gap is a big imperfection. The affordability of tax concession for people with $100m in super is a big imperfection.

Updated at 20.49 EST

Super changes will raise $3.2bn over five years, treasurer says

Circling back to the treasurer’s press conference, our very own Paul Karp asks:

The Coalition’s criticised you for not indexing the $3m threshold for the super changes. Just going back to the question of modelling, is there anything you can give us today, like a 10-year figure, how much the change is going to raise, or any assurance about what proportion of people are going to be affected in the future?

Jim Chalmers:

Well, in terms of the costings, it will raise $900m in the forwards, $3.2bn over five years. I have included that extra year I want you to understand it’s about $2bn or just over when it’s properly up and running. When we want to, and when we’re ready to provide any further numbers we’ll do that.

On the $3m threshold, I think this is an important design feature. Obviously we’re consulting on the design features. But one of the reasons why I think it is important that the threshold is at $3m is because we want to make superannuation more sustainable over time. And, I think, if you strip away all of the politics and all of the argy-bargy of this building away from it.

I don’t think any objective observer could look at our superannuation system and think anything other than we need to make these tax concessions for people with millions of dollars in super more sustainable, fairer, when have $1tn in debt and the budget intensifying.

Karp:

For the rest of the medium term, will it raise more than $2bn?

Chalmers:

It will raise in the fist year $2.3bn. As more people down the track save more than $3m in retirement, then they’ll become subject to still generous tax concessions but slightly less so.

Updated at 20.38 EST