What’s making news today
Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Friday, June 5. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage for the first part of the day. Here’s what is making news.
- The first tranche of the government’s budget tax legislation passed the lower-house yesterday unamended. The package combines into one bill the $250 income tax offset and $1000 instant deduction for workers, as well as curbs on negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. The legislation will now progress to the Senate, where Labor is in minority and reliant on either the Coalition or the Greens to pass the reforms.
- A US plan to hit 60 countries, including Australia, with new tariffs has been widely condemned by the government and opposition. Trump’s plan would subject Australian goods to a 12.5 per cent levy – a 2.5 per cent increase on the 10 per cent tariff currently in force. Trump claims the tariffs are a response to anti-slavery violations.
- ABC Radio Melbourne’s Drive host Charlie Pickering said he “should have known better” after telling far-right agitator Avi Yemini that the broadcaster’s four-part podcast series featuring Grace Tame was “problematic”.
- There are no signs a new ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will hold. Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has rejected a peace agreement with Israel. The group says it will not withdraw troops from the country. With Iran making a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any peace deal with the US, the prospect of an end to the war still seems unlikely.
Hezbollah rejection clouds Lebanon ceasefire and prospects for ending Iran war
The Iran-backed Hezbollah militia rejected a new ceasefire in Lebanon and Israel said it would not withdraw troops from the country, undermining US President Donald Trump’s efforts to halt fighting there to forge peace with Tehran.
Iran has made a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any peace deal with Washington, and has suggested in recent days that it could intervene directly if Israel keeps up attacks there.
However, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a US-brokered agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the fighting. Hezbollah had not been party to the negotiations. There was no immediate response from Israel, Lebanon or the US.
Israel kept up strikes in southern Lebanon, and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would not be withdrawing from the area or halting operations in the country, which they invaded in March in parallel with the war in Iran. The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force — which established Hezbollah in 1982 — said Israel must at a minimum withdraw to positions it held before the war began.
Reuters
Joyce trips up on Hanson’s foreign ownership ban
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce was caught short on Sky News last night when Andrew Bolt pressed him for details of the party’s call to outlaw foreign ownership of housing in Australia.
Party leader Pauline Hanson has said since at least November 2024 that foreign owners should be given two years to sell up their properties, and “If the property is not sold, it should be repossessed by the federal government”.
Bolt asked Joyce twice if this meant that permanent residents would also have to sell their homes.
The former Nationals leader said yes.
What’s making news today
Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Friday, June 5. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage for the first part of the day. Here’s what is making news.
- The first tranche of the government’s budget tax legislation passed the lower-house yesterday unamended. The package combines into one bill the $250 income tax offset and $1000 instant deduction for workers, as well as curbs on negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. The legislation will now progress to the Senate, where Labor is in minority and reliant on either the Coalition or the Greens to pass the reforms.
- A US plan to hit 60 countries, including Australia, with new tariffs has been widely condemned by the government and opposition. Trump’s plan would subject Australian goods to a 12.5 per cent levy – a 2.5 per cent increase on the 10 per cent tariff currently in force. Trump claims the tariffs are a response to anti-slavery violations.
- ABC Radio Melbourne’s Drive host Charlie Pickering said he “should have known better” after telling far-right agitator Avi Yemini that the broadcaster’s four-part podcast series featuring Grace Tame was “problematic”.
- There are no signs a new ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will hold. Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has rejected a peace agreement with Israel. The group says it will not withdraw troops from the country. With Iran making a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any peace deal with the US, the prospect of an end to the war still seems unlikely.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
