source : the age
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has found his comfort zone in sledging member for Hume Angus Taylor.
“This side of the House is cutting income taxes and getting the budget in better shape and the member for Hume took to the last election a policy to jack up income taxes and make deficits bigger and debt worse,” Chalmers said.
He has repeatedly returned to Taylor’s performance as shadow treasurer under Peter Dutton as leadership speculation swirls.
“That’s why those opposite are baulking at him now because in every portfolio that he’s held he’s failed badly, and he’s failed upwards,” Chalmers said.
“The worse he performs, the more entitled he feels to a promotion.”
Two more Chinese nationals have been charged with foreign interference after allegedly covertly collecting information about a Canberra Buddhist association, on behalf of a foreign principal, federal police say.
The AFP this afternoon has confirmed the arrest of a 25-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, both from China, who have been charged with one count of reckless foreign interference.
The two are due to face the ACT Magistrates’ Court today.
In March last year, the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce began investigations after receiving information from ASIO, which led to the search warrants in the ACT in July. As a result, a female Chinese national was arrested in August 2025.
The AFP said they would allege the two people arrested today had worked with the woman charged last year, under the direction of a Public Security Bureau in China to “covertly gather information about the Canberra branch of Guan Yin Citta, a Buddhist association”.
AFP Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations assistant commissioner Stephen Nutt said foreign interference was a serious crime that undermines democracy and social cohesion.
“Australia is not immune to foreign interference, and we should not expect this arrest will prevent further attempts to target our diaspora communities,” he said.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland says the National Anti-Corruption Commission is working as intended, despite a second investigation being held into the commissioner, Paul Brereton, over complaints of misconduct.
Rowland was responding to a question from independent MP Helen Haines, who had advocated for an integrity watchdog before Labor came to government promising to introduce one.
Haines asked whether changes were needed to restore confidence in the NACC, after revelations this week that there would be a fresh investigation into Brereton’s defence referrals and private advice.
“In the almost three years that the National Anti-Corruption Commission has been operating, there has been one finding of officer misconduct, a new investigation of officer misconduct and no public hearings,” Haines said.
“The public has heard more about the commissioner’s conflicts of interest than findings of corruption.”
Rowland said the NACC had received 6000 referrals, and was conducting 30 preliminary inquiries and 35 investigations. She said there had been 11 convictions recorded as a result of the watchdog’s investigation, with four more matters before the courts.
“This government was elected on a platform of legislating an independent anti-corruption commission with strong oversight. That oversight is working as intended,” she said.
Aftershocks from the Coalition split are still reverberating through parliamentary procedure, after Leader of the House Tony Burke challenged deputy Nationals leader Kevin Hogan’s right to speak from the dispatch box.
Burke said the spot was reserved for members of the executive, but Speaker Milton Dick said Opposition Leader Sussan Ley had advised they should be treated as such even though members of the Nationals frontbench were suspended for another few weeks.
“Catch up Burkey,” opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said, and the Labor benches erupted.
Labor MP Julian Hill has been expelled from the chamber after shouting “it’s Timmy time”, following a prominent run of questions from Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers had been needling his opposition counterpart Ted O’Brien, who is likely to lose his position as deputy Liberal leader if Sussan Ley is rolled this week.
Chalmers was telling O’Brien not to fret that Wilson, who could be in line for a promotion, got some of the first questions of the session.
Over on the Labor backbench, Hill shouted “it’s Timmy time”, which received laughter from MPs and a swift rebuke from speaker Milton Dick for the disruption.
Labor has been revelling in the anticipation of a Coalition leadership spill, while poking fun at potential challenger Angus Taylor.
Three Labor ministers have managed to work the phrase “fantastic, great move, well done Angus”, into their responses, referencing Taylor’s social media gaffe when he replied to his own post, congratulating himself.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has retaliated against the opposition after a series of questions over the removal of sections from a CFMEU corruption report.
“Prime minister, why are home buyers paying the price for Labor’s failure to stand up to union corruption?” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said.
Albanese said: “Those opposite sat on this side of the chamber for nine years. John Setka during that period increased his influence over the CFMEU – they did absolutely nothing.
“I tell you what I did after I became leader of the Labor Party, I expelled John Setka within weeks,” he said.
“That is what leaders can do when they lead their party with authority. When they actually have people behind them as part of their party who are working for them not undermining them.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has used a Dorothy Dixer question to attack former shadow treasurer Angus Taylor.
Chalmers has been increasingly employing this tactic to attack Taylor’s economic record as the opposition defence spokesman prepares to make his own tilt at the Liberal Party leadership.
“Just before the election, when we legislated our tax cuts, those opposite – at the urging of the member for Hume [Taylor] – not only voted against those tax cuts but said if they got the opportunity in government, they would repeal those tax cuts,” Chalmers said.
“Because of the economic genius of the member for Hume, every single taxpayer would get a tax increase. I notice the leader of the opposition is not leaping to his defence,” he quipped.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has conceded energy prices are too high but said the government’s policies were working to tackle affordability.
“When you are dealing with higher energy prices, you can have a policy of introducing more of the cheapest, most reliable form of energy available which is renewables, or you can have a $600 billion plan, the most expensive form of energy available, which is what the honourable members and his friends took to the Australian people at the last election and appear to be going down that road again,” Bowen said.
“If you think energy prices are too high, as we do, you take action to deal with it, with energy bill rebates, which we have done three times. You take action through supporting renewable energy which we are doing.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia allowed him to directly raise concerns over the killing of an Australian aid worker in Gaza.
“If President Herzog wasn’t here, I wouldn’t have been able to raise the issue of Zomi Frankcom with him, which is what I did this morning along with a range of other government concerns,” Albanese told the chamber.
“That is one of the reasons why you have dialogue in a respectful way, to get outcomes and advance Australia’s national interests. One of the issues that I have raised is Zomi and her six World Central Kitchen colleagues. These deaths were a tragedy and an outrage. We said that at the time,” he said.
Albanese said the government had made clear its expectations that Israel’s ongoing investigation into the killings be transparent, and would press for full accountability, including criminal charges if appropriate.
Liberal MP Angus Taylor is widely expected to announce his resignation from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s frontbench this afternoon, allowing him to openly lobby colleagues to run for leader.
Taylor is considering whether to walk into Ley’s office to inform her of his intent to take control of the party, according to his allies.
One of his backers said the challenge was definitely on, but the timing was not locked in. Another MP who supports Taylor said the 58-year-old would look silly if he delayed another day, making a move this afternoon nearly inevitable.
Once Taylor quits the shadow ministry, MPs including James Paterson, Matt O’Sullivan, Phil Thompson and one or two others are expected to follow him. The scale of the walkout could shape perceptions of the depth of Taylor’s support and the decisiveness of his manoeuvre.
Moderate MPs behind Ley have urged her to reject a letter, likely to be sent on Wednesday after any resignations, calling for a special party room meeting to hold a leadership vote. Instead, they want her to emulate Malcolm Turnbull by demanding the signatures of a majority of MPs to bring on a ballot.
Ley is likely to reject this incendiary tactic. “She’ll allow the meeting. It will be clean,” one supporter said. The same supporter said Ley would not spring her own ballot early on Wednesday evening to surprise the Taylor forces and capitalise on their delay.
A party room meeting will likely be held on Thursday or Friday. A complicating factor is that South Australian senator Leah Blythe is not back in Canberra until Thursday afternoon. Blythe is in the Right faction and will vote for Taylor.
