
Australia news live: Tasmania faces minority government; MPs head to Canberra for first parliament sitting in 115 days
Date: 2025-07-20T21:27:38.000Z
Title: Peter Ryan, former giant of ABC business journalism, dies
Content:
Peter Ryan, a Walkley Award-winning journalist who worked in the field for 45 years, has died in Sydney after a battle with cancer. He was 64.
Ryan spent 35 years at the ABC before he retired as the broadcaster's senior business correspondent last month to spend more time with his family. He served as the ABC's Washington bureau chief, head of TV news and current affairs in Victoria and the executive producer of Business Breakfast, among other roles. He won a Walkey in 2017 for an expose on the Commonwealth Bank scandal.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers called Ryan 'an absolute legend' last month, writing at the time:
Every day as you wake up and you think about what's happening in the economy, if you only needed to listen to one voice to be sure that you got its essential elements, it would be Peter's.
Update:
Date: 2025-07-20T21:22:52.000Z
Title: Good morning
Content: and happy Monday. Nick Visser here to take you through the news. Here's what's on deck:
Tasmania's snap election delivered another hung parliament this weekend as the leaders of both the Liberal and Labor parties appeal to the crossbench in hopes of forming government while the votes are counted. That could take weeks as the three seats in doubt solidify and MPs voice their allegiances.
Federal MPs will head to Canberra tomorrow for the first time since 28 March, with an election, several international crises and an ever-evolving mesh of tariff threats in between. The 48th parliament will first turn to a proposal to slash Hecs debt, as treasurer Jim Chalmers has promised.
Stick with us.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Raise jobseeker to 90% of age pension and pay for it by curbing super tax concessions, Vinnies says
A welfare reform package that includes raising jobseeker to 90% of the age pension would lift 590,000 Australians out of poverty, with the $11bn price tag paid for by curbing super tax concessions in a way that still leaves the vast majority of savers better off. A new Australian National University paper for the St Vincent de Paul Society, titled A Fairer Tax and Welfare System for Australia, examines a range of options that 'are targeted to benefit persons who have the greatest financial need and would be paid for by those most able to accommodate a modest additional contribution'. In addition to the rise in the main unemployment benefit, the 'major' reform package also includes increases to commonwealth rent assistance and payments to families and single parents. The analysis lands less than a month out from Jim Chalmers' economic reform roundtable, which will bring together representatives from government, business and unions in an attempt to achieve a consensus around concrete measures to lift the country's abysmal productivity performance. But with an estimated one in 10 Australians, or nearly 3 million people, living in households experiencing poverty, the charitable organisation's report highlights the urgent need to make the country more equitable as well as more efficient. Mark Gaetani, Vinnies' national president, said he was hopeful the reforms put forward in the report would be seriously considered at Labor's summit. 'Yes, the government does need to address productivity. But there are two sides to the coin, and the options we put forward will make a really significant difference to those who are doing it really tough and who we see coming through our doors every day,' Gaetani said. 'What we are putting forward is budget neutral. We are simply asking those well off in the community to forgo in the vicinity of $3,000-3,500 a year to offset the cost of assisting those 3 million Australians who live under the poverty line'. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Ben Phillips, an associate professor at the ANU who co-wrote the report with Richard Webster, said increasing the jobseeker benefit for singles and couples was a 'no-brainer'. 'People don't talk about the age pension as a king's ransom, and lifting jobseeker to 90% of that just takes it back to 1990s levels,' Phillips said, noting that it was in line with the recommendation by the government's Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. The ANU sets the poverty line at $486 a week, or half the median household disposable income of after housing costs. In comparison, the full jobseeker rate for an individual is $390 a week, or about 75% of the $525 rate for a single age pensioner. Lifting it to 90% would involve a weekly rise of about $80. More than half of people on jobseeker or youth allowance are in households experiencing poverty, and the report noted that the balance between avoiding disincentives to work and providing an adequate safety net had become skewed too far in one direction. 'The pendulum needs to swing back towards adequacy,' it said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The ANU's poverty rates are adjusted to exclude those with low income but with high wealth, such as some retirees. Single parents are much more likely to experience severe financial disadvantage, with poverty rates among this group reaching an estimated one in three. The proposed reform would lift youth allowance and the partnered parenting payment by the same proportional amount as jobseeker, and increase the single parenting payment to equal the age pension. The report said the jobseeker rate and related payments should also be increased each year in line with wages, rather than inflation. The family tax benefit part A should be raised to the same as for older eligible children, and the link between wage growth and family payments should also be re-established, it said. With one in five renters estimated to be in poverty, or twice the national average, suggested changes to the welfare system included a 15% increase in commonwealth rent assistance, as well as an additional $100 supplementary payment to those receiving the disability support pension in recognition that an estimated 37% of people on working age pensions are below the poverty line. The measures in the reform proposal would be paid for by replacing the flat 15% tax on super contributions and earnings with a rate set at the saver's marginal tax rate minus 20 percentage points. The reform to superannuation concessions that Phillips modelled would leave 90% of savers no worse off, and in some cases better off, he said. 'The people who it [the super tax change] would impact negatively are those whose income is above the $190,000 level, where the marginal rate is 45 cents in the dollar.'


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump fires back at reports he's trying to destroy Musk's companies
President Donald Trump shot back at reports that he will try to destroy the companies of former best friend Elon Musk, clarifying his intent when it comes to the world's richest man. Trump had previously threatened to take away the billions in government contracts that Musk's various companies hold. The duo had a very public fallout over Trump's one big beautiful bill, which resulted in each man making threats against the other But the president now says he wants Musk to 'thrive.' 'Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!,' the president wrote on Truth Social. 'I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us,' Trump wrote. The clarification came after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked in her briefing on Wednesday if Trump supports federal agencies contracting with Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI. 'I don't think so, no,' she replied and then added she would speak to the president about the matter. xAI won a contract for up to $200 million with the Department of Defense, alongside Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, last week. Additionally, this week, xAI unveiled a suite of products for U.S. government customers, which it refers to as Grok for Government. Trump and Musk have had a hot and cold relationship since the Tesla founder left government service in May. After his departure, Musk publicly turned on Trump's signature bill, complaining it would increase the country's debt and undo much of the savings his Department of Government Efficiency had sought. Trump was furious at Musk's public criticism and, at one point, responded: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' 'We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,' Trump added. Musk, for his part, threatened to start a third political party to go after Republican candidates and posted on his X account that the reason the Jeffrey Epstein files hadn't been released because Trump is in them. He later took that post down.


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Carrefour in talks to sell Italy business, reports revenue growth
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - Carrefour ( opens new tab, Europe's biggest food retailer, is in exclusive talks to sell its loss-making business in Italy to NewPrinces Group, it said on Thursday, as part of a strategic review kicked off earlier this year. The sale of Carrefour Italy, which operates 1,188 stores but made a 67 million euro ($78.85 million) operating loss last year, is subject to regulatory approval and consultation with unions, but could be finalised by the end of 2025, Carrefour said. Separately, Carrefour reported stronger second-quarter sales as price cuts helped to attract more inflation-weary shoppers particularly in France, its biggest market. Overall, Carrefour's second-quarter sales grew 4.4% on a like-for-like basis from a year earlier, building on 2.9% growth in the first quarter. In France, like-for-like sales returned to growth for the first time since 2023, up 2.1% compared to a year ago. "Carrefour's business saw a clear acceleration in the first half of 2025, driven by the momentum in its three core countries: France, Spain, and Brazil," Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard said in a statement. Carrefour's first-half sales totalled 46.559 billion euros, up from 44.863 billion euros a year earlier. ($1 = 0.8498 euros)