News live: influencer warns MPs millions of Australians care about gas export tax and they ‘ignore this at their peril’

Australians becoming an ‘endangered species’, Elon Musk claims

Billionaire Elon Musk weighed in earlier on Australia’s birthrate, responding to a post on his X social media account with a simple message: “Australians are becoming an endangered species”.

The sentiment plays into a trend for populist political parties to point to the fertility rate as a campaign strategy, including the new Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, who said last month he wanted to see Australia welcome “more Australian babies”.

My colleague Krishani Dhanji dug into the phenomenon surrounding pronatalist policies last month:

The Australian Bureau of Statistics put out figures in October that show the total fertility rate is now at 1.481, as of 2024, the most recent year reported. That number declined from 2023 and is well below the 1.795 reported in 2014.

It’s unclear why Musk has suddenly become interested in the figures.

Adam Bandt says there would be ‘statues in every town square’ for PM who makes gas companies pay ‘fair share’ of tax

Dan Jervis-Bardy

The former Greens leader, Adam Bandt, says statues would be built in honour of the prime minister that forces gas companies to pay “their fair share of tax”, such is the scale of public support for the policy.

Now the chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), Bandt is in Canberra to give evidence at the parliamentary inquiry into the tax settings for the gas giants.

The ACF is among a broad coalition of groups calling for a 25% levy on gas exports to replace the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT).

Speaking to reporters before fronting the inquiry, Bandt said the public “have had enough” of the amount of tax revenue generated under the existing regime.

It could be turned around. I’ll tell you what, they would be erecting statues in every town square for the first prime minister that makes the gas corporations pay their fair share of tax and uses it to fund free public transport forever, grow the industries of the future or pay for the clean-up bill after cyclones and floods.

Tom McIlroy

Minister announces $30m in new drone spending for defence

The defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, has announced two major new drone contracts, part of a $7bn spend over the next decade by the federal government.

Tuesday’s announcement includes $21.3m in spending with AIM Defence and $10.4m for Sypaq Systems, for a high powered counter-drone laser system and new interceptor drone capabilities.

The government says Australia’s geography has driven a focus on larger drones, with new deals to acquire technology able to counter medium‑sized drones and swarms of small drones that Australian personnel could encounter in the field.

Conroy said:

With the war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East showing how uncrewed aerial systems are increasingly being employed in conflict, the development of sovereign counter-drone solutions is essential to ensure the Australian defence force can detect, assess and respond to these threats.

Last week the government named drone technology as a key focus of the new national defence strategy.

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Minister for defence industry Pat Conroy tours the Sypaq facility in Melbourne. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP

Krishani Dhanji

If gas export taxes go up, domestic prices come down, Australia Institute tells inquiry

Jumping back into that gas tax inquiry – the Australia Institute says that implementing a gas export tax would reduce domestic gas prices.

Why? Richard Denniss says gas companies would be incentivised to sell more gas at home, and compete on prices – because that would still be cheaper for them than paying the export levy.

He tells the inquiry that before the Australian east coast began exporting gas to the world, it was cheap and abundant.

We had cheap gas in Australia because we didn’t export it from the East Coast … But the minute we hooked it up to the world market the price of gas went up 300% and there was no compensation for households or industry or anything else … Once we put an export tax on those exporters, in order to avoid the export tax, are going to compete with each other to sell it to Australians.

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Richard Denniss. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Cait Kelly

Advocacy groups ask treasurer to scrap property tax breaks in next budget

The country’s peak advocacy groups are asking the treasurer to scrap the tax breaks for property investors in this year’s May budget.

It has been reported that the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is leaning toward scrapping the Howard-era capital gains tax discount and returning to the pre-1999 inflation indexation method. Every year, the federal government hands $20bn in tax breaks to property investors through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

Everybody’s Home, Antipoverty Centre, Better Renting, Think Forward and Tomorrow Movement and House Youse said:

The evidence is clear. These tax breaks inflate property prices, reward hoarding over housing, fuel inequality and drain public revenue that could fund the homes people actually need.

Our organisations reject half-measures, including reducing the CGT discount, limiting negative gearing to one or two investment properties, or grandfathering changes so existing investors continue to unfairly benefit. These are not reforms. They maintain handouts to the wealthy few at the expense of the majority.

We call on treasurer Jim Chalmers to use the 2026 budget to:

• Scrap negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount entirely
• Direct the $20 billion in annual savings towards funding public, high quality homes for the people who need them

Major trial between ACCC and Woolworths begins in federal court

Catie McLeod

A landmark trial between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Woolworths has begun in the federal court in Sydney.

The ACCC alleges Woolworths broke Australian consumer law by offering “illusory” discounts on hundreds of everyday products through the misleading use of its “Prices Dropped” promotion programs.

The strategy is known as “is/was” pricing.

The ACCC is up first in court today, with barrister Michael Hodgegiving opening submissions.

As in the watchdog’s very similar case against Coles, which wrapped up hearings two months ago, Justice Michael O’Bryan is grilling the ACCC over the specifics of its argument.

He said:

When people are shopping, they’re busy, they want to get it over and done with and quickly as they can, they’re not going to be analysing or intellectualising what these [pricing] tickets mean.

Whether it is true or false that the saving is real … might depend on a range of factors including … how was the “was” price established. We are aware of cases where prices are spiked arbitrarily … in an artificial way [but] there might be commerciality associated with it.

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A prices dropped sign at a Woolworths supermarket in 2024. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

The ACCC alleges that between September 2021 and May 2023, Woolworths temporarily increased the prices of at least 266 products before placing them on “Prices Dropped” promotions to make shoppers think they were getting a discount.

Court documents show the products were sold at their first price for 180 days or longer, before their prices were increased by at least 15% but only for a period of 45 days or less.

Woolworths then reduced the items to their “Prices Dropped” price, which in 265 cases was actually more expensive than the products’ long-term prices before the price spike, and in 11 cases was the same price.

The statement of agreed facts between the ACCC and Woolworths shows the supermarket often negotiated with suppliers to offer “discounts” on products at the same time as it agreed to raise their prices.

We’ll bring you more updates from today’s court hearing shortly.

Melissa Davey

NSW gets new RNA research and manufacturing facility

A new RNA facility was officially opened today in NSW at Macquarie University.

Many states have increased funding for RNA research and manufacturing since the Covid-19 pandemic, when mRNA vaccines proved to be critical to the pandemic response, given they can be rapidly designed and developed in the lab using just the genetic code of the virus.

There was a push for increased funding for Australian RNA research and manufacturing to reduce reliance on global supply chains and to speed up production.

RNA technology is also being used to develop new treatments for genetic diseases, cancer and other conditions, as well as improving diagnostics.

The NSW government hopes the new $96m facility will boost domestic RNA manufacturing capability, attract investment, create jobs and improve collaboration. It is the only site in Australia capable of producing a wide range of new and existing RNA therapeutics under one roof.

The NSW innovation, science and technology minister, Anoulack Chanthivong, who also attended the opening, said: “The opening of this facility is a major milestone for NSW and a proud moment for our innovation sector”:

It gives our researchers, clinicians and industry partners a place where ideas can move rapidly from the lab bench to real-world solutions that improve lives. We all saw during Covid-19 how quickly global conditions can change, and how vital it is to have the capability to develop vaccines and treatments here at home.

Politicians ‘underestimate’ public’s attention on gas tax, inquiry hears

Krishani Dhanji

Konrad Benjamin, the former school teacher behind Punters Politics, tells the inquiry that the gas issue has fired up his near million followers across his social media accounts.

Independent senator,David Pocock, who is also at the Greens-led inquiry, asks Benjamin just how much attention is being paid to the issue, and his answer is – a lot.

When you look at social media channels like mine, Instagram reels like you [Pocock] have put up before, when you look at those numbers, there is no other issue that I’ve come across in Australia that gets 8m [views] on your reel, regular 2m, and this is … my audience is solely Australian.

Coming up to a million followers on all of my platforms, that is almost entirely, solely from the energy generated around this issue. And I think senators and politicians underestimate how much we’re watching, how much we understand.

We know there’s appetite among some in the Labor caucus to implement a windfall tax or flat export tax, but the government is facing a heap of external pressure from the industry (who don’t want to take a haircut on their profits) and overseas nations including Japan.

Benjamin warns the parliament that “politicians ignore just how much we’re paying attention to this at their own peril”.

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Konrad Benjamin from Punters Politics speaks to the Senate committee into taxing gas. Composite: ParlView

Caitlin Cassidy

Viral image of bull shark in Sydney’s inner west was digitally altered

The image of a bull shark in the Cooks River in Sydney’s inner west that went viral over the weekend was digitally manipulated, the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) says.

The picture was posted to a Marrickville community page, showing a large fin of a shark jutting out of the river in Marrickville, around 6km from the nearest open water of Botany Bay. It amassed thousands of likes, comments and shares to other social media groups.

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A screenshot from the We Love Marrickville Facebook page. Photograph: We Love Marrickville Facebook

But the DPIRD said in a statement they believed the image was digitally altered.

The CEO of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Brett Fenton, told Guardian Australia bull sharks “do get into weird places” but he felt a “high confidence” that the image is fake.

The morphology of the fin doesn’t look right. It’s too equilateral triangle looking. For the dorsal to be exposed in that way it’s pretty unlikely you wouldn’t see the tail fin.

Krishani Dhanji

Australia Institute says 25% gas export tax would raise $17bn per year

Over in parliament this morning, the Senate inquiry into taxing gas is under way with the Australia Institute giving evidence that on its count, a 25% export tax on gas would raise $17bn a year.

It’s executive director, Richard Denniss, says while Japan has tried to discourage the government from putting in a tax, he says an export tax wouldn’t impact its price, and if it was concerned about price, it could just lower its own import tax.

He says Japan’s import tax on oil, gas and coal (with Australia being the main gas supplier) raises about $8bn a year, adding:

The Japanese government is getting more revenue from taxing Australian gas than the Australian government is … A gas export tax will not increase the price of gas paid by Japan. It will not increase the price of gas paid by Korea or any of our other customers. There’s no Norway premium for Norwegian gas, which is heavily taxed. All of the gas is selling at the same world price. The reason the gas industry is sad is they know the customers won’t pay the higher price.

An export tax is a good idea, because it’s simple, and the only way to avoid it is to sell gas to Australians instead. Win, win.

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The Australia Institute executive director, Richard Denniss. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Alongside Denniss is Konrad Benjamin, behind social media account Punters Politics – who said he shouldn’t even be here – but is because the government has “stopped working for the punters”.

Punters Politics, honestly shouldn’t exist. I shouldn’t really be here. A million Australians following my content online, watching someone explain gas isn’t a success story. It’s a symptom of a government that has stopped working for the punters who elected them.

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Podcaster Konrad Benjamin. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Victoria police are investigating reports of a trespass at a property where Dezi Freeman was shot and killed after a seven-month manhunt.

Police said investigators are aware of a video posted online after a YouTube channel posted footage under the title “I went to Dezi Freeman’s last stand hideout”. Freeman, who was allegedly responsible for the shooting deaths of two officers at Porepunkah, was found at a property in Thologolong in Victoria’s north-east.

He refused to surrender peacefully before he was killed.

Police said in a statement:

Investigators are aware of a video posted online in relation to the trespass and are investigating the circumstances.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Tim Cook to step down as CEO of Apple

In case you missed it this morning, there has been some major tech news: Apple’s CEO Tim Cook will step down after nearly 15 years at the helm of the Silicon Valley icon.

Cook will stay with the company in the role of executive chair, but will be replaced by Apple’s head of engineering, John Ternus, on 1 September.

Cook said Ternus had “the mind of an engineer and the soul of an innovator”.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage at Apple Park in California in 2025. Photograph: Godofredo A Vásquez/AP

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