Treasurer says housing market ‘isn’t working’ and tax system around it is ‘out of whack’. Follow the latest updates

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‘Let’s build more houses … not start taxing them’, shadow finance minister says

Claire Chandler, the shadow minister for finance, spoke a moment ago.

You don’t make more of something by increasing taxes on it. Taxes are inherently a disincentive to create more of something.

If we need more houses in this country, let’s build more houses. Let’s not start taxing them.

It’s all of our housing programs, 5% deposit, the Housing Australia Future Fund, the partnership we’ve had with the states and territories, the announcement made … on the weekend or yet around enabling infrastructure, $2bn to do the kind of the back end of housing development, all the connections and all of that kind of thing that state and territory and local government struggle with.

I think there is a lot of understanding across the community about governments needing to respond to try and make housing more affordable.

This isn’t about generation versus generation.

Farrer win casts shadow over budget as government signals it’s alive to populist rightwing threat

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One Nation has cast a shadow over the federal budget and influenced decisions to reform negative gearing and taxes, with Jim Chalmers admitting many Australians are feeling economic anxieties that are “driving them to consider” rightwing populist parties.

The treasurer and Anthony Albanese have conceded that many people are locked out of the housing market and that the problem is getting worse, not better, under Labor. With Pauline Hanson’s party winning a historic byelection in Farrer – its first lower house seat win in its 30-year history – the government was alive to the threat of a populist wave of grievance similar to those in the United States, Britain and Europe.

Aditya Chakrabortty on the Labour leader’s predicament – and if he may be the last prime minister of the two-party system

In these highly polarised times, dunking on the prime minister – and this PM in particular – is the one thing that seems to unite people in fury, disappointment and loathing. So as he rolled his sleeves up to address the nation on Monday morning, after one of the worst election results in Labour’s history, Keir Starmer had quite the job on his hands.

The Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty was watching – and wincing. “There are times when I watch Keir Starmer promising he’s going to change,” he said. “He looks to me like a guy on the verge of divorce, holding flowers from the nearest petrol station and saying: 'Trust me. Honestly, it’s going to be different this time. Honestly, love, stick with me.’” But why does there seem to be such antagonism towards the Labour leader – and can anyone guide the party out of the mess they have found themselves in?

Eileen Wang, 58, mayor of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty over the felony count brought by the justice department

Eileen Wang, the mayor of a southern California city, resigned suddenly on Monday after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced she had been charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent of China.

Wang, 58, agreed to plead guilty to the felony count and could face a sentence of 10 years in prison.

Move comes as administration seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land

The interior department is canceling a rule that put conservation on equal footing with development, as Donald Trump’s administration eases restrictions on industries and seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land.

The 2024 rule adopted under former president Joe Biden was meant to refocus the interior department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10% of land in the US. It allowed public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling.

Defence department says another ADF soldier was injured on Monday evening, but didn’t require hospitalisation

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An army soldier has died during a parachuting training course at Jervis Bay airfield, Defence has announced.

The Special Air Service Regiment warrant officer Lachlan Muddle, 50, died following a mid-air collision with another paratrooper on Monday evening after their parachutes had deployed.

Health minister Mark Butler says six people from MC Hondius plus flight crew from charter plane to be isolated for weeks

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Australians and New Zealanders who were aboard the deadly hantavirus-hit cruise ship have been taken to the Netherlands after a last-minute change of plan on what the health minister called a “difficult” mission.

Once back in Australia they will undergo the first three weeks of a 42-day quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience in Bullsbrook, just outside Perth. The flight crew that brings them back to the country will also have to quarantine, either in Australia or at their home base in another country, Australia’s health minister, Mark Butler, said.

Taiwan, tariffs and the strait of Hormuz are on the meeting’s agenda for Beijing – but will the US president be forced to ask for help in ending his war with Iran?

On 20 February, a White House official confirmed that US president Donald Trump would be travelling to Beijing the following month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda: the US-China trade war.

One week later, Trump approved joint strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a new war in the Middle East. Its ramifications have spread far beyond the region and caused alarm in Beijing. The presidential summit was postponed.

More than 100 figures sign open letter criticising closure, just months after MA was launched

More than 100 academics, writers and activists from around the world have signed an open letter condemning plans to close an MA in Black studies and global justice at Birmingham City University (BCU), just months after it was first launched.

The move follows the controversial closure of BCU’s undergraduate course in Black studies in 2024, and has prompted warnings that Black studies are being erased from UK higher education.

Research from UCL suggests visiting art galleries or museums, singing and painting can help improve health outcomes

Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health.

The findings are the first to show that both participating in arts activities and attending events, such as viewing an exhibition, lead to people staying biologically younger.

Dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war fallout

Households cut back on their spending in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, as the conflict in the Middle East provoked fears of another cost of living crisis, a report from one of the UK’s biggest banks has suggested.

Barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. This was the first year-on-year fall since November 2024.

The British political strategist drew swift criticism in a state where tacos are practically the official dish

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Polls have shown California voters have been largely disengaged from the upcoming election for governor, but over the weekend one candidate managed to capture the public’s attention – and ire.

Steve Hilton, the British political strategist seeking the state’s top office, drew derision after posting a video outside a southern California location of the fast food chain Del Taco while holding the hard-shell tortilla concoction that he referred to as a “street taco”.