This blog is now closed

• Warning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Chalmers understands calls for gas export tax, but says government focused on getting fuel for Australians

Chalmers said he understands calls to tax gas exports, but maintained the government was set on securing international supply arrangements during the ongoing fuel crisis. He told ABC News:

I understand that there is a constituency in the Australian community to go further … But there are also, as the prime minister said, really good reasons to prioritise these international supply arrangements particularly during this oil shock.

All of us have been prioritising getting fuel for Australia and for Australians to keep the economy ticking over and that’s why there are good reasons for the comments that the prime minister made yesterday.

We’ve been very upfront with people and said when we think about the intergenerational unfairness in the budget, in our economy, in our society more broadly, a couple of the drivers of that are in housing, are in the tax system.

This blog is now closed

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Allegra Spender says 25% gas export tax would help fix ‘faulty’ system

Independent MP Allegra Spender said a 25% tax on gas exports would help rectify what she sees as “faulty” taxation arrangements that have seen an Australian resource sent overseas with minimal benefit to the country.

The gas industry is a very profitable industry and pays income tax. And every company in Australia, frankly, should pay income tax on its profits and should pay the proper rate. But the gas companies are different because they also sell an Australian resource which they extract, which we can’t get back once it is sold.

I think Australians rightly believe they should share more of that revenue.

We’re back here again and they should fix it.

We are lucky to be an energy exporter at a time where the world needs energy. We are a great partner in this. But it is a reasonable thing for Australians to get a fair return on that. And, at the moment, we just aren’t.

We can’t and I think we need to be really honest about that. If there’s going to be changes to the NDIS – and I’m not a state leader who’s knocking the federal government’s right and probably responsibility to reform the NDIS, it’s cost too much money – but we have to be really frank with people.

We can’t offer at the state level the kinds of services that are being rolled out at the NDIS.

This blog is now closed

• Australians ‘uneasy’ about NDIS cuts amid $53bn in new defence spending, Mark Butler concedes

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

James Valentine’s family has released a statement after his death. Here’s what they had to say:

James passed peacefully at home surrounded by his family, who adored him.

Throughout his illness, James did it his way, which lasted all the way until the end when he made the choice to do Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Both he and his family are grateful he was given the option to go out on his own terms. He was calm, dignified as always and somehow still making us laugh.

This blog is now closed

• Gas companies spending millions on Australian advertising blitz to fight export tax, inquiry told

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Farmers promised more fertiliser imports

Australian farmers are being promised more fertiliser imports under a deal struck between the federal government and two major companies, aimed at securing supplies in response to a global bottleneck, AAP reports.

We’ve always said through this generational reform process that we’d listen to older people and we’d respond to their experiences. … What they’ve made clear is that they want showering and dressing.

We’ve got a $40bn aged care system … and it needs to be sustainable for generations to come. And that’s what this reform process has been about. … We can’t be in a situation where we’re making a promise to the people of Australia about the dignity that they’ll receive through the aged care system if we can’t deliver on it and we can’t keep it sustainable.