News and politics live updates: Jenny Wilkinson derails Chalmers Budget claim, issues warning to Aussies

Oil prices eased and Wall Street rebounded to record highs early on Friday morning, after reports emerged that the US and Iran may agree to a 60-day ceasefire extension via a memorandum of understanding.

The potential deal that saw US shares swing higher, will re-open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and offer sanctions relief to Iran including the release of frozen monetary funds.

The key issue of who controls Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile remained unclear, with news agency Axios reporting US President Trump is considering the terms of a proposed new deal.

“The market has placed its bets on a peace deal, so that’s almost fully priced into all asset prices now,” said Kyle Rodda a Senior Markets Strategist at Capital.com.

“Now, it’s without a doubt a situation where the where risk [for asset prices] is skewed to the downside if the conflict erupts again.”

In late trade on Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.5 per cent to a record high of 7556 points to take its one-month rise to 6.1 per cent as traders once again expected a peace deal amid a seesaw flow of news. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index added 0.7 per cent to an all-time high of 26,835 points.

​Read the full story.​

Although Treasury chief Jenny Wikinson supported parts of Labor’s controversial tax changes, including to CGT and negative gearing, she revealed this week that the shake-up will not solve the dire supply issue in Australia, completely derailing the Albanese government’s claims.

“The changes in the tax elements of the package that were announced in Budget are really a bit more about changing the distribution of housing ownership, ­rather than addressing sort of, in an overarching sense, supply,” Ms Wilkinson said on Wednesday.

“The Government did make an explicit decision to allow negative gearing to continue for ... new dwellings in order to have a specific outcome there, which is to continue to encourage supply.

“But in aggregate, I think the better way to think about the impact of these tax changes is about changing the distribution of ownership rather than them being central to changing the sort of supply itself.”

Labor’s tax changes would have benefited nine in 10 young Australians if they had been in place since the turn of the century, the Treasury chief says as the chorus protesting the budget amps up.

Department secretary Jenny Wilkinson presented fresh analysis of the controversial tax package, which includes changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions and a $250-a-year tax rebate for workers, during a post-bBudget address on Thursday.

While some younger people would not benefit from the tax changes, trade-offs were unavoidable in system-wide reform, Ms Wilkinson said.

The reforms, if implemented in the past 25 years, would have provided a cumulative benefit to about 90 per cent of young people, she said.

“These are the most significant reforms to the tax system in a quarter of a century,” she told the Australian Business Economists lunch in Sydney.

“Overall, our assessment is that these reforms will contribute to arresting the decline in home ownership rates, improve the efficiency of the taxation of capital, and support a modest reduction in the tax burden on labour income.”

The analysis found the top one per cent of income earners would have received $400,000 less per person in lifetime tax benefits if the new arrangements had been in place since 2000.

Read the full story.

The government has secured the first vessel in Australia’s maritime strategic fleet a year after it was due.

Transport Minister Catherine King said on Thursday night securing the first ship, ANL Kokoda, marks an “incredible chapter in Australia’s maritime history”.

The large cargo ship can be used to deliver supplies in the event of natural disasters or supply chain disruptions.

The vessel is the first of up to 12 privately owned, commercial operated ships in the fleet that was announced in 2019.

“Recent global events have emphasised the importance of Australia having a resilient domestic maritime sector,” Ms King said in a statement.

“The ANL Kokoda will provide critical maritime capabilities, including by adding a new tool to be able to respond to disruption events.”

Health Minister Mark Butler was forced to defend Labor’s controversial housing tax changes, insisting they will not trigger widespread rent hikes, despite mounting warnings from critics and rival modelling claiming the policy could deepen Australia’s housing crisis.

Speaking on Sunrise on Friday, Mr Butler rejected suggestions the reforms would place new pressure on tenants, arguing the overwhelming majority of existing landlords would be unaffected because negatively geared properties had been grandfathered under the changes.

“Existing landlords have no basis for increasing their rent because of these tax changes, because they’re grandparented,” he said.

Mr Butler pointed to official government modelling forecasting only a modest increase in rents - estimated at about $2 a week - while maintaining the long-term impact would place downward pressure on prices.

“Going forward, there’ll be a modest impact of rent, so about $2 a week,” he said.

“But over time, there’ll be downward pressure on rent, not upward pressure.”

The minister acknowledged landlords may still raise rents, but argued any increases would be driven by broader market conditions rather than Labor’s policy settings.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jane Hume delivered a starkly different assessment, arguing Labor lacked a public mandate for the changes and warning the measures could reduce housing construction while pushing rents higher.

“Now we’re hearing that these new housing changes, these toxic taxes, are actually going to reduce the number of houses built and push up rents, making it harder for Australians to get into their first home,” she said.

​Read the full story.​