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Australia news live: John Howard signs open letter urging gambling reforms; Julian Hill claims Labor has ‘won the debate’ on housing tax changes | Australia news
John Howard among signatories of open letter calling for stronger gambling reforms
Former prime minister John Howard and a cohort of other current and former lawmakers signed an open letter urging the Albanese government to take stronger action on the gambling industry.
The letter was published today as an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, urging the prime minister to establish “long-overdue reforms to reduce gambling harm”.
The letter reads:
Your proposed reforms do not go far enough. They leave too many loopholes and fail to properly protect families from an industry that profits from addiction. …
This is not good enough … We support stronger national action, including consideration of a national regulator, so gambling harm is addressed consistently across the country.
Signatories include Andrew Hastie, senator Maria Kovacic and former Liberal premiers Jeff Kennett and Nick Greiner.
You can read the full letter here.
Key events
‘Two days is simply not enough’, Jane Hume says of debate over tax changes
Jane Hume, the deputy opposition leader, accused the government of being “sneaky”, saying discussions around tax reforms in parliament were much too short to properly address so-called “generational” tax reforms.
“What the government has done is essentially prevented scrutiny of the changes that this legislation is going to inflict on the Australian economy,” Hume told RN Breakfast. She went on:
Apparently, these are generational reforms. If they’re generational reforms, well, surely they should have been taken to an election so that the Australian people could decide that.
Two days simply is not enough. There is no need to rush these changes through because they don’t kick in until 2028.
Read more about jostling with the Greens and the Coalition here:
NSW officially abolishes ‘good character’ references from being considered at sentencing hearings
NSW has officially abolished the use of “good character” references when it comes to sentencing for all offences, the first such change in the nation.
The new legislation passed in legislative council on Thursday night, and will apply for all offences, including homicide, domestic violence and road crimes. It means convicted offenders will no longer be able to argue their sentences should be mitigated because they are of otherwise “good character”.
The NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, said in a statement:
Victim-survivors and their loved ones will no longer be forced to sit in court and hear the person convicted of a heinous crime be described as an otherwise good person.
While I’m glad we’re finally here, it should not have taken so long for the Liberals and Nationals to listen to victim-survivors and their advocates and drop their opposition to these reforms.
Harrison James, the cofounder of the group Your Reference A’int Relevant, said:
This win belongs to every survivor in this country. … That is hard-won dignity.
But I’m not done. Every survivor in every corner of this country deserves the same protection, and I will fight until every jurisdiction reflects that. NSW was first. The rest will follow.
Read more about the changes here:
John Howard among signatories of open letter calling for stronger gambling reforms
Former prime minister John Howard and a cohort of other current and former lawmakers signed an open letter urging the Albanese government to take stronger action on the gambling industry.
The letter was published today as an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, urging the prime minister to establish “long-overdue reforms to reduce gambling harm”.
The letter reads:
Your proposed reforms do not go far enough. They leave too many loopholes and fail to properly protect families from an industry that profits from addiction. …
This is not good enough … We support stronger national action, including consideration of a national regulator, so gambling harm is addressed consistently across the country.
Signatories include Andrew Hastie, senator Maria Kovacic and former Liberal premiers Jeff Kennett and Nick Greiner.
You can read the full letter here.
Cait Kelly
Senate committee hears of transition to SmartCard
The Senate community affairs legislation committee discussed the government’s controversial income management system at estimates last night.
Social services officials revealed that since September 2023, 17,014 people have been placed on the newer SmartCard, which can be used on the visa network. The BasicsCard, which is being phased out and can only be used at government-approved merchants, is also still being used.
Estimates heard 81% of participants on the government’s income management are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait islander, with that number jumping to 84% in the Northern Territory.
Participants on the BasicsCard have had the opportunity to transition across the cards, but the department said some had not taken that up.
In 2024, a Labor-led inquiry into compulsory income management recommended the government abolish the scheme after receiving a large amount of evidence showing the compulsory SmartCard increases hardship, makes it difficult for women to flee violent relationships and is discriminatory towards First Nations people.
Labor’s help to buy shared equity scheme approves 2,589 applicants in five months
Luca Ittimani
Housing Australia officials have revealed 2,589 applications had been approved under Labor’s Help to Buy scheme.
Alia Ayoub, executive leader of the Help to Buy scheme, told Senate estimates it had received 5,323 applications from 5 December 2025 to 30 April 2026, of which 2,589 applications had “found a home”.
Senator Andrew Bragg asked why the scheme was marked a “risk” in its portfolio budget statement, to which Ayoub said:
We had a forecast that we would do 10,000 applications in a year. However, the scheme started on the 5th of December. Had it been running for the full year, it would receive the 10,000.
Ben Rimmer, director general of Treasury’s housing group, said the operating cost of the scheme was $21m over the forward estimates, while the money spent on buying stakes in homes was nearly $1.6bn this year and $6.9bn over the forward estimates. Rimmer said of the latter figure:
We don’t know whether that will be a cost or a benefit to the balance sheet of the commonwealth at this point. If house prices continue to grow gradually over time, it will actually benefit the commonwealth.
We reported earlier that more than 312,000 people have benefited from the government’s 5% first home buyer guarantee scheme, including 251,000 under Labor since 2022. About 51,000 of those who accessed it were permanent residents.
Some NSW pharmacists can now prescribe contraceptive pill
Women waiting weeks and months in regional areas to get a doctor’s appointment for a prescription for the pill can now head to their local pharmacy, AAP reports.
NSW is the latest state to expand access to contraception beyond the GP’s office after Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania enacted similar changes.
Karen Carter, who has almost 35 years’ experience, is one of 30 pharmacists who, from Friday, can prescribe and supply the oral contraceptive pill to low-risk women between the ages of 18 and 39.
“It’s going to be great for those women who want to talk about contraception, but sometimes their shifts may not allow all of them to be able to attend a doctor’s surgery,” she told AAP.
“This just gives women an option.”
Carter completed a 12-month course offered through NSW Health to allow for first-time prescriptions.
It is part of a state initiative to expand the treatment services available in pharmacies, including for uncomplicated urinary tract infections and common skin conditions.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over from Martin Farrer. Let’s see what Friday holds.
Homelessness up 75% in NSW in past six years, report shows
Homelessness is soaring in regional areas as advocates plead for more funding to stop simply shifting the problem and start solving it, Australian Associated Press reports.
The number of people sleeping rough in New South Wales has increased 75% in six years, according to a Homelessness NSW report that relies on the state’s street count data.
While the count in metropolitan Sydney is virtually unchanged between 2020 and 2026, it has surged 689% in the Illawarra Shoalhaven and southern NSW district, from 27 people to 213.
The district encompassing NSW’s northern region and mid-north coast has also sky-rocketed from 407 people in 2020 to 1024 in 2026, leading it to become the state’s leading area for homelessness.
Homelessness CEO Dominique Rowe said state government funding for support services needed a 50% boost, along with a commitment to build 10,000 social homes a year until they constitute 10% of all housing.
“Homelessness services have a situation where 92% of people coming through their doors are not getting the assistance they need,” she told AAP.
Labor MP claims government has ‘won the debate’ on housing tax changes
Luca Ittimani
A Labor MP has declared victory in the debate over the government’s tax reforms, engaging in a bit of meta-commentary at the end of parliament’s sitting fortnight.
Julian Hill made the comments on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on Thursday.
Hill said:
I believe the government’s won the debate on negative gearing. I believe we’ve won the debate on capital gains tax on property.
And we’re winning the debate, we got a way to go, on removing the distortion that would otherwise be there. … I think we’re winning the debate … Start ups and so on, we are still engaging on.
But I absolutely believe we’ve won the argument about property and giving young Australians a fair crack at the housing market.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
After a week in which Labor’s tax reforms came under a lot of scrutiny, the MP Julian Hill told the ABC that he thinks the government is winning the argument for giving young people a chance at the housing market.
And the number of people sleeping rough in New South Wales has increased 75% in six years, according to a Homelessness NSW report that relies on the state’s street count data.
