Australia news live: Pocock urges ‘sensitive’ negative gearing reform; NT conservation group calls for Beetaloo fracking stay | Australia news

A Northern Territory conservation group is asking a court to make an immediate order to prevent drilling for gas in the Beetaloo basinarguing surface water and groundwater should be protected from fracking.

The Environment Center NT you have filed an urgent application to stop Tamboran Resources from drilling at its Shenandoah South fracking project, where work began last month, while the territory civil and administrative tribunal assesses the case.

Tamboran plans to drill up to 15 fracking wells at four locations. The center argues it could damage surface water, groundwater and water-dependent ecosystems. Tamboran has said it was confident it would not have a significant impact.

The environment centre’s executive director, Dr Kirsty Howeysaid:

We live in the territory. This is our home. We are fighting to protect our water from the dangers of fracking.

The NT government signed a supply agreement with Tamboran to supply 40 terajoules of gas a day for at least nine years before the project was approved under territory environment law.

The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersekyou have asked a scientific panel to examine whether fracking in the NT would damage water resources. See the details here:

Paths for negative gearing change

Negative gearing reform attempts are viewed by some as an electoral landmine, others as a long overdue change for housing market equity.

During a frantic 36 hours this week, changes to negative gearing and capital gains taxes were mooted, tentatively backed by numerous Labor MPs and then apparently snuffed out (for now) by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

These two controversial tax settings, respectively, allow property investors to claim the difference between their rental income and their mortgage payments as a deduction, and to reduce the tax an investor pays when they sell a home.

The ensuing scuffle reflected negative gearing’s totemic status in political discourse. But there was little discussion about what might actually be on the table if changes were considered.

You can read some options raised by others, and previously, in Josh Butler’s piece here:

Peter Dutton has described the rise in the number of international students appealing against the cancellation of their visa with the aim of extending their stay in Australia as the “modern version of the boat arrivals”.

Talking to Ray Hadley on 2GB radio, the opposition leader was asked about a report in the Australian claiming that courts and tribunals were bracing for “tens of thousands of international students to appeal against the refusal or cancellation of their visas amid concerns that foreign visa holders are gaming the system ”.

“Many,” the report claimed, are Indian or Chinese nationals.

Duton:

This is the modern version of the boat arrivals. So people have found a weakness in the system, they are exploiting the weakness, they obviously will be getting advice from lawyers in this space and others who have tested the system and found success, and ultimately have stayed in Australia or they have extended their stay .

The taxpayer’s picking up every dollar of this. For a lot of these people that Andrew Giles and Anthony Albanese have let out of immigration detention, taxpayers are paying for motel accommodation for meals and providing medical support to them as well.

Dutton also claimed that the Labor government had left in “a million people over the last two years and only 300,000 homes being built”. It had lost control of the migration program, he said.

Thanks to Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning. I’m Rafqa Touma and I’ll take you through the day’s updates from here. If there is anything you see that you don’t want the blog to miss, shoot it my way on X (formerly Twitter) @At_Raf_

On economic matters…

Our economics correspond Peter Hannam you have been looking at the RBA’s financial stability review, as I mentioned at the top of the blog.

Here is his full report:

And here’s that news from China about efforts to kickstart the declining housing market there that has been one of the biggest drags on its economy – and therefore a big potential problem for Australia’s economy.

‘We are dying inside’

For migrants on bridging visas like Sukhdeep Kaur and Jaswinder Singhthe need to reapply every three months brings mental torture.

They have been telling Rafqa Touma about the dilemma of having to visit dying parents in India and risk not being allowed back into Australia for three years, or not seeing their parents again.

Jaswinder has just returned to India to see his elderly father leaving Sukhdeep at home where she can only talk on the phone to her mother who has cancer:

We are just breathing. We are not alive. We are dying inside.

Read the full report here:

Good morning, this is Martin Farrer welcoming you to the live blog. We’ve made it to the end of the week and Rafqa Touma will be here to take you towards the finishing line after I’ve flagged up some of the best overnight stories.

Peter Dutton has described the rise in the number of international students appealing against the cancellation of their visa with the aim of extending their stay in Australia as the “modern version of the boat arrivals”. In the same interview, he called for the University of Sydney vice-chancellor, Mark Scottto resign, saying he would do so if he had “any shred of integrity.” More coming up.

And the slowdown in China was yesterday identified by the Reserve Bank as one of the key external threats to the Australian economy when it released its six-monthly review of financial stability. Our economics correspond Peter Hannam has been looking at the risk factors after the RBA spelled out what it might take to make mortgage holders unable to repay their debt. But overnight there was some potential change when the government in Beijing announced its second stimulus package of the week, this time aimed at propping up the moribund housing market. More on that too.

Australia’s major supermarkets provide broadly similar products, prices and loyalty programs in an oligopolistic market that may limit competition, the ACCC has found in its interim report on the sector. We will have more reaction coming up.