News and politics live updates: Joyce and Plibersek clash over One Nation’s plan for early super access

Cautious shoppers are still spending but are increaingly chasing value and confining buying to key promtional events, says electronics giant JB Hi-Fi.

With the threat of even higher interest rates, pain at the petrol pump and stubborn inflation, boss Nick Wells said the company continued to see variability in trading.

“In an uncertain retail environment where customers are seeking value, our brands continued to resonate and our teams continued to execute to a high standard,” he said.

JB Hi-Fi reported a 4.8 per cent leap in sales for the full-year compared to FY25 to a record $11.1 billion, delivering an underlying net profit of $489.9m - up 2.9 per cent on a year earlier.

Underlying earning before interest and tax were up 3.8 per cent to $734.4m.

The company declared a final $1.27-a-share dividend, up 22c, taking its full-year payout to $3.37.

JB Hi-Fi may have showered its shareholders in an improved payout, but investors are clearly concerned about shrinking sales since the start of the new financial year.

The electronics retailer earlier reported record revenue for FY26 and a solid increase in profit but also noted sales in July had recorded negative growth.

Shareholders marked the stock down more than 9 per cent in the opening few minutes of trade to $73.70.

Chris Gatenby has been sworn in as Tasmania’s newest senator at Australian Parliament House.

Mr Gatenby, a former Liberal party president, replaces Wendy Askew following her resignation announcement in June.

A bitter fight has erupted between State treasurers over Anthony Albanese’s support for the GST deal with WA after the Productivity Commission labelled the arrangement a “costly mistake”.

The commission estimates the deal has cost the Commonwealth about $60b over the last decade, prompting NSW and SA to call for major changes.

On Monday, South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said the arrangement was making “Australia unfairer and Western Australia richer”.

“What (the deal) does is unfairly, and quite frankly, I think immorally, backs a State that doesn’t need the assistance it’s getting at the expense of other States that do need assistance,” Mr Koutsantonis told Radio National.

“If you put the Productivity Commission report into any pub across Australia, people read it from cover to cover that all say the system currently is unfair. We’re paying more for it than we were told it would cost. We’re using scarce income tax dollars to prop up a State that doesn’t need it.

“Lashing out at independent economists simply for calling something out without being partisan or political is pretty poor form.”

The deal also came under fire from New South Wales Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who said the current system gives West Australians an unfair advantage.

“Right now, we have a system that says some Australians have an automatic entitlement to either better services or lower taxes or both than nearly every other Australian. And I just disagree with that,” he said.

“If the logic that WA is arguing for is to apply across the board, then every other State that’s looking to is either developing those resources or looking to are entitled to the same benefit.”

But WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti defended the deal.

“The economic argument is that WA has a significant resources sector, and we need the ability to be able to develop those resources because they lead to national economic growth but also the national bottom line,” Ms Saffioti said.

To say I was surprised and disappointed by the Productivity Commission’s interim report into the 2018 GST distribution reforms would be an understatement.

I was stunned that a report which concedes the reforms protected Western Australia exactly as designed, and concedes the unfairness of the old system was real, would recommend going back to that old system anyway – based on arguments which do not withstand scrutiny.

Earlier this year, the Productivity Commission invited me, as the Finance Minister when these reforms were designed and introduced, to make a submission to its inquiry.

My submission made a simple case. The 2018 reforms restored fairness for Western Australia, whose GST share had collapsed below 30 cents in the dollar with no floor beneath it.

They preserved the principle of horizontal fiscal equalisation – stronger States supporting others so every Australian can access comparable services – by moderating its extremes, not abandoning it. And they guaranteed no State would be worse off, funded by additional Commonwealth money.

This is an interim report and I welcome the Commission’s open process. It has the opportunity to revisit these conclusions and recommendations in its final report.

A fair, stable and predictable GST distribution is not a Western Australian issue but a national interest issue. The 2018 reforms delivered it. Strengthen them. Do not unwind them.

Read Mathias Cormann’s full opinion piece.

Westpac chief executive Anthony Miller has warned Australia’s future prosperity relies on skilled migration continuing but has acknowledged community concerns over “unfettered” and “unrestrained” arrivals.

With the Albanese government poised to unveil a long-awaited overhaul of immigration settings, and as the Coalition debates its own policy position, the Westpac boss has declared: “we need skilled migrants”.

Ahead of a visit to Perth this week, Mr Miller has told The Nightly he appreciates voter unease with current migration levels and policies but is urging policy makers to take a “thoughtful” approach.

“I understand the concern around unfettered, unrestrained migration, and the pressure that might put on services, availability of property,” the banking boss said in an interview ahead of his visit to WA.

“I understand that debate, and we need to make sure we get that right. I would advocate that we need to be very thoughtful about making sure we don’t impact or detract from the fact that skilled migration is a really important part of Australia’s past and its future.

“This country has succeeded because it’s been able to attract capital and talent, and we need to continue on that path.

“And so, the debate around migration, in my mind, I understand communities’ desire to have that debate, and there’s some frustrations, but we should make sure we don’t fall into the trap of lumping skilled migration into that same debate.”

​Read more. ​

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hit back at criticism of WA’s GST deal, defending the arrangement as an incentive for the State to develop its lucrative resources sector.

Mr Morrison’s intervention comes after the Productivity Commission labelled the deal a “costly mistake” and called on the Albanese government to scale it back so the other States and Territorities are given the same capacity to fund comparable services and infrastructure.

“The renewed attack on Western Australia’s GST arrangements rests on a fundamental error,” Mr Morrison wrote in the Australian Financial Review.

“It invested in the approvals, infrastructure, ports and policy settings needed to build one of the world’s most productive resources sectors, generating export earnings, employment and very large tax receipts for the Commonwealth. The other States were held harmless.”

The commission found the deal is now costing taxpayers about four times more than initially expected, with the Federal Government providing more than $6b a year to maintain WA’s share.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese played down the prospect of major changes, saying West Australian’s deserve their “fair share” while the government waits for the commission’s final report in December.

W Premier Roger Cook rejected the findings, describing them as “dodgy, deceitful and dumb.”

Mr Morrison, who was treasurer when the deal was struck in 2018, argued Labor shares responsibility for the deal’s growing cost after extending the arrangement in 2024 through to 2029-2030.

“Combining no-worse-off payments and the pool top-up, those three years will cost in the order of $20 billion, about two-thirds the cost of the entire six-year transition, in half the time,” he added.

National Australia Bank’s profit climbed in the third quarter as lending to businesses across the country expanded.

Unaudited cash earnings came in at $1.83 billion in the three months to June 30.

Home loan applications were down 15 per cent in the third quarter.

Australian lenders are contending with a slowing housing market that’s expected to deepen and is threatening to eat further into profitability.

NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine said the combination of the impacts from the Middle East conflict, higher interest rates and recent tax changes are creating challenges for customers.

“Business credit growth has remained robust at this stage, but the Australian home lending market softened,” Irvine said.

Sweeping reforms to disability support, gambling advertising and media funding could finally pass parliament after months of political horse-trading.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with Liberal leader Angus Taylor multiple times in the first sitting week after a five-week winter break in an attempt to find common ground on the three significant pieces of legislation.

Contentious efforts to reduce spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme could pass as early as Monday.

The recommendations from a Labor-led inquiry into the NDIS reform on Friday urged the immediate passage of the legislation despite significant backlash from disability advocates.

The Coalition has flagged the need for further measures to crack down on dodgy operators within the scheme, but it has voiced support for the attempted funding cut of about $38 billion over four years.

The latest report from the NDIS Quality and Standards Commission shows 111 banning orders were issued in the last quarter, the most on record. A further 453 NDIS providers had their registration revoked.

NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said increased powers for the commission legislated in April have successfully weeded out the “shonks and grifters”.

with AAP

The most recent Public Service Commissioner is emerging as the likely replacement for Julie Bishop as the next Chancellor of the Australian National University, three months after the former Foreign Minister quit the role after a tumultuous tenure.

ANU sources say an announcement on who will fill the part-time and largely ceremonial role was scheduled to be made over the weekend as the Canberra institution celebrated its eightieth birthday but is instead expected to be revealed on Monday.

Inside the university speculation is growing that former Australian Public Service Commissioner Gordon de Brouwer has been chosen for the position after announcing his retirement from government earlier this year.

Mr De Brouwer previously studied at ANU and worked as Professor of Economics in the Crawford School of Public Policy from January 2000 to March 2004 and remains an adjunct professor.

​Read the exclusive story.​

Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek have clashed over One Nation’s push to give Australians earlier access to their superannuation.

Asked whether early withdrawls could leave people more reliant on taxpayers during retirement, Mr Joyce instead pointed to claims that $1.2b had been lost in the collapse of the First Guardian and Shield.

“I tell you what, they (taxpayers) didn’t foot the bill for the $1.2b that was stolen,” Mr Joyce told Sunrise, accusing regulators and auditors of failing Australians.

Pressed on how far the proposal would go, Mr Joye argued Australians facing cost of living pressures should have greater control over their retirement savings.

“Well you already have people that can access their super. When you’re in hardships you can. And I think one of the hardships people have is they can’t feed themselves because of the cost of living,” he said.

“And another hardship is, if they don’t have a house and they are put out on the street and they are living in a car. Surely it is their money and we should give it a little bit more respect about what they can do with their own money.”

Ms Plibersek defended the current system, saying people can already access super in cases of particualr hardship, but warned super is designed to prevent people from retring into poverty and becoming reliant on the age pension.

“If they need to get their super to hang onto their house, if they get sick, if they are dying there are a whole range of issues where you can get it, but super is there so you don’t retire into povery. It makes the hugest difference to people so they aren’t relying on the age pension,” she said.

“We spent about $7b a year on the age pension as a nation and that would be much higher if people didn’t have super accounts.”

The exchange became heated as Ms Plibersek accused Mr Joyce of repeating “talking points”, saying “I am proud of what we do, why aren’t you proud, Barnaby?”