Australian news and politics live: PM meets Xi in Beijing as tensions rise, ‘delusional’ housing plan slammed

Australia shouldn’t legislate a controversial definition of anti-Semitism or impose penalties for breaching it, coalition frontbencher James Paterson says.

Anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal on Thursday handed down her report on combating hatred against Jewish people.

She recommended that Australia adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which some groups argue conflates criticism of Israel.

The report also urges the government to cut funding to universities, programs or academics that enable or fail to act against anti-Semitism.

All public funding agreements with festivals or cultural institutions should include terms to allow for the termination of the agreement when they promote or facilitate hatred, it says.

​Read more.​

An independent who clinched the most closely fought contest of the federal election has vowed to fight a challenge to her seat.

After a month of vote tallying and an automatic recount, Nicolette Boele was declared the MP for the north Sydney seat of Bradfield, seizing victory over Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian by just 26 votes.

But more than two months after constituents took to the polls, Ms Kapterian revealed she would take the decision to the umpire.

In response, the independent confirmed she will defend her victory, though she will need some help from her community.

“Everything we’ve worked for is on the line,” Ms Boele said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The Liberal Party has a legal team and enormous resources. I have community.

“But we can’t rely on volunteers in the High Court, we need good lawyers, and that is expensive.”

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Australia’s central bank wants to remove surcharge fees on both debit and credit cards in a move it expects would save consumer more than $1 billion.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s review of merchant card payment costs recommends the fees be scrapped on EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa card transactions as they don’t help consumers make more efficient payment choices.

Lowering the cap on interchange fees paid by businesses - another recommendation of the paper - as well would save Australian $1.2 billion.

An interchange fee is paid by a business to a customer’s card issuer when a transaction occurs.

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Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson says Australia should not be pressured by the US to declare its stance on joining a potential conflict over Taiwan, backing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s response to recent reports.

The Financial Times reported the Pentagon had asked Australia and Japan to clarify their positions on a possible US-China war over Taiwan.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for the US government to ask Australia to do more than the United States is willing to do in relation to that and I’m not sure it is the case that they’re asking for us to preemptively and publicly declare what we would do in the event of a hypothetical Taiwan contingency,” he told ABC RN.

Mr Paterson said he thought Albanese’s comments that Australia does not support unilateral action in Taiwan and advocates for peace in the region are reasonable.

“I think our interests clearly are deterring conflict, preventing conflict and doing so by working with our allies, especially the United States and Japan and the Philippines and others who have the same interests that we do in the region.

“We don’t want to see any unilateral changes to the status quo on either side of the Taiwan Straits and let’s be clear – the greatest risk according to military analysts is that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) takes some kind of unilateral military action to change that status quo.

“That would be disastrous for Taiwan, for China, for the whole region in the world and we should be working as hard as we can with our allies to prevent that.”

A man has died in a tragic accident after a bird collided with a helicopter mid-air, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in remote northeast Arnhem Land.

The chopper, which was carrying two occupants, was flying near Gapuwiyak around 2pm on Monday when the bird flew into a 54-year-old passenger.

“The impact allegedly caused the bird to fatally strike a 54-year-old male passenger,” Northern Territory Police said.

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The Labor government’s ambitious plan to deliver 1.2 million new homes in five years is facing scepticism, as Treasury advice casts doubt on the target and the opposition labels it unrealistic.

“It’s certainly a good thing to have targets and it is a good thing to be ambitious but the ambition has to be realistic and achievable and not delusional and I think we’re now getting into that level of delusion because a target of 1.2m homes by 2029 would require the government to be building about 250,000 homes a year when only about 170,000 are being constructed, which is a fall from under the previous Coalition government of about 180,000 years,” Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson told ABC RN on Tuesday morning.

“So we’re going backwards, not forwards, and it’s time for either radical policy change to deliver those houses or acceptance that the target is not going to be hit as Treasury says.”

Read the full story here.

US President Donald Trump has threatened 100 per cent tariffs on Russia if the war in Ukraine isn’t stopped within 50 days, while announcing new weapons for NATO that will ultimately go to Ukraine.

Former Australian ambassador to Russia Peter Tesch says the US signal is important for NATO and Europe, but the future is still uncertain.

“Tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives could have been saved if Donald Trump had been less credulous about Vladimir Putin and if his envoys had done more than merely parrot Kremlin talking points these past six months,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

On how he thinks the Russian President will respond, he said, “ I think President Putin is confident he can keep playing President Trump.”

“Now, there’s a strategic miscollation there, the same kind that led him to launch this illegal and brutal war in the first place but so far, there is no real evidence, from the Kremlin’s point of view, of any significant change, in so far as the US has been dialling back assistance to Ukraine, that pause on weapons shipments, the pause earlier this year on sharing intelligence - these are been translated into practical setbacks for Ukraine on the battlefield, and Putin remains confident in his paramount ability to outfight, outlast Ukraine.”

Political differences will bump up against economic opportunities as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets his Chinese counterparts in the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Tuesday’s bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Communist Party Chairman Zhao Leji - the three highest-ranking members of China’s ruling committee - mark the centrepiece of Mr Albanese’s six-day tour of the Middle Kingdom.

President Xi is top dog in China, and the optics of Mr Albanese’s rendezvous with one of the world’s most influential leaders will be powerful.

But it’s his meeting with Premier Li, notionally the Head of Government in China, that will deliver any tangible agreements from the trip if they occur.

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