Evening News Bulletin 17 March 2025
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In this bulletin;
- Treasurer reveals upcoming budget will be a deficit;
- Coalition says they will de-register construction union following claims of violence;
- And in sport, ACT Brumbies brace for backlash against New South Wales this weekend.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed the budget next week will be a deficit, but stresses it will be “much smaller” than what Labor inherited.
Labor has delivered two successive surpluses after taking government in 2022, with Dr Chalmers saying the deficit of the latest budget is a result of what he calls “responsible economic management”.
“Defining feature of our first three budgets was responsible economic management, that will be the defining feature of the fourth as well, even this year, where we will be printing deficit this year, it will be much much smaller than what we inherited from our political opponents. And that shows the progress that we’ve been able to make.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he will consider whether to include a tax cut into his election agenda after the budget is released next week.
He says he would only deliver a tax cut after confirming it won’t exacerbate inflation and lead to another rise in interest rates.
“We have a track record of dealing with economic management and making economic decisions, including tax cuts, don’t forget we are the people in government who are the architect of stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 tax cuts. So if we can afford to do tax cuts we will, but it will depend on how much money is in the budget, what’s going to be inflationary, what are the measures flouting around at that time, and I think that’s the proven approach you’d expect to take.”
Mr Dutton also repeats the Coalition’s criticism on Labor’s large government spending, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier dismissed the claim, saying the spending forms part of cost of living and disaster reliefs.
The Coalition says they will de-register the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, following new claims of violence within the institution.
A joint report by 60 Minutes and The Age found violence against women inside the construction union, some of which involved bikies working on publcly-funded projects.
The Opposition’s workplace relations spokesperson Michaelia Cash criticises both the federal and state Labor government’s failure to tackle issues of the construction union, also known as the CFMEU.
“The first thing we will do, and we call on Mr Albanese to work with this, because we can work this next week when the parliament sits, is to once and for all de-register the CFMEU. Mr Albanese has shown by putting it into administration that he will take the weakest possible response possible, it is almost laughable, to see government minister out there to take, saying that administration is working.”
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says the state government has zero tolerance on organised crtime within the CFMEU.
She says Victoria Police has immediately established Operation Hawk to tackle the alleged ogranised crime exposed by the media.
Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney is headed to Paris to meet with French President, Emmanuel Macron.
It’s his first foreign trip as P-M just days after he took office.
In his swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Mr Carney said the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples – the French, English and Indigenous.
Mr Carney will also visit Britain this week, at a time of trade frictions with the United States.
While in London, he is expected to meet with King Charles just weeks after his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, held his own meeting with the monarch.
“Operation Hawk will investigate these new allegations, but also to pursue a focus, a focus on organised crime, on criminal behaviour that may be taking place across worksite here in Victoria.”
The ACT Brumbies are bracing for backlash from the New South Wales Waratahs in another Super Rugby Pacific match.
The high-flying Brumbies travel to Sydney to face the Waratahs on Saturday night after Dan McKellar’s new outfit experienced a humbling 35-15 loss to the Queensland Reds in Brisbane.
The five-tries-to-two loss was the Waratahs’ first defeat of the season after opening 2025 with three straight home wins under McKellar.
