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Federal politics live: Coalition reviewing ideas to let people access super for housing By political reporter Courtney Gould

Posted Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:09amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:09amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:09amSkip to timeline

Andrew Bragg says the Coalition is continuing to look at ways people could use their superannuation to help them afford a home. 

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Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:43amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:43am

Mulino continues defence of use of invitation-only grants scheme

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By Courtney Gould

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino also stopped by ABC’s Radio National Breakfast this morning, where he’s asked why an infrastructure grant scheme was invitation-only.

An investigation by the Centre for Public Integrity, reported by the ABC, found three-quarters of the funds from the Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program went to electorates held by Labor at the 2025 federal election.

Much like he did on ABC’s News Breakfast, Mulino argues this is just what takes place after an election, and denies the findings are akin to the infamous Sports Rorts scandal.

“It is a specific kind of grants program which is designed to deliver election commitments and that’s something which is specifically set up after an election in order to allow governments to basically follow through on what they’ve promised to do,” he says.

So how common is it to have an invitation-only scheme? He didn’t have the details on him about how frequently they have been used.

Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:30amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:30am

Nothing to see here, Labor says on grants scheme

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By Courtney Gould

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino is defending the use of an infrastructure fund to pay for Labor’s election commitments, insisting there is nothing to see here.

An investigation by the Centre for Public Integrity, reported by the ABC, found three-quarters of the funds from the Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program went to electorates held by Labor at the 2025 federal election.

Speaking with ABC’s News Breakfast, he saidit’s just standard practice after an election.

“This is a mechanism that is really there to deliver commitments that were very transparent in the lection. It’s important that government have mechanisms to deliver those in a timely way,” he says.

Mulino argues it is different to a grant program that was set up with criteria and a competitive grant process.

“This is about delivering mechanisms where during the course of an election, the government has made commitments and then wants to deliver those specific commitments.”

Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:20amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:20am

Joyce speaks on reports about Victorian One Nation leader Warren Pickering

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By Paul Johnson

Barnaby Joyce has told 7.30 he found out about allegations against Victorian One Nation leader Warren Pickering in the media yesterday.

Joyce told 7.30 the allegations were “contested”.

Pickering’s former partner told The Australian yesterday that the party’s Pakenham candidate used illicit drugs while they were together. Pickering has denied the allegations printed in The Australian

He also said he had not asked Pickering about the specific allegations made against him.

“My conversation was: ‘When did you end up in the armed services, and was it subsequent to these allegations?’

“The answer is yes.

“So the Australian Defence Force, and we’re talking about contested allegations from, I don’t know, a partnership breakdown of about 20 years ago, after which one of the people who the allegations are made against went into the Defence Force for a long career in the Defence Force.

“Now, I think we also have to be very careful because if we’re saying that any person will be held to account for any action they ever did, no matter how far in the past it was, I would suggest there are a lot of people in the parliament who will no longer have a job Monday morning.”

Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:16amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:16am

Canavan accuses government of acting in bad faith on algorithms

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By Courtney Gould

Nationals leader Matt Canavan is accusing the government of acting in bad faith with its plans to legislate an opt-out mechanism for social media algorithms.

The proposal is expected to be unveiled later today as the government pushes ahead with its crackdown on the social media giants.

But Canavan says it’s picked this fight to “distract from its failings”.

“The government’s attempts here to deflect from their own failings, in their own trust issues, calls into question whether or not this is a good-faith effort to deal with toxic material online,” he tells News24.

“I’m deeply sceptical of any government, whether I was in charge or Anika Wells is in charge. I’m deeply sceptical giving any government the power to decide what you read on your phone.”

Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:06amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:06am

Sport and community fund overwhelmingly favoured Labor

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By Jake Evans

An “invite-only” grants program was overwhelmingly directed into safe Labor seats and marginal seats the party wanted to win at the 2025 federal election, a Centre for Public Integrity investigation of the $560 million program has concluded.

While projects in safe and marginal Labor seats sometimes received grants worth tens of millions of dollars, 45 electorates were not invited to the Major and Local Community Infrastructure (MLCI) Program and received no funding.

Labor promised more than half a billion dollars in upgrades to sports facilities, parks and other community infrastructure at the election, and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said the MLCI was set up to pay for those promises.

An examination of the more than 220 programs invited to apply found 73 per cent of funds went to seats notionally held by Labor, compared to 23 per cent to Coalition-held seats, and 4 per cent to all others.

When broken down by how safe or marginal a seat was, $493 million of the $560 million fund went to safe, fairly safe or competitive seats for Labor, while just $66 million went to seats where Labor was not competitive.

Read more of this exclusive report at the link below. 

Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:01amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 7:01am

Bragg reviews policy ideas to let people access super for housing

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By Evelyn Manfield

The federal opposition’s housing spokesman, Andrew Bragg, says the Coalition is continuing to look at ways people could use their superannuation to help them afford a home.

One Nation yesterday unveiled its controversial plan to allow renters and mortgage borrowers to take home 3 per cent of their future super contributions.

Bragg says the Coalition is reviewing policy ideas, including letting people use their super to offset their mortgage or as collateral for a loan, to help tackle concerns that more Australians won’t own homes by the time they retire.

He says there’s no official proposal on the table, but “these policies are under review by the party”.

However, a party spokesperson has denied reports on news.com.au that the options are under consideration.

The ideas have previously been discussed as part of Senate committee work Bragg chaired in 2024.

Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 6:52amTue 8 Sep 2026 at 6:52am

Good morning 👋

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By Courtney Gould

Welcome to our politics live blog. I’m Courtney Gould from the ABC’s Parliament House team, here to guide you through the day.

Social media continues to be the focus for the government as Communication Minister Anika Wells prepares to unveil the exposure draft for its long-awaited digital duty of care bill later today. That’s the legislation that’s expected to include the opt-out system for social media algorithms.

It’s not going to be all smooth sailing for Wells as the Coalition continues to raise concerns the move could amount to censorship.

Elsewhere, the fallout from One Nation reigniting the superannuation wars yesterday will roll into today.

The sun is up friends and so are we, so let’s get blogging!!!

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