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Queensland nurses to launch their first industrial action in 23 years today

Andrew Messenger

The secretary of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union, Sarah Beaman, said tens of thousands of nurses would take part in the action on Thursday morning. It is the first action since 2002.

Union members will wear pins, pink shirts and distribute union material but the action is expected to escalate over time if their terms are not met.

The union is locked in negotiations with the state government over a new enterprise bargaining agreement. The main sticking points are wages and conditions; the union says the state government has failed to meet an election promise for nation-leading pay for nurses. Beaman said:

Make no mistake we have a nursing and midwifery workforce crisis in Queensland. If the government allows Queenland to fall behind Victoria for the first time in 15 years, we will see less nurses and midwives state-wide.

The government promised us nation-leading wages and conditions, and we are taking action to make them deliver their promise.

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Updated at 18.20 EDT

Boele says she will be ‘very bold’ from the crossbench

Boele said she will focus on climate change and affordable housing, among other issues, in her new role on the crossbench. She told RN Breakfast that Labor’s strong majority in parliament demanded independents and others to hold the Albanese government to account.

She pointed to the recent decision to extend the North West Shelf gas project until 2070:

Even Labor, before we’ve even started the next parliament, has approved an extension to the North West Shelf, for example. That’s a climate bomb. And this is a party that says they understand climate science.

So there is always going to be a need for people who courageously talk.

Protesters seen at a rally against the North West Shelf expansion plans in Perth last Friday. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAPShare

Updated at 18.13 EDT

Nicolette Boele ‘very confident’ with outcome of Bradfield recount

Independent Nicolette Boele called the weeks-long effort to count and recount ballots in the seat of Bradfield one of the “most impressive and comprehensive” processes, saying she was “very confident” with the outcome that saw her triumph over the Liberal’s Gisele Kapterian. She told RN Breakfast:

I think I’m very confident with the process that’s been run by the AEC and the outcome that we have here. So I’m keen to get on with the job, but I can understand you might need to ask that question to Giselle Kapterian.

Boele called her competitor a “formidable candidate”.

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Updated at 18.05 EDT

Chalmers doesn’t rule out concessions to get super tax across the line

Jim Chalmers addressed the need to work with the crossbench to get Labor’s superannuation tax plan passed. The ABC’s Sally Sara asked if the government was offering a “take-it-or-leave-it” deal and had ruled out making concessions with the Greens on the matter. Chalmers told RN Breakfast:

We don’t have the numbers in the Senate to pass our legislation on our own. We need to engage with the crossbench, in particular, in this instance. And I intend to do that.

… But our intention, our preference, is to legislate the plan that we announced almost two-and-a-half years ago now.

The treasurer said he would engage “respectfully” with the crossbench, noting there was also a lot of “disunity” in the Coalition over the tax increase.

Jim Chalmers said he would engage “respectfully” with the crossbench to get Labor’s super tax changes across the line. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare

Chalmers says Australian economy performing ‘relatively well’ despite GDP numbers

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said this morning Australia’s economy remained in a good place, citing lower inflation, an increase in real wages and the lowering of interest rates, despite yesterday’s news that the country’s GDP grew just 0.2% in the first three months of 2025. He told RN Breakfast:

The Australian economic story is a very compelling one. The economy continues to grow, we’ve got inflation lower, real wages and incomes are growing, interest rates have started to come down, we’ve got the debt down in the budget. And so, overwhelmingly, Australia’s economy is performing relatively well compared with the rest of the world.

Even modest growth in these global circumstances is welcome. We do have a global economy which is characterised by uncertainty and volatility and unpredictability.

You can read more about the GDP and Greg Jericho’s take here:

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Nicolette Boele relishes victory in Bradfield after long recount

Natasha May

Newly elected independent MP Nicolette Boele says the recount has given her “absolute confidence, even more confidence than before, in our democracy and in the Australian electoral commission.”

After being declared winner of the Sydney seat of Bradfield on a wafer-thin margin of 26 votes yesterday over a month after polls closed, Boele appeared on ABC’s 7.30 program yesterday evening.

Nicolette Boele thanks her supporters after being declared the winner of the federal seat of Bradfield in Sydney yesterday. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Boele said the win was the fruits of years of campaigning and 1,450 volunteers, including 222 people scrutineering over the last four and a half weeks, and 12 people doing all the catering for those scrutineers.

Boele said she realised she had won when she held a press conference immediately after the announcement:

I was standing in front of the cameras, and the words ‘Nicolette MP for Bradfield’ came up. And it was that moment that I thought, ‘wow, not just a candidate, but someone who has been elected’, and it is genuinely starting to sink in as one of the biggest honours that I’ve ever had in my life.

The Liberal candidate, Gisele Kapterian, hasn’t yet conceded – she said in a statement she will “carefully review” the original count and the recount. Whether she tries to find grounds to take the result to the court of disputed returns Boele said was a “question for her”.

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Updated at 17.53 EDT

Shadow treasurer says Labor’s super tax plan centred on ‘egregious idea’

The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, said Labor’s plan to increase taxes on large superannuation balances over $3m will be “an absolute disaster”. O’Brien spoke to Radio National Breakfast this morning amid the political tussle over the proposal, saying any tax on unrealised gains was an “egregious idea”:

We believe in lower taxes. We believe in simpler taxes. We believe in fairer taxes. …

This crosses a red line in Australian tax law. It will be an absolute disaster. … Where does that then go? Will Labor start taxing unrealised capital gains on your primary residence? We don’t want a bar of that. This is not good at all.

O’Brien, the deputy Liberal leader, went on to say that he would prefer to see “this entire bill scrapped”, but that’s “probably not going to happen”.

Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien said he would prefer the entire bill be “scrapped”. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAPShare

Updated at 17.37 EDT

Adam Morton

Matt Kean tells fossil fuel-friendly MPs to stop ‘holding our country back’

Matt Kean made an assertive case for why climate action makes economic sense while giving the Talbot oration at the Australian Museum in Sydney on Wednesday night.

In comments that were a less-than-subtle swipe at Coalition MPs, and possibly some others, the Climate Change Authority chair and former NSW Liberal energy minister said “opponents of climate action don’t give up even when their political parties cop an electoral hammering”, but urged Australians to ignore “doubters whose main mission seems to be to prolong the life of fossil fuel industries”:

To those politicians who are still providing a cover for vested interests, I say get out of the way. Stop holding our country back and stop holding your political parties back. Try acting in the national interest – or take the low road to political oblivion.

Matt Kean urged politicians to ‘try acting in the national interest – or take the low road to political oblivion’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Kean quoted André Corrêa do Lago, the Brazilian diplomat who will head this year’s Cop30 UN climate summit in the Amazon, and who last week told the Guardian that opposition to ambitious steps to address the climate crisis was now largely “not scientific denial”, but “economic denial”.

On this, Kean said “it helps that the economics are also aligning with the science”.

As US energy innovator Hal Harvey put it, ‘it’s now cheaper to save the Earth than to ruin it’. Investors are lining up trillions of investment dollars to decarbonise economies. Even so, we must be realistic about the scale of the task ahead.

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Updated at 17.52 EDT

Good morning

Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. Nick Visser here to take you through today’s breaking news. Here’s what’s on deck:

• Matt Kean, chair of the Climate Change Authority, told politicians who are providing cover for action on fossil fuels to “get out of the way.” Kean spoke in Sydney last night, saying MPs standing against climate action were “holding our country back” and “holding your political parties back”.

• Independent Nicolette Boele is relishing her win in the seat of Bradfield after a long, seesawing recount. Boele spoke to the ABC last night, calling the moment she was declared victorious “one of the biggest honours that I’ve ever had in my life.” Liberal Gisele Kapterian has not yet conceded the race.

• Stick with us as we dig into the political crisis in Tasmania later today with the debate on a no-confidence motion against the state’s premier set to continue. Jim Chalmers will also speak about Australia’s less-than-robust GDP numbers later this morning.

Onwards.

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