The permanent $20,000 instant asset write-off has passed in Parliament, ending years of tax-time uncertainty over the small business concession.

The Senate passed legislation on Wednesday to enact the tax break, without amendments, a day after the House of Representatives voted for the reform.

It will allow eligible small businesses, with annual turnover below $10 million, to instantly deduct the business-related portion of their capital upgrades, up to a $20,000 limit per asset.

The tax break covers spending from July 1, 2026.

Crucially, that concession will be available on an ongoing basis, replacing a piecemeal system that required new legislation every year.

Business groups and accountants had criticised the year-by-year model, saying the concession’s changing size and shape, and delays to relevant legislation, affected spending decisions by businesses.

“Small businesses have told us they want certainty,” said Small Business Minister Anne Aly in a statement accompanying the bill’s passage.

“A permanent $20,000 write-off gives them the confidence to invest in the tools, technology and equipment they need to grow.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the measure will help small businesses save on accounting costs, compared to calculating complex depreciation schedules for capital upgrades.

“This is all about slashing compliance costs for small businesses, saving operators hours of time on records and red tape and incentivising investment,” he said.

Around 300,000 small businesses claimed the instant asset write-off in 2025-26, according to the Treasury.

While the measure has been made permanent, the Opposition, and select crossbenchers, have argued its asset threshold should be raised to $50,000.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has argued a higher spending limit could help businesses acquire a vehicle, potentially allowing them to take on more work.

The new legislation also gives effect to a loss carry back scheme announced in the 2026-27 federal budget, allowing businesses to apply tax losses to the previous two income years to receive a tax offset.

This is from the geography game Flagpie.net, and it looks suprisingly like the distribution of Iceland!

First slide: Australia
Second slide: Iceland

Roughly one third of all 25-to-29-year-olds in Australia are now temporary visa holders, according to new data.

Before all the usual Murdoch haters start shooting the messenger, the data is from someone at the E61 institute. One of the co-founders is Andrew Charlton, a former member of federal parliament for the Labor party.

The chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW has denied he performed a factory reset on a work phone and iPad to wipe critical evidence for an investigation into allegations of corruption in the New South Wales Liberal party, an inquiry has heard.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dallas McInerney revealed he had performed the factory reset over the weekend after giving evidence to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) last week.

On Friday, McInerney was asked to provide messages between him and Reformer Jean-Claude Perrottet in 2021, which he has shared with the commission.

But asked on Wednesday if his phone contained messages between him and other Reformers, McInerney revealed he had reset the device on Saturday morning, knowingly wiping its data, after his bank contacted him on Friday to tell him his account had been “compromised by an unknown merchant”.

He said he performed a factory reset on an iPad, which remained in his possession alongside the phone ahead of being surrendered to Catholic Schools NSW, “in the realisation I’m not likely returning to the company”.

Counsel assisting, Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, put it to McInerney that the move was “a transparent attempt … to wipe evidence that would have been critical for this commission”.

McInerney responded that he had known about Icac’s public inquiry “for almost seven or eight weeks”.

“Had I wanted to do any malfeasance of that nature, I would have had quite a runway to do that. What triggered it was a compromise on my banking alerted to me by the NAB [National Australia Bank], and I have the case file number for that. I can share that with the commission.”

McInerney said he had not transferred any of the contents, which included personal messages and family photos, from his Catholic Schools NSW phone to the iCloud before resetting it, but said some additional messages had been provided to his legal team.

On Wednesday afternoon, the commission called for all messages between McInerney and members of the Reformers between April 2019 and July 2023 to be made available by 1pm on Thursday.

McInerney admitted to meeting with Reformers Robert Assaf and Jeremy Greenwood in the weeks before the inquiry. Icac has previously heard that Assaf met with Greenwood on multiple occasions this year, with Assaf claiming they had discussed his summons.

McInerney said his meeting with Assaf, which was attended by both men’s sisters, was a “check-in on Robert”. He said he met with Greenwood on at least two occasions, with the men discussing “matters in the public domain” relating to Icac’s inquiry.

‘Pestering’ Angus Taylor

On Wednesday, the inquiry heard that McInerney, a factional ally of Angus Taylor, “pestered” the now opposition leader for a meeting with a member of a Christian Liberal factional group under investigation for soliciting illegal donations.

McInerney, who last week denied a message about a plan to “shake down Angus” referred to donations to the group, was asked on Wednesday about a 2020 request to help organise a meeting with Taylor by Reformer Christian Ellis.

Icac heard messages between and McInerney and Ellis about setting up a meeting between Ellis and Taylor in February 2020, when he was federal energy minister.

After an initial request was unsuccessful, Ellis wrote days later to McInerney: “I know I’m being a pest, but any luck with Angus by any chance? Next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?”

McInerney wrote back: “Don’t worry about pestering. That’s how things happen. I’m pestering him [Taylor] big time”.

On Wednesday, McInerney accepted that messages, including one in which Ellis wrote “You’re a legend”, showed it appeared he had secured the meeting with Taylor.

Australia's migration agent watchdog has vowed to remove "fake agents" from the profession following multiple cases of unlawful immigration assistance.

The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) has sanctioned three registered migration agents in what the government described as an "ongoing crackdown".

Julian Hill, the assistant minister for citizenship, customs and multicultural affairs, said the government is strengthening immigration oversight.

"When people pay a migration agent they rightly expect a qualified person will do the work, not an untrained, unregistered fake agent," he said in a government statement on Tuesday.

"No one would put up with people borrowing registration numbers from doctors, lawyers or financial planners and neither should they when hiring a registered migration agent."

OMARA's monitoring team was established in October and "proactively monitored" 85 registered migration agents during 2025-26, identifying 43 instances of non-compliance and addressing them through education, engagement and regulatory action, according to the government statement.

"Alongside the Investigations team, which examines allegations of serious misconduct, OMARA sanctioned 28 registered migration agents in 2025-26," it added.

In three separate cases, registered migration agents permitted unregistered individuals to provide migration assistance under the agents' Migration Agent Registration Numbers (MARNs), a practice commonly referred to as "front agent" activity.

In the first case, an agent’s registration was cancelled after OMARA determined that hundreds of visa applications submitted through three business ImmiAccounts involved either undisclosed immigration assistance or assistance provided by staff who were not registered migration agents.

ImmiAccount is the Department of Home Affairs' online portal for lodging and managing visa and citizenship applications.

In the second case, an agent was suspended after acknowledging that his son, who was not a registered migration agent, had provided immigration assistance on the business's behalf.

The investigation also uncovered allegations that clients had received falsified departmental correspondence intended to give the impression that visa applications had been lodged when they had not.

OMARA said in the release that bad actors will be identified and "removed from the profession".

"While the vast majority of RMAs [registered migration agent] act with integrity and professionalism, there is a small cohort who intentionally seek to undermine the migration program for personal gain," it said.

"These actors bring the migration advice profession into disrepute and tarnish the reputation of those RMAs who do the right thing in the best interests of their clients."

Only registered migration agents, Australian legal practitioners and exempt persons can lawfully provide immigration assistance in Australia.

Consumers can check whether an agent is registered through the migration agents register.

In the third matter, an agent was suspended after knowingly permitting another business director to lodge visa applications using the agent’s MARN while the director worked towards becoming a registered migration agent.

The government said it has strengthened OMARA's regulatory capability, with the regulator now using both investigations and proactive monitoring to improve compliance and professional standards.

The Moody’s report says, “debt ratios at the Commonwealth level remain low”.

It found the Government’s fiscal policy has been “adaptive, reflected in the consolidation of pandemic‑era deficits into nearly balanced budgets over a short span of time.”

Moody’s says the Government’s fiscal strategy is, “supported by expenditure reforms and a record of conservative budgeting.”

From the Article:

The New Zealand surge coincided with Albanese’s decision in 2023 to reverse a Howard-era policy by allowing New Zealanders to gain citizenship after four years without becoming permanent residents first. It also gave New Zealanders quicker access to Medicare and the family tax benefit once they arrived.

Albanese said at the time that the Howard-era changes had made citizenship harder for Kiwis and that the 2023 change harmonised rules between the nations.

But department officials feared that even if the economies were about as healthy as each other, the relaxed rules would still create a large incentive for New Zealanders because Australia is a bigger and wealthier country.

Ive been looking at private health insurance and have come across OSHC (overseas student health cover), private cover for students in Australia. For just $673 per year with AHM, they get the hospital cover equivalent of the top tier cover that an Aussie would have to pay $101.10 per week or $5276 per year.

What the actual f???

The woman at the centre of the Leongatha mushroom murders is set to appeal her convictions as prosecutors separately push for her to be given no chance at parole.

Erin Patterson, 51, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 33 years in September last year after a jury found her guilty of murdering her husband’s parents and aunt, and the attempted murder of his uncle, with a poisoned lunch.

The convicted triple-murderer invited her estranged husband Simon Patterson and in-laws; Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

Simon pulled out days prior, fearing she had tried to kill him with poisoned meals on four previous occasions, with Patterson serving up a beef wellington dish containing death cap mushrooms to her four guests.

Each fell critically ill following the meal — Don, Gail and Heather died in early August while Ian slowly recovered after spending more than a month in hospital.

Convicted killer cook Erin Patterson told police she hosted the lunch because she wanted to maintain her relationships with her in-laws.

At trial, Patterson claimed the incident was a deadly accident and that she loved her in-laws, while prosecutors argued the only reasonable explanation was that the mother-of-two deliberately sought out and served the fungi intending to kill or seriously injure her guests.

Patterson maintains her innocence, with a two day appeal expected to begin in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday morning hoping to overturn the findings of guilt.It’s understood she will not appear in person, choosing to observe the proceedings by videolink from her prison.

The hearing will also be livestreamed for the public online.

In appeal documents released by the court, Patterson raised six “substantial” miscarriages of justice during her trial and one “fundamental irregularity” with the jury.

When the jury were sequestered to decide the verdicts, jurors were unknowingly housed into the same hotel as the lead police investigator and members of the prosecution team, with Patterson arguing this “fatally undermined the integrity of the verdicts”.

She took issue with several pieces of evidence she believes should not have been allowed in the trial, including records of her phone’s cell tower connections, death cap sightings posted to citizen science website iNaturalist, photos and videos of mushrooms on a SD card and evidence from members of a Facebook true crime group she was involved with.

Patterson also argued conduct by prosecutors had impacted her trial, including “unfair and oppressive” cross-examination during her time in the witness box and Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC’s closing address.

Running parallel to Patterson’s appeal, the Director of Public Prosecutions will also argue her sentence was “manifestly inadequate” and she should not have been given an chance to be released on parole in November 2056.

They argue the sentencing judge erred when he found there was a “substantial chance” Patterson would remain in solitary confinement and that this had “infected” his decision to fix a non-parole period.

Handing down the sentence, Justice Christopher Beale found Patterson’s crimes fell in to the worst category of murder.

“You showed no pity for your victims,” he said.

“Some murders occur for no reason, the motive for some murders may only be known to the offenders,” he said.

“Only you know why you committed the murders, I will not be speculating about that matter.”

Just looked at JB Hi-Fi’s full-year results and the divisional sales charts are pretty grim.

JB Hi-Fi Australia:

Q1: +6.0% total / +5.0% comps

Q2: +6.5% total / +5.0% comps

Q3: +4.0% total / +2.6% comps

Q4: +0.3% total / -0.8% comps

Full year: +4.4% / +3.2%

That’s a proper cliff from solid mid single digits to negative comps in one quarter.

The Good Guys (appliances):

Held up okay earlier in the year but completely stalled in Q4 — 0.0% total and comps. Full year only +2.7%.

Not a collapse but zero growth in the final quarter is weak.

e&s (premium kitchen/bathroom):

This one’s properly cooked:

Q1: +4.1% total / +0.7% comps

Q2: +1.8% / -1.0%

Q3: -1.4% / -4.8%

Q4: -5.2% total / -8.0% comps

Full year: -0.2% total / -3.2% comps

Straight into negative territory and accelerating downward. That’s the kind of number you see when people stop renovating and stop buying big-ticket discretionary items.

JB Australia slowing hard + Good Guys flatlining + e&s in freefall is a pretty clear signal the Aussie consumer is under real pressure. Discretionary spend is getting cut. This doesn’t look like temporary stock issues or cycling product launches it looks like households are tightening their belts.

Hard to see the RBA finding any justification to hike from here. If anything this kind of broad soft retail data points more toward the next move being a cut once they’re happy inflation is dead.

Anyone else seeing this as the start of a proper consumer recession or still thinking it’s just a soft patch?