Australia news live: Hannah Thomas begins legal action against NSW; Allegra Spender quits parliamentary sports club after Pocock ban

Fellow independent Monique Ryan also quit after it was first revealed the gambling lobby was sponsoring the club. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWe’re still talking about superannuation tax concessions?We can’t seem to stop hearing about the government’s plan to increase tax on superannuation balances over $3m … yes that’s right, we’re still talking about it.There have been some conversations with the prime minister’s office … It’s probably not unusual for that to occur from time to time.This is too often what happens when you get a government that has such a large majority that they don’t take people along on key policy issues.People have been planning for decades for how they save for retirement and structure those investments. So any changes that are made to super need to be considered and provide people looking to retire with plenty of warning.I don’t think there are high risks to this first phase. The ceasefire, the release of the living hostages, the rapid identification and turnover of those bodies that can be found, and the introduction of humanitarian assistance, coupled with that, first of all steps, the Israeli withdrawal to the agreed initial line. I think that will happen. The problematic and hard to negotiate issues are what follows. This phase one is, if you will, the opening of the door.An armed Hamas is a Hamas which will retain the ability to assert, albeit clandestinely, effective governance. Disarmament must be in parallel to the process of shifting Hamas out of that effective governance role. And so the question that has to be raised here is what pressures can be brought to bear upon Hamas in order to affect that goal. Continue reading...