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Federal politics live: Coalition reviewing ideas to let people access super for housing

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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Canavan accuses government of acting in bad faith on algorithms

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 it's 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."

Sport and community fund overwhelmingly favoured Labor

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 has 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.

Bragg reviews policy ideas to let people access super for housing

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

One Nation yesterday unveiled its controversial plan to allow renters and mortgage holders to take home three 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 more Australians won't own homes by the time they retire.

He says there's no official proposal on the table, but confirmed "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.

Good morning 👋

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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