Republicans take aim at News Bargaining Incentive

ESSENTIALS Republicans take aim at News Bargaining Incentive Exclusive: More than 700 job cuts at Home Affairs Department How AUKUS depends on Britain’s struggling submarine town Tom Rogers’ love for democracy sausage missiles DRIVING THE DAY THE VIBE IS: Relief. What’s on the menu at the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge? The end of the sitting session has finally arrived, with Labor and the Coalition striking deals to pass legislation on gambling, the NDIS and the News Bargaining Incentive. You wouldn’t know it from Question Time but it was a truly bipartisan week. Yes, but: Americans for Tax Reform, the conservative group founded by Republican strategist Grover Norquist, is calling on the Trump administration to start an inquiry into the News Bargaining Incentive, which it frames as a “shakedown.” Yes, but but: Expect Labor to face questions about the Parliamentary Budget Office’s forecast that national gross debt will reach $2 trillion by the end of the decade. The PBO also says the national fiscal position will likely remain sustainable, except in the most extreme cases. NO CUT THROUGH LIKE A GUILLOTINE: One Nation won’t get a chance to progress their agenda on tobacco tax cuts in the Senate today. Labor’s bill to expand powers to investigate illicit tobacco was tacked on to a guillotine motion passed by Labor and the Coalition earlier this week, limiting debate on the hot-button topic. KEEP CALM, AND KEOGH ON: The Coalition has one sitting day left to hammer home demands that the Prime Minister cans a cap on payments for allied health care costs for veterans, or sacks Minister Matt Keogh. The PM defended Keogh wholeheartedly yesterday and has extended an invitation to meet with the group of veterans and advocates who say they were snubbed and then brushed off by the Veterans’ Affairs minister. Keogh did his best to appear contrite, cool, calm and collected, and little was said about the actual measure at the center of the political attack. Rumors are swirling in the Parliament House coffee lines that the veterans criticizing Keogh aren’t all the ordinary punters they’re cracked up to be — and that some of the push against Keogh comes from what’s known as the “commercial advocacy sector,” a.k.a. organizations that operate for profit, promising to act for veterans to maximize their benefits claims. What about the department? Defense ministers usually aren’t afraid to throw their departments under the bus, but Keogh wasn’t wrong when he referenced deteriorating trust in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs yesterday. This change was announced in May but is only coming to a head now. One possible explanation is a lack of stakeholder consultation. And, then: There’s the $748 million that the government expects to save over three years by introducing the cap. Not a small sum. On the other hand, it doesn’t come into effect until July 2027, leaving time for a back-down. BY THE NUMBERS EXCLUSIVE — HOME AFFAIRS MAKES MAJOR STAFF CUTS More than 800 staff have been offered voluntary redundancies, with at least 697 accepting, according to an update given to public servants earlier in the year, seen by POLITICO’s Miriam Webber. The redundancies are part of a sweeping trend across the public service, but the Home Affairs numbers are significant. The mega department had 16,600 staff at the last count in Dec. 2025. (That’s headcount, not ASL, for fellow public service nerds.) The breakdown of redundancies offered and taken shows 437 Home Affairs staff had accepted redundancies, including in immigration, national security and corporate areas, while 260 people chose to leave the Australian Border Force. On immigration: 210 public servants accepted voluntary redundancies from the department’s immigration group, raising questions about whether the cuts will or have affected ongoing work on policy. The department says: Not much, promising only an October update with final figures. No further offers are being made. Know more?: WhatsApp on 0494 380 487 o