Australia news LIVE: Coalition would repeal changes to negative gearing and CGT if elected; Chalmers insists government will deliver budget savings; Trump touches down in China

Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Thursday, May 14. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage this morning. Here’s what you need to know.

• Yesterday’s coverage was dominated by responses to the government’s federal budget, which was handed down on Tuesday night by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. The Coalition said it would seek to repeal Labor’s changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount if elected. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will deliver his budget reply speech tonight.
• Albanese also defended his use of negative gearing to buy a NSW Central Coast property, after the opposition linked the $4.3 million purchase to the limits placed on future buyers.
• Chalmers insisted the government would be able to deliver the budget savings promised, and said yesterday it would be “difficult but doable”.
• A repatriation flight has been secured to bring six Australian passengers who were on the hantavirus-struck cruise ship home from the Netherlands, where they have been in hotel quarantine since Tuesday. When they arrive home, the group will be sent to a quarantine facility in Perth.
• US President Donald Trump has touched down in China for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The pair will discuss the Iran war, trade, Taiwan and artificial intelligence.

ASX Limited has appointed a new boss, signing up Anthony Attia, an executive from the European market operator, to lead the company.

ASX said this morning it has picked Attia, who joins from Euronext, to be its next chief executive, replacing Helen Lofthouse.

Attia, who will start in September, is joining after ASX has faced blunt criticism and intense scrutiny from regulators after a series of technology failings.

ASX chair David Clarke said he was confident Attia could support the next stage in the company’s technology transformation.

“He brings deep exchange experience coupled with a proven track record of technology-enabled transformation and a clear understanding of the responsibilities that come with leading critical market infrastructure,” Clarke said.

Senator James Paterson said One Nation should either disavow the behaviour of party volunteer Allan Beale, or admit they didn’t do their due diligence before inviting him onstage to celebrate the Farrer byelection win at the weekend.

This masthead revealed yesterday that Beale, who was lauded by One Nation after snatching Paterson’s phone during an argument at a polling booth last week had shared posts on social media questioning the motives of Dezi Freeman and defending neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell.

“It’s a matter for One Nation the kind of views and values and behaviours that they choose to embrace,” the opposition defence spokesman told Sky News.

“Dezi Freeman was a cop killer who is being investigated for possessing child sex abuse material, not because he’s a constitutional law expert. And Thomas Sewell is a neo-Nazi who has engaged in utterly reprehensible conduct.”

Paterson said he presumed the minor party and its leader Pauline Hanson did their due diligence before inviting Beale onstage during Saturday’s victory party and “embraced him in front of the audience and the nation”.

“So I assume they’re familiar with his views, and they’re comfortable with them. If they didn’t do their due diligence, they should say so. And if they disagree with the things he has said and done, they should also say so.”

Migrants who become disabled while waiting to become a citizen would have to rely on insurance rather than the NDIS, opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said, under a new opposition plan to curtail welfare for non-citizens.

“I think it’s appropriate if you are coming to this country on a visa, you should be able to support yourself. You shouldn’t be coming here with a plan to go on welfare,” Paterson told Sky News.

“If someone is injured in the course of their work, they should be compensated for that by their employer in the usual way.”

Paterson said the policy proposal, expected to be announced tonight in Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech, would not apply to healthcare.

“People are not going to be turned away from a hospital if they are injured just because of their visa status. We have a universal healthcare system in this country, and we strongly support that,” he said.

“This is about things like the kind of payments that we make to people when they’re unemployed, about the kind of about things like the NDIS, which are incredibly generous and are intended for Australians because they are paid for by Australians.”

Economic justice spokesperson for the Greens Nick McKim said his party was “working through the details” of Labor’s policies on negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount before deciding whether to endorse the changes.

Though the Greens have campaigned for decades to change negative gearing and CGT, he told Radio National the party would have liked to see stronger action from the government.

Asked if the Greens would support the changes proposed by the government, McKim said: “We’re working through the detail, and tax changes are complicated, and there can be a lot of unintended consequences.

“The judgement that we need to make is, firstly, are these a step in the right direction? And secondly, whether there’s anything more we can do to alleviate what is, you know, a massive social crisis in our country.”

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has slammed critics who have framed the budget as a “generational conflict about housing”.

She rejected the argument that the government had failed older Australians and favoured younger Australians by overhauling the investor tax system.

“I very fundamentally dispute that characterisation. I am just as likely to get stopped on the street by a parent or grandparent who is worried about the young person in their life and their housing opportunities as I am by someone in their 20s and 30s,” she told ABC Radio National.

“This is a national challenge that is affecting our whole country, and this budget is about making housing fairer for everyone.”

Taylor declined to provide a target migration number ahead of delivering his budget reply tonight, in which he is expected to outline the Coalition’s migration policy.

He was asked twice about the Coalition’s target number of migrants per year, but would not provide an exact number, only insisting numbers under Labor were “too high”.

“It will be well below 200,000,” he told Sunrise.

Under Taylor’s plan, migration numbers would match the number of new houses built each year.

“It will depend on the number of houses available.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor rejects suggestions his migration policy, to be slated tonight during his budget reply speech, is just a bid to win back voters from One Nation.

Asked whether this was the Coalition’s way to draw voters back from Pauline Hanson’s party, he told Seven’s Sunrise: “This is our way of putting Australians first. That’s what we firmly believe in. If people commit to our country, we will absolutely commit to them.”

Migrants should be barred from accessing social services such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme until they become citizens, Taylor says.

“We’ve got older Australians who are going to lose access to the support they’ve had for private health insurance, and meanwhile, Labor is providing programs like these to non-Australians, and we think that is the wrong priority, and we need to get the priorities right.

“Australians should come first.”

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says the impact of the budget on rent prices will be minimal as she defends the government’s overhaul of the investor tax system.

Budget papers projected a marginal increase to the cost of rentals. O’Neil said this morning “there will not be a significant impact for renters”.

“There will be an impact, but there won’t be a significant impact,” she told Nine’s Today show.

“Treasury modelling says this will be around $2 a week, but that doesn’t take into account the fact that we are improving supply, and that will put downward pressure on rents.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will deliver his budget reply speech tonight, during which he is expected to outline an alternative vision to One Nation and oppose Labor’s changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

Yesterday, the Coalition said it would repeal the government’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax if elected.

Taylor is considering a tax pledge, as reported earlier this week, which may include pegging marginal tax rates to inflation or wage growth to reduce bracket creep.

The opposition leader is also expected to outline a migration policy that would see migration numbers match the number of new homes built.

US President Donald Trump has landed in Beijing for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with the Iran war, trade, Taiwan and artificial intelligence the key talking points of their high-stakes meeting.

Trump was greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and other dignitaries as he stepped off Air Force One and onto a red carpet at the city’s Capital International Airport on Wednesday evening for the two-day summit.

He was welcomed by a military honour guard, a military band, and hundreds of Chinese youth waving US and Chinese flags.

Trump’s state visit to China – the first by a US president in almost a decade – comes saddled with the baggage of the Iran war, which has triggered a global energy crisis, and injected fresh tensions into the summit due to Beijing’s close diplomatic ties with Tehran as the largest buyer of its oil.

Both Trump and Xi will be seeking to stabilise their fragile trade truce secured in South Korea in October when their formal talks begin this morning at the Great Hall of the People.