Australia news LIVE: House price fall most significant slump since 2022; Israeli strikes kill 18 in Gaza despite Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough

Communications Minister Anika Wells has defended excluding a ban on betting inducements in Labor’s gambling reforms, saying people suffering from gambling harm can sign up to the self-exclusion register.

“I would say to people who are either suffering from gambling harm or… who have been advocating in the space of inducements, to assist the cause by making sure that people who might benefit from BetStop are aware of BetStop and can take and use the benefits of BetStop because it is really useful,” Wells told reporters in Canberra.

“If you are someone who is suffering from gambling harm and you do not wish to receive a text message with an inducement… you can opt out forever using BetStop today.”

Labor has been under sustained pressure to strengthen its gambling reforms, which will face a Senate inquiry this week.

Labor is announcing the final details of its News Bargaining Incentive, which we brought you earlier today.

“Under the previous arrangements that we inherited under the News Media Bargaining Code, big tech platforms could walk away without any consequences, and so what we’re seeing with the incentive is that if they decide to walk away, they will actually have to pay more,” assistant treasurer Daniel Mulino told reporters in Canberra.

“The News Bargaining Incentive creates an obligation on big tech platforms based upon their digital advertising revenue … We estimate, in rough terms, that if they enter into reasonable, fair commercial dealings, that it should see benefits to the media in the order of 200 to 250 million dollars.”

Opposition spokesman for indigenous affairs Julian Leeser has called on the government to map out a clear direction for the nation’s Indigenous policy, saying it was a tragedy Labor had largely avoided the issue since the failed Voice to Parliament referendum.

“The prime minister before the referendum spent the first 18 months of his term making Indigenous affairs the absolute centrepiece of policy, and I campaigned ‘yes’ for the Voice alongside him. But after the failure of the referendum, having raised all of these issues about indigenous disadvantage, instead of cracking on with it … it became the topic that dare not speak its name,” Leeser told Radio National.

“That’s a tragedy because many of the challenges still remain.”

Leeser said he was calling for a new direction on Indigenous policy that focused on education, wealth creation and suicide prevention.

“They are three of the key things that I think, if you address them and get them right, they can set Indigenous Australians up for intergenerational success.”

Jim Chalmers said housing was a long-term investment and prices would rise in years to come as the national market experiences its deepest downturn since Albanese came to office.

Figures released by Cotality today show dwelling values in the nation’s capitals dropped by 0.9 per cent through July, led by a steep fall in the value of houses in Sydney and Melbourne.

“The budget assumptions were that over the course of the next couple of years, we will see prices continue to grow, but a bit more modestly than they have been, and obviously this is only the first couple of months of that two-year period,” the treasurer told Radio National after Labor wound back the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing in its May budget.

He said Cotality had also pointed to interest rates, higher fuel prices and cost of living as causes for the downturn, and said it was not uncommon for house prices to come off.

“If you look over the past couple of decades, even if we’ve had over that period, a period of extraordinary price growth, we’ve still had in that two-decade period, I think at least seven times, where prices have come off,” he said.

“Investment in housing is a long-term investment. People don’t make investments in housing from day to day or week to week, month to month, and so from time to time you will see movements in prices like these.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is warning service stations not to hike petrol prices beyond the increase that will come with the end of the fuel excise discount.

“We’ve substantially increased the penalties for servos or suppliers who are caught behaving in a false or misleading fashion, or engaging in anticompetitive practices, and so the [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] has the powers that they need to fine … servos and suppliers up to $100 million per offence, and so servos and suppliers are on notice,” Chalmers told Radio National.

“The regulator will be watching them like a hawk, and they can’t use the return to normal settings with the excise as cover for treating motorists as mugs.”

Chalmers said the government was not planning on bringing the fuel excise cut back.

Changes made to Labor’s News Bargaining Incentive legislation (NBI) will support public interest journalism and strengthen Australian democracy, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino has said.

Tech companies will face a 2.5 per cent tax if they fail to strike deals with media companies under the proposed new laws.

Speaking to News24 – formerly Sky News – Mulino said: “This is a really important reform that is going to support public interest journalism in Australia, which is so important to our democracy.”

Mulino said the government received 85 submissions “from a wide range of sources” during the consultation period.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek has responded to news this morning that the nation’s housing market is experiencing its most significant downturn since 2022 and says there has never been a better time to be a first home buyer in Australia.

“Not in my lifetime has there been a better time to be a first home buyer in Australia. I’m so happy to see more than 260,000 individuals and couples have made use of our 5 per cent deposit,” she told Seven’s Sunrise.

“That means probably a quarter of a million households or more that would not be in a home of their own if it wasn’t for the backing that we’re giving first home buyers.”

Figures released by Cotality today show dwelling values in the nation’s capitals dropped by 0.9 per cent through July, led by a steep fall in the value of houses in Sydney and Melbourne.

Authorities are warning there is nothing they can do to stop the spread of H5N1 bird flu through Australia’s wildlife, after another 20 cases of the deadly virus were recorded nationwide.

A cluster of nearly 50 dead birds off the South Australian coast is being probed for links to the current outbreak as fears of the first H5N1 mass mortality event grow.

As of 5pm yesterday, Australia has 62 confirmed detections of H5 bird flu in wild seabirds.

The risk to human health remains low, authorities say, but experts are concerned about the impacts that widespread infection could have on the poultry industry.

There have been no detections of the strain in the agriculture industry so far.

Cairo/Jerusalem: Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s ceasefire agreement.

From dawn, Israeli warplanes hit Gaza City in the north, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern area of Khan Younis, causing the biggest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.

Trump’s assertion on Thursday that Palestinian Hamas militants and other armed groups had agreed to disarm, had raised hopes of a turning point in efforts to end the conflict.

On Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen – a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet – said the government would give Hamas the opportunity to disarm but that he was “very sceptical” that it would happen.

Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Monday, August 3. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• The national property market is in its deepest downturn since 2022 as interest rates, high cost of living and the May budget’s changes to property taxes combine to wipe thousands of dollars off property values.
• The government has finalised its News Bargaining Incentive legislation, increasing its digital advertising levy to 2.5 per cent in a move Labor hopes will encourage deal making with news publishers and result in more funding for journalism.
• Minister for Agriculture Julie Collins and Minister for Environment Murray Watt will provide a bird flu update later today, as the H5N1 strain spreads across five Australian states and authorities say eradicating the virus in open wildlife is now unfeasible.
• Australia has dominated the medal tally at the Commonwealth Games, and will see out the closing ceremony today in Glasgow with a staggering 70 gold medals after an extraordinary 10 days of action.
• US President Donald Trump has said the US would hold off on a fresh attack on Iran as long as a deal could be reached quickly to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
• And Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, despite Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s ceasefire agreement.