Australia news LIVE: PM evacuated from Lodge after security threat; Trump’s new worldwide tariffs come into effect at 10 per cent

Staying with the deputy Liberal leader, Hume has been asked about last night’s evacuation of The Lodge in Canberra following a security threat to the prime minister.

She said one of the best features of Australia’s democracy was the ability for its elected officials to interact closely with the public without fear of violence, adding that she was relieved to hear Anthony Albanese was safe.

“One of, I think, the most satisfying features of Australian democracy is the ability for those that represent Australians to be among them all the time without fear of violence or retribution. This is a country that is built on civilised debate. That’s how we get policy outcomes, not through violence and not through threats.

“I’m very pleased to hear that the prime minister is safe and well and that the threat came to naught. I hope we see fewer of them,” Hume said.

Liberal deputy leader Jane Hume says her party has a “huge task” ahead of it to win back voters after a devastating election loss and plummeting popular support in recent polling.

“It’s only been 10 days since there was a leadership change in the Liberal Party, and only a week since the new shadow ministry was announced,” Hume told Sky.

“I think we’re all very aware, acutely aware, of the enormous task and responsibility that we have ahead of us to win back the trust of those voters that have been dissatisfied with the Coalition, that haven’t seen their hopes and their dreams reflected in the policies and the platforms and the positions that we’ve taken.”

Recent polls have shown popular support for the Liberals declining, while support for One Nation has surged.

National Party leader David Littleproud has lamented last night’s security incident at The Lodge – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Canberra residence – as a sign of Australian society’s “deterioration”.

“It’s disappointing the prime minister who has been put at threat, put at risk, and it’s a poor reflection on society that we’ve got to this stage, that Australia has been a country that’s been able to enjoy much of the freedoms and freedom of speech in an open forum with their politicians, where we can move freely,” Littleproud told Sky News this morning.

“And I think when these sorts of incidents happen, it’s a deterioration of where we’re heading as a country. And I think while many don’t agree with me or the prime minister on certain issues, it’s important that we keep that at a debate level, rather than one that perpetrates threats upon one another. I think we’re better than that as a country.”

Albanese was evacuated from The Lodge last night while police searched the premises following reports of a security threat.

The nature of the threat has not been made public.

Minister for Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill has accused the Coalition of turning a blind eye to rising Islamophobia after what he called a failure to condemn One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s attack on Muslims last week.

The remarks come after The Australian reported that Hill would use a speech to the McKell Institute today to urge Australian progressives to embrace the flag and prevent it from being leveraged as propaganda by hard-right extremists.

“Our country is being ripped apart by extremism and division,” he told Sky News this morning.

“I start the speech by reflecting on the many societies throughout history and right now in every continent in the world where good societies have fallen apart because political leaders choose to foment violence. They choose to stoke ethnic divisions, religious divisions and so on.

“And you’ve got parts of your party, the conservative right, part of which where you sit, that are not calling out this disgusting attack on Muslim Australians by [Pauline] Hanson. Hanson lives rent-free inside your head,” Hill said.

Hill will also tell the gathering of the institute in Sydney today that “debates over the scale and focus of the migration program are entirely legitimate”, but that weaponising diversity and migration will not quell “genuine community anxieties”.

Gallagher said the government was seeking “significant savings” in the May budget after this masthead revealed ministers had been ordered to rein in department spending amid persistent inflation pressure.

“We’re continuing the approach we brought in other budgets, but we are looking for, you know, significant savings in this budget,” the finance minister told ABC Radio National this morning.

“That’s partly to ensure that we’re managing the budget properly. It’s also to try and find room to fund the things that we need to fund.”

Gallagher singled out defence, healthcare and aged care as items putting significant pressure on the budget.

“All of those [are] areas that the demand is increasing, not decreasing, and so the responsible thing to do is to look at where you have existing expenditure and look to whether we can find savings.”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says the government is assessing issues of equity in housing ahead of the May budget, particularly where it relates to housing affordability for young Australians.

Speaking to ABC Radio National, Gallagher said the prime minister and treasurer had made it clear “we are interested in looking at the issues around equity, intergenerationally, around housing”.

She said the government should be looking at capital gains tax concession reform, and it would consider a report from an inquiry into the discount when it was tabled in March.

“We are interested in that. We should be looking at that. We’ve been trying to make sure that younger people are able to buy their own home.

“Whether it be some of our other programs, 5 per cent deposits … all of that is part of how we’re approaching the task of really making sure younger people aren’t locked out of the housing market.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has demanded ministers find savings and delay spending to avoid adding fuel to the inflation fire ahead of a budget that insiders say will be pitched as a belt-tightening exercise.

After months of Coalition arguments that near-record high public spending is keeping prices elevated, this masthead has spoken to 10 members of the ministry, granted anonymity to discuss inner workings, who say Labor’s razor gang is applying a heightened level of rigour to the May budget.

A cash injection needed to fulfil Labor’s promises to fix the crumbling aged care system may not be available all at once due to the squeeze, reflecting the difficulty of catering for an ageing population while funding projects such as AUKUS. The e61 Institute think tank warned last week about a shift away from means-tested services to a European-style non-means tested universal welfare system that was straining the budget.

Labor is also considering applying its new lower growth rate for the NDIS of between 5-6 per cent, or even slightly lower, into budget forecasts to reap savings in the $52 billion program that senior ministers fear will not be able to exist in the long run if it is not trimmed.

Read the full report by chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher is reflecting on the “extraordinary” news that the prime minister was forced to evacuate his official Canberra residence the Lodge last night, saying she cannot recall a situation like this.

“It would be good if we saw the temperature taken down,” she told ABC News Breakfast, describing the evacuation after a security threat as an illustration of “some of the circumstances that politicians are operating in now ... this happens not just to government members, it’s across the parliament, where some politicians are subjected to just unbelievable threats against their safety”.

The Australian Federal Police recorded almost 1000 threats against politicians in the 2024-2025 financial year.

Since the Bondi terror attacks in December last year, three men, two in Sydney and one in Perth, have been arrested in separate incidents for allegedly threatening the prime minister’s life.

Police have recently charged others with making violent threats towards other MPs, including Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Communications Minister Anika Wells and independent MP Allegra Spender.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says the Coalition will not be deterred by the “constitutional risks” flagged by its legislative proposal seeking to criminalise non-profits and anyone assisting Australians with links to terrorism to return home.

“Well, let’s see what the High Court says … I mean, that’s why we have separation of power in our Constitution. Parliament makes laws, and then it’s up to the courts to determine if they breach our Constitution or not. Let’s have a go because I think the public is right.

“They are extremely concerned about this cohort coming back into Australia, and let’s remember that these women knowingly took their children to fight a war, to set up an Islamic State and raise these same Australian children under sharia law,” she told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.

The new laws, proposed by Opposition Leader Angus Taylor earlier this week, follow news that a cohort of 34 Australian IS brides and their children attempted to leave a detainment camp in Syria and return home to Australia, but were turned back during their journey.

McKenzie confirmed the legislation would look to target charities aiding repatriation efforts.

“We’re also looking at legislation to actually make it a criminal offence for assisting people who are working with terrorist organisations or have links to terrorist organisations.”

Asked whether Save the Children would be one such target, she said, “They would be, they wouldn’t be able to help people return who had actually been fighting for terrorists, assisting terrorists, or from terrorist hot spots,” she said.

Australia’s migration program should be audited as part of the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion, Nationals senator Matt Canavan says.

“I also don’t see why we can’t have a proper audit through this royal commission of our migration program, and particularly the standards we’re setting for people coming to this country that could be clearly within the purview of the royal commission,” he told Nine’s Today show this morning.

The royal commission opened yesterday in Sydney.

Royal commissioner Virginia Bell will be working against the clock to deliver her final report before the first anniversary of the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Bell ruled out hearing evidence about the Bondi attack from eyewitnesses on the first day of the inquiry yesterday.