Australia news LIVE: Teals in talks to form new political party; Flotilla activists return home; Antisemitism royal commission to resume today

Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Monday, May 25. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage for the first part of the day. Here’s what is making headlines.

• Teal independents are in advanced talks to create a new political party that may be announced within weeks, sources close to the deliberations say, with MPs Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall leading the push.
• More Australians who were detained by Israel after their Gaza-bound flotilla was intercepted in international waters will return home today. Melbourne woman Gemma O’Toole was the first of 11 Australians to return last night, greeted by her parents and about 100 supporters. The group of Australians allege mistreatment and abuse of fellow activists by Israeli forces.
• The antisemitism royal commission will resume today, and will zoom in on security and law enforcement agencies, including the decision to send just three police officers to safeguard the Jewish festival at Bondi Beach where alleged Islamic State radicals shot dead 15 people.

• And US President Donald Trump said he had told his representatives not to rush into any deal with Iran, as his administration played down hopes of an imminent breakthrough in the three-month-old war.

Stay with us as we bring you rolling news updates throughout the day.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said opposition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie might have failed the pub test when she billed taxpayers to attend her son’s wedding, but that the spending was within the rules for politician’s travel expenses.

This masthead revealed this morning that McKenzie claimed flight and accommodation expenses during a trip to Tasmania’s Tamar Valley in 2023 where her son was getting married.

“The focus always has to be to make sure we’re spending public money appropriately and doing it consistent with the rules,” Wilson told Today when asked about McKenzie’s expenses.

“But the difference between the rules and the pub tests, there’ll always be a gap, and I think that this clearly fits within that.”

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says a vacuum in Australian politics has created prime conditions for a new centrist party, but has distanced himself from having a role in its creation.

“There is absolutely an opportunity there. I mean, people feel the Liberal Party has moved away from the centre. That is why the teals were elected, and the more the Liberal Party tries to chase and emulate and copy One Nation, the more it builds up the vote for One Nation,” he told Radio National.

“I think there is a vacuum for an alternative centre party. Now, the teals would be obvious people to be part of that, or to do that, but, and I’ve talked to them about that publicly going back some years, but whether they actually decide to do so is up to them. So I’m not involved with any, you know, plans to set something up.”

Asked whether he had been speaking about the political climate with some of the independents, Turnbull said: “I talk to a lot of people.”

“I’m not actively involved in politics at all, but I, you know, I certainly talk to people like Allegra Spender. I’ve spoken to Zali [Steggall] in the past and spoken to others.”

Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite says Liberals, Nationals and One Nation have formed a “crackpot coalition” and to oppose Labor’s changes to the CGT.

“We’re determined to make sure that the taxation system and the housing market works for the average Australian worker, and you’ve now got the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation, the crackpot coalition, working together to oppose our changes,” he told Sky News this morning.

“They want to entrench a system that’s not working for Australians, that punishes hard-working Australians that are trying to get ahead.”

Thistlethwaite insisted the government was in ongoing consultations with start-ups as it contends with backlash from the business sector over the tax changes.

“We’re going to consult further before we put the legislation to parliament.”

Gold Coast woman Helen O’Sullivan has arrived back in Brisbane, with the “from the river to the sea” slogan — recently banned in Queensland — handwritten on her Israeli-issued tracksuit.

The grandmother-of-eight was one of about half a dozen activities who travelled on a boat from Italy to join the flotilla, which was intercepted off the coast of Gaza.

She alleged widespread assault, and said her arm was twisted by an Israeli soldier until she screamed, and her reading glasses were smashed.

O’Sullivan began to cry as she was greeted by about 20 supporters and family members at Brisbane International Airport just before 7am this morning.

Steggall has also called on the government to restrict its capital gains tax changes to housing only, after backlash to businesses and broader investments being captured in the budget reforms.

“So many millennials and young professionals are incredibly blindsided and angry by the proposition in the budget that, for example, they work hard, they pay their taxes, the little bit of extra money they have, they invest it in ETFs, in shares, for example, in the hope of building a little bit of a buffer, and now the government is reaching in to tax that at a much greater rate,” the independent MP told Radio National.

The teal independents, who have largely backed Labor’s economic agenda since its election, will hold a press conference this morning to call on the government to reconsider extending its capital gains tax changes beyond housing.

Independent MP Zali Steggall says teal independents are in talks about how they can be more effective in parliament as Australian politics experiences a state of flux.

We reported this morning that independent MPs were in advanced stages of creating a new political party.

“I’m always open, because, of course, I’m in my third term, and after seven years in parliament, I can see how there are many things we could do politics better and differently, and I think a lot of people in the Australian public are really frustrated with the major parties,” Steggall told Radio National this morning.

“For me, I take that responsibility really seriously, that we have to keep evolving and looking at how do we best serve our communities.”

Steggall acknowledged the risk of losing votes if Australians saw joining a party as a loss of the independence the MPs were elected on.

“How do we actually evolve and expand the community movement, so that communities that don’t currently have the option of voting for an independent have more choice? I think that’s a really interesting challenge for us,” she said.

Top Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie billed taxpayers for flights and accommodation to Tasmania before and after her son’s wedding in the Tamar Valley.

Parliamentary expenses records show McKenzie, the party’s Senate leader, used public money to partially fund her four-day trip to Tasmania at the end of summer in 2023.

After appearing at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday, February 16, 2023, McKenzie flew back to Melbourne – the nearest capital city to her home base at the time – and then immediately jumped on a plane to Launceston, billing taxpayers $328.99.

She then charged taxpayers $317 for one night’s accommodation in Launceston that night.

According to rules overseen by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, politicians may only claim the costs of their travel where the “dominant purpose” of the trip is parliamentary business. That can include committee work, legislative work, attending meetings or representing the government or Australia, with the approval of the prime minister.

A spokesperson for McKenzie said her February 2023 flight and accommodation to Launceston was “undertaken in accordance with parliamentary rules as part of a multi-state campaign to expose Labor’s budget cuts to infrastructure”.

Liberal moderates have this morning ruled out joining a new political party spearheaded by community independents.

This masthead revealed yesterday the MPs known as teals were in advanced talks to establish a party that could be announced within weeks.

Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume accused the independents of abandoning the message of integrity they campaigned on.

“The idea that they have gone out and said to their electorates that they are community independents, that we’re going to do politics differently, but have now demonstrated that they’re going to do it exactly the same way, I think speaks volumes,” Hume told Sky News.

Staying with Butler’s appearance on ABC TV, the minister says the government has raised the “disgraceful behaviour”, the allegations of abuse and mistreatment levelled at Israel by a group of Australian flotilla activists who were captured and detained in an Israeli prison.

“We have [raised], in the strongest possible terms, both in Israel itself, but also with the Israeli ambassador of Australia here in Canberra, the treatment of those Australians and people from many other countries as well has been disgraceful, particularly the behaviour of [National Security] Minister [Itamar] Ben Gvir.

“We’ve raised our concerns in the strongest possible way. We’re really glad that the Australians are starting now to return home and reunite with their families, but this has been a particularly concerning event,” Butler said.

Melbourne woman Gemma O’Toole was the first of 11 Australian activists from the flotilla to return home, arriving last night after more than three days in an Israeli prison.

The group of Australians allege mistreatment and abuse by Israeli forces.

Health Minister Mark Butler said this morning he was not surprised to read reports that teal independents were in advanced talks to form a new political party.

“There obviously is a lot of flux in the non-Labor parts of politics right now. So to see speculation like that’s perhaps not a surprise,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast program.

“They’ve obviously made inroads in particular communities in Australia. They’ll make an assessment about whether that works for them.”

This masthead reported yesterday that teal independents were in advanced talks to create a new political party that may be announced within weeks, sources close to the deliberations said, with MPs Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall leading the push.