Key events
Thousands of NSW court files including AVOs leaked in ‘major data breach’
Stephanie Convery
Around 9,000 court files, including sensitive documents such as apprehended violence orders and affidavits, have been leaked in a data breach of the New South Wales court system’s online registry.
Police were alerted to a breach of the NSW Online Registry website on Tuesday and the state’s cybercrime squad commenced an investigation, NSW Police said in statement on Wednesday night.
The registry is an online platform that provides secure access to information in both civil and criminal cases across the NSW court system.
Investigators were working on containing the “major data breach” and establishing the extent of the breach in collaboration with the Department of Communities and Justice, police said.
Greg Jericho is writing about the budget today and he argues that Labor’s tax cuts have left the opposition leader and shadow treasurer with limited options.
He applauds Jim Chalmers’s decision to pass more of the pie to lower earners but says that more could have been done to help people on Jobseeker, which remains well below the poverty line.
He concludes:
Tax is now a major part of both the ALP’s and LNP’s election campaigns. And many of the other choices that would help the unemployed or reduce tax breaks to the rich will be likely left for someone else to worry about.
Read his full column here:
Peter Dutton is expected to promise tonight that the coalition will halve the fuel excise for 12 months if elected, AAP reports.
The policy would lower the rate on petrol and diesel from about 50 cents to 25 cents per litre.
The coalition voted against the tax cuts that passed parliament on Wednesday, saying they were too little, too late for struggling Australians.
Taxpayers will save up to $268 on their tax bills in 2026/27 and up to $536 every year after under Labor’s proposal.
“What’s obvious here is that a 70-cent-a-day tax cut in 15 months’ time is just not going to help families today who are really suffering,” Dutton said.
“We do want to help families address the cost-of-living crisis, we do want to address the energy crisis.”
The opposition voted against Labor’s tax cuts, with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor chastising Labor for producing a budget “for the next five weeks, not the next five years,” referring to the imminent election campaign.
But he was attacked by the treasurer for voting against tax relief.
Taylor didn’t rule out larger tax cuts being offered by the coalition.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer, bringing the best of the early stories before Emily Wind guides you through the morning.
The setpiece of the day will be Peter Dutton’s budget reply at 7.30 this evening in which he is expected to try to outflank Anthony Albanese on cost-of-living relief. The Coalition voted against Labor’s income tax cuts yesterday and the opposition leader is preparing what has been called a “very significant announcement” in tonight’s speech. It appears that it’s going to be a promise to halve the fuel excise for 12 months, which would see about 25c come off the price of a litre of petrol.
We will have full coverage of the buildup to his address and the rest of the budget fallout.
Despite Sarah Hanson-Young’s best efforts yesterday when she waved a dead salmon in the Senate, the legislation to protect the Tasmanian salmon industry was passed through parliament last night. Coalition senators joined Labor to vote in favour of the bill after the government speeded the process by guillotining the debate to bring on a vote. More coming up.
Specialist cybercrime detectives are investigating how 9,000 documents from New South Wales’s online court system were leaked into the public domain. NSW police’s cybercrime squad was alerted on Tuesday to the breach of the state’s Online Registry website, which provides access to civil and criminal court cases. Police said the documents include sensitive material such as apprehended violence orders and affidavits. More to follow.