CAPITAL HIT ON STAMP DUTY; UK'S SUBS LIFT
ACT axes stamp duty for first-home buyers
The Australian Capital Territory will become the first jurisdiction in the nation to abolish stamp duty for first-home property buyers. ACT Treasurer Chris Steel said stamp duty exemptions would also be extended for pensioners and for all home buyers who had not owned property for five years. Mr Steel announced the abolition of stamp duty for first-home buyers ahead of the Territory’s budget, which forecast a $323 million headline net operating deficit for 2026-27. The ACT Budget is forecast to move into surplus by 2028-29.
UK moves to bolster AUKUS support
Australian and United Kingdom Foreign and Defence ministers have moved to shore up support for the tri-nation AUKUS partnership, claiming the submarine program would deliver a generational leap in capability in the underwater domain. Meeting in London with their UK counterparts, Penny Wong and Richard Marles said there was “significant progress” in the design of SSN-AUKUS nuclear-powered attack submarines, and that delivery remained on track. They said the submarine platform would be equipped to deliver a suite of critical capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance, undersea warfare and strike missions. A communique issued after the bilateral meeting noted that Australia had provided an initial down payment of $3.9 billion to deliver the Osborne nuclear-powered submarine construction yard in South Australia. Meanwhile, the UK had invested £6 billion (A$11.3 billion) to uplift submarine building infrastructure in the UK.
Push for German role in joint military exercises
Preceding their UK meeting, Penny Wong and Richard Marles met with their German counterparts in Berlin, stepping up plans for greater cooperation through joint military exercises between Australia and Germany. The Australian and German ministers also agreed to explore opportunities for enhanced cooperation in space and discussed bolstering their defence industrial bases. In addition, the Australian-German talks canvassed the importance of cooperating on countering cyber and hybrid threats, as well as on foreign information manipulation and interference.
Australia a new ‘lucky country’ for data centres
Australia is poised to become a new version of the “lucky country” because of its ability to attract investment in the data centre boom, according to the Federal Government. Dr Andrew Charlton, the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and Digital Economy told a forum in Sydney that Australia offered data centre investors an attractive combination of political stability, Five-Eyes security and unrivalled potential for renewable power. Dr Charlton said the main fear of an investor in data centres that managed petabytes (more than one million gigabytes) of sensitive data was that their investment could become stranded during its 30-year useful life. The Assistant Minister said the government was addressing issues of data centre demand for energy and water, through a statement of expectations. Data centres would be required to bring new and renewable energy supply to offset their demand, and to pay their full share of network infrastructure costs. In addition, Dr Charlton said data centres would need to provide demand flexibility and cooperate with market operators to strengthen the energy grid.
Renewables protecting nation from energy price shocks, says Treasurer
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has claimed that the transition to renewable energy has helped to shield Australia from rising electricity and gas prices during the Middle East conflict. In a speech to a financial forum, Dr Chalmers said that during the current Iran shock, domestic gas prices were 20 per cent lower than in the previous year, while electricity futures prices had remained stable. During the Ukraine shock of 2022, however, domestic gas prices increased 400 per cent and retail electricity bills were forced up by almost 20 per cent. The Treasurer attributed the price stability to renewables and batteries comprising 43 per cent of Australia’s electricity in 2025, complemented by a 233 per cent increase in large-scale battery capacity.
Cyber attacks costing economy up to $25 billion a year, says Burke
Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said cyber-attacks were estimated to cost the Australian economy up to $25 billion a year, with almost half of the cost borne by small business. Mr Burke said the average cost of cybercrime in the last 12 months had increased by 50 per cent to $80,000. Small businesses accounted for almost 65 per cent of the total proportion of cyber incidents, while 60 per cent of the total number of data breaches were caused by human error. Speaking at a launch of the government’s second stage of its Australian Cyber Security Strategy, Mr Burke said a single catastrophic cyber-attack that lasted four weeks would cost the Australian economy $35 billion. The so-called Horizon 2 plank of the cyber security strategy addresses cyber security measures at the levels of infrastructure, devices and people’s behaviour; Horizon 1 addressed critical infrastructure.