Artificial intelligence taking on mundane jobs to make the public sector more “efficient” and better first-home buyers boosts have been promised in response to Australia’s largest state budget.

The alternative government has promised to be “transformational” if elected, criticising the latest NSW budget as vague amid concerns over a near-$1 billion pot to cover non-specific emergencies.

The budget failed to deliver bold visions or ambitious projects befitting of Australia’s economic powerhouse, the state’s opposition leader says.

Liberal Mark Speakman told parliament an elected coalition would consider payroll tax changes for businesses, expand artificial intelligence use and offer low-interest loans for businesses to do the same.

“There are mundane jobs that can be done by AI,” Mr Speakman said.

“It will make the public service more efficient, and you’ll get more out of public servants.”

More spending on preventative health measures would reduce hospitalisations while infrastructure investment would support housing supply.

A short-lived policy would be revived to allow first-home buyers to avoid stamp duty by paying annual land tax instead, Mr Speakman said.

First-home buyers lost the land tax option – covering homes up to $1.5 million – when Labor expanded stamp duty exemptions and concessions in 2023.

While coy about other policies for the March 2027 election, Mr Speakman said they would make NSW a place where every family can afford to live, raise children and access the services they need.

Speaking to AAP before the budget reply speech, he slammed Labor Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s third budget as based on “dubious assumptions” and “phoney” projections of a surplus.

Addressing the Liberals’ electability after a bruising federal loss in May, he echoed federal leader Sussan Ley’s vow to represent “modern Australia”.

Mr Speakman said he wanted to lure young voters back to the party by addressing their concerns.

“You focus on the things that matter to the vast majority of citizens in NSW, which are cost of living, housing, good services, good schools for kids, public transport you can rely on,” he told AAP.  

The opposition has also turned its attention to a “special appropriation” to the treasurer of more than $868 million contained in the budget.

It more than doubles similar funding in the previous budget and covers contingencies, expenses related to election commitments and essential services.

Mr Mookhey told parliament the allocation was a standard request, also made by previous governments and disputed the coalition’s characterisation as a “slush fund”.

Parliamentary members could examine the events of May, when widespread flooding occurred in the state, and reach their own conclusion about why the allocation increased, he said.

Shadow treasurer Damien Tudehope told reporters there were contingency funds for natural disasters in the previous budget and more information should be revealed about the allocation’s purpose.

“There is no transparency,” he said.

More than $16 billion was wiped from superannuation balances at the start of the year as uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs impacted Australians’ net worth.

The nation’s collective household wealth grew by 0.8 per cent to $17.3 trillion in the first three months of 2025, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday.

But it would have increased by more if not for the value of super accounts falling for the first time since September 2022 as global uncertainty weighed on share prices, ABS head of finance statistics Mish Tan said.

The increase in wealth was again mainly driven by an increase in residential property values, which rose 1.2 per cent to $125.3 billion.

House prices have rebounded from a brief slowdown at the end of 2024 as interest rate cuts boosted buyer demand.

With as many as three more cuts predicted by December, and market expectations rising for the next one as soon as July, property values are set to keep growing.

Superannuation balances fell by 0.4 per cent, or $16.4 billion, as Mr Trump’s tariff threats sparked fears of trade disruption and slower economic growth.

Equity markets reacted even more violently when Mr Trump unveiled his “liberation day” tariffs on April 2, but share prices have since recovered as tensions eased between the US and China.

However, the US president poses another risk to super funds.

The $4.2 trillion industry has warned that a section of Mr Trump’s proposed “big beautiful bill” would include a “revenge tax” on investors from countries that have imposed taxes on US investors and companies the administration deems unfair.

With more than $600 billion of investments parked in the US, super funds have warned the tax could deal a multibillion-dollar hit to returns.

In a conversation with his US counterpart, Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday urged Scott Bessent to spare Australian investors.

“We do not want to see our investors and our funds unfairly treated or disadvantaged when it comes to developments out of the US Congress,” Dr Chalmers said.

“And once again, I’m very grateful to Scott Bessent for hearing me out and for also undertaking to make what progress he can to try and resolve these issues. I’m confident he understands these issues.”

With more demand for mortgages, household borrowing grew 1.4 per cent, or $2.4 billion, reducing the overall growth in wealth by 0.2 percentage points.

“The RBA’s cash rate cut in February this year was the first easing of interest rates since November 2020, giving some relief to household budgets in the March quarter through lower mortgage interest payments,” Dr Tan said. 

“We expect to see the broader impact of recent cuts, including another in May, on house prices and credit growth later this year.”

Half of Australia’s big four banks predict the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at its next meeting on July 8 following better-than-expected inflation numbers.

Despite predictions of inflation remaining steady, headline inflation for May fell to 2.1 per cent from 2.4 per cent the previous month, driven by a drop in the cost of fuel and rental prices.

Trimmed mean inflation, which removes volatile price movements, dropped from 2.8 per cent to 2.4 per cent.

Commonwealth Bank analysts joined those from NAB in forecasting the next cut to be in July, while Westpac and ANZ experts predicted a lowering of the cash rate in August.

Commonwealth Bank economist Harry Ottley said the May data had made a rate cut in July all but certain, with both inflation sets below the midpoint of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3 per cent target range.

A 25 basis point reduction in the cash rate would shave $90 off monthly repayments for a mortgage holder with a $600,000 loan.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez have arrived in Venice ahead of their wedding, which  has galvanised an assortment of protesters in the Italian city.

Bezos waved from a water taxi as he and Sanchez arrived at the dock of the Aman Hotel on the Grand Canal with two security boats in tow.

Their wedding has drawn protests by groups who view it as a sign of the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots, while residents complain it exemplifies the way their needs are disregarded in the era of mass tourism to the historic lagoon city.

About a dozen Venetian organisations — including housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners and university groups — have united to protest the multi-day event under the banner “No Space for Bezos,” a play on words also referring to the bride’s recent space flight.

They were joined Monday by Greenpeace and the British group “Everyone Hates Elon,” which has smashed Teslas to protest Elon Musk, to unfurl a giant banner in St. Mark’s Square protesting purported tax breaks for billionaires.

On Wednesday, other activists launched a float down the Grand Canal featuring a mannequin of Bezos clinging onto an Amazon box, his fists full of fake dollars. The British publicity firm that announced the stunt said it was a protest against unchecked wealth, media control, and the growing privatisation of public spaces.”

Bezos’ representatives have not commented on the protests.

The local activists had planned to obstruct access to canals on Saturday to prevent guests from reaching a wedding venue. They modified the protest to a march after claiming their pressure forced organisers to change the venue to the Arsenale, a more easily secured site beyond Venice’s congested centre.

Among the 200 guests confirmed to be attending the wedding are Mick Jagger, Ivanka Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Venice, renowned for its romantic canal vistas, hosts hundreds of weddings each year, not infrequently those of the rich and famous. Previous celebrity weddings, like that of George Clooney to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014, were embraced by the public. Hundreds turned out to wish the couple well at City Hall.

Bezos has a different political and business profile, said Tommaso Cacciari, a prominent figure in the movement that successfully pushed for a ban on cruise ships over 25,000 tons travelling through the Giudecca Canal in central Venice.

“Bezos is not a Hollywood actor,” Cacciari said. “He is an ultra-billionaire who sat next to Donald Trump during the inauguration, who contributed to his reelection and is contributing in a direct and heavy way to this new global obscurantism.”

Critics cite Amazon’s labour practices, ongoing tax disputes with European governments and Bezos’ political associations as reasons for concern.

Activists also argue that the Bezos wedding exemplifies broader failures in municipal governance, particularly the prioritisation of tourism over residents’ needs. They cite measures such as the day-tripper tax — which critics argue reinforces Venice’s image as a theme park — as ineffective. Chief among their concerns is the lack of investment in affordable housing and essential services.

City officials have defended the wedding. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called the event an honour for Venice, and the city denied the wedding would cause disruptions.

“Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage,” Brugnaro told The Associated Press, adding he hoped to meet Bezos while he was in town.

Meanwhile, a Venetian environmental research association, Corila, issued a statement saying Bezos’ Earth Fund was supporting its work with an “important donation.”

Corila, which unites university scholars and Italy’s main national research council in researching Venetian protection strategies, wouldn’t say how much Bezos was donating but said contact began in April, well before the protests started.

Asian stocks have stuttered while oil prices stabilised and the euro was perched at a 3 and a half year high as investors weighed geopolitical, economic and fiscal uncertainties and braced for US President Donald Trump’s deadline on tariffs.

Markets have been soothed by a ceasefire between Israel and Iran that appeared to be holding, reducing the risks of disruptions to the global oil trade and underpinning sentiment.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trading, as the rally in Wall Street took a breather overnight. Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 0.9 per cent to a four-month high.

The US dollar selling kicked up a notch after a media report said Trump has toyed with the idea of selecting and announcing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s replacement by September or October in a bid to undermine his position.

That pushed the euro to its strongest level since November 2021. It last fetched $1.6805. The Swiss franc firmed to a decade-high while the Japanese yen strengthened 0.35 per cent to 144.70 per dollar.

Trump has repeatedly criticised Powell for not cutting interest rates and has floated the idea of firing him or naming a successor soon, denting investor confidence in US assets and undermining the central bank’s independence.

“I think it’s a given that Trump’s pick to succeed Powell, when it comes, will be one that sits at the highly dovish end of the spectrum and will support Trump’s agenda of lowering interest rates,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.

“The issue with this is it will resurface questions from earlier in the year around the Fed’s independence, which, as we saw, undermines confidence in the Fed and the USD.”

The dollar index, which measures the US currency against six rivals, wallowed at its lowest level since March 2022. The index has slid 10 per cent this year as investors, worried by Trump’s tariffs and their effect on US growth, look for alternatives.

Financial markets remain on edge over Trump’s chaotic trade policies as the clock ticks down to his July 9 deadline for trade deals.

Powell, who resumed two days of congressional testimony on Wednesday, said Trump’s tariff plans may well just cause a one-time jump in prices, but the risk it could fuel more persistent inflation is large enough for the central bank to be careful in considering further rate cuts.

Fed officials still expect to cut interest rates this year, but the timing is uncertain as officials wait on looming trade deadlines and for more certainty about the scope of the tariffs that will be imposed and the ways that rising import levies influence prices and economic growth.

“No one knows exactly how tariffs will impact inflation, which will keep central banks in conservative mode, particularly the Fed,” said Bank of America strategists, noting downside risks to global growth remain relevant, not only due to trade wars but also due to geopolitical developments.

“We are carefully monitoring fiscal policy across key countries that can affect global interest rates. Unsustainable fiscal dynamics can trigger an accident in bond markets,” they said in a note.

In commodities, oil prices inched higher to continue recovering after a volatile month so far due to the conflict between longtime rivals Israel and Iran.

Brent crude futures rose 0.2 per cent to $67.82 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) gained 0.28 per cent to $65.1.

Taxpayers are facing a $2 million-plus bill for the Australian public broadcaster’s failed legal defence of its decision to fire a radio host for her views on Gaza.

Antoinette Lattouf, 41, was awarded $70,000 in damages after winning her unlawful termination case in the Federal Court on Wednesday.

The journalist was dismissed three days into a five-day casual radio shift in December 2023 due to a co-ordinated campaign of complaints from pro-Israel lobbyists.

She shared a Human Rights Watch post saying Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza before she was terminated.

Senior ABC figures told a Senate hearing in February that the broadcaster tried to settle the case on multiple occasions and had already spent $1.1 million on external lawyers to defend itself.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks indicated total costs were likely to soar beyond $2 million, with Justice Rangiah yet to determine whether the ABC will pay a penalty or Lattouf’s legal costs.

“It will be millions and it is not a good use of taxpayer funds,” Mr Marks told ABC Radio Melbourne on Thursdaymorning.

“I would suspect so (more than $2 million) because I wasn’t completely aware as to where the trial will go but it sounds like there’s still more work to do.

“It would have been better if it settled, it would have been better if it hadn’t happened at all.”

Lattouf offered to settle the case for $85,000 in July but it was rejected, her lawyer said.

Josh Bornstein has revealed there were other conditions to the proposed peace deal, including an apology and another five radio shifts.

Mr Marks suggested the extra radio slots were a sticking point as they would have invited the ABC to compromise its editorial independence to external influence.

Justice Rangiah found the ABC had unlawfully fired Lattouf for holding a political opinion.

The judgment was a complete vindication of Lattouf reposting a report that was “100 per cent accurate” and had already been covered by the ABC, former Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth said.

Mr Roth said she did “nothing wrong” and he was amazed the ABC had spent so much money fighting the case, even if “undoubtedly embarrassed” at succumbing to external pressure.

“They’ve made a bad situation worse,” he told ABC Radio.

The decision was “groundbreaking” and gave clarity to employers about political opinions expressed by employees off-duty, Associate Professor of Law Giuseppe Carabetta told AAP. 

There were still questions, however, he said, pointing to comments – that he had received – that the judgment would help someone get away with hate speech.

“I don’t think the decision means that at all,” he said.

“But we still don’t know how far political opinion will go. That’s the unknown.”

The decision also reignited calls for a national human rights act.

“(This litigation) draws attention to the current lack of a constitutional right to freedom of speech in Australia,” Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesperson Greg Barns SC said.

Meta Platforms has had a legal win against a group of authors who argued that its use of their books without permission to train its artificial intelligence system infringed their copyrights.

US District Judge Vince Chhabria, in San Francisco, said in his decision that the authors had not presented enough evidence that Meta’s AI would dilute the market for their work to show that the company’s conduct was illegal under US copyright law.

Chhabria also said, however, that using copyrighted work without permission to train AI would be unlawful in “many circumstances,” splitting with another federal judge in San Francisco who found on Monday in a separate lawsuit that Anthropic’s AI training made “fair use” of copyrighted materials.

“This ruling does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials to train its language models is lawful,” Chhabria said. “It stands only for the proposition that these plaintiffs made the wrong arguments and failed to develop a record in support of the right one.”

A spokesperson for the authors’ law firm Boies Schiller Flexner said that it disagreed with the judge’s decision to rule for Meta despite the “undisputed record” of the company’s “historically unprecedented pirating of copyrighted works.”

A Meta spokesperson said the company appreciated the decision and called fair use a “vital legal framework” for building “transformative” AI technology.

The authors sued Meta in 2023, arguing the company misused pirated versions of their books to train its AI system Llama without permission or compensation.

The legal doctrine of fair use allows the use of copyrighted works without the copyright owner’s permission in some circumstances. It is a key defence for the tech companies.

AI companies argue their systems make fair use of copyrighted material by studying it to learn to create new, transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders for their work could hamstring the burgeoning AI industry.

Copyright owners say AI companies unlawfully copy their work to generate competing content that threatens their livelihoods. Chhabria expressed sympathy for that argument during a hearing in May, which he reiterated on Wednesday.

The judge said generative AI had the potential to flood the market with endless images, songs, articles and books using a tiny fraction of the time and creativity that would otherwise be required to create them.

It would therefore “dramatically undermine the incentive for human beings to create things the old-fashioned way'” Chhabria said.

NATO leaders have backed a big increase in military spending that US President Donald Trump had demanded, and restated their commitment to defend each other from attack after a brief summit in the Netherlands.

While Trump got what he wanted at the annual meeting, tailor-made for him, his NATO allies will be relieved that he committed to the military alliance’s fundamental principle of collective defence.

Trump told a press conference that “we had a great victory here,” adding that he hoped that the additional funds would be spent on military hardware made in the United States.

However, he threatened to punish Spain after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared it could meet its commitments to NATO while spending much less than the new target of five per cent of GDP.

“I think it’s terrible. You know, they (Spain) are doing very well … And that economy could be blown right out of the water when something bad happens,” Trump said, adding that Spain would get a tougher trade deal from the US than other European Union countries.

In a five-point statement, NATO endorsed the higher defence spending goal – a response not only to Trump but also to Europeans’ fears that Russia poses a growing threat to their security following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The 32 allies’ brief communique added: “We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – that an attack on one is an attack on all.”

Asked to clarify his own stance on Article 5, Trump said: “I stand with it. That’s why I’m here. If I didn’t stand with it, I wouldn’t be here.”

Trump had long demanded in no uncertain terms that other countries step up their spending to reduce NATO’s heavy reliance on the US.

Despite an appearance of general agreement, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the issue of the steep import tariffs threatened by Trump, and the damage they may do to transatlantic trade, as a barrier to increased military spending.

“We can’t say we are going to spend more and then, at the heart of NATO, launch a trade war,” Macron said, calling it “an aberration”. 

He said he had raised it several times with Trump.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who hosted the summit in his home city of The Hague, said NATO would emerge as a “stronger, fairer and more lethal” alliance.

The former Dutch prime minister said Trump deserved “all the praise” for getting NATO members to agree on raising defence spending.

Asked by a reporter if he had deployed excessive flattery to keep Trump onside during the summit, Rutte said the two men were friends and judgment of his approach was a matter of taste.

The new spending target – to be achieved over the next 10 years – is a jump worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year from the current goal of two per cent of GDP, although it will be measured differently.

Countries pledged to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence – such as troops and weapons – and 1.5 per cent on broader defence-related measures such as cyber security, protecting pipelines and adapting roads and bridges to handle heavy military vehicles.

Australia’s exposure to energy price shocks is back in the spotlight, with even the weekly grocery shop in the firing line if tensions in the Middle East escalate.

A ceasefire agreement has global oil prices simmering back down from highs of $79 a barrel after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities but the threat of revived tensions remains.

For clean energy and electrification advocates, the latest round of geopolitics-fuelled price volatility serves as an urgent reminder to hasten the transition.

Daniel Bleakley, co-founder of a zero-emissions heavy road freight company New Energy Transport, argues Australia’s food supply chains are particularly vulnerable to oil price shocks.

Produce is carted over vast distances in heavy trucks, with diesel making up a sizeable chunk of total operating costs for these transport companies.

Heavy trucking firms insulate themselves from oil shocks by inserting diesel surcharges into long-term contracts with supermarkets and other transport customers.

“What that means is Australia’s food distribution system is highly dependent on the price of diesel, and the price of diesel is obviously highly dependent on the global oil price,” Mr Bleakley told AAP.

Motorists are also vulnerable to oil spikes and federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has already written to the consumer watchdog to ask it to monitor price-gouging at the fuel pump during the latest round of turmoil.

Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis analysts Amandine Denis-Ryan and Kevin Morrison said electric cars could protect motorists from oil price spikes but take-up had been slow.

Electric vehicles accounted for a record high of 10 per cent of Australian sales in 2024, still falling well short of the 20 per cent of new purchases globally.

Households could insulate themselves from gas price spikes by investing in efficient electric heaters and stoves.

“Shifting to efficient electric alternatives would save households over $3.4 billion in unnecessary energy costs over the life of those appliances,” the institute analysts wrote in a note.

Victoria is moving away from gas appliances, phasing out hot water units and ensuring new builds are all-electric by 2027.

Inner-city Sydney is going the same way, with the city council this week announcing a ban on indoor gas appliances in new developments.

Hurrying along the broader shift to renewables would also leave wholesale electricity prices less exposed to gas and coal prices.

“In these turbulent times, it is time for Australia to look more seriously at how it can improve its energy security and better insulate itself from global energy shocks,” Ms Denis-Ryan and Mr Morrison said

A Labor budget has failed to deliver any bold visions or ambitious projects befitting of Australia’s economic powerhouse, a state Liberal leader says.

Softly spoken NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s third budget was based on “dubious assumptions” and projections of a surplus were “phony”.

Mr Speakman said housing was an “intergenerational equity issue” and the budget needed to reflect its urgency.

The budget handed down on Tuesday forecasts 240,000 housing completions by 2029, exceeding the previous government’s forecast but below the 377,000 new homes targeted under a national housing agreement.

“Their (Labor’s) own budget doesn’t tackle the biggest problem in the game when it comes to housing supply and that’s feasibility to build, to make it profitable for people to build,” Mr Speakman said.

Asked how the coalition’s policies would differ, Mr Speakman said the focus would be easing taxes and charges on new homes, calling them “some of the highest in the country”.

With a state election two years away, he said a budget under his leadership would capitalise on untapped sources.

“There are rivers of gold when it comes to revenue with payroll tax, stamp duty, land tax, motor vehicle tax and even the GST,” he said.

The state’s $128 billion 2025/26 budget featured increased investment in essential services and lower debt, with a $1 billion housing development fund to finance developers behind low- to mid-rise buildings.

However, Mr Speakman said having the state act as a guarantor would not be enough to attract developers.

“It may make a marginal difference to financing costs but it’s not going to be a game-shifter,” he said.

Echoing newly minted federal Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s vow on Wednesday to represent “modern Australia”, Mr Speakman said he wanted to lure young voters back to the party by talking to their concerns.

“You focus on the things that matter to the vast majority of citizens in NSW, which are cost of living, housing, good services, good schools for kids, public transport you can rely on,” he said.

“You’ve got to earn it, though. There can’t be any sense of entitlement.

“You have to persuade people you are there to represent their best interests and fight for them every day.”

Half of Australia’s big four banks are predicting a cut in interest rates when the Reserve Bank next meets following better-than-expected inflation numbers.

Despite predictions of inflation remaining steady, headline inflation for May fell to 2.1 per cent from 2.4 per cent the previous month.

The fall was driven largely by a drop in the cost of fuel as well as rental prices.

Trimmed mean inflation, which removes volatile price movements, also dropped from 2.8 per cent to 2.4 per cent.

The figures have bolstered predictions of a cut when the Reserve Bank hands down its next cash rate decision on July 8.

The Commonwealth Bank has joined with NAB in forecasting the next cut to be in July, while Westpac and ANZ predict a lowering of the cash rate in August.

Commonwealth Bank economist Harry Ottley said the May data had made a rate cut in July all but certain, with both inflation sets being in the Reserve Bank’s target range of between two and three per cent.

“The slowdown in the core inflation gauge prompted investors to ramp-up bets for another interest rate cut from the RBA on July 8 to 94 per cent, from 81 per cent before for the release,” he said.

“Commonwealth Bank Group economists now expect the RBA to deliver further 25 basis point rate cuts in July and August for an end year cash rate of 3.35 per cent.”

A 25 basis point reduction in the cash rate would shave $90 off monthly repayments for a mortgage holder with a $600,000 loan.

Head of Australian economics at Moody’s Analytics Sunny Nguyen said recent concern over oil prices due to instability in the Middle East was unlikely to impact the chances of a rate cut.

“Prices have fallen 6 per cent as the Israel-Iran ceasefire reduced supply disruption risks,” she said.

“We expect the RBA to look through any temporary oil-driven inflation spikes, particularly given the broader disinflationary trend.”

Household wealth figures for the first three months of the year will be released on Thursday.

Growth in household wealth reached its lowest level in more than two years at the end of 2024, driven by back-to-back quarters of falling house prices.