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.

Australian Or Kedem has packed his suitcase for what he hopes will be his fourth and final attempt to leave the Middle East now that missiles have finally stopped hurtling through the sky.

In Israel for this birth of his nephew, conflict broke out a week into his trip when the Israeli military launched strikes on Iran on June 13, arguing it was on the cusp of developing nuclear weapons.

Blasts on apartment buildings near his family’s home in Ramat Gan were terrifying and a world away from his day-to-day life with his wife and two children back in Victoria.

After three unsuccessful evacuation attempts, he hopes to finally make a flight on Thursday as Israel’s airspace reopens and commercial flights start up again.

“It’s not gonna be easy, I have a four day trip until I’m gonna get home, but I will do everything to see my kids again,” Mr Kedem told AAP.

“I’m so excited to be home, just to sit on the airplane.”

It’s a common theme among Australians stuck in Israel during the conflict, buoyed by flights becoming available and pressure easing at land border crossings as the ceasefire sets in.

About 1000 Australians have registered with the government for help to leave Israel, and an additional 3000 have asked for assistance to leave Iran since the conflict erupted.

The war took a turn on the weekend when the US bombed three underground nuclear facilities in Iran, which the Australian government has backed.

Never will Australian lawyer Leon Zwier take for granted going to sleep without being woken up by the sound of sirens or missiles.

“Last night for the first time we had a night without missiles being fired across our city or into the civilian population,” Mr Zwier said from a departure gate Ben Gurion airport south of Tel Aviv.

“It was restful, we all relaxed and that was a common theme with everyone we spoke to.”

Quick dashes to bomb shelters became a nightly reality for him and thousands of others in Israel and Iran since June 13.

What was meant to be a trip for a conference quickly became an unexpected insight into life in a war zone, before he booked the first flight home he could find through Thailand.

He cannot wait to hug his children and grandchildren, reassuring them he is fine and safe.

“Moments like this, you cherish life more than ever, and so it makes you appreciate things more than ever.”

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his journalist fiancee Lauren Sanchez have arrived in Venice ahead of three days of lavish VIP parties in the romantic lagoon city to celebrate their wedding, despite protests from some locals.

About 90 private jets are set to land in local airports this week, bringing A-listers from show-business, politics and finance to the widely-dubbed “wedding of the century” that will cost Bezos an estimated 40-48 million euros ($A71-86 million).

The couple were spotted by a Reuters reporter entering the exclusive Aman Venice Hotel on the Grand Canal, where many of the celebrities will stay.

Festivities will kick off on Thursday night with an open-air gathering in the cloisters of Madonna dell’Orto, a medieval church in the central area of Cannaregio known for its lively nightlife, a source close to the matter told Reuters.

Venice City Hall issued a directive on Wednesday cordoning off the area, isolating guests from activists who have been protesting for weeks that the celebrations will turn the city of gondolas and palazzi into a private amusement park for the rich.

“There’s only one thing that rules now: money, money, money, so we are the losers,” Venice resident Nadia Rigo said.

“We who were born here have to either move to the mainland or we have to ask them for permission to board a ferry. They’ve become the masters.”

The date and venue of the wedding itself are still unknown and some have speculated that Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, may already have tied the knot in a private ceremony back in the United States.

Most of the estimated 250 guests are expected to arrive in time for the second party, which the source said is slated for Friday on the small island of San Giorgio, in front of the famed St Mark’s Square with its 99-metre-high bell tower.

San Giorgio island is home to the Cini Foundation, which organises international cultural and political meetings in an ancient monastery dating back to the year 1000, with a maze in the garden.

Outside the Aman Venice Hotel, workers erected a striped canvas canopy with side walls on a floating wharf to protect guests from prying eyes and photographers’ long lenses.

Celebrations will conclude on Saturday with the main wedding bash to be held at one of the halls of the Arsenale, a vast former medieval shipyard turned into an art space in the eastern Castello district.

Surrounded by water and impossible to reach by land when connecting bridges are raised, the hall is considered a safer site than a previous location choice for the final party, a former medieval religious school in Cannaregio.

Bezos, executive chair of e-commerce giant Amazon and no.4 on Forbes’ billionaires list, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to Mackenzie Scott.

The couple’s decision to marry in Venice follows other celebrity weddings in the floating city, such as that of US actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014.

Conflict between Iran and Israel will have consequences for Australia, even if a ceasefire holds, an expert warns.

While the federal government has repeatedly called for diplomacy and peace, it differed from other US allies by supporting America’s decision to join Israel’s offensive and strike Iran.

Concerns had been raised if the action was legal, making Australia’s position on the strikes “worrying”, regardless of whether a ceasefire held, analyst Jessie Moritz told AAP.

“Given that the intelligence that Israel was operating under was not confirmed even by the US, that really raised the question of whether this was a legal war and whether this was breaking an international norm,” the Australian National University Arab and Islamic studies lecturer said.

“Breaking international norms is a huge problem because it allows our enemies to break that norm with us.”

The Labor government initially took a more neutral stance but backed the US bombings after the coalition came out in support first.

Dr Moritz said the government’s quick decision was concerning and drew comparisons to the events of 2003, where Australia joined the US war in Iraq under false claims it possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Though she hoped a ceasefire would hold, Dr Moritz warned the conflict would have long-term ramifications.

US international partners have begun to more closely examine whether American interests align with their own as President Donald Trump emerges as a foreign policy disruptor.

The conflict could incentivise Arab states to pursue nuclear weapons and lead Iran to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and rebuild its nuclear program.

Dr Moritz said Iran could become more repressive and conservative because it might lose some support, using the events as an excuse to violently repress opposition groups. 

Anyone within the regime who supported diplomatic engagement with the West would be sidelined too.

This could impact Australian-Iranian communities, many of whom hoped the conflict could help de-stabilise the Iranian autocracy and pave the way for a new, democratic government.

Persian Australian Community Association member Nader Ranjbar said the regime’s continuation could lead to his “worst fear”.

“That somehow they get away from this mess and the first thing they do is start killing Iranian people,” he told AAP.

Mr Trump attacked both nations for breaching the ceasefire in the early stages, saying “they don’t know what the f*** they are doing” on live television.

The prime minister was unperturbed by the language.

“President Trump made some pretty clear statements. I don’t think it needs any further reflection,” Mr Albanese said on Wednesday.

“We want to see peace in the region, we want to see a ceasefire, we want to see de-escalation, and that is consistent with the very clear comments of President Trump.”

In the early hours of the day, 119 Australians and family members left Tel Aviv on a government-assisted flight.

There are still about 3000 Australians in Iran who have registered with the government for help to leave, and more than 1000 in Israel. 

The latest conflict erupted on June 13, when Israel fired missiles at Iran in a bid to blow up military assets, arguing it was on the cusp of developing nuclear weapons.

The battle took a turn on the weekend when the US launched a bombing raid on three underground nuclear facilities in Iran.

Jim Chalmers has made the case to his US counterpart to remove American-imposed tariffs, while rebuffing calls to increase defence spending in line with NATO allies.

The treasurer spoke with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday, the third time the pair have talked.

Dr Chalmers said he pushed for a deal to remove tariffs on Australian exports into the US imposed by President Donald Trump.

“This was a very positive discussion, a very productive discussion,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“I made our case once again when it comes to trade and tariffs and these escalating trade tensions around the world.

“The global economic environment is very uncertain, very unpredictable and very volatile.”

Australian goods are slugged with a 10 per cent tariff to enter the US, while steel and aluminium products have a 50 per cent tariff.

As Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles represents Australia at the NATO summit in The Hague, it remains unclear whether he will secure a face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump at the gathering of world leaders.

Mr Marles is attending in place of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who pulled the pin on a potential trip to The Hague after other Indo-Pacific leaders opted out.

Mr Albanese’s planned first face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump, on the sidelines of the G7 summit earlier in June, was cancelled after an escalation in the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.

Asked if he would meet the US president, Mr Marles said it wasn’t yet confirmed.

“It’s not specifically on the agenda and I wouldn’t want to overstate any of that,” he told reporters at the security summit on Wednesday.

“We are in large rooms with lots of people, and these meetings, gatherings like this, end up being pretty fluid in terms of the bilaterals that you end up organising.”

NATO countries have agreed to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP, as the US also puts pressure on allies to boost money spent in the area.

While the US has called on Australia to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent, the federal government aims to increase it from two to 2.3 per cent by 2033/34.

Dr Chalmers stood by the government’s spend despite the boost from allies.

“It’s not unusual for our partners and friends around the world to express or have a preference for us to spend more on defence. We are actually already very substantially increasing our investment in defence,” he said.

“Obviously we’ve seen the announcements out of Europe. We’re obviously tracking those developments very closely … but we are already dramatically increasing our investment in defence.

“That’s warranted and that’s why we’re doing it.”

Liberal leader Sussan Ley is open to introducing quotas for female candidates as young people and women abandon the party in droves.

The Liberals are searching for answers after being handed their worst-ever loss at the May election.

“Our party must pre-select more women in winnable seats so that we see more women in federal parliament,” Ms Ley told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“I’m agnostic on specific methods to make it happen but I am a zealot that it actually does happen.”

Pre-election polling suggested the opposition would not form government but the scale of the defeat was a shock, leaving the Liberals without a leader and the coalition with less than half as many seats as Labor.

Policies such as an end to working-from-home arrangements for public servants and threats to cut jobs in government departments were blamed for the party’s unpopularity with voters, alongside a perceived tendency to wade into culture wars.

But Ms Ley acknowledged the Liberal Party’s issues ran deeper than one election result.

“What we have now is completely unacceptable. What we have done has not worked,” she said.

“I’m open to any approach that will.

“I know we can do well and I’m optimistic about what we can do.”

Under her watch, the coalition will become more constructive when Labor has good ideas, but remain critical of its bad policies.

She also offered to collaborate with the government on issues such as domestic violence.

A “root and branch” review of the election defeat will also look at the party’s broader performance and engagement with voters.

Ms Ley acknowledged her appointment to the coalition’s top job represented a fresh approach, but there was still some way to go.

“Let’s be honest and up front about last month’s election. We didn’t just lose – we got smashed,” she said.

“The scale of that defeat – its size and significance – is not lost on me, nor any one of my parliamentary team sitting here today.

“We respect the election outcome with humility, we accept it with contrition and we must learn from it with conviction.”

Ms Ley became the first Liberal leader to address the National Press Club since 2022 after her predecessor Peter Dutton snubbed the Canberra institution throughout his tenure.

While she has tried to push the party back towards the political centre, many of her moderate colleagues lost their seats at the election, leaving her leadership vulnerable for the next three years.

She also has to navigate the relationship with the Nationals after the long-term coalition partners split briefly during the fallout from the election defeat.

Lowering the biggest cost facing households is the target of a billion-dollar fund developers say will help clear a “major hurdle” as a treasurer defends his “boring” budget.

Daniel Mookhey’s third NSW budget continues large-scale infrastructure builds, including dozens of metro stations and a harbour-crossing tunnel.

But the state treasurer defended his focus on “pipes and poles” after some commentators labelled the budget “boring”.

“We are going to need to make sure that we’re increasing our water capacity as our population goes up, but also as the economy becomes more water-intensive,” Mr Mookhey told an economic forum on Wednesday.

“We need to think about how we do it all.”

Critics have also questioned why the budget did not do more to address cost-of-living pressures.

A developer-focused pre-sale guarantee led some observers to suggest the Labor budget was tailored to the top end of town.

Mr Mookhey said household budgets were being supported in less direct ways.

“We want to rebuild household disposable income, which means we want interest rates to be stable and lower,” he said.

“We want people’s wages to go up and you get those two happening at the same time, you start to take pressure off families.”

The budget, which charted a cautious path to a surplus later in the decade, was compiled amid global uncertainty.

“Which makes it far more important that we get our fiscal house in order so we’re in a better position to cope with and respond to shock, come what may,” Mr Mookhey said.

Construction of new homes has come into sharp focus amid a yawning gap between NSW’s rate of new homes and a five-year national target for home-building.

The budget forecasts 240,000 housing completions by 2029, exceeding the previous government’s forecast but below the 377,000 new homes targeted under the national housing accord.

Mr Mookhey told reporters it was a point-in-time prediction and progress would be reflected in future forecasts.

“By the time we get to the next election (in March 2027), voters will see this government has spent four years doing everything it can to surge more building of the homes that people desperately want to buy and rent,” he said.

Approval processes had quickened and the focus had shifted to construction, Planning Minister Paul Scully said.

“You can’t live in an approval.”

Proposals need to start within six months and developers will be assessed before the government will help them reach a threshold of pre-sales to satisfy lenders through a $1 billion fund.

“This is for good projects that are suffering from a tiny bit of a feasibility question, to get them over the line to start construction,” Mr Scully said.

Builders say construction is often delayed by a lack of pre-sales, making it harder to get finance.

“Pre-sales represent a major hurdle for new housing developments, especially higher-density housing and apartments,” Housing Industry Association NSW executive director Brad Armitage said.

Others were less impressed with the government’s finances, with NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd labelling it “a budget for big business”.

“It’s a betrayal to all those in our communities doing it toughest … while leaving billions in uncollected revenue on the table from big business,” she said.

A deficit of $3.4 billion is forecast for the 2025/26 financial year, falling to $1.1 billion in 2026/27.

Modest surpluses of $1.1 billion are projected in the following two years.

A key measure of inflation has fallen to a four-year low, giving hope to mortgage holders of another drop in interest rates.

Headline inflation fell from 2.4 per cent to 2.1 per cent in May, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed.

The monthly figures also revealed a sharp drop in trimmed mean inflation, which removes volatile items, from 2.8 per cent to 2.4 per cent in the month.

It’s the smallest increase in the closely watched measure since November 2021.

The trimmed mean is the preferred figure for the Reserve Bank when assessing inflation and the drop has bolstered the prospect of a rate cut when the central bank’s board meets in a fortnight.

The figures prompted the Commonwealth Bank, the country’s largest mortgage provider, to bring forward its prediction of when the next interest rate cut will be from August to July.

Economists had tipped inflation to remain steady for the month at 2.4 per cent.

The battle against inflation was not over but the figures were a welcome development, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

“The progress we’re making together on inflation is substantial and it means that it’s sustained,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

“I didn’t say it’s mission accomplished, but we are certainly making more progress than was expected.”

May’s figures were the sixth month in a row both headline inflation and the trimmed mean were in the Reserve Bank’s target range of between two and three per cent.

The largest contribution to inflation came from an increase in food and non-alcoholic beverage costs, up 2.9 per cent in the 12 months to May.

Housing was up two per cent and alcohol and tobacco rose 5.9 per cent.

The cost of coffee and tea had helped to drive up the prices of non-alcoholic drinks by 5.2 per cent, the bureau’s head of price statistics Michelle Marquardt said.

“Higher prices for coffee drove the rise with adverse weather conditions impacting major overseas coffee bean-growing areas,” she said.

But there was only a small rise in holiday travel costs, up 0.6 per cent in the 12 months to May, down from the sharp 5.3 per cent increase recorded for April.

Despite unrest in the Middle East, the price of fuel fell by 10 per cent in the year to May, with petrol prices at their lowest levels since September 2022.

“Across capital cities the average price for unleaded petrol in May was $1.73 per litre,” Ms Marquardt said.

“This is 20 cents lower than 12 months ago and significantly below the peak monthly average price of $2.07 per litre in September 2023.”

Canstar data insight director Sally Tindall said the inflation numbers had given the Reserve Bank its biggest indication it would be safe to cut in July.

“The fact that the board considered the case for a double cut at the last meeting gives us good insight into its thinking and suggests it will almost certainly consider the case for a cut at the next one,” she said.

“While the data opens the door to a cut in July, borrowers should not consider it a done deal. 

“The board could opt to wait for the full quarterly CPI results, which aren’t out until the end of July, before locking in another cut.”

A 25 basis point cut in interest rates would save mortgage holders $90 a month in repayments on a typical, $600,000 loan.

Two major supermarket chains have criticised national data used to compare grocery prices after they were found to be charging customers more than their cheapest rival.

Research from consumer advocacy group Choice crowned Aldi the best for overall value, while IGA was found to be the most expensive.

Both Coles and IGA have pushed back, arguing the data failed to capture the full range of discounts available in their stores.

Undercover shoppers visited 104 supermarkets across Australia in March to compare the prices of 14 common grocery items.

The items included vegetable stock, sour cream, drinking chocolate, butternut pumpkin, quick oats, garlic, and onions.

Choice says the findings are meant to provide a general picture of grocery prices, noting that smaller and independent stores tend to have more fluctuating prices.

Products were matched as closely as possible based on pack size, ingredients and country of origin.

Aldi offered the most value, with the full basket of products costing just $55.35.

Woolworths was not far behind at $58.92, while the Coles basket without specials came in at $59.22.

A Coles spokesperson said the supermarket offered thousands of weekly specials and the reviewed basket does not accurately reflect the full range of products it sells.

The most expensive shop was IGA at $69.74, although it did prove cheapest for carrots and garlic.

IGA said it was “unfair” that prices at small independent stores were being compared with larger supermarkets.

A spokesperson said they had raised concerns with Choice following its earlier report in March.

“It is disappointing that Choice acknowledges the wide variation in product range and store size of the IGA stores surveyed yet still includes their findings regardless,” the spokesperson told AAP.

“IGA stores have a differentiated range, specifically tailored to local shoppers with brands you cannot find anywhere else.”

Woolworths said it understood the pressures felt by customers and they would continue to reduce prices on hundreds of winter essentials.

Aldi Australia’s Jordan Lack said the supermarket would continue to provide quality products and low prices.

While Aldi claimed the top spot in Choice’s comparison, separate research by JPMorgan suggests it has been cutting prices to stay competitive.

According to the investment bank, Aldi’s June price reductions, which focused on home brand products, marked its largest monthly price cut in 18 months.

The move is believed to be a direct response to Woolworths’ recent $100 million investment in its Lower Shelf Price program, launched in May.

In March, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released its final report into supermarkets, finding major chains had little incentive to be competitive on pricing due to their large market share.