The GST should be raised and expanded to include more products in an attempt to pay down Australia’s ballooning national debt, a respected think tank has urged.

The Grattan Institute has called for the federal government to lift the GST rate from 10 per cent to 15 per cent as part of an overhaul of the budget.

The think tank also pushed for the tax to include all food items, ending the current exemption for grocery staples.

A report from the institute, released on Monday, said the proposal would generate $76 billion per year, which could then flow through to tax cuts for low-and-middle-income earners and expanded welfare payments.

Lead author and institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally said the overhaul was needed to repair state and federal budgets.

“Outside of the COVID pandemic, the last time Australia’s national public debt owed this much, the country was still paying off debt from a world war,” she said.

Commonwealth debt topped $1 trillion in recent months, although Australia’s debt as a share of the economy is lower than most of its developed peers.

The increased tax income would allow for JobSeeker and Youth Allowance to rise by 20 per cent, while rent assistance would go up by 50 per cent to offset the higher GST costs.

“There are no easy paths back to budget sustainability,” Dr Sathanapally said.

“But with smarter spending decisions and a tax system that raises sufficient revenue to care for our ageing population, both current and future generations can be better off.”

The proposed changes would leave a low-income, single-parent family $150 a week better off.

Higher-income working families would pay $162 a week more under the proposal.

Former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is weighing up an attempted return to federal politics, recently suggested the government consider raising the GST to lower income taxes, a proposal rejected by current party leader Angus Taylor.

Several prominent economists have also called for the GST rate to be increased, a measure the federal Labor government has said is not on its agenda.

The Grattan Institute report also called for the scrapping of a contentious GST deal to benefit Western Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to maintain the 2018 agreement, put in place by the Morrison government, despite a recent Productivity Commission report labelling the deal “perverse”.

Under the pact, the resource-rich state receives a guaranteed minimum share of the GST pool each year, regardless of its actual revenue needs.

Other state and territory leaders have urged for a more equitable GST deal to be reached, but WA Premier Roger Cook has labelled opponents of the agreement “east coast clowns”.

The Grattan Institute said removing the WA deal would save $6 billion per year.

Business groups have called for an explanation about why they were left in the dark for months about a looming tax office plan to ban credit card payments.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said his government became aware in July the Australian Taxation Office could refuse to accept the payment method when a Reserve Bank ban on card surcharges came into effect in October.

The ATO made a decision in late September to go ahead with the measure, barring credit card payments for tax bills.

But after an outcry from small business, Labor announced the government would step in and cover the fees incurred on the card payments until the end of the financial year.

Mr Mulino said the government urged the tax office to continue negotiations with credit card companies to set up a transition period, rather than just implement a straight ban.

“Those discussions didn’t get to the point where it was possible for that to occur and so the ATO made a call in late September to not accept credit cards,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“The two-month transition period was the busiest period of tax submission. So the original thinking by the ATO was that that would be a sufficient period.

“The transition period, as it turned out from stakeholder feedback, wasn’t enough, and so that’s where the government stepped in.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said it was concerning businesses were not told about the changes until the day before the ban started.

“It is concerning that the government was considering a ban on credit card payments in July, yet business wasn’t made aware until just hours before the surcharge ban took effect,” he said.

“This looks like a completely deficient policymaking process that took small business for granted. It cannot be repeated.”

Despite the months-long notice period from the tax office, Mr Mulino denied the government had taken a hands-off approach to the change.

“It was an approach where we didn’t get into all of the details,” he said.

“Those discussions (between the ATO and credit card companies) did continue and have led to an improvement in the offer and they continue now.”

The assistant treasurer said a transition period for the ATO to phase out accepting credit card payments was still the best approach.

“Accepting credit card payments going on indefinitely would have very serious fiscal ramifications for the budget,” he said.

The fallout from the credit card payments bungle has led to criticism of the federal government that ministers did not understand the needs of small businesses.

Mr McKellar said a permanent solution was needed to help smaller firms, repeating calls for the payment option to be retained.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres rejected the attacks, saying businesses had lower costs as a result of the Reserve Bank surcharge ban.

However, he said the government was unlikely to permanently reverse the ATO’s ban on credit card payments.

“I don’t think that there’s any prospect of this issue being managed that way,” he told News24.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said the lack of notice given to businesses about the changes was not good enough.

“It doesn’t matter who ends up in the treasurer’s chair, the problem is the Albanese government’s active inflation agenda, which treats small business as a revenue source, not the backbone of the economy,” he said.

“Small business shouldn’t find out about decisions like this in the newspaper.”

Auction rates have taken another hit after the introduction of reserve price transparency rates in one state combined with a sluggish property market.

The rules, which applied to auctions held in Victoria from Friday, make it mandatory for reserve prices to be published a week ahead of auction dates in an effort to tackle underquoting.

Melbourne led a national drop in the number of homes going under the hammer throughout the week, data from financial services firm Cotality revealed on Sunday.

It follows a broader national trend with the 1423 capital city homes auctioned during the week, down 18.6 per cent from the previous week and almost 46 per cent lower than the same time in 2025.

Melbourne experienced the biggest reduction, with 500 homes hitting auction, down 29 per cent on the previous week and 56 per cent lower than the same week a year earlier.

Cotality research director Tim Lawless said the steep national decline in auctions was driven by a “sharp reduction” in sales under the hammer in the Victorian capital, coinciding with the introduction of the price-disclosure rules.

Clearance rates across the capital cities were the highest in four weeks at 51 per cent, based on preliminarily available data.

Melbourne had the highest preliminary clearance rate at 56.2 per cent, while Sydney, which had the most homes go to auction, had a rate of 54.6 per cent.

Auction clearance rates are considered a strong leading indicator for future price movements with any result below 60 per cent pointing to a falling market.

National house prices have declined 5.2 per cent since March, according to Cotality.

Auction activity was set to further ease heading in the coming week, when 1240 homes were scheduled to go under the hammer, the research firm said.

Melbourne volumes were particularly low, with 489 homes scheduled for auction, 70 per cent fewer than the same time in 2025.

Ray White’s chief executive of performance and value Thomas McGlynn said buyer confidence and activity could vary considerably from city to city.

“What’s encouraging is that buyers are continuing to engage with the market, although we’re seeing them become more considered in their decisions,” he said.

“For sellers, there are still opportunities to achieve good outcomes, but understanding local conditions, setting realistic expectations and having the right strategy from the outset are more important than ever.”

A spike in Australia’s jobless figures will loom over Australia’s economy, as the Reserve Bank prepares to offer its first clues on how it perceives the increase.

Unemployment rose to a five-year high of 4.7 per cent in September, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, above economist predictions of 4.6 per cent for the month.

The fall in employment, by almost 40,000, was softer than expectations.

The data has raised the prospect of the central bank keeping interest rates on hold when it next meets on Melbourne Cup day in early November.

Unemployment is already above the RBA’s forecast of 4.5 per cent for the December quarter, with governor Michele Bullock previously indicating higher unemployment was needed to bring inflation down.

The Reserve Bank has not offered commentary on the moves in the unemployment rate, but will have the chance to do so on several occasions in coming days.

The bank’s assistant governor Chris Kent will speak in a fireside chat at the Commonwealth Bank’s global markets conference on Monday.

The RBA’s deputy governor Andrew Hauser will also make a speech at the Citi Conference on Wednesday.

In a week where no major economic data is being presented, their comments will be closely monitored for any hints as to where November’s rate decision will go.

NAB economist Jessie Cameron said the central bank was probably not going to increase pain for mortgage holders with another rate rise.

“We continue to see the RBA on hold from here, but the risk still sits with a hike,” she said in a research note.

“The RBA is unlikely to want to fuel any further paring in pricing.”

At its last meeting, the central bank lifted the official cash rate to 4.6 per cent, the highest level in 15 years.

RBA head of payments Ellis Connolly will also make an appearance at the Australian Finance Industry Association conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

The bank’s decision to ban credit and debit card surcharges, which came into effect at the start of October, will likely be on the agenda at the summit.

The decision to stop the surcharges has caused controversy among business owners, who say they will have to pass the fees imposed by card operators on to customers in other ways.

Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis said the decision from the RBA was a logical one.

“Surcharges no longer made sense in a largely cashless economy,” she said.

“In most cases, firms will simply roll the surcharge into the sticker price, leaving the total cost to the consumer unchanged, just more transparent.”

Wall Street investors have meanwhile been left spooked with AI-related technology stocks under renewed pressure and oil prices jumping.

All three major indices closed ‌sharply lower on Friday.

The S&P 500 declined 1.09 per cent to end the session at 7,659.44 points. The Nasdaq dropped 2.15 per cent to 26,140.03 points and the Dow Jones dipped 0.34 per cent to 52,002.41 points.

Australian share futures slipped 11 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 17,528.

The S&P/ASX200 gained 87 points on Friday, up one per cent, to 8806.7, as the broader All Ordinaries rose 100 points, or 1.13 per cent, to 8940.4.

Small businesses will have to pay thousands of dollars in order to comply with upcoming tax changes, the assistant treasurer has conceded.

Laws were introduced to parliament on Wednesday introducing a 30 per cent minimum tax on trusts, after it was flagged in the May federal budget.

The federal government has argued the large amount of discretionary trusts was subverting the tax system and placed a greater burden on workers.

But the proposal has come under fire from business groups, who say trusts are used for legitimate reasons such as protecting assets.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said the reforms would better align taxes through trusts and labour income.

However, when asked what the cost to businesses would be, he said it would be in the thousands of dollars.

“It really depends on the kinds of arrangements that a small business has, it depends on the kind of restructuring pathway they undertake,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“It should be towards (the thousands) than the (tens of thousands).”

Mr Mulino estimated there was about 800,000 discretionary trusts, with the amount doubling over the past 25 years.

It’s expected the economy-wide costs of the changes would be about $50 million.

“(It’s) a reasonable kind of ongoing cost for adjustment across the economy for a tax reform of this magnitude,” Mr Mulino said.

“At the heart of this reform is the fact that there are a range of options available to some taxpayers in our community that are not available to most, that aren’t available to people who provide their labour.”

Labor will need the support of either the coalition or the Greens to get the reforms through parliament.

The coalition have come out strongly against the bill and are unlikely to support it even with changes.

While the changes will lead to a 30 per cent tax on trusts, concerns have been raised some people could be forced to pay 60 per cent in tax if they use a trust and other companies for business purposes.

The top marginal tax rate is 47 per cent.

Mr Mulino said there would be a transition period so businesses would have time to adjust to the tax arrangements.

“What we’re setting is a very reasonable minimum tax. The 30 per cent is a level that is really to better align taxation through trust income,” he said.

Senior Liberals have denied the Nationals are dictating the coalition’s stance in opposing a free-trade deal with the European Union.

Australia signed on to a trade agreement with the EU in March after eight years of negotiations.

But Nationals leader Matt Canavan said the coalition would oppose the trade deal during a parliamentary vote to ratify the agreement, arguing it was unfair for Australian jobs and industry.

The opposition from the regional party comes despite the coalition being yet to formally agree its position on the issue.

But Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson said the concern held by the Nationals was valid and the coalition was united on the topic.

“There’s widespread concern that this deal is not good enough for farmers, for businesses, for exporters,” she told News24 on Sunday.

“We want to see better trade with the EU, but it cannot be a one-sided agreement, and particularly for beef and dairy, we are very concerned about some of the proposals.”

Under the deal, Australia would remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which hits car makers such as BMW and Mercedes, along with goods such as fashion products, food and drinks.

EU tariffs would in turn be removed on a wide range of imported Australian goods, including critical minerals, manufactured items and many dairy products.

However, farmers were left angered by the arrangement, with some saying it would deliver no commercially meaningful market access.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres said the EU free-trade deal was in the interest of Australians.

He said Opposition Leader Angus Taylor needed to decide where his priorities were in formalising his stance on the deal.

“This is an economic credibility test for Mr Taylor,” he said.

“Are the 50 Liberals in the parliament really going to be led by the nose of these fanatics led by Senator Canavan?

“Or are they going to vote for mainstream economic credibility, for free trade, for market access, for 98 per cent of Australian goods entering Europe without a tariff?”

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said getting the agreement through the Senate would obviously be trickier without coalition support but the government would find a path.

“We’ll work with people of good faith because it’s important for the Australian economy,” he said.

“They don’t really stand for what the once-great Liberal Party of Australia stood for, which is free markets and trade.”

US President Donald Trump touted his power while rallying in Kentucky to bolster Republican turnout as his party struggles in the midterms, saying, “I can do stuff that is unbelievable”.

Trump, who spoke in the city of Highland Heights to boost Republican candidates including Ed Gallrein for the US House, was riffing on his decision to change how the US government refers to the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. 

“I don’t think I could have done this in my first term. This is a much more powerful term,” Trump said on Saturday. 

“Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the first. Now, they kiss my ass.” 

“Well, I also changed the name of a lake in Canada to the Lake America,” he continued, referring to Lake Ontario.

Trump’s self-proclaimed power is set against voter frustration with how he’s wielded it, with tariffs and the Iran war driving up prices and more Americans seeing the president looking out for his own interests and not those of the country. 

With control of both chambers of Congress on the line, and with it the prospects of Democratic-led investigations of his administration should they win, Trump has put himself at the fore for voters, asking them to “pretend that I’m on the ballot”.

But Republicans privately worry that growing disapproval of his administration is a liability. 

Trump nominated one of his personal lawyers to serve as attorney general, ordered military strikes on accused drug smuggling boats, is trying to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and has enriched himself and his family while he’s been in office. 

While meandering through topics onstage in Kentucky, Trump touched on gas prices, saying that the war with Iran was going to end soon – an assertion he’s made many times over the course of the nearly eight-month conflict – and that gas prices will drop to lower than previously. The crowd cheered. 

Facing the electoral headwinds, Trump is working to paint a portentous picture of Democrats in the final weeks before the midterms.

That includes the claim that if his opposing party wins, the US will “have a depression” and that the Democratic platform includes abolishing the US Senate and US Supreme Court.

Those are not on the Democratic Party’s platform. But Trump is trying to lump them in with the Democratic Socialists of America, which have had a few candidates win in this year’s primary elections.

Trump also rehashed his dubious promise that if Republicans win the House and the Senate then every adult American would get $US5,000 ($A7,180). That would most likely cost more than $US1 trillion ($A1.4 trillion) and require congressional approval, while exacerbating the country’s nearly $US1.8 trillion ($A2.6 trillion) annual budget deficit. 

Australians have been warned not to travel to Saudi Arabia as civilian infrastructure is targeted in a sharp escalation in Middle East tensions.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Smartraveller website on Friday raised the threat level for the Middle Eastern kingdom to “do not travel” due to the country’s volatile security situation.

“You should postpone any planned travel to Saudi Arabia, including travel for religious purposes,” it said.

Conflict between Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-backed forces has amplified during October with a major offensive on the kingdom’s airports and energy infrastructure, significantly disrupting air travel.

The Houthi militia has warned it views Saudi Arabia’s airports and airspace as “legitimate targets” – with the exception of Mecca and Medina, which are sites sacred to Muslims.

Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has been the target of more than 20 Houthi rebel strikes during October, killing 19 and injuring 364, according to a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition.

The airport has been shut since the deadliest attack in the kingdom in more than ​a decade occurred on October 10, killing 13 people and wounding more than 300, Reuters reported.

A Notice to Airmen issued on Monday showed King Khalid International Airport will stay closed until Sunday morning Australian time.

DFAT has advised against travelling to the capital’s airport and to take extreme caution journeying to any other airports.

Travellers are advised to minimise time in Saudi airports and not to leave for the airport until flights have been reconfirmed with the airline or travel provider.

“If it is safe to do so, you should consider using private car, train and bus options as alternatives to air travel, including to aviation hubs in the UAE and Qatar,” the Smartraveller notice said.

The Australian government urged citizens staying in Saudi Arabia to stockpile essential supplies such as food and water and prepare to shelter in place at short notice.

“If a strike occurs, seek shelter in a substantial building and stay away from windows,” it said.

”Falling debris from intercepted missiles and drones also poses a risk.”

Senior government minister Chris Bowen told reporters on Saturday that travel advice was issued in the best interest of Australians and was “always appropriately conservative”.

“I understand it can be difficult to change your plans, but travel advice is issued for very good reason,” Mr Bowen said.

“And any Australians in Saudi Arabia, I know, are able to approach our embassy and our consulate for the best advice.”

Protections for workers against punitive uses of artificial intelligence are being urged amid reports of widescale surveillance at the largest e-commerce company in the world.

The rights of employees must be considered in the rollout of the technology beyond job security and training, workplace standards expert Penny Williams told a parliamentary inquiry into AI.

“Various forms of AI have been introduced to the benefits of workers, but it can also be used punitively,” the Queensland University of Technology professor said.

“It isn’t a straight line to say it’s the developer’s responsibility, or the technology itself and the algorithm itself that is the issue.”

Representatives from multinational Amazon faced questioning from a Labor senator over documents showing the extent of surveillance in its workplace.

Internal documents leaked from the Canadian branch of Amazon revealed instances of employee dissatisfaction were being tracked and measured across sorting facilities, including one in Melbourne.

The so-called Atlas Model operated by Amazon tracks employee relations events internally as well as external comments on websites such as Reddit to “evaluate emerging workforce issues” according to the training document.

It includes a breakdown chart analysing global warehouse trends, noting 19 external comments were recorded in relation to the Melbourne fulfilment centre with 80 per cent classed as negative.

Constant surveillance could be dangerous in the workplace, occupational health and safety expert Michael Quinlan said.

“If you’re tracking people and they’re not aware of it, or even if they are aware of it … this is going to affect their behaviour,” Professor Quinlan from the University of NSW told the inquiry in Canberra.

“For instance, some of the surveillance equipment on trucks on mining sites actually gets drivers to look in a particular direction all the time and they’re arguing that is actually distracting because they know they’re being recorded.”

Labor Senator Tony Sheldon pushed Amazon Web Services representatives on the use of AI-powered tracking tools.

Amazon Web Services is the retail and tech giant’s dog in the AI fight, which essentially functions as a utility company – like electricity and water – but for computing power.

Representatives from the services team said they were unable to comment, having only been made aware of the report moments before fronting the inquiry.

Amazon executive Nicole Foster instead spoke to the standards applied to responsible use of their services more broadly.

“We use responsible AI dimensions that are more around technical language … safety, veracity, controllability, fairness, explainability, robustness, privacy and security,” she told the inquiry.

But Senator Sheldon suggested the company was failing to apply the same standards to its own use of AI in the workplace.

“There is not privacy,” Senator Sheldon told the inquiry.

“Workers have not been told that they are being surveilled. 

“They’ve been treated like a digital prison.”

The NSW senator raised particular concern with cases in which people have been terminated from their jobs for raising concerns or joining a union.

“It’s a bit like they’re using AI to hunt down the workforce that are pursuing their human rights,” Senator Sheldon said. 

“It’s a bit like the workforce being hunted down by the Terminator.”

Amazon Australia has been contacted for comment.

Representatives before the inquiry welcomed calls for mandatory safety standards and working toward supporting renewable energy projects to meet data centre energy needs.

However, Amazon dismissed calls to increase the resources allocated to the Australian AI Safety Institute, claiming was a matter of “quality over quantity” at such an early stage of the body’s existence.

The tech giant has labelled the artificial intelligence boom the first real opportunity to boost global productivity growth in 20 years, echoing analysis from Australia’s Productivity Commission.

A member of a powerful and secretive Christian sect who encouraged fellow church members to campaign for the Liberal Party has described a journalist investigating the denomination as “poisonous” and “full of lies”. 

Gareth Hales is the son of the global head of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, which is alleged to have mobilised congregants in their thousands to man polling booths and harass MPs at the 2025 federal election.

The church has repeatedly denied it directed or co-ordinated its members – most of whom don’t vote for religious reasons – to campaign, instead saying they volunteered.

Mr Hales had admitted to campaigning for the Liberal Party and encouraging other congregants who were already doing so, but told a parliamentary committee investigating the church’s conduct he was acting as a businessman.

“In 2025, I was deeply concerned about the direction the country was heading, particularly the pressures on business,” he said during hearings in Canberra on Friday.

“I remain concerned about those very same things … what I did as an individual was support a change of government and volunteer in the 2025 campaign.”

Mr Hales said while driving past a polling booth in Sydney on election day, he noticed “there weren’t many boys in blue” and decided to lend a hand.

“I put on a Liberal T-shirt and went there for half an hour and gave out pre-poll cards,” he said.

“I might have offered a little bit of encouragement, but in no way do I direct them or control or manage (other church members).”

He visited three more Sydney polling booths that day, but maintained he did not see any harassment or intimidation as has been reported, including by MPs.

The previous month, Mr Hales met then-opposition leader Peter Dutton and a senior adviser at a petrol station, but denied they colluded on ways to disrupt the Liberals’ opposing candidates.

“It wasn’t magical, mysterious, it was just known that he was going to turn up there because he was giving a speech,” he told the MPs and senators.

The Liberal Party’s review of the 2025 election labelled the Plymouth Brethren a “support group”, which church representatives have said is up to the party to explain. 

Mr Hales also unloaded on Sydney Morning Herald journalist Michael Bachelard, who has investigated the Plymouth Brethren’s political involvement for years.

“He’s been poisonous … attacking the church, attacking our businesses – it almost seems to be his full-time occupation,” he said.

Bachelard has rejected claims of bias, insisting his reporting is fair and accurate.

Earlier the committee heard evidence from Mr Hales’s father Bruce, the church’s global head, about whether he had directed his sons to campaign for the Liberal party.

“We very, very rarely discuss politics, it’s not a big theme,” the elder Hales had said.

“I know you think it is, but I think most of your precious committee has got it wrong.”

Much of that centred on a sermon Bruce Hales delivered in which he said “Australia needs to be happy again, smiling again”, which he is alleged to have relayed on a WhatsApp call to rouse fellow church members.

“We don’t then fire up in your election campaigns because of one line he says in his sermon – honestly that is ridiculous,” Gareth Hales said, denying he had repeated the phrase.

Questioning of Bruce Hales was likened to the Spanish inquisition by coalition committee members, who accused Labor, Greens and independent inquirers of religious persecution in fiery exchanges.

Those continued during Gareth Hales’ grilling, where independent MP Monique Ryan accused Liberal colleague Ben Small of running a “protection racket”.

Independent MP Andrew Gee, who earlier described being intimidated at polling places by Brethren members, told Gareth Hales: “I, for one, am not buying what you are selling”.