Big news to start the morning: Australia’s Delta Goodrem has qualified for the Eurovision final. The other qualifiers from this morning’s second semi-final are Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Norway, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Czechia. The judges have spoken, and apparently, a harp, a sparkly dress, and a mid-song key change are still a winning combination.
In less melodious news, migrant advocates last night accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division.” Taylor claimed migrants were arriving and immediately claiming welfare benefits - a situation the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre describes as a “blatant lie.” They point out that newly arrived migrants already face strict waiting periods of up to four years before accessing most Centrelink payments, by which time they are usually eligible for citizenship. Jana Favero, deputy CEO of the centre, said Taylor’s comments were “inflammatory and desperate,” adding, “The Coalition knows all this and is deliberately misleading Australians.”
Meanwhile, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was busy trying to help more Australians get a “toehold” in the housing market, saying the government had shifted its position on capital gains, negative gearing, and trusts. “Too many Australians have been locked out for too long,” he said, presumably not referring to Eurovision voting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, for his part, dismissed Taylor’s budget reply plans as unserious without costings. “You can come up with a whole range of things. Without any costings, they can’t be taken seriously,” he said, adding that the Coalition is “down to 41 members of the House of Representatives” and that “it is just a debacle.”
In other news, a woman died and 19 people were taken to hospital after a coach rolled on the Bruce Highway at Gumlu in Queensland’s Whitsundays region. The Bruce Highway, which stretches from Brisbane to Cairns and carries more than 100,000 vehicles daily, has long been considered one of Australia’s most dangerous roads. Emergency services were called at about 4pm on Thursday after the bus carrying 29 people rolled. One person was trapped under the bus, but no one else died as of Friday morning.
Coles is bracing for record fines exceeding $200 million after a landmark federal court ruling found its “Down Down” promotions in some cases falsely led shoppers to believe they were getting a true price reduction. Justice Michael O’Bryan ruled against the supermarket giant on Thursday, and former ACCC chair Rod Sims says all Australian retailers are now on notice to keep their “discounts” genuine. The “was/is” pricing strategy, used between 2021 and 2023, apparently fooled customers into thinking they were saving money - turns out, the only thing going down was trust.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor, fresh from his budget reply, told RN Breakfast that Labor is “raising taxes without people actually knowing” and vowed to index tax brackets to inflation if the Coalition wins the next election. He also wants to limit welfare payments to citizens, saying it’s about “prioritising Australians over others.” When asked about specific migration numbers, Taylor said under a Coalition government, migration would be “below 200,000” and tied to the number of houses built. He declined to say exactly which migrants would be cut, but international students, New Zealanders, and working holiday visas are all on the table - much to the Nationals’ dismay, given the impact on agriculture.
Four Australian citizens from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius are expected to land in Perth at around 11am local time, after the government secured a suitable aircraft and crew for their journey from off the coast of Africa.
And finally, Eurovision protests have been kept to a minimum amid a heavy police presence in Vienna, but a protest event called “No Stage For Genocide” is planned for Friday at Venediger Au, a play park on the city’s outskirts. Israel’s Noam Bettan, who qualified for the final in the first semi-final, was booed by some in the crowd during his performance. Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia have boycotted the competition over Israel’s inclusion. Delta Goodrem, meanwhile, ascended into the rafters on a column from her grand piano, hitting a last effortless high note. Whether Australia’s distance from Europe will hurt its chances in the public vote remains to be seen - politically, culturally, or geographically aligned nations tend to vote for each other, and Australia is not exactly Europe’s neighbor.