Australia news as it happened: Nationals ditch nuclear power stations; McCormack not planning on rolling Littleproud ‘any time soon’; Calwell, Bradfield races tighten

Thanks for spending your afternoon with us! As always, I hope you found this helpful. We will have more for you in the next live news coverage.

Here’s what we covered:

• The Coalition appears to be edging closer towards reforming after the parties’ separation this week. The latest we’ve heard is that the Nationals have dropped their demand that nuclear power stations be a part of the future energy mix, and the Liberals have agreed in principle to Nats leader David Littleproud’s other demands.
• Former deputy PM Michael McCormack gave some ambiguous answers when asked if he was planning to challenge David Littleproud for the leadership of the Nationals following this week’s split. “Not any time soon”, he said, but added he wouldn’t put a red line through his name forever.
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers continues to stare down criticism for his plan to double taxes on large superannuation balances from July 1 this year. The latest there is that the Greens are proposing amendments.
• Election results: Independent candidate Nicolette Boele is ahead of Liberal Gisele Kapterian by just four votes in the Sydney seat of Bradfield. In Melbourne’s seat of Calwell, the final two candidates of the four-horse race are expected to be Labor’s Basem Abdo and Independent Carly Moore.
• And the chair of federal arts agency Creative Australia has stepped down, three months after the board’s controversial Israel-Gaza-related sacking of Australia’s appointed representatives to the 2026 Venice Biennale art festival.

The Liberal and National parties are inching towards reforming the Coalition after Liberal MPs gave Sussan Ley in-principle agreement for most of David Littleproud’s policy demands, but speculation is growing about Littleproud’s future as leader of the regional party.

Ley convened a lively party room meeting this afternoon, at which her MPs gave their leader the authority to strike a deal with the Nationals to create a joint shadow cabinet by the time parliament resumes, days after Littleproud sparked chaos by splitting from the Liberals.

Critically, the Nationals ditched the plan to build seven nuclear power sites, paving the way for a watered-down Coalition policy to merely lift the moratorium and allow for potential private investment into nuclear energy.

Read more here.

In breaking news, the chair of the federal arts agency Creative Australia, Robert Morgan, has stepped down three months after the board’s controversial sacking of Australia’s appointed representatives to the Venice Biennale.

Morgan’s retirement was announced by Arts Minister Tony Burke late today just weeks before an independent review is to publicly report on the process that led to the sacking of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino.

Morgan and Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette have borne the brunt of criticism over the board’s decision in February to abruptly cancel the duo’s Biennale invitation.

Read more here.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers describes the tax he wants to introduce as “a modest change” to Australia’s $3.9 trillion superannuation sector, but a growing chorus of critics say the plan to increase tax on super balances of more than $3 million will hurt investment and punish younger Australians working towards their nest egg.

One of Labor’s key policies, Chalmers’ super tax changes will be put to the parliament in coming months.

For about one in 200 Australian taxpayers – about 80,000 people with super balances higher than $3 million – there will effectively be a new tax bracket for money they earn on their super.

It will apply from July 1.

Read more from economics writer Millie Muroi here.