Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
A listener production. Hi, Sasha Barbagat with you. Happy Friday and welcome to The Briefing. Chances are you know someone who is a runner or maybe you're a runner yourself. We seem to be in the middle of a running craze, which begs the question, if you're not already doing it, should you be?
I don't think everyone should be running marathons, but everyone should be physically active. And the question then is, what's the best form of physical activity for you? You know, the best exercise is the exercise you do.
Whether or not you should run a marathon is coming up in the second half of this episode. First, let's get into the headlines with Chris Spirou. It is Friday the 15th of May.
Chapter 2: What budget proposals did Angus Taylor outline in his recent speech?
Morning, Sash. Angus Taylor has laid out his budget reply overnight, making a clear play to win back voters who have or are thinking about defecting to One Nation. In a speech to the lower house, the opposition leader laid out his plans to take away welfare access for anyone who isn't a citizen, address bracket creep and make the biggest cut to immigration ever seen in this country.
We will make the existing Australian value statement an enforceable visa condition. We'll make it an obligation, not an option, for permanent visa holders to learn English.
Chapter 3: What factors are contributing to the current running craze in Australia?
We'll enhance screening to stop radicals from entering our borders.
He also vowed to deport 70,000 so-called visa overstayers and make it harder to get a temporary protection visa.
There was also a promise of an additional $1,000 tax cut for Australian workers and in an attempt to win over businesses and tradies, a promise to allow any businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million to immediately deduct assets of up to $50,000. Now, we did already know a couple of these announcements which were leaked yesterday. We did cover them in the headlines.
However, Taylor's budget reply does include much awaited detail on the party's policy platform ahead of the 2028 federal election.
Chris. Like the Treasurer the night before, he rushed to sit down with the ABC immediately after the speech and he was forced to defend the move to target non-citizens.
Citizenship is a privilege and it's something we want people to get something from. If you contribute to this country, we want to contribute back and that's what citizenship is all about. But when you have a situation where someone can come and get all the benefits without that, it becomes meaningless.
He also refused to put a number on how many immigration positions would be cut.
What you will see from our number is a cut of more than 70% since Labor's, the peak under Labor. That's 100... More than 40%. That's 150,000.
Is that your number?
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Chapter 4: Should everyone consider running a marathon, or is it not for everyone?
I'm trying. 40% on the current level. And the truth is the right number will depend on how many houses get built.
Yeah, so this was the policy we were talking about yesterday that was leaked prior to his speech in that they're going to tie immigration levels directly to how many houses are built. So the number of people coming to Australia and staying and living is far outpacing the supply of housing.
So they want to tie it to that and Angus Taylor is basically saying we can't give you a number because we don't know how many houses are going to be built each year. However, he did call it in his speech the biggest cut to immigration numbers ever.
Yeah.
So they must have an idea of a number.
Well, you'd hope so, yeah. But, you know, based on their track record, there's every good chance that they don't.
Yeah, sure. But there has long been pressure for the Coalition to put up actual policies to offer genuine opposition to Labor. This has been going on for years now. And what remains to be seen, though, is how the voting public is going to respond to these policy announcements and whether they will help woo back voters from One Nation.
Pauline Hanson says, this policy is straight out of my playbook. This is exactly how One Nation would play it. She accused Taylor of having no vision for the future and that's why he's picking up One Nation's policies. So let's see what the fallout or the potential benefits for the coalition are. We'll have to keep an eye on it.
I'd now like to raise a glass and propose a toast to the rich and enduring ties between the American and Chinese people. It's a very special relationship and I want to thank you again. This has been an amazing period of time. Thank you, President Xi.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the proposed English learning requirement for migrants?
That was Rubio on NBC there.
interview with Fox, Trump said that Xi has offered to help reopen the Strait and pledged to no longer send weapons to Tehran, though that has not been officially confirmed on China's end, and it probably won't be. And that's something that we did deep dive not too long ago. We popped a link in the show notes yesterday. I'll pop it in the show notes today as well.
China does like to walk the fine line between keeping Iran as a very close trading partner. We know that China buys a And it does supply Iran with weapons, although it publicly won't come out to say that. And it also won't publicly be celebrating that it has been trying to break a peace between the two countries that very much, like I said, walks that fine line.
So any official word on this, we're probably not going to hear about it.
Staying overseas and rumblings are continuing within British government that a challenge on PM Sir Keir Starmer is imminent. The fallout has partly been triggered by the controversial appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, despite his links to Jeffrey Epstein, but also disastrous local election results last week, which saw Labor lose over 1,400 council seats across England.
Starmer has been digging in and refusing to succumb to growing pressure from within his own party to resign. But overnight, his health secretary, Wes Streeting, has quit the ministry in what many say signals he'll challenge Starmer for the leadership, but he hasn't announced a formal tilt just yet.
While the way is also being paved for another rumoured contender, Andy Burnham, to have a crack at a spill for the top job. It's the middle of the night there now, so as to what happens next... We'll have to wait and see.
The siren sounds. Back to back for the Blues. Origin dominance for New South Wales.
Oh, back home, yes. The New South Wales women have downed Queensland overnight to take out the 2026 State of Origin. Yeah, the girls. A couple of try-saving tackles saw the Blues finish up 14-10 in what was a very tight contest at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, and it earns the New South Wales girls their second Origin Shield in a row.
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