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Serving your country in uniform is a rewarding career but relocations, deployments and time away from loved ones can take a toll on family life and leave Defence families feeling disconnected from their communities.

That’s why the Albanese Government is investing more than $2.3 million in 25 grassroots support programs that are strengthening ADF families’ resilience across the country. 

From working with the North Queensland Cowboys to life skills courses for Defence kids in Rockingham, the funding means ADF families can access specialised family supports as well fun and inclusive social programs. 

The funding is being delivered through the Defence Community Grants offered to locally-based non-profit organisations as part of the Defence Family Support Funding Program.

The Minister for Defence Personnel Matt Keogh and the Member for Leichardt Matt Smith announced the program’s latest round of funding at Far North Queensland Legacy Club in Cairns.

The Club will receive $83,333 to deliver its Legacy Links program, which helps Defence families in Far North Queensland build stronger social connections, improve wellbeing and navigate key life transitions associated with Defence service.

A list of the not-for-profit organisations who are receiving FSFP funding is available on the Defence Community Grants: Family Support Funding Program website. 

Matt Keogh, Minister for Defence Personnel:

“The ADF’s greatest capability is our people and we know military life places unique stresses on families. 

“Building happier, healthier family relationships through the programs we’re funding today is a really important way of easing those stresses.

“These are successful programs that build resilience through a combination of specialised support services and fun social connections with local communities.

“I thank the grassroots organisations who are delivering these programs for the wonderful work they are doing with ADF families right across the country.”

Matt Smith, Member for Leichardt:

“The brave members of the military face a great deal of stress in their professional roles, which can often be passed on to partners and family in unique and unprecedented ways, particularly if they are required to move home.

“ADF families can now access specialised support, community groups and social programs that will help build new bonds when Defence members are relocated in the line of duty.

“Here in the Far North, the Legacy Links initiative reduces isolation, enhances resilience and ensures families feel supported, informed and connected throughout key Defence life transitions.

“FNQ Legacy should be commended for their work in this space as a worthy recipient of grant funding from the Albanese Labor Government.”

Defence Family Support Funding Programme Grant Recipients:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Australia and Japan.

Signed in 1976, the Treaty laid the foundation for a partnership built on trust, shared values and mutual prosperity.

Five decades on, Australia and Japan are close friends and Special Strategic Partners, working closely together to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific that is peaceful, stable and prosperous.

As announced by both Prime Ministers in May this year, a new Australia–Japan Leadership Dialogue will bring together leaders from across government, academia, business and civil society to help further strengthen bilateral ties.

I am pleased to announce that former Foreign Minister and Defence Minister Stephen Smith will be Australia’s Chair of the new dialogue. Mr Smith is eminently qualified to identify opportunities to deepen this important relationship.

The Australia–Japan Foundation has also awarded grants to three projects that will strengthen ties with Japan over the next year:

• The Shepherd Centre will collaborate with Macquarie University, Cochlear Ltd. and Japanese partners to deliver a program bringing together young Australians and Japanese people living with hearing loss, alongside clinicians and researchers, to share and compare experiences.
• The National Federation of Australia Japan Societies and the Australia–Japan Business Cooperation Committee will arrange an event at Parliament House to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty. 
• Japanese drumming group Byron Taiko will perform with Indigenous musicians at festivals across NSW and Queensland. The performances will be captured in a documentary to create a lasting record of this commemoration.

The Australia–Japan Foundation is Australia’s oldest cultural council. Its programs and networks have supported our engagement with Japan and strengthened our community and cultural links across generations.

Ahead of the inquiry into Labor’s tax changes beginning in parliament next Monday, the Greens call on Labor to scrap tens of billions in tax handouts for professional property investors and redirect the money into what could be a $2200 cost of living relief payment for every renter and mortgage holder in the country.

PBO analysis, based on ATO data for 2023-24, reveals people with two or more investment properties claimed an eye-watering $33 billion in tax handouts that year. This included 11,000 landlords with 7+ houses who claimed $1.9 billion from 98,100 investment properties. 

The data shows Labor’s grandfathering of property investor handouts locks in tax benefits to people at the top end of town, while renters and mortgage holders bear the brunt of an unfair housing market.

Not only does Labor’s excessive grandfathering represent a massive budget expenditure on the ultra wealthy, it also disincentivises existing property investors from selling these homes to first home buyers. Labor has, by accident or design, created a class of “unicorn” assets with favourable tax settings for people who already own multiple properties, and those property investors will now be incentivised to retain and reborrow against these assets in perpetuity.

Leader of the Australian Greens, Larissa Waters: 

“Australians are suffering through the worst cost of living crisis in memory and Labor has chosen to lock in $33 billion worth of tax handouts to protect property barons.

“For the same amount of money the government spends on tax handouts to multiple property landlords, they could give a $2200 cost of living payment to every Australian renter and mortgage holder.

“For a budget sold on generational inequity, this is the sort of top-end tax handout that should have been scrapped to encourage mega landlords to sell properties to first home buyers.

“Instead Labor is rewarding property hoarding.”

Greens spokesperson on Economic Justice & Treasury, Nick McKim: 

“The data shows Labor is working for the wealthy investors, locking in tax handouts stacked in favour of professional property speculators.

“The biggest beneficiaries of Labor’s grandparenting sit at the top end of town, exactly where Labor should start scrapping publicly funded handouts in the name of fairness.

“If you take away the tax perks, it becomes less attractive to hold onto multiple properties as a tax shelter, and that shifts the incentive to sell to first home buyers.

“Labor’s own housing plan is so heavily grandparented that it is only expected to free up 75,000 homes over a decade. But there are 1.7 million houses still being treated as tax-preferred unicorn assets. 

“That keeps the pressure on the market and makes it harder for first home buyers to compete.”

The costings can be found here.

The third hearing of the Greens-led Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity, has painted a picture of younger generations being ripped off, locked out of the housing market, forced into insecure housing and delaying major life decisions.

Evidence to the committee today showed:

• Australian house prices are now at historical highs and are approaching the most extreme levels recorded internationally when measured against household income.
• Older Australians’ wealth growth has dramatically grown in the past 20 years, due to home ownership and super. Whereas. younger generations are increasingly locked into insecure, high-cost rental arrangements with little prospect of transition into ownership or stable long-term housing.
  • Around 60% of private renters are young people
• 81 per cent of Gen Z and Millennials say the cost of housing has affected the timing of major life decisions. 
• Home-ownership rates are falling particularly fast among younger, poorer Australians.
  • 35 years ago, most low-income younger households owned their own home. Today, only about one in five do.
• The confluence of a precarious labour market, stagnant wages, higher HECS debt and super is preventing young people from accessing home ownership, however, housing affordability is the biggest barrier.
• There’s a growing reliance on the bank of mum and dad, which entrenches inequality over time.
  • More than 57% (more than 1 in 2) parents have helped their children buy a house in the last 10 years. 
• More children are growing up in families experiencing homelessness. Children and young people who lack a safe and affordable home often go on to experience repeat homelessness, which perpetuates intergenerational inequality.

homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara Pocock:

“Young people have drawn the short straw on housing in this country. Successive governments have failed young people.

“With record house prices, unlimited rent increases, sky high rents, insecure contracts, and record low vacancy rates, young people don’t stand a chance of getting a safe and secure roof over their heads. 

“Young people are literally putting their lives on hold because of the housing crisis. They are remaining living with their parents into their 30s, putting off studying or delaying marriage and having children.

“If that wasn’t enough, young people also face massive HECS debts, a precarious labour market, wages lagging behind inflation – all in a cost of living crisis.

“Young people are looking at their futures and asking why the government has screwed them?

“The lack of safe and affordable housing in our country is perpetuating the cycle of homelessness and entrenching intergenerational housing inequality.

“Reliance on the bank of mum and dad shouldn’t be how young people get into the housing market – it’s creating an intra-generational divide.

“We urgently need to dampen investor incentives, such as CGT discount and negative gearing, and build more social and affordable housing directly. Without this, entire generations will be left behind and that’s on the government.”

Public hearing link

The Greens have referred KPMG to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for suspected corruption breaches, in the wake of recent multiple scandals, including allegations of misusing confidential client information to get more audit work and mistreating a whistleblower.

The Greens say Finance’s three month freeze on new KPMG contracts barely constitutes a slap on the wrist, let alone a ban. The Government currently holds 297 active contracts worth $653 million. Thirty-one of these totalling $24 million were sealed with government departments, including Finance, after the KPMG scandals were made public in March 2026.

Greens finance and public service spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock: 

“I’ve referred KPMG to the NACC because the Government is too deep in contracts worth millions to be able to act independently. Labor has rose coloured glasses for the Big 4 even when they behave unethically.

“A three month freeze on new contracts is a slap on the wrist with a stick of limp celery. There is no ban on extensions to the current 297 contracts and we know the Big 4 make their real money in contract extensions – who can forget the BoM’s $96 million website bungle.

“Three months is a holiday, not a punishment. It shows how much power KPMG has over the Government.

“The Government has learned nothing from the PWC scandal. They are giving the second of the Big 4 – KPMG –  a second chance when they have shown us that their ethics are for sale.

“If this was an ordinary worker – not a Big 4 partnership raking in billions – using confidential information for gain, cheating on an exam or mistreating a whistleblower – you’d be out on your ear, you’d be dismissed in a flash.

“We are being taken for mugs. KPMG holds an unbelievable $653 million in current contracts with the Commonwealth who allow the Big 4 to operate by their own rules.

“It’s one rule for the big end of town who rub shoulders with the PM and Ministers and write annual cheques to the government, and another for the average worker or Australian tax payers.

“No wonder ordinary Australians are cynical about politics and pulling their vote away from the major parties. This is billionaire political influence over the government. 

“When will Labor show a bit of backbone and call these marauding cowboys to account?

“It is time to implement the recommendations of earlier inquiries: subject these massive partnerships to the same rules of tax, transparency and whistleblowing as other large entities through corporations law, separate the functions of consultancy from audit and regulate them properly.”

“The Reserve Bank has been forced to hold interest rates at their highest level under this Labor government because of the Treasurer’s active inflation agenda”, said Shadow Treasurer, Tim Wilson.

Mr Wilson’s comments follow the Reserve Bank’s decision today to keep the cash rate on hold at 4.35 per cent, the level households were forced up to in May and the highest interest rates have been under this Labor government.

The RBA’s decision noted that “headline and underlying inflation are still too high”.

“A pause at the peak is not the relief Australians were promised. Families are stuck paying the highest mortgage rates seen under Labor with no end in sight, while the Treasurer keeps fueling the very inflation that is keeping them there”, Mr Wilson said.

“The reason the Reserve Bank cannot cut rates is because inflation is still too high, it is homegrown, and it started long before a shot was fired in Iran. Until the Treasurer stops pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire, there is no path back to lower interest rates”.

“The Treasurer told Australians this time last year that the country had turned the corner on inflation and interest rates. Instead, rates were forced higher in May and held at their peak today, while underlying inflation remains stuck above the Reserve Bank’s target band”.

“Even as families are told to tighten their own budgets, the Albanese government is stoking inflation and piling fresh taxes onto the family home, rental properties and trusts, which will only deepen the squeeze”.

“As Liberals, we stand for lower inflation, lower interest rates and lower taxes. Australians cannot afford another three years of Labor’s active inflation agenda”.

“Families can see straight through the Treasurer’s family savings tax grab, and we want to hear their stories at www.notthetax.com.au“, Mr Wilson said.