Golden opportunity as parliament resumes; BHP's potash problem
Published: July 20, 2025
Golden opportunity as parliament resumes; BHP's potash problem
News in brief
BHP’s share price jumped more than 3 per cent on Friday on the back of record copper and iron ore production, but the news isn’t so good for two other major products – potash and nickel - with the cost of BHP's Canadian potash mine blowing out by more than $2 billion.
Crown Resorts could be heading to Brisbane – a market currently owned by Star Entertainment – with the owners of Queen’s Wharf in talks with the private equity owned Crown about a takeover of casino operations in the precinct.
The was an uptick in the number of house auctions held across the country over the weekend, and in the preliminary clearance rate too, which came in at 74.4 per cent. Melbourne had its best weekend in more than two years while Sydney was also strong.
Another Trump bromance looks to be in trouble. The US president is suing Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, parent company of the Wall Street Journal, over an article claiming that Trump wrote a note to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
Britain has moved to lower the voting age by two years to 16 in all UK elections, a major overhaul of the country’s democratic system that immediately split opinion over whether young people should or would cast ballots.
Fear-o-meter
A dominant political party in politics doesn’t always mean good policy outcomes. The United States is an example of that.
The risk in Australia, as the 48th parliament commences this week, is that Labor gets lazy, knowing they have the numbers in the House of Reps, and only need the support of the Greens in the Senate.
It is an opportunity for Anthony Albanese’s team to push through a raft of legislation. First in line is a 20 per cent reduction in HECS debt for students.
Labor is also likely to move quickly on its controversial plan to increase the tax on superannuation accounts with more than $3 million, including the taxation of unrealised gains. The only roadblock to that one is that the Greens want the level reduced to $2 million.
There is also expected to be new legislation covering environmental laws, changes in childcare, gender equality and disability care, and truth in political advertising.
The concern is that legislation doesn’t receive the focus it needs, because Labor can bully it through. If that occurs, the country will be worse off.
Who's talking today?
On running a deep tech venture fund, and how deep tech differs from 'normal' technology:
"The way we think about deep tech is at the centre of it is really some fundamental scientific or engineering breakthrough, which is how we differentiate it from your traditional tech that might be the sort of technology that generates a new software product.
The other thing... is it tends to be trying to solve really large global challenges, whether that's climate change or humanity scale healthcare or trying to feed 10 billion people, which are a number of the thematics that we invest in. And it typically has a much higher research and development intensity. With traditional tech products, you can almost stand them up in a day now, whereas deep tech innovations tend to take a lot more capital and a lot more time before they're proved out."
It's Monday the 21st of July 2025. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Labor team head back to Canberra this week, with federal parliament sitting for the first time since the early May election. The federal government’s agenda is packed and given the huge majority in the House of Representatives, and the need for only Greens support in the Upper House, the Albanese government has a golden opportunity to push through legislation and change.
Greed-o-meter
| MPs | Count |
|---|---|
| ALP | 94 |
| Liberal Party | 18 |
| Lib Nat Party of Qld | 16 |
| Independents | 10 |
| Nationals | 9 |
| Greens | 1 |
| Centre Alliance | 1 |
| Katter’s Australian Party | 1 |
| Senators | Count |
|---|---|
| ALP | 29 |
| Liberal Party | 21 |
| Greens | 10 |
| One Nation | 4 |
| Nationals | 3 |
| Independent | 3 |
| Lib Nat Party of Qld | 2 |
| Others | 4 |
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Federal parliament starts back this week, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leading a dominant Labor Party in the 150 seat House of Representatives, and only needing the support of the Greens in the 76-seat Senate.