The newly-appointed deputy Liberal leader, Ted O’Brien, who previously was responsible for advocating the party’s nuclear policy prior to the election would not commit to keeping or dumping the policy at this stage.

He told ABC’s News Breakfast that he won’t be “making any vice-captain calls on policy”

We will engage with the Australian people, we’ll be driven by data and evidence, as well as big ears – listening to people – and then we’ll be regrouping as a party, as a party room, we’ll be having debate and, hopefully, these debates are robust. They need to be, for the sake of Australia they need to be. Before we then land on policy direction.

He said he had not had discussions with leader Sussan Ley about what portfolio he may have in the shadow ministry, noting Ley’s mother is unwell, and Ley is spending time with her.

O’Brien said he’s “really proud” to have Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in the Liberal party and the Liberals and Nationals work best as a coalition. He said Price, who bowed out of the deputy run after Angus Taylor lost the vote for leader, will continue to play an important role in the party.

Bradfield margin narrows with just 59 votes separating the candidates

There are just 59 votes separating Liberal Gisele Kapterian and independent Nicole Boele in the Sydney seat of Bradfield on a two-party preferred count, with 1,687 votes still to be counted.

The ABC had initially called this seat for Kapterian, but has now put the seat back in doubt. It says, however, Kapterian is still favoured to win the seat.

If the margin holds, or if it narrows as the count progresses, Boele is likely to ask for a recount. The AEC in the 2016 election opted independently – that is ,without a request – to recount the seat of Herbert when the difference between the two candidates was less than 100 votes.

Liberals slipped from their core values, party vice-president says

On why the Coalition lost the election, Scott says there were “a range of challenges” but said the “Australian public didn’t see themselves in us in this election.”

Scott said the party has slipped from its core values, which should be uniting, around freedom of choice, of association, of voice, of worship, and a tolerant cohesive national society that rewards effort.

We need to build a platform around those things.

The other factor, she said is the Coalition – prior to 2022 – had been in government for nearly a decade, and there needed to be a rebuilding after that to evolve for new generations.

Scott said she was torn on whether quotas for female MPs should be introduced.

There’s been a challenge around female representation. As a woman, I haven’t felt myself hamstrung … even regarding going into one of the four vice-president’s roles, which there are two women and two men in that space. I do, though, believe that I can see the reason why a lot of women are pro quotas, and I’m not against quotas, but I think we need to ensure that there is a full diversity within our membership and within our female representation.

Scott said quotas could potentially had a negative impact on ensuring that multicultural communities are represented if a female candidate was chosen instead of someone representing those communities.

Liberal vice-president says appointment of Ley ‘unique opportunity’ for women of Australia and rebuilding of party

The Federal Liberal vice-president, Fiona Scott, says the appointment of Sussan Ley as the Liberal party leader is a “really unique opportunity, not just for the women within the Liberal party, the women within Australia, but really embodying what it is the Australian dream and how the Liberal party can now rebuild around that.”

Scott told ABC’s RN Breakfast the closeness of the vote between her and leadership rival Angus Taylor reflects the “broad church” of the Liberal party.

What I think we will see is the Liberal party will rally behind Sussan and Ted [O’Brien]. You know, it doesn’t mean that great talents in our party, like Angus [Taylor] won’t still provide superb input, same as Jacinta [Nampijinpa Price], and it’s good to have that diversity of perspective and view, but right now, I think the party room did make the right decision yesterday, and you know, it’s really important on us that we’ve been given the opportunity, maybe taking kicking and screaming to have to rebuild the party and take it back to basics and move forward from there. And I think Sussan is a is a step forward to say that we have listened.

Wong refuses to comment on if Husic could be breaching cabinet solidarity

Wong said she understands why former minister Ed Husic is upset about being excluded from the new ministry in the government. On whether it was over his comments in relation to Gaza, Wong said “we all share concern about what is happening in Gaza”:

We know how difficult it has been for the people of Gaza these last weeks and months. And we continue to join with others to call on Israel to ensure that aid is delivered.

Wong would not comment on whether Husic was close to breaching cabinet solidarity.

Wong comments on tariff deals and Ukraine

On whether Australia should be lobbying harder for a tariffs deal with the United States, following the UK and US coming to an agreement, Wong says Australia will make “sensible decisions in our interest” and develop trading relationships with other countries.

On reports of an Australian being killed fighting in Ukraine, Wong would not comment specifically but said it is a “very dangerous place to be” and consular assistance is being provided to a family in this matter.

Wong says ‘there is no country more important for Australia’ than Indonesia

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, says there is no more important country to Australia than Indonesia as Anthony Albanese heads to the nation today on his first overseas trip since re-election.

Wong told ABC News Breakfast:

That reflects the importance Indonesia has for Australian stability, for Australian security, for our region. There is no country more important for Australia, so we are very focused on making sure that we continue the work we did last term to invest in the relationship and to strengthen it, keep strengthening it and going further.

Wong says the focus of the visit will be around partnership on the economy, trade, investment and defence.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has confirmed one container of ballot papers for the NSW seat of Barton was temporarily misplaced during the count, with a transport officer found to have possession of the container.

The AEC said, however, it was recovered still sealed and undamaged and did not affect the outcome in Barton.

In the seat, which Labor retained with Ash Ambihaipahar winning 61.66% of the two-party preferred vote, the AEC said all votes had been counted in the Hurstville polling place on election night. Once the ballot papers were transported securely for a second count as required, the AEC identified that one of two containers for House of Representative ballots at the polling place had not been returned.

A spokesperson for the AEC said it was determined an authorised transport officer “inadvertently maintained possession of the single missing container.”

The container was recovered with all uniquely coded security seals unbroken and without any damage.

All ballot papers were still in the recovered ballot paper transport container and were promptly returned to the counting centre and have undergone fresh scrutiny. The fresh scrutiny count matched the initial count and the election in the Division of Barton was unaffected by this incident.

The AEC said it was investigating the incident to see what could change to prevent it happening again in future elections.

This shouldn’t have occurred, and the AEC is deeply concerned that on this single occasion our process did not prevent the issue on polling night when ballot papers were initially returned.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria to extend stamp duty concessions for off-the-plan purchases by 12 months

The Victorian government will extend its stamp duty concessions for off-the-plan properties by another 12 months, as part of next week’s state budget.

The premier, Jacinta Allan, will today announce $61m to continue the concessions for off-the-plan apartments, townhouses and units until October 2026.

First announced last year, the concession applies to new properties at any price point and is open to all buyers, including investors. Rather than basing stamp duty on the final sale price, it is calculated on the land value prior to construction.

For a new $620,000 off-the-plan apartment, that could mean a stamp duty bill of $4,000 – saving the buyer $28,000.

According to the government, buyers have saved an average of $24,517 since the concession came into effect. Allan said in a statement:

Young people can’t afford homes in a housing crisis, and I’m on their side. That’s why we’re slashing stamp duty for off-the-plan units and townhouses – to build more homes and make them cheaper to buy.

The treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, said the extension responds to industry feedback:

This isn’t just great news for homebuyers trying to get into the market. It’s also a huge win for homebuilders.

The budget will also include $24m to develop the 50 proposed activity centres across Melbourne’s inner and middle suburbs while $12.1m will be spent to plan for 13,200 new homes in growth areas, including Clyde South and Derrimut Fields in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

Josh Taylor

Hello, this is Josh Taylor taking the live blog for this morning.

As an experienced pilot who learned her trade in the Queensland outback, Sussan Ley is metaphorically better equipped than anyone in the Liberal party to plot a course back from the edge of the political wilderness to the centre ground.

Her rise to the very frontline of politics after her victory in the Liberal party room election yesterday has lifted the lid on a varied Cv of which her aviation skills are but only one part. She can also boast of stints as a station cook and accountant, not to mention raising three children along the way.

Tom McIlroy profiles the Liberal’s first female leader.

Economists’ views on Trump tarriff chaos on our markets

As mentioned above, there are serious concerns among market analysts that chaos unleashed by Donald Trump will cause problems for Australia.

Jenny Gordon, an honorary professor at the ANU and a former chief economist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told our reporter there was no end in sight to the market uncertainty.

Gordon said the experience of the UK and China demonstrated that countries were not coming to the White House as supplicants.

“I think the one thing that has changed is that the world is pushing back against this idea that there would be countries turning up to the US and offering things,” she said.

“And part of that is the Americans don’t know what they want. The Japanese asked the Americans ‘Tell us what you want’, and the response was ‘Tell us what you’ve got to give’.

“Certainly countries are not coming on bended knees.”

Read the whole story here:

Separately, there are concerns the US president’s pressure on medicine companies could drive up the cost of Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or see companies withdraw some medicines from Australian shelves.

Global tensions and Indonesia’s developing relationship with China and Russia will likely be on the agenda when Anthony Albanese makes his first overseas trip of his second term, Australian Associated Press reports.

The prime minister will travel to Jakarta today where he will meet Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo released a video of his conversation with Albanese after his thumping election win, saying he was “so happy” to see him win another term. The prime minister told the Indonesian president he wanted Jakarta to be his first visit – not Washington or Beijing.

The first state visit to Indonesia continued a legacy set up by the Howard government, which was symbolic in projecting Australia’s identity as being close to Asia, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s senior analyst, Gatra Priyandita, said.

“Albanese is interested in maintaining that image of Australia as being independent of the United States and close to the region,” he told AAP.

“There is great interest in Indonesia’s developing relationship with both Russia and China, with Indonesia establishing some of its first naval exercises with Russia recently, so it will probably be under discussion.”

Reports in April that Moscow was seeking permission from Jakarta for Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft to be based in Indonesia alarmed Canberra. Indonesian authorities reassured their Australian counterparts that would not be the case, but did not confirm if the request had been made.

The prime minister went back on a pledge to attend Prabowo’s inauguration in October 2024 because of a visit to Australia by King Charles.

Dr Gatra said his concern was that this new visit to Jakarta would be purely symbolic. “I haven’t heard much in the context of practical deliverables,” he said.

“It’s very important for Australia and Indonesia to think about strategic co-operation … especially since both Albanese and Prabowo will likely be counterparts for quite some time.”

Catie McLeod

Child killed and three injured in NSW road collision

A child has died and three people have been injured in a collision between a ute and a truck on the New South Wales south coast, the state’s police force has said.

Last night, police said emergency services had been called to Towamba Road in Nullica near Eden at about 4.10pm yesterday, where they found a six-year-old boy who had been travelling in the dual-cab ute had died at the scene.

The driver, a man aged in his 30s, and a three-year-old girl, who was a passenger in the ute, suffered multiple injuries were flown to hospital from Merimbula airport, police said.

A third passenger in the ute, an eight-year-old girl, was taken to South-East Regional hospital in Bega, police said.

Police said the driver of the truck, believed to be aged in his 50s, had been taken to the same hospital in Bega for mandatory testing and to be treated for the effects of shock. Police said police from the southern region crash investigation investigation unit would examine the scene of the collison.

Towamba Road was expected to be closed for part of the night as the investigation began.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before your regular blogger takes over the reins.

Yesterday Jim Chalmers said policy uncertainty means Australia is in for a lot of economic uncertainty. Today, we report on how although signs of appeasement between the US and China on trade is good news for Australia’s China-dependent economy, many market experts think that the chaos created by Donald Trump is “worse than the 10% tariff”. Reflecting that, perhaps, the ASX200 is set to open down around 0.5% when it opens later this morning. We’ll have more as it happens.

Anthony Albanese will make his first overseas visit since winning the election when he sets off for Indonesia today. The prime minister will travel to Jakarta where he will meet Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto. The summit follows reports during the election campaign that Moscow was seeking permission from Jakarta for Russian aerospace forces aircraft to be based in Indonesia, causing alarm in Canberra.