The head of a food charity Feeding Friends in far-west New South Wales has been left frustrated after being told there was no council land available to build a homeless camp.

The organization had asked Broken Hill City Council for a block of council land or an unused building to establish a base for homelessness services, including a food outlet, laundry facilities and a transitional camp. While the council voted to investigate whether any land was available, Mayor Tom Kennedy made it clear there was not.

After five years serving hot meals to those experiencing homelessness in Broken Hill, Feeding Friends president Don Barron said demand for its services were growing amid the cost-of-living crisis, and was very disappointed that land wasn’t available for this cause.

Prior to the meeting to discuss the request, some locals raised concerns over the encampment’s impact on neighbouring residents and businesses. Derwent Coshott, a senior lecturer in law at Sydney University, said legally establishing a transitional campsite would require planning approvals; But he also said there was another pathway through a policy of non-enforcement, referring to the state government’s protocol for homeless people in public places, and that that organization could ask the council to not enforce the law against them. The risk is that none of this means that the law might not be enforced against them later on.

Dr Coshott also said the issue has raised broader questions about regulating homelessness in NSW, which is there is no real proper legal framework to address homelessness in these circumstances.

Australian Federal Treasurer Chalmers officially released the seventh Intergenerational Report (IGR) on Monday.

This 40-year economic and demographic forecast report indicates that due to a continued decline in fertility rates and rapid population aging, Australia will experience its first-ever death toll exceeding births in the 2060s. This means Australia will enter a phase of natural population decline already faced by many developed countries (such as Japan, Germany, and South Korea), with population growth becoming entirely dependent on overseas migration.

The report shows that Australia’s population growth rate will slow to 0.9% over the next few decades, down from the historical average of 1.4%. With a shrinking working-age population and surging demand for elderly care, the Australian economy has officially entered a “new normal” of low growth. Over the next 40 years, the average annual growth rate of real GDP per capita is projected to be only 1.2%, lower than the 1.5% of the past four years. The government’s fiscal burden will also increase accordingly, with public services and healthcare spending continuing to rise. It is projected that by the mid-2060s, government spending as a percentage of GDP will rise to 27.4%, facing a long-term structural fiscal deficit.

To address the demographic crisis and stagnant productivity, the Ministry of Finance is pinning its hopes on the comprehensive adoption of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Chalmers emphasizes that AI is “the biggest economic transformation in our lifetime,” and that technological change will be the most crucial driver if productivity growth can be raised from its near-zero levels in recent years to the historical average of 1.2%. The report outlines six major transformative challenges for the next forty years, including the AI ​​revolution, geopolitical fragmentation, energy transition, population aging and the care economy, industrial transformation, and intergenerational equity, urging the government to promote long-term reforms to maintain national prosperity.

Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man, James Ashby, is enjoying generous benefits as a result of his role working for One Nation, with documents showing that a company linked to the party built a $56,000 shed on his central Queensland property.

Ashby, formerly Hanson’s chief of staff and now the party’s national director, also drives a new Ford Ranger that was “personally” gifted to One Nation by Hancock Agriculture’s chief executive, Adam Giles, in April. Hanson said the vehicle would help the party’s campaign efforts and “provides us the presence we need in the lead-up to the next federal election”.

Sources say Ashby is earning a lucrative salary in his new high-profile role. He also has regular access to the $2m Cirrus plane gifted to the party by Giles’ employer and Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart.

In May Hanson asked the Department of Finance for permission to establish a second electorate office in Yeppoon, further fuelling suggestions that Ashby was preparing a tilt at federal parliament. When asked if he would run at the next election, Ashby declines the possibility.