Category Archives: Australian foreign policy

Accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon’s mother granted bail – as it happened

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Richard Marles said he doubted China tested the long-range weapon yesterday in response to Anthony Albanese being in the Pacific to sign a new defence alliance with Fiji but said Australia remained deeply concerned by the development. He told ABC News:

At the end of the day, what we’re seeing here is a long-range missile test from China, which China itself has said is nuclear-capable … This is China demonstrating a much greater range in terms of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.

And ultimately what that is, is deeply destabilising.

Our fundamental issue in relation to China is that we have seen a very dramatic military buildup by China without that strategic reassurance [to our neighbours].

There really isn’t an explanation as to why they are building the capabilities that they are and that is fundamentally destabilising.

I think the system is handling the matter as it should … I think it’s appropriate that the legal process takes its course.

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Australian citizen working as spy for Iran ‘orchestrated’ Bondi firebombing, Asio boss says

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Mike Burgess’s annual threat assessment warns social media is ‘amplifying’ an erosion of trust in institutions, promoting discord and heightening polarisation

An Australian citizen working as a senior intelligence officer for Iran “orchestrated” a firebombing in Bondi, the country’s top spy has revealed, while a former Australian resident in Iraq directed the attack on a Melbourne synagogue.

The homegrown ties to Australia’s “summer of antisemitism” are contained in a wide-ranging speech given by Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation’s (Asio) director general, Mike Burgess, on Wednesday night, in which he said the “hatred of Jews is one thing virtually all the violent extremist cohorts have in common”.

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Australia news live: arrival of H5N1 bird flu a ‘genuine wildlife emergency’, experts say; fuel excise rebate extended for extra month

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Tram passengers in Melbourne will be able to pay for their trip using a bank card, smartphone or smartwatch from today.

The long awaited expansion of tap-and-go payments follows a staged roll out to the city’s train network and main regional routes. Buses are expected to follow.

From today, you can step off a train and straight on to a tram using the same phone, watch or bank card.

Four in five tap and go trips are already being made with a phone or smartwatch – showing more Victorians are leaving the wallet at home.

The potential for this virus to kill wildlife in significant numbers means it could be particularly catastrophic for threatened species.

We are talking about possible extinctions, alongside severe impacts to common birds like our beloved pelicans and black swans.

This is a genuine wildlife emergency and it must be treated as such with emergency funding to increase efforts to protect wildlife populations.

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Penny Wong says she believes Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted and abused Australian women after Gaza flotilla

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Foreign affairs minister says her position is to ‘always believe women’ when sexual assault allegations are made

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says she believes the Australian women who have alleged they were sexually assaulted and beaten by Israeli soldiers after being detained as part of a humanitarian flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza.

Appearing at Senate estimates, Wong said the treatment of the Australian women was “unacceptable”, and the allegations they had subsequently made were “distressing”.

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New Aukus drone tech to protect critical undersea cables as Marles warns: ‘seabed is a battlefield’

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Minister at Singapore defence summit also reveals Australia to buy only secondhand Aukus submarines from US

The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the “seabed is a battlefield” in a combative speech urging Beijing to be more transparent about its maritime operations, and taking aim at weak international controls over so-called “shadow-fleet” vessels.

The warning came as the US, UK and Australia announced a new Aukus project to develop new underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables.

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Australia news live: Albanese congratulates Delta Goodrem on Eurovision fourth-place finish; Queensland Labor set to win Stafford byelection

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Jim Chalmers says the opposition’s policy to index tax brackets would cost the budget a quarter of a trillion dollars over ten years, while claiming that the government is returning bracket creep to taxpayers.

It’s a slightly tricky position, as Angus Taylor argues that Labor is “betraying” itself because the high figure is actually how much the government is keeping and spending through bracket creep ever year.

This is a Government that returns bracket creep when it is responsible to do that.

That [policy] would cost tens of billions of dollars in extra debt interest, because he’s got these uncosted, unfunded, tax announcements that he [Taylor] made in his Budget reply, which was all about trying to stave off One Nation.”

What Angus Taylor is proposing to do is to pump the most money into the economy when inflation is already at its highest.

“This betrays the fact that the government plans to raise income tax rates to the tune of $35 billion This says more about their plan than our plan ...

If Labor’s saying that they plan to raise income taxes to the tune of $250 billion in the next 10 years ... [if] that is their tax hike, that’s their planned income tax increases.”

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Australia news live: Delta Goodrem hits the stage in Eurovision semi; Angus Taylor accused of ‘dog whistle’ budget reply

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Australian pop star performs song Eclipse in second semi-final before Sunday’s final. Follow today’s news live

Advocates for migrants last night accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division”.

Taylor claimed that migrants were coming to Australia and claiming benefits before they were becoming citizens, a situation which he said Australians did not accept.

The Coalition’s dangerous decision to return to its harmful, failed refugee policies of the past shows what a mess they are in. They have no new policy ideas. Temporary protection visas have harmed countless people and kept many families apart for over a decade. So many are still trying to recover.

Taylor’s comments tonight are inflammatory and desperate. The fact that he feels the need to dog-whistle about mass deportations of so-called ‘overstayers’, many of whom are actually trapped in a massively blown-out court and tribunal system created through years of Coalition underfunding, shows they are far more interested in stoking fear than delivering serious policy solutions.

The language in tonight’s address misleads the nation by claiming that migrants are arriving and immediately accessing welfare payments, which is a blatant lie. In reality most of the restrictions he’s talking about already exist and there are lengthy wait periods for welfare payments.

The Coalition knows all this and is deliberately misleading Australians about how the welfare system already operates in order to whip up fear and division.

If I may answer - it will be below 200,000. There’s no doubt about that.

And then the right mix will depend on the circumstances of the time. What is clear, what is clear, is that the number of students in this country has been at record levels.

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Prominent Australian academic denies links to powerful Iranian politician

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Prof Abbas Rajabifard of the University of Melbourne says he was listed as a co-author of research with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in recent peace talks, without his knowledge

A University of Melbourne academic has denied collaborating on research with the speaker of Iran’s parliament – who has been leading Tehran’s peace negotiations with the US – saying he was named as an author on a journal article without his knowledge.

On Monday Guardian Australia revealed that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, had built extensive ties to Australia over the past decade, including links to a University of Melbourne engineering research centre.

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Australia news live: Canavan says ‘too much talk of diversity’ in address to Canberra anti-immigration rally – as it happened

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The health and NDIS minister, Mark Butler, says Queensland will be “answerable to their community” if they don’t sign on to NDIS reforms, with billions of dollars of hospital funding on the line.

Every state and territory except for the sunshine state has signed a bilateral agreement with the government for the Thriving Kids program, which is designed to take children under nine with developmental delays or low to moderate autism off the NDIS.

Now every state and territory has signed a bilateral agreement with us that details the broad details of the Thriving Kids program … The only state that hasn’t signed yet is Queensland.

I tried to make clear again last week that is part of the deal that sees them get additional hospital funding and, frankly, they are answerable to their community if they don’t put the additional supports.

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Ben Roberts-Smith denies war crimes allegations – As it happened

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Defence Minister Richard Marles says the success of Australia’s alliance with the United States should not be measured against a single president or federal government in Canberra, insisting the longstanding ties will endure.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Australia for not assisting with the war in Iran, while federal Labor, including Marles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, say the White House has not made any specific request for assistance.

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Australia news live: refinery fire will not lead to tougher fuel restrictions, PM says, though petrol production down by 40% at plant

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Australia secures extra fertilizer and 100m extra litres of fuel, PM says

Albanese has also provided an update on Australia’s talks with its allies in Asia to shore up imports of fuel and other goods affected by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The advice that we have received today is that 80% of diesel production is continuing, 80% of aviation fuel is continuing, ongoing.

It has been slowed down just slightly because of the circumstances which are there, but 60% of petrol production [is] proceeding today as well.

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Chalmers warns of ‘more polarising politics’ – as it happened

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Seven-year-old girl drowns at swimming spot on Brisbane River

A seven-year-old girl has drowned at a popular swimming spot on the Brisbane River in the south-west of the city, AAP reports.

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Albanese didn’t return with shiploads of diesel. That doesn’t mean his Singapore visit wasn’t a success

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Having received assurances from Singapore over refined fuels, diesel supply will surely be next on the prime minister’s agenda

Anthony Albanese isn’t coming back from Singapore with a shipload of diesel in his checked baggage. That doesn’t mean his whistle-stop visit wasn’t a success, or that it won’t be seen in future as a pivotal moment if fuel stocks continue to be choked by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The government never expected that the quick whip to Singapore, with just one full day on the ground, would elicit a new supply of petrol or diesel. Singapore already supplies 55% of Australia’s unleaded, 22% of jet fuel and 15% of diesel.

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News live: Labor dismisses Tony Abbott’s calls for Australia to join war; Queensland MP Jimmy Sullivan found dead

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Former PM asks ‘What is the point of having armed forces if they’re not to be used to support our allies in a just cause.’ Follow updates live

Head of IMF says Iran war will permanently scar global economy even if peace is reached

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the Iran war will permanently scar the global economy even if a durable peace deal in the Middle East can be reached.

But now, even our most hopeful scenario involves a growth downgrade. Even in a best case, there will be no neat and clean return to the status quo.

Penny Wong’s previous statements, whether it’s concerned or gravely concerned, have had no effect.

But cancelling more than a billion dollars in Israeli arms contracts – that would not only respond to the moral situation of the appalling Israeli military attacks, it would also have the benefit of putting a very real material pressure on Israel to pull back from what is a disastrous, illegal, immoral war in Lebanon that is threatening the entire globe’s peace.

We should not be buying weapons that have been tested by Israeli defence manufacturers in conflicts like Gaza and Lebanon, and we should not be contributing any weapons parts.

Right now it also would have the important additional benefit of making it clear to Israel that this comes at a direct and real cost to them.

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Liberals have ‘a lot of work to do’ after SA wipeout, Anne Ruston says – As it happened

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Australia not ‘contemplating’ fuel rationing but state and federal governments have powers, Bowen says

State governments also had fuel rationing powers, Chris Bowen said.

When I was a kid … in the 80s in Sydney, I remember petrol rationing was done by state governments – the state governments do have powers there.

Yes, the Commonwealth government, under the fuel emergency act, has powers.

It’s not designed to be invoked lightly. It really has powers primarily around defence and health, in the first instance, to ensure that those key areas are getting diesel that they need, but also other forms of fuel.

I would need to be satisfied that there’s a real shortage and that the powers under that act are useful.

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Australia news live: Tropical Cyclone Narelle poised to hit Queensland coast within hours with wind gusts up to 250km/h

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Tropical cyclone expected to make landfall in far north Queensland within hours. Follow today’s news live

Waves of near-record heights smash Cairns coastline

One of the challenges posed by Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle is the lack of weather monitoring infrastructure in remote parts of Cape York.

Winds of that speed are pretty hard to imagine if you haven’t experienced them before. They are just so, so strong, capable of uprooting really large trees or completely stripping them of their branches …

It can also cause extensive damage to properties in the path of those very strong wind gusts as well as power outages.

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Danish royals Frederik and Mary begin six-day Australia tour with visit to rain-soaked red centre

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Royal trip includes stops in Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart and aims to deepen trade ties

Denmark’s King Frederik and Queen Mary have ended the first leg of their Australian visit with a sunrise trek to a famous Uluru watering hole.

The royal couple walked to Muṯitjulu waterhole in Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa national park with traditional owners on Sunday morning. The culturally significant site is one of the few permanent water sources around the sandstone monolith and a regular attraction for visiting dignitaries.

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‘We’re living in an Orwellian nightmare’: Grace Tame calls Anthony Albanese a ‘coward’ in scathing critique

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In an essay for Crikey, the former Australian of the Year says the PM is a ‘turncoat’ who is ‘capitulating to foreign powers’ amid the US-Israel war on Iran

Grace Tame has said “we’re living in an Orwellian nightmare” in a scathing critique of the prime minister and his government’s position on the war in the Middle East.

In an essay published in Crikey on Friday, the advocate for sexual abuse survivors and human rights activist accused Anthony Albanese of being a “coward” and a “turncoat” for refusing to condemn the US-Israel strikes on Iran.

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Former Iranian diplomat was granted asylum in Australia after defecting

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Mohammad Pournajaf, Tehran’s former charge d’affaires in Canberra, sought protection in 2023, government source confirms

One of Iran’s former top diplomats in Australia has defected from the theocratic regime, with the revelations only coming to light this week after six members of the Iranian women’s football squad were granted protection.

London-based news outlet Iran International, which is not tied to the Islamic Republic’s regime, reported on Friday that Mohammad Pournajaf, Tehran’s charge d’affaires in Canberra until at least 2023, had applied for asylum. Another Iranian diplomat had applied for asylum in Denmark, the outlet reported.

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Iraqi official urges Australia to take back alleged IS fighters during meeting with ambassador

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Iraq’s national security adviser Qassim al-Araji says he told Australian ambassador that countries should repatriate prisoners

A senior Iraqi government official has implored Australia to repatriate a group of suspected Islamic State fighters, raising the issue with Canberra’s top diplomat in Baghdad just weeks after the detainees were transferred out of Syria.

In a post on X, Iraq’s national security adviser, Qassim al-Araji, said he met with ambassador Glenn Miles last week, and told him that foreign detainees should be returned to their home countries. This is despite such a task being made more difficult by growing instability in the region, caused by the war in Iran.

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