Category Archives: Australian foreign policy

Sea of people march across Sydney Harbour Bridge calling for an end to killing in Gaza

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NSW police estimate 90,000 walked despite force and premier opposing rally, while Palestine Action Group claims up to 300,000 peacefully protested

At least 100,000 pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, the former foreign minister Bob Carr and the government MP Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in the rain to protest against Israel’s conduct in Gaza and to speak out about the children starving there.

The world-famous landmark was closed to traffic at 11.30am on Sunday, with protesters gathering in Lang Park in the city centre before enduring heavy rain as they walked across the bridge.

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Victorian Labor party members to push for ‘immediate’ federal recognition of a Palestinian state

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Exclusive: Labor Friends of Palestine to move three ‘urgency resolutions’ at weekend conference, but PM maintains no immediate plans for the move

Victorian Labor members will use this weekend’s state conference to demand the federal government “immediately” recognise a Palestinian state and impose sanctions on Israel – in what will be their strongest push to date on the issue.

It comes after Anthony Albanese on Sunday described civilian deaths in Gaza as “indefensible” but reiterated he had no immediate plans to recognise a Palestinian state and insisted further steps were needed to reach a two-state solution.

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Two Australians on board boat intercepted by Israel while trying to transport aid to Gaza, Dfat confirms

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Officials in Tel Aviv are liaising with authorities and ‘stand ready to offer assistance’, Australian government spokesperson says

A boat carrying two Australians has been intercepted by Israeli troops, Israel’s foreign ministry has confirmed, as a pro-Palestinian activist group claims its crew have been subjected to “unlawful” detention while attempting to transport aid to Gaza.

The Handala, registry name Navaren, led by the activist group the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was roughly 50km from the Egyptian coast and 100km west of Gaza when intercepted, an online tracking tool set up to plot the ship’s course showed.

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Albanese accuses Israel of ‘clearly’ breaching international law but resists push to recognise Palestinian state

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‘Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered,’ PM tells ABC’s Insiders

Australia has no plans to imminently recognise a Palestinian state, Anthony Albanese says, cautioning further steps must be met for a two-state solution despite growing pressure inside the Labor party for the government to follow through on its long-held commitment.

The prime minister has also accused Israel of a breach of international law in blocking aid into Gaza, saying “you can’t hold innocent people responsible” for the actions of Hamas, and warning that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “losing support” internationally.

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Albanese says Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza ‘cannot be defended or ignored’ in strongest condemnation yet

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The prime minister did not, however, follow French president Emmanuel Macron’s lead with a commitment to recognise a Palestinian state

Anthony Albanese has condemned Israel for “the killing of civilians, including children” seeking aid, but stopped short of saying Australia would recognise a Palestinian state, as France has committed to doing.

In the Australian government’s strongest condemnation of Israel yet, the prime minister said the killings and denial of aid “cannot be defended or ignored”.

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Scott Morrison tells US Australia risks going to sleep on China threat after diplomatic ‘charm and flattery’

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Former prime minister warns US House of Representatives committee Australia must do more to resist the security threat posed by China

The Chinese Communist party hopes Western democracies “go to sleep on the threat” it poses to the international order, former prime minister Scott Morrison has told a congressional committee in the US.

In a forthright appearance before the hawkish US House of Representatives select committee on the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist party, Morrison said China had changed diplomatic tack after he lost the 2022 election to Anthony Albanese.

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Pentagon wants to make Aukus work but some stakeholders have ‘serious concerns’, senior US defence official says

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Defence official says major increase in Australian defence spending is ‘quite warranted’

Some US military stakeholders have “very serious concerns” about the Aukus arrangement but the Pentagon wants “to make this thing work”, a senior American defence official says. While they say a review of the nuclear submarine pact is being undertaken in good faith, it will not be completed within 30 days, as initially anticipated.

Still, Washington is sticking to its request for Australia to give “a clear sense” of how it would respond militarily, including with the Aukus submarines, to future conflicts. While Anthony Albanese declares the Australian government wants to see “peace in and security in our region”, the senior official says the US wants Australia to step up more.

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Australia news live: PM says his government ‘support the status quo’ for Taiwan – as it happened

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‘A balanced region where no one is dominated and no one dominates’

China needs to be “more transparent” about military and nuclear buildups in the region, Conroy says, and this has been a message communicated “publicly and privately” with China.

That is our position. Sovereignty will always be prioritised and that will continue to be our position.

I’m not going to foreshadow everything that the prime minister will or won’t say but the conversation with his counterparts will cover economic security and human rights issues. We’ve been clear about that, but we are being very clear that we want a balanced region where no one is dominated and no one dominates.

In my portfolio of the Pacific, we’re seeing China seeking to secure a military base in the region and we’re working hard to be the primary security partner of choice for the region because we don’t think that’s a particularly optimal thing for Australia.

This is about Australia having good international relationships with everyone in the world. The Australian people expect us to invest strongly in our diplomatic capability as well as our military capability. China is our largest trading partner. Twenty-five per cent of our exports go to China.

We’ve worked hard to stabilise the relationship and unblock $20bn worth of trade. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that we’ve helped protect so Prime Minister Albanese’s trip is about promoting jobs, promoting trade but also managing differences.

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Australia rebuffs calls to commit to joining hypothetical US-China conflict

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Anthony Albanese says he doesn’t support unilateral action in Taiwan amid reports Washington seeking guarantees about how Canberra would respond in event of Indo-Pacific conflict

Australia will refuse any US request to join a “hypothetical” conflict with China over Taiwan and won’t make any advance commitment, the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, has said, amid reports Washington is seeking such promises in discussions over the Aukus submarines.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, also pushed back on such a request, alluding to America’s own position of so-called “strategic ambiguity” on whether the US would militarily respond in a conflict over Taiwan. He said Australia wanted to see “peace and security” in the region.

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Anthony Albanese faces diplomatic tightrope in China as spectre of Trump and Aukus review looms large

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PM jets to Beijing to strengthen ties as multibillion-dollar US submarine deal spurred by China’s military buildup hangs in doubt

Anthony Albanese departs for his second trip to China with the spectre of Donald Trump looming large over meetings with Xi Jinping.

While the prime minister flies to Beijing to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with Australia’s largest trading partner, a nervous eye must stay on the US’s promised Aukus nuclear submarines: military commitments of hundreds of billions of dollars, spending spurred by China’s own military buildup, now under review by the US defence department. According to some reports, they are a potential bargaining chip from a Trump administration seeking guarantees of support in any conflict over Taiwan.

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Australia news live: Bob Brown takes out ad praising woman injured in pro-Palestine protest; AMA welcomes new medicinal cannabis guidelines

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The political leader of the central Tibetan administration – Tibet’s government in exile – is visiting Australia this week.

It comes as Anthony Albanese heads to China this weekend.

It is not enough to have freedom only in a few countries in this world. Freedom is necessary for every human being in this world.

When prime minister Albanese’s visiting there, I would urge him to also say that he would like to visit Tibet.

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Nick Adams: Trump picks former Sydney councillor and self-described ‘alpha male’ as Malaysia ambassador

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In 2023 posts on X, Adams listed interests including restaurant chain Hooters, rare steaks, ‘extremely’ heavy weights and the Bible

A former Sydney councillor and self-described “alpha male” has been picked by Donald Trump to be the new US ambassador to Malaysia, with the US president describing the Hooters fan as an “incredible patriot”.

In a post to X after his nomination, Nick Adams thanked the US president for the “honor of a lifetime”, saying that “In your America, all dreams come true”.

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Segal says stripping universities of funding a ‘last resort’ – as it happened

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Australia’s biggest peanut supplier set to shut down

The corporate owners of Australia’s biggest peanut processor will scale down the century-old business in the coming 18 months before shutting it down for good.

There isn’t detail, and it’s unclear whether those tariffs will ever actually be applied.

We do know that the contributions from the pharmaceutical industry in the US to that investigation has been to urge the US government to focus their levers on non-friendly countries and not apply tariffs or punitive levers to allies such as Australia.

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Australia news live: Chalmers ‘urgently seeking more detail’ after Trump flags 200% pharmaceutical tariffs; head-on collision on Sydney Harbour Bridge

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Treasurer says Trump’s tariff threats on foreign pharmaceuticals and copper ‘very concerning developments’. Follow the latest news live

Chalmers says millions of people were hoping for interest rate relief yesterday

Jim Chalmers says “there were millions of people who were hoping for more rate relief yesterday and didn’t get it”.

As per letters sent to various countries yesterday, in addition to letters that will be sent today, tomorrow, and for the next short period of time, TARIFFS WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025. There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change. In other words, all money will be due and payable starting AUGUST 1, 2025 - No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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Australia news live: man shot dead by police in siege in Victorian town; boy dies after e-bike crash in Sydney

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Victoria police say they attempted to engage with armed man before ‘siege of several hours’. Follow the latest updates live

Smoke coming from Sydney tram causes to be suspended on Randwick line

Light rail services on the Randwick line have stopped due to smoke coming from the roof of a tram.

The man managed to get back into his car and drive a short distance before being overcome by his injuries.

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News live: Wong says Trump ‘keen’ for meeting with Albanese; Creative Australia apologises to Venice Biennale artists

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Power continues to be restored in NSW

About 5,800 customers remained without power at 7am Thursday, according to network operators Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy.

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Man in critical condition with lyssavirus after bat bite – as it happened

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NSW wild weather: ‘Conditions can become dangerous quickly’

Wild weather has brought down trees, damaged properties and flooded roads on the NSW coast, NSW SES says.

These incidents are a timely reminder that roads are slippery, and conditions can become dangerous quickly.

Please, never drive, walk or play in flood waters. If you do come across a flooded road, turn around and find an alternative route.

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Australia news live: some Central Coast residents told ‘evacuate now’ amid coastal erosion threat; children’s commissioner says child safety ‘not a priority in this country’

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NSW braces for damaging winds and heavy rain from coastal low. Follow the latest updates live

Gas market review will ‘drive efficiencies in the system’, King says

The resources minister, Madeleine King, says a review into gas market regulations will drive efficiencies into the system.

Our existing policy has made sure that that gas is available. So that’s that combination of existing policies brings in that extra 600 petajoules. So indeed, that work is already happening.

What we’re trying to do and will endeavour to do, and the industry is very supportive of, is to make that more coherent, and how we can make sure we learn from the whole system, reduce duplication in some of the regulation, some of the reporting factors, simply how we can make it work better for consumers, for industrial users, and for the Gas industry itself. And that drives efficiencies in the system, which we expect will help with pricing.

We were honest with the public from day one: the toll situation would get worse before it got better. That’s the reality of the infrastructure pipeline locked in by our predecessors.

And now, the most recent NSW Budget reflects that – with toll revenue projected to rise from $180m to $283m in the 2028–29 financial year.

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‘It’s not Chinese assistance’: Australia accuses China of taking undue credit for aid projects in the Pacific

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Minister Pat Conroy says Chinese ‘branding’ of multilateral development projects to bolster its influence in the region is a consistent frustration

China is bolstering its geopolitical influence in the Pacific by “branding” Asian Development Bank projects – funded in significant part by Australian taxpayer dollars – as Chinese projects, the Australian government says.

On the island of Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea to Australia’s north, the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation has begun work to strengthen the runway at Kieta-Aropa, on the outskirts of the largest city.

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Australia news live: Minns’ team asked why premier focused on possibility of ‘terrorism’ in NSW caravan plot announcement

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The foreign minister, Penny Wong, is expected to join a meeting of her Quad counterparts in Washington DC next week.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Friday he would host foreign ministers from Australia, India and Japan on 1 July, with the meeting set to discuss geopolitical issues and China’s treatment of Indo-Pacific nations.

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