Australia politics live: Steven Miles says Suncorp Stadium will host Brisbane Olympics opening and closing ceremonies

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‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’

Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.

It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.

Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.

We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.

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Hastie’s defence comments ‘unhinged and misleading’, Conroy says – as it happened

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Ex-cyclone Lincoln could gather strength and redevelop

A massive storm that lashed the Top End with heavy rain could gather strength and redevelop into a tropical cyclone, AAP reports.

We’ve seen all the leaders of major parties say they take on board and accept in the recommendations … but it appears very little has changed on the ground. We still have unlimited and unmonitored alcohol consumption in Parliament House and in the workplace.

That’s why I put to the prime minister random testing could be introduced. Because we know from – even from driving, it’s a deterrent. As soon as you have a risk of getting caught, it changes behaviour.

People have had enough of politicians thinking there’s different standards that apply to them in Parliament House than what applies in other workplaces.

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ADF chief unaware Fijian officer handed senior Australian army role was accused of torture, parliament told

Angus Campbell tells parliament recently appointed brigade deputy commander Penioni (Ben) Naliva is entitled to presumption of innocence

The chief of the Australian defence force has told a parliamentary committee he was unaware of serious allegations against a Fijian military officer before approving his appointment to an Australian army brigade.

Colonel Penioni (Ben) Naliva, an officer from the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), was named last month as a deputy commander of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli barracks in Brisbane.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation appeal: news companies argue ex-SAS corporal’s case ‘fundamentally flawed’

Roberts-Smith, 45, is seeking to overturn June defamation trial judgment that found he engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan

News companies defending a defamation appeal launched by Ben Roberts-Smith over reports he engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan have told a court the ex-SAS corporal’s case is “fundamentally flawed”.

The appeal by Roberts-Smith, 45, seeks to overturn his June defamation loss against Nine newspapers and the Canberra Times over 2018 reports on war crimes during the Victoria Cross-recipient’s Afghanistan deployments.

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US military stockpiling supplies in Australia in readiness for any confrontation with China

American war planners used joint Talisman Sabre exercises to position equipment in northern Victoria

When US and Australian troops practised amphibious landings, ground combat and air operations last year, they drew headlines about the allies deepening defence cooperation to counter China’s growing military ambitions.

But for US war planners preparing for a potential conflict over Taiwan, the high-profile Talisman Sabre exercises had a far more discrete value: they helped create new stockpiles of military equipment that were established in Australia after the drills ended in August, US officials said.

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New Zealand to be briefed on Aukus – as it happened

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The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC RN, and says news that the inflation rate has plunged to a two-year low of 4.1% is “welcoming, encouraging progress”.

… We know that people are still under pressure and we need to not be complacent about it. We need to continue to work as we have with our three point plan, having the surplus, making sure we deal with cost of living pressures without putting pressure on inflation, and dealing with … supply-chain issues as well.

With parliament resuming next week, this is a wake-up call that 2024 is the last chance for meaningful democratic reform ahead of the 2025 election …

Australians should go to the next election with strict political donation disclosure laws, truth in political advertising laws in force and information about who’s meeting ministers made public as a matter of course.

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War crime accused seeks bail change to fly across Australia

Oliver Jordan Schulz, who is accused of murder over the shooting of a young Afghan, applied for his bail conditions to be loosened

A former SAS soldier and accused war criminal requires assessment by police checking in on him while on bail because his military training presents a physical danger, a court has heard.

Oliver Jordan Schulz, 42, is expected to be able to fly to Perth to visit his lawyers after a bail variation hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Monday.

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Australia’s veterans department ‘apologises for any distress’ in chasing alleged pension overpayments

Exclusive: The apparent error has been occurring for at least three years and has been blamed on a transition to new computer systems

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has apologised for chasing elderly Australians for alleged pension overpayments and has blamed a systems error for wrongly targeting those aged over 90.

After a Guardian Australia report on the issue, a departmental spokesperson said a number of veterans were incorrectly subjected to compliance reviews, resulting in debt notices.

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Australia news live: only 54.3% of Virgin flights and 66.3% of Qantas flights on time last month, transport minister says

‘Very disappointing results, it is no wonder that so many Australians remain fed up with our major airlines,’ Catherine King says. Follow today’s news updates live

‘Very, very clear’ renewables are the cheapest form of energy, Bowen says

Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, including its storage and transmission costs, the energy minister told ABC RN.

Its conclusions this year are unimpeachable and very, very clear.

The cheapest form of energy is renewable energy, even including the costs that go with renewable energy around storage and transmission.

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Phone service slowly returns to flood-hit areas – as it happened

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Just circling back to QFES assistant commissioner Kevin Walsh, who mentioned the state of the roads and reminded people in the area to be very careful when driving around.

Walsh said:

Monday afternoon was the first opportunity that we had to send in rotary aircraft, so we got rotary-wing aircraft in large numbers up in Far North Queensland at the moment through private contractors and also Australian Defence Force. So they’re very busy in the air and relocating people.

And I think the other message also is to have a look at those roads and the damage that they have sustained. There are many roads still under water where you can not see that damage. So it’s really important for the local people to realise that it’s still very, very dangerous to be driving through flooded waters because you can’t see the damage of the roads underneath it. That’s one of our key messages we’d like the local communities to heed.

So far we’ve only been able to assess about 60 properties. I think throughout today though, we’ll get a better sense of how many properties are affected, and then we’ll be looking for further packages of disaster assistance that will put together or put together with the commonwealth.

But just judging from the other emergencies that I’ve been a part of, we’re talking billions not millions [of dollars].

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Marles will ‘make right decision in Australia’s interest’ over deploying navy vessels to Red Sea, Farrell says – as it happened

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Up to 49 tonnes of illicit drugs prevented from reaching Australia

Australian federal police and international law enforcement partners have prevented up to 49 tonnes of illicit drugs from reaching Australia throughout the past financial year.

The AFP cannot overstate the amount of harm that 29 tonnes of methamphetamine could have caused to the community if it had not been intercepted by law enforcement.

On average, close to 12,000 Australians are hospitalised from methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin use every 12 months.

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Australian news live: major Victorian road project blows out by more than $10bn; backing UN Gaza ceasefire vote the ‘right call’, PM says

PM says: ‘Hamas can have no role in the future governance of of Gaza, and we need to work towards a political solution.’ Follow the day’s news live

Focus on mental health

The government will be injecting $456m into digital mental health services – including Lifeline and Beyond Blue – to give people to with anxiety and depression better access to mental health services.

Some people go through situational distress through a relationship breakdown or a job loss or bereavement, and they need relatively short periods of support. They might not have a diagnosable mental illness, but they’re certainly distressed and they need support and that really is what the digital investment we’re looking at today is particularly targeted that there are people who go through periods of anxiety and depression and better access.

There’s definitely a gap there for people with more complex needs, but better access which is the scheme that provides Medicare rebates for psychological therapy, the one that we’re talking about, that is not designed to pick up those people and really we need to find alternative systems of support for them.

That is really the concerning growing area of need in the country, not just here in Australia and other countries as well.

They’re now close to $100 a session on average, but there’s many that are higher than that as you indicate. So affordability is a driver of inequity as well and so we’re looking at ways in which we can put out different systems for people who just don’t have the capacity to pay those sorts of gap fees.

We’ve made clear that we will always make the ADF available to states and territories when it’s needed. But we do need to have some other options in place.

We’re a lot better prepared as a country than we were heading into black summer four years ago.

At the federal level, things have significantly changed. We’ve now got one coordinated Emergency Management Agency rather than responsibilities being split between different agencies. We’ve started building a national emergency management stockpile for the very first time, we’ve got the largest fleet of firefighting aircraft that Australia’s ever seen.

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US Congress passes bill allowing sale of Aukus nuclear submarines to Australia

Legislation covering a wide range of military issues clears the way for Virginia class vessels to bolster Pacific defence

The US Congress has passed legislation allowing the country to sell Virginia class submarines to Australia under the Aukus security pact.

Sweeping legislation covering a wide range of military priorities including Aukus passed the US House of Representatives on Thursday Washington time, a day after it cleared the Senate.

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Australia considers US request to send warship to Red Sea as Houthis target shipping lanes

US navy request comes as Iran-aligned militia wade into the Israel-Hamas conflict, attacking vessels in commercial shipping lanes

The United States has asked Australia to send a warship to the Red Sea amid ongoing attacks on commercial shipping from Iran-backed militia.

The request, made recently, came from the US navy which wants the vessel to join an international taskforce, of which Australia is one of 39 member nations.

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Australia says AI will be used to help track Chinese submarines under new Aukus plan

Defence minister Richard Marles and counterparts from the UK and US say new technologies will be deployed by militaries

Artificial intelligence, drones, and deep space radar are among the technologies that will be used by Australia and its Aukus allies to counter China’s aggression in the Pacific.

Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, met with his counterparts from the United States and United Kingdom – Lloyd J Austin and Grant Shapps – in California on Saturday to announce the second “pillar” of the Aukus deal.

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Australian warship HMAS Toowoomba sailed through sensitive Taiwan Strait close to China

Incident comes after maritime altercation between Toowoomba and Chinese warship last week off Japan’s coast that injured navy divers

Taiwan says an Australian warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the sensitive and narrow waterway that separates the democratically governed island from China.

The ship, which it did not name, entered the strait on Thursday and sailed in a southerly direction, the defence ministry said on Friday.

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BoM provides El Niño update – as it happened

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Birmingham says China ‘doesn’t appear to be acknowledging the facts’

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham is speaking with ABC RN and is asked about sonar pulses from a Chinese warship that left one Australian naval diver injured.

The Australian navy and Australian defence force operates always with professionalism, and I’m confident that Australia’s version of events is a credible.

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‘Respect the facts’: Beijing rejects Australian claims China sonar injured navy divers

Chinese defense ministry insists its vessel ‘did not conduct any activity that could affect the Australian side’s diving operations’

The Chinese government has accused the federal government of “making trouble” with “rude and irresponsible” claims about the sonar incident that injured Australian navy divers last week.

Beijing overnight rebuffed Canberra’s version of the maritime altercation between two warships off Japan’s coast last Tuesday.

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Albanese accuses China of ‘dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional’ behaviour in naval ship altercation

Prime minister declines to confirm if he raised incident in his face-to-face meeting with Xi Jinping

Anthony Albanese has accused a Chinese naval ship of “dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour after an altercation with an Australian vessel left one person injured.

But the prime minister has declined to confirm whether he raised the issue face-to-face with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Apec summit last week, only saying that the government had complained through “all the forums that are available”.

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Albanese government to consider further whistleblower protections amid calls for ‘robust’ dedicated authority

Federal attorney general releases new consultation paper as the government moves toward releasing a second stage of public interest disclosure reforms

The federal government will consider whether whistleblowers should be protected for gathering evidence before disclosing possible wrongdoing, amid criticisms existing laws are not doing enough.

The need for a standalone whistleblower protection authority, and a financial reward system for those coming forward, are also issues up for consideration shortly before Christmas.

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