Wellbeing of non-religious ADF personnel at risk, former recruiter says

Number of evangelical chaplains has increased in recent years despite majority of Australian defence force personnel not being religious

Defence must recruit secular alternatives to religious chaplains or face increasing risks to its members’ health and wellbeing, according to a former top military recruiter.

Col Phillip Hoglin, now a reservist and military researcher, said the Australian defence force (ADF) is becoming less religious, but has only a handful of secular support officers.

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Labor thrashes out Aukus position at party conference amid dissent from MP and unions

Heckling, outrage and claims of ‘appeasement’ as stage-managed debate at ALP event gives way to genuine disagreement

There was a personal defence from Anthony Albanese. Aukus supporters lobbed claims of “appeasement” at its critics, which were angrily rejected by a Labor MP and leftwing unions. But in the end, Labor finally thrashed out its position on the Aukus nuclear-submarine acquisition.

Late on Friday morning, the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, and the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, sought to head off a party conference showdown, moving a 32-paragraph statement that argued spending $368bn on nuclear submarines would enhance Australia’s national security.

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Australia’s plan for long-range missiles would not deter aggressors without support from US

Military thinktank says plan to deploy ‘yet to be acquired’ weapons would ‘risk further escalation for no prospect of gain’

Australia’s push to develop and deploy its own missiles lacks credibility as a means to deter conflict unless backed up by US support, a new paper warns.

The report, published by the Australian Army Research Centre, points to the Australian government’s desire to increase the country’s “self-reliance”.

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Australian War Memorial researchers identify 285 Indigenous servicemen who fought in the Vietnam war

A national ceremony in Canberra will mark the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the war

Researchers at the Australian War Memorial say they have identified 285 Indigenous servicemen who fought in the Vietnam war and seven involved in the battle of Long Tan.

Veterans on Friday mark the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war, which will be commemorated in a national ceremony in Canberra.

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Australia news live: Qantas supports voice with Yes23 logos on three planes; Bendigo Bank reports record earnings

EY criticised for lack of disclosure on Santos work during parliamentary inquiry. Follow today’s live news updates

Question of whether vape ban to be legislated by commonwealth or states, Butler says

Mark Butler was also asked about the government’s plan to ban all disposable vape products. He said they are working on it “furiously” with eight other jurisdictions for a uniform approach, but haven’t got a set timeframe yet.

… which will be, you know, difficult, complex and probably take some time.

We know that there will be a furious response by the industry – there has been every time we tried to regulate nicotine or tobacco – so we want to make sure that we get this right.

And one of the real problems is we don’t know how much nicotine. This black market that’s flourished [is] cynically targeted at kids.

You can tell that through the fact that they’re bubblegum flavoured and they’ve got pink unicorns on them. It’s not as if those sorts of things are targeted at the middle-aged hardened smoker.

In addition to that … small rural pharmacies, which is the vast bulk of them, will receive 100% of the reduction in dispensing income – that’s over and above the additional investment we’re making in all pharmacies across the country – which will amount … to hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from taxpayers through the course of this four-year period.

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‘We were the frontline’: Australia’s only all-Indigenous battalion remembered as last Torres Strait digger dies

They were underpaid and trained with broom handles, but that didn’t stop the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion fighting for their country

The last surviving member of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion (TSLIB), the only all-Indigenous battalion to serve for the Australian Defence Force, has been laid to rest.

Mebai Warusam, 99, was buried on his home island of Saibai in the Torres Strait on 5 August, only weeks after the second last survivor, Awati Mau, 96, was buried in his community at the tip of Cape York.

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Australia’s defence department clamps down on private consultants

Exclusive: federal government has moved to stop the re-engagement of consultants within Defence after more than $1.3bn spent in the last financial year

The Australian government is moving to curb the revolving door between the Department of Defence and private consultants amid increasing scrutiny of the practice.

Guardian Australia understands Defence has introduced a new moratorium on entering into contracts with personnel who have left within the past 12 months.

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Dutton was briefed five times on US-Australia talks over impact of war crimes allegations on alliance

Exclusive: Documents show officials raised concerns SAS might be mentioned in US state department’s human rights report

Peter Dutton was briefed five times about sensitive discussions between the United States and Australia over whether war crimes allegations jeopardised military cooperation, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Australian officials also privately raised concerns with the then defence minister that the issue might be mentioned in the US state department’s annual reports on human rights around the world.

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News live: economists wary ahead of RBA rates decision; agriculture minister says Australia is free of lumpy skin disease

Anthony Albanese says increasing the income-free area for jobseeker would have ‘unintended consequences’. Follow live news updates today

PM says he would ‘rather not have’ double dissolution trigger as housing bill to be reintroduced

Anthony Albanese has spoken to ABC Sydney and FiveAA about Labor’s $10bn housing Australia future fund bill, which is going to be reintroduced to parliament, possibly providing a trigger for a double dissolution election.

That doesn’t necessarily provide for an early election, it could go into 2025 – but what it does is mean that can be a focus and you have a joint sitting after a double dissolution is held, but I just want this legislation to be passed … Their spokesperson [Max Chandler Mather] put this in writing in an opinion piece in a magazine, essentially saying that if this is just waved through and happens we won’t be able to continue to door knock and campaign on it. Well, I don’t want to play politics with this – I want to get this done. We have a mandate for it, and the Senate should pass it.

The truth is you do need appropriate development, particularly along public transport corridors … But it’s true sometimes local government can get in the way because people want to oppose anything at all that looks like development. But the truth is we do need to increase housing supply, that’s the key.

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Missing ADF personnel involved in Queensland helicopter crash identified – As it happened

Families grant permission to name the four service members who went missing during military exercises off the coast of Whitsundays on Friday – this blog is now closed

Asked about the surplus the government now finds itself overseeing, Rishworth is asked whether there will be any further assistance in the next budget.

Of course, the changes we’re making - whether it’s to rent assistance, jobseeker - are structural changes. They’re ongoing increases that will be applied. So when you talk about the surplus from last year, that’s a very different circumstance to the reforms that we’ve made which are ongoing and structural. We have calibrated these to be responsible to help people that are doing it tough. But also, that they’re sustainable into the long-term.

The economic inclusion committee was providing a very specific advice on the level of jobseeker to inform the budget process. Of course, the budget process has to take in a range of different factors, including a responsible structural adjustment. But also, of course, as the treasurer has said, making sure that we’re not adding to inflation. So there is a lot of issues that we do have to weigh up in a budget process.

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Australian military helicopter crash: missing crew identified as Albanese pays tribute

Taipan helicopter was taking part in joint military training exercise Talisman Sabre when it crashed in waters off Queensland’s Whitsunday Islands on Friday night

The four missing crew of a helicopter which crashed during a military training exercise in waters off Queensland have been identified, as navy divers and allies assisted with the search on Sunday.

Lt Gen Simon Stuart, chief of the Australian army, said the families of the men had given permission to name the four soldiers: Capt Daniel Lyon, Lt Maxwell Nugent, WO Class Two Joseph Laycock and Cpl Alexander Naggs.

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Julian Assange: US rejects Australia’s calls to end pursuit of WikiLeaks founder during Ausmin talks

Ministers’ meeting focused on military cooperation and agreed to increase ‘tempo’ of US nuclear-powered submarine visits to Australia as part of Aukus pact

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has pushed back at the Australian government’s calls to end the pursuit of Julian Assange, insisting that the WikiLeaks founder is alleged to have “risked very serious harm to our national security”.

After high-level talks in Brisbane largely focused on military cooperation, Blinken confirmed that the Australian government had raised the case with the US on multiple occasions, and said he understood “the concerns and views of Australians”.

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Australian military helicopter crash: four feared dead as search and rescue teams discover aircraft debris

Four people were on board the Australian army helicopter when it went down at about 10.30pm on Friday in Whitsundays

Four pilots are feared dead after an Australian army helicopter crashed into water off Hamilton Island in Queensland on Friday night, with search and rescue teams discovering aircraft debris.

As the search continues, the Australian Defence Force has announced a temporary pause on the use of MRH90 helicopters as a precaution.

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Birmingham says opposition doesn’t ‘fear’ early election – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Housing bill squabble to bring back possibility of double dissolution election

Parliament resumes next week after a five-week hiatus over winter, which means all the squabbles and fights we left in June are starting to whirl up again – chief among them housing. As Daniel Hurst reported this morning, Labor is going to bring back its housing bill to the house in October, where it will pass. Once it hits the Senate, things get a little more dicey. If it’s rejected by the Greens, who so far aren’t seeing what they want from the government, then the government has a double dissolution trigger.

The early indications are that there was a 50m exclusion zone around the deceased.

All efforts had been made to cover the body but at certain stages of the forensic examination, that body did need to be uncovered so the forensic police could do their work for the coroner and unfortunately, those children did walk past.

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Australia news live: voice support strong in Victoria because state ‘about ideology not common sense’, Nampijinpa Price says

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No campaign ‘offers no solutions and no vision’: young Indigenous leaders

The youth declaration urged Australians to educate themselves on the change, claiming “the no campaign offers no solutions and no vision for our young people’s futures, or our families and communities”.

We are excited that our Uluru Youth Dialogue, as the leading and only youth-led campaign, will be at the forefront of this referendum working alongside the senior leaders of the Uluru Dialogue.

These statistics are important. They paint a picture of a media debate that has shut out young people and their voices. Especially the voices of First Nations young people.

It is our future. Young people are crucial to this movement. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, carrying forward the spirit and legacies of warriors before us.

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USS Canberra: US navy ushers new warship into service at ceremony in Sydney

US and Australian navy chiefs and dignitaries present as littoral combat ship with a crew of 50 has colours hoisted to the mast

The first US warship to be commissioned in a foreign port has been ushered into service in Sydney with US and Australian navy chiefs and dignitaries on hand for the ceremony at Garden Island.

The USS Canberra, a littoral combat ship with a crew of 50, had its colours hoisted to the mast on Saturday as its company of servicemen and women cheered the addition to the fleet.

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Australia to gain priority access to US military equipment under Washington proposal

Aukus requests would be handled faster than almost all applications ‘other than from Taiwan and Ukraine’

Australian requests for US military equipment would be handled faster than almost all applications “other than from Taiwan and Ukraine” under a proposal before the US Senate.

The Australian government has long viewed the complex web of US export controls as a potential barrier to the Aukus security partnership.

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Australia news live: calls for flu jab increase after second child’s death; Tasmanian Greens leader resigns

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Andrew and Nicola Forrest, billionaires in iron ore mining, have separated after 31 years of marriage.

They said the separation will not impact their mining operations, in a statement:

After 31 years of marriage, we have made the decision to live apart.

Our friendship and commitment to our family remains strong.

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Australia news live: China’s access to TikTok data ‘needs to be interrogated’, Shoebridge says

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It will be easier for women to medically terminate pregnancies up to 63 days of gestation, now that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved an application from MS Health to amend restrictions on the prescribing of MS-2 Step (Mifepristone and Misoprostol).

MS-2 Step was only able to be prescribed by a doctor certified to prescribe the medicine, and then dispensed by a pharmacist who was a registered dispenser.

We’re investing in the care economy, we’re investing in manufacturing and we’re investing in critical infrastructure to create secure, well-paid jobs for Australian workers.

While we know that slowing global growth, higher prices and higher interest rates will impact our economy and labour market and continue to strain household budgets over the coming months, Australia is in a better position than nearly anyone else to face the challenges ahead.

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Australia to send surveillance aircraft to Germany to help protect supplies to Ukraine

Anthony Albanese says an E-7A Wedgetail plane will be dispatched as part of an effort to monitor logistics hubs

The Australian government will send a surveillance aircraft to Germany to help monitor the flow of military and humanitarian supplies into Ukraine.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced the deployment after talks with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin on Monday, a day before attending a Nato summit in Lithuania where the war in Ukraine will dominate discussions.

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