Anthony Albanese announces $1bn defence deal with Germany before Nato talks

Berlin to buy 100 Boxer heavy weapon carriers made in Brisbane by German manufacturer Rheinmetall

The prime minister has touched down in Europe, confirming a deal worth more than $1bn to sell Australian-made armoured vehicles to Germany before talks at a Nato summit.

Anthony Albanese landed in Berlin on Sunday night, German time, before a scheduled meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday.

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Kathryn Campbell retaining Aukus role would be ‘insult’ to robodebt victims, crossbenchers say

Former head of the Department of Human Services faces calls to resign after royal commission findings

Crossbench MPs have called on the senior public servant Kathryn Campbell to consider resigning after the robodebt royal commission, claiming it would be “an insult” to the victims if she retains her Aukus role.

The royal commission report tabled in parliament on Friday said Campbell, a former head of the Department of Human Services, had been “responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program”.

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Jacqui Lambie asks ICC to investigate Australian military commanders for alleged war crimes

Lambie tells Senate the Brereton report gave senior commanders a ‘free pass’ while soldiers were ‘thrown under the bus’

Senator Jacqui Lambie has told the Senate she has asked the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate senior Australian Defence Force commanders for alleged war crimes.

Lambie said that the Brereton report gave senior commanders a “free pass” while soldiers were “thrown under the bus”.

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Australia politics live: Mehreen Faruqi says housing fund standoff ‘not about playing political games’

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Independent Kooyong MP Dr Monique Ryan said the crossbench was distressed by the past week in parliament:

I can speak for other members of the crossbench because we talk to each other after each question time because we found it distressing, and we wanted to stand to our feet and say that we felt it was conduct unbecoming parliament, and I think if we learn nothing from this, we have to decide as a society whether we want our parliament really to be dragging people who have gone through really difficult experiences through that sort of experience again. It wasn’t ideal. It was – I actually felt it was shameful.

I think there were serious questions that needed to be asked in the face of a minister misleading the Senate and we asked questions about who knew what, when, what was done with that information – all very legitimate questions, and this issue, when it was last in parliament was pursued ferociously by the then opposition and I think we were very careful as we could be with our tone, but to also ask legitimate questions of the government and their ministers, not just around who knew what when but also around the swiftness of the compensation payment, why some evidence in that process was explicitly excluded, and that, you know, the substantial nature of it – all legitimate questions and the right thing to do.

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Tanya Plibersek approves habitat clearing in Darwin despite risk to endangered bird

Environment minister says redesign would ‘avoid most adverse impacts’ on Gouldian finch, while critics point to Australia’s ‘terrible record on extinctions’

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has approved habitat clearing for a defence housing development in Darwin despite acknowledging there is a significant risk for what has been described as one of Australia’s most beautiful endangered birds.

Plibersek had been asked last year to reconsider the development in savanna woodlands at Lee Point after more than 100 endangered Gouldian finches were spotted in bushland marked for imminent clearing.

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Australia politics live: Labor blocks Zoe Daniel’s push to ban gambling ads but promises ‘comprehensive’ response to issue

Tony Burke says Labor committed to strong consumer protections regarding online gambling and does not oppose principle behind independent’s bill

‘A sackable offence’

Here is how that “conversation” played out.

What we want understand now is whether this Labor minister was in fact complicit in politicising this event. That is unforgivable.

Not only that, misleading parliament is a serious offence, a sackable offence and standing by this minister, if she has misled parliament, has consequences.

You were in the Senate yesterday when Katy went through what happened and what I’d like to understand from you is how is it the two years after this event you are trying to make this somehow the problem of the current government when we were not even in government, not four years after this event occurred.

The real issue is the fact that a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in our workplace and I would really like to focus on that is the main issue here because that is the main issue here, because that is the subject that matters.

What we are finding out now is what the minister knew and why her testimony to the Senate as different from that. There’s a lot of considerations here, I know people are talking about how this information came into the media and certainly the media has a lot of considerations to make.

There has to be respect for the parliament and the court and the law but that information is now out there and journalists need to make decisions about whether it is in the public interest.

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Australian federal police abandon two alleged murder investigations into Ben Roberts-Smith

The long-running investigations into murder allegations in Afghanistan will be replaced by new inquiries because of concerns about evidence

Two key criminal investigations into alleged murders involving Ben Roberts-Smith have been abandoned by the Australian federal police because of concerns over potentially inadmissible evidence.

The long-running investigations – into murder allegations at a compound codenamed Whiskey 108 and in the southern Afghan village of Darwan – will be replaced by new inquiries undertaken by a new joint taskforce, staffed by officials from the Office of the Special Investigator and federal police investigators not previously connected to the cases.

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US reviewed defence training ties with Australia after Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes

Exclusive: US embassy says review ended with a decision that no training restrictions needed ‘at this time’

The United States says the Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces sparked “a bilateral training review” that ended with a decision not to suspend security cooperation between the two countries.

The US embassy in Canberra moved to clear up unanswered questions about the issue on Friday, insisting that the Australian government’s actions to address the allegations had allayed any concerns.

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US Virginia class submarines hit further two-year delay as Australia awaits 2030 delivery

Experts have warned that the US program is too tightly squeezed to produce Australia’s additional subs, which are meant to fill a capability gap

A United States nuclear powered submarine program – which Australia is depending on to provide up to five boats under the Aukus deal – has hit a two-year delay.

The latest report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that performance on the construction of the Block V Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine “continues to degrade”. Supply chain issues, severe workforce shortages and limited physical capacity mean the US is struggling to meet its target of building two ships a year.

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Australia news live: budget and minimum wage hike not to blame for rising interest rates, Chalmers says

Treasurer points finger at inflation, adding ‘people are under pressure and the global economic conditions are not helping either’. Follow live

Parts of Victoria and South Australia are being warned to expect heavy rainfall today.

The heavy rain that’s already hit Western Australia is sweeping across the country, with South Australia’s Riverland and Murraylands warned to brace for heavy rainfall to last until Friday.

We want to see productivity get going. We have had the worst decade, I think, in productivity growth in the last 60 years in the previous decade so there’s a lot of work to do. We can’t turn that around in one year.

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Australia news live: economists push interest rate forecasts higher; teens arrested over violent carjacking

Eight teenagers in police custody after allegedly dragging woman from car on the Gold Coast. Follow the day’s news live

Business groups argue ‘same job, same pay’ laws would disadvantage workers

I mentioned a little earlier that business groups have glommed together to launch a campaign against the federal government’s proposed “same job, same pay” industrial relations laws.

The so-called ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ proposals does not mean equal pay for men and women. It does not speak of fairness and justice, as its name falsely represents.

It means by law, employers will have to pay workers with little knowledge or experience exactly the same as workers with decades of knowledge and experience.

Without a real threat of losing passengers to other airlines, the Qantas and Virgin Australia airline groups have had less incentive to offer attractive airfares, develop more direct routes, operate more reliable services, and invest in systems to provide high levels of customer service.

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Australian government considers compensation for Afghanistan war crime victims

Human rights and legal groups have stepped up their calls for a compensation plan in the wake of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation ruling

The Australian government is looking for “a way forward” to compensate families of victims of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, the defence minister has told legal advocates.

But officials continue to warn about the complexity of the compensation issue, one of the key outstanding recommendations from the landmark Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces soldiers.

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Ben Roberts-Smith: calls for uniform to be removed from Australian War Memorial display

Greens say removal would be ‘first step in correcting the official record’ after federal court dismisses defamation case

The Australian War Memorial is facing calls to remove Ben Roberts-Smith’s uniform from its display, after the federal court dismissed the defamation case initiated by Australia’s most decorated living soldier.

But the Australian Special Air Service Association has argued it was “a very disappointing day” for veterans who had served in Afghanistan, saying the majority who had done the right thing were being “re-traumatised after having gone through a difficult war”.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation loss bad news for Seven boss as Nine marks ‘day of justice’

Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, who parachuted the former soldier into a network job in 2015, says ‘the judgment does not accord with the man I know’

For Seven’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, the verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial was all bad news.

The cost of the trial is estimated to be between $25m and $35m and, with the billionaire media proprietor bankrolling the former soldier and Seven employee, Stokes’s legal tab will be significant if he does pick up the bill.

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US warned it might suspend ties with Australian special forces over war crime allegations

Gen Angus Campbell also tells Senate that army member’s employment arrangements were ‘adjusted’ after US raised issue

The United States warned that it may have to suspend cooperation with Australian special forces after the release of a report into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, the Senate has heard.

The chief of the Australian defence force, Gen Angus Campbell, also confirmed that an army member’s employment arrangements had been “adjusted” after the US raised the issue.

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Aukus ‘expensive’ and not ‘easy to replicate’, Australian officials told foreign diplomats

Exclusive: Documents obtained by Guardian Australia show Australia attempted to reassure countries amid nuclear proliferation concerns

Australian officials have told foreign diplomats that the Aukus submarine plan is “expensive” and not “easy to replicate”, as part of an effort to play down concerns about the risks of other countries racing to do the same, a newly released tranche of documents reveals.

Officials also urged diplomats to be on guard for disinformation about the nuclear-powered submarine plan, the documents show.

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China’s ambassador to Australia says Aukus an ‘unnecessary’ use of taxpayer money and ‘not a good idea’

Xiao Qian suggests improvement in Australian relationship with Beijing possible but would take ‘mutual respect’

China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, has denounced the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plan as an “unnecessary consumption of the hardworking Australian taxpayers’ money”.

Xiao said the multi-decade defence plan would consume “tremendous” amounts of money “which could be used for other purposes like infrastructure, like reducing the cost of living, and giving the Australian people a better future”.

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Gas lobby plans ‘national public awareness campaign’ – as it happened

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‘Good women’s policy is good economic policy’: Sussan Ley convening women’s economic security roundtable

The deputy opposition leader and shadow minister for women, Sussan Ley, is convening a women’s economic security roundtable today.

Restarting the Career Revive program for older women to retrain and re-enter the workforce.

Greater flexibility in childcare arrangements (for which there are no details, but the rhetoric is consistent with allowing women to use subsidies on alternatives such as nannies).

Paying superannuation on paid parental leave.

Helping older women who face relationship breakdown achieve financial security, including through access to superannuation.

The Liberal party can be the party of choice for women – we must be – and that is why we are going to meet them where they are in life with new ideas and real solutions that help them.

I want the women of Australia to know that the Liberal party that Peter Dutton and I lead will be back in your corner – we will support your career choices, we will look at ways to help you as you manage your work-life balance and we will help you secure your financial independence.

I don’t think anyone would question when you’ve got something like the debt ceiling being negotiated in the United States …

In terms of the relationship between the countries and the strength of the relationship, as allies, that’s all there; and I think anyone who knows what negotiations with the debt ceiling are like in the United States understands exactly why President Biden’s been in a situation to make a decision like this.

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MP questions referendum wording – as it happened

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Quad still a priority, White House says

Despite the postponement of Joe Biden’s visit, the White House says that partnerships like the Quad remain a priority.

Revitalizing and reinvigorating our alliances and advancing partnerships like the Quad remains a key priority for the President. This is vital to our ability to advance our foreign policy goals and better promote global stability and prosperity. We look forward to finding other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in the coming year.

I think he will obviously be working very hard for this not to happen. We’ve danced this dance before, as the phrase goes …

I think we’ll get to a good place and I think that’s why he’s wanting to stay there, to focus on just that.

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ADF to expand Pacific links in $1.9bn budget package to boost Australia’s influence

After big-spending Aukus and defence announcements, Labor switches focus to diplomacy

The military and police will expand links with Pacific Island countries as part of a nearly $2bn budget package aimed at boosting Australia’s influence across the region.

After two months of rolling out big-spending defence announcements – including the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines – the Albanese government used Tuesday night’s budget to signal renewed interest in diplomacy and regional engagement.

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