AFP promises ‘swift action’ after Albanese, Ley and Morrison’s private phone numbers exposed online

Richard Marles says investigation under way into how the prime minister and other senior government staff’s phone numbers appeared in databases

Federal police are scrambling to assist politicians after the private phone numbers of Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley, Scott Morrison and senior government staff were discovered to be freely available in large contact databases published by American marketing companies.

The Australian federal police is seeking to have prime minister Albanese’s number removed from such databases, where it is available to users free of charge, and to assist other federal parliamentarians who have been similarly exposed. Police have warned that harassment by phone or carriage service is illegal, and promised “swift action” against those breaching such laws.

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Billion-dollar coffins? New technology could make oceans transparent and Aukus submarines vulnerable

Quantum sensing, satellite tracking and AI are part of an accelerating arms race in detection that should prompt a re-evaluation of Australia’s defence strategy

Military history is littered with the corpses of apex predators.

The Gatling gun, the battleship, the tank. All once possessed unassailable power – then were undermined, in some cases wiped out, by the march of new technology.

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Australia pays US another $800m for Aukus amid Trump administration review of security pact

Richard Marles has confirmed payment was made in the second quarter of 2025 to boost US boat-building, bringing total paid to $1.6bn

Australia made a second $800m payment to America’s shipbuilding industry – bringing total payments so far to $1.6bn which was promised before the Trump administration placied the Aukus agreement under review.

As part of the Aukus deal – in which Australia would buy nuclear submarines from the US ahead of its own nuclear submarines being built in Adelaide – Australia has agreed to pay about $4.6bn towards boosting US shipbuilding capacity.

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Hecklers and booers at Anzac Day welcome to country ‘must face the full force of the law’, PM says

Anthony Albanese says disruption of ceremonies in Melbourne and Perth was ‘act of low cowardice on a day when we honour courage and sacrifice’

Anthony Albanese has condemned the booing and heckling of welcome to country ceremonies in Melbourne and Perth during Anzac dawn services as “a disgrace” and called for those responsible to “face the full force of the law”.

A small group of people booed and yelled throughout the welcome delivered by Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown in Melbourne. An acknowledgment in Perth was also interrupted by a person shouting obscenities.

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Twelve soldiers remain in Lismore hospital after army trucks rolled in northern NSW

Two personnel in serious condition after accident near city lashed by torrential rain brought by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred

Twelve soldiers remain in hospital – two in a serious condition – after two army trucks carrying troops rolled on a country road near Lismore on Saturday evening as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred lashed the northern New South Wales coast and southern Queensland.

Thirty-two defence personnel were involved in the crash – members of the 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment, part of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli Barracks in northern Brisbane – just after 5pm on Tregeagle Road, 9km south-west of Lismore.

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China conducts second live-fire drill near New Zealand

Report from New Zealand navy personnel comes a day after similar drill forced multiple airlines to change flight paths between Australia and New Zealand

China’s navy has reportedly conducted a second live-fire exercise in international waters, a day after a similar drill forced multiple airlines to change flight paths between Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand navy personnel advised live rounds were fired from a Chinese warship in international waters near the island nation on Saturday.

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Australia confronts China over apparent live-fire exercises conducted off coastline

Deputy PM Richard Marles says explanation for the drills, which were conducted in international waters and according to international law, are ‘unsatisfactory’

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has confronted her Chinese counterpart after Chinese warships conducted apparent live-fire exercises at short notice on Friday, forcing commercial aircraft to change course.

In a post on X late on Friday night Australian eastern time, Wong said she met with China’s foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in South Africa that day.

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Trump ‘very aware, supportive’ of Aukus, says Pete Hegseth as Australia pays down $800m on submarine deal

When asked if US will deliver nuclear submarines on time, US defense secretary says ‘we sure hope so’

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Donald Trump supports the Aukus nuclear submarine deal, after Australia on Friday confirmed its first $800m (US$500m) payment under the defence pact.

“The president is very aware, supportive of Aukus, recognises the importance of the defence industrial base,” Hegseth said in opening remarks at a meeting in Washington with the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, according to a transcript.

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Agency in charge of Australia’s $368bn submarine program faces staff morale crisis

Exclusive: the 17-month-old department has lost a senior leader and ranked second worst for staff wellbeing in the annual public service census

The agency overseeing Australia’s almost $400bn acquisition of nuclear submarines is facing a staff morale crisis and the threat of an external review of its operations, with a key deputy director leaving after just a year.

The Australian Submarine Agency, or ASA, was established 17 months ago to oversee submarine purchases under the Aukus pact but Guardian Australia understands it has become the subject of growing government concern about its priorities, governance and leadership.

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Marles says Aukus submarines on schedule despite US admiral’s warning of ‘exceptionally fragile’ industry

Shipyards will not meet goal of 1.5 boats a year by 2025 to be on track to provide Australia with three Virginia-class submarines, program chief says

The admiral who runs America’s submarine building program has confirmed construction is behind schedule and nowhere near the rate required to supply Australia’s Aukus nuclear submarines on schedule.

R Adm Jon Rucker told the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium in Arlington, Virginia, last week that the US had “an exceptionally fragile” military shipbuilding base and could not meet construction rates for its own vessels this year.

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Sussan Ley says Richard Marles should resign if he failed to provide safe workplace for chief of staff

Deputy opposition leader expresses concern for Jo Tarnawsky’s welfare after chief of staff claims she was effectively sacked

The deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says Richard Marles should resign if he has failed to provide a safe and respectful workplace as required under the ministerial code of conduct.

Ley said on Friday that allegations from the deputy prime minister’s chief of staff, Jo Tarnawksy, were “extremely serious” and expressed concern for her welfare.

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Dutton ‘intentionally lying’ about Australia’s stance on Middle East crisis, Marles says

Opposition leader’s claim Labor is ‘at odds with our allies’ an attempt to sow division, deputy prime minister says

The federal government has hit back at Peter Dutton’s claims that Australia is at odds with its allies over the conflict in the Middle East, characterising this as “an intentional lie” that aims to fuel division.

With more Australians expected to fly out of Lebanon on Sunday as Israel steps up strikes in southern Beirut, the government said it was “deeply anxious” about the “extraordinary loss of innocent life in Gaza” and the prospect of the conflict spreading.

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Australia financially assisting some citizens to leave Lebanon as Israel launches ground incursion

It is thought there are 15,000 Australians in Lebanon, and plans for an emergency evacuation have been in place for months

The federal government is understood to be financially assisting some Australians in Lebanon to leave the country as part of an escalated bid to expatriate citizens as Israel begins a ground incursion.

Guardian Australia understands Beirut-Rafic Hariri international airport – the only operational commercial airport in Lebanon – remains open and both Australian passport and visa holders were being assisted on to flights by diplomatic staff. An estimated 15,000 Australians are in Lebanon.

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ADF may assist Australians in Lebanon but government warns it can’t help everyone flee

Defence force personnel already deployed to the Middle East may be called on to help in an evacuation operation after Israel said it was preparing for a possible ground operation

Australian defence force personnel who are already deployed to the Middle East may be called on to help in an evacuation operation from Lebanon as fears of a regional war escalate.

Government-wide contingency planning and talks with allies have been under way for “many months”, but there is no indication that a major Australian rescue operation is imminent.

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Anthony Albanese may decide who runs in safe Labor seat as deputy PM and union locked in tussle

Richard Marles and Bill Shorten’s old union, the Australian Workers’ Union, in stoush to pick candidate for Gorton

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is locked in a struggle with Bill Shorten’s old union, the Australian Workers’ Union, to pick the next candidate for the safe Labor seat of Gorton.

Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong will be contested by the left’s Jo Briskey while Labor’s choice for Gorton is a tussle between the climate crisis and water policy expert Alice Jordan-Baird and the Brimbank mayor, Ranka Rasic.

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Coalition senators split in voting on Ralph Babet motion on abortion – as it happened

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Murray Watt on visas: ‘We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition’

The opposition has continued its political attacks against visas being given to Palestinians from Gaza (before Israel seized and completely closed the Rafah border in May).

We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition when they were in power and when Peter Dutton was the minister. Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio, has confirmed that himself.

Peter Dutton was quite prepared to use certain processes when he was the minister. Now we’re in power, he wants to criticise that. He wants to find division, to find reasons for criticism and be negative of the government.

I think this is just a ridiculous example he’s [Adam Bandt] giving, to disguise the fact yesterday the Greens were the only party in the parliament who decided to side with John Setka … rather than taking the side of the Australian people.

We had a vote in the Parliament yesterday, in the Senate, that called on the Greens to say they wouldn’t take political donations from the CFMEU construction division, they refused to vote for that. So I think it’s pretty clear what the motivation here is in voting against this legislation.

We haven’t received a dollar from the CFMEU for a decade, the Coalition received $175,000 in the last two years, Labor has received millions of dollars and what we say is we have not received the money, it is not why we are engaged in the debate.

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Australia news live: Palaszczuk appointed to Australia Post board; Shorten says Dutton ‘implying all Gazans are terrorists’

Palaszczuk, who retired from politics in December after almost nine years as QLD premier, will serve a three-year term as a non-executive director. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘We have to have a constant reminder’

The committee also called for a culturally appropriate and nationally significant recognition and remembrance of murdered and disappeared First Nations women and children. Dorinda Cox said this would be “significant” if the government accepted the recommendation:

It would … have some permanent features to remind us the role that history has played for missing and murdered or disappeared women and children and First Nations women and children in this country, because there’s a story there that needs to be told, and we have to have a constant reminder.

Like we do … with the Australian war memorial of the safety that we have as a country, but also that this part of our history – this is now ingrained in and sketched into. And if we want to continue to work on this and continue to maintain safety for women and children and the most vulnerable, which is First Nations – as we know, we’re in an emergency for all women, but First Nations women and children are at the front of that – we have to have some permanent features, otherwise we become invisible.

What we hear too often is that this is a state and territory problem. States are responsible for their police forces, in particular … We have to centre our approaches and our outcomes in [addressing these issues] and we have to look at the culture of the organisations, such as police.

There’s lots of reporting on the media in relation to the attitudes of police across Australia, and that has to get better, but we have to have a measure against that – we can’t just put in the attorney general [to] have a chat to the police ministers, and nothing changes … Because if we don’t look at this in a way of wanting change, nothing ever changes.

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PM accuses Dutton of pulling Liberals further to the right; jail sentence for second Blockade Australia protester – as it happened

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Married couple allegedly intended to hand defence force material to Russia, AFP chief says

Reece Kershaw says the AFP arrested the pair – a married couple – yesterday morning at their Everton Park home in Brisbane.

The counter foreign interference taskforce, which includes AFP, Asio and other commonwealth partners, has dedicated significant resources and capability to Operation Bergazada.

The AFP will allege the individuals worked together to access Australian defence force material that related to Australia’s national security interests.

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Fatima Payman indefinitely suspended from Labor caucus – as it happened

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“I think he has the capacity,” Marles says when asked if Joe Biden has what it takes for the next four years. “I’ve got no doubt there will be no issues in relation to that.”

Marles says Biden administration doing ‘fantastic job’

We work very closely with him and we are very pleased with how we’re progressing with the United States both in terms of their position in the world, but also in terms of our equities, most significantly, of course, the Aukus arrangements that we have in place.

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Canberra accuses Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares dangerously close to Australian helicopter

Defence minister Richard Marles says protests made to Beijing over ‘unacceptable’ altercation that forced pilot on UN mission to avoid being hit

The federal government has accused a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares dangerously close to an Australian helicopter on a United Nations mission in international waters.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, branded the incident “unacceptable”.

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