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#41 - Part 1

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 1

>>22964021 Hung parliament looms as possible federal election outcome, Newspoll shows - Almost half of all voters believe the Albanese government should be thrown out of office, but a greater number remain unconvinced that a Peter Dutton-led Coalition was ready to govern with the election still potentially poised to produce a hung parliament. An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows no shift in the primary vote for either Labor or the Coalition over the past week, with combined support for both the major parties remaining at a near-record low heading into the final week of the campaign. With the Liberal leader declaring the election was still winnable, Labor’s primary vote remains unchanged from last week at 34 per cent compared to the Coalition’s primary vote of 35 per cent for the second poll in a row. This is a 1.4 per cent improvement for Labor on its May 2022 election result, which saw Labor elected on its lowest ever primary vote at an election. But the Coalition’s primary vote remains lower than its last election result of 35.7 per cent, which produced the lowest level of representation since the Liberal Party was formed under Robert Menzies. It also confirms the narrowest gap between the two major parties on primary vote since October 2023 prior to the failed voice referendum.

>>22964024 Dutton doesn’t want Welcome to Country on Anzac Day - Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has escalated his intervention in a contest over Welcome to Country ceremonies by saying they should not be conducted on Anzac Day because most veterans did not want them included. Dutton’s comments will inflame the debate that has unfolded since far-right hecklers disrupted ceremonies at Anzac Day services in Perth and Melbourne on Friday. Both Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the agitators, who included known neo-Nazis, and called for respect last week. But Dutton changed his tone on Monday, latching onto the culture war to take a strong stance on Welcome to Country while the Coalition’s agenda on immigration and road taxes were being called into question over conflicting statements from frontbenchers. He also criticised Qantas’ practice of acknowledging Indigenous lands on its flights, saying they were over the top. Asked at a press conference on Monday if an Anzac Day dawn service was an event significant enough for Welcome to Country, the opposition leader said it was not. “No would be my answer to that. It is ultimately for the organisers of the events and they can make the decision based on their membership,” he said. “But listening to a lot of veterans in the space, Anzac Day is about our veterans … I think the majority view would be that they don’t want it on that day.”

>>22964027 Kooyong MP Monique Ryan a ‘Zionist’ as Jewish leaders urge action - Kooyong MP Monique Ryan has declared she’s a supporter of Zionism and conceded that she made “mistakes” after October 7, having previously backed an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voiced support for the United Nations’ Hamas-linked aid agency. Most of her fellow teals failed to back Dr Ryan’s vocal support for ­Zionism as she said she “utterly supported” Israel’s self-determination and supported calls for a ­judicial inquiry into rising anti-Semitism in Australia. At a community forum in Kooyong on Thursday, Dr Ryan said she was supportive of Zionism, which she defined as “belief in the right of Jewish people to make a homeland in Israel and in the self-determination of Israel”. “I’m ­utterly supportive of that,” she said. Although Jewish leaders welcomed her stance, they warned that supporting Israel must go ­beyond “sound bites”. “Monique’s voting record, including voting often with the Greens and continued backing of UNRWA funding, suggest otherwise … Support for Zionism can’t end at a sound bite,” Zionism Victoria president Elyse Schachna said. “Backing Zionism and the Jewish community means opposing those who deny Israel’s legitimacy or excuse terrorism, and we haven’t consistently seen that from Monique. The Jewish community is paying close attention and actions will always speak louder than words.”

#41 - Part 2

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 2

>>22964031 Monique Ryan’s desperate cash grab as Kooyong race tightens - Kooyong MP Monique Ryan has resorted to a last-minute plea for $20,000 in donations after claiming shadowy conservative forces were conspiring against her as her grip on the once-safe Liberal seat slips. In an email to locals on Saturday, Dr Ryan accused the Liberal Party and conservative groups like Advance Australia, Australians for Prosperity and Better Australia of orchestrating “co-­ordinated, well-funded” attacks designed to mislead voters. She mentioned neo-Nazi disruptions and grassroot anti-teal campaigners “Repeal the Teals” in an attempt to rally support ­during the final week of the ­campaign. Dr Ryan admitted she was scrambling for $20,000 to fund last-ditch digital advertising, telling supporters the seat could be decided by as few as 200 votes. The incumbent MP, who said she was facing an electorate of 37,000 undecided voters, claimed the “conservative ecosystem” - backed by the Liberals’ $120m “Cormack Foundation war chest” – was out to get her. “I never wanted to have to make this final financial ask, but I need to,” the email reads. “We need to raise $20,000 in the next few days to fund critical digital advertising - so we can cut through the noise, reach undecided voters, and tell them the truth. We’ve seen a scale of attacks I never thought possible – co-ordinated, well funded, and designed to mislead voters in the final stretch.”

>>22964037 ‘Hate’ for Jacinta Allan, Victorian Labor diminishing party stronghold - Victorian Liberals remain confident Peter Dutton’s outer-­suburban campaign strategy, combined with what Labor figures concede is “hate” towards Labor Premier Jacinta Allan, will see the party’s vote surge in the ALP stronghold of Bruce. While stopping short of predicting a surprise victory there on May 3, Liberals are reporting a positive response from voters in the electorate that Labor has held for some 29 years. Liberals hope this sense of support on top of a favourable redistribution that brought strong Liberal areas of Berwick into the electorate has weakened Labor’s grip enough to give them an outside chance. A Victoria Liberal identity who has been campaigning hard in the traditional Labor stronghold has stopped short of tipping a victory on Saturday, but predicted a surge in support. “I reckon it will be close,” they said. “It still feels OK.” A senior Victorian ALP source has conceded that while there was “no real concern” within the party that Bruce might fall to the Lib­erals, campaign staff had detected “lots of hate” directed to state Labor and the Premier among traditional Labor voters. “The days of this being a safe seat for us are over,” the source said. “Cost of living, state taxes, housing and the fact Labor’s been in power in Victoria for 21 of the past 25 years means they’re really blaming Labor.”

>>22964042 Election 2025: Muslim Votes Matter’s ‘strategic’ move to flip Labor seats - A pro-Palestine political movement aiming to elect Greens and independents has dramatically intervened to help the Liberal Party in Gough Whitlam’s old seat of Werriwa, in a “strategic” move to flex its electoral muscle to the ALP and punish Labor in a handful of marginal electorates. Werriwa is quickly becoming the Liberals’ last hope of snaring one of the ALP’s marginal southwest Sydney seats, which is held on a 5 per cent margin, and it is one of only four electorates where Muslim Votes Matter is preferencing the opposition over the government. In Werriwa, MVM’s how to vote card direct voters first toward the Greens and Libertarians, and then the Liberals before Labor. It’s a similar tactic being deployed in WA Labor-held marginals Cowan and Tangey, and Jim Chalmers’ Queensland seat of Rankin. Labor strategists have grown optimistic that incumbent Anne Stanley will hold off the Liberals’ Sam Kayal, but the final result could come down to just a thousand or so votes. Peter Dutton recently launched his party’s campaign in the seat, illustrative of how seriously it is vying for the electorate.

#41 - Part 3

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 3

>>22968774 Video: Group with historical CCP links ‘required’ Chinese Australians to vote for Ryan - Volunteers wearing Monique Ryan campaign T-shirts have been captured on video saying a community organisation, which has historical links to the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign influence operation, told them to vote for the teal MP. In the footage, a woman says the instruction came from Ji Jianmin, who is the president of the Hubei Association, an organisation representing people from the Chinese province that has also been accused of working with the United Front Work Department, a central party agency that advances CCP interests at home and abroad. Australia had a major reckoning with allegations of Chinese influence operations late last decade, prompting Malcolm Turnbull’s government to introduce foreign interference laws and making MPs more cautious about working with diaspora groups linked to foreign powers. In a video taken by Tharini Rouwette, who runs a group called COMPELL that advances multiculturalism in Australian politics, and uploaded to a Kooyong community Facebook group on April 22, two people wearing Ryan T-shirts claim Ji told them to vote for Ryan. “The Hubei Association President Ji Jianmin, how should I say this, he required us Chinese diaspora to support her,” says one of the Ryan volunteers, whose name is given only as Jessica. Another volunteer in the video, Stephen, adds: “Monique [Ryan] is an independent federal MP, her policies are quite suited to the needs of us Chinese diaspora. It feels like she can give a voice to us, so we want to support her.” The video has since been deleted from Facebook but remains on TikTok.

>>22968796 Video: Australian Electoral Commission refers Monique Ryan volunteers ‘Beijing links’ video to integrity taskforce - Australia’s election watchdog has referred a video involving Kooyong MP Monique Ryan’s campaign volunteers to a national taskforce for investigation, after footage emerged of volunteers saying they were directed to vote for her by groups accused of ties to Beijing’s foreign influence operations. A spokesperson for the Australian Electoral Commission said the agency had become aware of the footage when it was published on Monday and launched a review. “This includes referral for consideration by the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce,” it said in a statement. “It is important to note that Australia has a secret ballot. Nobody knows how another individual votes. Your vote is your choice. We have also published advice to voters about influence in Australian elections, including a general reminder for all voters that every voter is responsible for making their own decision”. The taskforce is made up of officials from several government agencies, including the AEC, ASIO and the federal police. Earlier, Ms Ryan said she had herself referred to the AEC allegations that volunteers with alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party were directed to campaign for her.

>>22968807 Coalition vow: more Pacific infrastructure loans to undercut Beijing - Peter Dutton is moving to distance himself from Donald Trump’s foreign aid cuts, pledging an extra $2bn in Pacific infrastructure loans to counter surging Chinese influence across the ­region. Coalition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman said a Dutton government would lift the Australian Infrastructure Fin­ancing Facility for the Pacific’s loans ceiling from $3bn to $5bn to deliver a raft of economy-strengthening projects. The move comes as Beijing looks to take advantage of the Trump administration’s decision to axe USAID support for the developing world, including $388m a year for Pacific countries. It’s understood the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been modelling the impact of Australian foreign aid cuts in case a Dutton government decides to mimic the Trump policy. However, a senior Coalition source said there would be no reduction to development assistance for the Pacific in its final election costings to be released on Thursday. Mr Coleman said more Australian-funded loans to Pacific countries would undercut efforts by Australia’s adversaries to win over regional leaders. “Infrastructure financing has become yet another battleground for influence in our region,” he said. “A larger AIFFP under a ­Coalition government will work to further strengthen Australia’s partnerships with nations across the Pacific and Timor-Leste. “It will complement the defence, security and other economic ties which were at the core of the Coalition’s Pacific Step-up when last in government.” The AIFFP so far has issued about $1.1bn in loans, which would leave nearly $4bn available for new ports, airports, energy and telecommunications projects if the Coalition is elected. The Opposition Leader named China in Sunday’s leaders’ debate as the biggest threat to Australia’s national security.

#41 - Part 4

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 4

>>22973535 Video: ‘They are calling’: Trump confirms Albanese has been trying to speak to him - US President Donald Trump confirmed he is aware the Australian government has been trying to contact him to discuss trade - and that he is yet to take Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s call. “They are calling, and I will be talking to him, yes,” Trump told this masthead and Nine News on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) when asked whether he would speak to the Australian prime minister. Later, Albanese said if he won Saturday’s election, he would expect a phone call with Trump after. He told ABC radio on Wednesday morning he was not embarrassed by the president’s admission that he was not answering the phone. “Not at all. It’s a light-hearted throwaway comment from the president,” Albanese said. “I assure you I’m not staying up at night trying to ring anyone at the moment, I’m in an election campaign. “I’m sure if we are successful [in the election], we will have a discussion after Saturday. We have a relationship, we’ve already had a couple of phone calls.” Albanese has been under pressure from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton over his failure to secure another phone call with the US president following their conversation in February. During that call, Trump agreed to consider an exemption on tariffs for Australian steel and aluminium, but ultimately granted no country relief. Australia was also hit with a 10 per cent universal tariff in April, along with the United Kingdom and many other US allies. Albanese described that decision as having no basis in logic and “not the act of a friend”.

>>22973536 Final campaign dash kicks off as Albanese sweats on last-minute Dutton suburban fightback - Both sides of politics are gearing up for a frenetic 72 hours of campaigning with Anthony Albanese visiting every state before election day amid Labor fears Peter Dutton is staging a last-minute recovery. Despite a reported slide in the Coalition's primary vote to levels that would have historically made victory impossible, speculation has emerged that disgruntled outer-urban voters are more likely to preference the Liberal party than in previous elections. John Scales, co-founder of polling company JWS Research, said disenchanted voters in commuter-belt working class suburbs are sceptical of both major parties. However, unlike in 2022 when around two-thirds of One Nation and other centre-right minority party voters put the Coalition ahead of Labor, they now look likely to break 80:20 or as much as 90:10 towards Mr Dutton. The findings are based on polling across more than a dozen seats, with samples of 800 voters apiece where respondents were given the names of candidates and pressed to nominate a preference for the major parties. Mr Scales said the findings - if borne out on Saturday — mean the Liberals can still win as many as 10 such seats despite a falling primary vote. Seats that may break as Mr Scales described include Ryan in Brisbane, Bullwinkel in Western Australia, and Whitlam and Werriwa in New South Wales. He said the drift towards a Coalition-friendly preference flows was not evident in inner-city or teal-held seats, where the split was a more traditional 66:33. "We're not saying [Dutton] can win, we're saying it's a lot closer than people think," Mr Scales told the ABC.

>>22973546 Election 2025: Resurrected voice inevitable, says Penny Wong - Foreign Minister Penny Wong has suggested an Indigenous voice is inevitable and Australians will one day be incredulous there was ever an argument about it. In an episode of the Betoota Talks podcast released on Monday, Senator Wong said Anthony Albanese went ahead with the voice referendum in 2023 because “he is not a pull-the-pin kind of guy”, he thought it was the right thing to do and “a lot of First Nations leaders wanted the ­opportunity”. “I think we’ll look back on it in 10 years’ time and it’ll be a bit like marriage equality,” she said. “I ­always used to say, marriage equality, which took us such a bloody fight to get that done, and I thought, all this fuss. It’ll become something, it’ll be like, people go ‘did we even have an argument about that?’ “Like, kids today, or even adults today, barely kind of clock that it used to be an issue. Remember how big an issue that was in the culture wars? Blimey, just endless.” On October 14, 2023, 60.1 per cent of Australians voted no to an Indigenous advisory body ­enshrined in the Constitution. When Mr Albanese was questioned about the voice in the leaders debate, he repeated his long-stated position that he respects the outcome. Asked if he still believed in it, Mr Albanese replied: “It is gone.”

#41 - Part 5

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 5

>>22973557 Election 2025: AEC refers Clare O’Neil to integrity taskforce over Chinese polling booth recruits - Australia’s election watchdog has confirmed it will refer allegations that the Hubei Association was planning to send out dozens of Chinese volunteers to Labor Minister Clare O’Neil and the Greens Party to a national taskforce for investigation. The taskforce is made up of officials from several government agencies, including the federal police, ASIO and the AEC. Cabinet minister Ms O’Neil has been embroiled in an election-eve controversy over Chinese campaign volunteers, with confirmation 10 individuals linked to an organisation ­associated with Beijing’s foreign influence operation were being ­recruited to staff her polling booths on election day. As part of their ongoing investigation into teal MP Monique Ryan’s campaign in Kooyong, the Australian Electoral Commission will review reporting of further irregularities concerning the Labor minister and a Greens candidate for the seat of Menzies. A spokesperson for the AEC said on Wednesday that the agency was aware of the latest developments after The Australian revealed the organisation had been planning to release more volunteers at polling booths to campaign for Labor and the Greens. “They will review all current reporting, and other available information, as part of what they’re looking into,” a spokesperson for the AEC said.

>>22977652 Election 2025: Chinese operative admits he has been helping Labor at elections for years - A Labor Party member at the centre of a controversy over the recruiting of Chinese volunteers for Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says he has “mobilised” political campaigners from an ­organisation linked to the CCP over multiple federal elections. As the Australian Electoral Commission broadened its investigation on Wednesday into the axed plan to provide volunteers for Ms O’Neil from the Hubei ­Association, Chap Chow described himself as a political ­organiser and “friend” of the ­Albanese government cabinet minister. Mr Chow said he travelled on a trip to China funded by a Chinese airline and it can also be revealed he campaigned to keep mainland Chinese separated from Hong Kong and Taiwanese community members as part of a planned redistribution of federal electorates in Melbourne. The Australian has obtained an email written last year by Mr Chow relating to the AEC’s ­redistribution in which he ­“expressed his concerns” over the plan to include the suburb of Box Hill in the electorate of Menzies. In the letter, the Labor Party member suggested it would be better to keep voters with mainland Chinese heritage apart from Hong Kong and Taiwanese people if possible to “avoid riots”. “The electorate of Menzies contains two suburbs … Doncaster and Templestowe which respectively each accommodates large proportion of Chinese Australians,” the email states. “Box Hill too contains quite a large proportion of Chinese … the only difference is, while the ­Chinese who live in Doncaster and Templestowe are mainly ­immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong, those who live in Box Hill are predominantly from mainland China. Given the tension in recent history over the Taiwan Strait and the Hong Kong riot, mixing … does not foster social harmony … the Eastern Freeway … would make a most convenient and identifiable border.”

>>22977668 Catholic schools election intervention in key seats sparks independents’ ire - The Catholic Church in Victoria has intervened in the federal election campaign, attempting to dissuade their school parents from voting for Greens or independent candidates in seven hotly contested electorates. A series of letters written by the Victorian Catholic Education Authority and distributed to parents of Catholic school students in the seats of Monash, Wannon, Goldstein, Kooyong, Cooper, Wills and Macnamara, highlights the support provided for Catholic school funding by major party candidates while raising uncertainly about the position of independents and minor party candidates. It urges parents to “take this letter into consideration” when they vote. The VCEA, as a registered charity, is prohibited by Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) rules from promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office. VCEA chairman James Merlino, a former Labor deputy premier of Victoria, defended the intervention. “The information provided to parents and carers was factually correct and focused on the positions of the main candidates, as this would be most relevant to parents,” he said in a statement. “It does not endorse a particular candidate. “It is entirely up to parents how they use the information that has been provided to them. We make no apology for representing the best interests of Catholic schools, parents, teachers and students.”

#41 - Part 6

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 6

>>22981918 Final Newspoll: Anthony Albanese to defy historic major party slump - The combined primary vote of the major parties has fallen to a record low on the eve of the election, with Anthony Albanese on track to be returned for a second term but without any guarantee of securing majority government. But both leaders will also ­contest the election with deeply negative approval ratings, with both the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton suffering declines in personal support in the final week of the campaign. The final Newspoll of the ­campaign conducted for The Australian shows Labor ahead of the Coalition with a two party preferred lead of 52.5-47.5 per cent. A majority of voters claim they would be better off personally over the next three years under a Labor government than the Coalition. As the two candidates for the Lodge made their final pitches to voters on Friday, the Opposition Leader claimed the nation could not ­afford another three years of the economic trajectory it was on under Labor. “We can’t afford to continue on our current path,” Mr Dutton told The Australian, as he spent his final full day of campaigning swinging through the Perth ­suburbs. “We’ve had the largest fall in living standards in history, power bills, food and insurance costs are all higher, housing is unaffordable, and our country is less safe. “The Prime Minister is weak and simply not up to the job.” Mr Albanese - who spent his day fighting for votes in Tasmania, Melbourne and Mr Dutton’s northern Brisbane seat of Dickson – said the election presented a clear choice and urged voters to stick with Labor during uncertain times. “This election is a choice,” the Prime Minister told The Australian. “Building Australia’s future under Labor with tax cuts, stronger Medicare, 20 per cent off student debt, 5 per cent first home deposit – or higher taxes, bigger deficits and savage cuts under the Liberals. In uncertain times ­Australians cannot risk the ­Liberals’ chaos … (they) have changed policies daily.”

>>22981936 Video: Election 2025: Peter Dutton banking on ‘surprises’ in key seats - Peter Dutton is confident of winning at least 10 seats from Labor on Saturday night but would need a miracle to beat Anthony Albanese, according to Coalition strategists relying on tracking polling in key electorates and strong pre-poll support for the Liberals and Nationals. The Australian can reveal that despite the Liberals and Nationals falling behind the ALP in national polls, Coalition campaign headquarters believes it can win as many as 10 seats from Labor, three seats from teal independents and one from the Greens. After seat polling in January indicated Mr Dutton was on track for a historic victory over the first-term Albanese government, the Coalition’s position has deteriorated on the back of Labor scare campaigns and a boost for the Prime Minister after Donald Trump’s tariffs blitz. As of Wednesday night, senior Liberal strategists believed the Coalition was most likely to pick up 10 seats. Based on the most optimistic and best-case scenario, which opposition figures concede won’t happen, there is a pathway that could give the Coalition 22 seats. Despite many battleground contests being considered line ball, the Coalition is hopeful of winning a rump of ALP seats including Aston, Gilmore, McEwen, Tangney, Solomon, Paterson, Werriwa, Gorton, Hawke and the newly established Western Australia seat of Bullwinkel, which is notionally held by Labor.

>>22981951 Video: Election 2025: Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong dine out with friends of Chinese Communist Party - Labor has courted Beijing-backed property developers and senior figures in the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign-influence arm in a pre-election push to secure Australian Chinese donations and lock in the community’s votes in key seats. The Australian can reveal ­Anthony Albanese celebrated his birthday in March at an intimate lunch with the Chinese Building Association of NSW, which has close ties to state-run construction firms in China. And Foreign Minister Penny Wong enjoyed yum cha in ­Brisbane last month with ALP donor Peter Zhiwu Zheng, the president of a Chinese cultural ­association linked to the CCP’s United Front Work Department. Australian Chinese votes will be critical in at least 10 seats in Saturday’s election, including four each in Sydney and Melbourne, and one each in Brisbane and Perth. Members of the CBANSW sang happy birthday to Mr Albanese and presented him with a sparkler-topped cake at the function in early March, just weeks before the Prime Minister called the May 3 poll. Video of the event was circulated on WeChat by a Beijing-based influencer who shares Australian content with more than 3 million followers.

#41 - Part 7

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 7

>>22985904 Video: Voting polls officially open for 2025 Federal Election - Voting polls across Australia have officially opened for the 2025 Federal Election. - 9 News Australia

>>22985947 Federal election polls open in most Australian way imaginable - In pictures: Election Day 2025 kicks off - May 3, 2025

>>22985966 Video: Australia Federal Election LIVE: Australians Head to Vote | Anthony Albanese vs Peter Dutton - BONDI BEACH LIFE SAVING CLUB, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Australians vote in the country's federal election. Australians are voting on Saturday with the ruling centre-left Labor party a favourite to secure a majority government, according to a recent YouGov poll. Incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to defeat main challenger Peter Dutton of the conservative coalition to become the country’s first leader in two decades to win consecutive elections. The country’s cost-of-living crisis has dominated the lead-up to the polls, with both Labor and the Coalition unveiling a number of policies intended to ease spiralling housing costs. Recent uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump has also had an unforeseen effect on Australian political discourse, with candidates navigating major geopolitical shifts across the Pacific. Australians have been casting their ballots in early voting since April 22, with more than 8.5 million people voting by pre-poll or postal votes before election day - a considerable jump on the 2022 election. - CNBC-TV18

>>22985970 Video: Australia Election Results 2025: Vote Counting Begins | Australia Election 2025 - Votes are counted after polls closed on the east coast in Australia's general election. The center-left Labor Party of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking a second three-year term. - CNN-News18

>>22985972 Video: Australia Decides: LIVE Federal election coverage from 9 News Australia - Join Nine News for the most comprehensive 2025 Federal Election coverage. - 9 News Australia

>>22985977 Video: Election Results: Sky News Australia - Sky News Australia brings you the latest results from the Australian Federal Election. - Sky News Australia

>>22985981 Video: LIVE: ABC NEWS Election Night Live with full results and analysis - David Speers and Sarah Ferguson deliver comprehensive results and analysis of the 2025 Australian Federal Election with Casey Briggs, Antony Green, Laura Tingle, Jeremy Fernandez, Bridget Brennan and Patricia Karvelas. - ABC News (Australia)

#41 - Part 8

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 8

>>22986131 Election 2025:Albanese leads Labor to historic victory as Dutton on brink of losing seat- Anthony Albanese will hold power as prime minister after leading Labor to an extraordinary victory at the federal election and driving Peter Dutton to the brink of defeat in his home seat. A significant swing to Labor in more than a dozen seats put Labor in position to increase its majority in parliament, with some supporters calling the results a landslide. The results made it impossible for Dutton to claim power, whether in minority or majority government, as the opposition leader was in danger of losing his seat of Dickson on the northern edge of Brisbane. The prime minister signalled his confidence in seizing key seats from the Liberals at the end of a campaign fought on the cost of living, while early counting showed Australians were shifting to Labor in battleground seats. The voting showed the Labor candidate for Dutton’s seat, Ali France, had posted a significant gain in her primary vote, putting her in a strong position to win the seat. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition’s nuclear policy had worked against Dutton in his home seat after he said he was willing to have a nuclear power station in his local area. Albanese insisted he could hold on to power during a series of interviews on Saturday, as he campaigned in Melbourne and Sydney and joined his partner, Jodie Haydon, and his son, Nathan, in casting his vote in his home seat of Grayndler. “Majority government is, I think, very much in the interests of Australians,” he said. Labor supporters said privately that the early count vindicated their predictions of a landslide for Albanese, although federal ministers have insisted they took nothing for granted and believed it was a tight contest. Dutton argued throughout the campaign that Labor would have to rely on the Greens in a hung parliament unless voters swung behind the Coalition, and he kept up the message in the final hours of the campaign.

>>22986141 ‘Very sad’: Dutton loses seat of Dickson in heavy Coalition defeat - Peter Dutton has lost his seat of Dickson in suburban Brisbane and become the first federal opposition leader to suffer such a loss in a devastating result for Coalition MPs. The result has sent a shockwave through the Coalition, which will be in opposition for another term after a heavy loss on Saturday night. Just weeks ago, the Coalition believed Dutton had a serious chance of defeating Anthony Albanese’s Labor government after just one term, but now there is an open contest for the leadership of the Liberal Party. The Coalition leader was defeated by Labor candidate Ali France, a disability advocate with an amputated leg who had already contested the seat against Dutton twice. She had to overturn a 1.7 per cent margin to win. Dutton, 54, is the first sitting party leader to lose their seat at an election since then-prime minister John Howard was beaten in Bennelong on the same night he lost government in 2007. Nationals leader Charles Blunt lost his seat of Richmond at the 1990 election, which was won by Labor. Dutton told Coalition supporters in Brisbane that he had called France to congratulate her on her victory, saying: “She will do a good job as a local member … I wish her all the best.” Dutton said France’s late son Henry, who died of leukemia last year, would be proud of his mother’s victory. He added that he was proud of breaking the “one-term curse” in Dickson that had seen the seat regularly change hands between major parties before his victory in 2001. Before Dutton’s loss was confirmed, Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said it “will be very sad” to see Dutton leave parliament if he loses his seat as the vote returns suggest. “Peter is a very popular colleague among his colleagues,” Hume told Channel Seven. “He is a very good man.”

#41 - Part 9

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 9

>>22986156 COMMENTARY: A calamity for the Coalition and a stunning win for Anthony Albanese - "The significance of Anthony Albanese’s victory is as stunning as it is for the loss of Peter Dutton and potentially his own seat. Yet three months ago it was an unlikely outcome. The Prime Minister has defied his government’s own record of failures and the majority-held view of the electorate that Labor did not deserve to be re-elected because of it. Yet this is what has occurred. For the Coalition this result is a calamity. The Liberals and Nationals now face their own existential questions. The Coalition failed in the seats that Labor rightly feared would fall. It failed in seats it should have kept. It is redeemed only by the few surprise seats that it flipped. But it misread the social dynamic, misread the mood and misread the polls. Three key factors underscore what has occurred. The nation has confirmed that it remains in a post-Covid cycle of government dependency. Labor exploited this to maximum effect. An unwritten agreement continues to exist that while people understand things are bad, as long as their bank accounts keep being topped up, they won’t disturb the equation. This was as much a victory for an addiction to government intervention over aspiration as it was a striking result for the Labor Party campaign machine. Dutton’s defeat represents a complete collapse of the Coalition’s political operation. The turbulence of Trump, the global uncertainty have played to incumbency. This is a complete reversal of the global dynamics that western governments faced 12 months ago. Dutton failed to pivot to this shift. Finally, Labor’s aggressive campaign against Dutton was met with ineffective resistance. Just as Labor positioned Scott Morrison at the last election and won the contest, Labor effectively positioned Dutton as well with an absence of response. At 8pm on Saturday night, it was clear the Coalition was not in a position to win. This would be among the earliest calls on a federal election. This represents the scale of the debacle." - Simon Benson - theaustralian.com.au

>>22986163 How Anthony Albanese rediscovered his mojo to deliver election win - Labor MPs at the beginning of this election year had one big fear - Anthony Albanese waiting all the way till May before leading them to a federal election. After a torrid two years of a cost of living crisis, an embarrassing loss at the Indigenous Voice referendum and Peter Dutton on the up and up in the polls, the ALP thought if the Prime Minister waited too long that things would only get worse. “Back then, we were thinking we need to go soon because if we wait until May we’re stuffed,” one Labor insider said. “In the end we were looking at that date in April, which was really the earliest we could have gone because of the WA election, but then there was the cyclone (in Queensland).” On Saturday night, Mr Albanese proved a May election was far from a stuffing. Labor was on its way to a bigger majority than it got in 2022 and the Albanese Government had experienced a resurrection. Mr Albanese has benefited from some significant momentum-boosting moments of the campaign including Peter Dutton’s backflip on key policies and escaping worse-than-average tariffs inflicted by Donald Trump. But government insiders say the Prime Minister rediscovered his mojo months before calling the election, citing an early January test drive through Queensland and a big Medicare play earlier in the year to frame the party’s re-election platform as key to Labor’s rebound.

#41 - Part 10

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 10

>>22986232 COMMENT: The truth about this election is that Anthony Albanese got lucky - "As the Prime Minister marched into a polling booth clutching his long-suffering cavoodle Toto on Saturday, the biggest danger of this election was hanging in the air. Anthony Albanese got lucky. He got lucky that he ran against Scott Morrison when he was popular as dysentery in 2022. The Prime Minister got lucky again when he stuffed up the Voice referendum and the Liberal Party started thinking, “Oh, something is happening, we could win”. Instead, they got complacent. They didn’t do the work. That’s why one Liberal MP described treasury spokesman Angus Taylor as “an absolute disaster” on Saturday night. He got lucky when the Liberal leader wanted to dot the landscape with little nuclear reactors and sack 41,000 public servants. This might be red-meat to the Liberal Party base that already votes for him, but it’s not a huge turn on for swinging voters unless you can explain it properly. He didn’t. The election of Donald Trump? Lucky again. The US President promptly spooked the horses in Australia from the day of his inauguration, with his meeting with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before spraying friends and foes with trade tariffs. He got lucky the Liberals didn’t have a coherent tax policy and promised to repeal tax cuts if elected. Lucky when Peter Dutton had his tyres over-pumped by supporters who inflated his chances of defeating a first term government for the first time since the 1930s. He got lucky that the Liberal leader didn’t have a strategy to inoculate himself from inevitable attacks about his record as health minister on bulk billing. Finally, he got lucky with two wildly popular Labor premiers - first in WA at the 2022 election and now in South Australia. WA saved him from minority government in 2022. Farmers Union Iced Coffee was deployed to do the same in 2025 - as the PM and the SA Premier were photographed downing a carton of the good stuff. The “Mali factor” - the popularity of SA Premier Peter Malinauskas – was expected to deliver the ALP the seat of Sturt in 2025, a blue ribbon seat which hasn’t voted Labor since 1969. Meanwhile, the PM even got lucky when there was a terrible cyclone in Queensland, which gave ALP strategists more time to repair and hand down a budget, something the Liberals insisted he would never do. They were wrong." - Samantha Maiden - news.com.au

>>22986290 Keir Starmer Tweet: - Congratulations, @AlboMP on your election win. The UK and Australia are as close as ever - and we will continue to work together to deliver a brighter future for working people in both of our countries.

>>22986956 Volodymyr Zelenskyy Tweet: - Congratulations to Prime Minister @AlboMP on a confident electoral victory. I wish you continued success in serving the people of Australia and delivering meaningful achievements. Ukraine sincerely values Australia’s unwavering support and its principled stance on ending Russia’s war and securing a dignified and lasting peace. We look forward to further strengthening our productive partnership in pursuit of peace, security, and freedom.

>>22986965 Emmanuel Macron Tweet: - Congratulations, dear Prime Minister @AlboMP, on your re-election. In the face of global challenges, Australia and France have so much to achieve together - especially in the Indo-Pacific. Let us continue to write, with ambition and friendship, the new chapter of our partnership.

>>22986981 Secretary Marco Rubio Tweet: Congratulations to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his victory in Australia’s federal election. Australia is a valued U.S. friend and a close partner. We look forward to continuing to promote freedom and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.

>>22989198 Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Remarks on the Result of the Federal Election of Australia: - China notes the reports and congratulates the Labor Party and Prime Minister Albanese. China stands ready to work with the new Australian government led by Prime Minister Albanese and, under the fundamental guidance provided by the important common understandings between the leaders of the two countries, continue advancing a more mature, stable, and productive comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Australia to further benefit both countries and peoples, and contribute positively to the peace and stability of the region and beyond.

#41 - Part 11

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 11

>>22989207 Australia election win seen strengthening Albanese's hand with US - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is likely to work more closely with centre-left governments in Britain and Canada, as well as other democratic allies, after a resounding election win strengthened his hand in dealing with the U.S., analysts said. Albanese's Labor Party rode a voter backlash against the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump to a come-from-behind victory that expanded his parliamentary majority, echoing the reelection win a week ago by Canada's ruling party. After his cabinet is sworn in, Albanese is expected to visit Washington for discussions on U.S. tariffs and defence matters, while also working with Asian and European nations to broaden export markets and defence cooperation, hedging against U.S. reliance. Albanese had presented himself to voters as a safe pair of hands amid global turmoil, in contrast to conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton, who was compared to Trump, former strategists for the opposition Liberal Party said in assessing their loss. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Sunday there were global challenges ahead for the returned government. "People recognised if you want stability while the global economy was going crazy then a majority Labor government was the best way to deliver that," he said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Chalmers said his immediate focus was global economic uncertainty, particularly the impact of tariff tensions between the United States, Australia's main security ally, and China, its largest trading partner.

>>22989224 Opinion: Dutton was never a Trump clone. But he fell for the trap of MAGA-style politics - "Anthony Albanese has two cyclones to thank for his historic trouncing of the Coalition. Cyclone Alfred’s arrival off the Queensland coast delayed plans for an April election and allowed Labor to use the budget to launch into the election campaign. Even more important was the hurricane-like return of Donald Trump to the White House. Cyclone Donald made landfall in Canada last week, delivering the centre-left Liberal Party a fourth-term victory that seemed impossible at the start of this year. Then he crashed through Australia’s electoral map, demolishing the Coalition’s hopes of victory. The parallels between the two countries, both close American allies, are unmistakable. Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre lost not just the election but his own seat, as did Peter Dutton. Local factors at play in this election - Dutton’s woeful campaign, Albanese’s astuteness, interest rates beginning to fall – were all crucial. But around the world, Albanese’s victory will be interpreted as a repudiation of Trumpism and the latest sign of a revival of social democratic politics. The turnaround from the start of this year has been rapid and remarkable. As Trump’s second inauguration approached on January 20, centre-left parties were grasping for relevance. In an era of high inflation, incumbency had become a curse and left-wing governments were in an especially grim position. Conservative populism was in the ascendancy. Canada’s progressive prince, Justin Trudeau, announced his retirement in January as a beleaguered, unpopular figure. Labor was falling behind the Coalition in the polls, raising the likelihood of a Dutton prime ministership. Trump’s radical and in many ways frightening return to office has breathed new life into centre-left parties and laid a booby trap for conservative leaders. Dutton was never a Trump clone, and notably called him out for berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But he dabbled in MAGA-style politics by appointing Jacinta Price to an Elon Musk-style government efficiency role, and praised Trump as shrewd and a “big thinker” when he proposed his bizarre plan to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Albanese, cleverly, rarely invoked Trump’s name but weaponised his presidency by accusing Dutton of wanting to take Australia down an American-style path on healthcare and wages. With uncertainty roiling the globe, he presented Labor as a beacon of stability and even kindness - a word not associated with Trump’s bullying and bluster. The contrast was largely implicit but impossible to miss." - Matthew Knott - theage.com.au

#41 - Part 12

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 12

>>22989228 Defeated Liberals now brace for leadership and policy war - The next leader of the Liberal Party is expected to be Sussan Ley, Angus Taylor or Dan Tehan, as MPs prepare for an internal war on their future policy direction after Peter Dutton led the Coalition to one of its biggest electoral drubbings. Several MPs said the leadership battle would likely be between the deputy Liberal leader, opposition Treasury spokesman and the immigration spokesman, after Mr Dutton lost his seat of Dickson. Conservative Liberal MPs are likely to swing in behind Mr Taylor, but there will be fierce resistance to him being rewarded after failing to outline a coherent economic narrative as Treasury spokesman. While Ms Ley was the deputy Liberal leader under Mr Dutton, some MPs argue she was sidelined from his inner sanctum and would be the Coalition’s best hope of winning back affluent seats lost to the teals and Labor over the past two terms. Coalition MPs told The Australian there needed to be a policy fight early in the next term of parliament, arguing the opposition should have done this after losing in 2022. “We haven’t had the policy debates,” one MP said. There are Liberal MPs who say it was a big mistake to pursue cult-like unity rather than getting the policies right, with Mr Dutton’s leadership marked with a zero-tolerance of any MP who spoke against the party position.

>>22989242 Video: Jewish leaders congratulate Labor on win, hail Greens’ ‘electoral punishment’ - Jewish leaders have praised voters for the “electoral punishment” given to the Greens, while hailing the re-election of Anthony Albanese and Labor’s historic return to government in a thumping landslide. Tensions between Australia’s Jewish community and the Albanese government have deepened since the October 7 Hamas attacks, but with Labor’s return to office, Jewish leaders say there is now a chance to rebuild trust and ensure the government follows through on its promises to combat anti-Semitism. Labor’s Mark Dreyfus, Josh Burns and Mike Freelander, along with Liberal MP Julian Leeser, all retained their seats on election day - a result welcomed by leaders as a sign of support for Jewish representation across party lines. The most Jewish-heavy electorates in the country delivered higher Liberal primary votes and a repudiation of the Greens in Saturday’s election compared to figures from the rest of the country. In the four seats with the highest proportion of Jewish voters, the Liberal primary vote fell by just 0.4 percentage points, 3.4 points better than the national average. The Greens’ primary vote dropped by 1.7 points across these seats, also outperforming the national slump. Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler described the election as taking place during a “deeply painful period” for Jewish Australians, with many in the community experiencing unprecedented levels of insecurity. Prominent Israeli community leader Menachem Vorchheimer also said the election marked a “clear rejection of the Greens”. Mr Vorchheimer, who hit the Greens with a human rights complaint alleging failures to address overt anti-Semitism at anti-Israel protests they attended, said the minor party was now “hanging by a thread”.

#41 - Part 13

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 13

>>22989251 Analysis: The sheer drama of this victory cannot hide the trouble for the future - "Historic. Stunning. Extraordinary. There is no way to convey the sheer drama of this election result without reaching for words that sound overblown. But the victory for Anthony Albanese and his Labor colleagues is an incredible moment. Albanese has shocked many of his own supporters with the scale of their success and the way they have driven Peter Dutton and the Coalition into the ground. The opposition leader has lost his seat in parliament and some of his shadow ministers are heading the same way. The survivors will form a Liberal rump, searching for leadership, and the recriminations will be savage. The story of the campaign is simple: Labor prepared with care and fought with discipline; the Coalition planned complacently and fought atrociously. The story of the election, however, is complex: Labor achieved its goal of increasing its majority - emphatically – but faces a severe challenge in lifting a jaded electorate that is so bruised by the pressure on household finances. Dutton sought to frame Albanese as a weak leader in the worst government since the 1970s, but the polls found that voters returned to Labor and its leader after drifting away last year over the economy. The election twisted all the old attack lines. Albanese outlined a big agenda and threw himself into a strong campaign, while Dutton hedged for too long and presided over a weak and shambolic campaign. If there is a word for this Labor victory, it is certainly not weak. But the campaign drama cannot hide the danger signs for the future. It is not just that Trump is proving that Australia can no longer rely on its great ally - it is that he ushers in an era of economic turmoil and strategic danger. The economy is not robust enough, productivity is not high enough, the budget is not strong enough and our political decisions are not tough enough for the times. Albanese and Chalmers are returned to their jobs with an emphatic victory. But everything at this election proves that their jobs will not get any easier." - David Crowe - theage.com.au

>>22992823 Demands for quotas as three post-Dutton leadership options firm - Three senior Liberals are courting support among their colleagues to take over from Peter Dutton as both conservative heavyweight Tony Abbott and leading moderate Simon Birmingham urge the Liberal Party to democratise how it picks candidates. Deputy leader Sussan Ley, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and immigration spokesman Dan Tehan were all speaking to colleagues on Sunday about a leadership role, according to half a dozen MPs unable to speak publicly about the private discussions. Whoever wins the leadership contest will run a party that has recorded the worst result in its history and is now facing calls for dramatic action, including Birmingham’s demand for the party to introduce “fast and ambitious” quotas to recruit women. As the party reels from a generational loss, two sources close to defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the West Australian, who had been touted as “leadership material” by colleagues, was unlikely to run and would instead bide his time. Taylor, 59, has the support of the large national right-wing faction and is therefore in the box seat to seize control of the party, even though he has received severe criticism for the opposition’s economic agenda. Tehan managed to fend off a Climate 200-backed challenge in his regional Victorian seat of Wannon, which could bolster his credentials, while Ley’s path to the leadership could be assisted by the NSW moderate faction’s aversion to Taylor, from the state’s right.

#41 - Part 14

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 14

>>22992834 Angus Taylor, Donald Trump blamed for Coalition’s devastating defeat - Liberal senator Hollie Hughes has ripped into shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, saying he is incapable of leading the party and failed to deliver any economic ideas for the Coalition’s disastrous election campaign. Party members have flocked to the airwaves on Monday morning to explain why Opposition Leader Peter Dutton suffered a catastrophic loss in Saturday’s election, including his own seat, as the Coalition is expected to fall to fewer than 45 seats in parliament. This masthead reported in June last year the extraordinary rift between Hughes and Taylor as she blamed him for bumping her down on the Senate ticket. The NSW senator quipped on ABC Radio National that, while she is set to leave parliament in June this year, she will have a vote for the next Liberal leader as she slammed Taylor. “We had zero economic policy to sell. I don’t know what [Taylor’s] been doing for three years. There was no tax policy, there was no economic narrative,” she said. Hughes argued that Treasurer Jim Chalmers skated through with no scrutiny from Taylor over the government’s big spending pledges and ballooning deficit. Hughes told Radio National and Sky that, as the former shadow assistant minister for mental health, she had submitted “seven fully costed policies” to the shadow expenditure review committee and never heard back from anyone. “Policies that had been developed, had been costed, just seemed to disappear into a vortex,” she said, adding that she had heard similar stories from colleagues.

>>22992843 Video: Trump calls Albanese after saying he had ‘no idea’ who PM’s opponent was in election - US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to congratulate him on his election victory, and the two men had a “warm and positive” conversation canvassing trade and the AUKUS security pact, Albanese said. The phone call paves the way for a future in-person meeting, possibly at next month’s G7 meeting in Canada, which Albanese confirmed he would attend as an invited guest, or in Washington. “I thanked him for his very warm message of congratulations,” Albanese said. “We talked about AUKUS and tariffs. We’ll continue to engage. We’ll engage with each other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future … I thanked him for reaching out in such a positive way. “I won’t go into all of the personal comments that he made. But he was very generous in his personal warmth and praise towards myself. He was fully aware of the outcome, and he expressed the desire to continue to work with me in the future.” The two spoke by phone about 11am, Canberra time, shortly after Trump returned to Washington from his weekend home in Florida. Upon disembarking the US Marine Corps helicopter at the White House, Trump praised Albanese when asked by this masthead about the Australian election. “Albanese, I’m very friendly with,” Trump said. “I don’t know anything about the election other than the man that won, he’s very good.” Asked about Albanese’s description of Trump’s tariffs as “not the act of a friend”, and whether they would soon speak, Trump said: “I can only say that he’s been very, very nice to me, very respectful to me. “I have no idea who the other person is that ran against him, and, you know, we [Albanese and I] have had a very good relationship.”

>>22998090 Video: Federal Election 2025: Teal MP Zoe Daniel loses seat of Goldstein as Sky News calls seat for Liberal candidate Tim Wilson - Teal MP Zoe Daniel has lost her seat of Goldstein, after claiming victory and celebrating too early on election night. Sky News called the closely watched electorate for Liberal candidate Tim Wilson on Tuesday at 2.07pm. The call marks a dramatic reversal of fortune for Ms Daniel, after she declared victory on Saturday night to cheers, confetti, and the sound of Sia’s pop song, Titanium. Ms Daniel's early lead vanished after postal vote counts heavily favoured Mr Wilson, giving him the lead. She posted to social media after falling behind that she would "keep dancing" while awaiting the result. “It’s a resilience test that’s for sure, but no matter what we will keep dancing,” she said. Comments were turned off for the video. Sky News Chief Election Analyst Tom Connell confirmed that with thousands of postal votes breaking decisively for the Liberals, Ms Daniel cannot recover. “The best case scenario for Zoe Daniel right now … would be something like getting within 500 votes,” he said. “Tim Wilson will be returned to parliament, he will be the first Liberal MP to so far gain a seat - not from Labor but from Climate 200.”

#41 - Part 15

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 15

>>22998096 Video: Greens leader Adam Bandt in danger of losing Melbourne seat as preferencing swings in Labor's favour - Greens leader Adam Bandt is in danger of losing his seat of Melbourne as Liberal preferences look to boost the Labor candidate's chances of claiming victory. A decision by the Liberals to preference the party last may help to see all the Greens' House of Representatives seats turn red, with the Greens leader among those to potentially fall victim. The two-candidate preferred count is currently swaying in Labor candidate Sarah Witty's favour, with a swing of 10.89 per cent and a 985 vote margin over Mr Bandt. The Greens leader came out in top in first preference votes in the seat with 41 per cent, with Ms Witty receiving 31.43 per cent and Liberal’s Steph Hunt getting 18.57 per cent. But Mr Bandt could be in danger if Labor continues to edge higher with help from Liberal Party preferences. Sky News Chief Election Analyst Tom Connell said Ms Witty has a “chance of winning” the seat as Labor will get a “strong preference” from the Liberal Party. “Labor on 31 (per cent) would not be competitive without preferences from the Liberal Party,” Connell said. The Greens are yet to officially win any seats in the 2025 federal election, but the party is having an impact on Labor’s tally, particularly in Brisbane electorates.

>>23002826 Video: Greens leader Adam Bandt set to lose seat of Melbourne - Greens leader Adam Bandt is set to lose the seat of Melbourne in a shock defeat that leaves the party in disarray after a series of extraordinary setbacks at the election. Labor claimed victory for its candidate, charity chief Sarah Witty, in the tight contest on Wednesday after gaining more than 53 per cent of the vote so far, but Bandt has not conceded. The Australian Electoral Commission extended its booth-by-booth, two-party preferred count of the seat showing substantial swings to Witty, who was leading against Bandt by more than 2000 votes late on Wednesday afternoon. In the key booth of Richmond, which Labor won 51-49 at the 2022 election, Witty won 61-38. In the nearby Cremorne booth, Witty enjoyed a 15 per cent swing while in Fitzroy - a Greens’ stronghold - she was boosted by a near 9 per cent swing. ABC election analyst Anthony Green said on Wednesday afternoon that based on current voting trends, Bandt would lose the seat. Greens observers said there were as many as 15,000 absentee and declaration votes still to be counted, which meant they were not conceding the seat. Among those outstanding votes are 4000 postal ballots, which Witty is winning 64-36. A Greens spokesperson said the count had to proceed. “While there are many, many thousands of votes to be counted, we are not conceding Melbourne,” the spokesperson said. Bandt achieved one of the greatest victories for the Greens when he won Melbourne from Labor in 2010 and became the first of his party to win a seat in the House of Representatives at a full federal election, beginning a period of growth that led to three other Greens MPs joining him in 2022. His likely defeat is a devastating blow for the party after the loss of Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather in the Queensland seat of Griffith on Saturday night and the defeat of Greens MP Stephen Bates in the neighbouring seat of Brisbane.

>>23002836 History-making Wilson wins in Goldstein, Hamer hopes in Kooyong - Tim Wilson has won Goldstein in a dramatic comeback after building an unassailable lead over teal incumbent MP Zoe Daniel through a postal vote surge. After trailing Daniel by 1800 votes on election night, the Liberal candidate was ahead of the incumbent teal independent MP by 725 votes on Tuesday evening following the latest count update in Goldstein. Wilson’s victory has wider significance for the Liberal Party as it reels in the wake of Saturday’s disastrous election loss to Labor. Wilson was a prominent and energetic member of the Morrison government who led the attack on Labor’s then franking credits policy, and has previously campaigned strongly on free speech. He is also a rare moderate urban Liberal in a party room in the throes of selecting a replacement for Peter Dutton as leader. In another teal versus Liberal contest, Kooyong challenger Amelia Hamer is riding a postal vote surge that is eating away at the lead of incumbent independent Monique Ryan. Ryan leads Hamer 50.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent on a two-candidate-preferred basis. That equates to about 1002 votes based on figures published by the Australian Electoral Commission at 4.30pm on Tuesday. That margin has decreased from about 1400 votes on Monday night with 10,009 votes in the pile yet to be counted, 8564 of which are postal votes.

#41 - Part 16

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 16

>>23002844 Liberals revolt over policy failures as Sussan Ley is ‘pragmatic’ frontrunner for leader - A raft of Liberal policies across ­environment, health, defence, tax and education were either not released or held back so long that they “barely saw the light of day”, insiders have revealed, as Sussan Ley emerges as the “pragmatic” frontrunner over Angus Taylor in the race to be the next leader. Coalition insiders said policies worked on for years that would have laid out how the opposition would “halve” approval times for environmental projects and address the defence force’s personnel crisis were spiked by Peter Dutton’s office and Liberal HQ, while proposals in portfolios such as education were held up for months until it was almost too late to spruik them to voters. “People in the policy unit or whatever you want to call it thought they knew better than everyone else,” one senior Liberal source said. The Australian understands defence spokesman Andrew Hastie was effectively shut out of policy development in his portfolio by Mr Dutton, a former defence minister, who Liberal sources claim leaned instead on an Institute of Public Affairs policy blueprint funded by Gina Rinehart - a longtime detractor of Mr Hastie. “Most decisions came from four or five people, Peter (Dutton), Angus (Taylor) and a few in the Senate, like (James) Paterson,” one Liberal MP said. Tasmanian senator Jonathon Duniam on Tuesday became the latest Liberal to blast the handling of the election by the Coalition’s campaign headquarters. “Many of us on the ground right across the country, (including) me here in Tasmania, saw some pretty alarming signs, which we fed in but were ignored,” Senator Duniam told Sky News.

>>23002853 Analysis: Beware the landslide - Ardern’s lesson for victorious Albanese - "Watching Australia’s 2025 federal election from Wellington gave me an uncanny sense of deja vu. As Labor swept to power with a commanding parliamentary majority and the Coalition suffered its worst defeat in generations, I could not help but think: “I have seen this movie before.” New Zealand’s Labour Party swept to power in 2020 with the first single-party majority under our proportional representation system. Jacinda Ardern secured 50 per cent of the vote while ­National collapsed to 26 per cent - their worst result in decades. Three years later, Labour was unceremoniously ejected. How could fortunes reverse so dramatically? And what might this mean for Anthony Albanese’s triumphant Labor Party? The Australian results mirror New Zealand’s 2020 election. Labor now commands nearly 90 seats in the 151-seat House of Representatives. The Coalition lies shattered, with Peter Dutton losing his seat. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, Liberal representation has virtually disappeared, a blood-bath of historic proportions. After such a victory, Labor’s strategists must feel the intoxicating pull of ambition. Why not seize this moment to fundamentally reshape Australia? New Zealand’s experience offers a sobering answer. Ardern’s government, drunk on its parliamentary majority, embarked on an ambitious agenda of structural reforms that nobody had actually voted for. Consider their “Three Waters” program - a classic case of centralist overreach. Councils would be forced to relinquish control of water assets to new mega-entities with complex co-governance arrangements with Maori. In reality, it exemplified bureaucratic empire-building and sparked nationwide backlash. No matter how overwhelming the majority, governments ultimately face the most effective constraint: the judgment of ordinary citizens, concerned more with results than rhetoric, willing to discard yesterday’s political ­heroes when the results do not match the promises. That is both the frustration and glory of democracy - a lesson New Zealand’s Labour learned the hard way. Australia’s Labor Party might believe they are different. They are not." - Oliver Hartwich, executive director of The New Zealand Initiative - theaustralian.com.au

#41 - Part 17

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 17

>>23007391 Ley gets backing from party elders as Liberal leadership battle grows hostile - Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has won support from three former Liberal premiers in the quest to lead the party out of its sweeping defeat, with Jeff Kennett, Nick Greiner and Barry O’Farrell naming her as the best choice. The former premiers went public with their support as another senior Liberal, former party president Shane Stone, also named Ley as the best leader to win back voters who deserted the party at the ballot box. Others are throwing their support behind the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, in a contest that threatens ongoing stability by pitting conservatives against moderates in an increasingly hostile leadership battle, with files circulated highlighting rival weaknesses. Kennett, who was premier of Victoria from 1992 to 1999, said the Liberals had a chance to rebuild within three years if they learnt the lessons from what he called the “amateurish” campaign to the federal election. “I am not one of those who believe that the future for the party is lost or necessarily will take two elections before we are again a viable alternative,” he said. “I would very much endorse Sussan Ley coming in as the leader. Why do I say that? One, I like the fact that as deputy, she was a loyal deputy. Secondly, she has a great deal of parliamentary experience. She’s a very rounded person. My experience over life is that women are more consultative, they listen more, they think more than a lot of men. I’m not suggesting she should be the next leader because she’s female - I’m saying it’s because I think she’s the best person for the job.”

>>23007424 Jacinta Price defects to Liberals to run as Taylor’s deputy in leadership bid - Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will run as shadow treasurer Angus Taylor’s deputy in the battle for the Liberal Party leadership against Sussan Ley, after her shock defection from the National Party on Thursday afternoon. The move has effectively blown apart the Coalition, angering Liberal moderates hoping current deputy leader Sussan Ley would replace Peter Dutton as opposition leader and devastating the National Party. Price only phoned Littleproud as she released a statement announcing her move, according to two sources familiar with Price who were unauthorised to speak publicly. The late call was designed to head off any attempt by Littleproud to thwart the switch. As a member of the Country Liberal Party, the Northern Territory’s merged division of the Coalition, she can sit in either the National or Liberal party rooms in Canberra, but it is unclear if the CLP itself gets to decide where Price sits. The move gives Price a vote in the tight contest between Taylor and Ley, which one Liberal MP supporting Ley described as a “desperate branch stack” and a “hostile takeover by the National Party”. Sources close to Taylor, unable to speak publicly, said Price may run as Taylor’s deputy when the party room meets on Tuesday to elect a new leader. The shadow treasurer’s camp believes her star power in the party room and with the base will make Taylor’s ticket hard to resist. Former prime minister Tony Abbott played a key role convincing Price to move. The senator, who is hugely popular among conservatives, had been interested in joining the Liberal Party last term. She has also been courted by Liberals to run for a lower house seat, but that is not on the cards immediately.

#41 - Part 18

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 18

>>23007443 Ed Husic, Mark Dreyfus axed in factional power play as Albanese prepares new ministry - Labor faction leaders have cut down two cabinet ministers in a brutal display of caucus power, forcing out Industry Minister Ed Husic and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and sparking anger from MPs at the “chaos and disunity” days after the federal election. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accepted the outcome despite promising stability at the election, but caucus members were dismayed at the way the faction leaders forced the issue, with the Right faction deciding it would not support two of its most senior members. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the most senior member of the Right, led a push from Victorian colleagues to gain more sway at the top of the government and promote younger members aligned with his faction. The moves triggered anger from NSW Right MPs at Marles and his loyalists over the shock changes, which they said compromised the unity and stability of the government in the first days of its second term. “How do we explain this to the public? It looks like chaos and disunity to knife two ministers whose performance has never been in question,” one NSW MP said. The fiery meeting of the national Right was repeatedly delayed on Thursday afternoon as deals were hashed out, and several MPs spoke out against the plan to remove Dreyfus and Husic. Another member of the Right, western Sydney MP Mike Freelander, said the outcome “beggars belief” because of the quality of the two ministers, praising Dreyfus in particular. “It’s disgraceful, it’s stupid and it’s wrong,” he told this masthead. “It’s an ill wind that blows through this place - two highly-performing ministers being replaced by union hacks.”

>>23007460 Defeated Adam Bandt likens climate change to ‘invasion’ as Peter Dutton cites voter ‘disgust’ at Greens - Former Greens leader Christine Milne has warned her devastated party it needs to focus on core green issues if it is to be effective in the new parliament, as a vanquished Adam Bandt called on the left to treat climate change like an “invasion”. Mr Bandt’s concession of defeat in the seat of Melbourne leaves his deputy, Mehreen Faruqi, and senators Larissa Waters and Sarah Hanson-Young jostling ahead of a leadership vote to lead a party left with only one lower-house member. Mr Bandt lashed the major parties on Thursday, calling for climate change to be treated like a “war” and blamed “One Nation and Liberal preferences” for his defeat as Labor’s campaign machine celebrated its second party leader scalp. Also on Thursday, Peter Dutton cited rejection of anti-Semitism as a reason for Mr Bandt losing the seat of Melbourne to Labor’s Sarah Witty, who is a foster carer and is chief executive of the Nappy Collective, a charity providing nappies to needy families. “No spin by Adam Bandt can change the reality that he, and other Green members, lost their seats because of their appalling treatment of the Jewish community,” the former Liberal opposition leader tweeted on Thursday afternoon. “Australians were rightly disgusted at their behaviour. We were proud to preference the Greens last, helping to ensure Adam Bandt’s loss.” During Mr Bandt’s concession speech on Thursday, he blamed Mr Dutton as a reason why the Greens have lost seats, saying many Australians had voted Labor as the “best option to stop Dutton.”

>>23012428 Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection kills off any potential Taylor-Ley leadership peace deal - A bloody civil war threatens to engulf the federal Liberal Party beyond next Tuesday’s vote to replace Peter Dutton, after Angus Taylor orchestrated the high-profile defection of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the Nationals to bolster his numbers. The Australian can reveal efforts to broker a peace deal between Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and Mr Taylor have been abandoned, with Liberal MPs fearing a tight vote would split the party and undermine the authority of the winning candidate. Ahead of a Tuesday showdown in Canberra next week, the fight between Ms Ley and Mr Taylor turned ugly as Senator Price quit the Nationals and Liberals conceded that toxic factional NSW Liberal Party brawling had now been transplanted into the federal parliamentary team. Mr Taylor’s move to recruit Senator Price triggered anger from senior Nationals, including Matt Canavan, who compared his former colleague with Lidia Thorpe. The Nationals could now lose its major party status in the Senate after Senator Price’s defection and Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey’s failure to win re-election. The party’s numbers in the upper house will now shrink to four. The Australian understands Senator Price did not consult with Nationals colleagues before she quit.

#41 - Part 19

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 19

>>23012474 NT Nationals weigh retribution against Price for defection to Liberals - Both Coalition parties have been plunged into open warfare by conservative senator Matt Canavan’s challenge for the Nationals leadership and party officials weighing up dropping Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from their Senate ticket for defecting to the Liberals to support Angus Taylor. Canavan’s unlikely push to oust David Littleproud means the Nationals and Liberals will hold leadership duels on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, after Taylor and Sussan Ley on Friday declared their candidacy for the Liberal role. Price’s move from the Nationals to the Liberals has ramifications for both leadership contests and could reduce the salary and office entitlements of at least one Nationals senator, infuriating her colleagues. According to parliamentary rules, parties need at least five senators to have a party whip - who is responsible for party discipline, paid more and has a larger office – but Price’s departure combined with Nationals senator Perrin Davey’s loss in the election takes the party to four. Price, the popular but controversial Indigenous senator, declared on Thursday she would shift to the Liberal Party and is expected to run as Taylor’s deputy. Four Coalition sources, unable to speak publicly about internal party workings, said the Country Liberal Party, which Price represents in the Northern Territory, was considering whether to disendorse Price or opt not to pick her as a candidate at the next election.

>>23012489 Queensland senator Matt Canavan to challenge David Littleproud as senior Nationals warn: if Coalition splits, so be it - Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan, a minister in the Turnbull and Morrison governments, is challenging for the leadership of the National Party, deepening the crisis in the crushed Coalition and increasing the rift with the Liberals. Senator Canavan will challenge incumbent leader David Littleproud in a partyroom meeting in Canberra on Monday with an appeal for the Nationals to fight for themselves and their supporters in the face of Liberal Party losses and the defection of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the bigger Coalition partner. Senior Nationals are accusing the Liberals of not behaving like true partners and of betraying the faith of the Country Liberal Party and their supporters, and blame the Liberals for the extent of the loss, warning that if the Coalition should split then “so be it”. One senior National MP said Senator Nampijinpa Price’s defection on Thursday to the Liberal Party would “have an effect on the Coalition agreement”, with the future of the agreement now in question and due to be discussed at the next National Party federal management meeting. Senator Canavan told The Australian: “On Monday, I plan to stand for the leadership of the Nationals party to bring back our fighting spirit. Only if we fight, will we have a fighting chance.”

>>23020102 Video: Dumped cabinet minister says Richard Marles a 'factional assassin', and demotion partly due to outspoken views on Gaza - Dumped cabinet minister Ed Husic says his decision to speak out on the conflict in Gaza was partly to blame for him being dropped from the frontbench, while making an extraordinary accusation that the deputy prime minister acted as a "factional assassin" out of naked ambition for his branch. Mr Husic told Insiders his experience in cabinet was that Labor had to be "encouraged" to speak out on the issue, but said he would not be silent on it. "To be able to take part in a cabinet meant a great deal. You can't celebrate diversity and expect it to sit in a corner silent," Mr Husic said. "I certainly took the view you need to speak up for the communities you care about. I certainly tried to help us navigate wretchedly difficult issues, such as Gaza post the horrors of October 7. "I don't think I could ever stay silent in the face of innocent civilians slaughtered in tens of thousands, starved out of Gaza." The outgoing minister also lashed out at Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who had a hand in Mr Husic being booted from the frontbench. "I think people, when they look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin," he said. "The difficult issue here is that we've had bare-faced ambition and a deputy prime minister wield a factional club to reshape the ministry." He added that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should have intervened to stop the factional play, but failed to do so.

#41 - Part 20

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 20

>>23024096 Talent over factions: Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley promise to end the Liberal civil war and fight PM - Angus Taylor has pledged to ­reward talent over factional allegiances, elevate more women into leadership positions and make the Liberal Party campaign machine “fitter, flatter, faster and more ­focused” ahead of his showdown with Sussan Ley on Tuesday. In an interview with The Australian, the opposition Treasury spokesman said the Coalition must focus on policies that “go for growth” and allow a full range of technologies to deliver “the ­affordable, reliable energy Australians want”. Mr Taylor and Ms Ley - who spent Mother’s Day at home with their families on Sunday – are locked in a tight contest to ­replace Peter Dutton as opposition leader. The combatants and their supporters will hit the phones on Monday as they seek to win over undecided colleagues ahead of the federal Liberal Party parliamentary team voting for a new leader and deputy leader in Canberra on Tuesday morning. In a video statement released by Ms Ley on the weekend, the Acting Opposition Leader said “we have enormous depth of talent in our partyroom, and I want to draw on all of it over the next three years”. “We will develop strong policy offerings through robust party room processes so we can demonstrate we will deliver better outcomes for all Australians. We need to change, the Liberal Party must respect modern Australia, reflect modern Australia and represent modern Australia,” Ms Ley said. ‘My election as leader of the Liberal Party would send a very strong signal that we understand that things must be done ­differently.” Responding to concerns raised by some Liberal MPs about NSW factionalism infecting the federal partyroom, Mr Taylor said “our numbers are now so depleted that if we start selecting what roles people play based on tribal allegiances we will not succeed, full stop”.

>>23024121 Video: Albanese makes big changes, unveils new Plibersek role in major reshuffle - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will fly to Rome within days to join world leaders at the inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV, after overhauling federal cabinet by naming new ministers to workplace relations, environment and social services. A day after Husic called Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles a “factional assassin” for removing colleagues, Albanese played down the internal strife by saying the reshuffle followed the usual process in the Labor caucus to choose the frontbench. Albanese promised an “ambitious agenda to change this country for the better” and noted that Labor would have the largest federal caucus since federation, with at least 92 seats. The Coalition has only 41 seats in the latest counting. In a sign of the scale of the changes, Tanya Plibersek has been moved sideways from her old portfolio of environment to become minister for social services, a key task after past departmental scandals over robo-debt and income support. Albanese has installed Queensland senator Murray Watt as minister for environment and water at a time when the government wants to restart talks with the Greens to pass a stalled bill to set up an agency to oversee project approvals, the environment protection agency. Amanda Rishworth, former minister for social services, becomes minister for employment and workplace relations to replace Watt.

>>23024135 David Littleproud remains as Nationals leader, seeing off Matt Canavan challenge - David Littleproud will continue as federal leader of the Nationals after a party room vote in Canberra, seeing off a challenge from his colleague Matt Canavan. Mr Littleproud, who became leader in 2022, was approved to continue by his colleagues in the closed-door ballot, after an election which saw the minor party go backwards by one seat in each house. The margin has not been disclosed. Kevin Hogan was chosen as deputy leader and Bridget McKenzie remained as Senate leader. Mr Hogan was the opposition trade spokesperson in the last parliament, and Senator McKenzie was infrastructure spokesperson. "It's a great honour to lead our great party. I'm proud of our achievements over the last three years, three years where I think we set the policy agenda," Mr Littleproud said after the meeting. National Party rules see the leadership "spilled" automatically after each election, even if there is no rival. But the conservative Senator Canavan revealed late on Friday he would nominate, saying the party needed to be "louder" in opposition to climate targets.

#41 - Part 21

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 21

>>23024162 Liberal candidate for Kooyong Amelia Hamer concedes defeat to teal MP Monique Ryan - Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer has formally conceded defeat to teal MP Monique Ryan in the seat of Kooyong, saying the remaining ballots would not be enough to secure her victory. In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Ms Hamer said she had phoned Dr Ryan to congratulate her on her re-election and praised the “beautiful local community” of Kooyong. “Whilst counting continues, it is now clear that the remaining ballots will not deliver us the majority we need to win the seat,” Ms Hamer said. “Standing as the Liberal candidate for Kooyong has been an honour.” The contest in the once blue-ribbon Liberal stronghold has been closely watched following Dr Ryan’s 2022 win over then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg. “Liberal values - like individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and free enterprise – are timeless. They are worth fighting for,” Ms Hamer said. “We are so lucky to have a beautiful local community, a fair democracy, and a wonderful country. I hope to play my small part in making it a better place, now and into the future.” Dr Ryan claimed victory of the seat in an official statement released shortly after Ms Hamer’s announcement. “Serving as the member for Kooyong has been the privilege of a lifetime. I’m incredibly honoured to continue in this role, and thank the electorate for this opportunity,” she said.

>>23027918 'We have to have a fresh approach':Sussan Ley becomes first woman to lead Liberal Party after defeating Angus Taylor- Sussan Ley has promised a fresh approach for the Liberals after defeating Angus Taylor to become the first woman to lead the party in its 81-year history. Ley, the moderate candidate who was deputy under Peter Dutton for the last three years, narrowly saw off conservative shadow treasurer Taylor 29 votes to 25 in this morning's party room meeting. "We have to have a Liberal Party that respects modern Australia, that reflects modern Australia, and that represents modern Australia," Ley said following her victory. "And we have to meet the people where they are. And that's what I am committed to doing and what I am determined to do. "I want to do things differently, and we have to have a fresh approach." Ley will become not just the first woman to lead the Liberals, but also the first to be federal opposition leader - from either party – in Australian history. Ted O'Brien, one of the most strident supporters of the Coalition's nuclear plan in his former role as shadow energy spokesperson, was elected her deputy. He defeated surprise candidate Phil Thompson 38 votes to 16. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who had made a controversial defection from the Nationals to the Liberal Party late last week to stand for the deputy leadership under Taylor, didn't officially nominate for the deputy position after Taylor had been defeated. Price later said Taylor's defeat was the reason she didn't contest the position. She congratulated Ley on her election and said she would work with her and O'Brien, but also admitted the decision wasn't what she wanted. "While I am disappointed Angus Taylor was not elected leader, I respect the decision made by my colleagues within the party room today," Price said.

#41 - Part 22

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 22

>>23032017 Australian Electoral Commission investigates after missing ballot papers found at election worker's home - Almost 2,000 ballot papers went missing on election night and were later recovered from the Sydney home of a temporary Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) worker, the ABC can reveal. While the AEC said the incident did not affect the result in the seat of Barton because the votes had already been counted, it has not explained how the ballots ended up at the worker's home and has launched an investigation. The AEC confirmed the worker collected a secure container holding 1,866 House of Representatives votes from a polling booth in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville after polls closed on May 3, but failed to deliver it to the commission's central counting centre. "Ballot papers were securely packaged in the presence of scrutineers with an authorised transport officer collecting two ballot paper transport containers for delivery to a central counting centre to await further processing," an AEC spokesperson said in a statement. "The staff member responsible erroneously returned one less container than was expected." Officials at the AEC only noticed the container was missing when they began a routine recount of votes in the electorate last week. "The AEC's tracking processes for ballot paper transport containers identified that one of the two transport containers for the Hurstville polling place was not returned to the central counting centre on election night as it should have been," the spokesperson said. The AEC recovered the container early last week. "This issue relates to a single transport container that remained sealed and intact and has not affected the election," the AEC said. "The uniquely coded security seals were not broken, and the AEC's purpose-built ballot paper transport container was intact. "All ballot papers are accounted for. The AEC takes ballot paper handling extremely seriously." The AEC was not able to provide details about where in the worker's home the container was found. "It was obtained from the individual's home where it was collected by permanent AEC staff," the spokesperson said. "The only specific detail I have regarding the collection is that it was obtained during a conversation outside the staff member's house, following identification of the custody of the container." The commission has launched an investigation into the matter but declined to say whether it had referred the incident to law enforcement agencies.

>>23032019 Sussan Ley reframes herself as supporter of Israel - Sussan Ley has lashed Anthony Albanese’s response to the Middle East conflict as a major threat to “social cohesion” and asserted her support for Israel, as she sought to distance herself from her past pro-Palestinian views. In her first public address as Opposition Leader, Ms Ley said while she was still a “steadfast friend” of Palestinians, and criticised their leaders for “letting them down”, she had changed her views on the conflict. Ms Ley, a former co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, said she now saw the issues through a “different prism” after a trip to Israel, a move that has been praised by Jewish leaders. Ms Ley said in 2008 that Palestinians are “airbrushed out of existence”, but on Tuesday declared it was one of the “great privileges” of age that she could re-examine her views after the issue had been “thoroughly ventilated” with her colleagues. “Following my appointment as deputy, I took a trip at the invitation of Julian Leeser, an outstanding colleague and dear friend, to Israel,” Ms Ley said. “I spent a lot of time seeing what was happening on the ground. The impact of that trip and the changed geopolitical circumstances of the Abraham Accords, with Israel reaching out for peace to Saudi and Morocco, and then, of course, the hideous events of October 7 in Gaza, have changed my thinking on the entire subject.”

#41 - Part 23

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 23

>>23032025 Jacinta Price ‘chickened out’ of deputy vote, say infuriated and blindsided Angus Taylor backers - Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price shocked the allies who brought her into the Liberal Party when she did not put her hand up to run as deputy once her running mate, Angus Taylor, lost the leadership ballot against Sussan Ley. Price had not told anyone in Taylor’s camp that she would only run if Taylor won, prompting fellow conservative Phillip Thompson to nominate on the spur of the moment to fill the gap. The Northern Territory senator’s defection from the Nationals to the Liberals last week to run on Taylor’s ticket caused bad blood between the Coalition partners and alarmed Liberal moderates worried that the maverick politician did not have the experience for the role, having been in parliament for just three years. But senior Liberals, including Tony Abbott, engineered the move believing she would energise the party’s base. But in Tuesday’s meeting in Canberra, Price failed to put her hand up when nominations for the deputy position opened. Energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, who supported Ley as leader, immediately declared his candidacy for the deputy spot when nominations opened at 10.17am. Price, according to several MPs in the room, turned to look towards a section of the opposition party room where her Right faction allies, including Andrew Hastie and others, were seated. She shook her head, the MPs said, indicating she would not be running. Last-minute nominee Thompson, an up-and-coming 37-year-old from Townsville, lost the ballot to O’Brien by 38 votes to 16, but his conservative allies were relieved that he chose to create a contest and represent his Right faction. “She totally f*cked us,” one supporter of Taylor said of Price’s blindsiding.

>>23032032 Andrew Hastie declares ‘desire to lead’ the Liberal Party - Andrew Hastie has declared his “desire to lead” the Liberal Party, revealed the de-industrialisation of Australia keeps him up at night and warned about the power of big tech and corporates in a podcast with a Labor-aligned think tank. In a 50-minute podcast recorded on Tuesday after Sussan Ley pipped Angus Taylor for the Liberal Party leadership, Mr Hastie outlined his vision to connect with younger voters and focus on the four enterprise institutions of family, the home, education and small business. Speaking on the Curtin’s Cast podcast with John Curtin Research Centre executive director Nick Dyrenfurth and RedBridge Group pollster Kos Samaras, the 42-year-old cited his young family and the pressures of commuting from Western Australia as reasons he decided not to run for leadership. In the immediate aftermath of the Coalition’s May 3 election bloodbath, the former Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security chair and Special Air Service regiment officer was touted for leadership by senior Liberal figures after he secured primary and two-party preferred swings in his outer-metropolitan Perth seat of Canning. While Liberal MPs in capital cities across the country lost their seats, Mr Hastie increased his margin. Mr Hastie, the son of a Presbyterian minister and public school teacher, who has three children with wife Ruth aged between three and nine, said he was focused on understanding the “problem that we’re facing as a party”. “Leadership is going to come in many forms over the next three years. Susan Ley has just made history as the first female leader of the Liberal Party. That’s a really important role,” Mr Hastie told the Curtin’s Cast podcast. “But leadership can’t be confined to just the position. We’ve also got to lead in the battle of ideas as well. And I think that’s where I want to make a contribution. I’d be foolish to say I don’t have a desire to lead. I do have a desire to lead. But the timing was all out for personal reasons. A really important thing in politics is to know where you stand. And I came to that conclusion very quickly.”

#41 - Part 24

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 24

>>23032040 ‘Swamp creature’ exit: Babet to quit politics after praising Kanye West’s Heil Hitler track, slamming ‘mentally ill’ left - United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet says he’ll quit politics in 2028 to avoid becoming a “swamp creature” - but not before unleashing a late-night ­tirade in which he endorsed Kanye West’s Heil Hitler track and said he’d rather associate with neo-Nazis than “mentally ill” left-wing Australians. The Victorian senator, who has a history of incendiary social media posts, told his followers in an Instagram story that the American rapper’s song Heil Hitler was his favourite of the week. “All I said was it was a good song, right?” Senator Babet said. “I like Kanye West. He’s a great artist … If someone else doesn’t like what he puts out, don’t buy it. Don’t listen to it. But don’t you f*cking dare tell me what I can and can’t listen to.” He rejected accusations of anti-Semitism and said attempts to label him a Nazi were “f*cking bullshit”. “If they’re going to try and associate me with being a Nazi - a brown immigrant from Africa – that’s f*cking bullshit. You know it. I know it,” he said. West, who also goes by the name “Ye”, became one of the most influential musicians of his generation, until he made no secret of his admiration for Adolf Hitler in a series of social media posts on Elon Musk’s X platform. The multi-award winning artist released a video for Heil Hitler on his X account last week and received more than 8½ million views from his 33 million loyal ­followers.

>>23035918 Larissa Waters chosen as new Greens leader - Larissa Waters has been chosen as the new federal Greens leader, replacing Adam Bandt. The Greens held a party room meeting in Melbourne today to select a leader following the shock loss of Adam Bandt. The race was between Mehreen Faruqi, Sarah Hanson-Young and Senator Waters. A Greens source told the ABC the role was decided by "consensus". Senator Faruqi, who is from New South Wales, was chosen as deputy and Senator Hanson-Young, from South Australia, was chosen as manager of business in the Senate. "I feel so strengthened by the sentiment of the room and by this amazing team," Senator Waters told reporters after the meeting. "We've got a lot of work to do because people are really hurting and the planet is hurting, and we need a parliament that actually delivers for people and has the courage and the boldness and the heart to deliver some help to people." A disappointing election campaign saw the minor party lose three of its four seats in the lower house after a modest drop in its national share of the first preference vote. But the party will again exert significant influence in the Senate, where it has retained its 11 seats and is likely to be in the balance of power, meaning Labor could pass legislation with its support alone.

>>23035926 Greens new leader Larissa Waters, deputy Mehreen Faruqi double down on Gaza - Newly elected Greens leader Larissa Waters and deputy Mehreen Faruqi insist the party will maintain its focus on the Gaza war, as both senators said they would continue to condemn “genocide” in the war-torn territory. The party’s 12 members spent almost two hours in a meeting on Thursday to decide the leadership structure after former leader Adam Bandt lost his Melbourne seat to Labor at the election on May 3. The Greens lost three of its four House of Representatives seats - including the stunning defeat of Bandt – at the poll, as its national primary vote flatlined and party elders called into question the Greens’ “hypermilitant” agenda and the way it communicates with Australian voters. But after the meeting to decide the leadership on Thursday, Waters and Faruqi warned the Albanese government that the minor party would not take a backward step, seeking to deliver an ultimatum to Labor about who it should work with in the Senate. “We will always be there calling out atrocities, calling out a genocide and standing strong on social justice and human rights,” Waters said. “The Labor Party have a choice. They can work with us … and help people and protect nature, or they can choose to work with the Coalition. They’re going to need to pick because they don’t have the numbers in the Senate to pass the legislation that they want to work on.”

#41 - Part 25

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 25

>>23053614 Sussan Ley: ‘We lost the flag, but we’re ready for a new season’ - "If you are one of the millions of dedicated footy fans, if you have barracked for one of our incredible Olympians or if you have been in a stadium cheering on the mighty Tillies, you will know you can’t always be on the winning side. As a Sydney Swans supporter I know after the loss of a grand final, when you get towelled up you don’t give up. You don’t drop your team or your belief in it either. You get a bag of ice, you watch the tapes and you get to work rebuilding. You do the work to come back stronger and faster next season. As someone who has served as an MP for the Liberal Party for almost 25 years, I have experienced both success and defeat. Just days ago we were handed a big loss that we must accept with humility. Despite the result, the Liberal Party remains the most successful political party in Australian history. We have won more flags than any other team. Our party has, more than any other, helped shape Australia into the prosperous, strong and fair society it is today. But we have to face up to the fact that despite our best efforts, we have failed to connect with a changing electorate. Now more than ever, the federal Liberal Party must respect, reflect and represent modern Australia. As leader, I have committed to a full assessment of why we lost the election. The next steps for our party are focused on listening to the community and rebuilding our movement. But we will never shy away from our timeless values, which will always underpin our policy development processes. We are ready to do the work; we are up for it; we will take a good hard look at ourselves. Preseason is about to begin and I know my team is hungry to get to work." - Sussan Ley, Leader of the Opposition - theaustralian.com.au

>>23076612 Zoe Daniel calls for Goldstein recount after Tim Wilson wins by 260 votes - Zoe Daniel has requested a recount in Goldstein after counting today arrived at a final margin of 260 votes in favour of Liberal Tim Wilson. The Australian Electoral Commission automatically undertakes a recount if the margin is under 100 votes, but candidates can also request one if they have sufficient grounds. A spokesman for the AEC said the full distribution of preferences was finalised today in favour of Wilson. “A recount request is being considered, and an announcement regarding that decision will be made when able,” he said. Daniel said: “In light of the very tight margin and several errors being picked up in the portion of the count that was included in the distribution of preferences, leading to unusual fluctuations and large numbers of votes moving to and fro in the final stages of the count, I have taken expert advice and asked the AEC to consider whether a full recount is appropriate. “There are also several outstanding questions regarding the broader count which would be resolved by a recount. As always, I will respect the process and await the commission’s decision.” Posting to social media platform X, Wilson said the AEC had confirmed the final Goldstein margin of 260 votes in his favour. “We have continually had a majority of votes for nearly three weeks, and it never fell below 100 which is the threshold for an automatic recount,” he said. Wilson said the votes had been counted at least four times and Liberal and teal volunteers had scrutineered the count. “And now the former MP is asking for a full recount,” he said. “At some point we should respect the professional staff at the [AEC]. I wish Zoe Daniel, her family and staff well in the next chapter. I hope she finds peace.” Daniel initially claimed victory in Goldstein on election night but postal votes came in strongly in Wilson’s favour leading him to claim a win in the seat two weeks ago. However, Daniel did not concede and since then the count in Goldstein has continued, with Daniel narrowing the margin to as little as 128 votes to Wilson at one stage.

#41 - Part 26

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 26

>>23083147 Recount in Goldstein after Wilson’s slim margin prompts request by Daniel - There will be a partial recount of votes in Goldstein to ensure confidence in the result and the counting process after a request was made by independent Zoe Daniel, the Australian Electoral Commission has announced. Liberal Tim Wilson recorded a slim margin of 260 votes ahead of Daniel after the final count finished on Saturday. A spokesman for the AEC said the decision to conduct the recount was made after advice from the national election manager to the electoral commissioner “to ensure the greatest level of confidence in the final result and the utmost integrity in the counting process”. The recount will begin on Wednesday and will take up to four days. Wilson said he was relaxed about the recount. “We have been very relaxed about every count and recount to date in Goldstein, as we know the count will deliver the result that reflects the will of the people of Goldstein,” he said. Daniel said given the corrections picked up in the final stages of the distribution of preferences, the AEC had said it was appropriate and reasonable to do an additional check of first preferences. “Once again, I’d like to thank my scrutineers and AEC staff for their diligence and dedication to the democratic process,” she said. The partial recount will involve a re-examination of all first preference ballot papers for Wilson and Daniel, as well as all informal votes, but the full distribution of preferences will not be recounted. “The recount request submitted by independent candidate Zoe Daniel was carefully considered and was instructive but not determinative, and her request for a full recount has not been granted,” the AEC spokesman said.

>>23087084 Pro-Voice Liberal says referendum defeat gave the party ‘a false sense of confidence’ - The Coalition’s success in defeating the Voice to parliament referendum gave the Liberal party “a false sense of confidence” about its chances of victory in the federal election, says former shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser, who resigned from his opposition portfolio in 2023 in order to campaign for the referendum. Noting that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “seemed to lose his way” after the Voice referendum was defeated in all states in October 2023, Leeser told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that this, combined with Albanese’s poor handling of the local antisemitism crisis, “gave so many in our party a false sense of confidence”. Leeser says he was “shocked” that the internal polling conducted for the Coalition by Freshwater’s Mike Turner used the number of Labor voters who voted no in the referendum in his calculations of a swing against the government, which was instead returned in a landslide and is likely to end up with 94 seats, equalling John Howard’s record in 1996. “On one level, there is nothing wrong with trying to target those Labor voters who voted no in the referendum campaign,” he said, saying Howard targeted those who rejected the republic proposal in 1999, but only to remind them of other issues such as border security. “I thought it was very strange there was such a focus even on the campaign itself,” Leeser said. “Part of the reason my colleagues were successfully defeating the referendum was in 2023 the issue did not seem to be one of top priority for Australian voters. Certainly, in 2025, it was completely irrelevant and I had no idea why the issue kept reappearing in our campaign.” Leeser said he was “completely surprised” by the focus in the last week on Welcome to Country and the Voice. “It indicated we were not in touch with the concerns of ordinary Australians. People were not talking to me about those issues until we raised them; they were concerned about paying the electricity bills, their mortgage, about the future of their children and what sort of jobs they would have in a world where AI will present both threats and opportunities. We were not talking about any of those enough, and instead focused on esoteric issues and I think it indicated a lack of discipline and real focus.”

#41 - Part 27

2025 Australian Federal Election - Part 27

>>23103516 Tim Wilson officially new member for Goldstein after tight margins saw Zoe Daniel order a recount - A new member for the Melbourne seat of Goldstein has been crowned, four weeks after the federal election. Independent candidate Zoe Daniel demanded a recount after losing the seat to Liberal moderate Tim Wilson by just 260 votes, saying several errors were made during the distribution of preferences. The Australian Electoral Commission finalised the partial recount of 85,000 votes on Saturday confirming Mr Wilson had won with a margin of 175 votes. The former teal independent MP confirmed over social media she had officially conceded the marginal Melbourne seat, throwing jabs at the Liberal Party campaign in the process. In a video to her supporters, the climate-200 backed candidate suggested that “two steps forward is sometimes followed by one back”. “We do not seek to divide to win, we do not shelve our ethics or our principles. We do not resort to attack advertising, misinformation, disinformation, dirty tricks or personal attacks,” she said. “Winning that way is not something to be proud of.” In a statement posted to social media, Mr Wilson said after 29 days of counting the Liberals had 14,697 more first preference votes than the former MP. “I want to thank all Goldstein voters, but particularly the extraordinary effort some went to so their voice was heard,” he said. “Now the recount is finished, the result is clear. It is time to get on with the job and take the voice and values of Goldstein to shape the future of Australia.”

>>23139134 Muslim Vote to support candidates in NSW, Victorian elections - A pro-Palestine political movement that failed to win a seat at the May federal election has vowed to push on and support candidates for the upcoming Victorian and NSW state elections. The Muslim Vote endorsed independent candidates in three Labor-held seats - Watson and Blaxland in western Sydney and Calwell in Melbourne’s north-west. Its greatest success was in Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s seat of Watson, where independent Ziad Basyouny was the second-most popular candidate on a two-candidate preferred basis. Burke, who was accused of “vote buying” after holding pre-election mass citizenship ceremonies in Sydney’s culturally diverse western suburbs, still comfortably won the seat, receiving 66 per cent of the vote after preferences were distributed. In Education Minister Jason Clare’s seat of Blaxland, Ahmed Ouf won 18.76 per cent of first preferences, but the Liberal candidate was second-preferred. In Calwell, Samim Moslih only garnered 6.85 per cent of first preferences. Despite failing to win a seat, Muslim Vote convenor Sheikh Wesam Charkawi said the results were a “significant step” that “demonstrated the model works”. In each seat, the independent campaign ate into both Labor and the Liberals’ first preference vote distribution from the 2022 federal election. “One form of success in the political arena is unseating the sitting minister. Another form is winning hearts and minds of the masses, setting the foundations for future challenges,” Charkawi said. “We’ve had an avalanche of people reach out to us post-election, either to be candidates or to support our work … The community isn’t backing down. We all want to continue.”

#41 - Part 28

Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 1

>>23058421 Australia rebukes Israel in joint statement demanding aid for starving Gazans - Australia has joined a coalition of 23 countries demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza and accusing Israel of politicising the delivery of essential food and medicine to Palestinian civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel would allow some aid to enter Gaza after a two-month blockade, but international aid organisations say this will not be nearly enough to meet the needs of the local population and will risk the lives of aid workers. Netanyahu has said that Israel will take full control of the strip as he ordered the Israeli military to intensify ground operations in the ravaged strip, including by instructing civilians to leave the southern city of Khan Yunis. Penny Wong and the foreign ministers from 22 other nations said in a joint statement they could not support the limited aid delivery the Israeli government had proposed. “It places beneficiaries and aid workers at risk, undermines the role and independence of the UN and our trusted partners, and links humanitarian aid to political and military objectives,” the foreign ministers said. “Humanitarian aid should never be politicised, and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.” Alongside Wong, the foreign ministers who signed the 23-nation joint statement are representatives from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. “As humanitarian donors, we have two straightforward messages for the government of Israel: allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately and enable the UN and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity,” the foreign ministers said. “We remain committed to meeting the acute needs we see in Gaza.”

>>23083142 ‘People are starving’: Albanese attacks Israel over ‘outrageous’ Gaza food restrictions - Anthony Albanese is coming under growing internal and international pressure to sanction Israel and recognise Palestinian statehood before a major United Nations conference next month, as the prime minister rounded on the Netanyahu government for limiting the delivery of food and other supplies going into Gaza. Israel last week ended its 11-week blockade of aid entering the ravaged strip but the United Nations and leading international charities argue the trickle of supplies is not nearly enough to meet the demands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Australia last week joined 23 other nations to condemn Israel for politicising the delivery of humanitarian aid, but did not sign onto a stronger statement by the United Kingdom, France and Canada warning Israel of sanctions if it did not stop settlement building in the West Bank. The three nations also said they were “committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end”, as they noted the UN is preparing to hold a high-level conference on a two-state solution. “Israel’s actions are completely unacceptable,” Albanese told reporters on Monday, using some of his most forceful language on the issue in recent times. “It is outrageous that there be a blockade of food and supplies to people who are in need in Gaza. We have made that very clear by signing up to international statements.” Albanese said he had expressed his criticisms directly to Israeli President Isaac Herzog when they met in Rome on the sidelines of Pope Leo’s inauguration mass. “I made it very clear that Australia finds these actions completely unacceptable and we find Israel’s excuses and explanations completely untenable and without credibility,” he said. “People are starving.”

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 2

>>23094549 Israel’s president Isaac Herzog invites Anthony Albanese to Jewish State after Gaza claims - In an effort to preserve relations with Australia, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, told an Australian media delegation visiting Jerusalem that he wanted Anthony Albanese to visit Israel to engage first-hand with the problems of the region. The explicit request from President Herzog - well informed on Australian politics – directly challenges the Albanese Government where distaste for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visceral, with Labor’s preference being to keep its distance from Israel’s executive leader and driver of its Gaza war strategy. The deterioration in Australia-Israel ties is deepening with the Prime Minister’s attack on Israel earlier this week over humanitarian aid saying “Israel’s actions are completely unacceptable,” branding its behaviour “outrageous “and saying that Australia had aligned with other nations in expressing its opposition. In remarks to Australian editors and journalists, President Herzog made clear he would like to see Mr Albanese involved more directly - a sentiment that reflects the ingrained Israeli view that Australia has become both a remote and poorly informed critic of Israel’s Gaza strategy. “I welcome and invite the Prime Minister to visit Israel - absolutely,” President Herzog told the delegation. At the same time the president made clear his willingness to visit Australia as well. This follows a brief exchange between the president and PM in Rome for the recent inauguration of the new Pope, Leo X1V. Albanese has said he made it “very clear” to President Herzog in their Rome meeting that Israel’s failures on humanitarian aid to Gaza were “completely untenable and without credibility” since people were starving and “the idea that a democratic state withholds supply is an outrage.”

>>23099049 Video: Radical imam Ahmed Zoud’s apology to Jews one day, call for Allah to kill all ‘oppressors’ the next - An extremist cleric who preached that Jews were “bloodthirsty monsters” who “ran like rats” from the October 7 Hamas attack has formally apologised after Australia’s peak Jewish body lodged a vilification complaint over the ­sermon he delivered in 2023. However, The Australian can reveal that, as recently as last Friday, Sheikh Ahmed Zoud issued a prayer to the people of Gaza at the end of his sermon, for Allah to “deal with the tyrants and the oppressors” and to “kill them all, and leave none of them behind”. While Sheikh Zoud did not mention Jews by name in his latest rant, he had pledged in his apology not to repeat statements that “could be interpreted as targeting Jewish people as a whole”. On Thursday, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry ­welcomed the resolution of its complaint against Sheikh Zoud (also known as Sheikh Zod) to the Australian Human Rights ­Commission following Mr Zoud’s “unreserved” apology. ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the apology to the Jewish community was “a welcome admission of wrongdoing by Ahmed Zoud and we hope that it will serve as an example for the ­future about the limits of freedom of expression”. “We hope that the resolution of this complaint will serve as a ­reaffirmation of the principle that Australia is a safe place for ­people of all backgrounds, and no place for the kind of ­immoderate and at times anti-­Semitic rhetoric that we have ­witnessed in recent times.” Upon learning of Sheikh Zoud’s latest inflammatory remarks, Mr Wertheim told The Australian that, if the imam failed to adhere to his undertakings, “we will have no hesitation in availing ourselves of legal remedies to ­enforce them.”

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 3

>>23099119 Video: Radical cleric Wissam Haddad slams Muslim leaders - A Sydney Islamic fundamentalist at the centre of a Federal Court battle has accused Muslim leaders of abandoning him in a case he claims pits “Islam against disbelievers”, while urging them to publicly defend the right to quote inflammatory scripture about Jews. Wissam Haddad, who also goes by the name Abu Ousayd and leads the hardline Al Madina Dawah Centre, this week released a video appealing for religious unity ahead of a looming court showdown with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. The Federal Court proceedings, which are expected to test the limits of religious expression and hate speech laws, centre on whether Mr Haddad’s public sermons - referencing verses in the Koran about Jews – amount to incitement or protected religious expression. The proceedings have been brought by ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim and deputy president Robert Goot AO, and allege that Mr Haddad’s public speeches included derogatory generalisations about Jewish people, in which he described them as “vile people” and a “treacherous people”, and claimed they hide like “rats” when fighting Muslim men. In the video posted on Tuesday, Mr Haddad said he was concerned that Muslim leaders were retreating from the right to quote Islamic texts in public. “For the past couple of months I had been struggling, striving, trying to have the Muslim community at large and specifically the sheiks (clerics) and Muslim organisations understand that what I am currently facing in the Federal Court is not an issue of Abu Ousayd or Al Madina Dawah Centre versus the Jewish lobby … rather, it’s a battle between Islam and kuffar (disbelievers),” he said. “They wish to take and make those ayat and hadith (verses in the Koran) and historic accounts that speak about the Jews to what they see as insulting … they seek to make it criminal.”

>>23139131 Israeli influencer Hillel Fuld’s visa cancelled for Australian speaking tour - The Albanese government has cancelled the visa of high-profile Israeli-American tech influencer Hillel Fuld, citing concerns that his presence in the country may pose a risk to “the health, safety or good order” of the Australian community, particularly among Muslim Australians. The Department of Home Affairs quietly cancelled Mr Fuld’s travel visa this week, accusing him of using social media to deny “documented atrocities” in Gaza, promote Islamophobic views, and spread inflammatory content that could incite division amid heightened community tensions. Mr Fuld was due to speak at fundraising events in Melbourne and Sydney later this month hosted by Magen David Adom Australia - the local affiliate of Israel’s national emergency medical and blood service. The events were billed as discussions on Israeli innovation and technology, with Mr Fuld expected to share insights on the tech sector and his personal experiences. Funds raised were to go toward the construction of a new ambulance station in southern Israel. But according to departmental records obtained by The Australian, Home Affairs officials concluded that Mr Fuld had a documented pattern of sharing provocative content, including broad attacks on the Palestinian identity, denial of “documented atrocities” in Gaza, and claims that large segments of the Muslim population support terrorism. One post cited in the visa cancellation decision was a March 2024 Instagram video in which Mr Fuld dismissed as “propaganda” reports by international media outlets that Israeli troops had opened fire on starving Palestinians looking for food aid in Gaza, killing over 100.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 4

>>23144540 US pressures Australia over ban on Israeli-American speaker Hillel Fuld - The Albanese government is facing diplomatic pressure from Washington after US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee personally appealed to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to overturn a visa cancellation of Israeli-American tech advocate Hillel Fuld. The rare intervention came hours after The Australian revealed how the Department of Home Affairs quietly cancelled Mr Fuld’s travel visa and accused him of using social media to deny “documented atrocities” in Gaza, promote Islamophobic views and spread inflammatory content that could incite division amid heightened community tensions. In a lengthy email sent directly to Mr Burke, Mr Huckabee described Mr Fuld as a “highly respected” dual US-Israeli citizen who poses “no threat of any kind” to Australia and urged the minister to allow his visit for “the sake of the very important charity event” organised by Magen David Adom Australia. “Mr Fuld is highly respected member in his community and well known in Israel. While he holds strong views against terrorism and the kind of massacre that occurred on October 7, he would pose no threat to the people of Australia by his actions or words,” Mr Huckabee, governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007, wrote. “I fully respect the decision to grant the visa is solely in your hands and you have a sovereign right to make the decision to deny entry to someone you consider a threat to national security (but) I do not feel Mr Fuld poses any threat of any kind. I would respectfully request … you would be willing to review his visa application and grant the opportunity to make his brief visit for the sake of the very important charity event for the humanitarian emergency medical service organisation.”

>>23152313 Video: Hate-spewing preacher Wissam Haddad’s sword post ahead of court battle with Jewish leaders - Hate preacher Wissam Haddad has ramped up threats on the eve of his legal battle against Australia’s peak Jewish body, warning in a video “we are not going to come unarmed, we’re going to fight them with everything that we have,” followed by the image of a sword. The video has been condemned by Jewish community members who believe it is an incitement to young radicals to commit violence, with Mr ­Haddad set to appear in the Federal Court on Tuesday to defend claims that he breached vilification laws over his sermons asserting Jews are “vile” and “treacherous” people. The provocative post comes as radical American Islamist Sheik Ahmad Musa Jibril exhorts his followers around the world to help fund Mr Haddad’s defence, with a radical Salafi account linked to Sheik ­Jibril claiming the Sydney-based cleric is “one of the most ­targeted men in Australia by the disbelievers”. Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, is being sued by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry over alle­gations that he breached the Racial Discrimination Act through his sermons in the wake of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Mr Haddad or speakers at his Bankstown-based Al Madina Dawah Centre have called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing, and said people should “spit” on Israel so its citizens “would drown”.

>>23152324 Video: Jihadi preacher’s sermons ‘comfort to Muslim congregants’, court hears - Lawyers for Jihadi preacher Wissam Haddad have argued his sermons were given to provide private “comfort” to Muslim congregants, despite accusations he was in active dialogue with reporters as a self-proclaimed “masjid (mosque) shock jock”. Mr Haddad, whose first name is William but who is also known as Abu Ousayd, arrived at court on Tuesday ahead of his racial discrimination hearing, avoiding questions and surrounded by his legal team, as he stares down a four-day trial over alle­gations by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry that he breached the Racial Discrimination Act through his sermons in the wake of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Mr Haddad or speakers at his Al-Madina Dawah Centre have called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing and said people should “spit” on Israel so its citizens “would drown”. In most cases, he has claimed he was referring to or reciting Islamic scripture.Mr Haddad’s representative, Andrew Boe suggested Mr Haddad throughout his sermons addressed only historical Jewish tribes referenced in the Koran or the state of Israel and the influential figures within it, not the global Jewish diaspora.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 5

>>23152367 Video: Imam Samir Mohtadi’s hate speech from pulpit - A high-profile Victorian Muslim leader who branded Zionists as “scavengers” and “bloodsucking humans” has declared that Australia is waging a war on Islam, as he plans to build a multimillion-dollar Islamic “sanctuary” north of Melbourne. Sheik Abu Hamza, also known as Samir Mohtadi, is spearheading a $6.9m religious development in the fast-growing suburb of Mickleham, where he aims to establish an Islamic facility to cater for the city’s burgeoning Muslim population. But while fundraising millions through his registered charity, the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, Sheik Mohtadi has also launched inflammatory public attacks on Zionists, Australian politicians, the “West” and secular institutions. In a hate-fuelled sermon delivered at the Australian Bosnian Islamic Centre in Melbourne’s west last week, which was attended by The Australian, the prominent imam prayed for victory for “our mujahideen (fighters) in Palestine” and called on Allah to “cast terror into the hearts of the Zionists”. Sheik Mohtadi’s sermon then turned to Australia itself, as he accused the federal government and institutions of waging an ideological “war of no God”. He preached to worshippers that they were not obliged to adopt the values of the country that had hosted them, granted them citizenship, and provided them full political, social, and economic rights - including the freedom of religion. He declared that as long as they had their own values, culture, language, and religion, they did not need to embrace Australia’s.

>>23158072 Video: Australia joins UK in sanctioning Israeli ministers over Gaza comments - Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says there “remains a great deal of strategic alignment” between the US and Australia after the Trump administration condemned the sanctions applied overnight on two right-wing Israeli ministers. Senator Wong did not say whether or not the US was given advance notice that Australia, alongside Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the UK, would impose the sanctions on Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich. The Israeli ministers will face travel bans and have their assets frozen, in a move condemned by Israel as “outrageous”. In a joint statement with other foreign ministers early Wednesday morning, Senator Wong said the two men would be black-listed for “for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank”. “Settler violence is incited by extremist rhetoric which calls for Palestinians to be driven from their homes, encourages violence and human rights abuses and fundamentally rejects the two-state solution,” she said. The Trump administration condemned Australia and others over the sanctions, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the move will not advance ceasefire efforts, the rescue of hostages, or an end to the war. Mr Rubio urged the five countries to reverse the sanctions, saying in a statement the US “condemns the sanctions imposed by the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Australia on two sitting members of the Israeli cabinet. We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organisation that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace. We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is.”

>>23158079 ‘Entirely unacceptable’: Ambassador condemns Australian sanctions on senior Israeli ministers - A diplomatic brawl has broken out between Australia and the US after the Albanese government joined with allies in taking the extraordinary step of sanctioning far-right ministers in the Israeli government on the eve of a peace summit in New York. Highlighting Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation, Australia and the UK spearheaded a months-long push to freeze assets and slap travel bans on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over settler violence in the West Bank and advocating for the displacement of Gazans. Australia announced the move in a statement with Five Eyes security partners Canada and New Zealand and the diplomatically influential nation of Norway, in one of the most striking examples of Western pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wind down Israel’s action in Gaza. The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said the Israeli government would meet early next week to determine how to respond. “The decision to impose sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers is deeply concerning and entirely unacceptable. These ministers are part of a government that operates under the principle of collective responsibility, making such measures unreasonable,” Maimon said.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 6

>>23163812 Jihadi preacher concedes ‘sermons not private’ in hate speech case - Lawyers for Jihadi preacher Wissam Haddad have conceded a central pillar of their defence, acknowledging the cleric’s sermons were not private amid a racial discrimination trial that has hinged on the public accessibility of his remarks. Mr Haddad, who legally changed his first name to William more than twenty years ago but who is also known as Abu Ousayd, has sought to argue he was only speaking to his Muslim congregants at the Bankstown Al Madina Dawah Centre - a co-respondent in his Federal Court case brought by Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim and deputy president Robert Goot – when he made sermons about the conflict in Israel after October 7, 2023. At the beginning of the case’s closing remarks on Thursday, ECAJ barrister Peter Braham SC said Mr Haddad had conceded the argument and acknowledged his speeches were likely to be seen by an audience outside of his congregation. Mr Haddad’s barrister, Andrew Boe, confirmed this. “We formally communicated to the appellant’s team that the respondents concede that the speeches were not … private,” Mr Boe said. The partial concession means Justice Angus Stewart need only judge Mr Haddad’s potential breach of two other elements of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act - whether Mr Haddad’s sermons were likely to offend and whether they targeted those of a specific race, colour or national or ethnic origin.

>>23174845 PM’s meeting with Trump in doubt as Middle East conflict escalates - Anthony Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump risks being derailed as Israeli strikes on Iran seize global attention ahead of a G7 summit in Canada. Albanese told Australians to avoid the region and pointed to new government advice not to travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories as Iran prepared retaliatory strikes. Speaking in Fiji on Friday before heading to the United States and Canada, the prime minister warned of Iran’s nuclear program, but called for a diplomatic solution. “We, of course, are very conscious of the threat that Iran becoming a nuclear state would represent to peace and security in the region,” Albanese said on Friday. “We want to see these issues resolved through dialogue, and the United States has been playing an important role there.” Despite weeks of commentary about possible talks with Trump on tariffs and defence, a Trump-Albanese meeting had not been formally secured when the prime minister departed on Friday. Trump has not yet confirmed meetings with any world leaders at the G7, which begins on June 15, but Australia was confident it would secure an informal conversation on the sidelines or a bilateral meeting in Canada.

>>23182420 Israel’s top diplomat clips Penny Wong for phoning Iranians - Israel’s ambassador to Australia has delivered a veiled barb to Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Western leaders pushing for diplomacy after she revealed she had phoned her Iranian counterpart urging restraint after Israel’s strikes on Iran. Wong has backed Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran’s nuclear program, the expansion of which earned a censure from the international nuclear watchdog before Israel launched an attack on Iran on Friday. Wong has also been dealing with Israeli officials since the conflict broke out. Many other Western leaders have made similar remarks urging diplomatic talks rather than more violence. But she has declined to explicitly endorse Israel’s military action, instead emphasising the need for diplomacy as tit-for-tat barrages continued. “This is precisely the same message I put to [Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi]: that we urge restraint because whatever people’s views about what has occurred to date, what happens tomorrow matters to all peoples in the region,” Wong said on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday. “I directly put to the Iranian foreign minister, ‘We are saying to you, exercise restraint, return to diplomacy and dialogue because continuing to escalate this has consequences’.” Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, a critic of Australia’s policies on the Middle East, latched onto Wong’s remarks about her call with Tehran, releasing his own statement about an hour after she spoke. The statement did not mention Wong by name but made reference to her calls for diplomacy and suggested such sentiments were unrealistic. “Iran isn’t hiding its intent, it declares it. And it’s building the weapons to fulfil it,” Maimon said. “Through its pursuit of nuclear arms, Iran has turned this into an asymmetric conflict, between a democracy seeking to defend itself and a regime bent on destruction. Yet some still urge diplomacy, as if words can stop warheads.”

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 7

>>23186849 Hundreds of Australians seek help to leave Israel and Iran - Several hundred Australians have registered interest in leaving Israel and Iran amid escalating hostilities between the two countries, but have been advised to shelter where they are while airspace remains closed. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said 300 Australians had advised the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of their desire to leave Israel, and 350 Australians had done so for Iran, with more registrations expected. Senator Wong said that while no flights are possible yet given the risk of missile strikes on civilian aircraft, the government was working on "a range of plans" to help people leave when safe. "I understand how concerned, how distressed many Australians are about what is occurring. I understand how particularly those who are in the Middle East, in Israel or Iran, how worrying this situation is, and how frightening it is," she told reporters on Monday. At least 224 people have been killed in Iran and 13 in Israel after several days of strikes. The episode began on Friday, local time, with an Israeli strike on Iran which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was an attempt to destroy nuclear facilities behind what he said would be an "existential threat to Israel". It came shortly after the UN nuclear watchdog concluded Iran was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty, and shortly before planned talks with the United States.

>>23192221 Conflict cancellation:Albanese’s meeting with Trump cancelled because of Iran-Israel war- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have to wait until at least September to take Australia’s case on the AUKUS defence pact directly to Donald Trump, after the US president was forced to leave the G7 summit early to deal with the crisis in the Middle East. The White House confirmed the departure while Albanese was holding a press conference at the summit on issues that he would be discussing with Trump, including trade and AUKUS. Trump’s decision to fly home early is a blow for Albanese, who was due to meet the president face to face for the first time on Wednesday morning (Australian time) to emphasise Australia’s defence contributions as the US reviews the AUKUS submarine deal and calls for more military spending. The government played down the president’s decision to leave, arguing it was understandable against the backdrop of escalating conflict in the Middle East and affected the leaders of Mexico and Ukraine as well. But it leaves Albanese behind numerous other world leaders who have secured time with the president. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that Trump had a good day at the G7 and signed a trade deal with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Fox News reported Trump dined with the G7 leaders in Canada, and then immediately left for Washington. Australia, which is not a member of the G7, was not invited to attend the dinner. Albanese was instead invited to a function with the heads of other nations in the same category such as South Korea and Mexico.

>>23192231 Video: Donald Trump left G7 before one-on-one with Anthony Albanese - Anthony Albanese's one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump has been abandoned, after the American president departed the three-day G7 summit early citing developments in the Middle East. The planned talks were highly anticipated, particularly after the Trump administration revealed it was reviewing the $368 billion AUKUS submarine deal last week. News of Mr Trump's unexpected departure broke just minutes after the prime minister told a media conference in Calgary that he "looked forward to the meeting and looked forward to it taking place". The face-to-face meeting - which would have been the first between the two leaders - was scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the summit on Wednesday morning. But in a statement posted to social media on Tuesday, US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump would instead be returning to Washington after dinner. The president had planned to hold other meetings with world leaders, including Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that were also scrapped. Mr Albanese had previously said he intended to raise the Trump administration's tariffs on Australian exports and the AUKUS partnership during the high-stakes talks. In a statement, a spokesperson for the prime minister said Mr Trump's decision to leave early was understandable "given what is occurring in the Middle East". "As the prime minister said a short time ago, we are very concerned about the events in the Middle East and continue to urge all parties to prioritise dialogue and diplomacy," they said.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 8

>>23192240 Anthony Albanese still can’t get a sit-down meeting with Donald Trump - Donald Trump’s shock decision to leave the G7 summit early and cancel his meeting with Anthony Albanese has put the Prime Minister in a politically awkward position that has immediately drawn criticism over when he will sit down in person with the US President. Trump, who is dealing with a genuine threat that the Israel-Iran war could morph into a wider Middle East war and draw in US armed forces, has left Albanese in an embarrassing position after weeks of build-up that the pair would finally develop their relationship beyond three phone calls. Just minutes after Albanese finished a late afternoon press conference in Calgary, which is about one hour away from the G7 summit action in the Canadian mountainside town of Kananaskis, Mr Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered the news that Australian officials had been dreading - the meeting was off. Over recent days as the Middle East conflict escalated, Albanese and his ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, had been concerned the long-awaited meeting with Trump may not eventuate. Albanese was scheduled to speak with Trump for at least 20 minutes about 5.15pm local time on Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday AEST), shortly before the PM returned home from Canada. The 62-year-old was expected to be the second last leader to hold talks with Trump before the US President jetted home to deal with the war. In the past five days, Albanese has caught up with other key strategic allies and partners in Canada and Fiji. But overwhelmingly, the purpose of the trip was geared around the meeting with Trump. Albanese is not the only leader who misses out on a G7 meet with Trump. But the abrupt cancellation will spark criticism from detractors who will describe it as a “snub” and say it is proof that Australia does not rate highly on Trump’s radar.

>>23203256 Kunafa chef charged for chanting ‘All Zionists are terrorists’ at pro-Palestinian rallies - Victoria Police will argue in court that chanting “all Zionists are terrorists” in public is anti-Semitic and effectively brands the majority of Jewish Australians as such, in a major legal test of hate speech laws targeting pro-Palestinian activists. Summary of statement documents obtained by The Australian reveal Victoria Police deemed the controversial chant “anti-Semitic” and considered the use of it as an “affront” to the Jewish community while pressing charges against activists. The documents concern charging kunafa chef Jad Awwad Abu Alsendyan under Section 17(1) of the state’s Summary Offences Act - which prohibits profane, indecent or obscene language – for allegedly saying “all Zionists are terrorists” at pro-Palestinian rallies. If proven, the crime is punishable with two months’ prison for the first ­offence, three months for the second, and six months for three or more. Mr Alsendyan, who owns the popular Kunafeh House food truck, is facing two charges. The 48-year-old activist is widely regarded in Melbourne’s Middle Eastern community for making Nablus-style kunafa (Palestinian dessert). Police allege Mr Alsendyan led the chant during the Protest Until Ceasefire rally in Melbourne’s CBD on April 6, using a megaphone to amplify the slogan. Detectives say they relied on footage shared by pro-Palestinian groups online to identify him and other participants.

>>23203273 Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi calls on Anthony Albanese to condemn Israel, issues warning to Donald Trump - Iran's ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to condemn Israel's strikes on the Middle Eastern nation and denied that the Islamic Republic is working on a nuclear weapons program. Mr Sadeghi made the comments to 7.30 during a wide-ranging interview where he also refused to recognise Israel's right to exist as a state and warned US President Donald Trump there may be consequences for 80,000 US troops stationed in the Persian Gulf if the US strikes Iranian targets. Mr Sadeghi described Israel's June 13 attack on Iranian targets - that has seen a reported 224 people there killed — as "unprovoked". Since then, there have been a reported 24 casualties in Israel as a result of Iranian retaliatory strikes, with civilians dying on both sides. Mr Sadeghi defended the Iranian response as "its inalienable right to just defensive measures", before he called on Mr Albanese to condemn Israel for the June 13 attack that has pushed the Middle East to the brink of a wider conflict. "We ask Australia, as a friendly nation that we are in the good relation with, they have to condemn," Mr Sadeghi told 7.30. Asked if that meant a public condemnation of Israel from the Albanese government, the Iranian ambassador said: "Yes, I ask them."

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 9

>>23203311 Armoured cars, ferries: How Australians are fleeing the Middle East - Australians are resorting to chartering armoured cars and ferries to flee Israel, or sheltering in place in Iran, as Australia’s embassies scramble to organise evacuations in a region where flights are not operating and conflict is escalating. Almost 3000 Australians have registered to be evacuated out of Israel and Iran, representing a near doubling in the number of people seeking to flee for each day the conflict has continued, and some have accused the government’s response of being “delinquent”. At least two buses have already left Israel for Jordan with Australians on board, including one organised by insurers and the other by the government, but others are paying private companies for evacuation via armoured car or ferries to Cyprus. Wong told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday the missile strikes between Israel and Iran made the situation difficult because they made it impossible to conduct evacuation flights. “It’s a very, very difficult situation on the ground at the moment,” Wong said. “Obviously, there are more opportunities [to evacuate people] in relation to Israel. We took the opportunity to get a small group out across by land crossing yesterday. And we’ll seek to continue that … Iran is a very complicated situation, a very risky situation.” Airspace over the region has been closed since June 13, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched dozens of missile attacks on Iranian targets with the aim of ending the expansion of its nuclear weapons development program. Iran has since retaliated.

>>23212682 Video: Australian embassy staff in Tehran rushed out of Iran amid fears of bigger conflict in the Middle East - The federal government has suspended its embassy in Iran and rushed out Australian diplomats in Tehran across the border into Azerbaijan as fears of a major war in the Middle East continue to mount. It is also ramping up its warnings to Australians in Iran, urging them to make their own way out of the country by road if they can safely do so. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government had directed the departure of all Australian officials and dependents and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran based on advice about "the deteriorating security environment in Iran". She warned the situation was volatile. "The government has a responsibility to ensure the safety of our staff … we do not have to cast our minds back too far in history to understand the risk to foreign officials in Iran in times of unrest," Senator Wong said. The ABC has been told that Australian diplomats - along with family members — spent almost 24 hours travelling by car to get out of the country as Israel and Iran continue to trade strikes, and as President Donald Trump contemplates US military action against Tehran. At least some of those Tehran-based diplomats are expected to stay in place near the Iran-Azerbaijan border as they work to evacuate more Australians from Iran. The minister said she was conscious that the embassy's closure would add to difficulties for Australians seeking to leave the country, but said staff continued to work on contingency plans for when Iran's airspace reopened.

>>23212691 Albanese government to evacuate Australians stranded in the Middle East amid Iran-Israel war - The Albanese government has shuttered the nation’s embassy in Iran and launched a major operation to evacuate Australian citizens from the Middle East, as US President Donald Trump granted Tehran a two-week window to abandon its nuclear program ­before he decides whether to launch US strikes on the country. Mr Trump said he believed there was a “substantial chance of negotiations” with Tehran, sparking a fresh European push for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in talks with Iran’s foreign minister in Switzerland. The evacuation mission, announced amid ongoing strikes between Israel and Iran on Friday AEST, includes the deployment of two RAAF passenger airlifters together with air force and army personnel and the relocation of consular staff to Azerbaijan to support Australians fleeing across the border from Iran. More than 2000 Australians and their family members are seeking help to leave Iran, while another 1200 have sought evacuation from Israel. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the mission, dubbed Operation Beech, was currently unable to airlift Australians from either country but the government was preparing plans for the reopening of the region’s airspace. She said the decision to order the evacuation of Australian diplomats from Tehran was not taken lightly and the nation’s ­ambassador, Ian McConville, would remain in the region to support the government’s response to the unfolding crisis.

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>>23212698 Australia urges diplomacy as deadly Israel-Iran strikes ramp up and Trump weighs US options - Foreign Minister Penny Wong has joined demands for Iran to stop its nuclear weapons program and come to the negotiating table within the two-week deadline set by US President Donald Trump on Friday as he decides whether to join Israel’s strikes on the country. But as the Israel-Iran war entered its second week, more than 60 Israeli warplanes struck targets in Iran on Friday, including what Israel said were industrial sites used to produce missiles. Israel said it had also hit the headquarters of Iran’s Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, which the US had previously linked to the possible development of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Iran condemned Israel’s strike on its Arak heavy-water reactor on Thursday, describing it as a violation of international protocols designed to protect nuclear sites. “Any military attack on nuclear facilities is an assault on the entire IAEA safeguards regime and ultimately the NPT,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Abbas Araghchi posted on X. In Israel, the emergency service said seven people suffered minor injuries when Iranian missiles hit a residential area in the south, causing damage to buildings. Separately, Israel accused Iran of deliberately targeting civilians with cluster munitions, which disperse small bombs over a wide area. And Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah to exercise caution, saying Israel’s patience with “terrorists” who threaten it had worn thin. A day earlier, the head of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said the Lebanon-based group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called “brutal Israeli-American aggression”.

>>23218742 Video: Trump warns against Iran retaliation after ‘spectacular success’ of US nuclear strikes - Donald Trump has threatened further attacks on Iran if the regime retaliates to the US precision strikes against three of the rogue nation’s nuclear enrichment facilities, warning that it will be met with a tragedy “far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.” The US President said that America had “completely and totally obliterated” the Islamic theocracy’s nuclear enrichment facilities, arguing that he had worked as a team with Israel to inflict a major blow against the rogue nation. In an address to the nation at 10:00pm on Saturday night, Mr Trump demand that Iran sue for peace and accept a diplomatic solution to relinquish its dream of a nuclear bomb. He reminded the regime that “there are many targets left.” “If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill,” he said. “Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.” Posting on his Truth Social platform a short time later, Mr Trump said that “any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight.” Three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites were targeted by America including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The US deployed its massive 30,000 pound “bunker buster” bombs for the first time in an active military operation to target the Fordow site which is buried deep under a mountain and 80 metres of solid rock.

>>23218784 Australian government calls for de-escalation of war in Iran as Coalition endorses US strikes - The Australian government has offered no endorsement of the United States's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, instead issuing a statement reiterating calls for de-escalation as the opposition put forward its support for the military action. Donald Trump announced the United States had dropped "a full payload of bombs" on the Fordow nuclear site on Sunday, along with strikes on two other locations, declaring Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities "completely and totally obliterated". In response, a government spokesperson said: "We have been clear that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program has been a threat to international peace and security. "We note the US president’s statement that now is the time for peace. The security situation in the region is highly volatile. We continue to call for de-escalation, dialogue, and diplomacy." A short time after the government released its statement, the opposition came out in support of what it called the "proactive action" to bomb the nuclear facilities. "The Coalition supports the military action taken by the United States to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, specifically the strikes taken today against the facilities at Isfahan, Natanz and, critically, Fordow," acting Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie told reporters in Western Australia.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 11

>>23218831 Andrew Hastie slams Labor’s ‘ambiguous’ response to Iran strikes - Opposition acting foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie has slammed the Albanese government’s “ambiguous” response to the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Mr Hastie, speaking to reporters in Perth, said the Coalition backed US president Donald Trump’s move to strike the facilities, saying Iran was “moving towards acquiring a nuclear weapon”. “We could never accept a nuclear Iran. Iran is a repressive theocratic autocracy, and it’s a sponsor of terrorism,” he said. “President Trump gave the offer of negotiations, and over the last two days, the Iranians have not taken up that offer. The Coalition stands in solidarity with the Iranian people. We regret the loss of life in Iran and Israel, and we hope for a peaceful settlement going forward.” Asked what he made of the Albanese government’s response to the strikes, Mr Hastie said it was “far too ambiguous”. “The United States is a close ally. The United States has a key role in re-establishing order and peace in the Middle East,” he said. “And Iran, by contrast, is a regime that sponsors terrorism. It sponsored Hamas, Hezbollah.” Earlier on Sunday, an unnamed government spokesperson called for “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy” but did not explicitly support or condemn the actions of Mr Trump.

>>23218858 ‘Last resort’: Scott Morrison backs US attack on Iranian nuclear sites - Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed US President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities as “a last resort”, urging Australia to now speak with clarity about why the US had to act. Describing the bombing as “a necessary event”, Mr Morrison stressed that the United States had launched a targeted mission and was not proposing regime change. Speaking on Sky News, he said it reflected the fact the US was the only ally of Israel with the military hardware to penetrate Iran’s underground nuclear bunkers. “There were no other options available to the President,’’ Mr Morrison said. “I think President Trump has been very clear about seeking to get an agreement with Iran. This was completely rejected, and made it very clear that there was no negotiation now there was the opportunity for complete capitulation and that was not offered, and they are the only military in the world that is capable of doing what it has just done.” But in a barbed observation on the conduct of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong he urged Australia to now speak with “clarity.” “Well, it’s time for some clarity. I think there’s been far too much ambiguity about this from Australia,’’ he said. “And the clarity is we were dealing with a theocratic authoritarian state that sponsored an attack on a close friend in Israel back on October 7. They have shown their true colours. And Iran is not a friend of Australia. It’s not a friend of Australia’s interests. This is not a conflict not with the people of Iran who are wonderful people.”

>>23224342 Video: Anthony Albanese declares Australia backs US strikes to stop Iran’s nuclear program - a day later - Anthony Albanese has reiterated that his government backs the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites but that it does not want to see an “escalation and a full-scale war” following the attack. “The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that - that is what this is,” the Prime Minister said at a press conference in Canberra on Monday morning. “The US action was directed at specific sites central to Iran’s nuclear program. We don’t want escalation and a full-scale war. We continue to call for dialogue and for diplomacy. “As I have said for many days now, we are deeply concerned about any escalation in the region and we want to see diplomacy, dialogue and de-escalation.” Mr Albanese declined to say whether or not Australia was given warning - like the UK was – before the US struck Iranian nuclear sites. “This was a unilateral action taken by the United States,” the Prime Minister said. He was asked repeatedly whether this meant his government did not know this would happen but Mr Albanese declined to provide a direct answer. Earlier Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the Albanese government backed the US decision to strike nuclear facilities in Iran, the enunciation of support coming almost 24 hours after the US operation. The government, in the hours after the attack, urged “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy”, and did not explicitly back the US strikes.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 12

>>23224354 COMMENTARY: Canberra out of its depth as US, Israel remake Middle East - "Donald Trump just redrew the strategic map of the Middle East - and Australia’s response is to urge “dialogue”. Trump claimed the US strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities was a “spectacular military success” and that the sites had been “completely and totally obliterated”. In a statement after the attack, Trump emphasised that if Iran did not make peace, there are many other targets the US can hit “in a matter of minutes”. Australia’s response remains a shambles. Appearing on Sky News on Sunday morning, Defence Minister Richard Marles called three times for “de-escalation”, even as Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities were being dismantled in real time. He acknowledged “the risk that the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile program represents to both the region and the stability of the world” but still emphasised that “we’ve been urging dialogue and diplomacy”. Calling for dialogue at this point is detached from reality and weakens Australia’s credibility among key allies. Marles will also go to NATO this week denying that Australia should urgently lift its defence spending. That will put him on the outer with the US, with many European countries and with Japan, New Zealand and South Korea - the other members of the so-called IP4 – meeting at The Hague summit. What is it that all these countries see that Australia can’t about our strategic outlook? Marles is completely out of his depth in a government that has marginalised our international standing. He continues to weaken our military at a time the rest of the democratic world is waking up to the threat." - Peter Jennings, former deputy secretary for strategy in the Defence Department (2009-12) - theaustralian.com.au

>>23224365 Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong too slow to back Iran strikes - "The Albanese government has yet again been dragged kicking and screaming to support its closest ally as it does the heavy lifting to strengthen global security. It took a staggering 24 hours for the government to back the US’s surgical strikes on Iran to prevent the rogue state getting nuclear weapons. On Sunday, as Australians digested the momentous news, Labor’s issued an equivocal statement calling for “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy”, delivered via an unnamed spokesman. Not a word from Anthony Albanese or Penny Wong. Fast forward to Monday morning and it had finally got its act together, rolling out the Foreign Minister to voice Australia’s support for the action. A terse nine-minute press conference followed, in which the Prime Minister suggested the government had backed the strikes all along. “The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, and we support action to prevent that. That is what this is,” he said. This was inevitably where the government was going to land. Why couldn’t it have said so earlier? “We issued a statement yesterday,” Albanese retorted, when asked about the delay. All of this will have given the Trump administration further cause to see Australia under Labor is a less dependable ally than it once was. Yet the government still expects the full benefits of US protection and its “crown jewels” - nuclear submarine technology." - Ben Packham - theaustralian.com.au

>>23224370 Albanese doesn’t want a bar of Middle East conflict, but that comes at a cost - "Anthony Albanese’s government appears more distant than ever from the Trump administration following the United States’ decision to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. On the face of it, nothing much has changed. Albanese, joined by Penny Wong, announced Australia’s support for US strikes on Monday morning because “the world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that”. Make no mistake, there are small but subtle shifts under way in the US-Australia relationship now that Donald Trump is back in the White House. The fact he has not met Albanese face to face surely has not helped. It was strange, then, that Albanese appeared almost annoyed in his press conference that he had been left out of the loop on the US decision to strike even as he confirmed that “we aren’t a central player in this conflict - that’s just a fact.” When the prime minister was asked for a third time why the federal government had waited 24 hours before expressing unequivocal support for the US bombing, he bit back. “We issued a statement,” he deadpanned. The Sunday statement came from a government spokesperson, not from the prime minister or the foreign minister, nor from either of their offices, which in itself was a deliberate decision to downplay its significance." - James Massola - smh.com.au

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 13

>>23224374 Iranian ambassador says US military bases could be targeted after strikes - Iran's ambassador to Australia has warned Donald Trump's "act of animosity" in ordering the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites could see US military bases targeted and a key sealane closed. In an exclusive interview with 9News, Ahmad Sadeghi said the US president had proved himself to be the "puppet" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for which there would be "consequences". "Islamic countries all around the world would consider this (an) act of animosity and they won't be silent inside the region," Sadeghi said. "The US does have personnel and bases, either in southern part of the Persian Gulf or other regions in the West Asia, that they have bases. The other (consequence) is, you know, the ramification on the Persian Gulf from the navigation and just transfer of energy in the region." A fifth of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz and its closure would see fuel prices skyrocket. Sadeghi said Australia, as a peace-loving country, should "support justice and legality" and not side with the US. "We are friendly with Australia. We do not have any sort of animosity with them," he said.

>>23224390 Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize - Pakistan said on Saturday it would recommend U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, an accolade that he has said he craves, for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan. Some analysts in Pakistan said the move might persuade Trump to think again about potentially joining Israel in striking Iran's nuclear facilities. Pakistan has condemned Israel's action as a violation of international law and a threat to regional stability. In May, a surprise announcement by Trump of a ceasefire brought an abrupt end to a four-day conflict between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan. Trump has since repeatedly said that he averted a nuclear war, saved millions of lives, and grumbled that he got no credit for it. Pakistan agrees that U.S. diplomatic intervention ended the fighting, but India says it was a bilateral agreement between the two militaries. "President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi, which de-escalated a rapidly deteriorating situation," Pakistan said. "This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker." Governments can nominate people for the Nobel Peace Prize. There was no immediate response from Washington. A spokesperson for the Indian government did not respond to a request for comment.

>>23224392 Pakistan condemns Trump's bombing of Iran - a day after nominating him for Peace Prize - Pakistan condemned on Sunday the strikes ordered on its neighbour Iran by Donald Trump, a day after Islamabad had said it would nominate the U.S. President for the Nobel Peace Prize. Pakistan on Sunday said Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities violated international law and that diplomacy was the only way to resolve the Iran crisis. “The unprecedented escalation of tension and violence, owing to ongoing aggression against Iran is deeply disturbing. Any further escalation of tensions will have severely damaging implications for the region and beyond,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Also on Sunday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif telephoned Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and “conveyed Pakistan’s condemnation of the U.S. attacks," a statement from the Pakistani leader said. Pakistan’s information minister and the foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the apparent contradiction in the country’s positions over the weekend. In Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, thousands marched in protest against the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. A large American flag with a picture of Trump on it was placed on the road for demonstrators to walk over. The protesters shouted out chants against America, Israel and Pakistan’s regional enemy India. Pakistan on Saturday said it was nominating Trump as "a genuine peacemaker" for his role in bringing a four-day conflict with India to an end last month. It said he had “demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship”.

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 14

>>23230111 Anthony Albanese rejects he was ‘flat-footed’ responding to US strikes on Iran; defends NATO no-show - Anthony Albanese has dismissed criticism that he was “flat-footed” in his response to the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, with the public only hearing from the Prime Minister 24 hours after the attack had happened. Mr Albanese said criticism came from “the usual suspects” and that “there are some in the media who have a criticism of anything that the Labor government does”. “What my government does is act in an orderly, coherent way,” he told Sky News on Tuesday. “And we were very clear for some period of time that Iran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. We called for Iran to come to the table to ensure that the United States wouldn’t have to take the action which they did. The action that they took, we made clear that we supported action that would ensure that Iran couldn’t gain that nuclear weapon.” Mr Albanese reiterated that he wanted “to see … the ceasefire announced by President Trump implemented”. The Prime Minister also stood by his decision not to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in The Netherlands, despite reports Donald Trump was seeking a meeting with Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand at the summit. The Prime Minister said “three of the four” IP4 (Indo-Pacific 4) leaders would not be at the summit and that it was “appropriate” that Defence Minister Richard Marles attended instead. Mr Albanese said Australia and the US had agreed Mr Albanese and Mr Trump would “have a meeting and that will take place at a time that’s convenient for both of us”.

>>23230126 COMMENTARY: PM’s confusion, passivity and weakness has made us irrelevant - "It is difficult to think of a time when Australia has been so inconsequential, so powerless, so much without influence, so incapable of affecting its own destiny or anyone else’s, as we have become under the Albanese government. The truly astonishing performance on the question of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities is a classic case. It seems at one level eccentric, even for an Australian, to focus on the performance of the government in Canberra when the world is gripped by crisis in the Middle East and has so many other crises to be going on with. Consider the absolute weird lameness of the government’s response to the US’s actions. They happened on Sunday morning our time and every sentient being on the planet knew about them and had a view. Not the Albanese government. It put out one of its characteristic non-statements. Albanese has no relationship to speak of with Trump. Australia in modern times has seldom been less influential on, or less inside the thinking of, Washington. Britain was informed of the US actions in advance. Naturally, Australia was not. We live on the capital of the goodwill of our past and the continued relevance of our geography. But Australia would be just as relevant strategically if it were a colony of penguins. Then on Monday, through gritted teeth, came government statements saying Australia supported the US actions in Iran because it was important to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Albanese government got to the right position but, characteristically, only after exhausting all other alternatives. The statement and the unbearably stilted, constipated, almost pre-AI robotic performance at the press conference were frankly a national embarrassment." - Greg Sheridan - theaustralian.com.au

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Middle East Conflict - The Australian Perspective - Part 15

>>23234829 Trump scolds Israel and Iran as he accuses both of violating ceasefire:They don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing!- US President Donald Trump has unleashed a tirade on Israel for violating his ceasefire, saying both it and Iran “don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing” in an unprecedented display of rage at a close American ally. Trump had declared a ceasefire between the two enemy states at 6pm on Monday, US time, saying it would start at midnight and end a conflict that has raged since Israel launched missiles at Iran in the early hours of June 13. But in short order, both sides were accusing each other of violating the deal. A statement from the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported by The Times of Israel, said Israel “attacked forcefully in the heart of Tehran” hours before the ceasefire started, killing “hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces”. Leaving the White House for the NATO summit in the Netherlands early Tuesday morning, US time, Trump said he had watched coverage of the ceasefire on television all night and was deeply disappointed in the violations, particularly from Israel. “I think they both violated it. I’m not sure they did it intentionally, they couldn’t rein people back,” he said before boarding a military helicopter. “I don’t like the fact that Israel went out this morning at all. As soon as I can get away from you, I’m going to see if I can stop it,” Trump told reporters. “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel. When I say, ‘OK now you have 12 hours’, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either.” Unprompted, Trump added: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing. Do you understand that?”

>>23248389 US president says he could bomb Iran again, as 3,200 Australians and family members register with DFAT - US President Donald Trump has warned Iran he would order another bombing raid on its nuclear sites if Tehran resumed efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday (US time), Mr Trump said he would "without question, absolutely" consider further military action if necessary. His comments came as the number of Australians and family members in Iran registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) crisis portal grew to 3,200. Soon after Israel began bombing Iran in mid-June, DFAT evacuated its staff from Tehran to Azerbaijan. On the advice of DFAT, some Australians in Iran travelled to the Iran-Azerbaijan border hoping leave Iran last week but got knocked back by Azerbaijan officials in part because they didn't have a special code, the ABC reported on Thursday. Late on Friday, a DFAT spokesperson said the backlog of Australian requests for border crossing codes had been resolved. They said DFAT was supporting Australians who wished to leave Iran secure seats on commercial flights that had begun operating out of the country. A US government security alert said Iranian airspace had partially reopened, "although commercial travel from Tehran and other major hubs may be disrupted".

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 1

>>22964101 Roberts-Smith’s appeal dealt blow after ‘fishing expedition’ cut down - Disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has suffered a blow to his plans to appeal against a defamation judgment which found he committed war crimes while on duty in Afghanistan. The former Special Air Service corporal sued the publisher of this newspaper, then known as Fairfax Media, and The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Nick McKenzie, after a series of articles alleged Roberts-Smith carried out war crime murders while deployed with the SAS. The Federal Court dismissed the case in June 2023 when a judge found, to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, that Roberts-Smith had committed multiple war crime murders, assaulted Afghans and engaged in a campaign of bullying against Australian troops a decade earlier. The Victoria Cross recipient appealed against the judgment and has been waiting for a decision for more than a year. Last month, he filed an application to reopen his appeal to introduce as evidence a recording of McKenzie speaking to a woman the famed soldier had an affair with, known in the trial as Person 17. In the call, McKenzie allegedly says Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife, Emma Roberts, and her close friend, Danielle Scott, were “actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you”. Roberts-Smith’s legal team on Wednesday defended wide-ranging subpoenas they had issued to McKenzie, the journalist’s lawyers, Person 17, Roberts, Scott, and the ABC. “To say that (the recording) contents are shocking is an understatement,” Roberts-Smith’s lawyer Arthur Moses, SC, told the court. Moses called the subpoenas an attempt to follow “the ripples of a breach”. Nine’s lawyers opposed the subpoenas, characterising them as a “fishing expedition” which were too broad in scope and time-frame. On Thursday, Justice Nye Perram appeared to agree by striking out the vast bulk of Roberts-Smith’s requests for information. Eight of 10 categories of information sought from McKenzie were deleted.

>>22964102 ‘Sneering and supercilious’: Reporter Nick McKenzie takes stand against Ben Roberts-Smith’s silk - When Nick McKenzie walks into the witness box of the Federal Court on Thursday to testify in what may be the most consequential moment of his career, all eyes will turn to the rear of the court to see if his nemesis, Ben Roberts-Smith, has arrived at his favourite window seat. The Victoria Cross recipient, who attended almost every day of his defamation trial against the Nine newspapers, has not appeared at any of the hearings in his appeal against judge Anthony Besanko’s finding that he was a war criminal. But the prospect of seeing the tables turned against McKenzie, the investigative reporter whose sleuthing led to his downfall, may prove too tempting. The 11th-hour bid to reopen the appeal is the endgame in a titanic struggle between Australia’s most decorated soldier and its most decorated journalist: the recipient of the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry locked in combat with the winner of 16 Walkley Awards, the country’s highest journalism honour. And now on the table: the possible upending of the country’s ­biggest and most expensive defamation case. McKenzie never took the stand in the defamation trial, but now, after a secret recording suggested he obtained what Roberts-Smith says is privileged information about his legal strategy, the reporter has chosen to confront the allegation head-on. It’s a bold but risky move by the highly respected McKenzie. Friends say he is anxious to present his side of the story and confident he will be shown to have acted ethically, despite his secretly recorded comments. He will argue that none of the information he received from Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife Emma Roberts and her best friend Danielle Scott was legally privileged. But giving evidence means also exposing himself to cross-examination by the former soldier’s lawyer. And not just any lawyer: Arthur Moses, the fearsome Sydney silk who was on the losing side of the defamation case.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 2

>>22964138 Talisman Sabre 2025:Talisman Sabre 2025 is coming from 13 July - 04 August 2025- Australia will host the largest ever Exercise Talisman Sabre from 13 July to 4 August 2025 with over 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations set to participate in activities across Australia, and for the first time, in Papua New Guinea. Now in its 11th iteration, Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral combined training activity between the Australian Defence Force and the United States military, reflecting the closeness of our Alliance. Participating partner nations in Talisman Sabre 2025 also include Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United Kingdom. Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam will also attend as observers. Talisman Sabre 2025 will focus on multi-domain warfighting. Key activities will include amphibious and airborne lodgements, firepower demonstrations, and combat across land, air, sea, space and cyber domains. The logistics for preparing, staging, integrating and moving forces to and around Australia are the most complex ever undertaken for a Talisman Sabre. The activities are scheduled to take place right across the nation, including Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, New South Wales and on Christmas Island. For the first time ever, Papua New Guinea will also host an activity, highlighting the growing capabilities and interoperability with Pacific partners as Papua New Guinea marks its 50th Anniversary of Independence.

>>22964138 Talisman Sabre -Magic Sword- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G02wKufX3nw - https://qalerts.pub/?q=Operation+Specialists - https://qalerts.pub/?q=magic

>>22968833 Anthony Albanese ducks as Russian envoy goes on the offensive - Vladimir Putin’s top envoy to Indonesia said on Monday that Russia views Australia as a “non-friendly state” that sanctions its President and supplies money and armaments to Ukraine, as Anthony Albanese dodged questions over whether he knew about Moscow’s request to base long-range military aircraft in Papua before the election campaign kicked off. The comments came as the Prime Minister faced fresh questions over the issue, first reported by the respected Janes defence journal on April 14, after having previously sown doubt over whether Russia actually made the request. Asked on Monday whether he knew what Russia was asking for before the election campaign - as revealed in The Australian – he appeared to change tack, saying he would not be goaded into using intelligence for political gain. “What adults do on intelligence is receive them and not do it – conduct it through the media,” Mr Albanese said. “When it comes to intelligence, adults act like adults.” The Prime Minister also told Sydney radio 2GB his government had been “completely clear that the Indonesia government have said that this is not going to happen and, what’s more, my opponent verballed the President of Indonesia, an important country that we have an important diplomatic ­relationship with”. “Russia, of course, will engage in the sort of propaganda that tries to assert its influence,” he said. “The truth is that Russia is struggling to beat the brave people of Ukraine under President Zelenskyy - something my government has backed Ukraine everyday.”

#41 - Part 45

Australian Politics and Society - Part 3

>>22973571 Cyclist injured in Blairgowrie crash with Daniel Andrews pockets secret out-of-court settlement - A cyclist struck by Daniel and Catherine Andrews’ SUV has pocketed a secret out-of-court settlement worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Herald Sun can reveal major law firm Slater & Gordon has agreed to hand over the massive payout to Ryan Meuleman just weeks before an explosive Supreme Court trial was due to begin. Ryan’s lawyer, Marcus Clarke KC, confirmed a confidential settlement had been reached over the family’s claim that the Labor-aligned law firm failed to act in his best interests in the aftermath of the crash. “In the end he received an offer too good to refuse,” Mr Clarke said. “I am pleased for Ryan. He now has closure in relation to his claim against Slater & Gordon.” But the “bike boy” dispute is far from over, with the Meuleman family moving to pursue the former Victorian premier and his wife directly through the courts over the near-fatal 2013 crash. “I’ve been telling the truth since I was 15 years old,” Ryan said. “The people in the car are next. They shouldn’t get away with lying either.” Ryan’s father, Peter Meuleman, said: “My son has been called a liar since he was a teenager. Can you imagine what that does to a boy? The truth will now come out in the lawsuits against Andrews and his wife for defamation. Ryan isn’t stopping. Damning evidence has been covered up and ignored for a decade. It was always there to find.” Mr and Mrs Andrews were served with concerns notices in January - separate to the Slater & Gordon case - over statements they made following the release of a damning review of the crash conducted by the state’s former Assistant Commissioner for Traffic and Operations Dr Raymond Shuey.

>>22973582 Video: Slater and Gordon reach settlement with Ryan Meuleman over 2013 crash with Dan Andrews’ vehicle - A cyclist left injured after a collision with former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ car more than a decade ago has agreed to settle a lawsuit against his former law firm. Ryan Meuleman launched legal action against Slater and Gordon alleging it failed to act in his best interest when negotiating an $80,000 compensation settlement with the Transport Accident Commission. Mr Meuleman, who was 15 at the time, was seriously injured in January 2013 after colliding with the then-Labor opposition leader’s Ford Territory, which was being driven by his wife Catherine at Blairgowrie. Mr Andrews and the couple’s three children were in the car at the time. The family have consistently denied any wrongdoing, and no charges were laid following an investigation by Victoria Police. Mr Meuleman spent 11 days in hospital after the crash. He has alleged the car struck him, while the Andrews’ have repeatedly insisted the cyclist crashed into their car. On Wednesday, Mr Meuleman’s lawyer, Marcus Clarke KC, confirmed the lawsuit had been settled after Ryan received a confidential offer “too good to refuse”. Details of the settlement are confidential, however, in a statement, Mr Meuleman said it felt incredible to be “supported and believed”.

>>22977695 ‘Secret recording’ win as Ben Roberts-Smith appeals war crimes ruling - Nine reporter Nick McKenzie has acknowledged writing in his book that he had “his balls in a vice” because his career would be over if he lost the defamation case brought against him by Ben ­Roberts-Smith, but insisted he was only ever motivated “to find evidence of truth”. McKenzie took the stand late on Thursday in Robert-Smith’s appeal against the finding that he was a war criminal, after the Federal Court ruled earlier in the day that the secret recording at the heart of the case should be ­allowed into evidence. The recording was a snippet of a phone conversation between McKenzie and Roberts-Smith’s former mistress, known in the case as Person 17, in which the journalist appears to admit having access to the war veteran’s privileged legal strategy. Roberts-Smith argues that this access gave Nine newspapers an unfair advantage in the defamation trial and constituted a miscarriage of justice. In cross-examination, barrister Arthur Moses, appearing for Roberts-Smith, probed McKenzie about whether it was ethical for a journalist to unlawfully gain unauthorised access to someone else’s personal data, and whether he had ever done so. “In your work as an investigative journalist, have you ever unlawfully gained unauthorised access to someone else’s personal data by using subterfuge?” Moses asked. “I believe - well, yes,” McKenzie replied. However, he strenuously denied acting unethically.

#41 - Part 46

Australian Politics and Society - Part 4

>>22982064 Video: Trump called this Australian billionaire a ‘red-haired weirdo’. Now, they’ve met again - Eighteen months ago, when a troubling story emerged alleging Donald Trump had disclosed sensitive information about US nuclear submarines to packaging magnate Anthony Pratt at Mar-a-Lago, Trump denied it and called the Australian billionaire a “red-haired weirdo”. Now, Pratt is a US green card holder and - having just announced his company will invest billions of dollars in American manufacturing – scored an invitation to a White House ceremony, where the president described him as a friend. Seated in the White House’s grand foyer on Wednesday, Washington time, about 80 dignitaries listened as Trump read through a list of business leaders who were contributing to US industry, like an emcee thanking donors at a charity ball. “Executive global chairman of Pratt Industries, friend of mine, Anthony Pratt - he’s investing $US5 billion ($7.82 billion), thank you,” Trump said as Pratt stood in his blue suit, flashed his hand up in thanks, and sat down again. Trump went on: “I read a report that he’s the richest man in Australia, but who the hell knows. Do you think you’re the richest man in Australia?” Pratt stood up again, hesitated and gestured to indicate he wasn’t sure. “Close,” Trump assisted. “I don’t like to put you on the spot like that, Anthony, but that’s pretty good.” According to the 2025 Forbes rich list, Pratt was the eighth-wealthiest person in Australia, though he is now US-based.

>>23012385 Video: American Robert Francis Prevost elected Pope Leo XIV - The new leader of the Catholic Church is the American cardinal Robert Prevost, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV. Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, emerged on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square early this morning Australian time to huge cheers and prolonging applause from the tens of thousands of people who stampeded into the area once the bells tolled and white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel on day two of voting. Amid wild excitement and cheers of “Abbiamo Papa, ole, ole, ole” Leo XIV emerged about an hour later quietly raising his hands and waving with both arms. He appeared to choke up when the crowd responded with chants of ‘Viva il Papa’. The new pope is a 69-year-old dual citizen, originally from Chicago, who took Peruvian citizenship after serving in that country for several decades. Most recently he has been the head of the church’s Dicastery for Bishops overseeing the selection of new bishops. Pope Leo XIV is not without controversy however. He was previously criticised for not doing enough within the church to deal with historic sexual assault allegations, although he had referred the complaints to the police. Leo XIV is considered a compromise candidate, and a centrist embracing a pastoral role not unlike Francis. However he opposes ordaining women as deacons and on other issues of church doctrine is somewhat conservative. Tim Costelloe, the Archbishop of Perth, was among the first to congratulate the new pope. “Cardinal Prevost brought to his most recent role as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops an approachability and willingness to listen which were no doubt developed throughout his many years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru. He will be warmly welcomed by the Church in Latin America, as Pope Francis was, by the Church in the United States from where he comes, from the English-speaking world as a native English speaker, and from the whole Church as a man of God steeped in the rich spirituality of his Augustinian Religious Order. As Pope Leo XIV, our new pope will bring the benefit of his wide experience to the many challenges and opportunities before him.”

#41 - Part 47

Australian Politics and Society - Part 5

>>23012408 Video: PM congratulates incoming Pope Leo XIV, invites him to Australia - Anthony Albanese has congratulated Pope Leo XIV and invited the new pontiff to Australia in three years’ time. Robert Prevost, 69, was announced as the 267th leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday (local time) after the Conclave deliberated for two days - one of the shortest papal elections in history. The first American pope, he was introduced as Leo XIV to the tens of thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square. The Prime Minister said on Friday the new pope’s “leadership comes at an important time for the Catholic Church and for the world”. “I will invite His Holiness Pope Leo to Australia for the International Eucharistic Congress which is being proudly hosted in 2028,” Mr Albanese told reporters at Parliament House. “And I’ve had discussions with Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, who of course I know very well, about the importance of Australia hosting that very significant event in just a few years’ time. “And I know that the Church here in Australia is very excited to have this privilege and honour.”

>>23012560 Google AI chatbot, Gemini, to be available to Aussie kids under 13 within months - Google will launch its Gemini AI chatbot for Australian children under 13 within months, the ABC can reveal. The tech giant is rolling out the program in the US this week, with a worldwide launch to follow in the coming months, although no date has yet been specified. The ABC understands the chatbot will be automatically available to children via Google's Family Link app after the launch, although parents will have the option to switch it off. "It's unusual to me that this would be turned on by default," said Professor Lisa Given, an expert in the social impact of technology at RMIT University. "It relies on parents … or the child themselves, having the skill to navigate the controls and turn things off." Multiple experts expressed alarm at the plan, saying AI chatbots pose more acute risks for children. They warned Google's Gemini chatbot has the potential to confuse, misinform and manipulate children. "Systems that are enabled by AI can certainly hallucinate or make up information," Professor Given said. Every expert the ABC spoke to had concerns younger people may have difficulty understanding that the chatbots are not human. "These systems really attempt to replicate or mirror how people engage with each other," said Professor Given, adding that even adults weren't immune to the illusion. "I've done some research looking at Replika, where adults were actually very much taken in … and really came to believe that they had a relationship with the system itself, very much like a friend or even a romantic partner," she said.

>>23012568 ‘I build relationships’: Albanese ready for crucial tariff negotiations with Trump - Anthony Albanese says his people skills will stand him in good stead when he sits down with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in coming weeks, in what looms as a pivotal meeting to plead Australia’s case for a tariff carve-out. “I build relationships with people,” the Prime Minister told Sky News when asked how he would navigate the encounter. “I have many friends in the business community, in the union movement, in civil society, groups that I’ve engaged with for a long period of time. “I’m pretty upfront in how I engage with people and I’ve developed that as well on an international level.” Mr Albanese will go into the meeting with a renewed mandate and fresh confidence following his election win and President Trump’s conciliatory sit-down with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney this week. A soon-to-be announced trade deal between the US and Britain, teased by Mr Trump on his Truth Social network on Wednesday, will also set a positive tone for the talks. The agreement will be the first of Mr Trump’s second term and comes as his administration progresses trade talks with India and Japan, and prepares for critical negotiations with China. Don Farrell, who hopes to be reappointed Trade Minister when Mr Albanese unveils his frontbench in coming days, is also preparing a diplomatic push to shore up Australia’s trade ties. If he retains his job, as is widely expected, he is likely to attend the APEC trade ministers meeting in South Korea next Thursday for talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and rattled Asian counterparts whose economies could be ruined by Mr Trump’s tariff blitz.

#41 - Part 48

Australian Politics and Society - Part 6

>>23024200 Video: Australian Nick Parsons killed in Ukraine while clearing mines - A former Australian Defence Force member killed in eastern Ukraine while clearing mines for an explosives disposal charity has been described as “a hero for Ukrainians” who was engaged in dangerous work close to the frontlines. Nick Parsons, who was working for a US-registered organisation named Prevail Together, was killed last week in Izyum. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman confirmed DFAT was “providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who died in Ukraine”. Mr Parsons, believed to be from Queensland, had been working to clear mines and other unexploded ordnance in Ukraine following a long stint in the Australian Defence Force, which one source said he had recently left. Izyum is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast region approximately 40km from the frontline. Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko told The Australian on Monday Mr Parsons was “a hero for Ukrainians who was on a very important mission”. “There are individuals like Nick Parsons who couldn’t sit on the couch, and decided to go and travel,” Mr Myroshnychenko said. “I understand he was trained to be an engineer … I understand there was also another British guy who he was with, and both of them got killed, as mates being there, they got rid of unexploded ordnance as well as mines.”

>>23027894 High Court to decide if information gathered on encrypted messaging app AN0M was legally obtained - The High Court will on Tuesday delve into the murky world of organised crime and encrypted messaging on an app known as AN0M, which was secretly controlled by the FBI and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The operation known as "Ironside" began in 2018, when phones with the app began to circulate among criminal elements, encouraged by people the police identified as "criminal influencers", who unwittingly recommended the devices. It appeared to be a secure way to send messages, except that every communication was being copied and forwarded to police. In 2021 there was a worldwide crackdown. The app had collected about 28 million messages, including 19 million relating to Australia. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) said there were nearly 1,000 arrests globally, with 42 tonnes of illicit drugs and $US58 million in cash and crypto currency seized. According to AFP data, there have been nearly 100 people in Australia charged, with drugs, firearms, and substantial amounts of money seized. The ACIC said at the time the operation "provided voluminous, invaluable intelligence and insight that has never been obtained before by Australian law enforcement". But now two South Australian men, who are alleged members of the Comancheros bikie group, want the High Court to find that information was not legally obtained. The two are charged with belonging to a criminal group and possession of prohibited firearms. Their lawyers will tell the High Court the evidence against them collected from AN0M should be inadmissible in their trial, because its collection breached The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. "The question is whether communications obtained covertly by the AN0M application were obtained as the result of an unlawful interception," their submissions to the court said.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 7

>>23032082 Video: Australian labourer Caleb List feared dead in Ukraine - A Queensland labourer who travelled to Ukraine three years ago to join the fight against Russia's invasion is feared to have been recently killed in battle, but authorities are yet to locate his remains. Sources in Ukraine have told the ABC that former Gladstone resident Caleb List, who signed up with Ukraine's armed forces in 2022, is believed to have died last month during heavy fighting in the Kharkiv region. In an interview in 2023 with German international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), the young Australian outlined his motivation for volunteering with Ukraine's Foreign Legion shortly after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion. "I wanted to test myself; I wanted to join the French Foreign Legion, I wanted to push myself to the extreme - so I came here with the same motivation, and I've basically done that and now I just do this because it's the only thing I'm really good at," he told DW. A figure connected to Ukraine's Armed Forces has told the ABC Mr List is believed to have been killed by artillery fire in heavily contested territory near the city of Izyum late last month, but his remains have not yet been recovered by his unit. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has declined to comment on the case, but in a statement, it reminded Australians that travel to Ukraine was considered extremely dangerous. "The Australian government has consistently advised Australians not to travel to Ukraine or Russia since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022," a DFAT spokesperson told the ABC. Before travelling to Europe, Mr List worked as a trade assistant at Queensland's Yarwun refinery. While at school he joined the army cadets but his subsequent application to become an Australian soldier was rejected.

>>23035935 Australia PM Albanese meets Indonesia counterpart in first international visit since re-election - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on defence cooperation and global trade on Thursday, describing Jakarta as an "indispenable partner" on his first international visit since his re-election. Albanese, sworn into office on Tuesday after his centre-left Labor party won an increased majority in parliament, said his visit showed the priority Canberra placed on defence and economic ties with Jakarta. "Indonesia is an indispensable partner for Australia," he said in opening remarks, meeting with Prabowo and ministers at the Presidential Palace. He urged Prabowo to forge closer defence ties with Australia, after an agreement was struck last year covering maritime security, counter-terrorism and disaster response. "Security is built on the sovereignty of every nation and the rules that govern all nations," he said when the two leaders addressed the media after their meeting. Indonesia committed to completing the ratification of the defence agreement, Prabowo said. "We will continue discussing the opportunities to improve and increase cooperation in defence sector," he said. Trade and investment, food security, energy transition and critical minerals were also discussed, Prabowo said. "We also invite Australia to participate more in our economy. It is important to strengthen such cooperation amid global economy uncertainty," he added.

>>23035962 Prabowo’s warm words for Albanese are tinged by a Russian shadow - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will back Indonesia’s inclusion in a free-trade deal that includes countries such as Japan, Canada and Mexico, in what would be a boost to the nation’s economy and further bolster its ties to Australia. In his first foreign visit since his May 3 election win, Albanese declared in Jakarta that he would support Indonesia’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Earlier, Albanese railed against Russia during a news conference before meeting with Prabowo, who visited Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin last year as president-elect. Their meeting comes weeks after respected military website Janes reported that Russia had lodged a formal request to base warplanes in Indonesia’s easternmost province, Papua, just 1400 kilometres from the Australian mainland - a report Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin later denied. “Russia, of course, will try to increase its influence,” Albanese said, while dodging questions about what Moscow had or had not asked of Prabowo and the Indonesians. “We make very clear our position when it comes to Russia around the world - be it the brutal invasion of Ukraine, its interference in cybersecurity issues as well, its tolerance of criminal organisations that have been involved in that – are anathema to our values.”

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 8

>>23041388 Ben Roberts-Smith loses appeal over war crimes judgment - After a seven-year defamation fight and tens of millions of dollars in legal costs, former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has failed in his bid to overturn a landmark decision that found he committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The former Special Air Service corporal launched a court challenge to his comprehensive loss against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald after a marathon defamation trial that was billed as a test of public interest reporting and a quasi war crimes investigation. But the Full Court of the Federal Court - Justices Nye Perram, Anna Katzmann and Geoffrey Kennett – unanimously dismissed his appeal on Friday and ordered him to pay the newspapers’ costs. Roberts-Smith was not in court to hear the judgment being delivered. The ruling was touted by Nine, the publisher of The Age and the Herald, as an “emphatic win” for investigative journalism. In a 2023 decision, Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko upheld the newspapers’ truth defence and found Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. The appeal court said in a summary of its decision that “we are unanimously of the opinion that the evidence was sufficiently cogent to support the findings that [Roberts-Smith] … murdered four Afghan men”. Besanko’s decision was made to the civil standard, on the balance of probabilities, rather than the higher criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. “I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,” Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, said in a statement after the decision.

>>23041418 The seven words that ended Ben Roberts-Smith’s $1.5m appeal bid - The dismissal of Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation appeal was clinical in its execution. One by one, Federal Court Justice Nye Perram, on behalf of the full bench, brushed the disgraced soldier’s claims into a dustpan, and tipped them into the bin. Dozens of sleepless nights, thousands of hours of work, millions of dollars in costs. Lawyers estimate Roberts-Smith’s bid to overturn the court’s 2023 finding that he was a war criminal set both sides back a combined $4 million, coming on top of the $30 million spent on the original 110-day hearing. A late bid to re-open the appeal last month alone contributed $1.5 million to the total. Perram dispensed of it in seven words: “The application should be dismissed with costs.” Roberts-Smith released a statement outlining his intention to appeal to the High Court. “I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,” he said.

>>23045675 Australia steps up bid for Pope Leo visit as PM visits Rome for inauguration - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met Catholic Church leaders in Rome ahead of the inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV, joining them at a sanctuary church that welcomes visiting Australians. Albanese met Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli at the church centre, which also houses Australians who have come to Rome for the mass. The church, called the Sanctuary of our Lady of Pompeii, has a connection with Pope Leo because he was elected by cardinals on May 8, the feast day for Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii. Albanese spoke briefly in the church’s rose garden, known as Domus Australia, about the importance of the inauguration mass for Australia’s 5 million Catholics. Earlier, the nation’s top diplomat at the Vatican, Keith Pitt, was stepping up attempts to bring Pope Leo to Australia in the first papal visit in two decades, in a key message ahead of the inauguration Mass on Sunday to confirm the new pope in office. The Australian ambassador-designate to the Holy See, also a former cabinet minister, Pitt was making the formal invitation one of the major priorities for the embassy as the new papacy begins. In an interview ahead of the inauguration Mass, Pitt named issues ranging from climate change, artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse as areas where the Australian government would seek to work with the new pope. He said Australia also wanted to work with Pope Leo and the Vatican on helping Pacific Island nations, a region with large numbers of Catholics.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 9

>>23045726 Video: Wong, Albanese attack ‘sham’ 13-year Russian prison sentence for Oscar Jenkins - Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Albanese government is appalled by the 13-year sentence in a Russian maximum-security prison handed to Australian Oscar Jenkins after he was convicted of fighting as a mercenary alongside Ukrainian forces. The 33-year-old from Melbourne, captured in December last year while serving in Ukraine’s military, was found guilty by a court in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. Russian authorities claimed Jenkins, a former biology teacher in China, was paid up to 800,000 rubles ($15,000) a month to participate in military operations against their troops in Ukraine. State-run media claimed he had “fully admitted his guilt”. Wong condemned the outcome, saying: “The Australian government is appalled at the sham trial and 13-year sentence given to Australian man Oscar Jenkins. “As a full-serving member of the regular armed forces of Ukraine, Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war. The Australian government has made clear to Russia that Mr Jenkins must be given the protections afforded to him as a prisoner of war. Russia is obligated to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment.” Wong’s comments were echoed hours later by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Let’s be very clear. This sentence by Russia is an outrage - it is a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities,” he said, speaking to reporters in Rome. “This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation, and their decision to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law.”

>>23049366 Video: Albanese to meet Zelenskyy amid moves to secure release of Jenkins - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Rome in the wake of the Inauguration Mass for Pope Leo XIV, as the government intensifies its efforts to free Australian man Oscar Jenkins from a Russian jail. Jenkins was captured in December last year after fighting for Ukraine, and earlier this week he was sentenced to 13 years in a Russian "penal colony" for fighting as a mercenary in the conflict. Mr Albanese slammed that decision as an "outrage" and called the legal process in Russia "very politicised" and invalid. He also said Russia was abrogating its responsibilities under international law because it had declared Jenkins a mercenary rather than an enemy combatant, which would impose additional obligations on Moscow. "It is a continuation of the way that they have behaved, abrogating their international responsibilities," he said. "This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation and to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law." The prime minister is expected to discuss Jenkins with the Ukraine president when they sit down on the sidelines of the massive gathering in Rome. Some analysts have speculated Australia might try to secure his freedom as part of a broader prisoner swap deal between Russia and Ukraine. Both countries made an in-principle agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners during a meeting held in Türkiye this week, although the two countries remain far apart on the fundamental issues that would underpin a deal.

>>23053629 Pope Leo vows not to be an autocrat, receives the ring of office - The faithful came in their thousands to see Pope Leo XIV begin his work as one of the world’s most powerful spiritual leaders, in a ceremony that combined ancient symbols and modern statecraft. Joining the faithful were national leaders, who networked before the Mass in their places at the front of the inauguration, proving the diplomatic reach of the Vatican. US Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat in the same area as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen and Prince Edward, representing King Charles. Zelensky and Vance shook hands - more than two months after the US vice president berated the Ukrainian president in the White House. Behind the scenes at the Mass, Rubio has spoken of the Vatican as a possible third party to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, highlighting the potential for the new Pope to become a trusted broker between states. The informal talks before the Mass gave Prime Minister Anthony Albanese time to speak with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and others. He met the Pope soon after the Mass, shaking hands briefly along with other leaders within the Vatican. Albanese was due to meet Zelensky and von der Leyen in separate talks after the Mass, as the ceremony gives way to an informal leadership gathering in Rome.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 10

>>23053647 Video: Another Catholic in the crowd: Anthony Albanese joins thousands at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration - In a sea of world leaders and ­ecstatic Catholics waiting for the era of Leo XIV to officially begin, Anthony Albanese stood out as much as any cardinal or nun in his Akubra. A Prime Minister at the height of his powers was among hundreds of dignitaries in Rome on Sunday, as he waited for the new Pope’s inauguration mass alongside the likes of JD Vance, Giorgia Meloni, new German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prince Edward standing in for the King. Mr Albanese started his time in the Holy See with Australian bishops admiring the masterpieces and the godliness of a church that has stood for thousands of years. And he was due to end the day firmly in the present with meetings with Europe’s top official, ­Ursula von der Leyen, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky scheduled. But for a few moments, Mr Albanese was just another Catholic in the crowd watching the first American pope take his place in a 2000-year-old story. “When Pope Leo gave his address after his election, he spoke about peace and justice in the world,” Mr Albanese said ahead of the mass. “And following on from what I think was an extraordinary role that Pope Francis played in sending out that message of justice and looking after the vulnerable and the poor … is important in today’s world, where we have so much turbulence and people are looking for some constancy, and they’re looking for higher values and a belief, that is important.”

>>23053666 Video: Europe seeks defence pact with Australia as tanks head to Ukraine - The European Union is seeking a defence pact with Australia to deepen military co-operation in a move that highlights fears of a sharp increase in global instability. The EU put the proposal to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Rome on Sunday in the hope of matching other defence partnerships that have cleared the way for closer intelligence work and joint exercises. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revealed the idea in talks with Albanese after the inaugural Mass for Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, saying it could add to European military ties with South Korea and Japan. The sharper focus on military ties with Europe is part of a wider debate about global security after US President Donald Trump took office in January and began threatening allies such as Canada. Von der Leyen did not name Trump in her public remarks with Albanese, but she declared that the security outlook had grown worse since she spoke to the prime minister at a summit in Brazil in November. “The geopolitical tensions have massively increased,” she said before the private talks began. “The good thing is, Australia and Europe are reliable partners. We’re predictable. We share the same values. And this is the reason also that we do not only see you as a trading partner, but we see you as a strategic partner, and we would very much like to broaden this strategic partnership.”

>>23053676 Video: Europe eyes defence pact with Australia - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held separate talks with EU president Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration mass on Sunday, assuring Mr Zelensky Australian tanks were on their way, as Russia’s brutal and ongoing invasion dominated discussions. At his meeting with the Ukrainian president, Mr Albanese pledged Australia’s continuing support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia and told Mr Zelensky that the promised M1A1 Abrams tanks were “on their way at the moment”. In April it was revealed that forty-nine Australian Army tanks promised to Ukraine six months ago were yet to leave the country. Mr Albanese also raised the fate of Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins, who was on Friday sentenced to 13 years in a Russian colony after being captured fighting for Ukraine. But he would not be drawn on whether he had asked Mr Zelensky to push for Mr Jenkins’s release in any future prisoner swap. “What we did was … in a diplomatic way, seek Ukraine’s further support for Oscar Jenkins,” he said. Mr Zelensky, who also met with US Vice President JD Vance in Rome and was expected to speak with Donald Trump by phone on Monday, thanked Mr Albanese for “the news of the tanks” and called for more economic sanctions against Russia. “Together we can really move this situation closer to peace with pressure on Russia and we are very thankful for sanctions,” he said. “I want to raise with you also this topic, which is very important, put more pressure, more sanctions on Russia.”

#41 - Part 53

Australian Politics and Society - Part 11

>>23053683 The haunting plight of Oscar Jenkins: ‘It’s just cold. I don’t like the cold’ - In a dimly lit video posted quietly to YouTube, Oscar Jenkins sits slouched and unshaven, his bruised face drawn with fatigue. His speech is slow and fragmented, as if he is assembling thoughts under the weight of something unspoken. The unverified video, posted in March, is the first of Jenkins speaking at length seen outside the war zone since his capture by Russian forces in Ukraine. What emerges is not the voice of a hardened mercenary, as Russian prosecutors would later allege, but that of a conflicted man swept up in a war he barely understands. “Personally, I don’t want to be in Ukraine … I don’t know Ukrainian culture,” the 33-year-old former Melbourne Grammar School student tells a person off-camera, who appears to be one of his captors. “I don’t know Ukrainian people very well. It’s just cold. I don’t like the cold … However, if there is a just war, maybe it is this Ukraine war, on the Ukraine side.” Jenkins’ murky rationale is hardly the call to arms of a political zealot. “I’m not very political,” he says, admitting much of his knowledge of the conflict was gleaned from Wikipedia. This masthead has not been able to verify when, where or the circumstances in which the heavily edited, 11-minute video was made. Jenkins’ reflections veer between history, geopolitics and personal discomfort. He references the shared culture of Russia and Ukraine, and makes vague assertions about land and liberty. “I think they want resources and land,” Jenkins says. “I think Putin maybe, I don’t know him, is interested in also having more land for Russia, maybe the USSR he has dreams of.” Then comes a moment of unexpected clarity: “I don’t want a world where people kill each other. I would rather have a world where there’s all peace, security, freedom. The best, the best world.”

>>23058406 Video: Nationals call it quits on decades-long coalition with Liberals - The Nationals will split from the Liberal Party after days of negotiations between the two sides failed to result in a coalition agreement, breaking with a century-long tradition. Nationals leader David Littleproud made the announcement at Parliament House on Tuesday, describing it as one of the "hardest political decisions of his life". He told reporters the Nationals would continue to work constructively with the Liberal Party but they would not re-enter into a formal coalition agreement at this stage. "The National Party will sit alone on a principle basis," Mr Littleproud said. "On the basis of looking forward, not having to look back, and to try and actually regain important policy pieces that change the lives of the people we represent." Emboldened by an election result that saw the minor party retain nearly all of its lower house seats while the Liberal Party went backwards, Nationals MPs had previously flagged that the arrangement was up for discussion. The sticking points for the minor party were the continuation of a nuclear power policy, the Regional Australia Future Fund, and the desire for divestiture powers for supermarkets. Hours after the Nationals announcement, a disappointed Ms Ley said the minor party had sought commitments on specific policies during negotiations. "I proposed that we stand up a joint shadow ministry consisting of Liberal Party shadow ministers and National Party shadow ministers," she said. "And that we then work separately on policies, as we should, in our separate party rooms and come together articulating what those policies are at the right time. The Nationals did not agree to that approach." The Liberals also argued the Nationals would not explicitly agree to traditional shadow cabinet solidarity, which obliges frontbenchers to back Coalition policies. But Ms Ley said she remained a "committed coalitionist" and that her door was open to restarting negotiations, but added that a fully Liberal frontbench would be unveiled later this week.

#41 - Part 54

Australian Politics and Society - Part 12

>>23058411 Video: ‘Door remains open’ says Sussan Ley amidst shock Coalition split following federal election disaster - Nuclear energy has blown up a political agreement between the Nationals and the Liberals after leaders failed to reach common ground but left the door open for a reconciliation. The traditional political marriage couldn’t be consecrated following a disastrous result for the Coalition at the federal election with the Nationals standing firm on wanting to retain four key policies. These included remaining committed to nuclear energy, divestiture powers to break up big supermarkets, a $20 billion investment fund that would disperse $1 billion a year on regional infrastructure and universal phone services. Landlines and payphones must have service no matter where they are in Australia but this doesn’t extend to mobile phones, which the Nationals have been fighting to include. Nationals Leader David Littleproud said the party didn’t want to have to re-prosecute the case to retain the policies it fought for under the previous agreement in opposition. “It’s on a principled position of making sure that those hard-fought wins are maintained and respected and we continue to look forward,” Littleproud told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley addressed the media in the afternoon, emphasising her commitment to the Coalition despite the recent split. “I really believe that the Coalition is stronger together, I am a committed Coalitionist,” she said. “I do pay tribute to my Liberal Party colleagues in this room now and their intention to work constructively for the future with new and different policies, but never stepping away from our timeless values. Our policies may change, our values never will. But we need to give that process due diligence and I, as leader, want to harness the real initiative, interest, talent and the smarts of so many.”

>>23058414 Anthony Albanese formally invites Pope Leo XIV to Australia in Vatican meeting - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, formally inviting the new pontiff to Australia for a major Catholic conference that Sydney will host in 2028. Mr Albanese met Leo XIV the day after the new pope's inaugural mass in Rome, hours after the pontiff met US Vice-President JD Vance. He is the first prime minister to have a private audience with the pope since Kevin Rudd, who met Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. The ABC has been told that Mr Albanese and the pope discussed their shared concerns about conflicts around the world and the humanitarian catastrophes they have wrought. The pope also blessed rosary beads that had been owned by the prime minister's mother Maryanne, a staunch Catholic who passed away in 2002. During their meeting on Monday local time, Mr Albanese gifted the new pope a framed Indigenous artwork by artist Amanda Westley, who is part of the Ngarrindjeri clan in South Australia. The prime minister also issued a formal letter of invitation to Pope Leo XIV to attend the International Eucharistic Congress, which Sydney will host in 2028. The congress is typically held every four years, and is expected to draw thousands of Catholics from around the world to Australia. Benedict XVI was the last pope to visit Australia, for World Youth Day in 2008. The prime minister had earlier met briefly with Pope Leo XIV on Sunday after the mass and had a "very warm" discussion before their longer meeting on Monday afternoon. Mr Albanese said that during that brief discussion, the pope had "expressed his affection for Australia". He said he had told Leo that Australia's 5 million Catholics "would be watching and wishing him well".

#41 - Part 55

Australian Politics and Society - Part 13

>>23062839 Video: Liberals back Nationals' split as 'necessary reset' after election lashing - Some senior Liberals have quietly voiced support for the Nationals' decision to walk away from the Coalition, describing the dramatic split as a necessary - if uncomfortable — reset following the opposition's devastating federal election defeat, even as Liberal luminary John Howard calls on the parties to reunite. While few are willing to endorse the move publicly, multiple Liberal MPs told ABC News the Coalition had become politically untenable, with the Nationals increasingly seen as obstructive on key policy fronts - particularly on climate policy — and a drag in crucial metropolitan electorates. "This gives us breathing space," one MP said. "After a loss like that, everything has to be on the table." Another added: "This helps us as Liberals rebadge and reposition. It's clear that the link with the Nationals was compromising our policies and hurting our brand appeal, especially in the cities. "They were net beneficiaries in the relationship. We were net losers in electoral terms and the link with the 'climate deniers' of Barnaby [Joyce] and [Matt] Canavan hurt us greatly in cities, with women, and with non-boomer voters." A third Liberal was more philosophical: "Maybe you have to hit rock bottom before you start to rebuild and part of hitting rock bottom is this split."

>>23067420 Video: Coalition seeks to reverse break-up just two days after sensational split - The Coalition could come back together within weeks after Nationals leader David Littleproud and Liberal leader Sussan Ley agreed to put their next steps on hold while they search for a fix that will allow their MPs to walk back into parliament together. Littleproud announced the dramatic about-face in a snap press conference in Canberra on Thursday, just two days after he walked away from the Coalition partnership - the first split in 38 years. He said it followed a meeting with Ley on Thursday morning, in which he agreed to her request that he give her time to convene a meeting of Liberal MPs to discuss the Nationals’ four policy demands for a Coalition agreement. Both Littleproud and Ley had planned to unveil their separate portfolio spokespeople on Thursday afternoon. But Littleproud said he had sent his team home from Canberra “in good faith”, and that Ley would also refrain from unveiling her frontbench pending further Liberal party room meetings. “This is a positive step forward, one in which we’ve always said we’d be productive and constructive, and I think the Nationals have acted in good faith,” he said. “I’m proud to say that we’ll allow this process to take place and the Liberal Party to convene at whatever period is for them and convenient for them, and I think that is the way forward in a mature and sensible. I’ve always said that I’d be constructive moving forward … This will allow time for a process for Sussan Ley to call her party room together to discuss those four policy areas.”

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 14

>>23067458 Video: ‘Look at Australia’: Trump ambushes South African president over ‘white genocide’ - US President Donald Trump confronted his South African counterpart with unfounded claims of a genocide of Afrikaner farmers, and ranted extensively about the American media, in another extraordinary and tense Oval Office meeting with a foreign leader. Trump dimmed the lights and played a video purporting to back up his assertions about the state-sanctioned mass murder of Afrikaners, the white ethnic minority that ruled South Africa during apartheid, as the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was made to watch. Trump twice cited Australia as evidence during the exchange, claiming both Australia and the United States were being flooded with white South African farmers. Dozens arrived in the US last week after the Trump administration fast-tracked their approval as refugees. “You take a look at Australia, they’re being inundated and we’re being inundated with people that want to get out,” Trump said. “This is a very serious situation and … if we had a real press, this would be exposed.” Trump held up printouts of articles about white farmers whom he said had been the victims of farm attacks, including robberies, land dispossession and murders. Gang violence is rife in South Africa, although as Ramaphosa and other officials pointed out during the Oval Office meeting, most murder victims in South Africa are black. “You’re taking people’s land away from them,” Trump told Ramaphosa. “We have not,” Ramaphosa responded. Trump continued: “And those people in many cases are being executed. And they happen to be white, and most of them happen to be farmers. That’s a tough situation, I don’t know how you explain that. How do you explain that? “We have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They’re also going to Australia, in a smaller number … They’re white farmers and they feel like they’re going to die.” Later, the White House issued links to several media reports it said proved Trump was right about the situation in South Africa. It included two reports from Australia’s news.com.au from 2017 and 2018, and a television editorial by Sky News Australia’s Rita Panahi.

>>23067527 Investigators probe Ben Roberts-Smith over more murders and video drinking from dead man’s prosthetic limb - The secretive agency investigating war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith over multiple murders, including cases not canvassed in his marathon defamation trial, has secured the co-operation of new witnesses. Amid the damning fresh evidence is footage of the disgraced ex-soldier swilling beer from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man he executed. Roberts-Smith’s comprehensive loss before the full bench of the Federal Court - which affirmed the finding that the Special Air Service Regiment veteran ordered the murder of four Afghans – paves the way for the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) to move to prosecute the former corporal. The OSI is examining suspected murders beyond the four cases that were part of the ex-soldier’s failed bid to clear his name. Five sources with knowledge of the OSI’s ongoing four-year investigation said its investigators had secured co-operation from key witnesses who had not participated in Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial. The OSI is working closely with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions as it builds its case against Roberts-Smith, having collected statements from over a dozen SASR soldiers who claim Roberts-Smith arranged or participated in executions, including an incident in which he kicked a bound civilian off a small cliff. The OSI has also uncovered a video of Roberts-Smith drinking from the prosthetic leg of a man he had earlier executed during an Easter Sunday 2009 operation targeting a compound called Whiskey 108. The video was filmed in a makeshift bar called the Fat Lady’s Arms at the Australian army base in southern Afghanistan and contradicts Roberts-Smith’s evidence during his defamation trial when he told Justice Anthony Besanko he had never drunk from the plastic leg.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 15

>>23072269 Liberals and Nationals closer on Coalition fix, spotlight moves to Littleproud leadership - The Liberal and National parties are inching towards reforming the Coalition after Liberal MPs gave Sussan Ley in-principle agreement for most of David Littleproud’s policy demands, but speculation is growing about Littleproud’s future as leader of the regional party. Ley convened a lively party room meeting on Friday afternoon at which her MPs gave their leader the authority to strike a deal with the Nationals to create a joint shadow cabinet by the time parliament resumes, days after Littleproud sparked chaos by splitting from the Liberals. Critically, the Nationals ditched the plan to build seven nuclear power sites, paving the way for a watered-down Coalition policy to merely lift the moratorium and allow for potential private investment into nuclear energy. The in-principle agreement does not extend to the precise details of Littleproud’s demands, which are still due to be thrashed out in a shadow cabinet. Moderate Liberal MPs expressed concerns about Littleproud’s demand, first reported in this masthead, to extend forced supermarket break-up laws to big-box retailers such as Chemist Warehouse and Officeworks. Liberals also have doubts about the administration and funding of the $20 billion regional building fund, highlighting the potential for a bumpy path back to reunification. The turbulent week in right-wing politics has led to chatter inside the Nationals about whether Littleproud could survive the affair. His leadership is bolstered by the lack of widespread support for any other contender, but former leader Barnaby Joyce told at least one colleague on Friday that Littleproud’s position was precarious.

>>23072429 Kevin Rudd says Donald Trump’s ban on foreign students at Harvard is ‘distressing’ - Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday revoked Harvard’s right to enrol foreign students - more than a quarter of its annual intake – in a major escalation of the President’s fight with one of the world’s most storied universities. The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, quickly slammed the move as “unlawful” and said it would hurt both the campus and the country, while one student said the community was “panicking”. Australia’s US Ambassador Kevin Rudd said the decision to block foreign students from enrolling at Harvard University was “distressing” for Australian students. Mr Rudd says he is working with the Trump administration following its decision. “We are monitoring closely developments at Harvard University in relation to the administration’s statement this afternoon on the future enrolment of international students,” Dr Rudd wrote in a post to social media platform X on Friday. “I know this will be distressing for Harvard’s many Australian students. The Embassy is working with the United States Government to obtain the details of this decision so that Australian students can receive appropriate advice.” According to the Ivy League institution, approximately 120 Australian students are enrolled at the university. The decision dramatically deepens the rift between Mr Trump and the university, and will force thousands of international students enrolled at the university to either relocate to another institution or leave the US entirely. Mr Trump is furious at Harvard, which has produced 162 Nobel prize-winners, for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 16

>>23079989 Taylor, Tehan and Paterson set for security roles in Ley’s top team - Sussan Ley and David Littleproud have agreed that the Nationals will receive six shadow cabinet spots and two outer ministry positions as part of negotiations on a Coalition frontbench that is expected to see Ms Ley’s Liberal rival, Angus Taylor, receive the foreign affairs or defence portfolio. After a tumultuous week that resulted in the Liberal and Nationals leaders poised to announce separate ministries as late as Thursday morning, Ms Ley and Mr Littleproud restarted talks on a Coalition agreement at the weekend and are expected to come to a position on the shadow ministry and policies such as ­nuclear energy in coming days. While Ms Ley reached out to former Nationals leaders Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce to broker a resolution to the split before Mr Littleproud agreed to renegotiate, ­neither MP expects to receive a frontbench position thanks to their roles in fuelling Nationals leadership speculation in recent days. “Barnaby (Joyce) and I will still contribute if we’re not selected in that leadership team. And who knows, we’ll probably be sitting up the back together,” Mr McCormack said. Despite suggestions within the Nationals that Mr Littleproud would not remain leader in “the long term” after his decision to split from the Coalition and then backflip on that decision, Mr Littleproud on Sunday said he was “relaxed” about his position. “The vast majority of my partyroom decided to leave the ­Coalition. I enacted what was directed,” he said on Sky News.

>>23079997 OPINION: Roberts-Smith’s rabid band of supporters has an outspoken new member - Gina Rinehart - "“What went on over there, stays over there.” - “You can’t judge combat from the comfort of an armchair.” - “What right have you to tear down our heroes?” - “It’s war, for god’s sake.” - Since the first public challenges to Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s reputation in 2017, those words, this retaliatory refrain, has been unrelenting and unchanged. All in the face of profound evidence revealing Australia’s most decorated living soldier is a war criminal. After last week’s 245-page rejection of Roberts-Smith’s Federal Court appeal and Justice Anthony Besanko’s 726-page ruling in 2023, the keen eyes of four judges have now found to a civil court standard that Roberts-Smith murdered four captives in Afghanistan. Under the Geneva Convention and Australia’s own laws of armed conflict, executing detainees is unlawful. But there are rules and there are norms, and the norms according to the “it’s war” apologists are based on an insiders’ “take no prisoners” realpolitik. Within the Defence diaspora, online debate runs hot and loud. The “I stand with Ben” brigade is undeterred by the court rulings. Brigadier Adrian d’Hage, former head of Defence public relations who was awarded a Military Cross for his service in Vietnam, is taking them on. And he’s far from alone among soldiers with combat experience disavowing the so-called realists’ justification for murder. “That is not the way we fight. We have a long and hard-won reputation as being feared fighters, but fighters who engage according to the Geneva Convention,” d’Hage says. Billionaire Kerry Stokes has spent millions on Roberts-Smith’s case. Multi-millionaire John Singleton funded a full-page newspaper advertisement describing attacks on the war hero as “disgraceful”. And now Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, is quoted querying why this “brave and patriotic man” should be “under such attack”. I can only wonder what is in their minds. Do they believe that in their real world, ruthlessness is a necessity that should be honoured?" - Chris Masters, Gold Walkley award-winning journalist and the first Australian journalist to be embedded with special forces in Afghanistan - theage.com.au

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 17

>>23080001 Video: Footage released of Qld man feared dead in Ukraine - Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia has released footage of the Queenslander feared dead in “Russian-controlled territory”, offering a glimpse into his efforts during the war. Gladstone builder, Caleb List, joined the Ukrainian foreign legion after he was rejected by the Australian Army. It is understood Mr List went missing and is believed to have been killed following fighting in the Kharkiv region last month. The YouTube video, posted by Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia, Vasul Myroshnychenko on Saturday, offered a glimpse into Mr List’s life on the Ukrainian front lines, where he had been fighting since 2022. At the start of the video, Mr List talks to the camera, stating, “It’s a good fight. It’s a necessary fight, so that is why I am here in the cold freezing my arse off”. A montage of photos and snippets of his efforts with the Ukrainian Army follows, including videos of Mr List during training exercises, working on the ground, and joking with fellow soldiers. The caption for the YouTube video read that it would be “known for certain” whether Mr List was dead once his body, which remained in Russian-controlled territory, could be recovered and identified. “For now, I ask you to remember Caleb. If he is alive, we will work on getting him swapped,” the caption read. “If he is dead, we will mourn him and will never forget his ultimate sacrifice.”

>>23090691 Coalition gets back together after week-long split - The Liberal and National parties have struck a deal to reunify, a week after the Coalition's extraordinary split in the wake of a ruinous election defeat. The ABC has been told a press conference will be held later today, and that frontbench positions are being allocated. Nationals Leader David Littleproud announced last Tuesday that his party would be ending the Coalition Agreement with the Liberals over four policy issues the party demanded be kept. Days later, the Liberal Party agreed in principle not to include those policies - nuclear power, a Regional Australia Future Fund, break-up powers for the supermarket sector and better mobile coverage in the bush — in a sweeping review of the Coalition's election loss. The Liberals and Nationals will not pursue their election commitment to build seven nuclear power plants, but will continue to push to lift the national ban on nuclear power. The parties have also negotiated a position on three other election commitments: to introduce divestiture powers that could be used to break up supermarket and hardware store chains found to be abusing their market power, a $20 billion future fund that could be drawn down on to pay for regional services and infrastructure, and minimum broadband speeds of at least 25Mbs and basic mobile service requirements for regional and rural Australia.

>>23090698 Jane Hume dumped, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price demoted in Sussan Ley’s new shadow cabinet - Sussan Ley has dumped work-from-the-office policy architect Jane Hume from shadow cabinet and demoted conservative stalwart Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in a major refresh of her depleted Coalition team. After repairing the Coalition deal following a week of chaos on Wednesday, the Opposition Leader and Nationals leader David Littleproud announced a new opposition frontbench in Canberra. Senator Hume was the highest-profile casualty of the shuffle, losing a position on the frontbench altogether. The Victorian had suffered significant backlash within Coalition ranks after her push to get public servants to stop working from home was successfully weaponised by Labor, and her comments claiming “Chinese spies” could be working on polling booths went viral. After Senator Hume supported Angus Taylor in the Liberal leadership ballot, Ms Ley claimed she had a big future ahead of her, despite having just removed her entirely from the frontbench. Senator Price, who abandoned the Nationals for the Liberals in a failed run for the latter’s deputy leadership, has been pushed to the outer shadow ministry and will be the spokeswoman for defence personnel.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 18

>>23090699 Tesla wins council approval for new factory in South Australia despite vocal anti-Musk sentiment - Elon Musk’s Tesla is one step closer to opening a factory in Adelaide despite overwhelming community opposition expressing “anti-Tesla and anti-Elon Musk sentiment”. On Tuesday night the City of Marion council voted to seek state government approval to sell the site to a developer who will build a battery-repurposing factory, a showroom and servicing facilities. Environmental concerns and worries the site will draw protesters were cited by those opposed to the plan. Ninety-five per cent of submissions called for the application to be rejected. Many voiced their opposition with words that were censored in the city’s official records, such as “Elon Musk and Tesla are a [redacted] on humanity”. Tesla sales have slumped amid a backlash against Musk for his work for the Trump administration, including slashing funding for government departments through his “department of government efficiency”, as well as his ideology and actions including what some saw as an apparent fascist salute. But Marion’s mayor, Kris Hanna, said blocking the sale of the site would have no impact on Musk and would have cost 100 local jobs. Hanna said the site’s soil was contaminated and not safe for recreation, so “it makes sense to have it sealed over with a renewable technology facility”. “If we didn’t proceed, it would have cost 100 jobs to local residents but it would have had no impact on Elon Musk,” he said. “Tesla would almost certainly find somewhere else in Australia to build their factory.” The factory is to be used to recover and recycle Tesla lithium-ion batteries.

>>23092967 Australia: They use mass immigration to create a housing crisis, which they use to push more people into renting - “You will own nothing” - In the following essay, Alison Bevege details how the housing crisis in Australia has been deliberately created using mass immigration. As housing becomes unaffordable for native Australians, large corporations swoop in to “save the day” by constructing build-to-rent tower blocks. In the vein of WEF’s “you will own nothing,” build-to-rent homes create permanent renters. “They want private property ownership phased out in favour of build-to-rent,” Bevege writes. When the housing crisis seems to be waning, the cycle begins again. The corporations which are building properties for rent lobby the government to increase migration, creating a housing crisis, which the lobbyists then use to remove more private ownership of property by building properties to rent. Using immigration, they have found a way to create a permanent crisis for which their solution, so they will tell you, is required. The Australian government has announced that it wants to import 13.5 million migrants by 2065, averaging 235,000 additional migrants each year. That’s enough immigrants per year to keep the housing crisis scam going for the next 40 years. This scam is not only affecting Australians; it is a global affair. The same scam is operating in the UK and the US, and some of the corporations involved are Canadian.

>>23094571 Australia will keep pushing US to drop Trump tariffs after court ruling, trade minister says - Australia will continue to push Donald Trump to abandon his administration’s tariff regime entirely, after a US court blocked the president’s “liberation day” tariffs from coming into effect. The Manhattan-based court of international trade said the US constitution gives the Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other countries, and ruled that power was not superseded by the president’s self-declared “emergency” he cited to safeguard the US economy. The Trump White House filed an appeal against the judgment minutes after it was handed down. The regime imposed a 10% across-the-board tariff on all Australian imports to the US. Several specific products, including steel and aluminium, are subject to higher tariff rates, up to 25%, which are not impacted by the court’s ruling. The Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, said the Australian government would agitate for tariffs on Australian goods to be dumped entirely. “We will study this ruling of the US Federal Courts on reciprocal tariffs closely and note that they may be subject to further legal processes through the courts,” he said. “The Albanese Government has been consistent in the view that these tariffs on Australian imports into the US are unjustified,” Farrell said. “We will continue to engage and strongly advocate for the removal of tariffs.” The US court found Trump overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board tariffs on imports from countries all over the world. Trump called the tariffs, announced on 2 April, America’s “liberation day”.

#41 - Part 61

Australian Politics and Society - Part 19

>>23094582 Video: Kevin Rudd says Australia can solve US critical minerals dilemma - Kevin Rudd says a draft accord proposed by Australia and presented to the Trump administration would allow the US to effectively become self-reliant in critical minerals, bolstering American economic resilience against China and strengthening ties between Canberra and Washington. Speaking at the Mackinac Policy Conference in Detroit, Dr Rudd said there were opportunities to enhance collaboration with America in the areas of critical minerals and by tapping the power of Australian superannuation funds for US-based investments - including in Michigan. The Australian ambassador also identified a key challenge for democracies in an era of growing political polarisation - the prevention of social disruption which threatened to break the “democratic contract between government and the governed”. A failure on this score would lead people to “look for alternatives”, he said. Speaking in conversation with Sandy Baruah, the chief executive of the Detroit Regional Chamber, Dr Rudd warned that China was seeking to entrench its dominance “across the 50 categories of critical minerals” designated by the US government. “The President of the United States has said this is a strategic priority. We agree with him,” he said. “The geology of the United States does not permit you to be self-reliant in all 50 because they’re not all here. But if you add Canada and Australia, you are. So what we need to work out - and we have a draft accord with the administration at present on these questions – is how do we collaborate both on the mining, the extraction, the transportation and the processing and the stockpiling to make our economies resilient, including what you’ll need for future battery manufacture for the future.”

>>23094587 War crimes investigator launches raids in major escalation - The elite anti-war crimes agency probing the involvement of ex-SAS soldiers in executions in Afghanistan conducted surprise raids in Perth on Wednesday as part of its ongoing investigations. It is the first time the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) has launched raids on targets and amounts to a major escalation of its almost five-year inquiry into civilian deaths at the hands of Australian soldiers. The raids were confirmed by three official sources not permitted to speak publicly about the agency’s work. It is not clear if the raids were connected to the OSI’s examination of disgraced former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, although detectives from the agency have spent months finalising the statements of witnesses who have agreed to testify against the disgraced war hero over his execution of prisoners and civilians. The OSI is examining suspected murders beyond the four cases that were part of the ex-soldier’s failed bid to clear his name. Witness statements collected by the OSI also deal with attempts by Roberts-Smith to cover up his war crimes. The raids were welcomed by SAS veterans who served in Afghanistan and who believe Roberts-Smith and the small number of other soldiers who allegedly executed civilians and prisoners brought shame onto the special forces regiment and should be held to account. However, veterans who back the war crimes suspects turned to social media to attack the OSI actions, claiming the raids were unjust. One post claimed the war crimes investigators, who include some of Australia’s most experienced homicide detectives, were trying to “shake the tree” to find evidence.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 20

>>23099153 Video: Call to arm: US in direct defence spending plea to Richard Marles - Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has issued a direct call for Australia to lift defence spending in face-to-face talks with Richard Marles, amid a US push for its global allies to stop free-riding off American military power. The Defence Minister assured his US counterpart that Australia was “very much up for that ­conversation”, just a day after Anthony Albanese ridiculed the nation’s top strategic think tank over its criticism of Australia’s “business as usual” defence budget. The US Defence Secretary’s call comes ahead of the Prime Minister’s first meeting with the US President in a fortnight at the G7 summit in Canada, where Mr Albanese will be looking for tariff ­relief and a firm commitment from Mr Trump to the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership. The government left the ­defence budget languishing at about 2 per cent of GDP in the March budget, rising to a forecast 2.33 per cent in eight years, despite its own warnings of unprecedented strategic circumstances and US calls for allies to lift military spending to at least 3 per cent of national output. Mr Marles revealed Mr Hegseth urged him to boost the ­defence budget when they met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday.

>>23103541 Video: ‘Unjustified’: Donald Trump claims steel tariff will double, as Australia lashes surprise move - Donald Trump has claimed the tariff rate on steel will double to 50 per cent, drawing the ire of the Australian government. The US President blurted out the latest development in his trade war at a steel mill rally in Pennsylvania, on Saturday morning Australian time. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said the latest tariff hike was unjustified. Mr Farrell has flagged a meeting, brokered by US Ambassador Kevin Rudd, with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Paris sometime next week. “This is certainly not the act of a friend, we’ve had a very long and trusting relationship with the United States… We’re going to coolly and calmly argue for the removal of these tariffs,” Minister Farrell said. The Labor minister pointed to the government’s track record negotiating with China on tariffs imposed on Australian products during the Morrison government. He will also meet with Chinese trade representatives on Monday for the 10th time which he says will ensure continued “tariff-free” trade with the nation’s biggest trading partner. Earlier in the day, Mr Farrell said Australia’s position had been consistent and clear. “These tariffs are … an act of economic self harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade. We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs.”

>>23103570 Video: ‘Real and could be imminent’: Hegseth warns on China threat, says US ready to fight - US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has delivered a blistering warning to China that America stands ready to “fight and win decisively” if it seeks military conflict over Taiwan, declaring the threat posed is real and could be imminent. In a strident speech to top defence officials from across the Indo-Pacific, Hegseth said the region was America’s “priority theatre” and declared the Trump administration had a renewed focus on deterring China. He said the US would not instigate conflict with China or seek regime change, but in a significant declaration of policy said “we will not be pushed out of this critical region, and we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated”. “There’s no reason to sugar coat it. The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent,” he said in the speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s leading security conference. America’s goal was to prevent war through forceful deterrence, he said - but if that failed, the US would act. “If deterrence fails and if called upon by my commander in chief, we are prepared to do what the Department of Defence does best, to fight and win decisively,” Hegseth said. Hegseth’s remarks are some of the strongest to date from the Trump administration about its preparedness to defend the Indo-Pacific with military force in the face of increasing Chinese territorial aggression in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. He also used the speech on Saturday to press US partners in Asia to boost defence spending towards 5 per cent of gross domestic product. Hegseth had already pushed his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, to ramp up defence spending to counter China’s increasing assertiveness. Marles declined to divulge what figure the pair discussed, but the demand would likely mean billions of dollars in extra defence funding.

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>>23103619 ‘Peace through strength’: Marles backs Hegseth after ‘stark’ China warning - Defence Minister Richard Marles has endorsed a blistering address by his US counterpart warning China that America stands ready to “fight and win decisively” if Beijing seeks military conflict over Taiwan. In a strident speech to top defence officials from across the Indo-Pacific on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the region was America’s “priority theatre” and that the threat posed by China is real - and potentially imminent. Speaking to this masthead after the address - the first major declaration of the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific policy – Marles described it as “a very clear articulation of American intent, that what they seek is peace through strength”. “It gives us a lot to work with in terms of working with this administration … there was a really clear focus on allies and partners,” Marles said in an interview on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Security Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence summit, in Singapore on Saturday. “One of our key concerns is that we have witnessed with China the biggest conventional military build-up of any country since the end of the Second World War, and that has happened without strategic reassurance or transparency.” Hegseth used his speech to send the message that the US would not instigate conflict with China or seek regime change, while reassuring allies the US was prepared to defend the region in the face of China’s increasing territorial aggression in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, saying “we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated”. Hegseth also made clear the Trump administration would push its Asian allies to ramp up defence spending to near 5 per cent of gross domestic product, in line with commitments by NATO partners, which he claimed were spending more to combat a less formidable threat.

>>23106959 ‘We’ll determine our defence policy’: PM pushes back on Hegseth pressure over China - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pushed back on US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s calls for Australia to ramp up its defence spending to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Hegseth made the request to Defence Minister Richard Marles when the pair met on Friday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, where the US defence chief later delivered a strident speech warning China posed a real and potentially imminent threat to the region. But on Sunday, Albanese defended Australia’s defence spending and policy settings when asked about Hegseth’s remarks, and whether Australia would lift its defence budget to 3 per cent of gross domestic product - the figure the Trump administration has previously nominated. “What we’ll do is we’ll determine our defence policy, and we’ve invested just across the forward [estimates], an additional $10 billion in defence. What we’ll do is continue to provide for investing in our capability but also investing in our relationships in the region,” Albanese said at a press conference in Tasmania. “Our position with regard to Taiwan is very clear, has been for a long period of time, which is a bipartisan position to support the status quo.” The prime minister’s comments on defence spending contrast with those made by Marles, who has also defended the government’s investment but has said that Australia was “absolutely up for having this conversation” with the US about increasing it further.

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>>23106961 Albanese urged to confront Trump in person after doubling down on tariffs - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned Donald Trump’s latest tariff salvo on Australian metals, describing it as reckless as the opposition urged Albanese to confront the US president about the trade strikes during a coming meeting. On Saturday, Trump said he would double tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to 50 per cent, days after the Court of International Trade found Trump had overstepped his authority to enact a baseline 10 per cent blanket tariff on all types of goods. The steel and aluminium tariffs were underpinned by a different set of laws to the 10 per cent across-the-board tariff, meaning Australia must secure an exemption to get out of it. The US eliminated tariffs on British steel and aluminium in a deal with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May, creating a precedent for Australia to strike a similar agreement when Albanese and Trump meet for the first time this month. They are expected to meet either on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada or during a trip to the US. Speaking in Hobart on Sunday, Albanese said the new trade barrier, which will affect about $1 billion worth of Australian metal exports, represented an “inappropriate action by the Trump Administration”. “This is an act of economic self-harm by the United States that will increase the cost for consumers in the United States,” he said, echoing the language he used after Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs. “Because it is [applied] across the board, what it will do is not create any comparative advantage or disadvantage for Australia compared with other countries that export into the United States. This is something that will just increase the cost for consumers in the United States.”

>>23111511 US asked Australia to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP - Australia has been asked to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP “as soon as possible,” with the request being relayed directly from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore. This is a major increase on the current levels of defence spending and would require the government to pour many tens of billions of extra money into the defence budget. It is also a significant step-up on the three per cent of GDP that US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Elbridge Colby, had signalled was needed in his nomination hearing in March. The American readout of the meeting between Mr Hegseth and Mr Marles, who is also the Australian Defence Minister, stated that the two men “discussed aligning investment to the security environment in the Indo-Pacific, accelerating US force posture initiatives in Australia, advancing defence industrial base co-operation, and creating supply chain resilience.” However, it also noted that, “on defence spending, Secretary Hegseth conveyed that Australia should increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of its GDP as soon as possible.” The US is pushing its allies and partners across the world to contribute more to their own defence rather than seeking to free ride on the American defence shield and nuclear umbrella. Mr Marles previously acknowledged that Mr Hegseth had urged Australia to increase defence spending following their meeting late last week. But he did not disclose the exact increase requested by his US counterpart.

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>>23111526 Video: Albanese government must decide how to respond to Trump call on defence spending - "After being spectacularly called out by the Trump administration over its go-slow increase in defence spending, the Albanese government now faces a dilemma of its own making about how to respond. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has deliberately provoked Australia by publicly stating the Trump administration wants a dramatic increase in spending from 2 per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent. Hegseth did not need to reveal this request publicly, but chose to do so in order to increase pressure on Australia to lift its contribution to regional and global security. Indeed Defence Minister Richard Marles tried to hide the specifics of their meeting in Singapore by failing to mention the 3.5 per cent figure to Australian media. Why was Marles so shy? Because it now puts the Albanese government in a very awkward spot - a spot for which it alone is responsible. If the government rushes to increase defence spending now, it risks being seen as a lackey of Trump and would make a lie of Albanese’s insistence that “we’ll determine our defence policy”. Yet to do nothing and completely ignore the requests of our closest ally - a country which is asking all of its allies to step up around the world – makes Australia appear like a laggard on collective global security at a time of grave strategic uncertainty. Such a vocal call-out by the Trump administration would not have been necessary if the government had done the right thing before the election and pledged a meaningful increase in defence spending." - Cameron Stewart - theaustralian.com.au

>>23111593 Taiwan tipping point as US-Australia forces prepare for war - Australia and the US have ­elevated military exercises and ­security agency co-operation to a war footing amid China’s unprecedented armed forces build-up in the Indo-Pacific and fears Xi ­Jinping could imminently move to invade Taiwan, triggering a major global conflict. The new flashpoint in US-China relations was sparked when US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Beijing was preparing to potentially use military force to “alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific” and that Mr Xi had ordered his armed forces to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027. Mr Hegseth’s speech, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, which was immediately ­attacked by Chinese officials who cautioned the US to not “play with fire” on Taiwan, came amid an ongoing build up of American military personnel in Australia. The US has been strengthening its military presence in northern Australia and enhancing collaboration with Australian defence and security agencies as it prepares for the prospect of regional conflict with China. With close to 2500 marines rotating through the Northern Territory, the US military presence in Australia has hit its highest levels since the end of World War II. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations will participate in the 11th Exercise Talisman Sabre, led by Australia and the US, from July 13 to August 4. The largest ever Talisman Sabre will be staged at sites in Australia and, for the first time, Papua New Guinea, consisting of live-fire and field training exercises, force preparation activities, amphibious landings, ground force manoeuvres, air combat and maritime operations.

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>>23111605 Talisman Sabre 2025: United Kingdom’s flagship carrier HMS Prince of Wales leads Strike Group heading to Darwin - A powerful British Carrier Strike Group is heading to Darwin. The Strike Group is led by the United Kingdom’s flagship carrier HMS Prince of Wales and will be accompanied by the Royal Navy’s destroyer HMS Dauntless and frigate HMS Richmond. It will be the first time since in almost two decades that a British carrier will visit Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Industry and Pacific Island Affairs Pat Conroy confirmed the Carrier Strike group’s Darwin visit and its participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre. In an address to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Mr Hegseth said the threat posed by China to the region’s balance of power was real. Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia cannot rely on the United States alone to counter China’s military strength in the Indo-Pacific. Minister Conroy said Australia and the United Kingdom stand shoulder to shoulder against challenges to the rules-based global order. “We’re very excited to see the carrier strike group in Australian waters.” Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 has 19 nations taking part. It is a large-scale, multinational military exercise hosted by Australia. It will be the eleventh iteration of the exercise and will focus on multi-domain war fighting, including land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains. The exercise will involve more than 30,000 personnel and will take place from July 13 to August 4, 2025. For the first time, Talisman Sabre 2025 will include activities in Papua New Guinea, in addition to areas across Australia.

>>23111605 Talisman Sabre -Magic Sword- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G02wKufX3nw - https://qalerts.pub/?q=Operation+Specialists - https://qalerts.pub/?q=magic - https://qresear.ch/?q=Talisman+Sabre

>>23115808 Video: Greens aghast as Dorinda Cox jumps ship to Labor - Dorinda Cox’s shock defection from the Greens to Labor has blindsided her former colleagues and angered ex-staffers who had complained of bullying during their time in her office. Senator Cox appeared alongside Anthony Albanese at Perth’s Kings Park on Monday just over an hour after she called Greens leader Larissa Waters to inform her of her decision. The West Australian senator’s defection followed months of internal conflict within the Greens over Senator Cox, the failure of her bid to become deputy leader in the wake of last month’s dismal election showing, and the growing realisation that she was not going to be preselected in a winnable position on the party’s next Senate ticket. Several former staffers to Senator Cox came forward last year with claims that they had been bullied by the senator and had ­endured a toxic workplace environment marred by extremely high levels of staff turnover. While her parliamentary colleagues had been broadly supportive of the senator in the wake of last year’s bullying allegations, many of the rank-and-file Greens members in Western Australia are understood to have seen things very differently. She had also long ago lost the support of the party’s Indigenous faction, the Blak Greens, and many prominent members of the Indigenous community. Senator Cox had a fractious relationship with another Greens Senate ­defector, Lidia Thorpe, and had been concerned about reports - denied by Senator Thorpe – that her rival still had influence over the Greens.

>>23115822 ‘All dealt with’: Albanese defends Greens defector after bullying allegations - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insists bullying complaints against West Australian senator Dorinda Cox were dealt with appropriately as he hailed her shock defection from the Greens to join his government. The move represents a body blow to the Greens, which lost three of its four lower house seats, including that of former leader Adam Bandt, at the election but had held its ground in the Senate. Cox said she only informed new Greens leader Larissa Waters of her decision 90 minutes before Albanese held an afternoon press conference with Cox in Perth on Monday before a cabinet meeting in the state on Tuesday. “I have reached a conclusion after deep and careful reflection that my values and priorities are more aligned with Labor than the Greens,” Cox said. “I’ve worked hard to make Australia fairer and much more reconciled. But recently, I’ve lost some confidence in the capacity for the Greens to assist me in being able to progress this.” Albanese said the problems had been addressed. “We examined everything that had been considered in the past. Those issues were dealt with appropriately. My government has established very clear guidelines,” Albanese said. “They were all dealt with in Senator Cox’s case and dealt with appropriately.”

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>>23115832 Bullying complaints against Labor’s Dorinda Cox ‘not over’ - Indigenous and Jewish leaders have questioned Dorinda Cox’s decision to defect from the Greens to Labor, with one of the senator’s former staffers warning that bullying allegations against the senator are not settled. Senator Cox made the shock announcement of her move to Labor on Monday, just weeks after she missed out on the deputy leadership of the Greens. She said her switch - which also came days after Environment Minister Murray Watt approved the North West Shelf gas extension she had opposed – showed that her “values and priorities are more aligned with Labor”. The West Australian senator looked increasingly unlikely to secure a winnable spot on the Greens’ next Senate ticket amid tensions between her and party members. Senator Cox last year apologised after multiple staff came forward with allegations that they had been bullied during their time in her office, and many grassroots Greens members and the Blak Greens faction are angry about what they see as a lack of action from the top of the party in response to those complaints. Anthony Albanese on Monday said the allegations had been “dealt with” through the appropriate channels. One of the complainants against the senator, Esther Montgomery, told The Australian on Tuesday that she had “no doubt” that her decision to join Labor would ultimately end in tears for the Albanese government. “Dorinda Cox is a creature of habit. She’s a bully by nature, and it’s going to be very, very interesting, the dynamics within the party,” she said. Ms Montgomery, an Indigenous elder and veteran activist, spent a “nightmare” two months employed in Senator Cox’s office and went public with her complaints last year.

>>23115924 TikTok fires shot in social media war, putting heat on the federal government’s crackdown - The Albanese government will come under enormous pressure to deliver on its pre-election pledges relating to social media age restrictions and the news media bargaining code, as tech companies prepare well-funded public campaigns to lobby for amendments to the laws. Video-sharing app TikTok fired its first post-election shot at the federal government last week, paying tens of thousands of dollars for four-and-a-half pages of advertising in the Nine-owned Australian Financial Review extolling the supposed educational and social benefits for children who use the social media platform. In December, the government passed legislation to ban children under 16 from accessing certain social media platforms, including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, but granted an exemption for YouTube because of its perceived educational value. That decision has angered YouTube’s commercial rivals, which are preparing extensive ad campaigns in the weeks and months ahead seeking to undermine the federal government’s social media legislation, due to come into effect in December. The intense lobbying in Australia by the social media platforms, and companies Meta and Google with regards to the media bargaining code, is complicated by the political landscape in the US, where tech companies are seeking to closely align themselves with the Trump administration, which is broadly sympathetic to their cause.

>>23115940 US Space Forces Indo-Pacific commander highlights growing role of space in regional security at Australian Space Summit - U.S. Space Force Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, USSF Indo-Pacific commander, emphasized the critical role of space capabilities in ensuring stability across the Indo-Pacific region at Australian Space Summit 2025, May 27-28. Speaking to a diverse audience of defense leaders, industry partners, and policymakers, Mastalir underscored the evolving mission of the U.S. Space Force and the depth of the U.S.-Australia military alliance during a keynote address and panel discussion. “In light of today’s challenges and the imperative for a robust, integrative response … we established U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific in 2022,” Mastalir said. “Our mission remains unchanged: integrated space operations to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific.” Mastalir highlighted the recent establishment of Space Force components in South Korea and Japan, underscoring a growing forward presence designed to deter threats and enhance operational integration with allies. “Guardians in these components work side by side with our allies to integrate space capabilities into military operations and protect friendly forces from space-enabled attacks,” he explained. He also reaffirmed the indispensable role of Australia in U.S. defense strategy, “Australia is not just a strategic partner, but a true friend, and an essential pillar of deterrence here,” Mastalir said. “Our nations have forged a bond that is both enduring and meaningful.”

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>>23120646 Video: Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter tables no-confidence motion in Premier Jeremy Rockliff - Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has warned the state will head to the polls early if Labor's no confidence motion in him is successful. Mr Rockliff's leadership hangs by a thread, with the Greens' decision about whether to support a no-confidence motion set to determine whether or not he stays in the top job. Labor leader Dean Winter declared during his budget reply speech on Tuesday that he had no confidence in Mr Rockliff. Mr Winter's position has already won the backing of three crossbenchers - independents Kristie Johnston and Craig Garland, and Jacqui Lambie Network MP Andrew Jenner. "Today, I've tabled a motion that says the house has no confidence in this premier, because he's wrecked the budget, because he's planning to sell our power companies, our ports and our public transport, and because no one can trust him after the handling of the Spirit of Tasmania fiasco," Mr Winter said. The opposition has repeatedly described last Thursday's budget, which forecast four deficits and debt reaching $10.8 billion in the 2028-29 financial year, as the worst budget in the state's history. Mr Winter threw the gauntlet down to the crossbench to support the motion. "If they really are opposed to the premier's agenda of debt, deficit and debacle as they claim, then tell the house you've lost confidence in this premier," he said. "When enough members indicate their support for my motion, I will move it. If not, they will show they're happy to go along with this agenda, all of the debt, all of the cuts, all of the privatisation." The motion needs the support of eight crossbenchers to succeed. It currently has three, but will have the required eight if the Greens vote to support it at a partyroom meeting on Wednesday.

>>23120665 Chaos, election looms as Premier rolled by parliament - Tasmania is in political limbo, with a lame-duck premier attempting to force an early election rather than resign - and no-one sure who will be leading the state by the weekend. The island state’s beleaguered Liberal Premier, Jeremy Rockliff, is expected to visit acting governor Christopher Shanahan on or before Thursday morning to call an early election, rather than resign due to an ongoing no-confidence motion he appears certain to lose. Despite losing the confidence of a majority of MPs for his minority government, Jeremy Rockliff on Wednesday vowed to “fight to my last breath”. For now, it appears his shaken Liberals colleagues are standing by him, resisting the urge to cut him loose or accept any invitation by Chief Justice Shanahan to change leaders. That means Labor leader Dean Winter may be called on to try to form a government - an invitation, with just 10 seats out of 35, sources suggest he is unlikely to accept. Barring any change by the key players, such a standoff would force Tasmanians to the polls for a second time within 15 months, with a state budget frozen in parliament, threatening payment of public service wages. Labor leader Dean Winter has secured the support of the Greens and three independents to oust Mr Rockliff, with grievances cited including alleged budget mismanagement, bungled ferry infrastructure projects, a privatisation agenda and the AFL stadium. Mr Winter told the House of Assembly Mr Rockliff was taking state net debt from $1 billion when he became Premier in April 2022 to almost $11 billion by 2028-29. “Jeremy Rockliff is sending Tasmania broke and his only plan to fix it is to sell Tasmanian assets that Tasmanians built together over the past 100 years,” Mr Winter said.

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>>23120675 Australia spared Trump tariff letter as Ley says Albanese should secure special deal - Australia has been spared a letter from the Trump administration demanding countries cut trade barriers to US goods as the White House prepares to reinstate its “liberation day” tariffs, but has not secured a UK-style exemption to increased steel and aluminium import taxes. Trade Minister Don Farrell met his US counterpart Jamieson Greer in Paris overnight as Albanese prepares to hold his first meeting with Trump later this month, either in the US or on the sidelines of the G7 meeting of the world’s largest economies in Canada. The meeting is expected to be dominated by Trump’s trade war and US requests for its allies to boost defence spending. Albanese this week pushed back against a request from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth for Australia to boost its military spending from about 2 per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent. The United States Trade Representative, the office primarily responsible for trade matters, sent a letter to countries asking them to provide their best offer for a trade deal by Wednesday, US time. The Trump administration confirmed the missive, first reported by Reuters. The letter suggests fresh urgency from the Trump administration as it looks to settle trade deals with partners before July 8, when the 90-day “pause” on Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs expires. An Australian government spokeswoman said Australia did not receive the letter because it was only sent to nations with a higher tariff rate than the baseline 10 per cent rate. “Australia is in the lowest ‘baseline’ tariff tier of 10 per cent,” she said. “As such, the US administration has confirmed Australia has not been sent a letter. Trade Minister Farrell met with his US counterpart today in Paris and pressed for the removal of unjustified tariffs imposed on Australian goods.”

>>23125030 ‘Video: Cowardly power grab’ says ‘heartbroken’ Premier ahead of election call - An emotional Tasmanian Premier has restated his intention to seek a snap early election, after losing a no-confidence vote in state parliament, accusing Labor of “cowardice” and a “grab for power”. The state’s House of Assembly voted 18 votes to 17 to express no confidence in Premier Jeremy Rockliff over alleged budget mismanagement, bungled ferries infrastructure and a privatisation push. The vote was tied 17 each way, with Labor Speaker Michelle O’Byrne using her casting vote to pass the motion. Ms O’Byrne said no one could expect her to vote confidence in a Liberal premier, while also warning the house would need to continue to sit long enough to pass a special supply bill to ensure public servants could be paid during any election period. Mr Rockliff restated his intention to seek an early election, after the no-confidence motion passed. “This will be an election that Tasmanians don’t want and that Tasmania cannot afford,” he told the Assembly. However, he said a snap poll was “on the heads” of Labor leader Dean Winter and the ALP. “This has been a selfish grab for power that we will fight and do our darnedest to win … This is not a fair fight; this is a cowardice act.”

>>23134204 Video: PM insists biosecurity is 'first priority' as beef tops agenda in upcoming US trade talks - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed not to compromise biosecurity as trade negotiations over beef are set to top the agenda in crucial talks with US President Donald Trump. Trump singled out Australia's ban on US beef during a Liberation Day tariff announcement in April, claiming Australia "won't take any of our beef" due to a concern over mad cow disease. Cattle Australia disputes that claim, because a ban on US beef was lifted in 2019, provided the cattle is born, raised and slaughtered in the US. But concerns over "mixed herds" mean beef from the US rarely makes it to Australian plates. US exporters are currently unable to prove their herds don't include beef that was born in Mexico and Canada, which are still rated a biosecurity risk, then later slaughtered in the US. "We haven't been assured there's a system that allows the appropriate tracing of animals, or appropriate traceback of animals," Cattle Australia chief executive Dr Chris Parker said. A review is underway into whether that should change, which could be used as a bargaining chip for Trump to drop all tariffs against Australia.

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>>23139142 ‘Dump Jeremy Rockliff to stop election disaster’, senior Tasmanian Liberals, business leaders tell party - Tasmanian Liberal MPs are under mounting pressure - from senior party figures and business leaders – to dump Premier Jeremy Rockliff to prevent an early election, as MPs blamed the AFL for the state’s political crisis. Federal Liberal frontbencher Jonathon Duniam on Friday described Mr Rockliff’s push to send Tasmanians back to the polls for a second time within 15 months as “nuts”. The state parliamentary Liberal Party is so far standing by Mr Rockliff, who is planning to request a snap election rather than resign, after the House of Assembly passed a no-confidence motion in him on Thursday. Senator Duniam, a leading party conservative, told The Australian the PLP needed to take “whatever steps necessary” to prevent the snap poll. “Unless my colleagues are 100 per cent certain that the voters of Tasmania are not going to punish them for sending them to an early election, they should be taking whatever steps are necessary,” Senator Duniam said. “Going to an election will be a bad outcome. The PLP needs to have a good, long think about this.” Some MPs share Senator Duniam’s concerns, with Liberal Party strategists warning it will lose seats and potentially government at any poll. However, most are so far standing with Mr Rockliff, believing an election within 12 months is likely anyway, and preferring to go now with Mr Rockliff as leader than later with a less popular alternative.

>>23144364 Video: Scott Morrison receives country's highest honour for leading Australia through COVID crisis - Scott Morrison has credited Australians for their "courage and resilience" in the face of crises, including the Black Summer bushfires and a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, as he receives the country's highest honour for his leadership. The 30th prime minister has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for his "eminent service" to the country and direction of the national COVID response, as part of the King's Birthday honours. Mr Morrison was prime minister for just over three and a half years - between 2018 and 2022 — a period in which he said, "we were hit with pretty much every crisis you can imagine". "From natural disasters to a global pandemic, once in a hundred years, and of course the threats we faced in our region, and a recession caused by that global pandemic," he said in a sit-down interview before his appointment was publicly announced. "Through all of this Australians were just incredible and the one assumption I made is that that's how they would be - their character would pull them through and that's the basis on which we built the policies that helped us to achieve that." The AC is the highest award in the King's Birthday honour list, designed to recognise achievements "in service to Australia or humanity at large". Former prime ministers are typically appointed, but the time between their service and the recognition varies. Mr Morrison's appointment - three years after he lost the prime ministership — also notes his contributions to international engagement, economic initiatives and national security, particularly through his role in securing the AUKUS agreement. The latter was named by the former prime minister as one of his proudest achievements in office, among other work he said his government undertook to strengthen Australia's sovereignty.

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 29

>>23144424 King’s Birthday honours: Scott Morrison says Labor’s weaponisation of Brittany Higgins a ‘new low mark’ - Scott Morrison has urged the ­Coalition to embrace policies that give people economic choices in life and mount the case that governments in a post-pandemic era can only “treat symptoms for so long before it starts eroding your capacity to have a strong economy”. The former Liberal prime minister and treasurer - awarded a Companion of the Order of ­Australia in the King’s Birthday honours list – said the Covid years had fundamentally changed the way Australians think about the major parties and economic security. Mr Morrison’s legacies include striking the AUKUS deal and re-engaging the Quad, his government’s management of the Covid pandemic, standing up to Chinese aggression, record mental health funding, winning the 2019 election just nine months after replacing Malcolm Turnbull, strengthening economic, military and diplomatic ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan and Israel, and securing free-trade agreements with India and Britain. Mr Morrison’s tenure as ­Australia’s 30th prime minister from 2018-22 also featured lowlights, including the fallout from the Robodebt scandal, his government’s handling of Ms Higgins’ alleged sexual assault, China’s trade bans, the furore over his family holiday in Hawaii during the Black Summer bushfires, and Labor’s criticism over him secretly swearing himself into multiple ministries during the pandemic. “The weaponisation of natural disasters, and even what happened over the alleged events in Parliament House with Brittany Higgins, which you know now plays out in the courts, the weaponisation of these things politically by my opponents, both within the parliament and outside it, I think was a new low mark,” Mr Morrison said. “There had been the practice that in times of natural disaster, there’s strong bipartisanship, and I can’t say I enjoyed a lot of that. The weaponisation, whether it was of Covid or of bushfires or other things, when I and my team were out there … the selective attacks that were made were very disappointing, but you had to push through them.”

>>23144488 No regrets for Morrison on pandemic-era actions - Scott Morrison has called out blanket vaccine mandates and school closures during the pandemic, defended his creation of the national cabinet and backed big-spending measures that ensured the nation’s economy “rocketed out the other side of Covid”. The former prime minister, who does not regret his government’s call to not bank a surplus at the end of 2019, said hard decisions were made by Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann that helped deliver the “biggest fall in the deficit in Australia’s history of over $100bn”. Reflecting on the pandemic fallout after receiving a Companion of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday honours list, Mr Morrison said he opposed blanket vaccine mandates and school closures ordered by state and territory governments. Mr Morrison, whose AC was awarded for his leadership of the national Covid-19 response alongside achievements on the global stage including his role as co-architect of the AUKUS deal, remains convinced the national cabinet model he set up was the “right vehicle”. The former Liberal leader, who had running pandemic battles with premiers including Daniel Andrews, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark McGowan over lockdowns and border closures, said the bottom-up, bureaucracy-laden COAG (Council of Australian Governments) forum had become a place where policy issues “went to die”. “Vaccine mandates employed unilaterally by states were not decisions of the national cabinet. Decisions to close schools were not decisions of national cabinet. In fact, on both of those, I opposed them,” Mr Morrison told The Australian.

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>>23144780 Former trade minister urges Anthony Albanese not to ‘concede’ to Donald Trump on tariffs - The architect of multiple landmark free-trade agreements has urged Anthony Albanese to focus on the nation’s shared history with the US in a potential meeting with Donald Trump, declaring there was no basis on which Australia should be “conceding or negotiating” on tariffs. Former trade minister Andrew Robb, who secured free-trade deals with China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said the Prime Minister needed to tell Mr Trump his decision to violate the agreement between the two countries without a phone call was “unacceptable”. As Trade Minister Don Farrell advances negotiations for a free-trade agreement with the EU, Mr Robb said striking a “good deal” with Europe would counter Mr Trump’s protectionist agenda and demonstrate to the US the benefits of opening the world economy. Mr Robb, trade minister from 2013-16, said the move to slap a 10 per cent baseline tariff on Australian exports to the US and 50 per cent on steel and aluminium was unjustifiable considering the two nations’ strong alliance and wartime history. “I find it intolerable that all these things that have been imposed on us have occurred without even a phone call,” Mr Robb told The Australian. “That’s what he should be saying to the President before those open discussions. We’ve got no need to negotiate on anything, we have been giving, and given to giving.”

>>23145659 Video: ‘Must be called out’: PM under pressure after 9News reporter Lauren Tomasi shot with rubber bullet during LA protests - The Greens have called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to seek “urgent explanation” from Donald Trump after an Australian journalist was shot by police with a rubber bullet in Los Angeles. 9News reporter Lauren Tomasi was hit while covering street protests that have broken out in LA following the arrests of dozens of people for alleged immigration violations. The moment was captured on camera with Ms Tomasi directly hit in the leg. “You just f*ckin’ shot the reporter!” a protester yelled at the officer before asking whether she was OK. “Yeah, I’m good,” she replied. Providing an update on 9News on Monday evening, Ms Tomasi said, “I’m okay. My cameraman Jimmy and I are both safe. “This is just one of the unfortunate realities of reporting on these kinds of incidents. It has been a really volatile day on the streets of Los Angeles. There have been a lot of tempers flaring here today and certainly tonight there is a lot of anger in the City of Angels.” In a statement, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called on Mr Albanese to hold the US President accountable. “US authorities shooting an Australian journalist is simply shocking,” Ms Hanson-Young said in a statement. “It is completely unacceptable and must be called out.”

>>23152427 ‘Horrific’: Albanese condemns shooting of Nine journalist in US - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has labelled the police shooting of Nine US correspondent Lauren Tomasi as “unacceptable”, but declined to say whether he would personally raise the incident with President Donald Trump. Tomasi was reporting live from the protests in Los Angeles when an officer appeared to turn and fire a rubber bullet at her leg on Monday morning AEST. Tomasi said she is bruised but otherwise uninjured, and continued working. Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday afternoon, Albanese said he had seen the “horrific” footage and spoken with Tomasi. “[That was] an Australian journalist doing what journalists do at their very best … In LA, it is not unreasonable to think that she would not have been targeted with a rubber bullet,” he said. “[She was] clearly identified as media. There was no ambiguity … We don’t find it acceptable that it occurred.” Albanese said the issue had been raised with the US administration, but refused to say whether he would personally raise the issue with Trump. “I’ll leave the discussions with the president until they occur,” he said.

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>>23158064 Anthony Albanese under pressure from White House on NSW mining compensation ahead of Donald Trump talks - Anthony Albanese has been asked to personally intervene in a decade-old $400m compensation claim for Australian and US citizens over a NSW government mining confiscation as part of an upcoming deal with Donald Trump on trade tariffs. As the Prime Minister prepares to go to Canada for the G7 summit and meet the US President on the sidelines of the conference, trade representatives in Washington DC are seeking a resolution to the compensation claim arising from the NSW Liberal government’s confiscation of mining leases in 2014. US trade representatives have repeatedly raised the lack of compensation for US investors as a breach of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement and listed it as an official “investment barrier” in its annual foreign trade barriers report released in March. Before Mr Albanese’s expected face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump, US and Australian representatives of “mum and dad” shareholders have appealed to Mr Albanese and Trade Minister Don Farrell to provide compensation and smooth trade relations. In a letter sent to Mr Albanese and Senator Farrell on behalf of 50 mum-and-dad shareholders last month, NuCoal resources chairman Gordon Galt raised concerns with the Prime Minister about the need for “proper redress for affected investors”. Mr Galt, who has fought a long-running battle with the NSW government to provide compensation for investors after then-premier Barry O’Farrell axed the Doyles Creek mining exploration licence, warned Mr Albanese that the matter threatened the “nation’s reputation as a safe destination for investment”.

>>23158114 Video: Malcolm Turnbull’s warning for the world as Donald Trump solidifies power in the US - Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thrown the gloves down again, boldly warning the world that Donald Trump risks sending America into a new era of authoritarianism. Speaking on ABC News on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Turnbull cautioned Australia and its allies to prepare for a more volatile international order, urging democratic nations to become less dependent on an increasingly unpredictable United States under the billionaire commander-in-chief. Mr Turnbull expanded on a recent essay he published in Foreign Affairs, arguing that “those countries that share the values for which the United States once stood, but currently does not, should band together to preserve what worked best in the order Trump is intent on burying.” Following Mr Trump’s inauguration, Mr Turnbull has spent much of 2025 calling for strategic independence among Western democracies and a renewed commitment to multilateralism, free trade and stability. He said Mr Trump’s “erratic” leadership has undermined trust in America’s role as a global stabiliser. He also touched on the escalating situation in Los Angeles, where federal authorities have deployed marines in response to anti-ICE protests and arrests of undocumented immigrants. “You can understand Governor Newsom feeling that Trump is trying to provoke a greater crisis there,” Mr Turnbull said. “These are dangerous times in America … There are many people in America now - serious people – who are concerned that America is slipping into a realm of authoritarianism … almost of tyranny. And that should be very concerning for us.”

>>23163825 Battlelines drawn as Governor approves July 19 Tasmanian election - Tasmanians will go to the polls on July 19 - for the second time in 16 months – after the state’s Governor on Wednesday night ­finally agreed to the early election requested by Premier Jeremy Rockliff. The election - Tasmania’s fourth in a little over seven years – follows an extended power vacuum after Mr Rockliff last week suffered a no-confidence motion in the House of Assembly. Governor Barbara Baker, who on Tuesday night deferred a decision on Mr Rockliff’s election request, said she had ­decided there was no real alternative. “Notwithstanding the recent 2024 election, the public interest in avoiding the cost of another election and the prevailing public mood against holding an election, I have granted Premier Rockliff a dissolution,” Ms Baker said. Mr Rockliff welcomed the ­decision. “A state election has been called for July 19 - one that we’re going to fight in the name of common decency,” he said via social media. “To draw a line in the sand, as Tasmanians, and stand up for what we believe in. Not political games. But building a better Tasmania. Your support over these last few days has been nothing short of incredible. I have been truly humbled. Now let’s get on with it.” Labor leader Dean Winter said Tasmanians now had “a choice”, flagging a campaign ­attack based on Mr Rockliff’s abandoned privatisation agenda.

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>>23163835 Albanese-Trump G7 meeting in limbo as Israeli cabinet sanctions trigger US rebuke - Anthony Albanese may not meet with Donald Trump next week in Canada as relations with the US administration sour. The countries' relationship is being tested by Australia's decision to sanction two Israeli cabinet members, plus a fresh American review of AUKUS following a disagreement over defence spending. While a potential in-person meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders gathering in Alberta is still anticipated, senior sources told the ABC it was too soon to be "definitive" and that there were "lots of moving parts". The prime minister departs for North America on Friday morning for the June 15-17 summit amid expectations he will sit down with Mr Trump to discuss US trade tariffs on Australian steel and other goods, and defence cooperation. But there is also an awareness inside the Australian and US governments that Australia's decision to slap sanctions on two hard-right Israeli ministers - Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — could trigger the "mercurial" Mr Trump's ire. The sanctions, which were mirrored by the UK, Canada, Norway and New Zealand, triggered an exchange of words on Wednesday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio - who described them as counterproductive to peace in the region — and Mr Albanese, who dismissed the US charge as "predictable, frankly".

>>23174081 Labor’s Israeli sanctions ‘put Australia on the US radar’ - Increasing differences between Washington and Canberra on foreign policies, including the approach to Israel and position on defence spending, have put Australia “on the US radar” and opened up the “opportunity” for the Trump administration to trigger a review of the multibillion-dollar AUKUS deal, former government ministers say. Despite Labor confirming it had known about the Trump administration’s intention to review AUKUS for “some time”, the formal announcement came just a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the sanctioning of two Israeli ministers by Australia and Five Eyes partners such as Britain, saying the move did “not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire”. Defence Minister Richard Marles sought to downplay the review, to be led by vocal AUKUS critic and Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby, saying it was a “natural step” for US President Donald Trump to take. Former Australian ambassador to Washington Joe Hockey said Anthony Albanese’s push back against Mr Hegseth’s call for Australia to spend 3.5 per cent of its GDP on defence was part of there reason behind the review. “I think he would have seen the opportunity in the disagreement between Secretary Hegseth and Prime Minister Albanese,” he told ABC. “He would have seen that as an opportunity to have a review of AUKUS, probably initiated by himself.” Mr Hockey said there was “still strong support for AUKUS across congress and the White House”.

>>23175018 COMMENTARY: Anthony Albanese’s ‘doublespeak’ no substitute for straight talk on defence - "The subtext of Anthony Albanese’s speech to the National Press Club could not have been louder if he had screamed it from the podium: the biggest threat to Australia is the contagion of American ideas. It was summed up in this sentence: “Australians voted against importing conflicts and ideologies that have no basis in our national culture or character.” Importing what conflicts and ideologies? From where? The religious hatred Iran and its proxies mobilise across the Middle East and export here? The tyrannical ideologies that China and Russia want to normalise and impose on this nation and the world? No. This statement was aimed squarely at the ideas the Prime Minister says Australians rejected at the election, the ones the Coalition stands accused of smuggling in from the US: culture wars and small government. Albanese’s theme was clear: Labor saved Australia from becoming a colonial outpost of Trumpian America. Albanese knows there are rich political fields to be ploughed here and all available evidence supports him. There are good reasons Canberra should differ with Washington, but with a president as mercurial and transactional as Trump this is a highwire act. There is also a hazard in dog-whistling disdain for the US President while downplaying the real and present danger posed by China’s Xi Jinping. Observers in Washington might have noted the tone Albanese adopted when asked whether he thought China was a national security threat. “I think that our engagement with the region and the world needs to be diplomatic, needs to be mature and needs to avoid the, you know, attempts to simplify what are a complex set of relationships,” Albanese said. Here the Prime Minister was at pains to de-escalate language, refusing to endorse the word “threat” when discussing Beijing." - Chris Uhlmann - theaustralian.com.au

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>>23182429 Nationals oppose Liberals’ Hobart AFL stadium to win Tasmania seats, open to ex-JLN MPs - The Nationals - seeking to “take Tasmania by storm” at the state election – have joined the Greens in vowing to kill Hobart’s “irresponsible” Macquarie Point AFL stadium. Seeking to re-establish the party in the decentralised island state, after six years without an elected representative, the Nationals on Thursday announced they would stand candidates in three of the five multi-member electorates. The Nationals’ vow to ditch the $1bn stadium - championed by the minority Liberal government – gives anti-stadium voters in those seats an alternative to the Greens, with Labor and the Liberals standing by the project. Nationals Senate leader Brid­get McKenzie, in Tasmania to kickstart her party’s campaign, ­denied the stadium stance was disloyal to her national Coalition partner. “We are not a faction of the Australian Liberal Party,” Senator McKenzie told The Australian. She said voters in Bass, Braddon and Lyons who did not want the stadium but did not want to vote for the Greens or independents now had another, less de­stabilising option. “We are not a party of protest like the Greens, like other minor parties … we are a party of government and have a very responsible approach to the work of representation, to fiscal respon­sibility,” she said.

>>23182456 Amazon boosts Australian data centre investment to $20bn as Albanese visits Seattle - US global tech giant Amazon will pump $20bn into Australia over five years to expand its data centre network, cloud infrastructure and energy generation, including new investment in three solar farms across Victoria and Queensland. Amazon Web Services chief executive Matt Garman - who leads the company’s cloud, data centre and artificial intelligence business – said the funding pledge out to 2029 was the “largest investment ever announced by a global technology provider in Australia”. The $20bn AWS commitment, which incorporates prior funding pledges made by the company, includes expansions of Amazon’s data centres in Sydney and Melbourne, and investment in three new solar projects. The solar farms will be delivered by European Energy, with Amazon committing to purchase a combined capacity of more than 170MW. Amazon already has investments in eight solar and wind projects in Victoria, Queensland and NSW, which help power AWS operations including data and fulfilment centres. Mr Garman said once all 11 renewable energy projects are up-and-running, they will generate more than 1.4 million megawatt hours of emissions-friendly power annually. Mr Albanese said the Amazon investment represents “an exciting opportunity for Australia to build AI capability using secure, resilient infrastructure”. With the Albanese government positioning productivity as a top economic priority during its second term, the Prime Minister said the AWS expansion plans were “exactly the kind of economic investment in our nation that we want to see, and creates opportunities for continued innovation and growth”.

>>23186845 Albanese faces Labor dissent over Amazon’s access to government contracts - Anthony Albanese is facing internal dissent over Amazon’s access to lucrative public contracts, with NSW Labor senator Tony Sheldon calling for the tech giant to be barred from receiving such work, while three ministers are among at least 17 government MPs who have accused the company of exploiting its workers. With the Prime Minister on Saturday (Sunday AEST) visiting the Seattle headquarters of the company’s cloud computing subsidiary Amazon Web Services, fellow NSW Right senator Deb O’Neill backed using government procuring power to hold the company accountable. Senator O’Neill, who enjoys the backing of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) - a longstanding critic of Amazon’s approach to workplace practices – has similarly implored the government to use its buying power to “hold Amazon to account”. Late last year, she criticised the multinational for being “anti-worker and fiercely anti-union”, while claiming it had engaged in “countless examples of calculated exploitation” of its workforce. She has accused the company of acting as a “champion tax dodger” and argued that lucrative government contracts had helped “power the Amazon behemoth and keep its practices going.” In response to questions about those remarks, Senator O’Neill said: “I stand by my previous comments.”

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>>23186853 USS America, USS San Diego, USS Rushmore arrive in Sydney with 31st Marines - The US Navy amphibious assault ship USS America has arrived in Sydney during a routine stop for troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. The flagship of the America Strike Group brings more than 2,500 sailors and marines to Sydney under a US scheduled port visit from 14 June. The ship brings significant capabilities to the region, including a detachment of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 242, equipped with the advanced F-35B Lightning II aircraft. “Sydney’s warm welcome has been exceptional,” according to USS America Commanding Officer Captain Ethan Rule. “This port visit provides a valuable opportunity to strengthen the bonds between our nations, experience Australia’s unique culture, and reinforce our shared values.” Royal Australian Navy Liaison Officer, LCDR Craig Hamilton is currently serving aboard USS America with the mission of fostering seamless cooperation and interoperability between the two navies. He will host Australian military and government officials for a tour of the ship, highlighting its capabilities and the close partnership between the US and Australia. “The US-Australia alliance is a cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” said Erika Olson, chargé d’affaires, US mission to Australia. “The arrival of America, USS San Diego and USS Rushmore marks the first time that the three-ship America Strike Group are together in Sydney. We are excited to have sailors and marines here, and warmly welcome them to Sydney.” America, San Diego, and Rushmore are part of the America Strike group, which is capable of responding to a range of military operations, including combat operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster response.

>>23186860 USS America docks in Sydney after 30 days at sea - "If you seem to be hearing a lot of American accents in Sydney this week, you’re not hallucinating. At noon on Saturday, the amphibious assault ship USS America steamed into Sydney Harbour with its crew of around 2500 American sailors and marines ready for a bit of shore leave after a 30-day cruise from their home base in Japan. As The Sunday Telegraph’s in-house American, I was offered the chance to chopper out to the ship aboard a Seahawk helicopter with a small delegation to meet the crew and check out life aboard the ship. After a quick but thorough safety briefing and the distribution of flotation devices and helmets (“cranials”, in navy-speak), our delegation was whisked via Seahawk helicopter to the ship as it steamed its way towards the Heads. Aboard, an atmosphere of tightly controlled chaos reigned as the crew readied the America for arrival at Garden Island, nimbly navigating the ship’s disorienting network of gangways, ramps, and stairs. Tilt-wing Ospreys sat arrayed towards the ship’s bow, further astern were a number of the Pentagon’s prized F35B fighter jets. Able to land vertically like a helicopter on the America’s relatively short flight deck, and equipped with impossibly advanced computer systems, one aviator would be heard to remark that there was “magic in those machines”. Elsewhere, excited sailors went about the business of bringing the ship in safely while also revealing their plans for their leave in Australia - almost all of them as first-time visitors." - James Morrow - dailytelegraph.com.au

>>23197979 Ghost Bat missile trial looms amid growing foreign interest - Boeing Australia’s MQ-28A Ghost Bat drone will be trialled as an armed platform later this year in a major leap forward for the program, as the government ramps up efforts to acquire lethal uncrewed aircraft. The developmental drone will test-fire an air-to-air missile after a successful trial last week in which two of the aircraft were operated simultaneously from an RAAF jet. The government, which has poured $1bn of taxpayers’ funds into the aircraft, had deferred plans to arm the Ghost Bat, intending to develop it initially for surveillance and electronic warfare missions. But there is growing confidence in the drone after the latest test at South Australia’s top-secret Woomera range, prompting the fast-tracking of the missile trial. “There will be an armed trial later this year,” Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. “Boeing is working on plans that will involve an air-to-air weapons test.” Mr Conroy declined to say when the Ghost Bat was expected to enter service but said the program was running four months ahead of schedule and indicated it was in line for further funding when its budget was expended by the end of the year. He said the drone was one of the top five capabilities the government was marketing to foreign militaries, and was already attracting strong interest from potential overseas buyers.

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>>23197936 Australia races to lock in new meeting with Trump to avoid second snub - Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, is leading a diplomatic push to lock in a meeting for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with US President Donald Trump in Europe next week, which would force Albanese to depart Australia again just days after returning from his failed attempt to meet Trump in Canada. The president is scheduled to be at the NATO summit beginning June 24 in The Hague, and a meeting would give the prime minister a chance to press Australia’s case with the US on the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, defence spending and tariffs. But the risk that Trump could cancel to deal with escalating conflict in the Middle East presents a dilemma for Albanese, who has tried to brush off the blow of Trump cancelling their meeting at the G7 for the same reason. A day after saying he expected Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles would attend the NATO summit, Albanese changed his mind and said he could go. “Yes, that’s being considered,” he told reporters travelling with him at the G7 summit in Canada. Sources familiar with Australia’s diplomatic approach, who weren’t authorised to speak publicly, said Rudd was leading work on a potential meeting and that Albanese was unlikely to go to NATO unless time with Trump was certain. While Rudd is leading the push to secure the meeting, Albanese has also sought advice from Greg Norman about how to build a connection with Trump. The strategy mirrors the playbook of Malcolm Turnbull, who also turned to the professional golfer to get in touch with Trump in 2016.

>>23203238 Anthony Albanese seeks window for Trump sit-down - Anthony Albanese has left the door open for a last-minute dash to The Hague next week as he continues to seek his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump at the NATO leaders’ summit after the US President ditched their G7 talks. The Prime Minister was blindsided on Tuesday when the President cancelled their meeting and departed the G7 early following an escalation of the Israel-Iran war, forcing Mr Albanese to make his long-awaited pitch on the need for the US to lift its tariffs on Australian products to Mr Trump’s economic officials instead. After sitting down with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday (AEST), Mr Albanese revealed he had not heard from Mr Trump directly since the cancellation of their meeting, despite other leaders such as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum having received a call from the President. Mr Albanese - who is under pressure from the Coalition for being unable to progress his relationship with Mr Trump and secure wins on tariff exemptions and the long-term ­future of the $368bn AUKUS deal – said he had had discussions with a range of people in recent days including NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte. The Australian understands that several meeting scenarios are being explored and that Mr Albanese would not attend the NATO summit if there was no chance of a meeting. Should Mr Albanese attend NATO, the Labor leader would be exposed to the debate on what countries should be spending on defence, relative to GDP, with Australia having resisted calls from the US so far to lift spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.

>>23212707 UK makes plans to welcome Albanese to London - The British government is making plans to welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to London on a visit that could come as soon as next week if he attends Tuesday’s NATO summit in the Netherlands. The behind-the-scenes work to prepare for Albanese is the strongest sign yet that he will attend next week’s summit, which could provide a chance to make up for his failed attempt to meet US President Donald Trump in Canada. Sources familiar with the preparations, who were not authorised to speak publicly, said Albanese had not yet decided whether to attend the NATO event in The Hague in part because he was wary of Trump cancelling again. The prime minister’s office and the British High Commission to Australia did not respond to a request for comment, but by Friday government sources believed Defence Minister Richard Marles was more likely to attend the NATO summit in Albanese’s stead. Trump departed the G7 summit in Canada early to deal with the crisis in the Middle East, meaning Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with the president was cancelled. Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, is leading a diplomatic push to lock in a meeting for Albanese with Trump in Europe next week as the prime minister ponders attending the NATO event.

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>>23212728 Rudd works overtime to secure Albanese an audience with Trump - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided against attending next week’s NATO summit in the Netherlands, dashing the slim possibility of a first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump. Albanese’s attendance at the summit was probably 50-50 at best, but after being stood up by Trump at the G7 summit in Canada this week, the Prime Minister is facing scrutiny over whether Australia is “off” with the leader of our biggest ally. The snap 30-day review of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine plan led by Pentagon official Elbridge Colby, an AUKUS sceptic; demands for Australia to lift defence spending; and a sense other countries have leaped ahead of Canberra to secure tariff concessions from Trump is also fuelling concerns. A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Albanese had been contemplating going to NATO well before his Trump meeting fell over, rejecting the idea it emerged as a last-minute fallback. The sentiment was that with no guarantee Trump would go anyway, there are better places to meet and planning is underway for such an outcome. Late on Thursday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong spoke to her US counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While the Middle East was the main topic, Rubio is the person the government needs to work on to get a meeting in Trump’s diary with Albanese, given his dual hats as both top diplomat and national security adviser. However there are rumours Rudd is struggling to make inroads with the White House, with loyalists such as Stephen Miller, who is the president’s deputy chief of staff, nursing a long memory over Rudd’s past take-downs of Trump.

>>23212786 High Court challenge: Ben Roberts-Smith wants ex-lover to give evidence about secret recording - Ben Roberts-Smith has asked the High Court to allow a new trial in his failed defamation case that would permit his former mistress to give evidence about her explosive secretly recorded conversation with Nine reporter Nick McKenzie. In an application to the court for special leave to appeal, Roberts-Smith argues that a new trial is required because cogent evidence from the woman about the conversation - in which the journalist claimed he had been “actively briefed” about Nine’s legal strategy – was concealed by the Nine newspapers. The former SAS soldier argues he was denied the presumption of innocence in the defamation trial and wrongly branded a serial war criminal, “a criminal condemnation of the most ruinous kind”. The High Court challenge is Roberts-Smith’s last chance of overturning the landmark finding by Judge Anthony Besanko that, on the balance of probabilities, the former SAS soldier was complicit in the murder of unarmed detainees in Afghanistan. The High Court has not yet agreed to accept the appeal, and may not announce a decision for several weeks. Last month the Full Court of the Federal Court upheld Justice Besanko’s verdict in favour of the Nine newspapers, and also rejected a claim by Roberts-Smith that he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice after the release of a tape in which McKenzie claimed to have access to the former SAS soldier’s legal strategy.

>>23230188 Chalmers to push tariffs case on Trump team, still no meeting for Albanese - Treasurer Jim Chalmers will attempt to ward off tariffs and massive taxes on Australian superannuation funds investing in the US when he speaks to his American counterpart on Wednesday as the prime minister defends his absence from a key NATO meeting. Anthony Albanese has sent Defence Minister Richard Marles to the NATO summit in the Netherlands this week, where Trump had reportedly hoped to meet with the prime minister and other Asia-Pacific leaders. The prime minister has not met Trump face to face more than five months into the US leader’s second presidency, spurring demands from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley that Albanese attend the NATO gathering to make up for his cancelled meeting with Trump at the G7 in Canada. “Now is the time for Australia to stand with the United States, our allies and like-minded countries,” Ley said. “The prime minister should be taking every opportunity to do so.” But Albanese said other world leaders, including the president of South Korea and prime minister of Japan, were not at NATO despite reports Trump hoped to meet with them as a bloc and suggested his critics were being hypocritical. “I’ve been to the United States on five separate occasions … as prime minister,” Albanese said on Sky News on Tuesday. “And I do note that the same people who constantly say I should do more international travel, every time I do, are critical of it as well.”

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Australian Politics and Society - Part 37

>>23233237 Beyond Beyond Meat: Lab Grown Meat Has Now Arrived For Sale In 3 Countries - Australia just gave lab-grown meat the official thumbs-up, approving the sale of cultivated Japanese quail and joining the elite global club of… three. That’s right - only Singapore, the U.S., and now Australia are on board with selling meat that’s never had feathers, feet, or a heartbeat, Bloomberg wrote last week. Sydney-based startup Vow is behind the venture and says it’ll start serving up foie gras, parfait, and other fancy dishes made from quail cells in select restaurants within weeks. This follows a long-overdue tweak to the country's food standards code, years in the making. The science behind it? Cultivating animal cells in vats instead of raising entire animals, allegedly to save the planet and spare some lives. Noble goals, sure. But the cultivated meat industry hasn’t exactly been thriving. Funding is drying up, scaling remains a headache, and the political pushback - especially in the U.S. - has turned into a sideshow. “While other markets face regulatory uncertainty, Australia is embracing innovation and consumers are ready to try something new and delicious,” Vow CEO George Peppou said, clearly feeling good about being the new kid on the bioreactor block. Vow’s lab-grown quail will show up under its Forged brand at places like NEL in Sydney and Bottarga in Melbourne.

>>23234836 PM cannot say when he’ll meet Donald Trump - Anthony Albanese says his decision to not attend this week’s NATO summit in The Hague, which may have included a meeting with Donald Trump, was driven by other Indo-Pacific leaders also opting to miss the event. Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles will represent Australia at the summit and, while he refused to speculate whether he might break the ice by having an audience with the US president, government sources said it was highly unlikely. With Trump using the summit to pressure the 32 European members to lift their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, the US wants Australia to lift its spending from the current rate of 2 per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent “as soon as possible”. Marles, if he meets Trump, is expected to echo the arguments Albanese made last week in Canada that Australia was pulling its weight because of the additional in-kind support provided to US forces operating out of Australian bases and ports. Asked by Sky News on Tuesday when he might meet Trump, to whom he has only ever spoken by phone, Albanese was unsure. “We have agreed that we will have a meeting and that will take place at a time that’s convenient for both of us. That will be a good thing,” he said. Albanese is hoping to meet Trump in September when he travels to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. After Trump cancelled last week’s meeting, Albanese secured a meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump’s principal economic adviser Kevin Hassett.

>>23234844 Anthony Albanese faces date with Xi before Trump as Marles NATO meeting hopes fade - Anthony Albanese could meet Xi Jinping for a fourth time before getting his first face-to-face talks with Donald Trump, amid preparations for a prime ministerial visit to Beijing around the middle of July. While the government is scrambling to secure a meeting between the US President and Mr Albanese in Washington in the coming weeks, plans for the Beijing trip are well advanced and the Prime Minister could head to China first. Meanwhile, world leaders have converged on The Hague for the NATO summit, with the NATO “family photo” mirroring the current gulf between the US and Australia on everything from defence spending to Middle East policy. Hopes of a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and the US President faded after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba cancelled plans to attend, scuttling a scheduled session with Mr Trump and NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners. Multiple sources familiar with preparations for Mr Albanese’s China visit for the nations’ annual leaders’ talks were still waiting on final confirmation that the Prime Minister would proceed with the mid-July trip, despite the program having been largely finalised. The Prime Minister’s office declined to provide any details, while senior government sources said securing the Trump meeting was the priority. If those efforts failed and Mr Albanese headed to Beijing before Washington, it would underscore the current difficulties in the Australia-US relationship and potentially complicate his efforts to forge a personal relationship with Mr Trump, who is more hawkish on China than the Prime Minister.

#41 - Part 80

Australian Politics and Society - Part 38

>>23234869 Chalmers urges Bessent to reconsider ‘revenge tax’ on super funds - Treasurer Jim Chalmers has urged his US counterpart Scott Bessent to reconsider a controversial proposal that would raise taxes on super funds and companies investing in the US, as he pushed back on calls to increase Australia’s defence spending. Institutional investors are alarmed by section 899 of the Trump administration’s so-called “big beautiful bill”. The proposed law would give the administration scope to use “revenge taxes” on foreign countries that it deemed treated American firms unfairly, such as through digital services taxes. Australia could be in the firing line because of its news media bargaining incentive, which forces US tech giants to pay for local news shared on their platforms, and its adoption of the OECD’s global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent. While some Australian companies are hit with a 30 per cent withholding tax on income sourced from the US, section 899 would see this jump another 5 percentage points for each year unfair duties are imposed by another country for up to four years. The bill would also remove the tax exemptions enjoyed by sovereign wealth funds and pension funds. That has alarmed players in the $4.2 trillion superannuation industry, which have almost $400 billion invested in the US, and generally do not pay capital gains tax from these investments. Chalmers said he had a productive discussion with Bessent on Wednesday morning, where he raised Australian investors’ concerns about section 899.

>>23239557 Video: ‘Daddy’ Trump takes centre stage as NATO bows to his demands - President Trump, the “daddy”, as Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary-general, now refers to him, awoke on Wednesday after a night in the Huis ten Bosch palace, nestled in a forest on the edge of The Hague, in an “excellent mood”. For the diplomats, who had tailored the entirety of the NATO summit to Trump’s limited attention span and the need to avoid unscripted outbursts, it was a good sign for the day ahead. In a press conference ahead of a two and half hour meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body of NATO, the US president compared Iran and Israel to “two kids in a school yard”. In a long, rambling defence of his strikes against Iran, Trump boasted that he had stopped the longstanding conflict between Israel and Iran. “They’re not going to be fighting each other. They’ve had it. They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. You know? They fight like hell,” he said. Interrupting him, Rutte said: “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language.” The comment was a reference to Trump’s outburst that the two countries “don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing” on Tuesday. In a press conference afterwards, Rutte brushed off a suggestion that his gushing praise of “daddy” might be seen as weak, adding that his remarks were a “question of taste”. “He’s a good friend,” he said of Trump. “Doesn’t he deserve some praise?”

>>23239568 Anthony Albanese looking at spending more on missiles and drones after pressure from Donald Trump - Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles and Jim Chalmers are actively considering increasing defence spending on missiles, drones, frigates and nuclear submarine facilities but will not bow to pressure from Donald Trump to lift Australia’s defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP. As the US President flew into the Netherlands for a royal reception amid rising hopes that his ­historic ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran would hold, Mr Trump was on the verge of another major foreign policy coup with NATO members set to increase defence spending to a total 5 per cent of GDP. The pledge - a response to ­repeated demands from the White House that Europe pay more for its own security – was celebrated by Mr Trump after he leaked a ­private text message sent to him by NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte, which lauded him for striking Iran’s nuclear facilities and his success in pushing allies to spend more on defence. The Albanese government, which is expected to announce spending boosts in coming months for the Henderson consolidation project and SEA3000 frigates program, has authorised major purchases over the past 12 months for US ammunition, rockets and guided weapons. As the US and key allies including Britain and Japan ramp up ­defence spending, senior government sources made clear they were exploring ­increased funding for specific ­defence capabilities and projects, which would lift overall defence spending levels. They also believe that the strategic advantage the US would gain from accessing Australian naval bases from 2027 was another major positive in the US-Australia defence relationship.

#41 - Part 81

Australian Politics and Society - Part 39

>>23248416 Doing enough: Anthony Albanese leaps to his own defence - Anthony Albanese has hit back at a fresh claim by the Trump ­administration that his government is not investing enough in defence, declaring the budget Labor took to the May election “received the overwhelming ­support” of Australians as he ­talked up spending on health, wages and paid parental leave. The Prime Minister would not say whether he feared Australia would face extra tariffs from the US if he did not increase spending on defence, after the US President threatened to double tariffs on imports from Spain for refusing to join other NATO nations in agreeing to lift yearly defence ­investment to 5 per cent of GDP. “I’m not going to comment on things between Spain and the United States. What my job is (is) to look after Australia’s national interests,” Mr Albanese said. After White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Friday (AEST) urged Asia-Pacific ­allies to increase ­defence spending in line with NATO nations, the Prime Minister said “we have lifted our spending”. When asked whether he would stick to limiting the planned increase in defence spending to 2.3 per cent so he could prioritise investment in programs such as Medicare and the NDIS, Mr Albanese said he would ensure Australia had “the capability that we need”. He said that, “in addition” to increasing spending on defence, the government was investing in paid parental leave and backing higher wages and superannuation payments.

>>23248432 Anthony Albanese catches diplomatic Spanish flu with defiance against Donald Trump on defence spending - "If Anthony Albanese is trying to get noticed in Washington, he is going the right way about it. But not for the right reasons. In leveraging his election victory and unprecedented domestic political capital to openly defy Donald Trump, the prime minister risks putting at stake something far greater. Suggestions that the US/Australia alliance is in peril might appear to be slightly hysterical. But this week has produced now a trifecta of further annoyances, including the delayed support for the US strikes on Iran and the admission it sought legal advice over it. And now a rebuff of Trump’s defence spending demands. That is not to say that elements of the alliance aren’t potentially at risk. And Albanese’s posturing suggests one of three things: he is either unaware of this, disbelieves it or isn’t bothered by it. The Prime Minister, emboldened and supported by a caucus moulded from his own liking, is trying to set the terms of the engagement with the US President with defence spending having become the crucible that now carries the relationship. But his attempt to project strength by appearing to poke Trump in the eye, is not without risk considering we are now midway through the 30 day Pentagon review of the AUKUS arrangements. Defiance of Trump might be more acceptable in Washington if Albanese was equally strident with Beijing." - Simon Benson - theaustralian.com.au

#41 - Part 82

Australian Politics and Society - Part 40

>>23248447 Reprieve for Australian super funds as US dumps 'revenge tax' - Australians investing in the United States will be spared from a tax of up to 15 per cent that the Trump administration was threatening to impose as "revenge" on countries that tax its tech giants. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would ask that the tax be taken out of Mr Trump's "big, beautiful bill" after he secured an exemption from multinational tax rules. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who had lobbied Mr Bessent about the tax earlier this week, said the decision was "a really welcome one for Australians". "I would like to thank the treasury secretary again for his time this week, where I was able to represent and raise those concerns with him directly," he said. "In that meeting, he said he was progressing what he could to try and resolve these issues and we're really pleased to see some of that progress." Government sources say Australia was not the main target of the tax, which was motivated chiefly by grievances with Europe resolved in G7 talks. But the legislation, which targeted countries with "discriminatory" policies and specifically taxes on "digital services", was likely to capture Australia's proposed tax on social media platforms, which is to apply to platforms that fail to pay for news. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer complained about that policy in a G7 meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week. The 15 per cent "revenge" tax would have applied to any Australian investors in the United States, with major implications for Australian super funds.

>>23248467 Nearly one-third of Tuvalu residents apply for Australian climate change visa program - Nearly a third of Tuvalu's citizens are seeking a landmark climate visa to live in Australia, as rising seas threaten the Pacific nation's palm-fringed shores. Australia is offering visas to 280 Tuvalu citizens each year under a climate migration deal Canberra has billed as "the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world". More than 3,000 Tuvaluans have already entered a ballot for the first batch of visas, according to official figures on the Australian programme, almost a full third of the nation's population, according to official figures seen by AFP news agency. One of the most climate-threatened corners of the planet, scientists fear Tuvalu will be uninhabitable within the next 80 years. Two of the archipelago's nine coral atolls have already largely disappeared under the waves. "Australia recognises the devastating impact climate change is having on the livelihoods, security, and wellbeing of climate vulnerable countries and people, particularly in the Pacific region," Australia's foreign affairs department told AFP. Australia and Tuvalu inked the groundbreaking Falepili Union in 2024, part of Canberra's efforts to blunt China's expanding reach in the region. Under that pact, Australia opened a new visa category specially set aside for adult citizens of Tuvalu.

#41 - Part 83

Virginia Roberts Giuffre - Life and Legacy - Part 1

>>22959474 ‘Heroic, fierce warrior’:Family’s tribute to Virginia Giuffre- Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, has died by suicide. “It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said in a statement provided to The Australian. On Saturday in Perth, West Australian police confirmed the death. “About 9.50pm Friday 25 April 2025, emergency services received a report a woman had been located unresponsive at a residence in Neergabby,” police media said. “Police and St John WA attended and provided emergency first-aid. Sadly, the 41-year-old woman was declared deceased at the scene. The death is being investigated by Major Crime detectives; early indication is the death is not suspicious.” The family statement said Ms Giuffre had “lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.” Ms Giuffre is acknowledged as the woman who undid Epstein and his racket in Nigel Crawthorne’s 2022 book, Virginia Giuffre: the extraordinary life story of the masseuse who pursued and ended the sex crimes of Ghislane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

>>22959477 Q Post #4923 - https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1319071346282778624 - Dearest Virginia - We stand with you. Now and always. Find peace through prayer. Never give up the good fight. God bless you. Q - https://qanon.pub/#4923 - https://qanon.pub/#4568

>>22959480 Virginia Giuffre Tweet: (December 2019) I am making it publicy known that in no way, shape or form am I sucidal. I have made this known to my therapist and GP- If something happens to me- in the sake of my family do not let this go away and help me to protect them. Too many evil people want to see me quiteted - https://archive.is/20250426022544/https://x.com/VRSVirginia/status/1204620018035462144 - https://x.com/Venau/status/1915951801288863907

>>22959516 Video: Virginia Giuffre, accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew, dies by suicide - Virginia Giuffre, the American-Australian woman who accused paedophile Jeffrey Epstein of trafficking her, has died by suicide, her family confirmed. Ms Giuffre was found unresponsive in the Western Australian farming area of Neergabby, about one-hour north of Perth, where she had been living for the past several years. The family announced "with utterly broken hearts" that Ms Giuffre died on Thursday. - Sky News Australia

>>22959520 Video: Virginia Giuffre, prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein dies aged 41 - Virginia Giuffre, a prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew, has died aged 41. - ABC News Australia

>>22959524 Video: Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's most prominent abuse survivors, dies by suicide - Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, has died by suicide, her family said Friday. Giuffre, 41, was one of the earliest and loudest voices calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his enablers. Other Epstein abuse survivors later credited her with giving them the courage to speak out. NBC News' Stephanie Gosk reports. - NBC News

>>22959530 Video: Virginia Giuffre, accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew, dies at 41 - Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain's Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died. She was 41. - ABC7 USA

>>22959533 Video: Woman who accused Britain's Prince Andrew in Epstein sex trafficking scandal has died - Woman who accused Britain's Prince Andrew in Epstein sex trafficking scandal has died - WPBF 25 News USA

>>22959539 Video: Epstein and Prince Andrew Accuser Virginia Giuffre Dies At 41 - Virginia Giuffre the woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew of sex crimes has died, aged 41. Her family has issued a statement, confirming she died by suicide at her farm near Perth overnight. They're remembering her as a fierce warrior in the fight against sex trafficking, and a champion for survivors. - 10 News First Australia

>>22959543 Video: Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain's Prince Andrew in Epstein sex trafficking scandal, has died - Giuffre died of suicide at her home in western Australia, according to her publicist. - KTVN 2 News Nevada

#41 - Part 84

Virginia Roberts Giuffre - Life and Legacy - Part 2

>>22959549 Video: Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies - Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, has died by suicide aged 41, her family has said. Ms Giuffre was one of the most outspoken accusers of convicted sex offenders Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend. She alleged they trafficked her to the Duke of York when she was 17, which Prince Andrew has strenuously denied. Relatives said in a statement on Friday that she had been a "fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse", and that the "toll of abuse… became unbearable". - BBC News

>>22959575 Video: Virginia Giuffre, prominent survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, dies by suicide - Virginia Giuffre, an outspoken survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, has died by suicide, her family has reported. Giuffre was one of the first people to call for criminal charges against Epstein. Giuffre recounted how she was groomed by Ghislaine Maxwell to be sexually abused by Epstein. She once said Epstein passed her around “like a platter of fruit” to other men when she was a teenager. She also accused Epstein of trafficking her to Prince Andrew when she was 17, which the prince has denied. According to interviews and depositions, Giuffre said she was recruited to the sex ring in 2000 by Maxwell while working as a locker room attendant in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. She was 41 when she died at her farm in Neergabby, Australia. If you are based in the U.S. and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can also speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. - The Independent UK

>>22959582 Video: Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew's accuser, Virginia Giuffre, dies - Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, has died aged 41. Ms Giuffre's family released a statement confirming her death at her property in rural Western Australia. - ABC News Australia

>>22959589 Video: Virginia Giuffre dies aged 41 - Giuffre’s family issue statement confirming she killed herself at her farm in Western Australia. - news.com.au

>>22959594 Video: Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says - Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41. In a statement to Sky's US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in the Perth suburb of Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years. Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK. - Sky News UK

>>22959601 Video: Virginia Giuffre dead: Prince Andrew accuser commits suicide after 'toll of abuse' became too heavy - 'Police have said there is nothing at this time to indicate anything suspicious.' Seven News Perth Reporter, James Carmody, discusses the death of 41-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who committed suicide after 'the toll of abuse' became too heavy. - GBNews UK

#41 - Part 85

Virginia Roberts Giuffre - Life and Legacy - Part 3

>>23024217 Video: Remembering Virginia Giuffre: The woman who helped bring down Jeffrey Epstein - Virginia Giuffre's life was never easy. She had overcome extraordinary tragedy - sexual abuse as a child, homelessness and multiple sex-trafficking rings - to become a powerful advocate for sex abuse survivors around the world. To her lawyer and friend Sigrid McCawley, she was lion-hearted. "I think Virginia's legacy is something that we haven't seen before in our history," McCawley told 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown. "She has left us with a feeling that irrespective of whether you're a president, a politician, a billionaire, or a prince, that you can be held accountable. You are not above the law." Giuffre's loss will be felt keenly by the survivors of sexual abuse she had always supported. And for those who knew and loved her, there is now an aching hole. "I used to say that we had broken through the lawyer-client line because she would sign her emails, 'I love you Siggy'," McCawley said. "She was just a dear person in my life. And I think that the world will not be the same without her. It just won't be." - 60 Minutes Australia

>>23080024 Virginia Giuffre: Jeffrey Epstein survivor farewelled in private in Perth - Virginia Giuffre - a high-profile survivor of billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein who alleged she was sex trafficked to Prince Andrew - has been farewelled by her family in Perth. Ms Giuffre, 41, is believed to have taken her own life at her farm in Neergabby, about 80km north of Perth, last month. The West Australian understands Ms Giuffre was cremated in recent days at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park in Padbury. Ms Giuffre’s death attracted worldwide headlines, but it is understood she was farewelled in private, with no funeral being publicly advertised. WA Police confirmed at the weekend that officers have concluded her death is not being treated as suspicious. Major crime detectives are in the process of preparing a report to give to the coroner. Police were called to Ms Giuffre’s property about 9.50pm on April 25 after she was found unresponsive. There was nothing that could be done to save her, and she was declared dead at the scene. Her death came less than a month after she posted to social media that she had just “four days to live” after a crash with a school bus near her home, which police later dismissed as a minor incident. Ms Giuffre shot to prominence in 2015 after filing a lawsuit in a New York court against Epstein’s longtime companion and confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging the pair kept her as a “sex slave” for the rich and powerful. She said she was recruited by Maxwell when she was 16 or 17 and working at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s club in Palm Beach. Ms Giuffre told the BBC in 2019 she was “passed around like a platter of fruit” to Epstein’s friends, flown around the world on private jets. Prince Andrew was among those powerful friends, and she claimed she was forced to have sex with him when she was 17. He strongly denies the allegations. A now-infamous photograph shows him arm-in-arm with Ms Giuffre yet in a television interview with the BBC, he said he had no memory of meeting her. When she died, Ms Giuffre was facing a charge of breaching a family violence restraining order taken out by her estranged husband, Robert Giuffre. The charge was discontinued earlier this month, with a court told the allegation related to claims she sent Mr Giuffre several text messages. The former couple moved to Perth from Cairns in 2020, buying a $1.9m six-bedroom, four-bathroom ocean-front property in Ocean Reef with her husband, Robert. Ms Giuffre left behind three children - Christian, Noah and Emily. Her family said holding her newborn daughter had inspired her to “fight back against those who had abused her and so many others”. “She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit,” they said. “In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

#41 - Part 86

Julian Assange - Post-Plea Deal Freedom and Activism - Part 1

>>22959621 WikiLeaks Tweet: "Now Julian is free, we have all come to Rome to express our family’s gratitude for the Pope’s support during Julian’s persecution. Our children and I had the honor of meeting Pope Francis in June 2023 to discuss how to free Julian from Belmarsh prison. Francis wrote to Julian in prison and even proposed to grant him asylum at the Vatican." - Stella Assange

>>22959625 Video: Julian Assange joins mourners in Vatican City for Pope Francis's funeral - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was among thousands of mourners who gathered in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis. - Sky News Australia

>>22959629 Video: Julian Assange Seen at Vatican on Day of Pope's Funeral - Storyful News & Weather USA

>>22959632 Video: Julian Assange visits St Peter's square with family to attend funeral of Pope Francis - Julian Assange visits St Peter's square with family to attend funeral of Pope Francis - Global Pulse USA

#41 - Part 87

Julian Assange - Post-Plea Deal Freedom and Activism - Part 2

>>22981980 ‘He did right by me’: Julian Assange endorses Anthony Albanese - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has broken his silence to endorse a second term for Anthony Albanese as he praised the prime minister’s efforts to secure his release from prison. Assange, who attended Pope Francis’ funeral in the Vatican last week in a rare public sighting, has almost entirely avoided public commentary since his dramatic return to Australia last June after he struck a plea deal with the US Justice Department. He was detained for more than five years in London’s high security Belmarsh Prison after being charged with espionage and computer hacking for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Albanese raised Assange’s case several times in his meetings with former US president Joe Biden, making clear his release was a priority for the Australian government and public. Assange said that, in the lead-up to Saturday’s federal election, many Australians had asked him whether Albanese’s role in his release had been overstated and whether he “has the backbone to stand up for Australians on other tough issues”. “The truth is, in what became an impressive field of advocates, Albo did more to secure my freedom than any other politician or public figure, even more than the late Pope, whose support was both moving and significant,” Assange said in a statement provided to this masthead. Assange said that Albanese had promised to lobby for his release when he was opposition leader and followed through on this pledge when he became prime minister. “Against all expectations for an Australian politician, once elected, he kept his word,” Assange said. Beyond advocating for his release, Assange said the Albanese government “has proven itself unusually capable of rescuing Australians caught up in sensitive political situations”. “Albo hasn’t just stood up to the US to end the political imprisonment of an Australian, he’s also intervened for other Australians detained in difficult circumstances, including in China,” he said, referring to the release of journalist Cheng Lei. “Does this mean Albo will put Australian interests first and skilfully navigate tensions between the US, EU, and China? I can’t say for sure. But I do know this: He can. Albo did right by me, and he is worlds apart from [Scott] Morrison. You don’t need to be a bully to have a backbone.”

>>23067540 'Recovered' Assange promotes Cannes documentary - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has "recovered" from his years in detention, his wife told AFP, as a new documentary about him premiered at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday. Assange is at the world's biggest film festival to promote "The Six Billion Dollar Man" by American director Eugene Jarecki but is not yet speaking publicly. After posing for photographers on Tuesday wearing a T-shirt with the names of killed Gaza children, he reappeared Wednesday for the red-carpet screening wearing a black tuxedo. The 53-year-old former hacker has declined all interview requests, however, with his wife Stella Assange saying that "he'll speak when he's ready." But she was upbeat about his health and said he was already thinking about his next steps. "We live with incredible nature at our doorstep (in Australia). Julian's very outdoorsy. He always has been. He's really recovered physically and mentally," Stella, a Spanish-Swedish lawyer, told AFP. Assange was released from a high-security British prison last June after a plea bargain with the US government over Wikileaks's work publishing top-secret military and diplomatic information. He spent five years behind bars fighting extradition from Britain and another seven holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London where he claimed political asylum. Award-winning director Jarecki said his film aimed to correct the record about Assange, whose methods and personality make him a divisive figure. "I think Julian Assange put himself in harm's way for the principle of informing the public about what corporations and governments around the world are doing in secret," Jarecki told AFP. Anyone willing to trade years of their life for their principles, "I think you'd have to look at that person as having heroic qualities," he added.

#41 - Part 88

The Transgender Agenda - Australia and Worldwide - Part 1

>>22964124 Video: Violent clashes in Melbourne after protesters descend on women’s rights rally - Out-of-control violence has marred busy CBD streets after protesters, who were left unaccompanied by police, clashed with passersby following earlier skirmishes with law enforcement in which four officers were injured. Earlier on Saturday, trans-rights activists and police clashed as protesters roamed the city after gathering to disrupt a women’s rights rally. Pro-trans protesters moved through the streets from Parliament House, where they played drums and chanted at the Women Will Speak event on the steps outside Victoria’s parliament earlier in the day. About 50 people attended the Women Will Speak event, which drew about 440 protesters, according to Victoria Police. “Around 40 people then conducted a march across the CBD, blocking intersections with wooden pallets and swarming local retailers,” police said in a statement. Major intersections, including the corner of Collins and Swanston streets, were blocked while demonstrators chanted anti-police sentiment and pro-trans slogans. Shouts of “quit your job” and “defund the police” could be heard as dozens of police formed lines to try to control the group’s movements. Melbourne’s Women Will Speak rally is part of the global Let Women Speak movement, which argues that laws promoting trans inclusion have eroded sex-based rights and intruded unreasonably into women’s spaces. It follows this month’s UK Supreme Court ruling, which decreed that for the purposes of Britain’s Equality Act, a woman is defined by her biological sex. Before the rally, Victoria Police enacted special search-and-arrest powers to deter neo-Nazis from gatecrashing the women’s rights rally and planned counter-protest by trans activists.

>>23076711 As Mel’s gender ‘ricocheted’, she went under a surgeon’s knife - A young woman who thought for years she was non-binary or a transgender man is suing two doctors and Monash Health for negligence, claiming gender treatment that included having both breasts surgically removed had caused her “significant injury”. Mel Jefferies, a 33-year-old who was born as female and is now living again as a woman, has launched the civil lawsuit in the Victorian County Court. One of the defendants in the case is Dr Jeff Willcox, a Melbourne GP with an “interest in gay men’s health, sexual health … and transgender health”. The others are Jaco Erasmus, a psychiatrist with a special interest in transgender health, and Victoria’s largest public health service, Monash Health. Jefferies’ statement of claim, recently lodged with the court, accuses all three of falling short of delivering professional standards of care, including those outlined by the widely recognised World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The claim says those standards require doctors to ensure that “anyone experiencing mental health conditions must have these well-managed and thoroughly controlled prior to the commencement of the testosterone treatment”. Jefferies says her years of mental health issues were not under control at the time of her treatment and were exacerbated by the testosterone prescribed by her doctors and surgery. Her statement of claim says she has a permanently “deepened voice, hirsutism, clitoromegaly [a clitoris significantly larger than normal], vaginal pain/discomfort, abnormal body odour and acne, and pelvic floor dysfunction (as indicated by urinary incontinence).” Under Australia’s current model of transgender treatment, known as “affirming care”, people’s gender identity is “affirmed and supported” when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth. “For years I just kept getting affirmed by the medical fraternity and the trans community for something I wasn’t,” Jefferies told this masthead. “They kept telling me, ‘You’re non-binary, trans, maybe you’re non-binary’. I tried to pull away but they just kept pulling me back in … I never developed the discernment to say ‘this isn’t true’.” If Jefferies’ case proceeds to a judicial decision, it could represent a test case for the duty of care doctors owe towards people seeking affirming care. It comes as the number of young people seeking treatment for gender dysphoria has increased dramatically in the past decade.

#41 - Part 89

The Transgender Agenda - Australia and Worldwide - Part 2

>>23145527 Child gender-medicine:Family Court judge critical of Michelle Telfer over gender guidelines, evidence- Australia’s foremost gender-medicine expert and the lead ­author of the nation’s guidelines on gender-affirming care, Michelle Telfer, was excoriated by a Family Court judge for giving ­misleading evidence in support of a mother who wanted her child to be prescribed puberty blockers, in a judgment that has called into question the integrity of treatment of gender-dysphoric children. Judge Andrew Strum, who stripped the mother of custody and effectively blocked the 12-year-old from accessing treatment, criticised the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne for failing to give the child a formal gender dysphoria diagnosis until the court proceedings had commenced, despite having treated the child for six years. The hospital’s chief of medicine, Professor Telfer, he said, cheapened the suffering of victims of Nazism when she suggested a landmark review that recommended limitations on medication for gender-dysphoric ­children formed part of a wave of trans­gender oppression commencing with the Nazis. Justice Strum also questioned the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents, authored by Professor Telfer, for not recognising children may not be capable of making life-altering medical decisions about their gender identity. The judgment, published in April, anonymised Professor Telfer as Associate Professor L and did not name the Royal Children’s Hospital due to statutory prohibitions preventing the identification of witnesses in Family Court proceedings. However, The Australian was on Thursday successful in petitioning the court to name ­Professor Telfer and her place of work, arguing it was in the public interest for the practices of an ­expert healthcare professional and a pre-eminent medical service to be transparent. “Nationwide News submits, and I agree, that the interests of the public are best served by members of the public having access to the entire context of Associate Professor L’s opinion or practice, so that it can be properly assessed,” Justice Strum ruled in approving the application. “Such transparency, including as to that expert’s identity, enables individuals to evaluate critically the validity, reliability and implications of that opinion and practice.” Justice Strum also agreed with The Australian’s submission that revealing Professor Telfer’s identity would assist parents, caregivers and their children in making informed decisions about their health.

>>23145583 ‘Public interest’: gender clinic’s practices should be open to scrutiny, judge rules - Michelle Telfer was a young paediatrician at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne in 2012 when she was asked to make what would become a life-changing ­decision. A colleague heading into retirement approached her to take on his small number of young transgender patients requiring support for medical transition. It was a tempting offer to work in this developing branch of medicine. “I really didn’t have much experience working with trans and gender diverse young people. I didn’t have any actually,’’ Telfer, a Perth-born former Olympic gymnast and Commonwealth Games medallist, told the Emerging Minds podcast in 2019. “But when I started to meet these young people, I really ­enjoyed it and really felt that it was a worthwhile area to assist in.” Back in 2012, the service received just 18 referrals and Telfer was advised these patients would be a small part of her clinical practice. How wrong that prediction would prove. Each year since 2012, referrals have rapidly grown (to 473 by 2020) and the cause of trans and gender diverse young people has “actually taken over my life’’, Telfer, now one of Australia’s foremost child gender medicine experts, told The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. She was instrumental in establishing the hospital’s gender service - the country’s first multi­disciplinary clinic for children and young people, which has been lauded internationally – and played a key role in developing Australian clinical guidelines for trans and gender diverse young people. Those say children should drive decision-making around medi­cal intervention and doing nothing, or withholding gender affirming care, was not a neutral option and may increase depression, anxiety and suicid­ality. Now Family Court judge Andrew Strum has heard testimony from Associate Professor Telfer and other experts. He has agreed she and the hospital should be identified by name. Justice Strum said airing of the entire context of Telfer’s opinion or practice would enable “individuals to evaluate critically the validity, reliability and implications of that opinion and practice.”

#41 - Part 90

The Transgender Agenda - Australia and Worldwide - Part 3

>>23145597 COMMENTARY: Doctor’s advocacy trumped duty to objectivity in court - "Medicalised gender change for distressed minors, driven by puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, is experimental treatment. Since 2019, jurisdictions as different as Finland, Florida, Sweden and England have independently put these hormonal treatments to the gold-standard test; in each case, systematic reviews of the evidence have shown it to be very weak and uncertain. So, there is no good-quality evidence to claim that paediatric medical transition benefits mental health, let alone prevents suicide. The known risks include brittle bones, cardiovascular problems, loss of fertility, sexual dysfunction and potential harm to the brain. And yet children’s hospitals and clinics across Australia continue to promote “gender-affirming care” as lifesaving. How was this allowed to happen? The public deserve an answer. We know this treatment was introduced as routine, bypassing the safeguard of clinical trials. The innovator was the gender clinic of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, which launched radical treatment guidelines in 2018. Misleadingly badged as “Australian standards”, these low-quality guidelines have nonetheless become the de facto national blueprint for gender clinicians. There are serious questions whether normal governance processes were followed at RCH - or at myriad other institutions that proudly stated their adherence to the guidelines. Until recently, it was hard to find a single Family Court case in which the judges had decided a child was simply incapable of consenting to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or a double mastectomy. And then, in April, the court handed down its ruling in re Devin, ordering that this 12-year-old boy be protected from puberty blockers at an unnamed children’s hospital gender service. Justice Andrew Strum’s decision in re Devin is the first detailed analysis by an Australian court of the fundamental flaws of the gender-affirming medical model. He was sharply critical of the doctor anonymised as “Associate Professor L”, who described herself as “an advocate for trans rights”. It is not a personal attack to name Dr Telfer or examine her role. In 2020, RCH claimed The Australian’s coverage of the issues was “targeted, personal, inflammatory and unprecedented,” but could not provide a single example. For some years, Dr Telfer courted uncritical media publicity. She was named in the celebratory re Kelvin ruling. She has been the central figure in the institution of gender-affirming care in Australia. When The Australian began its scrutiny of RCH, Dr Telfer was director of the country’s most influential gender clinic, first author of the de facto national guidelines and president of the activist Australian Professional Association for Trans Health; a recipe for conflicts of interest. Dr Telfer is still at RCH, as chief of medicine, and is still promoted on the gender clinic website. Just as she accepted plaudits in the past, she must be held accountable now." - Bernard Lane, writer of Gender Clinic News - theaustralian.com.au

>>23145628 ‘Vital’ to know who makes the calls on gender treatment: ex-judge - A former Family Court judge says it is “absolutely vital” jurists follow the example of judge Andrew Strum in making public the names of institutions treating gender dysphoric children, adding that it is critical parents are aware of the range of opinions on the efficacy of treatment. Stuart Lindsay, who presided in the Family Court from 2004-2014, praised Justice Strum’s ruling making public the identity of eminent gender-medicine expert and Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne chief of medicine Michelle Telfer, whom he had criticised for giving misleading evidence in support of a mother who wanted her child to be prescribed puberty blockers. Justice Strum, in his judgment, had also questioned the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents, authored by Professor Telfer, for not recognising children may not be capable of making life-altering medical decisions about their gender identity. “These are cases that involve a highly controversial area of medicine and one that specifically impacts upon children, and one that a lot of practitioners in the area of medicine involved say if it’s not properly scrutinised is capable of doing great harm to children at a particularly vulnerable part of their lives,” Mr Lindsay told The Australian. “So it’s absolutely essential that people involved in making decisions or in giving advice to parents about appropriate therapy for children who might be experiencing gender dysphoria are aware of the range of opinions in relation to the efficacy of the treatment, and especially the dangers of the treatment.”

#41 - Part 91

The Transgender Agenda - Australia and Worldwide - Part 4

>>23212894 Video: Hawthorn's AFLW star Tilly Lucas-Rodd undergoes gender affirming top surgery - Over the AFLW off-season, Hawthorn star Tilly Lucas-Rodd underwent top surgery, a gender-affirming procedure that involves the removal of breast tissue in essentially a double mastectomy. "People often have asked me, 'How do I feel now that I've had it' - post surgery seeing myself," Lucas-Rodd told ABC Sport. "A lot of people [who've had the operation] have really big emotions and really big elation. But for me, it was like, 'this is how I've always looked when I saw myself' … This is what I've always thought and always seen internally." Lucas-Rodd had their nipples put back on with nipple grafts, which some people post-surgery choose not to. Before the surgery, the 29-year-old midfielder-turned-halfback would tape their chest or wear a really tight binder, including when they were playing footy. The compression would restrict their rib cage movement, make it hard to breathe and hurt their back. "But the alternative was to feel really uncomfortable on a national stage playing sport - and something that's so public," said Lucas-Rodd, who is an inaugural AFLW player, former Hawks captain and All Australian. Lucas-Rodd even played in a guernsey at least two sizes too big, to hide their body. "Last year I wore, I think, a size medium or large when I was previously an extra small," they said. "I had huge discomfort around my chest, huge dysphoria. It didn't match up with what I felt internally I should look like." Now, Lucas-Rodd beams when thinking about playing this season, which starts in August. "I've already felt that with training and being able to just be free, to not wear a sports bra, not wear a binder, just put my jumper on," they said. "Going out onto the track in our training guernseys or our singlets, I just feel so, so happy and so just like me."

>>23212910 Video: AFLW star Tilly Lucas-Rodd ‘so happy’ after gender-affirming top surgery - AFLW star Tilly Lucas-Rodd has revealed they are “so happy” and feel so much like themselves after having gender-affirming top surgery during the off-season. The 29-year-old Hawthorn star is the league’s first current player to undergo the surgery - which removes breast tissue in a similar way to a double mastectomy - and said they feel so much more comfortable. “People often have asked me, ‘How do I feel now that I’ve had it’ - post-surgery, seeing myself,” Lucas-Rodd, who identifies as non-binary, told ABC Sport. “For me, it was like, ‘this is how I’ve always looked when I saw myself’ … This is what I’ve always thought and always seen internally.” Prior to the surgery, Lucas-Rodd was taping or binding their chest and wearing a guernsey multiple sizes too large in order to reduce dysphoria. This practice however, was causing issues, sometimes restricting breathing and movement, and creating back pain. Since returning to training, however, Lucas-Rodd said they are relishing the freedom of not needing a sports bra or chest bindings. “Going out onto the track in our training guernseys or our singlets, I just feel so, so happy and so just like me,” they said. “I had huge discomfort around my chest, huge dysphoria. It didn’t match up with what I felt internally I should look like.” The halfback came out publicly as non-binary in 2023, saying at the time that they “don’t really identify strongly as my assigned gender at birth, which is female.” “I don’t really feel strongly that I fit into that label as a female, and at the same time I don’t feel like I’m a male, either. I guess I’m in between that,” they said in a video shared on the Hawthorn website. “So for me, the label ‘non-binary’ feels most comfortable about how I identify in terms of my gender.”

#41 - Part 92

The Transgender Agenda - Australia and Worldwide - Part 5

>>23230223 Royal Children’s Hospital board must not ignore judge’s trans case findings - "Justice Andrew Strum, who recently decided the case of Re Devin, was so concerned about the evidence he heard from a clinician at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne he prohibited a mother from taking her son back to its gender service unless the father agreed. Justice Strum also considered it in the public interest to name one of the experts, the hospital’s chief of medicine, Michelle Telfer, who has been Australia’s foremost leader in promoting what some call “gender-affirming care”. In the way the best judges do, he delivered a carefully reasoned explanation about why he found the RCH’s practices so disturbing, based on the trial evidence that had lasted four weeks. At the heart of his concerns was that Telfer - and the other expert witness who was identified only as a “senior clinical psychologist” – did not offer the court a coherent justification for their clinical practice. Telfer and the senior clinical psychologist, the judge noted, believe gender identity is “internal and immutable” and not open to external influence. But he observed “neither of those experts were able to point to any empirical or substantive basis for their opinion but, rather, only to anecdotal reports from transgender adults”. According to Justice Strum, Telfer made assertions that seemed to contradict the idea that a child’s gender identity is immutable. Neither clinician could say at what age children have the capacity to know their “true” gender identity, but both were confident that in this case the child could do so when he was only six years old. After an experienced and highly respected judge has so strongly criticised the hospital’s chief of medicine, and called into question the clinical practices at its gender service, one might expect the chief executive or the board to announce the hospital was treating the issues raised with the utmost seriousness. In a similar situation, other hospital boards might well have announced a formal independent inquiry. Instead, the hospital released a statement saying its gender service delivers a “world-leading, multidisciplinary model of care”. The RCH’s reputation is on the line. The situation in Victoria is no doubt complicated by the position of its government, which has championed the practices of the RCH gender service and incorporated the underlying beliefs of the transgender movement into its educational policies and programs. But this is an issue about whether the RCH is practising evidence-based medicine. It is also a child protection issue, for the consequences of providing unnecessary and irreversible treatments to children, with such adverse and lifelong effects, could be grave. This is a board responsibility now. It must not shirk it." - Patrick Parkinson, emeritus professor of law at the University of Queensland - theaustralian.com.au

>>23230227 U.S. Study on Puberty Blockers Goes Unpublished Because of Politics, Doctor Says - The leader of the long-running study said that the drugs did not improve mental health in children with gender distress and that the finding might be weaponized by opponents of the care - Azeen Ghorayshi, Oct. 23, 2024 - nytimes.com

#41 - Part 93

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 1

>>22968851 AUKUS Milestone: First Royal Australian Navy Enlisted Students Graduate Nuclear Power Training - The first eight enlisted sailors and five additional officers from the Royal Australian Navy graduated from the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU) Charleston as part of the Australia, United Kingdom, United States (AUKUS) trilateral security partnership. The graduates, who trained alongside U.S. Navy personnel, began the rigorous naval nuclear power training pipeline in October 2024. The curriculum encompassed a wide range of critical subjects, including mathematics, nuclear physics, reactor principles, and nuclear reactor technology. This achievement marks an important step in Australia’s development of a sovereign, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) fleet. “This graduation marks a significant step forward for our Navy,” said Royal Australian Navy Commodore Daniel Sutherland, Commander Submarine Force. “Having naval nuclear power-qualified officers, and now sailors, is critical in meeting our goal of operating conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.” NPTU trains officers, enlisted Sailors and civilians for shipboard nuclear power plant operation and maintenance of surface ships and submarines in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear fleet. “I remain impressed with the quality of Australian submariners who come through the naval nuclear propulsion training pipeline,” said Capt. Robert Rose, Commander, NPTU Charleston. “Six officers previously completed prototype training, each performing exceptionally well. I fully expect these recent graduates, especially our first enlisted personnel, will excel in the fleet.” “The opportunity for our U.S. Navy students to train alongside their Australian counterparts is beneficial to both our countries’ Sailors,” said Master Chief Ed Jackson, Engineering Department Master Chief for Naval Reactors. “These Royal Australian Navy sailors will now transition to our submarines to continue their training and qualifications in operating naval nuclear propulsion plants.”

>>22977683 Video: Malcolm Turnbull: Trump 'enormous disruption', AUKUS 'absolute shocker' - In an interview on Q+A with Jack Tame, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said both New Zealand and Australia needed to do more to ensure their defence capabilities are “sovereign”, and not controlled by another country. “For countries like Australia and New Zealand, we are confronted with a United States with whom we shared the same values for 80 years now no longer sharing those values,” said Turnbull. He said Trump instead believes in the ethos of “might is right”, and that should be very concerning for smaller countries that rely on the rules-based international order. Turnbull cited the bullying of NATO members Canada and Denmark in an attempt to annex Canada as the 51st state, and Greenland as American territory, as examples of how the United States has dramatically changed. “We have to be clear-eyed about this - this is not the United States we grew up with. Trump’s values are more closely aligned with Vladimir Putin than they are with any of his predecessors – Democrat or Republican.” “This is a time of enormous disruption, and I think the challenge for Australia and New Zealand - we have to look to a world where there is no longer American leadership.” Turnbull argued the AUKUS deal, in which Australia is scheduled to receive nuclear-powered submarines, puts Australia in a dangerous position and potentially without any submarines at all. He added Australia's submarine deal as part of Pillar 1, however, is a "massive mistake" and an "absolute shocker". Turnbull explained that Australia’s existing fleet is coming to the end of its life, and under the terms of the AUKUS agreement, the Virginia-class submarines can only be given to Australia if the USA has sufficient reserves, which is very unlikely to be the case in the coming decades.

#41 - Part 94

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 2

>>23058451 AUKUS: Donald Trump’s billionaire envoy joins Keir Starmer in show of force for nuclear submarine pact - British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declared AUKUS as central to his government’s defence policy, pledging unprecedented investment and warning that the UK must treat defence as “the first thought in the morning and the last at night”. Starmer was joined by new US ambassador Warren Stephens - a billionaire private banker and big Republican donor – who threw his full support behind the AUKUS pact at a packed event inside the Palace of Westminster on Monday night (Tuesday AEST), calling it “vital” to global peace, security and prosperity. “This is not just a project,” Starmer told MPs, diplomats and defence leaders in a surprise appearance at the gathering. “It is a national endeavour … AUKUS strengthens the bonds between our three nations, and it shows that when we talk about security and stability, we mean it - in the Indo-Pacific and here at home.” The All-Party Parliamentary Group on AUKUS event at the House of Lords marked Stephens’ first public appearance since his arrival in London. He used the opportunity to send a clear message: Donald Trump backs AUKUS. “The vital partnership of our three countries cannot be overstated … President Trump, and I know this to be true as it has been repeatedly proven throughout history.” Stephens said AUKUS could also drive prosperity through an innovative private sector, adding that government works best when “we get out of the way and let our businesses innovate, compete and collaborate to improve people’s lives”. The remarks from the banker-turned-diplomat, who gave at least $US6 million ($9.3 million) to Trump’s election campaign, appeared as a clear pitch to those concerned about the pact’s future after the president’s return to the White House. “This alliance enjoys broad bipartisan support,” said the former chief executive of financial services company Stephens Inc. “I’m sure that you all are aware that bipartisanship is certainly not always the case in American politics these days. However, it is when it comes to AUKUS.”

>>23087088 AUKUS in space: Scott Morrison proposes ‘Pillar 3’ for defence pact - Scott Morrison - the founder of the landmark AUKUS agreement – has proposed taking the security partnership into the space domain to bolster its effectiveness as a military deterrent and make Australia a more valuable ally. The former prime minister said he would support a new AUKUS “Pillar 3” aimed at helping Australia develop a stronger space capability that could complement US, Japanese, as well as European and UK systems. This would bolster deterrence, with Mr Morrison noting that space was “now a frontline in US-China strategic rivalry.” But he also said it would send a valuable signal to the private sector about the important role it had to play. “The blurred lines between civil and military domains created by the dual use space technologies makes this even more challenging to contest,” he said. AUKUS - the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US – offered a chance to harness the power of the private sector in the space domain to “deliver strategic advantage over potential adversaries.” In a speech to the 2025 Australian Space Summit in Darling Harbour on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said that “Australia can and must stand out as a rising actor with the potential to plug important holes in allied capabilities.” He warned that China was “advancing, especially in satellite manoeuvrability, launch, and spaceplane tech,” while Russia was “reportedly developing a space-based nuclear anti-satellite weapon.” As space became “more enmeshed in geopolitical rivalry,” Mr Morrison said the allied network needed to function as a “cohesive whole, just as it has in all other domains for decades.” “By 2030, with deliberate development, Australia can offer unique contributions: southern-hemisphere sensors watching the skies, a strategic location for space operations, and additional resilient satellites and launch options,” he said.

#41 - Part 95

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 3

>>23115853 Video: AUKUS partnership: UK unveils radical defence overhaul as Starmer eyes Russian threat - Britain says it will radically change its approach to defence to address threats from Russia, nuclear risks and cyber attacks by investing in drones and digital warfare rather than relying on a much larger army to engage in modern combat. Responding to US President Donald Trump's insistence that Europe must take more responsibility for its security, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase to UK defence spending since the end of the Cold War. The UK government's strategic defence review, published on Monday, local time, included plans to increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet. The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under the security partnership AUKUS. "We know that threats are increasing and we must act decisively to face down Russian aggression," UK Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement. Britain will build up to 12 of its next-generation attack submarines - which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional non-nuclear weapons — to replace the current fleet of seven by the late 2030s, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. But with limited finances, the government's overall plan to boost the UK's defence capability envisages making the army more lethal, not larger, by learning from Ukraine where drones and technology have transformed the battlefield. The government has promised to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, and target a 3 per cent level over the longer term.

>>23125063 Video: AUKUS has serious problems, Australia probably won't receive any submarines: Malcolm Turnbull - Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia, says that AUKUS wasn't a very good deal for the country and that he thinks President Trump would love the deal as the U.S. would receive money without necessarily having to deliver anything in return. - CNBC International Live

>>23144688 Little penguins loom as a potential torpedo for AUKUS works - Little penguins could prove to be a big headache for Australia’s AUKUS program. Work on the key infrastructure needed to support the first Australia-based nuclear-powered submarines will be just one broken wing away from being forced to stop, at least temporarily, under conditions imposed on the project by Environment Minister Murray Watt. A single squashed skink would similarly bring work on the all-important upgrades at the HMAS Stirling naval base, on Garden Island off the coast of Rockingham in Western Australia, according to Senator Watt’s decision. Defence needs to carry out a series of upgrades and new installations at HMAS Stirling in preparation for the arrival in 2027 of the first submarines under AUKUS. The US and, later, British nuclear-powered submarines will be based out of HMAS Stirling as part of Submarine Rotational Force West as the program’s first major step. But the wildlife of Garden Island is proving a complicating factor. The main colony of little penguins on the island sits immediately southwest of HMAS Stirling’s main Diamantina pier in Careening Bay, while smaller colonies sit immediately northeast. All of them fall within the main “proposed action area” where the infrastructure upgrades will occur. The order requires Defence to “immediately initiate a stop-works procedure” in the event any little penguin, Perth slider (a type of skink) or marine mammal is found killed or injured in the area, under the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s conditions. Defence will also be responsible for arranging veterinary care or assistance “from an experienced wildlife carer” for any native terrestrial or marine animal” found injured. Among other conditions imposed on the work is a ban on dredging or disposing of spoil in Careening Bay during the little penguin’s breeding or moulting periods, “or as otherwise advised by a suitably qualified seabird conservation ecologist”.

#41 - Part 96

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 4

>>23163733 Alliance assessment:Pentagon launches review of Aukus nuclear submarine deal- The Pentagon has launched a review of the 2021 Aukus submarine deal with the UK and Australia, throwing the security pact into doubt at a time of heightened tension with China. The review to determine whether the US should scrap the project is being led by Elbridge Colby, a top defence department official who previously expressed scepticism about Aukus, according to six people familiar with the matter. Ending the submarine and advanced technology development agreement would destroy a pillar of security co-operation between the allies. The review has triggered anxiety in London and Canberra. While Aukus has received strong support from US lawmakers and experts, some critics say it could undermine the country’s security because the navy is struggling to produce more American submarines as the threat from Beijing is rising. Australia and Britain are due to co-produce an attack submarine class known as the SSN-Aukus that will come into service in the early 2040s. But the US has committed to selling up to five Virginia class submarines to Australia from 2032 to bridge the gap as it retires its current fleet of vessels. That commitment would almost certainly lapse if the US pulled out of Aukus. Last year, Colby wrote on X that he was sceptical about Aukus and that it “would be crazy” for the US to have fewer nuclear-powered attack submarines, known as SSNs, in the case of a conflict over Taiwan. In March, Colby said it would be “great” for Australia to have SSNs but cautioned there was a “very real threat of a conflict in the coming years” and that US SSNs would be “absolutely essential” to defend Taiwan. Sceptics of the nuclear technology-sharing pact have also questioned whether the US should help Australia obtain the submarines without an explicit commitment to use them in any war with China.

>>23163745 US launches AUKUS review to ensure it meets Donald Trump's 'America First' agenda - The Pentagon is reviewing the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the US and the UK to ensure it aligns with President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda, a US defence official told the ABC. But Defence Minister Richard Marles said he remained confident the pact would remain intact, and a review was a "perfectly natural" thing for a new administration to do. The news follows US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent request for Australia to significantly boost its defence spending "as soon as possible". The US defence official said the review "will ensure the initiative meets … common sense, America First criteria". "As Secretary Hegseth has made clear, this means ensuring the highest readiness of our service members, that allies step up fully to do their part for collective defence, and that the defence industrial base is meeting our needs," the official said. Under the AUKUS pact, Australia would be armed with nuclear-powered submarines at a cost of more than $350 billion. Elbridge Colby, who is the under secretary of Defense for Policy and has voiced scepticism about AUKUS, is leading the review, according to the UK's Financial Times. Last August, Mr Colby tweeted he was an AUKUS "agnostic". "In principle it's a great idea. But I've been very skeptical in practice," he wrote, but added he'd become "more inclined based on new information I've gleaned".

#41 - Part 97

AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 5

>>23163758 ‘Save Australia from itself’: Paul Keating fires up as Trump administration announces review into AUKUS deal - America’s bombshell review into the future of the AUKUS nuclear power submarine deal could be the “moment Washington saves Australia from itself”, former Prime Minister Paul Keating has said. Australia made its first AUKUS down payment to the US in February, transferring nearly $800 million to help boost the country’s submarine production. Overnight, the Trump Administration announced its biggest AUKUS sceptic Elbridge Colby will head a review into whether the US should pull out of the submarine deal with Australia. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has joined the chorus of Australia’s own AUKUS sceptics, saying the move “might very well be the moment Washington saves Australia from itself … from the most poorly conceived defence procurement program ever adopted by an Australian government”. In a statement, Mr Keating described AUKUS as being “hurriedly scribbled on the back of an envelope by Scott Morrison, along with the vacuous British blowhard Boris Johnson, and the confused president, Joe Biden - put together on an English beach, a world away from where Australia’s strategic interests primarily lie”. “The Albanese government had the chance to undertake a review on its own terms when first elected to office in May 2022, but denied itself the opportunity for fear of being seen as dodgy on the alliance,” Mr Keating said. “Now President Trump’s Pentagon, as it is entitled to do, is subjecting the deal to the kind of scrutiny that should have been applied to AUKUS in the first instance. The review makes clear that America keeps its national interests uppermost. But the concomitant question is: why has Australia failed to do the same?”

>>23163785 ‘Time to wake up’: Turnbull, opposition seize on Trump’s AUKUS review - Defence Minister Richard Marles and AUKUS architect Scott Morrison have insisted they are confident the United States will keep supporting the $368 billion submarine deal despite the Trump administration’s decision to review the security pact to ensure it puts “America first”. The United States on Thursday confirmed it was conducting a 30-day review into whether the AUKUS submarine deal should be changed or scrapped, throwing into doubt Australia’s future maritime defence and adding a pressure point to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s expected meeting with US President Donald Trump on the G7 sidelines in Canada next week. Former prime ministers Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, both prominent AUKUS critics, said the US review gave the Albanese government cause to revisit the deal. But Marles downplayed the situation and revealed the government had known about the review for weeks. Keating said the review gave Australia an opportunity to forge a new path on national security and accused the Labor government of avoiding its own review “for fear of being seen as dodgy on the alliance”. Turnbull also questioned why Australia had not reviewed the scheme. “The UK is conducting a review of AUKUS. The US … is conducting a review of AUKUS,” he said on X. “But Australia, which has the most at stake, has no review. Our parliament to date has been the least curious and least informed. Time to wake up?”

>>23174371 Anthony Albanese’s mission: save the AUKUS pact - Anthony Albanese is preparing a series of major defence funding announcements and will ensure Australia delivers on its pledge to service US nuclear submarines from 2027, as his government scrambles to lock in support from Donald Trump on the $368bn AUKUS pact. The Prime Minister on Friday will fly from Canberra on a critical one-week overseas trip that will bring him face to face with the President for the first time, amid concerns from the US that AUKUS will force it to deliver major funding and defence capabilities to a country that has not committed to support Washington in a conflict over Taiwan. Ahead of Mr Albanese travelling to Fiji, the US and Canada, the Pentagon on Thursday announced a snap 30-day review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, led by influential Defence Under Secretary for Policy, Elbridge Colby, who has expressed concerns about Australian defence spending and American industrial shipbuilding capacity. As G7 leaders prepare to gather in the Canadian town of Kananaskis over the weekend amid rising tensions between the US and Iran, The Australian understands Mr Trump is yet to lock in any bilateral meetings with counterparts including Mr Albanese.

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AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 6

>>23174548 Give Trump ‘a new Pine Gap’, say experts claiming AUKUS go-slow - Slow progress on new submarine bases is fuelling calls to offer the US “another Pine Gap” in Western Australia, as defence and diplomatic heavyweights claim a lack of urgency on AUKUS is giving Americans reasons to doubt Australia’s seriousness about the pact. Defence analyst Michael Shoebridge and Yaron Finkelstein, who was chief adviser to former prime minister Scott Morrison when he signed up to the AUKUS pact, said the US had doubts about how much Australia valued the program. Shoebridge said AUKUS was a “gift to the Albanese government that let them wave this totem around” to demonstrate national security credentials at a time when Australia was spending “almost nothing” in the next 10 years and deferring big-spending decisions. Finkelstein, Morrison’s former principal private secretary, said the Biden administration also had concerns about what it perceived as Australian delays in pushing ahead with AUKUS. “There’s a bit of a legacy, a perception, about [whether] our heart is in it,” he said on Sky News. “They had a view that maybe we don’t want this as much as when we first started.” One solution Shoebridge and former Home Affairs chief Mike Pezzullo endorse is a joint submarine base in Australia. The prospect of a US submarine base in Australia is highly contentious, with union and Labor left figures arguing nuclear submarines are dangerous.

>>23174595 Video: Malcolm Turnbull wants Australia to invest in alternative defence capabilities as US reviews AUKUS agreement - Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says the Australian government is misinformed when it comes to the AUKUS deal and the United States' ability to provide nuclear submarines. Mr Turnbull, a longtime critic of the defence pact, claimed Defence Minister Richard Marles made an incorrect statement on 7.30, on the same day the US announced a review of the deal. Mr Marles said he was confident the US could increase its production capacity to two boats per year to honour the deal. "We need to get to that point in the early 2030s. That's the time frame," Mr Marles told 7.30. "Right now, we are confident that we can meet that. And we are seeing real progress." Mr Turnbull said Australia's defence minister was "misinformed". "Richard Marles said that the rate of production of Virginia-class submarines is increasing. That's not true," Mr Turnbull said. "The latest numbers given to the Congress by the navy on 11 March this year was that the rate of production is 1.1 per annum. They need to get to two by 2028 to be able to meet their own requirements, and to 2.33 to meet their own, plus Australia's. And they have not been able to lift production rates despite the expenditure of over $10 billion over the last six or seven years. So, they've got a real problem."

>>23174623 Paul Keating is right, US AUKUS review might very well ‘save Australia from itself’ - "The Financial Times cited six sources on Wednesday reporting that US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby is leading a review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal with the UK and Australia to determine whether the US should scrap the project. The report noted that this move has triggered anxiety in Canberra. Some Australian media outlets were quick to respond with headlines like "not to worry" and "not a harbinger of collapse." The eagerness to defend the project instead made the anxiety quite obvious. However, other voices emerging from Australia have proven more compelling and harder to ignore. Australian former prime minister Paul Keating issued a statement on Thursday, saying that "the review makes clear that America keeps its national interests uppermost. But the concomitant question is: why has Australia failed to do the same?" Perhaps some organizations and individuals may express disappointment or even shock over the US review, but clear-headed Australians have likely breathed a quiet sigh of relief. For those anxious about the US review, this may also be an opportunity to confront the reality that Australia has always been the party paying the highest price with little gain in this deal. China certainly is not a fan of AUKUS, as it undermines peace and stability in the region. However, China is far from alone; many countries across the region have also voiced concerns or outright opposition to the pact." - Global Times - globaltimes.cn

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AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 7

>>23182448 ‘Pillar 1 problematic, Pillar 2 great’: Inside Colby’s AUKUS mind - If US Under-Secretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby’s personal views on AUKUS come to fruition, then Australia’s largest ever military project won’t be happening in its current form. A review is now being conducted by the Pentagon so it’s wait and see, but in a long interview conducted with Mr Colby just before he was hand-picked by Donald Trump for the Pentagon, he conveyed his view on the two pillars of AUKUS, approved by Congress, and subject to Presidential authority. “Pillar I is very problematic, Pillar II is great, no problem,” Colby said. Pillar I involves the US selling nuclear-powered submarines to Australia in the early 2030s. Pillar II is about other military intelligence sharing including the development of artificial intelligence. Colby scuttled several positive takes I posed about the sale of nuclear submarines to Australia. “How are we supposed to give away nuclear attack submarines in the years of the window of potential conflict with China?” he asked me back. “A nuclear attack submarine is the most important asset for a western Pacific fight, for Taiwan, conventionally. But we don’t have enough, and we’re not going to have enough,” Colby said. America is nowhere near producing enough of its own submarines. so why would they sell any to Australia?

>>23182504 Video: PM locks in meeting with Trump to discuss AUKUS, tariffs - Anthony Albanese will meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit to discuss the long-term future of the $368bn AUKUS deal, the strategic importance of the US-Australia relationship in the Indo-Pacific and why Australian companies should be exempt from the US President’s tariffs. The Prime Minister on Sunday (AEST) confirmed he would hold formal bilateral talks with Mr Trump at the Kananaskis summit in Alberta, where leaders of the world’s most powerful western democracies will gather in the next 24-hours under the backdrop of wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Mr Albanese, who has spoken three times with the US President since his return to the White House, said while Mr Trump was dealing with major global and domestic issues he expected to have a “constructive engagement” with him. The meeting is expected to occur overnight Tuesday (AEST). “Obviously we will raise tariffs, we will raise the importance of AUKUS. And we will have a discussion as two friends should,” Mr Albanese said. Under pressure from US officials for Australia to urgently lift its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, Mr Albanese said the context of his AUKUS discussions would centre around what Australia contributes and the potential of the military pact in terms of benefits for the US.

>>23186828 Defence ties with Australia key to Albanese’s pitch in historic Trump meeting - Anthony Albanese will stare down Donald Trump’s demands for Australia to double its defence spending, but reassure the president the country is a trustworthy partner in the strategic contest with China as the prime minister works to safeguard the AUKUS pact. In a meeting with Trump this week that looms as among the most important of his three decades in politics, Albanese will put access to Australia’s critical minerals on the table as the Trump administration reviews whether AUKUS fits with its “America First” agenda. Asked whether Australia would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US if China attempted to take Taiwan by force - a source of some concern in some parts of the Trump administration – Albanese did not answer directly on Monday. But the prime minister said AUKUS would play a key peace and security role. “Australia’s a trusted partner to promote peace and security in our region,” Albanese said. “We have been so forever. If you look at the role that Australia has played, [we] will continue to play an important role in the Pacific. The visit that I had on the way here to Fiji is another example and a reminder of the fact that Australia is a trusted partner in the Pacific.”

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AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 8

>>23192204 PM in subs, regional pitch to keep Trump sweet - Anthony Albanese will use the $368bn AUKUS nuclear submarine deal and Australia’s expanding role in the South Pacific to reassure Donald Trump’s administration that his government is committed to countering Chinese military aggression in the Indo-Pacific. Ahead of his critical first in-person meeting with the US President on Wednesday (AEST), which is scheduled for at least 20 minutes on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, Mr Albanese has launched a major defence of his government’s backing of the US in terms of military support and increased security co-ordination. Amid concerns about Xi Jinping’s military build-up in the ­region, there are now more US marines based in Australia than since the end of World War II, and joint defence and intelligence operations have been ramped up to unprecedented levels. The Australian Defence Force is preparing to host more than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations next month as part of the 11th Australia-US led Exercise Talisman Sabre, which will for the first time include training sites in Papua New Guinea. The Australian understands the Prime Minister is preparing to green-light US access to Australia’s critical minerals as Western nations grapple with China’s dominance in the supply of the ­resources.

>>23192280 Anthony Albanese relies on Keir Starmer to secure Donald Trump’s backing for AUKUS - When it comes to AUKUS, Anthony Albanese is lucky to have Sir Keir Starmer in his corner. Australia’s Prime Minister has missed his chance, for now, to personally win Donald Trump’s direct support for the submarine pact, with the US President departing the G7 in Canada to deal with the Middle East war. But amid a snap 30-day review of AUKUS ordered by the Trump administration, the British Prime Minister appears to have secured presidential backing for the deal. Unlike Albanese, Sir Keir managed to get a meeting with Trump before he skipped town. Asked later at a joint press conference with the President whether the trilateral subs deal was proceeding, the pair looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Answering for them both, Sir Keir said: “Yep, we’re proceeding with that, it’s a really important deal to both of us.” While not quite from the horse’s mouth, the statement will be a relief for Albanese. Britain can build its nuclear submarines if need be, but Australia would be up the proverbial creek if the AUKUS deal fell over. The navy’s six Collins-class boats are on their last legs, even with planned life-extending upgrades. After having run down the clock with false starts on Japanese and French submarines, the collapse of AUKUS would leave Australia without a viable submarine force for decades. And as the government has warned, only nuclear-powered submarines offer the capability Australia needs to stealthily deter Chinese threats. The fact Albanese has to rely on Sir Keir to get Trump to endorse the AUKUS deal is somewhat embarrassing for him, but he’ll take any help he can get.

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AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 9

>>23197965 Scott Morrison calls for an AUKUS pillar 3 - the space frontier - Scott Morrison, the chief architect of the AUKUS pact has called for the military alliance to be expanded into space under a third pillar that would see Australia take a key role in the geopolitical deterrence in the southern hemisphere. The former Coalition prime minister has declared that space technology would become as critical to western defence architecture as the submarine program and could bring other nations including Japan and NATO into the alliance. With the AUKUS program now under review by the Pentagon, the extension of the program into a third pillar - space technology – would also provide the political incentive Donald Trump needs to put his own stamp on the AUKUS pact which was inked by Mr Morrison and former Democrat President Joe Biden and the UK’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “As the Trump administration examines how to improve AUKUS, there’s another important factor - space,” Mr Morrison says in an opinion piece published in the US paper, The Wall Street Journal. “If our nations are serious about deterrence, then we must prepare for new theatres of geopolitical competition. The global space economy now exceeds $630 billion and is projected to nearly triple in value by 2035. But space is no longer a benign domain. Beijing is already operating dual-use, civil-military technology across its space sector, launching manoeuverable satellites, conducting co-orbital rendezvous operations, and testing systems capable of disabling adversary assets, such as its Shenlong spaceplane.”

>>23197971 How Donald Trump can launch AUKUS into space - "Time has borne out what I said to President Trump on the White House South Lawn in September 2019: While Australia may look to the US as a vital ally, we will never leave it to America alone to deal with security issues. In that spirit, in early 2020 as prime minister I assigned a small team to engage Washington about the possibility of Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarine technology. Two years later the AUKUS agreement among Australia, the UK and the US was born, amid bipartisan support in all three nations. Now, it’s time for AUKUS to grow, and Mr Trump is the right person for the job. AUKUS is a platform for collective deterrence against an axis of autocratic regimes threatening global and regional security, especially in the Indo-Pacific. The agreement’s first pillar enables Australia’s acquisition of its first nuclear-powered sub fleet. Its second pillar facilitates cooperation on advanced military capabilities, from quantum computing to hypersonic missiles. The Chinese Communist Party opposed AUKUS vehemently - confirming its strategic value. No American president since John F. Kennedy has shown more commitment to space than Mr Trump, from backing the Artemis Moon to Mars program to creating the US Space Force and promoting commercial innovation through public-private partnerships and now the Golden Dome. That leadership makes him the natural champion of an AUKUS Pillar III that consolidates cooperation across launch systems, satellite architecture, cybersecurity, data integration and industrial innovation. This would enable better coordination of allied space policies and create shared standards across defense and commercial systems. It should also provide a platform for integrating non-Aukus allies such as Japan and NATO members into the same architecture. That would make clear that the allies’ space systems are resilient, interconnected and can’t be targeted in isolation. Establishing a Pillar III would ensure that space, the ultimate high ground, is secured by free nations, not our enemies. America and Australia have stood shoulder to shoulder on land, at sea and in the skies. Now we must do the same in orbit." - Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister from 2018-22 and vice-chairman of American Global Strategies - theaustralian.com.au

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AUKUS Security Pact and Nuclear Submarine Program - Part 10

>>23212722 Albanese ‘must raise subs with Trump’ as AUKUS deadline looms - The waning possibility of Anthony Albanese landing a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump in coming weeks has sparked alarm from the Coalition and defence ­experts, who have raised concern about the two leaders not meeting before Washington’s controversial AUKUS review concludes and instead leaving the outcome “to chance”. Despite indications from the Prime Minister that he may attend the NATO summit in The Hague next week - which Mr Trump may also take part in – The Australian understands that this option is becoming increasingly unlikely, amid questions over whether Mr Trump will be able to leave the US because of the Middle East crisis. Without meeting the President on the sidelines of NATO, the next best option being considered by the government is a sit-down ­between the two leaders on the sidelines of a UN summit in New York in September. That would be well after the Pentagon’s 30-day snap review of AUKUS concludes, which was ­announced on June 12. Opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor said the ­inability of Mr Albanese to put ­forward Australia’s case for the ­defence pact and Canberra’s ­defence spending - which the US has been demanding be lifted – was “disappointing”. “A face-to-face meeting is ­crucial to seek assurances on AUKUS,” he said. “Australia should be at the table engaging at the highest levels to advocate the importance of AUKUS and ensure our interests are understood and defended, not waiting on the sidelines. It is disappointing the Prime Minister appears unlikely to meet with President Trump before the Pentagon’s review into AUKUS concludes.”

>>23234931 US congressmen urge Trump administration to continue 'critical' AUKUS submarine deal to secure Indo-Pacific - US politicians who have championed AUKUS have stepped up lobbying efforts with the Trump administration, saying the defence technology pact is "critical" to deterring "Chinese aggression" and urging the White House not to dump it. The Trump administration said earlier this month it would conduct a 30-day review of AUKUS, with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling Congress last week his department would "make sure it fits the priorities of the president and that our defence and shipbuilding industrial base can support." The federal government has played down the impact of the review, saying it was confident the White House would continue to endorse the initiative. Five US congressmen who sit on multiple influential house defence committees have now written to the defense secretary to declare their support for AUKUS, saying it was a "critical mission" to "deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region." The five congressmen - including Republican and House Armed Services Committee chair Mike Rogers as well as Democrats Joe Courtney and Adam Smith — said in their letter that they were "confident in our ability to meet both US fleet requirements and our AUKUS commitments." The politicians said additional funding commitments from Congress, on top of Australia's payments, have allowed US shipyards to ramp up steel fabrication and increase construction pace. "Shipbuilders delivered two attack submarines in 2024 (USS New Jersey and USS Iowa), with two more slated for delivery in 2025 (USS Massachusetts and USS Idaho), and another two in 2026," they wrote. They argued that increasing capacity would "open a pathway to selling the Virginia-class submarines to Australia in 2032, 2035, and 2038", as planned.

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Australia / China Tensions - Part 1

>>22964070 Chinese envoy demands Australia stands with Beijing over US ‘bully’ - China’s ambassador to Australia claims US President Donald Trump is turning the world of international trade into a “lawless jungle”, and is demanding Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton stand with Beijing against the “bullying” of the White House’s tariff war. As Mr Trump moved to strike a deal with China and ease fears of a damaging global economic crisis, Beijing’s envoy Xiao Qian told Australia’s leaders the US-Australia alliance does not give the Trump administration a “free pass” on trade. Mr Xiao writes in The Australian that Beijing is ready to stand up to Washington, and suggests Australia as an independent nation should join the Chinese. “Faced with unilateral bullying, China will resolutely stand its ground, not only to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests but also to prevent the world from descending into a lawless “jungle” where might makes right,” Mr Xiao writes. “Both China and Australia are important countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beneficiaries as well as upholders of the multilateral system and free trade. Amidst the changing international landscape, China stands ready to work with all parties to resolutely oppose all forms of ­hegemony and bullying, firmly uphold the UN-centred international system and the international order based on inter­national law, and contribute to the prosperity and stability of the region and the world at large.”

>>22964078 COMMENTARY: America’s tariffs are turning the world back to ‘law of the jungle’ - "Recently, the United States has indiscriminately imposed tariffs on all its trading partners, coercing them into initiating so-called “reciprocal tariff” negotiations and demanding each country make significant concessions. The international community must remain highly vigilant against such actions. If the US is allowed to act with impunity, the world will revert to the “law of the jungle” where the strong prey on the weak, and all countries will become victims. Today, the US, obsessed with the supremacy of power, brazenly imposes tariffs on the entire world, pursues hegemonic politics and unilateral bullying in the economic and trade fields, and places American interests above the common interests of the international community, making the entire world, including its “allies” and “partners”, pay the price for its selfishness. This has subverted the existing international rules and order, and will bring the international community back to the “law of the jungle”, with small and weak countries bearing the brunt of the consequences. China is a steadfast defender of multilateralism and the international rules-based order, consistently advocating for the resolution of differences through dialogue and negotiation. However, the US, wielding the “big stick”, has indiscriminately imposed exorbitant tariffs on countries around the world. Both China and Australia are important countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beneficiaries as well as upholders of the multilateral system and free trade. History has repeatedly proven that a powerful country is not an almighty talisman, and alliance is not a free pass. On issues concerning principles and fundamental national interests, only by making independent decisions based on the interests of one’s own country and people can a nation secure a brighter future." - Xiao Qian, China’s ambassador to Australia - theaustralian.com.au

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Australia / China Tensions - Part 2

>>22964082 COMMENTARY: Sorry, Ambassador Xiao Qian: Beijing is no defender of the free world - "If hypocrisy had a house style, the Chinese ambassador’s latest dispatch in these pages would be its template. Xiao Qian’s essay attacking the US measures the gulf between Beijing’s words and deeds in seven-league boots. In his telling, China is the guardian of global order. While there’s every reason to be disturbed about the recent actions of the US President, choosing a world run with Chinese characteristics demands a serious character check. The ambassador would have us believe Xi Jinping is a safer option than Trump. But it is not a real choice at all, only the illusion of one. There are still checks and balances on an American president; in China, only one man is truly free. Trump disrupts the order. Xi bends it to his will and wants to make us slaves to it. Xiao would have us forget what China has done and focus only on what it says. Perhaps he thinks we’re stupid and, as a close observer, probably sees our election campaign as proof of that point. No doubt the usual chorus of useful idiots will amplify the ambassador’s talking points. No doubt our government will run its usual lame line that we will co-operate where we can and disagree where we must, as China continues to push and we retreat. Still, it is good that Xiao was given space in a national newspaper to share his views. It exposes the strategy Beijing uses in every possible forum: take a sliver of truth, distort it and deploy it to undermine trust in open societies. And the courtesy of free speech might give the ambassador pause to consider this: in what Chinese paper would a foreign critic be given the same freedom? Where are the Chinese publications that dare to criticise the Communist Party? That is what makes our system and America’s better than his. The right to disagree isn’t punished with imprisonment or death. Some may see free speech as a small thing; I see it as the only thing that stands between us and tyranny. I am happy to see it extended even to someone who, if his world were realised, would take it from me. Chinese diplomats often season their rhetoric with Confucian platitudes, the moral maxims the Cultural Revolution once tried to erase from history. Here’s one from our side: the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. But, frankly, that is too mild. In the days when China was hitting Australia with trade sanctions, there was talk of Beijing seeking a demonstration effect - a warning to other impudent countries – captured in an old idiom: kill the chicken to scare the monkey. In that spirit, I offer this ancient Australian riposte: I wouldn’t trust Beijing to run a chook raffle."'' - Chris Uhlmann - theaustralian.com.au

>>22998144 Relief in Canberra as Solomon Islands PM Jeremiah Manele averts no-confidence vote - Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has averted a high-stakes no-confidence vote led by his pro-Beijing predecessor Manasseh Sogavare after a day of political manoeuvring that had the capital Honiara on high alert and Canberra braced for a potential setback in its Pacific strategy. The move by at least 10 defector MPs, including four-time former prime minister Sogavare, threatened to plunge the Pacific Island country back into political turmoil and derail the Albanese government’s flagship $190m policing program for the Solomons designed to limit China’s growing reach in the country’s security sector. The rogue group - which included key opposition figures Matthew Wale and another former prime minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo, who tabled the no-confidence motion in parliament last week – claimed to command a slim majority in the 50-seat parliament. But Mr Manele appeared to have headed off the putsch by Monday night when he released a photo which showed him standing with 27 MPs, suggesting he had coaxed several back into the government fold. By Tuesday morning it became clear the no-confidence motion had been omitted from the day’s parliamentary schedule, prompting speaker Patteson Oti to adjourn parliament until 2pm (local time) when he announced the vote had been withdrawn. That will have come as a relief to the Albanese government, which has worked well with Mr Manele since he replaced the combative Mr Sogavare last May.

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Australia / China Tensions - Part 3

>>23007467 OPINION: A pragmatic China policy can provide Australia the certainty it seeks - "Recently, discussions within Australia have intensified regarding the trajectory of China-Australia relations, as various voices attempted to offer "road maps" for the direction the Anthony Albanese administration should take. Last week, the Australian Labor Party secured a decisive victory in the federal election, with Albanese becoming the first Australian leader in 21 years to be re-elected. Consequently, the state of China-Australia relations under Albanese 2.0 has become a focal point of public discourse. For instance, a Lowy Institute article on Wednesday suggested that Canberra should "speak up" about Beijing's "human rights issues." Similarly, the infamous Australian Strategic Policy Institute continues its anti-China agenda by labeling China "the most active state engaged in hybrid threats targeting Australia." These perspectives underscore a segment of Australian discourse that views China through a confrontational lens and aims to increase suspicion and hostility toward the country. At a time when the global economy is slowing and geopolitical tensions are rising, China and Australia - both major players in the Asia-Pacific - should continue to choose the path of dialogue and cooperation. A sustained pragmatic and rational approach to China under Albanese 2.0 will help take the bilateral relationship to a new level of mutually beneficial cooperation, which would not only serve both countries' interests but also support stability and development in the region. Experience in recent years has shown that blindly following Washington's lead and treating China as a strategic adversary has harmed Australia's diplomatic independence and dealt real blows to its economy. Learning from those lessons and continuing to pursue a pragmatic and balanced China policy is the right strategic path for Australia." - Global Times - globaltimes.cn

>>23012508 China criticises Australia over joint exercises with Philippines, US in South China Sea - China's Foreign Ministry has sharply criticised Australia after it conducted another joint military exercise in the South China Sea with the US and the Philippines, accusing all three nations of trying to "create trouble." The Royal Australian Navy's destroyer HMAS Sydney joined a guided missile frigate from the Philippine Navy and aircraft from both the US and the Philippines last week to conduct the drills. Clashes between China's coast guard and vessels from the Philippines have intensified over the last 18 months, and several countries - including the US, Japan, Australia and Canada — have responded by stepping up joint military exercises with the Philippines in the contested waters. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing that the United States was using the Philippines as a "pawn" against China, and that Manila had "brought in and collaborated with forces outside the region to create disruptions and flex military muscles". "The US and other countries outside the region have patched up small groupings in the South China Sea to stoke confrontation in the name of cooperation, flex military muscles in the name of freedom, and create trouble in the name of upholding order," he said. "They are the biggest source of risks undermining the peace and stability in the South China Sea." China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea as its territory, and has ignored a 2016 ruling which found that claim had no basis under international law. Australia hasn't responded directly to China's most recent criticism but the Department of Defence said last week the joint exercise was aimed at "build(ing) mutual understanding and interoperability between nations and armed forces."

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Australia / China Tensions - Part 4

>>23032055 Xi congratulates Anthony Albanese, calls on PM to work with China to promote ‘world peace’ - President Xi Jinping has congratulated Anthony Albanese on his re-election, saying he wants to work with the Australian Prime Minister to strengthen their relationship and promote “world peace and stability”. In a written message delivered on Tuesday as the Prime Minister was sworn in by Australia’s Governor-General, the Chinese leader said he had engaged in “in-depth discussions on strategic, comprehensive and directional issues” in his three meetings with Mr Albanese. “These discussions led to important consensuses that have provided strategic guidance to improve and grow bilateral ties,” Mr Xi said, according to Chinese newsagency Xinhua. The Chinese president said he was ready to work with Mr Albanese to “advance the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership in a steady fashion”. “Strengthening co-operation between China and Australia is of great significance for achieving shared development and promoting world peace and stability,” said Mr Xi in comments that were also run on the front-page of Wednesday’s People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s leading newspaper. China’s Premier Li Qiang also sent a congratulatory message, according to Xinhua, saying he wanted to work with the Prime Minister on promoting a “more mature, stable and fruitful China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership”. The Prime Minister is expected to visit China later in the year. The warm comments underscore the notable improvement in the diplomatic relationship since 2022, even as polls find actions by China continue to stoke anxiety among a majority of Australians.

>>23032067 OPINION: Why stable China ties are vital for Australia - "In an uncertain world, people crave stability, and Australian electoral behavior is no different: In challenging times, voters tend to stick with the incumbent government. Over the past three years, the Albanese administration has been defined by cautious steadiness. It's fair to say that stabilizing relations with China has emerged as one of Labor's standout foreign policy achievements. Since Albanese's Labor Party came to power in May 2022, it has rolled back the previous Coalition's anti-China stance and taken proactive measures to enhance dialogue with Beijing. Under the direct engagement and strategic leadership of both countries' leaders, China-Australia relations have bottomed out and rebounded, warming across the board. Exchanges in various fields have taken positive strides, and economic and trade flows have fully recovered - earning widespread support on both sides. Throughout the election campaign, Labor, as the governing party, maintained continuity in its China policy and generally adopted a rational, restrained tone in all China-related statements. This pragmatic, steady approach won the trust of voters. In this election, the Australian people ultimately chose the Labor Party, the side of certainty facing an uncertain world, based on their expectations of policy stability and continuity. The Labor government now has more reason to adhere to an independent foreign policy and to work toward the steady and sustained growth of China-Australia relations. In this way, the two countries can provide a more stable and favorable policy environment for mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation, striving to bring more tangible benefits to both countries and their people." - Wang Zhenyu - globaltimes.cn

#41 - Part 107

Australia / China Tensions - Part 5

>>23045815 Video: AFP will train Pacific peacekeepers to help counter China’s influence - The Australian Federal Police is boosting its role in the Pacific in the face of growing competition from China by agreeing to train Pacific island police to become UN peacekeepers. The move comes at a time when China is aggressively trying to strike police co-operation deals with Pacific Island nations as a means to gain leverage over their strategic direction. In response, the AFP is boosting its policing engagement across the Pacific Island region as part of Australia’s broader diplomatic push to prevent China establishing footholds in the region. Beijing has criticised the AFP for having an “impure motive” to “contain China” in its growing push to forge closer links with ­Pacific island nations. As part of its attempts to sideline China and forge closer relationships with the Pacific, the AFP is hosting the world’s first UN Police Peacekeeping Training course tailored specifically for the Pacific region. The course, which started in Brisbane this week, brings together 100 police officers from across the Pacific and East Timor and aims to build a deployable, Pacific-led UN peacekeeping capability. AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan said the course would help “reinforce Australia’s role as a preferred partner of choice in the Pacific for sustained peace, security and prosperity in the region”. Mr Ryan said the AFP’s presence in the Pacific had grown “exponentially” in recent years, and despite growing competition from China he believed that Australia was still the partner of choice in policing and security. “It’s no secret that China has ambitions to increase their presence in the Pacific in the security space,” he told The Australian. “But we’ve got longstanding relationships going back decades with our Pacific partners, and they’re very strong relationships. “We are part of the Pacific family and Australia is recognised as the partner of choice, particularly in the security space.”

>>23045840 Taiwan urges Australia to defy China on Trump-proofing trade pact - Taiwan is urging Australia to stare down opposition from Beijing and support its admission to a sweeping regional free trade pact to help buffer it from the volatility of Donald Trump’s tariff gyrations. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced during a visit to Jakarta on Thursday that Australia will back Indonesia’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but Taiwan’s request to join the pact has been stalled since 2021. Australia is serving as the rotating chair of the 12-nation grouping this year, giving it responsibility for guiding the group’s activities and priorities. “We definitely call for Australia’s support of Taiwan’s accession to the CPTPP, which we see as the gateway to future trade,” Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Australia, Douglas Hsu, said in an interview with this masthead. Australia does not recognise Taiwan as a state, meaning its top envoy is known as the head of its economic and cultural office rather than an ambassador. “Australia and Taiwan have a complementary trade partnership, we believe that we can meet the high standards of the CPTPP regulations and we have a good track record dealing with other trading partners. “The CPTPP is a trade mechanism, so we definitely will urge all the members to review Taiwan’s case based on the merits instead of the geopolitics.”

#41 - Part 108

Australia / China Tensions - Part 6

>>23062845 Anthony Albanese to visit China for second time amid Xi Jinping's push for 'mature' ties with Australia - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to China later this year to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, marking his second official visit to China in two years. The ABC understands the prime minister will attend the Annual Leaders' Meeting, part of a resumed high-level dialogue last held in Canberra in June 2024 during Mr Li's visit to Australia. The trip follows a warm personal letter from Mr Xi congratulating Mr Albanese on his re-election. In the message, Mr Xi highlighted China's interest in "promoting a more mature, stable and productive" relationship with Australia, a deliberate nod to Beijing's desire to build sustained engagement with the Labor government. The second visit places Mr Albanese among a small group of Australian prime ministers to be invited to Beijing so frequently. He made stabilising ties with China a core foreign policy priority during his first term, resuming ministerial dialogue and steering the relationship out of a prolonged diplomatic freeze. During his first trip to China, in November 2023, Mr Xi invited him to return and see more of the country, reinforcing what both sides now describe as a "comprehensive strategic partnership". The trip was widely seen as a diplomatic breakthrough, not only securing the release of detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei after three years in custody, but also resulting in the removal of all remaining trade impediments imposed on Australian exports during the Coalition government. The date of the meeting is yet to be announced by Mr Albanese.

>>23076633 Cheap Aussie ‘Mozzie’ all the buzz to replace global market-leading Chinese drones - An Australian technology company is poised to meet a critical challenge for the nation’s security, designing a $5000 drone for military use with domestically sourced parts and those from friendly countries. The only Chinese component in Grabba Technologies’ Mozzie drone is its electric motor, and the company is working with two local firms that are close to producing Australian-made alternatives. The privately owned Brisbane company was selected for the challenge by Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, which needed an affordable multi-mission drone under 2kg for use by the Australian Defence Force and national security agencies. The locally made drone gives Australian and allied users a trusted alternative to Chinese drones that dominate the global market. The ASCA challenge followed the removal from service of more than 800 Chinese-made drones that had been operated by the ADF, and 41 in use with the Australian Border Force. The Mozzie, which can undertake surveillance missions or drop bombs on enemy soldiers, will meet US “blue list” guidelines for technology products with entirely friendly-nation supply chains. The explosion in drone warfare seen in Ukraine has piled pressure on the Australian government to bring uncrewed systems into service as rapidly as possible. Grabba Technologies is set to sell 260 of the drones to Defence for testing by the army, navy and air force, and hopes to sell tens of thousands more to the ADF and allied militaries, and law enforcement agencies.

#41 - Part 109

Australia / China Tensions - Part 7

>>23083159 Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian hits out over ‘ethically questionable’ Port of Darwin lease buyback - The Chinese ambassador to Australia says Anthony Albanese’s promise to boot a Chinese company from operating the Port of Darwin is “ethically questionable,” urging the government to honour the 99-year lease. In a statement released by the embassy on Sunday night, Xiao Qian criticised Australia’s “ethically questionable” behaviour and said port owners Landbridge Group had made “significant investments” after winning a 99-year lease in 2015 for $506m. The comments follow an election promise to buy back the lease, with the Prime Minister threatening direct intervention if the government is unable to find a new buyer. “These efforts have brought remarkable improvements to the port, turning its financial situation from losses to profits and contributing positively to local economic and social development,” Mr Xiao said. “Such an enterprise and project deserves encouragement, not punishment. “It is ethically questionable to lease the port when it was unprofitable and then seek to reclaim it once it becomes profitable.” Mr Xiao said Landbridge Group had undertaken an “open and transparent bidding process” to secure the commercial contract and urged the Australian government to honour its binding commitments. While he acknowledged that Australia and China were “comprehensive strategic partners”, Mr Xiao said the countries needed to “foster mutual trust”. “We hope the Australian side will view the Darwin Port project objectively, honour its binding commitments under the contract and respect the autonomous decisions made by businesses based on development needs,” he said. “We hope the Australian federal government and the Northern Territory government will create a fair, transparent, and predictable business environment for Chinese enterprises operating in Australia.”

>>23083164 Chinese ambassador blasts Darwin Port lease plan as 'ethically questionable' - China's ambassador to Australia has fired a warning shot to the Albanese government over its plans to take back the port of Darwin, describing the move as "ethically questionable". The strategically important northern Australian port has been a hotly debated national security issue since it was leased to Chinese firm Landbridge by the NT government for 99-years in 2015. During this year's federal election campaign, both Labor and the Coalition made duelling pledges to get the port "back into Australian hands". Federal Labor has not given a firm indication of exactly how it will do that, but has repeatedly said it has been speaking with Australian firms to possibly take over the lease. Ambassador Xiao Qian published a statement on his website on Sunday, days after making a trip to Darwin where he said he visited the port and met with staff at Landbridge. "A decade ago, the Landbridge Group secured the lease for the port of Darwin through an open and transparent bidding process, fully compliant with Australian laws and market principles," he said. "Over the past 10 years, Landbridge Group has made significant investments in maintaining and building Darwin Port's infrastructure, optimising its operations and management, and expanding its customer sources. These efforts have brought remarkable improvements to the port, turning its financial situation from losses to profits and contributing positively to local economic and social development." Mr Xiao also called on the Northern Territory and federal governments to "honour its binding commitments" under the contract and "respect the autonomous decisions made by businesses made by development needs". "Such an enterprise and project deserves encouragement, not punishment. It is ethically questionable to lease the port when it was unprofitable and then seek to reclaim it once it becomes profitable." Members of the previous NT government that leased the port to Landbridge have said the decision was made to lease it after the federal government of the day failed to fund needed infrastructure upgrades.

#41 - Part 110

Australia / China Tensions - Part 8

>>23083169 Chinese Ambassador urges Australia to objectively view Darwin Port project and honor contractual commitments - "When responding to the Albanese government's pledge during the Australian election campaign to revoke the operating rights of China's Landbridge Group over the Port of Darwin in a joint media interview, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian said that it is ethically questionable to lease the port when it was unprofitable and then seek to reclaim it once it becomes profitable. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese mentioned in April during the election campaign that his government was working on a plan to force the sale of Darwin Port from its Chinese owner on national interest grounds, Reuters reported. During an interview published on the website of the Chinese Embassy in Australia on Sunday, Xiao said that Chinese side has consistently maintained communication with both the Australian federal government and the Northern Territory government (where the port is located) through diplomatic channels. He elaborated that a decade ago, the Landbridge Group secured the lease for the Port of Darwin through an open and transparent bidding process, fully compliant with Australian laws and market principles. Over the past 10 years, Landbridge Group has made significant investments in maintaining and building Darwin Port's infrastructure, optimizing its operations and management, and expanding its customer sources, said Xiao. China and Australia are comprehensive strategic partners. The two sides should foster mutual trust, as mutually beneficial cooperation aligns with our shared interests. We hope the Australian federal government and the Northern Territory government will create a fair, transparent, and predictable business environment for Chinese enterprises operating in Australia, the ambassador noted." - Global Times - globaltimes.cn

>>23087093 US eyes Darwin Port prise from Chinese-owned company Landbridge Group - A US private equity firm with strong ties to the Trump administration is poised to make an offer to buy the Port of Darwin from its Chinese owner, in a test of ­Anthony Albanese’s resolve to bring the port back under ­Western control. The Australian can reveal New York-based Cerberus Capital Management is preparing a formal proposal to buy the port from Landbridge Group’s billionaire owner Ye Cheng, who is a close confidant of senior Chinese ­Communist Party figures. It’s understood the investment firm’s offer will be slightly above the $506m that Landbridge paid 10 years ago for its 99-year lease over the facility. The company says the facility is not for sale, but one source said the port operator was open to offers of about $1bn. The Prime Minister warned in the midst of the election campaign that Landbridge must either sell the port voluntarily or it would be forcibly acquired by the government. The US has had longstanding concerns over the port’s ­Chinese ownership, but Mr Albanese has been facing pressure from Beijing to back down on his pre-election pledge to strip Landbridge of the lease. Cerberus Capital Management was until recently run by co-­founder Steve Feinberg, who was appointed in March to be US deputy defence secretary. Representatives from the company met Landbridge Group and Northern Territory Treasurer Bill Yan last week. Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian said forcing the company to give up the lease would be “ethically questionable” given it had ­secured it through an open and transparent bidding process and made significant investments in the facility since then. “These ­efforts have brought remarkable improvements to the port, turning its financial situation from losses to profits and contributing positively to local economic and social development,” the ambassador said in comments posted on the Chinese embassy website.

#41 - Part 111

Australia / China Tensions - Part 9

>>23087100 Global Times editorial: If Australia forcibly takes back Darwin Port, it will leave behind enduring pitfalls - "As a port operation project obtained through a normal market-oriented and transparent bidding process - and one that has undergone at least three political and security reviews over the past decade unjustly - the Darwin Port operated by China's Landbridge Group has repeatedly become a "political football" in Australian domestic politics. Since the current election cycle, it has come under renewed pressure for destroying the contract and forced takeover by the Australian government. On this issue, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian recently stated in an interview with Chinese and Australian media that China has maintained communication with Australian federal and local governments over the Darwin port through diplomatic channels. He also noted that "It's very morally inappropriate to rent out the port when it is in the red and take it back once it is profitable." It is well known that Darwin Port only became linked to so-called "national security" and subjected to a wave of political and security scrutiny after so-called "concerns" were voiced from Washington. However, recent Australian governments' review have all concluded that there were no so-called "national security risks" associated with the port. The latest review in 2023 even found "not necessary" to cancel or alter the lease. However, the recent surge in rhetoric about tearing up the deal - even being framed during the election campaign as a bipartisan "consensus" - clearly shows that the undercurrents of anti-China sentiment in Australia are once again resurfacing. The operation of Darwin Port is, at its core, a market-driven economic project and should operate within the framework of the rule of law and market principles. However, when pressure from Washington overrides Australia's own national interests, and rule-based commercial activities are trampled by political logic, what suffers is not only Australia's international credibility, but also the fragile foundation of mutual trust and its own strategic autonomy - a space that could have been preserved from external military rivalry. We urge the Australian government to prioritize the broader picture, uphold the spirit of contract, return to the rule of law, and stop distorting economic cooperation with political bias. Whether the Port of Darwin becomes a hub of prosperous trade or the eye of a geopolitical storm is not a difficult choice, but it does test Canberra's strategic wisdom." - Global Times - globaltimes.cn

>>23090704 Toll, super funds join suitors for Chinese-owned Darwin Port - Logistics powerhouse Toll is part of a US private equity fund’s bid to buy out the Chinese owner of the Port of Darwin, offering an Australian flavour to a transaction being driven by national security imperatives that superannuation funds are also weighing up. The partnership by Toll and Cerberus Capital Management is just one potential suitor for the port, which is effectively on the market after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged during the election campaign to terminate Chinese company Landbridge’s 99-year lease on the key cargo gateway for northern Australia. Superannuation funds are also running the rule over the port, sources familiar with the matter told The Australian Financial Review, after Albanese indicated he wanted them at the bidding table. Albanese’s promise to take the lease out of Landbridge’s hands is poised to revive diplomatic strains with Beijing after Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian warned it was ethically questionable and the company should not be punished. Two sources, granted anonymity to speak on sensitive matters, said Cerberus had partnered with Toll to take over the port and had already met with the Northern Territory government and political figures, as well as Landbridge representatives, as part of its pitch. Cerberus’ local representative declined to comment on its interest or confirm Toll’s involvement, citing commercial confidentiality. Toll did not respond to a request for comment. One of Australia’s major superannuation-backed asset managers, IFM Investors, also declined to comment on whether it was a prospective buyer. While Cerberus has links to the Trump administration through its co-founder Steve Feinberg, who was appointed to be deputy US defence secretary, the bid appears to have come independently of the US government.

#41 - Part 112

Australia / China Tensions - Part 10

>>23090715 ‘We want it in Australian hands’: Albanese cool on US bid to buy Darwin Port - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted he wants the Port of Darwin returned to Australian ownership, as an American private equity firm makes a play to buy the strategically significant asset from its Chinese owners. Both Labor and the Coalition announced during the election campaign that they would move to strip Chinese firm Landbridge of its controversial 99-year lease of the port, which sits directly opposite Darwin’s Larrakeyah Defence Precinct. The prospect of a forced divestiture has angered Beijing, which feels Chinese companies are being unfairly singled out for punishment over national security concerns. Albanese also downplayed the prospect of joining any international effort to impose sanctions on leading Israeli politicians over the war in Gaza and settlement building in the occupied West Bank, despite a call from Labor elder statesman Gareth Evans to sanction Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of his far-right cabinet members. Asked if he would support a bid by US investment firm Cerberus to buy the port, Albanese told reporters: “We’ve said we want to see it in Australian hands. I notice this speculation which is there, but we’ll examine the process. We’re determined to make sure it’s in the national interest for it to be in Australian hands.” He left some wriggle room on overseas offers, saying: “But if there are other proposals, we’ll work those through. But we’ll work those through on a commercial basis.”

>>23094566 Pacific Island nations support China's Taiwan claims at high-profile foreign ministers' meeting - Pacific nations have backed China's claim over Taiwan during a high-profile meeting, but have shied away from directly endorsing Beijing's push to "reunify" the democratically ruled island with the mainland. China has also taken a shot at the United States over climate policy, promising to work with the region to combat climate shocks despite the Trump administration's decision to abandon the Paris Agreement. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday sat down with foreign ministers from eight Pacific nations - along with senior officials from three others — in the southern city of Xiamen. It's the third time China has held a meeting with Pacific foreign ministers, but it's the first time the event has been held in person rather than online, and Beijing has trumpeted the gathering as a major milestone. China has long been pushing to expand its influence throughout the region, and analysts say the Trump administration's sweeping global tariffs and aid cuts will open up more opportunities for it. Beijing has also been intent on building global support for its increasingly forceful stance on Taiwan, which it has pledged to bring under its control. A joint statement issued after the meeting declared that all the Pacific nations "recognise that there is but one China in the world, that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China". But the statement doesn't explicitly and directly endorse the Chinese government's push to take Taiwan, as Pacific nations like Solomon Islands and Kiribati did last year. It uses slightly softer language instead, reiterating China's determination to "realising national reunification" and saying this commitment "gained wide understanding and support at the meeting".

#41 - Part 113

Australia / China Tensions - Part 11

>>23120694 Beijing denounces Marles over ‘China threat’ as Farrell is welcomed to Shanghai - Beijing has denounced Defence Minister Richard Marles for spreading the “China threat” while inviting Trade Minister Don Farrell to visit Shanghai in November, as Canberra comes under pressure from Washington to ramp up its defence budget and reduce its economic ties with China. Late on Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines after the four American allies met on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore and discussed shared concerns about Beijing’s use of force and coercion in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. “The US, together with Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, brazenly spread the false accusation of (the) ‘China threat’ at the Shangri-La Dialogue and sought to use the East China Sea issue and the South China Sea issue to sow discord and incite confrontation between regional countries. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes it, and has made serious protests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a press conference in Beijing. Hours later, in Paris, Senator Farrell was feted by his Chinese counterpart, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who urged Canberra to “jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system” with Beijing. Senator Farrell accepted an invitation from the Chinese Commerce Minister to attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November, according to a Chinese government readout of the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the OECD. It will be the third consecutive year the Australian Trade Minister has attended the trade show, the most politically important in China.

>>23120778 Video: PLA, the People’s Liberation Army of China, Peace-Loving Army. - PLA, the People’s Liberation Army of China. Peace-Loving Army, for the Chinese people and people of the world. - SpokespersonCHN

>>23120783 Video: Archive: Chinese troops fire on protesters in Tiananmen Square - First broadcast 4 June 1989. Chinese troops opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Saturday evening. The collection of students and labourers had been occupying the site for several weeks. Despite the outbreak of "unremitting gunfire", the protesters refused to leave. The BBC's Kate Adie reports from the scene. - BBC News

>>23120792 Video: How NBC Covered Tiananmen Square In 1989 - Warning: Viewers may find some images in this video disturbing. On the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising, we hit the archives and revisit our coverage. - NBC News

>>23120800 Video: Tiananmen Square Protests 1989: Chinese Soldiers Open Fire on Civilians - "World News" report from June 4, 1989: Chinese soldiers open fire on civilian, pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing. - ABC News

>>23120805 Video: Tiananmen Square: Watch The 1989 Report On The Crackdown - It's 25 years since protests in Tiananmen Square, China, were brought to a bloody end by soldiers who killed hundreds of unarmed civilians. - Sky News

>>23120815 Video: 1989: Tiananmen Square protests - Student protests in Tiananmen Square ended when Chinese troops fired on crowds, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. - CNN

>>23120830 Video: Man vs. tank in Tiananmen square (1989) - A CNN crew covering the June 5, 1989, protests in Beijing recorded a man stopping a Chinese tank in Tiananmen Square. The story behind the iconic 'Tank Man' photo. - CNN

#41 - Part 114

Australia / China Tensions - Part 12

>>23125045 ‘We stand with Australia’: PNG drives defence pact amid China push - Papua New Guinea’s push for a defence treaty with Canberra sends a message to all competing interests in the region that the ­Pacific nation “stands with Australia” and supports the international rules-based order, PNG’s Defence Minister said in a landmark speech that nails the country’s security ­allegiances to the mast. Speaking at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute defence conference in Canberra on Wednesday, Billy Joseph said the ­recent circumnavigation of Australia by Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy ships, which also entered PNG waters, had underlined the potential threats faced by Pacific nations. “We, like everybody else, have a very strong economic partnership with China,” Mr Joseph said. “And I’m sure Australia also has the same, same as the US and everybody. But when it comes to security, we choose our traditional partners, which is Australia (and the) US. For us, the economy and ­security are intertwined, and we can’t separate one from the other. Therein lies opportunity as well as risks … that countries can use economy as a means to push the security interest. And that’s ­already happening,” he added, in unusually frank comments about Chinese economic coercion in the region. Mr Joseph said Australia and PNG were “tied at the hips”, not only by their geographical proximity but by a shared history of hardship and resilience during World War II. “That is why we have proposed from the PNG side that we should have a defence treaty,” he said.

>>23125059 Video: Former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull: I'm sure that Trump will not get his way with China - Malcolm Turnbull says that China's relatively consistent and measured approach compared to the U.S.'s erraticism will be welcomed by many countries, that it is dawning on Trump he cannot bully China, and that Trump's belief that "might is right" is very unattractive to middle powers like Australia who have to work together and stand up for their values. - CNBC International Live

#41 - Part 115

Australia / China Tensions - Part 13

>>23134162 Visa refusal sparks fresh concerns Solomon Islands may block Taipei from Pacific forum - The Solomon Islands government blocked a group of Taiwanese officials from entering the Pacific country earlier this year, stirring fresh concerns in Taipei that it might be locked out of a key regional meeting in Honiara later this year. Solomon Islands will host the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in September, and signalled last year that it might break with a long running precedent and refuse visas to Taiwanese officials who want to meet with their three remaining Pacific diplomatic allies on the sidelines. Both Australian and Pacific officials insist that the Solomon Islands government has given them private assurances this year that it will not take that step. But the ABC has been told that when a small group of officials from Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs applied to enter Solomon Islands in March - largely to begin planning the logistics for its PIF delegation — their visa applications were rejected. Australian government sources have said Solomon Islands has since reassured them again that Taiwan's representatives will not be blocked in September, but that this directive was still "working its way through the system", suggesting the decision was an error. A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told the ABC it was "working closely" with Solomon Islands on preparations for the leaders meeting, "as we do with every host". "There has been no change to arrangements regarding Taiwan's engagement with the Pacific Islands Forum, which have been in place since agreed by leaders in 1992," they said.

>>23197948 G7: Anthony Albanese invokes concerns about China’s dominance of global critical minerals supply chains - Anthony Albanese has invoked concerns about China’s dominance of global critical minerals supply chains in his first speech at the G7 summit, warning that “critical minerals markets are concentrated and vulnerable to manipulation”. Speaking to G7 leaders in the Canadian Rockies town of Kananaskis, the Prime Minister spruiked Australia’s vast deposits of critical minerals and raised the perverse impacts geopolitical tensions are having on energy security and supply chains. Asked to address the summit by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mr Albanese said over recent years “we have all felt the impact of conflict, non-market practices and unfair competition”. Mr Albanese did not mention China specifically but Xi Jinping’s Communist regime has overseen a domination of critical minerals supply chains. The US, Australia, Japan, South Korea and other regional allies have been working together to break Beijing’s stranglehold on critical minerals supply chains. “Critical minerals are the new drivers of energy security. Australia is blessed to have some of the largest critical minerals deposits on earth. But we are increasingly finding that critical minerals markets are concentrated and vulnerable to manipulation,” Mr Albanese said. “Producers struggle to remain competitive, and supply chains are affected by export bans and controls.” As the Albanese government progresses deals with the US and other allies to turbocharge Australia’s critical minerals market, Mr Albanese said “energy security underpins our growth and prosperity, and is essential for our economic resilience and national security”.

#41 - Part 116

Australia / China Tensions - Part 14

>>23198013 Top China military official disappears in latest purge under Xi Jinping amid rising factional politics - The disappearance of another high-ranking Chinese military official has demonstrated that no-one is indispensable to President Xi Jinping in achieving his goals. Even those among his closest allies. General He Weidong, China's second-ranking military official and co-vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), has not been seen in public since March 11. His name was also absent from the official list of attendees at the funeral of his former colleague, Xu Qiliang, who was also a co-vice chairman of the CMC. With silence often treated as confirmation in China's highly choreographed political system, He's ongoing absence confirms his removal from power. His disappearance follows a similar pattern of recent high-profile purges. Former foreign minister Qin Gang and former defence minister Li Shangfu also disappeared from public view before they were removed from their positions. He's dismissal comes after a longstanding personal and professional relationship with Xi. Xi and He both served in the local government of Fujian province in the 1990s and 2000s, with He promoted to "full general" - the highest military rank — in 2017 and eventually co-vice chairman in 2022. It's a position that granted him more than just command of the military. It also made him a member of the elite Politburo - the top decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His sudden fall just three years into the role underscores the intensity of internal instability within the CCP. Despite projecting a unified public image, the highest level of China's political system is a pressure cooker of competing ambitions, ideological divides, and factional loyalties. Xi's leadership has been marked by a relentless consolidation of power and a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, but the frequent removal of his own appointees suggests cracks in the system he has built.

>>23239588 Australia to boost cyber security and provide vehicles for Solomon Islands Pacific Islands Forum - Australia will provide Solomon Islands with dozens of vehicles and cybersecurity support to help it host a high-profile meeting of Pacific leaders in September, as well as ramping up funding for aerial surveillance to track illegal fishing flotillas across the region. The Pacific Minister Pat Conroy is in Honiara on Thursday, where he will announce a $20 million support package for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting. Leaders at the meeting will grapple with a host of issues, including climate finance and Australia's bid to co-host a Conference of the Parties climate meeting, a new "Oceans of Peace" security framework championed by Fiji's prime minister, and a potentially contentious review of the Pacific's diplomatic architecture. But the gathering will also inevitably be seen as a litmus test of China's sway in Solomon Islands, where Beijing has rapidly built political influence since establishing ties with Honiara in 2019. Earlier this month China's ambassador to Solomon Islands handed Acting Prime Minister Fredrick Kologetoa a $US1 million ($1.5 million) donation to buy 27 vehicles which will ferry Pacific leaders around at PIF. Australia's $20 million package will be broader, providing funding for about 60 vehicles, cybersecurity, road upgrades and logistics support. Australia has not directly criticised China's contribution to the meeting, but Mr Conroy said the Pacific was "best served by Pacific-led institutions and processes". "Australia's commitment to Solomon Islands and the broader Pacific is steadfast. We are stronger together," Mr Conroy said. China is also expected to push for its policing teams to play a visible role providing security at the leaders meeting, something Australia will be keen to prevent, in order to burnish its credentials as a security partner for the Pacific.

#41 - Part 117

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 1

>>23012542 FBI tip-off leads to arrest of Alice Springs man for child rape - An Alice Springs man has been charged with multiple child abuse offences - including the alleged rape of a child – following a referral by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation. Earlier this week NT Police received an “urgent referral” from the FBI, via the Australian Federal Police, with officers executing a search warrant and allegedly seizing “large quantities” of child abuse material. Officers from the NT Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team, a joint child abuse taskforce comprising of the Australian Federal Police and NT Police, allege the man also sexually assaulted a child “under the age of five”, who was known to him. He has been charged with nine serious child abuse charges of sexual intercourse with child under 10, two counts of gross indecency with child under 14, three counts of produce child abuse material for use via a carriage service, possess or control child abuse material, access child abuse material and transmit child abuse material. NT Police Detective Superintendent Paul Lawson commended the “seamless collaboration” between NT Police, AFP and the FBI to bring the man before the courts. “If you allegedly abuse a child or procure, access and transmit child abuse material, we will find you, and you will be prosecuted,” Superintendent Lawson said. “We will continue to work tirelessly to protect children from harm.” Senior police warned that alleged “offenders cannot hide behind a screen” if they allegedly “carry out these reprehensible and hideous acts”. It comes just months after The Australian revealed a five-year-old boy had allegedly been raped in a remote Northern Territory community, with one advocate alleging half of the 20 remote communities she visited in 2024 had children as young as five exhibiting “harmful sexual behaviour”.

>>23016865 Aussie teen girl to speak at sentencing for sadistic cult ringleader Kyle Spitze - The FBI has asked an Australian teenager blackmailed into livestreaming self-harm and live sex shows to speak at the sentencing of one of the ringleaders of a sadistic extremist online cult. Kyle Spitze, 25, a notorious member of terror groups 764 and offshoot HarmNation - where offenders compete with each other to coerce kids to kill their pets and produce sexual and violent content – is due to be sentenced in a court in Tennessee in July. Among the heinous crimes he has agreed to plead guilty to are possessing child sexual abuse material - some were of a child aged 12 – and distributing ‘animal crushing’ videos. His charges relate to US victims, but the FBI have also found images of the Australian girl, who we are not naming, on Spitze’s phone. After being contacted by the FBI via the Australian Federal Police, both the Australian girl and her mother will give victim impact statements via video link at Spitze’s sentencing. A detective from the NSW police has been helping them with their statements. The mother said these predators were pure evil and her daughter, who was left suicidal, was “covered with scars that are visible, and those inside her that are not”. “She was made to mutilate her body and encouraged to starve herself, leading to a diagnosis of anorexia,” her mum said. She hopes being allowed to read her impact statement to Spitze will give her 18-year-old daughter, who was 16 at the time of the abuse, some power back. Spitze’s sick activities were exposed after a video he posted of his stepfather shooting him in the ear went viral and victims outed him as an abuser. An AFP spokesperson said intelligence sharing between international and domestic law enforcement partners has enabled them to identify and investigate online users linked to some of these extreme groups online.

#41 - Part 118

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 2

>>23016875 Video: How gun-toting Texas mum Becca Spinks takes down online cult 764 - This is the gun toting Texan mum looking to take down a new wave of sadistic online abusers grooming Australian kids to livestream sick and twisted acts from their bedrooms. In July, the self-defence educator and independent investigator, Becca Spinks, hopes to be in court to watch 25-year-old Kyle Spitze, from Tennessee, get a hefty jail sentence after he agreed to plead guilty to charges of possessing child sexual abuse material and distributing ‘animal crushing’ videos. One of his victims is Australian. “I just want to look at him and see if there’s any kind of soul left,” Spinks said. “Every time I’ve seen him on video, in a picture, he just looks demonic. He looks evil.” None of Spitze’s charges relate to the NSW victim, now 18, but the FBI found pictures of her on his phone, and she alleges he and other members blackmailed her into doing livestream sex acts and self-harm shows. She was also forced to carve their names into her body with a blade. Spitze is a big scalp for Spinks, 40, who describes herself as “just a normal mum”, who hunts predators online in her spare time. His big mistake was posting a video of his stepfather shooting him in the ear in January 2024, which went viral. His victims, who saw the video, began outing him on social media as a pedophile and sadistic Satanist in an online cult called 764, and an offshoot group called HarmNation. “The day that video went viral, Kyle was on X threatening the girls who were trying to speak out against him, and his tag was Criminal764,” Spinks said. “We looked at his followers and we found all these other abusers.” Her online detective work, along with help from his victims, including the mother of the Australian teenager, played a significant role in bringing Spitze to the attention of the FBI. And it shone a light on these deviant misfits, some children themselves, who get off on torturing mainly young girls to take part in degrading sex acts, live ‘cut shows’, animal abuse - one victim bit off the head of their hamster – and where the ultimate prize is getting someone to livestream their own suicide.

>>23045901 Sex abuse survivor urges Timor-Leste president not to pardon paedophile ex-priest Richard Daschbach - A woman who survived sexual abuse at the hands of a convicted paedophile priest fears he will hurt her again if the Timor-Leste government succeeds in having him pardoned. Defrocked priest Richard Daschbach, a United States citizen, was convicted by a Timor-Leste court in December 2021 after being found guilty of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged young girls under his care. The high-profile trial and conviction were the first of their kind in the staunchly religious nation, where about 97 per cent of the population identifies as Catholic. Daschbach, now 88 years old, has had the strong support of Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, who attended his 2021 trial and controversially celebrated Daschbach's birthday at the time. This week it was revealed Timor-Leste's government had proposed that the ex-priest be pardoned and released from prison. Mária, who Daschbach sexually abused when she was a child at the Topu Honis children's shelter in the country's remote west, is calling for Timorese President José Ramos-Horta to reject the government-backed proposal to release him. "If he gets out, he could commit his evil deeds to other women," Mária, who the ABC has given a pseudonym for safety reasons, said. "It looks like he will go back to the Topu Honis orphanage [where he committed his crimes] and could hurt our hearts as victims who have attended [his] trial in court." Mr Ramos-Horta must decide whether to grant Daschbach's release by Tuesday, to coincide with the country's annual Independence Day celebrations. It is a tradition for convicted criminals to receive pardons on that day. The proposal to pardon Daschbach only four years into his 12-year prison term has faced a backlash from both advocates of victim-survivors and opposition MPs. Legal aid groups in Timor-Leste have called on Mr Ramos-Horta to meet victim-survivors before making a decision on the matter.

#41 - Part 119

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 3

>>23045988 Victorian sisters abused by paedophile priest say High Court decision has halted quest for compensation - Sisters Bernie and Trish have not had a restful night since they were abused by a paedophile priest in the 1970s. "You don't sleep afterwards like a normal human sleeps. You're never carefree again, Bernie said. To sleep soundly, the sisters need to know no-one can come through their bedroom doors, so their husbands made them special wooden jams to lock them in place. "You can have happy days, and you can do things, but you're not that innocent, Bernie said. "You never, ever become that carefree kid." The sisters were abused by notorious paedophile priest Bryan Coffey - who is now dead — and the pair are pursuing the Catholic Church for compensation. But the sisters' legal pursuit is in jeopardy after the High Court made it harder to find the church vicariously liable. Coffey was never convicted of the women's abuse, but Trish received a letter of apology from the Ballarat bishop's office in 2015. Another victim, known as "DP", was also abused by Coffey when he was a five year old in Port Fairy in south-west Victoria. In 2021, he was awarded $200,000 by two Victorian courts, which found the church was vicariously liable for the harm caused by Coffey. But the church appealed that ruling to the High Court and won, because Coffey was not an employee - instead, he had a relationship of a spiritual nature with the church. "This is people pushing words around on a piece of paper as if we don't even exist anymore. And we've felt insignificant for most of our lives," Bernie said. "It's really, really shit to do it when they have knowledge that he did this to us." The landmark decision late last year has placed pressure on state governments to retrospectively change the law. "We just need someone to listen to say that this is not right. We need to make these changes to help everyone. It's unfair that every time they find an avenue, a new lawyer finds a new way of doing things [to defend the church],'' Trish said.

>>23080012 Father of choirboy who claimed son was abused by Cardinal George Pell settles case against Catholic Church - The father of a dead choirboy who claimed his son was sexually assaulted by Cardinal George Pell has sensationally dropped his landmark legal case against the Catholic Church. The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal the man - known only as RWQ – has setlled a claim against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne after a protracted three-year fight. It is understood the man is battling cancer and ended the claim a day before lawyers were due to record his evidence in a rare hospital bedside sitting. The terms of the settlement are unclear but it is understood the church admitted no fault or wrongdoing but will pay the man some of his legal costs but not damages. The man launched legal action after Pell, who died in 2023, was freed from prison following a successful High Court appeal that saw a string of convictions for child sexual assault quashed. The choirboy’s father was seeking damages for mental harm suffered as a result of being informed by police of the alleged abuse of his late son. Pell was convicted of abusing the choirboy, who cannot be identified, who died of a drug overdose in 2014 and never disclosed any allegations of abuse to his parents or authorities. But another choirboy, known only as Witness J, testified that both boys were both abused in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral after Sunday mass in 1996. After failing to appeal a string of convictions in Victoria’s Court of Appeal, Pell was ultimately acquitted by a unanimous 7-0 decision of the High Court. Despite ending his claim, RWQ’s case will leave lasting ramifications for other psychological injury claims in Victoria because of the Church’s efforts to knock it out of court. It led to a hugely significant High Court decision that ruled “secondary” victims were free to pursue damages in such claims. The Church unsuccessfully argued that parents, siblings, friends and families of abuse victims should be ineligible to launch claims. Legal experts warned the court decision would lead to a flood of claims by secondary seeking damages against a range of organisations for psychological injury. They could include the state government, WorkSafe, the TAC, schools, clubs, kinders, religious organisations and social and cultural groups. Before his shock death following complications from hip replacement surgery in January 2023, Cardinal Pell was preparing to give evidence in RWQ’s case.

#41 - Part 120

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 4

>>23090760 Video: Darwin man, 68, allegedly livestreamed horrific acts of child sexual abuse - A Darwin man has faced court after allegedly exploiting six children in the Philippines by livestreaming sexual abuse online. The 68-year-old man appeared in Darwin Local Court charged with allegedly directing the sexual abuse of young children, as he watched the crimes live on video from another location. NT JACET, comprising members of Australian Federal Police and Northern Territory Police, started an investigation after Australian Border Force officers allegedly found child abuse material on his phone. He had been selected for a bag check on his arrival in Darwin on New Year’s Day when his phone was checked as part of the search. Police later found explicit videos and images of children, as well as video calls from the man to facilitators in the Philippines instructing them to livestream sexual abuse of children as young as six. Investigators executed a search warrant on January 3 at Dinah Beach where the man had been living in a vehicle and yacht and made the arrest. He first appeared in court on January 7 and was remanded in custody to reappear on May 27. NT JACET provided information to AFP members in Manila, which led to an investigation by Philippines National Police (PNP). Philippines authorities arrested two Philippine nationals and removed six children from harm in April. The Darwin man has been charged with two counts of sexual intercourse with a child outside Australia, two counts of sexual activity with a child outside Australia and one count of possessing child abuse material.

>>23103697 ‘Is your father your abuser?’ Breaking free of the shame of decades of sexual abuse - Beck Rogers’ case, according to experienced police officers, is the worst case of incest they have ­encountered. While sharing it with us, her health suffered. And yet she is resolute in the hope that her story will reach someone who is suffering in silence. The first step across the threshold of a police station is the hardest one to take for sexual assault victims. In April 2023, Beck Rogers trembled as she entered the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) office at Frankston in ­Melbourne’s southeast. Her husband, Will, had done the research. Don’t go to a police station, he told her. A Google search urged victims of sexual abuse to go directly to one of the 28 SOCIT offices in Victoria. Beck felt a wave of nausea and her head pounded, but she pushed on. She was ushered into an interview room. Her mind raced. Where to start? How to unravel 36 years of sustained torture? Beck had suffered a lifetime of ­protracted sexual abuse, emotional control and financial coercion committed wilfully and ­frequently by her father. In telling this story to The Australian ­Weekend Magazine, Beck Rogers has decided not to hide behind an alias. She is now 41, a wife and a mother. Not long ago, it would have been almost impossible to share her experience ­publicly in this way. She would have been tied up in suppression orders that ancient lawmakers had deemed were put in place for her own protection. Beck’s first memory of life was sitting in the bath at her Frankston home. She was three years of age and her father had touched her ­indecently. The last episode of sexual abuse would take place over three decades later. Beck’s story, according to experienced police officers, is the worst case of incest they have ­encountered. While sharing it with The Australian Weekend Magazine, the frequency of her seizures increased. Beck cannot drive a car and is unable to work. And yet she is resolute in the hope her story will reach someone who is suffering in silence. “I just want to help other people,” she says. “I often think if I had known about the stories of other people in similar situations, I would have come forward much earlier.” Having the courage to go to the police put an end to her father’s abuse forever. Her story is one of survival - and telling it is an extraordinary act of generosity and a signal to victims that sharing their truth can set them free.

#41 - Part 121

Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 5

>>23120730 Child abuse survivors pay tribute to Victorian detective Denis Ryan - Former Victorian police officer Denis Ryan has been remembered for his courage in attempting to prosecute paedophile Catholic priest Monsignor John Day in the 1970s. Mr Ryan died on Tuesday at the age of 93. He was a detective based in Mildura in north-west Victoria when he was forced out of Victoria Police in 1972 for attempting to prosecute Monsignor Day. A year earlier, he had learned of multiple allegations against the priest for child sexual abuse and began his investigation, but was told to stop by his superiors. A contemporary of convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, Monsignor Day has since been shown to be one of Australia's most prolific child sex abusers. Monsignor Day remained a priest until he died in 1978, aged 74. On Wednesday, Peter Hoysted - Mr Ryan's friend and co-author of the memoir Unholy Trinity: The Hunt for Paedophile Priest Monsignor John Day — led the tributes to Mr Ryan. "He was quite simply the best man I have ever met," Mr Hoysted said. "No sanctimony, a wicked sense of humour and courage to burn." It took more than 40 years for Victoria Police to apologise to Mr Ryan in 2016, but compensation was not made until two years later. "He never let up, refused numerous inducements offered which would have silenced him and allowed terrible crimes against children to remain in the shadows," Mr Hoysted said. John Fitzgibbon, who was abused by Monsignor Day, described Mr Ryan as "a great man" who validated the abuse local children had suffered. "He listened. [It was important] to be heard and believed because when we were younger, we didn't think anybody would believe it," Mr Fitzgibbon said. "But it was always Denis who was there for you. He believed it because he had statements from us younger ones." In 2015, Victoria Police admitted a conspiracy to cover up the crimes of Monsignor Day went right to the top, with Mr Ryan telling the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that "a Catholic mafia" within Victorian Police had thwarted his attempts to charge the priest. "His determination meant a lot to us all," Mr Fitzgibbon said. "He's a chap that's going to be really missed in our community and missed by a lot of victims that he still had time for."

>>23248497 Paedophile priest Alexis Rosentool: The scandalous case that sank the Aussie Cossack revealed - A senior priest of the Russian church in Australia can be revealed as a paedophile after a court suppression order concealed his name from the public as he faced trial. Meanwhile, a devout Kremlin propagandist has chalked up 920 days hiding in Sydney’s Russian consulate after flagrantly breaching the same suppression order, having played a bizarre part in the priest’s downfall. Alexis Rosentool is a senior figure in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, a branch of the church that went into exile during the rise of the Soviet Union in 1920. Last week he was found guilty of four charges related to his abuse of three males, this masthead can reveal. Two male victims were indecently assaulted in the 1980s, and Rosentool had an “unlawful sexual relationship” with a child victim two decades later. Details of the crime are sparse because Rosentool’s name has been suppressed by the courts for years. The order suppressing his name only lifted as the priest was taken into custody to await sentencing. An unusual twist to the saga involves a Sydney-born, pro-Russian YouTuber who calls himself the “Aussie Cossack”, whose collaboration with police contributed to Rosentool’s arrest. However, Simeon Boikov’s involvement has also resulted in him spending time in jail before he eventually fled to the Russian consulate in Woollahra to avoid rearrest weeks after being released.

Talisman Sabre 2025 is coming from 13 July - 04 August 2025

Asia Pacific Defence Reporter - 23/04/2025

Australia will host the largest ever Exercise Talisman Sabre from 13 July to 4 August 2025 with over 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations set to participate in activities across Australia, and for the first time, in Papua New Guinea. Now in its 11th iteration, Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral combined training activity between the Australian Defence Force and the United States military, reflecting the closeness of our Alliance.

Participating partner nations in Talisman Sabre 2025 also include Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United Kingdom. Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam will also attend as observers.

Talisman Sabre 2025 will focus on multi-domain warfighting. Key activities will include amphibious and airborne lodgements, firepower demonstrations, and combat across land, air, sea, space and cyber domains. The logistics for preparing, staging, integrating and moving forces to and around Australia are the most complex ever undertaken for a Talisman Sabre. The activities are scheduled to take place right across the nation, including Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, New South Wales and on Christmas Island.

For the first time ever, Papua New Guinea will also host an activity, highlighting the growing capabilities and interoperability with Pacific partners as Papua New Guinea marks its 50th Anniversary of Independence.

Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral Justin Jones, said: “Talisman Sabre demonstrates our enduring Alliance with the United States, through deepening cooperation in training and force integration. It is a key opportunity to work with our partners from across the region and around the globe, demonstrating our combined capability to achieve large-scale operational outcomes together. As well as welcoming the largest ever contingent of partner nations, Australia is also excited to be holding part of this year’s exercise in Papua New Guinea. This is an important demonstration of the deepening integration between Australia and Papua New Guinea’s Defence Forces.”

Talisman Sabre Exercise Director, Brigadier Damian Hill, said: “This year’s exercise will demonstrate our ability to receive large volumes of personnel and equipment into Australia from across the Indo-Pacific, to stage, integrate and move them forward into the large exercise area. Considerable planning has gone into a safe and productive exercise for all participants. Talisman Sabre 2025 will be held across a range of Defence and non-Defence training areas throughout northern Australia. I thank the traditional owners, landowners, state authorities, and key community stakeholders who have helped us develop a safe and productive exercise for all participating nations.”

https://asiapacificdefencereporter.com/australia-hosting-exercise-talisman-sabre/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBVBgSPCLPc

https://www.defence.gov.au/defence-activities/exercises/talisman-sabre

https://qresear.ch/?q=Talisman+Sabre

>Talisman Sabre

MAGIC SWORD

https://qalerts.pub/?q=Operation+Specialists

https://qalerts.pub/?q=magic

>>23252468

>>23252471

Magic Sword - In The Face Of Evil

Magic Sword

Jan 8, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G02wKufX3nw

Identity of alleged childcare paedophile revealed as 1200 children urged to undergo STI tests

Cassandra Morgan - July 1, 2025

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The identity of a Melbourne childcare worker charged with more than 70 offences, including child rape, has been revealed, as authorities say 1200 children should get tested for infectious diseases.

The Health Department is recommending that the children undergo testing after childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, a 26-year-old from Point Cook, was charged over the alleged abuse of eight children.

His eight alleged victims, who were aged between five months and two years old, attended Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook between April 2022 and January 2023, police said.

The families of the eight have been notified, and since Brown’s arrest on May 12, sexual crimes squad detectives have led a significant investigation into Brown, police said.

Brown worked at 20 childcare centres between January 2017 and May this year, including in Melbourne’s west and north-west, Bundoora in the north-east and Geelong. Detectives are investigating an allegation that Brown committed more offences at another childcare centre in Essendon, police said.

“This matter is being investigated as a priority,” Victoria Police said.

A police source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, told this masthead that Brown had tested positive for gonorrhea.

The Health Department contacted about 2600 families, parents, children and carers of children following the allegations, and recommended about 1200 children undergo testing for infectious diseases, Chief Health Officer Christian McGrath said on Tuesday.

“Families and the wider community can be reassured that the infections that the children were potentially exposed to can be treated with antibiotics, and there’s no broader public health risk to the community,” McGrath said.

“A dedicated advice and support hotline has been set up to provide families with health and screening information, as well as linking them to specialist supports, including mental health and wellbeing services.”

By midday on Tuesday, parents were reporting long delays on hold for the Health Department’s hotline. One parent of a child at the Point Cook centre said he waited more than 1½ hours.

Not all children who attended the childcare centres where Brown worked would need to be tested, McGrath said.

The department was co-ordinating with laboratories around Melbourne to ensure the testing was done as quickly as possible, the chief health officer said.

Brown was not known to police before officers raided his home and later charged him, police Crime Command Acting Commander Janet Stevenson said on Tuesday.

He had a valid Working with Children Check, which has since been cancelled. He was co-operative with police, and working as a childcare worker at the time of his arrest, Stevenson said.

“He may have held other roles throughout his employment, though,” she said.

The police investigation was “proactive” and happened after officers allegedly discovered Brown had child abuse material. Police then had to track down the alleged victims.

“We didn’t have a victim for quite some time,” Stevenson said.

Premier Jacinta Allan became emotional as she said she was sickened by the allegations of abuse.

“They are shocking and distressing, and my heart just breaks for the families who are living every parent’s worst nightmare,” Allan said.

The early childhood regulator would immediately start an investigation into the conduct of the early education providers where the alleged offender worked, Allan said.

A mother who went to collect her son from the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre at Point Cook on Tuesday morning said she was horrified to receive the letter.

“I was so mad, I was so angry,” she told reporters.

She saw the alleged abuser at the centre multiple times, always with a smile on his face and coloured hair, she said.

The mother was concerned about what could have gone on with her son at the centre, without her knowing.

“It’s just the thought as a parent that will haunt me forever,” she said.

A mother named Liz, who declined to give her last name, said she just wanted a photo of the offender so she could show it to her daughter to gauge her reaction. As of 2pm she was still waiting on the Health Department for more information.

A third parent said he was considering pulling his child out of the Point Cook centre, that he was furious and that he thought the working with children check system was a farce. He said he had heard about the allegations on the news, which is what made him go to the centre to pick up his child.

(continued)

>>23261016

I have a bunch of stupid questions.

All is fractals?

In a world of shit, poo, Pooh, or pu?

No one will save anyone because Jesus already saved all? And only if we believe in Jesus?

Being that you know I already filled myself with light previously, is full enlightment fake, because that would mean no balance? Balance between light and darkness?

It seems to me that I can't invent jack, and don't have jack to give to mankind, because it seems to me GOD already created all?????

Is that so?

>>23260808

>>23265063

Sex abuse investigation nets second man known to alleged childcare rapist

Carla Jaeger - July 2, 2025

Warning: Graphic and distressing content

A second man has been charged with dozens of sex crimes against children, including rape, as part of a major investigation that also uncovered the separate abuse allegations at a Melbourne childcare centre.

The accusations against Michael Simon Wilson, which have not been publicly revealed before, are not related to any childcare facilities and involve different alleged victims to those identified in the case against former childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown.

Wilson and Brown are known to each other – although their exact connection is unclear – and both were charged as a result of information obtained by detectives from the sex crimes squad that led to a police raid on Brown’s house and his arrest in mid-May.

Court records show Wilson, 36, from Hoppers Crossing, is due to appear in court in September on the same day as Brown to face 45 charges, including rape and possession of child abuse material.

Police confirmed some of the charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy in Coburg in April and the subsequent investigation.

Wilson has previously been charged with assault, possession of a controlled weapon and property damage, and served a noncustodial sentence with mandated men’s behaviour change therapy.

He lived alone but had been active on dating websites, on which he spoke of recently leaving a long-term relationship.

He had helped run an amateur hobby club until abruptly leaving two months ago, fellow members said.

One former colleague from Wilson’s time working in waste management in Melbourne described him as “a bit strange”, but “alright”.

Wilson’s phone was off, and his immediate family did not answer calls from this masthead.

Victoria Police and the state government announced on Tuesday that Brown, 26, had been charged with 70 counts related to abuse he allegedly perpetrated against eight child victims, some as young as five months, at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook between April 2022 and January 2023.

Brown has worked at 20 childcare centres since starting in the industry in 2017, and more than 1200 children are being tested for sexually transmitted diseases amid allegations that Brown could have exposed them to STIs.

Detectives are also probing Brown’s time as an educator at Essendon Papilio Childcare Centre, where he had worked from February until just before his arrest on May 12.

When police raided his house in May, the 26-year-old had no criminal record and held a valid working with children check.

No other childcare workers are suspected of being involved in the alleged abuse and police have said they did not believe abuse took place at all the centres where Brown worked. So far, identified victims are between five months and two years old.

The discovery of child abuse material allegedly in Brown’s possession has mobilised a police and Health Department response over the past few weeks as officials raced to identify victims, inform affected families and launch a large child-testing regimen.

One of the charges against Brown is that he recklessly contaminated goods to cause alarm or anxiety – relating to allegations he added bodily fluids to children’s food.

On Tuesday, Victoria Police took the rare step of naming Brown to ensure parents were informed about the situation, but have said they cannot comment further on the Wilson case.

The Victorian government has ordered the early childhood regulator to investigate the conduct of the childcare operators for which Brown worked.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/second-man-charged-with-child-rape-in-wider-abuse-investigation-20250702-p5mbwr.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9KFdoPUcRY

>>23192221

>>23256501

Crisafulli’s bid to bring Trump - and the Quad - to Queensland

Cameron Atfield - July 4, 2025

Premier David Crisafulli has made an audacious bid to get US President Donald Trump to Queensland as he pushes the state’s claims to host the Quad leaders’ summit.

The Quad - Australia, the United States, Japan and India - has a stated goal of defending a free and open Indo-Pacific, but is widely seen as an attempt to contain China’s influence in the region.

With India hosting this year’s summit, the earliest Australia could host would be 2026.

The premier used an American Independence Day event in Brisbane to announce Queensland’s candidature if, as he expected, Australia was confirmed host.

Crisafulli told the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia (AmCham) lunch he had been persistent in his lobbying of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, citing Brisbane’s experience of hosting the G20 leaders’ summit in 2014.

“It was amazing to see the world leaders here, but I’m not certain that Queensland quite got the buzz and the recognition, because it was so big,” he said.

“It was Obama and Putin and was just awe-inspiring, the amount of horsepower and personnel and the security detail, but sort of it blended a little bit into where it was.”

Crisafulli said that would not be the case with the Quad – even with Trump, it would be of a much smaller scale.

“Based on where things are at the moment geopolitically, who those partners are, where it will be, the fact that we’re about to become an Olympic city, the journey point where we are as a state, I think we can own it,” he said.

“The defence lens and the defence opportunities that come with that, and the investment opportunities, it would be a really big win for us and it’s something I’m really pinning our hopes on.

“I’m going to keep fighting pretty hard for it.”

Crisafulli said he would lead his first overseas delegation as premier within the next month to both India and Japan, during which Quad hosting rights would be “top of the agenda”.

Comment was sought from both Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

While the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) celebrated July 4 inside the Brisbane Sofitel ballroom, a small band of protesters outside demonstrated against Australia’s military cooperation with Trump’s United States, including through AUKUS, and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Annette Brownlie, the chair of Independent and Peaceful Australia, was among the demonstrators.

“We’re very concerned about what sort of deals our premier might be doing with the American Chamber of Commerce,” she said.

“We don’t know what sort of contracts, etc, they will sign. We are deeply enmeshed in the American military industry – the F-35 fighter jets, parts of those fighter jets are made here in Brisbane.

“It implicates us and makes us complicit for the genocide that’s happening in Gaza and in Palestine.”

Ferra Engineering, based at Tingalpa in Brisbane’s east, manufactures components for the US’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and Crisafulli appeared to single it out while on stage.

“That’s one company employing 100 people doing one small element in the backblocks of Queensland,” he said.

“Now that’s a massive opportunity, and what we can do is make sure that we allow the private sector to do their job and invest in those partnerships that get people to look here [for investment].”

Along with Trump, Albanese would host his counterparts from India (Narendra Modi) and Japan (Shigeru Ishiba) at the security summit.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/crisafulli-s-bid-to-bring-trump-and-the-quad-to-queensland-20250703-p5mc7x.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwvDtyr3XN0

Restaurant stormed and synagogue targeted in night of antisemitic attacks in Melbourne

Chip Le Grand - July 5, 2025

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A Melbourne synagogue has been hit by an arson attack and an Israeli restaurant stormed by a violent group, some wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, in a night of antisemitic attacks that have left Jewish people fearing for their safety.

Police have released an image of a man they wish to speak to in relation to the arson attack on the East Melbourne Synagogue on Friday night.

The man pictured is described as Caucasian, believed to be in his 30s, with a beard and long hair. He was last seen wearing a dark blue or black jumper, black pants, and a black beanie.

The arson attack on the synagogue was carried out while about 20 people, including children, were having a Shabbat dinner inside the place of worship.

Also on Friday night, a group of about 20 masked people entered Israeli restaurant Miznon and shouted offensive chants, scuffling with staff and knocking over tables to the alarm of patrons, before police arrived and arrested one man.

Vision from the incident shows diners screaming in fear inside the Hardware Lane restaurant, which is part-owned by an Israeli entrepreneur who has been promoting a controversial aid group in Gaza.

Premier Jacinta Allan has condemned the synagogue attack – now under investigation by Victoria Police – as disgraceful and cowardly.

“This is disgraceful behaviour by a pack of cowards,” Allan said on Saturday morning, as Jewish Australians woke to news of the attack. “That this happened on Shabbat makes it all the more abhorrent.

“Antisemitism has no place in Victoria and I stand with the Jewish community in their fight against hate, violence and fear.”

Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Phillip Zajac told this masthead that a lone arsonist used fuel to torch the front doors of the East Melbourne Synagogue in Albert Street about 8pm.

Firefighters responded quickly and contained the fire, which caused only superficial damage to the bluestone building and heavy timber doors. The attack was captured on CCTV.

Zajac said on Friday night that the perpetrator needed to be identified and prosecuted.

“I don’t know what the government can do but there have to be consequences for people who do things like this,” he said. “Lighting a place of worship [on fire] is just dreadful…

“A place of worship has got nothing to do with the Middle East dispute. This has really gotten to me. I don’t know what to say.”

Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece attended the synagogue on Friday night after he learnt of the attack. He described the synagogue fire and targeting of Jewish businesses in the city as despicable and racist.

“The criminal attacks on Jewish businesses in the CBD and the East Melbourne Synagogue are shocking and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “I am angry and dismayed that once again our community is confronted with the despicable and racist actions of a few people.

“My thoughts are with the Jewish community, who are hurting deeply after these vile attacks. Everyone deserves the right to enjoy the most basic human acts, like practising your faith or enjoying a meal, without being attacked or vilified.”

Police confirmed about 20 people walked to the restaurant on Hardware Lane on Friday night and began shouting offensive chants, including “death to the IDF”.

“A 28-year-old person from Footscray was arrested for hindering police and has been released on summons,” police said in a statement issued just after midnight.

The “death to the IDF” chant was also heard in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall during last Sunday’s regular anti-Israel protest, and shouted from the Glastonbury stage in the UK by band Bob Vylan in its controversial performance.

The attack follows the firebombing in December that gutted the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea. No charges have been laid in that attack despite Victorian and federal police launching a joint taskforce investigation into the suspected terror attack.

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