The day that was, Thursday 1 June
We’re going to wrap up the Australia politics live blog for today.
Here’s what made the news:
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has encouraged Australia’s exporters not to put all their eggs in one basket of a trading market, even as Australia pursues a more stable relationship with China.
The education department awarded two contracts to PwC this year after the Tax Practitioners Board found unauthorised disclosures had been made of confidential government briefings.
Mining giant BHP has admitted it underpaid almost 30,000 workers more than $430m after incorrectly deducting leave from staff entitlements for more than a decade.
The federal government confirmed that early childhood workers will not get a pay increase from 1 July, despite a 15% pay increase coming for aged care workers from the budget.
The CSIRO board member David Knox was overpaid $200,000, but it has yet to be paid back, as it was only discovered in recent weeks, estimates heard.
The prime minister and deputy prime minister are headed to Singapore, with Anthony Albanese giving a keynote address at a defence dialogue before heading to Hanoi.
We’ll be back with you tomorrow. Until then, enjoy your evening.
Updated
PM’s enduring radio interview
The PM, Anthony Albanese, did an FM radio interview where – from what I gather – the hosts are trying to get a world record for hosting the longest interview ever. Here’s a bit of the conversation if you want a sense of what it’s like after they’ve been on air for 10 hours.
Cody: PM, I’ve got a question for you. Our anchor Josiah here, he’s the king of conspiracy theories. I would not normally ask you this on our show, but Josiah believes that Joe Biden is a robot. You’ve met him, can you confirm if he’s a real human or is he a robot?
Josiah: Or a clone?
PM: President Biden is a great man and he’s a friend of mine and he is doing, I think, a pretty amazing job.
Fevola: Wonderful job.
Josiah: But is he real?
PM: He is very, very real. And so is Dr Jill Biden, his other half. I spent a bit of time with them a week ago in Japan at the G7.
Cody: God you’re busy.
Fevola: Geez, you’re getting around.
Updated
