That’s all for today’s politics liveblog
For your evening edification, a recap of the top headlines:
More than 10,000 Australians have returned from the Middle East since the US-Israeli-led conflict with Iran began.
Queensland premier David Crisafulli said he did not support “blanket mandates” for work from home and has criticised a four-stage fuel security plan announced by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Monday.
Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube are being investigated for “potential non-compliance” with the under 16s social media ban, with the Albanese government saying some of their systems to weed out underage users are “unacceptable”.
The prime minister said he would meet the brother of slain aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed two years ago in an Israeli airstrike. At the National Press Club, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, would not say whether Israel would release critical drone audio of the strike, and did not say whether the Israeli government would apologise to Frankcom’s family, but said sympathy has been expressed.
The government said fuel shipments to Australia continue – 53 shipments are now en route to Australia – while energy minister Chris Bowen provided an update with the number of service stations running empty. More than 100 are now without fuel.
Thank you for being with us today. Please join us again tomorrow.
Updated
ABC announces agreement with unions over pay
The ABC says it has reached an agreed position with ABC staff unions on the new enterprise agreement offer after conciliation at the Fair Work Commission on Monday.
The Fair Work meeting comes after a 24-hour strike by 2000 staff last week which shut down ABC news across TV and radio stations.
“The proposed agreement includes an annual pay increase of 4% in the first year and 3.25% in each of the second and third years, with back pay to the first full pay period after 1 October 2025,” an ABC spokesperson said.
“It also delivers clearer progression pathways between pay bands, targeted performance bonuses, retention of existing promotion provisions and enhanced leave entitlements.”
The Community and Public Sector Union and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance will now consult members before a staff vote.
Updated
Deputy Liberal leader takes swipe at PM over ‘concerns’ with war in Iran
Ted O’Brien, has criticised the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, for his interview on the ABC’s 7.30 on Monday night, saying he should not have publicly ventilated Australia’s issues with the America’s ongoing conflict in Iran.
If you heard the prime minister on the 7.30 Report last night, he basically broadcasted a list of demands of the United States.
To do that through the ABC, with all due respect to the ABC, is completely inappropriate. If he has a list of demands, then he should be communicating directly with the United States.
Appearing on ABC TV, O’Brien said he believed Albanese’s wavering support for the war was in response to opinion polls which reflected a deep unpopularity for the Israel-and-US-led assault on Iran.
The prime minister changes his tune on national television flagging that he, too, has concerns with the war.
I think he is just poll driven. He is not a leader. He is a consummate politician who will always blow with the breeze.
Updated
NSW charity providing free meals receives anonymous $200,000 donation
A charity on NSW’s central coast has been gifted an anonymous $200,000 donation to continue its work feeding Australians in need as the cost-of-living crisis wears on.
More than 60 volunteers provide free meals and music as part of SafeLink Alliance’s weekly pop up in Kibble Park, Gosford, about an hour’s drive north of Sydney.
Before the donation came in, chaplain and director of Safelink Alliance, Joe Arena, said he was wondering: “How on earth – with less than $1,000 in the bank – are we going to keep this charity going? … It’s been running off the smell of an oily rag week by week.”
He said an anonymous person reached out via a third party to make the $200,000 donation, citing the hands-on approach the charity was taking in the community and the positive impact it was having.
Arena called the money a gamechanger. “We’re now looking at purchasing a good second-hand van, which will allow us to do outreach [and] change things. People are normally sitting on the park benches at Kibble Park, whereas now we can actually transport the tables and chairs that we have.”
“We will be able to bring food to people … who suffer disabilities and can’t get out of the house … for us to actually go to people with emergency supplies. It just totally transforms what we’re doing”.
Updated
Greens demand Labor reveal Australian objectives in Middle East conflict
The Greens have insisted the federal government table a statement in parliament outlining the objectives of Australia’s participation in the Middle East conflict, as well as the conflict’s legal basis and defence strategy.
In November 2024, the government published the Memorandum on Government Conventions Relating to Overseas Armed Conflict Decision Making. That requires the government to table an unclassified written statement in both Houses of Parliament outlining the objectives of any deployment in a “major military operation”, its legal basis, and the orders made.
The government is also required to table defence strategy documents in parliament within 30 days of their publication. This week’s parliamentary sittings are the final opportunity for the government to comply within the deadline.
On 10 March, the government announced the deployment of an E-7A Wedgetail aircraft, 85 Australian personnel and missiles to the United Arab Emirates, to assist the UAE in conflict against Iran.
On 4 March, three Australian navy personnel were onboard a US submarine which torpedoed and sank an Iranian frigate off the Sri Lankan coast.
Greens spokesperson for defence and foreign affairs, David Shoebridge, said the government was failing its own low standard of accountability and transparency for critical decisions about Australian service personnel being committed to war.
A key requirement of the memorandum is that the Government must provide the legal basis for the deployment of Australian military forces. Labor has now refused to do this, almost certainly because there is no lawful basis for Australia joining this war.
The memorandum also requires regular reports, public statements on the aims and a day of debate in Parliament. All of that has been scrapped so Albanese could be first in line to support Trump.
The violence that is spreading through the Middle East, the resulting chaos here in Australia, all of it shows why these decisions need to be under public scrutiny. It absolutely proves how dangerous it is for Australians to be sent into a war zone by a handful of government ministers who have never said ‘no’ to Trump or the US.”
But the government says the Middle East conflict – or Australia’s part in it – does not meet the threshold of “major military operation”.
In response to a Greens letter, the defence minister, Richard Marles wrote to Greens leader Larissa Waters, saying the government was “committed to parliamentary transparency, accountability and oversight of the defence portfolio”.
Marles said the commitment of Australian personnel and materiel to the Middle East was “not a major military operation”.
The Albanese government has been clear that this is in support of the collective self-defence of nations of the region, that we are not taking offensive action against Iran, and that we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.
Marles accused the Greens of seeking to obstruct enhanced parliamentary oversight for political purposes.
Marles said the deployment of the Wedgetail aircraft was akin to previous deployments in Europe “to support Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion”.
In that deployment, however, the Australian aircraft never flew over Ukrainian airspace or landed on Ukrainian soil.
Updated
Public hearings into police actions at anti-Herzog protest to be held later this year
The police watchdog anticipates that public hearings into alleged police misconduct at a Sydney protest against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, will be held in the second half of this year.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission’s chief commissioner, Peter Johnson SC, has also appointed two lawyers to act as counsel assisting to its investigation – Kirsten Edwards SC and Emma Sullivan.
The watchdog said in a statement released this afternoon that it had received a “significant volume of material” since it began the investigation, now dubbed Operation Makalu. Material can still be submitted via its website.
The watchdog launched an investigation after widespread allegations of police brutality at the 9 February protest against the Israeli president during his visit.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, and the police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, have defended the police actions, with Minns saying police were placed in an “impossible situation”.
Updated
Police officer who allegedly assaulted Hannah Thomas will face a hearing next year
The New South Wales police officer who allegedly assaulted Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestine protest will face a 10-day hearing in February 2027.
The hearing dates – 1 to 12 February – were set at Downing Centre Local court today after 33-year-old senior constable Christopher Davis pleaded not guilty two weeks ago.
He is facing two charges, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.
Thomas, a former Greens candidate in the prime minister’s seat of Grayndler, was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney on 27 June that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating.
Thomas was taken to hospital and has since undergone three rounds of surgery to her right eye after she sustained a serious injury.
Last September, prosecutors dropped all three charges against Thomas, who was later awarded more than $22,000 in legal costs. Charges were also dropped against three other protesters who were also awarded costs.
The following month Davis was charged with the two offences.
Updated
That’s all from me today, thanks so much for following along on the blog.
I’ll leave you with the excellent Ben Doherty and will see you here bright and early tomorrow!
TLDR: here’s what happened in question time
Fuel was in the spotlight again, except for a brief deviation from the Coalition into whether the government will expand parliament.
The government said fuel shipments continue as expected, while Chris Bowen provided an update with the number of service stations running empty.
Anthony Albanese dismissed questions on whether the government will move to expand parliament – but did leave a very small gap in the door.
Independent MP Zali Steggall asked the government what it was tangibly doing to secure justice for Zomi Frankcom, an Australian aid worker killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza.
The Greens continued to press the government on implementing a 25% gas export tax.
Updated
ABC non-journalists’ union recommends members support latest pay offer
The ABC section of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has recommended members vote for a new and improved pay offer from ABC management, days after a 24-hour strike.
Jocelyn Gammie, ABC Section Secretary:
After many hours of intense negotiations with ABC management and other unions in the Fair Work Commission yesterday, the CPSU bargaining team and delegates are now in a position where they can recommend that members support the new improved offer.
The CPSU said after negotiations at the Fair Work Commission on Monday the ABC came up with an offer with significantly better pay and automatic progression.
Jocelyn Gammie, ABC section secretary, said:
While ABC’s revised position does not fully address every issue in our claim, there has been significant movement on the key issues of pay and progression.
In our view the strongly supported strike action last week worked exactly as intended – ABC management have listened and improved their position. Members should be extremely proud of the way they stood together and fought for what they deserve.
The pay rise has been lifted to 4% in the first year, backdated to 1 October 2025, a 0.5% improvement on the offer available before 2,000 staff went on strike last week.
Progression has been one of the toughest issues in bargaining, and your delegates have secured major improvements,” the union told staff.
Last Wednesday staff walked off the job for 24 hours to protest what they called a low pay offer from the ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, as well as poor working conditions and the broadcaster’s refusal to rule out replacing journalists with artificial intelligence.
Staff will now have to vote on the improved offer before a new enterprise bargaining agreement is put in force.
Updated
Question time ends
After a final dixer to Mark Butler, the prime minister calls time on QT.
Bowen offers to help taxi drivers in Queensland
Nationals MP David Batt asks whether the government can guarantee diesel supplies to keep wheelchair accessible taxis on the road, and says essential transport for vulnerable Australians is “now under threat”.
Chris Bowen says the supply of fuel continues to arrive in Australia “at the rate we would expect”.
But of course there are still shortages, which he acknowledges, particularly in regional Australia.
Having just helped farmer Josh in South Australia, Bowen also offers to help individuals in Queensland.
If you have constituents with whom you’d like us to pay particular attention and speak to them about their particular needs, if there have been shortages, and to put them in contact with the relevant fuel companies.
Updated
PM helps secure fuel for farmer Josh
If you were here yesterday, you might remember Liberal MP Tom Venning’s question to the prime minister, about farmer Josh in his electorate who said he couldn’t access fuel ahead of the crop season.
Anthony Albanese is asked a dixer, and says that he’s now spoken to farmer Josh and secured fuel for him.
Albanese says the government contacted Josh’s local fuel terminal to find out more:
Just yesterday, there had been a ship delivered of fuel to the terminal, and that I was able to ring Josh back again, as I committed to do, to find out for him, and he will be receiving fuel in the next 48 hours and that’s a good result.
Updated
Joyce calls for increased funding to fight spread of fire ants
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce asks the government if it will commit more funding to tackle fire ants, an invasive species which he says will be “devastating to the lifestyle of Australian people” if they continue spreading across farms in Queensland.
There’s a tiny misunderstanding – Tony Burke thinks he said firearms instead of fire ants, which everyone laughs off.
Burke says it has been an issue since he was environment minister back in 2010.
We need to continue the fight because of the extraordinary damage, the extraordinary damage that those fire ants do.
Notwithstanding all the attempts at containment that had been involved in government funding back then, government funding that I think, started under the Howard government, that continued during the nine years when the member was on and off, the deputy prime minister of Australia, that the containment funding has continued under us, no one has been able to successfully prevent the spread.
He says the government will continue efforts to try to fight fire ants, but doesn’t commit to new funding in the budget.
Updated
More than 53 fuel shipments currently en route to Australia, says Bowen
Nationals MP Jamie Chaffey is next and asks Chris Bowen to clarify the number of ships en route to Australia. Bowen last week said that 81 fuel shipments were expected to arrive this month, but today said 53 ships are currently headed to Australia.
Bowen says there are more than 53 ships on their way but the opposition are trying to compare “apples and oranges”.
He says we expect 81 ships to arrive in Australia every month, and so far that number is expected to arrive in May.
[For] some, arrival is imminent, others are just leaving the refineries as we speak. So that’s an average. Of course, a ship from the United States takes about a month to get here. It’s a lot quicker than that from Singapore and Malaysia.
So those two comparisons the honourable member has made is just not a fair comparison. It’s apples and oranges. We do expect, on average, 81 ships a month to arrive. That’s a historical average.
Updated
Greens push Labor to implement gas export tax
Back to the crossbench, Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown asks the treasurer if he will confirm that Shell has paid no petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT), and will now only pay a few cents per dollar of revenue at best … AND if the government will put a 25% tax on gas export revenue.
Jim Chalmers says Australians do deserve a fair return from the natural resources that they own.
On the PRRT, he says that tax isn’t calculated and shared separately by the tax office so he can’t confirm how much of the PRRT that Shell has paid.
He also says that the PRRT sets in seven years after a project, so for two Shell projects, that tax will begin to take effect shortly.
We work closely together to try and make the tax system more transparent in this regard, and we’ll continue to focus on our agenda to make sure multinationals, including oil and gas companies, pay their fair share of tax.
Updated
Government diversifying fuel imports, says Bowen
Nationals MP Alison Penfold takes the next question and asks Chris Bowen how many oil tankers have left the Middle East for refineries in Asia since 28 February. Australia receives much of its fuel supplies from countries in Asia.
Bowen acknowledges that Asia “gets the majority of its oil from the Middle East”, but that the government is diversifying its imports.
He says there are currently more than 53 ships en route to Australia from Asia, the United States, Mexico, other places.
I can confirm, 3.7 billion litres are contracted legally to arrive in Australia over April.
Asia gets the majority of its oil from the Middle East through the strait of Hormuz. That is true. That’s why we’ve taken the actions we have taken, like releasing more of the minimum stock obligation … Asian refineries don’t just supply Australia, they supply Asia, and of course, we’ve been in constant contact, the prime minister, the foreign minister and I, with our respective counterparts, and we’re very pleased with the way those conversations have gone.
Updated
PM to meet Zomi Frankcom’s brother on anniversary of aid worker’s death
What “tangible progress” has the government made since the prime minister’s meeting with Israeli president Isaac Herzog, to secure justice for Zomi Frankcom, asks independent MP Zali Steggall. Tomorrow is the two-year anniversary of the Australian aid worker’s death in an Israeli airstrike.
At the National Press Club, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, would not say whether Israel would release critical drone audio, and did not say whether the Israeli government would apologise to Frankcom’s family, but said sympathy has been expressed.
Steggall says the UK and Poland have launched coronial inquiries and commissioned international probes into the deaths of their citizens killed by the IDF.
Anthony Albanese says he will meet with Frankcom’s brother, Mal, who is in parliament, this afternoon.
I have certainly raised the issue very directly, most recently with the Israeli president Isaac Herzog during his visit here to Australia. Last year at the United Nations, when I was there, Australia led the world in launching the declaration for the protection of humanitarian personnel.
This is a tragic loss. We’ll continue to work each and every day to do our best to ensure that there is transparency and appropriate action.
Updated
Wilson and Chalmers trade barbs on budget spending
Will the treasurer guarantee his budget won’t add to inflation or interest rates, asks shadow treasurer Tim Wilson, who says mortgages have gone up due to Jim Chalmers’ “runaway spending”.
Chalmers says Wilson has some “nerve” asking the question, when the Coalition’s pre-election costings showed their spending would go higher in their first two years if elected.
He says the government has been banking savings, and that the next budget – due on 12 May – will find more savings and include tax reform and “more effort on productivity”.
It took those opposite something like seven budget updates to find the same amount of savings that Katy Gallagher found in December …
Those opposite wouldn’t know the first thing about responsible economic management.
When the member for Hume took to the election … policy for higher taxes on 14 million working Australians and he still managed to find a way to have bigger deficits and more debt.
Updated
Opposition leader pushes Albanese to rule out expansion of parliament
Angus Taylor has another go, and asks point blank, will the prime minister rule out expanding the size of parliament?
He gets a lot of “good question” shouts of support from his MPs, but Albanese is critical of the question, to say the least.
This is extraordinary. At a time when there is a war in the Middle East, when there are significant economic impacts …
Dan Tehan immediately gets up to make a point of order on relevance, which Milton Dick shuts down, saying the PM has only said about 20 words and used 30 seconds of his answer. But he does tell Albanese to answer the question.
Albanese continues:
One, I am satisfied with the current number of seats in the House of Representatives, that is 150 MPs, with 12 senators from each state.
Point two is I’m satisfied with the composition of the current parliament. Very satisfied with the current composition.
And point three, I have been very privileged to have the best campaign director I have ever seen … Paul Erickson. If I was to say to him we have 94 seats but how about we throw it all up in the air and see how it lands? I reckon Paul Erickson would have a pretty clear response.
There are a few very confused expressions from the opposition on that third point.
Two quick notes here: Albanese didn’t actually, firmly rule out changes, and he didn’t mention the number of territory senators (which have been pushing to increase their numbers of senators from just two).
Updated
Albanese dismisses claim government will increase parliament size
Angus Taylor is back at the dispatch box and asks if the government will spend $600m to expand parliament and increase the number of representatives.
(For more context, see here)
Anthony Albanese’s not entertaining the question, and gives a very short answer. This is the whole thing:
Let me make this as clear as I possibly can. I am more than satisfied with both the number of members of the House of Representatives and their composition.
Updated
Spender calls for government to streamline skills assessments for migrants
Over to the crossbench, Allegra Spender asks the treasurer what the government will do to lower the number of permanent migrants in Australia working below their skill level, to make upskilling “fairer, faster and more affordable”.
She says:
This includes 20,000 teachers, 50,000 engineers, 16,000 nurses and 1,300 electricians who are unable to teach, care and build to their full capacity because of slow and costly skills recognitions pathways.
Jim Chalmers says it’s a good question, and an issue that’s been raised with him by his colleagues.
He says the government has made some moves to figure out how to address that skill gap – but that there’s more to do.
Chalmers adds that funding has been provided to streamline skills assessments for migrants, which has particularly benefited workers in the construction industry.
We know there is more work to do in this regard and that is why last November I agreed with my state and territory counterparts to prioritise work on recognising skills particularly in areas of acute demand like construction, health and emerging industries, and we have a number of ways we are going about this important work.
He basically says “watch this space” for more.
Updated
More than 100 service stations across Australia without fuel
How many service stations are empty, asks Dan Tehan.
Like last week, Chris Bowen gives us the latest figures:
NSW: 247 without diesel, 61 with no stock, out of 2,400 service stations.
QLD: 77 without diesel, 39 with no unleaded, out of 1,800 service stations.
VIC: 82 without diesel, 40 with no stock, out of 1,627 service stations.
WA: 18 without diesel, 14 with no unleaded out of 771 service stations.
TAS: 8 without diesel, 15 with one or more fuels unavailable, out of 294 service stations.
NT: 5 without diesel, 4 with no unleaded out of 180 service stations
ACT: 5 without diesel, 2 with no unleaded
Bowen adds that in the ACT the service stations are normally filled within the same day, and shortages in the NT are also due to flooding.
Updated
Question time begins with Taylor querying confidence in PM
Angus Taylor asks how Australians can have confidence in the prime minister when he changes his position (after the government decided to cut the fuel excise when they’d said it wasn’t a measure being considered just days before).
Anthony Albanese says the government has been consistent in acknowledging that Australians are feeling “stretched and under pressure” from the impact of the war in the Middle East.
He defends the government’s response to the crisis and says the measures taken – including the excise cut – have been responsible.
There are challenges ahead of us. It is also a fact that because prices have increased right around the world, we sought to have a responsible plan to make a difference as well to people’s cost of living issues as we always do.
Updated
‘Buy wonky fruit’: farm wastage pitch enough to earn ‘PM for a day’ nod
Before question time, the PM gives a shoutout to Jett Jarvis who has won the Squiz kid “PM for a day”.
His pitch to the PM is to encourage more Australians to buy wonky fruit, to avoid wastage on farms.
Anthony Albanese has some wonky words to go with the shout out (in what I think is a little diss to those sitting across the chamber)!
I know some bananas that aren’t bent the right way, sometimes aren’t rejected …
Cue some chuckles across the House.
Jarvis is from the seat of Maranoa, and his representative, David Littleproud also jokes, and says:
It’s great to see someone from Maranoa at the top.
Updated
ABC offers extra 0.5% pay rise for staff
The ABC has offered staff an additional 0.5% pay rise and some improved conditions after “very challenging negotiations” in the Fair Work Commission on Monday, unions have told ABC staff.
After a strike last week the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), and the non-journalists’ Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), which represents staff in technology and control systems, sat down with management.
The offer of a 10% pay rise over three years was increased to 10.5% with a 4% rise in the first year backdated to October.
People and culture director, Deena Amorelli, told staff:
I’m pleased to provide you with an update on the Enterprise Agreement (EA). Following discussion at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) conciliation yesterday, we have agreed a position that is endorsed by all bargaining representatives, including union delegates from both the CPSU and MEAA.
The MEAA has asked staff to decide whether to accept the offer. They told members the walkout was a success because “we now have above inflation pay for year 1 on the table, real pathways for band progression, and improved reward for hard work”.
“This will benefit us and our future colleagues for years to come, and we should all be extremely proud,” the union said.
Updated
Israeli ambassador defends investigation into Australian aid worker’s death
Israel’s ambassador to Australia says he is not aware that the investigation into the Israeli drone strike that killed Zomi Frankcom and six aid workers in Gaza has been shelved or that there will be no prosecution.
At the National Press Club, Hillel Newman defends the Israeli government’s actions and says Australian investigator, Mark Binskin, who was sent by the Albanese government, delivered a report that found “the attack was not intentional”.
Binskin’s review, handed to the government, found the IDF strike on the World Central Kitchen volunteers was the result of “serious failures to follow procedures”.
Newman says:
You say it’s been shelved, I don’t know what basis, I have not … I have never heard it’s been shelved. It could be I have not been updated, I will check.
As far as I know they have not come to final conclusions not because they delay, there are legal cases in Israel that go on for years … as far as I know it [has] not come to that conclusion yet but I will check again.
Newman says Binskin was “given full access at the time to what they had available and he drew up the conclusions together”. But Binskin has said he was never shown the drone audio during the investigation.
Journalist Anna Henderson pushes Newman on why the drone audio was not shown to Binskin and whether he will commit to it being released.
He won’t make the commitment.
[It] could be intelligence. I was not there … I would have to check [why] it is not possible to release that video information.
Last month, prime minister Anthony Albanese told Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, Australia wanted to see transparency over the investigation and “any appropriate criminal charges”.
Updated
Coalition is ‘only party fixated on’ increasing size of parliament, Farrell says
Don Farrell has refuted claims the government is working on increasing the size of parliament while the fuel crisis across the country worsens.
The opposition held a press conference earlier today, accusing Farrell of “belling the cat” on the issue, after he told National Press Club yesterday he hadn’t given up on increasing the number of representatives.
In a statement, Farrell says he is awaiting the findings of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, which holds a post election review every term. He will “show the committee the respect it deserves of not pre-empting their important work.”
The only party fixated on this enough to have done costings is the Coalition. The government is focused on fuel security and cost of living relief for Australians.
This is clearly not about the policy or issues; it’s about the internal audition for attention in the Coalition.
Updated
‘Israel and Australia stand in the same camp’: Israeli ambassador
Israel’s ambassador to Australia says the two nations are “close allies”, with the relationship “deeply rooted in history”.
Hillel Newman is speaking to the National Press Club, his first address since taking on the role earlier this year.
The diplomatic relationship between the two nations has faced some strain over the last two years, including Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu publicly criticising the Australian prime minister for recognising Palestinian statehood last year, and accused Albanese of “betraying” Israel.
Newman says:
Israel and Australia stand in the same camp. Of moderates, modern democracies that value human rights and uphold democratic concerns. That has long characterised the relationship between our two countries. Our connection is deeply rooted in history and founded on shared values. It is only natural, for Australia and Israel to be close allies.
We share the same values, we share the same threats, we must stand together and defend our values.
Updated
Parliament begins to debate three-month fuel excise cut
The House of Representatives is debating the government’s bill to halve the fuel excise for 3 months.
Tony Burke moved to suspend standing orders (which the government was easily able to do with a majority in the chamber), to bring on the bill for debate, and bring it to a vote by 5:30pm tonight.
It means it can then be debated in the Senate tomorrow and passed on the last sitting day until May.
Earlier, Jim Chalmers defended the measure, calling it “responsible” and temporary cost of living relief.
Updated
PM says he is engaging with world leaders, including Trump, over Middle East conflict
Anthony Albanese says he talking to world leaders regularly about the conflict in the Middle East and the growing global energy shock.
The prime minister told Labor MPs that the foreign minister, Penny Wong, was talking with her counterparts regularly as well.
In a caucus meeting at Parliament House, Albanese again pointed out that the US had three stated objectives for the war in Iran, including degrading missile capability, stopping Tehran getting a nuclear weapon and regime change in the country.
Albanese believes the first two objectives have been achieved, while the third “hasn’t happened”. He said:
History shows the difficulty of something like that ever occurring.
Albanese said there was great uncertainty about the war, including as other Gulf countries are attacked.
Updated
Inflation to hit 5% in year to June, RBA predicts
The Reserve Bank says oil at around $US100 will push inflation to about 5% in the year to June, or 0.75 percentage points higher than expected in February.
The international oil price benchmark, Brent crude, has traded at $US100 or above since the 17 March rate decision, and last fetched about $US109 a barrel.
The RBA board decided to hike rates earlier this month, in a 5-4 split decision that spoke to a dissenting view among a big minority of members that it would have been better to wait a few weeks to better gauge the potential fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran.
In the end, a majority believed the Middle East conflict was overwhelmingly an inflationary shock that threatened to broaden out into other prices beyond fuel.
All agreed, however, that rates would have needed to go up sooner rather than later, given inflation was already running too hot before the start of hostilities.
The minutes push back against some predictions that we have three more rate hikes ahead of us.
Members agreed:
That it was not possible to predict the future path for the cash rate target with any confidence, given the high degree of uncertainty around the breadth and duration of the current conflict in the Middle East.
The minutes noted “a longer conflict could have a material bearing on both inflation and economic activity. Members therefore acknowledged that future policy decisions would require the board to balance its two objectives carefully” – the two objectives being low and stable inflation, and full employment.
Updated
Scrapping “unfair” junior rates a win for low-paid workers, Greens say
In another perhaps unsurprising move, Greens senator Barbara Pocock says scrapping “unfair” junior rates is a big win.
She says they guarantee an “endless supply of cheap labour”:
Low-paid workers are already facing an uphill battle as wages have failed to keep up with the inflation.
The Greens believe workers’ pay should reflect their skills, not their age. We need to continue to raise the wages of under-18s who do the same work for less pay.
Updated
Fair Work Commission decision “adds to cost pressures”, retailers say
The Australian Retail Council (ARC), perhaps unsurprisingly, is not entirely happy with today’s Fair Work Commission decision to get rid of junior wages for those aged 18 and up.
It says the move will add significant costs to businesses already under pressure.
ARC chief executive officer, Chris Rodwell, says junior rates have served the nation well “for generations”:
They recognise that younger workers often have little or no workplace experience and help employers, particularly small businesses, give young people their first opportunity.
Crucially, junior rates for workers aged 17 and under will remain in place. That’s important. Early work experience is critical, and we cannot afford to make it harder for young Australians to get their first job.
Updated
Allan hops on “temporary” free public transport
The premier spoke from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre before boarding a train at Parkville station to Town Hall to mark the first day of free public transport for the next month. Jacinta Allan said it was a “temporary measure” to help ease financial pressures on households:
Free public transport will [have] a broader benefit to everyone. It’ll save people money – we expect that it will save regular users of our public transport system over $220 for the month of April … and it’s going to take pressure off the pump, which leaves that fuel available for others in our community.
Whilst we can’t control global oil prices, as Victorian premier, I am determined to do everything that I can to ease cost of living pressures.
Asked whether she would extend the measure if the war continues to rage on, Allan said the government would “continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East and continue to look at the practical, sensible ways we can continue to help Victorians households”.
She said authorities would also be keeping a close eye on public transport and roads data but said the network had capacity to deal with additional commuters.
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Allan takes aim at “bitter infighting” within Liberals
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, also held a press conference this morning (see post below about Liberal leader Jess Wilson’s presser), where she had a crack at the Liberal party’s disunity – despite facing tensions within her own Labor ranks.
She said the preselection saga demonstrated the “bitter infighting” within the Liberal party:
If you can’t run your own party, how on earth can you put yourself forward to run the state? Victorians can see that the Liberal party, being the weak, extreme, divided outfit that they are, are only focused on themselves.
Well, as Victorian premier, I’m focused every minute of every day on Victorians who need their government helping them to make life easier and more affordable.
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Most children haven’t been removed from social media, despite federal ban
The eSafety Commission says the federal government’s ban on under-16s accessing social media is not working as well as had been hoped, with a survey finding nearly a third of young people still had social media, and that nearly 70% of children with accounts on major platforms had not been removed.
In a compliance report on the legislation, more than three months on from the law coming into force, eSafety said “despite overall reductions in account ownership, a substantial proportion of children under 16 retained accounts on age-restricted platforms”. It said:
Of the parents who reported their child had an account on each platform prior to 10 December 2025, around 7 in 10 reported that their child still had an account on Facebook (63.6%), Instagram (69.1%), Snapchat (69.4%), and TikTok (69.3%). Around three in 10 reported that their child no longer had an account. One in two of these parents (48.5%) reported that their child still had an account on YouTube following the age restrictions coming into effect.
Prior to the ban, the survey respondents said about 49.7% of their kids had social media; post-ban, that was down to 31.3%. The Albanese government has long conceded that not all kids would be immediately removed from their accounts, but that the laws would reduce the number and help parents set their own household rules.
As we reported earlier, eSafety is “actively investigating potential non-compliance” with the ban by Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. The eSafety report said the most common reason kids still had social media was that they hadn’t been asked by the platform to verify their age, with 67% of parents listing this as the main reason.
But the report also noted that age verification technology is not perfect, and makes mistakes. The government was not prescriptive about what methods the platforms should use, but often pointed to facial scanning as a method to verify age. The eSafety report said facial age estimation is “a popular and effective form of age assurance” but conceded that it “is known to have higher error rates for children near the age threshold of 16 years.”
Communications minister Anika Wells will hold a press conference at 12.30pm.
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PM says Labor focused on fuel ‘supply, supply, supply’
Anthony Albanese says uncertainty over the duration of the war in Iran is adding to Australians’ anxiety about price increases and tensions overseas.
Speaking to Labor MPs at Parliament House on Tuesday morning, he said the government was working to shore up fuel supply, even as global energy reliability is being undermined by the war.
“We have been concentrating on supply, supply, supply,” Albanese told the closed-door caucus meeting.
People are doing it tough. There is uncertainty over the war and uncertainty over how it ends. This is causing understandable anxiety.
The increase in price only adds to this anxiety.
The PM said Australia was viewed as a reliable partner for energy exports in Asia and “expect that reliability to be reciprocated”.
He also said the government wanted to “avoid mandating” fuel purchases. “We’re a nation where we want to look after each other,” he said.
Albanese will address the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday.
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Australia should support the US to reopen the strait of Hormuz, Taylor says
Jumping back to Angus Taylor’s press conference, he says Australia should be working with world leaders and the US to open up the strait of Hormuz.
What we all want to see is the strait of Hormuz opened up. Anthony Albanese should be working with leaders across the world to do everything we can to support that happening.
And I’ll tell you why that matters, because then you get 20% more oil going on to the global market and prices come down. It’s pretty simple stuff.
When asked exactly what that support should look like, Taylor evades the question and says it’s “pretty simple” that we want fuel prices to go down. He doesn’t say what measures the government should take to reopen the Strait.
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State leaders to discuss returning GST windfall to consumers
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says state and territory leaders will meet shortly to discuss forgoing the GST windfall from increased fuel prices, passing on an additional reduction in fuel prices.
Minns said yesterday the states were “considering” the proposal to forgo extra GST, announced by the federal government as part of their emergency fuel plan alongside a cut to the fuel excise.
This morning, Minns has told a press conference that premiers and first ministers were meeting to discuss the policy imminently. He says it will lead to an additional reduction in fuel prices.
We want to do that with the federal government. There’s some complexity around GST arrangements that, if you have the time, would be easy to sort out, but given the tightness of the time, [we] need to return this to NSW commuters. In fact, commuters and motorists right across the country. We want to look at a common sense and practical way of returning that. I think there’s a pathway through it.
It may well be that we drop the excise to the extent of the windfall gain from the GST. So we’re working through that detail. We’ll communicate that with the commonwealth. Hopefully today, we can get a further savings for motorists in our economy during tight times. Look, this is part of our approach and response to the fuel crisis in Australia, caused by conflict in the Middle East.
Minns says he does not think the states will be “bogged down” in how GST relief will be distributed, but he says he doesn’t know the position of other states. The treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, says GST relief would roughly match the relief from the excise, worth a reduction of about 7 to 10 cents per litre of fuel.
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Taylor opposes increasing size of parliament
Angus Taylor says the government should rule out increasing the number of politicians on Capital Hill, and that the government should be focused on fixing the fuel crisis.
Yesterday, the special minister for state, Don Farrell, said he hadn’t given up on increasing the size of parliament and said it’s “what great Labor leaders do”.
Farrell is really the only person talking about the issue at the moment. Ironically, the opposition is turning it into more of a thing by talking about it, while telling Labor not to talk about it.
This proposal, which would cost over $600m in taxpayers for Australians, hard-working Australians, is not what we need right now. Australians are in a cost-of-living crisis. They’re in a fuel crisis. We have an economy that is not working for hard-working Australians, and the priority of this government, clearly, is to increase the size of the parliament now.
We call on the prime minister to immediately rule out going down this path … today.
Matt Canavan accuses the government of having “secret plans”:
Yesterday, his special minister of state, Don Farrell belled the cat, [he] revealed these hidden plans, these secret plans to increase the number of politicians, and the prime minister needs to come clean now with the Australian people about what are these plans?
The government has previously flagged an interest in looking at increasing the number of representatives. Also, after every election a committee looks at the electoral process and has previously made recommendations on increasing the size of parliament.
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Jess Wilson says review will occur into Victoria Liberals candidate vetting processes
Stepping away from federal politics for a moment, the Victorian Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, has admitted she’s “frustrated” that the party’s candidate vetting process failed to identify that the man who ousted Moira Deeming for the top spot on the upper house ballot wrote a court character reference for a friend convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
Wilson told reporters outside parliament on Tuesday that Dinesh Gourisetty, who beat Deeming in a preselection vote on Sunday, should never have made it through the vetting process. Candidates pay a $5,000 application fee to the party, which is meant to cover stringent vetting performed by an external consultancy.
She said:
The situation that we found ourselves in yesterday should never have happened. The situation should not have occurred. It’s fair to say I’m frustrated by this. My team is frustrated by this, and we need to learn from what occurred and ensure that we improve our processes and that the vetting processes that the party undertakes are improved. I know that work is already under way.
Wilson said she told the party president and state director there needed to be a review into “how this occurred”.
She said she was not aware anyone knew the information before Monday, though Gourisetty’s supporters claim the timing was designed to cause “maximum damage” to the party’s executive. Wilson said:
I’m not aware of anyone who knew about this information [before Monday]. All I know is when I became aware of this information, which was yesterday morning ... I immediately spoke to the party about my expectation that Mr Gourisetty would not be welcome in my team ... We have since passed a resolution through state executive that will make Mr Gourisetty ineligible for a future convention.
Wilson said it was up to Deeming if she wanted to contest the new preselection vote:
As I said consistently throughout the pre selections, I’ll back all my colleagues and welcome whether Moira wants to put in her nomination form.
She also said she had confidence in the state president, Philip Davis, and that the party did not need to be taken over by the federal administration.
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Chalmers welcomes decision to lift minimum wage for young adults
This morning, the full bench of the Fair Work Commission decided to grant 18-20-year-olds the full adult minimum wage – to be phased in for businesses to adjust.
Until now, “junior pay rates” applied to people under 21, meaning 18-year-olds were paid 70% of the award rate, 80% for 19-year-olds and 90% for 20-year-olds.
Junior wages will still remain in place for minors, while the higher rate for junior workers will start to be phased in over a four-year period from December.
Chalmers says the decision recognises the “unfairness” in the system.
This is a great outcome for young workers, especially in retail, fast food and pharmacy. We welcome it.
This is all about ensuring that Australians get fair, decent wages, and the outcome announced by the Fair Work Commission will help achieve that.
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Chalmers tells us to expect an ‘ambitious’ budget
Despite the impact of the war on the budget and decision to halve the fuel excise, Jim Chalmers says the budget will still be ambitious and deal with intergenerational inequality.
Chalmers says the legislation to halve the fuel excise will be introduced to parliament today and will contain some “extra powers” for Chalmers to do “more for when we are able to come to a concluded view with the states and territories”.
On the budget, the treasurer says it will take into consideration the uncertain global economic conditions.
Clearly, when we are seeing the way that the global economic conditions are playing out here in Australia, any diligent, responsible government factors that into their budget planning.
There will be a focus on some of the generational issues in our economy and in our budget.
Asked whether cutting the fuel excise will lead to another Reserve Bank rate rise, Chalmers says he won’t comment on the decisions of the central bank, but adds “I don’t think market expectations for interest rates changed much yesterday after the announcement of our policy.”
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‘Australians hate paying these charges’: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers is pretty happy this morning after the Reserve Bank decided to ban both debit and credit card surcharges, which will start rolling in later this year.
Speaking to reporters from Parliament House, Chalmers says the changes will increase transparency – with the Reserve Bank also amending interchange fees (the transaction charges paid by a merchant’s bank to a cardholder’s bank for card purchases).
Australians hate paying these charges. Let’s be blunt about it, and the Reserve Bank has done quite a bit of work here. They are responsible for the system that is being changed here. They have the ability to make these changes without the parliament legislating them.
Chalmers also gives his colleagues including Jerome Laxale a shoutout for spearheading this work from parliament.
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Labor MP says Australians ‘ripped off’ with card surcharges
Labor MP Jerome Laxale has been leading the charge on ending surcharges for card transactions, which has now been removed by the Reserve Bank.
Laxale, the Member for Bennelong, said it was “a great result for consumers who have been ripped off at the checkout for too long”.
Digital payments shouldn’t cost consumers more than cash and Australia will get there on 1 October.
There’s more work to do on small business merchant costs, but this is a solid start.
Laxale had been pushing for change for more than a year, critical that the declining use of cash and rise of electronic payments meant Australians were being hit with fees just to use their own money.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said Australians had been paying $1.6bn in surcharges per year, adding that the change would “help with the cost of living”.
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Card surcharges to disappear if businesses do as RBA says
Consumers will no longer have to pay card surcharges if businesses pass on the savings from the Reserve Bank’s latest move.
About 16% of businesses charge surcharges and consumers pay about $1.6bn in card payment surcharges a year, the review found.
Businesses charge the extra to pay for access to payment services that process card transactions. The RBA will cap the fees for these services at a lower level.
The Reserve Bank will also let eftpos, Mastercard and Visa eliminate surcharges, with the expectations businesses would follow by 1 October.
They may increase their shelf or menu prices, baking in the cost of payment systems, lifting prices by a one-off 0.1%, the RBA estimated. The bank said this would be alright after surveying customers and finding they preferred to see the final price instead of being caught with a hidden surcharge.
If businesses keep surcharging anyway, the RBA could call for the Albanese government to pass new laws banning the practice.
Ending card surcharges will save consumers $1.6bn a year
The government says the Reserve Bank’s decision to ban card surcharges will save Australians $1.6bn while small businesses will save $910m.
Labor announced in 2024 it was prepared to ban debit card surcharges, subject to work by the RBA.
But the RBA has gone even further to ban credit card surcharges as well.
The treasurer will stand up shortly, no doubt to celebrate the news.
In a statement, the government said:
People shouldn’t be punished for using a credit or debit card. Australians should be able to use debit and credit cards without being penalised, and that’s what this change will help to deliver.
Hastie attacks One Nation over Iran war stance
Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie has criticised Pauline Hanson’s position on the war in Iran, saying the One Nation leader is recklessly following Donald Trump.
Speaking to reporters in the press gallery corridor earlier today, the shadow minister for industry said:
Twice now she has supported the war, unreservedly, even suggesting we should send young Australians to the war.
How does that battling Australians who are already dealing with a massive cost-of-living crisis?
It sounds like she’s got her priorities wrong. It’s Maga first, not Australia first.
Updated
RBA recommends removing card surcharges
Surcharges on credit and debit card payments should be eliminated by October with banks to cop the lost revenue, the Reserve Bank has concluded.
The RBA has found removing the extra charges levied on consumers paying by card are no longer appropriate for the Australian economy, backing in its decision last July to advocate the removal of surcharges across the board.
The Albanese government had only promised to remove the costs on debit cards. We’ll see how the government responds today.
Big banks had pushed back against the RBA’s proposal and warned they might hike credit card fees and interest rates and cut benefits and rewards points. The bank’s final review paper acknowledges that big banks will likely lose some revenue, pressuring credit card points systems, but argues banks had already been pushing these costs on to small businesses.
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Musicians join campaign calling for 25% gas export tax
A star-studded lineup of Australian musicians – including Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Yothu Yindi – have added their voices to the campaign calling for a 25% tax on gas export revenue.
More than 120 musicians have signed an open letter appealing to the prime minister and avid music fan, Anthony Albanese, to introduce the tax to “ease climate and cost-of-living pressure”.
The musicians join the Greens, Labor-aligned trade unions, crossbenchers and environmentalists in pushing for a 25% gas export tax, which the Australia Institute estimates could raise $17bn per year.
The campaign has renewed momentum after revelations that the Treasury was modelling a new levy to capture windfall profits from gas and thermal companies.
The open letter reads:
Musicians speak up when leaders fall short. We often reflect the will of the people, especially when those in power refuse to. We are doing so, here and now. We call on the Australian Government to act immediately: implement an ongoing 25% tax on gas export revenue, and invest those profits in the communities, culture and climate solutions our country urgently needs.
The intervention from the musicians comes after Labor voted with the Greens to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the tax settings for oil and gas companies, offering another sign that Albanese was open to potential changes.
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Albanese downplays inflation impact of fuel excise cut
The prime minister says cutting the fuel excise by 50% for three months won’t add more money into the economy and fuel inflation.
Anthony Albanese says cutting the fuel excise will reduce the price of it, but won’t mean households are spending more.
The idea of some of this simplistic analysis that says that somehow this is putting more money into the economy, as your last caller said … he’s still spending more money than he was before. So how is there more money in the economy? By reducing the cost?
The PM is also asked about an ABC report that early analysis from the prime minister’s department assumed rationing would take effect if the diesel stockpile dropped to 10 days’ supply.
He denies the reporting and calls it spectulation:
That’s the ABC you know going on, you’ll see lots of speculation. What we do, national cabinet will go through all of these processes in an orderly way.
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PM remains tight-lipped over triggers for national fuel plan
The government has been vague on exactly what will trigger stage three of the four-stage national plan announced yesterday.
The government has said stage three would be where there is significant disruption to fuel supply, but it’s not exactly clear what that means, and what would be the response for families.
On ABC Radio Melbourne, Anthony Albanese again won’t clarify exactly what that level of disruption means, or what exactly would trigger fuel rationing.
Well the plan outlines it, where there’s extraordinary disruption, but where we’re at, the objective here is to stay at stage two. That’s the objective. That’s why supply is important.
Host Raf Epstein tries to push Albanese and asks whether the government hasn’t decided what exactly that trigger is. Albanese replies, “No, what we’ve decided is to try and keep supply going.”
On the fuel excise, he says the measure will “make a difference”
So what we have done to make a difference. I accept that it doesn’t make up for the increase in price but it does make a difference.
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Albanese says it’s ‘good’ Dezi Freeman was shot by police
Anthony Albanese says it’s “good” Dezi Freeman was shot by police yesterday after being on the run for seven months.
Speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne, the prime minister says he attended the funerals of the two officers allegedly killed by Freeman.
Albanese says Freeman “always was going to be brought to justice”.
At the end of this saga, the thing I remember is the sacrifice of those police officers and the fact that our police put themselves in danger each and every day in order to keep us safe.
The head of Asio has made very clear warnings about what this ideology represents. They don’t respect any processes they regard the police and government and our entire society has not been legitimate, and they place themselves outside it, and they represent a risk to others.
Host, Raf Epstein, asks whether it’s “good” when anyone is killed despite their crimes.
Albanese replies:
This guy, I just don’t have any sympathy for him. That’s my position.
He always was going to be brought to justice and it’s clear that he was always going to fight it out.
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Minns says states will work out deal to hand back some GST revenue from fuel spikes
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says the states will try and reach a deal today to hand back some of the GST revenue gained through higher fuel prices.
GST is a percentage, rather than a flat cost per litre like the fuel excise, so as petrol prices go up, so does the GST take.
Speaking to the Today show a little earlier this morning, Minns said legislation is involved and is a little tricky, but the states will meet again today to figure out how to do it.
It’s not as straightforward. The GST deal is complicated, and it needs legislation, but what I think is likely to happen is that we can reduce that excise a bit more and then give that money back to the commonwealth.
So we accept that we don’t want to profit or make excess profits off people’s misery during a difficult period for consumers. So we want to hand back the GST element that’s gone up as a result of petrol prices rapidly increasing over the last six weeks.
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Hastie says he’s still ‘open-minded’ on gas tax debate
So where does this leave Andrew Hastie on his “openness” to a gas export windfall tax?
Last week he told Guardian Australia he was “sympathetic to that point of view” to place a 25% windfall tax on gas companies:
I think a lot of people, Australians, feel like the multinationals don’t have a social licence, that they’ve had a really good run of our wealth here, and so I’m sympathetic to that point of view … I just know how important those industries are to Australia, so I’d want to get it right. So, I guess I’m open-minded about those questions.
This morning he said he was open-minded “to a debate”, but that didn’t mean he would ultimately support the idea one way or another.
I said I’m open-minded to a debate. An open mind is for closing on a position. And you know, I’m signalling to people that I’m not just going to dismiss their concerns out of hand. Now, we go through a shadow cabinet process, we go through a party room process, and I’m not getting ahead of that.
I’m simply telling people I’m listening, I’m hearing what you’re saying. That doesn’t mean I’m landing on a position.
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‘No issue between us’: Hastie denies tensions with Taylor
Andrew Hastie says things are pretty hunky dory between him and Angus Taylor, after Hastie came out saying he was open to gas windfall taxes, an idea Taylor very quickly shut down yesterday.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Hastie says claims the opposition leader would formally counsel him were “vexatious”.
He says Taylor is a “great leader”.
There’s no issue between us … [Taylor] said he read my transcript closely, and there was a difference between what was reported and what I actually said on the program. So a lot of people use the media to run an agenda, and Angus is a person who establishes the facts, and that’s why he’s a good leader, because he doesn’t jump ahead of the situation. So we’re in a good place.
Angus is a mate. I’ve spent a lot of time in and out of work with him, and we have a great relationship.
Hastie is asked if the chat was formal or casual, Hastie says it was the latter.
Updated
Fuel excise cut will take days or longer to kick in: Bowen
Chris Bowen has urged the public not to “yell” at service stations that don’t immediately reduce their fuel prices after the fuel excise cut kicks in tomorrow.
He says that service stations will have already paid tax on fuel at the bowser, and will be waiting to purchase new fuel with the discounted levy, which can then be passed on to consumers.
Bowen told Sunrise this morning it’ll take a few days at least in the cities for the lower prices to kick in.
The fuel in the tank at the service station might have been there for days. They have already paid the tax. So please, if you turn up tomorrow and the price has not gone down, they are just waiting for the new petrol with the lower tax to come in.
It is really important we do not yell at the poor person behind the counter and say they have not passed on the petrol tax cut yet, because it will take a little while … Days in city areas, it can be a bit longer in regional areas because they have already paid the tax on the petrol in the tank.
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NSW government relaxes freight weight limits to save fuel
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has announced his government will relax freight weight limits for freight trucks carrying cargo.
It means trucks will be able to carry more load and do less trips. Minns tells ABC News Breakfast the rules will also be changed to relax the hours that trucks can make deliveries to stores so they can do “more efficient runs”.
[It] means that they can have fewer trips with more tonnage per trip, which we estimate can save between 18 and 35% of the diesel in our economy. It’s a short term measure while we navigate this crisis.
So why doesn’t it happen all the time?
Minns says the measures are cost neutral in the short term, but the heavier the cargo, the worse it is for the roads, meaning roads degrade faster, so it can’t be done permanently.
If we had it in place forever, then it would [degrade roads]. But right now, the urgent priority is to conserve fuel, particularly diesel fuel in our logistic and transport sector. And I mean, we can’t muck around if we’re talking about fuel shortages, and it’s linked to groceries and food. And we want to make this decision early.
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What’s the trigger for stage three under the national plan?
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, says we’re still on stage two of the national plan agreed to at yesterday’s national cabinet, reiterating that so far any cancelled fuel shipments have been replaced (he’s referring to the six tankers that he announced were cancelled on 22 March).
The government yesterday revealed a four-stage plan, with triggers.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast this morning, Bowen is asked what will trigger stage three?
The trigger … says ongoing supply disruptions mean we will focus on getting fuel where it’s needed most. Now, ongoing supply disruptions really means the fuel supply to Australia has been impacted. That hasn’t happened.
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‘We ask for reliability in return’: Wong
Wong says she continues to reach out to counterparts in South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia – key nations where Australia imports fuel, and countries that receive Australia’s gas exports.
While the government hasn’t called it a tit-for-tat situation, it has been sending the message abroad that it’s a reliable partner on gas, and expects the same treatment with fuel.
Wong told ABC AM this morning that she welcomed the statement on fuel signed between Australia and Singapore:
Early on in this conflict, I reached out to counterparts in the region who are our primary suppliers of liquid fuels … I reached out to Korea, to Singapore, to Malaysia, but we’ll continue to do that.
We believe we’re reliable, and we ask for reliability in return.
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Wong rules out lifting sanctions on Russian oil
The government has ruled out lifting sanctions on Russian oil to fill any fuel shortfalls as conflict in the Middle East escalates.
As my colleagues reported yesterday, South Korea and China are considering redirecting jet fuel exports to domestic supply which could leave Australia without.
Penny Wong says that doesn’t mean Australia’s sanctions on Russia are going anywhere.
She told Sky News this morning:
We don’t want to be providing Mr Putin with money to run his war machine, which is enabling … [a] continued attack on Ukraine, and on Ukrainian citizens.
Liberal senator Alex Antic has suggested Australia could loosen some of its restrictions on Russia as shortages are felt across the country. Wong responded, calling it, “Quite a disgrace, given Australia’s national interest, that we have members of the Coalition who are prepared to back in President Putin in this immoral war.”
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Crisafulli criticises PM’s four-stage fuel security plan
Queensland’s premier David Crisafulli says he doesn’t support “blanket mandates” for work from home and has criticised a four-stage fuel security plan announced by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Monday.
Albanese has not ruled out encouraging or mandating working from home to reduce fuel demand as part of the plan.
Crisafulli, who has pushed the commonwealth to create a national dashboard of information about fuel shortages, said the failure to explain when each level would be adopted or how much fuel is in the country “doesn’t fill people with confidence”.
“There is no world where I support work-from-home mandates; that sends entirely the wrong message,” Crisafulli said at a press conference on Monday evening.
The Queensland premier also argued for “an unrelenting focus” on additional domestic oil production, exploration and stoage so Australia would “not be at the mercy of other nations”.
Asked if he wants Australia to be a net exporter he said:
Well, considering we [are] well under 50% at the moment, that’s a lofty ambition, but let’s just say it’d be good to control our own destiny it wasn’t that long ago that we were ... almost double where we were now – it wasn’t that long ago.
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Government ‘deeply concerned’ about military escalation in Lebanon
Moving on to the ABC AM program, Penny Wong ruled out any Australian involvement in the war, including to send boots on the ground.
It’s a position the government has held since the beginning of the conflict, that all Australian support to the region (including the deployment of the E7-A wedgetail aircraft) is defensive.
Wong says:
Our posture is defensive, not offensive. We’ve made that very clear and we provided defensive capability when Iran chose to attack countries that ... were not party to taking strikes on Iran.
Wong also says the government is deeply concerned about the escalation of conflict in Lebanon.
Last week the foreign affairs minister spoke to her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, where she said the government does “not want to see occupation of southern Lebanon by Israel”.
This morning she reiterated that call:
We remain deeply concerned about escalation in Lebanon, the displacement of so many civilians.
Updated
Wong calls for de-escalation in Iran
Penny Wong says the government has “concerns” if the ongoing objective of the war is regime change in Iran.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning after the prime minister more strongly questioned the objectives of the US remaining in conflict, Wong says many of the military objectives have already been achieved.
She says:
There’s obviously been a lot of military objectives the president has achieved in terms of Iranian air force, Iranian navy, Iran’s military industrial base and its capacity to launch missiles. We believe that it would be a good thing for the global economy and for Australians and certainly for the worl, if we could see de-escalation and these talks lead to a cessation of the conflict.
We have concerns if the objective is regime change, because we have said all along, this is ultimately a matter for the people of Iran.
Wong says the war is having an impact on global energy markets, including in the US.
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More than 10,000 Australians return from Middle East
The number of Australians returning from the Middle East since the war broke out in Iran has ticked over 10,000.
The government says 10,372 Australians have now returned home on 103 direct commercial flights.
There are another three flights scheduled to arrive today – one to Melbourne and two to Sydney.
In a statement this morning, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the government is urging deescalation but the conflict is volatile and could “deteriorate rapidly”.
Australians should not delay their departure from the region given the continued uncertainty.
Our message is simple: if you can secure a flight out of the Middle East and it’s safe to travel to the airport, leave now while commercial options are available.
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Albanese backs US alliance, but wants clarity on Iran from Trump
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the US war in Iran has not damaged Australia’s alliance with the country, despite him wanting the conflict to end or deescalate.
Albanese also said he wanted president Donald Trump to outline “a timeframe or a clearer objective” for the conflict that reflected the economic damage it was causing.
Albanese, speaking to the ABC on Monday night, said while Trump’s objectives were worthy, he wanted a sense of how the conflict could end, and whether those objectives could be met by negotiating, rather than escalation.
He said Australia continued to have positive communication with the US and dismissed a question that the conflict could endanger the alliance.
Albanese also agreed that the third of Trump’s objectives – regime change – had not necessarily been met.
What I’d like to see is a timeframe or a clearer objective. The president said at the beginning of this conflict that it was about three things.
It was about nuclear weapons and making sure that Iran can’t get a nuclear weapon. Secondly, we wanted to damage Iran’s capabilities to attack its neighbours or to assist its proxies in Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis and others … but the third was regime change.
I want to see a recognition of the economic damage that this conflict is continuing to result in. And I want to see any objective of what is to be achieved by further conflict rather than negotiation. And I want to see an end or a de-escalation to the conflict there.
Updated
Social media platforms investigated for ‘potential non-compliance’
Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube are being investigated for “potential non-compliance” with the under 16s social media ban, with the Albanese government saying some of their systems to weed out underage users are “unacceptable”.
The eSafety Commission on Tuesday will release an update on compliance with the social media ban, which forbids those under 16 from having accounts with some of the biggest tech platforms.
Guardian Australia understands the report says some of the big tech platforms have been assessed by eSafety as having “unacceptable” systems, with claims that some are allowing children to repeatedly attempt age assurance tests until they pass, are not doing enough to stop banned users from simply creating new accounts, and have poor systems for parents and others to report underage users.
It’s understood that eSafety is investigating potential non-compliance by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, claimed some of the platforms subject to the rules are seeking to “undermine” the government’s laws.
If eSafety finds these companies have systemically failed to uphold their legal obligations, I expect the commissioner to throw the book at them.
Fines under the social media minimum age laws can reach up to $49.5m.
All of the platforms covered by our social media minimum age requirement said they would respect the law. If these companies want to do business in Australia, they must obey Australian laws.
Updated
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you for another busy sitting day.
Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube are being investigated for “potential non-compliance” under the social media ban, with the eSafety commissioner releasing a compliance update today.
The government says more than 10,000 Australians have now returned from the Middle East, as the government calls for clarity over the “objectives” of the war – the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will be doing the media rounds this morning.
And the prime minister is facing pressure from some of his favourite musicians, penning an open letter to push the government to adopt a new gas export tax.
It’s going to be another busy day, so let’s get stuck in!
