Morning, everyone. It’s shaping up to be a busy fortnight in Canberra. Anthony Albanese warned the Labor caucus that few of the party’s efforts to change the constitution down the years have succeeded but there is hope today that the Coalition could be prepared to swing behind the Indigenous voice referendum bill – the laws setting the vote in motion. On the downside, the Aukus subs deal may mean paying even more to boost the submarine industrial capacity of the US and the UK than the announced $3bn, a minister tells us.
Overseas, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have finished their Moscow meeting with warm words for each other but no change in the “peace” plan that China has proposed for Ukraine, which has been criticised for allowing the Kremlin to keep its territorial gains from the invasion. Plus, why Boris Johnson lied in “good faith” – and Gwyneth Paltrow’s disastrous 2016 skiing trip is the subject of the latest big celebrity trial.
