Good morning. Australia’s first Indigenous truth-telling commission will begin open public hearings from today, with Victorian elders to formally start sharing stories of the impacts of British colonisation. Election campaigning will be back in full swing after leaders took a pause on Monday to commemorate Anzac Day.
A Coalition MP praised a now-contentious trip to China featuring Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, undermining the Morrison government’s attempts to discredit the opposition’s claim that the major parties are united on China policy. Marles said during the 2019 trip it would be a “profound mistake” to define China as an enemy, a comment the government has used to criticise the opposition. But it has now emerged the Liberal National party backbencher Ted O’Brien – who joined Marles and Labor’s Tanya Plibersek on the three-day study tour organised by the China Matters thinktank – praised the 2019 trip, calling it “an invaluable opportunity to have open and candid dialogue”.
