Read the national news blog for rolling updates on today’s top stories.
Read the national news blog for rolling updates on today’s top stories.
Also in his remarks before a cabinet meeting in Canberra, the prime minister provided an update on the monitoring of Chinese warships now circumnavigating Australia.
Albanese noted that HMAS Stuart and HMAS Warramunga were monitoring the Chinese flotilla that is now in international waters near Australia.
“It stands in stark contrast with what happened prior to 2022 when there [was] a ship, a surveillance ship off the Western Australian coast that had no monitoring,” Albanese said, in an attempt to draw a contrast to the Coalition’s handling of a similar situation.
Albanese rebuked former prime minister Scott Morrison, who gave an interview at the weekend where he criticised the PM’s “hesitation and passivity” in responding to the presence of the warships off Australia’s coast.
“[The ADF ships] were in Sydney Harbour, docked at Garden Island, when he was the prime minister,” Albanese said.
“We’ll continue to respond in [an] appropriate way and will continue to monitor there. I have every faith in our Australian Defence Force to make sure they get that done.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned that a cyclone is an imminent threat to heavily populated areas on the southern Queensland and northern NSW coastlines, putting Brisbane, Gold Coast and the densely populated coastal strip at risk.
Speaking to a meeting of the national cabinet today, Albanese said he had spoken to Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and Emergency Services Minister Jenny McAllister and reiterated that federal government support would be available to the states.
“We hope of course for the best outcome possible, but we will stand with Queenslanders at this difficult time, and we will continue to provide support just as we have for the impact of the floods that have had a devastating impact in North Queensland as well,” Albanese said.
Cyclones have crossed at the Queensland and NSW border before, and emergency services are bracing for a torrid time, with up to 600 millimetres of rain in a day, coastal erosion, strong winds and local flooding, potentially starting on Thursday.
“In 1954 and 1974 severe cyclones made landfall at Coolangatta, resulting in severe flooding and loss of life across the region,” said Natural Hazards Research Australia chief executive Andrew Gissing.
“Impacts could include damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure; disruption to essential services and supply chains; agricultural losses; and injury and death.”
A smoking cockpit forced a Qantas flight to make an emergency landing at Sydney Airport less than half an hour after taking off.
Just after 9am on Monday, Perth-bound flight QF643, operated by a Boeing 737, returned to Sydney Airport after the smoke was detected. It had taken off just before 8.40am.
The captain requested a priority landing after noticing the smoke, which is believed to have been confined to the cockpit.
The plane was met by emergency services upon landing and taxied back to the gate. No injuries were reported, and a mayday was not declared.
“Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this, and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted,” a Qantas spokesperson said in a statement.
“We understand this would have been an unsettling experience for customers and apologise for the inconvenience. Our engineers will be checking the aircraft today, and we will be conducting an investigation into what caused the issue.”
An additional flight, scheduled to depart Sydney Airport at 11.30am, has been provided to customers.
Keeping with Coalition comments on the US-Australia relationship following Trump’s latest move to align with Russia, the opposition’s new foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman spoke to ABC’s RN Breakfast, where he expressed confidence in Australia’s alliance with the US, while also supporting Ukraine.
Coleman was quick to dismiss the idea that the Five Eyes intelligence pact needed to be reconsidered as the US further aligns itself with Russia. We reported earlier that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered US Cyber Command to halt offensive cyber and information operations against Russia.
“Absolutely not,” Coleman replied at the suggestion.
“Five Eyes intelligence partnership is extremely important to Australia and has helped to underpin our security for a very long period of time,” Coleman said.
“Again, I would caution against jumping to conclusions. What matters here is the substance. The United States is an exceptionally important ally of Australia … and that will continue.”
As Britain and France say they are prepared to put boots on the ground in Ukraine, Coleman said the Coalition wouldn’t support such a proposal for Australian soldiers.
“I think our support is best provided through defence materiel and humanitarian aid and other forms of support. There isn’t a request for Australia to provide support beyond that, and I would think that the form of support.”
We’re getting more Coalition reactions to the remarkable footage of Trump berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, with Liberal Senator Dave Sharma calling the interaction “incredibly unusual”.
Speaking to Nine’s Today, Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, said that usually you’d have intense conversations behind closed doors.
“Once the cameras are in, you’ll tend to present a united front and focus on the areas of agreement,” Sharma observed.
Sharma agreed that the 80-year history of US military support for Europe was hanging in the balance, noting that this had been the case since Trump was re-elected.
“He’s been quite clear that it is now a different foreign policy. America first, if you want to call it that,” Sharma said, before turning to Australia’s position.
It leaves us in a position where we need to do a lot more to look after our own defence and security needs. I mean, in the Asia Pacific, the US has a strong network of alliances, including with Australia, but also with Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand that underpins stability in that region. And if the US can’t be relied upon to always uphold those alliance relationships unless it sees it in its own interests, then we will need to do more.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered US Cyber Command to halt offensive cyber and information operations against Russia while US President Donald Trump seeks to end President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported, citing a past and current official familiar with the order.
The pause is expected to last only as long as negotiations continue, and it’s not unusual to stop operations in the midst of high-level talks or similar engagements.
However, it comes as Trump has turned 80 years of US foreign policy on its head by largely siding with Russia’s position on geopolitical affairs.
Experts told the Washington Post that the US pause represented a concession to one of America’s most active cyber adversaries. Last week, Putin told the FSB security service that cyberattacks were on the rise against Russia and that Moscow had to strengthen its counterintelligence efforts.
Star Entertainment was suspended from trading by the ASX this morning over its failure to lodge financial statements for the December half-year.
The casino operator’s board has not been able to sign off on the accounts as the group has not been able to secure financing to ensure it won’t run out of cash as early as this week.
Star has yet to update the market on offers of financing it expected to receive on Friday.
The group did not name the parties that are expected to provide an offer of financing, but it has confirmed previously that US finance giant Oaktree tried to buy out Star’s debt from its lenders at a discount.
Star is expected to go into administration as early as today if it is unable to secure extra funds.
Israel faced sharp criticism as it stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza on Sunday local time and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if a fragile ceasefire isn’t extended.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon.
The ceasefire’s first phase saw a surge in humanitarian aid after months of growing hunger. Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the next phase on Sunday, hours after its first phase had ended, and called Israel’s decision to cut off aid “a war crime and a blatant attack” on a truce that took a year of negotiations before taking hold in January.
In the second phase, Hamas could release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire. Negotiations on the second phase were meant to start a month ago but haven’t begun.
Israel said on Sunday that a new US proposal calls for extending the ceasefire’s first phase through Ramadan – the Muslim holy month that began at the weekend – and the Jewish Passover holiday, which ends on April 20.
Under that proposal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The militants now hold 59 hostages, 35 of them believed to be dead.
The US had no immediate comment. Netanyahu said Israel is fully co-ordinated with the Trump administration, and the ceasefire will only continue as long as Hamas keeps releasing hostages.
AP
In a troubling update in the investigation of the methanol poisoning deaths of Australian teenagers Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, Laos authorities are still yet to lay any charges, with all suspects released and Australia’s continued offers of support not taken up.
While the source of the methanol-poisoned alcohol, a rundown rural factory, remains closed, ABC reports that a bar that served the pair drinks the night they fell ill has since reopened.
The staff members of the closed Nana’s backpackers who were initially arrested have been released from custody and are under house arrest. Bowles and Jones were staying at the hostel in Vang Vieng.
Speaking to ABC News, the pair’s parents described the investigation as “disgraceful” and “horrendous”, as they revealed they were not receiving updates on the investigation.
First issued last November, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has repeatedly restated Australia’s offer of support in the investigation. Laos has not denied the offer but has deferred accepting Australia’s assistance, despite concerns over the progress of the investigation.
The other major question plaguing the government’s urgent care clinic announcement involves concerns from key doctor groups, including the influential Australian Medical Association (AMA).
Health Minister Mark Butler noted the resistance from the AMA, but was quick to highlight a survey of doctors published last year that found widespread support for the clinics.
“[It] showed that 70 per cent of GPs support the model; 80 per cent of GPs think that it’s helping with pressure on our hospital emergency departments, and the feedback we get from people who use it is just terrific,” Butler told ABC’s RN Breakfast.
AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen spoke to the media this morning to express the group’s concerns, including on a related issue that incentives for GPs to stay open after-hours weren’t extending to staff who were on early in the morning.
“We received a review of the after-hours system for general practice, so not specifically for specialised urgent care clinics,” Butler said, noting that he was working through the review and would “act on those recommendations in the future”.
“This is quite a different question. You know, these are specialised clinics. The doctors and nurses working with them often have some sort of background in emergency medicine. They’re open seven days a week. They’re fully bulk-billed. They have access to pathology and X-ray imaging, which is particularly important because a lot of the cases will come through our breaks or fractures.”