Key events
Gallagher says no budget meetings cancelled this week ‘as far as I’m aware’
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has responded to reports that budget meetings scheduled for this week have been canceled.
News.com.au reports that Anthony Albanese is preparing to call the federal election this Sunday or Monday for 12 April, and appears to have scrapped plans for a March budget after cancelling this week’s planned meetings of the expenditure review committee.
Speaking to ABC RN, Gallagher said ERC meetings have occurred for the last three months and “we’ve reached the final stages of that” for a budget scheduled on the 25 March.
It’s been a normal ERC process as far as I’m concerned … We’ve had a lot of meetings, I can assure your listeners, to make sure that we’re making all of those decisions that need to be made, to make sure we’re dealing with cost of living pressures for Australian households.
So have any budget meetings for this week been cancelled? Gallagher said “not as far as I’m aware, and I go to all of them.”
Because of the budget scheduled for the 25th of March, you would expect a lot of that work would have been done by now in any normal budget cycle, and that’s exactly what we have followed.
Marles again questioned on notice period from China on live-fire drills
The prime minister said, Friday a week ago, China had given advance notice of the live fire drills by its navy ships. Defence officials then told parliament there was no such advance notice. Why did Anthony Albanese say that?
Richard Marles responded that the prime minister was referring to the “broadcast that the Chinese navy undertook on that day”, and has made clear the notice was “not up to the standards that Australia” would expect.
Did the prime minister intend to downplay the situation, or was he misled? Marles said he did “neither of those things”.
The fundamental point here was that there was a very disconcerting set of circumstances for commercial airlines that were in the air on that day by virtue of the broadcast being issued when it was now … And the prime minister went on to say that we had made representations to the Chinese government, both in Canberra and in Beijing, and indeed between our foreign ministers about that fact.
The point was also made that China has complied with its international obligations, and we’ve not suggested otherwise, but we’ve made the point that when we do exercises of this kind, we give 12, 24, sometimes 48 hours notice. But importantly, the notice that we give is such that any plane which is yet to take off has an ability to plan a route around the exercises that we’re undertaking. And that opportunity was not given to those commercial planes which were flying across the Tasman on that day.
Australian assets continuing to monitor Chinese ships, Marles says
Moving to the Chinese ships moving in international waters around Australia, Richard Marles was asked what message the live fire exercises is sending – here, in Vietnam and around Taiwan?
The deputy prime minister said China is “being more assertive” and this has “been clear over a significant amount of time”.
Marles said the ships were currently south-west of Perth and were being tailed by Australian assets to monitor its activities.
Obviously, we want to watch very carefully to make sure they’re complying with international law – which, to be fair, they are. But we’re also watching because we want to understand exactly what this mission is doing, the kind of exercises they’re undertaking, what their configurations are, actually getting into the detail of this …
Marles said he wasn’t going to speculate on specifics of the mission, but said Australia is “watching very closely, and we will know that answer, and we will analyse it properly and properly understand exactly what they were trying to do”.
Marles says ‘our focus is on supporting Ukraine’ when asked how trustworthy Trump is
Why should Australia trust president Donald Trump, given how he’s treated Ukraine’s president at the Oval Office? Richard Marles said the government’s focus was on supporting Ukraine:
That’s where Australia lies. That’s the decision that we have to make. And Ukraine can absolutely rely on Australia’s ongoing support in their defence, and we will work with international partners.
We’ve obviously worked with the United States over the last three years, and we’ll continue to do that, but we’ve worked with the United Kingdom, and we’ll continue to do that as well, and with European partners, and look at the best way in which we can provide support.
Marles says timeline has been decided with Ukraine for delivery of Abrams tanks
The defence minister and deputy PM, Richard Marles, was just on ABC RN to discuss support for Ukraine.
The host noted Australia has ruled out sending troops, but would the government give more equipment or ensure the 49 Abrams tanks already promised are actually delivered?
He said Australia would “continue to support Ukraine” so that “this conflict can be resolved on Ukraine’s terms” – but wouldn’t go into specifics:
We have established a timeline with [the] Ukrainian government about the delivery of those tanks to Ukraine. Now, for operational reasons, won’t go into the detail of that timeline.
They were promised last October, so will they arrive soon?
Marles said they would “arrive in a timely fashion, and they’ll arrive in a time frame that we’ve agreed with Ukraine.”
Myroshnychenko outlines need for US support in bringing end to Russia-Ukraine war
Vasyl Myroshnychenko was asked again about Zelenskyy’s clash with Trump and whether there was “any sense of dread or doom about where this might lead”, and some in the US calling for the Ukrainian president to resign.
Myroshnychenko said the European Union is the biggest donor of Ukraine and “will certainly have to do the heavy lifting”, but without American security support, “Europe cannot do much in Ukraine to force Russia to stop the war”.
Because this war could end in 24 hours. Russians just need to stop it and just need to get out of Ukraine. That’s very simple.
But the problem we are facing is actually the commitment of the US leadership into security for different other countries, especially here in the Pacific. And therefore we all are now watching [for] the ramifications of what the new foreign policy of the US is going to be.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia on Trump-Zelenskyy clash
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, has hit back at claims from Donald Trump that Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn’t want peace.
Speaking with the Today Show earlier, Myroshnychenko said:
Ukrainian people and president Zelenskyy want peace more than anybody else … We want to avoid the situation of 2014, 2015, when we signed a Minsk agreement on the ceasefire with Russia and Russia has broken that 25 times, including many times on Donald Trump’s watch …
Therefore, we are looking for those security guarantees which could be in place to make sure that Russians don’t come back years from now to destroy [the] entire country.
On the explosive clash between Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Myroshnychenko said it was “quite significant” and Ukrainians had “rallied around president Zelenskyy”.
His popularity has surged … Even the most fierce critics of [him have] now made statements in support of his leadership … The entire country was watching that video from the Oval Office, including … relatives of those who were killed by the Russians … so for us, of course, it’s a big issue.
He went on to say that “security in Europe is not possible without American commitment” and that the US was a “bedrock of security”.
This is [why] we need them committed to Ukraine, and certainly we are very grateful to the leadership of president Trump for what he is trying to achieve. However, we want to have a sustainable and just peace which will last.
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind here, I’ll be with you on the live blog for most of today – thanks to Martin for kicking things off for us.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, feedback or questions via email: [email protected]. Let’s go.
Catie McLeod
Call for focus on four areas to prevent drownings
Continuing from our last post: Royal Life Saving Australia says it is “alarmed” that drowning deaths have increased again and called for long-term investments into drowning prevention measures.
The RLSA’s chief executive, Dr Justin Scarr, said this summer was “tragic in so many ways” and “too many” families and communities had been affected by drowning.
Scarr said thousands of children missed swimming lessons due to the pandemic, and that increased migration, especially from countries where it wasn’t common to learn how to swim, meant many people couldn’t swim or know what to do in an emergency.
RLSA is calling for policymakers to focus on four areas to help prevent drownings:
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Nationally coordinated investments to boost the swimming and lifesaving skills of children and young people, especially those aged 10-14 years who can’t yet swim 50 metres and float for two minutes.
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Large-scale programs supporting refugee and migrant communities, delivered at local pools in partnership with community groups, to build water safety skills and aid in community cohesion.
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Expansion of local water safety planning and coordination, as outlined in the Australian Water Safety Strategy.
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A strategic infrastructure investment plan to build and refurbish community swimming pools and learn-to-swim centres, to meet the changing needs of communities in growing cities and regional areas.
Scarr said investment in community swimming pools has “always been a key part of Australia’s approach to water safety and drowning prevention.”
More is needed to meet the medium-term impacts of ageing pools, changing demographics, and growth in our outer metropolitan suburbs and regional areas.
Summer’s ‘tragic’ swimming death toll
Catie McLeod
More than 100 people died by drowning this summer, according to the nation’s peak body for water safety, in what the organisation has called a “tragic” season.
There were 104 drowning deaths, up 5% from last summer and 14% on the five-year average, according to data released today by Royal Life Saving Australia (RLSA).
Nearly one-third (32%) of all of the deaths were people aged 55 years and over. Ten children under 14 drowned, RLSA says, while men remained overrepresented, making up 81% of all deaths.
NSW recorded the highest number of drowning deaths at 33, followed by Victoria and Queensland with 22 deaths each, and Western Australia with 15 deaths.
Approximately one third of the deaths occurred at beaches and another third in rivers, with river drowning deaths increasing by 29% compared with the previous year. There were 11 drowning deaths in swimming pools, double that of the previous summer.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of drowning deaths occurred in regional areas. The RLSA says regional communities experience higher drowning rates due to greater exposure to natural waters and reduced access to safe places to swim.
Bribie Island braces for Cyclone Alfred
Our reporter Joe Hinchliffe has been to Bribie Island to find out how residents are feeling about being slap bang in the path of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. This is his report:
And here’s what you need to know about when and where it’s forecast to hit.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred intensifies to category two storm
Ben Smee
Tropical Cyclone Alfred has intensified into a category two system as it moves further south off the Queensland coast.
The subtropical excursion taken by the storm is forecast to take a sharp right turn today, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting Alfred to start moving towards heavily populated parts of the coast after a week slowly progressing parallel to the coast down through the Coral Sea.
Alfred is currently about 560km east of Brisbane. Landfall is expected on Thursday or Friday, and people in two states – from K’gari to Grafton – are being asked to stay alert.
The BoM’s latest track map has now been updated and shows the cyclone potentially reaching the coast just north of Brisbane. That situation is among the most potentially damaging – forecasters expect the most intense rainfall to the south of the system, and Brisbane is uniquely vulnerable due to its larger population and its propensity to flood.
The BoM’s update this morning says:
Tropical Cyclone Alfred is currently moving south-east, but it is expected to slow and turn west towards the Queensland coast later today.
Alfred’s intensity may fluctuate between category one and two over the next few days, but it is forecast to cross the south-east Queensland coast at category two strength late on Thursday or early Friday morning.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Emily Wind will be your news guide.
The recent interest rate cut has not helped Anthony Albanese recover any ground in our latest Essential poll, with the prime minister’s approval rating down. More than half of Australians believe last month’s cash rate cut won’t help them much and was a sign the Labor government’s economic plan is not working. But voters still think Albanese is better placed than Peter Dutton to deliver cost-of-living relief, higher wages and safeguard Medicare.
Cyclone Alfred is tracking towards the south-east Queensland coast and could make landfall on Thursday. Surging tides are already reported to be gushing right over narrower and uninhabited parts of the low-lying Bribie Island and we sent a reporter to speak to people preparing for the onslaught.
As the contours of geopolitics continue to change every day, Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, will address a webinar held by the Australian National University this morning on the subject of the US-Australian alliance. It’s certainly an interesting time to be a diplomat in DC. We’ll bring you more on what Rudd says later this morning.
More than 100 people died by drowning this summer – significantly more than in the average summer – according to the nation’s peak body for water safety, in what the organisation has called a “tragic” season. More on this coming up.
