Clare rejects Beijing claim that Australia violated Chinese sovereignty in aircraft encounter
The education minister, Jason Clare, has also weighed in on those reports of an interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea.
On Sunrise, he was asked about China’s response to the fighter jet incident – that Australia had violated Chinese sovereignty – and said this was wrong:
It is international airspace. I know this is contested but that is international airspace. The actions of that Chinese pilot were wrong.
He said the government made an official complaint to the Chinese authorities about this because “when you fire off flares 30m from an Australian aircraft, it is very dangerous [and] people could have got hurt”.
Military warships will always come into contact with each other but they need to do that in a safe way. Just as this is international air spare, Chinese frigates off the coast of Australia are in international waters. They are legally allowed to be there.
We also are legally allowed to monitor them and shadow them but to do it in a safe and professional way. That is the way that this should have occurred with this aircraft.
Key events
China responds to accusations from Australia over ‘unsafe and unprofessional interaction’ in South China Sea
Circling back to earlier news about the interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea on Tuesday:
The Department of Defence yesterday released information about an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” between Australian and Chinese aircraft, where flares were allegedly released near the Australian plane.
In a press conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, was asked to respond to the accusations from Australia and said:
The Australian military airplane deliberately intruded into China’s airspace over Xisha Qundao without China’s permission. Such move violated China’s sovereignty and undermined China’s national security.
The Chinese side took legitimate, lawful, professional and restrained measures to expel the airplane. China has lodged serious protests with Australia and urged it to stop infringing on China’s sovereignty and making provocations and stop disrupting peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Earlier this morning (see post), the education minister, Jason Clare, said suggestions by China that Australia had impeded its sovereignty were wrong:
It is international airspace. I know this is contested but that is international airspace. The actions of that Chinese pilot were wrong.
Significant delays in Sydney’s south amid three-vehicle crash
Heavy traffic and significant delays are being felt on the roads in Sydney’s south this morning, following a three-vehicle crash.
NSW police said the crash occurred in the southbound lanes on the Princes Highway at Waterfall about 6.10am, causing one of the vehicles to travel through a fence and towards railway tracks.
Police, paramedics and Fire and Rescue have all responded, and police are appealing for dashcam footage or witnesses to come forward.
Road closures and traffic diversions are in place. Live Traffic warns that “ongoing police investigations are expected to take some time.”
Souled Out music festival 2025 cancelled in latest hit to industry
Australia’s biggest R&B music festival, Souled Out, cancelled its 2025 event yesterday afternoon, in the latest hit to the nation’s festival industry.
In a post to social media, Souled Out said it had not reached the level of support it needed to remain financially viable:
Like many festivals in Australia, we have faced ongoing challenges in the current market. After exploring every possible option, we’ve had to make the tough call to cancel this year’s edition of Souled Out.
It said refunds would be issued, encouraging people to “use these funds to continue supporting live music and festivals across Australia.”
The festival was scheduled to take place in Melbourne on 22 February, Sydney on 23 February and Brisbane on 28 February, with international acts such as Don Toliver, Jhene Aiko and Vince Staples.
Regional music festival Groovin the Moo was cancelled for the second year in a row last month, just a week after Splendour in the Grass cancelled its 2025 edition, also for the second year running. Bluesfest’s 2025 edition will also be its last, it was announced last year.
Emergency warning issued amid Tropical Cyclone Zelia
Early this morning, a cyclone emergency warning was issued for Pardoo Roadhouse to Whim Creek and inland to west of Marble Bar, amid Tropical Cyclone Zelia. The warning said:
Shelter indoors now. There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need to act immediately.
You can read more on the tropical cyclone below:
No train services running on south coast line amid industrial action, delays
Just circling back to the delays across the Sydney and New South Wales train network:
According to the Transport for NSW website, there are “lengthy delays, service cancellations and very large service gaps” expected to today amid industrial action.
As we reported just earlier, trains will run 23km/h slower than usual in areas where the speed limit is over 80km/h, amid the action from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.
An alert on the Transport for NSW website reads:
Services will be affected on all lines but will be particularly impacted on the south coast line where there are no train services running.
There are 4 buses operating on the South Coast Line to help move passengers. Three of them are running between Wollongong and Kiama and one is running between Kiama and Bomaderry.
Our teams are working hard to recover as much of the timetable as possible, however, due to a high level of staff absences, we are looking at ongoing, substantial, and worsening disruption.
Steggall and McKenzie have back-and-forth over electoral reforms
Earlier in the week, the major parties struck a deal to cap political donations and campaign spending, sidelining crossbenchers in a major overhaul of federal electoral laws.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie spoke on Sky News about this earlier, and was asked how much this move had to do with curbing the teals. She argued that the “union movement [and] the industrial renewable complex” was funding teals, and that this threatened transparency.
Teal MP Zali Steggall was also on the program, and said the “only concessions that occurred in relation to the negotiations between Labor and the Coalition was, in fact, to reduce transparency”.
At the end of the day, if this was so above board, why does it have to be ran through parliament? Why could it not take the course of all pieces of legislation and be sent to inquiry so that we actually can interrogate the legislation and ensure the public gets bang for buck?
McKenzie and Steggall had a back-and-forth over whether or not the bill was adequately scrutinised. As Dan Jervis-Bardy reports, independent thinktank Centre for Public Integrity said it was an “affront to our democratic process” that such complex legislation could be rammed through without a parliamentary inquiry.
But the government had argued that donation and spending caps were widely canvassed by parliament’s joint standing committee on electoral matters, whose recommendations shaped Don Farrell’s bill. As debate wrapped up, Steggall said:
There is there is no one that is duped by this as being an attempt of the major parties to delve into public funds to keep themselves on a drip support, because they know their popularity with people is falling dramatically with every election.
Stephanie Convery
More from Dr Gabor Maté’s speech
Continuing from our last post: Dr Gabor Maté said the “vast majority of people who are opposed to Israeli policy and the Israeli occupation, and the deprivation [of Palestinians], are not antisemites.”
They’re just human beings whose hearts are broken, and were Israel to behave differently they would have no anti-Jewish sentiment whatsoever.
Maté is in Australia to tour his latest book, The Myth of Normal. Guardian Australia was invited to Thursday’s sold-out event by the Jewish Council of Australia.
Stephanie Convery
Holocaust survivor and author Dr Gabor Maté addresses Wheeler Centre in Melbourne
Hundreds of members of Melbourne’s Jewish community gathered at the Wheeler Centre last night for a frank and bracing discussion about trauma, liberation, justice and Israel’s war on Gaza with renowned Jewish trauma specialist, Holocaust survivor and author Dr Gabor Maté.
In conversation with human rights lawyer and former South African anti-apartheid activist Emeritus Prof Andrea Durbach, Maté described his experience as a child who survived the Nazi encroachment on Budapest, his youth in the Zionist movement and his repudiation of it after the Vietnam war.
I began to question why is the same press that is so enthusiastically and relentlessly lying about Vietnam so supportive of us Jews? The same dishonest, malevolent western press? And then I began to do some research … Right from the beginning of Zionism, there’d been Jews, even Zionists, who opposed the Zionist project, because they knew where it was going.
Israel’s war on Gaza and the conflation of Zionism and Israel’s actions with Jewish identity by Jewish organisations around the world was contributing to the rise in antisemitism, and the logic of Israel’s actions was reinforced by the colonial countries in which many Jewish people live, Maté said.
Racism in general is rising in the world, and so is antisemitism, but I don’t see it as distinct from other forms of racism. Number one, we have to ask, why is racism rising, and what are the forces driving that? … When Israel declares itself to be – which it has – the state of the Jews … and it acts in the name of the Jews, for the benefit of the Jews – that’s what we’re telling the world – then what are people supposed to think of the Jews when the Jews massacre Palestinian children?
So who’s creating it? Who’s creating this identification of mass murder with Jewishness? … The same Jewish organisations that complain about antisemitism are feeding it with identification of these unspeakable acts and this oppression and this terrible occupation with the Jews – “the Jews” in quotation marks.
Call to bring back inheritance tax to tackle wealth gap
Inheritance taxes were abolished in Australia in the late ‘90s – but Anglicare Australia argues in a report today that the government should seriously look into reinstating it, AAP reports. Its executive director, Kasy Chambers, said:
Australia is becoming more unfair and more unequal. Our research shows that we are one of the only countries in the OECD that doesn’t tax big inheritances. This has turbocharged inequality, concentrating wealth among a smaller and smaller group of people.
Anglicare is calling for a tax on high-value inheritances above $2m, not including the family home, which would avoid placing additional burden on low- and middle-class households.
In recent years, Australia’s taxation burden has increasingly fallen on working Australians through personal income tax while taxes on wealth – such as capital gains and land taxes – contribute a relatively small proportion, in part due to generous concessions.
That wealth can be passed on virtually tax-free, entrenching generational equality and making it harder for people without privileged upbringings to achieve financial security.
At the last two federal elections, Labor was assailed by scare campaigns claiming they would institute “death taxes” if elected, despite having no plans to resurrect an inheritance tax. Australia Institute chief economist Greg Jericho said such proposals are easy to malign, despite the fact they would benefit most of the population, because average Australians are sold an aspirational dream.
Clare rejects Beijing claim that Australia violated Chinese sovereignty in aircraft encounter
The education minister, Jason Clare, has also weighed in on those reports of an interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea.
On Sunrise, he was asked about China’s response to the fighter jet incident – that Australia had violated Chinese sovereignty – and said this was wrong:
It is international airspace. I know this is contested but that is international airspace. The actions of that Chinese pilot were wrong.
He said the government made an official complaint to the Chinese authorities about this because “when you fire off flares 30m from an Australian aircraft, it is very dangerous [and] people could have got hurt”.
Military warships will always come into contact with each other but they need to do that in a safe way. Just as this is international air spare, Chinese frigates off the coast of Australia are in international waters. They are legally allowed to be there.
We also are legally allowed to monitor them and shadow them but to do it in a safe and professional way. That is the way that this should have occurred with this aircraft.
Dutton says tariffs would damage US-Australia relationship if they stay in place
The US president, Donald Trump, has this week said there would be “no exemptions” to his 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports – despite efforts from the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to gain an exemption for Australia.
Peter Dutton was asked about accusations from the Trump administration that Australian exporters had exploited the tariff exemptions it was granted in 2018 – did Australia break its promise to Trump?
The opposition leader said the “short answer is no” and that he doesn’t support the tariffs “at all”.
I think they damage the relationship if they stay in place now. As the president’s demonstrated, he’s a deal-maker and I think the prime minister, frankly, should have been preparing the ground long before this decision was made.
Dutton criticised Albanese for not going to visit the president after his inauguration and argued there had been “limited engagement even by the ambassador or the foreign minister with her counterparts or his counterparts”.
I just think the prime minister has dropped the ball here. He’s just not up to the task of negotiating these big deals. And there is a deal, I’m sure, to be done with the United States, and there is a lot Australia has to offer. But it’s wrong that these tariffs are in place.
