Key events
What we learned, Sunday 12 July
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Here are our top stories:
Assistant foreign minister announces Indonesia trip for ‘next phase’ of economic partnership
Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for immigration and assistant minister for foreign affairs and trade, has announced he is travelling to Indonesia today on behalf of the government.
In a statement distributed by his office a short time ago, Thistlethwaite said:
In Jakarta, I will launch the new phase of Katalis, Australia’s economic cooperation program, to maximise the benefits of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
I will also meet with my Indonesian ministerial counterparts and business leaders to discuss how our countries can work even closer together in this period of global disruption, including to maximise the benefits for both countries of the General Review of IA-CEPA.
My visit will deepen the Australia-Indonesia partnership as we work together to address key challenges and implement our shared vision to support a peaceful, stable and prosperous region.
The assistant minister’s trip comes after Australian and Indonesia signed a security treaty in February.
Victorian MP Georgie Purcell says proposed voting reforms will benefit One Nation
Victorian Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell says abolishing the state’s group voting ticket system without any other changes would see the balance of power handed to One Nation.
The Age reported yesterday that the Allan government is planning to introduce legislation, when parliament returns from the winter break, to reform the state’s unusual voting system.
In Victoria, micro-parties have long been able to use complex preference deals to get elected even if they only have a tiny share of votes.
The Greens, Labor, the Coalition and One Nation are expected to likely benefit at the expense of crossbench MPs as a result of the changes.
Purcell said yesterday:
Crossbench MPs like myself support electoral reform, and we’ve been asking for it to be implemented in a sensible way for years. We want change too.
But we don’t want a model that disproportionately benefits certain minor parties.
Factional heads of the Labor Party with the simplistic belief that abolishing the GVT will retain their MPs that are second on the ticket clearly do not understand the system.
Purcell said Victoria should look at a “proportional statewide model” similar to those in New South Wales and Western Australia, which she said would stop “undemocratic outcomes” without being a “death knell for minor parties”.
A crossbench source told the Guardian on Sunday they had been expecting the government to try to overhaul the group voting system around this time, to get the changes in place before this year’s election.
But they said the crossbench had not been consulted on the changes generally, nor on any specific details of the legislation Labor reportedly to introduce.
Guardian Australia has contacted the office of the premier, Jacinta Allan, for comment.
Read more on how GVTs work in Victoria:
By the way, if you’re wanting the latest World Cup updates for your Sunday, my colleagues have all the latest coverage for you on another live news blog. You can read along here:
Dan Tehan says Coalition supports multiculturalism with ‘Australian values’
Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan has said the Coalition supports multiculturalism “but with Australian values”.
Amid an internal struggle to define a position to try to stop losing voters to One Nation, Tehan told Sky News earlier today:
[The] problem we have is with the Labor party in that they’re not pursuing those Australian values within multiculturalism, and that’s what we want to see as a coalition.
If you’d like to read more about China’s ballistic missile test in the Pacific, David Vallance, a research associate at the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, wrote a comment piece about it earlier in the week.
Vallance says the timing – on the day the Ocean of Peace Alliance treaty was signed with Fiji – “reads as provocation at best, coercion at worst”. You can read his full piece here:
AI ‘both a risk and an opportunity’ for defence, Conroy says
Conroy also talked about how the Albanese government was managing the emerging role of AI in defence, which he said posed both “risks” and “opportunities”.
He told the ABC:
There are risks of AI to defence, as well as opportunities.
That’s why we established a defence AI centre in 2024 under this government.
That’s why we’ve put in place a number of safeguards.
But importantly, we’re also seizing the opportunities.
We lead the world in large autonomous systems, like the Ghost Bat collaborative combat aircraft, the first combat aircraft designed to build in this country in 50 years, as well as the Ghost Shark, extra large underwater autonomous vessel that is a robot submarine.
Both of these autonomous systems are making Australia safer by coming into service with the Australian defence force as well as generating thousands of jobs in Australia.
So AI is both a risk and an opportunity, and you need to deal with it.
You can’t run and hide away from it.
You’ve got to engage in it.
Labor ‘confident’ uranium deal with India only for energy, Conroy says
In some more from that Pat Conroy Insiders interview, the minister defended a new deal with India allowing it to buy Australian uranium despite not being a signatory to the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
During the week, with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, visiting Australia, the two countries announced a new uranium deal which Anthony Albanese said would enable uranium exports to flow to India for “peaceful purposes” – mainly, energy production.
Australia had previously struck a deal with India to sell uranium to the country in 2014, but regular shipments have not occurred due to concerns it could be used for weapons.
Conroy told the ABC:
Governments of both persuasions, both the Liberal previous government and our government have been working towards putting in place safeguards, so that we are confident that the uranium will only be used for their domestic energy production.
We’re satisfied that the systems are in place for that. And that’s why we’ve been in the position to reach the agreement that we’ve been.
Conroy did not detail the new “safeguards” to stop India from using the uranium to make nuclear weapons, and said:
We’re responsible for what our uranium is used for.
What India does with its uranium is a question for them.
Defence industry minister says Pacific in “arms race” after Chinese missile test
Labor MP Pat Conrory, the minister for defence industry and pacific island affairs, says China’s recent missile test has both hurt its standing in the region and contributed to an “arms race”.
Conroy has been interviewed on ABC’s Insiders program this morning, six days after a People’s Liberation Army Navy submarine test fired a ballistic missile into the South Pacific nuclear-free zone.
The missile test – China’s second in the region in less than two years – prompted swift condemnation from leaders including the US, Australia and New Zealand, who accused Beijing of “destabilising” the region.
Conroy told the ABC:
What we’re seeing in the region is the biggest arms race, the biggest buildup of military since 1945 and concerningly, that is occurring without any transparency or strategic reassurance.
This is a race where we need to make sure that the Ausrtalian Defence Force has the best possible equipment, and that’s why we’re providing the biggest peacetime increase in defence funding ever.
Conroy said the government bringing forward “critical air defence”, though he dodged questions about whether Australia would be able to defend an attack from a missile like the one China used, were one to occur right now.
He said conflict in the Pacific would be the “nightmare scenario” and that:
We’re prepared for a conflict in our region. Everyone is working very hard to avoid it.
My colleagues overseas have written this helpful explainer about the missile test, which you can read here:
Joyce declines to guarantee One Nation policies will be costed before next election
Dan Jervis-Bardy
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has failed to guarantee the party will cost all of its policies ahead of the election after the Coalition claimed the rightwing party’s agenda would destroy the budget and drive up interest rates.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, last week used a major speech to argue Hanson’s platform would cost more than $1tn over a decade, force the Reserve Bank to lift rates and even risk a sovereign debt crisis.
Appearing on Sky News, Joyce – who is now One Nation’s treasury spokesperson – brushed off Taylor’s attack.
Sky News host Andrew Clennell asked Joyce if the party would submit all of its policies to the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) for costings, to which he replied:
We will do it to the best of our ability.
Pressed for a guarantee, Joyce said:
I’m not going to give a sort of guarantee like that, Andrew, because that means I have the resources to do it.
And if I get the promise that we’re going to have the resources to do it, it certainly makes it a lot easier.
It is important to note that One Nation’s staffing numbers should have no bearing on its capacity to submit costings to the PBO. The budget office is available to all MPs – including independents – to provide independent analysis of their proposals.
Asked by Clennell if One Nation would be prepared to fund additional staff itself, Joyce said:
We’ll have to.
Queensland man charged with DV murder after remains found believed to be those of missing mother
Queensland police say they have charged a 48-year-old man with domestic violence murder after finding a body believed to be missing mother Jana Armstrong.
Police said human remains were found overnight in bushland off Esk Hampton Road in Redbank Creek, northeast of Toowoomba, and they have declared the area a crime scene.
While the remains were yet be formally identified as of 7.30am this morning, police said believed they they were Armstrong’s and that they were in contact with her family.
Armstrong had been reported missing from Newtown after she was last seen on 7 July.
Police said Darling Downs district detectives arrested a 48-year-old man using a search warrant at a property on West St in nearby Harristown, and charged him with one count of murder (domestic violence offence).
The man is due to appear at the Toowoomba Magistrates Court tomorrow, police said.
As part of their ongoing investigation, police have asked anyone with information, or relevant CCTV, dashcam or other vision to contact them.
Police say investigators are particularly interested in dashcam or CCTV vision between Toowoomba and Esk, along Esk Hampton Road and the New England Highway, taken between 10.30pm on 7 July and 1.30am on 8 July.
Catie McLeod
Welcome
Hello, I hope you’re having a nice weekend. I’m Catie McLeod and I’ll take you through today’s breaking news.
A man has been charged with murder after the discovery of remains believed to be a missing Queensland woman. Details on that shortly.
