>>22986131

>>22998096

Greens leader Adam Bandt set to lose seat of Melbourne

David Crowe and Olivia Ireland - May 7, 2025

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Greens leader Adam Bandt is set to lose the seat of Melbourne in a shock defeat that leaves the party in disarray after a series of extraordinary setbacks at the election.

Labor claimed victory for its candidate, charity chief Sarah Witty, in the tight contest on Wednesday after gaining more than 53 per cent of the vote so far, but Bandt has not conceded.

The Australian Electoral Commission extended its booth-by-booth, two-party preferred count of the seat showing substantial swings to Witty, who was leading against Bandt by more than 2000 votes late on Wednesday afternoon.

In the key booth of Richmond, which Labor won 51-49 at the 2022 election, Witty won 61-38. In the nearby Cremorne booth, Witty enjoyed a 15 per cent swing while in Fitzroy - a Greens’ stronghold - she was boosted by a near 9 per cent swing.

ABC election analyst Anthony Green said on Wednesday afternoon that based on current voting trends, Bandt would lose the seat.

Greens observers said there were as many as 15,000 absentee and declaration votes still to be counted, which meant they were not conceding the seat. Among those outstanding votes are 4000 postal ballots, which Witty is winning 64-36.

A key factor in the voting so far was the way Labor gained ground across the board in terms of core support, increasing its primary vote in Melbourne by almost 6 per cent and taking second place to Bandt with these votes.

The stronger primary vote put Labor in a winning position on Wednesday afternoon because it gained support from voters who had selected Witty ahead of Bandt with their second and later preferences, highlighting the stronger support for Labor over alternatives, including the Liberals.

One Labor observer said most of the voters who chose the Liberals with their primary votes gave their preferences to Witty rather than Bandt, saying this reflected on the Greens’ policies and campaign.

Another Labor source said Bandt was receiving only 24 per cent of the preferences, but needed 33 per cent to win.

“He just needed more preferences to flow back to him,” he said.

A Greens spokesperson said the count had to proceed.

“While there are many, many thousands of votes to be counted, we are not conceding Melbourne,” the spokesperson said.

Witty is a housing advocate and chief executive of the Nappy Collective, which provides free nappies to families in crisis.

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The count has taken several days because the Australian Electoral Commission did the first count assuming that the final two-candidate outcome was likely to pit the Greens against the Liberals, based on the last election. A second count was conducted when it became clear the final phase would pit the Greens against Labor. This count has not been completed.

Bandt achieved one of the greatest victories for the Greens when he won Melbourne from Labor in 2010 and became the first of his party to win a seat in the House of Representatives at a full federal election, beginning a period of growth that led to three other Greens MPs joining him in 2022.

His likely defeat is a devastating blow for the party after the loss of Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather in the Queensland seat of Griffith on Saturday night and the defeat of Greens MP Stephen Bates in the neighbouring seat of Brisbane.

The outcome may leave a sole Greens member, Elizabeth Watson-Brown, in the lower house, but she is also in danger of losing her Brisbane seat of Ryan.

The party will maintain its strong presence in the Senate, however, with the election results likely to make the Greens even more important because they will hold the balance of power in their own right in the upper house. The government will be able to pass legislation with support from the Greens, without requiring support from other crossbenchers or the Coalition.

Labor could overcome objections from the Greens on any law, however, by seeking a negotiation with the Liberals and Nationals.

Bandt had predicted the party would win one to four more lower house seats than the four it already held.

He pushed back on Monday when asked whether the Greens had focused too much on Australia’s response to the Israel-Gaza war rather than core issues like climate change.

“We were the only ones talking about real action on climate change and calling on the government to stop opening new coal and gas mines,” he said.

On Gaza, he added: “We wanted to see an end to the invasion and … an end to the bombs being dropped on children.”

Labor MPs said the Greens had focused too much on the Middle East with an argument that claimed the Australian government was complicit in the deaths in Gaza, something most Australians did not accept.

“It was just nonsense,” said one Labor MP of the Greens’ claims about the Middle East. “Regardless of what people thought should happen in Gaza, the notion of our agency in it was just wrong.”

Senators Sarah Hanson-Young, David Shoebridge and Mehreen Faruqi are likely contenders to be the next Greens leader in the event of Bandt’s loss being confirmed.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/greens-leader-adam-bandt-set-to-lose-seat-of-melbourne-20250506-p5lwwf.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjjsN9piGK0

>>22986131

>>22998090

History-making Wilson wins in Goldstein, Hamer hopes in Kooyong

Cara Waters and Rachael Dexter - May 6, 2025

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Tim Wilson has won Goldstein in a dramatic comeback after building an unassailable lead over teal incumbent MP Zoe Daniel through a postal vote surge.

After trailing Daniel by 1800 votes on election night, the Liberal candidate was ahead of the incumbent teal independent MP by 725 votes on Tuesday evening following the latest count update in Goldstein.

Wilson’s victory has wider significance for the Liberal Party as it reels in the wake of Saturday’s disastrous election loss to Labor.

Wilson was a prominent and energetic member of the Morrison government who led the attack on Labor’s then franking credits policy, and has previously campaigned strongly on free speech.

He is also a rare moderate urban Liberal in a party room in the throes of selecting a replacement for Peter Dutton as leader.

In another teal versus Liberal contest, Kooyong challenger Amelia Hamer is riding a postal vote surge that is eating away at the lead of incumbent independent Monique Ryan.

Ryan leads Hamer 50.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent on a two-candidate-preferred basis. That equates to about 1002 votes based on figures published by the Australian Electoral Commission at 4.30pm on Tuesday.

That margin has decreased from about 1400 votes on Monday night with 10,009 votes in the pile yet to be counted, 8564 of which are postal votes.

It’s a dramatic change in fortune in both seats with Daniel claiming victory in Goldstein at her election party on Saturday night when she was firmly ahead in the polls. Her lead eroded steadily as postal votes were counted and Wilson took the lead on Tuesday.

There were 24,299 postal votes issued in Goldstein and of these 13,982 ballot papers had been counted just after 5pm on Tuesday.

There are still 5986 votes received but not yet counted with postal votes strongly favouring Wilson.

Daniel has not conceded the seat. Both Wilson and Daniel declined interview requests on Tuesday night.

“Out of respect for my scrutineers and the democratic process, I will await further counting,” Daniel said.

“With the margin in the hundreds and the remaining votes in the thousands, this seems sensible. Again, I thank all of those who supported me in so many ways during my campaign and with their vote.”

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On election day, Wilson said for him to win Goldstein “would require making three Australian political milestones in one election”.

Wilson claims three milestones in his victory: the first federal MP defeated by an independent to retake their seat; the first MP to defeat an incumbent teal; and the first Liberal in 110 years to take a seat off an independent elected at a general election.

“I just temper every single part of my enthusiasm to understand the scale and enormity of what it would mean to win,” he said on election day. “I will not believe it until I see the results.”

Wilson posted a video on social media on Tuesday night of him celebrating by eating a frozen yoghurt from Yo-Chi.

“I know it will spoil my dinner but on days like this, I think you need a celebratory Yo-Chi and I think I’ve earned it,” he said.

His win in Goldstein bucks the trend of a statewide negative swing of about 2 per cent against the Liberals.

Hamer told broadcaster Jacqui Felgate on 3AW on Tuesday that she thought about picking up the phone and calling Ryan to concede on Saturday, but was told by her team to hold on for postal votes.

“I’m one to say you’ve got to put your ego aside in these things,” she said. “The first thing I [did was I] actually did speak to the team [and] said, ‘Look, should I call and concede?’

“The team said to me, ‘No, actually, it does look like what’s coming out of pre-poll is much more positive’. And, you know, I trust my team and so we hung on.”

Hamer said she and her team were now “cautiously optimistic” but that it was “too close to call anything right now”.

“If the postals do continue on the trajectory that we’ve seen so far, you know … there is a pathway,” she said.

Hamer was asked to reflect on what went wrong for the Liberals. One theme emerged repeatedly: the campaign lacked substance.

“The one piece of feedback I was hearing consistently throughout the campaign,” Hamer said, “is that people wanted to see more substantial policy from us — and they wanted to see it earlier.

“Not just, ‘hey nuclear and a little bit of tax here and there’, but substantive taxation reform and a real vision as to what our country should look like, and what it would look like under a Coalition government.”

She pointed to the Coalition’s central slogan – “Getting Australia Back on Track” – and questioned its meaning.

“We talked a lot about getting Australia back on track, but the question is: back on track to what?” she said.

“We didn’t set that. We didn’t make that clear.”

Counting continues in both seats and there will be an automatic recount by the AEC if there is a difference of fewer than 100 votes.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/history-making-wilson-wins-in-goldstein-hamer-hopes-in-kooyong-20250506-p5lx3a.html

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>>22992823

Liberals revolt over policy failures as Sussan Ley is ‘pragmatic’ frontrunner for leader

SARAH ISON and JACK QUAIL - 6 May 2025

A raft of Liberal policies across ­environment, health, defence, tax and education were either not released or held back so long that they “barely saw the light of day”, insiders have revealed, as Sussan Ley emerges as the “pragmatic” frontrunner over Angus Taylor in the race to be the next leader.

Coalition insiders said policies worked on for years that would have laid out how the opposition would “halve” approval times for environmental projects and address the defence force’s personnel crisis were spiked by Peter Dutton’s office and Liberal HQ, while proposals in portfolios such as education were held up for months until it was almost too late to spruik them to voters.

“People in the policy unit or whatever you want to call it thought they knew better than everyone else,” one senior Liberal source said.

The Australian understands defence spokesman Andrew Hastie was effectively shut out of policy development in his portfolio by Mr Dutton, a former defence minister, who Liberal sources claim leaned instead on an Institute of Public Affairs policy blueprint funded by Gina Rinehart – a longtime detractor of Mr Hastie.

“Most decisions came from four or five people, Peter (Dutton), Angus (Taylor) and a few in the Senate, like (James) Paterson,” one Liberal MP said.

Tasmanian senator Jonathon Duniam on Tuesday became the latest Liberal to blast the handling of the election by the Coalition’s campaign headquarters.

“Many of us on the ground right across the country, (including) me here in Tasmania, saw some pretty alarming signs, which we fed in but were ignored,” Senator Duniam told Sky News.

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie said there were a range of issues that led to the “catastrophic loss”, including problems “around the campaign, research, communication, policy … tactics and strategy”.

Recriminations over the Coalition’s crushing loss come amid a growing battle for the Liberal leadership, with Ms Ley emerging as the key contender over Mr Taylor as several conservative MPs shifted support to her.

Mr Taylor’s detractors have unleashed an avalanche of criticism against the opposition Treasury spokesman in recent days, blaming him for the Coalition’s lacklustre economic agenda and perceived failure to take advantage of Labor’s management of the cost of living. On Tuesday, the criticism continued, with several Liberal MPs remarking Mr Taylor had a “very close” relationship to Mr Dutton, in an effort to link him to the deeply unpopular former Liberal leader.

“If Angus Taylor is the answer, I’m not sure what the question is,” one senior Liberal said. “If you can’t make a dent after 12 interest rate hikes and oppose (Labor’s’) tax cuts you should be disqualified from the Liberal leadership.”

Another Liberal source said: “Any Liberal treasurer that doesn’t support tax cuts is electoral poison”.

Outgoing Liberal senator Hollie Hughes said she had “concerns” about Mr Taylor’s capability, raising questions over what he had done for three years.

Backers of Ms Ley describe her as a pragmatic moderate willing to take on Labor when needed, ­arguing that her appointment as the Liberal Party’s first female leader could help win back disillusioned female voters and provide a harder target for Anthony Albanese, who often stresses the need to be more respectful of women.

Likely aiding Ms Ley’s leadership bid is Liberal moderate Tim Wilson’s expected victory in Goldstein. Liberal candidates in the former blue-ribbon seats of Kooyong and Bradfield, Amelia Hamer and Gisele Kapterian, are also expected to lend support to Ms Ley’s candidacy if they win.

While Liberal insiders said Ms Ley would have the numbers based on moderates and undecided members, several conservatives revealed they also believed she would be the best choice.

Dan Tehan’s name has also been floated, but many MPs said they didn’t believe he would get the leadership and needed to focus on holding Wannon, which he came so close to losing.

“The fact is, Angus (Taylor) would survive seven seconds, Dan Tehan one minute and Sussan Ley a few hours,” one Coalition MP said. “I don’t really think any of them are up for it, but Sussan is more than the others.”

Mr Taylor’s supporters have sought to distance him from Mr Dutton, pointing to his push to develop an income tax policy designed to eliminate bracket creep.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/liberals-revolt-over-policy-failures-as-sussan-ley-is-pragmatic-frontrunner-for-leader/news-story/dc1a803c336c790c8ea8c7b702b06713

>>22986131

Beware the landslide: Ardern’s lesson for victorious Albanese

OLIVER HARTWICH - 6 May 2025

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Watching Australia’s 2025 federal election from Wellington gave me an uncanny sense of deja vu. As Labor swept to power with a commanding parliamentary majority and the Coalition suffered its worst defeat in generations, I could not help but think: “I have seen this movie before.”

New Zealand’s Labour Party swept to power in 2020 with the first single-party majority under our proportional representation system. Jacinda Ardern secured 50 per cent of the vote while ­National collapsed to 26 per cent – their worst result in decades.

Three years later, Labour was unceremoniously ejected.

How could fortunes reverse so dramatically? And what might this mean for Anthony Albanese’s triumphant Labor Party?

The Australian results mirror New Zealand’s 2020 election. Labor now commands nearly 90 seats in the 151-seat House of Representatives. The Coalition lies shattered, with Peter Dutton losing his seat. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, Liberal representation has virtually disappeared, a blood-bath of historic proportions.

After such a victory, Labor’s strategists must feel the intoxicating pull of ambition. Why not seize this moment to fundamentally reshape Australia?

New Zealand’s experience offers a sobering answer.

Ardern’s government, drunk on its parliamentary majority, embarked on an ambitious agenda of structural reforms that nobody had actually voted for.

Consider their “Three Waters” program – a classic case of centralist overreach. Councils would be forced to relinquish control of water assets to new mega-entities with complex co-governance arrangements with Maori.

In reality, it exemplified bureaucratic empire-building and sparked nationwide backlash.

Or take Labour’s overhaul of the Resource Management Act – replacing New Zealand’s primary planning legislation. The ambition was breathtaking: simultaneously addressing housing, environment, infrastructure and climate change. By election time, this supposedly transformational reform had made a poorly performing regulatory system worse.

Meanwhile, Labour created a new centralised health bureaucracy that consumed billions while hospital waiting lists grew ever longer and health outcomes de­teriorated.

What do these initiatives share? They were ideologically motivated, bureaucratically complex, and failed to address everyday concerns of voters. While Labour restructured everything that moved, New Zealanders worried about immediate concerns. Inflation surged to 7.3 per cent. Mortgage rates doubled. Grocery prices soared.

How did Labour respond? Initially with denial. Then with token gestures – a temporary petrol tax cut here, a cost-of-living payment there. But these were all sticking plasters. By the time Chris Hipkins replaced Ardern in early 2023, promising to focus on “bread and butter” issues (and resulting in a bounce upwards for Labour in the opinion polls), the damage was done.

Does this sound familiar to Australian observers? It should.

Albanese’s government shows worrying signs of similar tendencies: grand ambitions for housing, sweeping climate targets, industrial relations reforms, and Indigenous recognition. No matter their individual justifications, taken together, these would be a recipe for overreach.

The fundamental lesson: landslide victories create a dangerous illusion. They suggest broad endorsement of a party’s entire agenda when they often simply reflect rejection of an unpalatable alternative. New Zealanders did not vote for Labour in 2020 because they wanted water infrastructure to get an extra dose of centralisation. They voted Labour because Ardern had created her own brand during the early phases of the pandemic, while National appeared divided.

Similarly, Australians did not vote Labor because they crave expansive government programs. They voted Labor because the Coalition had not offered much of substance.

Here lies the trap: mistaking rejection of your opponents for endorsement of your most ambitious plans.

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What should Albanese do? The answer is counter-intuitive: do less, but do it well. This means focusing on economic fundamentals. Addressing cost-of-living pressures with more than token gestures. Ensuring reforms are practical and deliver tangible benefits. Voters care more about outcomes than intentions.

Australia’s Coalition should take heart from New Zealand’s National Party, which demonstrated how swiftly political fortunes can reverse.

After their 2020 humiliation (and a later leadership change), National rallied behind Christopher Luxon and focused on issues affecting household budgets.

Their message was brutally simple: Labour failed to deliver; National offered more competent management. By election day 2023, that was enough to form a coalition government. Meanwhile, Labour lost nearly half its voters over just three years.

A few decades ago, such volatility would have been unheard of but we are witnessing a fundamental shift in democratic politics. The anchors that once secured political loyalty (think of church or trade union memberships) have dissolved. Today’s electorate swings more dramatically and forgives less readily.

Voters’ political promiscuousness creates a paradox: parliamentary dominance often contains the seeds of its own destruction. It breeds complacency, encourages overreach and sets impossible expectations.

Ardern discovered this too late. The question is: will ­Alba­nese learn from her experience?

History would suggest not. Politicians rarely believe others’ mistakes apply to them. Until suddenly, they do.

Perhaps the true lesson from across the Tasman runs even deeper. It shows that democracies, for all their flaws, have the ability to correct themselves.

No matter how overwhelming the majority, governments ultimately face the most effective constraint: the judgment of ordinary citizens, concerned more with results than rhetoric, willing to discard yesterday’s political ­heroes when the results do not match the promises.

That is both the frustration and glory of democracy – a lesson New Zealand’s Labour learned the hard way. Australia’s Labor Party might believe they are different. They are not.

Oliver Hartwich is executive director of The New Zealand Initiative.

https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/beware-the-landslide-arderns-lesson-for-victorious-albanese/news-story/91284623fc28c691dd7cf1884371477a

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>>22992823

>>23002844

Ley gets backing from party elders as Liberal leadership battle grows hostile

David Crowe and Paul Sakkal - May 8, 2025

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Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has won support from three former Liberal premiers in the quest to lead the party out of its sweeping defeat, with Jeff Kennett, Nick Greiner and Barry O’Farrell naming her as the best choice.

The former premiers went public with their support as another senior Liberal, former party president Shane Stone, also named Ley as the best leader to win back voters who deserted the party at the ballot box.

Others are throwing their support behind the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, in a contest that threatens ongoing stability by pitting conservatives against moderates in an increasingly hostile leadership battle, with files circulated highlighting rival weaknesses.

Kennett, who was premier of Victoria from 1992 to 1999, said the Liberals had a chance to rebuild within three years if they learnt the lessons from what he called the “amateurish” campaign to the federal election.

“I am not one of those who believe that the future for the party is lost or necessarily will take two elections before we are again a viable alternative,” he said. “I would very much endorse Sussan Ley coming in as the leader.

“Why do I say that? One, I like the fact that as deputy, she was a loyal deputy. Secondly, she has a great deal of parliamentary experience. She’s a very rounded person.

“My experience over life is that women are more consultative, they listen more, they think more than a lot of men.

“I’m not suggesting she should be the next leader because she’s female – I’m saying it’s because I think she’s the best person for the job.”

Greiner, who was premier of NSW from 1988 to 1992 and federal president of the Liberal Party from 2017 to 2020, said the key question for the party was whether it wanted to change in response to the verdict on Saturday.

Greiner said the party should set a course to be “warm and dry” on policy – that is, liberal on social issues and conservative on economic issues – and needed a leader who could enact change.

“I do think that Sussan is the change candidate,” he said. “I think that in the future the party needs to be liberal, sticking to its values, and it needs to be sensible, and it needs to be in the centre.

“The notion that you can get anywhere by not being sensible and centric is, I think, pretty bizarre.”

O’Farrell, who was premier of NSW from 2011 to 2014, said the two main parties tended to move to their opposite extremes in times of defeat but had to learn from this mistake.

“When they lose, Labor goes left. When we lose, we go right,” he said. “And guess what – we only ever win when we’re back in the centre. It’s a really easy thing to plot over the years.”

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O’Farrell said it would be wrong to write off the Liberal Party, but he said it had to win back the community it wanted to serve. “If I was in the room, I’d be putting my hand up for Sussan,” he said.

Stone, who was chief minister of the Northern Territory from 1995 to 1999 and president of the Liberal Party from 1999 to 2005, said Ley was the best choice to lead a “rebound” for the party.

“I think there is a great opportunity here. Whether it can be achieved in one term or two will depend on a lot of unknowns,” he said.

Stone said the Country Liberal Party had fallen to as low as two members in the NT parliament but had won the territory election last year.

“If I was a young person of a conservative bent and wanted a parliamentary career, now is the time to get involved because a number of these Labor members will be oncers,” he said, using a term for MPs who last only one term.

“It always works out that way. I think Sussan Ley has had a very good parliamentary career and I would have liked to have seen more of her in the campaign.

“I think that she’s a standout. I stand firmly with her, but I don’t have a vote on this.”

Hopes of a potential deal to avert a Liberal leadership contest were extinguished on Wednesday as the contest turned into a mudslinging war. Dutton, who returned to Canberra on Wednesday to thank his staff, will not be involved in the leadership contest.

Taylor’s troops on the right flank of the party fought back against public and private criticism of him since election day by sending out documents highlighting Ley’s gaffes and lack of policy in the women’s portfolio she held last term.

Earlier in the week, Ley’s supporters were distributing a file highlighting Taylor’s policy record and casting him as opposed to climate action.

The race between the two is tight, and both sides are fighting hard for the backing of the third contender, Dan Tehan, who is mulling a run as deputy.

Taylor has been telling MPs he was “handcuffed” on economic policy by Dutton and his office, while Ley has been phoning colleagues claiming she will “reform the party”, democratise policy development and boost female representation. A party room meeting to decide a new leader is expected next week.

The document Ley’s enemies circulated criticised her over reports in this masthead stating she had offered frontbench roles for MPs such as Jason Wood and Scott Buchholz. Her factional ally Alex Hawke has been offered the defence portfolio, one MP said.

On Wednesday night, a graphics-heavy check list was circulated by Taylor’s supporters contrasting the shadow treasurer’s support for Israel and fundraising ability with Ley’s, while noting her 2017 Gold Coast expenses scandal, lack of international experience and the swing against her in her seat.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ley-gets-backing-from-party-elders-as-liberal-leadership-battle-grows-hostile-20250507-p5lxbq.html

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>>22992823

>>23002844

Jacinta Price defects to Liberals to run as Taylor’s deputy in leadership bid

Paul Sakkal - May 8, 2025

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Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will run as shadow treasurer Angus Taylor’s deputy in the battle for the Liberal Party leadership against Sussan Ley, after her shock defection from the National Party on Thursday afternoon.

The move has effectively blown apart the Coalition, angering Liberal moderates hoping current deputy leader Sussan Ley would replace Peter Dutton as opposition leader and devastating the National Party.

Price only phoned Littleproud as she released a statement announcing her move, according to two sources familiar with Price who were unauthorised to speak publicly. The late call was designed to head off any attempt by Littleproud to thwart the switch.

As a member of the Country Liberal Party, the Northern Territory’s merged division of the Coalition, she can sit in either the National or Liberal party rooms in Canberra, but it is unclear if the CLP itself gets to decide where Price sits.

The move gives Price a vote in the tight contest between Taylor and Ley, which one Liberal MP supporting Ley described as a “desperate branch stack” and a “hostile takeover by the National Party”.

Sources close to Taylor, unable to speak publicly, said Price may run as Taylor’s deputy when the party room meets on Tuesday to elect a new leader. The shadow treasurer’s camp believes her star power in the party room and with the base will make Taylor’s ticket hard to resist.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott played a key role convincing Price to move. The senator, who is hugely popular among conservatives, had been interested in joining the Liberal Party last term. She has also been courted by Liberals to run for a lower house seat, but that is not on the cards immediately.

In Price’s statement, she said she had not made the decision lightly but wanted to help rebuild the Liberal Party after its worst loss in its history.

“I am deeply appreciative of the opportunities the National Party under David Littleproud’s leadership has given me, most notably the responsibility of leading the No campaign in the Voice referendum,” she said in a statement.

“I am eager to fight for the best interests of all Australians as part of the Coalition. I do however feel the Liberal Party is my natural home.”

Signalling that she would not back away from culture wars, she said: “Let this be the moment we stop whispering our values and start declaring them again, not as fringe ideas, but as the foundation on which this country was built.”

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The National Party lost its deputy leader Perin Davey at the election, meaning the party has only four senators after Price’s defection and is in danger of losing its party status, which requires five upper house members. This has implications for funding and staff allocation.

Littleproud released a statement hours after Price’s move, saying he was “disappointed”.

“The Nationals negotiated an extra position in shadow cabinet before the election, to give Senator Nampijinpa Price a promotion and Shadow Ministerial opportunity,” he said.

“The Nationals were the first to lead the ‘No’ case in relation to the Voice, backing Senator Nampijinpa Price early and before anyone else did. I appreciate Senator Nampijinpa Price has ambition that extends beyond the possibilities of the Nationals and I wish her well.”

The race between Taylor and Ley had already descended into acrimony as both sides released files of compromising information about each other.

Taylor released a statement late Thursday saying: “I’m delighted by the news that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will join the Liberal Party.”

A key backer of Taylor, senator James Paterson, celebrated Price’s move on Instagram, saying he was “delighted”.

“Welcome home Jacinta!” he said.

Price is rated as one of the most popular MPs in parliament, according to this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor. But questions have already been raised about her mainstream appeal after she echoed Donald Trump’s talking points during the campaign and photos emerged of her in a MAGA cap.

“She is Temu Trump in a skirt and electoral poison,” one moderate MP said.

One of her backers acknowledged she had flaws and needed to be tamed, but argued she had the firepower the party needed.

“There’s no one more popular among the party members and few who can take the fight up to Labor like her,” the right-wing MP said.

Her shift also adds to pressure on Littleproud, whose own position as leader will be decided in a National Party meeting on Monday. Littleproud’s position is expected to be safe but some allies of Barnaby Joyce want him to stand aside.

“David Littleproud should step down from the leadership and accept some of the responsibility,” Nationals MP Colin Boyce told this masthead.

“He was part of the leadership team that got us to where we are.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/jacinta-price-to-defect-to-liberals-to-join-angus-taylor-s-leadership-team-20250508-p5lxon.html

https://x.com/AngusTaylorMP/status/1920375545289977946

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJYVvZUzyLy/

>>22986131

Ed Husic, Mark Dreyfus axed in factional power play as Albanese prepares new ministry

Paul Sakkal and David Crowe - May 8, 2025

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Labor faction leaders have cut down two cabinet ministers in a brutal display of caucus power, forcing out Industry Minister Ed Husic and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and sparking anger from MPs at the “chaos and disunity” days after the federal election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accepted the outcome despite promising stability at the election, but caucus members were dismayed at the way the faction leaders forced the issue, with the Right faction deciding it would not support two of its most senior members.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the most senior member of the Right, led a push from Victorian colleagues to gain more sway at the top of the government and promote younger members aligned with his faction.

The moves triggered anger from NSW Right MPs at Marles and his loyalists over the shock changes, which they said compromised the unity and stability of the government in the first days of its second term.

“How do we explain this to the public? It looks like chaos and disunity to knife two ministers whose performance has never been in question,” one NSW MP said.

The fiery meeting of the national Right was repeatedly delayed on Thursday afternoon as deals were hashed out, and several MPs spoke out against the plan to remove Dreyfus and Husic.

Another member of the Right, western Sydney MP Mike Freelander, said the outcome “beggars belief” because of the quality of the two ministers, praising Dreyfus in particular.

“It’s disgraceful, it’s stupid and it’s wrong,” he told this masthead.

“It’s an ill wind that blows through this place – two highly-performing ministers being replaced by union hacks.”

Dreyfus delivered on a key election pledge on integrity in the last term of parliament by setting up the National Anti-Corruption Commission, while Husic set up the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to invest in local industry.

The changes are expected to help two Victorian MPs, Sam Rae and Daniel Mulino, gain executive positions. A third member of the faction, Victorian senator Raff Ciccone, was also being named as a potential addition to a role.

Labor’s internal power groupings have been in intense talks since the election to carve up the 30 cabinet positions in line with party rules that give factions ministries in line with their numbers in parliament, with the Left’s success on Saturday entitling it to an extra spot.

This meant that Marles’ group and the Victorian shop workers’ union are underrepresented in cabinet while former leader Bill Shorten’s old Australian Workers’ Union sub-faction, which includes Dreyfus and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, has too many ministers.

(continued)

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Dreyfus, 68, phoned colleagues over the past two days to shore up his position and ensure he had enough votes to cling on, according to several federal Labor sources unable to speak publicly.

The attorney-general, who entered parliament in 2007, had faced internal calls before the election to vacate his Melbourne seat of Isaacs in the name of renewal. His office was contacted for comment.

Dreyfus was informed formally of the move against him after the Right faction agreed to dump him in Thursday morning meetings between party powerbrokers in Canberra.

Mulino and Rae have been formally nominated by the Victorian Right to replace Dreyfus in the ministry if Marles gets his way and forces Dreyfus to stand aside. Right faction cabinet spots are decided state by state.

Rae, 38, was one of the youngest-ever PwC partners, led two state election wins as Victorian Labor state secretary, and secured a primary vote swing in his outer-suburban Melbourne seat of Hawke that was targeted by the Coalition.

Albanese, who was re-elected with a thumping mandate, had the option of using his authority to seek to protect ministers, but the factional numbers were against Dreyfus and Husic.

After the Left won numerous new seats in the election, Senator Tim Ayres, a close ally of Albanese and factional heavyweight who was once a manufacturing union leader, was expected to rise to cabinet.

Victorian senator Jess Walsh, an economist and former union official, was in line to gain a ministerial position. Other contenders include incoming Tasmanian MP Rebecca White, a former state Labor opposition leader, and Victorian MP Ged Kearney, a former president of the ACTU.

One senior Labor source said of the manoeuvring: “They’re killing the only Muslim in cabinet [Husic] and the most pro-Israel cabinet minister [Dreyfus].”

Dreyfus is a widower and the source said that could make it less attractive for him to take up a diplomatic posting, which other MPs have received as encouragement to leave in the past. There had also been speculation in previous years that Dreyfus may join the judiciary.

Labor MPs are in Canberra for a full caucus meeting on Friday after factional meetings on Thursday.

Albanese was tight-lipped about the reshuffle that will act as an early test of his internal authority.

“We have a process and we’ll work it through,” he said on Sky News on Wednesday.

“The important thing is … for most of the 125 years since Federation, we’ve sat at the other end of the corridor in the old place, in the opposition party room.”

“Government brings with it responsibility, and no individual is greater than the collective – that includes myself.”

This masthead reported in February that Albanese overruled Dreyfus after the attorney-general expressed reservations about legislating mandatory minimum jail terms for hate crimes.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dreyfus-told-he-will-be-dumped-heaping-pressure-on-pm-to-save-him-20250508-p5lxly.html

>>22986131

>>22998096

>>23002826

Defeated Adam Bandt likens climate change to ‘invasion’ as Peter Dutton cites voter ‘disgust’ at Greens

ALEXI DEMETRIADI - 8 May 2025

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Former Greens leader Christine Milne has warned her devastated party it needs to focus on core green issues if it is to be effective in the new parliament, as a vanquished Adam Bandt called on the left to treat climate change like an “invasion”.

Mr Bandt’s concession of defeat in the seat of Melbourne leaves his deputy, Mehreen Faruqi, and senators Larissa Waters and Sarah Hanson-Young jostling ahead of a leadership vote to lead a party left with only one lower-house member.

Mr Bandt lashed the major parties on Thursday, calling for climate change to be treated like a “war” and blamed “One Nation and Liberal preferences” for his defeat as Labor’s campaign machine celebrated its second party leader scalp.

Also on Thursday, Peter Dutton cited rejection of anti-Semitism as a reason for Mr Bandt losing the seat of Melbourne to Labor’s Sarah Witty, who is a foster carer and is chief executive of the Nappy Collective, a charity providing nappies to needy families.

“No spin by Adam Bandt can change the reality that he, and other Green members, lost their seats because of their appalling treatment of the Jewish community,” the former Liberal opposition leader tweeted on Thursday afternoon.

“Australians were rightly disgusted at their behaviour.

“We were proud to preference the Greens last, helping to ensure Adam Bandt’s loss.”

During Mr Bandt’s concession speech on Thursday, he blamed Mr Dutton as a reason why the Greens have lost seats, saying many Australians had voted Labor as the “best option to stop Dutton’’.

“People in Melbourne hate Peter Dutton with a very good reason,” Mr Bandt said.

“They have seen his brand of toxic racism on display for many years, seen his time as immigration minister, seen him make comments about Melbourne and like many, many of them wanted him as far away from power as possible.”

Mr Bandt clarified that while Mr Dutton was not the sole reason for the shift away from the Greens in seats, he still made an impact on vote numbers.

Ms Milne’s intervention comes after fellow former Greens leader Bob Brown blamed the media and major parties for “vilifying” Mr Bandt, accusing Anthony Albanese of having the “grace of a ­cockroach” over his reaction to the Greens’ seat losses.

Mr Brown also raised whether the left-wing party should start running open tickets to deny Labor the preferences that have got it over the line in some electorates.

The party’s parliamentary members will elect new leadership in a party-room meeting next week, with Senator Faruqi a likely frontrunner, but amid support for senators Waters, Jordon Steele-John, and Hanson-Young.

Ms Milne, a pioneering Greens politician who led the party federally from 2012 to 2015, said Mr Bandt’s loss was “devastating” and party’s lower house near wipe-out “disappointing”.

However, she said the party retained a high Senate vote, and that Greens senators should use their balance of power “to secure significant climate and environment policy”.

“But to get it, they will have to focus on the planetary crisis playing out right around the country: the logging, the landclearing, the new fossil fuel projects,” she said.

The party should focus on “the failure of the Labor Party to address … in any meaningful way or to deliver the comprehensive new environment laws that were promised”.

Some may interpret her comments as seeking to return the party to his environmental roots, after an election marked in part by Mr Bandt’s focus on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

However, Ms Milne said she backed the party’s stance and did not believe it was anti-Semitic.

“The Greens have always stood up for human rights and international law from the Tampa, to the Iraq war and Gaza,” she said.

“We have never and will never tolerate genocide or anti-Semitism. It is appalling to me that so many are turning a blind eye. I am proud the Greens have taken the stand they have.”

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Ms Milne, who was part of the landmark Labor-Greens alliance in the Tasmanian parliament in 1989, also called for a broader rethink within the green movement.

“The climate and environment movement will also need to rethink and take on the Labor government, instead of turning a deliberate blind eye to new coal and gas projects and always calling on the Greens to ‘just pass it’,” she said, accusing Mr Albanese of Trump-like arrogance.

“Prime Minister ‘get out of the way’ Albanese is demonstrating extraordinary arrogance for someone whose party secured 34 per cent of the primary vote.

“The Australian people rejected Trumpism. They did not vote for authoritarianism or steady as she goes.”

On Thursday, Mr Bandt – who held the seat of Melbourne for 15 years – called in his concession speech on the media to stop reporting on climate change as a “political issue” and view it as if “our country is being invaded”, warning that the nation faced a “hellish future in their lifetimes if we don’t get the climate crisis under control”.

“You should treat the climate crisis as if there is a war on,” he said.

“One of the refrains was that we don’t hear people talk about climate as much anymore, during the course of this parliament,’’ Mr Bandt said.

“We were knocking on (the media’s) door trying to get you to write stories about it, we were asking questions about it in parliament, we were holding press conferences about it and we really struggled to get anyone to take that seriously.”

Mr Brown meanwhile took aim at the “big parties” for demonising the outgoing leader.

“It (Mr Bandt’s defeat) is because of the targeted negative and false campaigning against the Greens … and the Greens are going to have to, in the future, work out how to respond to that,” Mr Brown said.

“The Greens are absolutely essential on climate change and protecting the environment, and this is going to be a period of onslaught of both.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the Greens had pursued “ever more radical causes that were remote from the central concerns of mainstream Australians, and alien to their values”, urging it to use defeat as an “opportunity”.

“They now have the chance to reorient themselves away from the pet causes of the far left and move towards the political centre,” he said.

“The ignorant moralising arrogance, the ludicrous oversimplification of complex issues, and the ferocious demonisation of those with different views all need to stop.”

Zionist Federation of Australian president Jeremy Leibler said Australian voters had “utterly rejected a party that thrives off division with no solutions”.

The Greens’ new leadership will be determined by a party-room meeting next week with Senator Nick McKim acting in a caretaker role in the interim.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown looked set to retain the Brisbane seat of Ryan for the Greens and become its only lower-house member.

Despite initially denying she was canvassing votes, Senator Faruqi, of NSW, and her backers have gauged support for the deputy’s promotion, and she would be a – if not the – frontrunner.

Senator Waters, of Queensland, Senator Steele-John, of Western Australia, and Senator Hanson-Young, of South Australia, are believed also in the mix.

Senator Waters could modernise and professionalise the party’s image to non-member voters, some sources said.

Others mused whether a co-leadership situation, not dissimilar to the British Greens, could be an option to take the party forward with at least one of those coming from a senator representing Australia’s three mainland eastern states.

However, sources said the party was stuck in a bind, given its membership backed the radical-left politics that the wider public repudiated, adding that any moderation of the party would turn away its new, younger base.

They said Senator Faruqi would likely win any leadership vote but whose politics was the “exact type” that got rejected at Saturday’s election.

With 81.6 per cent of possible votes counted, according to the Australian Electoral Commission the Greens’ national House of Representatives share was down 0.51 percentage points from 2022 at 11.74 per cent.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/too-early-to-concede-too-soon-to-predict-future-as-greens-mull-future-without-adam-bandt/news-story/c93b1dddc9591f373ff3cc239cd1b5c1

https://x.com/PeterDutton_MP/status/1920362929402360262

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>>22989198

>>22998144

OPINION: A pragmatic China policy can provide Australia the certainty it seeks

Global Times - May 07, 2025

Recently, discussions within Australia have intensified regarding the trajectory of China-Australia relations, as various voices attempted to offer "road maps" for the direction the Anthony Albanese administration should take. Last week, the Australian Labor Party secured a decisive victory in the federal election, with Albanese becoming the first Australian leader in 21 years to be re-elected. Consequently, the state of China-Australia relations under Albanese 2.0 has become a focal point of public discourse.

For instance, a Lowy Institute article on Wednesday suggested that Canberra should "speak up" about Beijing's "human rights issues." Similarly, the infamous Australian Strategic Policy Institute continues its anti-China agenda by labeling China "the most active state engaged in hybrid threats targeting Australia." These perspectives underscore a segment of Australian discourse that views China through a confrontational lens and aims to increase suspicion and hostility toward the country.

Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, told the Global Times that these narratives are clearly aimed at complicating the bilateral relationship. It is essential for the Australian government to remain vigilant against such attempts to sow discord.

Under the Albanese administration, the strained China-Australia relationship has been repaired to a certain extent. Albanese repeatedly emphasized that China is an important trading partner for Australia and highlighted the significance of developing bilateral relations. His administration adopted a strategy that contributed to stabilizing ties, resulting in the resumption of high-level dialogues and a gradual easing of trade tensions between the two countries.

Chen added that he is positive that Albanese 2.0 will witness the China-Australia relationship maintaining its current stability. Canberra will likely work hard to promote Australia's interests. "Especially in a world filled with growing uncertainty, Australia wants to create more certainty by itself, rather than sitting back and waiting for external uncertainty to wreak havoc on Australia's policy, or even change it," he said.

Today, China-Australia relations remain in a gradual process of rebuilding and restoring trust. This progress should not be taken for granted. Of course, there are differences between China and Australia, but the key lies in how those differences are managed. Those divergences should not overshadow the cooperative aspects of the bilateral ties. There is still significant potential for cooperation between the two countries. Their economies are highly complementary, and there are major opportunities for collaboration in emerging fields, such as renewable energy, the digital economy and artificial intelligence. In addition, ties in education, tourism and cultural exchange continue to grow stronger.

At a time when the global economy is slowing and geopolitical tensions are rising, China and Australia - both major players in the Asia-Pacific - should continue to choose the path of dialogue and cooperation. A sustained pragmatic and rational approach to China under Albanese 2.0 will help take the bilateral relationship to a new level of mutually beneficial cooperation, which would not only serve both countries' interests but also support stability and development in the region. Experience in recent years has shown that blindly following Washington's lead and treating China as a strategic adversary has harmed Australia's diplomatic independence and dealt real blows to its economy. Learning from those lessons and continuing to pursue a pragmatic and balanced China policy is the right strategic path for Australia.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1333542.shtml

American Robert Francis Prevost elected Pope Leo XIV

JACQUELIN MAGNAY - 9 May 2025

The new leader of the Catholic Church is the American cardinal Robert Prevost, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, emerged on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square early this morning Australian time to huge cheers and prolonging applause from the tens of thousands of people who stampeded into the area once the bells tolled and white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel on day two of voting.

Amid wild excitement and cheers of “Abbiamo Papa, ole, ole, ole” Leo XIV emerged about an hour later quietly raising his hands and waving with both arms. He appeared to choke up when the crowd responded with chants of ‘Viva il Papa’.

The new pope is a 69-year-old dual citizen, originally from Chicago, who took Peruvian citizenship after serving in that country for several decades.

Most recently he has been the head of the church’s Dicastery for Bishops overseeing the selection of new bishops.

Pope Leo XIV is not without controversy however. He was previously criticised for not doing enough within the church to deal with historic sexual assault allegations, although he had referred the complaints to the police.

Leo XIV is considered a compromise candidate, and a centrist embracing a pastoral role not unlike Francis. However he opposes ordaining women as deacons and on other issues of church doctrine is somewhat conservative.

Tim Costelloe, the Archbishop of Perth, was among the first to congratulate the new pope.

“The election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV is yet again a sign of the wisdom behind the Italian saying that ‘those who enter the conclave as a pope inevitably emerge from the conclave as a cardinal’,” the archbishop said in a statement.

“Cardinal Prevost brought to his most recent role as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops an approachability and willingness to listen which were no doubt developed throughout his many years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru.

“He will be warmly welcomed by the Church in Latin America, as Pope Francis was, by the Church in the United States from where he comes, from the English-speaking world as a native English speaker, and from the whole Church as a man of God steeped in the rich spirituality of his Augustinian Religious Order.

“As Pope Leo XIV, our new pope will bring the benefit of his wide experience to the many challenges and opportunities before him.”

In a social media post, US President Donald Trump hailed the election of Pope Leo XIV as a “great honour” for the country and said he looked forward to meeting.

“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realise that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social network.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was another leader to congratulate Pope Leo XIV on his election.

“At a time of profound global challenges, may his pontificate be marked by wisdom, discernment, a deep commitment to common good, and dignity of all,” Mr Carney said.

When the six bells of St Peter’s Basilica, including the rarely used majestic “Il Campanone” began to ring in loud symphony confirming the colour of the smoke - it was initially difficult to determine the colour - people began rushing into St Peter’s Square.

The historical significance of the moment is not lost on the Italian locals and Catholic faithful.

There have been just 10 of these occasions in the past 100 years: the elections of Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI, John XXIII, Pius XII, Pius XI, and Benedict XV.

Adopting a papal name has been a tradition going back to the sixth century when Cardinal Roman Mercurius wanted a religious and not pagan name, selecting John II. The practice became more common from the 11th century.

It then became a trend to adopt the name of the Pope who created them as cardinal. More recently the papal name indicates the direction the new leader wants to take the church.

The excitement of the crowd was palpable.

Nuns and priests joining with thousands of tourists running with mobile phones aloft down the myriad streets leading into Vatican City to capture the pictures of the smoke shown on various big screens.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/white-smoke-signals-new-pope-elected-at-the-vatican/news-story/e22d2be48235eea0507123b57261b6a1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW-nYhIgFtw

>>22986131

>>23012385

PM congratulates incoming Pope Leo XIV, invites him to Australia

Anthony Albanese has already asked the new pope to keep a date open in 2028, only hours after the pontiff’s election.

Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer - May 9, 2025

Anthony Albanese has congratulated Pope Leo XIV and invited the new pontiff to Australia in three years’ time.

Robert Prevost, 69, was announced as the 267th leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday (local time) after the Conclave deliberated for two days — one of the shortest papal elections in history.

The first American pope, he was introduced as Leo XIV to the tens of thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square.

The Prime Minister said on Friday the new pope’s “leadership comes at an important time for the Catholic Church and for the world”.

“I will invite His Holiness Pope Leo to Australia for the International Eucharistic Congress which is being proudly hosted in 2028,” Mr Albanese told reporters at Parliament House.

“And I’ve had discussions with Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, who of course I know very well, about the importance of Australia hosting that very significant event in just a few years’ time.

“And I know that the Church here in Australia is very excited to have this privilege and honour.”

He said his “government looks forward to continuing Australia’s strong relationship with the Holy See under Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate”.

Seen as a moderate, Pope Leo was in 2023 promoted to cardinal by his predecessor, the late Pope Francis.

Before his arrival in the Vatican two years ago, he had spent much of his life as a missionary in Peru and holds dual US-Peruvian citizenship.

He has been praised for his work in the South American country, but often shunned the limelight, keeping a low profile even after arriving in the Catholic Church’s centre of power.

The late Pope Francis promoted his successor again earlier this year.

“This is a moment which will bring joy and hope to Catholics everywhere,” Mr Albanese said.

“May the Papacy of Pope Leo advance the cause of peace and social justice for all humanity.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/pm-congratulates-incoming-pope-leo-xiv-invites-him-to-australia/news-story/cbd5e0fd901f5a2056337702cf4be895

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYzOzdJTCgQ

>>22986131

>>23002844

>>23007424

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection kills off any potential Taylor-Ley leadership peace deal

GEOFF CHAMBERS and RHIANNON DOWN - May 08, 2025

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A bloody civil war threatens to engulf the federal Liberal Party beyond next Tuesday’s vote to replace Peter Dutton, after Angus Taylor orchestrated the high-profile defection of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the Nationals to bolster his numbers.

The Australian can reveal efforts to broker a peace deal between Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and Mr Taylor have been abandoned, with Liberal MPs fearing a tight vote would split the party and undermine the authority of the winning candidate.

Ahead of a Tuesday showdown in Canberra next week, the fight between Ms Ley and Mr Taylor turned ugly as Senator Price quit the Nationals and Liberals conceded that toxic factional NSW Liberal Party brawling had now been transplanted into the federal parliamentary team.

Mr Taylor’s move to recruit Senator Price triggered anger from senior Nationals, including Matt Canavan, who compared his former colleague with Lidia Thorpe.

The Nationals could now lose its major party status in the Senate after Senator Price’s defection and Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey’s failure to win re-election. The party’s numbers in the upper house will now shrink to four.

The Australian understands Senator Price did not consult with Nationals colleagues before she quit.

Senior Liberal MPs backing Ms Ley and Mr Taylor on Thursday claimed to have at least 20-plus votes, including candidates and MPs subject to close vote counts in battleground seats, and senators on track to lose their spots or whose terms expire on June 30.

The Australian understands Mr Taylor is ahead of Ms Ley in the race to secure the votes of key frontbenchers Dan Tehan and Jane Hume.

Senator Hume, who as opposition finance spokeswoman worked closely with Mr Taylor ahead of the election, was earlier this year endorsed as the head of the federal Liberal moderates faction following Simon Birmingham’s retirement.

It would be a major blow for the moderates if their nominated leader sided with the conservatives.

Both camps on Thursday could not categorically claim the support of Senator Hume, who is understood to be frustrated about internal attacks targeting her role around the abandoned working from home crackdown and “Chinese spies” comments.

Some Liberal MPs said they believed Ms Ley and Mr Taylor both presented poor options for the party, given their prominent roles ahead of last weekend’s historic election defeat to Labor.

Ms Ley’s supporters have promoted the need for the party to have stronger female representation, criticised Mr Taylor’s failure to cut-through on economic policies and pledged to make the party more mainstream in the face of rising challenges in traditionally safe Coalition seats from Labor and Climate 200-backed Teals.

Supporters of Mr Taylor warned say that depending on the final make-up of the federal parliamentary team when some Senators’ terms expire, they could challenge Ms Ley if she falls over the line in the vote next week.

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While Mr Tehan, Ted O’Brien and other names have been floated as deputy leader candidates, Liberal sources said Senator Price could nominate for the position following her defection.

Senator Price said she believed she could be “more effective” in the Liberal party room, which she believed was her “natural home”.

The 43-year-old said she had not taken the decision to defect “lightly”.

“I want to bring back our core values of liberty, individual freedom and responsibility, the rule of law, free market and economic prosperity, minimal government intervention, a fair go and, most of all, love for our nation, Australia,” Senator Price said.

“The future of this nation is not built by living in the past. We learn from our history. We don’t repeat our mistakes, but we grow stronger and move forward. That is the Australian way.”

Senior Nationals sources described Senator Price’s move as the “ultimate betrayal” and accused her of failing to follow proper processes in choosing to switch partyrooms.

Senator Canavan said “this act makes Jacinta the Lidia Thorpe of the Liberal Party … she has switched teams after being elected – in fact, she hasn’t been elected yet, the votes are still being counted – and she has switched to ­another side”.

“That disenfranchises the voters, disappoints members, and is a slap in the face to her friends and colleagues who have supported her,” he said. “Jacinta has been elected with the use of National Party funds, the National Party’s efforts.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud said he was “disappointed” at her defection. He said the Country Liberal Party senator had “ambitions that extend beyond the possibilities” of the regional party.

“The Nationals negotiated an extra position in shadow cabinet before the election, to give Senator Nampijinpa Price a promotion and shadow ministerial opportunity,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The Nationals were the first to lead the ‘No’ case in relation to the voice, backing Senator Nampijinpa Price early and before anyone else did.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/jacinta-nampijinpa-prices-defection-kills-off-any-potential-taylorley-leadership-peace-deal/news-story/7aabb5c77e278ca9087da668d4bf5a96

>>22986131

>>23002844

>>23007424

NT Nationals weigh retribution against Price for defection to Liberals

Paul Sakkal and Olivia Ireland - May 9, 2025

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Both Coalition parties have been plunged into open warfare by conservative senator Matt Canavan’s challenge for the Nationals leadership and party officials weighing up dropping Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from their Senate ticket for defecting to the Liberals to support Angus Taylor.

Canavan’s unlikely push to oust David Littleproud means the Nationals and Liberals will hold leadership duels on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, after Taylor and Sussan Ley on Friday declared their candidacy for the Liberal role.

Price’s move from the Nationals to the Liberals has ramifications for both leadership contests and could reduce the salary and office entitlements of at least one Nationals senator, infuriating her colleagues.

According to parliamentary rules, parties need at least five senators to have a party whip – who is responsible for party discipline, paid more and has a larger office – but Price’s departure combined with Nationals senator Perrin Davey’s loss in the election takes the party to four.

Price, the popular but controversial Indigenous senator, declared on Thursday she would shift to the Liberal Party and is expected to run as Taylor’s deputy.

Four Coalition sources, unable to speak publicly about internal party workings, said the Country Liberal Party, which Price represents in the Northern Territory, was considering whether to disendorse Price or opt not to pick her as a candidate at the next election.

Price, who was contacted for comment about the threats, defended her defection to the Liberal Party in a radio interview on Friday, rejecting claims she had moved to further her ambition.

“I wanted to do it in a respectful way, so I did speak to my colleagues,” she said.

“[Being part of the Liberal Party] is something that I wanted to do from the first time I was elected,” she told 2GB. “I’ve been welcomed by Sussan Ley to the Liberal Party room, which I’m very grateful for.”

Price was coy about whether she would run for a leadership position but said that former prime minister Tony Abbott had supported her move to the Liberals. “Tony has long supported me,” Price said.

However, Nigel Scullion, a CLP senator for nearly 20 years until the 2019 election, cautioned against drastic action, saying Price’s action was “not the end of the world” because she remained a CLP member of parliament regardless of which party she sat with in Canberra.

Former CLP president Shane Stone said the defection “left a sour taste” in his mouth. “She’s had tremendous support from the National Party,” Stone said, pointing out that Littleproud secured her a portfolio to which the party was not entitled.

The injection of Price into the Liberal leadership contest has inflamed an already bitter battle that threatens ongoing party unity, regardless of the winner.

Ley claimed Price, who vowed to “make Australia great again” during the campaign, joining Taylor’s ticket had worked against the shadow treasurer because uncommitted MPs were not attracted to the idea of the senator taking on such a senior role.

The race is tight, however, and Taylor’s backers hoped Price’s popularity among Liberal branch members would make it harder for MPs to vote against him after trade spokesman Dan Tehan ruled himself out of the leadership race on Friday. “I love the Liberal Party … and I will work hard and serve in whatever capacity I am asked to rebuild our party,” Tehan said.

(continued)

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In their first public remarks on the contest, neither Taylor nor Ley took responsibility for the election result, and both made pitches to Australian women.

“We did let the women of Australia down,” Ley said on Sunrise on Friday morning.

”I’m determined and convinced that I am the right person to lead the party forward at this time, and I think my appointment would send a strong signal to the women of Australia, but it’s about much more than that,” she said. “It is about the policy offering. It is about what modern Australia expects of us as Liberals. It is about working collegiately across our party, and it is about a strong work ethic, something that I’m known for in our party and in our country.”

Taylor said if he was successful in his bid for the Liberal leadership, which will be decided at a party room meeting on Tuesday, he would draw on experience from his business career of overhauling companies for consultancy firm McKinsey. He has previously been criticised by some colleagues for the party’s sparse economic agenda taken to the election.

“In opposition, I’ve been on the front line of economic debates,” he said. “In my career, I’ve helped rebuild organisations and created successful businesses.”

“We must bring in new talent that reflects modern Australia – especially more women.

“We must operate like a campaign every day – with strong candidates, clearer messages, smarter strategies and greater fundraising.

“We need to modernise our organisation from the ground up and back our volunteers and members, who give so much to our cause.“

Canavan – a former minister who has turned into a rebellious senator focused on immigration and free speech – also announced on Friday that he would challenge Littleproud for his party’s leadership despite having minimal support in the party.

“We should scrap the futile and unachievable goal of net zero emissions by 2050,” he said in a statement.

“Net zero makes everything more expensive, and it is not helping the environment given that the US, China and India are no longer even paying lip service to it.

“Our plan should be based on how we can save the country, not save the party. I am standing for my party’s leadership so that I can tell my kids I did everything I could to fight for a better life for them.”

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce underwent surgery for prostate cancer this week and is not planning to run against Littleproud at Monday’s party room meeting in Canberra. Canavan was chief of staff for Joyce between 2010 and 2013.

Joyce backed the principle of having a contest for the leadership, but stopped short of endorsing Canavan.

“I’m glad there is a contest for leadership. It is an incredibly honourable position, incredibly important for our nation and seminal if we are to put ourselves in a position to be considered as the next government,” Joyce told this masthead.

Nationals MPs argued privately that Littleproud was weakened by Price’s defection because he failed to avert it despite Price telling colleagues as far back as 2022 she was eager to join the Liberals.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sussan-ley-declares-candidacy-for-liberal-leader-after-the-party-let-the-women-of-australia-down-20250509-p5lxtt.html

>>22986131

>>23002844

>>23007424

Queensland senator Matt Canavan to challenge David Littleproud as senior Nationals warn: if Coalition splits, so be it

DENNIS SHANAHAN and SARAH ISON - 9 May 2025

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Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan, a minister in the Turnbull and Morrison governments, is challenging for the leadership of the National Party, deepening the crisis in the crushed Coalition and increasing the rift with the Liberals.

Senator Canavan will challenge incumbent leader David Littleproud in a partyroom meeting in Canberra on Monday with an appeal for the Nationals to fight for themselves and their supporters in the face of Liberal Party losses and the defection of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the bigger Coalition partner.

Senior Nationals are accusing the Liberals of not behaving like true partners and of betraying the faith of the Country Liberal Party and their supporters, and blame the Liberals for the extent of the loss, warning that if the Coalition should split then “so be it”.

One senior National MP said Senator Nampijinpa Price’s defection on Thursday to the Liberal Party would “have an effect on the Coalition agreement”, with the future of the agreement now in question and due to be discussed at the next National Party federal management meeting.

Senator Canavan told The Australian: “On Monday, I plan to stand for the leadership of the Nationals party to bring back our fighting spirit. Only if we fight, will we have a fighting chance.”

“David Littleproud can be enormously proud of his role in defeating the voice, putting nuclear power on the agenda, and having divestiture powers adopted as Coalition policy for the first time,” the former resources minister said in an article for The Australian. “But this debate is not about protecting his job or mine. This is about fighting for the jobs and livelihoods of the many people we represent. Many of the people that vote for the Nationals party have to shower after work, not before it.

“Our plan should be based on how we can save the country, not save the party. I am standing for my party’s leadership so that I can tell my kids I did everything I could to fight for a better life for them.

“The plan we took to the last election was rejected. We need a new plan. I have been arguing for a different approach ever since we signed up to net zero. So I believe that I am in a stronger position to prosecute change.

“We should scrap the futile and unachievable goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Net zero makes everything more expensive and it is not helping the environment given that the US, China and India are no longer even paying lip service to it.

“The primary goal of our electricity system should be to reduce power bills not reduce emissions.”

While the Nationals appear to have held their seats in the House of Representatives, the defection of Senator Nampijinpa Price to the Liberals and the loss of the Nationals’ deputy leader, Perin Davey, after she was relegated to a losing spot on the NSW Senate ticket below two Liberals, there is rising anger over the election result.

The Nationals were also unable to win back the NSW seat of Calare from former Nationals MP, Andrew Gee, who resigned from the party and won the central west seat as an independent with a big swing towards him. Nor did the Nationals gain the new seat of Bullwinkel in Western Australia or the Labor-held seat of Bendigo after a close contest. But because of the extent of the Liberal losses, including Peter Dutton’s own seat of Dickson in Queensland, the Nationals now have their greatest proportion of Coalition seats since the 1960s and ’70s.

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie has publicly blamed the Liberals for the extent of the loss and complained about the “recruitment” of Senator Nampijinpa Price into the Liberals’ partyroom five days after she was elected as a CLP senator. On Friday Senator McKenzie told The Australian the Nationals had taken collective responsibility for the loss and were better placed than then Liberals in “an arithmetic and cultural sense”.

“What I’m very concerned about is that it now seems that the Liberal Party was actively recruiting Senator Nampijinpa Price five days out from an election. That is not the behaviour of partners, of trusted partners,” she said.

“Those of us in the National Party aren’t just Liberals that live in the country. We actually have a very separate political philosophy and a long tradition. We’re over 100 years old, and we are very renowned in our communities for delivering for them.

“The Liberal Party has got a lot of deep thinking to do. We wish them well with that, but they shouldn’t be seeking to damage us in the process of trying to rebuild themselves.”

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On Monday all three Nationals leadership positions – the leader, deputy and Senate leader – will be declared vacant, with Senator Davey, given her departure on July 1, not expected to renominate.

Senator Nampijinpa Price’s decision to run on the Nationals ticket and then switch to the Liberals just days after the election was blasted by colleagues, who said the “pressure” was now on Mr Littleproud to contain the fallout.

While one argument was that the Nationals needed to land an “above the pay rate” Coalition agreement – allowing the party more shadow ministry positions than what would be nominally based on their diminished numbers – other Nationals sources said the whole agreement was now in question.

“There’s every chance you don’t see Coalition agreements for 12 or even 18 months,” one MP said.

“We’d be looking at the Western Australian model. That will now be a conversation no matter who wins (Liberal leadership).”

The Nationals MP pointed to the handling of defections in the past – for example, when Ian Macfarlane left the Liberals – and said that back then, the leaders got together to speak about the matter and how it could be handled best for both parties.

That was different to the Nationals party being completely blindsided by Senator Nampijinpa Price, with sources telling The Australians she had informed her colleagues of her decision only “15 minutes” before putting out her public statement.

The future of the Coalition agreement will be discussed at the National Party federal management meeting next Friday, attended by the heads of state party branches, with MPs confirming “permission” would be sought to “go hard” on the deal with the Liberals.

“No one will go break up the … Coalition without the permission and consent of the broader party,” one Nationals MP said.

“There will certainly be a discussion of permission or otherwise on Coalition agreements.”

Senator Canavan said Nationals supporters are being worn down: “While our banks grow fat on the teat of carbon credits and green subsidies, our workers pay for it every quarter in their power bill and every week in their shopping trolley.”

“The greatest disappointment of our election loss is that we let down Western Australian sheep graziers, truck drivers, fencing contractors and their families. For the first time in history an Australian government is shutting down an entire industry, the live sheep trade. Thousands will be put out of work at a time of economic crisis,” he said.

“Our government has stopped a goldmine because of a story about a mythical bee. Water buybacks are killing our nation’s foodbowl. And Labor is conducting an experiment to see if we can power major industry based on weather forecasts,” he added, as part of an argument to drop the 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target.

“The now Labor-Green Senate means that we may lose much more. Almost all of the jobs at risk are outside our capital cities.

“The Coalition adopted an election strategy that we could save these jobs by not fighting for them. We did not visit the abandoned goldmine. West Australian farmers barely got a mention.

“We were lectured that we should not speak up because ‘city’ voters would be repelled if we fought for farmers, miners and factory workers.

“The Nationals party did well at the election but only relative to the disastrous result for the Liberals. We failed in the task to help win government.

“The Nationals should return to a more forthright style that helped deliver recent election victories.”

Senator Canavan argued for increased regional settlement, higher birthrates and family support through income splitting.

“We need to provide more support to the family unit through income splitting and increased family tax benefits to give people the financial freedom to have the family they want,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/matthew-canavan-to-challenge-david-littleproud-for-nationals-leadership-after-price-defection/news-story/58b36593d06b1e9277b5564e6881fd55

>>22989198

>>22998144

>>23007467

China criticises Australia over joint exercises with Philippines, US in South China Sea

Stephen Dziedzic - 9 May 2025

China's Foreign Ministry has sharply criticised Australia after it conducted another joint military exercise in the South China Sea with the US and the Philippines, accusing all three nations of trying to "create trouble."

The Royal Australian Navy's destroyer HMAS Sydney joined a guided missile frigate from the Philippine Navy and aircraft from both the US and the Philippines last week to conduct the drills.

Clashes between China's coast guard and vessels from the Philippines have intensified over the last 18 months, and several countries — including the US, Japan, Australia and Canada — have responded by stepping up joint military exercises with the Philippines in the contested waters.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing that the United States was using the Philippines as a "pawn" against China, and that Manila had "brought in and collaborated with forces outside the region to create disruptions and flex military muscles".

"The US and other countries outside the region have patched up small groupings in the South China Sea to stoke confrontation in the name of cooperation, flex military muscles in the name of freedom, and create trouble in the name of upholding order," he said.

"They are the biggest source of risks undermining the peace and stability in the South China Sea."

China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea as its territory, and has ignored a 2016 ruling which found that claim had no basis under international law.

Australia hasn't responded directly to China's most recent criticism but the Department of Defence said last week the joint exercise was aimed at "build(ing) mutual understanding and interoperability between nations and armed forces."

"Australia and our partners share a commitment to upholding the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace, and other maritime rights under international law," the department said.

"By training and operating together, forces can build upon shared tactics, techniques, and procedures to enhance interoperability and readiness to respond to shared security challenges."

China has been trying to force the Philippines off several disputed areas in the South China Sea, with Manila accusing Beijing of bullying behaviour and intimidation.

The US, Australia and the Philippines conducted joint exercises in the South China Sea with Japan in February. Australia also sent a surveillance aircraft to take part in joint exercises with the US, Philippines and Canada in August last year.

Analysts say China's recent partial navigation of the Australian mainland was aimed, in part, at dissuading the Albanese government from joining multilateral exercises in the South China Sea.

But the Albanese government has been adamant that doing so is critical to maintaining international law and freedom of navigation in the region, and signalled that it has no intention of reducing its activity in the region.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-09/china-criticises-australia-us-philippines-south-china-sea-drills/105271426

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xw/fyrbt/lxjzh/202505/t20250508_11617555.html

FBI tip-off leads to arrest of Alice Springs man for child rape

LIAM MENDES - 9 May 2025

An Alice Springs man has been charged with multiple child abuse offences – including the alleged rape of a child – following a referral by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Earlier this week NT Police received an “urgent referral” from the FBI, via the Australian Federal Police, with officers executing a search warrant and allegedly seizing “large quantities” of child abuse material.

Officers from the NT Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team, a joint child abuse taskforce comprising of the Australian Federal Police and NT Police, allege the man also sexually assaulted a child “under the age of five”, who was known to him.

He has been charged with nine serious child abuse charges of sexual intercourse with child under 10, two counts of gross indecency with child under 14, three counts of produce child abuse material for use via a carriage service, possess or control child abuse material, access child abuse material and transmit child abuse material.

NT Police Detective Superintendent Paul Lawson commended the “seamless collaboration” between NT Police, AFP and the FBI to bring the man before the courts.

“If you allegedly abuse a child or procure, access and transmit child abuse material, we will find you, and you will be prosecuted,” Superintendent Lawson said. “We will continue to work tirelessly to protect children from harm.”

Senior police warned that alleged “offenders cannot hide behind a screen” if they allegedly “carry out these reprehensible and hideous acts”.

It comes just months after The Australian revealed a five-year-old boy had allegedly been raped in a remote Northern Territory community, with one advocate alleging half of the 20 remote communities she visited in 2024 had children as young as five exhibiting “harmful sexual behaviour”.

Child abuse prevention educator Holly-ann Martin, who has visited 87 remote communities during her 35-year career to provide her abuse prevention education ­program, said there was an “epidemic” of child sexual abuse and further awareness needed to be drawn to the “nationwide issue”.

“I would have been in at least 20 remote communities last year and at least half of them were because of children exhibiting harmful sexual behaviours,” she said on Friday.

Ms Martin, who was awarded an Order of Australia for her work with children, said these cases had already been reported to authorities, but she was seeing children as young as five who had been exposed to pornographic material and were then going on to act out what they were seeing in pornography on other children.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/fbi-tipoff-leads-to-arrest-of-alice-springs-man-for-child-rape/news-story/2dff7a58b4b2dc864228fb415a288a12

Google AI chatbot, Gemini, to be available to Aussie kids under 13 within months

Ange Lavoipierre - 9 May 2025

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Google will launch its Gemini AI chatbot for Australian children under 13 within months, the ABC can reveal.

The tech giant is rolling out the program in the US this week, with a worldwide launch to follow in the coming months, although no date has yet been specified.

The announcement has prompted calls for the government to consider banning AI chatbots for children, in the same way it banned social media for children under 16.

"It would've been better if we'd erred on the side of caution with social media, and we didn't," said Professor Toby Walsh, a leading expert in Artificial Intelligence University of New South Wales.

He's urging leaders to "seriously consider putting age limits on this technology."

The ABC understands the chatbot will be automatically available to children via Google's Family Link app after the launch, although parents will have the option to switch it off.

"It's unusual to me that this would be turned on by default," said Professor Lisa Given, an expert in the social impact of technology at RMIT University.

"It relies on parents … or the child themselves, having the skill to navigate the controls and turn things off.

"And it may only be turned off at the point that it raises problems … but in a way it's too late at that point."

Google isn't the only company whose AI chatbot is available to younger children.

For example, OpenAI's website states that ChatGPT is "not meant for" people younger than 13, even though it's free on the open web.

But Google's Gemini tool is one of the few mainstream tools explicitly targeted at users that age.

"The problem is that [the tech companies are] tone deaf to the concerns, I think, that many parents have," Professor Walsh said.

"And the reason that they're tone deaf is … the financial incentives that they're looking at; how to onboard the next generation of users."

AI chatbots for under-13s: What could go wrong?

Multiple experts expressed alarm at the plan, saying AI chatbots pose more acute risks for children.

They warned Google's Gemini chatbot has the potential to confuse, misinform and manipulate children.

"Systems that are enabled by AI can certainly hallucinate or make up information," Professor Given said.

"You have to have some fairly sophisticated skills in terms of discerning truthfulness."

Every expert the ABC spoke to had concerns younger people may have difficulty understanding that the chatbots are not human.

"These systems really attempt to replicate or mirror how people engage with each other," said Professor Given, adding that even adults weren't immune to the illusion.

"I've done some research looking at Replika, where adults were actually very much taken in … and really came to believe that they had a relationship with the system itself, very much like a friend or even a romantic partner," she said.

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Google echoed some of those concerns in an email to parents in the US ahead of the rollout there, warning "Gemini can make mistakes" and suggesting they help their children think critically about their interactions.

"I think this is Google saying that we're rolling this out, but it isn't entirely safe," said John Livingstone, director of digital policy for UNICEF Australia.

"If a tech platform is acknowledging that there may be risks in their own products … then yeah, we should sit up and take notice," he said.

Google is planning to include default protections for younger users, to filter out inappropriate content from Gemini's responses, but experts remain wary.

"It's very hard to deliver on that promise," Professor Walsh said.

"Whenever we put protection safeguards in place, people quickly find ways to circumvent … those safeguards."

"It may not be widespread, but there may be cases where children are still getting access to inappropriate content," Professor Given said.

Calls for a ban and new laws to protect children from AI

Australia doesn't yet have AI safeguards in place, although the government has been developing them for more than two years.

The government has also announced a "digital duty of care," which would force tech companies to build their products safely from the ground up, but is yet to bring a bill before parliament.

"This is actually an excellent example of why Australia needs a digital duty of care legislation to come in," Professor Given said.

"What we actually need is for the technology companies to manage content appropriately for all of us so that using these tools is as safe as it can be — no matter your age".

Mr Livingstone said children stand to gain immensely from AI, if it's offered safely.

"When you think about education, for example, how transformative it might be… but there's also serious risks.

"AI is rapidly changing childhood, and Australia needs to get serious about it."

But Professor Walsh said it wasn't just a case of "putting in better filters and safeguards".

"It's asking fundamental questions about should this be age limited. We should be having a serious conversation as a society about that," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-09/google-gemini-ai-launch-australian-kids/105267302

>>22986131

>>22992843

‘I build relationships’: Albanese ready for crucial tariff negotiations with Trump

BEN PACKHAM - May 08, 2025

Anthony Albanese says his people skills will stand him in good stead when he sits down with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in coming weeks, in what looms as a pivotal meeting to plead Australia’s case for a tariff carve-out.

“I build relationships with people,” the Prime Minister told Sky News when asked how he would navigate the encounter.

“I have many friends in the business community, in the union movement, in civil society, groups that I’ve engaged with for a long period of time.

“I’m pretty upfront in how I engage with people and I’ve developed that as well on an international level.”

Mr Albanese will go into the meeting with a renewed mandate and fresh confidence following his election win and President Trump’s conciliatory sit-down with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney this week.

A soon-to-be announced trade deal between the US and Britain, teased by Mr Trump on his Truth Social network on Wednesday, will also set a positive tone for the talks.

The agreement will be the first of Mr Trump’s second term and comes as his administration progresses trade talks with India and Japan, and prepares for critical negotiations with China.

Don Farrell, who hopes to be reappointed Trade Minister when Mr Albanese unveils his frontbench in coming days, is also preparing a diplomatic push to shore up Australia’s trade ties.

If he retains his job, as is widely expected, he is likely to attend the APEC trade ministers meeting in South Korea next Thursday for talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and rattled Asian counterparts whose economies could be ruined by Mr Trump’s tariff blitz.

Preparations are also under way for video conferences with new EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal to kickstart fresh negotiations on Australia-EU and Australia-India deals.

Australia is prepared to scrap the $5.2bn luxury car tax to secure a free-trade agreement with the EU if European negotiators offer a better deal for Australian agricultural exports than they did in 2023, when talks on a proposed FTA collapsed.

Senator Farrell, who spoke to Mr Sefcovic on election night, said he believed past roadblocks with the EU could be overcome.

“I have a sense that the mood has changed, certainly in Australia, but also in Europe,” he said.

“I’m very confident that with sensible discussions with this new man in the EU that we can make some progress and very quickly come to a settlement on a free-trade agreement.”

Senator Farrell said he believed a deal with India was imminent.

“The Indians also contacted me. We were very close to a free-trade agreement with them, and I think we can move very quickly now to finalise that agreement,” he said.

The government is offering New Delhi priority access to Australia’s critical minerals and the nation’s labour market to get the agreement across the line.

Former European Commission deputy secretary-general Hervé Jouanjean sounded a note of caution on the prospects for an Australia-EU FTA.

He told The Australian that scrapping the luxury car tax might not be enough, especially if Victoria and Queensland retained their own versions of the tax.

“My personal view would be that something on cars would certainly be welcome but I am not sure that this will be enough to settle the whole negotiation,” he said.

The Prime Minister is expected to combine his upcoming visit to Washington with a trip to Canada for the G7 leaders summit, from June 11-13, which Mr Carney has invited him to attend. Mr Albanese will travel to Jakarta next week for talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/i-build-relationships-albanese-ready-for-crucial-tariff-negotiations-with-trump/news-story/e23e24c8adfe701c22ce35cbc6b313e9

Aussie teen girl to speak at sentencing for sadistic cult ringleader Kyle Spitze

An Aussie teen blackmailed by a sadistic online cult ringleader will speak against him at his sentencing, after police found images of her on his phone. WARNING: Graphic

Julie Cross - May 10, 2025

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI has asked an Australian teenager blackmailed into livestreaming self-harm and live sex shows to speak at the sentencing of one of the ringleaders of a sadistic extremist online cult.

Kyle Spitze, 25, a notorious member of terror groups 764 and offshoot HarmNation – where offenders compete with each other to coerce kids to kill their pets and produce sexual and violent content – is due to be sentenced in a court in Tennessee in July.

Among the heinous crimes he has agreed to plead guilty to are possessing child sexual abuse material – some were of a child aged 12 – and distributing ‘animal crushing’ videos.

His charges relate to US victims, but the FBI have also found images of the Australian girl, who we are not naming, on Spitze’s phone.

After being contacted by the FBI via the Australian Federal Police, both the Australian girl and her mother will give victim impact statements via video link at Spitze’s sentencing. A detective from the NSW police has been helping them with their statements.

The mother said these predators were pure evil and her daughter, who was left suicidal, was “covered with scars that are visible, and those inside her that are not”.

“She was made to mutilate her body and encouraged to starve herself, leading to a diagnosis of anorexia,” her mum said.

She hopes being allowed to read her impact statement to Spitze will give her 18-year-old daughter, who was 16 at the time of the abuse, some power back.

Spitze, who operated under the name ‘Criminal’, was a leading figure in this global network of dangerous deviants, who work individually and collectively, to abuse young victims.

The Australian girl found herself passed virtually to different members around the world, including a man in Sweden.

Explicit images of her were made public as punishment for not complying with their demands.

Later, one ordered her to murder the family pet cat which she also refused.

In revenge, members “swatted her” – made calls to the Australian police with false allegations – which led to a dozen armed police surrounding the family home.

The Australian Federal Police released warnings about sadistic sextortion groups last year.

Helen Schneider, from the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), said these offenders – many are children – exploit other children “for their deranged amusement”.

“The content we’ve seen demanded includes live sex acts, animal cruelty, serious self harm and requests for livestreamed suicide of our victims,” she said.

The groups seek out children on popular social media and gaming apps, like Roblox, Minecraft, Instagram and Snapchat, before moving them onto Telegram and Discord, where the abuse is broadcast.

Spitze’s sick activities were exposed after a video he posted of his stepfather shooting him in the ear went viral and victims outed him as an abuser.

An AFP spokesperson said intelligence sharing between international and domestic law enforcement partners has enabled them to identify and investigate online users linked to some of these extreme groups online.

In 2022, a 14-year-old from WA was found to have child abuse material and videos of animal cruelty on his phone after targeting victims around the world.

He was charged and received a juvenile caution in relation to the matter.

''Police are urging the public who have information about people involved in child abuse to contact the ACCCE.''

https://www.accce.gov.au/

''If you know abuse is happening right now or a child is at risk, call triple-0.''

''For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or at:''

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

''For help with depression, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or at:''

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

''The SANE Helpline is 1800 18 SANE (7263) or at:''

https://www.sane.org/

https://www.cairnspost.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/aussie-teen-girl-to-speak-at-sentencing-for-sadistic-cult-ringleader-kyle-spitze/news-story/14f7b20560520575681d59e0838b80bf

—

The 764 Network: The Strange Case of Kyle Spitze

Becca Spinks - Jul 19, 2024

https://x.com/bx_on_x/status/1814158500458569768

>>23016865

How gun-toting Texas mum Becca Spinks takes down online cult 764

She describes herself as “just a normal mum”, is hunting predators online who are targeting Aussie kids through their evil twisted acts.

Julie Cross - May 10, 2025

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EXCLUSIVE: This is the gun toting Texan mum looking to take down a new wave of sadistic online abusers grooming Australian kids to livestream sick and twisted acts from their bedrooms.

In July, the self-defence educator and independent investigator, Becca Spinks, hopes to be in court to watch 25-year-old Kyle Spitze, from Tennessee, get a hefty jail sentence after he agreed to plead guilty to charges of possessing child sexual abuse material and distributing ‘animal crushing’ videos.

One of his victims is Australian.

“I just want to look at him and see if there’s any kind of soul left,” Spinks said.

“Every time I’ve seen him on video, in a picture, he just looks demonic. He looks evil.”

None of Spitze’s charges relate to the NSW victim, now 18, but the FBI found pictures of her on his phone, and she alleges he and other members blackmailed her into doing livestream sex acts and self-harm shows. She was also forced to carve their names into her body with a blade.

Spitze is a big scalp for Spinks, 40, who describes herself as “just a normal mum”, who hunts predators online in her spare time.

His big mistake was posting a video of his stepfather shooting him in the ear in January 2024, which went viral. His victims, who saw the video, began outing him on social media as a pedophile and sadistic Satanist in an online cult called 764, and an offshoot group called HarmNation.

“The day that video went viral, Kyle was on X threatening the girls who were trying to speak out against him, and his tag was Criminal764,” Spinks said. “We looked at his followers and we found all these other abusers.”

Her online detective work, along with help from his victims, including the mother of the Australian teenager, played a significant role in bringing Spitze to the attention of the FBI.

And it shone a light on these deviant misfits, some children themselves, who get off on torturing mainly young girls to take part in degrading sex acts, live ‘cut shows’, animal abuse – one victim bit off the head of their hamster – and where the ultimate prize is getting someone to livestream their own suicide.

Unbelievably, the group’s US-based founder, Bradley Cadenhead, a gore video junkie, was himself just a child of 15 when he set it up in 2021. He was jailed for 80 years in 2023 for creating videos in which children were sexually abused, choked, beaten and suffocated.

While Spitze and Cadenhead are in the US, it has global appeal, with offenders operating all over the world, often out of their bedrooms. Australia is not immune. In a warning about groups including 764 last year, the Australian Federal Police said a 14-year-old from WA was found to have child abuse material and videos of animal cruelty on his phone after targeting victims overseas. He was charged in 2022 and received a juvenile caution in relation to the matter.

Spinks said her efforts to expose Spitze and 764, upset other offenders, including ‘Acid’ – real name Cameron Finnigan – 19, from the UK.

“Figures like Acid and a few others started to really harass and threaten me because they didn’t like the attention they were getting,” Spinks said. “So I just kept it up, you know? And over time, I became like the public face of all of this.”

Finnegan has since been jailed for six years for encouraging suicide, possessing a terrorism manual, and indecent images of a child. Police discovered swastikas and pentagrams on his bedroom walls.

Spinks said 764 and groups like it are continually evolving, and popping up in different forms, but they all operate under an umbrella community nicknamed the ‘Com’.

Some align themselves with pedophiles, or Satanists or white supremacists, or a mix, or none of the above. The one common thread is their desire to terrify and traumatise their victims in order to gain status and notoriety within their groups.

They seek out vulnerable victims in self-harm or eating disorder chatrooms, as well as on social media and gaming apps like Minecraft and Roblox.

Their modus operandi is to befriend kids on social media and gaming apps, shower them with affection, before manipulating them into providing something like an explicit photo of themselves – then threatening to share the photos unless they produce ever more extreme content.

Many victims don’t recognise themselves as victims, and are sometimes persuaded to become abusers themselves.

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It’s hard to believe that there is anything worse than this, but other extremist groups are also gaining the attention of authorities, including the Maniac Murder Club, which originated in Ukraine, and is also known as MKU or MKY, which Spinks described as a group of “satanic serial killing terrorists, that is even crazier than 764”. Another, No Lives Matter, has a similar agenda.

They want followers – and victims-turned-abusers – to move into real-world violence.

“No Lives Matter is like the splinter group that was created by MKU to get 764 kids to do more violent, real life stuff,” Spinks said. “So they wanted to pull them away from the child abuse and extortion and towards real life acts of violence and terrorism.

“Your kid can become a victim, but they want your kid to become an abuser as well. They want your kid to go commit a school shooting, right? They want your kid to commit suicide on camera. I hate to say it, but these are not your normal child sexual abuse types of people who try to get in and leave.

“There’s a cult behind it. These kids are the foot soldiers, so to speak. They can wind these kids up like little wind-up toys and send them on their way via whatever means that they can.”

The Global Network on Extremism and Technology, run by academics from King’s College London, describes MKU/MKY as a “militant accelerationist” group that advocates for acts of violence in order to bring down the current social order.

Sometimes there is a political bent, but mostly it is about “offline criminality, including assault, murder, and terrorism to maintain their membership”.

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency ASIO has repeatedly warned about the worrying rise of kids being indoctrinated in their bedrooms.

In August, when ASIO raised the terrorist threat level from ‘possible’ to ‘probable’, head of the agency, Mike Burgess, said the number of children embracing violent extremism is increasing and that “extremist ideologies, conspiracies, misinformation, are flourishing in the online ecosystem and young Australians are particularly vulnerable”.

University of Adelaide Associate Professor Tim Legrand said his work involves looking at the spread of online extremism and its effects on young Australians, particularly males.

He explained that the internet is an amplifying space for a tiny number of bad actors.

“You probably have a lot more lurkers, observers, readers, than active people,” Assoc Prof Legrand said. “These perpetrators have large audiences and they generate infamy. And so given that most children over the age of 14 have a mobile device in their pocket, they have potentially audiences of millions.”

He said from those only a very small percentage would go on to offend, but “small percentages of large numbers, are large numbers”.

Spinks said most parents are ignorant of the dangers these groups pose, but that if a child is on the internet unsupervised they are at risk of being abused or being groomed into becoming an abuser.

Helen Schneider, from the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), said parents should be aware of what their child is doing, seeing and saying online.

And, if their child has been a victim, they need to reassure them it’s not that fault and to report to the ACCCE.

She said warning signs include kids being online more, being more secretive about their devices and being on them at different times of day and night.

Spinks said when she first shone a spotlight on these groups she was disbelieved and mocked, but following a flurry of arrests and warnings from crime agency authorities, things are changing.

“I’m on a vindication arc because of all the arrests and stuff. I’m like, finally the cavalry came in because, for a while here, it was just me,” she said.

The Australian victim’s mum said she will be forever grateful to Spinks.

“She was the only person I had helping me for the longest time,” the mum said. “If I had not found her, and if she had not been posting about it, I would have completely given up.

“Without having that one person who knew what was going on, who was fighting in our corner, I doubt I would have managed to keep pushing for justice for my daughter.”

''For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or at:''

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

''For help with depression, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or at:''

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

''The SANE Helpline is 1800 18 SANE (7263) or at:''

https://www.sane.org/

https://www.cairnspost.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/how-gun-toting-texas-mum-becca-spinks-takes-down-online-cult-764/news-story/7973800ad5f7358d112e96d24f69ce2f

>>22986131

>>23007443

Dumped cabinet minister says Richard Marles a 'factional assassin', and demotion partly due to outspoken views on Gaza

Jake Evans - 11 May 2025

1/2

Dumped cabinet minister Ed Husic says his decision to speak out on the conflict in Gaza was partly to blame for him being dropped from the frontbench, while making an extraordinary accusation that the deputy prime minister acted as a "factional assassin" out of naked ambition for his branch.

Mr Husic told Insiders his experience in cabinet was that Labor had to be "encouraged" to speak out on the issue, but said he would not be silent on it.

"To be able to take part in a cabinet meant a great deal. You can't celebrate diversity and expect it to sit in a corner silent," Mr Husic said.

"I certainly took the view you need to speak up for the communities you care about. I certainly tried to help us navigate wretchedly difficult issues, such as Gaza post the horrors of October 7.

"I don't think I could ever stay silent in the face of innocent civilians slaughtered in tens of thousands, starved out of Gaza."

The outgoing minister also lashed out at Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who had a hand in Mr Husic being booted from the frontbench.

"I think people, when they look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin," he said.

"The difficult issue here is that we've had bare-faced ambition and a deputy prime minister wield a factional club to reshape the ministry."

He added that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should have intervened to stop the factional play, but failed to do so.

Mr Husic said he respected the need for factions to manage merit and ambition, but Mr Marles would have to answer for his role in himself and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus being demoted.

The pair were dropped in a brutal factional play on Friday in order to make way for Victorian MPs Daniel Mulino and Sam Rae, a close ally of Mr Marles, and to balance the left and right factions in NSW, from where Mr Husic hails.

Mr Husic, the first Muslim cabinet minister and the first to be sworn in on the Quran, has been one of the most vocal in the government on the conflict in Gaza.

The Sydney politician has also been a key player in engaging with Muslim communities angry at the government's response to Israel's war following the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Mr Husic said there needed to be "faith in Muslim communities that their voice was being heard", but that sometimes had to be encouraged.

Able to speak more freely now that he is on the backbench, Mr Husic was blunt in his assessment of the Netanyahu government.

"We've seen just in the past week or so, the Israeli parliament say it wants to annex Gaza and effectively that is a form of ethnic cleansing. We've seen the starvation of its people through the failure to provide humanitarian assistance," he said.

"It should be held to account. Starvation is a war crime."

The conflict has roiled within Labor, last year prompting Muslim senator Fatima Payman to quit the party after it punished her for voting against the government on a motion to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza.

A United Nations report earlier this year accused Israel of "genocidal acts", which was rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as false, biased and antisemitic.

(continued)

>>23020102

2/2

Liberal leadership contest expected to be close

The political parties are all reorganising their ranks for the next term of parliament, with Labor juggling a deeper bench of talent and factional allegiances, while the Liberal Party and Greens search for new leadership after shock defeats at the federal election.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price this morning confirmed her candidacy for deputy Liberal leader under Angus Taylor, who is contesting for the leadership against Sussan Ley.

Liberal senator Dave Sharma, who openly expressed his desire to enter the shadow ministry on Sky News, said he expected the contest between Mr Taylor and Ms Ley to be very close.

"I think it's very important, whatever the outcome is, everyone respects the result and everyone gets behind the new leader," Senator Sharma said.

"I know that's not going to be easy, but we don't have the luxury of being able to tear ourselves apart over the next year or two."

After Senator Nampijinpa Price's dramatic defection last week from the Nationals to sit in the Liberal party room, Senator Sharma said she was welcome in the party and entitled to put her hand up for deputy — but the party would decide its leadership team.

In a statement, Senator Nampijinpa Price said her new party must return to its "basic values".

"There is no question that returning to our roots as a party is critical right now," Senator Nampijinpa Price said.

The Northern Territory senator said the Liberals must fight for the "forgotten people" and, in a statement, raised her Warlpiri grandparents, who had grown up "washing their clothes in the creek" in Warners Bay on the coast of NSW.

"My Warlpiri grandparents caught the vision and transitioned from nomadic desert life into community life during the emergence of a modern Australia," Senator Nampijinpa Price said.

"They were the original Aussie battlers - the forgotten people."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-11/ed-husic-dumped-minister-gaza-partly-to-blame-speaking-out/105278932

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjnrWS-Y5L4

https://x.com/AngusTaylorMP/status/1921327100407029836

>>22986131

>>23002844

>>23007424

Talent over factions: Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley promise to end the Liberal civil war and fight PM

GEOFF CHAMBERS - 12 May 2025

1/2

Angus Taylor has pledged to ­reward talent over factional allegiances, elevate more women into leadership positions and make the Liberal Party campaign machine “fitter, flatter, faster and more ­focused” ahead of his showdown with Sussan Ley on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Australian, the opposition Treasury spokesman said the Coalition must focus on policies that “go for growth” and allow a full range of technologies to deliver “the ­affordable, reliable energy Australians want”.

Mr Taylor and Ms Ley – who spent Mother’s Day at home with their families on Sunday – are locked in a tight contest to ­replace Peter Dutton as opposition leader.

The combatants and their supporters will hit the phones on Monday as they seek to win over undecided colleagues ahead of the federal Liberal Party parliamentary team voting for a new leader and deputy leader in Canberra on Tuesday morning.

In a video statement released by Ms Ley on the weekend, the Acting Opposition Leader said “we have enormous depth of talent in our partyroom, and I want to draw on all of it over the next three years”.

“We will develop strong policy offerings through robust party room processes so we can demonstrate we will deliver better outcomes for all Australians. We need to change, the Liberal Party must respect modern Australia, reflect modern Australia and represent modern Australia,” Ms Ley said.

‘My election as leader of the Liberal Party would send a very strong signal that we understand that things must be done ­differently.”

Responding to concerns raised by some Liberal MPs about NSW factionalism infecting the federal partyroom, Mr Taylor said “our numbers are now so depleted that if we start selecting what roles people play based on tribal allegiances we will not succeed, full stop”.

“We have to reach across the divide and have the very best people on the ground in every area,” Mr Taylor told The Australian. “The team is so small now, relative to what it has been in the past, that there’s lots of work to do for everybody as long as we are aligned in the belief that the Labor Party can’t deliver what Australia needs and we can.”

Mr Taylor, who cited strong working relationships with junior ministers he had previously collaborated with, including Tim Wilson, Dean Smith and James McGrath, said: “It’s talent and merit and what we can offer first, and all of those tribal allegiances need to come a distant second.

“I’m not naive to the fact that they exist, but I do believe we can bridge across those if we all ­recognise that this is a massive regroup and rebuild job we’ve got to do and we’ve got to get back in the fight.”

After former state and territory Liberal leaders Gladys Berejiklian, Barry O’Farrell, Jeff Kennett, Nick Greiner and Shane Stone ­endorsed Ms Ley as leader, former prime minister Tony Abbott on Sunday supported Mr Taylor and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as the new Liberal Party leadership team, after Senator Price said she would nominate for deputy leader.

Supporters of Ms Ley said she was running an open ticket that wasn’t predicated on any deals. They also said she would base her frontbench on merit and putting the best team on the pitch.

It is understood that opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien is considering a separate run for the deputy leadership after Dan Tehan pulled out of the race. Ms Ley, who has been accused by rivals of launching her leadership campaign ahead of the election to gain an advantage, has strongly pushed the need for more women in the party.

(continued)

>>23024096

2/2

Asked about how he would ­recruit and promote women, Mr Taylor said: “We’ve got to reconnect to significant parts of our community that we failed to connect to in the election, and that includes women.

“That has to be an absolute ­priority for us. Strong women have been around me all my life and I want more of that, not less. This is really personally important to me.

“Having a wonderful woman join the Liberal Party like Jacinta, we should absolutely welcome her with open arms.

“She brings much to the table and I will keep ­welcoming great women to the Liberal Party wherever I possibly can.”

On whether the Liberal Party should adopt a gender quota system, Mr Taylor said: “Attracting good women to the party is about attracting talent.

“We, as the Liberal Party, cannot confine ourselves to any one group.

“We’ve got to find talented candidates, talented volunteers, talented people to work in our organisation, talented campaigners wherever we can find them and clearly that includes women who are 50 per cent of our ­population.”

As energy minister in the Morrison government, Mr Taylor adopted a technology neutral approach to strengthening the nation’s power grid.

After Labor launched a highly effective scare campaign targeting Mr Dutton’s nuclear energy policy, Mr Taylor said “we’ve got some serious reflection to do about Labor’s weaponisation during the campaign, about what that means about the policy we took to the election”.

“Now is not the time to make decisions about that but it is certainly the time to begin the reflection on that,” he said.

“What I do know is that the approach that seems to be working around the world is freeing up the supply side and allowing the full range of technologies, technology not taxes, as a way to deliver that affordable, reliable energy Australians want.

“And I think we’ve got to get back to our roots on this one, which is Liberals have always believed in choice and the full range.”

In response to agitation in Nationals ranks and comments made by Liberal senator Dave Sharma on Sky News about revisiting the merits of a Coalition agreement, Mr Taylor described himself as a “Coalitionist … I always have been and I always will be”.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to win 50 per cent of the seats plus one, and that requires a Coalition,” he said.

“The people who will want to vote Liberal, if they feel that we’re up for it, are aspirational, they believe in the power and importance of small business, they see the crucial role of families. These are very widely held views across our country and we share those views across our Coalition.”

Mr Taylor, who unlike other Liberals in NSW managed to secure a swing towards him, identified as a top priority the importance of modernising the Liberal Party’s campaign machine.

“We have to organise and campaign differently. We need an ­organisation and a campaign strategy, which is fitter, flatter, faster and more focused,” he said. “That’s because we live in communities now that are more fragmented than ever.

“We must do better at messaging to those groups, whether they be women or younger Australians or Hindu Australians, Muslim Australians, Chinese Australians, right across the board.

“On the policy side … we have to make sure that we have those policies out in the field early and the work being done early at the beginning of the term, not later in the term to attract those groups of voters, including women.”

Liberal Party federal director Andrew Hirst will confirm the names of which candidates and MPs currently ahead in their lower house seats can participate in the ballot on Tuesday.

The two most likely additions are moderate Liberal Gisele Kapterian, who is ahead in the north Sydney seat of Bradfield, and conservative LNP MP Terry Young, who holds a narrow lead in the southeast Queensland seat of Longman.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/talent-over-factions-angus-taylor-and-sussan-ley-promise-to-end-the-liberal-civil-war-and-fight-pm/news-story/9647343c2cec97e548a9fb6556fa8b81

>>22986131

>>23007443

Albanese makes big changes, unveils new Plibersek role in major reshuffle

David Crowe - May 12, 2025

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will fly to Rome within days to join world leaders at the inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV, after overhauling federal cabinet by naming new ministers to workplace relations, environment and social services.

Albanese is expected to meet counterparts, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at the Vatican, amid global concerns about American policy on trade and security under US President Donald Trump.

The plans come after the prime minister promoted five colleagues and moved six others to set up a new ministry for Labor’s second term in power, acting on a factional deal last week to remove Mark Dreyfus and Ed Husic from the cabinet.

A day after Husic called Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles a “factional assassin” for removing colleagues, Albanese played down the internal strife by saying the reshuffle followed the usual process in the Labor caucus to choose the frontbench.

Albanese promised an “ambitious agenda to change this country for the better” and noted that Labor would have the largest federal caucus since federation, with at least 92 seats. The Coalition has only 41 seats in the latest counting.

“I’m deeply humbled by the trust that was put into my government with the election, and we certainly won’t take it for granted,” he said.

Albanese will leave Australia early on Wednesday to visit Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta, and then fly to Rome for talks with other world leaders as well as the formal mass to mark the inauguration of Pope Leo this Sunday.

The talks will include tighter co-operation with Canada, a key security ally that has felt the brunt of Trump’s ire, and the prospect of a broader trade agreement with the European Union, a deal that was shelved last year because it did not do enough for Australian beef and lamb exporters.

Albanese elevated two members of the Left faction, Anne Aly and Tim Ayres, into federal cabinet, after last week’s factional deals removed Dreyfus and Husic.

Aly will become the first Muslim woman to hold a cabinet position, being named minister for multicultural affairs and international development, as well as being responsible for small business.

Ayres becomes minister for industry and innovation as well as minister for science, replacing Husic.

In a sign of the scale of the changes, Tanya Plibersek has been moved sideways from her old portfolio of environment to become minister for social services, a key task after past departmental scandals over robo-debt and income support.

Albanese has installed Queensland senator Murray Watt as minister for environment and water at a time when the government wants to restart talks with the Greens to pass a stalled bill to set up an agency to oversee project approvals, the environment protection agency.

Anika Wells trades her old portfolio of aged care for communications and sport, a key position when the government must consider whether to risk blowback from media companies and professional sporting bodies by regulating online gambling more strictly.

Amanda Rishworth, former minister for social services, becomes minister for employment and workplace relations to replace Watt.

Michelle Rowland, the former communications minister, becomes attorney-general to replace Dreyfus.

The reshuffle comes little more than a week after a huge election win for Labor, which increased its majority as the Coalition suffered huge losses.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles have retained their positions.

Asked about Plibersek’s move, Albanese gave a brief answer: “She was very positive about the portfolio.”

The National Disability Insurance Scheme will be overseen by two members of the executive, with Health Minister Mark Butler gaining responsibility for the NDIS at cabinet level. NSW senator Jenny McAllister, previously in charge of emergency management, becomes minister for the NDIS in the outer ministry.

This follows the retirement of former NDIS Minister Bill Shorten before the election.

Andrew Charlton – someone the prime minister was keen to promote – will become the cabinet secretary and assistant minister for science and the digital economy.

The ministry is set to be sworn in by Governor-General Sam Mostyn at 9am on Tuesday.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-makes-sweeping-changes-to-frontbench-20250512-p5lycj.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ionU1tjLmo

>>22986131

>>23007424

>>23012489

David Littleproud remains as Nationals leader, seeing off Matt Canavan challenge

Tom Crowley - 12 May 2025

David Littleproud will continue as federal leader of the Nationals after a party room vote in Canberra, seeing off a challenge from his colleague Matt Canavan.

Mr Littleproud, who became leader in 2022, was approved to continue by his colleagues in the closed-door ballot, after an election which saw the minor party go backwards by one seat in each house. The margin has not been disclosed.

Kevin Hogan was chosen as deputy leader and Bridget McKenzie remained as Senate leader. Mr Hogan was the opposition trade spokesperson in the last parliament, and Senator McKenzie was infrastructure spokesperson.

"It's a great honour to lead our great party. I'm proud of our achievements over the last three years, three years where I think we set the policy agenda," Mr Littleproud said after the meeting.

National Party rules see the leadership "spilled" automatically after each election, even if there is no rival.

But the conservative Senator Canavan revealed late on Friday he would nominate, saying the party needed to be "louder" in opposition to climate targets.

The party room was rocked last week by the defection of senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the Liberal Party, where she intends to nominate for the deputy leadership on Tuesday.

Senator Price's move, which saw the party reduced to just four senators, was openly scorned by Senator Canavan and tersely acknowledged by Mr Littleproud, and has led to misgivings within the party about its senior coalition partner.

While the Liberals went backwards most severely in the recent federal election, the Nationals also fell short of their aspirations, failing to claim the seats of Bendigo or Bullwinkel and failing to retain the seat of Calare, won by former Nationals MP-turned-independent Andrew Gee.

No word yet on nuclear policy

Mr Littleproud said the Nationals' campaigning on the Voice referendum under his leadership had "shifted the result" and hailed the minor party's influence in pushing for the adoption of a nuclear energy policy and supermarket divestiture powers.

But he declined to say whether the nuclear policy would stay the same amid calls from Senator Canavan and others to dump net zero and re-embrace coal.

"We're going to review all our policies and we'll do that in a calm, methodical way … The reality is that the leader of the National Party doesn't determine the policy direction of our party, the collective does," he said, though adding "the fundamentals haven't changed" on nuclear.

Senator McKenzie said both Coalition partners needed to "listen to the Australian people with humility, understanding that these were collective decisions of both the Liberal and the National party".

"We need to respect their decision and we need to have a deep, honest look at what went wrong."

Mr Littleproud said he was "disappointed" about Senator Price's defection, but that his party would "be the adults in the room, because that's what the National Party's been for the last three years".

The Liberal party room will meet on Tuesday, and the Greens on Thursday, after Anthony Albanese revealed his new-look ministry on Monday.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-12/littleproud-remains-as-nationals-leader/105282850

>>22986131

>>23002836

Liberal candidate for Kooyong Amelia Hamer concedes defeat to teal MP Monique Ryan

ZOE DE KONING and MOHAMMAD ALFARES - 12 May 2025

Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer has formally conceded defeat to teal MP Monique Ryan in the seat of Kooyong, saying the remaining ballots would not be enough to secure her victory.

In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Ms Hamer said she had phoned Dr Ryan to congratulate her on her re-election and praised the “beautiful local community” of Kooyong.

“Whilst counting continues, it is now clear that the remaining ballots will not deliver us the majority we need to win the seat,” Ms Hamer said.

“Standing as the Liberal candidate for Kooyong has been an honour.”

The contest in the once blue-ribbon Liberal stronghold has been closely watched following Dr Ryan’s 2022 win over then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

“Liberal values – like individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and free enterprise – are timeless. They are worth fighting for,” Ms Hamer said.

“We are so lucky to have a beautiful local community, a fair democracy, and a wonderful country. I hope to play my small part in making it a better place, now and into the future.”

Dr Ryan claimed victory of the seat in an official statement released shortly after Ms Hamer’s announcement.

“Serving as the member for Kooyong has been the privilege of a lifetime. I’m incredibly honoured to continue in this role, and thank the electorate for this opportunity,” she said.

The former pediatric neurologist confirmed she had received a call from Ms Hamer on Monday, and “wished her the best for her future endeavours”.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to hold the government to account on the economy, climate, health, and the other critical issues for my community,” Dr Ryan said.

“It’s a crucial time for Australia – we’re facing a cost-of-living crisis, housing shortages, increasing intergenerational inequity, and our response to the global challenge of climate change has been too slow and too incremental.

“With the Albanese government holding an increased majority, it’s time for it to show the courage we need – and respect the mandate given to it by the Australian public – by taking real action on these issues.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/liberal-candidate-for-kooyong-amelia-hamer-concedes-defeat-to-teal-mp-monique-ryan/news-story/00578d5f9131bd2d58855128de42dcc1

Australian Nick Parsons killed in Ukraine while clearing mines

LIAM MENDES - 12 May 2025

A former Australian Defence Force member killed in eastern Ukraine while clearing mines for an explosives disposal charity has been described as “a hero for Ukrainians” who was engaged in dangerous work close to the frontlines.

Nick Parsons, who was working for a US-registered organisation named Prevail Together, was killed last week in Izyum.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman confirmed DFAT was “providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who died in Ukraine”.

Mr Parsons, believed to be from Queensland, had been working to clear mines and other unexploded ordnance in Ukraine following a long stint in the Australian Defence Force, which one source said he had recently left.

Izyum is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast region approximately 40km from the frontline.

Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko told The Australian on Monday Mr Parsons was “a hero for Ukrainians who was on a very important mission”.

“There are individuals like Nick Parsons who couldn’t sit on the couch, and decided to go and travel,” Mr Myroshnychenko said.

“I understand he was trained to be an engineer … I understand there was also another British guy who he was with, and both of them got killed, as mates being there, they got rid of unexploded ordnance as well as mines.”

Mr Myroshnychenko said the size of the area that had to be de-mined because of Russia’s invasion in February 2022 – now into its third year – is larger than Switzerland.

“It’s certainly a dangerous job, as you can imagine, it’s kind of one of those 50-50, jobs, 50 per cent you’re going to live, 50 per cent you going die,” the ambassador said.

“It’s very sad and it’s tough news for everybody, he was a hero for us on a very important mission.

“(He was) very close to the frontlines, so that part of Ukraine, which is close to the Russian border, and where the frontlines are, it’s heavily mined, lots of unexploded ordnance, because Russians are shelling us all the time.”

In a social media post on May 7, Prevail Together said it had received “devastating news” that its founder and chairman, Christopher “Swampy” Garrett, and other team members had been “severely injured in an incident near Izyum”.

Mr Garrett was described on social media as “one of the best”, and had been engaged in mine clearing in Ukraine since 2014.

“Most people run from danger,” one mourner said.

“Swampy and his crew are true heroes for the work they do to as first responders, trainers and humanitarian mine action advocates. My thoughts are with the team and their families during this difficult time.”

At the outbreak of Russia’s invasion in February 2022 Mr Garrett had rushed to Ukraine to continue his work, where he described himself as an “explosive bin man”.

In an interview with The Times in May that year he said that not long after Kyiv was almost surrounded by Russian forces, he cleared tonnes of explosives in surrounding cities where they had left booby traps in doorways, washing machines, cupboards, car boots and even under the corpses of civilians.

He said that in order to stay calm he would smoke 40 cigarettes a day.

“I make sure that I get at least two coffees in before I go to work and don’t run out of cigarettes throughout the day. That’s how I roll,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/australian-nick-parsons-killed-in-ukraine-while-clearing-mines/news-story/934c2f8ef8e983033b8c0da0eb4b2f75

https://www.prevailtogether.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Pcm5KXclQ

>>22959474

Remembering Virginia Giuffre: The woman who helped bring down Jeffrey Epstein

Sammi Taylor - 11 May 2025

Virginia Giuffre's life was never easy.

She had overcome extraordinary tragedy - sexual abuse as a child, homelessness and multiple sex-trafficking rings - to become a powerful advocate for sex abuse survivors around the world.

To her lawyer and friend Sigrid McCawley, she was lion-hearted.

"I think Virginia's legacy is something that we haven't seen before in our history," McCawley told 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown.

"She has left us with a feeling that irrespective of whether you're a president, a politician, a billionaire, or a prince, that you can be held accountable. You are not above the law."

60 Minutes Australia first met both Giuffre and McCawley in 2019, when Virginia was in combat mode.

She was on a mission to bring to account some of the world's richest and most powerful people.

Her decision to be the first to forgo anonymity to also accuse billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sex abuse and sex trafficking changed the course of many lives.

Giuffre was just 16 when she was hired by Epstein and British socialite Maxwell in 2000 to be a private masseuse.

Giuffre said she was sexually abused by the pair before being trafficked to their powerful friends, including Prince Andrew - a claim he continues to deny, despite settling a civil suit with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.

"She put Epstein in prison. She put Maxwell in prison. She had Prince Andrew stripped of his titles," McCawley said.

"Her words, her actions were incredible. And they started a movement of change."

But on the evening of Anzac Day this year, police and family confirmed the shocking news that Giuffre had taken her own life.

For McCawley, the news was a shock.

"Overwhelming surprise and disbelief. True disbelief," she said.

"It took me several hours to even come to terms with the fact that that was real."

But Giuffre was clearly distressed in the last weeks of her life.

In a recent and confusing social media post, she claimed she was suffering renal failure after a car accident involving a school bus.

Disturbingly, she said she'd been given only four days to live.

Giuffre had also recently become estranged from her children, something McCawley said was devastating to her.

"I think that anybody who's a mother would feel and understand that being deprived access to your children has to be the worst thing that could ever happen to you," she said.

"So I think that while Virginia could face many demons in her life and many villains, that moment of deprivation I think was something that was more than she could handle."

Giuffre's loss will be felt keenly by the survivors of sexual abuse she had always supported.

And for those who knew and loved her, there is now an aching hole.

"I used to say that we had broken through the lawyer-client line because she would sign her emails, 'I love you Siggy'," McCawley said.

"She was just a dear person in my life. And I think that the world will not be the same without her. It just won't be."

If you or someone you know needs support, help is available 24/7.

Lifeline: Call 13 11 14, text 0477 13 11 14 or visit:

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

Beyond Blue: Call 1300 22 4636 or visit:

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

1800RESPECT: Call 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit:

https://1800respect.org.au/

https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/virginia-giuffre-the-woman-who-helped-bring-down-jeffrey-epstein/d3893b22-c893-41e1-9c34-3fff7296c036

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OHL_s7LRPg

—

Q Post #4923

Oct 21 2020 20:55:05 (EST)

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1319071346282778624

Dearest Virginia -

We stand with you.

Now and always.

Find peace through prayer.

Never give up the good fight.

God bless you.

Q

https://qanon.pub/#4923

High Court to decide if information gathered on encrypted messaging app AN0M was legally obtained

Elizabeth Byrne - 13 May 2025

The High Court will on Tuesday delve into the murky world of organised crime and encrypted messaging on an app known as AN0M, which was secretly controlled by the FBI and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

The operation known as "Ironside" began in 2018, when phones with the app began to circulate among criminal elements, encouraged by people the police identified as "criminal influencers", who unwittingly recommended the devices.

It appeared to be a secure way to send messages, except that every communication was being copied and forwarded to police.

In 2021 there was a worldwide crackdown.

The app had collected about 28 million messages, including 19 million relating to Australia.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) said there were nearly 1,000 arrests globally, with 42 tonnes of illicit drugs and $US58 million in cash and crypto currency seized.

According to AFP data, there have been nearly 100 people in Australia charged, with drugs, firearms, and substantial amounts of money seized.

The ACIC said at the time the operation "provided voluminous, invaluable intelligence and insight that has never been obtained before by Australian law enforcement".

But now two South Australian men, who are alleged members of the Comancheros bikie group, want the High Court to find that information was not legally obtained.

The two are charged with belonging to a criminal group and possession of prohibited firearms.

Their lawyers will tell the High Court the evidence against them collected from AN0M should be inadmissible in their trial, because its collection breached The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

"The question is whether communications obtained covertly by the AN0M application were obtained as the result of an unlawful interception," their submissions to the court said.

The pair have so far failed in two appeals against the use of the information, but were granted special leave to appeal by the High Court last year.

Soon afterwards the case took a new turn when the Commonwealth changed the law, to back up the use of the app by police.

On Tuesday the High Court will also consider if the new law is valid.

In their submissions the men's lawyers said it interferes with the exercise of judicial power guaranteed under the constitution.

"It is an invalid exercise of legislative power," submissions for the men said.

The lawyers will tell the High Court the new law undermines the institutional integrity of the courts, removing the "fact finding" function which is a hallmark of judicial power.

But the Commonwealth will tell the High Court the new law does not direct the courts to find any fact, and is valid under the constitution.

The Commonwealth also said in its submissions the new act made no difference to the interception laws.

"[The] Court of Appeal was correct to conclude that the AN0M evidence did not involve an interception in contravention … of the Interception Act," Commonwealth submissions said.

The attorneys-general for New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria have intervened, along with the Director of Public Prosecutions for South Australia, which has applied to intervene in support of the Commonwealth.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/act-operation-ironside-an0m-app-high-court-preview/105275242

https://qresear.ch/?q=an0m

https://qresear.ch/?q=anom

https://qresear.ch/?q=ironside

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'We have to have a fresh approach': Sussan Ley becomes first woman to lead Liberal Party after defeating Angus Taylor

Daniel Jeffrey - May 13, 2025

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Sussan Ley has promised a fresh approach for the Liberals after defeating Angus Taylor to become the first woman to lead the party in its 81-year history.

Ley, the moderate candidate who was deputy under Peter Dutton for the last three years, narrowly saw off conservative shadow treasurer Taylor 29 votes to 25 in this morning's party room meeting.

"We have to have a Liberal Party that respects modern Australia, that reflects modern Australia, and that represents modern Australia," Ley said following her victory.

"And we have to meet the people where they are. And that's what I am committed to doing and what I am determined to do.

"I want to do things differently, and we have to have a fresh approach."

Ley will become not just the first woman to lead the Liberals, but also the first to be federal opposition leader – from either party – in Australian history.

Ted O'Brien, one of the most strident supporters of the Coalition's nuclear plan in his former role as shadow energy spokesperson, was elected her deputy.

He defeated surprise candidate Phil Thompson 38 votes to 16.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who had made a controversial defection from the Nationals to the Liberal Party late last week to stand for the deputy leadership under Taylor, didn't officially nominate for the deputy position after Taylor had been defeated.

Price later said Taylor's defeat was the reason she didn't contest the position.

She congratulated Ley on her election and said she would work with her and O'Brien, but also admitted the decision wasn't what she wanted.

"While I am disappointed Angus Taylor was not elected leader, I respect the decision made by my colleagues within the party room today," Price said.

Taylor congratulated Ley on her election, saying "becoming the first woman to lead the Liberal Party is a milestone for Sussan and our party", before making a call for unity.

"The Liberal Party has suffered a historic defeat, and we have lost many good people in this election," he said.

"This result shows we must do more to convince Australians that the Coalition is the best party to support aspiration, economic opportunity, and the Australian dream… I will contribute the best way I can to help get us back in the fight."

Ley, in turn, praised Taylor as "an intelligent, talented contributor to so many ideas" and promised him an "integral" role in the opposition.

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Questions loom over Coalition, energy policy, and winning women back

Ley inherits a Liberal Party reeling from a catastrophic election loss that will likely see the Coalition reduced to just 44 seats, and grappling with what direction to take on economic policy, how to re-engage women voters, and whether to retain its nuclear power advocacy.

Asked about energy policy, Ley said the party would take time to determine its approach but added she "absolutely" agreed with the need for Australia to reduce emissions.

"I committed to my colleagues that there would be no captain's calls by me," she said.

"I also committed… that we would work through every single policy issue and canvas the different views and take the time to get it right… we have to get energy policy as a whole right."

She signalled a departure from predecessor Peter Dutton on a number of fronts, including by committing to regularly front the press gallery media and saying she was happy to stand in front of the Indigenous flag.

Ley also said she wanted to "start with a positive relationship" with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and flagged an intention to reconnect with female voters.

"I said in my statement for candidacy in this position that we did let women down," she said.

"There is no doubt about that. It is true the number of women supporting us is declining and I want to rule the line under that.

"I don't want to see that claim for one more day.

"That means a genuine, serious engagement with the new leadership team and a new agenda – and one I will personally drive."

On top of those concerns, Ley will face discussions about the Coalition's future.

David Littleproud didn't commit to renewing the agreement between the two parties yesterday after he saw off a challenge from Senator Matt Canavan to retain the Nationals leadership.

"We're going to review all our policies and we'll do that in a calm, methodical way," he said.

Asked about the future of the partnership between the Liberals and Nationals, Ley said she was a supporter of a strong Coalition and was expecting to have a positive discussion with Littleproud.

"I'm yet to have a conversation with David Littleproud, but when I do it will be a constructive one."

Ley said she would announce her shadow cabinet later, but that it would include MPs and senators who both supported her and voted against her.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/liberal-party-leadership-sussan-ley-defeats-angus-taylor/4181ede7-50ea-48f6-8f5b-5f1d24926a58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDdhwZVIWCY

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AEC investigates after missing ballot papers found at election worker's home

Pat McGrath - 14 May 2025

Almost 2,000 ballot papers went missing on election night and were later recovered from the Sydney home of a temporary Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) worker, the ABC can reveal.

While the AEC said the incident did not affect the result in the seat of Barton because the votes had already been counted, it has not explained how the ballots ended up at the worker's home and has launched an investigation.

The AEC confirmed the worker collected a secure container holding 1,866 House of Representatives votes from a polling booth in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville after polls closed on May 3, but failed to deliver it to the commission's central counting centre.

"Ballot papers were securely packaged in the presence of scrutineers with an authorised transport officer collecting two ballot paper transport containers for delivery to a central counting centre to await further processing," an AEC spokesperson said in a statement.

"The staff member responsible erroneously returned one less container than was expected."

Error detected

Officials at the AEC only noticed the container was missing when they began a routine recount of votes in the electorate last week.

"The AEC's tracking processes for ballot paper transport containers identified that one of the two transport containers for the Hurstville polling place was not returned to the central counting centre on election night as it should have been," the spokesperson said.

The AEC recovered the container early last week.

"This issue relates to a single transport container that remained sealed and intact and has not affected the election," the AEC said.

"The uniquely coded security seals were not broken, and the AEC's purpose-built ballot paper transport container was intact.

"All ballot papers are accounted for.

"The AEC takes ballot paper handling extremely seriously."

Labor's Ash Ambihaipahar won the seat, beating Liberal Fiona Douskou with more than 60 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.

The AEC was not able to provide details about where in the worker's home the container was found.

"It was obtained from the individual's home where it was collected by permanent AEC staff," the spokesperson said.

"The only specific detail I have regarding the collection is that it was obtained during a conversation outside the staff member's house, following identification of the custody of the container."

The commission has launched an investigation into the matter but declined to say whether it had referred the incident to law enforcement agencies.

Potential impact

University of Sydney electoral law expert Anne Twomey described the incident as a "serious matter".

"Although it had no effect upon the outcome of the election in this case, it could have resulted in the election being held void in that seat if the ballots had been destroyed," Professor Twomey said.

"While concerning, this case does remind us that there are many layers of protection built into the electoral system to ensure it is secure.

"The system ensured there was accountability, although it seems likely there was some kind of failure to identify immediately that the container had not been delivered to the counting centre."

In 2013, the AEC was forced to re-run Western Australia's senate election after 1,370 ballots went missing in what a parliamentary inquiry described as the "greatest failure in the history of the Australian Electoral Commission".

Professor Twomey said the latest incident was likely to prompt a fresh inquiry into the commission's transportation of ballot papers.

"The AEC will no doubt investigate this matter thoroughly and learn from the failure," she said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/aec-investigating-after-ballot-papers-missing-barton-sydney/105286812

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Sussan Ley reframes herself as supporter of Israel

RHIANNON DOWN - 13 May 2025

Sussan Ley has lashed Anthony Albanese’s response to the Middle East conflict as a major threat to “social cohesion” and asserted her support for Israel, as she sought to distance herself from her past pro-Palestinian views.

In her first public address as Opposition Leader, Ms Ley said while she was still a “steadfast friend” of Palestinians, and criticised their leaders for “letting them down”, she had changed her views on the conflict.

Ms Ley, a former co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, said she now saw the issues through a “different prism” after a trip to Israel, a move that has been praised by Jewish leaders.

Ms Ley said in 2008 that Palestinians are “airbrushed out of existence”, but on Tuesday declared it was one of the “great privileges” of age that she could re-examine her views after the issue had been “thoroughly ventilated” with her colleagues.

“Following my appointment as deputy, I took a trip at the invitation of Julian Leeser, an outstanding colleague and dear friend, to Israel,” Ms Ley said.

“I spent a lot of time seeing what was happening on the ground.

“The impact of that trip and the changed geopolitical circumstances of the Abraham Accords, with Israel reaching out for peace to Saudi and Morocco, and then, of course, the hideous events of October 7 in Gaza, have changed my thinking on the entire subject.”

The new Liberal leader took aim at the Prime Minister and Penny Wong for their response to the Israel-Hamas war and domestic anti-Semitism, vowing to “hold Labor to account” over the issues.

In her closing remarks, Ms Ley called out Mr Albanese for allowing a sense of “isolation, fear, and real concern” for Jewish Australians to pervade.

“One of the biggest threats to social cohesion in this country is the Prime Minister’s approach to Jewish Australians and everything that happens overseas,” she said.

“I’ve reflected on that, with the hideous events in Gaza, has domestic implications.

“We have a Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, who has let down Australia in the UN and we have a Prime Minister who is intent, it seems, on letting down Jewish Australians on the streets of our cities.”

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said Ms Ley had become a “staunch friend” to the Jewish community in recent years.

“She participated in a study visit to Israel as part of AIJAC’s Rambam Israel Fellowship Program in 2022 and has been principled and informed in speaking out in support of Israel, especially during the current war with Hamas,” Dr Rubenstein said.

“She has consistently and constructively engaged with our community and listened to our concerns, and we look forward to working with her in her new role.”

Ms Ley did not name Hamas directly, but criticised the Palestinian leadership for not being “interested in peace with Israel”.

“It is not a party interested in a secure Israel behind secure borders, and it is not a party interested in a just and lasting peace,” she said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim commended Ms Ley for re-examining her views.

“She is right when she says Israel currently has no partner for peace in Gaza,” he said.

“In the face of these realities Sussan Ley has rejected the reflexively antagonistic attitudes of Israel’s perennial critics. For this she deserves our respect.”

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said the Jewish community had a “strong and constructive” relationship with the Coalition.

“We look forward to continuing that under the new leadership of the Liberal Party, and working closely to ensure the Australia-Israel connection remains strong,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/sussan-ley-reframes-herself-as-supporter-of-israel/news-story/b5963028ea8d0b5d369ab91a993fc642

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Jacinta Price ‘chickened out’ of deputy vote, say infuriated and blindsided Angus Taylor backers

Paul Sakkal - May 14, 2025

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price shocked the allies who brought her into the Liberal Party when she did not put her hand up to run as deputy once her running mate, Angus Taylor, lost the leadership ballot against Sussan Ley.

Price had not told anyone in Taylor’s camp that she would only run if Taylor won, prompting fellow conservative Phillip Thompson to nominate on the spur of the moment to fill the gap.

The Northern Territory senator’s defection from the Nationals to the Liberals last week to run on Taylor’s ticket caused bad blood between the Coalition partners and alarmed Liberal moderates worried that the maverick politician did not have the experience for the role, having been in parliament for just three years. But senior Liberals, including Tony Abbott, engineered the move believing she would energise the party’s base.

But in Tuesday’s meeting in Canberra, Price failed to put her hand up when nominations for the deputy position opened. Energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, who supported Ley as leader, immediately declared his candidacy for the deputy spot when nominations opened at 10.17am.

Price, according to several MPs in the room, turned to look towards a section of the opposition party room where her Right faction allies, including Andrew Hastie and others, were seated. She shook her head, the MPs said, indicating she would not be running.

Last-minute nominee Thompson, an up-and-coming 37-year-old from Townsville, lost the ballot to O’Brien by 38 votes to 16, but his conservative allies were relieved that he chose to create a contest and represent his Right faction.

“She totally f*cked us,” one supporter of Taylor said of Price’s blindsiding.

Similar sentiment was expressed by six Taylor supporters to whom this masthead spoke in the hours after Ley – backed by Alex Hawke’s centre-right faction and party moderates – became the first woman to lead the party.

“There’s no other explanation other than that she chickened out. The Gus [Angus Taylor] vote was first and he lost. She knew she would have lost by a bigger margin, so she chickened out,” another MP said.

Some of Taylor’s conservative supporters in the Senate were unenthusiastic about the prospect of Price as deputy leader, as she could have leapfrogged them for higher-ranking Senate positions.

Thompson, who almost won his northern Queensland seat of Herbert on primary votes alone, said he knew he was unlikely to win when he unexpectedly threw his hat in the ring, but said he was a “firm believer that you have to be in the arena to have a shot”.

“As a proud and passionate North Queenslander, I made the decision to have a crack. While I didn’t get the outcome I had hoped for, I’ll never stop fighting for North Queensland,” he said, congratulating Ley and O’Brien and pledging his support.

“Democracy in action is a beautiful process and something for which I hold enormous respect, particularly having fought under the Australian flag to protect our democratic rights.”

Price compounded the frustration among her Liberal colleagues when she appeared on Sky News hours after she pulled out of the ballot and entertained a question about moving to the lower house to potentially become the prime minister one day.

“Well, there is that,” she said when asked by host Chris Kenny about becoming the prime minister. “I know there’s a lot of Australians who’d love to see that.”

Asked if the Liberal Party would unite behind Ley, Price’s endorsement was lukewarm. “Well, that is the hope,” she said. “I will be supporting the leadership because that is what we have to do if we want to do a good job in opposition.”

Taylor’s allies in the Right, according to several MPs, do not plan to destabilise Ley’s leadership in the short term. However, they are watching closely to see if Ley rewards the powerbrokers who secured her win – including Hawke and Andrew Bragg’s NSW moderates – to the exclusion of right-wingers.

Ley appeared alive to the risk of disunity when on Monday when she said: “My shadow cabinet will include people who did support me in this room this morning, and people who did not.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/jacinta-price-chickened-out-of-deputy-vote-say-infuriated-and-blindsided-angus-taylor-backers-20250514-p5lz1n.html

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Andrew Hastie declares ‘desire to lead’ the Liberal Party

GEOFF CHAMBERS - 14 May 2025

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Andrew Hastie has declared his “desire to lead” the Liberal Party, revealed the de-industrialisation of Australia keeps him up at night and warned about the power of big tech and corporates in a podcast with a Labor-aligned think tank.

In a 50-minute podcast recorded on Tuesday after Sussan Ley pipped Angus Taylor for the Liberal Party leadership, Mr Hastie outlined his vision to connect with younger voters and focus on the four enterprise institutions of family, the home, education and small business.

Speaking on the Curtin’s Cast podcast with John Curtin Research Centre executive director Nick Dyrenfurth and RedBridge Group pollster Kos Samaras, the 42-year-old cited his young family and the pressures of commuting from Western Australia as reasons he decided not to run for leadership.

In the immediate aftermath of the Coalition’s May 3 election bloodbath, the former Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security chair and Special Air Service regiment officer was touted for leadership by senior Liberal figures after he secured primary and two-party preferred swings in his outer-metropolitan Perth seat of Canning. While Liberal MPs in capital cities across the country lost their seats, Mr Hastie increased his margin.

Mr Hastie, the son of a Presbyterian minister and public school teacher, who has three children with wife Ruth aged between three and nine, said he was focused on understanding the “problem that we’re facing as a party”.

“Leadership is going to come in many forms over the next three years. Susan Ley has just made history as the first female leader of the Liberal Party. That’s a really important role,” Mr Hastie told the Curtin’s Cast podcast.

“But leadership can’t be confined to just the position. We’ve also got to lead in the battle of ideas as well. And I think that’s where I want to make a contribution.

“I’d be foolish to say I don’t have a desire to lead. I do have a desire to lead. But the timing was all out for personal reasons. A really important thing in politics is to know where you stand. And I came to that conclusion very quickly.”

Ahead of Ms Ley finalising her frontbench next week, The Australian understands Mr Hastie is keen to step-up into a prominent role outside of the Defence portfolio he held under Peter Dutton.

Asked to identify the big policy challenge Australia must confront into the 2030s, Mr Hastie said “the thing that keeps me up at night is the de-industrialisation of Australia”.

“I worry that at some point we’ll be so dependent upon supply chains outside of this country that in a strategic crisis or a war, we’re completely cut off and alone and unable to feed our people, fuel our economy and maintain civic order,” he said.

“Because once the panic sets in, it’s very hard to arrest. That’s the thing that I really worry about, that with power prices surging, with a lot of our industry offshoring, with diminished business investment into advanced manufacturing in this country, we become a supplicant state and vulnerable to coercion.

“I would love to see the re-industrialisation of Australia so we can make stuff, so we can refine our own fuel, but also because, and I think this is what’s happening in the (United) States as well, there’s actually meaningful work.”

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After comfortably beating Labor in Canning, Mr Hastie said it was time to stop forcing people into universities if they can find meaningful work that doesn’t “saddle them with a heap of debt”.

Mr Hastie, who wants more people in parliament with real-world experience, said big tech and corporates should not be allowed to “push us around” and compromise Australia’s sovereignty.

“They have a huge say on our political system, whether we like it or not. And these are the questions that both parties, all parties need to answer going forward.”

On the four enterprise institutions of family, the home, education and small business, Mr Hastie said “I believe that our freedoms are best lived out in association and in relationship with others”.

“I’m a big believer in those little platoons and I’m not an abstract sort of person. I’m not an abstract Libertarian. (On the four enterprise institutions) I think that’s where we get to express ourselves, grow, develop, take risk, and I think that’s where the Liberal Party really needs to focus on … to get the country going again.”

Mr Hastie said before the party looks at its social media performance and campaign infrastructure, it must identify “who are the forgotten people of 2025?”.

“We’ve first of all got to have a vision and an identity as a party. I think a lot of (Gen Z and Millennials) are activist voters because the system isn’t working for them, and so they want to drop the system.”

“The question I think is how do we turn them from activist voters to prudential voters? And I think you become a prudential voter once you have something to fight for and conserve.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/andrew-hastie-declares-desire-to-lead-the-liberal-party/news-story/4070333da9f259ea114b59c158bf1ad9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4arRDMt38TY

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‘Swamp creature’ exit: Babet to quit politics after praising Kanye West’s Heil Hitler track, slamming ‘mentally ill’ left

MOHAMMAD ALFARES - May 13, 2025

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United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet says he’ll quit politics in 2028 to avoid becoming a “swamp creature” – but not before unleashing a late-night ­tirade in which he endorsed Kanye West’s Heil Hitler track and said he’d rather associate with neo-Nazis than “mentally ill” left-wing Australians.

The Victorian senator, who has a history of incendiary social media posts, told his followers in an Instagram story that the American rapper’s song Heil Hitler was his favourite of the week.

“All I said was it was a good song, right?” Senator Babet said.

“I like Kanye West. He’s a great artist … If someone else doesn’t like what he puts out, don’t buy it. Don’t listen to it. But don’t you f*cking dare tell me what I can and can’t listen to.”

He rejected accusations of anti-Semitism and said attempts to label him a Nazi were “f*cking bullshit”.

“If they’re going to try and associate me with being a Nazi – a brown immigrant from Africa – that’s f*cking bullshit. You know it. I know it,” he said.

West, who also goes by the name “Ye”, became one of the most influential musicians of his generation, until he made no secret of his admiration for Adolf Hitler in a series of social media posts on Elon Musk’s X platform.

The multi-award winning artist released a video for Heil Hitler on his X account last week and received more than 8½ million views from his 33 million loyal ­followers.

Senator Babet also defended a separate Instagram post in which he said he would “rather hang out” with members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network than with the “baby-killing, murdering, leftists”.

Asked to clarify the comment, he claimed it was made “tongue in cheek” but said he still stood by the sentiment. “There’s also truth to that,” he said. “Do you think I would want to hang out with baby-killing, murdering, leftists, absolute backwards, mentally ill, retarded, left-wing turds?”

In the same breath, he claimed he wouldn’t associate with the NSN either: “They want to f*cking deport me … because I’m brown. So obviously it’s tongue in cheek. I wouldn’t hang out with them, and they wouldn’t hang out with me, either.”

He went on to describe Australian progressive voters as “Greens voters that are mentally ill” and accused them of wanting to “tear down the family”, “do gender mutilating surgery on children” and “put kids on ­puberty blockers”.

When asked what he would say to Jewish Australians offended by his posts, Senator Babet refused to apologise. “I can listen to whatever music I like,” he said.

“If they want to be offended because Kanye West released a song, don’t download the song … But don’t tell me as a grown man what I can and can’t listen to.

“I think it’s a good song and I’m going to be buying his album. Does that make me a Nazi? No, I’m not a Nazi. I just like his music.”

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Senator Babet also revealed he was likely to quit politics after his first term in the Senate ends in 2028. “I have no desire to become a career politician,” he said. “I don’t want to become one of those swamp creatures, one of those swamp dwellers. I want to do my one term and I want to go.”

The comments have triggered furious condemnation from ­Australian Jewish leaders, who ­accused the Victorian senator of glorifying Hitler and anti-Semitism.

Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dvir Abramovich, who successfully campaigned to prevent Ye from entering Australia, said Senator Babet’s comments amounted to a public meltdown of moral responsibility.

“When a federal parliamentarian publicly declares that a track titled ‘Heil Hitler’ is his favourite of the week, alarm bells shouldn’t be ringing – they should be deafening,” Dr Abramovich said.

“Hitler is not a meme or a punch­line. His name stands for genocide, mass murder, gas chambers. It is carved into the bones of six million Jews and millions more victims. And now, a senator is casually promoting that name like it’s just another track in a playlist.

“And if that wasn’t stomach-churning enough, this same elected official says he’d rather associate with a neo-Nazi group than with Australians he dis­agrees with.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin questioned why the senator felt the need to publicly express admiration for a song ­titled Heil Hitler, created by an artist widely associated with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

“Senator Babet is trying to position himself as a martyr for free speech merely standing up for the right to listen to the music of his choice. No one denied this right. No one sought to edit his playlist,” Mr Ryvchin said.

“Perhaps the better question is who was he trying to impress in making these observations about his taste in music. These sorts of stunts might get clicks and maybe votes in the US, but our politics and politicians should be better than that.”

President of the Zionist Federation of Australia Jeremy Leibler said Senator Babet’s unhinged comments were offensive and un-Australian. “There is absolutely nothing ‘tongue in cheek’ about a sitting MP endorsing neo-Nazis, glorifying anti-Semitism, and using slurs to attack minorities – it’s a dog whistle,” Mr Leibler said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/swamp-creature-exit-babet-to-quit-politics-after-praising-kanye-wests-heil-hitler-track-slamming-mentally-ill-left/news-story/3eb865d8af5878b8e95aceeb18580202

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Xi congratulates Anthony Albanese, calls on PM to work with China to promote ‘world peace’

WILL GLASGOW - 14 May 2025

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President Xi Jinping has congratulated Anthony Albanese on his re-election, saying he wants to work with the Australian Prime Minister to strengthen their relationship and promote “world peace and stability”.

In a written message delivered on Tuesday as the Prime Minister was sworn in by Australia’s Governor-General, the Chinese leader said he had engaged in “in-depth discussions on strategic, comprehensive and directional issues” in his three meetings with Mr Albanese.

“These discussions led to important consensuses that have provided strategic guidance to improve and grow bilateral ties,” Mr Xi said, according to Chinese newsagency Xinhua.

The Chinese president said he was ready to work with Mr Albanese to “advance the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership in a steady fashion”.

“Strengthening co-operation between China and Australia is of great significance for achieving shared development and promoting world peace and stability,” said Mr Xi in comments that were also run on the front-page of Wednesday’s People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s leading newspaper.

China’s Premier Li Qiang also sent a congratulatory message, according to Xinhua, saying he wanted to work with the Prime Minister on promoting a “more mature, stable and fruitful China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership”.

The Prime Minister is expected to visit China later in the year. The warm comments underscore the notable improvement in the diplomatic relationship since 2022, even as polls find actions by China continue to stoke anxiety among a majority of Australians.

Weeks before the election, a People’s Liberation Army Navy flotilla circumnavigated Australia and conducted live fire drills in the Tasman Sea.

During the Albanese government’s first term, all of the trade bans on Australian exports to China previously worth $20 billion a year were unwound. A freeze on all ministerial contact which Beijing had imposed on the Morrison government was also lifted.

Chinese state media has welcomed the return of the Albanese government and called for it to conduct a “pragmatic China policy”.

“A sustained pragmatic and rational approach to China under Albanese 2.0 will help take the bilateral relationship to a new level of mutually beneficial co-operation,” the Global Times wrote in a recent editorial.

“Experience in recent years has shown that blindly following Washington’s lead and treating China as a strategic adversary has harmed Australia’s diplomatic independence and dealt real blows to its economy,” the Chinese party-state outlet said.

(continued)

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Wang Zhenyu, a research fellow at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at China Institute of International Studies, said “stabilising” relations with China was “one of Labor’s standout foreign policy achievements”.

“Since Albanese’s Labor Party came to power in May 2022, it has rolled back the previous Coalition’s anti-China stance and taken proactive measures to enhance dialogue with Beijing,” Mr Wang wrote this week.

“Under the direct engagement and strategic leadership of both countries’ leaders, China-Australia relations have bottomed out and rebounded, warming across the board.”

Mr Wang said Albanese’s Labor Party had “generally adopted a rational, restrained tone in all China-related statements” during the election campaign. The Prime Minister’s campaign commitment to end the ownership by a Chinese company of the Port of Darwin was not mentioned.

Some Chinese scholars have argued that the unpredictability of the Trump administration is creating opportunities for Beijing to strengthen relations with Canberra.

“Especially in a world filled with growing uncertainty, Australia wants to create more certainty by itself, rather than sitting back and waiting for external uncertainty to wreak havoc on Australia’s policy,” professor Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, recently told the Global Times.

After a flagrant intervention in the 2022 election, Beijing was much more restrained during the recent campaign.

However, editorials in state media offered insight into Beijing’s preferences. Before Albanese met President Xi at the G20 in Brazil last November, the party-state’s leading English language masthead, the China Daily, praised the Australian Prime Minister’s “strategic autonomy” and urged other leaders to use his approach as a “useful reference”.

In one of the few pieces published by Chinese state media during the election, the Global Times accused Dutton of “beating ‘the drums of war’ against China” – a phrase also used in a speech in Mandarin by NSW Labor MP Jason Yat-sen Li, a clip of which has been widely circulated among Chinese Australian voters on ­Chinese-owned social media sites WeChat and RedNote.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/xi-congratulates-anthony-albanese-calls-on-pm-to-work-with-china-to-promote-world-peace/news-story/ac2a2d07b9c40f4d731cd019183087c5

https://english.news.cn/20250513/614d505605ad427b8fc5fd5442fad3ad/c.html

>>23032055

OPINION: Why stable China ties are vital for Australia

Wang Zhenyu - May 13, 2025

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his ministers were sworn in for a second term on Tuesday after the Labor Party's landslide win in the national election. The new government's domestic and foreign policy directions have drawn widespread attention. Recently, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced that she will lead a trade mission to China this September to hold in-depth talks on education, trade and culture. Allan emphasized, "In an era of tariffs and global economic uncertainty, I want to seize an opportunity for Victoria," adding, "We have an opportunity to turn a new page in our relationship with China."

Allan's comments precisely reflect the public mood revealed by this Australian election. In fact, the vote took place against a backdrop of unprecedented global uncertainty and a "cost-of-living crisis" at home. At the crucial final stage of the campaign, the US announced it would impose "reciprocal tariffs" on most of its trading partners - even its ally Australia. That move left Australian voters feeling cold, anxious, and resentful, and caused trust in Coalition leader Peter Dutton to plummet. In the end, the Coalition suffered a crushing defeat, and Dutton himself became the first opposition leader in nearly a century to lose his own seat.

In an uncertain world, people crave stability, and Australian electoral behavior is no different: In challenging times, voters tend to stick with the incumbent government. Over the past three years, the Albanese administration has been defined by cautious steadiness. It's fair to say that stabilizing relations with China has emerged as one of Labor's standout foreign policy achievements.

Since Albanese's Labor Party came to power in May 2022, it has rolled back the previous Coalition's anti-China stance and taken proactive measures to enhance dialogue with Beijing. Under the direct engagement and strategic leadership of both countries' leaders, China-Australia relations have bottomed out and rebounded, warming across the board. Exchanges in various fields have taken positive strides, and economic and trade flows have fully recovered - earning widespread support on both sides. Throughout the election campaign, Labor, as the governing party, maintained continuity in its China policy and generally adopted a rational, restrained tone in all China-related statements. This pragmatic, steady approach won the trust of voters.

(continued)

>>23032067

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Mainstream polling ahead of the election showed that voters were almost equally confident in Labor and the Coalition on relations with the US. However, on relations with China - especially on China policy - confidence in Labor outstripped the Coalition by a full 20 percentage points. This gap underscores Australians' stronger appetite for a healthy, stable China-Australia relationship and their expectation that China-Australia free trade will help shield the economy from the shocks of economic nationalism.

Following his re-election, Albanese faces the crucial task of boosting economic growth and stabilizing foreign relations. In this context, the strategic significance of the China-Australia relationship is heightened. China is Australia's largest export market, and maintaining a stable relationship with China - solidifying and expanding exports to China - is vital for the well-being of the Australian people and for Australia's economic resilience.

On a strategic level, China and Australia need to work together to uphold the international system centered around the United Nations (UN), firmly defend the rules-based international order, and maintain the multilateral trading system. Australian society is increasingly recognizing that China is a reliable market and a trustworthy partner in a world full of uncertainty, and the China-Australia relationship provides significant certainty for Australia.

It is also worth noting that local diplomacy as well as economic ties are important aspects of the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership and are sources of vitality for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. The Australian Labor government has extensive experience in promoting local cooperation between the two countries. Protecting the enthusiasm for local diplomacy, creating a favorable policy environment for local economic and trade cooperation, and providing strong support for local diplomatic practice are also essential.

In this election, the Australian people ultimately chose the Labor Party, the side of certainty facing an uncertain world, based on their expectations of policy stability and continuity. The Labor government now has more reason to adhere to an independent foreign policy and to work toward the steady and sustained growth of China-Australia relations. In this way, the two countries can provide a more stable and favorable policy environment for mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation, striving to bring more tangible benefits to both countries and their people.

The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at China Institute of International Studies. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1333966.shtml

>>23024200

Australian labourer Caleb List feared dead in Ukraine

Andrew Greene - 14 May 2025

A Queensland labourer who travelled to Ukraine three years ago to join the fight against Russia's invasion is feared to have been recently killed in battle, but authorities are yet to locate his remains.

Sources in Ukraine have told the ABC that former Gladstone resident Caleb List, who signed up with Ukraine's armed forces in 2022, is believed to have died last month during heavy fighting in the Kharkiv region.

In an interview in 2023 with German international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), the young Australian outlined his motivation for volunteering with Ukraine's Foreign Legion shortly after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion.

"I wanted to test myself; I wanted to join the French Foreign Legion, I wanted to push myself to the extreme — so I came here with the same motivation, and I've basically done that and now I just do this because it's the only thing I'm really good at," he told DW.

During the interview, the soldier who was previously rejected by the Australian Army, described his experience serving alongside other international recruits in Ukraine's Foreign Legion.

"When you go to a Ukrainian unit you notice the whole place is clean, they have people who cook and just set up and it's nice so when you come off mission the place is nice, it's spotless," he said.

"With the [foreign] legion because they're new and new people, and because people leave and come back, they remake a lot of the mistakes — so the place is sometimes dirty, it's not as well organised, they'll leave stuff behind."

Feared dead

A figure connected to Ukraine's Armed Forces has told the ABC Mr List is believed to have been killed by artillery fire in heavily contested territory near the city of Izyum late last month, but his remains have not yet been recovered by his unit.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has declined to comment on the case, but in a statement, it reminded Australians that travel to Ukraine was considered extremely dangerous.

"The Australian government has consistently advised Australians not to travel to Ukraine or Russia since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022," a DFAT spokesperson told the ABC.

Before travelling to Europe, Mr List worked as a trade assistant at Queensland's Yarwun refinery.

While at school he joined the army cadets but his subsequent application to become an Australian soldier was rejected.

This week the ABC confirmed former Australian soldier Nick Parsons was killed in Ukraine earlier this month while working for a charity organisation dedicated to removing land mines from the war-torn country.

On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his "deepest condolences and sympathies" to Mr Parsons' family, whom he did not name citing DFAT advice, while reminding Australians to follow official warnings and not travel to Ukraine.

Asked about Mr List on Wednesday, the PM said the report of his death was "deeply troubling" and again expressed best wishes to his family while repeating the warning.

"There is a travel warning in place for a reason. Australians should not be travelling to Ukraine. It is dangerous, and people should not follow that advice."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/australian-tradie-caleb-list-feared-dead-in-ukraine/105288584

>>22986131

>>23002826

>>23007460

Larissa Waters chosen as new Greens leader

Tom Crowley - 15 May 2025

Larissa Waters has been chosen as the new federal Greens leader, replacing Adam Bandt.

The Greens held a party room meeting in Melbourne today to select a leader following the shock loss of Adam Bandt.

The race was between Mehreen Faruqi, Sarah Hanson-Young and Senator Waters. A Greens source told the ABC the role was decided by "consensus".

Senator Faruqi, who is from New South Wales, was chosen as deputy and Senator Hanson-Young, from South Australia, was chosen as manager of business in the Senate.

"I feel so strengthened by the sentiment of the room and by this amazing team," Senator Waters told reporters after the meeting.

"We've got a lot of work to do because people are really hurting and the planet is hurting, and we need a parliament that actually delivers for people and has the courage and the boldness and the heart to deliver some help to people."

A disappointing election campaign saw the minor party lose three of its four seats in the lower house after a modest drop in its national share of the first preference vote.

But the party will again exert significant influence in the Senate, where it has retained its 11 seats and is likely to be in the balance of power, meaning Labor could pass legislation with its support alone.

'We'll be back', says Waters

Senator Waters paid tribute to Mr Bandt, calling him a "wonderful leader".

"We miss him desperately … We hope to welcome him back, I can't strong-arm him just yet, but I intend to. And we intend as a party to continue to grow."

She also signalled the party would not abandon the lower house even though it was now a "Senate-dominated team".

"The Greens are in the two-party preferred now in more seats than ever before. So folks, we'll be back."

Senator Waters was first elected as a senator for Queensland in 2010, making her the second longest-serving member of the Greens party room behind Senator Hanson-Young.

She was most recently the party's Senate leader and was also a co-deputy for several years, acting as spokesperson for several portfolios including women, democracy, and climate.

She will become the fifth person to lead the Greens in the federal parliament, following Bob Brown, Christine Milne, Richard Di Natale and Adam Bandt.

Nick McKim was chosen as Senate whip, and Penny Allman-Payne as deputy whip, defeating Dorinda Cox eight votes to four.

Senator Waters signalled a "firm but constructive" approach to dealing with the government in the next parliament: "People elected us to get sh*t done, and that's what we intend to do."

Senator Hanson-Young said there were "no more excuses for being timid. People are hurting, the planet is hurting … People expect this parliament to get things done."

Senator Faruqi said the Greens should demand "more, not less" from the party.

Asked about media reports that Lidia Thorpe was eyeing a return to the party she quit over her opposition to the Voice referendum, Senator Waters said the speculation was "concocted".

"I'm not sure she wants that."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-15/larissa-waters-greens-leader/105296840

>>23035918

Greens new leader Larissa Waters, deputy Mehreen Faruqi double down on Gaza

Olivia Ireland and Rachel Eddie - May 15, 2025

Newly elected Greens leader Larissa Waters and deputy Mehreen Faruqi insist the party will maintain its focus on the Gaza war, as both senators said they would continue to condemn “genocide” in the war-torn territory.

The party’s 12 members spent almost two hours in a meeting on Thursday to decide the leadership structure after former leader Adam Bandt lost his Melbourne seat to Labor at the election on May 3.

The Greens lost three of its four House of Representatives seats – including the stunning defeat of Bandt – at the poll, as its national primary vote flatlined and party elders called into question the Greens’ “hypermilitant” agenda and the way it communicates with Australian voters.

But after the meeting to decide the leadership on Thursday, Waters and Faruqi warned the Albanese government that the minor party would not take a backward step, seeking to deliver an ultimatum to Labor about who it should work with in the Senate.

Waters, Faruqi, and fellow Greens senators Sarah Hanson-Young, Nick McKim and Penny Allman-Payne walked with arms linked to the press conference, as Waters said she felt strengthened by the sentiment in the room and called for action on the climate crisis, housing and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“We will always be there calling out atrocities, calling out a genocide and standing strong on social justice and human rights,” Waters said.

“The Labor Party have a choice. They can work with us … and help people and protect nature, or they can choose to work with the Coalition. They’re going to need to pick because they don’t have the numbers in the Senate to pass the legislation that they want to work on.”

Faruqi shared Waters’ views, arguing migrant and multicultural communities supported the party’s strong stand against “the genocide in Gaza”.

“To the right-wing media, to the billionaires, to the big corporations and to the Albanese government, this is our message: We are not going to take a step backwards,” she said.

“On climate, on the environment, on housing and for justice, for Palestine, our voters have put us there to fight for people and the planet, and that is exactly what we will be doing … this is a moment for demanding more, not less.”

Hanson-Young was considered to be a contender for the leadership positions, but said she decided not to contest because she believed the team elected was the best offering. She will continue in her role as Greens manager of business.

“This team provides stability. This team provides the skills and the grunt that we are going to need,” she said.

Waters was elected unopposed. Senator Dorinda Cox ran for deputy leader, but Faruqi won that vote of 9 to 3. McKim will hold the position of party whip and Allman-Payne will be party room chair and deputy whip.

Cox was the first party member to leave the meeting, appearing to be consoled by a Greens staff member.

The party standing by its agenda from the previous parliament goes against recommendations made by senior party figures last week after Bandt’s shock defeat and the loss of two other lower house MPs.

Co-founder of the national Greens Drew Hutton last week slammed the party for shifting focus from its environmental roots.

“The Greens have experimented with what I would call a hypermilitant approach during the last three years,” Hutton told this masthead last week.

“What will broaden their base is if they lose this terrible way they have of expressing their moral superiority over everyone else and their refusal to talk meaningfully with ordinary Australians.”

Ian Cohen, the first Greens member elected to the NSW parliament, urged the Greens to revive its focus on conservation, arguing “the environment must be a priority”.

Waters said she had nothing negative to say about Bandt, but would lead the party differently.

“I’m a different person to Adam, I’ll take a different approach,” she said.

“I lead a really strong team, and we are committed to delivering … We will be firm but constructive under this government and any future government.”

A Queensland senator, Waters was first elected in 2010 and has been seen widely as a moderate voice in the party. She was co-deputy leader of the party from 2015 to 2022.

Before her time in parliament, Waters was a community environmental lawyer at the Environmental Defender’s Office in Queensland from 2002 to 2011.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/larissa-waters-elected-new-greens-leader-20250515-p5lzcc.html

>>22914045 (pb)

>>22986131

Australia PM Albanese meets Indonesia counterpart in first international visit since re-election

Ananda Teresia and Kirsty Needham - May 15, 2025

JAKARTA, May 15 (Reuters) - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on defence cooperation and global trade on Thursday, describing Jakarta as an "indispenable partner" on his first international visit since his re-election.

Albanese, sworn into office on Tuesday after his centre-left Labor party won an increased majority in parliament, said his visit showed the priority Canberra placed on defence and economic ties with Jakarta.

"Indonesia is an indispensable partner for Australia," he said in opening remarks, meeting with Prabowo and ministers at the Presidential Palace.

He urged Prabowo to forge closer defence ties with Australia, after an agreement was struck last year covering maritime security, counter-terrorism and disaster response.

"Security is built on the sovereignty of every nation and the rules that govern all nations," he said when the two leaders addressed the media after their meeting.

Indonesia committed to completing the ratification of the defence agreement, Prabowo said.

"We will continue discussing the opportunities to improve and increase cooperation in defence sector," he said.

Trade and investment, food security, energy transition and critical minerals were also discussed, Prabowo said.

"We also invite Australia to participate more in our economy. It is important to strengthen such cooperation amid global economy uncertainty," he added.

Australia wants to increase economic ties with Southeast Asia, as it seeks to diversify export markets to reduce reliance on China, and in response to trade uncertainty caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Albanese was welcomed to the palace by dozens of soldiers on horseback, around 3,000 schoolchildren waving flags, and a military ceremony, according to the president's office.

Indonesia dismissed reports last month that Russia had requested to base military aircraft in the archipelago's easternmost province of Papua, about 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the Australian city of Darwin, where a U.S. Marine Corps rotational force is based for six months of the year.

"Indonesia's answer is no, they've made it very clear," Albanese told reporters earlier on Thursday when asked about the matter, which had drawn attention during Australia's election campaign.

Russia will try to increase its influence in the region and Australia is responding by building ties with neighbours including Indonesia, Albanese added.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst for defence, Euan Graham, said the Australia-Indonesia relationship has "avoided serious crisis for more than a decade, cooperation continues to move forward incrementally and there is greater stability than before".

Yet wide differences remain, he added.

"Jakarta sees China and Russia as vectors of opportunity more than threats and views the U.S. and China primarily through the same lens of great power rivalry. That's largely at odds with Canberra's world view," Graham said.

Indonesia is projected to be the fifth largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-pm-albanese-meet-indonesia-counterpart-first-international-visit-since-2025-05-15/

>>23035935

Prabowo’s warm words for Albanese are tinged by a Russian shadow

Zach Hope - May 15, 2025

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will back Indonesia’s inclusion in a free-trade deal that includes countries such as Japan, Canada and Mexico, in what would be a boost to the nation’s economy and further bolster its ties to Australia.

In his first foreign visit since his May 3 election win, Albanese declared in Jakarta that he would support Indonesia’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“This is the fastest-growing region of the world in human history, and Indonesia is central to that growth,” he said, before Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces commander with a murky human rights record, personally drove him to a banquet on a golf buggy.

Earlier, Albanese railed against Russia during a news conference before meeting with Prabowo, who visited Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin last year as president-elect.

Their meeting comes weeks after respected military website Janes reported that Russia had lodged a formal request to base warplanes in Indonesia’s easternmost province, Papua, just 1400 kilometres from the Australian mainland – a report Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin later denied.

“Russia, of course, will try to increase its influence,” Albanese said, while dodging questions about what Moscow had or had not asked of Prabowo and the Indonesians.

“We make very clear our position when it comes to Russia around the world – be it the brutal invasion of Ukraine, its interference in cybersecurity issues as well, its tolerance of criminal organisations that have been involved in that – are anathema to our values.”

Bound by geography

Albanese and Prabowo are both at the beginning of what will likely be a years-long co-existence inside an already-changed world and region, and geography and circumstance can be a powerful binder.

But while these vastly different men have some common interests and concerns – an unpredictable United States being just one – they diverge on others, including Indonesia’s ties with Russia.

Prabowo likes the proverb, “one thousand friends are too few, a single enemy is too many” – a clear expression of his country’s long tradition of not picking sides – and since his inauguration in October last year, Prabowo has taken this seriously, at least publicly.

His Kremlin visit last year came as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine, and while he has also visited Australia and dozens of other countries, the newly elected leader of the world’s third-largest democracy cosying up to a warmongering dictator was uncomfortable viewing for many in the West.

(continued)

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Russia and Indonesia held their first-ever bilateral military drills soon after Prabowo formally assumed the presidency. Then, in February, he welcomed Putin’s top security official, Sergei Shoigu, to Jakarta, just as he did Albanese this week.

This is the context behind the not-inconsiderable alarm in Australia when Jane's reported that Russia had requested an airbase in Papua. Indonesia’s selective denial of that report does not mean Moscow has not asked – it would dearly love a foothold in South-East Asia.

Speculation also remains – even if erroneous – that the Russians may have walked away from meetings with Prabowo or other officials feeling good about the prospects of future co-operation on this rather aggressive level.

Moscow’s ambassador to Indonesia, Sergei Tolchenov, did not deny the discussions had taken place when he wrote an article in the Jakarta Post last month, in which he told Australian politicians and academics that it was none of their business what Russia and Indonesia did together.

Australia, which makes the Americans comfortable in the Northern Territory, should look in the mirror, he said.

The reality is that Indonesia’s doctrine of non-alignment prevents Russia from plonking planes in Papua or elsewhere. This prescient point was likely discussed in the Prabowo-Albanese meeting at Merdeka Palace on Thursday, alongside matters of trade, counter-terrorism, people smuggling and a range of others in which the two nations are seeking closer co-operation.

“I think the main point [of the visit] is starting to build a personal relationship,” Australian National University associate professor Marcus Mietzner said.

“While both Prabowo and Albanese acted during the congratulatory phone call by the Indonesian president, which was put on social media, as if the two were best friends, the reality is that they are only acquainted.

“For Albanese, it will be crucial to get Prabowo interested in Australia. His predecessor, Joko Widodo, wasn’t paying much attention to Australia, and early indications are that Prabowo, too, needs impulses to look at Australia as anything more than just a geographical neighbour.”

The prime minister will fly out tomorrow for Rome, where Albanese will attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/prabowo-s-warm-words-for-albanese-are-tinged-by-a-russian-shadow-20250515-p5lzcd.html

>>22964101

>>22964102

>>22977695

Ben Roberts-Smith loses appeal over war crimes judgment

Michaela Whitbourn and Sarah McPhee - May 16, 2025

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After a seven-year defamation fight and tens of millions of dollars in legal costs, former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has failed in his bid to overturn a landmark decision that found he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

The former Special Air Service corporal launched a court challenge to his comprehensive loss against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald after a marathon defamation trial that was billed as a test of public interest reporting and a quasi war crimes investigation.

But the Full Court of the Federal Court – Justices Nye Perram, Anna Katzmann and Geoffrey Kennett – unanimously dismissed his appeal on Friday and ordered him to pay the newspapers’ costs. Roberts-Smith was not in court to hear the judgment being delivered.

The ruling was touted by Nine, the publisher of The Age and the Herald, as an “emphatic win” for investigative journalism.

In a 2023 decision, Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko upheld the newspapers’ truth defence and found Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

The appeal court said in a summary of its decision that “we are unanimously of the opinion that the evidence was sufficiently cogent to support the findings that [Roberts-Smith] … murdered four Afghan men”.

Besanko’s decision was made to the civil standard, on the balance of probabilities, rather than the higher criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

“I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,” Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, said in a statement after the decision.

“We will immediately seek to challenge this judgment in the High Court of Australia.”

The appeal hearing ran for 10 days in February last year – following a 110-day trial in 2021-22 and a 726-page judgment – and the parties had been awaiting the decision for more than a year.

The appeal court noted Besanko was “satisfied, contrary to [Roberts-Smith’s] … account, that the people whose deaths he caused, procured or agreed to were protected by the laws of armed conflict”.

“In the course of his reasons, his Honour made numerous adverse findings about the credibility of [Roberts-Smith’s] … evidence and that of witnesses called on his behalf who had testified that the killings were legitimate.

“In this appeal none of the adverse credit findings are challenged.”

Some of the appeal court’s reasons for its decision will not be made public because they contain national security information, but a portion of the judgment known as the open court reasons will be released within days.

“In order to give the Commonwealth two working days to examine the open court reasons to ensure there has been no inadvertent disclosure of national security information, the open court reasons will be impounded until 5pm next Tuesday,” Perram said.

The court made a non-publication order over the open court reasons “until either the Commonwealth notifies the court and the parties that it has no objection to publication … or 4pm on 20 May, 2025, whichever is earlier”.

(continued)

>>23041388

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Top silk Bret Walker, SC, acting for Roberts-Smith, told the appeal court last year that “the heart of our case” was that “weight is to be given to the presumption of innocence”.

He said the evidence marshalled by The Age and the Herald in defence of the lawsuit fell short of the “exactness of proof” that was expected.

But Nicholas Owens, SC, who was acting for the newspapers and is now a Federal Court judge, told the appeal court that the case was “not like a detective novel” where there could be multiple explanations for the killings.

He said that, in general, “we know who killed” the four Afghan men in question and “we know how they were killed” – by gunshot.

“The only dispute is in effect the immediate circumstances,” Owens said.

In a surprise development in March this year, a “secret recording” emerged of The Age and the Herald’s investigative journalist Nick McKenzie speaking to a witness in the defamation case, dubbed Person 17, before she gave evidence in the trial in 2022. McKenzie was an author of the articles at the centre of the lawsuit, which was launched almost seven years ago in August 2018.

That recording prompted Roberts-Smith to apply to the court to reopen his appeal before the court’s decision was delivered to allow the recording to be admitted into evidence.

The court unanimously dismissed the application to reopen the appeal on Friday, and ordered Roberts-Smith to pay the newspapers’ costs.

Tory Maguire, Nine’s managing director of publishing, said the decision was an “emphatic win for Nine” and a “great day for investigative journalism”.

“Nine has unswervingly backed our reporters and editors throughout this matter, reinforcing our longstanding commitment to quality journalism in the public interest,” she said.

“The court has confirmed the stories published by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald resulting from an investigation by award-winning reporters Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters have been proven true.”

Maguire said the decision was also vindication for the SAS soldiers who “demonstrated courage by boldly speaking the truth about what happened in Afghanistan”.

“The court did not accept there was any breach of legal privilege by Nick McKenzie and dismissed Roberts-Smith’s recent attempt to disrupt the appeal and ordered he pay Nine’s costs related to this,” Maguire said.

“Nick is an outstanding journalist, respected by his editors, colleagues at Nine and peers in newsrooms across the country.”

McKenzie said: “I want to pay tribute and express my deep gratitude to the brave SASR soldiers who not only fought for their country in Afghanistan but fought for the Australian public to learn the truth: that Ben Roberts-Smith is a war criminal.

“I also want to acknowledge the victims of Roberts-Smith, including the Afghan children and women who have lost their fathers and husbands who were murdered on the directions of Roberts-Smith.”

Roberts-Smith said he had “only ever asked for a fair and just hearing – that has not occurred”.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/ben-roberts-smith-defamation-appeal-judgment-result-outcome-today-war-crimes-allegations-20250514-p5lz4q.html

https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/services/access-to-files-and-transcripts/online-files/ben-roberts-smith-appeal

>>23041388

The seven words that ended Ben Roberts-Smith’s $1.5m appeal bid

Harriet Alexander - May 16, 2025

The dismissal of Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation appeal was clinical in its execution.

One by one, Federal Court Justice Nye Perram, on behalf of the full bench, brushed the disgraced soldier’s claims into a dustpan, and tipped them into the bin.

Dozens of sleepless nights, thousands of hours of work, millions of dollars in costs.

Lawyers estimate Roberts-Smith’s bid to overturn the court’s 2023 finding that he was a war criminal set both sides back a combined $4 million, coming on top of the $30 million spent on the original 110-day hearing.

A late bid to re-open the appeal last month alone contributed $1.5 million to the total.

Perram dispensed of it in seven words: “The application should be dismissed with costs.”

This judgment was not preceded by the same white-knuckled wait as for the original judgment, when a heaving courtroom sweated over whether the quietly spoken Justice Anthony Besanko would be persuaded that the strength of the evidence met the gravity of the accusations.

Besanko could have been forgiven for dismissing even a strong suspicion that the decorated Afghanistan veteran was a war criminal. Much bolder to leap from private intuition to public certainty.

Then Roberts-Smith’s team had turned up to the judgment in force, from the loftiest barrister to the merest legal deckhand, matched on the other side of the court by Nine’s in-house and out-of-house lawyers, a silken team of barristers, a phalanx of editors and the two journalists at the centre of the case: Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters.

Only Roberts-Smith was nowhere to be seen.

This occasion was more drizzle than sizzle, and the attendees and absentees spoke volumes about their predictions on which way the Full Court of the Federal Court would rule.

Roberts-Smith again elected not to meet his fate; he is rumoured to be overseas. His lead barrister, Arthur Moses SC, was also conspicuous in his absence.

He sent in his place a junior barrister who nobody remembered attending any of the hearings, behind whom sat Roberts-Smith’s longstanding solicitor Monica Allen.

Nine sent a full team of lawyers, but no McKenzie, who had been wounded by the emergence of a secret recording of him claiming to Roberts-Smith’s ex-lover that he had access to the ex-soldier’s legal strategy.

Roberts-Smith’s lawyers argued that the recording was sufficient grounds to re-open the appeal, and for the first time in his 23-year career, McKenzie was subjected to cross-examination in court. His integrity, and that of Nine’s legal team who were accused of using improperly accessed material, was on the line.

But in dismissing the application, the Federal Court exposed the recording as a siren call.

Roberts-Smith had dared to hope that it would discredit his nemesis McKenzie, change the course of the litigation and lead to his redemption.

Instead, he was another million dollars worse off, and the evidence that he committed war crimes in Afghanistan did not budge. Not one jot.

Because the next words uttered by Perram were that it was the unanimous view of the full bench of the Federal Court that the whole appeal should be dismissed, and one side of the room seemed to swell.

As Perram left the bench, Minter Ellison solicitor Peter Bartlett, who has been handling the matter for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times since its inception, emitted small noises of relief. Some of the lawyers were in tears. They milled and hugged.

Roberts-Smith’s lawyers gave tight smiles and left the building.

Each of the four murders that Besanko held to have occurred in his original judgment remained intact. And so did the integrity of McKenzie, whose evidence was found to obtain no significant contradictions or implausibilities.

Roberts-Smith released a statement outlining his intention to appeal to the High Court.

“I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,” he said.

Two winters have passed since the Federal Court found that on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith was a murderer and a war criminal.

The folk who sleep in the St James train tunnels not 100 metres from where Masters and McKenzie stood on the steps of the court and claimed vindication have swapped out their sleeping bags for pop-up tents.

McKenzie has moved on to stories of corruption elsewhere. Nicholas Owens SC, who fought the original case for the newspapers, has been appointed a judge.

Roberts-Smith is still shaking his fist at the sky.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-seven-words-that-ended-ben-robert-smith-s-1-5m-appeal-bid-20250516-p5lzqh.html

>>23012385

>>23012408

Australia steps up bid for Pope Leo visit as PM visits Rome for inauguration

David Crowe - May 17, 2025

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Rome: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met Catholic Church leaders in Rome ahead of the inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV, joining them at a sanctuary church that welcomes visiting Australians.

Albanese met Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli at the church centre, which also houses Australians who have come to Rome for the mass.

The church, called the Sanctuary of our Lady of Pompeii, has a connection with Pope Leo because he was elected by cardinals on May 8, the feast day for Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.

Albanese spoke briefly in the church’s rose garden, known as Domus Australia, about the importance of the inauguration mass for Australia’s 5 million Catholics.

Earlier, the nation’s top diplomat at the Vatican, Keith Pitt, was stepping up attempts to bring Pope Leo to Australia in the first papal visit in two decades, in a key message ahead of the inauguration Mass on Sunday to confirm the new pope in office.

The Australian ambassador-designate to the Holy See, also a former cabinet minister, Pitt was making the formal invitation one of the major priorities for the embassy as the new papacy begins.

In an interview ahead of the inauguration Mass, Pitt named issues ranging from climate change, artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse as areas where the Australian government would seek to work with the new pope.

He said Australia also wanted to work with Pope Leo and the Vatican on helping Pacific Island nations, a region with large numbers of Catholics.

“Part of the role of the embassy is to elevate, in the minds of those decision makers in the Vatican, why it’s so important that Pope Leo comes to Australia,” Pitt said.

“I think that this is a unique opportunity.

“So we’ll take every opportunity to continue to put forward that invitation and highlight why it’s important for the more than 5 million Catholics in Australia.”

Australia will host a global Catholic event, the International Eucharistic Congress, in Sydney in 2028, and church leaders hope Pope Leo will attend.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on May 9, hours after Pope Leo was elected by a conclave of the College of Cardinals, that he would invite the Pope to visit Australia for the congress.

Pitt is expected to have an audience with the Pope when he presents his diplomatic credentials to the Vatican, the formal step in being recognised as an ambassador to the small but highly influential state. Pitt resigned as a Nationals MP after 12 years in federal parliament when Albanese named him to the diplomatic post in February. He takes up a position role previously held by Tim Fischer, the former Nationals leader.

Pitt said his priority was to act on the prime minister’s invitation and make the case for the papal visit.

(continued)

>>23045675

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Pope Benedict XVI visited Australia for World Youth Day in 2008 and Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to Australia in 1970 as part of a pilgrimage across Asia and the Pacific.

Pitt noted that Pope Leo’s first statement as pontiff was “peace be with you” and said this was aligned with Australia’s interest in ending conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Pope Leo will mark the beginning of his pontificate in Rome on Sunday with a Mass that is expected to be attended by tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.

Albanese arrived in Rome on Friday night, local time, and was due to attend the Mass with leaders including US Vice President J.D. Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Albanese said he may be able to meet Zelensky while in Rome.

Albanese will also see some of his extended family in Rome, although his office denied a news report saying he had invited his half-brother to join Australians at the Mass.

The Mass begins at 10am local time (6pm on Sunday AEST) and is expected to follow a visit by the Pope to St Peter’s tomb in the basilica, named after the first pope.

After the visit to the basilica, church leaders present the Pope with the pallium, a vestment that signifies his assumption of the papacy, and a fisherman’s ring, the symbol of the first apostles being “fishers of men” in the gospels.

While Pitt was a critic of Labor policy on energy during his time in parliament, he said his task as an ambassador was to represent Australian policy on climate change to the Vatican.

Pope Leo raised concerns about artificial intelligence in an address last Saturday about the threat to “human dignity, justice and labour” from technology that could undermine humanity.

Pitt said Australia and the Vatican could find some common interest in the global debate about technology given the federal government’s plan to restrict social media for people under 16 and set guidelines around artificial intelligence.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/it-s-so-important-australia-steps-up-bid-for-pope-leo-visit-as-pm-lands-in-rome-20250517-p5lzyz.html

—

Q Post #3155

Mar 20 2019 22:15:06 (EST)

Keep digging, Anons.

RACHEL CHANDLER IS KEY.

Q

https://qanon.pub/#3155

>>22932371 (pb)

>>22932458 (pb)

Wong, Albanese attack ‘sham’ 13-year Russian prison sentence for Oscar Jenkins

Rob Harris - May 17, 2025

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Albanese government is appalled by the 13-year sentence in a Russian maximum-security prison handed to Australian Oscar Jenkins after he was convicted of fighting as a mercenary alongside Ukrainian forces.

The 33-year-old from Melbourne, captured in December last year while serving in Ukraine’s military, was found guilty by a court in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian authorities claimed Jenkins, a former biology teacher in China, was paid up to 800,000 rubles ($15,000) a month to participate in military operations against their troops in Ukraine. State-run media claimed he had “fully admitted his guilt”.

Wong condemned the outcome, saying: “The Australian government is appalled at the sham trial and 13-year sentence given to Australian man Oscar Jenkins.

“As a full-serving member of the regular armed forces of Ukraine, Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war.

“The Australian government has made clear to Russia that Mr Jenkins must be given the protections afforded to him as a prisoner of war. Russia is obligated to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment.”

Wong’s comments were echoed hours later by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“Let’s be very clear. This sentence by Russia is an outrage – it is a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities,” he said, speaking to reporters in Rome.

“This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation, and their decision to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law. We don’t believe this is a legitimate decision – [it is] by a legal process in Russia that is very politicised, as we know.”

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson also labelled Jenkins’ sentence a “sham”, saying his treatment had been an “egregious” breach of international law.

Paterson said Jenkins was entitled to protections as a prisoner of war and said he hoped he was set free as part of a prisoner release exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

Jenkins, who was formally charged with mercenary activity in April, was shown in images and a video released by the prosecutor’s office standing in a glass cage, his hands behind his back and his expression despondent.

The court ruling, delivered on Friday, classified Jenkins’ actions as mercenary activity, meaning he was not entitled to prisoner-of-war protections under international law. He was ordered to be transferred to “a strict regime penal colony”. It is unknown whether he was provided with legal representation; such hearings have previously been referred to as “sham trials”.

Prosecutors claimed Jenkins arrived in Ukraine in February last year at the Ternopil recruiting centre, in western Ukraine, where, after training, he received uniforms, weapons and ammunition.

He was then sent to serve in the village of Shchurove in the Kramatorsk district.

They alleged he then fought against Russian forces in the Donbas region with the 402nd Separate Rifle Battalion, part of the 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, until his capture near Makiyivka. The Kremlin maintains that foreign fighters in Ukraine are mercenaries, subject to criminal prosecution rather than the protections afforded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

(continued)

>>23045726

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Jenkins was filmed in December after his capture, bound and subjected to harsh interrogation by Russian forces.

In a video widely circulated online, he was shown being slapped and questioned about his role in the conflict and whether he was being paid to fight. The footage prompted international outrage and raised concerns over the treatment of foreign nationals in Russian custody.

Following reports that Jenkins had been killed while in captivity, the Australian government summoned the Russian ambassador in January to demand clarification.

However, new videos emerged in February showing Jenkins alive but visibly frail and possibly suffering from a broken arm. His appearance led to further concerns about his wellbeing while under Russian detention.

State media reported that during the trial, prosecutors blamed the Ukrainian Central Intelligence Agency for spreading “fake news” that Jenkins had been tortured and killed.

The Australian government has repeatedly called for Jenkins to be treated as a prisoner of war and afforded protections. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last month his government would continue to make representations to the “reprehensible regime” of Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of Jenkins.

“We will stand up and use whatever avenues we have at our disposal to continue to make those representations,” he said.

The prosecution argued Jenkins had signed a contract with the Ukrainian Defence Ministry that offered him substantial compensation for his services in the war against Russia.

Human rights groups have voiced concerns over the legality and fairness of the trial, and there is speculation that Jenkins could become part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Australia.

The Russian branch of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights has previously said that Jenkins might be released as part of a swap involving Russian spies Kira and Igor Korolev.

Jenkins’ sentencing follows the conviction in March of British national James Scott Rhys Anderson, who was jailed for 19 years by a Russian military court for his involvement in the conflict. Anderson’s conviction marked the first such sentence for a British national since the start of the war.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been approached for comment.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/oscar-jenkins-sentenced-to-13-years-in-russian-prison-after-fighting-for-ukraine-20250517-p5lzyy.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nCfkFuvsEg

https://epp.genproc.gov.ru/web/gprf/mass-media/news?item=103658314

https://x.com/BPGCC177308/status/1923484231428169995

>>22989198

>>23007467

AFP will train Pacific peacekeepers to help counter China’s influence

CAMERON STEWART - May 16, 2025

The Australian Federal Police is boosting its role in the Pacific in the face of growing competition from China by agreeing to train Pacific island police to become UN peacekeepers.

The move comes at a time when China is aggressively trying to strike police co-operation deals with Pacific Island nations as a means to gain leverage over their strategic direction.

In response, the AFP is boosting its policing engagement across the Pacific Island region as part of Australia’s broader diplomatic push to prevent China establishing footholds in the region.

Beijing has criticised the AFP for having an “impure motive” to “contain China” in its growing push to forge closer links with ­Pacific island nations.

As part of its attempts to sideline China and forge closer relationships with the Pacific, the AFP is hosting the world’s first UN Police Peacekeeping Training course tailored specifically for the Pacific region.

The course, which started in Brisbane this week, brings together 100 police officers from across the Pacific and East Timor and aims to build a deployable, Pacific-led UN peacekeeping capability.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan said the course would help “reinforce Australia’s role as a preferred partner of choice in the Pacific for sustained peace, security and prosperity in the region”.

Mr Ryan said the AFP’s presence in the Pacific had grown “exponentially” in recent years, and despite growing competition from China he believed that Australia was still the partner of choice in policing and security.

“It’s no secret that China has ambitions to increase their presence in the Pacific in the security space,” he told The Australian. “But we’ve got longstanding relationships going back decades with our Pacific partners, and they’re very strong relationships.

“We are part of the Pacific family and Australia is recognised as the partner of choice, particularly in the security space.”

AFP Deputy Commissioner Lesa Gale said the peacekeeping course provided “a powerful stage to amplify the region’s collective approach to policing and draw global attention to collaborations such as the Pacific Policing Initiative, which is a Pacific-led and Australia-backed initiative to strengthen peace and security.

The PPI, which was endorsed by Pacific Island leaders last year, has been criticised by China as having the “impure motive” of “containing China’s security presence in the region”.

“With an impure motive, the pact only exposes Australia’s attempt to intervene in regional countries’ security decision-making, and such manoeuvres prioritise US strategic blueprint while bringing limited, if any, benefits to Australia or Pacific Island Countries needs,” the state-owned Global Times said last year.

“Such an exclusive policing pact not only violates general principles in international relations but also infringes on PICs’ sovereignty to independently choose co-operation partners.”

China has stepped up its push to secure police co-operation deals across the region. It currently has police security agreements with Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu and Kiribati. Papua New Guinea turned down a Chinese proposal for a police agreement last year after pressure from Australia. In some countries like Solomon Islands and Fiji, both the AFP and Chinese police provide assistance to local police and security forces.

The AFP has lifted its presence in the Pacific to more than 100 AFP personnel stationed across the region to help fight transnational and cyber crime and provide specialist training to Pacific police forces.

The AFP chose to host the UN training course in response to a desire by Pacific nations to contribute more actively to international peacekeeping efforts.

“The inaugural (five week) course will significantly advance those ambitions, giving Pacific member nations a meaningful role internationally in helping shepherd nations from conflict to peace,” Ms Gale said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/afp-will-train-pacific-peacekeepers-to-help-counter-chinas-influence/news-story/3d5993ff6d1c34abb7548aa10b16e388

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnibS9yawUI

>>23032055

>>23032067

Taiwan urges Australia to defy China on Trump-proofing trade pact

Matthew Knott - May 17, 2025

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Taiwan is urging Australia to stare down opposition from Beijing and support its admission to a sweeping regional free trade pact to help buffer it from the volatility of Donald Trump’s tariff gyrations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced during a visit to Jakarta on Thursday that Australia will back Indonesia’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but Taiwan’s request to join the pact has been stalled since 2021.

Australia is serving as the rotating chair of the 12-nation grouping this year, giving it responsibility for guiding the group’s activities and priorities.

“We definitely call for Australia’s support of Taiwan’s accession to the CPTPP, which we see as the gateway to future trade,” Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Australia, Douglas Hsu, said in an interview with this masthead.

Australia does not recognise Taiwan as a state, meaning its top envoy is known as the head of its economic and cultural office rather than an ambassador.

“Australia and Taiwan have a complementary trade partnership, we believe that we can meet the high standards of the CPTPP regulations and we have a good track record dealing with other trading partners.

“The CPTPP is a trade mechanism, so we definitely will urge all the members to review Taiwan’s case based on the merits instead of the geopolitics.”

Taiwan’s push to join the pact – which covers around 15 per cent of global trade – has been given increased impetus by Trump’s decision to announce a crushing 32 per cent tariff on all Taiwanese imports. The tariffs have since been suspended for 90 days alongside all the US president’s other reciprocal tariffs.

China – whose own application to join the partnership is under review – has fiercely opposed Taiwan being admitted to international trade pacts and multilateral bodies as it claims the self-governing democratic island as part of its sovereign territory.

Referring to China’s opposition to its membership bid, Hsu said several member states had “told us they suffer a kind of pressure from a country that is not currently in the CPTPP itself, so they have some hesitations to agree to let Taiwan in at the moment”.

Hsu praised Australia for backing Taiwan’s bid to be given observer status at the World Health Organisation despite Beijing’s opposition, declaring: “You can definitely stand firm against any kind of coercion.”

Hsu said that Taiwan had been an active member of the World Trade Organisation and APEC for decades, making it a natural fit for the CPTPP, which evolved from the Trans Pacific Partnership when the United States withdrew in 2017.

(continued)

>>23045840

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A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said consensus was required among the 12 members of the trade pact for new entrants to be admitted.

“Australia and Taiwan have highly complementary economies and a valued trading relationship across industries including agriculture, energy and tourism,” the spokesperson said.

“Any economy seeking to join CPTPP must meet the agreement’s high standards, have a record of complying with international trade commitments, and gain consensus support from CPTPP members.”

Malaysia and Singapore are seen as some of the states most reluctant to support Taiwan’s bid because of their close ties to Beijing.

Costa Rica has been invited to join the pact, even though it submitted its application a year after Taiwan and China.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday expressed his “appreciation and gratitude” to Albanese for agreeing to support his nation’s bid to join the CPTPP, which he believes would provide a major boost for Indonesian exporters.

Taiwan is Australia’s seventh-largest export destination, with Indonesia coming in at number 10.

Hsu said Taiwanese businesspeople were flocking to Australia to seek export opportunities, especially in the green energy sector.

“If they continue to do business with the United States they will have to deal with those tariff issues, so they have to find new market opportunities and Australia is definitely a good market for them,” he said.

Lien Yu-ping, a senior official from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in April that Australia’s tenure as CPTPP chair had opened an important window of opportunity for Taiwan to join the pact.

Lien said that, unlike Taiwan, China was clearly not qualified to join the grouping “given Beijing’s extensive use of subsidies and the lack of transparency of state-owned companies”.

Ratings agency S&P affirmed Taiwan’s AA+ long-term credit rating in April, praising the semiconductor powerhouse’s “vibrant and highly competitive electronics manufacturing sector”.

Albanese alarmed Taiwan in 2022 when he appeared to rule out Taiwanese entry into the pact by stating it was only for “recognised” nation states, rather than economies.

The text of the agreement makes clear that any state or separate customs territory may become a member, meaning Taiwan is eligible.

Hsu said Beijing had been intensifying its harassment of Taiwan, including by holding two days of war games in April featuring long-range, live-fire drills.

He said Taiwan was taking preparations for a possible Chinese invasion or blockade of the island “very seriously”, even though the prospect does not appear imminent.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/taiwan-urges-australia-to-defy-china-on-trump-proofing-trade-pact-20250516-p5lzpq.html

Sex abuse survivor urges Timor-Leste president not to pardon paedophile ex-priest Richard Daschbach

Vonia Vieira, Doug Dingwall and Nick Sas - 17 May 2025

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A woman who survived sexual abuse at the hands of a convicted paedophile priest fears he will hurt her again if the Timor-Leste government succeeds in having him pardoned.

Defrocked priest Richard Daschbach, a United States citizen, was convicted by a Timor-Leste court in December 2021 after being found guilty of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged young girls under his care.

The high-profile trial and conviction were the first of their kind in the staunchly religious nation, where about 97 per cent of the population identifies as Catholic.

Daschbach, now 88 years old, has had the strong support of Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, who attended his 2021 trial and controversially celebrated Daschbach's birthday at the time.

This week it was revealed Timor-Leste's government had proposed that the ex-priest be pardoned and released from prison.

Mária, who Daschbach sexually abused when she was a child at the Topu Honis children's shelter in the country's remote west, is calling for Timorese President José Ramos-Horta to reject the government-backed proposal to release him.

"If he gets out, he could commit his evil deeds to other women," Mária, who the ABC has given a pseudonym for safety reasons, said.

"It looks like he will go back to the Topu Honis orphanage [where he committed his crimes] and could hurt our hearts as victims who have attended [his] trial in court."

Mr Ramos-Horta must decide whether to grant Daschbach's release by Tuesday, to coincide with the country's annual Independence Day celebrations.

It is a tradition for convicted criminals to receive pardons on that day.

The proposal to pardon Daschbach only four years into his 12-year prison term has faced a backlash from both advocates of victim-survivors and opposition MPs.

Legal aid groups in Timor-Leste have called on Mr Ramos-Horta to meet victim-survivors before making a decision on the matter.

Observers also warn the proposal to pardon Daschbach will retraumatise victim-survivors and send a dangerous message to Timor-Leste about child sexual abuse and gender-based violence.

"He was found guilty and admitted to terrible crimes against young girls," said Sara Niner, a Monash University senior lecturer who has researched Timor-Leste for 20 years.

"The man should die in jail."

'We will be afraid'

Mária said she and other victim-survivors lived in fear before Daschbach was convicted and imprisoned four years ago.

"We looked for people to hide us," she said.

"When he went to prison, we felt free, we were not afraid," she said.

But she fears that will change if he is released and says victim-survivors will suffer even more.

"If he does get out of prison, we'll be afraid again, because as victims, what we say, people won't believe us again," she said.

"People can provoke us again."

(continued)

>>23045901

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Daschbach spent decades as a missionary in Timor-Leste's remote enclave of Oecusse after moving to the country in 1966, when it was a Portuguese colony.

He was a figure in the nation's fight for independence and was once highly regarded for founding the Topu Honis, or Guide To Life, children's shelters that cared for orphans and children and youth from impoverished families, people with disabilities, and women who fled domestic violence.

But Daschbach was expelled from his Catholic congregation in 2019 after admitting to sexual abuse of minors, and the previous year, he was expelled from the Church de Santo Antonio de Motael in the capital Dili.

He later faced charges of child sexual abuse, as well as child pornography and domestic violence.

Jurídico Social, which represents 15 survivors of sexual abuse committed by Daschbach, said Mr Ramos-Horta should meet the convicted paedophile's victims before deciding on a pardon.

"The sentence imposed reflects the court's assessment of what was legally just and proportionate, based on the facts of the case, the applicable law, the accused's advanced age, and the defence arguments presented in relation to the crimes committed," it said in a written statement.

"The sentence was upheld at the appeal level.

"Should [Mr Ramos-Horta] wish to hear the voices and perspectives of the victims regarding the proposal for a pardon or reduction of sentence, as required by law, the victims stand ready to meet with him."

Mária said she wanted to speak directly to Mr Ramos-Horta.

"We did not lie about it," she said.

"If the president wants to make a decision to release him from prison, then the president is saying he wants to make us suffer."

The ABC approached Mr Ramos-Horta and his office for comment.

'It will send a message'

Opposition MPs have voiced their condemnation of the government move to have Daschbach pardoned.

Fretilin Party MP Nurima Alkatiri said she was concerned about the impact it would have on victim-survivors.

"By hearing this, they most probably are living their traumas all over again," she said.

"This was a very serious crime and it was not easy for the victims or survivors to come forward and report it."

Dr Niner said the proposal to pardon Daschbach was not surprising given Mr Gusmão's previous support for him.

The ABC asked Mr Gusmão's office to clarify his role in the move to have Daschbach pardoned, but it did not respond to questions before deadline.

Dr Niner said the proposal sent the wrong message because Timor-Leste was just starting to speak about issues relating to sexual abuse.

"These things have been hidden and covered up," she said.

"It will send a message to the wider community that these sorts of crimes are pardonable … that it should be tolerated. And that it should be hidden and covered up."

Dr Niner said Mr Ramos-Horta should reject the proposed pardon.

She also said the government should withdraw it altogether.

"[We should be] thinking about the effect on the victim-survivors," Dr Niner said.

"These girls have survived and continue to rebuild their lives.

"Think about how this would affect them instead of focusing on a perpetrator of sexual abuse."

For Mária, there is an anxious wait until Mr Ramos-Horta makes a decision on Daschbach's future.

"I hope he doesn't get out from prison," she said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-16/timor-leste-paedophile-priest-pardon-proposal-daschbach/105295730

https://qresear.ch/?q=Richard+Daschbach

>>22685705 (pb)

Victorian sisters abused by paedophile priest say High Court decision has halted quest for compensation

Richard Willingham - 14 May 2025

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Sisters Bernie and Trish have not had a restful night since they were abused by a paedophile priest in the 1970s.

"You don't sleep afterwards like a normal human sleeps. You're never carefree again,'' Bernie said.

To sleep soundly, the sisters need to know no-one can come through their bedroom doors, so their husbands made them special wooden jams to lock them in place.

"You can have happy days, and you can do things, but you're not that innocent,'' Bernie said.

"You never, ever become that carefree kid."

The sisters were abused by notorious paedophile priest Bryan Coffey — who is now dead — and the pair are pursuing the Catholic Church for compensation.

But the sisters' legal pursuit is in jeopardy after the High Court made it harder to find the church vicariously liable.

Coffey was never convicted of the women's abuse, but Trish received a letter of apology from the Ballarat bishop's office in 2015.

Another victim, known as "DP", was also abused by Coffey when he was a five year old in Port Fairy in south-west Victoria.

In 2021, he was awarded $200,000 by two Victorian courts, which found the church was vicariously liable for the harm caused by Coffey.

But the church appealed that ruling to the High Court and won, because Coffey was not an employee — instead, he had a relationship of a spiritual nature with the church.

"This is people pushing words around on a piece of paper as if we don't even exist anymore. And we've felt insignificant for most of our lives," Bernie said.

"It's really, really shit to do it when they have knowledge that he did this to us."

The landmark decision late last year has placed pressure on state governments to retrospectively change the law.

"We just need someone to listen to say that this is not right. We need to make these changes to help everyone. It's unfair that every time they find an avenue, a new lawyer finds a new way of doing things [to defend the church],'' Trish said.

High Court decision has 'dire' consequences, advocate says

On Wednesday, Victoria's upper house will debate a private member's bill to hold institutions to account by making it easier to find them vicariously liable.

The idea that Coffey was not an employee is fanciful, the sisters said.

Their lawyer and longtime victim-survivor advocate Judy Courtin said Victoria used to be a leader in tackling institutional abuse, but was falling behind.

"Once again, and despite all the work done by the royal commission, parliament and others to ensure victims of institutional child abuse might receive justice, the church has secured dispensation from responsibility, this time via a technical argument before the High Court,'' Dr Courtin said in a letter to the state's Attorney-General.

"The consequences of this decision are dire."

Ms Courtin said some of her clients pursuing similar action were suicidal as a result of the High Court ruling.

Law reform has the backing of various victim-survivor groups and the Australian Lawyers Alliance.

The issue has been taken to the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, where it has been discussed, but no plan of action has been developed.

(continued)

>>23045988

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Victorian government rejects upper house bill

Victoria is under pressure, including from government MPs, to act first.

The Legalise Cannabis Party bill to retrospectively change the law is the first step, and the party has tabled a similar bill in the NSW.

"This is about victims and survivors having opportunity to tell their story, to have their day in court and an opportunity to heal,'' Victorian Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne said.

Her NSW colleague Jeremy Buckingham said the High Court decision invited the states to legislate.

"It is deeply immoral and unreasonable that subsequent to the High Court's decision the perpetrators and the institutions in which they served cannot be held liable for these abhorrent crimes. The current situation cannot stand, and we will continue to fight until the law is changed,'' he said.

Victorian Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny has met with victim groups and is considering options for reform. The state's preference is for a national approach.

"We have always sent a clear message to child abuse survivors — we stand with you in your fight for justice and always will,'' Ms Kilkenny said.

The Victorian government will not support the Legalise Cannabis Party bill as it believes it is too broad.

"We would need to do more work to understand the legal risks and potential unintended impacts on community, volunteer and not-for-profit organisations,'' Ms Kilkenny said.

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said he understood "the High Court's finding relating to vicarious liability for institutional child sexual abuse is upsetting and traumatising for victim-survivors".

"NSW in 2018 changed the law to extend vicarious liability to individuals who are akin to employees, such as priests and volunteers, but that amendment was not retrospective," he said.

"The Standing Council of Attorneys-General has agreed to consider the impacts of the High Court decision and potential options for reform."

Bishop says Victorian court decision was 'unjust'

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird said the church believed the Victorian court's decision to impose vicarious liability on the diocesan community was "excessively broad" and "unjust".

He said that prompted the decision to take the issue to the High Court.

"The Victorian court's decision seemed to me so vague as to mean that a diocesan community could be held vicariously liable for any actions that a priest did anywhere, anytime. I consider that it would be unfair to impose such a wide liability on a diocesan community,'' he said.

Bishop Bird also said there would be "additional unfairness" if the state introduced a retrospective fix.

He said the diocese would continue to provide compensation in cases where there was evidence it had been negligent in safeguarding.

Trish believed the church was deliberately trying to stall the legal process, hoping that people like her and her sister would die.

"A lot of their victims are getting older and sicker, or a lot are dying and a lot have [died by] suicide. I think they think we will eventually die out and it'll all be cleaned up," she said.

Thinking about the past too painful for survivors

When the girls were growing up in Ouyen, in the Mallee in Victoria's north-west, in the 1970s, they did not realise they were both being abused.

Thinking about life before the abuse is too painful.

"You don't want to think about that time," Bernie said.

"So, you lose all the happy memories pre the time, because you just don't want to think backwards.

"So, all the fun stuff … I won't even go there."

"It seems disrespectful to our families, but it's just hard,'' Trish said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/victoria-sisters-catholic-church-abuse-bryan-coffey/105286662

https://qresear.ch/?q=Bryan+Coffey

>>23045726

Albanese to meet Zelenskyy amid moves to secure release of Jenkins

Stephen Dziedzic - 18 May 2025

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Rome in the wake of the Inauguration Mass for Pope Leo XIV, as the government intensifies its efforts to free Australian man Oscar Jenkins from a Russian jail.

Jenkins was captured in December last year after fighting for Ukraine, and earlier this week he was sentenced to 13 years in a Russian "penal colony" for fighting as a mercenary in the conflict.

Mr Albanese slammed that decision as an "outrage" and called the legal process in Russia "very politicised" and invalid.

He also said Russia was abrogating its responsibilities under international law because it had declared Jenkins a mercenary rather than an enemy combatant, which would impose additional obligations on Moscow.

"It is a continuation of the way that they have behaved, abrogating their international responsibilities," he said.

"This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation and to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law."

The prime minister is expected to discuss Jenkins with the Ukraine president when they sit down on the sidelines of the massive gathering in Rome.

Prisoner swap talks

Some analysts have speculated Australia might try to secure his freedom as part of a broader prisoner swap deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Both countries made an in-principle agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners during a meeting held in Türkiye this week, although the two countries remain far apart on the fundamental issues that would underpin a deal.

Any prisoner swap involving Jenkins might also be complicated by Russia's decision to declare him a mercenary rather than a prisoner of war.

Mr Albanese told journalists on Saturday that the meeting with Mr Zelenskyy was not yet locked in because both countries were still trying to lock in the final details around timing.

The two men are among multiple world leaders at the Papal Inauguration who are trying to juggle meetings on the sidelines of the historic event.

Australia has backed the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, but Mr Albanese has said repeatedly that any peace pact must respect Kyiv's interests.

Mr Jenkins was captured late last year while serving under Ukraine's military in the Donbas region, and was filmed being slapped in a video shared online.

The government has repeatedly called for him to be freed by Russia.

Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was "appalled" by the "sham trial" and sentence handed to Jenkins.

"We continue to hold serious concerns for Mr Jenkins," she said.

"We are working with Ukraine and other partners, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to advocate for his welfare and release."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-18/albanese-and-zelenskyy-meet-in-rome-oscar-jenkins-sentence/105306076

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieCzcUx3Bjw

>>22986131

>>23027918

Sussan Ley: ‘We lost the flag, but we’re ready for a new season’

Sussan Ley - 18 May 2025

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If you are one of the millions of dedicated footy fans, if you have barracked for one of our incredible Olympians or if you have been in a stadium cheering on the mighty Tillies, you will know you can’t always be on the winning side.

As a Sydney Swans supporter I know after the loss of a grand final, when you get towelled up you don’t give up.

You don’t drop your team or your belief in it either. You get a bag of ice, you watch the tapes and you get to work rebuilding. You do the work to come back stronger and faster next season.

As someone who has served as an MP for the Liberal Party for almost 25 years, I have experienced both success and defeat. Just days ago we were handed a big loss that we must accept with humility.

Despite the result, the Liberal Party remains the most successful political party in Australian history. We have won more flags than any other team.

Our party has, more than any other, helped shape Australia into the prosperous, strong and fair society it is today.

But we have to face up to the fact that despite our best efforts, we have failed to connect with a changing electorate.

We have lost the trust of women and we have not convinced younger Australians that we have a plan to provide a fair go for their generation. We need to focus on renewing the compact we have had with Australians who live in cities, helping them deal with a rapidly changing economy and rising prices.

We have work to do. The reality is in recent elections we have failed to meet the expectations of the Australian community. We have to show the nurses, small business owners, tradies, teachers, farmers, parents and retirees, who ask for little but contribute a lot, that we understand their aspirations.

Australians sent a clear message at the election. We must listen, change and develop a fresh approach. To take a term from footy, we need to look at our system.

We need to understand what sort of team we are, and we need to come up with a new agenda to take to the Australian people.

Now more than ever, the federal Liberal Party must respect, reflect and represent modern Australia.

There is enormous talent in my partyroom. One of our biggest strengths is the different backgrounds my team members have and the different life experiences that have shaped them.

A diversity of opinions is not, as many commentators would have you think, a sign of weakness. My team cares about the future of our party because it knows we have the right values to keep Australians strong and secure.

As leader, I have committed to a full assessment of why we lost the election.

Properly understanding the causes of our defeat helps us determine the direction in which we must head.

I am optimistic we can rebuild and regain the trust of Australians because our party has been here before.

Following the loss of the Fraser government we commissioned the Valder Report. “Facing the Facts” was a comprehensive review that drew on views across our great party and the community. It set us on a course through a difficult period for our party.

We need to ensure our response to this recent defeat is equally comprehensive and consultative. But as we work out why we failed to win the flag at this election, and decide the path forward, there are things I can make clear are not going to change.

Our policies are up for review. But our values are not.

(continued)

>>23053614

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The Liberal Party I lead will not be altering our enduring commitment to what is best for Australia’s national interest. We will always stand for lower, simpler and fairer taxes – not as an economic ideology, but because we trust people to spend their own money more than we do the government.

We will always take education seriously, not for slogans or funding battles, but because knowledge and critical thinking are so important – especially for our children.

We will always support families, not just with payments, but with policies that respect their choices – in childcare, housing, education, and retirement.

And we continue our steadfast support of our alliances and security agreements such as ANZUS and AUKUS, because we must have an urgent, honest conversation with Australians about the deteriorating geopolitical environment in our region.

The next steps for our party are focused on listening to the community and rebuilding our movement.

But we will never shy away from our timeless values, which will always underpin our policy development processes.

We are ready to do the work; we are up for it; we will take a good hard look at ourselves. Preseason is about to begin and I know my team is hungry to get to work.

Sussan Ley is the Leader of the Opposition.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/sussan-ley-we-lost-the-flag-but-were-ready-for-a-new-season/news-story/7c0f3ba66852ee880d10bcada24a9fbc

>>23012385

>>23012408

>>23045675

Pope Leo vows not to be an autocrat, receives the ring of office

David Crowe - May 18, 2025

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Vatican City: The faithful came in their thousands to see Pope Leo XIV begin his work as one of the world’s most powerful spiritual leaders, in a ceremony that combined ancient symbols and modern statecraft.

Waiting since dawn, patiently and sometimes joyfully, onlookers crowded into the square where Robert Prevost, son of a school superintendent and a librarian, was elevated to the papacy to lead 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.

Deepest of all the symbolism was Pope Leo’s visit to a tomb before the inauguration Mass to venerate the bones of St Peter – the bishop of Rome almost two millennia ago.

The crowds began taking their seats in the square soon after dawn, on a warm morning in Rome under blue skies.

Joining the faithful were national leaders, who networked before the Mass in their places at the front of the inauguration, proving the diplomatic reach of the Vatican.

US Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat in the same area as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen and Prince Edward, representing King Charles.

Zelensky and Vance shook hands – more than two months after the US vice president berated the Ukrainian president in the White House.

Behind the scenes at the Mass, Rubio has spoken of the Vatican as a possible third party to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, highlighting the potential for the new Pope to become a trusted broker between states.

The informal talks before the Mass gave Prime Minister Anthony Albanese time to speak with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and others.

He met the Pope soon after the Mass, shaking hands briefly along with other leaders within the Vatican.

Albanese was due to meet Zelensky and von der Leyen in separate talks after the Mass, as the ceremony gives way to an informal leadership gathering in Rome.

The Vatican said the Pope would meet with Zelensky the same afternoon.

The pontiff took his first Popemobile ride through St Peter’s Square ahead of the Mass, waving from the back of the all-electric, open-back Mercedes truck to the crowd that waved flags and cheered “Viva il Papa!”

The bells of St Peter’s Basilica tolled as Pope Leo waved from the back of the truck, which looped slowly through the square. The crowd cheered, with some waving Peruvian, American and Holy See flags – in recognition that the Pope, born in Chicago, had served as a bishop in Peru for more than two decades.

While the funeral Mass for Pope Francis was a sombre ceremony on April 26, the inauguration of Leo began as a celebration for a new and – by all signs – popular Pope. Worshippers from around the world sang, waved national flags and mingled while they waited for the service to begin.

The Mass filled St Peter’s Square, which has a capacity of about 80,000 people, and the crowd spilt into the streets beyond. The Vatican estimated 150,000 gathered for the Mass.

In a homily broadcast around the world, Pope Leo criticised the global economic system and said it “exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest”.

He emphasised love as the mission of the church, contrasting this with trying to capture others by force, religious propaganda or power.

He said he would govern “without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat” and acknowledged the decision by the College of Cardinals to choose him to lead the church.

“I was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother,” he said.

(continued)

>>23053629

2/2

Pope Leo, born in Chicago in 1955, became the first North American to be made pontiff when the College of Cardinals elected him on May 8 to succeed Pope Francis, the first South American pontiff.

Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli, in Rome for the inaugural Mass, said the reaction to Leo suggested his first message had resonated with people around the world, including Australians.

“People of all kinds see Pope Leo as a leader of the world – not just for Catholics,” he told this masthead.

One example, he said, was the way Pope Leo spoke of new issues for humanity such as artificial intelligence, confronting ethical questions over the new technology.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, also in Rome, described the Pope as someone who wanted to ease differences between people.

“I think he’s a very centred and centrist pope, and I think there’s been lots of signs of that already,” he said.

“He’s centred on Christ. That’s his big message, again and again, about what Christ brings. I think he’s not going to be one to provoke storms. He’ll be much more one to pour oil on troubled waters.

“In a very divided world, in a polarised culture and politics, he’s going to be one for bringing people together. I think you see that in his messages so far, and I think that is very much his personality, too.”

Pope Leo prepared for the Mass by receiving a vestment known as a pallium to signify his elevation to the papacy. Shaped in a white band and woven from wool, the pallium is seen as a symbol of the lamb Jesus carried on his shoulders, and the role of the pope as shepherd of the faithful.

The previous pontiff, Pope Francis, described the pallium as a symbol of those the shepherd looked after.

In one of the most important moments during the Mass, Leo received the Fisherman’s ring, signifying the role of St Peter and all later popes as the “fishers of men” in church tradition.

While Pope Francis departed from custom by choosing a silver ring, the Vatican distributed images of the ring for Pope Leo showing St Peter on a gold background.

Unseen by those in the square, Pope Leo prepared for the Mass by descending to the foundations of St Peter’s Basilica to venerate the bones of St Peter, who was put to death by the Romans in AD 68 because of his faith.

Archaeological work at St Peter’s Basilica uncovered more of the necropolis beneath the building in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to the discovery of the bones of a man aged in his 60s. Pope Paul VI said in 1968 that these were the remains of St Peter.

There is no coronation for the pope, but there has traditionally been a recognition that he is a head of state, given Vatican City is the world’s smallest country.

The last pontiff to be crowned as a king was Pope Paul VI in 1963, who wore the “triple tiara” to represent the three roles of the pontiff as father of kings, governor of the world and vicar of Christ.

Pope Paul was given the tiara, which featured pierced silver and three gold bands set with precious gems, by the people of Milan. But he set it aside as a symbolic gift to the poor one year after his papacy began. No pope has been crowned since.

The Mass ended with sustained applause across St Peter’s Square as Leo XIV returned to the Vatican, confirmed in office with the Fisherman’s ring. His next duty was to speak with leaders from an estimated 150 countries, ranging from presidents to princes. One by one, he shook their hands.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/thousands-gather-under-blue-skies-for-pope-leo-s-inauguration-20250517-p5m035.html

>>23012385

>>23012408

>>23045675

Another Catholic in the crowd: Anthony Albanese joins thousands at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration

LYDIA LYNCH - 19 May 2025

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In a sea of world leaders and ­ecstatic Catholics waiting for the era of Leo XIV to officially begin, Anthony Albanese stood out as much as any cardinal or nun in his Akubra.

A Prime Minister at the height of his powers was among hundreds of dignitaries in Rome on Sunday, as he waited for the new Pope’s inauguration mass alongside the likes of JD Vance, Giorgia Meloni, new German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prince Edward standing in for the King.

Mr Albanese started his time in the Holy See with Australian bishops admiring the masterpieces and the godliness of a church that has stood for thousands of years.

And he was due to end the day firmly in the present with meetings with Europe’s top official, ­Ursula von der Leyen, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky scheduled.

But for a few moments, Mr Albanese was just another Catholic in the crowd watching the first American pope take his place in a 2000-year-old story.

“When Pope Leo gave his address after his election, he spoke about peace and justice in the world,” Mr Albanese said ahead of the mass. “And following on from what I think was an extraordinary role that Pope Francis played in sending out that message of justice and looking after the vulnerable and the poor … is important in today’s world, where we have so much turbulence and people are looking for some constancy, and they’re looking for higher values and a belief, that is important.”

Wearing a plain white cassock and a beaming smile, Pope Leo glided through St Peter’s Square in an electric, open-topped popemobile before he was inaugurated as leader of the globe’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Ahead of a ceremony soaked in ancient pomp and ritual, the 69-year-old thrilled crowds of faithful with his debut tour of the square with waves, stopping his procession to bless a baby.

Hundreds of thousands of gleeful pilgrims thronged the ­Vatican’s cobbled surrounds on Sunday to witness a new chapter in the history of the world’s oldest and largest church begin.

Thousands of police officers – including sharpshooters on the rooftops and bomb disposal squads on the ground – guarded a ceremony that was full of the world’s leaders.

Leo, born in Chicago in 1955 and elected the 267th pontiff in a secret conclave last week, has been a lifelong servant of the poor.

Like his predecessor, Pope Francis, he opted for simple attire for his lap of St Peter’s Square ­before changing into golden vestments for his inaugural public mass.

Crowds had begun gathering since dawn to secure prime position in the sun-soaked piazza, hoping to get close to the new Pope, who holds citizenship from both the United States and Peru.

The day contained special meaning for American Josefina Atamiranda who is studying theology at the Angelicum in Rome – the same university where Pope Leo received his doctorate in canon law.

“It is a blessing to be able to be here for this historic moment. It is a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” she told The Australian from the centre of St Peter’s Square.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people here but somehow it feels like home.”

(continued)

>>23053647

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After making his way inside the basilica, Leo knelt at the tomb of St Peter, considered the first pope, and was then bestowed the symbols of the papacy: the lamb's wool stole, known as a pallium, and the fisherman’s ring, which will be smashed when he dies.

The pallium, which was woven by Benedictine nuns, signifies his role as shepherd and is a fitting symbol for a pope who faces the challenge of uniting a divided ­global flock.

The son of a teacher and a ­librarian, Leo takes over the ­leadership of a church still dealing with the fallout of the widespread child sex abuse scandal, and grappling with modern world issues.

In meetings throughout the week he had repeated his call for peace and emphasised the importance of a family built around a “stable union of a man and a woman”, and defended the rights of the unborn.

The jubilation, thick in the air on Sunday, was a very different mood to the solemnity that cloaked the city just weeks ago when hundreds of thousands gathered in the very same streets to farewell Pope Francis.

The contrast was not lost on Perth’s Archbishop Tim Costelloe, who attended Francis’s ­funeral on April 26 and returned to Rome to witness Leo’s formal accession to head of the Catholic Church.

“When you reflect on the death of Pope Francis and the enormous number of people who came for his funeral to express their gratitude, and now the excitement about the election of Pope Leo, it is an indication of the papacy to speak into what is often a very troubled situation around the world,” Mr Cottesloe said.

“I think that helps to explain that not just Catholics, or even just Christians, but people generally are interested and excited and filled with a sense of hope.”

The Australian ambassador-designate to the Holy See, Keith Pitt, a former Nationals MP and cabinet minister, took up his ­Vatican posting just weeks before Francis’s death.

“Following a period of great sadness with the passing of Pope Francis, this is now a time of renewal, great joy and celebration. There is a lot of excitement,” Mr Pitt told The Australian. “I got reminded again today that Pope Leo does love Tim Tams, so having a Pope who knows and admires Australia and its people, as I’m sure others have before him, but just the fact that he has visited, I think that will make a real difference.”

Mr Pitt is expected to have a private meeting with Leo in coming weeks, where he will present his diplomatic credentials to the Vatican along with a ceremonial gift for the pontiff.

“I wouldn’t want to pre-empt what I may or may not take, but you can be assured it’ll have an Australian flavour,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/another-catholic-in-the-crowd-anthony-albanese-joins-thousands-at-pope-leo-xivs-inauguration/news-story/907feb8623d2658e7b1a7255062813ed

>>23053629

Europe seeks defence pact with Australia as tanks head to Ukraine

David Crowe - May 19, 2025

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Rome: The European Union is seeking a defence pact with Australia to deepen military co-operation in a move that highlights fears of a sharp increase in global instability.

The EU put the proposal to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Rome on Sunday in the hope of matching other defence partnerships that have cleared the way for closer intelligence work and joint exercises.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revealed the idea in talks with Albanese after the inaugural Mass for Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, saying it could add to European military ties with South Korea and Japan.

The move came as Albanese met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and pledged continued Australian support against Russia, including the delivery of Abrams tanks promised last October.

Amid concerns the tanks were taking too long to arrive, the Ukrainian president’s office said Albanese had assured them the tanks were “already on their way” to help the war effort.

The sharper focus on military ties with Europe is part of a wider debate about global security after US President Donald Trump took office in January and began threatening allies such as Canada.

Von der Leyen did not name Trump in her public remarks with Albanese, but she declared that the security outlook had grown worse since she spoke to the prime minister at a summit in Brazil in November.

“The geopolitical tensions have massively increased,” she said before the private talks began.

“The good thing is, Australia and Europe are reliable partners. We’re predictable. We share the same values.

“And this is the reason also that we do not only see you as a trading partner, but we see you as a strategic partner, and we would very much like to broaden this strategic partnership.

“For example, we have signed security and defence agreements with South Korea and with Japan, soon with the UK. We would be very pleased if we could develop such a security and defence partnership too, just to broaden the strategic partnership.”

The EU signed a defence partnership with South Korea in November to set up joint talks on security and intelligence, clear the way for military exercises, respect sea borders and work together on cybersecurity.

While the agreement did not name any adversaries, it focused on risks that have been aired in the past in relation to Russia and China, such as cybersecurity.

Albanese expressed caution about the EU suggestion when speaking to reporters after his meeting with von der Leyen, but he was open about the prospect of closer defence ties.

“We said that we were certainly interested in any further engagement of support, but it’s very early stages at this point,” he said.

(continued)

>>23053666

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Albanese said the further talks would take place at NATO or with the EU. Australia works with NATO, for instance in sending military aid to Ukraine, as one of the “Indo Pacific Four” along with Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

“I wouldn’t over-read what Ursula von der Leyen statements were,” he said. “It was a suggestion by the president that the relationship was based upon not just economic relations, but based upon our values.

“And it’s no accident that Europe has defended the Ukrainian people, and so has Australia. We will stand up for the international rule of law.”

Zelensky told Albanese that Ukraine wanted tougher sanctions on Russia, but he also thanked Australia for the sanctions it had already imposed along with the delivery of military support and humanitarian aid worth $1.5 billion.

“Together, we can really move this situation closer to peace, with pressure on Russia,” Zelensky said.

“And we are very thankful for sanctions. I want to raise with you also this topic, which is very important: put more pressure, more sanctions on Russia.”

Albanese told reporters afterwards that Australia had already imposed 1400 sanctions against Russian individuals and companies, but he left open the idea of doing more.

“We continue to look at whatever we can do to place pressure on Russia,” he said.

“It’s important, as well, that we continue to send the message to the globe that we stand with Ukraine.”

Albanese confirmed in public on Sunday that he was prepared to consider any proposal for a “coalition of the willing” to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine if peace could be achieved.

The “coalition of the willing” was suggested by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron to patrol Ukraine if a peace deal was signed.

While Albanese said earlier this year that he was willing to consider Australian help for the peacekeeping force, this provoked a dispute with Peter Dutton when he was Liberal leader and opposition leader. Dutton rejected the idea of sending Australian troops, even as part of a peacekeeping force.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/europe-seeks-defence-pact-with-australia-as-tanks-head-to-ukraine-20250519-p5m090.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckg8E64tFt8

>>23053629

>>23053666

Europe eyes defence pact with Australia

LYDIA LYNCH - 19 May 2025

The European Union is seeking to clinch a new defence pact with Australia to “broaden” strategic ties amid growing geopolitical upheaval, with Anthony Albanese advising talks were in “very early stages”.

The Prime Minister held separate talks with EU president Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration mass on Sunday, assuring Mr Zelensky Australian tanks were on their way, as Russia’s brutal and ongoing invasion dominated discussions.

Hailing a “new era” for Australia and Europe, Ms von der Leyen revealed the EU was eager increase military cooperation with the Albanese government through a new defence agreement, similar to those the bloc has inked with South Korea and Japan, which boosted co-operation on maritime and cyber security.

As she cited increased global tensions, Ms von der Leyen said Australia and Europe were reliable, predictable partners who could “offer to each other stability”.

“And this is the reason also that we do not only see you as a trading partner, but we see you as a strategic partner, and we would very much like to broaden this strategic partnership,” she told Mr Albanese.

“For example, we have signed security and defence agreements with South Korea and with Japan, soon with the UK. We would be very pleased if we could develop such a security and defence partnership too, just to broaden the strategic partnership in many topics that we have in common.”

Speaking to journalists after the talks, Mr Albanese signalled Australia was open to “further engagement”, but noted it already had a “range of defence relationships” with European countries and was a partner of NATO’s so-called Indo-Pacific Four, along with Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand.

Asked if Ms von der Leyen was seeking to tighten Australia’s defence efforts with NATO, Mr Albanese said: “This was just a suggestion that Ursula von der Leyen raised”.

“There was no detail further, just it was really an assertion of Europe’s values being consistent with Australia’s values and in what ways could be explored further defence co-operation,” he added.

The pair also revived preliminary talks on a free-trade agreement after negotiations stalled in 2023, though Mr Albanese was unable say whether an agreement would be struck during this term of government.

“Our objective is to support an expansion of free and fair trade … and we will wait and see,” he said.

“We have indicated in the past, though, that we won’t sign up to agreements that aren’t in Australia’s national interest.”

‘Thank you for news of the tanks’

At his meeting with the Ukrainian president, Mr Albanese pledged Australia’s continuing support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia and told Mr Zelensky that the promised M1A1 Abrams tanks were “on their way at the moment”.

In April it was revealed that forty-nine Australian Army tanks promised to Ukraine six months ago were yet to leave the country.

Mr Albanese also raised the fate of Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins, who was on Friday sentenced to 13 years in a Russian colony after being captured fighting for Ukraine.

But he would not be drawn on whether he had asked Mr Zelensky to push for Mr Jenkins’s release in any future prisoner swap.

“What we did was … in a diplomatic way, seek Ukraine’s further support for Oscar Jenkins,” he said.

Mr Zelensky, who also met with US Vice President JD Vance in Rome and was expected to speak with Donald Trump by phone on Monday, thanked Mr Albanese for “the news of the tanks” and called for more economic sanctions against Russia.

“Together we can really move this situation closer to peace with pressure on Russia and we are very thankful for sanctions,” he said.

“I want to raise with you also this topic, which is very important, put more pressure, more sanctions on Russia.”

Australia has already imposed 1400 sanctions against Russian companies and individuals, Mr Albanese said later, adding Australia would “continue to look at whatever we can do to place pressure on Russia”.

Mr Albanese did not meet with Mr Vance who also attended Sunday’s mass.

“He arrived quite late in terms of just prior to the mass taking place, as you will have seen,” he said adding that no formal meeting had been sought either.

“I’m the Prime Minister, I meet the President of the United States, and that will occur at an appropriate time.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/europe-eyes-defence-pact-with-australia/news-story/1e9b5bf51f012bc5dfee7ca4e6c70c0d

https://x.com/AlboMP/status/1924118168861286703

https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1924133485754613832

>>23045726

>>23049366

‘It’s just cold. I don’t like the cold’: The haunting plight of Oscar Jenkins

Rob Harris - May 19, 2025

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London: In a dimly lit video posted quietly to YouTube, Oscar Jenkins sits slouched and unshaven, his bruised face drawn with fatigue.

His speech is slow and fragmented, as if he is assembling thoughts under the weight of something unspoken. The unverified video, posted in March, is the first of Jenkins speaking at length seen outside the war zone since his capture by Russian forces in Ukraine.

What emerges is not the voice of a hardened mercenary, as Russian prosecutors would later allege, but that of a conflicted man swept up in a war he barely understands.

“Personally, I don’t want to be in Ukraine … I don’t know Ukrainian culture,” the 33-year-old former Melbourne Grammar School student tells a person off-camera, who appears to be one of his captors.

“I don’t know Ukrainian people very well. It’s just cold. I don’t like the cold … However, if there is a just war, maybe it is this Ukraine war, on the Ukraine side.”

Jenkins’ murky rationale is hardly the call to arms of a political zealot. “I’m not very political,” he says, admitting much of his knowledge of the conflict was gleaned from Wikipedia.

This masthead has not been able to verify when, where or the circumstances in which the heavily edited, 11-minute video was made.

Jenkins’ reflections veer between history, geopolitics and personal discomfort. He references the shared culture of Russia and Ukraine, and makes vague assertions about land and liberty. “I think they want resources and land,” Jenkins says. “I think Putin maybe, I don’t know him, is interested in also having more land for Russia, maybe the USSR he has dreams of.”

Then comes a moment of unexpected clarity: “I don’t want a world where people kill each other. I would rather have a world where there’s all peace, security, freedom. The best, the best world.”

Captured in the eastern town of Makiivka in December, Jenkins was at first paraded on social media and then, just as quickly, disappeared. False rumours of his death circulated until, in February, he again appeared on pro-Russian Telegram accounts with a broken arm in a proof-of-life video.

He was formally charged with fighting as a mercenary in April and put on trial by a Russian-backed court in the occupied Luhansk region. On Friday, he was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

During the hearing, he stood behind glass in jeans and a striped jumper, his voice flat and apologetic.

“I feel sorry that I participated in a potentially violent way,” he said, his comments sounding rehearsed. “I am not a Ukrainian nationalist, my ideas are more global. I hope everyone in the world can have peace without war.”

British fighter Shaun Pinner, who spent months in Russian captivity, warned that such performances were choreographed. “They break you first,” he told this masthead last month. “And then they parade you.”

Pinner, who fought with Ukraine’s marines and, in 2022, was sentenced to death by a separatist court in Donetsk before being returned to the United Kingdom in a prisoner swap, has since spoken publicly about the conditions inside Russian captivity – physical abuse, mock executions, starvation. His testimony casts a long shadow over Jenkins’ case, fuelling concerns that the Australian could face a similar fate, or worse.

In Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called Jenkins’ trial “a sham” and said the Australian, having served in Ukraine’s regular armed forces, must be afforded prisoner-of-war protections under the Geneva Conventions.

“Russia is obligated to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment,” she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed those concerns, calling the sentence “an outrage” and “a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities”.

But Russia does not recognise foreign fighters in Ukraine as lawful combatants. Instead, it categorises them as criminals or paid mercenaries – a stance that strips them of POW protections and makes them pawns in a wider geopolitical game. Moscow claimed Jenkins was paid up to 800,000 roubles ($15,000) a month and arrived via a recruiting centre in Ternopil, in western Ukraine. From there, he was sent east, where he served with the 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade in the Donbas.

Jenkins’ account offers a bleaker, less heroic picture of service in the name of justice.

“Most of my work has been digging defensive position [sic]. Digging position,” he says in the video. “If the Russians come, you push back, you shoot for the drones. But I haven’t really done much of that.”

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He recounts firing a machine gun once into a Russian position, but it’s unclear if he ever saw combat. “I don’t know what a win is. Is it to freeze the line and then let Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea choose again?”

He describes a battlefield stripped of meaning – bleak, grim, senseless. “I saw lots of bodies, dead bodies. Infrastructure had been destroyed, the environment, ecology had been destroyed. Mud, just a lot of mud. Not many trees. It’s not beautiful, it’s not nice.”

Jenkins also gives a candid account of dysfunction among the volunteer ranks. “There were other drugs with some of the foreigners. I tried in Ternopil, I tried marijuana, I had a puff,” he says. “But on the base near Slovyansk, there were people who were smoking marijuana, cannabis and drinking on base, and it was causing issues.”

What began as a personal mission – perhaps for justice, perhaps for meaning – seems to have curdled into a slow descent into disillusionment.

Jenkins, a talented cricketer and footballer, was known for his skills and dedication. After graduating in 2010 and studying biomedical sciences at Monash University, he moved to China in 2015, where he worked as a lecturer at Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College from 2017. Jenkins was a passionate vegan and runner, often sharing his beliefs through social media, including a rather odd video stating he would “force Chinese people to be vegan”.

A schoolfriend recently described Jenkins as “quirky, but a really great guy”. But after school, he said, he’d lost contact with many of his friends. As a cricket teammate, he was “a bit smarter than average, more deep-thinking”.

But here Jenkins doesn’t speak in absolutes. He second-guesses himself constantly. What is clear, though, even in his hesitant answers, is that by the time he was captured, he wanted out.

Russia’s refusal to grant him POW status severely limits the options available to the Australian government. Quiet diplomatic overtures are being made, mainly through the International Committee of the Red Cross, and officials are believed to be exploring the possibility of a prisoner exchange.

Russian human rights groups have speculated that Jenkins may be part of a future swap involving Kira and Igor Korolev – Russian nationals arrested in Brisbane last year and charged with preparing to carry out an act of espionage.

For now, Jenkins remains a prisoner – not just of the Kremlin, but of the uncertainty that has defined his story from the beginning.

Don Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University, points out that, unlike other high-profile Australian detainees in recent years – Kylie Moore-Gilbert in Iran, Cheng Lei in China, Sean Turnell in Myanmar – Jenkins is no academic, no journalist, no dissident. He is a man who inserted himself into a war, and because of Russia’s stance, may have forfeited the usual lines of diplomatic protection.

That doesn’t mean his life is worthless to the Kremlin. But it does mean that the path to bringing him home is narrower, more fraught, and more susceptible to politics. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has – as is its longstanding habit – urged his family to stay silent, wary of jeopardising sensitive talks.

In public, Jenkins is now reduced to a series of clips: a courtroom video, a coerced confession, a shaky YouTube monologue. But it’s in those moments – especially the unguarded ones – that his story comes through.

Not as a symbol. Not as a hero. Just a man who went looking for something, and found something else entirely.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/it-s-just-cold-i-don-t-like-the-cold-the-haunting-plight-of-oscar-jenkins-20250518-p5m03c.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxf__4ZX0TA

https://x.com/Darwin_f1978/status/1924177536554307687

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Nationals call it quits on decades-long coalition with Liberals

Maani Truu - 20 May 2025

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The Nationals will split from the Liberal Party after days of negotiations between the two sides failed to result in a coalition agreement, breaking with a century-long tradition.

Nationals leader David Littleproud made the announcement at Parliament House on Tuesday, describing it as one of the "hardest political decisions of his life".

He told reporters the Nationals would continue to work constructively with the Liberal Party but they would not re-enter into a formal coalition agreement at this stage.

"The National Party will sit alone on a principle basis," Mr Littleproud said.

"On the basis of looking forward, not having to look back, and to try and actually regain important policy pieces that change the lives of the people we represent."

Emboldened by an election result that saw the minor party retain nearly all of its lower house seats while the Liberal Party went backwards, Nationals MPs had previously flagged that the arrangement was up for discussion.

Mr Littleproud travelled to Albury last week to meet with newly elected Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who was at home to be with her dying mother.

The sticking points for the minor party were the continuation of a nuclear power policy, the Regional Australia Future Fund, and the desire for divestiture powers for supermarkets.

One of the Coalition's key policies going into the election was a plan to build nuclear power reactors on seven sites around the country to supplement the energy transition.

But after the devastating May 3 election loss, which saw the Coalition reduced to just over 40 seats in the House of Representatives, Liberals' views on the policy were mixed.

Some wanted the nuclear power policy ditched, others wanted it retained but with less taxpayer money involved, and some wanted to double down.

Hours after the Nationals announcement, a disappointed Ms Ley said the minor party had sought commitments on specific policies during negotiations.

"I proposed that we stand up a joint shadow ministry consisting of Liberal Party shadow ministers and National Party shadow ministers," she said.

"And that we then work separately on policies, as we should, in our separate party rooms and come together articulating what those policies are at the right time.

"The Nationals did not agree to that approach."

The Liberals also argued the Nationals would not explicitly agree to traditional shadow cabinet solidarity, which obliges frontbenchers to back Coalition policies.

But Ms Ley said she remained a "committed coalitionist" and that her door was open to restarting negotiations, but added that a fully Liberal frontbench would be unveiled later this week.

"The shadow ministers that I appoint from [the Liberal] party room will be well equipped and incredibly capable to take the fight up to Labor right up until the next election," she said.

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National leader hopeful of new agreement in future

Mr Littleproud said he was hopeful the two parties would be able to come to a new agreement before the next federal election in three years, but added that the party would contest the election alone if that didn't happen.

"I had a respectful conversation with Sussan Ley this morning, sat down, made it very clear that we remain committed to having the door open, respecting the position that Sussan has been put in — that she is a leader that needs to rebuild the Liberal Party," he said.

"They are going on a journey of rediscovery and this will provide them the opportunity to do that without the spectre of the National Party imposing their will.

"I gave her the commitment that I'll work with her every day to help to try to rebuild the relationship to the point we can re-enter a coalition before the next election."

Neither the Liberals or Nationals could realistically form government without the support of the other, according to ABC election analyst Antony Green.

It was unclear whether the Liberal candidates would run against Nationals at the next election, former party leader Michael McCormack said on Tuesday, telling reporters "a week is a long time in politics, three years is an eternity".

"We may well get back into a coalition arrangement before the next election, I do hope so," he said.

By abandoning a coalition, National politicians will also forfeit their titles and access to the opposition cabinet.

"A lot of our members of our party room are going to lose positions and titles out of this, and money, and that wasn't even a focus of the discussion for us," deputy Nationals Leader Kevin Hogan said.

"We've all broken up in a relationship that's been important to us, and very often, more often than not, you get back together and join back together with clearer clarity and focus on what the relationship was about."

Mr Littleproud denied on 7.30 that the National Party would target Liberal seats, including that of Ms Ley.

"No, she'll be the next prime minister of this country," Mr Littleproud said.

"We're not trying to target one another, particularly when there are sitting members in place.

"We respect them and we respect the roles that they play."

The coalition agreement has been abandoned multiple times over the previous century, with the parties eventually joining back together. The last split was in 1987 after a fight between the two parties in Queensland.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the break-up of the Coalition showed the opposition had learnt nothing from the election.

"It's hard to see how Australians can take them seriously when they don't even take each other seriously," he said.

"They tried to divide the Australian community in the election campaign and they ended up dividing themselves."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/nationals-will-not-re-enter-coalition-agreement/105313818

>>22986131

>>23027918

>>23058406

‘Door remains open’ says Sussan Ley amidst shock Coalition split following federal election disaster

Liberal sources say the National party gave Ley less than an hour’s notice of their decision.

Dominic Giannini - 20 May 2025

Nuclear energy has blown up a political agreement between the Nationals and the Liberals after leaders failed to reach common ground but left the door open for a reconciliation.

The traditional political marriage couldn’t be consecrated following a disastrous result for the Coalition at the federal election with the Nationals standing firm on wanting to retain four key policies.

These included remaining committed to nuclear energy, divestiture powers to break up big supermarkets, a $20 billion investment fund that would disperse $1 billion a year on regional infrastructure and universal phone services.

Landlines and payphones must have service no matter where they are in Australia but this doesn’t extend to mobile phones, which the Nationals have been fighting to include.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud said the party didn’t want to have to re-prosecute the case to retain the policies it fought for under the previous agreement in opposition.

“It’s on a principled position of making sure that those hard-fought wins are maintained and respected and we continue to look forward,” Littleproud told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley addressed the media in the afternoon, emphasising her commitment to the Coalition despite the recent split.

“I really believe that the Coalition is stronger together, I am a committed Coalitionist,” she said.

“I do pay tribute to my Liberal Party colleagues in this room now and their intention to work constructively for the future with new and different policies, but never stepping away from our timeless values.

“Our policies may change, our values never will. But we need to give that process due diligence and I, as leader, want to harness the real initiative, interest, talent and the smarts of so many.”

Ley also acknowledged there were significant roadblocks to a unified Coalition.

“Shadow cabinet solidarity is very important and unless I, as leader of the Liberals, could be sure about that, it was important that we didn’t take those next steps,” she said.

“As I’ve said, I wasn’t assured of that with issues that may divide both members of their party room and members of our party room in the future.”

“The Liberal party’s door remains open to the Nationals’ should they wish to rejoin the coalition before the next election.”

Liberal sources say the National party gave Ley less than an hour’s notice of their decision.

The change in opposition doesn’t have a substantial impact on the government’s ability to pass legislation with Labor commanding a major majority in the lower house and only needing the Greens in the Senate.

The Liberals still have the numbers to pass legislation in the Senate with Labor without the Nationals.

Without a Coalition agreement, Labor has a significant electoral advantage with the Liberals holding fewer than 30 of 150 lower house seats and the Nationals, 15.

The Nationals won’t sit in shadow cabinet, meaning they won’t hold sway over policies and the half-dozen MPs who were around the table will take a pay cut.

The Coalition last broke up in 1987 for about four months.

Littleproud left the door open for a future arrangement, saying the two parties would still work together to fight the Labor government.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley faces the task of rebuilding the Liberals after a wipeout at the May 3 election.

The break-up would give Ley the time and space she needed to rebuild her party, Littleproud said.

“They are going on a journey of rediscovery and this will provide them the opportunity to do that without the spectre of the National Party imposing their will,” he said.

Littleproud denied the Nationals were a drag on the Liberal vote in the inner cities.

Their policies were popular, especially in their regional seats, and others such as the push to scrap public sector working from home entitlements - spearheaded by Liberal senator Jane Hume - were electoral poison, he said.

https://7news.com.au/news/bombshell-as-nationals-break-up-coalition-agreement-with-liberals-c-18752172

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdYveTTnwME

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>>23045675

>>23053647

Anthony Albanese formally invites Pope Leo XIV to Australia in Vatican meeting

Stephen Dziedzic - 20 May 2025

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, formally inviting the new pontiff to Australia for a major Catholic conference that Sydney will host in 2028.

Mr Albanese met Leo XIV the day after the new pope's inaugural mass in Rome, hours after the pontiff met US Vice-President JD Vance.

He is the first prime minister to have a private audience with the pope since Kevin Rudd, who met Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

The ABC has been told that Mr Albanese and the pope discussed their shared concerns about conflicts around the world and the humanitarian catastrophes they have wrought.

The pope also blessed rosary beads that had been owned by the prime minister's mother Maryanne, a staunch Catholic who passed away in 2002.

On Sunday Pope Leo XIV called for peace in Gaza, Myanmar and Ukraine during a Sunday blessing at the end of his inaugural mass in St Peter's Square.

Leo said he hoped negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv would bring a "just and lasting peace" in Ukraine and offered prayers for the people of Gaza who were "reduced to hunger" by conflict.

During their meeting on Monday local time, Mr Albanese gifted the new pope a framed Indigenous artwork by artist Amanda Westley, who is part of the Ngarrindjeri clan in South Australia.

The prime minister also issued a formal letter of invitation to Pope Leo XIV to attend the International Eucharistic Congress, which Sydney will host in 2028.

The congress is typically held every four years, and is expected to draw thousands of Catholics from around the world to Australia.

Benedict XVI was the last pope to visit Australia, for World Youth Day in 2008.

The prime minister had earlier met briefly with Pope Leo XIV on Sunday after the mass and had a "very warm" discussion before their longer meeting on Monday afternoon.

Mr Albanese said that during that brief discussion, the pope had "expressed his affection for Australia".

He said he had told Leo that Australia's 5 million Catholics "would be watching and wishing him well".

The prime minister also reflected briefly on his own personal Catholic faith and history, saying his late mother would have been delighted to see him attend the Papal Inauguration mass as prime minister.

"I spoke to him about my mother [who] would be I'm sure looking down from heaven with the biggest smile she's ever had, the fact that her son was at the inaugural mass of a pope in the Vatican, was really quite extraordinary" he said.

"So, for me, it was a very personal moment as well, and it was a personal discussion."

The prime minister has now left Rome and will stop off in Singapore for a lightning-quick meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong before returning home.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/anthony-albanese-formally-invites-pope-leo-xiv-to-australia/105312312

Australia rebukes Israel in joint statement demanding aid for starving Gazans

Matthew Knott - May 20, 2025

Australia has joined a coalition of 23 countries demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza and accusing Israel of politicising the delivery of essential food and medicine to Palestinian civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel would allow some aid to enter Gaza after a two-month blockade, but international aid organisations say this will not be nearly enough to meet the needs of the local population and will risk the lives of aid workers.

Netanyahu has said that Israel will take full control of the strip as he ordered the Israeli military to intensify ground operations in the ravaged strip, including by instructing civilians to leave the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Penny Wong and the foreign ministers from 22 other nations said in a joint statement they could not support the limited aid delivery the Israeli government had proposed.

“It places beneficiaries and aid workers at risk, undermines the role and independence of the UN and our trusted partners, and links humanitarian aid to political and military objectives,” the foreign ministers said.

“Humanitarian aid should never be politicised, and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.”

However, Australia has not gone as far as Canada, France and the United Kingdom, which threatened “concrete actions” against Israel, including sanctions, in a separate statement unless it halts the renewed military offensive in Gaza and lifts aid restrictions. Shortly after the first few aid trucks entered Gaza, the three labelled the aid “wholly inadequate” and called on Israel to stop its “egregious” expansion of operations in the strip.

Alongside Wong, the foreign ministers who signed the 23-nation joint statement are representatives from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

“As humanitarian donors, we have two straightforward messages for the government of Israel: allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately and enable the UN and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity,” the foreign ministers said.

“We remain committed to meeting the acute needs we see in Gaza.”

The foreign ministers continued: “Food, medicines and essential supplies are exhausted. The population faces starvation. Gaza’s people must receive the aid they desperately need.”

They also issued a “firm message that Hamas must immediately release all remaining hostages and allow humanitarian assistance to be distributed without interference”.

Save the Children chief executive Mat Tinkler urged Wong to go further and join France, the UK and Canada by threatening sanctions against Israel.

“We are well beyond the point of words – Australia must now be prepared to match its strong rhetoric with decisive action,” he said.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said the resumption of limited aid delivery was a “welcome development” but described it as “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”.

Netanyahu said Israel had devised a new model of aid delivery that would provide “just enough to prevent hunger”.

Addressing Israelis who oppose the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, he said a “red line” was approaching in the form of famine and that even strong supporters of Israel, including US senators, had expressed concerns about the humanitarian situation.

Netanyahu said in a video message: “They come to me and say this, ‘We’re giving you all the support to achieve victory. But there’s one thing we cannot accept. We cannot handle images of starvation’.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-blasts-israel-in-joint-statement-demanding-aid-for-starving-gazans-20250520-p5m0nc.html

https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/joint-donor-statement-humanitarian-aid-gaza

>>22968851

AUKUS: Donald Trump’s billionaire envoy joins Keir Starmer in show of force for nuclear submarine pact

Rob Harris - May 20, 2025

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London: British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declared AUKUS as central to his government’s defence policy, pledging unprecedented investment and warning that the UK must treat defence as “the first thought in the morning and the last at night”.

Starmer was joined by new US ambassador Warren Stephens – a billionaire private banker and big Republican donor – who threw his full support behind the AUKUS pact at a packed event inside the Palace of Westminster on Monday night (Tuesday AEST), calling it “vital” to global peace, security and prosperity.

“This is not just a project,” Starmer told MPs, diplomats and defence leaders in a surprise appearance at the gathering.

“It is a national endeavour … AUKUS strengthens the bonds between our three nations, and it shows that when we talk about security and stability, we mean it – in the Indo-Pacific and here at home.”

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on AUKUS event at the House of Lords marked Stephens’ first public appearance since his arrival in London.

He used the opportunity to send a clear message: Donald Trump backs AUKUS.

“The vital partnership of our three countries cannot be overstated … President Trump, and I know this to be true as it has been repeatedly proven throughout history.”

Stephens said AUKUS could also drive prosperity through an innovative private sector, adding that government works best when “we get out of the way and let our businesses innovate, compete and collaborate to improve people’s lives”.

The remarks from the banker-turned-diplomat, who gave at least $US6 million ($9.3 million) to Trump’s election campaign, appeared as a clear pitch to those concerned about the pact’s future after the president’s return to the White House.

“This alliance enjoys broad bipartisan support,” said the former chief executive of financial services company Stephens Inc.

“I’m sure that you all are aware that bipartisanship is certainly not always the case in American politics these days. However, it is when it comes to AUKUS.”

Stephens said it was reassuring to see that that same support was reflected in the room – which included Australian high commissioner Stephen Smith and former defence minister Linda Reynolds – adding that AUKUS was “a partnership built on trust”.

“The United States is proud to stand alongside Britain and Australia, two of our closest allies, as we deepen our collaboration to respond to a changing world,” Stephens said.

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His remarks come at a pivotal moment for the pact. Nearly four years after its dramatic announcement, AUKUS is shifting from high-level co-ordination to complex implementation.

Announced in 2021, Pillar I of the agreement aims to deliver Australia with three nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarines from the US and for Australia to build five new nuclear-powered attack submarines named SSN-AUKUS. The first of those will arrive in the late 2030s, and Australia’s first domestically built sub in the early 2040s.

Pillar II focuses on joint development of advanced defence technologies, including AI and quantum.

While AUKUS aims to strengthen defence ties in the Indo-Pacific, former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has voiced concerns, questioning whether Australia would ever receive a US nuclear-powered submarine.

The US faces challenges in its own naval capabilities, with senior Pentagon officials also questioning the feasibility of the submarine deal, given current shipbuilding limitations.

Starmer, meanwhile, used the moment to double down on defence, announcing the UK’s biggest military investment since the Cold War.

“In February, I announced the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. That will come on stream in 2027 and then up to 3 per cent of GDP in the next parliament,” he said.

But he said AUKUS was about more than money. “Alongside the pure money comes the biggest shift in mindset, I think certainly in my lifetime – to see security and defence not just as one priority amongst many, but as the central organising principle of government.”

He pointed to AUKUS’s industrial impact, including thousands of jobs already created in the cities of Barrow and Derby, and the role of British businesses in building the next generation of nuclear-powered submarines and advanced technology systems.

“This is transformational,” Starmer said. “An investment in our collective security and a reminder today and every day of the service out there of people who are risking their lives to keep us safe.”

Starmer said he had attempted to demonstrate both by naming former national security adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove as his special AUKUS representative.

“It absolutely demonstrates the seriousness with which we take this project,” he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/trump-s-billionaire-envoy-joins-starmer-in-show-of-force-for-aukus-20250520-p5m0lp.html

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Liberals back Nationals' split as 'necessary reset' after election lashing

Olivia Caisley - 21 May 2025

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Some senior Liberals have quietly voiced support for the Nationals' decision to walk away from the Coalition, describing the dramatic split as a necessary — if uncomfortable — reset following the opposition's devastating federal election defeat, even as Liberal luminary John Howard calls on the parties to reunite.

While few are willing to endorse the move publicly, multiple Liberal MPs told ABC News the Coalition had become politically untenable, with the Nationals increasingly seen as obstructive on key policy fronts — particularly on climate policy — and a drag in crucial metropolitan electorates.

"This gives us breathing space," one MP said.

"After a loss like that, everything has to be on the table."

Another added: "This helps us as Liberals rebadge and reposition. It's clear that the link with the Nationals was compromising our policies and hurting our brand appeal, especially in the cities.

"They were net beneficiaries in the relationship. We were net losers in electoral terms and the link with the 'climate deniers' of Barnaby [Joyce] and [Matt] Canavan hurt us greatly in cities, with women, and with non-boomer voters."

A third Liberal was more philosophical: "Maybe you have to hit rock bottom before you start to rebuild and part of hitting rock bottom is this split."

But Mr Howard told ABC AM he was "very concerned" about the separation and urged the parties to come to a resolution.

"I would urge the leaders of those parties to work very hard to put the Coalition together," he said.

"It is my very strong opinion that policy differences are best resolved within the framework of the Coalition.

"If the two parties remain separate for too long away from the Coalition then the differences on policy will harden and will be more difficult to resolve."

Mr Howard, who was prime minister from 1996 to 2007, said he had been able to resolve policy differences within the Coalition, and he urged Nationals leader David Littleproud and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to remember the parties' "glory days" had been when they were united.

Mr Littleproud announced the bombshell split just before midday on Tuesday, citing a breakdown in negotiations over demands to enshrine policies such as the development of nuclear energy, expanded divestiture powers for supermarkets, a $20 billion regional future fund, and enforceable service obligations in regional areas in the Coalition agreement that binds the two teams.

A joint statement from Ms Ley and the Liberal leadership emphasised that Coalition agreements had historically focused on cabinet role allocation rather than binding policy positions. It also noted that the Nationals had refused to uphold shadow cabinet confidentiality, which obliges shadow ministers to adhere to unified joint-party stances.

As one Liberal MP put it: "The Nats' demands were clearly over the top this time around — we could never have agreed to them."

(continued)

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As the Liberal Party comes to terms with its worst defeat since its founding, there is growing consensus that the separation should remain in place for at least 18 months, and potentially through to the next federal election. One source suggested the split should have happened "years ago".

Former Liberal MP Jason Falinski, who lost his Sydney seat of Mackellar to independent Sophie Scamps in the 2022 teal wave, said the split was necessary.

"The Coalition suffers from the structural problem that the leader of the Libs is the leader of the Coalition and the leader of the Nats is leader of the Nats. It means no-one is ever standing up for urban Liberals ever — and you end up in this electoral situation. It's absurd and time for a reset."

Several Liberals said the two parties were stronger together in the long run but they described the split as a strategic and essential step to making the party competitive again in urban electorates.

One MP cited internal Coalition polling that showed the party's appeal had collapsed among voters under 45 and women under 55, with climate change emerging repeatedly as a top reason for voter rejection of the party's platform.

"They don't see us as able to deal with the challenges of the 21st century," one MP said.

"They see us as regressive, stuck in another time and they cite people like Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce as the problem."

Despite holding just nine of the country's 88 metropolitan electorates, some Liberals remain optimistic about a path to victory in 2028.

"If we actually set ourselves on the right direction, focus on the people we want to represent and whose votes we need to win, then we will win the next election," one said.

"We need to have discipline and faith because there'll be a lot of tough times ahead. We have to stop talking to ourselves about ourselves and say to the Australian people that we may be fewer in number but we have the values you are looking for."

As part of the response to defeat, a sweeping review is next on the agenda.

Multiple sources told ABC News that former Liberal senator and Australia's one-time ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos, along with former Senate president Scott Ryan, were considered key contenders to lead the post-mortem.

Two sources dismissed the 2022 election review — conducted by Liberal senator Jane Hume and Liberal strategist Brian Loughnane — as ineffective and said the party had to be more fearless and forensic this time around.

"The Hume-Loughnane review was a joke," one MP said, declaring lessons were not learned from that defeat.

Another echoed the sentiment: "We need people to conduct this review who haven't been driving the same tired strategy for 35 years. People who can tell truth to power."

Some Liberals argue the party's issues go beyond the Nationals. At least two MPs in inner-city seats pointed to former opposition leader Peter Dutton as a greater electoral liability at the 2025 federal poll than Mr Joyce or Senator Canavan in the election result.

Following the split, the Liberals now hold 28 seats in the House of Representatives and the Nationals retain 15. Labor is expected to hold 94 seats.

While the Nationals and Liberals will now appoint their own policy spokespeople, the Liberals will serve as the official opposition in parliament.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-21/liberals-back-nationals-split-as-necessary-reset/105316456

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ4gERYm1ow

>>23032055

>>23045840

Anthony Albanese to visit China for second time amid Xi Jinping's push for 'mature' ties with Australia

Bang Xiao - 21 May 2025

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to China later this year to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, marking his second official visit to China in two years.

The ABC understands the prime minister will attend the Annual Leaders' Meeting, part of a resumed high-level dialogue last held in Canberra in June 2024 during Mr Li's visit to Australia.

The trip follows a warm personal letter from Mr Xi congratulating Mr Albanese on his re-election.

In the message, Mr Xi highlighted China's interest in "promoting a more mature, stable and productive" relationship with Australia, a deliberate nod to Beijing's desire to build sustained engagement with the Labor government.

The second visit places Mr Albanese among a small group of Australian prime ministers to be invited to Beijing so frequently.

He made stabilising ties with China a core foreign policy priority during his first term, resuming ministerial dialogue and steering the relationship out of a prolonged diplomatic freeze.

During his first trip to China, in November 2023, Mr Xi invited him to return and see more of the country, reinforcing what both sides now describe as a "comprehensive strategic partnership".

The trip was widely seen as a diplomatic breakthrough, not only securing the release of detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei after three years in custody, but also resulting in the removal of all remaining trade impediments imposed on Australian exports during the Coalition government.

The date of the meeting is yet to be announced by Mr Albanese.

Strategic window amid global trade realignments

News of the visit comes as Mr Albanese wraps up his visit to Indonesia, where he met President Prabowo Subianto, and to Rome, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and attended the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.

The ABC understands the meetings in China are likely to occur against the backdrop of a 90-day pause in the US-China tariff stand-off, with both Beijing and Washington stepping back from further escalation until August.

While Australia is not directly involved in the trade war, the temporary reprieve has opened up space for middle powers to pursue their own trade and diplomatic interests.

John Fitzgerald, emeritus professor at Swinburne University of Technology, says the visit shows the Australia-China relationship is "back on track", but Canberra must continue to navigate a shifting geopolitical landscape in the region.

"The visit has to be a good thing — but it's also a return to what used to be normal," Dr Fitzgerald said.

"There were routine, regular bilateral leadership meetings and a Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue with China, held annually in both countries."

Dr Fitzgerald said Australia was long seen as needing to balance its economic ties with China against its security alliance with the United States — but that balance has become less clear since Donald Trump came to power.

"Australia still has a balancing act," he said.

"It's more like balancing Australia's economic dependence on China — and China's willingness to leverage that dependence against Australia's need to build more comprehensive security and defence relations with other countries in the region and with Europe."

Re-engaging with Canberra is part of China's broader effort to shore up key economic partnerships amid a shifting global trade landscape.

The largest export market for Australia, worth over $210 billion a year, has been reopened under Mr Albanese's administration, delivering tangible gains across critical sectors.

According to government records from China, more than 40 official Chinese delegations have visited federal, state and territory governments in Australia since May 2022, with most concentrated in Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT.

The delegations have focused on trade, education, clean energy and cultural exchange, reflecting growing state-level engagement alongside the top-level diplomatic reset.

(continued)

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Trade pact bid and Taiwan complication

When the two leaders meet, Beijing is expected to raise China's application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

As chair of the pact this year, Australia plays a central role in discussions among the 12 member economies, all of which must unanimously approve any new entrant.

China has long sought membership, but Taiwan's parallel bid has made the process diplomatically sensitive, as Beijing has made clear its opposition to Taiwan's inclusion.

However, Dr Fitzgerald said that if meeting the criteria for entry to the CPTPP was the main consideration — which included being a free market for trade and business — "then clearly the People's Republic of China doesn't meet those criteria. Taiwan does".

"So in a way, it's a measure of how China is leveraging its hold over Australia.

"It's a political decision — not one based on economic or trade considerations."

Australia's relationship with Taiwan remains unofficial under its One China policy.

Support for the status quo across the Taiwan Strait is a bipartisan position in Canberra, alongside the view that economic engagement with China can coexist with support for Taiwan's democratic values.

Mr Albanese's challenge will be to balance Australia's strategic interest in a rules-based Indo-Pacific with the economic opportunity of deeper trade with China.

Tourism bounces as trade ties set to deepen

Mr Albanese has repeatedly said his government will "cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in the national interest".

During his multiple meetings with his Chinese counterpart in his last term, he consistently raised human rights and consular issues alongside regional security concerns.

The case of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun is expected to be raised once again after he sent an open letter from prison thanking the Australian government for its ongoing efforts to secure his release.

Dr Yang, who has denied espionage charges, received a suspended death sentence last year. He remains imprisoned in Beijing and is entering his sixth year in detention.

The case will likely be in the spotlight, as will visa policy and business and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

China's decision to offer 30-day visa-free entry for Australians, in place until the end of 2025, has already triggered a sharp rise in travel and education interest.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 580,500 Australian residents visited China in 2024 — an 85 per cent jump from 313,240 the year before.

Further easing of trade barriers and discussions on two-way investment are also likely to be on the agenda, including renewable energy cooperation and the lease of Darwin Port to Chinese company Landbridge, a recurring point of concern in Australia's national security debates.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-21/anthony-albanese-to-meet-xi-jinping-in-china/105312020

>>22986131

>>23027918

>>23058406

Coalition seeks to reverse break-up just two days after sensational split

Natassia Chrysanthos - May 22, 2025

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The Coalition could come back together within weeks after Nationals leader David Littleproud and Liberal leader Sussan Ley agreed to put their next steps on hold while they search for a fix that will allow their MPs to walk back into parliament together.

Littleproud announced the dramatic about-face in a snap press conference in Canberra on Thursday, just two days after he walked away from the Coalition partnership – the first split in 38 years.

He said it followed a meeting with Ley on Thursday morning, in which he agreed to her request that he give her time to convene a meeting of Liberal MPs to discuss the Nationals’ four policy demands for a Coalition agreement.

Both Littleproud and Ley had planned to unveil their separate portfolio spokespeople on Thursday afternoon. But Littleproud said he had sent his team home from Canberra “in good faith”, and that Ley would also refrain from unveiling her frontbench pending further Liberal party room meetings.

“This is a positive step forward, one in which we’ve always said we’d be productive and constructive, and I think the Nationals have acted in good faith,” he said.

“I’m proud to say that we’ll allow this process to take place and the Liberal Party to convene at whatever period is for them and convenient for them, and I think that is the way forward in a mature and sensible.

“I’ve always said that I’d be constructive moving forward … This will allow time for a process for Sussan Ley to call her party room together to discuss those four policy areas.”

The Nationals had demanded that four policies be enshrined in the next Coalition agreement: lifting the ban on nuclear energy, divestiture powers for supermarket chains, a $20 billion regional future fund, and service obligations for regional areas.

But Ley said she could not commit to those demands until the Liberals had undergone a full policy review that she had promised her party room and Australian voters after a thumping election loss.

Littleproud had also requested that Nationals MP be exempt from shadow cabinet confidentiality, which obliges frontbenchers to maintain the joint party position on policy issues. Ley rejected this.

On Thursday, Littleproud said he understood Ley’s reasons for denying that request and would not be pushing for it going forward.

Ley welcomed that commitment “as a foundation to resolve other matters” in a statement issued shortly after Littleproud’s announcement.

“Earlier today, I wrote to, and met with, David inviting him to re-enter good-faith negotiations. I am pleased he has accepted,” she said.

“In relation to the policy positions proposed by the National party room, consistent with my consultation commitment, the Liberal Party will consider these, utilising our party room processes.

“It has always been the Liberal Party’s objective to form a Coalition and we welcome The Nationals’ decision to re-enter negotiations.”

Ley had reached out to Nationals MPs Michael McCormack, Barnaby Joyce and Darren Chester to salvage the situation on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, after this masthead reported that the three MPs, as well as Victorian MP Sam Birrell, expressed concerns about the split in a party room meeting.

Chester and McCormack had privately urged Littleproud to make a deal with Ley, after a range of party elders, including former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, publicly opposed the split.

(continued)

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Public ructions precede Ley and Littleproud’s agreement

Hours before the pause in the Coalition split, sour public disputes emerged. Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie appeared on the ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday night to discuss the split, where she said Ley’s refusal to enshrine four Nationals’ policy demands in the Coalition agreement had been the sole reason the party walked away on principle.

McKenzie denied that the Nationals’ refusal to guarantee shadow cabinet confidentiality, which binds opposition frontbenchers to joint party room decisions, had played a part, as Ley claimed.

Ley’s office texted host Sarah Ferguson during the broadcast, according to the ABC, to dispute McKenzie’s version of events.

“It is not correct to suggest shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point. We have it in writing that it was a requirement from their leader’s office to ours,” the spokesperson’s message said.

“Her language was deliberate to make it sound like it was just about the policies. That is just not correct.”

McKenzie later told 7.30 she stood by her comments on the program.

A letter sent from McKenzie to Liberal senator Michaelia Cash has also surfaced, revealing the Nationals senator had floated a split before Ley had been elected as Liberal leader.

Her central concern was the defection of Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the Liberals just days after the election – a decision orchestrated by Liberal leadership challenger Angus Taylor that led Nationals senators to lose their party status as their numbers dropped below the threshold.

McKenzie penned the note on May 12, according to reports in news.com.au.

“Depending on the outcome of negotiations between our two parties over coming weeks, the Nationals Senate party room will need to consider our position with respect to sitting with the Liberal Party as a Coalition in the Senate chamber,” the letter stated.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ley-and-littleproud-in-crisis-talks-to-avert-split-20250522-p5m18n.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL-YxYvlbJk

‘Look at Australia’: Trump ambushes South African president over ‘white genocide’

Michael Koziol - May 22, 2025

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Washington: US President Donald Trump confronted his South African counterpart with unfounded claims of a genocide of Afrikaner farmers, and ranted extensively about the American media, in another extraordinary and tense Oval Office meeting with a foreign leader.

Trump dimmed the lights and played a video purporting to back up his assertions about the state-sanctioned mass murder of Afrikaners, the white ethnic minority that ruled South Africa during apartheid, as the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was made to watch.

Trump twice cited Australia as evidence during the exchange, claiming both Australia and the United States were being flooded with white South African farmers. Dozens arrived in the US last week after the Trump administration fast-tracked their approval as refugees.

“You take a look at Australia, they’re being inundated and we’re being inundated with people that want to get out,” Trump said. “This is a very serious situation and … if we had a real press, this would be exposed.”

Trump held up printouts of articles about white farmers whom he said had been the victims of farm attacks, including robberies, land dispossession and murders.

Gang violence is rife in South Africa, although as Ramaphosa and other officials pointed out during the Oval Office meeting, most murder victims in South Africa are black.

“You’re taking people’s land away from them,” Trump told Ramaphosa.

“We have not,” Ramaphosa responded.

Trump continued: “And those people in many cases are being executed. And they happen to be white, and most of them happen to be farmers. That’s a tough situation, I don’t know how you explain that. How do you explain that?

“We have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They’re also going to Australia, in a smaller number … They’re white farmers and they feel like they’re going to die.”

Later, the White House issued links to several media reports it said proved Trump was right about the situation in South Africa. It included two reports from Australia’s news.com.au from 2017 and 2018, and a television editorial by Sky News Australia’s Rita Panahi.

The tense exchange did not rise to a shouting match, but represented the most contentious Oval Office meeting since Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late February.

The video shown in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Washington time, included clips from an incendiary speech by Julius Malema, leader of the communist Economic Freedom Fighters political party, insisting South Africans would occupy land without regard for the law.

“We don’t care, we can do whatever we want to do,” Malema said in the clip.

Ramaphosa told Trump that Malema belonged to a minority party that was allowed to exist under the South African Constitution and that his words did not constitute government policy.

At one point, Trump handed the article print-outs to Ramaphosa and said: “Those are all recent, those are all deaths.”

Ramaphosa said he appreciated that the US, as a South African partner, was raising genuine concerns about crime and would be happy to discuss them away from the cameras.

“We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit around a table and talk about it,” he said, referring to the former anti-apartheid activist who became South African president after decades in prison.

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The meeting, which was attended by South African-born billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk, was also notable for Trump’s targeting of an NBC journalist who asked about Qatar’s gift of a luxury Boeing 747-8 to the US government. The jet is to be fitted out as Air Force One and will then be transferred to Trump’s presidential library at the end of Trump’s term, in effect making it his own.

The US formally accepted the $US400 million ($621 million) plane on Wednesday, with chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell saying it had complied with “all federal rules and regulations”.

Immediately after the Oval Office saw the South Africa video, NBC journalist Peter Alexander began to ask about the Qatari plane.

Trump, who has been accused of corruption by soliciting and accepting the offer, interrupted and unleashed a torrent of abuse.

“What does this have to do with a Qatari jet? They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet, OK, and it’s a great thing,” he told Alexander.

“This is NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real – you’re a terrible reporter. Number one, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter, you’re not smart enough.

“You ought to go back to your studio at NBC because [Comcast chief executive] Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible … and you’re a disgrace. No more questions from you. His name is Peter someone, he’s a terrible reporter.”

Trump constantly returned to the subject of the media after that, calling Alexander an “idiot” and a “jerk”, and asserting that if the US press wasn’t “fake”, they would give greater coverage to the plight of white South African farmers. “They won’t talk about it because they’re all guys like that idiot,” he said.

In 2018, Australia’s then home affairs minister Peter Dutton proposed granting special refugee visas to white South African farmers, noting there were already large numbers of expatriates living in Australia.

“They work hard, they integrate well into Australian society, they contribute to make us a better country and they’re the sorts of migrants that we want to bring into our country,” he said at the time.

However, it was reported in 2020 that no further South Africans had been accepted under the humanitarian program, despite a surge in applications.

According to rejection letters obtained by The Australian at the time, applicants were told crime and violence were widespread in South Africa but not systematic or discriminatory.

White South Africans made up about 7 per cent of South Africa’s 60 million-plus population as of 2022.

The latest South African crime figures, which are not broken down by race, show there were 6953 murders between October and December 2024, including 12 people killed in farm attacks, the BBC reports. Of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were farm dwellers and four were employees, who are likely to have been black.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/look-at-australia-trump-ambushes-south-african-president-over-white-genocide-20250522-p5m170.html

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/05/president-trump-is-right-about-whats-happening-in-south-africa/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xhoHMQxojk

>>23041388

>>23041418

Investigators probe Ben Roberts-Smith over more murders and video drinking from dead man’s prosthetic limb

Nick McKenzie - May 22, 2025

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The secretive agency investigating war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith over multiple murders, including cases not canvassed in his marathon defamation trial, has secured the co-operation of new witnesses.

Amid the damning fresh evidence is footage of the disgraced ex-soldier swilling beer from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man he executed.

Roberts-Smith’s comprehensive loss before the full bench of the Federal Court – which affirmed the finding that the Special Air Service Regiment veteran ordered the murder of four Afghans – paves the way for the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) to move to prosecute the former corporal.

The OSI is examining suspected murders beyond the four cases that were part of the ex-soldier’s failed bid to clear his name.

Five sources with knowledge of the OSI’s ongoing four-year investigation said its investigators had secured co-operation from key witnesses who had not participated in Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial.

The OSI is working closely with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions as it builds its case against Roberts-Smith, having collected statements from over a dozen SASR soldiers who claim Roberts-Smith arranged or participated in executions, including an incident in which he kicked a bound civilian off a small cliff.

The OSI has also uncovered a video of Roberts-Smith drinking from the prosthetic leg of a man he had earlier executed during an Easter Sunday 2009 operation targeting a compound called Whiskey 108.

The video was filmed in a makeshift bar called the Fat Lady’s Arms at the Australian army base in southern Afghanistan and contradicts Roberts-Smith’s evidence during his defamation trial when he told Justice Anthony Besanko he had never drunk from the plastic leg.

During his opening remarks at the start of the case, Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Bruce McClintock, told the court: “My client did not drink from the leg. The respondents have been desperately trying to find evidence that he did, but he never did.”

When he was directly asked in court during cross-examination, “Did you yourself drink from the leg?” Roberts-Smith replied: “No, I didn’t.”

However, the video uncovered by the OSI shows the disgraced soldier being passed the prosthetic leg before sculling from it during a party at the Fat Lady’s Arms.

On Tuesday, the full bench of the Federal Court released their judgment, explaining why they upheld Justice Besanko’s 2023 decision that Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners, including the man with the prosthetic leg, while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

Federal Court justices Nye Perram, Anna Katzmann and Geoffrey Kennett found the evidence was sufficiently cogent to conclude that Roberts-Smith was a war criminal who had disgraced his country and the SASR, including by having machine-gunned the unarmed prisoner with a prosthetic leg outside Whiskey 108.

The three senior judges said the latter finding was based on the compelling testimony of three of Roberts-Smith’s fellow SASR soldiers.

“The problem for [Roberts-Smith] is that, unlike most homicides, there were three eyewitnesses to this murder,” the three judges concluded.

“When all is said and done, it is a rare murder that is witnessed by three independent witnesses. This strength of this evidence cannot be erased, and is in no way undermined, by peripheral inconsistencies.”

The appeal court also said that “the killing of the man with the prosthetic leg in such a dramatic fashion does suggest a certain recklessness or perhaps even brazenness” on Roberts-Smith’s part.

(continued)

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While Roberts-Smith still denies wrongdoing, and has vowed to continue his legal fight to clear his name by challenging the four judges’ findings in the High Court, the revelation the OSI has also secured the co-operation of witnesses who did not testify in the defamation trial, or gave only limited testimony, is a blow to the disgraced ex-soldier and former Seven West Media executive.

The OSI is staffed with elite detectives from state police forces, including handpicked homicide investigators.

Sources said the OSI’s inquiries had proceeded far more slowly than the agency had hoped, but this was due to a painstakingly exhaustive and risk-averse approach adopted by its chief, former top prosecutor and judge Mark Weinberg.

Weinberg has sought to avoid the legal pitfalls that led to the abandonment in 2021 of an earlier federal police war crimes investigation targeting Roberts-Smith.

The OSI is working with the AFP to target Roberts-Smith and has secured more evidence and witness co-operation than the stymied federal police probe.

The OSI probe is not only aimed at seeking to prosecute Roberts-Smith but several of his accomplices who, like the disgraced war hero, were also found to have lied during the defamation proceedings to cover up war crimes.

Billionaire Gina Rinehart emerged this week as Roberts-Smith’s latest mega-wealthy public supporter, describing him as “brave and patriotic” and claiming the reporting of his actions in Afghanistan had weakened the defence forces.

Her statement has angered SASR veterans who believe the mining magnate’s defence of the war criminal is misguided and offensive to Australian veterans who repeatedly deployed to Afghanistan and are against the execution of civilians and prisoners.

“If Rinehart has read the full court’s judgment, she must know it was other regiment blokes that are the ones that have stood up against his [Roberts-Smith’s] crimes. There is nothing honourable about kicking an Afghan farmer off a cliff,” one SASR insider who served alongside Roberts-Smith said.

A second SASR insider who also served in Afghanistan said he believed Rinehart’s advocacy was at odds with “the views of most Australians who don’t want their soldiers executing civilians or prisoners”.

“We don’t do that,” the SASR veteran said, claiming that Roberts-Smith’s decision to spend millions of dollars on defamation proceedings had brought untold “trauma” for soldiers subsequently caught up in his legal fight.

Rinehart has refused to say if she is funding Roberts-Smith’s ongoing legal battles, with his former employer, Channel Seven owner Kerry Stokes, no longer footing the war criminal’s bill.

Rinehart was approached for comment.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/investigators-probe-ben-roberts-smith-over-more-murders-and-video-drinking-from-dead-man-s-prosthetic-limb-20250521-p5m0y9.html

>>22959621

>>22981980

'Recovered' Assange promotes Cannes documentary

AFP / news.com.au - May 22, 2025

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has "recovered" from his years in detention, his wife told AFP, as a new documentary about him premiered at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday.

Assange is at the world's biggest film festival to promote "The Six Billion Dollar Man" by American director Eugene Jarecki but is not yet speaking publicly.

After posing for photographers on Tuesday wearing a T-shirt with the names of killed Gaza children, he reappeared Wednesday for the red-carpet screening wearing a black tuxedo.

The 53-year-old former hacker has declined all interview requests, however, with his wife Stella Assange saying that "he'll speak when he's ready."

But she was upbeat about his health and said he was already thinking about his next steps.

"We live with incredible nature at our doorstep (in Australia). Julian's very outdoorsy. He always has been. He's really recovered physically and mentally," Stella, a Spanish-Swedish lawyer, told AFP.

Assange was released from a high-security British prison last June after a plea bargain with the US government over Wikileaks's work publishing top-secret military and diplomatic information.

He spent five years behind bars fighting extradition from Britain and another seven holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London where he claimed political asylum.

'Right side of history'

Award-winning director Jarecki said his film aimed to correct the record about Assange, whose methods and personality make him a divisive figure.

"I think Julian Assange put himself in harm's way for the principle of informing the public about what corporations and governments around the world are doing in secret," Jarecki told AFP.

Anyone willing to trade years of their life for their principles, "I think you'd have to look at that person as having heroic qualities," he added.

The film includes never-seen footage, including personal videos handed over by Stella, a Wikileaks lawyer who had two children with Assange while he was living in the Ecuadorian embassy.

It also features testimony from people who helped spy on Assange, including an Icelandic FBI informant and a private security agent who said he installed bugs accessed by US security services in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Ecuador's left-wing former president Rafael Correa, who offered Assange asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, also attended Wednesday's screening.

"I believe we were on the right side of history," he told AFP.

Jarecki's film seeks to address criticism of Assange, notably that he endangered lives by publishing unredacted US documents which included the names of people who had spoken to American diplomats or spies.

'Complete fabrication'

The film extensively features supportive figures, while giving little time to opposing views.

"Baywatch" actress and Assange friend Pamela Anderson makes an appearance, as does American whistleblower Edward Snowden, and left-wing Greek ex-minister Yanis Varifakis who compares the Wikileaks founder to Greek god Prometheus.

The film lays the blame for the publication of a trove of 251,000 US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks in 2011 on veteran investigative British journalist David Leigh, alleging he published the password to access the database.

Leigh, who collaborated with Assange while working at the Guardian newspaper, told AFP he had never been contacted by Jarecki and he called the theory "a complete fabrication".

"It was Julian and Julian alone who did it. He's been trying to find an excuse ever since," he said by phone.

Jarecki also dismissed any links between Wikileaks and Russian intelligence services over the leak of Democratic Party emails ahead of the 2016 US presidential election which embarrassed Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

An investigation by US special counsel Robert Mueller, who probed alleged Russian interference in the 2016 vote, found evidence that Russian military intelligence hacked the Democratic Party and passed the information to Wikileaks.

The documentary also examines the role of Swedish prosecutors in starting a sexual assault investigation into Assange, concluding that there was no case to answer.

https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/recovered-assange-promotes-cannes-documentary-about-his-life/news-story/88198e46fa5f893f57571aea9f2c9986

https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1925339756394594583

https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1924797064526942633

>>23027918

>>23058406

>>23067420

Liberals and Nationals closer on Coalition fix, spotlight moves to Littleproud leadership

Paul Sakkal - May 23, 2025

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The Liberal and National parties are inching towards reforming the Coalition after Liberal MPs gave Sussan Ley in-principle agreement for most of David Littleproud’s policy demands, but speculation is growing about Littleproud’s future as leader of the regional party.

Ley convened a lively party room meeting on Friday afternoon at which her MPs gave their leader the authority to strike a deal with the Nationals to create a joint shadow cabinet by the time parliament resumes, days after Littleproud sparked chaos by splitting from the Liberals.

Critically, the Nationals ditched the plan to build seven nuclear power sites, paving the way for a watered-down Coalition policy to merely lift the moratorium and allow for potential private investment into nuclear energy.

The in-principle agreement does not extend to the precise details of Littleproud’s demands, which are still due to be thrashed out in a shadow cabinet. Moderate Liberal MPs expressed concerns about Littleproud’s demand, first reported in this masthead, to extend forced supermarket break-up laws to big-box retailers such as Chemist Warehouse and Officeworks.

Liberals also have doubts about the administration and funding of the $20 billion regional building fund, highlighting the potential for a bumpy path back to reunification.

The turbulent week in right-wing politics has led to chatter inside the Nationals about whether Littleproud could survive the affair.

His leadership is bolstered by the lack of widespread support for any other contender, but former leader Barnaby Joyce told at least one colleague on Friday that Littleproud’s position was precarious.

Joyce has been unwell and does not have the numbers to win. But according to party sources unable to speak publicly, Joyce told colleagues he would be open to supporting another former leader, Michael McCormack.

McCormack stressed on Friday morning that Littleproud was not under threat. But asked if he fully backed Littleproud, McCormack uttered the same words as Scott Morrison did in the days before toppling Malcolm Turnbull: “I’m ambitious for him”.

“It’s been messy, it’s been really messy and for people on the outside looking in they just wonder what the hell is going on,” McCormack said on ABC Canberra.

One Nationals MP, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, said “the clock is now ticking” on Littleproud’s leadership, but his backers insist such talk is hypocritical because his decisions were made in conjunction with his MPs.

“Three people have significantly damaged themselves this week, David, Bridget [McKenzie] and Kevin [Hogan]. And this was all self-inflicted. I’m not sure if David is terminal but it has been a very bad week,” the second Nationals MP said.

Senior Nationals MP Darren Chester told Sky News that he backed Littleproud “without equivocation”.

“It was only a matter of 12 or 13 days ago, David was elected by our party room … so people do need to remember that the decisions that were taken this week were taken with the majority support of the party room,” he said.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who challenged Littleproud for the leadership, said: “David has done a great job for the Nationals this week and he has delivered real results after the Liberals’ backdown”.

“I know the Liberals are unhappy, but if some of them fought the Labor Party as hard as they have been fighting the Nats this week, we may have done a lot better at the election,” Canavan said.

(continued)

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Before Friday’s virtual hook-up, the Liberal Party leadership released a document to MPs outlining in detail Littleproud’s wishes.

The policy document, obtained by this masthead, confirmed the Nationals were no longer wedded to using public funds to build nuclear reactors at seven sites around the country.

The demand, as expressed to Ley and outlined in the document, was: “Commit to removing the moratorium on nuclear energy at a minimum, with a review of the remaining elements of the nuclear policy.” Littleproud also suggested on Thursday that his nuclear energy demand extended only to lifting the moratorium.

The watered-down demand from the Nationals, which led the charge for nuclear power, indicates that the proposal to spend billions on nuclear sites is viewed as politically tricky even by the regional party, potentially consigning the plan to the dustbin of political history.

The Liberals’ document states such a move would not be a troublesome break from the current position, indicating the demand was likely to be accepted by the party despite some discomfort with the energy plan.

Liberal senator Maria Kovacic, a party moderate, called for nuclear energy to be scrapped two weeks ago after Labor made its high cost – which it misleadingly claimed would be $600 billion – a key focus to discredit Peter Dutton’s economic credentials during the election campaign.

On Littleproud’s other requests, the document showed he was seeking $1 billion per year for a regional building fund that was not agreed to pre-election. The document also states his request for “big-box” retailers to be added to the policy for divestment of anticompetitive supermarkets might be a small step further than the pre-election plan.

And on expanding the universal mobile service obligation in the regions, the document noted the policy “was not agreed through a formal process but announced during the campaign” by Littleproud.

Littleproud announced he would split from the Liberal Party on Tuesday before agreeing to resume talks on Thursday after Ley told him she would convene her MPs to assess his demands. Ley’s move was triggered by Littleproud saying for the first time on Thursday morning that he would honour shadow cabinet solidarity in a coalition.

Without telling his party room, Littleproud had earlier asked Ley if Nationals in a shadow cabinet could publicly dissent on agreed policies such as the net zero climate target; Ley flatly rejected the demand and Littleproud’s Nationals allies were frustrated he had not told them about his request.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/liberals-set-to-agree-to-watered-down-nuclear-plan-leaked-document-shows-20250523-p5m1lp.html

Kevin Rudd says Donald Trump’s ban on foreign students at Harvard is ‘distressing’

JACK QUAIL - 23 May 2025

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Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday revoked Harvard’s right to enrol foreign students – more than a quarter of its annual intake – in a major escalation of the President’s fight with one of the world’s most storied universities.

The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, quickly slammed the move as “unlawful” and said it would hurt both the campus and the country, while one student said the community was “panicking”.

Australia’s US Ambassador Kevin Rudd said the decision to block foreign students from enrolling at Harvard University was “distressing” for Australian students.

Mr Rudd says he is working with the Trump administration following its decision.

“We are monitoring closely developments at Harvard University in relation to the administration’s statement this afternoon on the future enrolment of international students,” Dr Rudd wrote in a post to social media platform X on Friday.

“I know this will be distressing for Harvard’s many Australian students. The Embassy is working with the United States Government to obtain the details of this decision so that Australian students can receive appropriate advice.”

According to the Ivy League institution, approximately 120 Australian students are enrolled at the university.

The decision dramatically deepens the rift between Mr Trump and the university, and will force thousands of international students enrolled at the university to either relocate to another institution or leave the US entirely.

Mr Trump is furious at Harvard, which has produced 162 Nobel prize-winners, for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.

“Effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor (SEVIS) Program certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the Ivy League institution, referring to the main system by which foreign students are permitted to study in the US.

The loss of such a large proportion of the student body could prove to be a huge financial blow to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition.

Harvard, which has sued the government over a separate raft of punitive measures, quickly fired back, calling the move unlawful. “We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars,” it said in a statement, adding that it was working to offer students guidance and support.

“This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”

Karl Molden, an international student from Austria, said he had applied to study at Oxford University in the UK because he feared such measures.

“It’s scary and it’s saddening,” the 21-year-old government and classics student told AFP. “I love Harvard, and getting into the school has been the greatest privilege of my life.

“It’s definitely going to change the perception of … students who (might) consider studying there – the US is getting less of an attractive spot for higher education.”

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Last month, Mr Trump threatened to stop Harvard from enrolling foreign students if it did not agree to government demands that would put the private institution under outside political supervision.

“As I explained to you in my April letter, it is a privilege to enrol foreign students,” Ms Noem wrote.

“All universities must comply with Department of Homeland Security requirements, including reporting requirements under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program regulations, to maintain this privilege,” she said.

“As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege.”

More than 27 per cent of Harvard’s enrolment was made up of foreign students in the 2024-25 academic year, according to university data.

Fourth-year US student Alice Goyer told AFP “no one knows” what the development would mean for international students already enrolled.

“We just got the news, so I’ve been getting texts from a lot of international friends, and I think everyone’s just – no one knows,” she said. “Everyone’s panicking a bit.”

On whether students would willingly transfer to other institutions, as suggested by Ms Noem in the letter, Ms Goyer said: “I doubt people would do that. I would hope maybe there’s going to be a legal battle that’ll take place.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/trump-administration-revokes-harvards-right-to-enrol-foreign-students/news-story/182e2aca4026bf7cce119784029670fc

https://x.com/Sec_Noem/status/1925612991703052733

https://x.com/AmboRudd/status/1925669885784293626

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Zoe Daniel calls for Goldstein recount after Tim Wilson wins by 260 votes

Cara Waters - May 24, 2025

Zoe Daniel has requested a recount in Goldstein after counting today arrived at a final margin of 260 votes in favour of Liberal Tim Wilson.

The Australian Electoral Commission automatically undertakes a recount if the margin is under 100 votes, but candidates can also request one if they have sufficient grounds.

A spokesman for the AEC said the full distribution of preferences was finalised today in favour of Wilson.

“A recount request is being considered, and an announcement regarding that decision will be made when able,” he said.

Daniel said: “In light of the very tight margin and several errors being picked up in the portion of the count that was included in the distribution of preferences, leading to unusual fluctuations and large numbers of votes moving to and fro in the final stages of the count, I have taken expert advice and asked the AEC to consider whether a full recount is appropriate.

“There are also several outstanding questions regarding the broader count which would be resolved by a recount. As always, I will respect the process and await the commission’s decision.”

Posting to social media platform X, Wilson said the AEC had confirmed the final Goldstein margin of 260 votes in his favour.

“We have continually had a majority of votes for nearly three weeks, and it never fell below 100 which is the threshold for an automatic recount,” he said.

Wilson said the votes had been counted at least four times and Liberal and teal volunteers had scrutineered the count.

“And now the former MP is asking for a full recount,” he said. “At some point we should respect the professional staff at the [AEC]. I wish Zoe Daniel, her family and staff well in the next chapter. I hope she finds peace.”

Daniel initially claimed victory in Goldstein on election night but postal votes came in strongly in Wilson’s favour leading him to claim a win in the seat two weeks ago.

However, Daniel did not concede and since then the count in Goldstein has continued, with Daniel narrowing the margin to as little as 128 votes to Wilson at one stage.

Daniel has been getting advice from data scientist Simon Jackman, who has pointed out the increased size of electorates since the 100-vote trigger for a recount was decided in 2007, and to anomalies in the count.

Jackman said the AEC’s 100-vote guidance was implemented following the McEwen recount of 2007.

“That 100 votes is not key to an error rate, it’s an absolute number,” he said. “It was conjured up in 2007 when electorates were a lot smaller than they are now.”

Jackman said that because Goldstein was 40 per cent larger than the average electorate in 2007, he thought Daniel could make the argument that a 100-vote margin in 2007 was a 140-vote margin today.

Jackman also said there were anomalies in the Goldstein count that might deserve a recount.

“If you look closely at the Goldstein count, there are a few hiccups in the count,” he said. “The AEC or someone has made a mistake at the Hampton pre-poll voting centre where a huge bundle of votes that were given to Zoe Daniel were then taken away, and it looks like they may have gone over to the Greens candidate in large [part].”

Jackman said the count had been “a bit bumpy” in some polling centres in Goldstein, particularly the Brighton pre-poll centre, and a recount would help dissipate any concerns.

“Why not take another two or three days to just put any issues to bed and that way no one’s got any argument at all?” he said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/zoe-daniel-calls-for-goldstein-recount-20250522-p5m1fx.html

Cheap Aussie ‘Mozzie’ all the buzz to replace global market-leading Chinese drones

BEN PACKHAM - May 22, 2025

An Australian technology company is poised to meet a critical challenge for the nation’s security, designing a $5000 drone for military use with domestically sourced parts and those from friendly countries.

The only Chinese component in Grabba Technologies’ Mozzie drone is its electric motor, and the company is working with two local firms that are close to producing Australian-made alternatives.

The privately owned Brisbane company was selected for the challenge by Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, which needed an affordable multi-mission drone under 2kg for use by the Australian Defence Force and national security agencies.

The locally made drone gives Australian and allied users a trusted alternative to Chinese drones that dominate the global market.

The ASCA challenge followed the removal from service of more than 800 Chinese-made drones that had been operated by the ADF, and 41 in use with the Australian Border Force.

The Mozzie, which can undertake surveillance missions or drop bombs on enemy soldiers, will meet US “blue list” guidelines for technology products with entirely friendly-nation supply chains.

The explosion in drone warfare seen in Ukraine has piled pressure on the Australian government to bring uncrewed systems into service as rapidly as possible.

Grabba Technologies is set to sell 260 of the drones to Defence for testing by the army, navy and air force, and hopes to sell tens of thousands more to the ADF and allied militaries, and law enforcement agencies.

The basic Mozzie drone can be tailored to meet the requirements of each military service, with ­additional protection, radio technologies, cameras and payloads.

Grabba executive chairman Ross McKinnon said the challenge was a tough one, requiring the company to build the drone “from the ground up” to meet ASCA requirements.

The company had to design many of the drone’s components, including its base station and on-board gimbal to keep its camera steady, in order to keep costs down and ensure a trusted supply chain.

“That was actually a really good thing, because it meant that we weren’t just rebuilding a foreign product,” Mr McKinnon said.

“This is a world-leading drone in its category, sub-2kg, but low-cost and Australian-made.”

The company will sell the drones for $5000 each to the Australian government, which kicked in $2.2m to develop it, but will charge about twice that for an ­export version. The next-cheapest drone on the international market with equivalent specifications costs about $18,000.

“There’s actually a gap in the market for a blue-list equivalent drone at this price point. So we can sell this and export this because of the constraints the commonwealth set on us,” Mr McKinnon said.

The company is also developing larger versions of the drone, up to one tonne.

The ASCA challenge was aimed at developing a sovereign drone that could be produced at scale to meet emerging strategic challenges.

Mr McKinnon said while the market wasn’t yet big enough to pump out large quantities of the aircraft, the company could rapidly ramp up production “if we get in a scrap”.

He said the company was already working with international buyers, including the US Department of Homeland Security, and had partnered with Australian-owned company EPE, which supplied robots to allied militaries.

“They say our drone is the best and they are taking it to the global market,” Mr McKinnon said.

The ADF has lagged many militaries in getting uncrewed systems into service, acquiring its first lethal drones last year.

It purchased an undisclosed number of US-made Switchblade 300s – a lightweight “loitering ­munition” – and has a variety of unarmed drones used for intelligence, ­surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.

Australian taxpayers have also contributed $1bn towards the development of Boeing’s Ghost Bat, a “loyal wingman”-style drone designed to operate with manned fighter jets.

Boeing says the uncrewed jet is one of the most advanced aircraft of its kind in the world, but it is years away from entering service and faces stiff competition from ­rivals selected for a key US Air Force program.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/cheap-aussie-mozzie-all-the-buzz-to-replace-global-marketleading-chinese-drones/news-story/d2041abf6b0a500be3d7e105c5eb1bc2

As Mel’s gender ‘ricocheted’, she went under a surgeon’s knife

A woman is suing the doctors who performed her gender treatment, claiming she could not have given informed consent.

Michael Bachelard - MAY 24, 2025

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A young woman who thought for years she was non-binary or a transgender man is suing two doctors and Monash Health for negligence, claiming gender treatment that included having both breasts surgically removed had caused her “significant injury”.

Mel Jefferies, a 33-year-old who was born as female and is now living again as a woman, has launched the civil lawsuit in the Victorian County Court.

One of the defendants in the case is Dr Jeff Willcox, a Melbourne GP with an “interest in gay men’s health, sexual health … and transgender health”. The others are Jaco Erasmus, a psychiatrist with a special interest in transgender health, and Victoria’s largest public health service, Monash Health.

Jefferies’ statement of claim, recently lodged with the court, accuses all three of falling short of delivering professional standards of care, including those outlined by the widely recognised World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The claim says those standards require doctors to ensure that “anyone experiencing mental health conditions must have these well-managed and thoroughly controlled prior to the commencement of the testosterone treatment”.

Jefferies says her years of mental health issues were not under control at the time of her treatment and were exacerbated by the testosterone prescribed by her doctors and surgery.

Her statement of claim says she has a permanently “deepened voice, hirsutism, clitoromegaly [a clitoris significantly larger than normal], vaginal pain/discomfort, abnormal body odour and acne, and pelvic floor dysfunction (as indicated by urinary incontinence).”

Under Australia’s current model of transgender treatment, known as “affirming care”, people’s gender identity is “affirmed and supported” when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth.

“For years I just kept getting affirmed by the medical fraternity and the trans community for something I wasn’t,” Jefferies told this masthead.

“They kept telling me, ‘You’re non-binary, trans, maybe you’re non-binary’. I tried to pull away but they just kept pulling me back in … I never developed the discernment to say ‘this isn’t true’.”

Her case, filed by Slater and Gordon solicitor Anne Shortall, is one of the few brought in Australia by people who regret their gender treatment. Another is working its way through the courts in Sydney. Shortall declined to comment.

If Jefferies’ case proceeds to a judicial decision, it could represent a test case for the duty of care doctors owe towards people seeking affirming care. It comes as the number of young people seeking treatment for gender dysphoria has increased dramatically in the past decade.

It also comes as the transgender community and doctors who perform such treatments push for an “informed consent” model of care which would reduce the barriers to treatment, including the requirement for psychological assessments. They also want GPs to be able to treat gender issues as they do more common conditions.

Monash declined to comment as the case was before the courts and involved “confidential patient information”. Questions to Willcox were answered by his lawyer, who said he would defend the claim. Erasmus said he could not comment because the matter was before the court.

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The claim outlines Jefferies’ interactions with doctors, starting in 2011, when Willcox first prescribed her testosterone. The Melbourne referral came despite letters from a psychologist and a doctor in Sydney that Jefferies was not ready for the treatment and should have more counselling, including for “social isolation and family dynamics of concern”, and support for her anxiety.

“By virtue of the results of the prior consultations, reasonable medical practice … required [Willcox] not commence the testosterone treatment until … the Plaintiff’s mental health difficulties were under control and her mental health stable,” the statement of claim alleges.

Instead, the document says, Willcox started the treatment “without consideration of the [earlier] recommendations”.

In two 2012 referral letters for gender and psychological treatment, outlined in the claim, Willcox acknowledged that Jefferies “has a complex mental health history” that included “body image disorder; eating disorder (adult); depression” as well as “suicidal ideation … disordered eating/body dysmorphia” and likely borderline personality disorder.

Some of the key symptoms of borderline personality disorder are impulsivity and instability in self-image and interpersonal relationships.

However, one of the letters written by Willcox said: “Despite the coexisting mental health issues, [Jefferies] has always appeared resolute in his desire to transition to the male sex and he feels surgery to remove his breasts is the next stage of this transition.”

The legal claim details strong swings in Jefferies’ attitude at the time. Between 2013 and 2017, it says, Jefferies stopped the testosterone treatment – she went on TV and described herself as a “detransitioner” – only to start it again two years later after another prescription from Willcox.

At one time she expressed a desire for a hysterectomy, then later said she was happier in her female biological sex. Later still she asked to have her breasts removed because they were “fat” and made her feel like “her skin doesn’t fit properly”.

Medical records referred to in the court documents suggest she wanted at times “to be asexual and have all of her reproductive organs removed”, then decided she was comfortable being gender-fluid.

Another doctor, who is not being sued, wrote in this period that Jefferies “does not move along the gender continuum but rather ricochets from one side to the other”.

The statement of claim also lists a catalogue of psychiatric medications Jefferies was prescribed, including anti-depressant, anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety drugs.

In 2017, a gender doctor, who is not named in court documents, referred Jefferies to Monash Health on a recommendation from Erasmus. The referral was to convince Monash Health to recommend Jefferies for public funding under Medicare to pay for the mastectomy.

A second letter from Erasmus to a plastic surgeon, Dr Andrew Ives, outlines Jefferies’ history of mental health issues but says they were “reasonably well controlled”.

Jefferies had “come to the conclusion that he has an unspecified gender identity and does not wish to be perceived as male or female”, the referral letter says.

“In a binary society though he would settle for being perceived as male and therefore prefers using male pronouns … In my opinion Mason [the name Jefferies was then known by] has experienced persistent gender dysphoria … he is able to make an informed decision and has the capacity to consent to treatment,” the Erasmus letter says.

Jefferies, who was on the consumer advisory panel for the Monash Gender Clinic for a time, now says she should not have been referred for the double mastectomy. Her mental health was “unstable and not well controlled”, according to the claim.

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In October 2017, Ives – billed on website Transsurgery Australia as “one of the country’s leading Transgender Surgery experts” – removed Jefferies’ breasts. Ives is not a defendant in the lawsuit and also declined to comment while the matter was before the courts.

Jefferies claims the treatment exacerbated her self-harm, increased her suicidal thoughts, helped prompt drug overdoses and “the need for repeated psychiatric hospitalisations”. She now has complex and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, is in partial remission from “alcohol misuse disorder”, and has suffered “irreversible and serious injury to her physical body”, the court documents allege.

This masthead does not suggest the defendants are necessarily liable. The case is ongoing and the defendants are expected to file a defence next month.

Jefferies is seeking general damages and the cost of mental and physical health treatment.

Asked if she bore any responsibility for her insistence, at times, on treatment, Jefferies told this masthead: “I didn’t have the capacity to give consent – most of the time I was in transition I was going through crisis after crisis.”

She claimed that she had been influenced by a common belief in the trans community that their families and society would reject them, and if they could not transition, they would suicide.

“I didn’t have the ability to think long term. I was warped by the thinking that if I didn’t do this I was going to die,” Jefferies said. “They [the trans community] are in the grips of fear, and an us-versus-them culture. They tell you ‘They hate you, you’re only safe with us’. It’s an intense pressure.”

The issue of detransition is controversial in the transgender community. Some say the media over-emphasises stories of detransitioners – stories they say are then co-opted by conservative voices to amplify their argument that transgender medicine has gone too far. Some research insists people who regret their treatment are a tiny proportion, about 1 per cent, of those who undergo it. This figure is disputed by others.

Lawsuits have been brought and settled in the past over similar issues. A claim in 2003 against the Monash Gender Dysphoria Clinic was settled, but prompted a review by the chief psychiatrist. That found the clinic’s psychiatrists were not rigorous enough in applying diagnostic criteria.

Another legal claim made public in 2009 – two years before Jefferies started treatment – prompted the Monash clinic to close for three months and the forced resignation of its director. Another review followed, which found the clinic needed “better responses to meet the mental health needs of clients”.

Jefferies has requested a judge-only trial, two of the defendants want a jury.

https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/as-mel-s-gender-ricocheted-she-went-under-a-surgeon-s-knife-20250521-p5m13t.html

—

‘I spent a decade going down the wrong path’: Mel’s regret after transition

Lisa Wachsmuth - February 2, 2025'

https://archive.vn/dR9km#22494941

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Taylor, Tehan and Paterson set for security roles in Ley’s top team

SARAH ISON - 25 May 2025

Sussan Ley and David Littleproud have agreed that the Nationals will receive six shadow cabinet spots and two outer ministry positions as part of negotiations on a Coalition frontbench that is expected to see Ms Ley’s Liberal rival, Angus Taylor, receive the foreign affairs or defence portfolio.

After a tumultuous week that resulted in the Liberal and Nationals leaders poised to announce separate ministries as late as Thursday morning, Ms Ley and Mr Littleproud restarted talks on a Coalition agreement at the weekend and are expected to come to a position on the shadow ministry and policies such as ­nuclear energy in coming days.

While Ms Ley reached out to former Nationals leaders Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce to broker a resolution to the split before Mr Littleproud agreed to renegotiate, ­neither MP expects to receive a frontbench position thanks to their roles in fuelling Nationals leadership speculation in recent days.

“Barnaby (Joyce) and I will still contribute if you know, we’re not selected in that leadership team. And who knows, we’ll probably be sitting up the back together,” Mr McCormack said.

The unlikely alliance comes after Mr Joyce rolled Mr McCormack as leader in 2021.

Despite suggestions within the Nationals that Mr Littleproud would not remain leader in “the long term” after his decision to split from the Coalition and then backflip on that decision, Mr Littleproud on Sunday said he was “relaxed” about his position.

“The vast majority of my partyroom decided to leave the ­Coalition. I enacted what was directed,” he said on Sky News.

“We got an outcome over two or three days because of principles over politics … If I have to lose my job for it, I don’t care, but I did what my partyroom said.”

Mr Littleproud’s chosen deputy leader, Kevin Hogan, also sought to brush aside leadership questions.

“He did it all in line with the partyroom’s procedures and processes, and I think they have great respect for that,” he told ABC. “There are always malcontents in any room.”

Nationals and Liberal sources familiar with negotiations over a Coalition said while the question of cabinet spots may have been up for debate before the Coalition nearly split, the matter was now very much settled.

“The Nationals will get six (cabinet) spots and two outer ministries,” one senior Nationals MP said.

The Australian understands Ms Ley had invited Michaelia Cash and Anne Ruston – the Liberals’ leader and deputy leader of the Senate – along with her deputy Ted O’Brien to Canberra on Thursday, before talks on the Coalition were restarted.

Several conservative Liberals raised concern with the position Ms Ley would give Mr Taylor, who lost the battle for Liberal leadership by just four votes and said only the foreign affairs or defence portfolio offered “sufficient” status.

Senior Liberal MP James Paterson is expected to take whichever role Mr Taylor didn’t want; Dan Tehan is predicted to be offered home affairs as a “natural next step” from his former job of immigration spokesman.

Despite Nationals MPs like Bridget McKenzie arguing for the junior party to be given shadow cabinet roles that allowed for a greater say in economic policy, there are no major changes expected to the usual breakup of roles that sees the Nationals take on portfolios such as resources.

While the Liberal partyroom agreed to Mr Littleproud’s four policy demands, which went to nuclear energy, supermarket divestiture laws, resolving telecommunication black spots and invest­ing in regional Australia, some concerns remain over the issue of nuclear and divestiture in particular.

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said while the Liberals could agree to a “technology-agnostic” approach to energy policy that left room for nuclear to be explored, there were definitely risks around implementing divestiture laws.

“You wouldn’t want to do anything that was going to damage private investment because it’s on strike under this government,” Senator Bragg told Sky News.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/taylor-tehan-and-paterson-set-for-security-roles-in-leys-top-team/news-story/5a682e59b63af8e71e643c779e73dadd

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OPINION: Roberts-Smith’s rabid band of supporters has an outspoken new member – Gina Rinehart

Roberts-Smith is a murderer. Why do the uber-wealthy defend him?

Chris Masters, Investigative journalist - May 25, 2025

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“What went on over there, stays over there.”

“You can’t judge combat from the comfort of an armchair.”

“What right have you to tear down our heroes?”

“It’s war, for god’s sake.”

Since the first public challenges to Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s reputation in 2017, those words, this retaliatory refrain, has been unrelenting and unchanged. All in the face of profound evidence revealing Australia’s most decorated living soldier is a war criminal.

After last week’s 245-page rejection of Roberts-Smith’s Federal Court appeal and Justice Anthony Besanko’s 726-page ruling in 2023, the keen eyes of four judges have now found to a civil court standard that Roberts-Smith murdered four captives in Afghanistan.

Under the Geneva Convention and Australia’s own laws of armed conflict, executing detainees is unlawful. But there are rules and there are norms, and the norms according to the “it’s war” apologists are based on an insiders’ “take no prisoners” realpolitik.

Within the Defence diaspora, online debate runs hot and loud. The “I stand with Ben” brigade is undeterred by the court rulings.

Brigadier Adrian d’Hage, former head of Defence public relations who was awarded a Military Cross for his service in Vietnam, is taking them on. And he’s far from alone among soldiers with combat experience disavowing the so-called realists’ justification for murder.

“That is not the way we fight. We have a long and hard-won reputation as being feared fighters, but fighters who engage according to the Geneva Convention,” d’Hage says.

Given many critics’ apparent aversion to examining those pages, here is a distillation of key evidence.

On April 13, 2009, Ben Roberts-Smith kicked an old man to his knees and instructed a junior soldier, in an exercise of “blooding”, to shoot him in the head. Soon after, he frogmarched a second Afghan man fitted with a prosthetic leg, threw him to the ground, and killed him with a burst of machine gun fire.

On October 12, 2012, a third unarmed and detained man was executed by an Afghan partner force member upon Roberts-Smith’s instruction.

And on November 11, 2012, Ali Jan, a father of three with no established links to the Taliban, was handcuffed and kicked over a small cliff by Roberts-Smith, who then ordered two comrades to drag him to cover, where he was shot dead.

At numerous speaking events, Age investigative journalist Nick McKenzie and I have argued the following:

It is morally wrong to kill or order the execution of captives.

It is strategically wrong because it turns the population further against your mission. All those Australian soldiers bravely patrolling the fields of Uruzgan as a protective force against the Taliban were placed at greater risk.

And it is wrong to force an act upon a fellow soldier so destructive of conscience and self-respect.

Soldiers who have earned the Special Air Service Regiment’s sandy beret are rightly proud. When they returned to civilian life as psychological wrecks because of what they saw and did, as did occur, the damage was obvious.

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From my own observation, the self-harm to the regiment was the main reason for a brave group of Special Air Service Regiment soldiers to speak up. Nick and I both know they did so with extreme reluctance, all under subpoena, because of a view within the ranks that dobbing in your mate was a worse sin than exposing a war crime.

That view was shared by members of the uber wealthy.

Billionaire Kerry Stokes has spent millions on Roberts-Smith’s case. Multi-millionaire John Singleton funded a full-page newspaper advertisement describing attacks on the war hero as “disgraceful”. And now Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, is quoted querying why this “brave and patriotic man” should be “under such attack”.

I can only wonder what is in their minds. Do they believe that in their real world, ruthlessness is a necessity that should be honoured?

Last December, my brother Roy and I spoke to a well-heeled audience of Aussie expats in Singapore. We were warned ahead of time that there would be a pro-Roberts-Smith sentiment and opposition expressed to our reporting.

The day before, Roy and I had walked the grounds of the Alexandra Hospital. We found a small plaque commemorating the massacre of 250 patients and staff by Japanese forces on February 14, 1942.

I spoke the next day of the shock that is still felt about those helpless victims being dragged into the garden and bayonetted to death. And I asked how we could condemn the Japanese while excusing our own.

There was no answer.

I am with Albert Camus, who said: “In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”

Chris Masters is a Gold Walkley award-winning journalist and author. He was the first Australian journalist to be embedded with special forces in Afghanistan.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/roberts-smith-s-rabid-band-of-supporters-has-an-outspoken-new-member-gina-rinehart-20250522-p5m1eb.html

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Footage released of Qld man feared dead in Ukraine

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia has released footage of the Queenslander feared dead in “Russian-controlled territory”, offering a glimpse into his efforts during the war.

Isabella Pesch - May 25, 2025

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia has released footage of the Queenslander feared dead in “Russian-controlled territory”, offering a glimpse into his efforts during the war.

Gladstone builder, Caleb List, joined the Ukrainian foreign legion after he was rejected by the Australian Army.

It is understood Mr List went missing and is believed to have been killed following fighting in the Kharkiv region last month.

The YouTube video, posted by Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia, Vasul Myroshnychenko on Saturday, offered a glimpse into Mr List’s life on the Ukrainian front lines, where he had been fighting since 2022.

At the start of the video, Mr List talks to the camera, stating, “It’s a good fight. It’s a necessary fight, so that is why I am here in the cold freezing my arse off”.

A montage of photos and snippets of his efforts with the Ukrainian Army follows, including videos of Mr List during training exercises, working on the ground, and joking with fellow soldiers.

The caption for the YouTube video read that it would be “known for certain” whether Mr List was dead once his body, which remained in Russian-controlled territory, could be recovered and identified.

“For now, I ask you to remember Caleb. If he is alive, we will work on getting him swapped,” the caption read.

“If he is dead, we will mourn him and will never forget his ultimate sacrifice.”

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said they were aware of people attempting to travel to fight in the war, and a small number of Australians were reported as missing or deceased in Ukraine.

“We continue to strongly urge Australians not to travel to Ukraine. It is a ‘do not travel’ zone because the situation is extremely dangerous,” the spokesperson said.

The Australian Government’s travel advice for Ukraine remained at “Do not travel due to the volatile security environment and military conflict”. The travel advice for Ukraine was last updated on March 27 and remains current.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/footage-released-of-qld-man-feared-dead-in-ukraine/news-story/cb6cdf8a579ef2c59645e15d50ab6858

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nsS3A2tC8

Father of choirboy who claimed son was abused by Cardinal George Pell settles case against Catholic Church

The father of a dead choirboy who claimed his son was abused by George Pell has settled his landmark legal case against the Catholic Church a day before he was due to give evidence.

Shannon Deery - May 25, 2025

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The father of a dead choirboy who claimed his son was sexually assaulted by Cardinal George Pell has sensationally dropped his landmark legal case against the Catholic Church.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal the man – known only as RWQ – has setlled a claim against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne after a protracted three-year fight.

It is understood the man is battling cancer and ended the claim a day before lawyers were due to record his evidence in a rare hospital bedside sitting.

The terms of the settlement are unclear but it is understood the church admitted no fault or wrongdoing but will pay the man some of his legal costs but not damages.

The man launched legal action after Pell, who died in 2023, was freed from prison following a successful High Court appeal that saw a string of convictions for child sexual assault quashed.

The choirboy’s father was seeking damages for mental harm suffered as a result of being informed by police of the alleged abuse of his late son.

Pell was convicted of abusing the choirboy, who cannot be identified, who died of a drug overdose in 2014 and never disclosed any allegations of abuse to his parents or authorities.

But another choirboy, known only as Witness J, testified that both boys were both abused in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral after Sunday mass in 1996.

After failing to appeal a string of convictions in Victoria’s Court of Appeal, Pell was ultimately acquitted by a unanimous 7-0 decision of the High Court.

Despite ending his claim, RWQ’s case will leave lasting ramifications for other psychological injury claims in Victoria because of the Church’s efforts to knock it out of court.

It led to a hugely significant High Court decision that ruled “secondary” victims were free to pursue damages in such claims.

The Church unsuccessfully argued that parents, siblings, friends and families of abuse victims should be ineligible to launch claims.

Legal experts warned the court decision would lead to a flood of claims by secondary seeking damages against a range of organisations for psychological injury.

They could include the state government, WorkSafe, the TAC, schools, clubs, kinders, religious organisations and social and cultural groups.

Before his shock death following complications from hip replacement surgery in January 2023, Cardinal Pell was preparing to give evidence in RWQ’s case.

The trial was expected to rehash all of the evidence heard at Pell’s two criminal trials and appeals before the Supreme Court and High Court.

Cardinal Pell spent 405 days in prison after being convicted on four counts of indecent assault and one of sexual penetration of a child over the alleged abuse of the two choirboys.

He was released after the High Court quashed his convictions, finding the jury who found him guilty was wrong to do so, having not considered the entirety of the evidence at trial.