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Daniel Hurst
Marles says Australia will be transparent with Pacific partners amid defence spending boost
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has promised that Australia will be upfront with its partners across the region to ensure there are “no surprises” amid an increase in defence spending and the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.
The Morrison government’s original announcement of Aukus in 2021 sparked a diplomatic rift with France and concerns in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Marles told a defence and industry dinner in Melbourne last night that China was “driving the largest conventional military buildup we’ve seen anywhere in the world since the second world war and much of this buildup is opaque”.
He said that meant it had “never been more important for Australia to employ sober, responsible and clear-eyed statecraft”.
Marles said Australia would increase its overall defence spending and grow its military capability “in a way that is both predictable and transparent”. He added:
We want to ensure we are consulting our partners in the region, and around the world, so that there is understanding and no surprises.
Marles said the Defence Strategic Review – to be released alongside the government’s response to it in April – included a line from former defence chief Angus Houston and former defence minister Stephen Smith that “investing in our Indo-Pacific regional partnerships is essential”.
Marles said the Albanese government agreed and wanted “our partners to be confident in the steps we are taking and the level of transparency we intend to maintain – not just at the time of these announcements, but over the years ahead”. He added:
I conveyed this commitment to my counterparts in the Philippines and Thailand during my visit last week. I conveyed it to Minister Subianto Prabowo of Indonesia during his recent visit to Australia.
Key events
Mark Dreyfus ‘hopeful of doing more’ to better protect journalists and sources
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, is speaking to ABC Radio following his meeting yesterday with key media figures on how to better protect journalists and their sources.
They discussed a range of issues around privacy laws, whistleblower protections, and defamation warrants, such as those that were used to raid the ABC and the home of journalist Annika Smethurst in 2019.
I think most Australians agree that journalists should never face the prospect of being charged just for doing their jobs.
I think there’s agreement across the parliament across the community about that, and that improved protections are overdue.
This is the start of a process. I’ve invited journalists and media organisations to put forward further thoughts. So it’s a start of that conversation yesterday. But I’m hopeful of doing more moving on.
Last year, Dreyfus dropped the prosecution of whistleblower Bernard Collaery. RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas asks him whether he will also drop cases for David McBride who has been prosecuted for allegedly leaking top secret defence information to the ABC or Richard Boyle who has allegedly revealed unethical debt recovery practices. Dreyfus says he won’t comment on the cases, which are currently before the court.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, and the opposition leader, Chris Minns, are both expected to attend the memorial in Lismore.
Amid criticism for the speed of the home buyback, Perrottet on Monday noted the mammoth task facing authorities and the community.
It will be a long journey ahead. It will be a challenge and we will stand with those communities have we had as we have over the last 12 months.
Minns said it would be a tough day for residents affected by the floods but all of NSW was committed to continuing the rebuild of the Northern Rivers.
Minns said ahead of his visit to Lismore:
One year on from the floods that devastated the Northern Rivers, we are reminded of your resilience, your courage, your community spirit.
From the tinny army, to the locals who put their own lives in danger to save others, to our emergency services.
The first home buyback offers were issued on 21 February, with all 250 offers expected to be issued by April.
– AAP
‘Exhausted’ Lismore marks a year since traumatic floods
With the devastating Lismore floods still imprinted on the NSW city and its 45,000 residents, locals will pause for the Gathering of Reflection and Healing.
Five lives were lost and more than 3,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the Northern Rivers city on 28 February 2022, when a month of record rainfall lifted the Wilsons River to a new high of 14.4 metres.
The memorial today will be preceded by a private ceremony to acknowledge the herculean effort of dinghy owners who ferried hundreds of people from rooftops to safety.
The event kicks off three weeks of events in the city, including a music festival in the CBD this weekend and a celebrity cricket match on 11 March.
About 60% of businesses have returned to the CBD, but the relocation of schools means hundreds of their customers have gone.
Ella Buckland, whose house was inundated with 1.5 metres of water, told AAP:
Initially everyone was pumped up on adrenaline.
And then you had little wins, like the coffee shop coming back and everyone was really excited and supportive and kind, like cuddling people who you didn’t know.
Now everyone is just exhausted.
– AAP
Josh Butler
ABS seeks feedback on what questions to ask in 2026 census
The government is seeking public feedback on questions that will be in the 2026 census – which new questions should be added, and which old ones should be dropped.
Assistant minister for treasury, Andrew Leigh, said the Australian Bureau of Statistics was opening public consultations today on the next census.
Following feedback before the last census in 2021 (the census is done every 5 years), the ABS added new questions on long-term health conditions like asthma and diabetes, and about Australian Defence Force participation.
But the ABS will also consider questions that could be discontinued, with previous census counts dropping topics like whether people had been married more than once, or about televisions and internet connections in households.
Leigh said feedback on census topics can be submitted through the ABS website.
Leigh said in a statement today:
Omitting less relevant topics makes it easier to add new questions.
The Census helps Australians understand how we’re changing as a nation. The public has a vital role to play in shaping the topics to be included in the Census. As Australia’s population changes, so too does the information we need to make the right policy decisions for our future.
‘Really clear’ wages are not driving inflation, Tony Burke says
Circling back to the interview with employment relations minister, Tony Burke. He’s asked about soaring corporate profits, which were up more than 10% in the December quarter compared to wages which rose 2.6%, and whether that demonstrates that it’s corporate profits driving inflation – as the union movement is arguing – not wages.
Burke replies:
It is really clear that wages are not driving inflation, are not the principal driver of inflation here. It’s really clear we don’t have some sort of spiral of inflation being caused by high wage growth. It’s also really clear we don’t have high wage growth.
I was pleased that the last wage price increase got up to 3.3%. To the extent that that’s the highest it’s been for some time and had we not taken actions that we took last year, particularly with respect to the minimum wage and awards, you wouldn’t have got to figure as high as but it’s still much, much lower than inflation.
So the argument that somehow wages are the problem here is an argument that I think really needs to be put to bed.
‘Maggot-infested’ meals allegedly served to Snowy Hydro workers
Hopefully you’ve already eaten your breakfast before you take a look at this story which comes from AAP, or you might just lose your appetite:
Workers on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project are threatening to walk off the job over conditions, saying safety is being compromised and workers have been served maggot-infested food.
The Australian Workers’ Union has released photos of steak riddled with maggots allegedly served on the site in the NSW Kosciuszko national park where workers are building a national renewable energy project.
AWU NSW secretary, Tony Callinan, said the food being served was indicative of a broader management problem on the site.
Callinan said in a statement today:
Supermax prisoners are served better food than the workers building Snowy Hydro 2.0.
You have workers living, literally locked up in a camp with limited recreational facilities in the middle of nowhere, being fed maggot-infested food.
The site has an abysmal safety record. It’s an absolute pressure cooker right now.
Many workers were living off canned tuna and two-minute noodles, and were threatening to walk off the job.
Callinan alleged:
The problem is the joint venture who was awarded the contract is pinching every penny they can to try and improve their profit margin.
The union also claims it receives regular reports of serious safety issues on the site. Callinan said:
The whole site’s a tragedy waiting to happen.
Comment is being sought from Snowy Hydro.
Tony Burke confident enough ministers will be on board to fast-track engineered stone ban
The minister for workplace relations, Tony Burke, is speaking to ABC Radio ahead of his meeting with other state and territory workplace safety ministers which will consider banning the engineered stone linked to a deadly lung condition.
Burke says he doesn’t want to repeat the mistake that was made waiting to ban asbestos:
We waited 70 years from when we were told about the dangers of asbestos before we got to a ban. I don’t want us to be making the same mistake this time.
Burke says he doesn’t want to let 12 months lapse while Safe Work Australia scopes out what a ban would look like; “I want that work being done straight away,” he says.
If 60% of ministers at the meeting are on board, the ministers will fast-track banning the dangerous material. Burke says he’s reasonably confident they will have the numbers to do so:
I’ve got a good degree of confidence as to as to how the meeting will go today. But obviously, jurisdictions are free to put whatever view they want.
But as we’ve had the conversations office to office, it hasn’t been a party political thing across which governments Labor or Liberal, there has been a good degree of support for the concept that we shouldn’t be waiting any longer before we’re at least scoping out what a ban might look like.
Chief of air force pushes for low-cost killer drones
My colleague Daniel Hurst has told you what the defence minister, Richard Marles, told the Avalon airshow last night. At the same event, Australia’s chief of air force, Robert Chipman, has flagged Australia needs to urgently acquire large numbers of low-cost killer drones to be able to take on well-armed adversaries.
The airshow is one of the country’s biggest defence industry expositions before it opens to the public from Friday.
The Australian reports that Chipman told the audience of Australian and international air force heads at yesterday’s symposium ahead of the event that that “fifth-generation” fighters such as the F-35 “will not be enough” to win future conflict:
(Drones) don’t replace the roles of contemporary combat aircraft, but they might serve as a useful complement.
We are considering the potential of low-cost drones to bring mass to our air combat system. And we’re considering what key measures are necessary to defend against them.
The impediments to boosting capability are often policy-related, procedural or cultural … While advanced platforms teamed with cutting-edge and disruptive technologies can be gamechangers, we won’t realise their advantage without evolving our thinking.
Ministers asked to fast-track ban on silica products
State and territory workplace health and safety ministers will be asked to fast-track a ban on the domestic use of silica, following its link to a deadly lung condition.
An estimated 600,000 workers have been exposed to silica dust generated through mining, construction, building and manufacturing.
Kitchen benchtops made from engineered stone are particularly dangerous, with about one in four stonemasons who work with them developing the deadly and incurable disease silicosis.
The federal workplace minister, Tony Burke, will put the ban proposal to ministers at a meeting today, with the hope regulations could be drafted by the end of the year.
The dust and diseases taskforce recommended governments start considering a ban in July next year.
But a report by Safe Work Australia to be presented to the ministers will recommend three actions: an education and awareness campaign, better regulation of silica dust across all industries and further analysis and scoping of a ban on use of engineered stone.
If two-thirds of ministers agree, Safe Work Australia will be tasked to begin consultations on a potential ban on engineered stone, including silica content levels and other risk factors.
Safe Work will present a report on the potential ban within six months, and draft regulations by the end of the year.
As well, Burke is set to announce the federal government will consider an importation ban, after consulting stakeholders. Burke said:
If a children’s toy was harming or killing kids we’d take it off the shelves – how many thousands of workers have to die before we do something about silica products?
We can’t keep delaying this. It’s time we considered a ban. I’m not willing to wait around the way people did with asbestos.
Occupational health experts say the material can’t be worked with safely despite the use of equipment such as masks.
– AAP
Natasha May
Good morning!
Natasha May on deck with you. Thanks to Martin Farrer for kicking things off for us.
Workplace health and safety ministers are meeting this afternoon to discuss banning the importation of engineered stone, a material that has been linked to a deadly lung condition known as silicosis in the stonemasons handling it.
The federal minister for workplace relations, Tony Burke, says that if two-thirds of ministers agree, Safe Work Australia will be tasked to begin consultations on a potential ban on engineered stone, including silica content levels and other risk factors.
In Victoria, the international Avalon airshow kicks off in Geelong today.
Chinese and Russian militaries have been excluded from the event where a new Australian-designed lethal drone will be unveiled this morning.
In NSW, a memorial will be held commemorating the one year anniversary of devastating floods in the Northern Rivers where five lives were lost and more than 3000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
The memorial will be preceded by a private ceremony to acknowledge the tinny army that ferried hundreds of people from rooftops to safety.
Let’s get into it.
Daniel Hurst
New technology diminishes advantage of Australia’s remote geography: Marles
Richard Marles also told the industry event last night that Australia could no longer rely on its remote geography, which had previously been “a huge asset in the defence of our continent”.
The defence minister said capability advancements – particularly in the last decade – meant “the advantages of our geography have been diminished”:
Today we face a range of threats – including longer-range missiles, hypersonics and cyber-attacks – which render our geographic advantages far less relevant.
Marles did not give exact timing on when the Aukus submarine plans would be announced by Australia, the US and the UK, but it is widely expected to be in March. He did, however, give a broad outline on what the “optimal pathway” would entail:
This announcement will describe how Australia will evolve our submarine capability from operating our six diesel-electric Collins Class submarines today to the point where Australia is building and operating its own nuclear-powered submarines in the future. We will describe how we intend to invest in Australian industry to make this happen. We will make clear how Australia and our partners will meet our non-proliferation obligations and, in the process, establish the highest bar possible for transfers of this technology. And we will articulate the cost.
While describing nuclear-powered submarines as “the single biggest leap in Australian military capability since the war”, Marles also emphasised that the government would remain focused on diplomacy:
And while Australia will always do what we must to get the hard power equation right so that we have the capabilities which keep our people safe, I also want everyone to understand that our government knows the frontline of Australia’s engagement with the world is diplomacy. And this will be our abiding focus. For it is through diplomacy that we can create pathways for peace.
Daniel Hurst
Marles says Australia will be transparent with Pacific partners amid defence spending boost
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has promised that Australia will be upfront with its partners across the region to ensure there are “no surprises” amid an increase in defence spending and the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.
The Morrison government’s original announcement of Aukus in 2021 sparked a diplomatic rift with France and concerns in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Marles told a defence and industry dinner in Melbourne last night that China was “driving the largest conventional military buildup we’ve seen anywhere in the world since the second world war and much of this buildup is opaque”.
He said that meant it had “never been more important for Australia to employ sober, responsible and clear-eyed statecraft”.
Marles said Australia would increase its overall defence spending and grow its military capability “in a way that is both predictable and transparent”. He added:
We want to ensure we are consulting our partners in the region, and around the world, so that there is understanding and no surprises.
Marles said the Defence Strategic Review – to be released alongside the government’s response to it in April – included a line from former defence chief Angus Houston and former defence minister Stephen Smith that “investing in our Indo-Pacific regional partnerships is essential”.
Marles said the Albanese government agreed and wanted “our partners to be confident in the steps we are taking and the level of transparency we intend to maintain – not just at the time of these announcements, but over the years ahead”. He added:
I conveyed this commitment to my counterparts in the Philippines and Thailand during my visit last week. I conveyed it to Minister Subianto Prabowo of Indonesia during his recent visit to Australia.
Man armed with knife shot dead at Sydney police station
A critical incident investigation is under way after police shot dead a man armed with a knife in the early hours of Tuesday morning, New South Wales police said in a statement.
About 12.08am, an as-yet-unidentified man attended Auburn police station, in Sydney’s inner west, and threatened officers with a knife before he was shot, the statement said.
Officers immediately performed first aid and the man was taken to Westmead hospital but died a short time later.
Police believe he was involved in the stabbing of a 28-year-old man at 12.03am at Auburn railway station. Neither man is known to one another.
The younger man is at Westmead hospital in a stable condition.
A critical incident team composed of officers from state crime command’s homicide squad will now investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, including the discharge of a police firearm.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to the rolling news blog. I’ll bring you the top overnight stories before my colleague Natasha May takes over.
First up, CSIRO scientists are warning this morning that the spread of superbugs resistant to antibiotics and antifungal treatments threatens a “global health crisis” unless there is greater coordination and better management of patient data. It comes as researchers say that an invasive strep A variant first identified in the UK and thought to be behind a surge in deaths has likely contributed to a similar uptick in serious disease and hospitalisations in Australia.
The voice to parliament referendum will be at the top of the political agenda today as leading social justice groups step up a push to win a yes vote in the face of some divided opinions. The Fred Hollows Foundation, Oxfam Australia, the Australian Council of Social Service and First Nations advocacy organisation Antar will lead nearly 150 organisations in the Allies for Uluru Coalition, which will be launched in Melbourne today.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, told a dinner in Melbourne last night that China was “driving the largest conventional military buildup we’ve seen anywhere in the world since the second world war and much of this buildup is opaque”. It meant that it had “never been more important for Australia to employ sober, responsible and clear-eyed statecraft”. We’ve got more to come on what Marles said.
One of Australia’s biggest trucking companies, Scott’s RL, has gone into administration, putting 1,500 jobs at risk. The company is a refrigeration trucking specialist and is a key contractor for all the major supermarket supply chain, so the insolvency also threatens to disrupt the nation’s food supply chains. We’ll have more on this story soon.
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