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Key events
Good morning
Happy Saturday and welcome to the Guardian’s live news coverage. I’m Graham Readfearn.
Defence will likely dominate the day after news broke last night that Australia is set to dramatically scale back the number of infantry fighting vehicles it buys for the army as part of a defence overhaul to be announced on Monday.
The army had planned to acquire up to 450 infantry fighting vehicles, at a cost of up to $27bn, to replace Vietnam war-era armoured personnel carriers.
But a review, billed by the Albanese government as the most significant update of defence planning in nearly 40 years, will recommend cutting this number to 129 vehicles, enough for one mechanised battalion.
Elsewhere it was announced last night that about 380,000 New Zealanders will gain the right to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first, under changes restoring reciprocity to the rights of expats of the two countries.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will welcome the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, to Australia for an official visit today, with a gala dinner in Brisbane tonight.
Albanese said the changes were “consistent with our ambition to build a fairer, better managed and more inclusive migration system”.
Finally, the NSW Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, will spend his first full day in the job after taking the leadership at a party room meeting yesterday, ending weeks of speculation around who would lead the party after former premier Dominic Perrottet stepped down.
The Liberal-National coalition will enter the parliament with 36 members in the lower house against a Labor government governing in minority with 45 seats.
Let’s get into it.
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