The prime minister is continuing his official visit to Indonesia Today. He has flagged new measures to ease visa restrictions for Indonesian citizens, including tourists and business people.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo highlighted difficulties and delays for citizens to visit Australia, welcoming stronger ties with Australia on key issues, including security, education, trade, and climate change.
While in Indonesia, Anthony Albanese denounced an incident in which a Chinese fighter plane forced an Australian plane into a dangerous maneuver. He told reporters that Chinese actions were “an act of aggression and a dangerous act”.
Defense minister Richard Marles has confirmed that Australian surveillance flights will continue over the South China Sea despite the incident.
Pacific Island leaders sit down in Suva Today for a meeting about regional unity. Australia is flying three Micronesian leaders to Suva for the high-priority meeting about the future of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
In Victoria, the state government will introduce the treaty authority bill to parliament Today, following a historic agreement with the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.
The bill will allow the authority to be established as an “independent umpire” with legal powers overseeing negotiations between the Government and First Nations Victorians.
And the Reserve Bank faces the delicate task of raising the interest rate fast enough to quiet inflation Today. Any rate rise would be the RBA’s first back-to-back monthly increase in 12 years.
Caitlin Cassidy is here to guide you through Today’s news. I hope there will be more cycling to liveblog, but we must wait and see.
Let’s jump on in.
Updated at 17.33 EDT
Education Minister Jason Clare appeared this morning alongside Scott Emerson on the Today show.
He acknowledged inflation was “through the roof”, and it would be a tough road ahead for Australians grappling with the rising cost of living.
Inflation is through the roof. Wages are through the floor. We have got interest rates knocking at the door. The Reserve Bank … have made it clear there will be several interest rate rises, which makes it harder for people with big rate rises already. Especially for people who are ahead in their mortgage, but if you have just signed up and the bank says you have to pay more, it will make it harder and harder.
There is no simple magic fix to this.
Chalmers: inflation will get worse
The Reserve Bank, due to deciding on interest rates, tdecidesaid inflation would “get worse before it gets better” and expected rates would lift Today, as was flagged by the RBA before the RBA flagged beforehand to increase in interest rates because we have the inflation problem in the economy and rising interest rates were something that the Reserve Bank governor flagged before the election, and that is the trajectory we are on. Still, just because these interest rate rises are expected, it won’t make them any less difficult for many people already confronting cost-of-living pressures.
That is the unfortunate reality. There is no point mincing words about that. Our job in the Government is to ensure that after some of this near-term cost-of-living relief runs out, it is replaced by responsible long-term sustainable cost-of-living relief in areas like medicines and childcare, getting power bills down over time, real wages moving again.
Updated at 18.03 EDT
The treasurer is up and about this morning doing the media rounds.
He also spoke about the gas trigger while speaking to Sunrise.
[The trigger] ensures we can intervene in gas markets to make enough of it here. Unfortunately, the issue with the gas trigger is that even if we were to pull it Today, it would come into effect until the beginning of next year, so again, it is not a quick fix.
But there are some things we can do on pricing. The regulators have only taken some steps with some price caps and guarantees, and those steps have been welcomed. If there are further steps to take in the near term, we will take them, but the most important thing is a good long-term energy policy, which we will be implementing.
Jim Chalmers acknowledged it would be a “difficult and expensive” winter despite measures the Government could implement.
Unfortunately, we have a lot of planned or unplanned outages, and we have flooding, which is impacting, but also some maintenance, a whole range of issues, unfortunately, coming out at once, so it will be a difficult winter. It will be an expensive winter … we are in the minutes of a full-blown cost-of-living crisis.
Updated at 17.57 EDT
Gas trigger ‘remains on the table.’
Stable. I asked if the federal Government is still considering pulling the “so-called” so-called. This has been floating around in the media a lot, despite the fact it wouldn’t come into effect not coming.
King says, “everything,g remains on the table”.
We will explore it; it comes up for review and has to be renewed as a matter of law; it is about to end that gas trigger.
We’ll be looking to see how we keep the ability to use that and explore if it’ll help.
As I said before, the export side of this is also very important. This is an industry that only exists because of international investment that was there for those exports.
We have to be mindful of the whole story.
Updated at 17.50 EDT
Madeleine King: Coal companies’companieset power stations back online.’
Kionline. as it is the “companies themselves and the operators of the coal stations that need to get these power stations back online”.
Labor has been pushing for decarbonization – are you prepared to use public money to ensure coal-fired stations return online?
“It is the coal companies themselves and the operators of the power stations that need to get these power stations back online.”
– @MadeleineMHKing
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) June 6, 2022
Asked if Labor was prepared to step in to offer government assistance, King said she would “let them do their work”:
It wouldn’t matter how much money anyone put in right now. We need the operators to get moving and fix their plants.
All indications are they are, and they’re,e working at it right now; I will let them do that work.
King said she was insulted by accusations from the Nationals leader that she wasn’t picking up the phone and speaking to gas producers, adding it was what you would expect from a party that she said didn’t respect women.
It was very nice of David Littleproud to demean me in that fashion.
If Angus [Taylor] and David want to make stuff up, they can go right ahead, but it’s r, really ride
Updated at 18.00 EDT
Resources minister on gas shortage
Resources minister Madeleine King is appearing on Radio National now.
Asked how constructive her conversations have been with major gas producers on the energy crisis hitting consumers, she replies:
All the gas producers I’ve spoken to, and there’ve been many of them, have been very productive in the conversations we’ve had.
There are other constraints within the market; it’s very difficult to get more gas from the Queensland gas producers because … the pipeline is at capacity.
You’ve urged gas companies to get more supply into the domestic market – have they given you any commitments?
“All the gas producers I’ve spoken to have been very constructive.. they’re doing their best to maximize production and release supply into the market.”
@MadeleineMHKing
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) June 6, 2022
King says “the missing piece of the puzzle” is for coal-fired stations to get back online in the short term:
In the very short term, we need to have the coal stati back online because there have been outages… Ithere is doing its level best to ensure this power source comes to provide.
King says operators “know this is what they have to do,” and she’s confident “they are doing it”.
Updated at 17.48 EDT
Daniel Hurst
Pacific region threats
The Indo-Pacific region is “a particularly new report has warned that they vulnerable” to hybrid threats that stay below the line of conventional warfare, a new report has warned.
The reptilian Strategic Policy Institute cites coercive diplomacy, cyberattacks, disinformation, foreign interference, and militarisation of contested islands as hybrid threats. It says hybrid threats are increasing in breadth, application, and intensity across the region:
The consequences for individual nations include weakened institutions, disrupted social systems and economies, and greater vulnerability to coercion – especially from revisionist powers such as China.
The report – titled “Countering the Hydra: A proposal for an Indo-Pacific hybrid threats center” – scenterbrid threats are a mix of military and non-military, covert and overt activities by state and non-state actors that occur below the line of conventional warfare:
Their purpose is to blur the lines between war and peace, destabilize societies and governments and sow doubt and confusion among populations and decision-makers. They deliberately target democratic systems and state vulnerabilities, often leveraging legitimate processes for inimical ends, and typically aim to stay below the detection, attribution, and retaliation threshold.
They’re the same activities that the Australian Government attributes to the ‘grey zone’, involving ‘military and non-military forms of assertiveness and coercion aimed at achieving strategic goals without provoking conflict.
The report, by researchers Dr. Lesley Seebeck, Emily Williams, and Dr. Jacob Wallis, calls for creating a new Indo-Pacifcreating entirety “to build broader site to build hybrid threats across the region”.
The center would be modeled on the existing Nato-EU Hybrid Centre of Excellence in Finland. Still, it would need to adjust to reflect the differences between the European and Indo-Pacific security environments, especially the “lack of pan-regional Indo-Pacific security institutions”.
It would focus on research and analysis, engagement, information sharing, and capacity building, aiming to “contribute to regional stability and the security of individual nations”.
The report was released on Tuesday, days after the Australian Government vowed to continue to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea despite what it said was a dangerous interception of an Australian surveillance plane by a Chinese military aircraft last month.
Updated at 17.46 EDT
Nino Bucci
Northern Territory fatal bus crash
Police were on the scene of a bus crash in the Northern Territory last night that had claimed one man’s life and left others in the hospital.
The bus crashed five kilometers east of Hermannsburg, a remote community west of Alice Springs, at about 3.30 pm yesterday.
NT police said in a statement that the NT Fire and Rescue Service and St John ambulance also attended the crash, which the NT police major crash investigation unit and NT Worksafe were investigating. The statement said:
Several other passengers have been injured and are being treated by the local clinic and medical staff who have traveled from Alice Springs.
ABC reported that the crash involved a tourist bus, and about 20 people were on board.
Updated at 17.40 EDT
Weather warning
Are you feeling chilly? A marine wind warning is currently in parts of every state and territory. Today, sheep graziers in Victoria have been warned cold temperatures, showers, and winds may risk the losses of lambs and sheep.
The weather will be frostiest in Tasmania:
But the ACT is also in for a cold day, where it currently “feels like” -1.1 degrees and will only reach a maximum of 8.
Updated at 17.38 EDT
The prime minister is continuing his official visit to Indonesia Today. He has flagged new measures to ease visa restrictions for Indonesian citizens, including tourists and business people.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo highlighted difficulties and delays for citizens to visit Australia, welcoming stronger ties with Australia on key issues, including security, education, trade, and climate change.
While in Indonesia, Anthony Albanese denounced an incident in which a Chinese fighter plane forced an Australian plane into a dangerous maneuver. He told reporters that Chinese actions were “an act of aggression and a dangerous act”.
Defense minister Richard Marles has confirmed that Australian surveillance flights will continue over the South China Sea despite the incident.
Pacific Island leaders sit down in Suva Today for a meeting about regional unity. Australia is flying three Micronesian leaders to Suva for the high-priority meeting about the future of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
In Victoria, the state government will introduce the treaty authority to parliament Today, following a historic agreement with the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria Today.
The bill will allow the authority to be established as an “independent umpire” with legal powers overseeing negotiations between the Government and First Nations Victorians.
And the Reserve Bank faces the delicate task of raising the interest rate fast enough to quiet inflation Today. Any rate rise would be the RBA’s first back-to-back monthly increase in 12 years.
Caitlin Cassidy is here to guide you through Today’s news. I hope there will be more cycling to liveblog, but we must wait and see.
