Australia politics live: Quad countries ink deal to build surveillance network and Fiji port to counter China | Australia news
Four countries announce new surveillance agreement
The ‘Quad’ group of countries (Australia, the United States, India and Japan) have announced a new initiative to improve surveillance capabilities and critical minerals cooperation, Agence France Presse reports.
US Secretary of State, Marco RubioHe attended the meeting in New Delhi and said the Quartet was made up of “strong, vibrant democracies that share strong values” and countries with “many common interests”.
The four said in a joint statement that members would jointly mobilize US$20 billion from government and the private sector to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, including identifying projects in the four countries.
They will also work together on two maritime initiatives, one that combines surveillance capabilities and the other that will provide advanced real-time information to commercial traffic at sea.
Australian foreign minister, Penny WongHe said the Quad was collaborating to help port development in Fiji, a key island nation in the South Pacific where China is making a concerted effort for greater influence.
“We recognize our obligation – our responsibility – to deliver real choices, especially as strategic conditions in our region deteriorate,” Wong said.
In its statement, the Quad also set a goal of connecting the South Pacific islands with undersea cables by the end of the year and economically integrating them into the four democracies rather than China.
important events
Moriarty takes office as US ambassador in Washington
Amidst all the global unrest and with diplomatic eyes on Iran and the US, Australia’s former defense minister Greg Moriaty He began his duties as Australia’s ambassador to Washington.
The former public servant received a tap on the shoulder after the former prime minister earlier this year. Kevin Rudd He announced that he would resign.
Moriarty shared a photo on social media after meeting with the president this morning Donald Trump on Thursday.
‘Are we safer with them?’: Minister furious over return of Syrian women and children
housing minister Clare O’Neil Security arrangements around women and children returning to Australia from a detention camp in Syria are being discussed last night.
Appearing on the Today show he openly asked the question of whether Australia is safer with the group here; has been asked several times, but O’Neil won’t answer yes or no.
The player in the front row tries to remind the host: Sarah AboThis is not the first return of women and children from the camp; others returned under Morrison; including a group of orphans from the camp who were repatriated by the then government.
O’Neil says:
We are working with national security institutions on this issue. This is a difficult and long-standing problem for the country. We are fortunate to have some of the world’s best national security agencies supporting us in Australia, and they will be monitoring this situation extremely closely.
And we trust them to support keeping the country safe.
O’Neil defers to the home secretary when asked why the group was not questioned by authorities at the airport and whether they might be taking part in radicalization programmes.
‘Tough but necessary’ housing measures, O’Neil says
It’s a long road for the government and the housing minister as they try to sell their ambitious budget Clare O’Neil He acknowledged that not everyone will be happy with the tax changes.
Speaking to Sunrise this morning on a panel with Liberal Party frontbencher Michaelia Cash, O’Neil said the measures were the right thing to do (the Prime Minister and treasurer took a similar stance). He asked about new polling in the Australian Financial Review that found the net approval rating for the capital gains tax changes was zero (36% of people approved, while 36% opposed).
O’Neil didn’t seem too worried:
What they show is that many people support what the government is doing. And some people don’t support what the government is doing. This is what you expect to see in a budget that does the hard but necessary things for the country.
In politics you don’t do what is popular. You are doing the right thing.
New polling in Guardian Australia this morning shows only a third of Australians support negative gearing and CGT changes.
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji
Krishani Dhanji we are here with you, thank you Martin Farrer for starting us.
After a dramatic night of Senate predictions (see previous posts), we have another busy day of questioning of public officials and parliamentary hearings.
It’s going to be a busy day so let’s get stuck in!
Nacc boss became the subject of second complaint investigation
Tom McIlroy
Outgoing National Anti-Corruption Commission boss Paul Brereton is subject to a second investigation by the organization’s inspector.
Last night’s hearings in the Senate are predicted, inspector Gail Furness He announced that he had launched a second investigation against Brereton, who will leave his post on July 6.
“On April 14, 2026, I initiated a complaint investigation into a complaint I received regarding the commissioner’s conduct,” Furness said.
“After receiving the commissioner’s response to the complaint, I started the investigation. On April 28, 2026, I gave a copy of the draft complaint investigation report to the commissioner.
“I am currently awaiting submissions from the commissioner in response to the draft complaint investigation report.”
Furness announced in February that he would re-investigate the watchdog over mismanagement over Brereton’s defensive guidance.
The author of the Afghanistan war crimes investigation went on to advise the defense force inspector general after assuming the Nacc role in 2023 without the federal government’s knowledge.
Furness said the complaint was filed several months ago and was not related to the initial investigation.
Read more here:
Universities grappling with ‘class size explosion’, new report says
Caitlin Cassidy
A new report suggests that class sizes at universities have increased and student learning has decreased since before the pandemic.
The report, published today by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), surveyed more than 4,000 university staff across the country.
The proportion of private lessons with 30 or more students has more than doubled since 2019, from 12% to 27%. The optimum range is thought to be between 10 and 19, but the report found that only 9% of trainings met this standard.
More than eight in 10 staff surveyed said their ability to support individual students had been compromised; only 1.7% reported improvements in student outcomes since 2019.
President of NTEU, Doctor Alison Barnes“The explosion in class sizes is being felt on campuses across the country,” he said.
The real-life consequences are unmanageable workloads that students ultimately pay the price for. Students do not receive the attention they need and their education is disrupted. This could have a dangerous ripple effect that we will feel for generations.
Australia generally performs poorly internationally in terms of faculty/student ratio and has no Australian universities in the top 300 in the QS World University Rankings. Its universities record an average score of 12.5/100 on QS’s “learning experience” indicator; This is well below the global average of 28.1.
Reacting to the Quad meeting, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning said that cooperation “should not be directed at any third party”, according to AFP.
“We also do not support exclusionary cliques or bloc conflicts,” he told reporters.
In a joint statement, the Quad ministers said they were “gravely concerned” about the South China Sea and East China Sea and opposed “destabilizing or unilateral actions”; this was a clear reference to Beijing.
Four countries announce new surveillance agreement
The ‘Quad’ group of countries (Australia, the United States, India and Japan) have announced a new initiative to improve surveillance capabilities and critical minerals cooperation, Agence France Presse reports.
US Secretary of State, Marco RubioHe attended the meeting in New Delhi and said the Quartet was made up of “strong, vibrant democracies that share strong values” and countries with “many common interests”.
The four said in a joint statement that members would jointly mobilize US$20 billion from government and the private sector to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, including identifying projects in the four countries.
They will also work together on two maritime initiatives, one that combines surveillance capabilities and the other that will provide advanced real-time information to commercial traffic at sea.
Australian foreign minister, Penny WongHe said the Quad was collaborating to help port development in Fiji, a key island nation in the South Pacific where China is making a concerted effort for greater influence.
“We recognize our obligation – our responsibility – to deliver real choices, especially as strategic conditions in our region deteriorate,” Wong said.
In its statement, the Quad also set a goal of connecting the South Pacific islands with undersea cables by the end of the year and economically integrating them into the four democracies rather than China.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I Martin Farrer with the best night stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
It was a busy night in Senate projections as the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) investigator announced that he had launched a second investigation into the outgoing boss. Paul Brereton. Gail Furness‘s announcement comes after Brereton responded to suggestions that he was contributing to the immense suffering of robodebt victims. More on this to come.
It has also emerged that the Australian federal police and the federal government’s special investigator into alleged war crimes have requested the NACC investigate media leaks surrounding his arrest. Ben Roberts-Smith. More details to follow.
Abroad, there was a meeting of the Quad countries in New Delhi, attended by the Australian foreign minister. Penny Wong. They announced a deal for new cooperation on surveillance and a new port for Fiji, in a bid to counter Chinese influence that Beijing finds unwelcome. We will provide more information about this soon.
