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Australia politics live: Marles confirms ADF troops safe after drone strike on UAE base; ‘live’ chance of March rate hike, RBA chief says | Australia news
Marles confirms Australian defence personnel safe after UAE base hit by drone strike
The defence minister, Richard Marles, says an airbase used by the Australian defence force near Dubai was hit by a drone strike over the weekend, but said all personnel are “safe and accounted for”.
Speaking to Sunrise earlier this morning, he says some drones attacked the Al Minhad Airbase in the United Arab Emirates on the first night.
He says Australians have operated from the base for “many years”.
They’re [Australian personnel] all accounted for. They are all safe. We’ve got north of 100 serving personnel actually across the Middle East in a range of countries, but most are in the UAE.
Key events
Benita Kolovos
Victorian treasurer says she’s ‘factoring potentially another rate rise’
The Victorian treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, was asked at an earlier press conference about the possibility of another interest rate hike in this month.
RBA Governor, Michele Bullock said this morning the prospect of a rate hike at the next meeting in two weeks was “live”.
Symes says it’s “really difficult to forecast” whether it will happen, given the war in the Middle East.
Obviously, the latest announcement from the RBA for a rate hike was certainly not welcome news for working people in Victoria. It obviously adds to those cost of living pressures right now. Geopolitical influences probably make it really difficult to forecast what would be next.
Having said that, because of inflation, because of things, where things have been headed, of course, we’re factoring potentially another rate rise. I think given the uncertainty at the moment, what that will do to inflation and where that goes in relation to future interest rates we’ll have to wait and see.
What is the Al Minhad airbase?
Defence minister and deputy PM, Richard Marles, this morning confirmed the Al Minhad airbase, where more than 100 Australian personnel are stationed, was hit by drones over the weekend.
Marles said all personnel are safe and accounted for.
Al Minhad is a host nation operational military base where Australia has headquartered its operations in the Middle East since 2003.
The Defence department has called the base a “home away from home” for ADF personnel in the region.
Defence says that since the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Australia has maintained a smaller force at the airbase, “focused on strategic access and regional crisis response”.
UAE confirms it is providing accommodation and meals to stranded Australians
Tom McIlroy
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has spoken with her counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Wong used the call to express Australia’s solidarity with the UAE and to engage on efforts to support Australians caught up in global travel disruptions.
The deputy prime minister confirmed the UAE was working hard to safely put on flights for travellers currently held up by drone attacks and airspace closures.
He confirmed that Australians affected by travel disruptions in the UAE are being accommodated and provided meals by the UAE.
Here at home, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working through thousands of registrations from the UAE to confirm registrants’ situation and welfare.
“I express my deepest thanks to His Highness for the United Arab Emirates’ support for Australians,” Wong said in a statement.
We appreciate the UAE’s generosity and we will continue to work with them and the region to ensure the safety and security of Australians.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working around the clock to provide assistance to Australians.
Australia condemns the Iranian regime’s indiscriminate and reckless attacks on the UAE including on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Angus Taylor gees up his new party room
Tuesdays means party room meetings, where leaders address their caucus, give them a gee up, answer questions from their members, and discuss party tactics.
It’s Angus Taylor’s first time hosting a party room meeting as the new leader, so he’s let the cameras in for his opening address.
He starts off talking about strengthening the party ahead of the next election:
The strength of the Coalition is absolutely central to making sure we take a strong offering to the next election and that we have a strongest run.
He then goes into attack mode on Labor, that it’s not doing enough to combat inflation, that energy bills are rising, and that not enough homes are being built.
He also gives us another forward sizzle that he will fight against any changes to the capital gains tax exemption and negative gearing.
We were told by this government that they were going to build 1.2 million houses, they’re not, they’ve put the CFMEU in charge, and they’re not going to even get close to their targets. And now we learn they’re going to put extra taxes on housing. Well, if you want more houses, you don’t put extra taxes.
Benita Kolovos
Victoria to regulate the right to work from home two days a week
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, and treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, have held a press conference this morning to announce businesses – regardless of size – would be covered by government’s plan to regulate a right to work from home two days a week.
Allan said the policy was good for productivity and increase worried participation rates. She said:
It’s not just the hours that someone works, or how they work during those hours, it’s about getting more people back in the workforce. This is a measure that gets more women back into the workforce, I’m going to back those women.
Symes provided her own personal reflection on this:
When I returned to work, I was asked to work four days a week, got paid for four days a week. I worked five. There was chocolate and Peppa Pig for my kids while I was working that fifth day, but getting paid for four. That is the story of working women for too long.
She added it was not the first time employers had rallied against workplace rights that are now universally accepted:
The reason I got into politics was off the back of Work Choices. Most of you are probably too young to remember AWAs – it was where the employer could sit down with the employee and strip away their rights because it suited their business. We are at the forefront of this particular policy, but this will not be new and interesting in 10 years’ time. Look at OHS laws, look at penalty rates, look at all the things that employers – not all – have rallied against.
Virgin Airlines offers free rebooking/refund options to Doha flights
Virgin Airlines, which has a code-sharing agreement with Qatar Airways, cancelled flights on Monday, and has cancelled more today, promising to allow passengers booked on flights to Doha until 6 March free rebooking, travel credit or refunds.
Limited flights have begun running in and out of the Middle East, and the government has recommended Australians stuck in the region to get on commercial flights when they become available.
Seven Virgin flights – operated by Qatar Airways – scheduled to fly Monday were cancelled and a further six have been cancelled today.
In a statement, Virgin Airlines says the safety of guests and crew is “our top priority”, and also recommends monitoring the latest travel advice.
Due to the ongoing security situation in the Middle East, which includes the closure of Qatari airspace, a number of Virgin Australia services operated by Qatar Airways have been cancelled.
Guests scheduled to travel on Virgin Australia services between Australia and Doha in the coming days are advised to closely monitor their flight information and visit the Australian Government’s Smartraveller website for the latest travel advice.
You can read more below about what to do if you’re due to fly out to or through the Middle East.
Marles confirms Australian defence personnel safe after UAE base hit by drone strike
The defence minister, Richard Marles, says an airbase used by the Australian defence force near Dubai was hit by a drone strike over the weekend, but said all personnel are “safe and accounted for”.
Speaking to Sunrise earlier this morning, he says some drones attacked the Al Minhad Airbase in the United Arab Emirates on the first night.
He says Australians have operated from the base for “many years”.
They’re [Australian personnel] all accounted for. They are all safe. We’ve got north of 100 serving personnel actually across the Middle East in a range of countries, but most are in the UAE.
Bullock says March rate hike a ‘live’ chance
Patrick Commins
Michele Bullock, the RBA’s governor, says a rate hike was a “live” possibility at the next meeting in two weeks’ time, saying that the “the board will be actively looking at whether or not it needs to move more quickly”.
Bullock said investors and economists had settled on the fact the RBA would not hike at consecutive meetings, but warned “I would dissuade them from thinking that”.
I’m not making a prediction about March, but it will be a live meeting. We have inflation at 3.8% headline, and we have unemployment at 4.1 – tight.
The board will be actively looking at whether or not it needs to move more quickly. So I would discourage people from thinking that we necessarily only meet every quarter.
Bullock also said a “very elevated and lengthy rise in energy” prices from a prolonged Middle East conflict will “impact” economies here and around the world, but said the reaction in financial markets to the attacks on Iran were so far “orderly”.
Speaking at the AFR’s business summit this morning, Bullock said while the central bank typically looked past temporary price shocks, she said that approach was not as obvious this time around.
This one might be a little bit harder, because, as you say, we already have elevated inflation, and I think there is a risk that inflation expectations might become a little bit unanchored.
Trump an ‘apex opportunist’, says Hastie
Andrew Hastie, who has returned to the frontbench as the new shadow sovereign capability minister, says Trump’s plan is to re-establish deterrence with the US’s “apex military”.
Speaking to Sky News, Hastie says China buys a significant amount of Iran’s crude oil at a discount, and believes the US is making a “larger play” with the action in the Middle East, to muscle up against China.
I think the larger play here from the United States is to, I think, to reorder the state of world affairs at the moment, and to compete with China, and by knocking out Iran, potentially, they’re knocking out a really critical partner, a very cheap supply of oil for their industrial base.
Donald Trump is an apex opportunist. So he hit Nigeria, he’s hit Venezuela. They’ve gone into Iran, or at least they’ve struck Iran. I think part of the plan here is also to re-establish deterrence, and the US military is the apex military.
Hastie, who served in the Australian defence force from 2003 to 2015, says Trump’s four- to five-week timeline for action in Iran is “optimistic”.
I think it’s a very optimistic timeline. And reminded me a little bit of the mission accomplished stuff back in 2003. Four to five weeks is a very short period of time. We’re talking about a regime change here, and the war is escalating throughout the Middle East.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland government to water down hate speech legislation
Queensland’s government is set to water down its hate speech legislation, developed after last year’s Bondi terrorist attack.
Meanwhile the state’s Labor opposition yesterday declared it will vote against specific clauses of the bill, but will back it at a final vote.
The Liberal National party spent several weeks working on the legislation, which also represents the government’s response to a national push for gun reform. It was made public three weeks ago, and then went through a very brief parliamentary committee process, with just seven days for public submissions.
The laws would have allowed the state attorney general to proscribe particular expressions in law, making uttering or publishing them an offence punishable by two years in prison.
But the government is set to remove that power. Instead the bill will explicitly proscribe two expressions, “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”, with no ability for the attorney general to add new ones. The first is a common slogan used by pro-Palestinian activists.
Labor leader Steven Miles said on Monday the unamended bill would “criminalise speech and hand extreme and unchecked powers to the attorney general”.
The laws as drafted will take Queensland backwards, backwards to a place, backwards to a time where police were sent with batons to arrest young people protesting peacefully. These laws give the government of the day extreme and unchecked powers, powers to outlaw any speech that they don’t like.
Paterson justifies not supporting Hanson censure
Jumping back to James Paterson on RN Breakfast, he’s asked why the Coalition would not support a government motion to censure Pauline Hanson in the Senate yesterday afternoon.
The Coalition voted for the other elements of the motion that supported multiculturalism and condemned vilification, but not the censure itself. Two Liberal backbench senators – Paul Scarr and Andrew McLachlan – crossed the floor to vote with the government.
Paterson says Hanson should be condemned for her comments about Muslim Australians, but that censures are “usually reserved for the worst conduct”.
We voted for every element of that motion instead of the censure, and we moved an amendment which suggested that senator Hanson should be condemned rather than censured for her comments. We have previously voted to censure senator Hanson.
Censuring someone in the Senate is usually reserved for the worst conduct and particularly relates to their behaviour as a senator in the Senate or as a minister represented in the Senate. We don’t think it should be routinely used just to condemn people for making statements that we may profoundly disagree with as we do in this instance.
How does this compare to previous censures?
Last year, both Lidia Thorpe and Ralph Babet were censured in November – Thorpe for her protest against King Charles, and Babet over offensive tweets after Trump’s election victory.
RBA chief cautions on Iran market moves
Patrick Commins
The Reserve Bank governor says it is “too early to tell” what the US-Israel attack on Iran means for inflation and interest rates.
Financial markets and many economists are confident the RBA will hike for a second time in May, but Michele Bullock said “events in the Middle East are a timely reminder that in this world of geopolitical uncertainty, things can change quickly”.
Oil prices jumped following the weekend’s missile strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, as shipping through a crucial waterway adjacent to the country was essentially closed.
While motorists braced for higher fuel costs, Bullock said the consequences for the economy and consumer prices were not straightforward.
It’s too early to say what the impact will be, events are moving rapidly and there are different ways this can play out.
The staff will take some time to make sense of what it could mean for inflation here. A supply shock could, for example, add to inflation pressures. And the potential implications for inflation expectations are something we are very alert to.
But at the same time, a prolonged impact on energy markets could have adverse effects on global economic activity and result in downward pressure on inflation.
It is not obvious how this might play out. So as much as I know the public would like more certainty about the direction of interest rates, it would be wrong for us to pretend to have greater certainty than we do.
Paterson says mosques mourning ayatollah could be in breach of new laws
Sitting in the hot seat following Matt Thistlethwaite, James Paterson joins RN Breakfast and condemns a number of mosques and Islamic centres that are mourning the death of the ayatollah.
Paterson, who just took on the shadow defence portfolio in Angus Taylor’s frontbench reshuffle, says they could be in breach of the new antisemitism and hate laws passed in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
He says federal police should investigate whether the mourning events are in violation of the law.
Firstly, they’re just not appropriate. No one should be holding a mourning for the head of a regime which sponsored terror attacks in Australia. But secondly, the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of which the Ayatollah is the spiritual leader and head, is now a listed terrorist organisation in Australia. And it is a crime to praise or glorify a listed terrorist organisation in a way that could incite others to commit acts of terrorism. It’s also a crime to display the symbols and logos of a listed terrorist organisation.
Thistlethwaite ‘not aware’ of any advice sought on legality of strikes
The government has so far dodged questions on whether the US and Israeli strikes on Iran are illegal, saying that’s a question for the two nations leading the action.
RN Breakfast host, Sally Sara, asks whether the government has sought any advice on the legality of the strikes. Thistlethwaite says he’s “not aware” it has been sought.
Sara pushes Thistlethwaite, who then says the government supports upholding international law but that “we make our decisions based on what we believe is in the best interests of Australia and the international community.”
So how does that compare to other like-minded nations? Thistlethwaite argues Australia’s position is consistent with others including Canada and the UK.
We work with other middle power nations to ensure that we have consistent positions. And when you look at the approach that Canada and the United Kingdom, countries that we’ve worked closely with on the conflict in this region, they have a similar position to Australia. Australia is not an outlier in this and the approach that we have taken.
Labor says it did warn travellers about possible airspace shutdown
The assistant foreign affairs minister, Matt Thistlethwaite, has defended Labor against criticism from shadow defence minister, James Paterson, who questioned whether the government gave sufficient warnings to Australians before the conflict broke out in the Middle East.
Thistlethwaite tells RN Breakfast that the government has issued 41 travel advice updates since the beginning of the year, and that it’s been constantly working on “the best available intelligence and advice and updating Australians”.
There have been 41 travel advice updates that the Australian government has issued for the region and 26 social media posts. On 15 January, the foreign minister gave a media conference where she warned that the airspace could close in the coming weeks in the region. And on 19 February, we updated the travel warnings once again, telling people to issue a very high degree of caution if you’re looking to go to the area.
Again, the assistant minister tells Australians to register with Smartraveller.
Hopefully the airspace will progressively begin to open over the coming weeks and then we’ll have options to get Australians out. But the reality is the best option will be commercial flights.
Don’t cancel your flight. Make sure that you maintain your flight and that you’re in regular contact with your travel agent and your airline about updates.
