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Australia politics live: Minns admits to ‘strained’ relationship with Muslim community; first Sydney flight since war leaves Dubai | Australia news
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Minns admits to ‘strained’ relationship with Muslim community after Iftar dinner cancelled
Penry Buckley
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has admitted to a strained relationship with the state’s Muslim community after he cancelled the annual premier’s Iftar dinner following the ongoing fallout from protests against the visit by Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, last month.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that Minns cancelled the dinner after consultation with Muslim community leaders amid ongoing tension, including over an incident in which a group of people praying during the protest at Sydney’s Town Hall were aggressively moved on by police. The police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, has apologised in private meetings and letters with Muslim community leaders.
Minns confirmed he had cancelled the Iftar dinner on ABC Radio Sydney this morning. Asked if he too should apologise over the prayer incident, Minns said:
Look, [the relationship] is strained, I’m not going to be flippant about it, and we want to rebuild the relationship, not just with me personally or the government or the Labor party, but with the civic institutions, the important civic institutions that keep our community safe, Multicultural NSW and NSW Police … I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m antagonising the Muslim community, particularly during Ramadan.
But my view hasn’t changed. It was a difficult, impossible situation that everybody found themselves in on that night.
The mayor of Liverpool, Ned Mannoun, has told the News Corp papers Minns has a “fetish” for attacking the Muslim community, after the premier described vigils by a small number of Sydney mosques to mourn the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as “atrocious”.
Minns joined Victoria in cancelling annual Iftar dinners in 2024 in the wake of peak Muslim groups announcing boycotts due to Labor’s position on the war in Gaza.
First flight from Dubai to Sydney departs since Iran war broke out
Nick Visser
An Emirates flight from Dubai to Sydney has departed the UAE, the first since Saturday when turmoil in the Middle East began.
The flight, EK414, left at 2.23am local time in Dubai and is expected to arrive in Sydney in 13 hours and 30 minutes, just after 10.30pm local time.
Emirates had suspended almost all flights to and from Dubai until 11.59pm on Tuesday local time, aside from a limited number of passenger repatriation and freighter flights. Passengers with earlier bookings are being accommodated as a priority on those planes.
Customers travelling to or from Dubai have been told not to go to the airport unless they have been notified directly by the airline, or if they hold a confirmed booking for one of those repatriation flights.
All scheduled Emirates flights to and from Dubai remain suspended until 2359hrs UAE time on 4 March, due to airspace closures across the region.
Emirates continues to operate a limited number of passenger repatriation and freighter flights on 3 and 4 March. We are accommodating… pic.twitter.com/rNFG3mDovl
— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) March 3, 2026
Victoria’s WFH legislation to include dispute resolution pathway
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a press conference to announce her plans to introduce legislation to enshrine the right to work from home two days a week.
Allan says the bill – amending the Equal Opportunity Act – will be introduced in July and if passed will come into effect on 1 September.
But following backlash to her announcement that small businesses won’t be exempted, Allan says there will be a delayed commencement of 1 July 2027 for workplaces with fewer than 15 employees. She says this will allow them more time to get their HR policies and procedures in place – the main criticism business groups had of the policy yesterday.
The Victorian treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, explains the legislation will include a “clear pathway” for disputes between employers and employees.
The legislative vehicle for the changes would be the Equal Opportunity Act, not dissimilar to what we did over a decade ago in terms of the right to request flexible working arrangements if you have caring responsibilities, broadening that type of request out to reasonable requests for everyone.
She says disputes will go to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commision (VEOHRC) for conciliation. If that fails, disputes will then go the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Symes says “additional funding” will be provided to VEOHRC to do this work.
Symes says she’s received legal advice that using the Equal Opportunity Act avoids the “risk” of a constitutional challenge.
‘Embarrassing’ that Liberal election review released by Labor government, says former MP
Former Liberal MP Jenny Ware, who lost her seat of Hughes in the 2025 election, has welcomed the release of the party’s post election review, but says it’s “embarrassing” that the government had to do it.
Ware had met with the authors of the report Nick Minchin and Pru Goward last June, but said she hadn’t heard back from either of them since.
She told Guardian Australia the party owes it to its members, supporters and donors to be transparent about the shock election result.
Of course it is embarrassing that the Labor government released the report rather than the federal Liberal party taking ownership and making it publicly accessible.
Fundamentally the party owes it to its thousands of members, supporters, donors and former members to expose the reasons why we had the worst campaign in our history. We also had many candidates who put their lives on hold to run as Liberals in the election and they were hung out to dry.
Ware added that she wants to see the party better engage with women – as voters, candidates and structurally within the party.
ASX to drop as Middle East conflict raises inflation fears
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares are poised to drop sharply when the markets open this morning over fears a prolonged conflict in the Middle East will fuel inflation.
Futures pricing indicates the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 will open down more than 1.3%, taking the index to around the 8,940-point mark.
The conflict has continued to widen across the Middle East, with hundreds of people killed across the region, the vast majority in Iran. At the same time, oil prices have recorded sharp gains.
The anticipated move on the ASX would track US stocks, which recorded steep declines overnight, although Wall Street did pare some of the losses late in the trading session.
ANZ said in a research note this morning that financial markets continued to assess inflation risks from energy market disruptions.
While significant uncertainty remains over the duration of the conflict in the Middle East, financial markets are pricing in the risk of extended disruption.
Rising oil prices drive inflation by increasing the cost of energy and raising production and transportation expenses for almost all economic goods and services.
Jim’s economy a ‘house of credit cards’, Wilson says
Folks, I think we have a new slogan, with shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, pushing this one on Sky News this morning.
We know he’s [Jim Chalmers] built an economy on a house of credit cards, and he is always looking for more money as a way to address his spending addiction and his credit card.
Wilson, talking about the fuel excise, and threats to the economy from the war in the Middle East, won’t say whether the government should consider cutting the fuel tax, as prices are tipped to rise.
He says he’ll watch the situation closely but notes that when the fuel price does increase, so does the share of excise, which goes towards the budget.
Again, he won’t say what the Liberals would do in this situation.
We’re going through our processes to address how we’re going to confront these realities, but it seems pretty clear to me that the treasurer could take that action [to cut the fuel excise] if he chose to take that action. At this point, he’s quite happy to take extra money from tax revenue from Australians because he’s got a credit card addiction that he needs to pay off.
I counted at least 12 mentions of “credit card” in the interview.
Hastie digs in on claim international rules based order is over
Andrew Hastie says the world is in a “new stage” of history and that the rules based order, and United Nations are now “defunct” constructs.
He calls Donald Trump – as he did yesterday – an “apex opportunist”, pointing to the US’s actions in Venezuela, Nigeria and now Iran.
Hastie says his concern is that Australia needs to be more self-sufficient, and “stand up on its own two feet” militarily.
I think that that construct is defunct in a sense. We’ve got a different president who is mercantilist when it comes to his sort of economics. I think he’s an apex opportunist.
And my concern foremost by making those comments is to wake Australia up. We’ve only got 30-odd days worth of fuel. If our shipping lines are cut, then our whole economy could grind to a halt very quickly. Never mind the fact that our industrial base is also shrinking. And that makes us vulnerable to world events. So, my concern is for our country and making sure that we’re resilient and self-sufficient.
Here is a reminder of what Hastie said yesterday …
And for those (like me) who don’t know what a “mercantilist” is, a quick Google search says mercantilism is an economic theory developed between the 16th and 18th centuries that says a government should control the economy and a nation should increase its wealth by exporting more than importing.
‘Boss move’ from PM to table Liberal review, says Hastie
Shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability, Andrew Hastie, joins RN Breakfast next, and says it was a “boss move” for Anthony Albanese to table the Liberals post election review.
The Liberal party had tried to shelve the review, but it was already leaking out to the media before landing in the prime minister’s hands.
Hastie says the party and the new leaders have already acknowledged some of the things they got wrong in the election.
[Albanese] likes theatre. He had a twinkle in his eye when he did that. Obviously, it was leaked, and there was a bit of stagecraft from him … But we’re not going to live in the past, we’re going to live in the future, and our mission is to restore Australian’s standard of living. We’re going backwards under Labor and also to protect our way of life. And that’s why we’ve been pursuing the Isis sympathiser case this week, because our way of life is being challenged.
Host, Sally Sara, asks Hastie why the party is targeting the women and children stuck in a Syrian detention camp, rather than focusing on the economy. He says the issue goes to the two core pillars of the party’s platform, to “restore our standard of living and protect our way of life,” and that just because commentators might not like the question time strategy, it “doesn’t mean it’s wrong”.
‘Alarming parallels’ with Iraq 2003, says Wilkie
Andrew Wilkie, an independent MP and former senior intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, says the US and Israel have “exaggerated” justifications for the strikes on Iran, and has accused Donald Trump of using “political tricks” to increase the Republicans’ polling ahead of the midterms.
On RN Breakfast, Wilkie says there are “alarming parallels” between the situation now and when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, which had followed the 2002 US midterm elections.
Wilkie also points out that the US talking about nuclear possibility in Iran 18 months away is “completely inconsistent” with what Trump said after the 12-day war, that they had crushed Iran’s nuclear capability.
In both cases there was a failure to secure the approval of the United Nations. In fact, this time around, the United States hasn’t even attempted to get the approval of the United Nations.
Back in 2003, that was just after the 2002 congressional midterm elections when the Republicans had really beaten the drums of war and they did well in those congressional midterms. But by that stage they were on an inevitable course to have the conflict. Same this time around. The Republicans are doing poorly at the moment, their polling is poor, president Trump’s polling is poor, so they start to beat the drums of war again. It’s a political trick as old as countries themselves.
Farrell says $15bn of trade could be impacted by war
Labor’s trade minister, Don Farrell, says a “relatively small” amount of Australia’s exports go through the Middle East as the war escalates in the region.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Farrell says he’s meeting with 40 of Australia’s largest trade organisations today to ensure the industry comes “out the other end of this in a solid situation.”
Farrell won’t bite on how long the conflict could possibly go on for, and says he won’t speculate.
A relatively small amount, about $15bn worth of trade goes through the Middle East. Obviously, that’s very important for those companies that are trading there.
Our trade is, in fact, increasing in the Middle East. We now have a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates. Already, our beef trade has doubled in the six months that that trade agreement has been in operation. But of course, all of that gets affected by this uncertainty of the war in the Middle East.
Wong avoids questions on legality of strikes on Iran
The Australian government has so far dodged any questions around the legality of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, saying it’s a matter for the two nations.
ABC AM host, Melissa Clark, tries again to push Wong on the issue, following US president Donald Trump’s statement that he thought Iran was going to attack Israel, and so the US had to strike first.
Wong won’t bite, but adds that this conflict didn’t start with those strikes by the US and Israel, and also points to the role of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over two antisemitic attacks in Australia.
The legal basis of these strikes is ultimately a matter for the United States and Iran, sorry, and Israel, is ultimately a matter for the United States and Israel. We know Iran has failed to comply with UN security council resolutions on its nuclear program. We know what Iran has been doing over many years. I think it is important for us to remember this has not started with these strikes. This has been going on for decades, including in Australia.
Australia faces a ‘consular crisis’ in Middle East, says Wong
Penny Wong has told ABC AM that the first flight from Dubai to Sydney could depart this morning (Australia time), but is “dependent on the circumstances”.
The foreign minister still maintains that commercial flights are the best option for Australians trying to get home.
Wong says the government is engaging with countries in the region, particularly the United Arab Emirates, where there are about 24,000 Australians. There are 115,000 Australians in the broader region.
She says the situation is “a consular crisis that dwarfs any that Australia has had to deal with in terms of numbers of people.”
Obviously, it’s very unpredictable. And I understand there is a flight scheduled from Dubai to Sydney.
We are looking at all contingencies that are possible, but I again say what I’ve said over the last two days. When you have as many Australians as we have in, particularly in the Emirates, but broadly in the region, so it’s 115,000 Australians in the broader region, 24,000 in Emirates … That volume of traffic will really need to see commercial flights resume even if only sporadically, to get people home.
‘Give us an ad break’ campaign calls for curbs on marketing of harmful products
Natasha May
The government is being urged to limit the “relentless” advertising of alcohol, gambling and unhealthy food by a new national public health campaign launched today.
The “give us an ad break” campaign is calling for the federal government to introduce “a harmful products marketing act” as one of the most important steps to improve the nation’s long-term health.
Modelled on Australia’s world-leading tobacco legislation, the law would regulate advertising of gambling, alcohol and unhealthy foods across platforms, including online, and reduce children’s exposure to ads for products linked to cancer and chronic disease.
Over 130 health organisations and leaders are behind the campaign including the Alliance for Gambling Reform, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (Fare), the Food for Health Alliance and VicHealth.
The move has strong community support, according to a nationally representative survey Fare commissioned Pureprofile to conduct in February, as four in five Australians want less advertising for gambling, alcohol and unhealthy foods.
VicHealth chief, Prof Anna Peeters, said reducing children’s exposure to harmful marketing is one of the most powerful steps the government can take to improve the nation’s long-term health.
Limiting advertising for alcohol, gambling and unhealthy food would significantly reduce the burden of cancer, liver disease, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and financial harm across the community. By reducing children’s exposure to alcohol, gambling and junk food advertising, we can prevent chronic illness before it starts and ease pressure on families and the health system.
This is a practical, evidence-based opportunity for the federal government to reshape the environments our children grow up in. If we act now, we can create a future where fewer Australians experience preventable cancer and chronic disease.
Sarah Basford Canales
Parliamentary watchdog ‘does not have the power to make a real difference’, Thorpe says
Lidia Thorpe says the parliamentary watchdog is powerless to make a real difference against racism and the treatment of women after it released its first public statement last week.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission named Victorian senator Ralph Babet as having made “offensive, disrespectful and harmful” remarks in a social media post published in November 2024. The watchdog said it had sanctioned him to attend one-on-one behaviour training and agree to refrain from further similar comments but Babet had failed to comply, resulting in a public statement.
Thorpe, who was censured on the same day as Babet in the Senate for earlier protesting King Charles’s visit to Canberra, said the body’s investigation was vague and showed it “still does not have the power to make a real difference”.
Under the law, the standards umpire is able to make a public statement about an investigation if a parliamentarian fails to comply with a sanction. Where a more serious breach of the code has been committed, an IPSC decision-maker can refer the incident to a parliamentary privileges committee. That committee can impose salary fines and suspend politicians.
In a statement, Thorpe said:
This outcome is confusing, and the public has no real insight into how it was decided. With the way the major parties set up the IPSC to conceal deliberations, we may never know …
In this first case that has been made public, it seems the only outcome was naming the senator involved. We have no way of knowing whether stronger sanctions were considered by the IPSC or the Privileges Committee, or even if the committee discussed the matter at all …
The public deserve to know how this decision was made, what role the IPSC played, what role politicians played, and why the outcome looks like this.
We warned that a closed-door process dominated by Labor and the Coalition would compromise transparency, accountability, and public confidence …
Everyone should be safe at work, and we need strong accountability processes around bad behaviour.
But this workplace still has deep problems, especially when it comes to racism and the treatment of women.
Much more needs to be done, and unfortunately the IPSC still does not have the power to make a real difference.
Read more:
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
We’ve got another very busy day today so let’s get straight into it!
NSW investment body backs renewable projects, two hotels, and gas pipeline
Penry Buckley
The NSW government has announced the first round of projects it is endorsing through its Investment Delivery Authority (IDA), including more than a dozen clean energy and battery storage projects, two hotels, and one gas pipeline.
The endorsements by the IDA, a body created at this year’s state budget, are not a direct investment, but provide companies with a “concierge service” to cut through red tape, including dedicated government support with planning approvals and infrastructure delivery.
The NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, who is appearing before budget estimates today, says the IDA “is helping ensure major investment proposals that matter to our economy receive the attention they require”.
The 16 projects, worth a combined $34.4bn, include 13 renewable energy or battery storage sites, such as electricity and gas giant AGL’s Hunter energy hub, and wind and solar farms. They also include Hunter Gas Pipeline Pty Ltd, acquired by Santos in 2022, which owns an approved gas pipeline route from Wallumbilla in Queensland to Newcastle, passing close to Santos’ controversial Narrabri gas project.
The other endorsements are two hotel projects worth a combined $482m. One, the Vuez Eco Resort, describes itself on its website as a “future-focused eco-tourism destination on the shores of Lake Jindabyne, bringing together sustainable design, nature, and year-round alpine experiences”.
The other is a redevelopment of a heritage-listed warehouse near Sydney’s Central station that was gutted during an “apocalyptic” blaze in May 2023. The state government expects to announce data centre proposals to the IDA at a later date because of the scale of energy and water infrastructure required by the sector.
Victorian premier reveals start date for legal right to work from home
Benita Kolovos
The right to work from home two days a week will be enshrined in Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act, the premier, Jacinta Allan, will announce today, with plans for the laws to take effect before the state election.
After announcing yesterday that the right to work from home would apply to all businesses, Allan will today confirm the government will introduce legislation to the Victorian government in July. If passed, it would take effect on 1 September.
Last year, the premier announced that her government would legislate the right to work from home two days a week for those who can “reasonably” do so. It has since become a key pillar of Labor’s re-election pitch ahead of the November poll.
At the time, she said the legal right would apply to both public and private sector workers but it was unclear how it would be enforced. This is because Victoria, like other states, transferred its industrial relations powers for private sector workers to the federal government years ago.
Allan will say today that the right to work from home will be enshrined in the Equal Opportunity Act. The act, introduced in 2010, makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person based on individual attributes such as age, race, sex and disability.
It is understood the government will seek to make it unlawful to discriminate against people who work from home two days a week. It would not apply to people whose roles prevent them from working from home.
Allan said in a statement:
Only Labor has new solutions to make life easier, safer and more affordable. That’s why we will protect work from home in law from 1 September.
Albanese talks to UAE leader about stranded Australians
Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese spoke last night with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates.
They discussed the situation facing stranded Australians in the Middle East.
There are about 24,000 Australians in the UAE, many stranded due to flight disruptions caused by bombings by the Iranian regime, in retaliation to weekend strikes by the US and Israel.
The two leaders were able to exchange views on the current situation in the Middle East, and Albanese thanked the president for support for Australians stranded by the conflict.
The pair also discussed the importance of the resumption of commercial flights as soon as possible.
Albanese also spoke with his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon yesterday.
They exchanged views on the Middle East and discussed the consular challenges brought about by the conflict.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
Anthony Albanese has discussed the situation facing stranded Australians in the Middle East with the president of the United Arab Emirates as many continue to seek an exit from the region engulfed in the US-Israeli war on Iran. More coming.
The government is being urged to limit the “relentless” advertising of alcohol, gambling and unhealthy food by a new national public health campaign launched today. We have more details shortly.
And the Victorian premier has announced her intention to give Victorians the legal right to two days a week of working from home by the first of September this year.
