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Australia news live: Bondi royal commission says counter-terror capability ‘could be improved’ and urges action on gun buyback

30 April 2026 at 00:32

Meanwhile Penny Wong says China has agreed to facilitate exports of jet fuel to ease supply disruptions. Follow today’s news live

Chalmers understands calls for gas export tax, but says government focused on getting fuel for Australians

Chalmers said he understands calls to tax gas exports, but maintained the government was set on securing international supply arrangements during the ongoing fuel crisis. He told ABC News:

I understand that there is a constituency in the Australian community to go further … But there are also, as the prime minister said, really good reasons to prioritise these international supply arrangements particularly during this oil shock.

All of us have been prioritising getting fuel for Australia and for Australians to keep the economy ticking over and that’s why there are good reasons for the comments that the prime minister made yesterday.

We’ve been very upfront with people and said when we think about the intergenerational unfairness in the budget, in our economy, in our society more broadly, a couple of the drivers of that are in housing, are in the tax system.

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© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Taylor says higher risk of ‘bad people coming from bad countries’ and that welcome to country ceremonies ‘overused’

26 April 2026 at 03:57

Opposition leader doubles down on immigration policy and defends preferencing One Nation over independent in Farrer in ABC interview

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said “there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries”, doubling down on his immigration policy and refusing to call out Pauline Hanson’s hardline stance.

Speaking to the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Taylor said Indigenous welcome to country ceremonies were overused, after booing incidents at some of Saturday’s Anzac Day dawn services. He also defended preferencing One Nation above the independent community candidate, Michelle Milthorpe, in the upcoming Farrer byelection, arguing the teals “vote with the Greens”.

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© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Rinehart’s $200m donation to convert homes for veterans welcomed by RSL – as it happened

23 April 2026 at 08:02

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James Valentine’s family has released a statement after his death. Here’s what they had to say:

James passed peacefully at home surrounded by his family, who adored him.

Throughout his illness, James did it his way, which lasted all the way until the end when he made the choice to do Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Both he and his family are grateful he was given the option to go out on his own terms. He was calm, dignified as always and somehow still making us laugh.

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© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

Bowen says Geelong fire appears to be accidental; Keating lashes Liberals– as it happened

16 April 2026 at 08:09

This blog is now closed

Fire officer says officials haven’t detected any contaminants spreading from blaze

Earlier this morning, Fire Rescue Victoria assistant chief fire officer, Mick McGuinness, provided an update to ABC Radio Melbourne. Shortly before 7am, he said about 50 firefighting vehicles were continuing to fight the blaze in the Mogas (motor gasoline) plant section of the refinery.

This fire has been quite large overnight. It is still burning at the moment, and we would still declare it as not yet under control … And the fire is mainly being fed by various types of hydrocarbon fuels. So predominantly liquid petrol … and also some gas and vapours that are feeding this fire at the moment.

We were concerned with the smoke that was coming off this fire, so our initial reactions were to get an alert message out to the community. We’ve since been able to have our specialist hazardous materials teams come in from locally Geelong and also in Melbourne and set up some atmospheric monitoring equipment and do a lot of sensing and sampling of not only the atmosphere but also the fire water runoff that we’re using to contain the fire. We’ve been able to determine … that we haven’t detected any sort of contaminants there.

We’re predicting that this still could burn for another three or four hours, if not longer. But we are starting to see a reduction in the intensity of the fire, which is an indication that the depressurising of the systems and the pipe work is occurring and that we will see a lesser amount of fuel being available to feed the fire. And of course, that allows us to continue to cool that area more rapidly and then be able to get crews in there to look at how we can start to isolate pipe work and valve systems.

It shows that we have very fragile, very thin energy security platform when it comes to refinery, only the two refineries left. And as mayor, I’ve been calling this out since being elected back in 2024, that Viva is not only a significant employer and corporate citizen for Geelong, but it has a significance for Victoria and Australia.

And it just shows that we, as a country, need to invest more in this type of capability.

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© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

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