Albanese pays tribute to Peter Morris, former Hawke minister

The prime minister has paid tribute to Peter Morris, a former minister in the Hawke government, who has died aged 93.

Morris represented the seat of Shortland, in the NSW Hunter region, for more than 25 years between 1972 and 1998, and was a minister for transport under Bob Hawke.

Anthony Albanese says Morris’s work was “always shaped by Labor values and his deeply humane instincts”.

When I was transport minister Peter was a source of sound and constructive advice ... He was one [of] those people who gave our movement heart. In the process, he helped make the Hunter - and Australia - better.

Washington DC mistakenly raises Australian, not UK, flags for King Charles’s visit

Washington DC’s district officials mistakenly placed several Australian ​flags instead of British flags near ‌the White House ahead of King Charles’s US visit, Reuters reports.

The error was quickly ​corrected, a District of Columbia Department of ​Transportation official said on Friday.

Charles is also the head of state of Australia, but the role is largely ceremonial.

Fifteen ​Australian flags were briefly included among more than 230 flags put on display to welcome ​the British king when he arrives ​in the US capital on Monday. They were ‌later ⁠replaced with the British flag, the official said.

Charles’s state visit, to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration ​of Independence ​from ⁠British rule, is widely seen as the most high-profile trip ​of his reign so far. He will meet the US president, Donald Trump, and address a joint meeting of Congress.

The trip will aim to shore up the two allies’ “special relationship,” which has sunk to its lowest point in 70 years amid strains over the war in Iran.

Read more from David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, here:

Less than 1% of Queensland police Glock pistols have multiple-shot defect, minister says

The Queensland police minister, Dan Purdie, says testing of standard-issue police Glock pistols has identified “less than 1%” have a firing fault that prompted a recall.

The Glock pistols remain in use, despite the discovery of a fault that could cause some weapons to fire multiple shots.

A malfunction was discovered during routine testing of the weapon that could result in multiple shots being fired when the firearm is discharged, forcing police to retest all service-issued Glock handguns.

Purdie told reporters on Sunday that police had tested almost 8,000 of the 15,000 total weapons and discovered the fault in fewer than 1%.

Government to receive audit of scandal-plagued Corporate Travel Management in June

The Australian government expects to receive an audit of Corporate Travel Management (CTM) in June after the ASX-listed company overcharged its UK clients.

CTM this week said it would repay its customers up to £128m ($242m) after uncovering evidence of overcharging since 2019.

The company told shareholders it owed more in refunds than it had available cash, with $115m in cash and $75m in undrawn debt as of the end of March.

CTM agreed to an Australian audit last year to allay fears it could have overcharged Australian customers as well.

The Department of Finance today confirmed Axiom, an assurance and advisory firm, began auditing CTM in January and is due to report in June.

Victorian premier defends appointment of Labor members to board seats

Victoria’s Labor premier, Jacinta Allan, has defended her government’s appointment of a string of Labor-affiliated people to public sector boards.

The Age today reported Labor members or people close to Labor personnel account for about one in 10 of the Victorian public sector’s paid board positions.

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Allan was asked if those appointments undermined the boards’ independence from government and whether she would be open to more measures to ensure board members were separate from government.

She said:

I’ve been clear there is a thorough process that is followed for any appointment to a Victorian government board and our boards are made up of the best people for the job and we thank them for their work.

Fifty years since the first boat of refugees from Vietnam reached Australia

Today marks fifty years since Lam Tac Tam, his brother and their three crewmates became the first refugees from Vietnam to reach Australia by boat.

They spent 16 days at sea in the family’s fishing boat, the Kien Giang, travelling from the coastal town of Rach Gia, past turbulent waters off the coast of Timor, to reach Darwin on 26 April 1976.

Read the full story from Bertin Huynh here:

Police blocked members of anti-immigration group from Perth dawn service

Western Australian police say they proactively blocked 15 members of “issue motivated groups” from attending Anzac Day commemorations, following disruptions that marred earlier ceremonies in the eastern states.

One man was arrested at the Sydney dawn service at Martin Place, where there was a small but noisy interjection of booing during the Indigenous acknowledgment of country. Booing also marred ceremonies in Melbourne and Perth.

The booing has been condemned by First Nations leaders, RSL officials and state premiers.

Ahead of Anzac Day, anti-immigration group Fight for Australia had encouraged supporters to contact RSL branches and ask that welcome to country not be included in ceremonies.

Read the full story here:

Federal government’s debt manager has too few experts, review finds

The government’s debt agency has lost too many experienced people after a contentious redundancy round and should hire more experts, a Treasury review has found.

The Treasury secretary called for a review of the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) after the Australian Financial Review revealed a number of experienced staff had left before more were made redundant as part of a restructure in late 2025.

The review, led by a former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Guy Debelle, found that the AOFM was “highly respected” and effective at managing federal debt, but faced some risks. Staff turnover could strip the small AOFM team focused on debt strategy of the expertise needed to maintain “best practice”, Debelle found.

One senior expert is responsible for most of the debt strategy, creating “key person risk” if he were to leave. The review found the risks grew after the redundancy of a string of senior officials, including those who led the agency through the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The review read:

The concentration of departures in a short period of time has left the AOFM with a deficit of appropriate experience, which will take time to rebuild organically … the Review recommends that the AOFM consider external recruitment focussed on government debt market expertise to bolster the depth and experience available to the agency.

The review found that the AOFM was fulfilling its functions successfully, though it recommended that it hold less cash in its liquidity buffer to cover government operations, describing the buffer as costly and “overly conservative”.

Pauline Hanson addresses anti-immigration rally outside parliament

The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has fronted hundreds of people outside Parliament House in Canberra at an anti immigration rally, calling for an end to “mass migration”.

Hanson says she’s not against migration but that the government should be more selective about who comes to Australia. We won’t repeat all of it.

Why hasn’t the [Anthony] Albanese government done anything about mass migration that’s coming into Australia, we need to reduce the numbers … We have to do it in a managed way; you have to bring in the right people who want to assimilate.

Mass migration is a contentious term, the argument for which has been rejected, including by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which in August called out the misuse of overseas arrivals data to advance the unfounded claim.

Hanson also told attenders she wanted to remove “Aboriginal departments” that support First Nations people, saying: “We all need that assistance.” There is no dedicated department for First Nations Australians. The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) sits within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Albanese ‘pleased to hear’ Trump safe after White House gunshots

Anthony Albanese has welcomed the news the US president and first lady, Donald and Melania Trump, are safe, after a White House dinner was interrupted by loud gunshots and one suspect was arrested.

The prime minister said in a statement:

I am pleased to hear the President and the First Lady, along with all attendees at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, are safe.

We applaud the work of the Secret Service and law enforcement agencies for their swift action.

You can read the full report here or follow breaking news on the shooting at our US live blog:

Jacinta Allan claims ‘Liberal National One Nation way’ means spending cuts

The Victorian premier has targeted One Nation in criticism ahead of next Saturday’s Nepean byelection.

Jacinta Allan this morning defended her government’s growing spending and turned to criticising the Coalition parties as well as One Nation. She told reporters:

They want to cut into government spending. What those cuts mean, and we have seen this before, cuts to government schools, cuts to our nurses, not helping people when they need it when times are tough, not building the metro tunnel because they call it a waste …

When times are uncertain and tough, you’ve got the ability to help people, not cut into services like the Liberal National One Nation way would be.

One Nation’s Victoria website condemns spending on “Labor’s vanity projects”:

This is money that could have been put into freeing up vacant land and building homes. One Nation has long advocated for wasteful government expenditures to end and for the government to direct resources toward alleviating the housing cost crunch.

Labor is increasingly recognising One Nation as an electoral threat, including in next weekend’s byelection, as our Victorian state correspondent Benita Kolovos writes here:

Victorian premier denies spending is adding to inflation

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has denied her government’s spending is adding to inflation and stood by her surplus promises.

Ahead of a byelection next Saturday in Nepean, on the Mornington Peninsula, Allan has announced further cost-of-living relief via a rebate on vehicle registration, as we reported earlier, on top of previous measures such as free public transport.

Allan said she still expected to deliver a surplus in the upcoming state budget despite the pre-budget sweeteners being handed down ahead of this year’s election, speaking to reporters today.

She rejected claims her government’s new spending measures this year were adding to inflation, saying:

There are some that may have a different view about how you help families right now. Our Labor government believes we need to help families right now because it’s a choice. It’s a choice between whether you can put a meal on the table for your family or not. That’s not inflationary. That’s real world experience for real families right now …

That’s helping people and it’s also helping people making sure that they can stay connected to their community, can stay in work. That’s overall a good thing for our economy and it’s a good thing for our community.

Liberal leader pushes tax cuts on housing: ‘If you want more of something, take taxes off’

Labor is readying to reform taxes on property investors, and the Coalition still hasn’t taken a firm stand.

Angus Taylor said he believed the focus should be on building more homes, and that higher housing taxes would lead to less housing supply.

Asked whether he was open to winding back tax breaks offered to property investors, Taylor told Insiders:

What I want to see is more homes built in this country, more investment, successful housing completions, in this country. … If you want more houses, don’t impose additional taxes on housing.

Taylor did not directly answer when asked whether he would vote against any changes to capital gains tax or negative gearing. He said:

I just want more houses built. … At the moment we’ve got about a thought bubble about what they’re going to be. … You get the government to give a specific policy, which lasts more than about 24 hours, and I’ll consider comment. …

The principle is we need more homes built, and if you want more homes built, don’t whack another tax on it. If you want less of something, tax it. If you want more of something, take taxes off.

Taylor says it’s ‘reasonable to call out’ Iran as he refuses to label Trump’s war a mistake

Angus Taylor has steered clear of endorsing his colleague, frontbencher Andrew Hastie’s condemnation of the US president, Donald Trump, and his war on Iran.

He told the ABC’s Insiders:

I’m not going to get into commentary on major leaders like Donald Trump. What I will say is, what we want to see is an opening of the strait of Hormuz.

Taylor refused to say Trump’s war was a mistake when repeatedly asked.

I’m not going to get into commentary on this. What I do know is: Iran is a bad country. It is. It kills its own people. That is a bad country. And I think it is reasonable for freedom-loving countries like ours to call out the bad behaviour of those countries.

But I tell you what I want to see most of all: an opening up of the strait of Hormuz, because, if we don’t get that, we are going to continue to see high petrol and diesel prices at the bowser, high jet fuel costs for when you fly around this country, and we need that brought down.

Taylor says government should not give Syrian camp detainees passports

Angus Taylor has claimed the Albanese government could choose to avoid giving passports to Australians detained in Syria or block them from re-entering Australia.

Four Australian women and nine of their children and grandchildren left the al-Roj camp in north-east Syria, seeking to return to Australia, earlier this week.

The wives, widows and children of jailed or dead Islamic State fighters held at the camp have not been charged with a crime. One woman has been issued a temporary exclusion order seeking to prevent her return to Australia.

Taylor this morning suggested the government should not be issuing passports to the Australians citizens, as it typically would be required to do. He told Insiders:

The government should be making every possible effort to not accept these people back into the country. That includes both the issuing and distribution of passports, where that’s possible. … There’s a lot of discretion or some discretion with the minister, as there is with temporary exclusion orders.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) advised the government to block one of the people from entering Australia. Asked whether he trusted Asio to advise on the others, Taylor said:

I don’t trust the government. … All I’m saying is [what] we need to know is when the last security assessments were done, what we know from that and why only one temporary exclusion order has been issued.

Taylor also claimed, without evidence, that the government is supporting Jamal Rifi, a Sydney doctor and community advocate, to help repatriate the women and children. The government and Rifi have repeatedly denied this.

Read about the development this weekend here:

Angus Taylor says welcome to country should be used less

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has called for welcome to country remarks to be used less often, saying he is frustrated they have been “devalued” by “overuse”.

Taylor said a welcome to country should be “special when it happens” and condemned those who booed during Anzac Day events on Saturday. He told Insiders:

Can I say, booing, whatever the cause, on Anzac Day, [at] Anzac Day ceremonies, is absolutely inappropriate and un-Australian. It shouldn’t happen. It simply shouldn’t happen.

I can understand the frustration Australians feel about over use of welcomes to country. I feel that at times. Often actually. I think it is overused and as a result they are devalued.

I would like to see them used less and therefore not devalued, as I think they have been over time.

It’s up to individual organising committees to decide whether they want to do it or not. But the general principle should be: let’s do this less and make it more special when it happens.

To which, the Insiders host, David Speers, said: “And don’t boo?” Taylor responded:

Absolutely not boo, absolutely.