Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom accuse One Nation of ‘practising censorship’ after shunning reporters from press conference

Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom have criticised One Nation’s Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, for barring reporters from a press conference.

Reporters from Guardian Australia and the ABC were escorted to the press conference at Crown Melbourne by hotel staff before they were asked which media outlet they were from and told to leave.

AJF’s executive director, Peter Greste, said:

Australia’s strong democracy means journalists have the ability to interrogate politicians on the behalf of the people who hire them – the voters. It isn’t always comfortable, but that freedom is one of the reasons our political system is one of the world’s most stable and effective.

No individual politicians or political party should have the right to choose whether a media outlet can scrutinise them. This is democracy 101, when transparency and accountability are lost, citizens are deprived of their right and ability to know what is going on.

Any politician deciding who gets to scrutinise them is practising censorship, and in a democracy, that’s something we should never accept.

Following the latest updates in the Alan Jones trial?

Nour Haydar and Amanda Meade will be answering reader questions in an upcoming podcast episode of Alan Jones on Trial.

If there’s a piece of evidence, legal process, or courtroom exchange you would like them to explain, submit your question via email to australia.fullstory@theguardian.com.

Federal eSafety commissioner failed to participate in Victorian inquiry into LGBTQ+ hate crimes, report reveals

Despite the centrality of apps and social media-type platforms to the incidents that triggered the Victorian government inquiry into anti‑LGBTQ+ hate crimes, the federal eSafety commissioner did not participate in it.

Finding 37 of the report said:

The Committee is disappointed that the federal eSafety Commissioner declined to participate in this Inquiry.

The committee found that the community felt social media platforms should take greater responsibility for the “harmful targeting” of LGBTQ+ people on their platforms.

It also recommended the state government advocate to the federal government for “a dedicated inquiry into best practice safety features of dating apps utilised by Australian users”, and to ensure that all apps operated under “an enforceable and strengthened Australian Online Dating Code”.

Grindr and Match Group participated in the inquiry, but other apps did not.

Victorian inquiry into LGBTQ+ hate crimes hands down findings

Hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community are under-reported, often not recognised as hate crimes by police, and frequently committed by “thrillseekers” enabled by “the relative permissibility of homophobic acts in society”, a Victorian government inquiry has found.

A legislative council inquiry into anti‑LGBTQ+ hate crimes in Victoria handed down its final report to parliament this afternoon. It included 41 findings and 35 recommendations to the state government to strengthen prevention and policing of hate crime related to gender or sexuality, and to fund LGBTQ+ health and community organisations and legal centres to better support victims and the wider community.

The inquiry found that there was significant mistrust of law enforcement among the LGBTQ+ community, which led to under-reporting of crimes against them.

It also found police often did not recognise or record the prejudicial element of the hate crime when it was reported. The committee recommended practical tools be developed to stop hate crime falling through administrative cracks in law enforcement, and an independent evaluation of Victoria police’s LGBTQ+ awareness training.

The inquiry was established after Guardian Australia reported in 2024 on a spate of more than a dozen, separate cases of gay men being allegedly attacked by people they met through dating apps.

Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time

• The opposition started on housing, trying to pressure the government over its building targets, and the impact of its housing tax policies.

• They then pivoted to the tobacco excise and tried to wedge the government over some comments from NSW Labor premier Chris Minns questioning the current excise level.

• The health minister, Mark Butler, accused Angus Taylor of playing “follow the leader” with Pauline Hanson – the Coalition has pledged to cut the excise by 80% (a week after One Nation promised a 75% cut).

• Independent Dai Le asked the government to review her outer western Sydney electorate’s health priority status to bring in more doctors, but Butler said it was “complicated”.

I’ll be honest, it felt like a pretty long and dry question time to me.

And on that note, I’ll leave you with the fabulous Achol Arok for the rest of the afternoon. See you back here bright and early tomorrow!

After a final dixer to Mark Butler, the PM calls time on QT. Kate Chaney stands up looking annoyed – she was probably due to get the next question.

Liberal MP Garth Hamilton asks Anthony Albanese if he will scrap a $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans, instead of spending $150m on an “overseas climate talk fest” (the COP climate summit). It’s an issue the opposition pushed heavily last sitting fortnight – and called for the minister responsible to be sacked.

Albanese says the government has increased the fees for allied health workers to stop disincentivising treatment for veterans.

Now the review is after $5,000, that will be more than 12 visits. And then, if further care is required, if there’s a clinical need, then they’ll receive it. Importantly, changes will not impact veterans on the special rate disability pension, on the totally and permanently incapacitated pension, or determined to be catastrophic injured. These changes come into effect on July 27, and the government continues to consult.

Butler refutes claim tobacco policies have ‘led to more Australians smoking illicit cigarettes’

Take three: Liberal MP Mary Aldred, who was on a Coalition-led parliamentary inquiry that recommended cutting the tobacco excise, has a go now to corner the government over the policy.

She again quotes NSW premier Chris Minns warning on the impact of the excise policy, and asks if the health minister will “admit Labor’s failed tobacco policies have led to more Australians smoking illicit cigarettes?”

The health minister, Mark Butler, says he begs to differ and that smoking rates have been going down despite the hiked up excise.

I don’t agree with that. The Institute of Health and Welfare, which has been the statutory authority under governments of both political persuasions for many, many years, says otherwise as well.

I think we should all be glad the authoritative body set up under statute, supported at least until today, by both major political parties, have said that smoking rates over the last three years have declined by about half a million on daily adult smoking rates.

Labor fumes over Coalition question on tobacco excise

Nationals frontbencher Anne Webster asks the assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, why he is “refusing to protect his own constituents” by supporting an excise cut, after a tobacco store in his electorate was firebombed overnight. Mulino was asked about the firebombing in an interview this morning but wouldn’t provide any details on it.

There’s a bunch of back and forth over whether the question is within standing orders or not. Milton Dick calls part of the question a slur, and the government argues that it doesn’t go to Mulino’s portfolio at all.

Webster has another crack and asks why Mulino is “refusing to protect Australians …” which gets some more groans and Dick once again tells Webster to remove that part of the question completely.

Finally we get to the answer.

Mulino defends himself, saying he did answer the question about the firebombing responsibly, because, “what would’ve been irresponsible is for me to speculate on live TV about what actually happened this morning and what might have driven it.”

Can I quote the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner: ‘Lowering tax on its own is not likely to resolve the criminal side of the market. It does not remove demand, eliminate supply, or the underlying profit opportunities, they, as the organised criminals, can undercut prices no matter where we see the excise.’ We have said repeatedly a responsible approach is to continue our policy on enforcement.

Independent MP calls for additional doctors in western Sydney

Over to the crossbench, Dai Le asks if the government will review a mechanism that means her western Sydney community of Fowler doesn’t get “distribution priority area” status and can’t get additional doctors into the area.

The health minister, Mark Butler, spruiks the government’s Medicare urgent care clinics and the increased number of students training to be doctors.

Le makes a point of order, and says Butler is not addressing whether her area can be reviewed to access more support.

Butler says the issue “is not particularly simple” and won’t commit to changes, just that he’s happy to engage with Le.

Generally, distribution levers have distinguished pretty sharply between the big cities and rural and regional Australia so that doctors coming from overseas, which is the question the member asked, are required to practise for 10 years in rural and regional communities. Now, there’s parts of particularly outer suburban Australia, who are really struggling. Who have lower doctor rates per head of population than many parts of regional Australia. And we are grappling with that question.

Every time we have an overseas doctor going to the cities, rural communities complain that’s taken from them. Happy to engage with the member more about that. It’s not particularly simple, though.

Albanese says he has a few facts to provide the opposition on housing

Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh is next and asks the prime minister if he agrees with NSW premier Chris Minns that Labor’s housing taxes mean less construction and fewer homes in Australia.

She adds, “since Labor’s budget, 421 New South Wales building companies have gone broke. Including Bathla Group, risking 14,000 affordable homes and apartments.”

Anthony Albanese says he has a few facts to provide the opposition:

Fact one, the latest ABS data shows that under this Labor government the total value of housing in Australia has gone from $10.1tn to 12.7tn, an increase of some 26% in just four years. Fact two, the median national house price in August was higher than it was a year ago.

McIntosh raises a point of order and says the PM isn’t addressing her question which is whether he agrees with Minns or not.

There’s some back and forth here, including an accusation that Albanese dismissed McIntosh with a flick of his hand.

Albanese continues with some more facts, and says Labor is giving young people a crack at housing:

Fact seven, annual construction cost inflation has fallen from a half-century high, under the Coalition, it was 17%. Today, it’s 3.8% under Labor.

In pictures: protesters rally for justice for Zomi Frankcom outside Israeli embassy

Protesters are outside the Israeli embassy in Canberra today, demanding justice for Zomi Frankcom, the Australian aid worker killed in Gaza after the Israeli Defence Force struck an aid convoy.

The rally was attended by politicians including Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi, and independent senator, Lidia Thorpe.

Albanese dodges question on UK banning commercial activity with Israeli settlements in the West Bank

Anthony Albanese takes a final question on whether Australia will follow the UK’s lead and implement a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The prime minister doesn’t weigh in on whether Australia would do the same, and says broadly:

I’ve made clear on a number of occasions, we support a two-state solution in the Middle East. We think that is important for both Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in peace and security.

Choice between algorithm opt-in/opt-out is ‘empowering’, Wells says

Anika Wells says the government’s position is a middle ground between an opt-in and opt-out model for algorithms.

The communications minister says there will be a “pop-up” notification that will ask users if they want platforms to use an algorithm or not.

The government’s statement explaining the draft legislation says:

Users can choose to opt in to having their default feed include personalised content recommended by the algorithm. Alternatively, users can opt out of personally recommended content in their default feed and see the friends and creators they choose to follow.

Wells tells the press conference that this makes it a “neutral choice” for users:

You will have a choice about whether you want the algorithm or whether you want the following feed. That is a neutral choice that Australians will be able to make. It’s empowering.

And the reality is lots of people are going to want to choose the algorithm. Lots of people follow it for entertainment, lots of people follow it because they like supporting small local business in their suburb.

The prime minister adds later that if people want to continue doom scrolling, well that’s their prerogative.

If people want to doom scroll, as you call it, that’s fine, that’s up to them.

Albanese ‘emphatically’ rules out censoring political statements on social media

Anthony Albanese is asked about concerns that the duty of care bill could amount to political censorship. Critics have claimed Labor is trying to use the legislation to shut down criticism of the government.

The prime minister says he can “emphatically rule that out”.

He says the bill is not about government control, but individual control.

It’s not about censorship. It’s about giving people control themselves over what they see. We can emphatically rule that out. This is about basic safety standards online for online services and about the onus being on big tech to identify risks on their platform and to mitigate against those risks.

Wells is also asked whether she will have the power to designate new forms of harm, she says:

The rule making power exists elsewhere in the Online Safety Act. I used it, you’ll recall, to include YouTube in the social media minimum age laws when I became the communications minister, that would have been disallowable in the Senate. Nobody disallowed it in the Senate.

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This week our team has been reporting on the government’s soon to be released digital duty of care bill. It’s a policy that will impact almost all Australians as we increasingly live our lives online.

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Albanese and Wells to release Labor’s draft digital duty of care legislation

We’re waiting for Anthony Albanese and the communications minister, Anika Wells, to stand up in the prime minister’s courtyard as they release the draft digital duty of care legislation.

So far we know the Coalition aren’t fans, warning the legislation could “censor” people, while the Greens want some adjustments to make the rules stronger.

We’ll bring that press conference to you shortly.

Greens in talks with Labor on carbon credits to fix koala park internal split

The Greens are negotiating with Labor to avoid an internal split over a government plan to let New South Wales take millions of dollars’ worth of carbon credits for its planned koala national park.

The federal party room met in Parliament House this morning. We understand they’re waiting until negotiations with the government are concluded to reach a final decision on whether to block the regulation, which is due for a vote next Monday.

Bob Brown wants the rule blocked but one NSW Greens MP has said the federal MPs should wave it through, as we reported this morning:

It’s not clear what the Greens are demanding in exchange for their support, though the general principle is that they want the regulation to ensure that coal and gas stay in the ground and more trees are protected.

The party also decided to support the government’s amendments to its social media bill today. They are less certain about Labor’s reforms to algorithms, saying they want strong obligations on big tech and strong penalties if those are breached. That includes ensuring that users who do not opt into platforms’ algorithms get a similar level of service, rather than being punted to a substandard version of the apps.

Smart Energy Council says Queensland government’s energy policy deliberately slowing renewables transition

The Smart Energy Council says Queensland’s government is using energy policy uncertainty to deliberately slow the state’s transition to renewables.

Since winning office in October 2024, the state’s Liberal National party government has extended the life of its coal-fired generators, which no longer have clear closure dates, killed renewable projects and the state’s renewables target, and tightened the state’s approval processes for green projects while loosening it for mining.

The council’s chief executive, David McElrea, told the Smart Energy Queensland Conference and Exhibition this morning, in Brisbane, that it was part of a “a self-fulfilling strategy to make renewable energy uninvestable”. McElrea said:

The overall strategy of the LNP government is clear: remove targets, erase closure dates, protect coal, make renewable investment harder and let the project pipeline thin – then point to the shortage you created as proof renewables cannot do the job.

That is a self-fulfilling strategy to make renewable energy uninvestable. It is ideology, not economics or engineering.

The premier, David Crisafulli, said the government’s energy policy was “working” and was delivering “affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity”. He said:

We have the youngest fleet of coal-fired power stations in the country and we’re investing in those to make sure that we have that base load power. We have an abundance of gas, and we see that as an important transition fuel. So we’re investing in that, and then we’ve got the most number of renewable energy projects in the country coming online.

That’s a balance.

Capital investment in the industry has seen a nation-leding decline in the government’s first year in office, dropping from 3202 and 14 projects in 2024 to just 510 and two projects reaching financial close in 2025.

Labor has one standard in opposition, another in government, Greens say

The Greens have also come out swinging over a report in the ABC today showing analysis from the Centre for Public Integrity that the Labor government granted hundreds of thousands of dollars to safe, marginal or target seats at the last election.

Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May says the analysis shows the fund even handed the prime minister’s inner-Sydney electorate of Grayndler $6m for the Marrickville Golf Club.

If this was a fair process, why weren’t other community organisations even given the chance to apply? Labor had one standard in opposition, when it rightly condemned the Morrison government’s sports rorts. Now it’s in government, it seems to think a different set of rules apply. You can’t condemn pork-barrelling in opposition and then hand out hundreds of millions of dollars behind closed doors when you’re in government.

Spender says digital duty of care bill must still allow criticism of governments

Independent MP Allegra Spender says she wants to ensure any digital duty of care bill doesn’t halt the right of people to criticise the government of the day.

She also says the government should put truth in political advertising bills on the table.

But Spender, speaking to News24, reserves final judgment, saying she still needs to look at the contents of the bill itself.

I think to make sure that people still have confidence, that they can critique the government of the day, as they absolutely should be able to.

There are certainly situations where people are deliberately lying in political advertising and there’s absolutely no recourse, particularly during an election … I hate the scare campaigns, it’s not up for me as a politician to decide, this is where the AEC [Australian electoral commission] or others could have a good role in terms of making sure that people don’t have lies in political advertising, because I think that is misleading and that is problematic.

The government will soon release the draft bill, with the communications minister, Anika Wells, doing a press conference a little later.

Committee chair defends public servants over social media footage

The chair of parliament’s power joint standing committee on intelligence and security, Labor senator Raff Ciccone, has come to the defence of bureaucrats worried about how footage of their appearances before inquiries is used online by politicians.

The push comes after the defence department deputy secretary Celia Perkins told a hearing last week that public servants giving evidence did not consent to footage being shared on social media.

Ciccone told the Senate last night the issue has been sitting uneasily with him for some time and, while he supported free use of footage, he said some politicians are misusing hearings. He criticised social media users unfairly attacking a senior female bureaucrat, including over her salary.

We have seen senators accuse witnesses of not telling the truth, shifting the focus from what was said to what plays very well in a feed that rewards outrage over accuracy.

There’s an old instinct in this country to cut down anyone seen as getting above themselves, and political content now packages that instinct as accountability. It used to carry a social cost.

People who made a habit of it were seen as bullies. Now it carries a reward. An algorithm doesn’t care about whether we’re holding someone to account or tearing them down for clicks. It rewards both, provided they generate outrage. That goes to the heart of what this official was trying to say.

Ciccone said it might be time for politicians to look at how evidence given to committees is used online and whether MPs need their own standards for describing evidence online.

Read more:

Grants went to Labor-held seats because we promised them, Mulino says

The assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, has said the overwhelming allocation of a grants program to Labor-held or marginal seats was “sound policy” that reflected the party’s promises.

Mulino told reporters in Canberra the invite-only program had required projects to demonstrate community benefit. He said he didn’t have “specific details” when asked if any of Labor’s promised projects were rejected for lack of public interest basis.

Asked about the grants flowing to seats where Labor won, Mulino said:

The allocation across different electorates reflected the promises made.

He also claimed successive governments had used such programs but could not cite specific examples, instead saying the government auditor general had previously said “these types of grants programs” are “sound policy”.

He expressed no concern at the prospect of Labor doing this again at the next federal election, saying:

I think that if we go to the next election with promises, people will expect us to deliver on those promises and I think that’s a reasonable expectation.

Jacqui Lambie says she’s ready to fight big tech on algorithms

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie wants to see a proper crackdown on the tech giants and social media algorithms and reckons the government won’t go far enough.

Speaking to News24 earlier, Lambie says the government should go with an opt-in rather than opt-out approach, which would make no algorithms the default on social media platforms.

Lambie says:

We haven’t seen the bill, so I can imagine that there’ll be other things that need to be fixed in that as well and it won’t be tough enough. The problem is when governments are in they’ll go 70% of the way, and the other 30% is called courage, and that’s what they lack.

Let’s have the fight [with big tech] because I’m ready because what it’s doing to our kids is disgusting.

Government ‘seeking to censor’ social media with digital duty of care bill

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has also been up having a word to the press gallery this morning, criticising the government’s duty of care bill. The government will release the draft legislation for consultation today.

Wilson, like the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, claims the government is seeking to censor platforms.

The problem we’ve got is the government is now actively seeking to censor, and has been active in attempting to censor any view they don’t like. What we need is laws that protect Australia’s national identity, our security, because that’s the umbrella in which all our rights and freedoms are anchored behind.

Wilson says that harm minimisation on platforms is definitely important but that the government needs to be more transparent about it.

The Albanese government has a long history of trying to censor, silence and bully voices they don’t like. We know that they tried to shut down access to public information through their freedom of information bill.

Carroll has also announced the introduction of laws to give integrity agencies more powers, which will come into effect immediately once the bill is passed.

The bill will give the anti-corruption watchdog Ibac the follow-the-money investigatory powers to trace public funds. This means they can investigate the conduct of private and third-party subcontractors.

The definition of corruption will also changed to capture a broader range of conduct, including ones that don’t currently meet the threshold of a criminal offence.

The special minister of state, Ingrid Stitt, says the new definition also includes a specific provision for elected officials, and that will include ministers, MPs and local councillors. She says:

It means that they can be investigated for serious breaches to their respective codes of conduct.

Stitt says, if re-elected, a second bill would be introduced to parliament next year, which would enact the remaining recommendations of an inquiry into the laws governing Ibac.

‘Australians are fed up’: Haines blasts community fund

Independent MP Helen Haines has added her voice to the list of MPs angry over reports of Labor using a community infrastructure fund to allegedly pork-barrel money into target seats at the last election.

The ABC has reported analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity that found the majority of money from an “invite-only” grants program was given to safe, target and marginal Labor seats.

In a statement, Haines said:

Australians are increasingly fed up with self-serving political establishment, and pork barrelling only further undermines trust in government and our democracy. Political parties should not be able to use taxpayers’ money to buy votes.

Community need should come before political need.

Haines was a leading figure behind the push to set up a national anti-corruption commission.

One Nation super plan ‘not our policy’, Liberal senator says

The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, says One Nation’s plan to allow access to superannuation for mortgage and rental payments isn’t Liberal policy but doesn’t directly knock it on its head.

He tells RN Breakfast the idea doesn’t address long-term structural issues around housing ownership in retirement.

It’s a short-term factor that would help with cost of living relief, I imagine, but I don’t think it addresses that long-term structural challenge. So 30 years ago, you had about 20% of retirees renting. Now you’ve got about 30%, and in 20 years it’ll be about 40%. That is going to change the character of retirement.

Bragg dismisses reports that the Coalition was cooking up a similar policy offering, and tries to put the pressure on to the government. He also won’t say whether the Coalition has modelled anything.

I think it’s very telling that the treasurer, having destroyed the budget and destroyed the housing system, can’t even bring himself to have this debate. Instead, what he wants to do is to go and raise donations for the Labor party on the back of a public debate.

Bragg is referring to a text blast that was sent by Jim Chalmers last month to supporters, claiming that the Coalition and One Nation were coming for superannuation and calling for donations.

Joyce responds to Hanson loan reports: ‘I think we just get used to these stories’

Barnaby Joyce has tried to deflect reporting in Nine Newspapers this morning that Pauline Hanson has offered loans to her party since her campaign to re-enter parliament in 2016. One Nation has publicly reported it owes $400,000 in debts to Hanson.

Hanson has refused to say whether she has charged interest on those loans.

Joyce tells RN Breakfast we can probably expect more of these stories from those who are “scared” of his party.

Joyce adds that he’s not an accountant for Hanson so he doesn’t have details of her financial affairs:

I know that people have a pathological dislike of One Nation if they’re a socialist. I’m completely aware of that. And I imagine we’re going to get lots and lots of these stories, not only from the left, but from those who are scared of us, who are supposed to be on the conservative side of politics.

So I think we just get used to these stories. They’re going to roll out. I mean, we’re under the microscope. I accept that.

Mulino defends ‘invite-only’ grants program

Daniel Mulino is facing the wrath of RN Breakfast host Sally Sara to explain exactly how the “invite-only” grant scheme is legit and above board and not pork barrelling.

He says repeatedly that the scheme is “longstanding practice” that allows a government to deliver its election promises.

(ie Labor promised money for parks, pools and sports ovals to seats that it either already held or really wanted to win and then this was the program to deliver that once they were re-elected.)

Sara asks which other grants programs have been invitation only, but Mulino doesn’t know, replying, “I don’t have the background on how frequently it’s used.”

He says:

It is a specific kind of grants program which is designed to deliver election commitments and that’s something which is specifically set up after an election in order to allow governments to basically follow through on what they’ve promised to do.

One Nation policy will leave people $25k worse off at retirement, Mulino says

Superannuation is kicking off again today with One Nation pushing to allow people to divert 3% of their superannuation to their rent or mortgage.

Cue the government cracking their knuckles ready to lash out against the suggestion that super should be messed with.

The assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, continued the fight on News Breakfast earlier:

It took us decades to get to 12% superannuation guarantee and that’s a level that will provide people with a high level of dignity and security in retirement.

To do what the One Nation party is suggesting will see somebody who is 30 years old, $25,000 worse off at retirement and a couple around $50,000 worse off.

To unwind that is dangerous and undermines the whole superannuation system. What we’ve suggested over recent years is that the far better approach is to support people getting pay rises. We’ve supported increases in award wages and the minimum wage.

‘Invite-only’ grants program ‘standard practice’ says Labor minister

The grants program is all above board and there’s nothing to see here, says the assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, defending the government’s use of the Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program.

Analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity showed $493m of the $560m fund went to safe, fairly safe or competitive seats for Labor.

Mulino told ABC News Breakfast:

It’s standard practice and longstanding practice for governments to set up these kinds of grants programs in order to deliver those election commitments. They’re different to the kinds of grants programs which are run in the ordinary course of government. And this program, as Catherine King has explained, is part of long standing practice and there are checks and balances in there.

Ministers won’t approve programs in their own electorate and it’s an important way for governments to be able to deliver commitments.

Good morning, Krishani Dhanji back in the hot seat here with you for another busy sitting day.

The government’s focus is on social media – pushing ahead with a digital duty of care bill, and its legislation to increase fines and give the eSafety commissioner more power to tackle social media companies that breach the under-16s ban.

There’s plenty going on here – let’s get stuck in!

Howard claims US is Australia’s ‘ultimate security guarantor’

John Howard says the US remains Australia’s “ultimate security guarantor” despite its “unorthodox” president in Donald Trump.

At ANU last night, the former prime minister said:

Although there may be occasions for superficial provocation … [we shouldn’t] lose sight of the fact that our ultimate security guarantor is the United States.

Howard said while on a flight from Hawaii back to Australia after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the then foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, urged him to invoke the Anzus treaty to show US solidarity.

Howard said he spoke to then US ambassador to Australia, Tom Schieffer, about his decision during the flight, who he said was overcome with emotion.

Howard believed it was this decision that would pave the way for the Aukus treaty becoming possible two decades later.

Joyce says allegations against Victorian One Nation leader are ‘contested’

One Nation’s deputy leader, Barnaby Joyce, has been asked about the party’s Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, who continues to attract scrutiny over allegations made against him by an ex-partner about alleged drug use.

Pickering said his ex-partner’s claims were false. “They are extremely hurtful and I just hope the public can see through them,” he said in a statement, according to The Australian.

Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 last night, Joyce said the historical allegations were “contested”.

He said he did not hear about the allegations before story was published in The Australian on Monday:

If he’s good enough to serve our nation in the defence force, as determined by our nation, then I presume he’s good enough to serve the people of Victoria.

If we’re saying that any person will be held to account for any action they ever did, no matter how far in the past it was, I would suggest there are lot of people in this parliament who will no longer have a job Monday morning.

Good morning

Welcome to Guardian Australia’s live news coverage for Tuesday.

Krishani Dhanji will be with you shortly.

Let’s begin.