26m agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 11:29pmChina will continue to make presence known near Australia: Defence boss
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a somewhat grim tone at this morning’s Senate estimates hearing with the Defence Department and the Australian Defence Force chiefs.
Both Defence Department secretary Greg Moriarty and Chief of the Defence Force David Johnston have warned that Australia is facing a more difficult and dangerous strategic environment.
That’s partly because China’s military strength continues to grow — and it’s increasingly willing to project that power closer to Australia.
Admiral Johnston gave a snippet of new information about the most recent demonstration of this new reality late last year, when a flotilla of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval ships headed into the Pacific — sparking speculation that it might be heading towards Australia.
The government didn’t provide any public updates over late December, but this morning Johnston has indicated that the task group did indeed make its way into the south-west Pacific after being spotted in the Philippine Sea.
He didn’t give any detailed information about where it went but made it clear it didn’t come near Australian territorial waters or into our exclusive economic zone — saying it always remained “more than 200 nautical miles” (slightly under 400km) from Australian territory.
“While it remained more than 200 nautical miles from Australian territory, the deployment of a PLA-N amphibious task group in the south-west Pacific at the end of last year was a notable example of China’s growing willingness to project its military power in the Pacific and closer to our shores,” he told the committee.
“We expect deployments like this will continue. I want to reassure you we are alert to this reality. Along with allies and partners the ADF continues to monitor military activity in this region.
“We’re ready to respond when required.”
53m agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 11:01pm
Labor MP mocks Liberal no-show on morning television
We’ve heard a lot from the moderates this morning but not so much from the conservative side of the Liberals.
It’s a fact Labor’s Julian Hill picked up on after he went solo during what should have been his panel spot with Phil Thompson on Sky News.
Hill mocked him, holding up a piece of paper with the words “SOS. Where’s Phil?? SOS” on it.
“Where’s Phil? I reckon he might be drafting his resignation letter from the front bench,” he joked.
1h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 10:50pm
Sharma backs Ley but will support whoever is elected by Liberal party room
(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Liberal senator Dave Sharma has reaffirmed his support for Sussan Ley but he’s willing to support whoever is elected by the party room because politics is a team sport.
Sharma, a moderate, told ABC Radio Sydney speculation over the leadership was “quite frustrating” and had become a distraction from being an effective opposition.
“I’m very frustrated and I’m a little, I wouldn’t say despairing but it does trouble me because I don’t think Australia is being well run at the moment,” he said.
“I do hope we can put this issue behind us one way or the other very soon and move on.”
So will he support Angus Taylor should he be elected as leader?
“I will support whoever has been elected by the Liberal Party Room to be the leader. I think it’s important that we all make that commitment because whoever has [been] chosen to be the captain of the team is… ultimately a team sport, politics, and if the team are trying to play different games or different strategies on the field, we’re not going to win.”
1h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 10:18pmIs government spending to blame for inflation?
We have Treasury at estimates today, so expect that question to get a fair workout, as it has since the RBA hiked rates last week.
Jenny Wilkinson, the Treasury secretary, uses her opening statement to observe that “private demand has made a stronger contribution to growth than public demand over the last four quarters”.
(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
Helpfully, that’s exactly the point Jim Chalmers has been making to argue that inflation isn’t the government’s fault. But the opposition and some economists have pointed to different figures to argue the government is contributing to inflation.
The public v private split only gets you so far. When the government pays money for households, for example, some of it ends up as private spending. So it’s not as simple as comparing one with another to assess the government’s role.
No doubt Wilkinson will have the chance to probe this further when the Coalition senators get to ask about it, given it’s been a recurring theme for them.
1h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 10:05pm
Superannuation reform on the agenda in the House of Reps
The bells are ringing throughout Parliament House, signaling it’s time for the day to begin in the House of Representatives.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will kick things off, introducing legislation to double the tax rate on superannuation accounts with balances between $3m and $10m to 30 per cent. For funds more than $10m, the tax rate would be increased to 40 per cent.
Chalmers first promised the reforms way back in Labor’s first term. They looked a little different back then. It applied to unrealised capital gains and the thresholds weren’t indexed.
The government bowed to pressure late last year and scrapped the unrealised capital gains portion, added the two tier thresholds and indexed them.
We’re still waiting on the Greens to confirm whether they would support the legislation in its current form or if they’d be seeking any further concessions in return for its support.
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 9:50pm
AFP warns youth radicalisation accelerating as police target extremists and hate preachers
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett has warned a growing number of young Australians are being drawn into extremist thinking and violence, as police escalate efforts to disrupt lone-actor threats driven by hate, grievance and online radicalisation.
Appearing before Senate estimates on Tuesday, Barrett said the AFP was confronting a threat environment increasingly shaped by individuals acting alone, many of them radicalised rapidly, often online, and without the need for organised networks.
“Some of these offenders are not seeking or needing a partner in crime or a network to carry out threats or violence,” she said, describing a rise in “personalised grievance” linked to global events, perceived injustice and extremist content.
Barrett said youth radicalisation was of particular concern, revealing that joint counterterrorism teams had charged 26 young people with terrorism-type offences since 2020. She warned Australia may soon see minors declared high-risk terrorist offenders.
“Too many influences and influencers are poisoning the minds of our kids and the vulnerable,” she said.
Barrett warned the trend had increasingly taken on racist and nationalist dimensions, pointing to a separate alleged terrorism incident involving a man accused of throwing a home-made improvised device into a rally supporting First Nations people on January 26. Police allege the act was driven by “a nationalist and racially motivated ideological cause”.
Barrett revealed the AFP had established new standing operations targeting extremists, including Operation Drakelow, focused on white supremacists, and Operation Antrobus, targeting hate preachers.
Her first act as commissioner was to establish National Security Investigations teams to respond to the changing threat environment. She described them as “hate disrupter squads” that had resulted in the arrest of 21 people across Australia.
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 9:35pmCoup backers should ‘have the guts’ to go public: Bragg
Leading moderate Andrew Bragg says any frontbenchers who are plotting against Sussan Ley should resign today.
“I think that would be the honourable thing to do,” he says.
And anyone who wants a spill against the leader should put pen to paper and sign a petition in the Turnbull style, Bragg says, echoing the view moderates are pushing behind the scenes, as reported by my colleagues Clare Armstrong and Jane Norman.
“If people want to achieve a particular outcome they should have the guts to put their name to it … If you want to have a spill, it’s a majority required.”
Bragg says Ley has not had a fair run as leader and that it was “reasonable” that she at least make it to the budget reply in May, when she would have an opportunity to outline some policies.
He is frustrated that the leadership rumblings are distracting colleagues from their jobs. “We’re not paid to have secret meetings,” he says.
A man who just wants to talk about housing (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 9:27pm
Butler encouraged by promising signs on bulk-billing
Health Minister Mark Butler also stopped by ABC’s News Breakfast this morning, where he was asked about the rebound in bulk-billing rates.
Butler declared the rates were “heading in the right direction and even faster than I expected”.
He says it’s early days but there are promising signs that the government could reach its target for nine out of 10 GP visits to be free by 2030.
 “This is something we think will take a few years to get to the target we want to see it at, but really promising signs in just the first three months.”
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 9:23pm
Bulk-billing rates rebound
Bulk-billing rates have rebounded in the last quarter after flatlining for months, the first clear measure of the impact of the Albanese government’s multi-billion-dollar signature policy.
New figures released by the federal government show that between November 2025 and January of this year, the bulk-billing rate for all Australians jumped to 81.4 per cent nationwide.
That is compared to a bulk-billing rate of 77.6 per cent for the July to September quarter last year, which was largely unimproved from the year prior.
The government said it was the largest quarterly increase on record outside of the COVID pandemic, where rates were inflated on the back of the mandatory bulk-billing of vaccine consults.
“We promised Australians more bulk-billing and that is what we have delivered,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.
Read the full story at the link below.
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 9:19pm
Butler won’t make judgement on Tame’s intifada chant but says it’s not ‘useful’
Health Minister Mark Butler has defended Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia to “provide comfort and solace” to the Jewish community.
He told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast the community was still in pain and grieving after the Bondi terror attack that killed 15 last December.
“That’s why we thought the invitation was a proper one to extend,” he says.
Butler was also asked about former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who has been criticised for the use of the phrase “globalise the intifada” during a demonstration in Sydney.
The Labor frontbencher didn’t think the phrase was “useful” and reiterated the PM’s call for the temperature to be lowered.
“I think we have a great tradition of freedom of speech, of the right to demonstrate and protest here in Australia,” he said.
“People have done that for decades, including about their views on conflicts that are happening in many other parts of the world. People did it in relation to the Vietnam War and the Iraq War and many others. Really it is a question of reiterating the importance of peaceful protest, of respectful dialogue.”
Pushed on if it was acceptable for Tame to use the phrase, Butler said it was “a matter for every individual who uses the phrase to answer to”.
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 9:03pmFair call for Taylor to have to prove he has the numbers: Turnbull
(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
Malcolm Turnbull has repeated his call for Angus Taylor to stand up and make his intentions clear as speculation he will challenge for the leadership continues.
Liberal moderates have declared that Taylor should be forced to gather a petition calling for a special partyroom meeting to prove he has the numbers to spill the leadership.
It’s the same move Turnbull pulled when he was challenged by Peter Dutton back in 2018. Dutton ended up failing after his bid was pipped by Scott Morrison.
Turnbull said it was fair that if people wanted to remove the leader they should be prepared to put their names to it.
“I think this is true with Taylor. I mean, if Taylor wants to be leader, [he] should stand up and say he wants to be leader, say why, and those people who support him should stand up and take responsibility for it,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.Â
2h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:56pm
Turnbull won’t weigh into who he thinks should lead the Liberals
Switching gears to the ongoing saga that is the Liberal leadership, Malcolm Turnbull has declined say who he thinks should lead the party.
“I think leadership is obviously always important … but really the problem the party has got is that it has drifted away from the centre of Australian politics,” he says.
Turnbull says the party has become lost in “the populist right-wing media” and “chasing Pauline Hanson”.
“Ultimately the question is: can the Liberal Party get its act together and get back to the centre?” he says.
The former prime minister added the lack of moderates within the party was part of the problem.
On Sussan Ley, he doesn’t think she’s “particularly centrist”, noting she supported Peter Dutton when he challenged Turnbull back in 2018.
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:54pmTurnbull defends government’s invitation to Herzog
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended the government’s invitation to Isaac Herzog.
Speaking with ABC’s Radio National Breakfast, Turnbull agreed with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s call for the temperature to be dialled down and Herzog to be respected as a guest.
“This is a time to dial the temperature down, dial the heat down rather than now allowing this visit to become an occasion for increasing the division and tension that you know we’ve seen too much of,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull, who represented the seat of Wentworth — which takes in Bondi — during his time in parliament, also reflected on the protests against Herzog’s visit in Sydney.
He said protesters should have complied with police directions. But in hindsight, police who dispersed a group preforming a prayer should have waited for it to conclude.
“I don’t know the whole context, but one would have hoped that the police would have waited for the prayers to be concluded, frankly … I think in retrospect, I’m sure they feel they would have been better off letting them conclude their prayers,” Turnbull said.
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:39pmEnvoys warn Bondi attack fuelled antisemitism — and backlash against Muslims
Australia’s antisemitism envoy says she issued warnings about the growing threat posed by Jewish hatred before the Bondi terror attack and wished action had been taken sooner.
Jillian Segal told Senate estimates Jewish Australians had been living in a “climate of fear” well before the attack and that the events at Bondi brought those concerns into sharp national focus.
“They made visible what Jewish Australians had been saying for many months… that fear, intimidation and exclusion are no longer abstract concerns, they are lived realities,” she said.
The government took five months to respond to her plan to combat antisemitism, which included controversial recommendations such as stripping funding from universities that faild to address discriminatory conduct.
Following the Bondi attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accepted the report in full.
At the same hearing, Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik warned the attack had also been used by some as a justification for hostility towards Muslim Australians.
“This widespread Islamophobic response, both online and offline, has led to harassment, vilification and threats against Muslim Australians, unfairly holding entire communities responsible for the actions of criminals,” he said.
Malik also demanded a public apology from NSW Police after Muslims praying at an anti-Israel protest in Sydney were pulled to their feet by officers.
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:33pm
How Herzog’s visit is being viewed in Israeli media
Political scientist Tamar Hermann from the independent Israel Democracy Institute has described how the Herzog visit is being viewed in Israel.
From Jerusalem, Herman told the ABC headlines in Israeli media have been dominated by the mass protests, which she says is fuelling public perceptions of rising antisemitism in Australia.
“It’s very difficult to remove a stain after it’s stuck… the question is can anything be done? I’m not sure,” she said.
She said public opinion surveys conducted by the IDI since October 2023, point to an increasing sense among Israelis that the war in Gaza has hurt Israel’s international standing.
“The [Israeli public] certainly understand that something very bad has happened to Israel’s image, but they do not necessarily think this is justified.”
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:28pm
Significant police presence expected as Herzog visits Parliament House
ACT police say a “significant police presence” will be ready in the nation’s capital ahead of an expected visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday.
Independent senator David Pocock has called on the government to refuse Herzog an audience in Parliament House, and says his visit is “only inflaming tensions”.
“The prime minister said this visit was about bringing unity, clearly that has not happened. We’ve seen police crackdowns on protesters; we’ve seen more disunity. And I think the government needs to admit this was a mistake,” Pocock said.
Meanwhile, Greens senator David Shoebridge has rejected the prime minister’s charge that the minor party is fuelling tension itself — and says the Israeli head of state “is not welcome in the heart of democracy”.
“He represents a state that has engaged in unspeakable crimes in Gaza,” Shoebridge said.
“It would be impossible for somebody who believes in the basic principles of international law not to call out his presence in the parliament, if he is to visit.”
Yesterday in parliament Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued a stern message to the crossbench to turn the heat down, saying he would not shy away from backing the visit to provide support and comfort for Jewish Australians following the Bondi terror attack.
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:19pmNationals senator calls for Tame to be prosecuted for intifada chant
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame is facing calls for her title to be stripped after she led chants of “globalise the intifada” at a rally against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The appearance at the rally was criticised by federal and state politicians and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the award, which she received in 2021 for her advocacy for survivors of sexual assault, should be stripped from her.
Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil acknowledged Tame’s work but said she felt “very strongly” that such language should not be used.
“Before we start a national pile-on onto Grace Tame, can we just remember that every single child in our country is safer today because of her willingness to talk about traumatic incidents of sexual abuse,” she said.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said stripping Tame’s title wouldn’t dampen her advocacy of the title.
But she wants her to be prosecuted for the chant.
“She should be prosecuted for inciting violence and hate towards our Jewish community. President Herzog’s visit should be a time of healing in the wake of the Bondi attack and what we’ve seen on our streets, unfortunately, is reinforcing that global perspective that our country is not safe for Jewish people,” she said.
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:18pm
Joyce’s defection claims are ‘all hat, no cattle’: Canavan
Claims that Coalition MPs could defect to One Nation are “all hat, no cattle,” Nationals senator Matt Canavan says.
Barnaby Joyce, who made the switch to the minor party at the end of last year, has been teasing that there are more defections to come and suggesting Victorian state Coalition MPs could be next on his list.Â
Speaking with Nine, Canavan said he’d believe it when he sees it.
“Last week, Barnaby was saying that a Nationals MP would defect in the end. It was all a bit disappointing when Cory Bernardi popped up and came across,” Canavan told Nine.
“It seems to be that Barnaby is a bit like that unlucky fisherman now, where he’s always coming home and saying, I didn’t get any, but you should have seen the one that got away. It all seems a bit ‘hat, and no cattle’ from Barnaby, so we’ll wait and see.”
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:12pm
ASIO ordered independent review of Bondi terror case, stands by 2019 assessment
The nation’s top spy has welcomed a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, vowing to “own any mistakes” uncovered by the probe as his agency comes under pressure over whether the tragedy could have been prevented.
In evidence to Senate estimates on Tuesday, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess revealed he had ordered a snap independent review in the wake of the attack that examined the intelligence agency’s earlier investigation into alleged gunman Naveed Akram.
ASIO assessed in 2019 that Naveed did not pose a terrorism threat — a judgment Burgess said the agency continued to stand by.
“I can say that we stand by our 2019 assessment. The Akrams did not adhere to or intend to engage in violent extremism at the time,” he said. “In other words, many of the claims and criticisms being made about ASIO’s handling of the case are baseless.”
Burgess also acknowledged the “deep pain and grief” of the families, friends and community of those killed and injured in the attack, and praised first responders who “ran towards danger to help”.
He said the alleged perpetrators demonstrated a high level of security awareness to conceal their planning and evade detection, which was a matter of “great regret” for him and his colleagues.
Read the full story at the link below.
3h agoTue 10 Feb 2026 at 8:03pm
Liberals plot resignations to pave the way for leadership challenge
Liberals are bracing for a wave of frontbench resignations as soon as Wednesday to pave the way for Angus Taylor to mount a leadership challenge against Sussan Ley.
Supporters of Taylor said the situation remained fluid on Tuesday night and many were still unsure when the conservative would instigate his push for a spill motion.
But overwhelmingly the view inside the party room is that the speculation about a spill cannot continue and a motion must be moved by the end of the week.
Read more from Clare Armstrong and Jane Norman below.