9m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 11:52pm

AG welcomes new solicitor-general

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland says the appointment of Ruth Higgins SC as Australia’s solicitor-general has been welcomed right across the legal profession.

Higgins is the first woman to take on the prestigious role.

A barrister of more than 20 years, Higgins will provide legal advice to the federal government and represent the Commonwealth in high-profile court cases.

Politically sensitive issues on her agenda include a constitutional challenge to Australia’s social media ban for under 16s and looming legal attacks on the government’s new hate speech laws.

Rowland says Higgins is the “best person for the job”.

“To have her serving the Australian people is something we will all benefit from,” she told ABC News Breakfast.

59m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 11:03pm

Farrer candidate funded by Murdoch’s pro-climate son-in-law

Backers of Farrer independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe are celebrating after securing the support of a prominent pro-climate farmer who is also media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s son-in-law.

Alasdair MacLeod, who leads the regenerative farming business Macdoch Australia, has donated to the Regional Voices Fund to support Milthorpe in the May 9 by-election.

The donation value will be disclosed in the Australian Electoral Commission’s 2025-26 financial year report, along with all other contributions to the Farrer contest, which now has almost a dozen registered candidates.

The AEC last week confirmed plans to begin real-time donation disclosures in July would be delayed until January due to “system constraints”.

MacLeod, who is married to Murdoch’s eldest daughter, Prudence, said he chose to support Milthorpe’s campaign because he believed she was “genuinely connected to her region and focused on delivering practical outcomes”.

Read the full story at the link below.

1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 10:20pm

Government ‘not considering’ fuel rationing

Over on ABC’s News Breakfast, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is asked if fuel rationing is inevitable.

“We are not considering that,” she says.

“Our focus is on supply. We previously had security of supply until April. That has now been extended to May. We continue to engage with our international partners, including Singapore and Japan, to ensure those shipments continue to arrive,” she adds

Australia has roughly 39 days of petrol, 29 days of diesel and 30 days of jet fuel in reserves.

1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 10:11pm

Post-Bondi review of intelligence and law enforcement going ahead: Rowland

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland was also asked if she had any regrets about folding a review of Australia’s security agencies into the royal commission.

The review was established in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack, with former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson asked to lead it.

But Richardson quit when the review became part of the royal commission, saying he was “surplus to requirements” and “grossly overpaid” for the work.

Rowland says the former spy chief’s work will continue through the “excellent team” he set up.

2h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:52pmStates must explain missed gun-buyback deadline, says Rowland

After the Bondi terror attack, the federal government announced a national buyback scheme as part of gun reforms agreed to by the state and territories.

The reforms included reducing the number of guns a person can own and making it harder to secure a firearm licence.

But, despite an April 1 deadline, only three states and the ACT have signed up to the buyback scheme.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland says it’s up to the states to explain but the government remains committed to the scheme.

“Our position is clear. There are more guns in Australia today than there were at the time of the Port Arthur massacre. And that is an unsustainable situation,” she told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast. 

“It is up to them [the states and territories] to explain to their constituency why that is the case.”

Asked if it could work if only some of the states came on board, the AG says it is supposed to be a national scheme and state leaders “should recognise that”.

2h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:44pmAttorney-General responds to Trump’s latest criticism of Australia

Overnight, US President Donald Trump again took aim at Australia and other Pacific allies over their refusal to assist the US in its war against Iran.

Trump twice mentioned Australia by name for not helping.  Australia has sent a surveillance plane to the region, as well as air-to-air missiles to the United Arab Emirates to aid its defence against Iranian strikes.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland says it’s not the first time Trump has made such comments and Australia’s position has not changed.

“Australia’s position continues to be that we call for an urgent de-escalation of this conflict. Australians and innocent people right around the world and in the region are being impacted by events that they didn’t cause, but it is having lasting impacts,” she tells ABC’s Radio National Breakfast. 

“It’s having impacts on our supply chains and causing real anxiety for Australians.”

2h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:29pm

Fuel supplies fine into May, Labor says

Sticking with the topic of fuel, Labor’s Dan Repacholi was also out and about this morning.

He said while fuel supplies had been secured into May “nobody knows any further than that”.

“We only have 30 days in advance of our  … fuel deliveries, of what is going on this space. And whilst what is happening over there in the Middle East is continuing going, we really don’t know where it will end,” he told Nine.

The MP for Hunter, NSW, and special envoy for men’s health said contingency plans were being worked on behind the scenes.

“What we do know is, until mid-May, we’re going OK,” he said.

2h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:17pmCanavan repeats call for Australia to re-start drilling

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has repeated his call for the government to “get cracking and start drilling again” amid the fuel crisis.

The government has confirmed fuel shipments to Australia have been secured “well into” May as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to impact global supply.

But Canavan is concerned the government is not being “upfront” about the risks and should look to what it can do domestically — like drilling locally for oil.

“Let’s look at all types of technology, put everything on the table, including converting our coal to liquids. We have enormous amounts of energy in this country,” he told Sky News.

“We’re only energy poor because this government has made a conscious choice not to use Australian energy and instead be reliant on foreign energy.”

2h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:06pm’Go for your life’ but more oil drilling won’t fix fuel crisis, says energy expert

Energy expert Tony Wood is calling on the government to begin planning now for Australia’s next fuel crisis — but says further oil exploration is not an immediate solution.

“My view is, go for your life, but it’s going to take a long time to go from scratch to find more oil, even if it’s shale oil, which is one of the things being spoken about. That’s not going to happen overnight,” Wood said.

“We already produce quite a bit of crude oil in Australia, most of it in the North-West Shelf [off the Pilbara coast]. But it turns out that’s a lot closer to Singapore and Malaysia than to Melbourne, so we export 70-80 per cent of the crude oil we produce.

“One, because it’s a lot cheaper, and, two, because the crude we have in Australia is not well suited to making the range of materials we need, particularly diesel fuel.”

Wood says the government’s focus should be on boosting Australia’s fuel reserves to around 50 days’ supply, and electrifying long-distance road freight to take pressure off diesel reserves.

National Road Transport AssociationCEO Warren Clark says that, while the industry would like to diversify, electric truck fleets are not commercially viable right now.

“How are you going to charge these truck batteries? Where are you going to charge them? How are you going to wait in line to charge them?” he says.

“The place where these trucks could work quite viably right now is metropolitan areas, where they’re returning to base each night or day to be charged,” he said.

2h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:03pm

Good morning 👋

Hi friends. Welcome to our daily federal politics live blog.

I’m Courtney Gould from the ABC’s Parliament House team, here and ready to guide you through the day.

If I’m honest with you, I’m not exactly sure where the day will take us but I’m sure there will be a lot of chat about fuel and the conflict in the Middle East.

The sun is up and so am I, so let’s get blogging.

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