9m agoFri 10 Apr 2026 at 1:42am

Taylor sidesteps question on Abbott’s call for Australia to play role in US action on Iran

Angus Taylor was also asked about former prime minister Tony Abbott’s call for Australia to play a greater role in the Middle East conflict.

Abbott warned in an op-ed published in the Daily Telegraph that Australia risked being seen as a weak country for not helping the US in its fight against the Iranian dictatorship.

Taylor doesn’t say whether he agrees with the former Liberal leader. Instead, he wants the government to make public what requests for support have been made and also questions if Australia would even have the right capability to assist.

“What has been asked of Australia is completely unclear,” he says.

Asked if he’d consider it being in the national interest, Taylor says “we should absolutely give due consideration to any request that’s made”.

“We just don’t know what requests have been made.”

16m agoFri 10 Apr 2026 at 1:35am

Government has questions to answer on Roberts-Smith arrest: Taylor

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has questioned what the government knew about the public arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith.

The Daily Telegraph reported this morning that the solider and Victoria Cross recipient had offered to hand himself in before his arrest at Sydney Airport this week.

The arrest came after a mammoth defamation case against Nine Newspapers. The court found that on the balance of probabilities, allegations he was responsible for or complicit in the deaths of four detainees in Afghanistan were substantially true.

There have been no findings of guilt against Roberts-Smith to a criminal standard.

Taylor says the public arrest was “done in front of his kids”.

“The government needs to answer the question as to what role they played in this, what support they provided, what they knew about it,” he says.

30m agoFri 10 Apr 2026 at 1:21am

Angus Taylor visits farmers in Tasmania

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor is in Tasmania this morning alongside premier Jeremy Rockliff.

They met with a local farmer this morning who is struggling with the increase in the cost of diesel and fertiliser.

Taylor wants the government to assure that any reduction in wholesale prices for fuel is passed through to farmers.

He says the fuel prices coming out of Asia have dropped sharply in recent days but that hasn’t yet been reflected in Australia. Taylor wants the PM to make that a topic of conversation during his time in Singapore.

He also wants the government to be “more transparent” in the fuel coming to Australia.

“We need a dashboard laying it out. We need to know what ships are coming to Australia, when they’re arriving, what they’re carrying, how much they’ve got on board … how are we sitting in the coming months for fuel supply in this country without transparency?”

47m agoFri 10 Apr 2026 at 1:04am

Bowen asked about rising construction costs

Energy Minister Chris Bowen was asked about concerns from the construction sector over rising costs.

As friend of the blog Sara Tomevska reported this morning, experts are warning the construction industry could be in for “mass” lay-offs and housing delays due to supply-chain shocks caused by the Iran war.

Bowen says no sector is immune but the treasury and Treasurer Jim Chalmers would continue to “look at what other options are available should this situation continue”.

58m agoFri 10 Apr 2026 at 12:53am

How does the deal inked with our two refineries work?

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has given us some more insight into the deal with Australia’s two refineries to allow them to buy extra shipments of oil.

Export Finance Australia (EFA) will guarantee any losses Ampol and Viva Energy make in securing additional shipments of fuel on the spot market.

Bowen says the arrangements already being locked in allows the refineries to snap up supplies that show up at very short notice.

“[A] ship becomes available for sale in maybe Korea or Malaysia and companies have two or three hours to decide whether to buy it. We want them to have the flexibility to go and get that fuel for Australia and for Australians,” he says.

Asked how much extra fuel can be expected to flow, Bowen says EFA will update the public register every time it processes a transaction.

1h agoFri 10 Apr 2026 at 12:41amAn update on Australian fuel supplies

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has just provided an update on Australia’s fuel supplies at petrol stations across the country.

NSW: There are 97 without diesel and 19 without fuel Victoria: 41 with no diesel and 27 with no unleaded petrol Queensland: 28 with no diesel and 19 without regular unleaded. South Australia: 9 without diesel and eight with no unleaded. Western Australia: 7 with no diesel and 17 without unleaded. Tasmania: 6 with no diesel and 5 with no unleaded. Northern Territory: 4 with no diesel and and 2 with no unleaded. Australian Capital Territory: no outages. 

Bowen says “a lot of people are working very hard” to get the number of fuel outlets with outages down to zero.

He says he’ll provide an update on Australia’s fuel stocks and the number of ships on the way to Australia tomorrow.

2h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 11:43pm

How the PM’s Singapore visit could help Australia’s fuel supply

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Singapore today to discuss locking in fuel supplies with his counterpart, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

Singapore is a major oil refining hub — it is one of Australia’s most important sources of refined petroleum products and our largest source of petrol.

However, about two-thirds of the crude oil that normally goes into the city-state’s refineries have been significantly disrupted by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz for more than a month now, and they have had to cut output.

We have a strong card to play — our liquid natural gas resources, which are critical for the Singaporean government.

But Singapore’s oil refineries are owned by companies — not the government — and they are the ones that decide who to sell their product to.

So what can Albanese’s “energy diplomacy” actually achieve?

Read more from Doug Dingwall and Will Jackson at the link below.

2h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 10:55pmConstruction sector warns of housing delays, mass lay-offs due to Middle East war

When Graeme Collins and his wife bought a block of land in Pyalong, about an hour north of Melbourne, he thought they were finally about to build their dream home in the Victorian countryside.

After construction was delayed by five years due to COVID, the project finally began this year. Then war erupted in the Middle East.

In just six weeks, the cost of their home has risen by $120,000.

Read more at the link below.

3h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 10:29pm

Greens call for Australia to ‘start pushing back’ on the US

Australia should be doing it all it can to encourage a ceasefire in the Middle East but the Greens would be against the deployment of further military assets to the region, David Shoebridge says.

“We should be doing all we can to support peace and right now, rather than putting military assets in the region, we need to be putting pressure on Israel to stop its ongoing illegal attacks in Lebanon, which seems the major risk to the ceasefire,” he said.

The minor party’s foreign affairs and defence spokesman said it wasn’t Australia’s job to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and that task should be on the US and Israel.

He says we should instead be putting direct pressure on Israel and the US.

“That’s where we can be far more effective than sending out a couple of clapped-out Anzac frigates that really haven’t got the capacity, despite what Richard Marles says, to survive in the region.”

3h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 10:19pm

Marles coy on Australia accepting fuel if payment made for Hormuz passage

Iran has reportedly been charging up to US$2 million ($2.84 million) for ships to pass the Strait of Hormuz.

Acting PM Richard Marles has been asked whether Australia would accept refined fuel if the payments to the IRGC are made in the supply chain.

Marles didn’t directly say.

“We are a country which supports the global rules-based order. We are a country which, therefore, supports the UN convention on the law of the sea and freedom of navigation and that’s how we would see the Strait of Hormuz.”

3h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 9:59pm

Australia in talks about the Strait of Hormuz but focus might remain closer to home

Australia has been involved in talks with several nations willing to assist in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

But Acting PM Richard Marles says any action wouldn’t take place until a ceasefire becomes permanent.

“There is a lot of conversation about what potential scenarios might be and … obviously from there, you know, what might be put together in terms of a combined effort of these countries,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast. 

On what contribution Australia could make, Marles didn’t want to speculate. But he dismissed concerns our defence capability would be the reason might not join any action.

Instead, Australia would have have to weigh up its role in the Indo-Pacific, where the “bulk of our naval effort goes right now”.

“We have capability. It is a function of the conversations that we have with the United States about the roles that we play within the Indo-Pacific, and then it’s a function of what we could usefully contribute based on the conversations we’re having with the UK, France and other countries in that coalition.”

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 9:44pmDoes Iran pose more or less of a threat now? Marles says that’s one for the US to answer

The US and Iran are preparing for peace talks in Pakistan this weekend.

Acting PM Richard Marles has told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast the talks are “incredibly important” and reiterated Australia’s hope the “fragile temporary ceasefire” becomes permanent.

“We need to see the Strait of Hormuz open. We need to see the disruption of the global fuel supply chain stop,” he said.

Asked whether he thought Iran to posed more or less danger to the world than it did before the conflict started, Marles says that’s a question for the US to assess.

“What we support is the strategic objective of denying Iran a deployable nuclear weapon. Obviously, Iran having that capability would have been a catastrophe and based on what has been public stated by the United States, that objective seems to be largely achieved.”

So do the Iranian people have more or less freedom than they did before the war started?

Marles says that’s difficult to assess from outside of Iran.

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 9:31pm

Hastie could be called to testify in Roberts-Smith trial

Liberal frontbencher and former SAS captain Andrew Hastie could be called to testify in the criminal trial of Ben Roberts-Smith. 

The former solider and Victoria Cross recipient has been charged over allegations of war crimes.

His arrest came after a mammoth defamation case against Nine Newspapers. A court finding that on the balance of probabilities, allegations he was responsible for, or complicit in the deaths of four detainees in Afghanistan, were substantially true.

There have been no findings of guilt against Mr Roberts-Smith to a criminal standard.

Mr Hastie gave evidence during that trial and in a statement yesterday said it’s possible it could happen again during the criminal case.

He’s urged Australians to respect the criminal justice system and the accused’s right to a presumption of innocence and a fair trial.

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 9:24pm

ADF chief says warship could contribute to the war if asked

Australia’s chief of defence says Australia could “absolutely” deploy a warship to the Strait of Hormuz if asked by the federal government.

Admiral David Johnston has pushed back on suggestions that the navy would struggle to contribute a warship to efforts in the strait, due to Australia’s aging surface combatant fleet.

Some defence analysts and members of the Coalition have questioned whether the navy’s aging Anzac-class frigates would be capable of combating Iranian drone and missile attacks were they to be deployed to the strait.

The navy also has three newer and more capable Hobart-class air warfare destroyers.

Read more from defence and national security correspondent Tom Lowrey at the link below.

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 9:24pm

Abbott thinks Australia should have joined US action on Iran. Marles disagrees

Richard Marles has disagreed with the opinion of former prime minister Tony Abbott, who has argued Australia should have joined the US military action against Iran.

In an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph, Abbott warned Australia risked being seen as a “weak country” for not participating in the action.

Marles said Australia had supported the aim of ensuring Iran did not acquire a nuclear weapon and quickly responded to support the Gulf nations through the deployment of a E-7 Wedgetail surveillance aircraft.

“We’ve not been a part of this conflict against Iran and, in that, we are in the company of virtually every other country in NATO. So, you know, we … will act in our national interest and we respectfully disagree with the position of Mr Abbott,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast. 

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 9:07pm

Marles returns from talks in Japan

Richard Marles has been in Japan this week for talks with his counterparts on regional security and ongoing fuel supplies to Australia.

The Acting PM has told ABC News Breakfast this morning the government is confident in the fuel supplies Australia receives from Japan but they only make up 4 per cent of our imports.

“We’re a much bigger supplier of energy to them then they are to us,” he said.

Asked if we were looking to offer up more gas in exchange for more refined fuels, Marles deferred to talking about Anthony Albanese’s trip to Singapore.

“About more than a quarter of our refined fuels come from Singapore,’ he said.

He said the focus was on securing supply to ease the concern caused by the Iran war.

“That’s why we need this ceasefire, as fragile as it is right now, to hold,” he said.

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 8:56pm’We have each other’s backs’: PM touches down, talks up Singapore ties

By Jane Norman in Singapore

The prime minister was sounding pretty confident when he touched down in Singapore last night on a mission to secure Australia’s fuel supplies.

Singapore is Australia’s biggest source of petrol and Australia supplies about a third of Singapore’s LNG.

In a case of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”, Albanese and Singapore’s prime minister Lawrence Wong are today expected to reaffirm their commitment to maintaining the flow of fuel and LNG between the two countries.

Speaking to reporters last night, Albanese said with the conflict in the Middle East, the relationship was more important than ever.

“We are both reliable suppliers, and our word means something,” he said.

“And we have each other’s word and indeed we have each other’s back at this time.”

4h agoThu 9 Apr 2026 at 8:56pm

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.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is off on his charm offensive in Singapore. He’s expected to meet with his counterpart Lawrence Wong later this morning.

Meanwhile, acting PM Richard Marles is out and about this morning discussing all things fuel.

The sun is up so let’s get blogging!

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