Australia news live: Iran calls on ‘friendly' Australia to condemn Israel; Watt holds summit to rewrite environment laws
Update:
Date: 2025-06-18T20:44:39.000Z
Title: The EPBC reform train is leaving the station, says Murray Watt
Content: Leaders from about 25 mostly environment and business organisations will meet with the environment minister, Murray Watt, in Canberra today to give their views on how to fix the national environment laws.
It is the first meeting of stakeholder groups on the issue since the previous minister, Tanya Plibersek, last year delayed a commitment to rewrite the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act until after the 3 May election.
A promise to create a national Environment Protection Agency was also later shelved after Anthony Albanese scuttled a potential deal with the Greens following pressure from WA.
Watt told Guardian Australia the meeting would include environment organisations, business groups, the mining industry, urban developers, renewable energy companies and first nations bodies. He said there was 'very broad agreement that we desperately need change to these laws – they're broken'.
The purpose in bringing them all together is so that people can hear each other's perspectives, rather than being each other in their own corners, you know, fighting.
The way I've described it to a couple of people is: the EPBC reform train is leaving the station. We broadly know where we want to get to, but we haven't yet defined the exact destination, and there's an opportunity for all of these groups to be involved in shaping that final destination.
I want as many interest groups on that reform train working together as possible, rather than people choosing to stand on the platform, throwing rocks and shouting.
Update:
Date: 2025-06-18T20:37:24.000Z
Title: Iran's ambassador appeals to government to condemn Israeli attacks
Content: Iran's ambassador to Australia has called on the prime minister to condemn Israel for its attack on his country, claiming that its nuclear program is a 'peaceful measure'.
Speaking with the ABC's 7.30, Ahmad Sadeghi asked Australia, as a 'friendly nation' with which Iran is in 'good relation', to recognise that the Middle Eastern nation has a right to self defence after Israel's attack.
Speaking about the Albanese government, he said: 'They have to condemn [Israel] … I ask them.'
He said Iran's nuclear program was a 'peaceful measure' and, when pushed on whether Iran was developing a nuclear weapon, he referred to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
'Of course not. You know it has been prohibited by our supreme leader,' the ambassador told the host, David Speers.
Sadeghi did not give a straight answer when asked whether Israel had a right to exist and said that should the US become directly involved in the Israel-Iran war, some 80,000 US personnel stationed in the Gulf region would 'not be as comfortable as much as now'.
'The other the Islamic nations around the north, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in [the] southern part of the Persian Gulf. All, if Iran would be attacked by the US, they would not be silent,' he said, before urging Donald Trump to be 'more careful'.
Update:
Date: 2025-06-18T20:30:38.000Z
Title: Welcome
Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser for the bulk of proceedings.
Iran's ambassador has called on Anthony Albanese to condemn Israel's attack on the Islamic Republic. The request adds to the prime minister's in-tray as he heads home from an unsuccessful attempt to engage Donald Trump on tariffs, and considers his second term agenda with parliament's first sitting just a month away.
One of the big pieces of unfinished business from Labor's first term was the creation of an environmental protection agency. To address the issue, the environment minister, Murray Watt, is meeting leaders from about 25 mostly environment and business organisations in Canberra today to hear their views on how to fix the national environment laws. More details coming up.
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