Japan beats rival for $10bn Aus deal
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build 11 Mogami-class, which will form the foundation of Australia's attack warships. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has confirmed Japan will build Australia's new $10bn frigate fleet. NewsWire / Philip Gostelow Credit: News Corp Australia
'This decision represents the biggest capability acquisition decision that the government has made since announcing the optimal pathway to acquiring our future submarine capability back in March of 2023,' Mr Marles told reporters at Parliament House.
'When our government came to office, we inherited the oldest surface combatant fleet that the navy had been operating since the end of the Second World War.
'And there were no plans to introduce a new surface combatant into service until 2034, which would be the first of the Hunter Class vessels.'
More to come.
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Perth Now
an hour ago
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Judgment day for Brittany Higgins
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Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz sold the French chateau they called home to pay for legal fees. Credit: Supplied Ms Reynolds, who has retired from politics, mortgaged her home in a bid to clear her name. Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz sold their French home to pay for legal fees, as she maintained her version of events about what happened to her at Parliament House. It was revealed Ms Reynolds was seeking more than half a million dollars in damages. Her lawyer Martin Bennett asked the court to 'nail the lies' Ms Higgins allegedly perpetuated after making her rape allegation public in 2021. The court was told Ms Higgins 'grossly defamed' her former boss in social media posts shared years later. Ms Higgins' defence lawyer Rachael Young said it was a series of events in 2021 that led to the then-Senator Reynolds' distress and reputational damage, not social media posts created by her client two years later. Ms Young argued Ms Reynolds' decline was caused by backlash from her referring to Ms Higgins as a 'lying cow', a senate grilling over the allegations, her hospitalisation, losing the defence ministry and missing out on a shadow ministry under Peter Dutton. Ms Higgins' defence lawyer Rachael Young argued it was a series of events in 2021 that led to Ms Reynolds distress and reputational damage, not social media posts created by her client two years later. NewsWire / Sharon Smith Credit: News Corp Australia She said the former senator tried to besmirch the people she blamed for her political demise, namely Ms Higgins, who continued to face the heaviest burden in all this. Two dozen witnesses were called to give evidence including former prime minister Scott Morrison. 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'Every fairytale needs a villain, and in 2020 or 2021, Ms Higgins and her then-partner and now-husband, Mr Sharaz, cast Ms Reynolds in that role for their fictional story of a cover-up of the rape,' Mr Bennett told the WA Supreme Court. 'The fact she had been raped was traumatic and terrible but it needed something more to attract the attention, to attract media interest, to attract the promotion of Ms Higgins, so she made it a political sex scandal.' Ms Young argued the matter was not, and never had been, a 'fairytale' for her client saying the comments were misplaced, harassing and retraumitising. Ms Young told the court Ms Reynolds had picked the 'wrong target' for the hurt and distress and that her reputation was already 'baked in' when her client posted to social media in the years that followed.
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Perth Now
2 hours ago
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Duelling roundtables hit Canberra
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