'Concern to our national sovereignty': Nationals Senate leader McKenzie urges Treasurer to clarify Chinese purchases around AUKUS ports
Speaking on Sky News' First Edition, McKenzie admitted that Australia welcomes foreign investment when it's in the country's national interest and when it can help the economy, but states that national sovereignty of Australia has to come first.
Catch up with all of the day's breaking news and live interviews from politicians and experts with a SkyNews.com.au Streaming Subscription.
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Sydney Morning Herald
32 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Australia news LIVE: Interest rate cut all but guaranteed after inflation slowdown; tsunami evacuations ordered in South America
Latest posts Latest posts 6.54am Why the massive Russian earthquake produced such a weak tsunami By Katrina Miller When one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia on Wednesday, tsunami warning centres around the Pacific quickly leapt into action. They quickly issued advisories for the potential of colossal ocean waves that are often generated by big earthquakes. But later in the morning, the centres began to cancel those warnings as the big waves failed to appear. What happened? According to Diego Melgar, a geophysicist at the University of Oregon, part of the reason the tsunamis were weaker than anticipated may have to do with the size of the earthquake. 'There's big,' he said. 'And then there's really, really, really big.' 6.51am Trump in no rush to appoint Canberra ambassador By Matthew Knott US President Donald Trump has shown no sign of appointing an ambassador to Canberra despite doing so for more than 50 other countries, fuelling accusations Australia is a low diplomatic priority as Trump weighs decisions on tariff rates and the future of the AUKUS defence pact. The federal opposition has intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not securing a meeting with Trump this week after the president said he planned to increase his baseline tariff rate from 10 per cent to as much as 20 per cent. The Trump administration has announced ambassadorial nominees for at least 52 countries, including Malta, Tunisia, the Bahamas, Latvia, Namibia and New Zealand. The US Senate has approved Trump's nominees for ambassadors to China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Israel, Britain, Ireland, Turkey and Panama, allowing those diplomats to take up their posts at embassies in their host countries. 6.49am What's making news today By Daniel Lo Surdo Hello and welcome to the national news live blog. My name is Daniel Lo Surdo, and I'll be helming our live coverage this morning. Here's what is making news today: An interest rate is all but assured when the Reserve Bank meets next month, after inflation figures released on Wednesday found the annual rate fell to 2.1 per cent to the June quarter, marking the lowest inflation rate since early 2021. Treasurer Jim Chalmers celebrated the figures, labelling them 'absolutely outstanding'. It comes in a sitting week when Labor is working to progress draft laws that would cap medicine under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme at $25, and pass student debt reduction and childcare reform legislation. New alerts have forced evacuations in South America's Pacific coast as fears of a devastating tsunami for the US and Japan faded on Wednesday after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off a sparsely populated Russian peninsula. Chile raised its warning to the highest level for most of its lengthy Pacific coast hours ago, with mass evacuations underway amid concerns of a tsunami. Warnings in the first hours after the 8.8 magnitude quake triggered immediate evacuations in Japan and Hawaii, while several people in Russia were hurt while rushing to safer ground. The Australian sharemarket is set to fall on Thursday, after most US stocks retreated following the Federal Reserve's decision to hold its main interest rate steady. The Federal Reserve's decision is expected to frustrate President Donald Trump, who has been angrily lobbying for lower interest rates, but was widely expected on Wall Street. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell pushed back on expectations for a September rate cut, saying inflation was still above the Fed's two per cent target.
The Age
32 minutes ago
- The Age
Australia news LIVE: Interest rate cut all but guaranteed after inflation slowdown; tsunami evacuations ordered in South America
Latest posts Latest posts 6.54am Why the massive Russian earthquake produced such a weak tsunami By Katrina Miller When one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia on Wednesday, tsunami warning centres around the Pacific quickly leapt into action. They quickly issued advisories for the potential of colossal ocean waves that are often generated by big earthquakes. But later in the morning, the centres began to cancel those warnings as the big waves failed to appear. What happened? According to Diego Melgar, a geophysicist at the University of Oregon, part of the reason the tsunamis were weaker than anticipated may have to do with the size of the earthquake. 'There's big,' he said. 'And then there's really, really, really big.' 6.51am Trump in no rush to appoint Canberra ambassador By Matthew Knott US President Donald Trump has shown no sign of appointing an ambassador to Canberra despite doing so for more than 50 other countries, fuelling accusations Australia is a low diplomatic priority as Trump weighs decisions on tariff rates and the future of the AUKUS defence pact. The federal opposition has intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not securing a meeting with Trump this week after the president said he planned to increase his baseline tariff rate from 10 per cent to as much as 20 per cent. The Trump administration has announced ambassadorial nominees for at least 52 countries, including Malta, Tunisia, the Bahamas, Latvia, Namibia and New Zealand. The US Senate has approved Trump's nominees for ambassadors to China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Israel, Britain, Ireland, Turkey and Panama, allowing those diplomats to take up their posts at embassies in their host countries. 6.49am What's making news today By Daniel Lo Surdo Hello and welcome to the national news live blog. My name is Daniel Lo Surdo, and I'll be helming our live coverage this morning. Here's what is making news today: An interest rate is all but assured when the Reserve Bank meets next month, after inflation figures released on Wednesday found the annual rate fell to 2.1 per cent to the June quarter, marking the lowest inflation rate since early 2021. Treasurer Jim Chalmers celebrated the figures, labelling them 'absolutely outstanding'. It comes in a sitting week when Labor is working to progress draft laws that would cap medicine under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme at $25, and pass student debt reduction and childcare reform legislation. New alerts have forced evacuations in South America's Pacific coast as fears of a devastating tsunami for the US and Japan faded on Wednesday after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off a sparsely populated Russian peninsula. Chile raised its warning to the highest level for most of its lengthy Pacific coast hours ago, with mass evacuations underway amid concerns of a tsunami. Warnings in the first hours after the 8.8 magnitude quake triggered immediate evacuations in Japan and Hawaii, while several people in Russia were hurt while rushing to safer ground. The Australian sharemarket is set to fall on Thursday, after most US stocks retreated following the Federal Reserve's decision to hold its main interest rate steady. The Federal Reserve's decision is expected to frustrate President Donald Trump, who has been angrily lobbying for lower interest rates, but was widely expected on Wall Street. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell pushed back on expectations for a September rate cut, saying inflation was still above the Fed's two per cent target.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Low on the priority list': Trump administration in no rush to appoint ambassador
US President Donald Trump has shown no sign of appointing an ambassador to Canberra despite doing so for more than 50 other countries, fuelling accusations Australia is a low diplomatic priority as Trump weighs decisions on tariff rates and the future of the AUKUS defence pact. The federal opposition has intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not securing a meeting with Trump this week after the president said he planned to increase his baseline tariff rate from 10 per cent to as much as 20 per cent. The Trump administration has announced ambassadorial nominees for at least 52 countries, including Malta, Tunisia, the Bahamas, Latvia, Namibia and New Zealand. The US Senate has approved Trump's nominees for ambassadors to China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Israel, Britain, Ireland, Turkey and Panama, allowing those diplomats to take up their posts at embassies in their host countries. Michael Green, chief executive of the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre, said that Canberra remained a 'coveted posting' in Washington, with high-profile former members of Congress and Republican donors lobbying to be appointed to the position. 'Trump is making them work for it and is not rushing to decide,' said Green, who served as a senior official in George W. Bush's administration. Michael Shoebridge, who served as a senior defence policy official at the Australian embassy in Washington, said the lack of an ambassadorial appointment was part of a 'disturbing pattern' of a lack of engagement between the Albanese government and Trump administration, including the lack of a leaders' meeting. 'We are clearly low down their priority list,' said Shoebridge, a director at the Strategic Analysis Australia think tank.
