Australia and PNG sign Pukpuk defence treaty
Anthony Albanese is now speaking in Canberra after signing the defence agreement with PNG’s prime minister James Marape.
Albanese mentions he was in Port Moresby for the 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence. He continues:
Today, with the signing of the Pukpuk treaty, the Papua New Guinea-Australia mutual defence treaty, we commit ourselves to securing and shaping our future together. 50 years ago, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam hailed Sir Michael Samari’s vision for independence as, to quote him, “an idea whose time had come”. When Prime Minister Marape first came to me for this I knew that this was an idea whose time had come.
This treaty elevates the relationship between our two nations to the status of an alliance. It is Australia’s first new alliance in more than 70 years and only the third in our history, along with our alliances with the United States of America and New Zealand.
The treaty contains a mutual defence obligation similar to Australia’s Anzus treaty, Albanese says, in which “we declare in the event of an armed attack on either of our country, we would both act to meet the common danger”.
Key events
Teenagers charged with arson over alleged Tas youth detention centre fire
Three teenagers are facing arson charges, accused of setting fire to a detention facility and causing significant damage, AAP reports.
Police were called to the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in Tasmania around 3pm on Sunday after reports of a disturbance involving three armed youths.
The trio, two aged 16 and one 15, allegedly set fire to a building while police were there. No one was injured.
They were charged on Monday with arson and destroying property and were scheduled to appear in a youth court.
A Tasmania Fire Service investigator and police forensic officers returned on Monday to the centre, which suffered “significant” damage to one area.
The centre’s kitchen had been closed and the government was working with staff to ensure services and meals could be provided, police minister Felix Ellis said.
Emergency services responding to bus accident in Foster, Victoria
The Country Fire Authority is responding to a V/Line bus that has fallen down an embankment on Fish Creek-Foster Road in Foster, south-east of Melbourne.
The CFA says there are three units at the scene alongside Fire Rescue Victoria.
All passengers and the driver are evacuated.
The spokesperson says:
Upon arrival, crews found a bus sitting on angle, approximately 2.5 metres down an embankment.
Crews stabilised the bus using a rope system and were able to evacuate all passengers and the driver.
The bus has been winched and is awaiting heavy haulage to remove from the scene.
The incident was declared under control at 12.23pm.
Crews remain on scene.
V/Line was approached for comment.
NSW flood victims had personal information put into ChatGPT
Thousands of flood victims who applied for a New South Wales government buyback scheme have had their personal information put into AI program ChatGPT in a data breach, AAP reports.
Names, email addresses, phone numbers and personal health information were put into the website in March by a contractor tasked with assessing buyback applications, according to the NSW Reconstruction Authority.
The data, relating to homeowners in the northern rivers area, was contained in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with 10 columns and more than 12,000 rows of information.
The authority said an investigation into the breach found no evidence that personal information had been accessed by a third party or been made publicly available.
But the authority admitted it “cannot be ruled out” until an investigation by Cyber Security NSW was complete, and that people affected by the breach have yet to be notified.
“We understand this news is concerning and we are deeply sorry for the distress it may cause for those who have engaged with the program,” it said in a statement.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian premier denies hypocrisy over minister’s sponsorship of development petition
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says there’s “nothing unusual” about her police minister, Anthony Carbines, sponsoring a petition opposing a four-storey development in his electorate – despite the government’s efforts to increase density in the suburbs.
The petition calls on the minister for planning, Sonya Kilkenny, to oppose the planning permit application for a four-storey, 17-apartment development on 125 Mountain View Parade in Rosanna. It says the “quiet suburban street” was “not designed for such density” and criticised the government’s Future Homes program.
The program, introduced in 2022, predates the government’s plan to create 50 activity centres near train and tram stations across Melbourne’s inner suburbs. The survey says the Future Homes program “has not resulted in a single approved planning permit” and “has the capacity to drastically and quickly alter neighbourhood character by applying bulk-scale, cookie cutter designs that overwhelm the area”.
But Allan says that Carbines’ sponsoring of the petition was in his capacity as local member and didn’t mean he was a “nimby”. She went on:
Our government is committed to building more homes, and you look at the recent ABS data that shows that we are building more homes than any other state, and it’s not unusual for any member of parliament to meet with residents in their local community, to represent the views of their local community.
Parliament to memorialise 7 October anniversary on Tuesday
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says he will be making a statement at the beginning of question time on Tuesday commemorating the second anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
He says:
That needs to be commemorated. I will make a statement at the beginning of question time, and invite the leader of the opposition to do so as well. It will be a sombre day for Jewish Australians, but for Jewish people everywhere. But for people as well who just regard human rights and decent human behaviour. All were massacred who were attending young people attending a music festival, and terrorism needs to be opposed every time, unequivocally called out. That’s what my government will continue to do.
Albanese also takes aim at the comments from the Greens leader, Senator Larissa Waters, on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, when Waters moved from responding to a question on the Manchester attacks to the federal government’s response on Israel.
Albanese says the comments were “undignified” and “not worthy of a senator”. He says he was “stunned”.
I think that tomorrow is not a day for demonstrations. I think that for people who engage and … they are supporting the Palestinian cause, it will not advance it. It will set it back in terms of support here in Australia.
‘Alarms going’ on rise of political violence in Australia
Turning to domestic news, the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is asked about the rise in political violence and threats against politicians.
Albanese says the threats are real, and have been seen in the US and the UK. He says there is a need to “turn down the temperature” of debate and to agree and disagree respectfully.
Albanese says no one is trying to stifle free speech but the “level of threats which have been made have been elevated substantially”.
He says:
It has meant changes to what I am able to do and how I am able to do it, and people will have seen that around, and I just say that for everyone, including in the media, but in politicians, we all have a responsibility as well. Turn down the temperature is really what we need to do.
He says the number of reports from Asio he has received are “substantial” and there are “alarms going”.
I like the idea that I can go get dog food for Toto at Woolworths here, and I like the idea that during the campaign I can walk through shopping centres and walk through malls and all of that. We don’t want to lose that. It’s a great thing about Australians, and the great thing about our country. But there are alarms going. And I think that we should all be conscious of it.
Treaty a ‘construct of peace’, Marape says
On how the Papua New Guinean PM, James Marape, is allaying concerns that the treaty might drag PNG into a wider Pacific conflict, Marape describes the treaty as a “construct of peace” but says leaders have to consider the worst-case scenario.
Asked whether the treaty will “frame China as the enemy”, Marape says: “This is not a treaty that sets up enemies but consolidates friendships.”
He says PNG has been transparent with China and told the country that Australia has become its security partner.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the treaty is about the Australian relationship with PNG.
Transparency promised over PNG and Australia treaty
The two prime ministers are first asked how the treaty would work in the event of another Bougainville crisis.
PNG PM James Marape said there will be clarity in the legislation put to the PNG parliament that it will be a demilitarised zone, and no stepping into Bougainville for defence or police.
On local opposition criticism of the pact and whether it would survive a change of government, Marape said there will be a parliamentary ratification process, with transparency and full disclosure to all in PNG and in Australia as to what the treaty entails.
The opposition leader is most welcome to comment on this matter.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the treaty is “lifting our relationship to the next level”.
We will release today the full text of the treaty. We will be transparent, both of our parliaments will go through the processes which are there but this has been done in a very orderly way and I think it will be very much considered after the prime minister and I have gone from, maybe not from this world … but our respective positions. This will be looked at as something that was very much in the interests of both of our nations and in the interest of the region.
PNG-Australia treaty ‘a historic moment’, James Marape says
PNG prime minister James Marape, speaking after Albanese, said the signing of the treaty was a “historic moment”.
Marape continued:
I want to say thank you very much Prime Minister Albanese. My brother, my friend. You accepted the proposal from our government to enter into this treaty. It is a landmark for our two nations …
This treaty was not conceived out of geopolitics or any other reason. But out of geography, history and the enduring reality of our shared neighbourhood. It is about one bigger fence that secures two houses that has its own yard space. It is in this construct that we’re going about in signing this treaty.
As part of the treaty, Albanese says, both nations have agreed not to undertake any activities or enter into any agreements that would compromise its implementation.
Australia and PNG sign Pukpuk defence treaty
Anthony Albanese is now speaking in Canberra after signing the defence agreement with PNG’s prime minister James Marape.
Albanese mentions he was in Port Moresby for the 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence. He continues:
Today, with the signing of the Pukpuk treaty, the Papua New Guinea-Australia mutual defence treaty, we commit ourselves to securing and shaping our future together. 50 years ago, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam hailed Sir Michael Samari’s vision for independence as, to quote him, “an idea whose time had come”. When Prime Minister Marape first came to me for this I knew that this was an idea whose time had come.
This treaty elevates the relationship between our two nations to the status of an alliance. It is Australia’s first new alliance in more than 70 years and only the third in our history, along with our alliances with the United States of America and New Zealand.
The treaty contains a mutual defence obligation similar to Australia’s Anzus treaty, Albanese says, in which “we declare in the event of an armed attack on either of our country, we would both act to meet the common danger”.
Prime ministers Albanese and Marape are signing the Pukpuk treaty, which is described in the ceremony as an agreement to “support each other’s defence and contribute to a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous.”
