What happened on Monday 25 April, 2022
With that, we’ll wrap up our live news coverage for the day.
Here’s a summary of the day’s news developments:
- Dawn services and marches were held across Australia, ranging from smaller ceremonies in some towns to parades in capital cities that attracted thousands of people, as the country marked Anzac Day.
- Labor has hit back at Peter Dutton’s claim that the only way to “preserve peace is to prepare for war”, suggesting the Coalition’s actions fall short of its words. It came as both Scott Morrison and Labor campaigned in Darwin on Monday, the 15th day of the election campaign, while opposition leader Anthony Albanese remains in isolation with Covid.
- A conservative lobby group has indicated it will not remove billboards featuring images of elite Australian female swimmers, pitting them against Zali Steggall over trans women’s participation in sport, even in the face of a legal threat from the sport’s peak body.
- The New South Wales police say they are not aware of any threats made against the Liberal party’s controversial candidate in Warringah, Katherine Deves, after an interview in which she said she had received “death threats” over comments about transgender people that she made online.
- A search is under way after four people were swept off the rocks at Port Kembla in New South Wales on Monday afternoon. Emergency services are looking for one person believed to still be in the water after rescuing the other three people.
- The Coalition’s candidate in Flynn, has suggested Australia’s net zero emissions by 2050 commitment a flexible, non-binding plan that leaves plenty of “wiggle room”.
- Scott Morrison has congratulated French president Emmanuel Macron on his re-election, calling his victory over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen a “great expression of liberal democracy in action in uncertain times”. Morrison’s congratulatory Tweet comes after a falling out with Macron in recent months over the Aukus nuclear powered submarine deal.
- Western Australian authorities are working to contain a Covid-19 outbreak onboard one of the first cruise ships allowed back in the state.
Have a pleasant evening, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
Port Kembla search under way after people swept off rocks
A search is under way after four people were swept off the rocks at Hill 60, Port Kembla on Monday afternoon.
Emergency services are looking for one person believed to still be in the water after rescuing the other three people.
The trio were taken to Wollongong hospital with cuts and abrasions.
Six ambulances and the rescue helicopter were sent to the coast when emergency services were alerted to the incident about 3.45pm on Anzac Day.
Updated
Replacing Australia’s largest coal-fired power station with renewable energy would create tens of thousands more construction jobs than replacing it with gas, a new analysis has found.
The Eraring coal-fired power station in the Lake Macquarie region of New South Wales is scheduled to close in 2025.
A new report by the Australian Conservation Foundation estimates if the electricity output of the station was replaced entirely with rooftop solar it would create 63,562 construction jobs.
The same amount replaced by solar farms would create 14,415 jobs and windfarms 13,339 jobs.
New fossil fuel generation lagged behind clean options, with gas creating the lowest number of construction jobs at 1,566. New coal-fired power plants would create an estimated 8,576 jobs.
Read more:
The latest episode of Guardian Australia’s election podcast, Campaign Catchup, looks at conflicting messages on Australia’s net zero by 2050 emissions target that are being delivered to voters on the campaign trail by government MPs.
Political editor Katharine Murphy does not hold back when analysing National party candidate for Flynn, Colin Boyce’s, comments that the Coalition’s net zero commitment is a “flexible plan”.
“What these guys aren’t telling voters is that this form of wealth generation has a finite life ... Boyce is basically saying: I like a horse and cart, yes I understand there’s new technology coming that will make transport much more efficient and I understand that technology will revolutionise the way our economy works but I’m sticking with my horse and cart because I like it.”
Listen here:
Updated
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin have held talks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an adviser has told local Ukrainian news outlets.
As the Russia-Ukraine war continue, here is what we know on day 61 of the invasion:
World leaders have congratulated France’s president Emmanuel Macron on his re-election and the defeat of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in elections on Sunday.
Macron’s win triggered relief among allies that the nuclear-armed power won’t abruptly shift course, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, from European Union and Nato efforts to punish and contain Russia’s military expansionism.
The second five-year term for the 44-year-old centrist spared France and Europe from the seismic upheaval of having populist Le Pen at the helm.
However, Le Pen recorded her highest vote yet, and in the wake of the results Macron pledged to reunite the country that is “filled with so many doubts, so many divisions”.
Here are some of the main reactions:
Updated
A conservative lobby group has indicated it will not remove billboards featuring images of elite Australian female swimmers, pitting them against Zali Steggall over trans women’s participation in sport, even in the face of a legal threat from the sport’s peak body.
Advance, a political action group campaigning against Labor and moderate Liberals at this election, recently launched a series of billboard ads critical of the Warringah MP’s support for trans women to compete in female sports.
The group – formerly known as Advance Australia which claims it was set up to combat “woke politicians and elitist activist groups” – has come out strongly in favour of Liberal Warringah candidate Katherine Deves, whose controversial comments on trans people have attracted widespread criticism.
Billboards and social media graphics created by Advance feature the phrase “women’s sport is not for men”, alongside images of swimmers Dawn Fraser, Emma McKeon and Emily Seebohm, who commented recently on trans women competing in female sports.
Fraser told the Daily Telegraph last week “I don’t think it’s fair to have transgender men competing against women”; McKeon told a Griffith University event that she “personally would not want to be racing against someone who is biologically a male”.
Swimming Australia CEO, Eugénie Buckley, said the body “strongly condemns” the use of the athletes’ imagery in the ads, and claimed Advance had never sought or received permission to use them.
Read more:
Updated
Travellers from Australia and New Zealand joined Turkish and other nations’ dignitaries at the former World War I battlefields at Gallipoli for a solemn service at dawn Monday to remember troops killed, reports Associated Press.
As the sun rose, participants held a minute of silence to reflect on the sacrifices of tens of thousands of soldiers from the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, known as Anzacs, who landed at the beaches at Gallipoli, in northwest Turkey.
“At this time 107 years ago, on ships that covered the ocean off this tiny bay, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders were preparing to land on this rugged coast,” New Zealand army chief, Maj. Gen. John Boswell, said during the ceremony. “For all but a few, this was to be the first experience of the horrors of combat.”
“Most were convinced that, as one New Zealand soldier wrote in his story: It will be the greatest day in our lives.’ The sunrise they witnessed that day was for all too many to be the last they ever saw,” he continued. “Across our countries, home after home was plunged into mourning.”
Among those who made it to the ceremony was 27-year-old Taylor Murphy from Victoria, Australia, who said the pros of being at Gallipoli “outweighs the cons of the pandemic.” “It feels quite surreal to be here,” she said. “We are feeling quite emotional.”
The tragic fate of troops from Australia and New Zealand is believed to have inspired the two nations to carve up national identities distinct from the British. Anzac Day is marked as a coming of age for the two nations.
WA records one Covid death and 5,639 new cases
Western Australia has recorded 5,639 new Covid-19 cases and one death – a man in his 80s.
There are 240 Covid patients in hospital in the state, including nine in intensive care.
Updated
National Covid-19 update
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia, with at least 17 Covid-19 deaths recorded today:
NSW
- Deaths: 4
- Cases: 7,985
- In hospital: 1,631 (with 64 people in ICU)
Northern Territory
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 333
- In hospital: 51 (with 1 person in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 2
- Cases: 4,639
- In hospital: 478 (with 12 people in ICU)
South Australia
- Deaths: 6
- Cases: 3,175
- In hospital: 247 (with 11 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 867
- In hospital: 43 (with 1 person in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 4
- Cases: 7,643
- In hospital: 441 (with 31 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 1
- Cases: 5,639
- In hospital: 240 (with 9 people in ICU)
Updated
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has responded after police arrested a man who allegedly yelled abuse at him on a rural highway, saying he was “very grateful to the police for their quick work in dealing with this matter”.
“It was a sad and unsavoury incident but we have important work to do as elected officials and this incident in no way overshadows that,” Joyce said in a statement.
“Once again, I thank my protective detail for their bravery in keeping myself and my staff safe and I look forward to continuing our work on the campaign trail.”
News Corp reported that Joyce had been travelling between Tamworth and Armidale on Friday, when he pulled off the road to make a call. A passing car was said to have stopped 40 metres away, with the driver allegedly getting out and yelling at Joyce.
The deputy PM’s federal police detail prevented the man from coming closer, but the man is reported to have directed explicit criticisms at Joyce. The 52-year-old man is due in court today, after being charged with threatening to cause harm to a commonwealth public official and failure to comply with bail conditions,
The arrest was made by Operation Wilmot, a special AFP taskforce set up to “ensure the security of high-office holders and parliamentarians during the 2022 federal election” in conjunction with the electoral commission.
Updated
West Australian authorities are working to contain a Covid-19 outbreak aboard one of the first cruise ships allowed back in the state, reports AAP.
WA Health has confirmed it is managing an undisclosed number of positive cases aboard the Coral Discoverer, docked at Broome in the state’s north-west.
Infected passengers and close contacts are isolating and all passengers and crew are being tested.
Small cruise ships carrying no more than 350 passengers and crew have been permitted to enter WA waters since 17 April.
The Coral Discoverer, which departed from Darwin earlier this month, has a capacity of 72 passengers.
“Maritime vessels are permitted to allow positive cases to disembark and move to suitable accommodation to complete their isolation/quarantine requirements,” a WA Health spokesperson said.
“All precautions will be taken to ensure the Broome community is protected.”
Read more:
Updated
Vietnam veteran Gware Green does not look forward to Anzac Day.
“It brings back all the bad memories, all of your friends that didn’t come back in one piece,” he says.
Green was one of 11 schoolmates from Gilgandra who served in Vietnam. Only 10 came back.
Green’s close friend Michael Noonan was 21 when he died in Vietnam. He and Green were in the same battalion, but served in different companies. “I was almost alongside of him but didn’t know until two days later.”
Green didn’t return to Gilgandra until 10 years after the war because “it was very hard to front Michael’s mother”.
On Monday, Green stood at the front of the dawn service in Armatree, a western NSW town of 150. He was joined by an Afghanistan veteran as well as those who still farm the land their fathers and grandfathers were given as soldier settler blocks.
At dawn, a small crowd gathered in the tiny town to remember their service, as soldiers and settlers, to carve out a place in the community’s history.
Read more of this dispatch from Natasha May, Guardian Australia’s rural network reporter, with pictures from Mike Bowers:
Updated
Since @JoshFrydenberg pulled out of the ACTUAL Kooyong candidates forum, I'd relish the opportunity to debate him on Ch9.
— Dr Monique Ryan (@Mon4Kooyong) April 25, 2022
If it's in Kooyong (not Docklands!), in front of people of Kooyong, with Qs asked by the people of #Kooyong.
That's why I’m running — to represent Kooyong! https://t.co/EXK6e0fbaK
Labor has hit back at Peter Dutton’s claim that the only way to “preserve peace is to prepare for war”, suggesting the Coalition’s actions fall short of its words.
The defence minister made the comments on Anzac Day morning, warning that “people like Hitler” are not “consigned to history” and Australia must do more to stand up to China’s aggression in the region.
China’s security agreement with Solomon Islands has injected national security as a central issue of the federal election campaign, with Labor declaring it the worst foreign policy failure since the second world war.
On Monday, Scott Morrison said that Australia shares the same “red line” as the US and that a Chinese base in the south Pacific would be unacceptable, but did not spell out what Australia would do if this occurred.
Dutton told Channel Nine’s Today program the comments reflect “the reality of our time”, and the past sacrifices of the Anzacs in conflicts will not “see us through to eternity without conflict in our region”.
Dutton said:
We have to be realistic that people like Hitler and others aren’t just a figment of our imagination or that they’re consigned to history ... We’re in a period very similar to the 1930s now and I think there were a lot of people in the 1930s who wish they had spoken up much earlier into the decade.
Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, responded that “we certainly need to prepare, but we have not seen the preparation under this government”.
Marles said:
Words are one thing, action is another ... This is a government which beats its chest.
When it comes to actually delivering, and doing what needs to be done, it’s a government which repeatedly fails.
Read more:
Updated
Scott Morrison has told the UN that Australia will reach net zero emissions by 2050 – but according to the Coalition’s candidate in Flynn, this commitment is a flexible, non-binding plan that leaves plenty of “wiggle room”.
Colin Boyce, who has previously been on the record opposing the government’s net zero target, even though it is National party policy, on Monday suggested the government’s net zero plan may not happen because of the uncertain geopolitical climate.
“Zero net carbon emissions by 2050, Morrison’s document, is a flexible plan that leaves us wiggle room as we proceed into the future,” Boyce told the ABC. “We’ve seen the world change significantly in the last three months in terms of the use of fossil fuels, all in relation to the geopolitical situation in Europe”.
Boyce also noted Morrison’s net zero “statement” last year was “not binding, there will be no legislation attached to it”. The LNP’s Flynn candidate said it had been made clear on page 81 of the government’s transition plan that the future of gas and coal would ultimately be determined by international demand.
In Australia’s nationally determined contribution submitted to the UN last October, the Morrison government said: “Australia adopts a target of net zero emissions by 2050. This is an economy-wide target, covering all sectors and gases included in Australia’s national inventory.”
Read more:
Updated
Man arrested and charged over Barnaby Joyce incident
Federal police have arrested and charged a man who allegedly yelled abuse at the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, on a rural highway last week.
News Corp reported that Joyce had been travelling between Tamworth and Armidale on Friday, when he pulled off the road to make a call. A passing car was said to have stopped 40 metres away, with the driver allegedly getting out and yelling at Joyce.
The deputy PM’s federal police detail prevented the man from coming closer, but the man is reported to have directed explicit criticisms at Joyce.
On Monday, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said a man had been arrested over the incident. In a statement, the AFP said:
The 52-year-old man was refused police bail and is expected to appear in Tamworth local court today (Monday, 25 April 2022), after police charged him yesterday with threatening to cause harm to a commonwealth public official and failure to comply with bail conditions,
Police will allege the man verbally threatened an AFP officer and adopted a fighting stance during Friday’s incident.
The arrest was made by operation wilmot, a special AFP taskforce set up to “ensure the security of high-office holders and parliamentarians during the 2022 federal election” in conjunction with the electoral commission.
AFP detective acting superintendent Jeremy Staunton said:
The AFP supports political expression and freedom of speech. However, when it leads to disruption, harassment, intimidation, threatening behaviour and damage to property, it can reach the threshold of a criminal offence.
Politicians, candidates and the people who work with them should be able to do their jobs safely and we will not tolerate criminal behaviour.
The charge of threatening to cause harm to a commonwealth public official carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail, the AFP said.
Updated
South Australia records six Covid deaths, 3,175 new cases
In South Australia six people have died with Covid and 3,175 new cases have been recorded in the state’s daily figures reported on Monday.
South Australian COVID-19 update 25/04/22. For more information, go to https://t.co/XkVcAmeZ6V or contact the South Australia COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/GqVth02ALx
— SA Health (@SAHealth) April 25, 2022
Updated
.@9NewsMelb has offered to host a debate between @JoshFrydenberg and Dr Monique Ryan @Mon4Kooyong at its studios in Melbourne’s Docklands at 3pm on Thursday. The Treasurer has agreed. Dr Ryan’s camp will not commit. The offer will remain open until Thursday. #auspol
— Chris Uhlmann (@CUhlmann) April 25, 2022
On Friday the Australian Electoral Commission announced it had referred former One Nation and independent senator Rod Culleton to the Australian federal police for allegedly making a false declaration when nominating for the upcoming election.
The AEC said Culleton had ticked the box stating he was not an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent, but he is listed as an undischarged bankrupt on the national personal insolvency index.
It’s the second time such a referral has happened, with the AEC referring Culleton to the AFP for the same issue in 2019.
Guardian Australia has confirmed that there wasn’t enough evidence at the time for the investigation to proceed.
Culleton’s name appeared on the index in 2019, too, so it is unclear whether this new referral will be different to the last one.
Updated
New South Wales police say they are not aware of any threats made against the Liberal party’s controversial candidate in Warringah, Katherine Deves, after an interview in which she said she had received “death threats” over comments about transgender people that she made online.
After weeks of avoiding media scrutiny, Deves gave an interview to SBS on Sunday night in which she said her family had fled Sydney amid fears for their safety:
I have received death threats, I have had to have the police and the AFP involved. My safety has been threatened. My family are away out of Sydney because I don’t want them to witness what I’m going through nor do I want their safety put at risk.
Deves has become a lightning rod for criticism after her comments about transgender people on her personal website and now-deleted Twitter page resurfaced during the election campaign.
But despite saying she had been forced to involve the police after receiving “death threats”, a spokesperson for the NSW police said in a brief statement that the force had not been made aware of any threats:
The NSW Police Force have not received any reports of threats made.
In a statement, the AFP said it “does not comment on matters that may be the subject of investigation”.
Updated
And with that, I will hand the blog over to my esteemed colleague, Elias Visontay. Many thanks for reading.
Scott Morrison marks ANZAC Day at a pub in Darwin, chatting to service personnel and locals after kicking off 2UP for the day @7NewsAustralia #auspol pic.twitter.com/DT4YhldGhY
— Taylor Aiken (@tayloraiken_) April 25, 2022
And here are some photos from Sydney:
Updated
ABC reviewing Fauziah Ibrahim's social media activity
The ABC has confirmed Weekend Breakfast co-host Fauziah Ibrahim has taken a break from presenting while her social media activity is under review.
An ABC News spokesperson told Guardian Australia:
The ABC is reviewing recent social media activity by presenter Fauziah Ibrahim, who has taken a break from on-camera duties but remains part of the Weekend Breakfast team.
The contentious issue is Ibrahim’s Twitter lists which included “Labor Trolls” and “Lobotomised Shitheads”. She has deleted the lists and made her Twitter account private.
Last year ABC managing director David Anderson warned staff they face disciplinary action, including the sack, if they breach tough new social media guidelines.
The warning came after two of the ABC’s most experienced journalists, Sally Neighbour and Laura Tingle, fell foul of the rules for Twitter use which prohibit bringing the ABC into disrepute with personal views.
Anderson said journalists on Twitter are required to be “conscious of your responsibility to protect the ABC’s reputation, independence and integrity where your personal use of social media intersects with your professional life”:
Working at the ABC offers tremendous opportunities. It also comes with responsibilities – more than at any other media organisation in Australia.
The ABC’s crackdown follows moves by the BBC to crackdown on social media posts which could indicate a personal political view.
Updated
Queensland reports 4,639 new cases and two deaths
Queensland is reporting 4,639 new cases overnight and two deaths:
Today we have recorded 4,639 new COVID-19 cases.
— Queensland Health (@qldhealth) April 25, 2022
Sadly, we have reported 2 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Full details➡️ https://t.co/MyDwPPidE5 pic.twitter.com/DqBOOPU152
Green Music Australia and Music Declares Emergency have launched their “No Music on a Dead Planet” campaign in the lead-up to the federal election.
The campaign is calling on musicians and workers in the arts to lobby for greater climate action from the government, by declaring music “at risk of extinction”:
Like plants and animals, music is at risk of extinction if we fail to act and meet the current climate emergency. To highlight the urgency, musicians are declaring songs to be endangered or extinct until we take action as a community.
A number of high-profile musicians and bands have joined the campaign, including Something for Kate, Pinch Points and the Yorta Yorta artist Drmngnow.
“I SAW MY PM ON THE TELLY BUT I DIDN’T HEAR A SOUND,” Melbourne punk band Pinch Points posted on social media:
We wrote this lyric on Virga about Scomo and the liberal government’s piss-poor response to the black summer bushfires, but it could just as easily refer to their action in the recent flood crisis or any environmental issue throughout his time in government.
We’re about to have a federal election here in so-called Australia and we need our leaders to be doing whole lot better on the climate front.
Updated
AAP is reporting that several animals have died after a cattle truck overturned in Sydney’s west.
Paramedics freed and treated the 36-year-old driver who had been trapped in the truck, which had been transporting 50 head of cattle, at Glenmore Park.
“A number of cows were located deceased at the scene, and a number were required to be humanely euthanised,” police said.
The driver was taken to Westmead hospital suffering minor injuries while police cleared the road.
Motorists are advised to avoid the area, with Mulgoa Road closed in both directions.
Updated
And, that is it.
A short press conference from the deputy Labor leader today, presumably to keep the focus on Anzac Day.
Updated
Chinese Solomon Islands base would make Australia ‘less safe', Marles says
Richard Marles is asked about Scott Morrison saying China establishing a military base in the Solomon Islands would constitute crossing a “red line”:
If there is a Chinese military base in the Pacific, Australia at that moment is less safe.
That we find ourselves asking these questions in this moment, says everything about the failure of Scott Morrison in his managing of the relationships in the Pacific, and specifically Scott Morrison’s failure to manage the relationship with the Solomon Islands.
Because of Scott Morrison’s failures, Australians are less safe.
Updated
Marles is asked why, if the government is as terrible as he describes, Labor isn’t running away with the election:
We don’t take any elections for granted. We don’t take any part of Australia for granted. And this is a critically important part of Australia, and a critically important part of Australia to be remembering on this day – Darwin is one of a few of our really critical garrison towns. Darwin is an enormous asset in terms of the defence of our nation.
Updated
Next, Marles is asked about Peter Dutton’s comments this morning, when he said Australia should be “prepared for war”. Marles says the government likes to “beat its chest” but “actions matter”:
We are at a moment in our history where our strategic circumstances are as complex as many points since the end of the second world war. And we certainly need to prepare, but we have not seen the preparation under this government. Words are one thing, action is another. This is a government which beats its chest. When it comes to actually delivering, and doing what needs to be done, it’s a government which repeatedly fails.
Under this government, we have seen six defence ministers in its nine years. It shouldn’t be surprised that under this government, we have seen a feeling in the management of the submarine procurement, which means that in the last 10 years we have seen a capability gap open up 20 years, in terms of the success of submarines.
That is action, that is what needs to be done in that space for the words of one thing, action is what matters, and this is a government which repeatedly fails as it has in its management of relationships in the Pacific, as it happens in terms of the Darwin port.
Updated
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles is giving a press conference in Darwin, and is first asked about the death threats Katherine Deves says she has received:
Let me firstly say no one was in public life should have to ensure death threats. And they are totally unacceptable.
Updated
Morrison congratulates Macron on election win
Prime minister Scott Morrison has congratulated French president Emmanuel Macron on his election victory today.
No mention of lies, submarines or trust this time:
Congratulations Emmanuel Macron on your re-election as President. Another great expression of liberal democracy in action in uncertain times. We wish you & France every success, in particular your leadership in Europe and as an important partner to Australia in the Indo-Pacific.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 25, 2022
Updated
Tasmania reports 867 new Covid cases
Tasmania has reported 867 new cases overnight, with one person in ICU and 43 people in hospital.
Updated
Scott Morrison has been attending the Anzac Day parade in Darwin following the dawn service, speaking to veterans and thanking them for their service.
Joined by Northern Territory’s administrator Vicki O’Halloran, Morrison mingled with the crowd, taking selfies and speaking to locals.
Updated
In the concluding moments of his address, David Hurley says:
From some of the stories of those who have served, we see common characteristics and values. We see a continuous line from the diggers who landed at Anzac Cove through to those who served in world war two, Korea, Vietnam, on peacekeeping operations around the world and in Iraq and Afghanistan …
We see the Anzac legacy in today’s serving men and women, their families, and indeed writ large in the community around us.
These common characteristics and values – mateship, endurance, courage and sacrifice – are not unique to our military service. Our forebears took them into uniform but their services, experiences and sacrifices have forever embedded them in our nation’s DNA.
Updated
David Hurley:
Mateship, that’s a key part of the Anzac legacy ... do these characteristics still matter? They do.
We see them in the service of our modern veterans and those still serving. They have inherited the Anzac legacy and, through their service, have added to it and will hand it on. We’re proud of them and we will always be there for them.
It is critical that we continue to look after our veterans – caring for mates is also a part of the Anzac legacy. To that end, we also recognise the contribution of their families and loved ones. The characteristics are not just confined to our people in uniform. They are evident in the actions of Australians today.
We saw many fine examples of this recently in flood-affected communities in south-west Queensland and northern New South Wales. Countless acts of bravery occurred, most anchored in mateship in one form or another and exemplified by courage and endurance.
Updated
The governor general, David Hurley, has begun his Anzac Day address in Canberra, saying recognising the service of veterans is a means by which to “remember who we are”:
On Anzac Day we are drawn to memorials, to marches, to moments of reflection both in groups and privately. We remember those who have served, those who have made a supreme sacrifice and the contribution that they have made to our country.
On one hand we don’t need to ask the question why we do this. It is obvious. To honour those who have served and continue to serve our nation and to acknowledge the debt that we will always owe them.
On the other hand, considering why we pause to reflect and remember tells us much about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be.
Updated
A Queensland MP has called the security deal between Solomon Islands and China a “money grab” by the Pacific nation.
Backbencher Phillip Thompson, who served in Afghanistan as a member of the Australian defence force, said China posed the biggest threat to Australian national security, and Australia shouldn’t enter a “bidding war” for Solomon Islands.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Thompson said it was important to recognise China’s financial influence on the region:
What we’ve seen with [China’s] security pact in the Solomon Islands – it’s a money grab from the Solomon Islands.
[Australia has] always been there in support and helping the Pacific family. China comes in with a big bag of cash.
Updated
AAP is reporting that a man has been stabbed to death in Adelaide’s central business district in the early hours of Anzac Day.
Police found him lying on a road about 2am with multiple stab wounds to the chest.
He died shortly afterwards. Detectives from Eastern District CIB and forensic crime scene investigators were called to the scene and are investigating.
Updated
Returning to the claims made by Liberal candidate Katherine Deves that she has faced death threats, ABC reporter Jess Davis says the AFP has made a very brief statement, saying it does not comment on matters that “may be the subject of investigation”:
And in a brief statement that is really quite vague the AFP says it 'does not comment on matters that may be the subject of investigation.' Make of that what you will. #auspol https://t.co/FpeveAoQST
— Jess Davis (@jesskatedavis) April 24, 2022
Updated
Marches have begun across the country, commemorating Anzac Day and our military personnel:
Updated
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has been tweeting from isolation this morning, commemorating Anzac Day and thanking Labor’s leadership team in Darwin for representing the party.
In a video published this morning, Albanese called serving personnel “warriors” and “keepers of the peace”:
Lest We Forget. #AnzacDay pic.twitter.com/GMQfaVmNRP
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 24, 2022
He also tweeted some photos of the dawn service, saying Australia awaits a “brighter dawn”:
On Anzac Day, we think of those first Anzacs, huddled in their landing boats more than a century ago, wondering what the dawn would bring.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 24, 2022
We gather in the dark of the early morning because they did.
We remember that because of them, we await a brighter dawn. pic.twitter.com/510lz0hVLX
I thank @RichardMarlesMP, @terrimbutler, @LukeGoslingMP @Malarndirri19 for representing federal Labor at Darwin’s Dawn Service.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 24, 2022
Lest We Forget. pic.twitter.com/EOcDiYtMOD
Updated
Victoria reports 7,643 new Covid cases and four deaths
Victoria is reporting 7,643 new cases overnight and four deaths:
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 24, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/heaQnlSZ4J
Updated
NSW reports 7,985 new Covid cases and four deaths
New South Wales has recorded 7,985 new cases overnight, as well as four deaths:
COVID-19 update – Monday 25 April 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 24, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 96.2% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 94.7% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/ZFi7MQa9C1
Updated
Dutton says only way to 'preserve peace is to prepare for war'
I just wanted to return to Peter Dutton’s appearance on the Today show this morning, because, in addition to marking Anzac Day, the defence minister also said that the only way to “preserve peace is to prepare for war” and compared events in Ukraine to the 1930s.
He was warning of the increased risk that China is posing in the Pacific, and lambasted anyone who wants to “curl up in a ball, pretending nothing is happening”:
The only way you can preserve peace is to prepare for war and be strong as a country, not to cower, not to be on, you know, bended knee and be weak. That’s the reality
Curling up in a ball, pretending nothing is happening, saying nothing, that is not … in our long-term interests and we should be very honest about that.
We have to be realistic that people like Hitler and others aren’t just a figment of our imagination or that they’re consigned to history.
We have in President Putin at the moment somebody who is willing to kill women and children. That’s happening in the year 2022.
It’s a replay, in part, of what happened in the 1930s.
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Sticking with Brendan O’Connor for a moment, the shadow defence spokesperson says Labor would have “grave concerns” if a Chinese military base were established in Solomon Islands.
This comes after Scott Morrison yesterday said the establishment of a base there would be a “red line”, without saying how his government would actually respond, with O’Connor saying it was just “post-facto rhetoric”:
We understand what the prime minister says by that. But, really, it’s post-facto rhetoric. We need to see better investment and better engagement in the region ... rather than react after the fact.
Given the change in tone and rhetoric and words used by the prime minister, we will seek a briefing from the government. We’ve been getting updates all the way through, and we appreciate that.
[But] the fact that we have to turn to using that type of language is too little, too late. We should have been doing more. I think it’s fair to say Julie Bishop was right when she said the current foreign minister should have visited the Solomon Islands.
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Labor defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor has dismissed the government’s plans to increase funding to support veterans, saying the amount pledged in “no way” would address the issue.
The federal government pledged $96m in the budget for veterans, after veterans’ affairs minister Andrew Gee threatened to resign from cabinet if his department did not receive enough funding to help clear unprocessed compensation claims.
Speaking on RN Breakfast, O’Connor disputed the $96m figure, while pledging that Labor would spend nearly $520m on veterans:
It was a smaller sum. [The government’s plan] would go no way to provide support for veterans. It would not increase the frontline staff required to respond to their needs. It would do in no way enough to support those people who’ve put themselves in harm’s way.
People are waiting for days, weeks, months just for some of the more simple applications and claims.
We need to attend to that. And we can’t wait until the recommendations of the royal commission. There are some things we need to do and get ahead of.
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Australia should 'stare down any act of aggression' in the region, Dutton says
Switching back to politics, defence minister Peter Dutton has marked Anzac Day by saying Australia should “stare down any act of aggression”, stressing that Australians should not “take for granted the sacrifice” made by the Anzacs.
Speaking to the Today show, Dutton referred to the war in Ukraine as an example of the necessity to fight against rising “autocratic forces”:
I just think that’s the reality of our time. We have to have a proper understanding of it. We have to have a conversation and be frank about the intelligence and the advice that we’re receiving and reading.
We shouldn’t take for granted the sacrifice that was made by the Anzacs, or those in world war two or in Vietnam, in the Middle East, in every conflict in between, that somehow that will see us through to eternity without conflict in our region …
We have to stand up with countries to stare down any act of aggression to make sure we can keep peace in our region and for our country.
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In Currumbin, on the Gold Coast, surfers performed a burial at sea during the dawn service:
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In Sydney, wreaths were placed on the Cenotaph during the dawn service in Martin Place, with many braving both the cold and the rain to pay their respects:
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In Melbourne, thousands have gathered at the Shrine of Remembrance in the bitter cold of early morning to remember the fallen:
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So, last night controversial Liberal candidate Katherine Deves defended her media shyness, telling SBS News she has received death threats over her comments about the transgender community.
It was only a four-minute interview, in which Deves said she had been avoiding the media because she feared for her safety, and that her family had left Sydney to avoid any risk:
I have received death threats, I have had to have the police and the AFP involved.
My safety has been threatened. My family are away out of Sydney because I don’t want them to witness what I’m going through nor do I want their safety put at risk.
NSW police released a statement saying they had not received any reports of threats made agains Deves.
In a brief statement, NSW Police said
— Stephanie Dalzell (@steph_dalzell) April 24, 2022
“The NSW Police Force has not received any reports of threats made.”
AFP have not yet replied to the ABC’s request for comment. https://t.co/zzodBgbL6D
Deves has previously likened her campaigns to stop transgender athletes from competing to standing up to the Nazis, as well as describing transgender children as “surgically mutilated and sterilised”; she has also declared that surrogacy is a “human rights violation”.
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Anthony Albanese is still in isolation today, having tested positive for Covid last week, but he has released a video to mark Anzac Day.
The Labor leader said the Australian “character” was confirmed at Gallipoli, and since then Australians had “stood steadfast as warriors and as builders and keepers of the peace”:
Yet as the war in Ukraine so tragically reminds us, darkness is not vanquished from the world.
It reminds us freedom cannot be taken for granted. It reminds us that freedom isn’t free.
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So, I just wanted to expand on Scott Morrison’s comments today at the Darwin dawn service. He referred to Ukraine extensively, and another of his favourite topics, the so-called “arc of autocracy”.
Here’s a snapshot of his address:
Even now, as we come together, on this Anzac Day, around the world and particularly in Ukraine, there is a new fight for freedom.
And Australia is playing its part in that conflict, to support those who believe in freedom – freedom from those who would seek to coerce them, freedom from those who would seek to impose their will.
Australia has seen this before and we have stood against it … An arc of autocracy is challenging the rules-based order our grandparents had secured.
Democratic free peoples are standing together again, in facing this world we must remember again, if only then, it is only then that we truly appreciate what these times require.
A willingness to live for all of these things but, if necessary, to sacrifice to something far greater than ourselves.
This morning, far away from here, the people of Ukraine are doing exactly that.
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Good morning
Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you this morning to take you through the day’s news.
It’s Anzac Day today, with services held at dawn around the country. It’s the first time in two years that capacity crowds have been able to gather in Sydney and Melbourne, but all eyes are on Darwin, where the prime minister and Labor leaders have gathered today.
Scott Morrison addressed the dawn service there, paying tribute to the resolve of the Ukrainian people, and spoke of the “debt and gratitude” owed to veterans. The PM also warned that war had returned to Europe, referring to the “arc of autocracy”.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles was also in Darwin, and also referenced Ukrainians in his speech. Marles said Anzac Day was an “opportunity” to imagine the fear and anxiety troops felt more than 80 years ago.
This comes as we enter the 14th day of this election campaign/slog, with less than a month to go until voters head to the polls. Both parties will be campaigning in the Northern Territory – we will be bringing you every update as they come.
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