AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

PNG treaty trip-up as great game afoot in Pacific

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 17-Sep-25

The federal government’s push to forge closer ties with Pacific nations has received a second setback in as many weeks. Papua New Guinea’s cabinet has yet to endorse a defence treaty with Australia, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had hoped to sign today; he is visiting PNG to mark its 50th anniversary of independence from Australia. PNG’s Prime Minister James Marape stated on Monday that his government is "not yet" at the point of signing the treaty, which will commit the two countries to defend each other in the event of war. Former Biden administration adviser Kurt Campbell has suggested that the delay in signing the treaty could be due to Chinese influence. The Vanuatu goverment refused to sign a bilateral security agreement last week during Albanese’s visit to Port Vila.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, PAPUA NEW GUINEA. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Apocalyptic climate risk on horizon

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Original article by Ryan Cropp
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 16-Sep-25

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Australian Climate Service’s National Climate Risk Assessment report is a "wake-up call" for people who still question the need for action to address climate change. Amongst other things, the report has warned that climate change could potentially result in heat-related deaths rising by more than 400 per cent, while property values could fall by more than $600 billion by 2050; it also concludes that more frequent heatwaves could result in employers losing 2.7 million additional days of work by 2061. The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s CEO Andrew McKellar says governments must strike an appropriate balance between science and economics.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE SERVICE, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Wellbeing budget still relies on old data

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Original article by Lily McCaffrey
The Australian – Page: 2 : 16-Sep-25

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the timeliness of data is a vital part of the federal government’s Measuring What Matters national wellbeing framework. The government announced this framework as part of its ‘wellbeing budget’ in 2023, and Chalmers subsequently transferred responsibility for the framework’s reporting to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, the latest update to the framework shows that the ABS is largely using data that is at least three years old for many of the key wellbeing metrics. Chalmers says the government’s $14.8m funding boost for the ABS in 2024 will improve future Measuring What Matters data.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

PM sticks to defence dollars before US visit

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 16-Sep-25

Australia’s spending on defence is slated to rise to 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033, compared with just over two per cent at present. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese contends that defence spending should be measured as a total dollar amount, arguing that people are "too fixated" on the GDP figure. The federal government continues to face pressure from the Trump administration to increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP; however, Albanese contends that the US should take into account factors such as the in-kind military support it receives from Australia and the security partnerships that the nation has struck in the Asia-Pacific region.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

PM plans giant UN event despite possible COP out

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Original article by Geoff Chambers, Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 10-Sep-25

The federal government has released tender documents for the appointment of an event manager to handle the COP31 climate change summit in 2026, even though the host nation has yet to be decided. The government’s advance planning for the summit envisions that it will be attended by more than 52,000 people, and will be bigger and more complex than any event that Australia has hosted in the past. However, Turkey remains reluctant to withdraw its rival bid to host COP31, and senior Labor figures have conceded that this makes it increasingly likely that Labor’s bid will fail.

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Labor truth tax set to be blocked

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Original article by Sarah Ison, James Madden
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 3-Sep-25

The federal government’s proposal to charge a fee for submitting Freedom of Information requests appears set to be defeated. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley contends that Australians "should never have to pay for the truth", while she adds that secrecy is the "refuge of weak governments". The Greens have also criticised Labor’s proposal to impose a fee for FOI requests and ban people from making anonymous applications; justice spokesman David Shoebridge says the latter measure is another attack by Labor against "whistleblowers and truth tellers" within the government. Communications Minister Anika Wells has defended the legislation, arguing that the deluge of automated FOI requests is diverting public servants from important work.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS

Investors calm as government debt nears $1trn

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Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 25 : 3-Sep-25

Official data shows that the federal government’s debt currently stands at $961bn, while its monthly interest bill is about $2bn. Meanwhile, gross debt has risen from just five per cent of GDP to 37 per cent in the last 15 years, although this compares favourably with the US (124 per cent) and Japan (216 per cent). Robert Thompson from RBC Capital Markets expects federal government debt to top $1bn in early 2026. However, Oliver Levingston from Bank of America says Australia has low debt and low deficits compared with the majority of advanced countries. He adds that Australian government bond yields are highly attractive at present.

CORPORATES
RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION

One absent ambassador and two useful idiots

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Original article by Will Glasgow
The Australian – Page: 1 & 11 : 3-Sep-25

The Chinese government’s Victory Day parade in Beijing will be attended by the leaders of Russia, North Korea, Iran and Myanmar. Australia’s ambassador to China, Scott Dewar, will be a notable absentee, and the nation will be represented by a defence attache and political counsellor from the embassy; in contrast, the then-minister for veteran affairs Michael Ronaldson represented Australia in 2015. Sources have stated that there is "no way" Labor would send a government representative to an event being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sources have stressed that former state premiers Bob Carr and Daniel Andrews are attending the event in their personal capacity; Carr is also an ex-foreign minister.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

AUKUS at risk of failing: experts

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Original article by Joe Kelly
The Australian – Page: 6 : 27-Aug-25

The Center for Strategic & International Studies recently recommended narrowing the focus of the so-called ‘Pillar II’ of the AUKUS defence alliance. John Lee from the Hudson Institute says this proposal is understandable given the federal government’s insufficient allocation of funding for defence and Pillar II in particular. Lee adds that Labor needs to build a public case for an increased commitment to AUKUS and Pillar II. Meanwhile, Strategic Analysis Australia director Michael Shoebridge contends that the aim of AUKUS is to shift the military balance in the Indo-Pacific region away from China in order to deter war. He says AUKUS will fail if the alliance’s partners cannot explain this common purpose to their constituents.

CORPORATES
CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AUSTRALIA

Ambassador expelled, terror law changes: Iran’s brazen antisemitic attacks on Australian soil

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Original article by Matthew Knott, Paul Sakkal
The Age – Page: Online : 27-Aug-25

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the federal government is taking "strong and decisive action" after ASIO advised that Iran had directed at least two arson attacks on Australia’s Jewish community. Albanese says the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher cafe in Sydney in 2024 were "extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression" orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. He adds that they were attempts to "undermine social cohesion and sow discord" in the community. The goverment has expelled Iran’s ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and given him seven days to leave Australia; it has also closed Australia’s embassy in Tehran and indicated that it intends to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION