Australian news and politics live: Anthony Albanese not attending NATO summit in The Netherlands

Former Coalition Minister Simon Birmingham has been named the next Chief Executive of the Australian Banking Association.

He is set to take over from former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who has headed the organisation since 2017.

ABA Chair and National Australia Bank CEO Andrew Irvine said, “We are delighted to have Simon lead our industry and help ensure Australian banks continue making the right decisions for customers and the broader economy.”

“Simon’s ability to navigate difficult and complex environments, bringing together varied interests and perspectives, makes him ideal for this role. He will be a sensible, consistent and respected voice on behalf of the industry.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he looked forward to working with Mr Birmingham “on the big issues” that shape Australia’s banking sector.

“The Australian Banking Association is fortunate to be bringing in someone of Simon Birmingham’s calibre as its new CEO,” he said.

Mr Birmingham starts his new role on August 18.

Australia is “not a central player”, Senator Wong has again repeated, when asked if Australia could get involved in the Middle Eastern conflict.

Asked what concerns the Government have about the US potentially using bunker-busting bombs in Iran, Senator Wong wouldn’t go there.

“These are matters that the US will make decisions about,” she said.

“I can only articulate what Australia’ position has been. We want dialogue diplomacy, and we want de-escalation, and we want Iran to return to the table.

“We want Iran to stop any nuclear weapons program. That’s the point we’ve made, and that’s the point many countries have made.”

She said US President had given Iran “the opportunity to engage in diplomacy, and they should take it.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will not attend the NATO summit next week, putting an end to hopes for a long-awaited face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump.

As originally planned, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles will travel to the Netherlands to represent Australia.

Mr Albanese had left open the possibility of attending the meeting in The Hague after a planned meeting with Mr Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit was cancelled.

Military personnel and aircraft are being deployed to the Middle East to assist the Government and support Australians trying to leave the region.

Senator Wong has emphasised that those assets are not there for combat.

“I emphasise the airspace remains closed, and we are doing this as part of preparing contingency plans post the airspace becoming open,” she said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is speaking after the Government directed the departure of all Australian officials and dependents from Tehran, suspending operations in Iran.

She said this was not a decision taken lightly but had been made “based on the deteriorating security environment”.

“I am sure people do not know that we do not have to cast our minds back too far in history to understand the risk to foreign officials in Iran in times of unrest,” she said.

Ambassador Ian McConville will remain in the region, she said, with extra departmental consular staff deployed to neighbouring Azerbaijan, including to the border crossing, to help Australians able to leave Iran.

“We continue to plan to support Australians departing Iran, and we remain in close contact with partner countries. Unfortunately, at this stage, our ability to provide consular services is extremely limited. Due to the situation on the ground,” she said.

Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, says the number of recent deaths in custody is “absolutely abhorrent” and has called for stronger leadership on the matter.

Ms McCarthy will attend a joint council meeting in Darwin on Friday with leaders across all levels of government to discuss how to best close gaps in education, health and incarceration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The meeting follows a young Aboriginal man’s death in custody that sparked protests across Australia and calls for an independent inquiry rather than an investigation by Northern Territory Police into their own.

Ms McCarthy expressed the same concern as Labor MP Marion Scrymgour on the need for the Federal Government to take greater action in reducing deaths in custody.

“Marion Scrymgour is absolutely correct. Not just the Commonwealth but all states and territories need to see that this practice that we have occurring across the country, certainly with First Nations people must stop,” she told the ABC.

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There are three good reasons the PM must got to NATO, regardless of whether he meets with Donald Trump, according to shadow finance spokesman James Paterson.

The first was coordinating with allies about the war in Ukraine and doing everything we can to support them.

“We have a strong shared interest with our European partner on the outcome of what is happening in Iran right now. We want Iran’s nuclear enrichment program to come to an end. We should be coordinating on that,” Mr Paterson said.

“Thirdly, it will give the Prime Minister an opportunity to consult with European partners on the increasing defence spending. They can tell him what the consequences are of failing to invest adequately in defence industry in peacetime.

“If he meets with President Trump on the sideline that’s a bonus.”

The Federal Government’s age assurance trial won’t be “completely foolproof”, the project director responsible for the world-leading effort says, but it will be effective.

With a preliminary report to be released today showing age verification technology is ready to deploy in Australia, ahead of it taking effect from December, Tony Allan from the Age Assurance Technology Trial said the study found “fundamentally, age assurance can be done”.

“We didn’t find one single ubiquitous solution that would solve all different use cases in all different ways. So we found that there was quite a choice there and quite a range of options that … social media platforms or providers of online goods, services, content could use to be able to do age assurance,” he told Channel 9.

Fifty-three companies joined the trial, which Mr Allen said was about “much more” than just the social media ban.

Asked if it was possible kids could still find a way to override the technology, he said he didn’t think there was anything “completely foolproof”.

“I mean, we’ve had tobacco age-restricted for the last 100 years, and it hasn’t stopped children getting hold of it. The same goes for alcohol,” he said.

Earlier this week, the ABC reported children as young as 15 were being repeatedly misidentified as being in their 20s and 30s during Government tests of age verification.

Ahead of an expected announcement on banning children from social media, James Paterson said social media platforms are not safe spaces for children.

“They should not be on those platforms and we strongly support banning children under the age of 16 from those platforms,” the shadow finance spokesman said on ABC.

“The Federal Government has given themselves plenty of time to test and trial this before it’s implemented at the end of this year, so should be able to get this right. And I really hope that they’re able to do so.

“We’ll be holding them to their commitment to make sure this is operational by the end of the year and children are being taken off those platforms where real serious harm is being done.”

Shadow finance spokesperson James Paterson has backed a diplomacy first approach in dealing with Iran.

“Australia’s interests in this issue are very clear - we should want Iran’s nuclear enrichment program to come to an end and the best way for it to come to an end would be via a diplomatic resolution where the Iranian regime agreed to stop enriching nuclear material beyond those necessary for civilian needs and dismantled its last intact enrichment plant at Fordow,” he said on ABC.

“I hope that’s successful. I think time will tell. People will be reasonably sceptical with their willingness to cooperate.”

Asked if he supported military action if diplomacy failed, Mr Paterson said it was not up to him to endorse pre-emptively any decision that the US President might make about a military strike on the nuclear facility at Fordow.

“But I think it is very clear that Australia’s interests are that Iran stop enriching uranium.”

He continued, “I understand why Israel, for example, regard this is as an existential threat, why many countries in the Middle East regard it as a serious threat, and Australia shares their interest in dismantling this program.”