Politics live updates: Almost a quarter of Australia’s Defence Force not medically fit to deploy

Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie says WA Premier Roger Cook’s complaints to Federal Immigration Minister Tony Burke shows Labor’s visa changes are “crook”.

The State Labor leader is in Canberra today to go face-to-face with Mr Burke after he announced at the National Press Club last month that the government would tighten restrictions on backpacker visas.

The overhaul was part of a broader suite of measures aimed at driving down net overseas arrivals by 75,000 a year.

Mr Cook is among a chorus of voices to argue the new rules will hurt the regional communities, tourism, the hospitality sector and agriculture.

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Liberal Senator James Paterson also said Anthony Albanese should have corrected record on his claim about “raw sewage” in the golf club grant saga “at earliest opportunity”.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday admitted he incorrectly claimed that a $6m grant awarded to the Marrickville Golf Club in his electorate was to prevent effluent flowing into a nearby river.

“Whenever you make a false statement, as soon as you become aware of it, you are obliged to go at the earliest opportunity to correct the record. He did not do so,” Senator Paterson told News24.

“In years gone by, this would have cost a minister their job.

“Under Albanese’s government, there are no standards at all.”

The grant first hit headlines last month after a Centre for Public Integrity investigation found the $560 million program it was funded through was invitation-only and heavily favoured safe Labor seats and marginal contests the party hoped to win.

Days later, it was revealed that the Prime Minister had not included his honorary membership of the club on his register of interests, claiming he was unaware he was a member.

The Australian Defence Force has revealed almost a quarter of its personnel are not considered medically able to deploy including members who are now transitioning out of uniform.

Defence chief of personnel Lieutenant General Natasha Fox has told a Senate estimates hearing that “over 75 per cent of the ADF are actually in a deployable, military employment classification”.

“We have some that are temporarily downgraded, and those temporarily downgraded in a military employment classification might be for an injury that has an ongoing rehabilitation requirement, but it’s only a temporary downgrade,” she said.

In September the Albanese government confirmed the full time and permanent ADF workforce now exceeded 64,000 personnel, the largest size the military has been in 25 years.

The Coalition says it will work with Labor on the gas reservation policy which is set for lower House vote today, but leader Angus Taylor has warned Anthony Albanese “the balance has to be right”.

The Prime Minister and his resources minister Madeleine King told reporters in Canberra on Thursday that the reserve was important for increasing supply and putting downward pressure on prices.

Mr Taylor said one of the things that would be vital for Coalition support would be that Western Australia, which has had its own reserve since 2006, received a carve out.

“There must be a carve out for WA. There must be a carve out for WA for this to work,” he said. “They have an existing reservation scheme and their gas grid is disconnected from the East Coast gas grid. So, there must be a carve-out.

“We want to see a gas industry that’s investable because we need more gas, not less in this country. That is crucial to bring down the cost of energy. It’s gone up by 40 under Labor.

“So we’ve got to have a reservation scheme that will encourage gas investment but also will ensure that we have affordable gas and electricity in this country for households and manufacturers.”

An Australian teen has been charged over alleged terrorism, violent extremist material, and firearm manufacturing offences.

A Northern Territory teenager will appear in Darwin children’s court today charged with collecting documents likely to facilitate terrorist act, as well as schematics for 3D-printed guns.

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Australia’s biggest accounting group has warned Labor’s planned changes to discretionary trusts will force families to irreversibly restructure their wills without fully knowing the details.

CPA Australia, representing Certified Practising Accountants, has lodged a submission with the Senate economics legislation committee warning the Federal Government was forcing families to change their existing wills and testamentary trusts.

“Families are being asked to make permanent decisions before the Government has finished writing the rules,” the group’s tax lead Jenny Wong said.

“No Australian would sign a contract before seeing the full terms and conditions, tax reform should be no different.

“The question for the Senate is straightforward: should Australians be required to make irreversible decisions before all the rules are known?”

Labor is proposing to levy a minimum 30 per cent tax on discretionary trust distributions from July 1, 2028.

To avoid this new tax, discretionary trusts can be restructured into a fixed or excluded election trust at great legal cost where beneficiaries can’t be altered, to avoid this new tax.

Women from across the Federal Parliament have gathered together to form a new support network in the wake of the allegedly deliberate attack on independent MP Helen Haines.

Called Network of Women in Parliament, known as NOW for short, the group is designed to allow women “to share experiences, support one another and learn from each other beyond political lines”.

Politicians from across the spectrum have been shocked by the allegedly deliberate ramming of the Indi MP outside her Wangaratta electorate office last Monday afternoon, which has left her as a double leg amputee.

In a letter signed by Labor’s Katy Gallagher, Coalition’s Melissa McIntosh, Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young and Independent Rebekha Sharkie they vowed to “build connections, strengthen relationships” and create a safer environment.

“The devastating attack on our parliamentary colleague Helen Haines has further highlighted the importance of coming together in support, solidarity and friendship across political divides,” the group said in a joint statement.

“We recognise that while our political views may differ, we share many of the same experiences, challenges and responsibilities as women in public life.

“Through friendship, trust and solidarity, we want to strengthen the voice of women in Parliament, encourage more Australian women into public life and stand together when it matters.”

The group’s inaugural event will also raise funds for Save the Children, Dr Haines’ chosen charity, as a demonstration of our support for her and her family.

The initiative has been supported by the House Speaker Milton Dick and Senate President Sue Lines.

Anthony Albanese and his resources minister Madeleine King said they’re working through foreign investment issues with a WA-based rare earths company project, which they kept the door open to nationalising.

China-linked investors in Northern Minerals continue to defy orders to divest from the strategically sensitive miner, which has dysprosium and terbium, despite orders from Treasurer Jim Chalmers in May.

He had ordered six investors which hold around 17 per cent of Northern Minerals to divest by July 2.

Speaking in Canberra on Thursday, Ms King labelled it a really important deposit and admitted it was “not right and unacceptable”.

“It’s not right and unacceptable that any order of any court in this country is disregarded by foreign shareholders, particularly by anyone at all,” she said.

“The foreign investment review board and the treasure are very seriously looking at how we deal with the Northern Minerals problem.

“We are working on this all the time. We’re diligently going through it.

“It’s a really important deposit that will make an important difference to the supply of rare earth into the global supply chain.

“This is a deposit that should be developed. It’s an Australian asset. It sits within our country, and we’re working on measures within the government’s remit to make sure that happens.”

The Prime Minister echoed Ms King’s remarks that the government was doing what it could to find a solution.

“We’re working these issues through and that we recognise that this is important,” he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

“We have enormous resources under the ground, we need to not just dig them up and export them as well.

“We need to make sure that we maximise value from it for our national interest.”

An inspection of the Royal Australian Navy’s entire fleet of ships has found no more hidden recording devices after one was discovered in a women’s bathroom earlier this month.

Appearing at a senate estimate hearing, Chief of Defence Force Admiral Mark Hammond described the incident on board HMAS Leeuwin as a “betrayal” but said the ship was now back at sea.

“The audit of the entire fleet has been completed, no other devices have been found, the investigation remains ongoing, the (ADF) member has been stood aside and the ship is on operations,” Admiral Hammond told the committee.

“The act of betrayal involving a recording device on board HMAS Leeuwin was an appalling violation of that trust and the person responsible will be held to account.”

Opposition leader Angus Taylor has labelled Anthony Albanese a “serial liar” for not coming clean over his golf club sewage claim.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday admitted he incorrectly claimed that a $6m grant awarded to the Marrickville Golf Club in his electorate was to prevent effluent flowing into a nearby river.

“The problem with this Prime Minister is he digs in, he denies and he refuses to come clean with the Australian people,” he said.

“Now there is not one skerrick of evidence, not one microscopic piece of evidence that this grant had anything to do with sewerage and yet, he claimed from the beginning, that it did.

“Just come clean, Prime Minister, for once be honest with the Australian people time and time again you’ve been shown to be a serial liar.”