Australian news and politics live: Albanese addresses Rudd-Trump meet, rejects Coalition secrecy claims

Victorian Children’s Minister Lizzie Blandthorn has backed the use of CCTV in childcare centres, saying it could help deter abuse and protect children.

“I personally think that CCTV would act as a deterrent and police have told me that it will act as a deterrent,” she said, as the state launches a rapid review of the sector in response to sexual abuse allegations.

While Ms Blandthorn said she supports the idea, she stressed the need for a careful national approach, citing concerns over how footage would be stored and accessed.

“It is not as simple as just putting up cameras,” she said.

“There are questions that need to be answered about the best way to do that.”

President Donald Trump says the United States will impose a 35 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and plans to impose blanket tariffs of 15 or 20 per cent on most other trade partners.

In a letter released on Thursday on his social media platform, Mr Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney the new rate would go into effect on August 1 and would go up if Canada retaliated.

Mr Trump has broadened his trade war in recent days, setting new tariffs on a number of countries, including allies Japan and South Korea, along with a 50 per cent tariff on copper.

Read the full story here.

Murray Watt has touched down in Paris to advocate for ancient WA rock art to receive World Heritage listing.

In a video update posted on Friday, the Environment Minister vowed to lobby “as many ambassadors” as possible to get the site near the North West Shelf gas project inscribed.

“We’re backing the Murujuga traditional owners and custodians in their fight for this ancient and special site to be given World Heritage listing,” he said.

“It’s also a really special nomination because this is actually being led by the traditional owners of the Murujuga region.

“That’s a very rare thing to see both in Australia and overseas, to see applications for World Heritage listing of sites being led by Indigenous people.

“We’re going to keep up the advocacy over the next couple of days, speaking to as many different ambassadors as we possibly can.”

Debate over whether Anthony Albanese has been coy on details around a meeting Kevin Rudd had with Donald Trump on January 11 has left many scratching their heads.

The PM defended his transparency on it this morning by saying he’d aired it on breakfast TV at the time. Although — it was a delayed and only a brief mention, with 7NEWS on January 21.

A look back at other appearances at the time, has showed he also raised it on ABC on January 17 with political editor David Lipson. Again, it was brief.

The PM said there had been “direct contact” and it was “positive” — adding “we engage diplomatically rather than go into those details”.

After Anthony Albanese claimed this morning that Kevin Rudd’s January 11 meeting with Donald Trump wasn’t kept secret — in fact telling breakfast TV about it at the time — we’ve wound the record back to find the transcript.

The TV interview the PM had referred to was on Seven’s ‘National News at Noon’ program with presenter Natarsha Belling — more than a week after Mr Rudd’s meeting.

On January 21, Ms Belling had asked Mr Albanese about US relations. Towards the end of his 117 word response, the PM said: “The Ambassador, Kevin Rudd, who’s already had a meeting with the incoming President”.

It was the extent of his remarks about the meeting.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has played down a meeting Kevin Rudd had with Donald Trump in January, saying he’d previously spoken publicly about it.

The former Labor PM turned Australian ambassador and the Us President met on January 11, at the Trump international golf club dining room in west Palm Beach, Florida.

Speaking in Sydney on Friday, the PM said it wasn’t a secret and slammed criticisms from Liberal Senator James Patterson who has called for further details on the face-to-face.

“I’d spoken publicly about this at the time. I spoke in a morning TV interview. James Patterson needs to pay more attention,” he said.

“They had a brief discussion. It’s out there. What we don’t do is take meetings with world leaders. What we do is engage constructively.

“I talked about it at the time, so it’s pretty hard for it to be a secret when you talk about it and get asked on morning TV.”

The Prime Minister in January briefly mentioned in a TV interview Mr Rudd had met the US President but did not provide any details on that meeting, only saying he had “already had a meeting with the incoming President”.

Anthony Albanese has backed his Foreign Minister Penny Wong ahead of his China trip after she warned of China’s “worrying” military build-up at a Malaysian event this week.

Asked if Senator Wong had spoken out of turn in her Institute for Strategic and International Studies address, the PM said she “does a fantastic job”.

“Penny Wong speaks as Australia’s Foreign Minister and never speaks in any other capacity than that. She does a fantastic job,” he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

“We raise the full range of issues. We cooperate where we can and we disagree where we must and we’re able to have those honest conversations about some of the disagreements that are there.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared he’s “pro-Panda” ahead of this six-day trip to China.

His trip will include stops in Beijing, Shanghai and to the infamous panda-hub of Chengdu in the south west of China.

“On my last visit to China, I did declare that we were pro-panda and, as a direct result of that, we still have pandas present of course in the Adelaide zoo,” he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

“That is a major tourist attraction but it is also a sign of friendship between our two countries.

“I will visit Chengdu next week, as well I look forward to that.

“We have a range of cultural exchanges which can be really positive in broadening understanding between our two countries.”

Anthony Albanese has spruiked Australian Border Force’s current work to cancel visas of people posing anti-Semitic risk after it was a recommendation on special envoy Jillian Segal’s plan released yesterday.

Asked while speaking in Sydney if the Federal Government was doing enough, the PM brought up the recent example of Australia cancelling rapper Kayne West’s access to the country.

“We make sure that we represent Australia’s national interests,” he said.

“You recall, there was a particular American citizen who recently got denied a visa because of the anti-Semitic comments that he’d made in having a song that praised Adolf Hitler.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed the former Coalition government for their previously icy relationship with China, Australia’s biggest trading partner.

China in 2020 imposed trade sanctions on Australian products including beef, barley, lobsters and wine after the Morrison government’s criticism of Beijing over the origins of COVID.

Speaking at a wine cellar door in Sydney on Friday, he said his government had worked hard to restore that relationship.

“Businesses will recall that in the term of government between 2019 and 2022 there were no fun conversations between Australian government representatives and Chinese government representatives,” he said.

“They recall that there were impediments to more than $20 billion of our trade.

“Wine is one of the areas that has bounced back very strongly.”