News and politics live updates: Australia and Fiji sign new treaty

Australia has struck a sweeping new defence alliance with Fiji as the Albanese government seeks to curb China’s rising influence in the Pacific.

The Ocean of Peace Alliance, also known as the Veitacini Treaty, will see Fiji become just Australia’s fourth military alliance partner after the United States, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka signed the document in the capital Suva on Monday, which will allow both countries to “invite any other Pacific state” to join.

The Queensland government’s integration of bail laws into its signature “Adult Crime, Adult Time” legislation has been dismissed by experts as both sloganeering and unnecessary.

However, increasingly tougher sentences and treatment for children and teenagers found guilty of serious crimes have become a cornerstone of the Crisafulli government’s tough-on-crime measures.

The premier, elected in 2024 after campaigning on the laws, has increased the number of offences eligible for adult punishment since coming to office.

Mr Crisafulli used his keynote address on Sunday at the LNP state convention to pledge a new offence for under-agers who breach bail.

“We need to continue to have consequences for actions to make sure that we continue to restore safety,” he told delegates.

“If you’re a repeat offender, you’re wielding a machete, you’re stealing cars, you’re breaking into people’s homes ... if you breach bail, you will go to jail.”

AAP

Super Typhoon Bavi is crossing the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, lashing Guam, Tinian and Saipan and blasting Rota with catastrophic winds and threatening an area still recovering from another destructive storm earlier this year.

The US National Weather Service warned residents to take cover as the Category 5 storm moved through the island chain, parts of which are the US commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the US territory of Guam, about 6000km west of Hawaii and 2500km east of the Philippines.

The weather service said Bavi’s eyewall was expected to make landfall at Rota - a territory of fewer than 2000 people northeast of Guam - shortly after dawn on Monday, with “catastrophically destructive” winds up to 290km/h.

Gusts to 350km were possible.

The US islands are a strategic defence hub in the western Pacific, hosting US military training facilities and bases including Andersen Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.

Reuters

Three sons of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have prayed beside his coffin and those of four other family members but Mojtaba, the son who succeeded him as Iran’s supreme leader, did not make an appearance.

State TV showed Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud Khamenei praying behind the coffins laid out in the vast courtyard of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, a sprawling religious complex.

Their father, alongside several other members of the family, was killed in an air strike when the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28.

The conflict, which raged for several weeks before the sides reached a shaky ceasefire, has caused death and destruction across the region and left Iran’s theocratic government, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in power.

In a show of public devotion to the state and revolutionary zeal, the Islamic Republic is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, including taking his remains to Shi’ite religious sites in neighbouring Iraq.

Reuters

Anthony Albanese’s deputy Richard Marles has defended the Prime Minister’s record on women after he was forced to apologise for crass comments about wanting to “shag” Australian pop star Kylie Minogue.

Mr Albanese was drawn into a “Shag, marry, date” discussion when appearing on YouTube via Nova’s Bush Deep podcast last week, but on Monday issued a statement saying: “I apologise unequivocally for the comments.”

In an interview with the ABC, Mr Marles noted the PM had apologised but insisted the Albanese government’s record on women was “there for all to see”.

“It’s a government that is led by a person that I know very, very closely, who is utterly committed to elevating the place of women within our society. In respect of those comments, he has apologised unequivocally.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles is declining to comment on the details of apparent death threats towards India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit this week to Melbourne.

The alleged threat, posted on Facebook, reportedly said: “The roof tops of the stadium better close during the event or he will be coming to Australia for his death.”

An AFP spokesperson said the organisation “has no comment,” while Mr Marles told the ABC on Monday that security arrangements for visiting leaders “are taken completely seriously”.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says the Coalition intends to win the next election outright and has no plan to form a coalition with One Nation to take office.

Over the weekend, Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan tried to play down the prospect of teaming up with Pauline Hanson’s populist party to defeat Labor.

On Monday morning, Mr Taylor told Channel 9 the Coalition has no plan to govern with One Nation.

“We’ve got no plan for that. We want to win the next election. I should say, by the way, to people watching, it’s still a couple of years away. It’s a long way away”.

“We’ve got no plan to enter into a coalition with One Nation. Our plan is to win outright.”

The NSW Libs and Nationals have called on the state minister for agriculture Tara Moriarty to return to work following media reports she plans to take two weeks leave days as the the state confirmed its first case of H5 bird flu.

The New South Wales ​government announced on Friday​ that they are responding to the suspected case from a sample of a giant petrel. It was confirmed on Saturday night that the bird had thge highly pathogenic avian influenza.

“At a time when producers are understandably anxious, the Minister’s absence sends the wrong message,” Shadow Minister for Agriculture Brendan Moylan said in a statement.

“It reflects poor judgement at the very moment calm, visible leadership is needed.”

This would be the sixth case of bird flu recorded in Australia and would mark the first in New South Wales.

Anthony Albanese will ink a major treaty with Fiji, elevating the nations’ relationship as he prepares to meet with several Pacific leaders in a diplomatic blitz.

The Prime Minister will sign the Vuvale Union agreement with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka in Suva on Monday - a move that could upgrade ties to a level close to Australia’s mutual defence pact with Papua New Guinea.

​Read the full story here. ​