Australian news and politics live: Pauline Hanson vows to bar ISIS brides for Australian monoculture

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister has confirmed the country’s terror threat level system is under review after spy chief Mike Burgess argued it doesn’t capture the reality of growing threats.

ASIO’s Director-General used his annual threat assessment to highlight that while the nation’s terror threat level remains at “probable”, it “does not tell the full story”.

The threat level of “probable” deems that there’s a greater than 50 per cent chance of an onshore attack or attack planning in the next 12 months.

It was the same level Australia was under when 15 innocent people were murdered in a terrorist attack on Jewish event at Bondi Beach on December 14.

Read the full story here.

Unemployment has eased from a four-year high, increasing the chance of an interest rate hike in the coming months.

The jobless rate fell back to 4.4 per cent in May after reaching 4.5 per cent in April, which at the time was the worst unemployment since late 2021 when Sydney and Melbourne were in COVID lockdown.

The Reserve Bank this month left interest rates on hold at 4.35 per cent as a result of the previous unemployment spike but an easing in May means an August hike is still a possibility, that would take the RBA cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.6 per cent.

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Latika M Bourke writes:

Keir Starmer’s AUKUS envoy says he wants to serve the UK Prime Minister’s successor and told The Nightly that Australia does not need to worry about the political upheaval over defence spending affecting the submarine production pact.

Sir Keir could be replaced by Andy Burnham as soon as next month, after bowing to pressure from his Labour colleagues to resign.

He had been under pressure since almost the beginning of his short premiership over a series of unforced errors, poor relations with MPs and no clear political strategy or plan to deliver the change he promised at the election two years ago, when he won in a landslide.

The eventual trigger for his downfall was a row over defence spending, with his then Defence Secretary John Healey quitting, saying his boss was not willing to fund national security as required and was leaving the country unsafe.

Mr Healey quit just hours before he was due to tour a naval base with Defence Minister Richard Marles to promote AUKUS, effectively standing up his Australian counterpart.

Read Latika M Bourke’s full exclusive here.

Angus Taylor has used ASIO head Mike Burgess’ threat assessment to push his party’s policy for immigrants’ visa applications.

In last night’s address, Mr Burgess said that visa applicants are “required to read and acknowledge a list of things Australia values” and that he believed more Australians embracing the principle of “a fair go” would lower the temperature of the country’s security environment.

“This is exactly why we need to put Australian values at the heart of immigration policy,” Mr Taylor wrote on X, referencing the speech.

“At present, visa applicants must sign the Australian Values Statement as a good faith commitment. Some have no intent to comply.”

He said that a Coalition government would make the Australian Values Statement a “legally binding and enforceable visa condition for all temporary and permanent visa holders”.

The Defence Industry Minister has used his appearance at a major security conference in Canberra to attack the organisation hosting the event.

On Thursday, Pat Conroy appeared at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defence Conference, where he was interviewed on stage by the think tank, which relies on government funding.

During his remarks, Mr Conroy attacked a recent report by ASPI which highlighted spending cuts by the Albanese government to defence.

“We do continue to see errors and simplifications that I don’t think serves the public debate.”

“I don’t want to be ‘Debbie Downer’ here, but I do want to be frank that contestability matters but accuracy matters as well in this environment.

“Just plucking figures out of the air or not acknowledging that we brought money forward... just diminishes the public debate.”

A teen accused of plotting nail bomb attacks against then-opposition leader Peter Dutton and a Labour Day march has been found not guilty of preparing a terrorist act.

The jury returned its verdict on Thursday after two days of deliberation.

The teen, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, stood trial in Brisbane Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to one count of carrying out acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.

The family of the teen, now aged 17, gasped and cried when the verdict was read out.

Read the full story here.

A state Liberal MP is under police investigation following an assault allegation from a parliamentary colleague.

The incident involved two current Victorian Liberal MPs, a man and a woman, according to newspaper reports.

Victoria Police confirmed officers are investigating an alleged assault at an event in Sunshine West on May 23.

The allegation comes five months out from the state election, where the party is attempting to turf out a three-term Labor government but also faces a surging One Nation.

It has been rocked by a series of scandals, including former deputy leader Sam Groth leaving his Mornington Peninsula seat of Nepean.

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The two Sydney Teal MPs who have formed a new Community Strong Australia party deny the move is designed to improve their ability to fundraise.

Independents Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender have launched the new party saying it will allow voters to have new option away from major parties and One Nation.

Asked if the move was in response to new electoral laws that limit fundraising for independents, Ms Spender denied it was.

“No, it isn’t. Actually, I think this is an opportunity to make a real difference,” she told reporters.

Shadow defence minister James Paterson described Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s excuses for being unable to block a barred ISIS bride’s return to Australia as a “rather tortured explanation”.

“It was a rather tortured explanation from the Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke, about why this wasn’t his fault,” Senator Paterson told Sky News.

“There was nothing he could do. But the bottom line is the Albanese Labor government has issued a return permit to a member of ISIS, an affiliate of ISIS, to return to our country who was previously blocked from returning to our country.

“This is a government which has failed at every turn when it comes to the management of these so-called ISIS brides, really just ISIS members, who left our country to join an abhorrent terrorist organisation that viciously persecuted, murdered, raped and tortured people.”

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam said it was ironic that the permit was “being sorted out” on the same night ASIO boss Mike Burgess told this annual threat assessment address that the terror threat level underestimated the true danger Australians face.

Read the full story here.

Independent MPs Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender have announced today they are forming the Community Strong Party, in part, to set up the structure to financially support new community candidates to challenge major party incumbents once the new electoral funding laws start in January.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the laws he passed in conjunction with the Coalition ahead of the last election to cap donations and spending.

“I think it’s rather a bit strange that that seems to be the motivation for people who are independents to form a political party,” he said.

He went on to say he thought they’d got the balance right in improving transparency and limiting the amount of money in the system.

And he joked that he feared for newspapers once Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party was capped in how much it could spend, citing the ubiquitous yellow and black ads that have appeared in most major mastheads.

“I don’t quite see the point, but that is living evidence that some people have just too much money. It’s those Clive Palmer ads that achieve, precisely – I don’t think he got anyone elected at all last time round, but those double-page spreads, I don’t know if anyone actually reads them,” he said.