/qresearch/ -  Q Research

>>24621731

>>24629058

Exclusive: BRS ‘zip ties’ contradict Defence claims

Prosecutors say their war crimes murder case against Ben Roberts-Smith includes images that appear to show slain Afghans were tied up before being killed.

Ben Mckelvey - May 30 – June 5, 2026

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Evidence outlined in a prosecution summary of the war crimes case filed against Ben Robert-Smith challenges the Australian Defence Force’s longstanding position that officers and commanders could not have known about illegal killings in Afghanistan while they were happening.

The prosecution statement of its war crimes murder case presents eyewitness accounts, including at least five accounts of one killing at a compound known as Whiskey 108 in 2009.

More importantly, the prosecution says it will also be relying on official Defence imagery that was taken on the battlefield to ensure, among other things, adherence to legal conduct.

It says this imagery shows ligature marks on the wrists of the deceased Afghans, which the prosecution says is evidence the men were detained and zip-tied by Roberts-Smith or men in his patrol before being killed.

Evidence of zip-tying would be inconsistent with Roberts-Smith’s statements and official reporting. It would show that Defence should have been aware of potential war crimes as they were happening and, indeed, had imagery suggesting this.

Roberts-Smith has pleaded not guilty to the war crime murder charges and claims that he never breached the law during his service in Afghanistan. He will defend these allegations in court.

Special Air Service Regiment patrols were obliged when possible to take photographs of bodies after all engagements in Afghanistan, during a process called sensitive site exploitation (SSE).

These images were attached to after-action reports filed by SASR patrols and sent for review by legal officers attached to the Special Operations Task Group.

According to Dr Glenn Kolomeitz, an international humanitarian law consultant who served as a Special Operations Task Group legal officer in 2009, legal officers reviewing SSE imagery are required to do so by comparing them against the after-action reports. “This review should be quite forensic,” he says.

The prosecution summary says that SSE photography features as evidence in the case of the 2012 killing of Ali Jan in Darwan. It is alleged that Ben Roberts-Smith kicked Ali Jan off a cliff and then ordered another soldier to shoot him.

The summary says the SSE imagery shows injuries beyond the gunshot wounds as well as a “linear void of bloodstaining” on the arm of Ali Jan and linear marks “in keeping with the application of a ligature”.

Roberts-Smith has asserted his innocence in relation to this killing.

The prosecution statement also relies on SSE imagery as evidence for the two murder charges that Roberts-Smith faces over a raid undertaken in the village of Syachow in 2012.

According to official after-action reporting about the Syachow raid, Roberts-Smith and his patrol shot two men and threw a grenade at them after the men were seen “moving through a cornfield to gain a tactical advantage” and refused to stop after being told to do so.

The prosecution case is that both men were detained and interrogated by Roberts-Smith, who punched one of them, that both were lined up on the edge of the cornfield, and at least one was blindfolded and zip-tied before they were executed, after which the grenade was thrown at the bodies.

The prosecution says that imagery shows one man had injuries consistent with having been zip-tied before his death.

Roberts-Smith has asserted his innocence in relation to these killings.

The prosecution statement of evidence indicates that multiple images of slain men with ligature damage on their wrists were reviewed by Special Operations Task Group legal officers – military officers with legal qualifications and extensive training on the laws of armed conflict who were attached to special forces.

The 2016 direction of the chief of the defence force that ordered the inspector-general of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) to undertake the investigation that would eventually result in the report by Paul Brereton specifically targeted legal officers and other officers who may have had access to after-action reports and SSE imagery.

Of five directives, one called for the IGADF to investigate the potential for there to have been a “systemic failure, including by commanders and legal officers at multiple levels within SOCOMD [Special Operations Command], to report or investigate the stories as required by Defence policies”.

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A submission to Brereton from the provost marshal of the ADF, the officer leading the Joint Military Police Unit, which is the unified police agency of the ADF, was highly critical of legal officers attached to the Special Operations Task Group.

The submission went so far as to say that the provost marshal believed legal officers were “complicit in the concealment and/or fabrication of evidence”, which may be a crime.

The Brereton report said: “It is apparent that legal officers have contributed to the embellishment of operational reporting, so that it plainly demonstrated apparent compliance with ROE [rules of engagement].”

However, Brereton ultimately absolved the SOTG legal officers, adding: “It is not suggested that this was done with an intention to mislead, as distinct from to express in legal terms what the legal officer understood to have happened.”

This statement does not square with instances in which the legal officers and commanders saw ligature damage in SSE images that were part of after-action reports that did not mention prior detention.

It is possible that some legal officers and other officers looking at these images simply did not look for ligature damage, even in instances where reports of Afghans being zip-tied and then executed were available to them.

Abdul Ghafar Stanikzai, the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Council in Uruzgan in 2012, told The Saturday Paper he received multiple reports from eyewitnesses saying they had seen the SASR zip-tie villagers and that those men were found with gunshot wounds.

He says that despite the Australians being aware of some of these allegations, and his office having a pre-existing relationship with SOTG legal officers, no Australian contacted him about these reports contemporaneously.

It is possible some SOTG legal officers did not believe or investigate Afghan allegations of wrongdoing, relying only on Australian after-action reporting.

This is suggested by one rebuke of legal officers by Brereton, saying that they should remember that their client is “the Commonwealth, as distinct from the deployed force, its members or Commanding Officer” and that they should treat “civilian complaints impartially, rather than as if acting in defence of the deployed force”.

Professor Ben Saul, United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, told The Saturday Paper that under international humanitarian law “credible reports of possible war crimes must be promptly and thoroughly investigated, including by reference to all evidentiary materials, such as known photographs”.

Whether evidence of murder was seen or not, the prosecution statement asserts that it was available in at least 2012 to Australian officers whose job was to ensure legal conduct.

Yet it was only in 2017, after leaks from SOTG legal officer David McBride, and in 2018, when journalist Chris Masters reported on the Darwan raid in Fairfax (now Nine) newspapers – using the pseudonym Leonidas to refer to Ben Roberts-Smith – that it became widely known that illegal killings may have happened in Afghanistan.

Prosecution evidence has been collected by the Office of the Special Investigator, a statutory body whose past and future budget allocations total more than $350 million.

Before that, many tens of millions of dollars were spent on Brereton’s IGADF investigation, Dr Samantha Crompvoets’ sociological review and the defamation trial launched against the Nine newspapers.

The Australian Defence Force was contacted about this story but declined to comment.

Ben Mckelvey is the author of Find Fix Finish – From Tampa to Afghanistan: how Australia’s special forces became enmeshed in the US kill/capture program.

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/law-crime/2026/05/30/exclusive-brs-zip-ties-contradict-defence-claims

>>24599875

>>24636207

Epstein victims ‘lack confidence in police needed to submit Andrew evidence’

Patrick Sawer - 29 May 2026

Victims of Jeffrey Epstein who claim to have evidence concerning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor do not have enough confidence in the British police to come forward, according to a US lawyer.

Brad Edwards, who represents hundreds of Epstein’s victims, claimed to have “multiple clients” who have information about the former prince but are reluctant to speak to police because they lack faith in the investigation.

His clients include a woman who claims Epstein sent her to Britain to have sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor in 2010, when she was in her 20s.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has said that people who come forward will be “treated with care, compassion and respect”.

However, Mr Edwards told the BBC: “Our multiple clients, plural, with information about [Mr Mountbatten-Windsor] will not speak with authorities in the UK for two reasons.

“First, the authorities did not care to do anything when Epstein was alive, so their confidence is low. Second, and most important, the harassment by the British press has dissuaded them from ever cooperating with UK authorities or speaking with the British press.”

The woman represented by Mr Edwards has made an allegation against Mr Mountbatten-Windsor regarding a purported encounter at Royal Lodge, then the former prince’s home, in 2010, before he had invited her to Buckingham Palace for tea.

Thames Valley Police confirmed in February that it would assess that claim.

She is the second woman to allege she was abused in the UK, following Virginia Giuffre’s claims that Epstein brought her to the UK in 2001 to have sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.

Mr Edwards told the BBC that “more than one client” had initially been willing to co-operate with British police in relation to that allegation, but had been put off from doing so when UK-based journalists began investigating the woman and her family.

The lawyer said “other victims took notice” of the fact that speaking out had resulted in the woman’s privacy being threatened.

Thames Valley Police said it had engaged with the woman’s legal team, but that her lawyer had said she would not communicate with police over fears regarding her privacy. Mr Edwards confirmed that Thames Valley Police had been in contact with him.

Sexual misconduct claims to be assessed

The force said last week that its investigation into Mr Mountbatten-Windsor will assess claims of sexual misconduct as part of its ongoing inquiry into alleged misconduct in public office.

It is understood detectives are concerned that the public believes they are focused only on claims that the former prince leaked documents to Epstein, when the legal terms of the offence under investigation are much broader.

Sigrid McCawley, a US lawyer who represented Giuffre and is acting for other women whom Epstein may have trafficked to the UK, said she did not believe she had received any form of communication from the Metropolitan Police.

Giuffre, who took her own life last year, made a complaint to the Metropolitan Police in 2015. Officers interviewed her a number of times, but she was told there would not be an investigation.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor settled for an estimated £12m in a civil case she brought against him in 2022. The settlement was made without admission of liability.

The former prince was arrested on Feb 19 and released under investigation on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He has denied any personal gain from his role as a UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.

Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, died in a New York prison in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

An NPCC spokesman said: “As part of the UK policing response, efforts have been made to contact victim-survivors who have already chosen to share their experiences publicly.

“In some cases, this has involved engagement with legal representatives; however, we recognise that we have not yet been able to reach everyone and our efforts continue.

“We understand that coming forward can be incredibly difficult, and we want anyone affected to know they can do so in their own time, when they feel ready. Our door remains open.

“Should any victim-survivors choose to contact UK policing, they will be treated with care, compassion and respect, with their well-being, privacy and right to anonymity at centre of our response.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/29/epstein-victims-lack-confidence-in-police/

>>24663222

Hegseth praises Australia for ‘stepping up’ as he shifts tone on China

Lisa Visentin - May 30, 2026

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Beijing: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has rejected claims that weapons sales to Taiwan had been paused due to the Iran war, as he chided allies for not spending enough on their own defence while praising Australia for “stepping up”.

At the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s top defence summit, Hegseth also noted there was “rightful alarm” about Beijing’s military build-up and assured allies that America remained committed to ensuring China was not allowed to dominate the region.

But he said relations with China were better than they had been in years in a less strident speech than he gave last year, reflecting a broader shift in the Trump administration’s tone towards Beijing.

He scolded “free-riding” allies who he said were not carrying their weight by investing enough in their own defences, but singled out Australia along with other Asian partners, including South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, while taking aim at Europe.

“Australia is stepping up. Together, we are expanding the rotational presence of US forces and collaborating to ensure our defence industrial bases build and sustain weapons required for a high-end fight,” Hegseth told the room of top defence officials, diplomats and politicians.

“We appreciate Australia’s investment in real combat power and the commitment to integrate more deeply with the US joint force across South-East Asia.”

His comments will be welcomed by the Albanese government, which has pledged to invest an extra $53 billion in defence over the next decade – a figure that still falls short of Hegseth’s call for Australia to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP.

Hegseth did not mention Taiwan or Iran in his speech, only discussing them in response to questions in the Q&A section. On Iran, he noted “any deal will be a good deal” as negotiations with Tehran continue and said the US was ready to restart attacks if one couldn’t be reached.

He said there had been no change to US policy on Taiwan and no link should be made between US arms stockpiles and the Iran war. But his remarks will likely do little to assuage anxiety in Taiwan about Trump’s ongoing commitment to helping the democratic island defend itself as it waits on his decision to approve an estimated $US14 billion ($19.5 billion) arms package.

“On the Taiwan arms sales, I would very much decouple the two, and we feel very good about our stockpiles, both how we use them, and in Epic Fury in this historic moment,” Hegseth said, referring to the US military operation in Iran.

“Any decision about future Taiwan arm sales, as the president said, will rest with him.”

(continued)

>>24663227

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In contrast, Defence Minister Richard Marles drew attention to Taiwan in his speech, noting the island had five separate cases of seabed cable damage in 2025. Taipei regularly accuses China-linked vessels of sea cable sabotage, which Beijing rejects.

Without directly accusing China, Marles said the seabed was “becoming a battlefield” and called on Beijing to commit to transparency in its maritime operations.

“Existing patterns of grey zone activity are not consistent with a peaceful and stable regional order,” he said while appearing in a panel discussion at the summit on Saturday.

Speculation about the Taiwan weapon sales mounted after Trump revealed he discussed them in recent meetings in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who wants the US to scale back or delay its arms package, and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island.

Trump later described the arms sales as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

Acting US Navy Secretary Hung Cao seeded further doubt when he told a congressional hearing on May 21 that the package had been paused “to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury” – a claim Hegseth directly repudiated on Saturday.

Under US law, Washington is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. White House officials have maintained that Trump has approved more weapons to Taiwan than any other president, including an $US11 billion package last year.

In his 2025 address, Hegseth adopted a more combative line on China, declaring the US had a renewed focus on deterring Beijing’s growing military might and warned it would “fight and win decisively” if it sought a conflict over Taiwan.

On Saturday, Hegseth asserted that the US would seek to secure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific by being “strong, quiet and clear” while wielding a “big stick”.

“We share a clear-eyed assessment of that security environment and a mutual understanding that a Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power and undermine the equilibrium we all seek to preserve,” he said.

Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said the shift in rhetoric was a noticeable departure from the past.

“On China, something had clearly changed: this was perhaps the least confronting speech from a US administration in the 23-year history of the Shangri-La Dialogue,” said Medcalf, who was attending the conference.

“To be sure, secretary Hegseth called for securing peace by preparing for war in the First Island Chain, which includes Taiwan. But he also extolled the recent Trump-Xi summit and placed great weight on US-China relations.

“The great uncertainty is whether this all reflects strength or vulnerability in the US negotiating position.”

https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/hegseth-praises-australia-for-stepping-up-as-he-shifts-tone-on-china-20260530-p6025z.html

>>24663222

Attacks on subsea critical infrastructure at a scale unprecedented, says Marles

BEN PACKHAM - May 30, 2026

Defence Minister Richard Marles says a surge in damage to subsea cables has transformed the seabed into a “battlefield”, urging greater transparency from Beijing around its maritime operations and tighter international controls over “shadow fleet” vessels.

Mr Marles declared at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Singapore that internet cables, “the arteries of modern civilisation”, were being cut at an unprecedented rate, with Australia and the Indo-Pacific particularly vulnerable.

“Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed a series of attacks against subsea critical infrastructure at a scale and frequency that is historically unprecedented,” he told the annual strategic forum.

“The seabed is becoming a battlefield. The shadow fleet is becoming a weapon.”

Mr Marles pointed to five separate cases of cables being cut in the Taiwan Strait in the past 18 months, and three in the Baltic Sea, which have been attributed to China and Russia respectively.

“Maybe these were accidents. But even if they were, it highlights the vulnerability of this crucial part of the globe’s infrastructure,” he said.

“If they were intentional, we are left to wonder: are countries testing our response times, testing our attribution thresholds and testing our political will to respond?”

Mr Marles called on Beijing, which has a huge shadow fleet, to come clean on its activities at sea.

“A commitment to transparency around its maritime operations would be a meaningful contribution to the regional stability upon which China’s own prosperity depends, and a commitment to international law as the basis for managing and resolving maritime disputes would do the same, because in truth our region’s stability is under pressure,” Mr Marles said.

He said the international community also needed to band together to introduce tighter controls over maritime traffic, to undermine “gray zone” activity on the high seas.

“We must close legal and institutional gaps that make attribution and accountability so difficult,” Mr Marles said.

“The very doctrine of plausible deniability works precisely because our legal frameworks have not kept pace with tactics. We need stronger national legislation mandating vessel registration and monitoring, regardless of the flag state, we need enhanced enforcement of port state measures. We need financial and criminal penalties that are a genuine deterrent.”

He also reiterated Australia’s call for China to abide by the 2016 decision under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea that rejected its claim over most of the waterway.

Taiwan reported five separate cases of seabed cable damage in 2025, compared with three in 2024 and three in 2023.

In one case, in February 2025, Taiwan convicted Chinese cargo ship captain Wang Yuliang of damaging the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable, sentencing him to three years in prison and ordering him to pay approximately $US570,000 ($790.000) in damages to Chunghwa Telecom.

Following two incidents in the Baltic in November 2024, which severed cables between Germany and Finland, and between Sweden and Lithuania, Finnish coastguards seized a Russian shadow fleet vessel Eagle S.

Mr Marles said the shadow fleet problem also extended to sanctions-evasion, the transport of Russian oil, illegal fishing and drug trafficking.

“According to Australia’s own fisheries agency, a third of the total fish catch in Southeast Asia and the Pacific is illegal.

“The fisheries of this region support the livelihoods of nearly two hundred million people. Their systematic plunder is not just an environmental problem. It is a security problem.”

He said technology, including satellite-based monitoring and AI-enabled vessel tracking, already existed to deal with the problem. But it required political will to implement.

“The sea connects our great region. What we must all decide is whether that connection will be governed by the laws we have built together, or contested by the tactics of those who prefer the alternatives,” Mr Marles said.

“Australia’s answer is clear. Rules are essential. And operating by them is the pathway to regional peace, security and prosperity.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/attacks-on-subsea-critical-infrastructure-at-a-scale-unprecedented-says-marles/news-story/15fa18832232f90ff19040ada26195fc

>>24611802

>>24663222

Sub swap: No new Virginia submarines under AUKUS

BEN PACKHAM - May 30, 2026

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The US will now sell Australia three used Virginia-class submarines rather than a mix of new and in-service boats as planned, in a move pitched as a way to “streamline” the AUKUS program.

Defence Minister Richard Marles, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, and British Defence Secretary John Healey said the approach was about “simplifying supply chain management, operational and maintenance requirements, and maximising cost efficiencies”.

“This approach would enable Australia to acquire three in-service VCS in lieu of a mixture of new and in-service VCS variants,” they said in a joint statement after meeting at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore, where Mr Hegseth said the program was making “great progress”.

Under the previous plan, Australia was to get at least one new submarine. The first two, scheduled for 2032 and 2035, were to be used boats. The third was planned to be an improved and brand new Block VII boat arriving in 2038.

The decision will shorten the life of Australia’s Virginia-class fleet by some years. The first Australian-made AUKUS-class boat is scheduled to enter service in the mid 2040s.

There have been ongoing concerns that US Virginia-class submarine production will not be high enough to meet US needs while also providing boats to Australia, while the UK’s submarine industry is also under strain.

Mr Hegseth said the partnership was at an inflection point ahead of rotational deployments of US submarines to Western Australia next year under AUKUS “Pillar One”.

“Last year President Trump directed that we move full steam ahead on AUKUS, and I’m proud to say that we’ve made great progress on that front,” Mr Hegseth told the media.

“We’re encouraged to continue to see continued Australian investment in its sovereign submarine capabilities, and a willingness for both Australia and the UK to increase burden sharing.”

The leaders also announced a new partnership to develop common payloads for undersea drones under the AUKUS “Pillar Two.”

Mr Marles did not mention the change of plan in a press conference, focusing on the coming rotational force and Australian maintenance on US and British submarines.

“All of this represents the biggest leap in Australia’s military capability in more than a century, really, since the establishment of the navy, and it is being achieved through the co-operation with UK and with the United States,” he said

Mr Healey said “for too long with AUKUS we talked too much and delivered too little.”

“That has now changed under our three governments,” he said.

The first four reactors for the future AUKUS-class submarines, which both the UK and Australia will build, were already under construction, Mr Healey said, amid a £6bn ($11.2bn) investment by the Starmer government.

Mr Hegseth said the new Pillar Two project would deliver “a suite of highly adaptable multi mission … payloads designed to support undersea operations and maintain our collective advantage in maritime building”.

(continued)

>>24663282

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US Virginia-class submarine production is running at about 1.3 boats a year – well short of the 2.33 a year needed to provide three to Australia in the 2030s.

The British submarine sector is also under strain, with a House of Commons report last month warning leadership failures and investment woes were already threatening the program.

Earlier, Mr Hegseth praised Australia for “stepping up” as he chided other Pacific allies as looking for a “free ride” and relying on the “generosity of the American taxpayer”.

“The era of the United States subsidising the defence of wealthy nations is over,” he said.

The Trump administration has called for Australia to increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP. The Albanese government says it will reach 3 per cent by 2033.

“Together we are expanding the rotational presence of US forces and collaborating to ensure our defence industrial base builds and sustains weapons required for a high-end fight,” Mr Hegseth said.

“We appreciate Australia’s investment in real combat power and the commitment to integrate more deeply with the US Joint Force.”

He also criticised Europe for ignoring “polite pleas” to “spend more on their own defence”.

“For those who believe they can continue to free ride on the generosity of the American taxpayer, hear us now – those days are over,” he said.

“Allies who refuse to step up and carry their own weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business.

“President Trump believes in helping countries that help themselves. And the United States Department of War feels the exact same way.”

Meanwhile, Mr Marles warned a surge in damage to subsea cables has transformed the seabed into a “battlefield”, urging greater transparency from Beijing around its maritime operations and tighter international controls over “shadow fleet” vessels.

He said internet cables, “the arteries of modern civilisation”, were being cut at an unprecedented rate, with Australia and the Indo-Pacific particularly vulnerable.

“Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed a series of attacks against subsea critical infrastructure at a scale and frequency that is historically unprecedented,” he told the annual strategic forum.

“The seabed is becoming a battlefield. The shadow fleet is becoming a weapon.”

Mr Marles called on Beijing, which has a huge shadow fleet, to come clean on its activities at sea.

“A commitment to transparency around its maritime operations would be a meaningful contribution to the regional stability upon which China’s own prosperity depends, and a commitment to international law as the basis for managing and resolving maritime disputes would do the same, because in truth our region’s stability is under pressure,” Mr Marles said.

He said the international community also needed to band together to introduce tighter controls over maritime traffic, to undermine “grey zone” activity on the high seas.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/hegseth-praises-australia-for-stepping-up-says-aukus-making-great-progress/news-story/99f30b2df4cc4c0cc9dae39ce3b7f3ac

https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/statements/2026-05-30/joint-statement-aukus-defence-ministers-meeting

>>24611802

>>24663222

>>24663282

Marles points to savings after US downgrades AUKUS sub to second-hand version

Matthew Knott and Lisa Visentin - May 31, 2026

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Defence Minister Richard Marles says taxpayers will save money by ditching a plan to acquire a new and upgraded nuclear-powered submarine from the United States, but experts warn Australia will receive a less capable vessel with a shorter lifespan under the AUKUS shift.

Marles and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday said the last of three Virginia-class submarines Australia plans to buy from the US will now be second-hand rather than a new boat as originally planned.

Under the AUKUS plan announced in 2023, Australia was to buy a mix of new and second-hand submarines from the US. The vision was for two second-hand US submarines to arrive beginning in 2032 and the third submarine was to be a new and improved Block VII Virginia-class boat.

All three vessels will now be used Block IV submarines that may already have been in service for years, and possibly over a decade, each, compared with the 33-year lifespan of a new boat.

Marles defended the decision on the basis that it reduced complexity by ensuring all Virginia class boats were a consistent set, and there would be a “significant” reduction to the purchase price of the final US submarine and the associated training and operational costs.

“We don’t get the additional cost and complexity of operating a one-off submarine which is different to all the rest,” Marles said in an interview.

“The reality here is that is the single biggest issue and challenge associated with that third submarine if we keep it as it is, which is why we see this as a significantly good outcome.”

He declined to quantify what the saving would be, but he said it wouldn’t substantially change the underlying cost of the AUKUS project.

“We need to be chasing savings where we can and be as prudent as possible, so [this decision] matters. But this is a big program, and we get this one submarine cheaper — it doesn’t fundamentally alter the overall envelope here, which is 0.15 per cent of GDP.”

Pressed on why Australia had sought a new submarine under the “optimal” AUKUS pathway if a used model represented a better outcome, Marles said: “We are just as happy to go down this path because it very much does give us consistency.”

He declined to put a figure on how many years left of service the third submarine would have by the time it was transferred to Australian hands, but he said it would arrive in a condition consistent with the first and second used boats and that it would still have “a lot of years of service left”.

“What we’re getting is a submarine well within its life, immediately after deep maintenance,” he said. It would have “more than half” of its operational life left, he said.

The decision is widely believed to be linked to senior Pentagon official Elbridge Colby’s AUKUS review, which was completed at the end of last year but has not been made public.

Colby had previously expressed concern that providing Virginia-class submarines to Australia could deplete the US Navy’s reserves, given sluggish American production rates.

Asked whether lags in the US production schedule had contributed to this shift in direction, Marles said: “It’s definitely not part of this decision at all.”

Marles, Hegseth and British Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement that the decision was about “simplifying supply chain management, operational and maintenance requirements, and maximising cost efficiencies”.

(continued)

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The government estimates the total cost of the AUKUS scheme will be between $268 billion and $368 billion over three decades, making it the biggest defence procurement project in Australian history.

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said: “This appears to be a significant change of plan for acquisition of Virginia-class submarines … I will be seeking an explanation from Defence at Senate estimates this week about why this change was made and what the implications are.”

Former senior defence official Michael Shoebridge said: “This is bad news. The new Virginias are more capable and easier to maintain … The US aren’t building enough submarines so they are keeping the more capable ones for themselves.”

The new Block VII submarine Australia had been slated to acquire from the late 2030s has been described by trade publication Army Recognition as “one of the final and most advanced versions of the Virginia-class submarine, with improved stealth, greater use of unmanned underwater systems, and enhanced capability for long-range strike and seabed operations”.

Virginia-class submarines are estimated to cost $US5 billion ($6.95 billion) each to produce, including weapons, according to the US congressional research service.

Marles said there had long been debate about whether Australia should seek to acquire a new submarine from the US, as this could mean the Australian navy would be operating four different types of submarine at once: the Collins-class submarine, two types of Virginia-class submarine and the new SSN-AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine being developed between Britain and Australia.

Greens senator David Shoebridge said it was ridiculous for Marles to paint the decision as a win for Australia, describing AUKUS as a “dud deal” for Australia.

“You cannot make this stuff up on AUKUS,” he said.

Former naval officer Jennifer Parker said she supported the decision, while acknowledging there were downsides to the move.

“This reduces risk and complexity in what is already a very ambitious program,” said Parker, an adjunct fellow in naval studies at UNSW.

“If the three submarines we buy come from the same block, they will have the same configuration, same training and maintenance requirements and same spare parts. We won’t have to put them through the trials for initial certification. These boats will still be streets ahead of any other attack submarines in the world.”

However, she added: “The third submarine will now be a less capable boat than it would have been and will have less life in it. It may have 20 years left of service rather than 33.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/marles-points-to-savings-after-us-downgrades-aukus-sub-to-second-hand-version-20260531-p602ez.html

>>24611802

>>24621702

>>24663222

>>24663282

>>24663306

ANALYSIS: Switch to only used Virginia-class subs a sign of deeper problems

BEN PACKHAM - 31 May 2026

The AUKUS partners were cock-a-hoop at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth claiming “great progress” was being made on the submarine program.

It emerged only later that a significant change had been made to the $368bn AUKUS plan that underscores concerns over the enterprise.

Australia originally negotiated to buy what would be the US’s most advanced Block VII Virginia-class submarine straight off the production line in 2038.

Now we learn we will get another in-service submarine, after two used models scheduled to arrive in 2032 and 2035.

The Block IV boats will still have plenty of service life left in them. The first two at least will go for another 20 years.

But they will not last as long or be as capable as a new boat, placing added pressure on Australia’s domestic submarine build.

Defence Minister Richard Marles argues the change of plan will make things simpler and cheaper for Australia, reducing training and maintenance requirements.

“In the context of a very complicated endeavour, we need to place a premium on simplicity,” he says.

This argument has some merit. Operating three of the same Virginia-class variant will make it easier for Australian crews and those who will maintain the boats.

But the real story here is not about Australia. It’s about the lack of confidence in the US system about its submarine industrial base.

The US Navy wants the most advanced submarines it can get for a potential war against China and fears it won’t have enough.

Virginia-class production is running at 1.3 boats a year, according to the latest reports from the US.

US Navy officials have said for years that rate needs to get to 2.33 boats a year to sell Australia its promised subs.

Many suspect the hand of US Under Secretary of Defence Elbridge Colby in the decision to sell Australia only in-service boats.

Colby, the Pentagon’s chief strategist, said just over a year ago in his confirmation hearing that the US’s attack submarines “are absolutely essential for making the defence of Taiwan”.

“So, if we can produce the attack submarines in sufficient number and sufficient speed, then great. But if we can’t, (supplying Australia) becomes a very difficult problem, because we don’t want our servicemen and women to be in a weaker position and more vulnerable and, God forbid, worse because they are not in the right place in the right time.“

He has also warned it would be “highly imprudent” for the US to hand over Virginia-class boats to Australia without an “an iron-clad guarantee they can be employed at the will of the United States”.

No Australian government would never provide such a commitment, because the nation needs to maintain sovereign control over its own military capabilities.

This all comes barely a fortnight after Marles confirmed another change to Australia’s pathway to nuclear submarines – the scaling back of upgrades to the navy’s Collins-class boats that will still have to operate for 10 years’ beyond their original design life.

The Auditor-General found the government wasted $700m of taxpayers’ money pursuing more substantial upgrades that now won’t happen.

The Albanese government wants Australians to believe that all is well with AUKUS, but there is much to be concerned about.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/switch-in-us-submarines-priority-a-sign-of-deeper-problems/news-story/a6ee0b1d1030f6630d5ef66480cdb479

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>>24662516

Woman at centre of fresh Andrew allegation was Royal Ascot waitress

Dipesh Gadher - May 31, 2026

The woman at the centre of allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor at Royal Ascot was working as a waitress at the racing festival.

The Sunday Times revealed last week that detectives are examining the alleged incident as part of a broader investigation into Andrew over the offence of misconduct in public office.

Andrew is said to have behaved inappropriately towards the woman in 2002 when his mother, Queen Elizabeth, attended the meet in Berkshire with other senior royals during her Golden Jubilee Year.

Police have not commented on when they were first made aware of the allegation. However, it is not thought to have been reported by staff to race course management at the time.

Andrew attended at least two days of the five-day festival in June 2002, and was photographed alongside his older brother, the future King, and his younger brother, Prince Edward.

A highlight of the annual sporting and social calendar, Royal Ascot lays on lavish hospitality, including champagne lunches, for its guests, and hires hundreds of additional catering staff on temporary contracts.

In 2000, Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced paedophile financier, and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, in the royal enclosure on Ladies’ Day.

He last attended the event in the summer of 2019, just months before he was forced to step back from his royal duties following an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme in which he failed to express any sympathy for Epstein’s victims.

In February, Andrew was arrested on his 66th birthday at his new home on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office (MiPO).

He was held in custody for 11 hours before being released under investigation. Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.

Detectives at Thames Valley Police are focusing on Andrew’s ten-year stint as a government trade envoy from 2001-11. During this time, files released by the US Justice Department suggest he shared confidential government reports with Epstein.

However, the force disclosed earlier this month that its inquiry is considering a much wider range of potential crimes than was previously understood, including sexual offences and corruption.

Police chiefs said any new evidence could either form part of its ongoing MiPO investigation or be pursued as “standalone” offences.

Asked a series of questions about the alleged incident at Royal Ascot, a Thames Valley spokeswoman said: “We cannot go into specifics of our ongoing investigation, but we are following all reasonable lines of inquiry.”

Ascot Racecourse declined to comment. However, a source indicated that it will co-operate with police if asked to do so.

On Saturday, BBC News reported that emails which appeared to show Andrew sharing confidential government information with a business associate were passed to Buckingham Palace six years ago.

The emails are alleged to have been stolen from Jonathan Rowland, whose banker father, David, has been described by Andrew as his “trusted money man”.

The cache of documents formed part of a High Court dispute between the Rowlands and a business rival, Kevin Stanford, who is said to have passed on the emails to the lord chamberlain, the most senior figure in the royal household, in May 2020.

The King has previously offered to “fully co-operate” with the police investigation into Andrew.

Buckingham Palace said: “Since there is an ongoing police inquiry concerning Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, it is not possible to provide any comment on these matters.”

Andrew was contacted for comment.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/royal-ascot-waitress-at-center-of-new-andrew-mountbattenwindsor-allegation/news-story/b2856b9fcb1cbe766ea8919494a9b7ee

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-family/article/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-royal-ascot-waitress-7g8n2rp53

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>>24636351

>>24648784

How a heckle brought Australia’s gender wars to Hay-on-Wye

Two gay Welsh women protesting at the literary festival has thrust a bitter legal battle over an Australian women-only app onto the world stage

Hugo Daniel - 30 May 2026

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Sall Grover was not aware that her name had been shouted at a former Australian prime minister, on stage at the Hay Festival, until she saw a post about it on social media.

On Monday a female protester attending the Women in Politics event at the literary festival in Hay-on-Wye, yelled “what about Sall Grover?” at Julia Gillard, Australia’s first and only female leader. A second protester held up a banner that read: “Julia Gillard, DESTROYER OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS.”

Grover, a 41-year-old former journalist, saw a post about it on X. She has been at the centre of a row over transgender rights in Australia after founding a social app for women called Giggle for Girls.

This month Grover lost an appeal against a ruling by Australia’s federal court that found she had discriminated against a transgender woman, Roxanne Tickle, who had been blocked from using Giggle for Girls. The court in Sydney found Grover discriminated against Tickle and awarded Tickle A$20,000 (£10,700).

Gillard has been a target for protesters who argue that biological women’s rights were diluted in Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act under her government. The 1984 law was amended in 2013 to include a person’s self-identified gender, which was a factor in this high-profile court case.

Gillard appeared taken aback by the heckler at Hay, in Powys, but did not respond. Grover, however, was pleased to see it. “I am so grateful,” Grover told The Sunday Times by email. She has since been put in touch with the protesters and thanked them, describing them as “two amazing lesbian women in Wales”.

“It takes time and effort to do what they did, and the whole point is it’s everyday women taking time out of their lives to showcase bravery to cowardly politicians who crumble at the mere sight of challenge,” she said.

Grover said British women had led the way in bringing “attention to the madness of gender ideology and holding the people responsible for it to account”. She added: “Australia is about four years behind the UK on the issue of gender ideology.”

Of her former prime minister, Grover pulled no punches. “Julia Gillard’s decision to amend the Sex Discrimination Act has directly led to the erosion of woman-only spaces, sports and events, including lesbian-only events … [Her] actions have directly destroyed women’s rights and we are now cleaning up her mess,” she said.

“Julia Gillard is going to have to address this issue eventually. You cannot dine out on being the first woman prime minister and then ignore the fact that you removed women from law … I think that [she] is going to have to get used to women asking her what a woman is, and it will travel with her around the world until she takes responsibility for it.”

On stage alongside Gillard were the former Scottish Conservative leader, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, the Labour peer Baroness Harman, and the Sky News political editor Beth Rigby, with the panel moderated by the BBC’s Europe editor and Today show presenter, Katya Adler.

After the heckle, Adler said: “It’s not the time for this right now,” drawing applause from the crowd. The panel members then left the stage and Gillard was escorted from the venue through a rear exit and away from public view. Grover criticised Adler’s handling of the situation. “A decent journalist would lean into the ‘controversy’,” she said. “Julia Gillard should have been asked if she was aware of the Giggle v Tickle decision and what it means for women’s rights. She should be asked, ‘Is this the future for women and girls that she wanted?’”

Mary Douglas, one of the hecklers at Hay, told The Sunday Times in a statement that she and her fellow protester “have been fighting for lesbian and women’s rights for decades and are horrified at the way everything we fought for seems to be at risk”. She added that they have been “shocked at the way things have been going in Australia” and, after hearing Gillard was speaking at Hay, had hoped to question her at the event. “We’ve been going to Hay for decades and almost every event we’ve ever been to has involved a Q&A session in the last 10 minutes.”

The Tickle vs Giggle court row, as it has become known in Australia, has been rumbling on for four years. The Sex Discrimination Act prohibits providers of goods or services from discriminating against people on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status. The case was the first to legally test the gender identity protections added in 2013.

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Tickle successfully sued Grover for blocking her account on grounds of gender identity, and the Federal Court found Grover and Giggle unlawfully discriminated against the 54-year-old.

Grover then lodged an appeal against that verdict last year, with JK Rowling tweeting her support. On May 15 the Federal Court upheld 2024’s decision, dismissing Grover’s appeal and further finding Tickle was directly, rather than indirectly, discriminated against by Grover.

All three judges ruled Tickle’s exclusion from the app because she appeared to be a man amounted to an act of discrimination and said Giggle and Grover had treated Tickle “less favourably than a woman designated female at birth”.

Grover told The Sunday Times she did not remember seeing or removing Tickle from Giggle.

After the ruling, Tickle told reporters outside the court: “I’m very pleased by the outcome of my case, and I hope that it assists trans and gender-diverse people and their loved ones to heal. I’ve brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and that you can stand up for yourself. In the process, I surprised myself at how brave I could be.”

Giggle, which was founded by Grover in 2020, has been offline since 2022 because of the court case. After working as an entertainment journalist, Grover had a career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, where she experienced sexual harassment. “I was in LA in the pre-MeToo era and it was as bad as everyone says,” she said.

She returned to Australia “a shell of a person” and had a “lightbulb moment” while in therapy about women needing strong female support, coming up with the idea for the app with her mother.

She said she was “devastated” at the recent verdict but says she “will never regret standing up for the truth, reality, rights, and women and girls”. She now wants to take the case to the Australian High Court, the country’s highest court, equivalent to the UK’s Supreme Court.

Last year the UK Supreme Court ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law, after the group For Women Scotland brought a case against the Scottish government.

“The UK Supreme Court is 100 per cent correct and has shown the world that it is possible to stand up to gender ideology and assert fact over fiction,” Grover said.

She believes “activists have managed to capture the majority of Australian institutions” and hopes an outcry over her court case could lead to similar change in Australia: “The political conversation is catching up”.

“It is basically a race in Australia to see if the High Court or politicians fix this issue first,” she added. “Politicians need to fix the law, that is obvious, but the High Court can reassert the need and reality of women’s right to women-only spaces.”

However, Paula Gerber, a professor of human rights law at Monash University in Melbourne, described the judgment in favour of Tickle as a “victory for women’s rights”.

Gerber says the Hay festival protester’s criticism of Gillard was “inflammatory and unfounded”, arguing the 2013 amendment “passed without the need for a formal vote because the bill enjoyed broad support across Labor, the Coalition and the Greens (Australia’s three most prominent political parties).

“Julia Gillard didn’t destroy women’s rights, she strengthened them, and the government she led drafted an Act that is a model for the world,” Gerber added. She called the UK Supreme Court decision “flawed”.

Grover hopes to relaunch her app one day and, if she does, she would not allow transgender women to use it. “No man will ever be on any woman-only platform I create. I don’t care how he identifies.”

She urged Gillard to make a public statement about the issue. “I think it would be a pivotal moment, where a lot of respect could be earned, if she admitted that the amendments were a mistake and they didn’t consider the unintended consequences of writing women out of law … it would be a major political moment.”

Julie Finch, Hay Festival’s chief executive, said the event was not cut short and there had never been plans to hold a Q&A. “Hay Festival exists as a charity to create spaces of accessible cultural exchange. We share diverse viewpoints across our platforms and continue to develop appropriate formats for nuanced debate,” she added.

Gillard, Tickle and Adler were approached for comment.

https://www.thetimes.com/world/australasia/article/sall-grover-giggle-tickle-hay-festival-julia-gillard-trans-zjvz9z9tc

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>>24636351

>>24648784

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>>24649831

The exchange which proved the absurdity of Australia’s gender laws

Terry Barnes - 31 May 2026

Almost 150 years ago, the famed British jurist A. V. Dicey wrote that sovereign parliaments ‘can do everything but make a man a woman, and a woman a man’. Yet in Australia, Britain and elsewhere, parliaments now have done just that. Ideological and legislative contortions over biological sex and gender fluidity have created concomitant absurdities, something crystallised by an Australian court case attracting global attention: the improbably-named Giggle v Tickle.

Roxanne Tickle was born male but identifies as female. Tickle had gender reassignment surgery and erased her birth name, with a new birth certificate.

Sall Grover is an Australian businesswoman running an online safe space for women called Giggle. She vets who applies to join Giggle. Tickle applied, providing a selfie for identification. Grover reviewed the photo and determined Tickle was not a woman; Tickle took Grover to court, and in 2024 not just won the case, but was awarded exemplary damages because Grover was amused by something in court, to which Tickle had taken offence.

Earlier this month, the full court of the Federal Court of Australia – equivalent to England’s Court of Appeal – handed down its decision. The full court not only upheld the trial judge’s decision that Tickle was unfairly and unlawfully discriminated against by Grover and Giggle, but the exemplary damages award against was doubled.

The trial judge’s reasoning was upheld: that gender is a fluid concept and not grounded in biological reality; that services intended for biological woman must be open to self-identified transgender women; and that all of this is sanctioned by a 2013 reworking of the definition of sex and gender in Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act, which extended the Act’s protections against discrimination to self-identified – transgender – women.

The furore around the Federal Court’s judgment has accelerated momentum for the law to be changed, both to safeguard the rights of biological women, and to afford them safe spaces lawfully excluding biological men, be that Grover’s online app, or physical spaces including women’s toilets and dressing rooms. With her party’s support, this week an Opposition MP, Alison Penfold, introduced a private member’s bill to do just that. Her second reading speech endorsing Sall Grover went viral, tweeted by J.K. Rowling amongst others.

Regardless of the higher principles at stake, the current law patently needs changing because of the absurdities it’s created. These were highlighted this week in a surreal exchange between a senator and former Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, and Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Anna Cody, at a parliamentary estimates hearing.

Cash asked Cody about how the Sex Discrimination Act protected pregnant women, and whether trans women were covered by it. After initially agreeing trans women, as biological males, couldn’t get pregnant, Cody became entangled in a self-created web of illogic, asserting that while trans women couldn’t become pregnant, they could be discriminated against as ‘potentially pregnant’.

‘I’m very confused. A biological male can’t become pregnant’, Cash responded, astonished. Cody then tried, tortuously, to explain her position that a trans woman looking for a job could be discriminated against if she looked to be of childbearing age, which would make her ‘potentially pregnant’.

‘So if a bloke came in and (an employer) said, “were they going to have children?”, and he said “yeah, maybe”, are you saying he could also claim that ground?’

‘No, not a man,’ said Cody.

‘But they’re both biological men, it makes no sense…a biological man can’t get pregnant’ snapped back Cash.

‘But a trans woman may be assumed to be pregnant, or to be able to be pregnant’, Cody responded, her very bureaucratic earnestness making her sound even more absurd.

‘So what’s stopping a man in a dress walking in and claiming the protections?’, asked Cash, closing for the kill.

‘That would be up to a court’, replied the hapless commissioner, effectively conceding being ‘a bloke in a dress’ is enough to qualify as trans in Australia.

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‘The law must change’, declared a victorious Cash. She had proved Australia’s gender definition law is an ass, and she’s absolutely right. Unfortunately, however, the Penfold bill won’t pass. The 2013 definitions were enacted by then Labor prime minister Julia Gillard, and her socially permissive Labor successor Anthony Albanese (whose own inner Sydney seat hosts a sizeable LGBT population) won’t have a bar it. ‘Look, I’m not engaging in cultural wars here’, he dismissively told an interviewer asking about the Opposition bill. Nor will left-leaning independents and the hard-left Australian Greens – whose deputy leader cannot bear to utter the word ‘grandfather’ and coined the ridiculous substitute ‘grandperson’ – support it.

But the parliamentary vote to block the bill will tell an unimpressed electorate which MPs are on the side of protecting biological women, and which ones aren’t. As in Britain, ensuring safe spaces for biological women has become a political fault line between the progressive political and cultural elites and the wider electorate. Giggle v Tickle, and how Australia’s judiciary so enthusiastically enforced the 2013 gender definition changes in the two judgments against Sall Grover, has cut through politically. It is what former Australian prime minister, John Howard, would call a ‘barbeque stopper’ conversation topic.

Grover insists she will take her case to the highest court of appeal, Australia’s High Court, hoping that common sense finally prevails, as it did in the UK Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling on the Equalities Act. Whether or not she succeeds, Sall Grover is a heroine of free speech and thought. Instead of being treated as a heretic and pariah by identity politics elites backing biological male Roxanne Tickle, for her daring to defy them, Grover deserves admiration for her courage in standing firm against the judicially-backed trans activists so determined to destroy her.

https://spectator.com/article/the-exchange-which-proved-the-absurdity-of-australias-gender-laws/

https://x.com/salltweets/status/2059210493227860393

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>>24665905

The nuclear substitutes: pressure mounts with AUKUS subs deadline

BEN PACKHAM - 31 May 2026

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Australia’s AUKUS timeline has been placed under fresh pressure amid revelations the navy will get three second-hand Virginia-class boats from the US, leaving little room for delay in the nation’s domestic submarine construction plan.

In the first major change to the pact at the heart of the nation’s military strategy, it has been ­revealed that Australia’s third ­nuclear boat would no longer be an advanced model straight off the US production line.

The submarine, scheduled for delivery in 2038, will instead be an in-service boat like those expected to arrive in 2032 and 2035, which will have about 20 years’ service life remaining of their original 33 years.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said operating three of the same Virginia-class variants would make the AUKUS plan simpler and cheaper for Australia, and there had been a “live conversation” over the move for the past three years.

“This is a complicated endeavour. In the context of that, simplicity comes at a premium,” he said. “I cannot overstate the significance of that, both in terms of the submariners who are operating them, but also the people who are working on them to sustain those submarines.”

The change of plan will come under scrutiny in Senate estimates this week, with opposition defence spokesman James Paterson demanding a “proper explanation from the government” for its deviation from the AUKUS “optimal pathway”.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth lavished praise on Australia, declaring the Albanese government was “stepping up” to contribute to collective defence and making “great progress” on the AUKUS plan. But he revealed in a later statement with Mr Marles and British Defence Secretary John Healey that there would be a new approach to “streamline” Australia’s acquisition of ­Virginia-class submarines.

“This approach would enable Australia to acquire three in-­service VCS in lieu of a mixture of new and in-service VCS variants,” they said, arguing it would simplify maintenance and maximise cost efficiencies.

The move follows long-running problems in the US submarine industry, which is producing just 1.3 Virginia-class boats a year – well under the 2.33 the US Navy says are needed to provide subs to Australia.

Australia has transferred $2.8bn to the Trump administration of a promised $4.5bn to help revive US submarine construction. The UK’s submarine industry, which Australia is relying on to design the new SSN AUKUS, is also under immense strain, and is getting another $4.5bn from Australian taxpayers.

Former navy warfare officer and Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia, Jennifer Parker, said the change of course would leave no margin for error in the AUKUS-class build in Adelaide, which is scheduled to deliver the first Australian-made nuclear-powered submarine in the mid-2040s.

“Acquiring three boats of the same class makes sense for training and sustainment,” she said.

“But the trade off is that the boats will have less operational life in the RAN. This does put pressure on the SSN AUKUS build.

“The UK have been averaging over a decade per boat for their Astute SSNs. Australia will not be able to afford delays in the build start date (for SSN AUKUS) or a lengthy production time.”

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Former Defence official Marcus Hellyer said he had “zero confidence” the AUKUS plan would proceed according to the government’s so-called “optimal pathway”, which he argued mirrored the “slow train wreck” of Australia’s wider shipbuilding plan.

He said the “glacial” uplift in the US Virginia-class submarine production rate was unlikely to hit two boats a year until “well into the 2030s”, at best, making it difficult for the US to hand over any of the boats to Australia.

Dr Hellyer said Australia would “never” have got a brand new Virginia class submarine in 2038, because it would “definitely” have undermined US submarine capability. He also backed Mr Marles’ push for a simpler option, saying it would have made “no sense” to have the a Virginia-class submarine that would have outlasted the earlier two and retire in the early 2070s.

“If they are only an intermediate transition stage in the plan, why would you invest all the money in getting brand new Virginias?” Dr Hellyer said.

Strategic Analysis Australia director Michael Shoebridge said the change was driven by the US, rather than Australia.

“The actual story is the US wants the new, more capable, easier-to-maintain Virginias for itself, and it’s doing this despite all the billions we’re handing over upfront,” he said.

He said the vacillating over the program came as China roared ahead with its construction of nuclear-powered attack submarines, building ten in the last five years.

“Their latest Type 95 submarine looks like it’s getting close to the Virginia-class in terms of capability, and their pace of production of submarines is outpacing the AUKUS nations,” Mr Shoebridge said. “So the Americans are going to get even more concerned about their fleet numbers.”

The decision also raised the ire of Labor’s internal AUKUS critics.

Labor Against War national convener Marcus Strom said: “Richard Marles is selling the fact he’s been dudded, forced to take dodgy Pete Hegseth’s second-hand subs as ‘significant savings’.

“The fact is (that) for the US, whether Australia gets submarines is unimportant. For America, AUKUS is about gaining forward operating bases against China for nuclear weapons capable subs and bombers – and forcing Canberra to pay billions in tribute for the privilege.”

Some of the most staunch AUKUS supporters have also expressed their doubts over the program. Last week, Australia’s former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey said he was “a little nervous” about the plan because America had been unable to lift submarine production.

“Ninety per cent of the Virginia is handmade, and they are running out of labour,” he said.

“We are confident that there’s great integration. We’ve got crew on the Virginias – there’s no problem at a military-to-military or bureaucracy-to-bureaucracy level. It’s just a question of whether they can actually build the Virginias.”

Former US Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the chair of Perth-based shipbuilder Austal, said last week the Australian and US governments were moving too slowly on AUKUS.

Mr Hegseth’s praise for Australia at the Shangri-La Dialogue was in stark contrast to his admonishment of other US allies, lashing those who sought to “free ride” on America.

“The era of the United States subsidising the defence of wealthy nations is over,” he said.

Mr Marles used his speech to the region’s premier defence conference to warn a surge in damage to subsea cables had transformed the seabed into a “battlefield”.

He urged greater transparency from Beijing around its maritime operations and tighter international controls over “shadow fleet” vessels.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/the-nuclear-substitutes-pressure-mounts-with-aukus-subs-deadline/news-story/9f4537a4c6a7d6bc78ed892f11d58a6f

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>>24663327

COMMENTARY: PM must be honest about depth of US defence alliance

PETER JENNINGS - 1 June 2026

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The submarine announcements made in Singapore show that Australia and the US are preparing to fight together should deterrence fail in the Indo-Pacific.

This is the strategic logic of AUKUS. It is also a tale of two technologies – old submarines and new unmanned vessels. We are putting more money and priority on old subs, but the new technology is potentially the war winner.

In public comments before meeting his US and British counterparts, Defence Minister Richard Marles claimed “the biggest leap in Australia’s military capability in more than a century” will be realised, if and when in the 2040s nuclear-powered submarines will be built in Adelaide.

The Defence Minister did not mention a big concession Australia has made to the US, which is that we will not, in the interim, receive newly built Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s.

One had to read deep into the AUKUS joint statement to discover that, in an effort to simplify “supply chain management, operational and maintenance requirements, and maximising cost efficiencies”, Australia will take three in-service Virginia-class subs “in lieu of a mixture of new and in-service VCS variants”.

Virginia-class submarines are designed around life-of-ship nuclear reactor cores intended to operate for roughly 33 years without refuelling.

The current plan is that Australia will receive the first Virginia submarine in 2032, the second in 2035 and third in 2038. They are meant to be so-called block IV boats, the first of which is the USS Vermont, commissioned in 2020 with an expected life to 2053. If the Vermont were to transition to the Royal Australian Navy in 2032, we could plan for at best 21 years of remaining service life.

The block IV Virginias are designed to have three major overhauls in their service lives, during which time they’ll be out of the water for an extended period. Will our boats arrive needing an extended refit or will the US have done the scheduled major overhaul before delivery? The answer to that question involves tens of billions of dollars in cost and time.

The decision to receive second-hand Virginia boats may well be the right strategy for Australia. We can at least be assured that the design is good and the boats are fit for purpose.

An even more significant announcement from the AUKUS ministers in Singapore was that of the “first AUKUS Pillar II Signature Project: developing cutting-edge payloads” for uncrewed undersea vehicles.

The joint statement said these payloads would “protect critical national seabed infrastructure; deploy cutting-edge surveillance, reconnaissance and strike capabilities; conduct logistics operations, and; bolster superiority in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare, and contested littoral manoeuvre”.

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The most interesting force structure development in the past half decade has been the design and delivery of the greyhound bus-sized Ghost Shark UUV.

This has been a project delivered at lightning speed involving innovation driven by the private sector and produced on a greenfield factory site in Sydney, with the first Ghost Sharks already in service. The project represents everything defence procurement is not: fast, innovative, creative and relatively low-cost.

Looking at Ghost Shark, one wonders if Australia will ever again build crewed submarines. By the time Australia hopes to build SSN-AUKUS boats in the 2040s, autonomous underwater systems will be doing much of the work we now assign to crewed vessels.

If the payloads for Ghost Shark arrive as advertised in 2027, that is an important and valuable development and one that will worry the hell out of the Chinese. Australians are too distracted by Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts. In terms of defence engagement in Asia there is an impressive story to tell. The US continues to deepen and strengthen defence ties with South Korea, Japan, The Philippines and indeed Australia. A lot of focused effort is leading to important change.

Speaking at the Shangri La dialogue, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke in positive terms about America’s Asian allies “stepping up” to do more on defence.

Hegseth’s surprisingly benign comment on Australia was: “Together, we are expanding the rotational presence of US forces and collaborating to ensure our defence-industrial base build and sustain weapons required for a high-end fight. We appreciate Australia’s investment in real combat power and the commitment to integrate more deeply with the US joint force.”

Hegseth’s speech put a powerful case for closer alliances in the guise of “America First” language. Note the phrases “high-end fight” and “integrate more deeply”. Marles understands this, but he and Anthony Albanese are not coming clean with the Australian public about what this really means.

Since the announcement of the US Marine Corps deployments to northern Australia in 2011, the alliance co-operation story has been about building a shared defence-industrial base and establishing the foundations for closer American and Australian military integration.

Australia’s US alliance is not just an add-on to our defence planning, it is absolutely central to how we think about defending the country. But this is coming at a time when Australian trust of the US alliance is at its lowest, seemingly because of a dislike of President Trump. We need to set aside the emotional reactions to Trump and focus instead on a clear-eyed assessment of our security needs.

Australia has no exit strategy from its own region and no credible defence plan beyond the US alliance. It is increasingly critical for the government to explain this reality to the Australian people.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/pm-must-be-honest-about-depth-of-us-defence-alliance/news-story/1f65bdc99315a05a9c41f104b759c7cc

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Morrissey said his client had not undertaken anti-terrorism programs since her return as the process was all “a bit much” for her.

“She saw a law-abiding, loving household as the way forward for her children and herself. She’s a highly traumatised individual,” he said. “She indicates she’s most prepared to undertake that program and any others. She is able and willing to engage in any way required.”

Morrissey said he hoped a risk assessment report could be produced to the court from a psychologist, but this could take time and his client was eager to apply for bail to be with her children.

The court heard El Houli had recently developed significant health problems including a possible diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

The prosecution opposed bail, arguing there would be a real risk to the community if El Houli were released.

El Houli was charged on May 28 after returning to Australia on September 26 last year with another woman.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Hilda Sirec told a press conference in Canberra last week that an investigation into the second woman was continuing, as well as an investigation into “all the women that returned recently”.

When asked why Operation Kurrajong, launched in 2015 into Australian citizens overseas with links to Islamic State, had taken so long to secure El Houli’s arrest, Sirec said: “These are highly complex matters.”

“We need to be able to take the time and effort to make sure that the evidence is admissible and to a legal standard.”

Hannan adjourned the hearing until psychological reports could be obtained. A committal mention hearing is scheduled for September.

A mother and daughter who were among four women and nine children who arrived in Australia last month after spending years in a refugee camp in north-east Syria will apply for bail later this week on slavery charges.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/isis-bride-accused-of-trying-to-indoctrinate-children-into-terrorism-before-return-to-australia-20260601-p602px.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6htnTAHXG-Q

>>24648876

‘Bike boy’ saga: Ryan Meuleman fronts court from custody, charged with carjacking

LILY MCCAFFREY - 1 June 2026

“Bike boy” Ryan Meuleman, who is suing former premier Daniel Andrews for defamation, has faced court from custody on an unrelated matter, charged with carjacking and breaching bail.

Mr Meuleman was seriously injured as a teenager in a 2013 collision with a Ford Territory driven by Mr Andrews’ wife, Catherine. Mr Andrews, who was opposition leader at the time, was also in the car.

Mr Meuleman – who became known as “bike boy” – is in the midst of suing the couple in the Federal Court, alleging they defamed him in a 2024 media statement.

Mr Meuleman appeared via video link from custody in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court for the unrelated criminal matter against him on Monday.

Mr Meuleman has been charged with offences relating to carjacking with a child in the car, vehicle theft and breach of bail.

In a brief appearance before Magistrate Frances Medina, lawyer Savannah Westwood from Tony Hargreaves and Partners, successfully applied for an adjournment.

Ms Westwood told the court she had only received funds in trust on Friday so hadn’t yet had the opportunity to properly case conference the matter.

Mr Meuleman, who wore a white T-shirt with his hair cut short, did not speak during the short hearing. Ms Medina adjourned his case for a further mention on June 19.

Mr Meuleman began defamation proceedings against Mr and Ms Andrews in the Federal Court late last year, nearly 13 years on from the collision. He alleged that a media statement issued by the couple in 2024 defamed him.

Mr and Ms Andrews are fighting the claim, and in their defence filed with the court have alleged Mr Meuleman was suing them for publicity and to advance other people’s personal and political agendas. Mr and Ms Andrews have always denied any wrongdoing in relation to the 2013 collision.

Victoria Police investigated the incident and never laid charges.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/bike-boy-saga-ryan-meuleman-fronts-court-from-custody-charged-with-carjacking/news-story/d82c2dd7ebd3b6e4c02239dde5ab7113

>>24415989 (pb)

‘We’re not spies’, Chinese diplomat insists as he calls for closer ties with Australia

In his first Australian interview, Consul General Fang Xinwen has said casting Beijing as a threat to Australia will “backfire”, and warned against missing opportunities in trade and robotics.

Carly Douglas and Stephen Drill - May 30, 2026

Chinese businesspeople and scientists working in Australia are “not spies”, one of the nation’s most senior diplomats says, warning that casting Beijing as a threat to this country will “backfire”.

In his first Australian interview, consul general Fang Xinwen also revealed that China was keen to host more AFL games.

And Mr Fang is promoting the widespread take-up of Chinese-built humanoid robots in Australian households.

Amid Donald Trump’s unending war on Iran, he warned that the world must not return to the “laws of the jungle”.

Mr Fang urged Anthony Albanese to “stay in the same boat” as China, regardless of whether that could undermine our longstanding alliance with the US.

While Australia’s intelligence experts have repeatedly flagged concerns over espionage operations, identifying Chinese businesses and scientists as potential threats, Mr Fang said: “They are not spies, they are here to do business.”

In a face-to-face interview he added that Chinese professionals working in Australia or trying to do business deals often faced too many restrictions.

Mr Fang, the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Melbourne, said: “We are partners, not rivals. We are friends, not foes.

“There should be a better business environment here.

“I think more and more Chinese businesspeople and investors could be here.”

Mike Burgess, head of Australia’s spy agency ASIO, warned last year that Chinese-backed hackers were trying to sabotage Australia’s water, electricity, internet and mobile phone networks.

In February last year, the Australian government also banned staff from downloading Chinese-owned AI platform DeepSeek.

But Mr Fang insisted there was no need to be “scared” of Chinese investment, claiming China “fully protects the intellectual property rights”.

“We should never go too far or maximise the so-called threat,” he said.

“That kind of a threat will – just like a boomerang – it will go back to hit yourself, or backfire.”

PING-PONG DIPLOMACY

Mr Fang said China wanted to become closer to Australia, suggesting that AFL games could return to Chinese cities such as Shanghai for the first time in five years.

“There are some unique beauty of this game and we can give full support to any training or exhibition or friendship match of the Australian football teams to China,” he said.

“They did the matches some years ago, and we should continue this training. Should there be any club in Victoria who would like to go to China … we will do our best.”

Three AFL clubs – Port Adelaide, Gold Coast Suns and St Kilda – played regular-season premiership matches in China before the Covid pandemic at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai.

Mr Fang suggested games could also be played in mid-sized cities, saying if more people understood and watched the game it could really take off in China.

An AFL spokesman said it had no short-term plans to return to China.

With a seeming nod to the 1970s “ping-pong diplomacy” phenomenon that helped open diplomatic relations between Australia and China under the Whitlam government, Mr Fang suggested that more table tennis should also be arranged between Chinese and Australian teams.

He’s so keen on the sport he’s even installed a mini table tennis table in his Melbourne consulate office.

Mr Fang said he would like to see Australia assert its influence with the US and Donald Trump regarding the Iran War. China bought 1.4 million barrels of oil from Tehran each day before the Strait of Hormuz was blockaded.

Amid global fears over the reliability of fuel supplies due to the US-Iran conflict, Mr Fang urged Australia to get more involved in the global effort to persuade the two nations to establish a long-term agreement.

“China and Australia should shoulder the common responsibility or share the tasks to maintain regional and world peace,” Mr Fang said.

“As long as we are in difficult times we should work together and stay in the same boat to combat the storms, and then we can sail smoothly after the difficult time.

“If not, if we just become the onlookers or undoers of this crisis, the impacts will come, definitely.”

His ambitions for a closer relationship with Australia come despite lingering tension over China’s claims to Taiwan, which could result in conflict with the US as soon as next year.

China’s President Xi Jinping told Mr Trump on his visit to Beijing this month that mishandling the question on Taiwan’s independence could lead to a “highly perilous situation”.

(continued)

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RESTRICTIONS ARE ‘TOO RICH’

Mr Fang also said there was too much bureaucratic meddling in Chinese investment in Australia.

Victoria has close links with China, with Premier Jacinta Allan donning a hard hat and a high-vis vest to inspect tunnel boring machines in Deyang, near Chengdu, during her five-day trade mission in China last September.

Chinese-built TBMs will carve out a passage for Victoria’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop under a $1.7bn deal. Tunnel works will also be carried out under a $6.7bn deal by a consortium led by the Chinese-owned company John Holland. That deal piqued the interest of Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, which just last week prompted Treasurer Jim Chalmers to order six Chinese-linked companies to sell their shares in a major Australian rare earth miner.

But Mr Fang said such fears were unfounded, adding that often drawn-out FIRB processes had blocked key Chinese technology over exaggerated and “biased” security concerns.

“There have been many restrictions on the industries or on the areas that the Chinese company could or could not attend,” he said.

“I think the procedure drags long, and restrictions on Chinese companies are too rich sometimes, so many Chinese companies with their unique technical know-how and their good experience cannot come down to Victoria, to Melbourne, for those reasons.”

Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China – signed by former premier Daniel Andrews who once controversially posed for local media while taking a call in Tiananmen Square – was torpedoed in 2021 by the federal government citing national security concerns.

With more than 450,000 Chinese tourists visiting Victoria last year, Mr Fang welcomed a plan by Premier Jacinta Allan to nearly double that number by 2029.

Ms Allan outlined the plan in Beijing last year as part of her new China Strategy, putting her on a collision course with the federal government over a push to bring thousands more international students to Melbourne.

“The more, the better,” the consul general said.

Mr Fang has forged close ties with Ms Allan, and while he was appointed after Mr Andrews quit politics, it is understood he and other consulate staff have maintained a close relationship with the ex-premier, who has travelled to China regularly for business.

The consul general said he had been working closely with the Allan government to deliver her China Strategy, including shipping Victorian-made products to China.

“I’ve kept close contact with the Premier and the state government and all the officials at different levels,” Mr Fang said.

ROBOTS? WHY NOT?

Chinese consumers remain crucial to Victoria’s economy.

Farmers last year exported $5bn worth of food and fibre to China, our biggest export market.

China is also our biggest import market, with Australians spending $82bn on Chinese goods, driven by spending on electronic equipment, machinery and now cars.

Mr Fang sidestepped any criticism of Victoria, declining to comment on whether racism, housing or crime created issues for Chinese migrants and visitors.

He did, however, share one gentle observation of many visitors – it is too hard to get a coffee after 3pm.

“Should the visitors, Chinese visitors, enjoy a cup of coffee after 2.30 or 3?” Mr Fang said.

“That would be nicer, in my view.”

Mr Fang is also keen to showcase China’s impressive robotics, envisioning human-like robots assisting Australians with their day-to-day tasks at home.

“Why not?” he said.

Chinese technologies are not new to Australia – autonomous lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners are already in many households.

A Chinese humanoid robot set a record for a half marathon in China in April, completing a 21km course in 50min 26sec – seven minutes faster than its human rival.

And Mr Fang hopes more people choose Chinese-built robots, which have already been showcased in Melbourne at tech expos.

“This year, with the updates of the technology, the human androids or some more smarter, clever robots could be brought here,” he said.

Despite widespread trepidation over the use of robots, including long-held fears they may one day take over the paid work of humans, Mr Fang says there is no reason to fear the technology.

“They should not replace humans, but they should be a very helpful hand to lift the burden of the workers and their businesspeople,” he said.

“We are the master of this technology.

“We should not be the slave of this technology.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/were-not-spies-chinese-diplomat-insists-as-he-calls-for-closer-ties-with-australia/news-story/dfec0216ed4adb79cd9947a6ad904e7c

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Inside court, Mr James said that, because his client’s alleged statements were made in NSW, the video was recorded, at least in part, in the state and should be subject to local law.

“The conversation occurs in NSW, the sound is captured in NSW, thus recorded if not exclusively, certainly in NSW and the intent was to capture it in NSW,” he said.

Because neither Mr Nadir nor Ms Abu Lebdeh consented to having their “private conversation” recorded, the video was “obtained illegally and it was intended to be used illegally”, he said.

Mr James added that there was “no evidence” to suggest his client should have expected to be overheard or recorded.

“There was no reason for them to expect that Mr Ilinski would have gone worldwide,” he told the court.

As he is “not a lawyer”, Mr Ilinski said he was unaware of the precise rules regarding recording conversations outside of Israel.

In February, Ms Lebdeh pleaded not guilty to threatening violence to a group and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

The 27-year old originally faced three offences, but a charge of using a carriage service to threaten to kill was dropped by prosecutors last September.

Mr Nadir also pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. He was previously charged with the state offence of possessing a prohibited drug last year, which he pleaded not guilty to in September.

The pair have been stood down from their jobs by NSW Health and issued a two-year ban from working with NDIS participants.

Their trial, set to begin on August 31, is expected to span five days.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nurses-from-kill-threat-video-sought-out-israelis-online-a-court-has-heard/news-story/bbe7a8659ff343196172993ea29ba12c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX8Taw04bcw

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGB7VDnoGDF/

https://qresear.ch/?q=Max+Veifer

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>>24447120 (pb)

Malaysia enforces ban on social media for children

Eileen Ng - June 1 2026

Malaysia has begun enforcing rules barring millions of children younger than 16 from social media, joining a global effort to tighten online safety protections for young users.

The rules require social media platforms to implement age-verification systems and block users under 16 from creating accounts. They apply to platforms with at least eight million users, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Companies that fail to comply could face penalties of up to 10 million ringgit ($A3.5 million).

But parents whose children manage to bypass the law will not be penalised.

The government said the measures are aimed at protecting children from harmful content, cyberbullying and platform features designed to encourage excessive use.

Other countries including Australia, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social media.

Countries including Britain, France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are also studying or developing similar approaches.

Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission said the rules aren’t intended to prevent children from accessing the internet or digital technology.

Instead it set expectations for service providers to address online harms and ensure age-appropriate safeguards are in place.

“These measures help strengthen the protection of children in the online environment, while providing added reassurance to parents in navigating increasingly complex digital risks,” the regulator said in a statement last month.

Platforms will be required to introduce safety-by-design features, including protections against manipulative design that encourages compulsive use, and take action against underage accounts and harmful content.

Technology companies have yet to detail how they will comply with the requirements.

The regulator said a grace period will be given for platforms to complete implementation of age-verification systems.

Clara Koh, Meta’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia, had cautioned in April that Malaysia’s blanket under-16 ban could backfire by driving teenagers away from protected apps and into unregulated corners of the internet.

She said Meta has launched “teen accounts” for those under 18 that limits contact, screen time and exposure to inappropriate content.

Benjamin Loh, social science lecturer at Monash University in Malaysia said experiences elsewhere suggest age-based restrictions have yet to prove consistently effective.

Without parent penalties, he said families can easily bypass the law by creating accounts for their children.

“This is a major gap that unless regulators are willing to fix, will result in the law having little effect in stopping children from using social media,” he added.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9270197/malaysia-enforces-ban-on-social-media-for-children/

>>24621731

NRL distances itself from Broncos’ decision to invite Ben Roberts-Smith into dressing sheds

Christian Nicolussi - June 1, 2026

Ben Roberts-Smith’s surprise appearance in the Brisbane Broncos dressing sheds on Sunday afternoon is expected to be a one-off.

The NRL on Monday distanced itself from the Broncos’ decision to allow Roberts-Smith into their inner sanctum following the loss to St George Illawarra.

The former soldier has been charged with multiple war crimes over the alleged murders of unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners.

He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for each charge. The former SAS corporal has rejected the charges, saying, “I categorically deny all of these allegations”.

Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed Roberts-Smith had accompanied his daughters to the Broncos’ game against St George Illawarra after they were invited to attend by the spouse of a club staff member who knows the girls through school connections.

Roberts-Smith, the same sources confirmed, is friends with Broncos welfare officer Adam Walsh, a former SAS soldier with whom he served overseas.

The Broncos refused to comment on the matter, but the sources confirmed Roberts-Smith had not been a guest of the club, did not visit the club’s chairman’s lounge during the game, and that most of the players had no idea he was in their inner sanctum.

The sources added that Roberts-Smith would not be banned from attending future games, but stressed Sunday’s was an impromptu visit and that he had not been invited by the club.

Senior figures at the NRL were unaware Roberts-Smith had been invited into the Broncos’ sheds, but later said it was a matter for the club who they wanted to invite to their dressing room.

When spotted by The Courier Mail in the sheds, Roberts-Smith said on Sunday: “The Broncos invited my daughters today because of all the things they have been through, and we were very grateful.”

Roberts-Smith has been accused of kicking an Afghan civilian off a cliff, and directing a subordinate to execute a man in September 2012. He is also alleged to have executed a prisoner with a prosthetic leg during an Easter Sunday mission in Afghanistan in 2009.

Roberts-Smith’s case has been set down for a brief status mention, an administrative court hearing, on Thursday.

On the field, the Broncos were stunned by the Dragons, who had not won in 295 days. Returning prop Payne Haas was clearly upset by the effort, and told ABC Sport after the game: “We’re all talk at the moment. We keep saying we’re going to do all these important things on the field, but to be honest, we’re BS-ing each other.”

Meanwhile, the Broncos’ hopes of defending their title have been dealt a blow with representative forward Pat Carrigan facing up to a month on the sidelines with a syndesmosis injury that will keep him out of Origin II.

Fellow Maroon Gehamat Shibasaki is out for up to six weeks because of a grade-two MCL injury.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-distances-itself-from-broncos-decision-to-invite-ben-roberts-smith-into-dressing-sheds-20260601-p602o5.html

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/ben-robertssmiths-bizarre-sighting-inside-brisbane-broncos-dressing-room/news-story/b6d2cca990213ebe476e9f69f11a9886

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>>24648147

>>24659794

>>24659807

Antisemitism royal commission rejects federal government's bid to keep cabinet documents confidential

Holly Tregenza - 1 June 2026

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has rejected the federal government's bid to keep cabinet documents about counterterrorism funding secret.

The federal government had made a public interest immunity claim over the documents, which Attorney-General Michelle Rowland defended as standard procedure for matters related to cabinet.

But royal commissioner Virginia Bell found it was in the public interest for the inquiry to access the documents, so it could make a full assessment of whether intelligence and law enforcement agencies did their job in the lead-up to the Bondi terror attack.

The prime minister's department secretary, Steven Kennedy, had argued the cabinet documents should be protected because ministers relied on the assumption their meetings would be confidential.

He said releasing them could result in a lack of "candour" going forward.

But while Ms Bell acknowledged Mr Kennedy's concerns, she said there were "no issue of disclosure to the public or to another party" because only she and those who read her confidential report would ever read the contents.

In her finding, Ms Bell said she had weighed the public interest in disclosure of the documents against the public interest in maintaining confidentiality.

The ruling found the documents were critical to allow the commission to conduct a "thorough examination of the issues raised" in relation to counterterrorism funding.

Ms Bell also said access to the documents would provide a comparison of the resourcing given to counterterrorism before and after August 2024, when the terror threat level was raised to "probable".

"In the context of the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack on 14 December 2025, the question of whether intelligence and law enforcement agencies performed to maximum effectiveness requires consideration of the priority given to, and the resourcing of, counter-terrorism by each agency," she wrote.

What is in the documents?

The royal commission had sought access to nine documents that included files from the Finance Department and Australian Federal Police, as well as seven cabinet memoranda.

At the heart of these documents is a question of whether the counterterrorism budget declined between 2020 and 2025.

The government had repeatedly insisted that Australia's national security agencies, including ASIO, have had funding increases since Labor came to office in 2022.

In a written submission to the royal commission, spy boss Mike Burgess made clear that ASIO was not asked by the government to shift resources away from counterterrorism.

"ASIO was not directed by any minister between January 1, 2023 and November 2025 to reduce [counterterror] efforts to service other priorities," he said.

"I am not aware of any such decision or direction by any minister to any [intelligence] agency."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-01/antisemitism-royal-counterterrorism-bondi-terror-attack/106743974

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Mr Garrett said he hoped the government would be among those presenting to the inquiry and welcomed submissions from people with a range of political views.

"The AUKUS decision is the most momentous and expensive decision ever made by any Australia government in the modern era," he said.

The rock star turned politician has named retired admiral Chris Barrie, former WA premier Carmen Lawrence, Yankunytjatjara woman Karina Lester and Australia Institute co-chief executive Leanne Minshull as "commissioners'' for the probe.

Mr Barrie, who was chief of the defence force between 1998 and 2002, said it was important to have a thorough look at Australia's defence commitments and its alliance with the US and UK.

"My fear … is that the kinds of expenditures, and the kinds of workforce, and the way in which we would go about supporting something like AUKUS, might drain other parts of our defence force," he said.

Asked about Mr Husic's contribution during Labor's caucus meeting, Treasurer Jim Chalmers would not be drawn.

"We support the AUKUS arrangements, and I don't get into the details of discussions in the parliamentary party," he told reporters in Canberra.

Western Australian Labor MP Josh Wilson has also previously raised questions about the nuclear submarine deal.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9277320/friendly-fire-labor-figures-question-aukus-commitment/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vo13CcVoRI

https://austpeaceandsecurityforum.org.au/

https://aukuspublicinquiry.netlify.app/

https://chuffed.org/project/173009-public-inquiry-into-aukus

>>24611802

>>24663282

>>24669493

‘Where’s the plan B?’: Ed Husic goes nuclear on AUKUS

Matthew Knott - June 2, 2026

Former Labor cabinet minister Ed Husic has broken ranks to call for a rethink of the AUKUS pact after the revelation the United States only plans to sell Australia second-hand nuclear-powered submarines.

Husic’s intervention in a caucus meeting on Tuesday came as former Labor minister Peter Garrett and former defence force chief Chris Barrie announced they would lead a crowd-funded inquiry into AUKUS, labelling the $368 billion project as “controversial and secretive”.

Husic, who served as industry minister until he was demoted to the backbench in a reshuffle last May, joined calls for the government to develop a “Plan B” in case the promised submarines do not arrive as promised.

The Coalition said the comments revealed division within Labor about AUKUS and called for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to enforce discipline within his caucus.

“You do wonder whether or not we will get the deal, even the reconfigured one that we have got,” Husic told reporters at Parliament House.

Earlier, during Labor’s caucus meeting, he questioned whether the original caucus vote on AUKUS was valid given the changes to the scheme.

“That deal versus what we’ve got now are different,” Husic said.

“I think that it now gives us a moment to think about whether or not the deal should be reconfigured, or what are the contingencies.”

Asking “what’s the plan B?” Husic said he was concerned sluggish American submarine production rates meant the US would not have any to spare for Australia.

“You’ve seen within the broader [Labor] movement a general disquiet about the nature of the deal itself,” Husic said.

“But putting all that aside, there’s an issue about reality confronting us about whether or not we will even get the new deal that has been put to us.”

The AUKUS defence ministers announced over the weekend that Australia would now acquire three second-hand submarines from the US rather than two used and one new submarine as originally planned.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the shift would reduce complexity and save money for taxpayers.

“I’d imagine that in the circumstances he’s been placed, he would have to say that,” Husic replied.

He said he was also concerned about what US President Donald Trump could ask in return from Australia for backing AUKUS.

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said Albanese was facing a “full-on Labor revolt” when it comes to Australia’s signature defence policy, accusing Husic of launching “a direct challenge to the authority of the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles”.

“It’s a result of Labor’s mismanagement of the delivery of AUKUS and Richard Marles’ failure, along with the prime minister, to make the case for AUKUS,” Paterson said.

Senior Labor sources have privately insisted the government originally preferred to acquire three submarines of the same type, even if the ultimate impetus for the change was a review last year by senior Pentagon official and AUKUS sceptic Elbridge Colby.

Former Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the change to all second-hand submarines reinforced that AUKUS was a “big, expensive, challenging project”.

“There are going to be bumps along the way and we have to expect that,” he said.

Garrett, a long-time anti-nuclear campaigner who has previously blasted the AUKUS pact, said a public inquiry was needed because it is “the most momentous and expensive decision ever made by any Australian government in the modern era”.

The inquiry, funded by donations from the public, will hold public hearings and receive submissions.

Barrie, who led the defence force from 1998 to 2002, said he had previously supported Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, but he now had “serious concerns” about AUKUS, including that it could draw Australia into a war with China.

Independent MP Monique Ryan joined fellow crossbenchers to demand more scrutiny of the AUKUS pact.

“It’s a national embarrassment that a former Labor minister is crowdfunding for an independent inquiry into AUKUS,” Ryan said.

Perth MP Josh Wilson was previously the only Labor MP to speak out against AUKUS, arguing in the lead-up to the last election that he believed acquiring nuclear-powered submarines was “not in the national interest”.

“We have embarked on an excruciatingly long, complex, fraught and costly endeavour that, in my view, remains substantially unexplained and unjustified,” he wrote for the Foreign Affairs journal in 2024.

He has since been promoted to the front bench, limiting his ability to speak out.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/where-s-the-plan-b-ed-husic-goes-nuclear-on-aukus-20260602-p6036f.html

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>>24663282

>>24669493

Joe Courtney says AUKUS changes will still serve Australia well

JOE KELLY - 2 June 2026

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Joe Courtney, co-chair of the Friends of Australia caucus in the US congress, says the fundamentals of the trilateral security partnership remain “very strong” despite proposed changes to the expected mix of Virginia-class submarines to be sold to Australia.

The leading congressional champion for the AUKUS partnership said it was his “expectation” that Australia would now receive three in-service Block IV Virginia-class submarines under the AUKUS arrangements.

His discussions with US Navy leadership led him to conclude that Virginia-class submarines from earlier blocks would not be sold because they were too far into their service lives and America was committed to providing Canberra with a long-lasting capability.

Mr Courtney also welcomed the AUKUS Defence Ministers’ announcement on May 30, which unveiled the first AUKUS Pillar II signature project: the development of uncrewed undersea vehicles, with delivery starting in 2027.

He argued the uncrewed vessels would free up crewed submarines for higher-priority missions. However, on Pillar II, Mr Courtney warned there had been “a ton of frustration about the fact that nobody knows who is in charge”.

He personally felt it should still have a “much stronger centre of gravity” and stressed it was important “to really get Pillar II much more institutionalised so that people actually know who to contact in terms of trying to get the benefits of that part of AUKUS.”

The Pentagon also told The Australian it remained fully committed to delivering Virginia-class submarines to Australia under the AUKUS security partnership, arguing the proposal to provide three in-service Virginia-class submarines was “intended to simplify Australian operation and sustainment”. This would have benefits across a range of areas including “workforce training, main­tenance, supply chain manage­ment, and operational activities”.

The Pentagon said it would also create “cost efficiencies”, while “putting the program on the strongest possible footing.”

“The United States remains committed to delivering AUKUS and supporting Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability,” the spokesperson said.

“As reflected in the May 30 AUKUS Defence Ministers’ Meeting Joint Statement, the proposed approach would streamline Australia’s acquisition of Virginia-class submarines by enabling the acquisition of three in-service submarines in lieu of a mix of new and in-service variants.”

Mr Courtney said it was now his expectation that Australia would receive three in-service Block IV Virginia-class submarines, rather than a package that included a future Block VII boat.

But Mr Courtney, the ranking Democrat on the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, stressed this would not necessarily result in a significantly shorter service life for Australia’s proposed nuclear submarine fleet.

“It’s important to begin with the basics,” he said. “Which is that a Virginia sub has a 33-year lifespan. There’s just no question that if you are careful in terms of (the) operation of a submarine, the service life can be longer than 33 years,” he said. “That’s important to begin the conversation.”

(continued)

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Block IV Virginia-class submarines first started to enter service in 2020 and continue to be commissioned, with new boats joining the fleet in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

With the first submarine due to be sold to Australia in 2032, Mr Courtney said it was a question of doing the math. “You’re going to have … a very significant service life,” he said.

“Some might pose different scenarios where you are taking older Virginia-class subs from prior blocks but my conversations with US Navy leadership is that they are definitely committed to making sure that Australia gets a good in-service submarine that is going to be usable for certainly the majority of the service life of the submarine. Submarines from earlier blocks would be really starting to get on the back-end of their service life. I don’t see this as some huge modification.”

Mr Courtney who represents Groton, Connecticut, home to General Dynamics Electric Boat – the primary builder of Virginia and Columbia-class submarines – said that by the end of the 2030s the production, delivery and cadence of Virginia-class submarines would be “a lot more robust”.

He said it was his firm belief that the US Navy was “committed to giving Australia high-quality nuclear powered submarines that are going to be a real solution to that submarine (capability) gap.”

He also said the proposed change could present advantages for Australia, especially with US nuclear submarine rotations beginning at HMAS Stirling in Perth from 2027.

“I do think that there’s going to be some real rhythm and muscle memory that’s going to be building up in terms of the submarines that will be in that block cohort coming through Perth and on a regular basis,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesman told The Australian that existing statutory authorities passed by the US congress would continue to “govern the requirements and preconditions for any submarine transfer to Australia and AUKUS”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/joe-courtney-says-aukus-changes-will-still-serve-australia-well/news-story/e2929fa8e127e3993ecc5362eebfc97b

>>24611309

>>24611677

>>24616846

>>24618462

Jewish leader warns ‘blue collar’ activist group is a sinister ‘neo-Nazi front’

DAMON JOHNSTON - June 01, 2026

A Jewish community leader has raised concerns that a Melbourne group dedicated to “blue-collar activism” is a front organisation for white-supremacy supporters.

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich fears the National Workers Alliance, which has recently launched a recruiting drive, has an antisemitic agenda. Dr Abramovich said NWA activists were distributing recruiting pamphlets calling on people to “join our active club” if they are “from the working class, a producer not a parasite (and) family orientated”.

“The National Workers ­Alliance pamphlet is one of the most sophisticated and sinister examples white-supremacy rebranding and disguise I have seen,” he told The Australian.

“This group has studied precisely how previous neo-Nazi ­organisations in Australia were exposed and designated as a terrorist organisation and has built a sophisticated layer of plausible deniability designed to survive that scrutiny.

“The playbook is simple and it is chilling. Take the raw ugliness of hate, wrap it in the language of the working man, add a fitness culture, a sense of brotherhood, a glossy logo, and a list of policy ­positions that sound almost reasonable on the surface.

“Then let the pipeline do its work by drawing people in through the legitimate-sounding front door and walking them, step by step, toward the ideology that was always waiting at the end of the corridor.”

The NWA was formed several years ago, has organised rallies and declares that “nationalism is rising” in its promotional material and social media accounts.

It has rejected any links or ­association to the neo-Nazi movement. “We are a standalone movement and are not associated with neo-Nazi organisations,” an NWA spokesman said. “I have never been a member of any neo-Nazi organisations.”

The spokesman described the group as “an organisation that is from the working class and believes that it is healthy for young men to have a sense of brotherhood and to become involved in a fitness culture”. He challenged “anyone to find anything hateful” about the group. The NWA said “white ­supremacy” was a term that “plays on emotion and implies evil”. “We are not rebranding or … in disguise, we are simply an ­organisation that advocates for people of European descent,” the he said.

The NWA’s pamphlet says the group holds “vetting” nights every Tuesday and its website asks would-be members to submit an application via email before they’re provided with details of the location of the meeting.

“The National Workers ­Alliance is an Australian nationalist organisation with the following aims: Preserve European culture and identity, stop immigration (and) withdraw from the UN,” the group’s pamphlet states.

The group’s website, which uses imagery of Australian soldiers from World War I, reinforces its “mission” is to “preserve Western culture and identity”. NWA has more than 7000 followers on Facebook.

“Western countries have been demoralised for decades and taught to believe that their culture, identity and history are not a source of pride. People of Euro­pean ancestry built the most ­successful and desired societies in history,” its website declares.

The NWA website calls for an end to immigration and links it to a range of issues including crime, housing shortages, cost of living, and loss of national identity. It states that it has caused “less social cohesion, more division, less civic engagement” and declares that “diversity is not a strength”.

Victoria Police confirmed it had deployed officers to East Melbourne on May 23 after reports of men with banners and flags gathering. Police said the men had left the area, at the corner of Vale and Berry streets, when officers arrived. “There have been no further reports, and no offences have been detected,” a police spokesperson said.

Police have analysed the NWA pamphlet and said it had been determined it did not constitute a criminal offence. But police confirmed they keep a close eye on a range of far-right groups.

Dr Abramovich said the ­National Workers Alliance’s name echoed the Nazis’ National Socialist German Workers’ Party. “That is not an accident,” he said, adding: “The pamphlet uses the phrase ‘a producer not a parasite’, wording drawn directly from the documented language of Nazi propaganda. Their ‘vetting nights’ and ‘fitness requirements’ are the recruitment tools of a paramilitary organisation, not a community group.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jewish-leader-warns-blue-collar-activist-group-is-a-sinister-neonazi-front/news-story/b5621ed0fd286c9faef6e719b8214e48

>>24599858

>>24659895

Boy, 13, accused of plotting school massacre is first charged under new Queensland law

MACKENZIE SCOTT and JON MENDELSOHN - 2 June 2026

A 13-year-old boy inspired by online videos of Russian school shooters and stabbing videos had “imminent plans” to kill young children at a Queensland school, and had purchased clothing from webstore Temu to dress like them, police allege.

The boy, from Maryborough on Queensland’s Fraser Coast, was arrested on Thursday after allegedly entering a petrol station with a balaclava around 9am with a large knife and threatening an employee.

He was released following a police interview, with detectives executing a warrant at the boy’s home on Saturday after the detectives from the counter-terrorism unit reviewed the service station CCTV footage.

During the search, police allegedly uncovered electronic devices that had a recorded video from the livestream of the New Zealand mosque massacre.

The Courier-Mail reported that a Maryborough court heard the boy had allegedly planned to target children “who he deemed to be small and easy targets”.

He was later arrested by detectives from the Counter Terrorism Investigation Group and charged with one count each of preparation or planning to cause death or grievous bodily harm and possessing or controlling violent ­extremist material obtained or ­accessed using a carriage of ­service.

Queensland Police Acting Detective Superintendent Jason Hindmarsh on Monday said the boy’s actions “did involve a threat to a local school”.

“We’re in a very early process of reviewing these devices, but we do have evidence that there was planning towards death and GBH (grievous bodily harm),” Superintendent Hindmarsh said.

“We’ve got evidence to satisfy our evidentiary standards that he had planned to undertake acts of violence at a school.

“I can’t give any specific details, but there was a threat to the school, and particularly young people at that school.”

The 13-year-old boy was not known to police, and early indications suggest there were no ideological underpinnings to the plan.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service defence solicitor Clem van der Weegen tried unsuccessfully to have both charges dismissed, with The Courier-Mail reporting he told the court that the boy was a “child of trauma” who was at the service station “looking for kids to play with”.

Superintendent Hindmarsh said police were not alleging he planned to undertake a terrorist attack, adding counter-terrorism experts were engaged because of new laws passed by the Crisafulli Liberal National Party government in response to the Bondi massacre in December.

The legislation amended several existing laws to deliver tougher penalties for hate speech, terrorism-related activities and firearm offences. Among the amendments was the introduction of a new offence under the Criminal Code that prohibits acts done in preparation for, or planning, an offence likely to cause the death or grievous bodily harm of another.

“This is the first prosecution in Queensland for this new offence,” Superintendent Hindmarsh confirmed. “If we do identify a terrorism aspect to it, we will investigate that.”

The teenager has been remanded in custody and is expected to reappear in the Hervey Bay Children’s Court on June 5.

Counter-terrorism investi­gators will continue their investigation in Maryborough on Tuesday. There is no ongoing threat to the community.

“We just want to reassure the community that we will work with our partners to ensure the safety of all Queenslanders,” Superintendent Hindmarsh said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/teenager-accused-of-plotting-attack-on-children-at-queensland-school/news-story/6310940021a74edcb09efb61528cc8b6

https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/news/2026/06/01/violent-extremist-material-charges-maryborough/

>>24621731

Ben Roberts-Smith faces three-month delay in seeing war crimes allegations

BIMINI PLESSER - 2 June 2026

Alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith will have to wait three months before seeing the full suite of allegations levelled against him due to national security concerns.

Mr Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of war crime murder in April, crimes he allegedly committed between 2009 and 2012 against unarmed detainees during his service in Afghanistan with the SAS.

The full brief of evidence against him was scheduled to be served on Tuesday, but national security concerns have stalled proceedings.

The National Security Information Act has been invoked in Mr Roberts-Smith’s case, meaning the commonwealth has flagged that the disclosure of certain evidence or information could prejudice Australia’s national security.

Commonwealth lawyers on Tuesday told the Downing Centre Local Court orders had to be made under the NSI Act before the brief of evidence could be served, and asked to schedule a hearing for that matter later in the year.

Mr Roberts-Smith was not present in court but his legal team, headed by solicitor Karen Espiner, said they expected to consent to the commonwealth’s proposed orders.

A hearing to make orders under the NSI Act was set for September 1. The brief of evidence against Mr Roberts-Smith will be served one week later, on September 8. The former soldier, who is currently out on bail, will not attend either hearing.

Mr Roberts-Smith is subject to strict conditions while on bail, including a $250,000 surety and the surrender of his passport. He must report to police three times a week, cannot leave Australia, and cannot leave Queensland except to travel to Sydney or Perth for the case.

He is not permitted to approach anyone he served with in Afghanistan or access firearms.

Mr Roberts-Smith was also barred from using any encrypted messaging or video platforms, but Judge Allen on Monday amended the bail conditions, granting him access to video call services such as FaceTime and Zoom.

The procedural delays in his case mean Mr Roberts-Smith will not be able to access the full list of allegations made against him for another three months.

He has denied any wrongdoing, and previous findings against him in a defamation case have only been made to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities.

It is unclear what exactly will be included in the brief of evidence against him, but it is understood that the indemnified testimony of Australian soldiers who served alongside Mr Roberts-Smith will play a significant role in the commonwealth’s case.

Shortly after his arrest, prosecutors revealed that four soldiers who admitted complicity in Mr Roberts-Smith’s alleged war crimes had been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their evidence against him.

These witnesses’ identities are protected by non-publication orders.

Last month, Judge Michael Allen condemned attempts by the public to identify and “hunt down” the four “crucial” witnesses.

Judge Allen said all witnesses must be able to deliver their evidence “without fear of repercussions or … pressure from the public which may impact their health and wellbeing”.

“(Mr Roberts-Smith) is absolutely entitled to have a fair trial, and the crown … is entitled to present its case without public threats, harassment and menace to its crucial witnesses,” he said.

If the key witnesses were publicly identified, Judge Allen believed there was a “real risk” one or more of them would become “unwilling and unable” to give evidence.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s war crimes trial is unlikely to reach the NSW Supreme Court until at least 2029.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/ben-robertssmith-faces-threemonth-delay-in-seeing-war-crimes-allegations/news-story/49d4baa1c963c3db6850e39d37436484

>>24636188

>>24649783

Anthony Albanese on a Solomons mission to catch new PM Matthew Wale as China circles

BEN PACKHAM and SARAH ISON - 1 June 2026

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The Albanese government is pulling out all stops for Solomon ­Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale’s first official visit to Canberra, with China’s growing influence in the Pacific set to dominate days of “frank” and “sensitive” talks with Anthony Albanese and his senior ministers.

Mr Wale has a packed schedule following his arrival in Canberra late on Monday, including meetings with Mr Albanese, lunches with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles, and briefings with senior Department of Foreign Affairs officials.

He will also receive a full ceremonial welcome at Parliament House on Wednesday and address the media with Mr Albanese before dining with the Prime Minister at The Lodge.

Mr Wale is travelling with six of his top ministers, including ­Finance Minister Gordon Lilio, Foreign Minister Rick Houenipwela, National Planning Minister Peter Kenilorea, and Infrastructure Minister Ricky Fuo’o, who will sit in on key meetings.

The diplomatic charm offensive underscores hopes in Can­berra that Mr Wale will shift his country’s foreign policy to prioritise ties with Australia over those with Beijing. Solomon Islands has been one of the Pacific’s most pro-China countries since it ditched diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2019, signing a controversial ­security pact with Beijing in 2022 under former prime minister Manesseh Sogavare.

Senator Wong said after Mr Wale was elected last month that Australia was interested in upgrading security ties with Honiara and declared Australia’s “job will never be done” in countering Chinese influence in the Pacific.

Former Australian high commissioner to Solomon Islands James Batley said the government would be “pretty frank” with Mr Wale over the security implications of China’s activities in the Pacific.

“Australian officials would be talking to him about our perception of the broader regional picture and our assessment of what China means certainly for our national security and, by extension, for Solomon Islands as well,” he said. “I think that would be part of the conversation and obviously that involves some pretty serious or sensitive discussions.

“(The government is) not going to be saying, ‘You have to do this, you have to do that’. But I think we would want to be having a pretty frank discussion to say, ‘This is where we come from. And this is why and we’re very keen for you to understand that’.”

While the Solomon Islands would always have a relationship with China, a significant economic and aid partner, Mr Batley said Mr Wale would be briefed on the risks around collaborating with Beijing on security.

He said it was an “open question” whether the new Solomons’ Prime Minister would limit security co-operation with China or roll it back.

“Wale is under no obligation to have Chinese police trainers in the country, but … those are political judgments that he would have to make,” the former diplomat said.

He said it was striking that Mr Wale, who was elected by MPs after his predecessor Jeremiah Manele was ousted in a no-confidence vote, was visiting Australia so soon after being elected.

“I think clearly (he is) sending a signal to the Australian government on the importance of the ­relationship,” Mr Batley said.

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The Australian revealed last year that Chinese police in Solomon Islands were fingerprinting residents and getting them to fill out household registration cards under the guise of “community policing”.

Their presence in the country has complicated Australia’s longstanding policing support for Solomon Islands and future assistance under a $190m commitment to build a new police academy in Honiara and provincial policing posts. Mr Albanese said last week that Mr Wale would be “a most honoured guest”.

“It says a lot that the first international visit which he is choosing to make is here in Australia,” he told parliament.

“Despite the global challenges that we confront, we recognise that we’ll be stronger if we face these things together. The challenge of dealing with climate change; the challenge of dealing with security issues in our region.”

Mr Wale opposed his country’s security deal with Beijing but stopped short of saying he would overturn the agreement.

Labor is poised to sign a new ­security and economic treaty with Fiji but has faced pushback over a proposed security deal with Vanuatu, which is also negotiating a new bilateral agreement with China.

Senator Wong told The Australian last month: “We’re ramping up our efforts in the Pacific. Why are we doing that? It’s because it’s the region where Australia’s interests are most on the line.”

China has been quietly ­expanding its regional influence through critical infrastructure projects, delivering 17 airports, six ports, and 14 information technology hubs to Pacific Island countries.

Mr Marles also issued a warned over the weekend over damage to subsea cables attributed to China, pointing to five separate cases of cables being cut in the Taiwan Strait in the past 18 months.

“Maybe these were accidents. But even if they were, it highlights the vulnerability of this crucial part of the globe’s infrastructure,” Mr Marles told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“If they were intentional, we are left to wonder: are countries testing our response times, testing our attribution thresholds and testing our political will to ­respond?”

He called on Beijing, which has a huge shadow fleet, to make a “commitment to transparency around its maritime operations”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/anthony-albanese-on-a-solomons-mission-to-catch-new-pm-matthew-wale-as-china-circles/news-story/cac15595638a9a40beaab13de8a41134

Prosecutors drop one charge against ex-shock jock Alan Jones

STEVE ZEMEK - June 02, 2026

Prosecutors have withdrawn one charge against Alan Jones as he prepares to battle indecent assault and sexual touching allegations in a blockbuster trial later this year.

Mr Jones, 84, had previously pleaded not guilty to 27 charges - 25 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching - relating to nine alleged victims between 2009 and 2020.

However the number of charges he will face at trial was whittled down in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday as prosecutors withdrew a count of indecent assault relating to one complainant.

“There are proceedings being discontinued, this happened overnight,” Mr Jones’ solicitor Bryan Wrench told the court on Tuesday.

The charge withdrawn on Tuesday related to an allegation that Mr Jones touched and grabbed the person, who can be known only as “Complainant K”, on the bottom at an event in Tamworth in 2013.

No reason was given in court as to why it was being withdrawn.

It means Mr Jones will only face charges relating to eight alleged victims when he faces a Local Court hearing, which is scheduled to begin in August and is anticipated to run for four months.

According to court documents, the alleged offences occurred in Sydney, Fitzroy Falls, Kiama, Mittagong and at his work premises and home.

Following his first court appearance in December 2024, Mr Jones strongly denied the allegations.

“I have never indecently assaulted these people,” he said at the time.

“The law assumes I am not guilty, and I am not guilty.

“I am emphatic that I’ll be defending every charge before a jury in due course.”

Mr Jones’ matter will return to court next week.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/prosecutors-drop-one-charge-against-exshock-jock-alan-jones/news-story/4be10eb842250537d3034de37a9c296e

https://qresear.ch/?q=Alan+Jones

>>24391111 (pb)

Grace Tame podcast sparks fury as Jewish leaders condemn ABC decision

JON MENDELSOHN and JAMES MADDEN - June 02, 2026

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The ABC is facing criticism from Jewish leaders, politicians and even one of its own high-profile presenters over its decision to proceed with a podcast hosted by Grace Tame, just weeks after she dismissed the rape of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists as “propaganda”.

On Tuesday the ABC announced the controversial activist would host a four-part podcast, Autistic AF with Grace Tame, which will explore what life is like for autistic women and gender-­diverse people in Australia.

It was first announced in November that Tame had been commissioned to work on the ABC’s podcast platform in 2026, but that was before she made a series of inflammatory remarks about the conflict in the Middle East.

In February, Tame led a chant of “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada” at a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney, opposing a visit to Australia by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whom she labelled a “war criminal”.

The following month, Tame told ABC Radio host Hamish Macdonald that reports of Israeli women being raped by Hamas terrorists on October 7 had been “debunked”.

Jewish leaders expressed outraged over the ABC’s decision to proceed with the Tame podcast, accusing the public broadcaster of a “profound lack of judgment”.

Australian Jewish Association chief Robert Gregory said he thought at first the ABC announcement was a joke.

“I simply could not believe Australia’s public broadcaster could be so tone deaf,” he said.

“This decision demonstrates a profound lack of judgment and disregard for the concerns of many Australians, particularly within the Jewish community. It reinforces the growing perception that ABC management is increasingly out of touch with the communities it is supposed to serve.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin told The Australian that the ABC’s decision to proceed with Ms Tame’s podcast, even after her widely-panned anti-­Israel public statements, sent a message that such conduct carried no consequences and even brought financial rewards.

“It seems the ABC has determined that Grace Tame is fit for employment at public expense after screaming chants widely interpreted as calling for global attacks on Jews, and a radio interview in which she doubled down on her comments questioning the widespread pack rape and sexual torture committed by Hamas, which the terrorists themselves never denied,” he said.

“Everyone deserves a second chance but Tame has shown no remorse or regret whatsoever.”

(continued)

>>24653832

>>24653835

Calls grow for notorious childcare pedophile to face justice in NSW

Pressure is building to extradite one of Australia’s most notorious daycare pedophiles to NSW to face alleged offences.

Will Paige and Suzan Giuliani - June 1, 2026

One of Australia’s worst pedophiles should face justice for alleged crimes against 23 children in NSW, according to survivors’ families and a major early learning services body, which want the former childcare worker extradited to stand trial.

Former childcare centre worker Ashley Paul Griffith was handed a life sentence in 2024 after pleading guilty to more than 300 child sexual offences against dozens of victims across Queensland and Italy over a period of almost two decades.

However Griffith has never stood trial in NSW, where he faces a further 180 charges against more than 20 children in Sydney’s inner west.

The family of an alleged victim in NSW told The Daily Telegraph that Griffith exploited his role in the state’s childcare system to prey on children, unimpeded for years.

“Seeing this monster finally brought back to face charges in our state will never undo the damage he has caused but we take some comfort in knowing he is locked away and unable to harm any more children,” the parent said.

The convicted pedophile is currently appealing his 27-year sentence for raping and abusing scores of children in Brisbane, arguing it is “excessive”.

NSW can seek to have prisoners transferred from another state on legal grounds to face charges but this cannot occur until Griffith’s appeal in Queensland is dealt with.

“We are just one of the families trying to pick up the pieces after the utter devastation caused by his heinous actions,” the parent said.

“We applaud the investigative teams at the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police for the very difficult but necessary work they did to stop him.”

As long ago as 2014, daycare predator Griffith allegedly abused young girls at a Sydney daycare centre but more than a decade later he has still not faced justice in NSW.

He is accused of horrific crimes in the state including 68 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under ten.

NSW Attorney General Michael Daley has sought and received agreement from the Queensland and Commonwealth attorney generals to extradite Griffith to NSW to face charges after his appeal in Queensland has concluded.

“The NSW Government is determined to do everything possible to ensure Griffiths faces trial in NSW as soon as possible,” a spokesman for Attorney General Michael Daley told the Telegraph.

Some of Griffith’s charges relate to Federal laws, meaning agreement is needed from both the Queensland and Federal governments to extradite him to NSW.

Marea Hickie, special counsel at Shine Lawyers, is acting for some of Griffith’s alleged victims and said the predator’s offending involved an extraordinary number of victims.

“It is essential that Griffith is prosecuted for the alleged crimes in NSW so that every survivor has some recognition of their ongoing suffering,” Ms Hickie told the Telegraph.

“Justice must be comprehensive and we hope it is swift to provide our clients with some minimal comfort and recognition of the ongoing impact on their everyday lives.”

Ms Hickie added: “Despite repeated recommendations and inquiries into childcare regulation, both Australia and NSW have continued in their failure to implement urgent measures to protect the lives of innocent children and their families.”

In an email seen by the Telegraph and sent to Attorney General Michael Daley, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW Chief Executive Chiang Lim also called for Griffith’s urgent extradition, labelling him “Australia’s worst pedophile”.

“We anxiously await the NSW Government’s announcement of this anticipated extradition as well as the beginning of the legal trial for his crimes,” he said in a letter.

The ACA, which represents over 1,600 privately owned early childhood care services, added that as part of NSW court proceedings, it expected “structural and systemic failures” that precipitated Griffith’s crimes to be identified.

“Moreover, we continue our expectations of culpable others (including those early childhood education and care services as well as their related approved providers) who have still not been criminally charged for negligence or being an accessory.”

On Thursday in Brisbane, the Court of Appeal reserved its decision in the appeal of Griffith, with a ruling to be made at a later, unspecified date.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education/regions/new-south-wales/calls-grow-for-notorious-childcare-pedophile-to-face-justice-in-nsw/news-story/7ffe13f0869d7cfe53ebe1ba3d2ed349

Australian Defence Force trainers for Ukraine to move from Britain to Poland

BEN PACKHAM - 3 June 2026

Australian military personnel will be deployed to Poland to train Ukrainian forces in coming weeks, shifting the Australian Defence Force’s Operation Kudu mission from the UK, ­Defence Minister Richard Marles has revealed.

From the middle of this year, Australian Army trainers will partner with the multinational, Norwegian-led Operation Legio, bringing them closer to the Ukrainian border to better meet Kyiv’s requirements.

Mr Marles revealed the commitment at The Australian’s ­Defending Australia summit, describing it as an evolution of the training mission. “Australia is continuing to adapt our contributions to Ukraine to ensure our support remains practical, relevant, and aligned with their most urgent needs,” he said.

The commitment comes as Ukraine faces some of the most intensive Russian strikes of the war, with thousands of missiles and drones raining down on the country in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, said the location change would make the mission “easier and cheaper”, cutting down on travel costs and logistics.

“Poland is just across the border. You drive them there and they can provide the training. So it just makes sense,” he said.

“We still rely on our partners for that basic infantry training ­because we are continuously ­recruiting people. We’re extremely grateful for the support provided by Australia, and we hope that Australia can continue providing that support, because it’s continuing to save lives.”

Mr Myroshnychenko said Australia stood to gain from its support for Ukraine, given Russia had partnered with two other Pacific countries – China and North Korea – providing them with valuable combat lessons and a ready-made testing environment for new weapons.

In the UK, through Operation Kudu, the ADF trained more than 3650 Ukraineian personnel in basic infantry tactics, leadership and military skills.

The Australian trainers also learned lessons from their Ukrainian trainees, including “what it’s like to fight a war of national existence”, the ADF’s Chief of Joint Operations, Justin Jones, told The Australian last year.

Some Australian personnel were previously based in Poland during the conflict, supporting the deployment of a E-7A Wedgetail early-warning aircraft that provided defensive support detecting incoming missiles and drones.

Mr Myroshnychenko has previously offered Ukrainian support to teach the ADF “how to do modern warfare”, and provide Australia with new military technology.

“We’re now the most powerful army in Europe … and we learned how to fight,” he said in February.

Kyiv is hoping Anthony Albanese and Ukraine’s President ­Volodymyr Zelensky will sign a new bilateral security agreement in coming months to formalise ongoing Australian support for the country’s war against Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.

Australia has so far provided $1.7bn worth of support to Ukraine, including $1.5bn of military aid. But support has dwindled over the years, with last year’s commitment of about $95m dwarfed by average commitments of about $500m in each of the first three years of the conflict.

Australia’s military aid to Ukraine has included 120 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles, 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 56 M113 armoured personnel carriers, 28 Rheinmetall medium trucks, six howitzers and 14 inflatable boats, as well as artillery shells, large numbers of drones, air defence missiles, and other ­munitions.

Kyiv was battered by strikes early on Tuesday local time, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 100. The attack followed massive air strikes on Kyiv on May 24. More than 600 drones and 90 missiles, including ­advanced hypersonic models, struck the capital, killing two people and injuring 77.

Mr Zelensky has reportedly ­ordered preparations for another two to three years of fighting amid Russia’s demands for territorial control and recognition of occupied regions of Ukraine, and for Kyiv to formally renounce its NATO membership aspirations.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was still prepared to play a mediating role in Ukraine, but acknowledged peace talks had stalled.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/australian-defence-force-trainers-for-ukraine-to-move-from-britain-to-poland/news-story/188a244aa3360562db954b73d59f9417

>>24611802

>>24663282

>>24669493

Anthony Albanese faces growing revolt over AUKUS submarine deal

GREG BROWN and BEN PACKHAM - 2 June 2026

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Anthony Albanese faces a ­revolt over AUKUS with rebel Labor MPs, former ministers, teal independents and unionists demanding the Prime Minister reconsider his backing of the agreement while claiming there is growing uncertainty over its rollout under the Trump administration.

After Labor MP and former cabinet minister Ed Husic used a caucus meeting on Tuesday to question the future of the $368bn deal, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles offered a passionate defence of the AUKUS pact and declared the government was “unambiguously” behind the nuclear submarine agreement.

Speaking at The Australian’s Defending Australia conference at the War Memorial in Canberra, Mr Marles said the Labor movement had already debated AUKUS and called on agitators within the party and the unions to “take a deep breath”.

“Overwhelmingly, AUKUS was endorsed and we continue to move down that path … it was not close in terms of that fight,” he said.

“Everyone needs to just take a deep breath … it’s the right thing in terms of what our country needs and it’s a massive endeavour.”

Mr Marles also suggested that anti-immigration policies – such as those being pushed by Angus Taylor and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson – were a risk to the nation’s security and Asian countries’ view of Australia.

“For those who are tempted to walk down a path of xenophobia, it not only undermines our social ­cohesion, it fundamentally makes us less safe,” Mr Marles said.

“Our diverse, multicultural, ­socially cohesive society is fundamental to our national security and maintaining it is fundamental to defending Australia.”

Mr Marles’ AUKUS defence came hours after one of Australia’s most prominent Left-faction unionists urged the government to hold a ­review into the trilateral ­defence partnership with the US and Britain.

United Workers Union national secretary Tim Kennedy – whose union is a key support base of the Prime Minister’s leadership – said the government should “have a good hard look” at AUKUS.

“These things are enormous and I wouldn’t think it would be ­intelligent if we didn’t revisit the parameters of it as the world is changing quickly and we have got to make smart decisions,” Mr Kennedy told The Australian.

“Just going along with it as things change – we have gone from a new sub to a couple of ­second-hand subs – we need to look at these things.”

Mr Albanese on Tuesday rejected Mr Husic’s call for a fresh caucus vote on AUKUS, after the former industry minister argued the terms of the deal had changed given the weekend announcement that Australia would be ­receiving three second-hand ­Virginia-class submarines from the US rather than the third of the boats being new. On Tuesday night in Senate ­estimates, new ­Defence Department secretary Meghan Quinn claimed the ­government had ­always preferred acquiring three second-hand ­Virginia-class submarines rather than a combination of one new and two used vessels.

While Labor MPs expect Mr Albanese’s supporters to shut down any AUKUS debate at the ALP national conference in July, Mr Kennedy and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Victoria assistant secretary Tony Piccolo cautioned against this.

Former Labor government ministers Peter Garrett and Carmen Lawrence are among a group launching a crowdfunded inquiry into the AUKUS deal to heap pressure on Mr Albanese to change course on the issue. The community has raised $50,000 for public hearings around Australia and is also backed by former Australian Defence Force chief Chris Barrie.

Amid the growing push against AUKUS, Mr Marles said the nation’s biggest threat was coercion rather than outright invasion.

“Our most consequential strategic risk is not so much that the continent is invaded, but it is that we would be coerced by any potential adversary in the future,” he said. “You only need to look at the closure of … the Strait of Hormuz to understand what it might look like if we had coercion there.”

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