Australian news and politics live: Donald Trump pauses all military aid to Ukraine after Zelensky clash

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” a White House official has been quoted as saying about the pause in US aid to Ukraine.

“We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

It comes after a meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump and JD Vance in the Oval Office descended into a shouting match last week.

The extraordinary decision was made at a White House meeting that included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, according to The Washington Post.

Donald Trump has reportedly paused all military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.

The pause will last until Trump determines the country’s leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace, according to Bloomberg and Fox News reports.

“This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” Fox News quoted a Trump administration official as saying.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has confirmed he is working to include Australia and non-European countries in the Coalition of the Willing that Britain and France are assembling to defend any peace deal in Ukraine.

When asked in the House of Commons about broadening the coalition of allied countries that would put boots on the ground after any negotiation is struck between Russia and Ukraine, Sir Keir singled out Australia.

Latika M Bourke reports Australia’s contributions, including the Bushmaster armoured vehicles, were given as an example of a country that had already contributed to Ukraine to join the coalition.

“On the right honourable gentleman’s important question about reaching out beyond Europe, I agree with him, and we are doing that,” Sir Keir told the House.

“This needs to be as broad a coalition as we can put together, with different capabilities.

“Each country should make whichever contribution is the most significant from its point of view, and I thank him for his support over the weekend.”

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Peter Dutton says bolstering Ukraine by providing ground troops is a “job for European nations not Australia”.

Speaking in QLD on Tuesday, the Opposition leader said that while Australia had a long-standing commitment to support the embattled nation after the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, he didn’t back proposals to send Aussie soldiers to the frontline.

World leaders have rushed to reiterate their support for Ukraine after a trainwreck White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“In terms of whether we should have troops on the ground in Ukraine. I don’t support that. I think the Europeans have that task,” Mr Dutton said.

“I think the fact that NATO countries are now spending more... in their defense budgets, is a good thing.”

After the extraordinary Oval Office showdown, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flagged the prospect of Australia sending peace-keeping troops to the Ukraine, declaring he is “open” to considering any requests for help.

“There’s discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping. And from my government’s perspective, we’re open to consideration of any proposals going forward, as Australia has historically played an important role in areas including in Africa, in Cyprus, in a range of peacekeeping areas,” he said.

Mr Albanese clarified there hadn’t yet been any formal requests or proposals discussed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised the Coalition’s pitch to end public service work from home arrangements.

Opposition public service spokeswoman Jane Hume has announced a Dutton Government would require public service to be back in the office full time.

Mr Albanese, asked what he made of the plan, said the Coalition wants public servants to be at home all the time given its plan to sack 36,000 bureaucrats.

“We don’t have to adopt all of America’s policies … What we need is Australian policies for Australian conditions because we are unashamedly the best country on Earth, and we don’t need to borrow from anyone else,” he said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said Coalition would take a “common sense approach” to forcing public servants back to the office five-days a week if elected.

Acknowledging some flexible work arrangements were reasonable, Mr Dutton said it was “not acceptable” and unfair to Australian taxpayers that “Canberra-based public servants” on more than $200,000 were “refusing to go back to work”.

“I think they’re saying that’s actually not a fair arrangement. There are public servants at the moment in Canberra who are refusing to go back to work, and they’re being paid, in some cases, over $200,000 a year,” he said.

The vow to force 365,000 federal employees back to the office comes alongside his pledged to save taxpayers about $6 billion per year by cutting up to 36,000 workers.

Anthony Albanese says his Government is “open to considerations of any proposals going forward”, after the UK and Europe put forward plans for an end to the Ukraine war.

Part of the plan would involve peacekeeping troops. Both the Government and the Opposition on Monday downplayed suggestions ADF troops would be sent to partake in the “coalition of the willing”, but Mr Albanese on Tuesday said he wouldn’t rule it out completely.

“There’s discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping, and from my government’s perspective, we’re open to consideration of any proposals going forward, as Australia has historically played an important role in … a range of peacekeeping areas,” he said.

“We want to see peace in Ukraine, but we want to make sure the illegal, immoral actions of Russia are not rewarded, and that Vladimir Putin and his designs, which are imperialistic, are not rewarded or encouraged.”

He said Australia hasn’t been asked for anything at this stage, but “we would give consideration” to any request.

“It’s in Australia’s national interest to stand with Ukraine,” he said.

Asked whether US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on Ukraine had prompted any “reevalution of hte reliability” of Washington as an ally, Mr Albanese said the US “is an important ally of Australia”.

Australia’s defence forces are monitoring and gathering intelligence on three Chinese warships as they operate 170 nautical miles south-southwest of Perth.

“Right now, the Chinese task group is southwest of Perth and we have two assets, HMAS Warramunga and HMAS Stuart, who are tailing it,” Defence Minister Richard Marles told ABC Radio Breakfast on Tuesday. “We’re also using P-8s to overfly the task group.”

Mr Marles said the ADF was watching carefully to ensure the PLA Navy ships in Task Group 107 – the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class Cruiser Zunyi, and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu - were complying with international law.

But he also flagged a second mission to understand more about the Chinese naval sortie, which has now circumnavigated the country.

“We’re also watching because we want to understand exactly what this mission is doing, the kind of exercises they’re undertaking, what their configurations are actually getting into the detail of this,” he said.

Mr Marles said it had become clear over a significant period of time that China was acting in a “more assertive” manner but he refused to speculate on the specifics of the latest mission.

“We have been watching it very closely and we will know that answer, and we will analyse it properly.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns are at a Sydney school this morning, where they’ve signed a landmark 10-year public school funding agreement.

The Commonwealth will hand over $4.8 billion in funding over that time - accounting for 25 per cent of the minimum funding amount recomended by the Gonski Review.

Queensland is now the only state that has not yet signed a deal with the Commonwealth.

Mr Albanese thanked Mr Minns and the NSW Government, as well as federal Education Minister Jason Clare, for getting the deal done.

“Under this agreement, every single dollar of additional funding will go towards helpnig children learn. This agreement is not a blank cheque, we want to make sure it’s tied to real reforms,” the PM said.

He lauded it as “the largest ever federal injection of funds into NSW schools ever by any government”.

Mr Minns said the investment will “make up for the hits that we’ve taken in education over the last few years”, referring to the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has accused the Coalition of having “no idea about how working families manage modern life” after the Opposition proposed a ban on public servants working from home.

The Coalition on Tusday flagged its policy to force public servants to work from the office five days a week, ending generous work-from-home arrangements.

Opposition finance spokesperson Jane Hume told the AFR the practice had become unsustainable and unproductive and accused Labor of giving public servants “a blank cheque to work from home.”

But Senator Gallagher countered that the Coalition was simply stealing ideas from the United States.

“The only new ideas they seem to have are cuts to services and a $600 billion nuclear reactor,” she said.

Their work-from-home restrictions were a “step in the wrong direction for working women,” she added.

“Across the economy working from home arrangements are in place. They are a feature of modern workplaces,” she said.

“They allow women in particular to manage some of the other responsibilities they have outside of the workplace.”