Australian news and politics live: Labor says PM will meet with ‘friend’ Trump when it’s ‘convenient’

Richard Marles and Penny Wong have arrived in Tokyo for high-level “2+2” talks with Japan.

It marks the twelfth engagement between Australia and Japan defense and foreign ministers and follows Canberra’s historic $10 billion frigate warship deal.

In a joint statement by the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, the duo said key focuses would be “shared geostrategic priorities” and increasing collaboration across economic ties, cyber security, regional security, and multilateral affairs.

Senator Wong said the countries were “strategic partners and close friends”.

“Together, we support a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient,” she said.

Mr Marles added that Japan was an “indispensable partner” for Australia.

“Our defence and security ties are underpinned by a growing strategic alignment and deep trust,” he said.

The Albanese Government is reportedly reviewing its proposal to impose a 15 per cent tax on superannuation earnings for balances above $3 million.

A front-page report in The Australian Financial Review claims the government has hit pause on the original plan with discussions underway about possible changes.

No official announcements have been made, and no ministers commented publicly on the matter on Friday morning.

The plan has faced widespread criticism for not indexing the $3 million threshold and for taxing unrealised gains, including from former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating who privately urged Anthony Albanese to reconsider elements of the proposal.

Super funds, financial advisers, peak bodies, and Coalition politicians have raised concerns the plan is unfair, impractical, and could disproportionately impact older Australians.

Atlassian has agreed to acquire The Browser Co, a start-up that offers a web browser with artificial intelligence features, for $US610 million ($936m) in cash.

The companies aim to close the deal in Atlassian’s fiscal second quarter, which ends in December.

The startup debuted Arc, a customisable browser with a built-in whiteboard and the ability to share groups of tabs, in 2022. The Dia browser, a simpler option that allows people to chat with an AI assistant about multiple browser tabs at once, became available in beta in June.

Atlassian co-founder and chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes said he sees shortcomings in the most popular browsers for those who do much of their work on computers.

“Whatever it is that you’re actually doing in your browser is not particularly well served by a browser that was built in the name to browse,” he said in an interview.

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Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accused Anthony Albanese of being “cute with the truth” over the government’s handling of ISIS brides, after reports of a top-secret mission to bring them back to Australia.

The Labor Prime Minister had dismissed media reports this week by The Australian about a secret mission to repatriate ISIS brides as “not accurate” before doubling down the following day by rejecting claims he had misled Parliament despite NSW Police confirming they had been briefed on the women’s return.

“Plainly the Prime Minister is being cute with the truth, he’s trying to say it’s not the Australian government bringing them back, but obviously the Australian government is making preparations to have them back,” Mr Abbott told Sky News on Thursday evening.

“Otherwise, there would not be the talks we were told about today between the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police to receive these people.”

Former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Coalition should push for the wives of ISIS militants who left Australia to be stripped of their citizenship, claiming they have “no moral right” to return.

On Thursday evening in an interview with Sky News, Mr Abbott called on Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to introduce private members’ legislation to strip anyone who left Australia to join a terrorist group of citizenship and residency rights.

It comes after The Australian earlier this week reported on a top-secret government operation to bring back a group of Australian ISIS brides, children and young men from detention camps in northern Syria to NSW and Victoria before Christmas.

“Obviously, these people who left Australia to join Islamic state, a gruesome barbarous terrorist group have effectively rejected our country, its values and citizenship and I don’t believe they have any moral right to come back,” Mr Abbott said.

“People who have rejected our country and its values have, effectively, surrendered its citizenship.”

Australia has joined an international alliance of intelligence agencies that have concluded after a year-long investigation that China is conducting what may be the most ambitious cyberattack in its history, targeting passwords, personal records and other information of hundreds of millions of citizens across the West.

The Australian Signals Directorate is a joint signatory with the US National Security Agency, FBI, British, German, Japanese and 17 other spy services which warn that the attack by a group known as Salt Typhoon has targeted more than 80 countries.

US experts said it may have stolen information from nearly every American, raising the prospect that Australians’ data has been compromised on a wide scale too.

Chinese agents are “having considerable success exploiting publicly known common vulnerabilities”, the joint statement from the 23 agencies said.

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Australia’s Ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, has celebrated the state of the alliance, calling it stronger than ever.

The former prime minister shared Anthony Albanese’s social media update about his latest call with US President Donald Trump.

“Great to have the president and the prime minister in another call this morning – their fourth since the president was elected,” Mr Rudd wrote.

“Lots going on in the US-Australia relationship. And going from strength to strength.”

A coalition senator’s claim migration policy is used to bolster votes has been widely rejected and risks fuelling harm to migrant communities, for questionable political pay-off, critics say.

NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she did not believe she had anything to apologise for after claiming the Labor government “allow those in that would support their policies”, pointing to the Indian diaspora.

The senator’s effort to bolster her argument had undermined the nation’s non-discriminatory immigration policies and risked eroding public trust, Sikh Association of the Northern Territory president Harpal Singh told AAP.

“She has taken a dig, but it has lasting impacts,” he told AAP.

“She should at least apologise, people make mistakes right?

“But the problem is the timing.”

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Liberal Senator Jane Hume appeared alongside Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth on Sunrise, saying “hopefully we’re one step further towards a meeting between the Prime Minister and the President. It’s been 300 days since President Trump has elected, and still no meeting between our leaders and that’s a concern.”

It comes after an overnight conversation between the PM and Donald Trump was revealed, the fourth time since the President was re-elected, but when Mr Albanese described the chat, there was no mention of the trilateral security partnership.

“Anthony Albanese needs to step up and represent Team Australia with President Trump and particularly to secure our AUKUS agreements. We know that the US is doing a review right now and we also want to make sure we’re protected from further tariffs.”

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth has been asked about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump’s overnight phone call, which has been described by the PM as “another warm and constructive conversation”.

When asked if tariffs were discussed, “I have no doubt there were a lot of important things discussed. Of course, we have the lowest trade tariffs of any country in the world when it comes to the US, but doubt this builds on what is already a warm relationship between the two of them,” Ms Rishworth told Sunrise on Friday morning.

“Sometimes I don’t get my friends but I’m on the phone. And so I think, obviously, as the Prime Minister’s indicated, they will meet when it’s convenient for both parties, but look, I think, clearly, there’s a connection there with four phone calls.

Mr Albanese is heading to New York for the UN General Assembly later this month, where Australia will formally recognise a Palestinian state, but there’s still no word of whether he’ll meet with the US President.