News and politics live updates: Australia signs uranium export deal with India as PM, Modi boost defence ties

Scott Morrison has conceded he made a disastrous mistake by trying to stop Western Australia from shutting its border during the COVID pandemic, declaring he now has a “different view” about the actions of then Premier Mark McGowan.

In an interview for a soon to be released book, the former Prime Minister has revealed he was encouraged by WA colleagues Mathias Cormann and Christian Porter Cabinet to support a constitutional challenge to the move.

“It was a massive mistake. But Mathias and Christian advised me to do it,” Mr Morrison is quoted as saying in a soon-to-be-released book by veteran political journalist Paul Kelly.

“(Health Minister) Greg (Hunt) said to exercise caution, but he was a lone voice. At the start there was no pushback from any Western Australians in our cabinet,” he is quoted as saying in an excerpt of the book released to The Australian.

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South Australian Police Commissioner Michael Brown has urged Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle to provide any information she has directly to police rather than making public allegations about the Telstra triple-0 outage, warning speculation could undermine public confidence during an active investigation.

He said police were working to establish the facts and stressed any information believed to be credible should be handed to investigators.

“I have no idea why — I can only take face value that the information she has provided she believes to be credible and reliable. So she should be prepared to provide that information to the police,” Mr Brown said.

He added that public figures have “a special obligation” to verify information before sharing it publicly, saying, “When we get information, we should take the steps to check that that information is correct before we put it out in the public arena.”

Mr Brown confirmed police are attempting to contact the senator as inquiries continue and said any decisions about further action would be a matter for investigators.

Angus Taylor has defended the shadow communications minister’s test calls to triple-0 during Telstra outages on Wednesday.

The opposition leader said on Thursday morning that Sarah Henderson was simply “doing her job”.

“If the minister hadn’t been absent for seven hours, Sarah wouldn’t have had to do these things,” Mr Taylor said.

“These actions were not illegal and they were made necessary by complete and utter failure from this minister and that should be the focus of the press, and it should be the focus of the nation.”

Under Commonwealth law, fake calls to triple-0 are considered a criminal offence.

A Liberal senator has doubled down on her decision to make test calls to triple-0 to see if they would go through during the Telstra outage.

Sarah Henderson, the opposition’s communication’s spokeswoman, made two calls to the triple-0 network after the service was disrupted by the widespread outage.

Making false calls to triple-0 is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of three years in prison, and Senator Henderson’s test calls have been criticised by Labor as irresponsible.

But the senator has insisted she was within her right to make the test calls.

“I was simply, as the shadow minister for communications, making those initial calls to work out whether the ... system was actually operating,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB on Thursday.

The corporate watchdog has launched an investigation into major consulting firms following allegations of wrongdoing at KPMG.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Thursday confirmed it had launched surveillance action against audit conduct complaints received by KPMG, along with major firms Deloitte, EY and PwC.

The investigation was triggered by whistle-blower allegations KPMG partners had accessed confidential information from client Lendlease in order to pitch for and win lucrative audit contracts.

The allegations led to its chief executive resigning, as well as national chair and audit partners also leaving the company.

The ASIC investigation will cover whistle-blower complaints received by major consulting firms about external audit services.

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The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday modestly downgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, citing the energy shock caused by the Iran war. But the fallout from the conflict is being partially offset by booming investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies.

The IMF now expects the global economy to expand by a sluggish 3 per cent in 2026, down from 3.5 per cent last year and from the 3.1 per cent it had forecast for this year back in April. The fund expects worldwide growth to rebound to 3.4 per cent next year.

Iran responded to US and Israeli attacks February 28 by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas passes. Energy prices soared, squeezing businesses and consumers. The IMF now expects oil prices to be up nearly 32 per cent this year and for global consumer prices overall to increase 4.7 per cent in 2026. That would be up from 4.1 per cent in 2025 and would mean that two years of progress against inflation has stalled.

The IMF forecasts assume that the Strait of Hormuz reopens later this month — even though US strikes on Iran resumed and President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that a ceasefire with Iran was over. They also assume that commerce through the strait returns to normal by next March.

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Telstra is racing to resolve a new issue affecting some triple-0 calls after a nationwide outage knocked out mobile services for millions of Australians and triggered hundreds of emergency welfare checks.

The telecommunications giant revealed late Wednesday that, despite restoring the core network failure, engineers had uncovered a separate problem affecting some emergency calls.

Telstra chief financial officer Michael Ackland said the company identified the issue at about 9pm.

“While we’ve restored the issue that caused today’s outage, we’ve identified a secondary issue impacting some calls including triple-0,” he said.

“In these cases, when you call triple-0 you will receive an error message and your phone will try to connect to an alternative mobile network.”

Early Thursday, Telstra said engineers had made “good progress”, reducing triple-0 call errors by about 90 per cent.

“Our welfare checks process remains in place, and we continue to advise customers who experience the issue to wait for the call to be connected via an alternative network or recall using a different phone.”

The outage prompted an extensive welfare response after failed or dropped emergency calls.

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President Donald Trump has warned Iran it will face an even bigger military response if attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz continue, escalating tensions in the Middle East.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump vowed the US would intensify its military campaign following the latest strikes on Iran.

“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” he wrote alongside an image appearing to show a bombing strike inside Iran.

Iranian state media is reporting explosions in the country’s south after the US said it launched further airstrikes.

About 10 explosions have been heard in Chabahar and another coastal city, Konarak, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reports.

There were also blasts reported in Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, and in Sirik, another southern coastal city.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Iran’s leadership, describing them as “cuckoo” and warning fresh military strikes could follow as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate.

Speaking at the NATO summit, Mr Trump said, “We hit them very hard last night, very probably hit them hard again tonight.”

He added, “They’ve been the bully of the Middle East and they’re not the bully anymore.”

The comments came hours after he declared the US ceasefire with Iran was “over” following attacks on commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, while signalling negotiations could still continue.