Politics live updates: Anthony Albanese’s Pacific aid plea as COP31 puts coal, gas policies in spotlight

Almost 300 apprentices and trainees will be encouraged to swap carpentry, plumbing and electrics to maintain some of the world’s most advanced nuclear submarines under the $386 billlion AUKUS agreement.

The so-called Tradie2Trainer and early-career programs are being announced on Thursday, the day after West Australian marine propulsion firm VEEM inked a national-first deal to supply Huntington Ingalls Industries, the US’s largest naval shipbuilder.

The first submarine being delivered under AUKUS, USS Colorado, is moored at WA’s HMAS Stirling, where 100 Australian personnel are helping maintain it.

There was outrage in June over the US deciding to only deliver second-hand subs, and concern Canberra’s most important security partner would not be able to build the kit on time.

On Wednesday, Defence Industry Minister Pay Conroy dismissed those fears, saying both countries’ workforces were going at full throttle.

“They’re not just mobilising the US industrial base, they’re mobilising the Australian industrial base,” he said.

The Virginia is the US’s top-of-the-range “fast-attack” sub, capable of topping 46km/h compared with Australia’s diesel-electric Collins-class subs’ underwater top speed of 37km/h.

Washington is building them at a rate of two a year and confident they will arrive in a timely fashion, Mr Conroy relayed.

“Getting suppliers in Australia into their supply chain increases their production rates, increases the chances of them hitting those targets, and increases the chances that we’ll get our submarine,” he said.

“But secondly, we’re getting more help from Australian others.”

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Train travellers could see regional services increase by a quarter under a re-elected Labor government, with investment likely to feature in areas emerging as key battlegrounds in the state election.

The Melton Line, which goes to Melbourne’s outer northwest, will get 162 additional services from 2027 under the $420 million investment.

More than 550 V/Line services will be added across every train line, including Geelong, Seymour and Bendigo.

“Now we can realise the benefits of Labor’s upgrades: delivering more train services and giving you a more reliable way to get around,” Victorian Premier Ben Carroll said.

Increased investment in regional services comes as Labor faces worries in several regional seats ahead of the November 28 election.

Bendigo East, held by former premier Jacinta Allan, is among the seats attracting attention, with the Nationals and One Nation challenging Labor’s decades-long hold on the electorate.

Labor is set to announce 101 additional services every week on the Bendigo Line from 2028. These will include 21 extra services to Bendigo and 80 new services to Kyneton.

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The prime minister’s local golf club, Marrickville Golf Club, which received $6 million funding, will have its top officials front a Senate inquiry to explain how the cash was spent.

The club, situated in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inner Sydney seat of Grayndler, received $6 million for upgrades as part of a half-billion dollar, invite-only federal grants scheme.

Its general manager Mathew Ward and president Andrew Tighe will now be asked exactly where the money went.

The grants program funnelled $560 million into community infrastructure projects nationwide, but about two-thirds went to Labor-held electorates, the Centre for Public Integrity revealed in September.

At the time, Mr Albanese told the ABC Marrickville Golf Club’s funding was partly to fix a sewerage run-off problem, despite club officials providing no evidence of that.

In late October, the finance department confirmed sewerage upgrades were never part of the arrangement and had not been completed.

The 85-year-old club did have sewerage issues because it was not connected to the public sewer system, but it was the NSW government that awarded it a $270,000 grant in September 2025 to fix it.

Under a barrage of questions in parliament, the prime minister admitted he “was not correct” about where the $6 million had been spent.

The Marrickville Golf Club has been at the centre of the now months-long grant saga since it began in September, partly because Mr Albanese is one of its honorary members.

The prime minister had not disclosed the membership, which the club had awarded him 15 years previously, but at the time he said he had not visited the golf course recently - being more of a tennis player.

He chalked up the grant funding, which Labor has said was for delivering election commitments, to being “a good local member”.

Thursday’s Senate proceedings will hear from two other golf clubs, local councils and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - although not from Mr Albanese himself, who will be at the COP31 conference in Turkey.

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World leaders have been urged to extend a lifeline to Pacific nations under threat from rising sea levels and extreme weather at the COP31 summit in Turkey.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued the call to action on Wednesday at the opening of the two-day World Leaders Climate Action Summit segment of the United Nations event.

Australia will lead negotiations at the annual climate talks and Mr Albanese said it would use the opportunity to highlight the plight of its regional neighbours.

“We sought this role because we wanted to speak for the people of the world who need urgent action, including those from our Pacific family,” he said.

“Their brave, resourceful people need us to act and they’re pleading for us to do so, politely but with absolute clarity.”

Mr Albanese cited the plea of aspiring doctor, 13-year-old Melelusi Sokotia from Tuvalu, who told leaders at the Pre-COP event that she and her peers wanted to remain safe in their island nation.

He also called for nations to support the Pacific Resilience Facility, launched in 2025, designed to raise $US500 million ($A726 million) for climate change and adaption projects.

“I plead with you to join our campaign to help the nations of the Pacific to confront a climate challenge that they certainly did not create,” he said.

The high-level leaders’ summit will feature addresses from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and recently re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

with AAP