August 27, 2026

Australia Watch

Blurb:

The daughter of one of the victims of Sunday’s Bondi Beach terror attack told CBS News on Monday that her father was “shot dead for being Jewish,” and she now believes Australia is not a safe home for Jewish people.

Sheina Gutnick said that her father, Reuven Morrison, a 62-year-old Soviet-born member of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Australia, was killed while attempting to stop one of the two gunmen during Sunday’s mass shooting, which Australian authorities have called an antisemitic terror attack.

“From my sources and understanding, he had jumped up the second the shooting started. He managed to throw bricks at the terrorist,” Gutnick told CBS News in Bondi on Monday, referencing an attempt to stop one of the gunmen that was caught on camera during the attack the previous day.

Blurb:

 

In 1996, Australia enacted some of the world’s strictest gun laws. In a mandatory “buy back” and confiscation, hundreds of thousands of firearms were taken from Aussie citizens. Less than two decades later, the Australian government was rounding up the unvaccinated and COVID-infected and putting them into concentration camps.

Gun laws in the Land Down Under are so strict that toy guns require licensing.

Blurb:

Almost as quickly as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could pretend not to notice who shot up Bondi Beach on Sunday — a horrific act of Islamic terror against local Jews during Chanukah — the Labor leader announced swift action to insure that such an attack could never happen again.

“What swift action might that be?” I can hear you ask. “Roll up the ISIS cell in Sydney that apparently everybody knew about? Expel unassimilated foreigners? Teach Australian police to, I don’t know, shoot back right away instead of standing around with their thumbs up their you-know-whats?”

Nah. According to Albanese, what Australia really needs is more gun laws.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical minerals agreement to counter China, which is holding tight to its own rare earth metals.

According to Bloomberg, Australia “holds the world’s fourth-largest deposits of rare earths.”

With China trying to control the rare earths and critical minerals market, Australia hopes to become “a viable alternative” for countries.

Australia has these key elements:

  • Neodymium and praseodymium: needed for high-strength magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines
  • Dysprosium and terbium: needed for magnets used in high temperatures
  • Lanthanum and cerium: used in catalytic converters and batteries
  • Europium and gadolinium: needed for phosphors used in screens and medical imaging
  • Samarium: used in high-temperature permanent magnets and lasers

 

Blurb:

The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, has condemned the “unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour of the Chinese military, saying a fighter jet released flares close to an Australian surveillance plane over the South China Sea.

Australia’s defence forces expressed “concerns” about the incident in a statement, saying it posed a risk to Royal Australian Air Force personnel and their aircraft. No injuries or damage was sustained as a result of actions.

It is at least the third such incident in the past 18 months, with similar contested encounters occurring in February and in May 2024.

UK, Canada and Australia formally recognise Palestine, backing two-state solution– www.arabianbusiness.com
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Excerpt:

The UK, Canada and Australia have formally recognised the State of Palestine, moves framed by all three governments as essential to preserving the prospect of a two-state solution and lasting peace in the Middle East.

UK recognition

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed that the UK has officially recognised Palestine, calling the decision a historic one grounded in the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

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Excerpt:

Cabinet minister, Clare O’Neil, has called the shooting of police officers in Victoria an “unfathomable tragedy”.

Speaking to Sunrise a bit earlier, the MP from Melbourne said the event should never have happened.

To have two police officers valiantly put themselves in the way of danger, not just to protect our broader Victorian community but to protect children and our community, and to see them lose their lives in this way is terrible. I know incidents like this in effect every single police officer and their family around the country, so can I say on behalf of the Australian government how deeply grateful we are for the incredible work of our police forces.

O’Neil was joined by shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, on the Sunrise panel, and said she was heartbroken.

We are safe because there are Australians, police officers and others, who are prepared to put their lives on the line each and every day so that we can be so. Two of those officers have now paid the highest price, one is in hospital. On behalf of the Coalition, we are heartbroken for those families, we are heartbroken for the community, but more than that, [is] a clear message to the police across Australia and in particular, those wearing the blue uniform in Victoria, we stand with you.

Source Link
Excerpt:

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday that he treats leaders of other countries with respect after his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu attacked him over his decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

“I don’t take these things personally, I engage with people diplomatically. He has had similar things to say about other leaders,” Albanese said during a media briefing.

Netanyahu’s personal attack on Albanese has further strained relations between the two countries. Ties soured after Australia decided last week to conditionally recogniz a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in September.

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Excerpt:

An Australian court fined Qantas Aus$90 million (U.S.$59 million) on Monday for illegally laying off 1,800 ground staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, ending a five-year legal battle over the workers’ rights.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said he wanted the penalty to be a “real deterrence” to firms that might be tempted by the financial rewards of breaching employment law.

Qantas decided to sack the workers and outsource their jobs in August 2020, a period of lockdowns and border closures when no COVID-19 vaccine existed.

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Excerpt:

Senate passes Labor motion expressing ‘extreme disapproval’ against Mehreen Faruqi for Gaza sign protest

While the Coalition amendment failed, Labor’s original motion to sanction Mehreen Faruqi passes the Senate.

The Greens opposed the motion along with independent senator Fatima Payman while One Nation and independent senator Tammy Tyrrell teamed up with the two major parties to sanction Faruqi.

While we have been calling it a censure motion, it’s technically a motion to express “profound disapproval” against the senator but also includes that the Senate voted it not “appropriate for Senator Faruqi to represent the Senate as a member of any delegation during the life of this parliament”.

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Excerpt:

National Party and Liberal Party part ways after more than 60-year alliance following election defeat.

Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and following a resounding loss in the national elections this month.

“It’s time to have a break,” the National leader, David Littleproud, told reporters on Tuesday.

The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against United States President Donald Trump’s policies.

Under the longstanding partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power in governments, with the Nationals broadly representing the interests of rural communities and the Liberals contesting city seats.

“We will not be re-entering a coalition agreement with the Liberal Party after this election,” Littleproud said, citing policy differences.

 

Anthony Albanese, Australia’s current far-left Prime Minister, rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to victory against the conservatives, winning 81 of 150 seats. Meanwhile the conservative Liberal Party leader, Peter Dutton, lost his own seat.

Source Link
Excerpt:

Australia’s Anthony Albanese claimed a second term as prime minister on Saturday in a dramatic comeback against once-resurgent conservatives that was powered by voters’ concerns about the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Australian Electoral Commission website projected Labor would win 81 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, increasing its majority in Parliament, with 68 per cent of the vote counted.

Peter Dutton, leader of the conservative Liberal party, conceded defeat and the loss of his own seat — echoing the fate of Canada’s Conservative Party and its leader, Pierre Poilievre, whose election losses days earlier were also attributed to a Trump backlash.

Supporters at Labor’s election celebration in Sydney cheered and hugged each other as Albanese claimed victory and said his party would form a majority government. “Our government will choose the Australian way, because we are proud of who we are and all that we have built together in this country,” he told supporters.

“We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else. We do not seek our inspiration from overseas. We find it right here in our values and in our people.”

Albanese would be the first Australian prime minister to win a consecutive term in two decades. He said Australians had voted for fairness and “the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need.”

Canada’s recently elected prime minister, Mark Carney, congratulated Albanese on social media, saying that “in an increasingly divided world,” Canada and Australia are close partners and “the most reliable of friends.”

Australia’s ‘biggest defence export’ was meant for the US first, but Canada snuck past Trump – ABC News
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Excerpt:

For months, senior officials have been discussing exporting Australia’s world-leading radar technology JORN to the United States, but after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Canada saw an opportunity and leapt.

Overnight, new Canadian leader Mark Carney spoke to his counterpart, Anthony Albanese, then flew to his country’s Arctic territory of Nunavut to announce a $6.5 billion high-tech Australian military purchase.

“Today, I’m announcing that our government will be working with our long-standing defence and security partner Australia to build a new, long-range, over-the-horizon military radar system,” he said.

“[It] will enable Canada to detect and respond to both air and maritime threats over our Arctic both faster and from further away. It will most fundamentally keep all Canadians safe.”