Australian news and politics live: Albanese defends call not to convene national cabinet on anti-Semitic hate

Mr Watt said the Government and Murujuga representatives hoped they could overturn the committee’s draft decision.

It referred to Australia preventing any “further industrial development” near the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.

He said those requests would be an “incredible ask” on Australia.

“The draft decision did put in place some requests that, frankly, would require the decommissioning of all industrial activity that is currently going on around Karratha, which would be an incredible ask of any country to do,” he said.

Murray Watt has taken a swipe at “politically driven” groups seeking to impact the Government’s bid for the World Heritage Committee to recognise rock art near the North West Shelf gas project.

UNESCO is expected to decide in the coming days whether the rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula will be placed on the World Heritage List.

Ahead of the decision two Indigenous groups - the Murujuga Aboriginal Corp and Save Our Songlines - will travel to Paris to meet with representatives to push their case for a panel to consider.

“We are hopeful that that will sway the views of the World Heritage Committee and that they won’t be swayed by the incorrect information and politically driven information that was provided by some groups leading up to the interim decision,” Mr Watt told Sky News on Wednesday.

“Ultimately, the decision rests with 21 countries who formed the World Heritage Committee.

“We’ve already been advocating very strongly with those countries in the last few weeks to ensure that they have the very best scientific information available, and that they understand that this is supported by traditional owners.”

Murray Watt has refused to budge on whether climate considerations will be included in any reform of Australia’s main national environmental legislation when Parliament returns on July 22.

The Environment Minister told Sky News on Tuesday it’s still early days in the redrafting stage and he wasn’t prepared to comment on its direction.

“We’re at the beginning of a process, obviously, around the EPBC reforms, which everyone recognises are needed. Industry and environmental groups all acknowledge that our current laws aren’t working.

“I’m not at a stage where I’m ruling things in or out in terms of what will go in that legislation.”

It came after Labor MP Jerome Laxale said climate considerations should be woven in after the North West Shelf gas project off WA was granted provisional approval.

The green light was given under the current laws, which are more than 25 years old, and don’t require emissions to be a factor in future environmental approvals.

Building on recent improvements in June, the latest NAB survey reveals further encouraging signs of growth and optimism among Australian businesses.

Encouragingly, profitability had improved. Previous data suggested businesses were hampered from raising prices due to sluggish demand, so a lift in trading conditions is a welcome sign for future growth. It’s too early to declare a full turnaround, but the signals are better than they were earlier in the year.

“Overall, the survey is encouraging that sluggish momentum in early 2025 will improve into the second half, with a notable increase in conditions in the month,” Head of Australian Economics at NAB Gareth Spence said.

“An improvement in confidence is also welcome given the raft of negative headlines globally over recent months. While we know that the monthly survey can be volatile, the hope is at least some of these trends will be sustained over coming months.”

New data from the National Australia Bank suggests businesses are starting to see signs of life after a rocky start to the year, a positive sign that coincides with the Reserve Bank’s deliberation on interest rates.

The latest NAB Business Survey shows a surprisingly strong bounce in June, with conditions rising showing the biggest monthly lift in over a year.

Confidence also edged higher, marking a third straight monthly rise and reaching its highest trend level in more than 12 months. That’s despite global uncertainty, soft household spending, and renewed trade tensions.

“After a volatile but soft year for business confidence, we have seen a trend improvement over the past three months,” said NAB’s Gareth Spence. Confidence is still weakest in retail and wholesale, but construction has taken the lead.

June’s gains were broadly based. Capacity utilisation, a key indicator of underlying demand, rose again and remains well above its long-run average. Capital expenditure increased too, and forward orders are now sitting just shy of their normal levels. Input cost pressures remain a factor, with labour and purchase costs still elevated, though retail price growth eased slightly.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has been visiting the East Melbourne Synagogue that was hit with an alleged arson attack on Friday.

She and Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser spoke with Jewish community members there.

Ms Ley said afterwards that people were concerned the laws supposed to protect them were failing.

“There’s always a question about whether the laws are strong enough, but if the laws are failing they’re certainly not strong enough,” she said.

Mr Leeser said there should be a fresh look at “what’s happening in our cities” regarding protests.

“People have the right to protest, but people in the city shouldn’t have to put up with the nature of violent protests, where people smash up shops and burn down buildings and call for the death of people,” she said.

Anthony Albanese has accused a reporter in Tasmania of fishing for a headline on GST and refusing to budge on providing answers to his questions.

REPORTER: Prime Minister, just on the GST, can you give an undertaking to Tasmanian voters how you will do everything you can to commit to extending the no-worse-off guarantee?

PM: We’ve already made the position clear.

REPORTER: Can you just remind us?

PM: We have our position, which we’ve put out there. It’s very clear that there’s a no-worse-off guarantee in place.

REPORTER: But it’s due to expire. Will you extend it?

PM: There’s a no-worse-off guarantee in place.

REPORTER: So if there’s no guarantees that you’ll extend it…

PM: Like, seriously. That’s the sort of question that is looking for a story that isn’t there.

REPORTER: But with respect, Prime Minister, that has an end date on it.

PM: We’ve extended it. I’ve answered the question.

Anthony Albanese has spruiked the work the Federal Government has done under his leadership to repair Australia’s relationship with China ahead of his trip.

The relationship had been strained under his predecessor, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, after the Liberal leader called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID.

It prompted a freezing of key trade for Australian industries, including wine, beef, barley and lobsters.

“We have a free trade agreement with China. What we have done is to get rid of the more than $20 billion of impediments of goods that were stopped from going to China,” he said.

“It’s made an enormous difference. Products like wine and barley have not just bounced back. They’ve bounced back higher than they were before.”

Anthony Albanese has confirmed his trip to China, saying he looked forward to strengthening Australia’s relationship with the Asian superpower.

“I look forward to going to Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, which I will visit from Saturday,” he said in Tasmania on Tuesday.

“China’s an important trading partner for Australia. Twenty-five per cent of our exports go to China. What that means is jobs, and one of the things that my government prioritises is jobs.”

Anthony Albanese has spoken publicly on the US President’s trade tariffs, saying Australia is in a better position than most countries.

“Australia has a tariff rate of 10 per cent, which is at least as low as any country in the world,” he told reporters in Tasmania.

“No country has a better deal than Australia. And we’ll continue to put our case that tariffs are an act of economic self-harm and that we should be entitled to reciprocal tariffs, which is zero.”