Quad leaders meet on sidelines of G7
Amy Remeikis
Overnight, the Quad leaders held their leader-to-leader to meeting on the sidelines of the G7. It was meant to be held this week in Sydney, but US president Joe Biden cancelled because of domestic issues – the Republicans are not making it easy for the government debt ceiling to increase and that is a pretty big deal. So after the G7, Biden will be on his way back to the US.
But with Japanese prime minister Kishida Fumio hosting the G7, with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Biden and Anthony Albanese attending (Australia was invited despite not being in the G7) the sidelines of the G7 set up the perfect opportunity to have the meeting and keep the Quad kicking along.
The last time Albanese was at a Quad meeting was just over a year ago, having been sworn in as prime minister just hours before. This year around, he seemed a little more in the swing of things:
I will never forget the very warm and generous welcome that I had after my election. I can’t think of any better way to begin a prime ministership than a gathering of such important friends from our region. One year on I’m absolutely delighted to be amongst close friends again here in Japan to continue our important work. Standing together for an open, stable, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
A region where sovereignty is respected, and all countries large and small benefit from a regional balance that keeps the peace. Respect for the leadership of regional institutions including ASEAN, the Pacific Island Forum, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association is central to our approach.
Expect a little more of those sort of veiled words as the Aukus arrangement picks up speed – “a region where sovereignty is respected” are carefully crafted words aimed at China – that will continue.
Key events
Birmingham is pushed further on what the Coalition has been doing to win back its voters and one of the issues nominated is work around net zero – but it is pointed out the Coalition voted against legislating climate targets and the safeguard mechanism.
Spiers: Do you think that helped?
Birmingham: That is where our policies have to be convincing and compelling for Australians, David and that is the test we’ll face at the next election.
Birmingham is pushed on this – what does that mean?
S: Are you saying behind the scenes you have a secret plan that will wow us on the climate front?
B: We will be outlining clear policies in the lead-up to the next election. You wouldn’t expect oppositions to do that two years out from a scheduled election. You know full well that’s done when they are fully developed and fully costed and can be released cognisant of the circumstances we will all face at that time of the next election. The circumstances now are different to what they were 12 months ago. We’ve seen Australia going from some of the lowest inflation rates among developed economies to having amongst the highest inflation rates of developed economies. We have a government forecasting lower growth and higher unemployment than previously forecast so we’ll face different circumstances and they’re the challenges to confront in our policies.
On changes to the PRRT which brings forward the amount oil and gas companies pay to the government for extracting resources, Birmingham says the Coalition is concerned the government “seems to have waged a continuous war on the gas sector, an important revenue source for Australia and critical for our domestic industry.”
Birmingham said the Coalition will wait to see what legislation the government proposes and “engage with industry and come to a conclusion about our position in the parliament.”
We have grave concerns that the Government’s interventions in the gas market have hurt Australia’s standing in terms of international investors and in doing so, jeopardised the affordability of energy in Australia and through that, the job generation and elsewhere that comes from that very strong export industry.
Birmingham is also asked about what progress the Coalition has made on winning back women who have largely abandoned the party and says “the work is under way in terms of policy development.”
We need to see outcomes in terms of candidate selection as well. And these are very important tasks for the party. It’s an ongoing task and one that needs to reach a crescendo at that point at the next election to give voters the confidence that we heard messages from the last election.
The Shadow treasurer says he is confident “there will be different issues at play at the next election”.
Birmingham says cost of Coalition’s jobseeker plan is ‘being worked through’
Asked whether the Coalition would support a lift to the jobseeker payment, Birmingham tells David Speers that Peter Dutton has “proposed an important alternative that would help Australians who are willing to and looking to engage in the workforce”.
Which sounds a lot like the Coalition does not support an increase to jobseeker.
However, Birmingham says the cost of the Coalition’s plan to increase the number of hours they can work before their payments are docked is “being worked through with the Parliamentary Budget Office”.
Which is another way of saying: no.
We’ve outlined an alternative at this stage, David. We are not at an election and not about to firm government in the next two years.
Birmingham says Albanese should not got to China until sanctions are lifted
Birmingham says Australia deserves “absolute clarity” about when trade sanctions imposed by China will be lifted – and that Albanese shouldn’t go on a state visit to Beijing before those sanctions are lifted.
That clarity should be there before the prime minister entertains a formal state visit to Beijing.
Birmingham said the prime minister’s dialogue with China was welcome but “there is a point where we should expect clear outcomes”.
The shadow minister said China was “acting in breach of its commitments under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement” by maintaining the sanctions, and also in breach of its commitments to the World Trade Organization.
We should expect them to be lifted complete, as we should the tariffs on our wine industry.
Birmingham: ‘I don’t want to see Australia take backwards steps’ on emissions
Asked about the Coalition’s previous hostility to legislated emissions reductions targets Birmingham says “partnerships like this one will be important”.
I don’t want to see Australia take backwards steps in terms of our emissions targets.
Under the Paris Agreement, there are five-yearly steps for us to take in terms of updating the targets, whoever is in government at each point of time will have to assess what will be feasible under those five-yearly updates …
But partnerships like this one will be important in helping to ensure we make that type of progress.
Birmingham also reiterated the Coalition’s support for the Quad alliance as it allows “countries with common values” to coordinate when engaging with the Indo-Pacific region.
Simon Birmingham responds to climate pact with US
The shadow finance minister Simon Birmingham says the Albanese government’s announcement of a new climate compact with the US and other Quad countries is “complementary” with agreements struck under the previous Coalition government.
This agreement, is welcome and complementary with agreements Australia previously signed under the Coalition government and with Germany, with Japan, Singapore or the United Kingdom, where we established green economy agreements and cooperative arrangements to be able to ensure that the $22bn we had put in place for clean energy investment and transition of Australia’s economy to net zero was done in concert with the types of country who were going to be essential to help us get low-cost technological transformation.
Birmingham said the “challenge of getting to net zero is going to be a difficult one for all countries of the world” and that he “wouldn’t want to see Australia water down our climate targets”.
Amy Remeikis
It being on the hour though, neither ABC or Sky are showing the rest of the press conference as Insiders and Outsiders are both on.
We will bring you the rest as soon as we can.
Amy Remeikis
Albanese outlines clean energy pact with US
Anthony Albanese has moved on to what he has achieved at the G7 and associated meetings.
Which includes a “vision” statement for what the Quad is, for the first time since Quad 1.0 and Quad 2.0 began.
A clear way that says we’ll work with the Pacific Island Forum, Indian Ocean organisations, as well as Asean as well.
That this is about providing support – economic support, social support, environmental support – for the countries of our region, and about cooperating as four great democracies based in this region.
And there is also the clean energy pact Albanese signed with Biden, which will see Australian supplies given a leg up in the states:
What this will do is the president will support the [US] Congress taking action to treat Australian suppliers and activity as domestic activity in the United States, for the purpose of the Defence Production Act. Canada has that at the moment. And if we think about industries like hydrogen, without that support, there would be a massive incentive for hydrogen-based industries to be based in the United States.
So, the big risk with the Inflation Reduction Act for the world – because we need to reduce the world’s emissions, not just that of one nation state – is that you’ll see capital leave Australia to go to the United States. This is about addressing that.
PM speaks after talks in Hiroshima
Amy Remeikis
Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference in Hiroshima on the one year anniversary of winning government.
I said on that evening that I’d lead a government with a sense of purpose, and I believe that we have. We’ve set out to do what we said we would – to fulfil our promises and commitments we gave to the Australian people in the lead-up to 21 May 2022.
Part of that, said Albanese, is strengthening relationships – like with the Quad.
Quad leaders meet on sidelines of G7
Amy Remeikis
Overnight, the Quad leaders held their leader-to-leader to meeting on the sidelines of the G7. It was meant to be held this week in Sydney, but US president Joe Biden cancelled because of domestic issues – the Republicans are not making it easy for the government debt ceiling to increase and that is a pretty big deal. So after the G7, Biden will be on his way back to the US.
But with Japanese prime minister Kishida Fumio hosting the G7, with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Biden and Anthony Albanese attending (Australia was invited despite not being in the G7) the sidelines of the G7 set up the perfect opportunity to have the meeting and keep the Quad kicking along.
The last time Albanese was at a Quad meeting was just over a year ago, having been sworn in as prime minister just hours before. This year around, he seemed a little more in the swing of things:
I will never forget the very warm and generous welcome that I had after my election. I can’t think of any better way to begin a prime ministership than a gathering of such important friends from our region. One year on I’m absolutely delighted to be amongst close friends again here in Japan to continue our important work. Standing together for an open, stable, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
A region where sovereignty is respected, and all countries large and small benefit from a regional balance that keeps the peace. Respect for the leadership of regional institutions including ASEAN, the Pacific Island Forum, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association is central to our approach.
Expect a little more of those sort of veiled words as the Aukus arrangement picks up speed – “a region where sovereignty is respected” are carefully crafted words aimed at China – that will continue.
Amy Remeikis
Good morning from Canberra.
Acting prime minister Richard Marles has kicked off Sunday with a press release acknowledging the one-year anniversary of the Albanese government.
Anthony Albanese is in Japan for the G7 summit, talking all things Quad and geopolitics, so it is up to Marles to spread the word. (Although it has been hard to miss if you have paid attention to news this weekend – one-year anniversary pieces have been everywhere)
So what does Marles have to say?
One year ago, Australia voted for change.
The very next day, the Albanese Labor Government began the work of building a better future.
Every member of the Government is proud of what we have achieved so far:
– Historic investments in Medicare
– Cheaper child care
– Fee-free TAFE
– Cheaper medicines
– Energy price relief
– Getting wages moving
– Action on climate changeThese are strong foundations for a better future.
We know there is still more to do. We can’t clean up the mess we inherited overnight.
What they want to focus on moving forward reads like a preview of the coming parliament sitting:
Investing in affordable housing. Continuing to strengthen Medicare. Creating more secure jobs and training Australians for those jobs. Making more things in Australia, powered by home-grown renewable energy. Investing in defence and national security to keep Australians safe. And importantly, continuing to be a force for stability, prosperity and growth in our region and in the world.
And of course, the voice.
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is in Japan for the G7 summit, where he has met with other members of the Quad alliance on the sidelines. The PM has declared a new focus on the Indo-Pacific for the alliance as the conference of the world’s richest seven countries considersseveral issues including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tensions in Taiwan and nuclear weapons testing by North Korea.
The Albanese government has marked its first year in government, with defence minister Richard Marles talking up the government’s achievements on Sunday. In an early morning press release, Marles said the government has begun “the work of a better future” with reforms to healthcare, education, real wages and action on climate change – but has stressed the government “can’t clean up the mess we inherited overnight”.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs, taking the blog through the day. With so much going on out there, it’s easy to miss stuff, so if you spot something happening in Australia and think it should be on the blog, you can find me on Twitter at @RoyceRk2 where my DMs are open.
With that, let’s get started …
