Australia news live: RSL to review welcome to country policy; Angus Taylor vows to double fuel reserve | Australia news

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has detailed a Coalition plan to build the nation’s fuel reserves to a 60-day supply, spending $800m (out of a total estimated total $6bn) to build a new storage facility.

Canavan told RN Breakfast that to meet that obligation for a doubled reserve, Australia would need about 4.4bn litres of extra storage which will be met by existing infrastructure and the private sector. The $800m figure would come from Export Finance Australia, which would be used to help the private sector fund that effort in loans that would then be paid back. He said:

It wouldn’t fund the entire amount of that extra storage, but it would help make a contribution …

Obviously, this comes at a cost … But given what we’re facing right now, we think it’s a reasonable insurance premium to improve the security of all Australians.

Canavan went on to say the estimated total cost of the project would be closer to $6bn, which includes the extra storage costs and actually filling and maintaining the extra reserves. The public cost from Export Finance Australia would just “ease that” figure.

It was sensible to do a few years ago to get to 30 days. It’s helping us now. Given the high risks, it’s even more sensible to go to 60 days.

John Howard reflects on Port Arthur

Former prime minister John Howard is speaking on RN Breakfast this morning about Port Arthur, describing the response and the country’s landmark gun buyback program in the aftermath of the massacre.

He said:

It rocked the country. There’s no other way of describing it …

I’d just been elected to a prime minister after a long period in opposition, with a huge majority, and I developed a view pretty quickly that I had to do something significant. What’s the point of having a big majority unless you’re prepared to use it? …

I was certainly confident that the great majority of Australians supported what we did, but there were pockets of opposition.

He added that the way separate parties worked together to see the buyback take place was “quite magnificent”, even though many leaders had to deal with difficulties with their constituencies.

“Without their cooperation, it would have been very, very difficult,” Howard said.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, released a statement this morning, 30 years after the massacre at Port Arthur in Tasmania. He said the nation had held on to the idea that “somehow amid the most terrible darkness the best of humanity found a way to shine”.

He said:

We think of everyone whose world was shattered by the loss of those who had been the bright centre of their lives, their love left desperately wrapped around an absence. …

We think of Walter Mikac who channelled his devastating loss into a call for national action on gun reform, writing to Prime Minister [John] Howard with a message that echoes through the decades: “Be strong, act now”.

Australia is a better place because the Government and the Parliament of the day came together to answer Walter’s call.

Shadow minister dismisses gas export tax calls, saying Australians get their ‘fair share’

The shadow minister for resources, Susan McDonald, says Australians receive their “fair share” of revenue from gas companies despite a growing push for a higher levy.

The federal government is expected to reject the push for a new 25% tax on gas exports in next month’s budget.

A broad coalition of progressive politicians, trade unions, and climate groups have been pushing the government to introduce a flat 25% tax on gas export revenue to replace the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).

Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 on Monday night, the Nationals senator said the PRRT had been reviewed as recently as 2023:

It is a tax that allows companies to recoup the very expensive capital costs for investing in Australia.

This has been examined at length by Treasury, by government departments, and over successive governments. I feel confident that we have found the right balance.

Good morning, it’s Nick Visser here to pick up the blog once more. Let’s get to it.

The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, will use a speech later today to lay out Australia’s credentials in protecting the Great Barrier Reef before a meeting of the world heritage committee in July.

Global heating remains the reef’s most significant threat, Watt will say, along with impacts from severe weather events, fishing, outbreaks of coral-eating starfish and poor water quality related to clearing of vegetation on land. At an event hosted by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Watt will say:

Faced with these challenges, humankind must be at its best. That’s why we are taking up the fight to protect the Great Barrier Reef for future generations.

Watt will also flag reforms to national environment laws agreed last year that strengthened the approvals needed to clear vegetation within 50m of watercourses in the reef’s catchments.

Consecutive governments have had to lobby Unesco experts continually for years to prevent the 21-country committee from placing the reef on its “in danger” list.

Last year the committee asked the government to submit a progress report by 1 February before this year’s meeting in South Korea.

Unlike in previous years, such as 2023, the committee last year made no specific mention that the reef would be considered for the “in danger” list at the next meeting.

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says a Coalition government would double fuel reserves in Australia to at least 60 days, and spend $800m to build a new storage facility.

Announcing a new policy alongside the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, Taylor said the Albanese government should lift baseline stockholdings from 1 January next year, to get Australia closer to the 90-day minimum reserves required by the International Energy Agency.

Taylor said:

This is a plan the prime minister should pick up today. No excuses, no delays. If fuel stops, Australia stops. It’s that simple. Trucks don’t move, supermarkets don’t stock, businesses shut their doors.

We are putting forward a practical plan to make sure that never happens. More fuel in reserve, more storage on the ground and a country that can stand on its own two feet.

The Coalition says their plan would mean Australia could reach 60 days’ supply by the end of this decade.

When Labor proposed a 90-day fuel reserve before the 2019 election, Taylor, then the energy minister, said the plan would cost “tens of billions of dollars” and called on Labor to explain how it would be funded.

The RSL has announced it will review its guidance on welcome to country addresses at Anzac Day services after Indigenous leaders were booed at three dawn services on Saturday.

The RSL national president, Peter Tinley told the ABC on Monday that the body would review its policies on RSL organised commemorations and “provide guidance to our branches as to how they might attend to this”.

Tinley said he was appalled by the booing during the dawn ceremonies but added that some of the “anodyne acknowledgments” can get “overworked”.

It can get overworked … so then it becomes a question of how are we going to review this process and make it more relevant.

I think there’s a real opportunity for the RSL to lead and provide a better expression that is more tailored and appropriate for the commemorative day that it is.

Tinley said it was a “good thing” for the guidelines and service to be dynamic and reflective of the community.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.

The RSL has announced it will review its guidance on welcome to country addresses at Anzac Day services after Indigenous leaders were booed at three dawn services on Saturday.

And the opposition has revealed a new policy, to double Australia’s fuel reserves to 60 days.

More on this, and much more, coming soon.