When the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, sat down for an interview in the heart of Silicon Valley at the weekend he had known for two days that his was the first government known to have been attacked by a rogue AI agent. He didn’t reveal the attack then, but he sounded a warning about the march of AI: “the risk is that AI develops in a way in which humans are no longer in control of what AI is producing.” But Albanese noted, too, that two countries – the…
Tag: Australian politics
Australia investigating how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for US went missing in Hong Kong
Richard Marles says the Department of Defence is examining how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for the US from Australia were unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong. The acting prime minister said “very much everything that has occurred at the Australian end” will be reviewed, however, he claimed the technology parts were not “sensitive”, as first reported by Politico over the weekend. The parts, which were being transported by another unknown third party on behalf of manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, still remain unaccounted for months later following their unplanned diversion to Hong…
The US now has access to more than half Australia’s military bases – could it drag the country unwillingly into war?
Exclusive: US-controlled weapons corporations and forces have control or access to more than 100 facilities across the continent, which some analysts describe as a ‘colonisation’ of Australia’s military. Find a map of them here US military interests control or have access to more than 100 defence facilities on Australian soil, in what some analysts describe as a “saturation” – even a “colonisation” – of the Australian continent. New data compiled by the Nautilus Institute and published by Guardian Australia maps the extent of US militarisation. The US military controls 17…
Australia to warn China it won’t be bulled by ‘provocative‘ actions as it builds military and nuclear arsenal
Penny Wong will warn China that Australia and other neighbouring nations will not be bullied by its “provocative” actions, after its involvement in another “destabilising and dangerous” incident this week. The foreign affairs minister – who will deliver the address on Thursday in the Philippines, where the 59th Asean foreign minister’s meeting is being held – will also caution world leaders against placing a toll on the strait of Hormuz after both Iran and the US threatened to do amid the protracted conflict. The speech comes as the crisis in…
China tests long-range missile in South Pacific in move Australia condemns as ‘destabilising to region’
China has conducted a long-range missile test in the South Pacific, in a move the Australian government condemned as “destabilising to the region” and which was also criticised by other regional leaders. A test missile topped with a dummy warhead landed in “designated waters” of the Pacific, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. The missile test was a “routine arrangement” of China’s annual military training, with prior notification to relevant countries, Xinhua said. The exact location of the test was unknown. The New Zealand government said it was…
Australia and Fiji sign surprise defence alliance amid push to limit China’s influence in the Pacific
Australia and Fiji have signed a major new defence alliance, further advancing the federal government’s strategy to limit China’s influence across the Pacific region. In a surprise move, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his Fijian counterpart, Sitiveni Rabuka, elevated Australia’s ties with Fiji to a formal treaty alliance. After 75 years of Australia only having formal alliances with the US and New Zealand, the Albanese government has now added two new agreements in less than 12 months, following a deal signed with Papua New Guinea in October. In Suva…
Petrol prices in Australia are now lower than before the Iran war began. Is the oil crisis over and what happens next?
Australians were warned soon after the Middle East conflict started that the country could run short on fuel, with prices rising to record levels owing to disrupted oil supplies. Now, amid an uneasy peace deal and continued supply disruptions, petrol prices are lower than they were before the conflict began and official warnings over fuel usage have largely disappeared. Why haven’t we run out of fuel? Why were we told to cut back? And what will happen now? How did refiners keep getting oil? The US-Israel war on Iran closed…
New Aukus drone tech to protect critical undersea cables as Marles warns: ‘seabed is a battlefield’
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the “seabed is a battlefield” in a combative speech urging Beijing to be more transparent about its maritime operations, and taking aim at weak international controls over so-called “shadow-fleet” vessels. The warning came as the US, UK and Australia announced a new Aukus project to develop new underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables. The same announcement also revealed that Australia would buy three secondhand Virginia-class submarines from the US under Aukus, instead of a mix of old and new, in a move…
Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push
In the middle of 2019, London was sweltering through a heatwave. Temperature records tumbled. Frail, ill and elderly people died in their hundreds. In a city not built for heat, trains were brought to a halt. Railway lines threatened to buckle and sagging power lines caused spot fires along the tracks. Across the channel, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany also hit record temperatures. During the hottest week in late July, the then global chief executive of one of the world’s worst polluters was preparing to take the stage at a…
Australia eyes security pact with Fiji as pushback from Beijing undermines agreement with Vanuatu
Australia looks close to signing a landmark security and economic agreement with Fiji as part of the Albanese government’s efforts to contain China’s growing influence across the Pacific. But pushback from Beijing has undermined a separate pact with Vanuatu’s government, resulting in a scaling back of a deal aimed at locking in Australia as the country’s primary security partner. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, and the minister for Pacific Island affairs, Pat Conroy, were due to arrive in Suva on Tuesday afternoon as part of a three-day trip focused on…