Coleman asked about prospect of Australian troops in Ukraine, Five Eyes intelligence sharing

Asked if Australia should have boots on the ground in Ukraine to help with a security guarantee, David Coleman said Australia’s support was best provided through “defence, material and humanitarian aid and other forms of support”.

There isn’t a request for Australia to provide support beyond that, and I would think that the form of support that we’ve provided to date will continue to be the right form of support.

He was also asked if Australia should reconsider its intelligence sharing with Five Eyes partners, given its support of Ukraine and the US’s move to “essentially [align] itself with the views and demands of Russia on this issue”.

But Coleman said: “Absolutely not.”

The Five Eyes intelligence partnership is extremely important to Australia and has helped to underpin our security for a very long period of time.

He cautioned against “jumping to conclusions based on a press conference” and again stated that “what matters here is the substance”.

‘Premature’ to speculate on US involvement in Ukraine’s future as negotiations ongoing, Coleman says

Asked if he regards the United States as a reliable ally, David Coleman said it is “our most important ally” and “has been for many decades and will continue to be”.

That’s, of course, been underpinned by Anzus for about 70 years, and now by Aukus, which takes our relationship to the next level. So absolutely, I think the US, of course, is our most significant ally and will continue to be.

How does the US saying it won’t provide further weapon support to Ukraine show its reliability? The shadow minister said it was “premature to ascribe a particular outcome to negotiations that are ongoing”.

The United States has provided enormous support to Ukraine and has provided some of its most advanced weapons systems to Ukraine – without which Ukraine would not have been able to do such a tremendous job as it has in fighting back against Russia.

We have to focus on the actual outcome, not on the steps along the way, so to speak. And I think that we obviously want to see the US involved in that outcome, we want to see the US with a strong role in the future of Ukraine – but it’s premature to speculate on that, as further negotiations continue.

Trump-Zelenskyy presser ‘colourful’ but what matters is ‘substance’ of meeting, Coleman says

Butler on government pledge to fund 50 more urgent care clinincs

Mark Butler was also asked about the government’s commitment to fund 50 more urgent care clinics, and whether these will actually take the pressure off hospitals, and said:

We know from the 87 already operating, they are working in two really important ways.

This was by “giving patients access to high-quality urgent care in their own community when they need it, seven days a week, [at] extended hours and completely free of charge”. But also by relieving pressure on the hospital from non-urgent presentations, which “account for about half of all emergency department presentations”.

Getting into the nitty-gritty of the policy while speaking on ABC RN, Butler was also asked if he was confident the clinics are in the places of greatest need, rather than greatest political need? He responded: “Absolutely.”

These are subject to an evaluation that I promised at the last election, that is ongoing and will deliver a report to government in 2026. I’m very confident about these locations, the ones that are operating already are delivering an incredible service.

And on the Today Show, Butler said the government would be rolling the clinics out “over the course of the next financial year if we’re elected”.

Butler backs Ukraine and says Australia providing ‘whatever assistance we can’

The health minister, Mark Butler, has been making the rounds on breakfast television this morning.

Asked about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and whether Australia would play any role with European nations in putting forward a ceasefire proposal to the US, he told ABC News Breakfast:

Australia, right through this awful war and the more than three years since Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion, has been working very closely with allies in Europe and working directly with the government in Ukraine to ensure that whatever assistance we can provide to the Ukrainian people, we are providing it.

We’ve provided an enormous amount by comparison to other countries not in the European region. And the prime minister said again yesterday we are forthrightly alongside the Ukrainian people’s very courageous resistance against this awful invasion.

Queensland premier says authorities doing ‘everything we can’ to prepare for Tropical Cyclone Alfred

The Queensland premier David Crisafulli has spoken with the Today Show amid Tropical Cyclone Alfred (see our earlier post). He said it had intensified overnight, with the warning area a “heavily populated area”.

I think it’s just important that we let Queenslanders know that we’re doing everything we can to prepare … We’re doing things like pre-positioning generators on some of those island communities, we’re talking with the telco providers to make sure that there’s bandwidth there … But we need individuals to do the same, and we need people to take precautions around your home.

Sarah Scully, a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, provided an update on the tropical cyclone to ABC News Breakfast earlier.

At this stage, our most likely track or scenario is for a coastal crossing somewhere between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast overnight Thursday into Friday morning as either a category one or a category two system.

She said that regardless of the category at the time of crossing, “there’s going to be big impacts”.

There’s the potential for 300-400mm each day with the passage of the system, and even into the weekend – but we can’t rule out daily rainfall totals of 600mm.

Housing downturn over as rate cut boosts sentiment

Oscars 2025: Australians to watch out for

Brittany Higgins welcomes baby boy

Lambie asked whether Albanese or Dutton better suited to engage with Trump

Jacqui Lambie took a final question on who is better at dealing with Donald Trump – Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton – but suggested this line of questioning was unhelpful:

Look, I don’t think you can – we can run this line [of] ‘who’s going to deal with Trump better’ … I don’t think that putting those men up against each other on who’s going to deal better with Trump is actually helpful this morning.

And quite frankly, both of them are going to try and deal with him as best they can, and that’s all that they can do. They know that. But putting them up against each other over this is just really un-Australian.

He is really difficult to deal with … [and] they’re going to try to deal with Trump the best way that they can, and that’s all you can do when it comes to people like Trump.

Sharma says Trump-Zelenskyy clash shows Australia needs to do more to look after its own defence and security needs

NSW senator Dave Sharma spoke alongside Lambie on the Today Show, where he too weighed in on that Trump-Zelenskyy clash and said:

Like Barnaby Joyce earlier, he described the interaction as “incredibly unusual”.

Often you’ll have tough, intense conversations behind closed doors. But once the cameras are in, you’ll tend to present a united front and focus on the areas of disagreement.

Sharma said he doesn’t think the US-Ukraine relationship is “irreparable” and that the “US is going to necessarily cease supporting Ukraine altogether”.

There is a risk of that, and that’s why the rest of the world needs to come together. But it’s certainly dangerous times for Ukraine, but also more broadly for any country that relies on a US security guarantee.

Asked whether the US’s 80-year history of military support for Europe is hanging in the balance, Sharma said this has been the case since Trump was re-elected, with his “America first” policy. But where does this leave Australia? He responded:

It leaves us in a position where we need to do a lot more to look after our own defence and security needs.

Lambie lashes Trump as ‘unstable’ and ‘not good for world order’

Senator Jacqui Lambie has also weighed in on the explosive clash between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and said the Ukrainian president “has the backing of the western world”.

Speaking on the Today Show, she said:

There’s no doubt about that. If Trump wants to continue with his tantrums and change his mind every hour, then you have to leave him out of the equation because he’s extremely unstable and that is not good for world order. Full stop.

She said Australia needs to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine because “if we let Russia take over … Ukraine, where’s it going next?”

We are really worried about this. And what Trump is doing, and just the instability coming out of that man, is absolutely blind.

Lambie said that Zelenskyy shouldn’t have interrupted Trump because “if he hadn’t have interrupted him, just let him keep going and going and going, I think you would have seen the full nature of this man, and he is a problem”:

What [Trump and JD Vance] have done, they need to go and study history because oh my goodness, they’re completely out of order. The both of them … But we need to stand behind Ukraine.

Communities urged to prepare for Cyclone Alfred

Joyce describes Trump-Zelenskyy clash as ‘unusual’ but says politics ‘a tough game’

Plibersek on Ukraine and Australia-US relationship

Funding to boost female trade workforce

Krishani Dhanji

Welcome

Emily Wind