Australia news LIVE: Elon Musk widens legal fight with Australia; Treasurer wants Australians to have more babies

Earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia needed to decarbonise, but gas was a necessary part of the transition.

She was asked about backbencher Labor colleagues including Assistant Minister for Health Ged Kearney publicly saying there shouldn’t be more public money spent on gas.

“We do need to decarbonise, I agree with them,” Wong told ABC Radio National this morning.

“I think the point of the gas strategy, which has been released, has been to point out how we make that transition and that gas is a necessary part of that transition.”

She said Australia wasn’t investing in gas, but rather more renewable energy sources.

Air Vanuatu is officially in liquidation after the Vanuatu government said yesterday it was considering its options.

Ernst and Young has been appointed as liquidators to the national carrier.

The airline stopped flying to Australia earlier this week and is not set to recommence flying until Monday. If it halts services for good, Virgin Australia will be the only airline connecting the two countries.

An Air Vanuatu plane on the tarmac in Port Vila in 2018.Credit: iStock

“The appointment follows a challenging period for the global aviation industry, including labour shortages, inflation affecting input costs and a global increasing cost of credit environment. Air Vanuatu has been particularly affected by disruption of tourism activity due to cyclones,” an EY spokesperson said.

The Vanuatu government and EY said they remain hopeful the carrier can continue.

“The outlook for the airline is positive, despite pressures on the broader industry, and we will be focused on securing the future of this strategically vital national carrier,” EY partner Morgan Kelly said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the future is in renewables, but gas has a role to play.

Asked about his backbencher colleagues including Josh Burns, Jerome Laxale and Assistant Minister for Health Kearney saying there should not be more public money spent on gas, Chalmers said the budget focuses on renewables significantly.

“There is a huge focus in the budget on becoming a renewable energy superpower, that is one of the defining objectives of the budget on Tuesday, is how we make the most of this net-zero transformation,” he said.

“In the global economy and in our own economy, big investment in the future of renewable energy while we recognise that gas has a role to play in the interim, and so the future gas strategy that was released yesterday recognises that gas has a role to play but overwhelmingly, the budget will be about renewables.”

Returning to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who says his government wants to make it easier for Australians to have bigger families.

In an interview with this masthead, Chalmers said he would like to see Australians have more children and said today at his press conference he wanted to see it being easier for families to have children.

“We found a better way to support people who make that choice and the point that I made in that interview with your colleagues here is I know that some people can’t afford to have more kids,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I know that people will make their own choices and I don’t pretend for a moment that government should direct those choices, but we want to make it easier for people to have bigger families if they want to.”

He said that’s why the government was making “enormous investments” in early childhood education, why they expanded paid parental leave and pay the superannuation guarantee on that leave.

“That’s one of the proudest things I think Katy and I have been working on over the court of the first couple of years.”

Chalmers said the birth rates in Australia have been on a long-term decline, and referenced his predecessor from the Howard era – former treasurer Peter Costello – who famously said: “have one for Mum, one for Dad, and one for the country”.

“Peter Costello talked about this a lot. A healthy birth rate is good for Australia, and we want to make it easier for people to make that choice if they want to,” he said.

Some language used at protest camps at universities are antisemitic, the foreign minister says, and she doesn’t back the chant “from the river to the sea”.

Students have started camping on the lawns of campuses across Australia to protest against Israel’s invasion of Gaza, where the death toll has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials.

Penny Wong told ABC Radio National this morning was asked about the chant “from the river to the sea”, which the prime minister said he had an issue with.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I’ve always believed that what that [chant] says is contrary to a two-state solution,” Wong said on RN Breakfast.

“In whatever context in which it’s been used and has been used by both sides of the argument, what it expresses is a view that is not consistent with a two-state solution, I support a two-state solution.”

She was also asked whether she believed some of the language used on campus protests was antisemitic.

“Yes, I do.”

The foreign minister said universities have to ensure they’re safe spaces for all students.

“We do have a right to peaceful protest in this country, and people are entitled to protest in support of their views in a democracy,” she said.

But she said there seemed to be a lack of social cohesion in Australia.

“We seem to be losing the capacity in this country to disagree without diminishing the other. And that is a bad thing for our democracy.”

Circling back to the foreign minister, who says Australia has “grave concerns” about a ground invasion of Rafah, in Gaza as the US urged Israel not to go ahead with an operation.

Penny Wong said she was clear on Australia’s views about a ground invasion of the city, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

“I’ve been clear about our objections to an Israeli ground offensive into Rafah, we have reiterated this to Israel again, in this last week,” she said on RN Breakfast.

She was also asked whether the government would expel Israel’s ambassador if it went ahead with the invasion.

“No, we’re not going to be doing that,” Wong said.

“We have diplomatic relationships with countries in many circumstances, we may not agree with everything that those countries do, but we believe engagement is important.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher are speaking this morning to discuss what will be the main features of the budget which is set to be released next week.

“Investment has grown every single quarter in the life of our government, but it fell two out of three quarters under our predecessors,” Chalmers said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“So the budget will be all about attracting and incentivising more private investment in the future of our economy and in the future made in Australia and there will be public investment in the budget.”

Chalmers said the budget will still be restrained due to inflation but will still tackle the cost of living crisis.

“The budget will balance the near term pressures that people are under and longer-term goals and opportunities in our economy. It will fight inflation without smashing the economy,” he said.

“It won’t be a smash and grab budget because people are hurting, and the economy is slowing, but there will be a premium on responsibility and restraint.”