Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to visit Australia next month
Tom McIlroy
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney will visit Australia early next month, and make a major address to federal parliament.
Anthony Albanese confirmed Carney’s visit –locked in for 3-6 March – would include talks about closer economic and security cooperation.
Carney will visit Sydney and Canberra during the visit.
While in Australia, he will discuss cooperation on investment, economic security, critical minerals and defence. Stronger links between key institutions in Canada and Australia will also be on the agenda.
“Canada is one of Australia’s closest friends, built on generations of trust, with a shared commitment to supporting stability across the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” Albanese said.
“As our countries face new challenges and opportunities, we must deepen our cooperation with partners to promote our national interests.
“I look forward to discussing ways to build on our existing cooperation with Canada to shape the next stage of this key relationship.”
Key events
Jordyn Beazley
The South Australian premier Peter Malinaukas has said he thinks economic inequality rather than racism is the main driver attracting voters towards the One Nation party.
Malinaukas appeared on ABC’s 7.30on Monday evening, where he was asked about polling in South Australia showing that the party is no longer considered a fringe option. Despite One Nation experiencing a surge, polling has consistently shown Labor is headed for a collosal win ahead of the election next month.
Malinaukas said the most “profound” issue attracting interest in One Nation is the housing shortage. He said:
“There are legitimate grievances. I think much of them arrive from a sense of economic inequality, a sense of economic opportunity being at risk for future generations, and genuine concerns about that, which is why the best thing parties of government can do, and obviously I count labor as one of those, is to focus on the policy that will make a difference and seek to prosecute the argument for those policies.
He was also asked if he thinks “there is racism against Muslims in Australia” that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is “successfully tapping into”. He said:
“While there might be people on the fringes who share a different view, the vast majority of Australians don’t share those views, and I want to do my best to represent that.tate fighters return to the state they will be provided
Southern Austereo boss goes after two months
Jeff Howard has been removed as chief executive of the merged Seven West Media and Southern Cross entity Southern Austereo after only two months in the job.
Howard was appointed boss the new company but has gone just before new financial results are published.
A statement said he would step down “effective immediately”.
Heath Mackay-Cruise became chairman on Friday after Seven’s founder, Kerry Stokes, finished up in his role of interim chair of the merged entity.
In a statement, Mackay-Cruise said:
On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Jeff for his efforts across the period of transition, with the successful implementation of the scheme of arrangement [for the merger] and creation of a market-leading, multi-platform media company now complete.
The board is confident in our team’s capability to apply the financial discipline and industry leading expertise to drive scale and performance for Southern Cross Media Group going forward.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to visit Australia next month
Tom McIlroy
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney will visit Australia early next month, and make a major address to federal parliament.
Anthony Albanese confirmed Carney’s visit –locked in for 3-6 March – would include talks about closer economic and security cooperation.
Carney will visit Sydney and Canberra during the visit.
While in Australia, he will discuss cooperation on investment, economic security, critical minerals and defence. Stronger links between key institutions in Canada and Australia will also be on the agenda.
“Canada is one of Australia’s closest friends, built on generations of trust, with a shared commitment to supporting stability across the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” Albanese said.
“As our countries face new challenges and opportunities, we must deepen our cooperation with partners to promote our national interests.
“I look forward to discussing ways to build on our existing cooperation with Canada to shape the next stage of this key relationship.”
The latest Capital Brief/DemosAU federal poll shows One Nation’s continued surge in support.
The poll of 1,551 respondents was conducted between February 16 and 20 – days after Angus Taylor replaced Sussan Ley as leader of the opposition.
But there was no noticeable immediate impact from the change: the numbers show Labor on 29% (down 1% from January), One Nation on 28% (up 4%) and the Coalition on 21% (unchanged). The Greens and ‘others’ were down.
Anthony Albanese leads on the preferred prime minister leaderboard on 37% (down 2) followed by Pauline Hanson on 25% (down 1) and Taylor on 19% (up 3 on Ley’s final poll).
But Albanese has a net positive rating of -17%, with 29% of voters having a positive view of the PM, compared to 46% who had a negative view. Hanson’s rating is -1% (37% positive, 38% negative) and Taylor’s is -4% (24% positive, 28% negative). Ley’s last approval rating was -18%.
DemosAU made a (very rough) seat projection based on the data, and reckons it amounts to a strong Labor majority, and an absolute rout for the Coalition, who at best would score 20 seats: possibly as few as 9. One Nation would be the new Opposition with 43-54 seats, up against Labor’s 76-85.
Welcome
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.
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, will travel to Australia early next month as part of a broader Asia-Pacific tour aimed at diversifying trade links amid ongoing tariff turbulence from the US Trump administration. More in a moment.
The first public hearing of the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion will start today with commissioner and former high court judge Virginia Bell to reveal how she will approach the inquiry. More coming up.
And a new federal poll has One Nation just one point behind Labor and seven points ahead of the Coalition, in more evidence that the party has hit an electoral purple patch.
