Australia news live: Minns says Mardi Gras pro-Palestine protest ‘wasn’t too much of a big deal’; Asean summit to begin | Australia news

Making the rounds this morning, deputy prime minister Richard Marles also spoke to ABC RN and commented on the Dunkley byelection result.

Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy received a swing of more than 3% but fell short of the 6.3% required, leaving Labor candidate Jodie Belyea as the newest federal MP.

What lessons does the government need to take from Dunkley? Marles said:

We’ll go through these results in a lot of detail to really understand what is being said here and we want to learn everything we can from this result.

I mean, it is a matter of historical fact that there tends to be swings against governments in byelections, but that said, we do want to understand exactly all that’s happened here. In the same breath, the fact that our primary vote held up given how popular Peta Murphy had been as a local member, I think says a lot about the campaign Jodie Belyea ran…

It is clear the policies we put in place around cost of living, particularly Labour’s tax cuts, were well received but we will continue to work hard on our cost of living issues right through until the next election.

‘Context has changed’ since NSW lit up Opera House to support Israel, Minns says

ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland:

You ordered the lighting up of the Sydney Opera House sails in support of Israel after 1,200 Israelis were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Since then, 30,000 Palestinians have died. Will you consider lighting up the Sydney Opera House in support of Palestine?

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said “the context has changed”.

This is an international conflict now and I don’t want to further exacerbate or pull apart Sydney’s already quite volatile mix. I would make the point that much of what will be said in New South Wales will affect the peace situation in the Middle East, but a lot of what could be said can affect peace right here in this state. So we need to be careful with our commentary, we need to focus on not exacerbating community tensions or divisions, and that’s going to be the NSW government’s approach over the coming months.

‘Difficult to bring the community together right now’ after iftar cancellation, Minns says

Chris Minns said he can understand the concerns of Muslim and Arab communities in New South Wales about what’s happening in Gaza.

This comes as Muslim groups decided to boycott the state iftar dinner, before it was ultimately cancelled:

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast Minns said:

I don’t pretend … that there’s complete unanimity on these matters. This is a very complicated international [matter] in the Middle East. We’ve got large expat communities on either side of that conflict in New South Wales. It’s very difficult to bring the community together right now. What I would say is that my focus has got to be peace and security on the streets of Sydney in particular, and we’ll do our best to promote harmony in NSW but that’s going to take a bit of time.

Protest at Mardi Gras ‘probably pretty standard’, NSW premier says

Chris Minns, said it is “a bit strange” that he was the first NSW premier to march in the Mardi Gras parade at the weekend, “given that it [has been] a fixture on the calendar for decades”.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Minns said a pro-Palestine protest that took place during the march on Saturday “wasn’t too much of a big deal on the night”.

He said:

Look, a lot has been made of it, but to be honest, it wasn’t too much of a big deal on the night. I mean, there was some coloured flares that went off, and I said yesterday, I thought that that was actually part of Mardi Gras. So I don’t think that it disrupted me or the march too much. A little bit of protest at Mardi Gras is probably pretty standard, so not the end of the world.

No tsunami threat after 6.8 magnitude earthquake off Macquarie Island

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit near Macquarie Island overnight. The Bureau of Meteorology said there is no tsunami threat to Australia:

Macquarie Island is uninhabited, located around 1,500km south-east of Tasmania.

Royal visit this year would be ‘really tremendous and popular event’: Marles

Richard Marles was also asked about a potential visit from King Charles, following news the prime minister Anthony Albanese is going ahead with plans for a potential visit later this year.

Q: Do you reckon people care? Will there be that much excitement about a visit if it happens later on this year?

Marles told ABC News Breakfast:

I think people care. And you’re right – we are very much thinking about King Charles at the moment in terms of his battle with cancer. But King Charles has a long connection with this country. Obviously, he went to school in his youth here in Australia, and this would be his first visit to Australia as the King …

I think that a royal visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla later in the year would be a really, really tremendous and popular event, and I do think that Australians would very much welcome seeing King Charles in our country later this year.

Asean ‘completely central’ for Australia’s economic and security future, defence minister says

The defence minister, Richard Marles, says with the exception of Myanmar, every Asean leader is in Melbourne ready for the summit kicking off today.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast just earlier, Marles was asked how much the rise of China would be front and centre of discussion among leaders there.

He said leaders would discuss China “in the sense that they are part of the global landscape” but the meeting itself is not about China.

Marles, who is also deputy prime minister, said Asean is not only “completely central” in terms of Australia’s economic future, but also central in terms of Australia’s security future.

The defence of Australia doesn’t mean that much unless we have a stable and peaceful and secure south-east Asia. And so, we feel deeply connected both in an economic and a security sense with Asean, and I think that those countries feel the same in relation to Australia, which is why there is such a significant turnout of Asean.

The host noted that diaspora communities from countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are urging the government to raise human rights concerns in those countries. Marles said he wouldn’t “go into the details of what will be said in every meeting”, but said:

Australia is always an advocate of human rights and we do that in the meetings that we have around the world. And so, you can be assured that we will carve out our business in the way that we normally would in the course of these meetings.

Firefighters battle blazes in Tasmania and Western Australia overnight

A caravan park has been evacuated and residents warned to leave as a bushfire rages in Tasmania’s north-west, AAP reports.

Fire crews were actively responding to the blaze at Port Latta on Sunday, with authorities evacuating the Crayfish Creek caravan park and setting up an evacuee centre at the Rocky Cape community hall.

The fire was within containment lines on Sunday night but crews would remain on site overnight due to the risk of spot fires, Tasmania Fire Service said in a statement.

Meanwhile, lives and homes were threatened after a bushfire in mid-west Western Australia jumped containment lines.

A bushfire emergency warning was issued on Sunday for people in an area bounded by Brand Highway to the west, Skipper Road to the south and Correy Road to the east in parts of Arrowsmith and Arrowsmith East in WA’s Irwin and Three Springs shires.

The alert level was downgraded to watch and act last night after a change in wind direction.

Emergency WA said the blaze had been sparked by lightning.

Three-day Asean summit kicks off today

Daniel Hurst

Australia still planning for King Charles visit later this year

Daniel Hurst

Good morning

Emily Wind