16 News

Submarine Rotational Force‑West (SRF-West) is another step closer to being established, with critical support elements now in place – as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom continue to work at pace to deliver the AUKUS partnership. 

The Albanese Government is investing up to $8 billion to expand HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, creating around 3,000 direct Australian jobs. 

As part of this process, the US Navy has this week announced it will commence support activities at HMAS Stirling – in cooperation with Australia and the UK – with US personnel to begin rotating to HMAS Stirling later this year. This will include:

• The reestablishment of US Submarine Squadron 3 to oversee the operation of US nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) rotating from HMAS Stirling in support of SRF‑West. Submarine Squadron 3 will work alongside Australian and UK personnel to lay the groundwork for Australia’s own maintenance, logistics, and operational support of our sovereign controlled and operated SSNs.
• The establishment of a Lead Maintenance Activity in WA from mid-2026 to support the maintenance of US submarines assigned to SRF-West, and provide ongoing valuable training to Australia’s workforce. 
• The establishment of Naval Support Activity Stirling – which will grow in the coming months – to deliver support services and programs for US personnel, contractors, and their families rotating as part of SRF-West. 

US force posture cooperation in Australia, including SRF-West, takes place under the Force Posture Agreement. This recognises that access and use of Australian facilities and areas is on a rotational basis, as mutually determined and at the invitation of Australia, with full respect for Australian sovereignty.

Defence and the Australian Submarine Agency will work with the US to ensure its personnel can seamlessly integrate into the WA community, minimising impact, including on housing, transport, and healthcare.  

SRF-West will significantly develop Australia’s ability to operate, maintain and safely steward our future conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines. Deploying our Navy personnel on visiting UK and US boats will provide valuable at-sea experience with naval nuclear propulsion. It will also strengthen the skills, systems and supply chains required to build and maintain Australian submarines. 

This builds on work already underway in the US, where the Royal Australian Navy has more than 200 personnel on training and postings, focusing on the safe operation and qualification on nuclear-powered submarines.

In addition, more than 220 Australian industry personnel are now in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, building the experience needed to sustain Virginia class submarines. Since December 2025, more than ten of these industry workers have returned to Australia, and are applying their skills in Australia.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles: 

“The Albanese Government welcomes this announcement from the United States which demonstrates that AUKUS is on track and it is happening now.

“AUKUS is delivering a generational investment in the Western Australian economy, one that will support thousands of jobs for decades to come.

“SRF-West will directly support submarine deployments by expanding maintenance options and sustainment infrastructure and achieve Australia’s ability to own, operate, maintain and sustain our own conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.

Today, we the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada are pleased to announce that we will establish a new International Peace Fund for Israelis and Palestinians, a multi-donor initiative to support peacebuilding efforts to establish the conditions for a lasting peace.

We are doing so at a moment of acute crisis in Israel and Palestine. The last three years have exacted a devastating and dehumanising toll on civilians and deepened mistrust and division between communities. At the same time, civil society has faced increasing restrictions and unprecedented pressure.

As prospects for a two-state solution remain challenging in the short term, there is an urgent need to invest in the conditions that can make future peace possible, through sustained dialogue and vital grassroots engagement.

We remain committed to a just and lasting resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, based on a negotiated two-state solution in which Israeli and Palestinian people can live in peace, security and dignity.

The fund will help strengthen the voices of moderates and marginalise the extremists, including Hamas.

As we have learned from other entrenched conflicts around the world, peace cannot be achieved through political and security measures alone. It also requires sustained effort to rebuild trust, to strengthen cooperation, and to highlight the shared humanity of people.

The Peace Fund will invest in programmes that advance a two-state solution, help reduce division, strengthen civil society, and support dialogue and cooperation within and between Israeli and Palestinian communities, building the foundations for peace.

The Fund will complement existing diplomatic, humanitarian and development efforts by helping to build the relationships, confidence and shared understanding needed for successful negotiations.

Funding contributions underscore strong international commitment to this initiative. As such, we will each be contributing initial seed funding equivalent to £1 million over three years. Once established, the Fund will be open to additional financial contributions from international partners committed to advancing peace.

Funding will be directed to trusted civil society organisations (CSOs) in both Israel and Palestine, with demonstrated expertise in peacebuilding and dialogue. Additional information on the fund, and its modalities will be announced shortly.

We call on our international partners to support this initiative and invest in the long-term foundations of peace. We also urge all parties to the conflict to take steps to reduce tensions, protect civilians, including humanitarian workers, and uphold international law.

The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada remain committed to working with partners to advance a two-state solution, as the only viable option for peace, security and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians.

The Brisbane public hearing for the Greeens-led Senate Inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity has today revealed the human cost of the housing crisis.

Evidence to the committee today showed:

• Astronomical house price increases are causing high levels of financial and emotional stress for households across the country, forcing people to make sacrifices, impoverishing people and causing homelessness.
• The current rental market is the most unaffordable in Australian history with some of the highest rates of rental stress.
• Australia’s population of “forever renters” is on the rise as homeownership becomes increasingly out of reach.
• Renters, who make up a third of households, face deep housing insecurity, due to insecure rental contracts, unlimited rent increases and no-cause evictions.
• Canberra is currently the most affordable city to rent due to the introduction of rent caps.
• With 640,000 people in need of social housing, Labor’s 55,000 social and affordable homes aren’t making a dint.
• Total social housing stock (public and community housing) declined by 240 homes between 2024 and 2025, in large part as a result of demolition and privatisation of public housing, despite the Labor Government’s flagship social housing policy the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). 
• The Government’s building of public housing won’t meet existing demand. So far, 1,432 homes have been built under the HAFF while 190,000 people are on public housing wait lists.
• Homelessness is a killer. Just one night of experiencing rough sleeping or homelessness can be lethal. People without stable housing are dying thirty years younger.
• Up to 9 people a day are dying – for people with recent experience of homelessness. The majority of these deaths are preventable and avoidable.
• The cost of living crisis and interest rate hikes are contributing to increased rates of domestic and family violence, resulting in homelessness.

Lines attributable to Greens spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara Pocock:

“The evidence is clear: The housing crisis is killing people. 

“Australia is a wealthy country. We cannot accept that nine people a day are dying because of the housing crisis. We need to get people off the streets and into safe and secure housing. 

“Successive governments have prioritised property hoarding over building public, social and affordable housing. They have created an unfair housing system that benefits the top 20% instead of people needing a roof over their heads.

“Our housing system is not working for ordinary people. Big banks, big developers and property hoarders are profiting from a housing crisis that is literally costing people their lives.

“Renters around the country are facing some of the worst housing insecurity in living memory. Too many households are just one rent increase away from eviction or homelessness. 

“Despite Labor claiming to spend big on social housing, we’re actually going backwards and building less than before.

“In the 1960s, we had a government that built 18% of all homes in Australia. Now it’s an investor’s market. The Government needs to get back into the business of building affordable housing directly. It needs to start treating housing like a human right.

“We urgently need to build affordable and public housing to house the 190,000 people on public housing wait lists.

“The housing crisis is costing our country billions of dollars. The Government had the opportunity to actually fix the housing crisis in the federal budget but instead it chose to tinker around the edges. 

“High interest rates are passed onto renters who don’t have a buffer because they are the buffer for landlords. The Government must coordinate nationwide rent caps and a ban on no-cause evictions to protect renters.”

Public hearing link

The Glencore/Yancoal Hunter Valley Operations Open Cut Coal Continuation Project (HVO)has been recommended to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) by the NSW Government today, moving the project closer to unleashing 800 million tonnes of climate pollution over the next 20 years. The expansion is being considered under an updated state coal policy to allow expanded and extended coal mines despite NSW being likely to miss legislated emissions reduction targets.

Greens MP, Solicitor and spokesperson for Planning and Climate Sue Higginson said:

“The Minns Labor Government has allowed this massive and catastrophic project to proceed in the planning system despite publicly and legally committing to emissions reduction targets that will be impossible to reach if this project goes ahead,”

“The Minister for Planning has once again guaranteed that the community will not be able to challenge the merits of this dangerous mine expansion through recommending the IPC conduct a ‘public hearing’, a decision that prevents the merits of a project from being challenged if it’s approved,”

“This next step for HVO comes the same day that the Government accepted all of the Net Zero Commission’s recommendations in the Coal Spotlight Report, except the recommendation that coal expansions were inconsistent with climate laws that the Minns Labor Government introduced in 2023,”

“We cannot afford any more coal. Every single person in NSW is already paying $20k per year because of the impacts of climate change, and this project is literally pouring petrol on a house fire,”

“The Government could act today, to make sure this project is never approved, and we stop the expansion of coal in NSW. Instead, they are avoiding the truth, lying to the community, and setting us on a path to disaster,” Ms Higginson said.

Amid the fallout over KPMG, newly compiled data from the Parliamentary Library reveals the Federal Labor Government currently has 297 active contracts awarded to KPMG, for a total value of $653 million.

Despite revelations of multiple scandals, including allegations of misusing confidential client information to get more audit work and mistreating a whistleblower, the Government continues to employ KPMG’s service.

31 government contracts worth nearly $24 million were sealed with KPMG after the scandals became public on 24 March this year – with ASIC, Finance, Attorney General’s Department, BoM and Defence among them.

The Greens say the data shows KPMG’s grip extends to nearly every corner of government and calls on Labor to review all current contracts and ban KPMG from any future contracts.

Greens finance and public service spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock:

“This government is completely addicted to KPMG. 

“The volume of contracts shows just how aggressive KPMG’s push into government has been, and how addicted Labor remains to the Big 4 consultancy firms, when it should instead be investing in a strong public service.

“At a time when KPMG’s dirty laundry is being aired, as scandals are being publicly exposed, Australians are rightly asking why the Labor Government continues to give them contracts worth millions.

“The Government must review all current contracts and ban KPMG from any future contracts until they’ve been properly investigated.

“Despite all the lessons of the PwC consultancy scandal, Labor’s response has been woefully inadequate. Consultants continue to play by their own rule book as the latest misdemeanours by KPMG show.

“Political donations data shows that big consulting firms are still giving large donations to the government. Three of the Big 4 consultancy firms, among them KPMG, donate to the government – this is just wrong.

“Australians are fed up with the jobs-for-the-mates mentality that’s plagued successive governments. We see endless appointments of Big 4 consultants to senior government and advisory roles. Most recently – and since the whistleblower’s allegations became public – the appointment of a current KPMG partner to lead the government advisory body the Board of Taxation.  How does this pass any conflict of interest test? 

“Labor needs to put an end to the Big 4 donations to political parties and ban appointing Big 4 partners to senior government and advisory roles.”

“The government’s refusal to clean up the unethical practices rife across the consultancy sector and ban dodgy firms is why the Greens introduced a bill to parliament. We must close the legal loopholes that allow government contractors who behave unethically to get away with it.

“It is time to implement the recommendations of earlier inquiries: subject these massive partnerships to the same rules of tax, transparency and whistleblowing as other large entities through corporations law, separate the functions of consultancy from audit and regulate them properly.”

Industrial unrest has surged under Labor, with ABS data showing working days lost to industrial action have more than tripled since the March 2025 quarter, soaring 242 per cent. 

The figures show that nearly five times as many workers were involved in disputes compared to this time last year – an increase of more than 36,000 workers in just 12 months. 

For every day Labor has been in office, almost 450 working days have been lost to industrial action, significantly higher than the Coalition average of 263.

Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations Senator Jane Hume said these figures show the cost of Labor’s industrial relations agenda. 

“Every working day lost to industrial action is a hit to productivity, a hit to businesses and ultimately a hit to Australian workers. 

“At a time when Australia can least afford it, industrial disruption is rising sharply under Labor but the worst may still be ahead of us. 

“The Transport Workers Union has openly threatened to shut down parts of Australia’s transport network through coordinated industrial action that could affect tens of thousands of workers across freight, aviation, ambulance and other essential services. 

“More strikes, more disruption and more working days lost is not a recipe for higher productivity, stronger growth or lower costs. It is ordinary Australians who will pay the price for it.”