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Key posts
- Long-awaited free trade deal with UK to finally come into effect
- Trillion-dollar debt delayed but interest bill accelerates to $2.5m an hour
- Zelensky defies threats of ‘elimination’ after assassination claims
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Free-trade agreement with UK will change labour market: Albanese
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the free-trade agreement with the UK will come into force at the end of the month.
He gave an interview to the ABC while in London and spoke about the agreement, first brokered by the Morrison government.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Bondi Green cafe in London.Credit: Domenico Pugliese
“What it will mean, put simply is more access to the market here for our goods and services,” Albanese said.
He said it will also mean changes to the labour market.
“Increased periods in which Australians can work here and vice versa and increased age [for visas] as well,” the prime minister said.
Albanese also spoke about Australian Julian Assange who is in prison in the UK and the upcoming coronation, including the republican movement.
Long-awaited free trade deal with UK to finally come into effect
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised the free trade agreement struck by the former Morrison government as one of the best Australia has ever done, announcing it will finally come into effect on May 31.
Albanese made the announcement while visiting Bondi Green, an Australian cafe in London’s Paddington, which is run by Victorian-born Prue Freeman.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Bondi Green cafe in London.Credit: Domenico Pugliese
“Having come here, sampled the food, coffee and the wine, [visitors] will go away and think, I wouldn’t mind coming down to Australia if this is what Australia can produce,” he said.
“You are indeed an ambassador for Australian tourism as well. Now the FTA, I think is a very exciting one, it is one of the best FTAs that Australia has done.”
Albanese added that the agreement would lead to the importation of more Australian meat, wine, fish and spices into the UK.
The full story on the deal is here.
Trillion-dollar debt delayed but interest bill accelerates to $2.5m an hour
The federal government has delayed the point at which its total debt exceeds $1 trillion as it comes within sight of balancing the budget this year on the strength of unexpectedly high commodity prices and record numbers of people in work.
Despite the rapid improvement in the budget bottom line, taxpayers will spend more than $110 billion over the next five years paying the interest bill on government debt, a bill larger than family tax benefits or childcare subsidies.
Jim Chalmers is preparing to hand down the budget next week. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
But even that interest bill is a substantial improvement on where Treasurer Jim Chalmers feared the budget would be less than seven months ago.
Interest on government debt is the single fastest-growing budget expense, as record-sized deficits due to spending through the pandemic lockdowns were exacerbated by a surge in global interest rates.
More on this story is here.
Zelensky defies threats of ‘elimination’ after assassination claims
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to pay a surprise visit to The Hague, home to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
News of the visit came as Moscow threatened to “eliminate Zelensky” after claiming Ukraine had tried to assassinate Putin in a drone attack at the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Earlier in Helsinki, Finland, Zelensky told reporters: “We didn’t attack Putin. We leave it to [the] tribunal”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki this week.Credit: Lehtikuva/AP
While Zelensky’s visit to the ICC was not officially confirmed, the court’s staff raised a Ukrainian flag on Thursday next to its own flag outside the building.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command said earlier that Russian forces had attacked Ukrainian regions overnight with Iranian-made drones. Air raid sirens sounded across the country and explosions were reported in the southern city of Odesa and the capital, Kyiv.
Continue reading about the claims here, courtesy of international wires AP and Reuters.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning, and for your company.
It’s Friday, May 5. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started:
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the free trade deal with UK which will kick-in at the end of this month.
- The treasurer is preparing to raise billions of dollars more in taxes from offshore oil and gas companies to spend on cost-of-living measures.
- Parents with young children will no longer risk losing support on the ‘punitive’ ParentsNext work program, as part of new measures in the budget.
- An Aboriginal elder claims she and other Indigenous people were ignored at a community forum on the Voice hosted by a Liberal MP and attended by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
- Meanwhile, NSW has recorded its first monkeypox case since November, triggering a state public health alert.
- In Victoria, Liberal MP Moira Deeming will sue party leader John Pesutto for defamation and launch legal action challenging her nine-month suspension from the parliamentary team.
- WA’s premier is set to spend $1.2 billion on the state’s hospitals, but nurses remain unimpressed.
- Overseas, the UK is gearing up for the coronation of King Charles in London and there are a number of Australians with invitations.
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