Australia news live: major outage hits Telstra mobile network; PM to host three Pacific leaders in Brisbane

Leaders from Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea to join Albanese at State of Origin decider. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Shadow minister says China’s missile test ‘completely inappropriate’ Ted O’Brien , the shadow foreign affairs minister, said he is worried about China’s test of a long-range missile earlier this week, but said he is satisfied Pacific nations had banded together to be “assertive and clear” in voicing their discontent over the action. It is completely inappropriate that, on a week especially, where we are talking about an ocean of peace in the Pacific, the Beijing regime decides to fire a missile into the region. It certainly goes to the contrast between what Australia’s view is of the Pacific family and clearly what the People’s Republic China’s view is. I am pleased that on this occasion they seem to be voicing a far more assertive position on the part of Australia, which is appropriate. But of course, they need to also be speaking directly to their counterparts in Beijing. Oil prices did not rise as much, and the cut to the excise tax blunted the impact on households. Growth is likely to be quite weak for the rest of the year, and because of that, a per capita recession is likely. They [per capita recessions] are not as severe as a conventional recession – the changes in unemployment tend to be far less severe – but they do constitute a decline in living standards. Continue reading...