Australia news live: Albanese expected to meet Zelenskyy in Rome after Oscar Jenkins handed 13-year sentence
Key events
O’Brien is asked if he wants the shadow treasurer’s role as was widely speculated ahead of last week’s leadership vote.
For context, the deputy Liberal leader typically gets their choice of portfolio although it doesn’t always play out that way. Ley herself was believed to have asked for the foreign affairs role earlier this year only for then leader Peter Dutton to appoint David Coleman.
Back to O’Brien, who again plays a straight bat.
Those conversations continue to be had. We haven’t finalised them.
Clennell asks O’Brien if Ley has promised the role to someone else.
I understand your wish for a yes or no answer to any question, Andrew and I respect that. I really do, but again, my answer doesn’t change. We are having these discussions at the moment
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Just taking a step back for a minute to the interview with Labor senator Murray Watt.
The Labor frontbencher was asked for his response to news Oscar Jenkins has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in Russia for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
Watt said:
This is an appalling decision from Russia, and another outrage in a long line of outrages when it comes to matters involving Ukraine. We are appalled by this decision from Russia. We consider this to be a sham trial, and we don’t accept that Mr Jenkins should be treated this way. In our view, he should be treated as a prisoner of war.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The new deputy Liberal leader, Ted O’Brien, is up next.
First off the bat, he’s asked whether the Liberals and Nationals will strike a formal agreement or go their separate ways after the election disaster.
O’Brien says:
There’s no doubt .. that the Liberal Party and the National Party are at their strongest when they are in a Coalition and they’re working together. That’s proven to be the case over many many years.
One potential sticking point is the future of the opposition’s nuclear plan, which O’Brien spearheaded as shadow climate change and energy minister.
O’Brien sidesteps the question of whether the Nationals have insisted that the nuclear plan be retained in order to agree to a Coalition deal.
Look, the discussions are between (Liberal leader) Sussan Ley and (Nationals leader) David Littleproud – I’ll leave it to them. When it comes to issues of policy, the Liberal Party has already made very clear what our approach is, and that is, we need to be listening to the Australian people.
Austria wins Eurovision
Austria has won the Eurovision song contest for the third time after a jury vote delivered the 2025 win for Viennese-born JJ with their song, Wasted Love.
The favourite Switzerland received no love from the public as Austria took out the contest, but not without challenge from Israel.
Accepting the trophy, JJ said they wanted there to be “more love”.
Australia was knocked out in the semi-final and so did not compete in this round.
You can follow at our Eurovision 2025 live blog:
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Watt: ‘I’m someone who can bring different groups together’
Watt was appointed to the portfolio to replace Tanya Plibersek, whose three years in the role were defined by a failure to deliver Labor’s promised nature reforms.
Clennell asks Watt if he was placed in the role because he is a “fixer” who might make more “reasonable” decisions than Plibersek.
Watt responds:
I’ll leave it to commentators like you, Andrew, to determine why I’ve been put in this role and come up with different descriptions, but I guess, you know, I think my record does show that I’m someone who can bring different groups together and make decisive decisions and then get matters passed through the Senate.
Watt points to his success as agriculture minister in legislating an end date for the live sheep trade as well as overseeing the federal government’s intervention into the CFMEU as industrial relations minister.
For more on Plibersek’s effort to negotiate the nature positive reforms, read the Guardian’s previous reporting here:
We need an EPA ‘with teeth’, environment minister tells Sky
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The environment minister, Murray Watt, is speaking on Sky News.
In an interview with Guardian Australia published on Friday, Watt said establishing a federal environment protection agency was a “very high and immediate priority” for the re-elected Albanese government after Labor failed to get it through parliament in the previous term.
One of the big unanswered questions is the design of the EPA 2.0, including whether it would have the power to make decisions on projects or just enforce nature laws.
Speaking with Sky, Watt is refusing to rule anything in or out at this stage:
Obviously, it’s very early days in my tenure in this role and I’ll be consulting widely about all of these issues.
He adds:
We did go to the election committing and recommitting, in fact, to having an independent EPA. And we need such a body with teeth to be able to assist in protecting our environment. But in terms of the details around the model of that, that is something I’ll be consulting on.
As we reported on Friday, Watt will next week travel to Western Australia to meet with the premier, Roger Cook, and mining leaders who lobbied to sink the nature watchdog in the last term.
Host Andrew Clennell suggests it’s “unusual” for an environment minister to make a beeline for the mining state so soon after taking on the role.
Watt responds:
I don’t think so. I mean, whether it be Tanya Plibersek or other environment ministers, they’ve always engaged in wide-ranging consultations.
Anne Ruston to speak on Insiders
South Australian Coalition senator Anne Ruston will speak with ABC Insiders host David Speers this morning.
Labor’s new environment minister, Murray Watt, is speaking to Sky News, as is the Australian ambassador to the Holy See, Keith Pitt, and the Liberal deputy leader, Ted O’Brien.
We will bring you all the latest as it happens.
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has described the 13-year prison sentence handed to an Australian man on the charge of fighting in Ukraine as a “mercenary” as an “outrage”. The PM was speaking in Rome overnight, where he said the government would continue to advocate for Oscar Jenkins.
Albanese is representing Australia at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration mass and is expected to hold talks with other leaders, with the war in Ukraine on the agenda, as well as trade. He is expected to meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though he told reporters on Saturday a time had not yet been locked in, according to the ABC.
The Victorian government has pledged free public transport for under-18s from 1 January next year, allowing children to register for a special youth Myki card. The government says more than 1 million children and their families will benefit from the $318m program.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …
