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ASX to rebound on Trump comments
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares are poised to rebound strongly today after Donald Trump called the war on Iran a “short-term excursion”, raising investor hopes that oil supply in the Middle East would soon normalise.
Futures pricing indicates the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 will rise more than 2.2% this morning to the 8,750 point market, erasing a large part of yesterday’s steep losses.
Equity markets have been pulled up and down by the Middle East conflict given energy disruptions and increased oil costs contribute to global inflation by elevating costs across nearly all goods and services.
The latest bout of optimism was sparked by Trump’s comments overnight indicating the conflict could end sooner than expected. He also said vessels were already beginning to move more freely through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices fell overnight in response and Wall Street stocks climbed, paving the way for a bounce on the ASX today.
Chris Weston, the head of research at Melbourne-based financial firm Pepperstone, said this morning that the “pressure valve” has clearly been released for now.
However, volatility across energy markets remains exceptionally elevated.
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What’s happening today?
After a particularly busy morning with confirmation that five women on the Iranian women’s football team have been granted asylum in Australia and that the government will deploy a surveillance aircraft and missiles to the UAE in a “defensive” capacity to protect civilians, what’s actually going to happen in parliament for the rest of the day?
Great question (if I do say so myself).
The parties are currently holding their party room briefings where they discuss positions on policy, and generally give each other a bit of a gee up for the week ahead. The parties will soon conduct their post party room briefings to the media (which we’ll bring you the details of once they happen).
Both houses will begin sitting at noon today, and while the agenda in the House of Reps will be a little on the thinner side, the government’s superannuation bill will be debated in the Senate today, where it will pass this week with the Greens’ support.
And of course we can look forward to question time at 2pm!
Penry Buckley
NSW rezones one of ‘world’s best neighbourhoods’ amid concern over housing targets
The NSW government has announced the proposed rezoning of a neighbourhood chosen as one of the world’s coolest, which it says will deliver as many as 18,300 homes, a more than 3,000 increase on its previous plans.
The rezoning of the 800-metre area around the under-construction metro station at Burwood will include buildings between eight and 42 storeys high, expanding on a plan announced in August last year to build 15,000 homes. The NSW planning minister, Paul Scully, says:
Burwood already ranks as one of world’s best neighbourhoods and with both the Sydney CBD and Parramatta set to be a quick 10-minute trip from the new Burwood North Metro station it’s a no brainer to support its continued growth.
The government is attempting to plug the gap following the rejection of a proposal to redevelop the Rosehill Racecourse to build 25,000 homes. This month it announced the creation of a new suburb – to be known as Bays West – around Glebe Island, the home of Sydney’s remaining working port, with as many as 8,500 new homes.
At budget estimates last month, Scully rejected the opposition’s suggestion the government was 40% behind on its Housing Accord targets to build 377,000 new homes by 2029, but said: “I would prefer to be much further advanced.”
Analysis by the Urban Development Institute of Australia suggests NSW will fall 157,000 dwellings behind the national five-year targets, but Scully said with two-and-a-half years remaining, NSW had the highest number of dwellings under construction of any state, and was seeing growth in housing completions.
Australia ‘dragged into another US forever war’, say Greens
The Greens are scathing of the government’s decision to deploy a military surveillance aircraft and missile to the UAE to protect civilians in Gulf nations against attacks from Iran.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, says the assertion by the government that the troops on the surveillance aircraft and the military assets are only being used for defensive purposes is a “fig leaf”.
Waters says Australians don’t want to get dragged into this conflict and into another “forever war”.
Labor shouldn’t be sending troops to help a military that’s killed 150 schoolchildren in a primary school bombing. That will only escalate an illegal conflict that’s already spiralling out of control, and leave Australia trapped in yet another forever war.
Greens senator David Shoebridge says the deployment of troops (85 defence personnel will be sent on the surveillance E-7A Wedgetail) is contrary to the national interest.
It’s been just over a week and the mission creep and deception from Labor is frightening. Labor has gone from supporting the war politically, to having Australian personnel part of US military attacks, to now putting troops on the ground.
‘You can’t fix a problem if you can’t admit there is one’: McKenzie
Leader of the s in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie has lashed out at the government over concerns around fuel shortages around the country.
The government has been trying to allay fears and calm the country, and has said panic buying makes the problem worse.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, says Australia enters the crisis “very well prepared”.
McKenzie tells journalists at Parliament House that Bowen should be doing more to protect regional supply chains and stop Australians getting “slugged at the bowser”.
This has huge implications for Australian industry and Australian households. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t admit there is one. And last week, we saw senior cabinet ministers telling us that prices were holding steady.
Tehan says Australia now an active participant in Iran war
The shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan, says Australia is now an active participant in the war in the Middle East, after a decision to deploy surveillance aircraft to help protect civilians – including Australian civilians – in the region.
Speaking to RN Breakfast soon after the prime minister announced the deployment of the E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft, upon request by the United Arab Emirates, Tehan said that on principle, it was the right thing for Australia to be playing a role in the conflict.
“Given that Australia will be providing military assistance to the UAE, are we now active participants in this war?” he was asked.
I think by the very nature of that action, yes, we are [participants to this war]. And we’re doing that because we want to keep Australians safe and we want to see an end to this evil Iranian [regime].
We want to be doing our bit to keep the region safe and obviously bring this conflict to an end. You know, the best thing that can happen now is for the Iranian regime to say, enough’s enough.
He says the Coalition looks forward to receiving a briefing from Labor on any requests made to Australia to provide military support in the Middle East.
No issues of fuel supply, but Australia not building 90-day stockpile, says Bowen
Chris Bowen’s had a very busy morning: shortly before appearing at a press conference with the prime minister, the energy minister spoke with RN Breakfast, saying for the hundredth time that there’s no need for petrol stockpiling.
He says Australia enters this crisis “very well prepared”, and adds that panic buying makes the situation worse, not better.
On criticisms that Australia isn’t following the Energy Agency recommendation for a 90-day fuel stockpile, Bowen says that isn’t for fuel being held domestically but “to sell to international markets to help reduce prices”.
We haven’t had 90 days and not [on] one day of the Abbott-Turnbull Morrison government did we have 90 days. There’s a good reason for that, Sally, it’s very expensive to build 90 days’ worth of supply, that would cost $20bn over the next four years. Now, I’ve seen David Littleproud and Ted O’Brien saying they want to move to 90 days, well, I look forward to seeing the costings.
Four flights scheduled to depart from Dubai to Australia today
Four flights from Dubai to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth are scheduled to depart from Dubai today, though the situation remains volatile.
The first flight, from Dubai to Sydney, is due to depart in a few minutes.
The government has confirmed that 2,697 Australians have arrived back home from the UAE on 18 direct flights since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
The government is still encouraging all Australians in the Middle East to take up commercial flights when they’re available, and have been bussing Australians from Qatar to Riyadh to fly out of the Saudi Arabian capital.
ASX to rebound on Trump comments
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares are poised to rebound strongly today after Donald Trump called the war on Iran a “short-term excursion”, raising investor hopes that oil supply in the Middle East would soon normalise.
Futures pricing indicates the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 will rise more than 2.2% this morning to the 8,750 point market, erasing a large part of yesterday’s steep losses.
Equity markets have been pulled up and down by the Middle East conflict given energy disruptions and increased oil costs contribute to global inflation by elevating costs across nearly all goods and services.
The latest bout of optimism was sparked by Trump’s comments overnight indicating the conflict could end sooner than expected. He also said vessels were already beginning to move more freely through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices fell overnight in response and Wall Street stocks climbed, paving the way for a bounce on the ASX today.
Chris Weston, the head of research at Melbourne-based financial firm Pepperstone, said this morning that the “pressure valve” has clearly been released for now.
However, volatility across energy markets remains exceptionally elevated.
Burke posts picture with five Iranian women’s football team players
Tony Burke has posted a picture meeting the five Iranian women’s football team players who will now live in Australia with humanitarian visas.
The government announced this morning it had been working with the players and security agencies over several days to grant them asylum.
Burke quickly took to social media to spread the good news (and post the obligatory “signing the important document photo”).
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PM says superannuation reforms will pass the Senate this week
After reaching agreement from the Greens to pass their watered superannuation reforms, the prime minister, ending his press conference, says the bill will now pass the Senate this week.
It will assist income earners, but it will make the superannuation system more progressive and I thank the majority of the Senate for agreeing to what is a very sensible reform.
You can read more about that bill, and the three-year journey to get to this point here:
PM tight-lipped on other details from Trump call
Despite providing some details on the phone call between himself and Donald Trump regarding the Iranian women’s, the PM tries to dodge subsequent questions.
My colleague, Tom McIlroy, asks Albanese – who last week called for de-escalation in the region – whether he communicated that call to Trump.
Albanese is short, and says “I refer you to previous answers.”
Another journalist asks Albanese if he sought assurances from the US president that the war was drawing to a close, and again receives the same answer from the PM.
Albanese adds:
When I get off the phone and I don’t hold a press conference and talk about all of the details.
But the PM did call a press conference following that call and did already give us some of the details.
Albanese emphasises Australian involvement is purely defence: ‘We are not protagonists’
The government has been at pains to say that Australia is only providing defence capability, and is not participating in any offensive action against Iran.
The deployment of the Australian military surveillance aircraft, the government has said, was at the request of the UAE.
Earlier Richard Marles confirmed 85 Australian personnel would be deployed with the E-7A Wedgetail aircraft, which he said was the “normal crew”.
Albanese says:
Our involvement is purely defensive, and it’s in defence of Australians who are in the region, as well as in defence of our friends in the United Arab Emirates, who are good friends of Australia and Australians, we have a free trade agreement with them that’s opened up the markets of the Middle East.
PM says Trump called ‘just before 2am’
Albanese says he spoke to Donald Trump early this morning, ahead of the US president taking to his social media platform Truth Social to report Australia was granting asylum to the five Iranian women’s football players.
The prime minister says he doesn’t reveal details of private conversations but that Trump was concerned about the welfare of the team, and adds that the discussion between the two was “very positive”.
President Trump rang me this morning, just before 2am we had a very positive discussion. He was concerned about the Iranian women in the soccer team and their welfare and their safety if they returned home, he conveyed that to me. I was able to convey to him the action that we’d undertaken over the previous 48 hours, and that five of the team had asked for assistance and had received it and were safely located.
Asked later by another journalist whether the PM discussed anything further on military deployments with Trump, Albanese doesn’t give much away:
It was a warm conversation between myself and President Trump, primarily about the Iranian soccer team. But obviously we also discussed world events.
Bowen says diesel supply arriving in Australia ‘as expected’
Following Wong, the energy minister, Chris Bowen, warns Australians again to not panic buy petrol, and tries to assure the public that the country has enough fuel stock.
He says Australia has 32 days of reserve petrol.
My key message is that every single expected arrival diesel supply in recent days and expected in coming days and weeks has arrived on schedule as expected, so there is no need for panic buying.
While there are challenges and uncertainties in all international supply chains at the moment, the preparations that the government has put in place for the minimum stock obligation are working. If it’s necessary to access those minimum supplies, we will, but we’re not there at this point.
Bowen says he has a great deal of empathy for farmers concerned about supply chains but says, “This is managing a huge spike in demand, not an impact on supply at this point.”
Wong issues flight update, warns ‘security situation deteriorating’
Wong says the government is working “around the clock” to help the tens of thousands of Australians to evacuate the region.
She says 27,000 flights to and from the Middle East have been cancelled since 28 February.
Australian consular officials are on the ground to help Australians, and Wong says 2,600 Australians have now returned from the Middle East on commercial flights.
She adds that Qatar has begun allowing limited commercial flights out.
There are many more Australians still in the Middle East and we do understand these are difficult decisions for Australians and their families.
The security situation is deteriorating and it is likely to get worse before it gets better. We’ve also been focused on trying to offer options to Australians where no flights were involved.
Military aircraft deployed at the request of the UAE: Marles
All the bigwigs are at this press conference. After Albanese, the deputy PM and defence minister Richard Marles addresses the media, and confirms that the deployment of the E-7A Wedgetail was at the request of the United Arab Emirates.
The government will also provide Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles to the UAE.
Marles says that surveillance aircraft is “one of the leading capabilities in terms of airborne, long-range reconnaissance and command”.
The airframe will be leaving Australia today, and the expectation is that it will be in the region in the middle of the week and operational by the end of the week. We have also received a request from the UAE to supply advanced, medium-range air missiles and ramps, and we will be supplying a number of those to the UAE.
Marles emphasises again that the aircraft is being deployed in a defensive capacity to protect Gulf nations under attack from Iran.
‘If you want our help, help is here’: Albanese
Albanese says the government has preparing for some time to provide support for the Iranian women’s football team, who have been playing in Australia in the Women’s Asian Cup.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed this morning that five have been given humanitarian visas.
The prime minister says the government will provide support if other players also want to seek asylum.
We’ve been preparing for this for some time. Indeed, the minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, travelled to Queensland on Sunday, returned and then travelled again last night. Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women.
They’re safe here, and they should feel at home here. The AFP have had plans in place with Commissioner Krissy Barrett directly involved, and once it was made clear that these women wanted assistance, the Australian police moved them to assist to a safe location where they remain.
We’re willing to provide assistance to other women in the team, noting that this is a very delicate situation, and it is up to them, but we say to them, if you want our help, help is here, and we will provide that.
Australia will deploy aircraft and air-to-air missiles to Gulf to protect civilians
The prime minister, speaking to reporters in Canberra, has said the government will deploy a E-7A Wedgetail, a military surveillance plane, as 12 countries face attacks from Iran in the region.
Anthony Albanese says the United Arab Emirates alone has already been forced to shoot down over 1,500 drones and rockets.
Albanese says again that the deployment will be in a defensive, not an offensive capacity.
We’re taking defensive action to support our partners efforts to keep Australians safe, deployed ADF assets will operate according to the right of collective self-defence.
Australia will deploy an E-7A Wedgetail to the Gulf to help protect and defend Australians and other civilians, the Wedgetail will provide long-range reconnaissance capability, which will help to protect and secure the airspace above the Wedgetail and supporting Australian defence force personnel will be deployed for an initial four weeks in support of the collective self-defence of Gulf nations.
Duniam welcomes humanitarian visas for Iranian football players
The shadow home affairs minister, Jonathon Duniam, has welcomed the government’s announcement that it will offer asylum to five women on the Iranian football team in Australia.
On Sky News, Duniam says it’s a “good” outcome, and that he’d spoken with Tony Burke several times over the weekend.
He says he hopes more of the Iranian women’s football team make the same decision to seek asylum in Australia. Asked whether US president Donald Trump “drove” the outcome, Duniam says:
I do know that the government were actively working on this for a number of days in relation to the pressures that these women were probably facing and what we as a country would think is right. So I don’t think he’s driven it. I think that despite the radio silence and the minister outlined why there wasn’t a running commentary on this, and I think it is reasonable.
