Australian news and politics recap: Albanese defends response to Chinese navy circumnavigating Australia

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Queensland’s top cop has taken immediate leave following a shock cancer diagnosis.

Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski advised he would take leave on Friday, after sharing the health update.

Premier David Crisafulli said he had the government’s full support, adding “right now, his focus must be on his health and his family”.

“On behalf of Queensland, I want to thank him for his outstanding contribution to the state and wish him all the best on his journey ahead,” Mr Crisafull said in a statement.

Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy will serve as acting commissioner.

AAP’s Sam McKeith reports: Insurance giant Allianz Australia has been handed a multimillion-dollar fine for criminally misleading the public about the maximum travel policy benefits available to customers.

Allianz and travel insurance expert AWP Australia pleaded guilty in June 2022 to charges linked to misrepresenting the nature of travel insurance for customers between 2016 and 2018.

On Friday, Allianz was fined $13.5 million and AWP penalised $3.3 million over the breaches, which related to online descriptions that failed to disclose some limits on certain travel insurance products.

Read the full story from AAP here.

Reuters’ Ben Blanchard reports: The history of World War II shows that aggression and expansion will end in failure, Taiwan’s defence ministry has told China following Beijing’s comments that the island will come into its hands sooner or later.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has repeatedly complained of stepped-up Chinese military activity, including drills this week off the island’s southwestern coast that Beijing said were “routine”.

On Thursday, China’s defence ministry, asked about Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military exercises later in 2025, said Taiwan was “like a mantis trying to stop a chariot” and “sooner or later we will take you back”.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said China had recently been escalating its military threats in the region, destroying the status quo of regional stability, and has become the biggest “troublemaker” in the international community.

“This year marks the 80th anniversary of (the end of) World War II, and history has proven that any form of aggression and expansion will end in failure,” it said.

“The actions of the Communist military in recent years are repeating the mistakes of the invaders and pushing China towards defeat.”

Read the full story from Reuters here.

Kevin Rudd’s shindig to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Australian embassy in the US appears to have been a lavish affair.

It’s been revealed that the $25,000 party even featured the performance of a new song - composed specially for Department of Foreign Affairs, ​The Daily Telegraph reports​.

Unbreakable, the five to six minute song by New York-based Australian composer Michael Salvatore Grebla, cost $44,000 to commission. The cost of which is understood to have been covered by sponsors.

It was included within a 40 minute concert for some 200 high profile guests that attended the event on October 29.

The revelation was contained in documents released under Freedom of Information laws to Opposition waste reduction spokesman James Stevens.

“This Ode to Kevin is just the latest number in Kevin Rudd’s concert of taxpayer-funded largesse at his party palace in Washington,” Mr Stevens told The Daily Telegraph.

“Just weeks out from last year’s critical presidential election, Kevin Rudd’s $45,000 symphonic commission seems a complete distraction from the important priority of building relationships with key members of future US administrators.”

Another major Australian fashion retailer has gone under.

Women’s clothing chain Ally Fashion has collapsed, with up to 185 stores nationwide and more than 1000 staff impacted.

The retailer was ordered to be wound up by the Federal Court of Australia on Friday due to insolvency, according to news.com.au.

Ally Fashion has stores across Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

The Australian-owned retailer launched in 2001 with the aim of “creating contemporary ready-to-wear pieces for every woman”.

“With over 50 new styles arriving per week, Ally Fashion is well in demand and the destination for women who can transcend the fashion’s boundaries – defying the trends and creating her own,” it said on LinkedIn.

In an in-depth analysis, The Nightly’s business reporter Jackson Hewett has explained how US President Donald Trump’s implementation of tariffs has begun to hit home, with insights from BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager.

“BlackRock, with $US11.5 trillion under management, has looked into the future and declared it will be an era very different from the ‘great moderation’ with low and stable inflation that helped drive the bull market of the post-GFC era,” writes Hewett.

“Now BlackRock sees a universe where high tariffs and a rewiring of global supply chains will mean inflation will be high and volatile for many years to come, according to BlackRock Investment Institute’s Asia Pacific strategist Ben Powell.”

Read Jackson Hewett’s full analysis here to find out thefive investment mega forces.

AAP’s Jonathan Spicer and Mark Trevelyan report: Russian and US teams have held six hours of talks in Turkey to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies, and Vladimir Putin says initial contacts with Donald Trump’s new administration has inspired hope.

The talks, focused narrowly on conditions for each other’s diplomats, provided an early test of the two countries’ ability to reset wider relations, amid a Trump administration outreach effort that has alarmed Washington’s European allies and Kyiv.

The Kremlin last year described relations as “below zero” under the administration of Joe Biden, who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion in 2022.

But Trump, who has promised a quick end to the war, has upended US policy swiftly to open talks with Moscow, beginning with a phone call to Putin on February 12 and a high-level diplomatic meeting in Saudi Arabia six days later.

Russian state news agency TASS said Thursday’s talks, held at the gated residence of the US consul general in Istanbul, wrapped up after some six hours without any statements to the press.

Read the full story from AAP here

Growth boundaries for several regional cities will be drawn to cater for a Victorian population boom over the next three decades.

A long-term housing blueprint, known as the Plan for Victoria, was announced by Premier Jacinta Allan and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny on Friday.

The statewide plan features 22 “concrete” actions, including carefully managing the outward sprawl of regional cities and towns to accommodate for more homes.

Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo - slated for more than 200,000 extra homes over the next 30 years - will be the first centres to have boundaries developed.

The boundaries will expand outward if consistent with the “vision” for the areas and councils and other authorities can provide the necessary infrastructure such as water and sewerage to cope with more people.

Closing submissions have begun in the ABC v Antoinette Lattouf wrongful dismissal case with ABC barrister Ian Neil saying “there’s nothing wrong with being an activist”.

“There’s nothing wrong with being an activist … but it is an objective fact, which is different from the holding of the opinion for which one is an activist,” the SMH reports Neil stated.

“An employer is perfectly entitled to say to employee, ‘I don’t want you going about the workplace buttonholing your fellow workers and thrusting your political opinions upon them.’”

The ABC claims Ms Lattouf’s contract ended and she was not terminated because of her political beliefs.