Australia news live: Anthony Albanese travels to US; seventh intergenerational report to be released; Donald Trump says arch to be ‘military complex’

Updated September 21, 2026 — 11:19am,first published September 21, 2026 — 6:37am

Welcome to our rolling coverage of all the latest news and developments from around Australia and the world. It’s Monday, September 21.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has flagged a potential fresh round of tax cuts as he prepares to release a 40-year economic forecast containing confronting findings about the nation’s future. The seventh intergenerational report to be released on Monday forecasts how the nation’s economy and population will develop over the next four decades.
• Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has blasted his nation’s decision not to prosecute the officers responsible for killing Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, joining calls for an international criminal probe into the fatal drone strike.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in the US, and has declared humans must remain in control of artificial intelligence, ahead of a United Nations push to shape global AI policy. Albanese also visited Apple’s headquarters to spruik Australia’s under 16 social media ban. Technology and online safety are shaping as a central plank of Australia’s push for a two-year term on the UN Security Council.
• Labor’s primary vote has fallen to 27 per cent on the latest Newspoll, conducted for The Australian newspaper, approaching a record low as One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce vows the party, leading the polls, “don’t get carried away with ourselves”.

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A US House committee that oversees defence policy is investigating the diversion of potentially sensitive F-35 fighter jet components this year from Australia to Hong Kong, a spokesperson said.

“The committee is aware of this issue and we’ve received multiple briefings on it,” said House Armed Services Committee spokesperson Heather Vaughan, adding the group is “continuing to look into the incident and conduct oversight”.

The Pentagon’s F-35 program office said in a statement that “we are aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 components and we are actively working with US authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence.”

Politico reported on Friday that a shipment of F-35 parts bound for the US for repairs was rerouted from Australia and ended up in Hong Kong, sparking concerns over reverse engineering of classified components of the fighter jet.

Early results from Russia’s first parliamentary elections since the start of the war in Ukraine show the Kremlin-aligned United Russia Party dominating the vote.

In a vote tightly controlled by the Kremlin and with practically no genuine opposition on the ballot, United Russia had 57 per cent support with 25 per cent of the vote counted, state television reported, citing Russia’s Election Commission.

United Russia was leading in 161 of 225 single-mandate constituencies with 20.12 per cent of votes counted, the state-run Tass news service reported. Turnout was just below 57 per cent.

The party may regain a constitutional majority of more than two-thirds of seats that it held in the previous parliament, Tass said. United Russia has held a majority in the lower house of parliament since 2003. The Communist Party was second with 13.9 per cent, followed by the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party with 9.3 per cent, state TV reported, citing the election commission.

US and Chinese officials met in New York to lay the groundwork for a high-profile summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to maintain — and potentially extend — a fragile trade truce.

The negotiators, led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng, were expected to discuss issues spanning trade and investment, artificial intelligence and the Iran war.

Just after 10am New York time, He, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Li Chenggang, China’s international trade negotiator, entered the JPMorgan Chase offices in midtown Manhattan where the talks were held.

As he arrived soon after 10.30am, Bessent told reporters he was looking forward to a constructive dialogue between the two nations. He Lifeng left the venue after 7pm local time and said an announcement would be made later.

Major party figures are talking down dismal poll results that show One Nation in the lead.

The Newspoll, conducted last week by Pyxis Polling & Insights for The Australian newspaper and published on Monday, showed Labor’s primary vote collapsing to a near record low of 27 per cent. One Nation’s primary vote remained at 30 per cent in the latest poll. The Coalition remained on 19 per cent.

Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain says the government is focusing on helping people “doing it tough” rather than on mid-term polls.

“There’s an election, which is the biggest poll of all, and that’s still 18 months away,” McBain told News24 this morning.

A 30-year-old Israeli man was killed near a settlement in the West Bank on Sunday (Monday AEST) hours before the Yom Kippur holiday, widely considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Israel’s military said the suspected attacker opened fire on the man from a vehicle close to the Neve Tzuf settlement north of Ramallah, and fled on foot. After a search by security forces, the military said the suspect, who was injured while fleeing, was detained at a hospital.

Samaria regional council said the victim, Netanel Shakron, was a settler who had been bathing at a spring ahead of Yom Kippur. It was the second time an Israeli civilian had been killed in a confrontation with a Palestinian this year in the West Bank, according to the UN.

Separately, the military said it killed a Palestinian man who attempted to carry out a ramming attack against soldiers near Jenin in the northern West Bank, less than an hour later.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement called the attacks “despicable” and instructed the military to expand operations in the West Bank.

AP

Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, “super worried” about artificial intelligence for close to a decade, has called for “sensible regulation” of the emerging technology.

“AI is the most powerful invention humankind has ever made, and the most dangerous,” Forrest told Nine’s Today program this morning from New York.

“Put humans in control, make sure we’ve got an off switch. Make sure any decisions which involve health, overall systems, anything like that, and of course defence, have humans on the switch, not some bot.

“I’m absolutely advocating for sensible regulation, for making sure that AI develops at the same speed as AI safety,” Forrest said.

New York: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has named Siobhan McKenna – the former top lieutenant to Lachlan Murdoch – as Australia’s next consul-general in New York, securing one of the country’s plum diplomatic postings.

McKenna, who was named in US court documents this year as the “driving force” behind the plan to reshape Rupert Murdoch’s family trust and cement his eldest son’s control of the News Corp and Fox Corporation empire, will take up the senior diplomatic posting after a career spanning corporate Australia and government boards.

The prime minister announced her appointment while launching Australia’s bid for a seat on the United Nations’ security council in New York on Sunday (Monday AEST). She will succeed Heather Ridout, the businesswoman and former chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, whose four-year term expires in December.

Albanese, who has maintained a close relationship with the younger Murdoch, defended the appointment as an “outstanding” merit-based choice, after questions from journalists, pointing to McKenna’s experience across the private and public sectors.

The Coalition’s plan to slash units on Indigenous history and replace them with classes on Western culture in a rewritten national curriculum would provide a “broader perspective”, Liberal MP Dan Tehan says.

“[Students will] get a broader perspective of the types of values that have made our country, Australia, the best country in the world,” Tehan told ABC Radio this morning.

“We won’t be becoming apologists for who we are. We’ll be becoming proud of who we are, what we’ve created as a nation, and what we can contribute to the rest of the world,” Tehan said.

“We’ve got to work with the states and territories to do this. But it’s all about getting the balance right.”

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan has pushed back on criticism of the Coalition’s fuel excise policy and accused the government of “deliberately” creating a scarcity of fuel flowing into the nation, causing prices to rise.

Tehan said the Coalition would encourage the exploration of oil in domestic territory to bolster fuel supply.

“We issued [exploration licences] on an annual basis every year when we were in office, and we’re not seeing the same thing occurring under this government,” Tehan told

He said Australians shouldn’t have to suffer because the government wasn’t “pursuing energy abundance” and the Coalition’s plan was a “good, sensible, practical measure” to reduce fuel price pressures.

The Coalition’s latest policy would halve the fuel excise for three months when Brent crude oil trades at over $US100 per barrel averaged over a fortnight.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has said the policy would be funded through a cut to the tobacco excise, which the Coalition says would raise revenue by directing more smokers to the legal market from illicit tobacco.

Staying with Katy Gallagher, the minister has shared her condolences with the relatives of those killed in a spate of domestic violence related deaths over the weekend and called for the community and state governments to back meaningful change.

“Our thoughts are with the women, the families, and the loved ones affected by this series of horrible events over the weekend,” Gallagher, who is also Minister for Women, said this morning.

“It’s hard to get your head around the level of violence … particularly aimed towards women and children, but in families across Australia,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher and Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek deal with the issue “every single day”.