Australia politics live: Albanese says US won’t need Australian military help against Iran; Mark Carney to arrive in Australia

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The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, arrives in Australia today for a three-day official visit, set to include a rare address to federal parliament.

Carney is due to visit Sydney and Canberra and hold talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It will be the ninth meeting between the two leaders.

They will discuss critical minerals, climate change, economic security and prosperity, and defence cooperation. Canada and Australia have already signed a joint declaration of intent on critical minerals, and the agreement could be upgraded as part of this week’s visit.

Carney and Albanese are also expected to discuss the growing conflict in Iran, sparked by weekend bombings by the United States and Israel. Carney has talked up the opportunity for middle powers including Canada and Australia to act as a bloc in recent months, part of a much discussed address to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Carney’s visit is also set to include an event at the thinktank, the Lowy Institute.

Memorials within Australia for Aytatollah Ali Khamenei – Iran’s late supreme leader – are “inappropriate”, Anthony Albanese has said.

Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, was killed in US and Israeli air strikes over the weekend in a preemptive strike against the country’s ballistic missiles programme.

On Sunday, thousands of Iranian Australians attended celebratory events to mark Khamenei’s death. The Shia Muslim Council of Australia said Iran holds “profound religious significance” for its community.

The prime minister told ABC’s 7.30 last night that Khamenei should not be mourned. He said:

We in this country have a different approach to people having different views from a totalitarian regime such as Iran, but our position is very clear, and I’m sure that is shared by the overwhelming majority of Australians, including the overwhelming number of Australians of Iranian descent ...

I don’t think [memorials are] appropriate. And certainly I think that, overwhelmingly, people won’t be participating.

PM says he does not expect US to ask for military assistance in war on Iran

Anthony Albanese does not believe the US government will request military assistance from Australia in its conflict against Iran, noting Australia is “a long way” from the Middle East.

In an interview with ABC’s 7.30 last night, the prime minister said the US had not requested military assistance and he did not expect they would in the coming days and weeks.

Albanese said:

It’s a long way from Australia, and Australia is not – we are not big players in the Middle East.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.

Anthony Albanese says he doesn’t expect the US will ask Australia for military assistance against Iran because it’s a “long way” away.

And the Canadian PM, Mark Carney, is due to arrive in Australia later today, though the main action of the visit is expected later in the week. He and Albanese are expected to cover a lot of ground in their talks. More details on this soon.