Four feared dead after military helicopter taking part in Exercise Talisman Sabre crashes
A military helicopter has reportedly crashed into the ocean off Hamilton Island.
It is believed the aircraft may have been involved in exercises between the Australian and US military when it crashed at about 11pm with four people on board.
It is understood that the helicopter had been taking part in Exercise Talisman Sabre.
Recovery efforts have reportedly begun and it is unclear whether the helicopter was Australian or American.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, and the chief of defence force, Angus Campbell, are expected to address the media at 8.30am.
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Key events
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the best overnight stories to set up the day before my colleague Lisa Cox takes over.
The Ausmin meeting continues in Brisbane today with talks this morning between the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, and their US counterparts, secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin. There will be opening statements and photos before the talking begins this morning, followed by a media conference after the meeting ends. Our defence and foreign policy expert, Daniel Hurst, will give his analysis. He’s written a column about it all this morning, specifically, the Aukus pact in which he says that although political opposition in both countries won’t sink Aukus, the leaders and senior officials in both countries will have to navigate them carefully.
In a similar vein, Pat Conroy, the minister for defence industry, says on our Australian Politics podcast this morning that he is still “incredibly angry” with Paul Keating over “insulting” criticism of Penny Wong’s performance as foreign affairs minister, labelling it as a “disgrace”. He said the former prime minister was “wrong on the strategic environment we face” and “wrong on the military solutions” and should not have mocked Wong’s diplomacy in the Pacific.
The fate of the housing bill and a possible double dissolution will be the big story when parliament resumes next week. But the Greens, who have succeeded in stalling the legislation so far, remain defiant in the face of Anthony Albanese’s election threat, insisting the minor party will continue to push for rent relief to be part of the package. Queensland Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather and acting Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi have written to the prime minister ahead of a “national day of action” today, when the Greens plan on door-knocking Labor electorates regarding the housing crisis.
We have an exclusive story this morning revealing that police in New South Wales Tasered a young Indigenous man hospitalised with mental health issues twice on the mistaken belief that he was armed with a pair of scissors. In the incident – which occurred one week before a Cooma police officer Tasered Clare Nowland in May – a young Indigenous man sought medical assistance from officers further north in Batemans Bay, on the state’s south coast.
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