It is still up in the air who will attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome this Saturday, given that an election is on. Keith Pitt, who is Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See will be there, but in terms of others from Australia, that is an on-going conversation.

But one person who will be attending is US President Donald Trump who posted to his social media platform Truth Social:

Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome.

We look forward to being there!” 

Australia is taking part in military ‘exercises’ with the Philippines and the United States.

The Defence statement says:

Around 150 members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) are taking part in the 40th iteration of the largest bilateral exercise conducted between the Philippines and the United States.

Exercise Balikatan is an annual training exercise conducted between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and United States military forces, aimed at maintaining a high level of military readiness to enhance the nations’ bilateral response capabilities.

Australia’s participation provides a key training opportunity for deployed personnel and supporting defence cooperation between all participating nations.

Exercise Balikatan 2025 includes more than 16,000 personnel from the Philippines, United States and Australia, as well as three nations involved in the AFP-hosted international observer program.

Australia’s contribution consists of land forces, medics, tactical air force components and, command and support personnel.

During Balikatan 2025, personnel will take part in a range of scenarios in maritime security, air and missile defence, offensive missile strikes, cyber defence, information warfare and humanitarian assistance.

This is the 40th iteration of Exercise Balikatan with the ADF having been a full participant since 2014.

Worth recognising that Australia takes part in these exercises with a variety of partners, in areas that annoy China. When we do it, it is just an ‘exercise’ and part of normal engagement, within international waters, or waters controlled by a consenting nation. But when China does it, we usually then have about two weeks of HOW DARE THEY media coverage, including and not limited to, is this research vessel trying to sabotage underwater cables.

There is a leaders’ debate is scheduled to be held tonight, but given the Pope’s death and the agreement to calm down campaigning, everyone is still waiting to see if it will go ahead.

Does Peter Dutton still want to hold a royal commission into allegations of sexual abuse in Indigenous communities?

Q: I guess it’s a question about the evidence you’d rely on to press ahead with a royal commission, isn’t it? You’ve got Indigenous organisations saying there is not a higher prevalence of sexual abuse in Indigenous communities.

Dutton:

That’s just not the case. That’s not the reality. As we know, there is certainly well documented cases and tragic cases and we need to accept there is a problem, which there is, and I want to make sure that those kids in remote communities, in a town camp, wherever it is, are treated equally to our kids in, you know, areas closer to capital cities.

We need to make sure we take care of every Australian child, Indigenous or not. We need to make sure they can enjoy their childhood, to do it peacefully and to do it in a way that is conducive to them leading the most productive life later on.

One of the things that always struck me as a detective in this area was that these issues lagged for years and years to come.

People who suffer sexual abuse at a young age bear those scars for a long time. In some cases, people never get over it. We need to do everything we can to defeat this crime type and I’m very serious about it and that’s why we made the announcement we did yesterday of $750 million to make our communities safer.

What would a Peter Dutton led government do about domestic, family and intimate partner violence?

Dutton:

[I] feel strongly that as a society we need to do more to protect women more generally in domestic situations but the sanctity of children is something important and we need to do everything we can to turn those numbers around.

There’s a big piece of online influence here, the normalisation of conduct that nobody would accept in real life becomes normalised online. It’s a very complex issue but our commitment yesterday was to make sure we can invest into keeping women and young girls safer in our community.

It’s noteworthy that the Liberal leader is campaigning in the seat of Calare which the Nationals are targeting. Sam Farraway is trying to win the seat back from party defector Andrew Gee, but what was supposed to be a walk in the park (ahead of the election every Coalition strategist had the seat in the ‘hold’ pile) is turning out to be a giant fight, with the seat, at this point, looking like staying independent.

So enter Peter Dutton, who has been sent in as a bit of a Hail Mary, because Nationals leader, David Littleproud is pretty unpopular in Nationals electorates (an issue, you would have to think)

So what does the Liberal leader think of the Nationals chances?

It’s certainly a critical electorate and Sam is doing a great job here. We need to make sure that we retain this seat and there’s been a huge campaign. There’s obviously a lot of teal money coming out of Sydney into the campaign here. But it’s an important expression also of a tight coalition with our National Party colleagues and the relationship that David Littleproud and I have is, you know a very strong one and I think we’ve demonstrated that over the last few years. I think the Coalition has demonstrated that we’re an alternative government and we’ve also said to people, not just here in Calare, but around the country, that we want to provide support for communities.

A 25 cent a litre reduction in fuel and getting young kids into housing as quickly as possible, making sure we can provide a safe community. We made an announcement yesterday to keep communities safe and a $750 million investment about tackling organised crime and making our suburbs, communities, towns, our country, a safer place as well.

Dutton also agrees that it is not a day for campaigning:

I don’t think it’s a day for overt politicking at all. I think the day is best spent reflecting. Obviously, pre-polling, etc, opens today and all of that will continue on but I don’t think there’s a place for the body blows of politics today.

I think it’s a very different day from that and we made commitments to do television this morning but I think the rest of the day really is probably best left in reflection as opposed to being out there overt politicking and I think that’s something most people would respect.

Peter Dutton is in Orange and is speaking about the death of the Pope:

Obviously our condolences go out to all Catholics and the Christian community more generally. A man who has dedicated his life to his God and helping those, particularly those much less fortunate than most others, the impoverished and people that he supported throughout his life.

To dedicate your life to a thaws that you believe in so passionately and to help save lives and lift people up from incredibly difficult circumstances is something that should be greatly admired and he should be an inspiration for all human beings to be better people and to take from his example his mercy and the sacrifices he made during the course of his life it’s quarterfinal phenomenal and to we commemorate that and celebrate his life.

Obviously it’s a period of mourning but we celebrate a life that was dedicated to his God, to his Church, and he obviously sacrificed so much and I really think that’s the reflection that I would make this morning.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton started the day in Melbourne.

Dutton has headed to the electorate of Calare, where the Nationals are losing against independent candidates, despite entering the election thinking taking it back from defector Andrew Gee would be “a given”.

New research by The Australia Institute highlights that Australia has a gas export problem, reinforcing the cross-party consensus that has emerged during the election campaign.

The research into the operations of Japanese gas exporter INPEX comes as both Labor and Coalition representatives have stated that Australia’s gas supply issues are caused by gas exports and the lack of restrictions placed on them.

The new research focuses on INPEX, which operates a large gas export terminal in Darwin. 

INPEX:

• Exports more gas each year than is used in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia combined.
• Sells no gas to Australians, outside of emergencies
• Pays no royalties, effectively getting the gas for free
• Pays no Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT)
• Has paid no corporate tax on $21 billion in gas exports since 2015

“INPEX is emblematic of Australia’s gas export problem,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor at The Australia Institute.

“The Australian government is giving vast amounts of Australia’s gas to INPEX for free.

“To add insult to injury, INPEX has paid no company tax on billions of dollars’ worth of gas exports.

“While INPEX exports huge volumes of free gas, the Northern Territory Government is subsidising risky fracking projects to supply Territorians.

“With all sides of politics finally recognising Australia’s gas export problems, the next parliament will be in a good position to do something about it.”