Australia news as it happened: Trump says US-Iran peace deal reached; Fuel excise extension decision incoming; Hanson surges past Albanese as preferred PM

Thank you for joining us today, Monday, June 15. We’ll be back with our national blog tomorrow morning.

Here’s a recap of the main events from today’s national coverage:

• The US and Iran have reached a peace deal to end their war which began on February 28. Once signed, the deal will reopen of the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway through which 20 per cent of crude oil travels.
• Representatives from the major parties sought to play down the results of a Resolve Political Monitor poll that shows Pauline Hanson storming ahead of Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister and her party, One Nation, edging ahead of Labor on the primary vote.
• Nine people were killed and dozens more injured after a series of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine, including its capital Kyiv.
• Australia’s wealthiest person, Gina Rinehart, bought a $1.4 billion stake in SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on Pakistani authorities to investigate the fatal shooting of nine-year-old Hania Ahmad, who was killed by local police while travelling with her family.
• Pro-Palestinian activists who allege they were sexually abused and brutalised by Israeli forces after trying to reach Gaza met Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Monday to demand an independent investigation into their claims.

The Socceroos’ 2-0 win against group heavyweight Turkey set a ratings record for SBS, with an average audience of 3.03 million Australians across linear television and digital streaming tuning into the multicultural broadcaster.

While it is only Australia’s first game at the FIFA World Cup competition – and an impressive result for a Sunday afternoon match – it is still dwarfed by the Matildas, whose 2023 World Cup campaign broke Australian TV records, with each game averaging 7.13 million, according to OzTam ratings and Channel Seven.

The most watched game was the semi-final against England, which reached 11.15 million Australians.

The Socceroos were also beaten by match one of this year’s State of Origin, which reached 5.7 million Australians and broke broadcast records for Nine, the owner of this masthead. The match received a total TV audience of 3.995 million.

Kyiv: Nine people have been killed after a wave of Russian air attacks on Ukraine, authorities said on Monday, urging residents to take shelter.

The fresh strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.

Four people were killed in attacks on Kyiv, while five rescue workers died battling a blaze ignited by a Russian strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.

The central Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site founded in 1051, was seriously damaged in a direct attack, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said in a Telegram post.

“A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.

As towering flames rose over the monastery, residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and left more than 100 wounded.

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has bought a $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) stake in SpaceX, the biggest investment outside iron ore in the private miner’s history and a bet on Elon Musk days after his rocket and satellite company staged the largest float on record.

Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, said the investment reflected Hancock’s confidence in Musk and “the need for the West to keep investing in technology and innovation”.

“We see SpaceX as a rare business: led by a truly exceptional person, technically exceptional and operating in sectors that are crucial,” she said in emailed remarks.

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The prime minister has not ruled out extending the fuel excise beyond its June 30 expiry, saying he would make a final decision in coming days.

Labor ministers have been downplaying the prospect of continuing the cost-of-living relief, introduced after fuel prices spiked when Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

But asked whether the peace deal between the US and Iran announced today meant the government would reconsider and extend the excise cut to capture the tail-end of the war’s impacts, Anthony Albanese said: “We’ll make our assessment over coming days.

“We obviously need to make a decision prior to June 30, and we need to do that in advance … so people have appropriate notice. Our [Expenditure Review Committee] meets regularly; we’ll be doing that at the beginning of next week. We’ll make an appropriate assessment.”

Albanese was also cautious about the prospect of a peace deal, which Trump has previously announced dozens of times but failed to deliver, being finalised.

“There was an announcement made just in the last 24 hours. There won’t be deals signed until Friday, so we’ll continue to monitor these issues,” he said.

Anthony Albanese has vowed not to leave disabled Australians without support as the government overhauls the National Disability Insurance Scheme, after a Senate inquiry this week heard advocates feared cuts to services could result in people dying.

“We will make sure that people get assistance. And it doesn’t assist the process to unnecessarily concern people not based upon the facts,” the prime minister said at a press conference in Canberra.

“We’ve made it very clear … people won’t be left without supports.

“We’re making sure that appropriate supports are there, including the supports aimed at young people, but we know that when we came into office, we inherited a 22 per cent annual increase in the NDIS. People know that that was not sustainable, but nothing happened about it. So we’re acting on that.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned that the consequences of the war in Iran will linger for months even if a peace deal between the US and Iran is signed on Friday, as planned.

“If the war does have an end and the ceasefire sticks, there’ll still be a long period because of what has occurred in the Strait of Hormuz,” he told reporters in Canberra.

Albanese said sea mines planted in the key thoroughfare would need to be removed, and it could take months for ships laden with cargo to reach their destinations and return for more supply.

“So, whilst we want to see the conflict end, and we hope that that has occurred, we also want to be very conscious of the fact that that doesn’t mean that everything returns to normal in just a day or indeed a week or even a month. It will be at a minimum many months before things return to normal,” he said.