Australia news LIVE: Trump calls Kevin Rudd ‘nasty’ and ‘not the brightest bulb’; China’s foreign minister to meet Penny Wong

Donald Trump has claimed Kevin Rudd, former prime minister and Australia’s ambassador to the US, is “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”.

During a Sky News program, Nigel Farage questioned Trump about Rudd’s comments from 2017 in which he described the former president as “nuts”, “the most destructive president in history” and a “traitor to the West”.

The program – set to be aired tonight – says Trump claims: “I heard [Rudd] was a little bit nasty” and “I hear he is not the brightest bulb” and “if he is at all hostile, he will not be there long”.

Asked about these comments on Sky this morning, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said it was usual practice not to comment on US domestic politics.

I do want to say this, Kevin Rudd is our ambassador, so we want him to do well because he represents Australia’s national interests in the US.

I think members of the Albanese government might reflect, however, that commenting on another country’s domestic political situation is not a good idea.

I’m not going to make commentary on what might transpire … except to say that I think people in this government would now be wondering why they made the comments they did at the time.

Returning to ACTU national secretary Sally McManus, who was also asked updating laws to protect the right of religious schools to practise their faith while also shielding teachers and students from discrimination because of their sexuality.

The prime minister said he would shelve any changes unless he gains Coalition support for new rules for thousands of schools and other faith-based institutions.

McManus was asked about the proposals on ABC Radio National said she believes the reforms needed to happen.

“We believe [the reforms] do need to happen, and absolutely should happen,” she said.

Here’s what else McManus said on the issue:

We say to the government, they [reforms] should happen around discrimination against people or workers because of their religious or … because of their LGBTI status. 

We don’t support discrimination against any working person. We think people should be employed on their merit and do their jobs on merit, and discrimination is unacceptable. 

We absolutely want these changes.”

She said the unions would be looking at the issue closely.

Earlier, the opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham was asked about the prime minister’s decision to shelve changes to discrimination laws unless he gets Coalition support.

The sudden move marks a retreat on Labor’s election pledge to update the law to protect the right of religious schools to practise their faith while also shielding teachers and students from discrimination because of their sexuality.

The Liberal senator was asked about the decision, and said it was reasonable for the prime minister to aspire to bipartisanship.

He said the opposition hadn’t seen the proposals, and the government’s process was “quite secretive”.

“It’s very hard to give bipartisanship to something that you’ve not seen,” Birmingham said.

It wasn’t unreasonable for the opposition to expect to see the legislative package, he added.

“I think it is a reasonable ambition to want to seek bipartisanship, but you do have to jump the hurdles to actually secure bipartisanship.”

The senator was asked whether he would support removing part of the Sex Discrimination Act, which allows religious education institutions to preference teachers that have the same faith in hiring, to protect LGBTQ people.

“I’d want to see the totality of what is proposed, I think it is reasonable that faith-based schools have opportunities to give preference in their hiring practices to people of faith, particularly where those roles are important for the way in which that school operates,” he said.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has offered his services as ambassador to the US if Kevin Rudd is unable to have a relationship with former US president Donald Trump.

In an interview to be aired tonight, Donald Trump tells Nigel Farage he heard Rudd was “nasty” and that “he is not the brightest bulb”, claiming “if he is at all hostile, he will not be there long”.

Asked about the interview on Sydney radio 2GB, Canavan said he had good contacts with Trump and could help smooth the relationship for Australia.

“I’ve offered to Kevin, to the government, anybody, I’ve got good contacts with Trump people over there, if they need to build relationships, let’s just do it for our country,” Canavan said.

Here’s what else he said:

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Joe Hockey, who back in 2016 is one of the very few ambassadors who actually reached out to the Trump campaign, everyone else thought Hillary Clinton would win and that served us well because obviously, it was his relationships which stopped Trump putting tariffs on our steel and aluminium industry saving Australian jobs.

We don’t want to play politics in the US, that’s a matter for [the] US people, but we want to have a good relationship [with] whoever wins and as I say … others are here happy to help the government to do that for our national interest.”

Staying with the ACTU national secretary, who has also spoken about the Greens push to introduce legislation to force major supermarkets to divest assets if they misuse their market power.

She said that was one of the recommendations from former consumer watchdog chair Alan Fels, but it wasn’t the main one the union was interested in.

Fels said last month that he supported greater powers for the ACCC to force a company to divest their assets by proving to the Federal Court that a company had breached the law, that would not guarantee that a rival grocery retailer would be more competitive than Coles or Woolworths.

“We think that what the government should do is have a permanent price commission where the commission has power to monitor and investigate pricing practices because there’s not just price gouging there’s a whole lot of other stuff that goes on in terms of unfair pricing,” Sally McManus told ABC Radio National this morning.

She said that it wasn’t just in relation to supermarkets.

“It’s sort of a big call to say you’re going to start divestments … we think there are other ways of going about having a permanent focus on prices so these big companies don’t get away with what they’ve got away with for a little while,” McManus said.

Turning now to the Australian Council of Trade Unions national secretary Sally McManus, who said the organisation was pleased the RBA held interest rates steady at 4.35 per cent.

The bank board said while it remained determined to return inflation to its target range of 2-3 per cent by the second half of next year, what that meant for interest rates was uncertain.

McManus told RN Breakfast she welcomed the move to hold the rates steady, arguing the interest rate rise at the end of last year was unnecessary.

“We are just cautioning that any move that’s going to put unemployment up further is also going to hurt people and that we believe the RBA should be looking to cut rates now,” the union secretary said.

She said inflation continued to go down, which was because households cut back their consumption.

Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley says it is “extraordinary” that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to shelve changes to discrimination laws unless he gains Coalition support for new rules for thousands of schools and other faith-based institutions.

Speaking on Sky News, Ley said Albanese was walking away from being a politician with conviction, and he has not shown the Coalition the legislation.

“Faith leaders are being asked to sign confidentiality agreement, I think that’s extraordinary in this country, that to talk about your position from a perspective of your faith is something that you have to do behind closed doors with this government,” Ley said.

“Anthony Albanese made a promise, this is another broken promise, it’s another lie about presenting legislation on this subject on religious freedom to the parliament and the Australian people.”

Donald Trump has claimed Kevin Rudd, former prime minister and Australia’s ambassador to the US, is “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”.

During a Sky News program, Nigel Farage questioned Trump about Rudd’s comments from 2017 in which he described the former president as “nuts”, “the most destructive president in history” and a “traitor to the West”.

The program – set to be aired tonight – says Trump claims: “I heard [Rudd] was a little bit nasty” and “I hear he is not the brightest bulb” and “if he is at all hostile, he will not be there long”.

Asked about these comments on Sky this morning, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said it was usual practice not to comment on US domestic politics.

I do want to say this, Kevin Rudd is our ambassador, so we want him to do well because he represents Australia’s national interests in the US.

I think members of the Albanese government might reflect, however, that commenting on another country’s domestic political situation is not a good idea.

I’m not going to make commentary on what might transpire … except to say that I think people in this government would now be wondering why they made the comments they did at the time.

Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume has accused the government of lurching from disaster to disaster in response to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil’s answer on how the government manages detainees.

She also appeared on Seven’s Sunrise this morning, alongside the home affairs minister.

Hume accused the government of spending more time protecting Immigration Minister Andrew Giles instead of the Australian people from detainees.

“This seems to be blaming anybody else, other than yourself for these problems, quite frankly, Minister Giles needs to resign and Anthony Albanese needs to stop any protection rackets for this incompetent minister and rather focus on protecting the Australian people,” she said on the program.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says the government takes legal advice when it comes to the management of released detainees amid reports that ankle bracelet monitoring had been lifted for some.

Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise, O’Neil said if it were up to her, she would make sure all detainees were not in the community, as up to 170 more detainees could be released if the government loses a hearing next month.

Asked about a report in The Australian saying a convicted rapist who was jailed for two years for raping a 19-year-old girl at a party is now without an ankle bracelet or curfew, O’Neil said she could not comment on specific cases.

“This person belongs to a cohort of people that were being kept in immigration detention by me and Minister [Andrew] Giles when we had the power to do that … your viewers would remember that in November last year, the High Court of Australia took that power away from federal ministers,” O’Neil said.

“I can’t comment on that specific case … the community protection board does provide expert advice to government on these matters and the government takes the advice to the community protection board.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sparked a political firestorm over gay rights, gender and religious freedom by vowing to shelve changes to discrimination law unless he gains Coalition support for new rules for thousands of schools and other faith-based institutions.

The sudden move marks a retreat on Labor’s election pledge to update the law to protect the right of religious schools to practise their faith, while also shielding teachers and students from discrimination on the basis of their sexuality.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton seized on the government’s new stance, accusing Albanese of trying to dump the election promise.

Dutton turned the issue into a question of character and trust without declaring how the Coalition might vote on the changes.

Read about the full story here.