Australia news LIVE: Albanese told to scrap religious schools rule; Australia set to pump $5b into UK submarine industry

Britain’s defence secretary has warned that distracted democracies risk emboldening dictators, as Australia prepares to pump almost $5 billion into the United Kingdom’s production lines to fast-track the AUKUS military pact and joins an international coalition to provide drones to Ukraine.

The Australian and UK foreign and defence ministers will on Friday announce that a joint venture between British defence giant BAE Systems and Australian government-owned ASC will build the proposed fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to be known as SSN-AUKUS.

The submarines, which are currently being designed, are scheduled to enter service with the Australian navy in the early 2040s.

Australia will inject $4.6 billion into the British industrial base over 10 years under the deal in a bid to avoid the delays that have bedevilled past naval projects. The submarines will be built at Adelaide’s Osborne shipyards, incorporating a British Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor and American components.

Here’s the full story on the deal.

Back in Australia, the nation’s law reform commission found religious schools should lose their unfettered right to dismiss teachers and expel students over questions of sexuality or gender identity.

The conclusions pile pressure on the federal government to scrap a controversial exemption for religious schools in discrimination law, with Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe joining campaigners for equality in calling on Labor to honour its election pledge to change the law.

But the report was swiftly denounced by religious schools and major churches due to concern they would lose their ability to build communities based on faith, making it clear they would not accept any move by Labor to put the new proposals into force.

Christian Schools Australia slammed the report as a “direct attack on faith and freedom of belief” while the Australian Christian Lobby called it a “betrayal of Christian schools” and the National Catholic Education Commission said it overlooked the concerns of religious leaders.

Here’s the full story. 

Overseas, an unknown number of refugees are feared dead after their wooden boat capsized in waters off northern Indonesia.

The vessel was carrying scores of Rohingya, a persecuted ethnic minority in Myanmar, when it ran into difficulty on Wednesday near the city of Meulaboh in West Aceh.

Amiruddin Pawang, chief of a West Aceh fishers association, said a local fisherman discovered the boat at about 10am [2pm AEDT] on Wednesday with survivors crowded onto the overturned hull.

“He wanted to help, but plenty of them jumped to the [fisherman’s] boat, and it sank because it was too small,” he said. “Our fisherman was then rescued by another fisherman.”

Another local then attempted to rescue the survivors but had to abort when it became clear his vessel was also too small.

Catch up on this news here.

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It’s Friday, March 22. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

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