PM welcomes Trump announcement of Iran-Israel ceasefire
Anthony Albanese has welcomed Donald Trump’s announcement earlier of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying Australia had “consistently called for dialogue, diplomacy and de-escalation”.
The prime minister said in a statement:
The safety of Australians in the region is our priority.
We continue to closely monitor the situation in the Middle East and are deeply concerned about keeping Australians safe.
Trump claimed the ceasefire would take place in multiple steps: later today Iran will start the ceasefire, upon which Israel would then start its own ceasefire after Iran complies with the initial period. At the end of the 24th hour, Trump said, the conflict between the two countries would end. The US president said earlier:
On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR.”
Key events
New observatory releases its first photos of the universe
The first photos from a new telescope on the top of a mountain in Chile, the Vera C Rubin Observatory, were released today. The project, jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy, is meant to usher in a new golden age of astronomy.
It’s named after Vera Rubin, the astronomer who “provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter”. The telescope is the first of its kind and includes the largest digital camera ever built, which will take detailed images of the southern hemisphere sky for 10 years to create “the largest astronomical movie of all time”. The observatory writes:
With Rubin data we will gain a better understanding of our universe, delve into the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, and reveal answers to questions we have yet to imagine.
Josh Butler
YouTube should not be exempt from Australia’s under-16s social media ban, eSafety commissioner says
YouTube should be included in the ban on under-16s accessing social media, the nation’s online safety chief has said as she urges the Albanese government to rethink its decision to carve out the video sharing platform from new rules which apply to apps such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, also recommended the government update its under-16s social media ban to specifically address features such as stories, streaks and AI chatbots which can disproportionately pose risk to young people.
The under-16s ban will come into effect in December 2025, despite questions over how designated online platforms would verify users’ ages, and the government’s own age assurance trial reporting last week that current technology is not “guaranteed to be effective” and face-scanning tools have given incorrect results.
Read more here:
Andrew Hastie calls for more transparency on US-Australia military relations
Andrew Hastie, the shadow minister for home affairs, told the ABC there needs to be more “transparency” around the US military’s increased presence in Australia and what role the country could play in any US operations launched from its bases here.
Hastie, who supported the US bombing of nuclear sites in Iran, said as a miliary alliance grows between the US and Australia, “we need to know what freedom of action we have” and “we also need to know what limits there are as well”.
He told the ABC:
When America conducts combat operations, we want to know what our level of involvement will be.
I think if we’re going to have this close friendship going forward, it’s really important to understand exactly what that means.
Daisy Dumas
‘There are pissed off people everywhere’: dispatch from a traveller in Doha, Qatar
A New Zealand national who lives in Sydney says her flight from Doha was one minute from boarding when Qatar Airways announced the airspace had been closed.
“No one mentioned the missiles. I don’t think people realised how close the rockets were,” the Qatar passenger, who asked for her name to be withheld, told Guardian Australia.
She had travelled from Edinburgh to Doha and was waiting for her connecting flight to Sydney to be rescheduled, saying:
The airspace has reopened but it’s chaotic as about five hours of flights need to be rescheduled.
She said other travellers appeared visibly exhausted.
There are pissed off people everywhere and there are no updates on what’s happening. People are now really upset as they feel uninformed and not supported.
There are no hotels, blankets or updates available, staff are overrun at help desks.
She said the airport’s 24/7 shops and cafes were operating as usual.
More details on today’s flight disruptions for some international travellers
The Albanese government and airlines are warning passengers in Australia of flight delays and disruptions after Iran’s strike on a US base in Qatar overnight resulted in several countries closing their airspace.
In a post to X on Tuesday morning, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said there had been “disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region”.
“Closure of airspace around transit hubs may impact flights globally, causing delays and cancellations,” she said.
Airlines began resuming their flights this morning, with Qatar reopening its airspace.
Read more below:
PM welcomes Trump announcement of Iran-Israel ceasefire
Anthony Albanese has welcomed Donald Trump’s announcement earlier of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying Australia had “consistently called for dialogue, diplomacy and de-escalation”.
The prime minister said in a statement:
The safety of Australians in the region is our priority.
We continue to closely monitor the situation in the Middle East and are deeply concerned about keeping Australians safe.
Trump claimed the ceasefire would take place in multiple steps: later today Iran will start the ceasefire, upon which Israel would then start its own ceasefire after Iran complies with the initial period. At the end of the 24th hour, Trump said, the conflict between the two countries would end. The US president said earlier:
On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR.”
Andrew Messenger
It’s budget day in Queensland
The Queensland treasurer, David Janetzki, will deliver the Liberal National party’s first budget in a decade. It’s tipped to be a major contrast with Labor’s budget last year, which was packed full of cost-of-living handouts.
But Janetzki and the premier, David Crisafulli, have also been keen to distance themselves from their conservative predecessor Campbell Newman.
Janetzki will table the document in parliament at 2pm.
Australian share market set to open higher as fears ease over major escalation
Patrick Commins
The Australian share market is set to open higher this morning after fears Iran would cause a major disruption to oil supplies in the Middle East eased. Wall Street rallied overnight after an Iranian missile attack on a US airbase in Qatar, which disrupted air traffic but which reportedly left no casualties or major damage.
Investors were relieved that Iran has, for now, limited itself to more symbolic strikes rather than targeting key oil infrastructure, leaving the path open for a de-escalation of tensions.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is down more than 7% to $US71.48 a barrel. Oil pushed above $US80 early Monday morning amid fears Iran would block the strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route.
Futures trading is pointing to a 0.7% lift in the ASX 200 share market index when trade opens this morning, while the dollar is stronger against the greenback, at US64.7 cents.
Josh Butler
Marles won’t say if he expects to meet Trump at Nato summit
The deputy PM, Richard Marles, wouldn’t say whether he expects to meet Donald Trump this week at the Nato summit in the Netherlands, and declined to say whether he believed the US strikes on Iran were legal or what, if any, involvement Australia may have had in them.
Marles was in London overnight on his way to the Nato conference. There had been some reporting that he and other Indo-Pacific leaders may get a chance to meet Trump, but that is not clear at this moment. Asked in a press conference about a potential meeting, Marles responded:
I’m not about to speculate on what meetings I have at Nato. I’m really looking forward to the meetings at Nato. We’ll work up our program of meetings which go alongside the main Nato meetings, and we’ll take it from there.
Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong only briefly addressed the legality of the US strikes yesterday, saying they backed the action in hopes of stopping Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. When asked if Australia provided any support to the strikes, particularly through the Pine Gap communications facility or other material support, Albanese would only repeatedly say they were “unilateral” US strikes.
Marles gave similar answers in London:
We have made very clear our concerns about where Iran was going in terms of its nuclear and ballistic missile program.
The idea of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is obviously unacceptable. And we have been committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty for a long period of time.
Marles said Australia would not comment about intelligence, and said the strikes were “unilateral” US actions. Asked whether Australia should be more transparent about US military movements on Australian soil, Marles argued there was “a high degree of transparency in relation to the United States’ presence in Australia”, adding:
We have long had full knowledge and concurrence arrangements in relation to America’s force posture in Australia, not just in relation to Pine Gap, but in relation to all of its force posture in Australia.
Trump says Israel and Iran have agreed to a ‘Complete and Total CEASEFIRE’
The US president, Donald Trump, just posted on social media that both Israel and Iran have agreed to a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” that should begin in about six hours. He wrote:
On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR.” This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!
Follow developments in our Middle East live blog.
Mark Butler says travellers need to communicate with airlines in ‘very volatile situation’
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, was just on RN Breakfast, saying flights were being disrupted “as we speak” across the Middle East. He said:
I encourage all Australians who are thinking of travelling through that region now to monitor the Smart Traveller website and obviously talk to your airlines now as well because this is a very volatile situation at the moment.
Butler added Iran had an opportunity to “return to the table and see this very dangerous situation start to de-escalate”, adding:
But that really is an obligation on them right now.
Australia ‘shouldn’t be surprised’ by Iran retaliation, Wilkie says
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said Iran “had to do something” after the US struck three nuclear sites in the country, saying Australians shouldn’t be “particularly surprised” that Iran retaliated overnight. But Wilkie said the onus on de-escalation now lies largely with the US and Israel. He just told RN Breakfast:
After the US strikes, Iran had to do something. It had to respond, and it has now responded. So I don’t know that we should be particularly surprised about what’s unfolded overnight. It is a very powerful reminder, though, of the importance of now de-escalating.
You know, if we continue a tit-for-tat, you know, where does this end up? Probably somewhere very, very bad.
I’m going to put the onus on starting the de-escalation more on Israel and the United States than I’m putting it on Iran. And the reason for that is the Iranian regime, they’re cornered. They’re facing the possibility of collapse. They’re likely to act irrationally in the future.
Wilkie said he hopes the US has the “good sense” not to retaliate once more.
Qantas and Virgin divert flights after Qatar strikes
Virgin Australia and Qantas have both diverted flights after the Iranian strikes in Qatar. A Qantas flight from Perth to London is currently en route to Singapore instead, according to flight tracking data, and two Virgin Australia flights operated by Qatar Airways from Sydney and Brisbane to Doha have been diverted to India and Oman.
As reported earlier, Qatar has reopened its airspace. Emirates, a major carrier for Australians, said it had rerouted some flights earlier today but not diverted any. Emirates said: “After a thorough and careful risk assessment, Emirates will continue to operate flights as scheduled, using flight paths well distanced from conflict areas”.
Due to the recent regional situation, a number of Emirates flights were rerouted enroute to Dubai on 23 June, but there were no diversions.
After a thorough and careful risk assessment, Emirates will continue to operate flights as scheduled, using flight paths well distanced… pic.twitter.com/YDbHVD9uJv
— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) June 23, 2025
Penny Wong condemns Qatar strike, says Australia doesn’t want further escalation
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, took to social media to condemn Iran’s strikes in Qatar, saying Australia did not want to see any further escalation. She wrote on X:
A full-scale war in the Middle East would be devastating for the people of the region and the world. Australia continues to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.
Wong wrote there would be disruptions to flights in the region, with impacts likely felt around the globe, including delays and cancellations.
There have been disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region. Closure of airspace around transit hubs may impact flights globally, causing delays and cancellations. Australians travelling should seek updates from their airlines and follow @Smartraveller.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) June 23, 2025