As it happened: PM dismisses tax cut changes; Jacinta Price’s Q&A comments criticised by Indigenous leaders

Seoul: North Korea’s recent barrage of missile launches were tests of its tactical nuclear weapons to “hit and wipe out” potential South Korean and US targets, state media reported on Monday, as its leader Kim Jong-un signalled he would conduct more provocative tests.

The North’s statement, released on the 77th birthday of its ruling Workers’ Party, is seen as an attempt to buttress a public unity behind Kim as he faces pandemic-related economic hardships and a security threat posed by the boosted US-South Korean military alliance.

“Through seven times of launching drills of the tactical nuclear operation units, the actual war capabilities … of the nuclear combat forces ready to hit and wipe out the set objects at any location and any time were displayed to the full,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

KCNA said the missile tests were in response to recent naval drills between US and South Korean forces, which involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for the first time in five years.

Viewing the drills as a military threat, North Korea decided to stage “the simulation of an actual war” to check and improve its war deterrence and send a warning to its enemies, KCNA said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia’s relationship with India remains “deep and firm”, despite the rising power’s continued military dependence on Russia.

India has abstained from voting on several United Nations resolutions criticising Russia’s war against Ukraine, a strikingly different approach to its fellow Quad security partners Australia, the United States and Japan.

India’s military ties to Russia date back to the Cold War and Delhi has long been the world’s biggest buyer of Russian weapons.

While not abandoning Russia, India has recently embraced the Quad partnership as a way to push back on China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

Electricity bills for Australian homes and businesses are set to rise by at least 35 per cent next year as suppliers warn the build-out of renewable energy and critical transmission infrastructure is failing to keep pace with coal-fired power station shutdowns.

Alinta Energy, the nation’s fourth-biggest power generator, on Monday said it had conducted modelling that suggested current wholesale electricity prices would drive the significant 35 per cent jump in retail tariffs in 2023.

“There are real issues around energy pricing that we’ve got right now,” Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery said at the Financial Review’s energy summit in Sydney.

“I think the public are going to get more attuned to that over the next little while.”

Now to a quick update of the trading day, and how the experts are seeing it.

The Australian sharemarket was trading sharply lower at lunchtime on Monday, shedding 94.3 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 6668.5.

A smattering of red across all sectors was punctuated by utilities down 2.5 per cent, and IT stocks down 2.4 per cent.

Iluka Resources was up 1.3 per cent to $9.45; Worley Ltd was up 0.8 per cent after chief executive Chris Ashton argued for a role for gas in the path to net-zero at an energy conference in Sydney; and Fortescue rose 0.9 per cent, defying losses across the materials sector.