Australia news as it happened: Japanese firm awarded $10 billion warship contract; Amazon to partner with NBN for regional Australian internet; Burke takes aim at Wilson over historical visa claim

“I would welcome more formal agreements with confidence and supply should individual members wish to do so,” Mr Rockliff told reporters on Tuesday.

“My understanding is that it is not necessary in terms of being recommissioned in a minority government.”

Winter said while Rockliff had the first opportunity to form government, it was not the only opportunity.

He vowed to step up meetings with crossbenchers because a government without supply and confidence agreements would lead to instability, highlighting intentions for formal talks with independents in coming days.

Winter continued to rule out doing a deal with the Greens and said he wasn’t seeking to meet with them.

“We want to work with independents in particular who have said they want change,” he said.

“They want a new government, they want a government that can deliver stability and confidence to Tasmanians.”

The final makeup of Tasmania’s parliament is 14 Liberals, 10 Labor, five Greens, one Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP and five independents.

AAP

But how that would work in practice was still being ironed out, King said.

What was clear was the importance of securing supply, following China’s decision to restrict exports of rare earths in retaliation to Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“The floor price is but one means of how you establish a reserve,” King told reporters today.

“And we’ve always said this, there are many tools that can go into that ... and stockpiles can take many forms, too.”

“I think there’s sometimes a vision of it being some gargantuan pile and it’s not necessarily the case.”

Traders cheered reports of the government’s support for a price floor.

Lynas shares jumped more than 5 per cent, ASM surged more than 6 per cent, while Arafura Rare Earths – whose Nolans project in the Northern Territory has already received more than $1 billion in government investment – rocketed more than 8 per cent.

In July, the US Department of Defence announced it would guarantee a floor price of $110 per kilogram for the two most-popular rare earths in a deal with Las Vegas company MP, a price nearly twice the current Chinese market level.

AAP, with Reuters

“To lose Nyrstar would have constituted a national catastrophe,” he said.

China was spending more on propping up its manufacturing sector than it spends on defence, he warned.

“Either we let them undercut our operations into oblivion, or we step up with a strategic national approach,” he said.

“We need to develop a better approach than playing whack-a-mole every time there’s a crisis (and) develop a long-term, national strategy to retain our smelters.”

Combined with investment by Nyrstar, the package allows the company to maintain operations while planning to potentially rebuild and modernise both its lead smelter in Port Pirie and zinc smelter in Hobart.

AAP

“It is generally accepted that the Atomic bomb will prove a tremendous aid in shortening the war against Japan,” wrote The Age, which noted in a separate article that at one stage during the war, the German Reich had been a few months away from developing its own such bomb.

Just over a week later, after a second bomb had killed tens of thousands more in the city of Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, ending World War II.

There are currently nine nations with nuclear weapons – with five other nations hosting US weapons – according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Though many world leaders since then-US president Harry S. Truman have had the power to drop a nuclear bomb, none have used it.

Last year, the Nobel Committee awarded a Japanese organisation representing survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nihon Hidankyo, the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Washington Post reported the organisation was recognised for its “decades-long effort to tell survivors’ stories”.

“At the ceremony,” wrote the Post, “Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Nobel Committee, explained to the audience: ‘It is our duty not to forget. It is our responsibility to pass along stories and memories to future generations – including the painful, disturbing ones, which often yield to society’s amnesia.’”

“[There is] definitely a sense of urgency in the way the foreign minister described it,” he said.

“I think the whole world, really, is looking with horror at what is playing out in the Middle East. The humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza, the loss of innocent life there, that informs the way countries around the world are seeing it. We need to see hostages returned.”

Marles also wouldn’t say whether the hostages being returned was a condition of Australia recognising Palestine. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza.

With AAP, Reuters

Marles also said the fact Japan is near China was not factor into the contract decision.

Asked about what assurances he had received that the costs would not blow out the way they had on other warship programs, Marles said: “Firstly, the focus here is speed to service. Because we need to have a new service combatant in the water as quickly as we can.”

“That’s why we’re having the first batch, the first three being built overseas. And we do have a sense of confidence given there’s an existing production line with these ships being built and we have our ships in that slot. So there’s a high degree of confidence about all of that.”

“And we are confident that this will be within the budget that we have over the next 10 years.”