As it happened: Marles hails Australia-US defence relationship ahead of PM’s meeting with Trump; NATO thanks Australia for sending aircraft to monitor Russian threats

Thanks for reading our national news live blog, we’ll be back tomorrow with continuing live coverage. Here’s what we covered today:

• The Trump administration has denied Hamas is violating the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, and is gently pushing back against Israeli concerns about the slow release of the remaining dead hostages as it tries to keep its fragile peace plan on track.
• Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said about 600 to 700 Gazans had visas approved to resettle in Australia. He pushed back on insinuations that there may be Hamas sympathisers among them and said Israelis getting visas did not come under such scrutiny. His opposition counterpart said the government must reconsider granting the visas as the US-led peace plan progresses.
• The Australian sharemarket hit a record after a rise in unemployment stoked bets of Reserve Bank interest rate cuts, while investment giant Macquarie surged after its funds business sealed a major artificial intelligence deal. The S&P/ASX 200 closed Thursday’s session 0.9 per cent or 77.5 points higher to 9068.4
• A fleet of M113 armoured vehicles have been temporarily grounded after an ADF soldier died after being inside one during a rollover. The soldier died yesterday at 6.30pm and there has seen been a stream of condolences offered to his family by public figures. Defence Minister Richard Marles said grounding the fleet for now was the prudent decision.
• The sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes of female students at a Sydney high school is being investigated by police. The NSW Education Department has confirmed reports that high school students in the Eastwood area in northwest Sydney were sent the disturbing images of their peers. Deepfakes refer to digitally altered images of a person’s face or body, and young women and girls are often targeted in a sexual manner.

Labor’s backdown on its superannuation changes, particularly giving up on taxing unrealised gains, is an example of the government kowtowing to affluent Australians and benefits ultrawealthy property investors, says Greens senator Nick McKim.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed on Monday that the government would establish a 40 per cent tax rate for earnings on super balances above $10 million, while earnings on balances above $3 million will be taxed at 30 per cent. Plans to tax unrealised gains at 30 per cent have been ditched, and the thresholds will now be indexed alongside inflation or wages growth.

McKim said Labor’s original policy was an opportunity to correct the imbalance in tax rates between the rich and poor.

“And it is a capitulation to the wealthiest Australians that they’ve walked away from some of the elements of their previous proposal, which at least would have started to redress that imbalance,” he told the ABC.

Labor should reconsider granting visas to hundreds of Palestinians as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza appears to be easing, says opposition home affairs spokesperson Jonathon Duniam.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said today that about 600 to 700 Palestinians could be resettled in Australia after undergoing visa checks by the government.

But Duniam said that since the US-led peace negotiations between Hamas and Israel were progressing, the need for issuing the visas should be reconsidered.

“I do think the minister and the government need to take into account the recent developments in the Middle East and the peace deal that’s currently holding there,” he told the ABC.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the benefits AUKUS presents for Australia and the US are “a good story to tell”, ahead of the prime minister’s visit to the White House.

Anthony Albanese will meet US President Donald Trump on October 20. The nuclear-powered submarine fleet is to be a key talking point, after the Trump administration undertook a review of the agreement earlier this year.

“In all the conversations that I’ve had with my counterpart, Pete Hesgeth, with the now National Security Adviser … [Marco] Rubio, with the Vice President [JD] Vance, there is a good story to tell about what we are doing in terms of building Australian defence capability, and that’s first and foremost how we see it,” Marles told the ABC.

“We’re like-minded countries. We share values. We want to see the rules-based order applying in the Indo-Pacific and around the world. And there is much that we have to work to do together to seek to ensure that.”