Environment minister Murray Watt says he’s seeking “tangible gains for the environment and for business” from the EPBC reforms, but has told Labor MPs that he was right to reject putting a ‘climate trigger’ in the legislation.

A package of laws – updating the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and to set up an Environmental Protection Agency – were passed through Labor’s partyroom on Tuesday, clearing the way for the long-anticipated reforms to be tabled in parliament this week. Watt told the partyroom that he wasn’t that keen to entertain amendments to his legislation when it hits parliament, but noted that business lobbyists were lobbying the Coalition, and environmental groups were lobbying the Greens to pass the bill.

Watt noted the Business Council’s opposition to the Coalition’s call to split the main bill into smaller components.

According to a party spokesperson, a Labor MP in their meeting asked Watt what politicians should be telling their constituents about the climate-related issues pertaining to the bill.

Watt pointed out that Graeme Samuel’s report had ruled out setting up a ‘climate trigger’ to block projects that would increase emissions. Another MP said it was important to explain this issue to constituents out in public.

Watt went on to say again that he believed the changes would lead to faster approval times for new projects, faster assessments and less duplication of effort with state governments.

He went on to say power to approve developments, which currently sits with his department, would be delegated to the EPA – but that powers for the minister to step in and make decisions would remain.

Over in the Senate today, the government’s bill to legislate a triple zero custodian has passed – with an amendment.

The government agreed to the Greens’ amendment which increases the penalty under the act to $30m per contravention.

But amendments by the Coalition and crossbench – including to increase penalties further to $40m and forcing the custodian to establish a register of emergency call service outages – failed.

It means the bill will go back to the House for a vote with that new amendment.

Acting prime minister Richard Marles has derided the Coalition as a “clown show”, claiming the Liberals and Nationals had “lost their nerve”.

Marles addressed Labor’s partyroom meeting this morning, with Anthony Albanese overseas at the Asean summit. He branded Albanese’s White House meeting with Donald Trump as a success, in particular hailing the work of US ambassador Kevin Rudd, and singling out the critical minerals deal.

A partyroom spokesperson said Marles had also praised the Labor caucus for having “remained calm when catastrophe was being predicted” by critics, contrasting what he called “discipline” on his side to what he described as a “clown show” in the Coalition. Marles said the partyroom had remained “calm amidst the noise” around the Trump meeting, and said Albanese was advancing Australia’s domestic interests on his world travels.

First jet touches down at Western Sydney international airport

Earlier this morning, the first jet landed at the new Western Sydney international airport.

The plane, a New South Wales RFS 737 air tanker, touched down as part of a two day multi-agency emergency exercise to test the airport’s response capabilities ahead of its opening to passengers in late 2026.

It is hoped the airport, in which the state and federal governments have invested tens of billions of dollars, will one day outstrip Sydney airport for passenger numbers, although concerns have been raised about its transport links to the city.

The federal transport minister, Catherine King, described the successful landing as “a historic moment”.

A lot of hard work has led up to this moment, from the earlier days of construction to now rigorous testing to become operationally ready …

Already attracting significant investment into region, the airport’s future operations are also set to create thousands of jobs, on top of the 12,224 supported to date – over half of which were people from the local area.

Queensland’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients has been overturned by the state Supreme Court.

Judge Peter Callaghan ruled in favour of a challenge by the parent of a transgender child. As a result the directive is unlawful.

On 28 January director-general David Rosengren ordered that the directive be published after consulting with health service executives for just 22 minutes. As exclusively reported by the Guardian, the legally-mandated consultation was taking place simultaneously with a press conference in which the health minister announced the decision.

Callaghan’s ruling means that the Queensland Children’s Gender Service, based at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, can again take new patients.

The ban, which only applied to transgender children, was widely condemned by health authorities. The federal sex discrimination commissioner Anna Cody described it as “harmful” and “discriminatory”.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has confirmed Australia has deported the first member of the NZYQ cohort to Nauru, triggering the start of its $2.5bn deal.

The federal government has said it is working methodically through the 350 or so within the noncitizens who are on a removal pathway.

In a statement on Tuesday, Burke said:

Nauru confirmed last Friday that the first transfer has occurred.

When someone’s visa is cancelled they should leave.

Liberals to hold energy policy meeting but they say it won’t involve votes

Liberal MPs have played down a meeting this Friday morning on the opposition’s energy policy, suggesting it was misreported as setting the stage for a showdown between warring ideologies on climate change and emissions reduction.

At a joint party room meeting this morning, Liberal senator Jane Hume and Cook MP Simon Kennedy clarified the meeting would not be holding any votes on the finalised energy policy but was simply another consultation meeting with backbenchers.

It will be the ninth such meeting since the May election and the shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan, will be attending the meeting, which is expected to run for a maximum of three hours on Friday morning.

Internal energy stoushes aside, the party room also discussed support for a joint parliamentary committee into defence, similar to the set up for the powerful intelligence and security committee.

The headline-grabbing Barnaby Joyce did not attend this morning’s joint meeting.

Australia’s top credit rating has been affirmed by Fitch, as the global ratings agency pointed to the country’s “resilient growth outlook” but warned that a sustained lift in government debt over coming years could threaten the coveted AAA score.

Australia is only one of nine countries to be rated AAA by all three major credit rating agencies, which gives the government access to cheaper finance from overseas lenders.

Fitch’s latest national report card said a pick up in consumption would drive an economic recovery through 2026 and 2027, underpinned by improving real incomes and a solid jobs market.

Australia had “strong” potential growth of 2.2%, Fitch said, which was higher than most of our peers and other top-rated countries.

Productivity growth has been “subdued” but should improve, with the ratings agency noting that reforms are likely to be “incremental”.

Australia is “relatively insulated from US tariff risks”, but exposed to weakness in China. Fitch also said:

Australia should benefit from a larger role in global critical-mineral supply chains … but we do not foresee a repeat of the mining investment boom in the early 2010s.

Jim Chalmers said the report was a “powerful endorsement of Labor’s responsible economic management”.

We are realistic about the challenges facing our economy including growing global uncertainty, but our AAA rating is further proof Australia is coming at these challenges from a position of genuine economic strength.

Greens team up with Coalition in call for Senate inquiry into Optus outake

The Greens expect top executives from Optus could face a Senate inquiry over recent triple zero outages within the fortnight if it’s passed later this afternoon.

In a party room briefing this morning, the minor party agreed to team up with the opposition to vote for an inquiry into the matter and hope to bring Optus executives to Parliament House as early as next Monday.

With the Greens and the Coalition both backing an inquiry in the upper house, it’s expected to pass. The Greens also want to turn the torch on the regulator’s role in the incidents.

Tuesday morning’s meeting also covered the Greens’ frustration with Labor’s proposed environmental protection law changes. The Greens believe there is very little in the way of environmental protections, and the bills are instead more focused on streamlining approvals for development proposals.

Read more about the bill by my colleague, Dan Jervis-Bardy, below:

Police and the corporate regulator have raided offices of the software company WiseTech.

The company told investors this morning that a search warrant was executed at its office in Sydney’s inner-south on Monday. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) said it executed at least one further search warrant, with the assistance of the Australian federal police, but Asic and WiseTech both declined to say where.

Asic in Sydney demanded documents relating to alleged trading by WiseTech’s billionaire founder, Richard White and three WiseTech employees from late 2024 to early 2025, Wisetech said. It was unable to confirm the other employees’ identities.

White is understood to have sold shares in the company he founded during a period where company directors were not permitted to trade, though he himself was not on the board or executive at the time, having stepped down from the company in October 2024 after weeks of damaging revelations about his personal life. White declined to comment on the search warrants but has previously said he received legal advice prior to trading.

Asic said the warrants related to an ongoing investigation but no charges had been laid. A spokesperson declined to comment on the scope of the investigation or whether the employees remained at Wisetech.

WiseTech said it would fully cooperate with any investigation and was not facing any allegations itself. Shares in the company have plummeted 16% in early trading this morning.

Third victim of mine explosion in stable condition, NSW health minister says

The New South Wales health minister, Ryan Park, has provided a statement on the deaths of two mine workers in Cobar and injury of another person after an explosion early this morning.

Park confirmed the third victim, believed to be aged in her 20s, had been airlifted to Orange hospital and was in a stable condition.

Speaking to the media this morning, he said his heart went out to the two miners who lost their lives, the family and the community.

I come from a coal mining town … and these things are horrific. They have an incredible impact not only on the family but also on the entire community …

We had a patient airlifted to Orange Hospital and I can provide an update that they are in a stable condition at this stage and we will ensure at appropriate times that the community is kept informed but this is a very sad day for the people of western New South Wales and a sad day for the people of our country.

Mining remains a dangerous activity and something that despite all regulation and safety improvements that we have made it is still a risky and dangerous occupation and our heart goes out to everyone impacted.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will join Monash University in Kuala Lumpur today to announce a future Monash campus in the heart of the Malaysian capital.

Monash will partner with TRX city to deliver the $1bn campus, which is slated to have a capacity of 22,500 students from 2040.

Albanese said showcasing Australia’s “best in class higher education sector overseas is a huge opportunity for Australian jobs and investment”.

But it’s also an important opportunity to extend deep connections in our region and right around the world. That’s exactly what we’re seeing with this investment from Monash for a new campus in Malaysia: students learning from one of Australia’s leading international universities right here in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Monash has had a presence in Malaysia since the 1990s, with about 11,000 students studying at its current campus in the city of Subang Jaya.

NSW police to address media on Cobar mine explosion as tributes flow from politicians

Circling back to the press conference held by Tim Ayres earlier, and the science minister also paid tribute to two mine workers killed in Cobar in the far north-west of New South Wales earlier this morning.

Ayres said it would be “very distressing news for their families, their co-workers, and what is a tight-knit, small community there in Cobar”.

Everybody, all of us, including Jamie Chaffey, the new member for Parkes, [is] thinking about those families, and what is an unfolding situation in that very old-mining facility there in Cobar.

Supt Gerard Lawson of the Central North police district in NSW will address the media from Cobar at midday as inquiries begin into the circumstances surrounding the explosion.

While yet to be formally identified, police believe a man aged in his 60s and a woman aged in her 20s died, while a second woman, also aged in her 20s, is being treated in Cobar hospital for relatively minor injuries and shock.

Police say all three live in Cobar.

Party room meetings taking place

Tuesdays during a sitting week mean party room meetings (which is also why the House and Senate haven’t started sitting as yet).

The meetings are both where upcoming legislation and a party’s positions on them are discussed, and usually also include a bit of a gee up from the leader.

We’ll get the DL on what was discussed in those meetings shortly!

NSW to release response to summit on drug-related harm

The New South Wales government will today release its response to a landmark summit held last year on how to reduce drug-related harms.

The Minns government has announced that it supports or supports in principle over 50 of the recommendations.

However, Guardian Australia understands that the government will defy recommendations to abolish the use of sniffer dogs and strip-searches at music festivals.

It has also only committed to investigating a medical defence for people who use medically prescribed cannabis, despite the report recommending the government commit to legislating it.

It has also only noted a recommendation on strengthening diversion programs for youth caught with drugs.

And has also only noted a recommendation to expand supervised injecting clinics.

We will have more information on the government’s response shortly.