Politics live: stranded travellers return from Middle East with three more flights scheduled today; inquiry into racism towards Indigenous Australians

Emotional scenes as people trapped by conflict land at Sydney. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastCanadian prime minister Mark Carney has softened his support for US and Israeli strikes on Iran, saying while he welcomes end of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime - “the principal source of instability and terror in the region” - he does not believe the attacks on Iran were legal, and they represent “another example of the failure of the international order”.Carney is visiting Australia - partly on a trade mission, but also to help build cooperation between so-called middle powers. Carney has spoken previously about ‘variable geometry’ - the building of a variety of international coalitions to address specific issues.But we also take this position with some regret, because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order, despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks, Iran’s nuclear threat remains, and now United States and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or consulting with allies, including Canada.The question is: where to from here? Given we have a rapidly spreading conflict and growing threats to civilian life across the region, Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents.The action that was taken, we weren’t consulted on it. There was not a process, a broader process for it. It would appear, prima facie... to be inconsistent with international law.There are swings and roundabouts when we think about the implications for the budget in May.When it comes to price pressures and when it comes to global economic uncertainty, what we’re seeing in the Middle East, will put additional pressure on the economy, on Australians, and it will be a big feature of our thinking as we put the government’s fifth budget together. Continue reading...