Albanese vows fuel supplies secure, King Charles flags AUKUS crucial for shared prosperity

A lot is riding on the May 12 Federal Budget, and not just for the Albanese Government, but for the country itself.

Because beneath the theatre of budget night lies the reality: Australia’s finances are under real pressure, and the window to deal with them is closing.

For years, the national conversation around debt has felt oddly detached from how most people understand it.

It’s framed in terms of ratios, forecasts and credit ratings — language that makes it sound distant, even abstract.

But that’s not how people experience debt in their own lives.

Anyone with a credit card knows the feeling. You can carry a balance for a while. You can justify it. You tell yourself it’s manageable, until it isn’t, and the interest skyrockets.

Then the only solution is to stop adding to it and start paying it off.

That moment has arrived for Australia.

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King Charles has presented Donald Trump with the bell from a World War Two British submarine which shares the President’s name, hours after the monarch received a standing ovation from the US Congress when he talked up the AUKUS partnership.

During a dinnertime speech at the White House the King placed Australia at the centre of his remarks by gifting the historic artefact from HMS Trump, which was deployed to Perth for much of its operational life.

“There was one particular AUKUS predecessor, launched from a UK shipyard in 1944 that served for the majority of her life attached to the 4th Submarine Squadron in Australia playing a critical role during the war in the Pacific,” the King said.

“Her name? HMS Trump — so tonight, Mr. President, I am delighted to present to you, as a personal gift, the original bell which hung on the conning tower of your valiant namesake. May it stand as a testimony to our nation’s shared history and shining future.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has fronted the media after inflation figures soared to a near three-year high of 4.6 per cent during the first full month of the Iran war that drove fuel prices to all-time highs.

With crude oil prices now at $US111 a barrel, Dr Chalmers is expecting motorists to pay more, following recent falls in price from fuel tax cuts.

“That will obviously impact prices at the bowser going forward,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

The bad news on inflation increases the chance of the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates again on May 5, and marked a huge jump from February’s annual headline inflation pace of 3.7 per cent before the US airstrikes on Tehran.

“We already had an inflation challenge in our economy, we know that, before the conflict but the tick up in the monthly headline data today was driven by the conflict and this war could drive inflation up even higher before it comes back down again, ” Dr Chalmers said.

“Treasury’s expectation is that inflation is likely to peak higher than this but they are still finalising their forecasts ahead of the Budget next month.

“We know the Australian economy is not immune from all of this global uncertainty and volatility and unpredictable conditions, but we are better placed and better prepared and with faster growth than any major, advanced economy.”

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Inflation surged to a near three-year high of 4.6 per cent in March as the first full month of the Iran war pushed average petrol prices to new record high levels.

Automotive fuel prices soared by 24.2 per cent over the year as unleaded prices soared above $2.50 a litre and diesel surpassed $3 a litre before the Federal Government this month temporarily halved fuel excise to 26.3 cents a litre for three months.

The worst consumer price index reading since September 2023 increases the chance of the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates again on May 5, and marked a huge jump from February’s annual headline inflation pace of 3.7 per cent before the US airstrikes on Tehran.

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Anthony Albanese has assured Australians that fuel supplies remain secure “well into June”, while signalling a broader shift in how the government is thinking about national self-reliance in the face of global instability.

“We know supplies are firm right through May and well into June and we’re working with industry as well,” he said.

But the Prime Minister warned that recent global shocks had exposed the risks of relying on overseas supply chains, adding: “For decades, we were told that it was somehow efficient and rational to cut apprenticeships and TAFE, offshore manufacturing and close refineries, because in the end Australia would be able to rely on someone else, somewhere else to make things cheaper than we could ourselves. That equation has changed fundamentally.”

He pointed to Australia’s strengths in energy, critical minerals and emerging industries as key to building stronger sovereign capability, saying: “Three global events in a short period of time .. that are a reminder of the need for sovereign capability.”

Gulf nations have pushed back strongly against Iran’s position on the Strait of Hormuz, rejecting any suggestion Tehran should control access or charge vessels passing through the critical shipping route.

The Gulf Cooperation Council — made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — also condemned Iran’s actions in the region, warning of a united response to further aggression.

“These attacks have also led to a sharp loss of trust between GCC states and Iran, requiring Iran to take serious initiatives to rebuild that trust,” Secretary-General Jasem al-Budaiwi said.

The statement comes after an emergency meeting in Jeddah as tensions escalate, with Gulf leaders weighing Iran’s latest proposal to halt attacks in exchange for an end to the war and US sanctions, an offer Washington remains sceptical of.

King Charles III’s plea to Congress to resist isolationism, a reminder of the need for peace in Ukraine, as well as the value of allies, was brave, funny, eloquent and demonstrated the value of his unorthodox approach as a royal.

His special mention of AUKUS and Australia, which earned applause from the bitterly divided US Congress, emphasised the value of the monarch beyond Britain and, paradoxically, his unique royal position to say the unsayable.

As Prince of Wales, Charles was seen as a political meddler, writing to ministers and speaking on issues such as environmentalism, farming, architecture and even genetically modified crops.

Royals are supposed to say as little as possible to avoid any perception of being anything other than politically neutral. In 2018, Charles acknowledged his meddling and told the BBC he would not indulge it when sovereign — “I’m not that stupid,” he said at the time.

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Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has refused to answer whether Australia was aware that its refusal to repatriate a cohort of Australians linked to ISIS from war camps in northeast Syria was causing mounting frustration in the US government.

Nine Newspapers reported this week that a February letter from the US Department of State outlined that America wanted to “press countries to repatriate, especially in light of recent developments in the region”.

“I see that the Australian government has dug in on its opposition to repatriating them from the camp,” a US official wrote.

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King Charles made a notable reference to Australia during his address to the US Congress, using the moment to highlight the AUKUS defence partnership.

He described the agreement as “the most ambitious submarine program in history” and pointed to Australia’s role in the pact, adding it was “a country of which I am also immensely proud to serve as sovereign”.

The mention of AUKUS drew applause from lawmakers in the chamber.

The US Department of Justice has brought a new criminal case against former FBI director James Comey, a source familiar with the case says.

The specific charges were not yet clear, nor was it clear where the case would be brought.

Fox News and the Associated Press, citing unnamed sources, reported the case was about a social media post Mr Comey made last year that allies of US President Donald Trump interpreted as threatening.

The post, which was published on Mr Comey’s Instagram page in May 2025, showed an image of seashells arranged to show the numbers “86,47”.

In US parlance, the number 86 can be used as verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly, and 47 is code for Mr Trump, the 47th president.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary says 86 is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of”, or “to refuse service to”.

It notes: “Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill’. We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.

US officials investigated Mr Comey in the days following the post, which Mr Comey later deleted.

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