Talks with the head of a major global oil giant and the Malaysian prime minister will dominate the final official day of Anthony Albanese’s south-east Asian fuel security tour, after arriving in Kuala Lumpur.

With a hint of rain hanging in the air after a heavy downpour, Mr Albanese was greeted on Tuesday evening by a white-suited military honour guard as he stepped down the stairs of a RAAF aircraft.

He was met on the tarmac by Malaysia’s minister of natural resources and environmental sustainability Datuk Seri Arthur Joseph Kurup and a string of other officials before being whisked away in a motorcade.

A small crowd gathered to watch Mr Albanese arrive at his hotel in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre, including one man in a Rabbitohs jersey who shook the prime minister’s hand.

Malaysia supplies 14 per cent of Australia’s diesel, 10 per cent of its petrol and 11 per cent of its jet fuel, and is also the nation’s largest provider of crude oil.

The prime minister will seek to leverage Australia’s position as Malaysia’s dominant supplier of liquefied natural gas to secure guarantees about long-term fuel shipments if the Middle East war continues causing chaos for global trade.

Mr Albanese will sit down with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday, along with senior executives from Petronas, one of Asia’s biggest oil producers and refiners.

Malaysia also imports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Russian oil and fuel each year, some of which is sold on to Australia.

Ukraine has called for a total ban on the use of Russian oil.

The talks follow a 24-hour visit to Brunei Darussalam during which Mr Albanese received a guarantee the tiny sultanate was not considering restricting the amount of fuel or fertiliser shipped to Australia.

In exchange, Australia – which is Brunei’s largest trading partner – will continue to provide crucial food shipments.

Brunei supplies around 11 per cent of Australia’s fertiliser. In 2024, Australia supplied around three-quarters of the Brunei’s meat imports.

During a meeting at Brunei’s Royal Palace, both Mr Albanese and Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah expressed “deep concern” over the war in the Middle East and pledged to strengthen energy supply chains and maintain open trade flows.

“Australia has always been a trusted friend and partner. Over the years, our relations have continued to prosper,” the monarch told Mr Albanese during their bilateral meeting.

Fresh jobs figures will be an early indicator of how Australia’s economy is faring during the Iran war as a report points to positive signs for government finances.

Labour force figures for March will be released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the first full month of data since the Iran conflict started and oil trade was disrupted with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Economists are tipping unemployment to remain at 4.3 per cent, despite the number of jobs growing by 25,000 for the month.

Westpac economist Ryan Wells said the data was significant as it would be the first drop that aligned with the war, but it could still be too early to tell the full impact of the conflict.

“It is almost certainly too early for flow-on effects from this shock or from recent interest rate rises to be showing through in labour markets,” he said.

“Changes in non-fuel spending is still evolving – discretionary services spending has softened, largely in accommodation and recreation, but there are no real signs of weakness in discretionary goods spending.”

The previous month’s figures showed a surprise jump in unemployment from 4.1 to 4.3 per cent due to fewer unemployed people waiting to start a new job in February compared to the same period in previous years.

It comes as an International Monetary Fund fiscal monitor report found Australia’s budget balance was among the three strongest of the G20 nations.

The report said the balance as a share of GDP was ahead of countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Japan, while the nation had the fifth-lowest debt when weighed against economic output.

“The commonwealth has built a strong fiscal position that can help buffer future fiscal headwinds,” it said.

The findings coincide with Treasurer Jim Chalmers holding talks in Washington for the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, along with his counterparts from the UK, China and Japan.

The IMF has warned of a global recession if the situation in the Middle East does not abate.

Dr Chalmers said the ranking of the government’s finances was an outstanding result.

“We’re not immune from global volatility as a result of the conflict in the Middle East but thanks to the progress we’ve made in the budget, we’re well placed to confront it,” he said.

Australia is set to spend the most amount on defence outside of wartime as the military’s strategy for coming years is released.

Defence Minister Richard Marles will hand down the 2026 national defence strategy on Thursday, which will lay out the path forward for Australia’s armed forces and projects it will pursue over the next two years.

Mr Marles will reveal in a speech at the National Press Club an extra $14 billion will be spent on defence in the next four years, compared with estimates laid out in the previous strategy from 2024.

An additional $53 billion will be set aside for defence over the next decade.

The figures mean Australia’s total defence spending will rise to three per cent of GDP by 2033.

The federal government previously announced it would aim to reach 2.3 per cent by the 2033 deadline.

Australia has been facing calls by the US to lift its defence spend to 3.5 per cent as the Trump administration pushes allied countries to do more with their military.

Mr Marles will say an increase in money allocated for the military was necessary given the shift in the global environment.

“Australia faces its most complex and threatening strategic circumstances since the end of World War II. International norms that once constrained the use of force and military coercion continue to erode,” he will say.

“In the face of this, the Albanese government is pursuing every avenue of increasing defence capability quickly, mostly through bigger defence appropriations but also through accessing private capital.

“The result is that we are now seeing the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in our nation’s history.”

The defence minister will also lay out priority areas for the Australian Defence Force in the speech.

Already, billions of extra dollars have been earmarked for drones, given their successful use in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Delivering this strategy is not only about investing more — it is about spending better,” Mr Marles will say.

“It puts Australia on a path to strengthen our defence self-reliance. It reinforces the industrial and national foundations of defence, and it situates Australia firmly within a network of trusted regional and global partnerships.”

French luxury group Hermes has reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter ‌sales as the Iran war hit spending in the Middle East as well as in Europe, with fewer ‌tourists visiting Paris or London and buying designer items.

Investors’ hopes for luxury demand to recover have been dashed by the conflict, which has dented Dubai mall sales and sent energy prices soaring, hitting consumer confidence.

Hermes, which carefully controls production and sales to maintain exclusivity, has been the most resilient company in an industry-wide slowdown, but even ‌it was not ‌immune to the conflict’s ⁠impact. 

LVMH and Kering this week reported sales were hit ​by the war.

Overall sales of products including Birkin and Kelly bags, silk scarves and perfume rose by 5.6 per cent in currency-adjusted terms, Hermes said, lower than a Visible Alpha analyst consensus of 7.1 per cent growth.

Sales in the Middle East region fell six per cent in currency-adjusted terms to 160 million euros ($A264 million), from 185 million euros in the first quarter in 2025.

“We had very ⁠good growth, double-digit growth in January and February and then the ‌month ​of March was an abrupt halt,” said chief financial officer Eric du Halgouet, adding that sales in luxury malls ​in Dubai and ‌other Gulf shopping hubs dropped by 40 per cent in March.

Though only accounting for 4.4 per cent of sales, the Middle ​East was the fastest-growing region for Hermes in 2025.

Hermes, which caters to the ultra-wealthy with handbags over $US10,000 ($A14,000), said a drop in tourist numbers had ​hit ​sales in concession stores at airports and in ​the Middle East, as well as in Britain, Italy and ‌Switzerland, where Gulf shoppers are a key driver.

Sales in France declined 2.8 per cent due to the drop in tourism. 

In Asia, the biggest region by sales for Hermes, revenue grew by just 3.5 per cent in currency-adjusted terms as air travel disruption also had an impact there, du Halgouet said, particularly Singapore and Thailand.

The US was a bright spot, with ​currency-adjusted sales up 17.2 per cent.

Currency fluctuations took 290 million euros off Hermes’ revenue in the quarter, leading to ​a one per cent drop in reported sales ⁠to 4.07 billion euros, from 4.13 billion euros a year ago.

Aussie A-lister Rebel Wilson has been accused of lying about her involvement in a smear website days before a defamation hearing brought by the star of her troubled directorial debut.

The Pitch Perfect star directed, co-produced and starred in The Deb, a recently released musical comedy set in rural NSW that has sparked a number of legal battles.

The lead actor in the film, Charlotte MacInnes, is suing Wilson for defamation over social media posts that claimed the younger performer confided in her that she had been sexually harassed by producer Amanda Ghost.

MacInnes has consistently denied any sexual misconduct took place and says she has been harmed by Wilson’s suggestions she retracted the alleged complaint in return for a lead role and a record label.

Both actors are set to testify in the Federal Court when the dispute is aired in a nine-day hearing beginning on Monday. 

One of the issues to be canvassed is whether Wilson is telling the truth about not being involved in creating a smear website attacking Ms Ghost, a preliminary hearing on Wednesday was told.

MacInnes alleges the Bridesmaid actress asked a US publicist to set up malicious websites about Ms Ghost, claiming she was a sex trafficker and referring to the alleged sexual harassment complaint.

Wilson has denied the allegations, telling Nine’s 60 Minutes program in November that she had “zero to do with the websites”.

“We have made it very plain that our case is that Ms Wilson is lying,” MacInnes’ barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC told the court on Wednesday.

“It is highly coincidental that Ms Wilson makes allegations in public interviews and on Instagram which very closely mirror the content of those websites.”

She sought to obtain communication between Wilson and her previous lawyer regarding the websites.

If Wilson was telling the truth about her lack of involvement in publishing the “shocking and disgusting” allegations, Ms Chrysanthou said there wouldn’t be any documents to produce.

But Wilson’s barrister argued the actor’s communication with her previous lawyer may be protected from disclosure under legal privilege.

The request was oppressive so close to the hearing and the question of who created the website was not one to be answered in the proceedings, he said.

The judge ruled in MacInnes’ favour, noting the issue was relevant to her push for an award of aggravated damages and an injunction to stop Wilson repeating the allegedly defamatory claims.

Wilson was also ordered to hand over her conversations with internationally acclaimed performer FKA Twigs about Ms Ghost.

The Australian actor and her pregnant partner are set to appear in the Federal Court during the second week of the hearing.

Wilson is also facing a separate lawsuit brought by Ms Ghost and The Deb’s other co-producers, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden, over alleged contract breaches and damaging statements

That dispute will be fought over two weeks in the NSW Supreme Court in September.

The ongoing legal action has blocked The Deb from wider distribution after it premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024.

The film was finally released in Australia earlier in April and garnered a warm reception with some critics describing it as “joyous” and “filthy, fun, but most of all moving”.

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Australian businesses were already feeling the pressure before the Middle East plunged them into further uncertainty, according to a business risk group.

Trade payment failures, tax defaults and insolvencies were rising in late 2025 and early 2026, before the Persian Gulf conflict effectively blocked a key oil route and sent crude prices soaring, hammering global growth expectations, CreditorWatch said.

“Things were not disastrous, to be clear, but they were probably a little bit more challenged in the later part of 2025 and early 2026 before the latest pressures,” its chief economist Ivan Colhoun told AAP.

“Interest rates and energy prices are two very important explanators or variables that drive insolvency, and both have moved in the wrong direction in the last two months.”

The retail and transport sectors had been under particular pressure ahead of the conflict, due to already slim margins in freight and long running-cost pressures dragging on consumer confidence, CreditorWatch data released on Wednesday show.

Several major Australian companies have flagged concerns this week around the conflict’s impact on rising costs and supply chain issues, including Qantas, Westpac, A2 Milk and Cleanaway.

“Oil doesn’t discriminate,” Mr Colhoun said.

“Some sectors are more affected (than others) by higher oil prices and higher energy prices, but it pretty much affects the whole economy.”

Everything hinges on how soon traffic volumes in the Strait of Hormuz – a choke point for a fifth of global oil and gas shipments – can return to normal.

An extended period of elevated crude prices would flow through to higher inflation, tighter credit, rising insolvencies, potential fuel rationing, and a likely recession.

“A quicker resolution would prevent a much bleaker outcome, but even then, the margin for error has narrowed,” Mr Calhoun said.

Local small businesses and sole traders were at greater risk than their larger counterparts, as they usually lack the capital buffers available to bigger firms to cushion the impacts of higher costs.

Sole traders, while making up 30 per cent of all Australian businesses, account for more than half of ATO tax defaults over $100,000.

The survival rate for sole-trader businesses from June 2021 to June 2025 was just one-in-two, compared to 68 per cent for all companies, according to ABS data.

Following warnings from International Monetary Fund on Australia’s economic growth prospects, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted the shock’s fallout would be felt for some time, even in a best-case scenario.

“This is a very serious, very dangerous time for the world,” Dr Chalmers told reporters on Wednesday.

“Australia is better placed and better prepared than a number of other countries, but we won’t be spared the fallout from this very substantial economic shock.”

The Albanese government will hand down its fifth annual budget in May.

“I’m really confident that we can strike the right balances in the budget between near‑term pressures and intergenerational obligations,” Dr Chalmers said.

A China-linked group is buying a majority stake in Australia’s largest underground coal mine in a deal worth $US2.4 billion ($3.4 billion) to boost its portfolio.

The stock exchange-listed Yancoal Australia, majority owned by China’s Yankuang Energy Group, will pay $US1.85 billion ($2.6 billion) upfront for an 80 per cent stake in the Kestrel coking coal mine northeast of Emerald in central Queensland.

Yancoal will also make up to $US550 million ($A771 million) over the next five years in contingent payments depending on whether coking coal prices rise by about $US225 a tonne.

Yancoal is buying the stake from Hong Kong-based private equity manager EMR Capital and Indonesian coal company Adaro Group, which had bought it from Rio Tinto for $US2.25 billion ($2.9 billion) in 2018.

Japan’s Mitsui is retaining its 20 per cent stake in the operation.

Yancoal chief executive Sharif Burra said the acquisition was a “strong strategic fit for Yancoal,” which has two other coal mines in the area – its Middlemount joint venture and the Yarrabee mine.

“Kestrel delivers increased scale and diversification to Yancoal’s portfolio and is expected to contribute premium metallurgical coal into our product mix,” he said.

Coal analyst Matt Warder, who runs the Coal Trader website, posted that Kestrel was a “great fit” for Yancoal “and the acquisition I’ve frankly hoped for them for a long time.”

Kestrel produced 5.9 million tonnes of coal in 2025 and is expected to be in production for another 25 years.

Mining began at Kestrel in 1992, when it was known as the Gordonstone mine.

Yancoal shares were down 3.7 per cent to $6.96 around midday on Wednesday.

Australia’s second-largest airline has followed Qantas in cutting travel capacity and raising airfares in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East.

But Virgin Australia is more confident about the effectiveness of its fuel hedging, even though it’s currently facing an increased cost of between $30-40 million in the second half of its financial year.

Qantas on Tuesday revealed its second-half fuel bill would rise by $800 million to $3.3 billion.

Virgin Australia also said fare increases and capacity cuts would help protect earnings and left its profit outlook unchanged.

The carrier, which will report its fiscal 2026 results in August, still expects second-half underlying earnings to be higher than the previous corresponding half, when it reported annual earnings of $664.4 million.

“In FY26, the group continues to experience strong customer demand, with higher fuel costs largely mitigated through effective fuel hedging and recent airfare and capacity adjustments,” Virgin told the stock exchange on Wednesday.

For the rest of its fiscal year, Virgin is hedged 92 per cent for Brent crude oil and 71 per cent for refining margins.

This means its exposure is limited to the unhedged portion of crude and refining margins.

In contrast, Qantas said it had hedged 90 per cent of its exposure to crude oil costs but remained exposed to the cost of refining crude into jet fuel.

Refining costs have soared from around $US20 a barrel in February, when the conflict began, to a peak of around $US120.

Like all airlines, fuel is one of Virgin’s highest costs.

In the first half, fuel accounted for 21 per cent of total operating expenses with the equivalent of 3.4 million barrels of oil consumed at a cost of about $555 million.

“To offset the impact from increased fuel and other operating costs, such as airport charges, Virgin Australia has adjusted airfares and capacity” in the current half.

Domestic capacity will fall by one per cent in the June quarter, but will still be one per cent higher across the half.

At the same time, revenue per available seat kilometre – a key metric that reflects how much money is generated for each seat – will rise by five per cent across the second half, and six per cent in the June quarter.

Looking ahead to the new financial year, Virgin said ongoing volatility meant its capacity setting would continue to be under review.

“The group continues to monitor the external environment and retains flexibility to take further actions if required,” it added.

A financial services giant has been fined millions of dollars for a repeated breach of spam laws, including promoting credit cards without giving recipients a way to opt-out.

Latitude Financial was forced to pay $3.96 million after the Australian Communications and Media Authority found it had broken the laws more than 2.7 million times, the regulator revealed on Wednesday.

The company sent more than 2.3 million spam messages between March 2024 and April 2025 which failed to include accurate contact information for the company as required by law.

Of those messages, 344,416 also lacked a working unsubscribe function.

Latitude, which is the largest non-bank consumer finance company in Australia, was forced to pay a $1.5 million fine for similar breaches in 2022.

Authority member Samantha Yorke said there was no excuse for Latitude’s repeated compliance failures, as reflected by the scale of the latest fine.

“Latitude is now a two-time offender and it is disappointing that it let consumers down again,” Ms Yorke said.

The messages, which promoted Latitude credit card products and financial services, told recipients they could reply ‘STOP’ to unsubscribe, however in many circumstances the function simply did not work.

Under Australian law consumers must have the option to unsubscribe from commercial messages which must also provide accurate contact information for the sender.

Latitude is now legally required to appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance with the spam laws and undertake regular and comprehensive reporting to the communications authority.

“Given Latitude’s history of non-compliance, we will be very closely monitoring how it meets its obligations,” Ms Yorke said.

In March 2023, Latitude was the target of a major cyber attack in which the data of 7.9 million customers was stolen, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and driver’s licence numbers.

Income and expense information for around 900,000 loan applications, including bank and credit card account details were also stolen.

A $1 million lawsuit brought against the company by an individual who claimed their information had reached the dark web following the breach was dismissed after a judge found it had little chance of succeeding.

Latitude declined to comment ahead of the penalty being made public.

Australia’s multicultural communities are tired of being dehumanised as politicians are accused of using migrants for their own ends.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor on Tuesday unveiled a plan to boot migrants from the country if they do not exhibit enough belief in “Australian values”, shut the door on some asylum seekers and screen the social media of visa applicants.

It is seen as attempt to claw back ground from Pauline Hanson’s conservative One Nation party, which has hoovered up swathes of disillusioned former Liberals and Nationals voters in the aftermath of the coalition’s worst-ever election defeat.

But the plan has been widely panned by human rights groups, Labor and communities the coalition once attempted to court.

The opposition has previously tried to repair relations with the Chinese-Australian community, with Liberal senator Jane Hume issuing an apology after she said “Chinese spies” were volunteering for Labor in a clip that went viral on WeChat.

However, Mr Taylor’s latest speech has only added to the diaspora’s concerns.

“I feel like nothing has changed since the last election,” Chinese Community Council of Australia’s Victorian chapter committee member Eric Yan Ma told AAP.

The policy also emboldens Nazis and white supremacists, and paves the way for hate against diverse communities, Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman warned.

“Whenever migrants are singled out, dehumanised or blamed, it gives permission for racism towards those people,” he told AAP.

“Often the only signal as to whether someone is a migrant is the colour of their skin or their accent or their name, so it taps into a deep undercurrent of racism that is still very much flowing in this country.”

While Labor has condemned Mr Taylor’s speech as “desperate dog-whistling”, the party has played a part in scapegoating immigrants, the commissioner said.

The federal government in March barred thousands of Iranian visa holders from entering the country while their homeland is under attack from the US and Israel, months after passing laws that make it easier to deport immigration detainees.

Migrants also find it hard to feel seen by Labor, with Mr Ma noting SA Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas said “who’s going to feed you and bathe you and wipe your bum when you’re 90?” when asked how he could “win the day on immigration”.

“It is disheartening to see that one side of politics portrays us as a liability and the other side only see the utility of us,” Mr Ma said.

“How about just see us as humans?”

The coalition in September lost favour with Australia’s Indian diaspora when Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price insinuated Labor was bringing in more Indian migrants to bolster its vote.

Though United Indian Associations president John Kennedy backed its proposal for a stricter screening process, he urged the coalition to have compassion and not single out particular communities.