Anthony Albanese is hoping talks with his Singaporean counterpart will lead to a boost in domestic fuel supply amid the conflict in the Middle East.

The prime minister flew out of Australia on Thursday morning ahead of a bilateral meeting with Singapore’s leader Lawrence Wong on Friday.

Trade in petrol and diesel along with energy will feature heavily in discussions, with Singapore the largest supplier of refined petrol to Australia, accounting for more than half its intake.

Mr Albanese said a strengthening of ties with Singapore would be crucial as global oil supplies are impacted by the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“I’m looking forward to a constructive meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong tomorrow. This is an important relationship,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.

“We have spent four years building relationships in our region, particularly with ASEAN leaders.

“The relationship we have is a critical one, and of course Singapore is a major supplier of fuel to Australia.”

The prime minister said the quickly convened meeting in Singapore spoke to the depths of the ties with the Asian nation.

“We don’t pre-empt one-on-one meetings at leaders levels, but the fact that we have been welcomed at relatively short notice to Singapore speaks about the strength of the relationship,” Mr Albanese said.

As well as the talks with the Singapore prime minister, Mr Albanese will visit Jurong Island, where the city-state has its three oil refineries.

However, production at the facilities has been limited due to most of the oil processed there coming via the Strait of Hormuz.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said shoring up support in Singapore would be critical.

“It’s why ministers … are engaging with industry and supporting investment to make sure that we get through this difficult period, and that we set ourselves up to recover from the extreme uncertainty that we are going through right now,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

“We are a big supplier of LNG to Singapore. Singapore is a really important refiner of our liquid fuels. This is a relationship of very substantial mutual economic benefit, and long may that situation continue.”

Singapore is Australia’s largest two-way trade partner in southeast Asia.

In March, Mr Albanese and Mr Wong signed a joint statement reaffirming commitments by the two countries to continue trading in energy.

The statement said the countries would “support the flow of essential goods including petroleum oils, such as diesel, and liquefied natural gas”.

Workers could walk off the job at an oil and gas giant’s offshore LNG plant, as a union pursues “unrealistic claims” on behalf of its members, an employer group says.

Offshore Alliance applied to the Fair Work Commission on Wednesday for a protected action ballot order, stating via social media that Inpex Ichthys LNG operations, off the West Australian coast, had offered workers a dodgy pay deal.

The Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association said the alliance’s claims could increase Inpex’s labour costs by about 50 to 60 per cent.

The union, made up of the Australian Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia, also wants increased employee allowances, automatic promotions, guaranteed bonuses, Gold Class Qantas membership, and company-funded FIFO travel from anywhere in the world, the association said.

The association’s deputy chief executive, Tara Diamond, said the claims were detached from economic reality and risked setting an unsustainable precedent across the sector.

“These are not responsible or incremental claims,” she said in a statement on Thursday.

“They are an attempt to significantly lift pay and allowance structures for a workforce that is already among the highest paid in Australia.”

Inpex employees typically earn between $300,000 and $400,000 per year, and the union claims would push wages beyond $500,000 per annum on average,” Ms Diamond said.

The association said the alliance’s bargaining and campaigning across the offshore LNG industry had become increasingly aggressive.

“It is a co-ordinated campaign model that combines unsustainable claims with a deliberate escalation toward industrial action,” Ms Diamond said.

The union’s recent public statements have foreshadowed industrial action and drawn comparisons to previous offshore disputes, threatening prolonged disruption and significant financial losses.

“The industry has seen this playbook before,” Ms Diamond said.

When disputes escalate, the impacts flow through to production, supply chains and the broader economy.

The association said the timing of the possible industrial action increases the risk of shortages.

“In a period of heightened global energy demand and ongoing fuel supply and pricing pressures, maintaining stable and reliable operations is critical,” Ms Diamond said.

In a Facebook post, the Offshore Alliance said Inpex’s Enterprise Agreement proposal would erode the job security, push down pay and give employees sub-standard employment conditions.

“Our members won’t be copping the scraps off the bargaining table, and we anticipate a 100 per cent rejection of Inpex’s dodgy deal,” the union said.

“There is not a single bargaining claim that Inpex cannot afford.”

It said members would vote yes for protected industrial action.

Inpex and Australian Energy Producers have been contacted for comment.

Disgraced former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has run out of options to appeal a ruinous defamation loss, including a judge’s finding that he likely raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.

The 30-year-old took his case against Network Ten to the High Court, where he challenged findings by dual courts that the broadcaster did not defame him by airing Ms Higgins’ allegation during an interview on The Project in February 2021.

On Thursday, the High Court rejected Lehrmann’s application for special leave to appeal.

Typically, the court refuses to hold a full hearing if it thinks an appeal does not grapple with a major question of Australian law.

In April 2024, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee first dismissed the 30-year-old’s case against Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, describing it as an “omnishambles”.

The judge’s findings, including that Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on the balance of probabilities, were upheld on appeal by the Full Federal Court in December.

Ms Higgins had been out drinking with colleagues, including Lehrmann, in 2019 before the pair wound up at Parliament House in the office of their then-boss Senator Linda Reynolds.

It was there the alleged rape happened.

The 30-year-old Lehrmann has consistently repeatedly denied any sexual conduct occurred, saying he returned during the early hours to write notes about French submarine contracts.

This claim was roundly rejected by Justice Lee, saying the young man had been seen kissing Ms Higgins, whom he found attractive.

“Now does a man in a situation like that have French submarine contracts on his mind or does he have something else on his mind?” the judge quipped.

A criminal case against Lehrmann in the ACT was derailed due to juror misconduct.

A further trial was ruled out and no findings have been made against him in a court of criminal law.

The failed High Court bid could lead to Lehrmann being forced into bankruptcy due to court orders he pay a $2 million legal bill to Ten.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

Asian share markets were in a more sober ‌mood on Thursday as cracks quickly began to appear in the fragile Gulf ceasefire, nudging oil prices back up and reminding investors the inflationary ‌fallout will last for a long time yet.

There was scant sign that the Strait of Hormuz was open in any meaningful way, with Iran flexing its ‌control over the vital oil artery and demanding tolls for safe passage.

“You have a fifth of the world’s oil supply moving through a corridor that is still effectively under the influence of one of the parties to the conflict,” said Nigel Green, CEO at deVere Group.

“That’s not stability. You don’t need a full blockade to move oil markets sharply higher again.

“Missiles are still being launched in the Gulf, Israel is still engaged on ‌another front, and ‌yet markets are behaving ⁠as though the region has normalised.”

As a result prices for US crude futures edged up 2.8 per cent ​to $US96.99 ($A137.50) a barrel, while Brent rose 2.1 per cent to $US96.74 ($A137.15).

Japan’s Nikkei dithered either side of flat, after jumping 5.4 per cent the previous session. South Korea dipped 0.4 per cent, following a leap of 6.8 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3 per cent.

On Wall Street, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were both off 0.2 per cent as Wednesday’s surge petered out.

For a mixed Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures inched up 0.1 per cent, DAX futures fell 0.3 per cent and FTSE futures rose 0.5 per cent.

With oil prices still around 40 per cent higher than pre-conflict, an inflationary spike is ‌about to show ​up in the hard data across the globe.

Figures on US core prices for February due later Thursday are expected to show a chunky 0.4 per cent ​rise for a ‌second month, and that was before the surge in energy costs.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed a growing number of ​members felt a rate hike might be needed to contain inflation, though many hoped the next move would still be a cut.

That tempered a rally in Treasuries, which proved modest compared to the big gains seen in European debt markets. Yields on US 10-year ​notes ​sat at 4.29 per cent, compared to 3.96 per cent before the attack on ​Iran.

Fed fund futures imply only 7 basis points of easing for the ‌rest of this year, having given up on 50 basis points of cuts since the end of February.

“The committee broadly agreed that it was too early to act, suggesting the Fed will likely remain on hold this year, in line with our view,” said analysts at JPMorgan in a note.

They also saw risks shifting to just one rate hike from the European Central Bank this year, rather than two.

The shifting outlook ​for rates saw the dollar pare some of its knee-jerk losses, with the euro flat at $US1.1660 ($A1.6530) and off a top of $US1.1721 ($A1.6617).

The dollar steadied ​at 158.60 yen, having fallen as far ⁠as 157.89 at one stage on Wednesday.

In commodity markets, gold was flat at $US4,718 ($A6,689) an ounce , ​after bouncing as high as $US4,777 ($A6,772) overnight.

Australia has called on Israel to end its attacks on Lebanon after a ceasefire deal was struck with Iran, warning that any ongoing fighting puts the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz at risk.

Israel says it has carried out its largest wave of strikes against Lebanon since the start of the war, leaving at least 250 people dead, according to local authorities.

In a joint statement with the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Jordan, Brazil, Colombia, and Sierra Leone, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for an urgent end to the fighting in Lebanon.

“The ceasefire is fragile, but the world needs it to hold,” she told ABC TV on Thursday.

“There is a risk that continued conflict in Lebanon will risk the ceasefire itself across the region.

“We want to see the Strait of Hormuz open so that Australians and the world can see lower prices for fuel.”

She said the deadly attacks overnight were “deeply concerning”.

The Israeli strikes on Lebanon follow Iran’s agreement on Wednesday to a two-week ceasefire with the US and Israel, which would reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil trade.

Iran says Lebanon is included in that now-shaky deal and has reportedly closed the crucial shipping route again in response to the Israeli attacks.

The US and Israel say Lebanon was never part of the peace deal.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has also declared his country is ready to return to fighting in Iran at any moment, because it still has objectives to achieve.

“The finger is on the trigger,” he said in remarks translated from Hebrew.

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said he was sceptical of Iran’s claims that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire but expressed concern about the scale of Israel’s attacks.

“Certainly we’re concerned about civilian deaths in conflicts like these,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

“Clearly what we have is a dispute between the parties to this conflict about the terms of the ceasefire.”

Australian businesses are losing more than $150 million a year to scammers, with some embedding themselves in sensitive company email chains just waiting for the right moment to strike.

The threat can occur close to the end of the working day, when workers are clearing the decks and getting ready to go home, or at any other time the predator thinks people will be distracted.

An urgent email from a manager might arrive pushing for a certain invoice to be paid immediately.

But they may not be who they claim to be.

“Scammers are actually becoming very sophisticated,” William Mailer, chief behavioural scientist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, told AAP.

“They can create email addresses that look almost identical to a legitimate email address, or they can actually access real email accounts of a colleague, a boss or a supplier.

“Sometimes these scams actually come embedded in email trails.”

Once embedded, the scammer can patiently study how processes and payments occur, by whom, and over what cycles.

“They’re really able to time the scam … so it feels very routine and normal, as though it’s coming from a trusted source, which makes it really difficult for the employee, for the manager to identify the scam,” Mr Mailer said.

According to the National Anti-Scam Centre, Australian businesses fell victim to thousands of so-called payment redirection scams in 2025, losing a combined $167 million.

It’s the second-highest successful scam in the nation, behind investment scams and above romance scams.

According to CBA research released on Thursday, 73 per cent of business compromise scams arrive by email and typically include requests to add or change payment details or approve transfers. 

In many cases, employees are proving better at picking up the red flags than managers.

Testing of more than 1100 employees, managers and owners of small, medium and large businesses by CBA’s behavioural science team found 76 per cent of employees could spot a scam compared to 53 per cent of managers.

But when the scams were successful, it turned out that 42 per cent of employees and 20 per cent of managers were initially suspicious.

“When people are busy, under pressure or responding to requests that appear to come from senior leaders or trusted suppliers, they’re more likely to rely on instinct rather than stopping to verify,” Mr Mailer said.

“That’s exactly the moment scammers are counting on.”

Businesses should be alert to email tone, especially if it sounds brash or aggressive, and to requests that are urgent and unexpected, or requests to update bank details and make payments to new accounts.

In 2025, Australians lost a total of $2.18 billion to hundreds of thousands of different scams.

A ceasefire between the US and Iran has delivered a much-needed reprieve for Australian businesses and the Reserve Bank.

Oil prices fell almost 15 per cent to $US95 a barrel after President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday the US would pause hostilities for two weeks while negotiations for a permanent peace continued.

Iran’s confirmation it would allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz over the same period lifted hopes of a normalisation in fuel supplies and a respite in inflation.

Although the prospects of a long-term resolution remained uncertain, having the Strait open for even two weeks allowed a backlog of oil to pass through and supply chains to recover, Oxford Economics Australia lead economist Ben Udy said.

“That’ll allow the deficit of oil that we’ve seen in the global economy to start to close, and will help a lot of those supply chains recover, at least in the near term,” he told AAP.

Risk-on sentiment propelled equity markets sharply higher following the agreement. Australia’s ASX200 closed up 2.6 per cent.

But markets are likely to experience increased volatility over the next two weeks as traders pore over additional information that comes to light about a potential long-term deal, Mr Udy said.

“Irrespective of what happens in two weeks, the developments today do make it easier for businesses to continue operating in Australia,” he said.

“With the benefit of a bit of foresight, companies are probably able to prepare a little bit better for any potential future disruptions to the Strait.”

It was essential Australia used the two-week reprieve to replenish fuel stockpiles and bolster resilience, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said.

“News of a two‑week ceasefire gives some relief, as it provides crucial breathing space and the opportunity to progress work in improving fuel security,” he said.

“However, the risks have not disappeared. Businesses remain exposed to global supply shocks, and Australia cannot assume that the break in conflict will hold.”

The benchmark oil price remained well above the pre-war level of about $US70 a barrel.

Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said there was a risk a comprehensive deal would fail to materialise and energy prices would remain elevated for an extended period.

“Iran’s control over the key waterway provides a means for war reparations via tolling and deters US and Israel from attacking Iran again,” he wrote in a research note.

“But Israel and other countries in the Persian Gulf will be deeply uncomfortable with such a concession.

“Therefore, while oil and LNG prices can fall materially, there is still scope for a significant geopolitical premium being entrenched for the foreseeable future based on the details of the comprehensive agreement.”

Mr Udy still expected the Reserve Bank to lift rates in May, even though the reopening of the Strait would give the bank a bit more breathing room.

“The increase in fuel that has already happened will put pressure on inflation in both March and April,” he said.

“The other parts of supply chains that have been affected – things like fertiliser affecting food prices, helium exports impacting (computer) chips – are going to have long-lasting impacts on supply chains.”

News of the ceasefire might buoy consumer sentiment, which bounced back from record lows last week as motorists enjoyed some temporary relief from rising fuel prices.

Household sentiment picked up 3.5 points to 62.3 in the week leading into Easter, coinciding with the government’s decision to cut the fuel excise, according to the ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index.

“All subindices strengthened and inflation expectations eased slightly,” ANZ economist Sophia Angala said.

Motorists may have to wait months for fuel prices to come down, despite the US and Iran agreeing to a pause in fighting which includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

In exchange for American attacks being put on hold for two weeks, Iran has agreed to allow tankers to resume travelling through the critical waterway, which before the war carried around one-fifth of the world’s oil.

While the American oil benchmark Brent Crude plunged 13 per cent to about $US95 a barrel, Australian petrol and diesel prices are unlikely to respond straight away, experts and industry insiders have told AAP.

Australian Institute of Petroleum chief executive Malcolm Roberts, who represents major petrol companies including Ampol, BP, Mobil and Viva Energy, said the ceasefire was welcome but the effects would take some time to flow through supply chains.

“We would caution people from expecting this will have immediate effects on supply or prices in our region,” he said.

“It’s going to take quite some time for global supply chains to reconnect.”

US President Donald Trump claimed a “total and complete victory” and declared it was a “big day” for world peace, but Energy Minister Chris Bowen struck a cautious tone on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, warning it didn’t appear to be a done deal.

“We welcome progress, but I don’t think we can say that the Strait of Hormuz are now open,” he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

“There’s more work to be done.”

If the ceasefire held, petrol and diesel prices would likely begin dropping over coming months as fuel companies sold out of their more expensive fuel, Australian National University supply chain lecturer David Leaney said.

“While that expensive oil is making its way around the world and being refined into fuel with a higher cost, that cost (of petrol and diesel) stays high for a couple of months,” he said.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said the organisation would watch closely to ensure falling wholesale prices were passed on in full.

“Australians have been paying the highest price on record for more than a month. We need to get relief back into family budgets,” he said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a phone call with His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei on Wednesday, where the importance of ensuring global energy supply chains were kept open was discussed.

As Mr Albanese prepares to travel to Singapore on Thursday for talks aimed at further shoring up Australia’s fuel supplies, the opposition has called for a public database of how much petrol and diesel are in the nation’s reserves.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will call on the government to implement a publicly accessible dashboard, which would provide information on service stations without fuel, the number of days of remaining stock and available storage.

Protesters calling for further government help to lower the cost of fuel have clogged up busy thoroughfares and motorways ‌with parked lorries and tractors across Ireland, disrupting commuters and public transport for a second successive day.

Convoys ‌of vehicles began converging on Dublin’s city centre and other towns and cities on Tuesday, with protesters, including hauliers and farmers, complaining that a 250 million euro ($A414 million) package to temporarily cut taxes on petrol and diesel did not go far enough to cushion the knock-on cost of the Middle East conflict.

“With the price we’re paying for ‌fuel, I’m probably ‌two months away ⁠from my business folding,” said Christopher Duffy, 46, an agricultural contractor who ​was part of a group blocking Dublin’s main thoroughfare of O’Connell Street that is calling for the price of diesel to be capped at a lower rate.

“It’s not a lot to ask for really … We’re just backed into a corner.”

Ministers said they would not agree to the protesters’ demands to meet with them as they did ⁠not belong to representative groups with whom the government has ‌been ​engaging on supports.

Organisers pledged a third day of disruption on Thursday.

“We respect people’s right to protest but ​what is not acceptable ‌is people declaring that we will turn O’Connell Street into a car park,” Prime Minister Micheal Martin ​told a news conference.

The lining of tractors and trucks down O’Connell Street led to severe delays to bus services and the part suspension of one of the two tram lines that cross ​the ​city.

Significant traffic delays were also reported at ​motorways leading into other major cities.

Protests at two fuel ‌depots blocking deliveries into the cities of Galway and Limerick had led to at least one forecourt running out of fuel, the head of the representative body for forecourt operators told broadcaster RTE.

Ireland’s government welcomed a two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict and expected it to lead to a fall in fuel prices soon.

“If ​they give us that phone call or that meeting, the streets of Dublin will be cleared. ​If they don’t, we’ll stay ⁠as long as it’ll take,” said 61-year-old farmer and agricultural contractor John Dallon.

Australia’s share market is trading at its highest level since early March after the US and Iran struck a two-week ceasefire, easing soaring oil prices and boosting investor confidence.

The S&P/ASX200 gained 233 points on Wednesday, up 2.55 per cent, to 8,951.8, as the broader All Ordinaries lifted by 244.5 points, or 2.74 per cent, to 9,165.7.

Oil prices plummeted on news of the temporary truce, which hinges key agreements including the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz to western oil tankers, after its effective blockade by Iran plunged the world into an energy crisis.

It was the bourse’s best day in about a year, returning $83 billion to the All Ordinaries’ $3.1 trillion combined market value after falling more than 10 per cent at its lowest point since the conflict began.

The Australian dollar is buying 70.71 US cents, up from 69.19 US cents on the improved outlook for global growth and commodity prices.