Kirsty Needham

The first climate migrants to leave the remote Pacific island nation of Tuvalu have arrived in Australia, hoping to preserve links to their sinking island home, foreign affairs officials said on Thursday.

Alphabet's Google will build three subsea cables in Papua New Guinea, which the largest Pacific Island nation said was funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty, in a key upgrade to its digital backbone.

The attack has escalated diplomatic tensions.

When a gunman murdered 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, Australia's political leaders united to implement some of the West's toughest gun laws. Nearly three decades later, after 15 people were killed at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, consensus is more elusive.

A decades-old Pacific organisation for environmental protection said the United States must go through a formal process to withdraw its support, after President Donald Trump listed it among 66 entities the U.S. would leave because they "operate contrary to U.S. national interests".

180 authors boycotted the event and its director resigned saying she could not be party to silencing a Palestinian author.

Hate speech and gun control laws proposed by the Australian government in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach mass shooting were criticised by conservative opposition and Greens parties on Thursday, putting in question whether they can pass.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his East Timor counterpart, Xanana Gusmao, on Wednesday said the Greater Sunrise gas project should be developed "as soon as possible", with Australia pledging a third of its state revenue to its small neighbour.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will flag Australia's desire for deeper security and energy ties when he addresses East Timor's parliament on Wednesday, in his first visit to the northern neighbour as leader.

The Pacific island of Bougainville has rejected a partnership with Chinese miner CMOC to reopen a gold and copper mine that was among the world's largest before it was shut by a bloody civil war, instead opting to deal with an Indian company.