The former prime minister Tony Abbott says Australia should be prepared to go to war amid the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, saying the nation had let our main ally down, “but also betrayed our values and our long-term national interest”.

Abbott wrote an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph today, asking why the nation has armed forces if they won’t be used. He said:

What is the point of having armed forces if they’re not to be used to support our allies in a just cause, and what could be a more just cause than the US-Israeli bid to deny Iran nuclear weapons, uphold freedom of navigation in the Hormuz Straits and – if possible – liberate Iran from a monstrous theocracy? …

By ostentatiously standing aside from the current conflict, doing even less than the pusillanimous British government, we have not just let down our main ally but also betrayed our values and our long-term national interest.

Abbott went on to say Australia needed to be “strong again, as our forebears were”.

The Greens senator David Shoebridge says Australia should cancel arms deals with Israel, a step that would be far more powerful than the foreign affairs minister Penny Wong’s statements that Australia is concerned about the country’s ongoing military assault in Lebanon.

Shoebridge spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:

Penny Wong’s previous statements, whether it’s concerned or gravely concerned, have had no effect.

But cancelling more than a billion dollars in Israeli arms contracts – that would not only respond to the moral situation of the appalling Israeli military attacks, it would also have the benefit of putting a very real material pressure on Israel to pull back from what is a disastrous, illegal, immoral war in Lebanon that is threatening the entire globe’s peace.

Shoebridge went on to say the first thing Australia should do is put a “complete, two-way military arms freeze on Israel”.

We should not be buying weapons that have been tested by Israeli defence manufacturers in conflicts like Gaza and Lebanon, and we should not be contributing any weapons parts.

Right now it also would have the important additional benefit of making it clear to Israel that this comes at a direct and real cost to them.

A Queensland member of parliament has died.

The member for Stafford, Jimmy Sullivan, had served as a Labor representative for the electorate since 2020. He was expelled from the Labor party last May and sat on the cross-bench.

Queensland police confirmed that officers attended a residence at Stafford at 10.15pm last night to a “sudden death”.

“Officers are treating the death as non-suspicious, and a report will be prepared for the coroner,” a spokesperson for Queensland police said.

“No further information is available at this time”.

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

The defence minister, Richard Marles, said the flow of ships through the strait of Hormuz during the ceasefire is not “what we want”.

Marles, who is serving as acting prime minister while Anthony Albanese is in Singapore to discuss the nation’s fuel supplies, spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:

Ultimately, we need to see the strait of Hormuz open. We need to see the disruption of the global fuel supply chain stop. And we very much need this fragile temporary ceasefire become permanent.

A search for a fisher who disappeared in waters off Coffs Harbour has been suspended, police said last night.

Emergency services were called to Emerald Beach, Coffs Harbour, on Monday following reports that a 32-year-old man had been washed off rocks while fishing.

Coffs Harbour water police, assisted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, carried out an extensive search in the past four days but he could not be found and the operation was suspended yesterday afternoon.

Water police and other agencies will continue to search the waters off Emerald Beach in the coming days.

Anthony Albanese says Singapore and Australia are “strategically aligned” on fuel and energy, ahead of his meeting with Lawrence Wong later today.

But the Australian prime minister said the conflict in the Middle East would have “a long tail”, warning of “a difficult period ahead”.

There’s been substantial damage in the Gulf and that will have consequences for a period of at least months ahead.

Albanese will meet his Singaporean counterpart for an annual leaders’ meeting and they will hold a joint press conference this afternoon, after Albanese tours petrol refining facilities on Jurong Island.

Arriving into Singapore last night, Albanese said the two countries were important partners, with Singapore providing around a quarter of Australia’s refined fuels and Australia providing around a third of Singapore’s LNG.

We share values and we share a relationship of trust between each other. And that is why it’s so important that at difficult times in the world we can rely upon each other.

It’s unclear whether Albanese’s meeting will directly secure any new fuel supplies for Australia, but he says the meeting is important to bolster the bilateral relationship.

This is a relationship of trust and of mutual interest as well. We know that it is in both of our countries’ interests to engage with each other to make sure that we are both reliable suppliers.

We have each other’s word and indeed we have each other’s back at this time.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the news reins.

Anthony Albanese says Singapore and Australia are “strategically aligned” on fuel and energy, ahead of his meeting with Lawrence Wong later today. More coming up in a minute.

And locally, a search for a fisher who disappeared in waters off Coffs Harbour has been suspended, police said last night. More details coming.