Australia politics live: John Howard warns about limiting immigration; Barnaby Joyce says super plan to have ‘minute’ inflationary effect

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John Howard says the US remains Australia's ultimate security guarantor" despite its unorthodox" president in Donald Trump.

At an Australian National University National Security College panel last night, the former prime minister said:

Although there may be occasions for superficial provocation ... [we shouldn't] lose sight of the fact that our ultimate security guarantor is the United States.

But I think the mood is overwhelming that we have to try very hard to stop terrorism creeping in under the cover of immigration, and you can't do it by just stopping immigration, and it's very hard to do it by stopping categories of immigration.

When some people say you stop it by saying we won't take migrants from any country that has got a reputation for terrorism', well, it might be a lot more limiting than those people imagine.