PM

On tonight's program: Tensions could well intensify with China, the US Vice President is about to ramp up the rhetoric and the US navy's preparing for a show of strength; Former ADF Chief Admiral Chris Barrie warns it’s easy to see the path to a shooting conflict; And tensions with China over science too, but academics tell us they don't see why they should limit sharing with Chinese counterparts.

The Prime Minister has held his first meeting with his Indigenous Advisory Council today after weeks of open frustration over Scott Morrison's appointment of Tony Abbott as an Indigenous Envoy. Mr Abbott, who is yet to meet with the Advisory Council, was charged by Mr Morrison with looking at Indigenous school attendance in remote community needs.

Concern is growing for hundreds of thousands of people in the quake and tsunami hit regions of Sulawesi, where there's still little food and water, six days after the twin disasters struck. The aid effort continued to ramp up today, including humanitarian supplies sent to Sulawesi today on an Australian Air Force Hercules.

There are urgent calls for Australia’s food labelling laws to be beefed up, with new research revealing people are still nearly dying despite precautionary allergen labelling.

Rural Queensland councils say they're struggling to maintain basic services for vast council areas without more assistance from the Federal Government's assistance grants program.

The US President Donald Trump has again used public mockery as a political tool this time taking aim at one of the women behind sexual assault allegations against the President's embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Addressing a rally in Mississippi, Mr Trump imitated Christine Blasey Ford's testimony, as he picked holes in it. And he's pushed back against empowered women speaking out, saying it's a 'scary time for young men' in the wake of the accusations.

The Opposition today held the first of its planned meetings with communities who've had problems with the banks. Labor says the Royal Commission hasn't heard from enough people, so it’s giving people that chance.

The GST will be removed from sanitary products next year, after the state and territory treasurers signed off on the change. The Federal Government is now looking at other changes to the tax system.

Indonesia correspondent David Lipson reports from the Palu disaster area, visiting the airport where people have been desperately trying to get out.

It's been slow and difficult, but aid is reaching some of the areas devastated by last week's earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. Indonesia correspondent Anne Barker is surveying some of the damage in Palu, where homes have been swallowed by mud.