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Australia must prepare for war to preserve peace, the defence minister says, but Labor is urging the government to match its words with action.

Labor's deputy leader Richard Marles accused the government of chest-thumping on the Solomon Islands security deal with China but doing little to improve Australia's relations with Pacific nations.

Following a dawn service to commemorate Anzac Day, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the only way to preserve peace was to "prepare for war".

"That's the reality. We are a country with a proud heritage that we commemorate today, the most important day on our calendar," he told the Nine Network.

"We're determined to make sure we can have peace in our country."

Yet Mr Marles said Australia was facing strategic circumstances more complex than since World War II and the Liberal-National coalition had failed to prepare.

"This is a government which beats its chest but when it comes to actually delivering and doing what needs to be done, this is a government which repeatedly fails," he told reporters in Darwin on Monday.

"We've seen six defence ministers in nine years ... words are one thing, action is what matters and this is a government which repeatedly fails, as it has in its management of relationships in the Pacific."

Navy chief Vice Admiral Michael Noonan said the budget announcement to recruit an extra 18,500 personnel was a sign that security is extremely important.

"It is troubling there is a very different dynamic in our region at the moment and certainly the commitment of the government is testament to the fact it is a challenging time," he said.

Meanwhile, a Liberal backbencher said the Solomon Islands security deal with China was a "money grab" from the Pacific nation.

Queensland MP Phillip Thompson, who served in Afghanistan as a member of the Australian Defence Force, identified China as the greatest threat to Australia's national security.

While Australia and China should not engage in a bidding war with the Solomon Islands it was important to recognise China's financial influence in the region, the backbencher said.

"What we've seen with (China's) security pact in the Solomon Islands, it's a money grab from the Solomon Islands," Mr Thompson told Sky News on Monday.

"(Australia has) always been there in support and helping the Pacific family. China comes in with a big bag of cash."

Both the Liberal and Labor camps have suggested China could have engaged in bribery to secure the deal.

Labor's defence spokesman Brendan O'Connor said it was clear China did not follow the same rules as other countries.

"It may well be the case that they've acted in an improper manner in terms of convincing the Solomon Islands to enter into such an arrangement," he told ABC Radio National.

But he added the coalition had failed to maintain a good relationship with the Solomon Islands.

"(Australia) should have been doing more," he said.

"The current foreign minister should have visited the Solomon Islands, we believe there should have been more engagement and we should not have cut foreign aid to the region the way we have over the last almost decade."

Mr Dutton said he wanted Australia to have a better relationship with China, but reiterated his assertion it was the Chinese government which had changed the narrative.

"The Chinese operate by very different rules and they do it here, they do it in Africa, they do it in other parts of the world," he said.

"We want a normalised relationship with China as quickly as possible, but these acts of aggression we're seeing at the moment aren't acceptable to our country or to countries that stand for what we stand for."

© AAP 2022

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Emmanuel Macron has comfortably defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, heading off a political earthquake for Europe but acknowledging dissatisfaction with his first term and saying he would seek to make amends

His supporters erupted with joy on Sunday as the results appeared on a giant screen at the Champ de Mars park by the Eiffel tower.

Leaders in Berlin, Brussels, London and beyond welcomed his defeat of the nationalist, euro-sceptic Le Pen.

Macron is the first French president in 20 years to win re-election, since incumbent Jacques Chirac trounced Le Pen's father in 2002.

With 97 per cent of votes counted, Macron was on course for a solid 57.4 per cent of the vote, interior ministry figures showed. But in his victory speech he acknowledged that many had only voted for him only to keep Le Pen out and he promised to address the sense of many French that their living standards are slipping.

"Many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to keep out those of the far right. I want to thank them and know I owe them a debt in the years to come," he said.

"No one in France will be left by the wayside," he said in a message that had already been spread by senior ministers doing the rounds on French TV stations.

Two years of disruption from the pandemic and surging energy prices exacerbated by the Ukraine war catapulted economic issues to the fore of the campaign.

Le Pen, who at one stage had trailed Macron by just a few points in opinion polls, quickly admitted defeat. But she vowed to keep up the fight with parliamentary elections in June.

"I will never abandon the French," she told supporters chanting "Marine! Marine!"

Macron can expect little or no grace period after an election in which radical parties scored well. Many expect the street protests that marred part of his first term to erupt again as he presses on with pro-business reforms.

How Macron now fares will depend on the parliamentary elections. Le Pen wants a nationalist alliance in a move that raises the prospect of her working with rival far-rightists such as Eric Zemmour and her niece, Marion Marechal.

Outside France, Macron's victory was hailed as a reprieve for mainstream politics rocked in recent years by Britain's exit from the European Union, the 2016 election of Donald Trump in the US, and the rise of a new generation of nationalist leaders.

European leaders praised Macron's victory, since France has played a leading role in international efforts to punish Russia with sanctions and is supplying weapons to Ukraine.

"Democracy wins, Europe wins," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

"Together we will make France and Europe advance," tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi hailed Macron's victory as "splendid news for all of Europe".

"Congratulations to the President and a true friend @EmmanuelMacron on the election victory," Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted.

The disillusion with Macron was reflected in an abstention rate expected to settle about 28 per cent, the highest since 1969.

Initial polling showed the vote was sharply split both by age and socioeconomic status: two-thirds of working-class voters backed le Pen, while similar proportions of white-collar executives and pensioners backed Macron, an Elabe poll showed.

During the campaign, Le Pen homed in on the rising cost of living and Macron's sometimes abrasive style as some of his weakest points.

Macron, meanwhile, pointed to Le Pen's past admiration for Russia's Vladimir Putin as showing she could not be trusted on the world stage, while insisting she still harboured plans to pull France out of the European Union - something she denies.

Reuters with AP

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President Emmanuel Macron beat far-right challenger Marine Le Pen with a solid margin, final results show, but he displayed no triumphalism as he acknowledged widespread discontent and all eyes turned to the June parliamentary ballot.

Macron won with 58.54 per cent of the votes, well below his 66.1 per cent victory against Le Pen in their first duel in 2017, and very far from the 82 per cent secured by conservative Jacques Chirac in 2002 when most of France rallied behind him when the far-right first made it to the second round of France's presidential election.

"Many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to keep out those of the far-right. I want to thank them and know I owe them a debt in the years to come," Macron said in a late-night victory speech.

"We will have to be benevolent and respectful because our country is riddled with so many doubts, so many divisions."

The conservative daily Le Figaro wrote in its main editorial on Monday: "In truth, the marble statue is a giant with feet of clay. Emmanuel Macron knows this well ... he will not benefit from any grace period."

The June 12 and June 19 parliamentary elections will be what hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon immediately called a "third round" of the presidential election, with opposition parties of all stripes hoping they can win this time.

"The recomposition of the French political landscape is not over. The majority that emerges from the parliamentary elections will be decisive for economic policy," said Amundi chief investment officer Vincent Mortier.

The message across the Macron camp on Monday morning was that they would listen more, after a first mandate in which Macron himself initially called his leadership style "Jupiterian", suggesting he would stay above the political fray.

"When a proposal that affects the lives of the French comes to the National Assembly, the deputies must go and discuss it with the French," parliament leader Richard Ferrand, a close ally of Macron, told France Inter.

"Otherwise, there is a risk of a divide between parliamentarians and what the French feel."

After a campaign dominated by cost of living issues, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Franceinfo that price caps on energy would stay until the end of the year, to ease the surge in energy prices fuelled by the Ukraine war.

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Down 3-0 in their NBA first-round play-offs series, the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday ruled Ben Simmons out for Game 4 against the visiting Boston Celtics.

Simmons was widely expected to make his season and team debut on Monday night after a lengthy ramp-up period while dealing with a back injury.

But ESPN reported that Simmons awoke with back soreness Sunday, and he and the Nets agreed to play it safe and keep him out.

The former Philadelphia 76ers star was cleared for contact last week and participated in more live drills at practice, including a 4-on-4 drill.

The No.2 seed Celtics defeated the No.7 seed Nets 109-103 on Saturday night to move ahead by a daunting margin.

No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a play-off series.

Simmons, acquired in a blockbuster trade in February that sent James Harden to the Sixers, has yet to play a game in a Nets uniform.

The Australian forced his way out of Philadelphia over a fractured relationship with 76ers coach Doc Rivers and teammate Joel Embiid.

The 25-year-old was the No.1 overall pick in the 2016 draft. He averaged 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game with the 76ers.

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