Received

Australia's free trade agreement with the United Kingdom will start from the end of the month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

Under the deal, there will be no tariffs on almost all Australian goods exported to the UK and more Australians will be eligible for lengthier working holidays in the country.

"What the FTA between Australia and the United Kingdom is about is getting greater access to this market for Australian products - greater access for our beef, for our sheep products, for our wine," Mr Albanese said during a visit to Bondi Green, an Australian-themed restaurant in London's Paddington, on Thursday.

The prime minister said that, after a two-year period, there would be no tariffs on 99 per cent of Australian exports to the UK and the same would apply to UK products arriving in Australia.

"Products becoming cheaper is also deflationary," he said.

"So the imports that we get from the UK, if you cut the taxes and cut the tariffs, then they are by definition cheaper and that will have a positive impact on our economy."

Then-UK prime minister Boris Johnson jokingly told Australia's Scott Morrison in 2021 that a deal would mean "you give us Tim Tams and we give you Penguins, you give us Vegemite and we give you Marmite, we give you Burberry and Mackintoshes and you give us RM Williams Japaras".

After the same two-year phase in, Australians will be able to apply for working holidays in the UK to the age of 35 - up from 30 - and stay for a maximum of three years instead of two.

"I first came to London like many Australians backpacking, staying on a floor of someone I knew in West Hampstead and using it as a base for six months as so many young Australians do," Mr Albanese said on Thursday.

"What they'll be able to do with this FTA is see more of Australian products while they're here, and also be able to work and make that economic contribution, and then go back with that experience with the benefit that comes from experiencing different cultures."

UK citizens coming to Australia will be also be able to work for three years, with local officials stating that the country's professionals "from scientists and researchers to lawyers and accountants will have access to Australian work visas without being subject to its changing skilled occupation list".

Mr Albanese said he expected to complete the trade agreement timetable during a meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday, allowing the deal to come into force on May 31.

The UK government said on Thursday its free trade agreement with New Zealand, with similar conditions, would also start on the last day of May.

© AAP 2023

The NRL will decide in a matter of weeks whether to take two games to Las Vegas next season, with CEO Andrew Abdo insisting the plan is a genuine attempt at growing the game in the American market.

Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V'landys flew out on Thursday to begin getting the proposed double-header off the ground in the USA and will be joined by Abdo next week.

The matches, envisaged as the 2024 season openers, would be the first played for premiership points outside of Oceania.

They would also mark the NRL's first trip to America since taking a State of Origin exhibition match to Long Beach, California in August 1987.

South Sydney, Manly, Brisbane, Melbourne and the Sydney Roosters have all been suggested as potential participants in the Vegas extravaganza, which is seen as a potentially lucrative chance to break into the American sports gambling market.

The NRL also has the chance to spruik the game to a new audience of fans already enamoured with the similarly gladiatorial NFL.

"It represents multiple opportunities for us to think about new fans but also to create excitement at the start of the season," Abdo said.

But the logistical challenges are considerable. Moving four teams and support staff safely around the globe to a party hotspot, promoting the fixtures to uninitiated spectators and fitting the matches in with the 2024 draw will require extensive planning on the NRL's part.

"We need to make a call fairly quickly," Abdo said.

"In the next couple of weeks we will know whether or not it's feasible.

"From there, we need to start then working with everyone involved if it's going to happen to make it happen, including of course the impact on the draw."

The proposed Vegas trip has dominated headlines in recent weeks and captured the attention of local fans and NRL players.

But Abdo insisted the matches were an earnest attempt to grow the game in the USA.

"We're not doing this as a once-off PR stunt," he said.

"We're taking a long-term, strategic view so we want to make sure that we've got the building blocks necessary to really maximise the event.

"We need to look at stadiums, we need to look at costs and we need to look at making sure we have the right opportunity to engage the right influencers in the American market to really maximise and showcase a game that we're really proud of."

© AAP 2023

Prominent Indigenous Australians have joined with leaders across the Commonwealth urging King Charles III to formally apologise for the effects of colonisation.

Ahead of the King's coronation, representatives from 12 countries have written a joint letter calling for reparations, acknowledging the impact of slavery, along with returning the remains of Indigenous people and cultural artefacts.

Australian signatories of the letter include Nova Peris, the first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament and co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement, fellow ARM co-chair Craig Foster and Victorian independent senator Lidia Thorpe.

"We stand united in engaging a process to right the wrongs of the past and to continue the process of decolonisation," the letter said.

"We, the undersigned, call on the British monarch King Charles III, on the date of his coronation being May 6, 2023, to acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonisation of the Indigenous and enslaved peoples."

Countries represented in the joint letter include New Zealand, the Bahamas, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Jamaica and Saint Lucia.

The letter called for the King to start the conversation about "slavery's enduring impact" and "immediately commit to starting discussions about reparations for the oppression of our peoples".

Senator Thorpe said the effects of British colonisation on Indigenous people were still being felt.

"The genocidal project that commenced in 1788 continues and neither the British Crown nor the Australian government have been held to account for the crimes they have committed," she said.

"This country has a new king. The parliament and the prime minister are subjugated to someone we didn't elect. We don't need a new king, we need a head of state chosen by the people."

The letter coincides with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirming he had invited the monarch to visit Australia.

Mr Albanese described his private audience with the King at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, local time, as "very warm".

While he is a republican, the prime minister said he was looking forward to being at the coronation ceremony on Saturday.

Mr Albanese has been criticised by the Australian Monarchist League for being hypocritical about his attendance while trying to introduce a republic by stealth.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Albanese shouldn't be "swanning around at Buckingham Palace" while giving interviews talking about the republic.

"You're there for that occasion and save your interviews for when you get back to Australia," Mr Dutton told 2GB radio.

Asked if Australia would stick with the monarchy for now, Assistant Minister for the Republic Matt Thistlethwaite said the Indigenous voice referendum was the priority.

"But the government does have a longer term vision for Australia as a mature, independent nation with one of our own as our head of state," he told Sky News.

Mr Albanese is among a contingent of Australians invited to the coronation, along with Governor-General David Hurley and state governors.

The Australian delegation includes Matildas captain and soccer star Sam Kerr, singer Nick Cave, Aboriginal artist Jasmine Coe, comedian Adam Hills and London-based nurse Emily Regan.

The King, who is the monarch of 14 overseas realms including Australia, will host a lunch for prime ministers and governors-general at Buckingham Palace and also attend a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Friday, the day before his crowning.

On Sunday, Australia's Federation Guard will fire a national 21-gun salute from the Parliament House forecourt, followed by a Royal Australian Air Force fly-past.

© AAP 2023