Australia live news updates: Katherine Deves avoids media at election forum; US warns China against Solomon Islands base

Good morning and welcome to even more of the Australian election campaign.

Scott Morrison’s handpicked candidate for the seat of Warringah, Katherine Deves, avoided the media when she attended a “politics in the pub” style event at the Forestville RSL last night.

Deves was photographed outside the event and read a short statement but reporters and photographers in attendance were told Deves would not enter the venue if media were present and she did not take any questions from them.

The prime minister has continued to support Deves and (ironically, considering events last night) says she will not be “silenced” despite her previous comments about transgender people.

Morrison yesterday said he believed that many Australians would be able to relate with Deves in that they too “feel sometimes that they haven’t expressed things well in the past”.

(As a reminder, this is how Deves expressed herself just last year).

Morrison spent much of yesterday speaking about the Solomon Islands’ security pact with China with the US saying overnight it will “respond accordingly” if China is allowed to establish a military base in the country.

The White House said the message was delivered directly to the Solomon Islands leadership by a visiting senior US delegation. The delegation also lamented the lack of transparency over the agreement and cast doubt on Solomon Islands officials’ claims that the deal was purely domestic.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, is on day two of isolation after testing positive to Covid-19 on Thursday. He gave a TV interview to the ABC yesterday, saying the party had “war gamed” the possibility of him catching Covid, including figuring out who would speak and attend official events in his stead. Deputy leader Richard Marles will represent him at the Anzac Day commemorations in Darwin, for example.

The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, also has Covid and one of his children is in hospital after being in a serious condition after contracting the virus. He received a positive PCR test result on Friday.

Let’s kick on. You can contact me on twitter @callapilla or via email at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com