The Treasury Department reached a deal late Thursday to take a stake of 30 to 40 percent in Citigroup as part of a third bailout of the embattled bank, according to several people close to the deal.

Julia Gillard has defended her department spending almost $1 million on three "happiness" conferences for public servants and teachers last month.

“The legacy of the former Liberal government is one that we should all want to own.

“There's no doubt this is difficult, dangerous, complex, and it's going to be a long haul contribution. There's no doubt about that.

But when we first came to office over a year ago we sat down and we very carefully went through whether we believe our ongoing contribution in Afghanistan was in our national interest.

We came strongly to the conclusion that Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Pakistan border area, is currently, regrettably, the hotbed of international terrorism.