Australia politics live: Sussan Ley asks ‘How do we maintain the rage?’ as she reads names of 74 women killed in the last year

12.55am GMT Labor MP Dan Repacholi has worn an incredibly lurid suit to federal parliament today. It’s not a fashion statement, but instead part of a broader campaign to encourage tradies and blue-collar workers to openly discuss mental health. The bright colours – also seen on workwear in the background – are designed to make mental health as visible as physical safety in the workplace. 12.40am GMT Elective surgeries disrupted in Darwin after cyclone damaged roof of Royal Darwin hospital A couple more updates on Tropical Cyclone Fina from the NT chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro. She says the cylone has caused a “small disruptions” to elective surgeries in Darwin. On Monday, 10 surgeries were postponed and six are expected to be impacted on Tuesday. A section of the roof at Royal Darwin hospital collapsed on Sunday, with water flowing into the wards. Finocchiaro says power was briefly affected by no one was hurt: It would have been absolutely awful if that had impacted people. No staff, no patients were injured. We were able to very quickly isolate the area from power so that it wasn’t a risk for anyone. Finocchiaro says it is too early to estimate the costs of the clean-up. Updated at 1.00am GMT 12.35am GMT NY residents affected by cyclone may be eligible for support The federal minister for emergency management, Kristy McBain, says some NT residents affected by Tropical Cyclone Fina may now be eligible for government support: There will be personal hardship payments available for people in those seven local government areas, as well as a range of low-interest loans and freight subsidies for primary producers and additional assistance for not-for-profits for any assets that they may need replaced. McBain says eligible adults can receive up to $611, while children can access $309. Updated at 12.42am GMT 12.31am GMT Chief minister says NT focused on ‘getting back to business’ after cyclone The Northern Territory’s chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, has thanked people for listening to warnings from authorities about the dangers posed by Tropical Cyclone Fina: Right around the top end and in our remote communities, there is debris everywhere, including downed power lines. So we continue to ask people to exercise caution, but move freely about their day to do what they need to do. We are really focused on making sure that the territory gets back to business as usual as fast as possible. We’ve seen a number of shops and government services reopen and, of course, making sure that people can go about their day safely. Updated at 12.39am GMT 12.28am GMT Brittany Higgins’ former boss to have her case heard in 2027 The former boss of Brittany Higgins will have her case again the commonwealth go to trial in March 2027. Fiona Brown, the former Liberal staffer and chief of staff of Linda Reynolds, is suing the government over allegations her workplace failed to protect her by breaching her general protections after Higgins made her rape claim against former staffer, Bruce Lehrmann. Brown appeared in the federal court on Monday before Justice Nye Perram for a case management hearing. Perram set down the hearing for her case from 29 March to 23 April 2027. Brown was a witness in the defamation trial brought by Lehrmann against Lisa Wilikinson and Channel Ten after he claimed he was defamed by a rape allegation made by Higgins on Ten’s The Project. Justice Michael Lee found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Higgins. Updated at 12.45am GMT 12.21am GMT Centre for Public Integrity’s chair warns proper scrutiny needed on EPBC deal The Centre for Public Integrity’s chair, Anthony Whealy, has raised concerns about the government’s push to strike a deal on EPBC reforms. Whealy is concerned any deal struck this week may not be properly scrutinised by parliamentary inquiries: Government is in desperate negotiations with the Coalition and the Greens to push through the seven EPBC reform bills. This would occur before parliament has had a proper chance to consider them – and before the Senate environment and communications committee has even finished its extensive public consultation. Indeed, to achieve passage of this bill, the government would have to suspend the Senate’s standing orders. Updated at 12.31am GMT 12.07am GMT Parliament hears names of 74 Australian women murdered in the last year Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women tomorrow, Labor MP Sharon Claydon has introduced a motion. Claydon says she reads a list of the Australian women who have lost their lives in the last year. She reads out their names to the chamber. Every year I read this list in the hope it will be the last, heartbreakingly that day has not yet come. Today as we being the 16 days of activism we must recommit ourselves to ending this national emergency of violence against women and children. Following Claydon, the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, calls out the women’s names as well. She says it takes a “horrific event to force us to reckon with the scale of the challenge this list of women represents”. These names are women, women taken from us, mothers daughters sisters friends, these women have been identified by the Red Heart campaign. These names should echo through this building and echo across our country, 74 women have been killed in Australia since last time this year, 74 … How do we maintain the rage? How do we cut through, how do we overcome the fatigue? … We must continue to shine the light. Updated at 12.21am GMT 11.41pm GMT ‘We have to get this right’: Pocock seeks EPBC changes Environment laws must “actually protect nature” says David Pocock, who has 15 changes he wants the government to make on its EPBC reforms. While the government doesn’t need Pocock’s support to pass these bills in the Senate, the independent has been a loud voice on climate action. He told ABC TV a little earlier, that the government is in an “awful hurry” to get these reforms out of the way, but they need to be done right. Things like the exemption from our environmental laws for native forest logging – that clearly has to change. There’s exemptions for land clearing. Those things have to change. You actually have to have an independent EPA that is actually independent. It can’t just be independent by name … we are the world leaders in extinction, we have ecosystems in this country that are on the brink of collapse. And so, as a parliament, we have to get this right. There’s a longer Senate inquiry that will go through the 1,500-page bill and report back to parliament in March. Pocock says that inquiry will be necessary to dig into the details, but the government doesn’t need it to be complete to pass the legislation. Updated at 11.52pm GMT 11.34pm GMT Helen Haines says repealing net zero would deny the regions a ‘gold rush’ of cash Regional independent MP Helen Haines – who has been pushing the government to take further action on climate – takes a stand against Joyce. She says repealing net zero would deny the regions a “gold rush” of cash from renewables projects. This bill would wipe out almost $10bn in projected payments to farmers, strip $1.9bn from community benefit programs for regional councils and undermine thousands of jobs expected from renewable projects, and there is no alternative proposal – just repeal, rescind, omit. She points out that Armidale regional council, which is in Joyce’s seat of New England, has already established a multimillion-dollar renewable future fund. Updated at 11.50pm GMT 11.28pm GMT Barnaby Joyce’s repeal net zero bill up for debate Over in the house, Liberal MP Ben Small is taking up the fight for Barnaby Joyce’s repeal net zero bill. Joyce’s bill was first introduced before the Coalition came to a joint party position to dump net zero, but agreed to stay in the Paris agreement (which has its own remaining set of questions). The government has kept putting the bill on the Monday program for debate as a political move to wedge the Liberal party. Small points out that the speakers for the bill have grown as the Coalition has come to this position. Slowly slowly and then suddenly, within the Coalition the speakers list on this bill started as something of a renegade action to begin a long and necessary debate on the need to dump Labor’s net zero agenda, especially the taxes, penalties and big government schemes. We take tax money off a nurse to make a surgeon’s novated lease for his Tesla cheaper. The government and crossbench have more numbers, however, to keep debating against the bill. Updated at 11.35pm GMT 11.20pm GMT Defence honours bill to be discharged In the Senate this morning, the government is moving to discharge a bill that would limit the period of time – to 20 years – that a defence act can be honoured or awarded. There has been heavy criticism of the bill inside and outside parliament, and in the last sitting week, there were moves led by David Pocock for that bill to be discharged. While time ran out last sitting week, the government has this morning made that final move to have the bill removed. It’s a blow for Labor. It’s been welcomed by Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, and Pocock who says: One of the troubling things about this bill is that there was absolutely no consultation and I thank my Senate colleagues for sending a very clear message to the government that we expect you to go through a process of consultation before you move forward. Pocock says that through the Senate inquiry process into the bill, just one of the many submissions supported the bill, and that submission was from the Department of Defence. Updated at 11.26pm GMT 11.09pm GMT Eyes on the parliamentary corridors Here’s a little look at who popped up in the press gallery corridors this morning: 10.58pm GMT NSW Liberal leader ‘not going to tell my federal colleagues what to do’ on net zero Returning to the new NSW opposition leader, Kellie Sloane says she is “not going to tell my federal colleagues what to do” on net zero after the state Liberal party voted to back the policy in contrast with Sussan Ley’s federal position. Asked by a listener on ABC Sydney if she will try to convince federal Liberals to reinstate the commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, Sloane says: We have different responsibilities when it comes to the energy rollout and the roadmap in NSW. We’ve got those practical on-the-ground considerations in NSW, the Coalition's … position on this has been consistent since 2016 when we had the roadmap. We’re not going to turn around and change that decision, and certainly I’m not going to do that a week after our parliamentary colleagues made that decision. Sloane, who in her appearances since being named leader has echoed her predecessor Mark Speakman’s calls for NSW to build more metro lines, is played a clip from an early parliamentary speech in which she said “asset recycling has helped make this state what it is today”, including funding roads and public transport infrastructure. Sloane refuses to be drawn on whether she would sell assets such as the remaining publicly owned half of Sydney’s power grid, but eventually says she is “open to it”. I’m not going to get into specifics on day one. You know, a few, just a few days ago, I was the shadow health spokesperson. Your listeners would expect that I need to come up to speed with all these matters … I’m not asking any of those questions yet. I’ll be honest, I’ve been running around Sydney over the weekend, I’ve been catching up with colleagues, I still have about 500 unanswered text messages. Updated at 11.00pm GMT 10.48pm GMT Labor advances plans for universal childcare rollout We know Anthony Albanese wants universal childcare to be part of his legacy, and signs are emerging on just how Labor plans to significantly expand services around the country. The government is pursuing new laws to require private operators to hand over sensitive commercial data needed to design a new national system, including on the costs and staffing requirements for running centres. The government has already commissioned a private research project on sector wages, property costs and the experience of families and operators, in order to understand the scale of the ambition. Now new changes to tax laws used to facilitate childcare benefits and other government payments are being progressed through parliament to allow the Department of Education to require private companies to hand over data about costs and services pricing. Full story here: Related: Labor advances universal childcare plan with new laws to allow collection of data from private operators Updated at 10.58pm GMT 10.44pm GMT Sloane would ‘love to’ see an outcome on NSW workers compensation this week The new NSW opposition leader, Kelly Sloane, says she would like to see an outcome on the government’s controversial workers compensation reforms before parliament breaks this week. Sloane has hit the ground running after being elected unopposed on Friday morning, making media appearances across the weekend, including in western Sydney, where she was heckled on Saturday, and this morning. Sloane, who is four days into the job, has been reluctant to commit to policy yet. But speaking to ABC Sydney earlier, Sloane was asked about an area that may require an immediate decision, as the government seeks to pass controversial workers compensation reforms before it breaks for the summer at the end of the week. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said this month that negotiations were “over” after the Coalition and cross bench rejected raising the threshold at which workers can claim for psychological injuries, although the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, has since indicated that the government is open to further talks. Sloane says she would “love to see an outcome” this week. We know as an opposition that reform is absolutely necessary for workers compensation. We can’t justify the cost blowouts at the moment, but we’ve been working actively to try to reduce the front end costs of the scheme, rather than what Labor is doing and targeting the seriously injured workers who never have a hope of getting back to work. Sloane says she is being briefed this morning by the NSW shadow treasurer, Damien Tudehope, on the state of negotiations, saying the government needs to answer questions about changes to the threshold for psychological injury. Updated at 10.56pm GMT 10.35pm GMT What is the government putting forward in its nature legislation – and what are the Greens and Coalition demanding to help it pass? For a good look at what the government is putting forward with its environmental laws this week, and what the Coalition and Greens are pushing for, have a read of my colleague Josh Butler’s story here. Related: Labor pledges to pass long-awaited nature laws this week as Greens demand more concessions Getting these reforms through the Senate is the primary focus of the government this week. As we brought you a little earlier, Murray Watt is still confident a deal can get done before parliament rises for the year. Updated at 10.43pm GMT 10.24pm GMT Private members’ bills to be debated this morning Mondays during sitting weeks mean debate on private members’ bills. Up first – when the House begins sitting at 10am – will be a bill from Andrew Wilkie to end online wagering on greyhound racing. Then will come Barnaby Joyce’s end net zero bill (yes, again). We’ll see who lines up to the speakers list this time (and who the government puts up to debate against it – they have a much longer list MPs who can keep the debate running). Updated at 10.26pm GMT 10.03pm GMT Barnaby Joyce says he has not yet received dinner invite from Pauline Hanson Barnaby Joyce, who’s widely rumoured to be about to defect to One Nation, says he hasn’t yet been invited to Pauline Hanson’s house for dinner to discuss further. Speaking to journalists in the parliament’s corridors this morning, Joyce was also asked about the poor polling his current party is facing. Current Coalition polling is very, very bad, but we are in opposition [and] the government’s polling is also very, bad. It’s just that the Coalition is worse … And out of frustration, [voters have] gone shopping, political shopping. On whether he’s had a dinner with Hanson yet, Joyce revealed he hadn’t, and said he was “trying to wait till the end of the year” to make a decision on whether he would leave the Nationals. She [Hanson] hasn’t actually rung up officially – I’ve been invited on television, but I’m waiting for personal invite. That’s all colour isn’t it? Colour and movement. Updated at 10.14pm GMT 9.52pm GMT Liberals make light of leadership polling The latest Newspoll doesn’t paint a particularly bright picture for the Coalition and its leadership. Asked, ‘whom would you prefer as leader of the federal Coalition?’ Sussan Ley still sits ahead of the other contenders with 21%, followed by Andrew Hastie with 15%, then Angus Taylor with 9%, returned Goldstein MP Tim Wilson with 6% and Ted O’Brien with 3%. The kicker is that 46% of people selected the “don’t know” option. On the Today show earlier this morning, O’Brien joked that his votes were “thanks to Mum, who I think cast three votes”. Over on X, Wilson was also having a bit of a laugh, saying that after six months back in the house he’s “already at 6%. Gaining at a rate of 1% a month. 29 months to go!” Back in @AboutTheHouse for 6 months. Already at 6 per cent. Gaining at a rate of 1 per cent a month. 29 months to go! 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/aYBzkOQM4Z— Tim Wilson (@TimWilsonMP) November 23, 2025 Updated at 9.54pm GMT 9.42pm GMT Snapchat begins to notify Australian users aged under 16 ahead of social media ban From this week, Snapchat users the platform believes to be under the age of 16 will begin getting notifications in-app, via email or SMS about the upcoming social media ban. Snapchat is using age signals for account activity to estimate ages in addition to those who have self-declared to be under 16, and those believed to be under 16 who are not will need to go through age assurance processes. The methods will be via checking an Australian bank account, government ID such as passport or drivers licence, or via facial age estimation, where a selfie is taken and estimated by age assurance company k-ID. Users under 16 will be able to download their data before 10 December such as chats, memories and videos. The accounts will be locked from 10 December for up to three years or when the user turns 16 and reactivates their account. Snapchat maintains that it disagrees that it should be covered by the ban, but is complying with the policy. Updated at 10.58pm GMT 9.34pm GMT Behind the new BoM website’s $96m price tag Let’s dive a bit deeper into how that $4m figure blew out to $96m. Yesterday, the new BoM CEO and Director of Meteorology, Dr Stuart Minchin, issued a statement explaining the issue: The total cost of the website is approximately $96.5m. This includes the previously stated $4.1m required to redesign the front-end of the website. The remaining cost reflects the significant investment required to fully rebuild and test the systems and technology that underpin the website, making sure it is secure and stable and can draw in the huge amounts of data gathered from our observing network and weather models. The timing is critical, as Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina hit the Top End over the weekend. Minchin said the bureau is continuing to make improvements to the website, and postponed a scheduled website update due to the tropical cyclone. Related: Cost of BoM’s website revamp revealed after deluge of public criticism Updated at 9.40pm GMT 9.22pm GMT Murray Watt ‘not happy’ about BoM’s website price tag Jumping back to Murray Watt: the environment minister was asked on ABC News Breakfast a little earlier about the extreme price hike on the Bureau of Meteorology’s website redesign. The environment minister says he’s looking forward to more transparency and cultural change in the bureau. Watt says he hauled in the acting CEO of the BoM when issues first surfaced over the new website. A new CEO, Dr Stuart Minchin, started just a fortnight ago, and Watt says he was “heartened” that he’s already done a media interview. We have had a new CEO of the BoM start only a fortnight ago. I met with him on his very first day to outline my concerns and my request for him to get on top of this. I’ve met with him again – twice in his first two weeks – so I’m looking forward to a bit of a change in the culture and the approach of the BoM. BoM had initially said the website redesign would cost $4m, so where did all that extra money come in? Watt says the initial estimate was “for one aspect of the website development”. It’s a matter for them why they chose to provide that figure rather than a broader figure. But there’s no doubt that there have been increases in the cost of this website as it’s been developed. One of the things that I’ve asked the new CEO of the BoM to get on top of is, what happened here? Updated at 9.40pm GMT 9.10pm GMT Coalition has requested at least seven changes to nature laws, Bell says Continuing her media rounds, Angie Bell, tells ABC News Breakfast there are seven changes “at a minimum” that the Coalition has put forward to the minister on the environment reforms that the government is hoping to pass this week. What are some of those red lines? The scope of the new environmental protection authority, the definition of “net gain”, and the definition of “unacceptable impacts” are in the top three. There are very many other measures that the minister needs to look at in order to come back to us with those amendments so we can find a pathway forward. “Net gain” means that a project will need to demonstrate that offsets to it can deliver a measurable “net gain” rather than just avoiding a “net loss”. To the political issues within the Coalition, host James Glenday asks Bell whether after all this negotiation Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan will come in and “scuttle things” at the last minute. Bell doesn’t quite answer the question. We’ll take the government’s amendments on their merit and make sure that we deliver, as a Coalition, good outcomes for jobs, in particular, across our country, to make sure that there is certainty around investment and productivity. Updated at 9.13pm GMT 8.59pm GMT Government in a “rush to fail” on environment laws, says shadow minister Sitting in the RN Brekky hot seat following Murray Watt is the shadow environment spokesperson, Angie Bell, who says she’s not “in a rush” to pass the EPBC bills. Bell says that the ball is in the government’s court. We’re certainly not in a rush to fail, Sally, and we’ve heard three days of inquiry where all of the stakeholders have agreed that the bills are unworkable the way they are. What I will say is that that the ball is firmly in the minister’s court. I have put forward those red lines, if you like, or those substantive issues that the Coalition has with this set of bills, and it’s up to him now to come back to us with the amendments. Host Sally Sara challenges Bell on whether the opposition has been “distracted”, as Watt has put it, by the Coalition’s own internal political turmoil. The shadow environment minister bats it away and calls it “rhetoric”. I’ve been solely focused on the EPBC reforms. There’s a 1,500-page package that I’ve read and I’ve been working absolutely 100% in lockstep with the leader of the opposition’s office and others to make sure that we understand what the ramifications are here. I’ve been meeting with stakeholders. So, certainly, we are 100% focused on EPBC reform. Updated at 9.06pm GMT 8.51pm GMT What about some of the other sticking points? Labor has been adamant from day one that it won’t establish a “climate trigger” which the Greens have been consistently calling for. But Watt says he is prepared to remove fossil fuel projects from the national interest approval. I recognise that’s a big ask from the Greens. But you will have seen over the weekend that we said that we are prepared to remove fossil fuel projects from the national interest approval mechanism that is included in the bill … that’s a bit of a nod towards the concerns around climate change and fossil fuels. Related: Labor to rule out controversial ‘national interest’ exemption for coal and gas if Greens back nature laws Over on the other side, the Coalition has said it wants penalties for breaches of the legislation scaled back. Watt says the penalties and maximum penalties are comparable with the US and UK. One area where there probably is some room to move is for the bill to make it a little bit clearer about what kind of circumstances would attract the maximum penalties. So we’re having a bit of a look at what could be done there. I don’t think that anyone would expect that a minor breach of the law would result in an $850m fine, which is the maximum. Updated at 8.57pm GMT 8.45pm GMT Watt ‘prepared to compromise’ to pass environment laws this week Continuing his media rounds this morning, Murray Watt says he’s feeling confident that a deal is “very close” with either the Coalition or the Greens. He tells ABC’s Radio National Breakfast the number of issues each side is seeking change on is “smaller than it was this time last week”, and that there’s more room to move. I’m in under no doubt that we will pass these laws this week. It’s really a matter of whether it’s with the Coalition or the Greens. I’ve always said that I’m a realist. I am a senator, I work in the Senate, I understand that you’ve got to make changes to bills to get them through … I am prepared to compromise a little bit more on either side to get this through as long as we don’t get rid of those core principles. Asked more specifically about some of the Greens demands, like ending native forest logging, Watt says even under the new act, which would remove an exemption for native forest logging, the logging could still continue. We’re not going to be ending native forestry altogether and we’re not going to be getting rid of regional forest agreements under which native forestry occurs, but we are open to increasing the environmental standards expected of native forestry, and that’s one of the things that Graeme Samuel recommended. Updated at 8.58pm GMT 8.39pm GMT Not-for-profit providers leaving ‘train wreck’ NDIS, warns industry expert Not-for-profit NDIS providers are leaving the system, says Dr Martin Laverty, who helped design the national disability insurance scheme and now runs registered provider Aruma. Speaking to ABC’s AM program a little earlier, Laverty said the situation in the NDIS is a “train wreck”, with not-for-profits now in their fifth year of consecutive losses. Laverty says a key issue is the pricing that the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) sets. Over the five years that have just concluded, registered not-for-profits have suffered 12% losses. That’s unsustainable. And what we’re now seeing is a number of not-for-profit organisations have chosen to exit. Others are on the precipice and the National Disability Insurance Agency has put the government in a really awkward position. The reason for these losses is price. The NDIA is running a flawed pricing system. It’s a train wreck. This, for those of us who were involved in setting up the scheme are horrified with what’s happening. Updated at 8.46pm GMT 8.22pm GMT Abandoning net zero is “economic insanity” Chalmers claims The Coalition’s plan to dump its net zero emissions policy would “decimate investor confidence” in Australia for clean energy projects, claims the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, warning about risks to investment in critical minerals projects. Chalmers is this morning talking up the economic benefits of Labor’s plans for the energy transition, pointing to billions in investment into critical minerals projects. He claimed that the Coalition’s pledge to drop a net zero target, and unwind the government’s production tax incentives, would put those projects at risk. What the Coalition is proposing would decimate investor confidence around Australia and risk billions of dollars of investment. Abandoning net zero would swing a wrecking ball through the energy market, through investor certainty and put billions of dollars of critical minerals projects at risk. He called the net zero transformation “a golden economic opportunity for Australia”. Abandoning net zero is economic insanity that would mean less investment, higher energy prices and fewer jobs. Updated at 8.35pm GMT 8.20pm GMT Environment deal “getting closer”, Watt says The environment minister, Murray Watt, has one big task this fortnight – to pass the environment protection and biodiversity conservation (EPBC) bills with the support of either the Coalition or the Greens. Unsurprisingly, Watt says, both parties want quite different concessions from the government. He tells ABC News Breakfast this morning he spoke to representatives from both parties over the weekend and they’ll continue negotiating today. The Coalition want more changes to support business. The Greens want more changes made to support the environment. You will remember what I’ve always said through this process is that we need to have a balanced package that delivers wins for both the environment and for business. It’s not one or the other … I suspect that we’ll end up going with whichever of those two parties is more prepared to come closer to the package that we’ve already passed through the House of Representatives. Updated at 8.28pm GMT 8.16pm GMT BoM facing increased heat as $96m website upgrade cost revealed The pile-on continues on the Bureau of Meteorology for their controversial website redesign, which we now understand has cost $96m. Over on Sunrise this morning, Labor cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce both say it’s not a great look for the bureau. The figure is a whole lot more than the $4m originally estimated. Plibersek, in defence of her government, says the website rebuild started under a former BoM CEO back in 2019. When we came to government there was a rebranding exercise going on where the asking people to call it the Bureau instead of the BoM. I said at the time we needed to focus on the weather and not rebranding. There were some upgrades necessary, the security systems on the computers of the Bureau of Meteorology were very prone to hacking. The government was told that. Plibersek is pushed on when the cabinet knew how much it would cost, and whether it approved that figure – the now social services minister says she suspects there was “overrun” in the spending on the project, but that the work started before the Albanese government took office, and it was necessary to improve cybersecurity. Updated at 8.36pm GMT 8.12pm GMT Good morning Krishani Dhanji here with you for the final parliamentary sitting week of the year, and boy is it going to get busy. The environment protection and biodiversity conservation bills are up for debate in the Senate, with Murray Watt hopeful he can negotiate an agreement with either the Greens or the Coalition by the end of the week. It’s like the Bachelor … except serious, and with lots of real-life consequences. Also likely to keep the drama going is the instability in the Liberal party – following leadership spills in both the Victorian and NSW parties last week. New polling in the Australian isn’t helping their case. And everyone’s on the bandwagon criticising the new Bureau of Meteorology website – particularly now that it’s been revealed that the total price tag was nearly $100m. Stay with us.