Australia politics live: Sussan Ley claims ‘dirty deal’ between Labor and Greens to pass landmark environment bill will raise energy prices

12.51am GMT ‘Secret’ Aukus committee ‘doesn’t pass the pub test’, says crossbench MP Crossbench MPs are not happy at the prospect of a secretive new committee of federal parliament to consider the Aukus nuclear submarine deal and Australia’s involvement in military conflicts. Labor and the Coalition are preparing to pass legislation to establish a joint house and Senate committee on defence, with a makeup mirroring the powerful parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security. That committee excludes MPs from the crossbench and minor parties. Independent MP Nicolette Boele had pushed amendments for the new committee to include crossbenchers, but the move was unsuccessful. If Australians who voted beyond the major parties don’t get a voice on national security committees, that’s a profoundly undemocratic state of affairs National security belongs to the nation – not to the major parties. Boele noted only 35% of voters gave Labor their first preference at the May election. Shutting out MPs elected by the Australian people just to protect a duopoly doesn’t pass the pub test. Related: Albanese and Ley to decide members of ‘secret’ new committee set to scrutinise Aukus – but Greens excluded Updated at 12.59am GMT 12.40am GMT As part of the deal to pass changes to the country’s environment laws, the federal government has agreed to Greens demands for an extra $50m in funding for the ABC. Greens spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said the funding boost for the public broadcaster would see more Australian made content on TV and radio in the months and years to come: As part of our negotiations, we have secured an extra $50m dollars for the ABC to invest in Australian stories, in our kids content, in our local drama. It’s a good win for our broadcaster. It’s a good win for our kids television and kids entertainment, and it’s a good win for Australian jobs. Updated at 12.54am GMT 12.25am GMT Police praise bystanders after fatal shark attack on NSW mid-north coast NSW police’s Timothy Bayly is giving an update on a fatal shark attack on the mid-north coast: New South Wales ambulance attended the scene but sadly the woman passed away at the scene. At this stage, the woman is believed to be aged in her mid 20s and formal identification is not yet occurred. The detective inspector says a man also aged in his mid-20s was attacked by the shark. He was airlifted to hospital and is in a critical condition. I can say at this stage as they were known to each other. They were going for a swim and the shark attacked. Police have also praised bystanders at the beach who applied a tourniquet to the man, stablising his condition before he received treatment from paramedics. The courage from some bystanders is amazing. To put yourself out there is very heroic and it did give us time to get to that male patient. Related: Woman killed in shark attack on NSW beach and man taken to hospital in critical condition Updated at 12.28am GMT 12.19am GMT Coalition try to remove debate guillotine in Senate As we’ve been reporting this morning, the government and Greens voted this morning to bring on debate of the environment laws in the Senate. But debate will be cut short by 3.30pm when the Senate will go to a vote. So the Coalition – who are pretty unhappy with Labor’s deal with the Greens – are trying to move a motion in the Senate to essentially remove that guillotine that would cut off debate, and allow the Senate to consider the bill further. Without the Greens the Coalition don’t have the numbers – crossbenchers, David Pocock (who is also critical of the deal) and Tammy Tyrrell are voting with the Coalition to allow further debate. Updated at 12.25am GMT 12.11am GMT Coalition: Ley left on read by PM The Coalition say that the government should have worked with them to pass the legislation next year, and Ley says the prime minister did not offer a meeting with her to negotiate – as he claimed this morning. Giving us a few more details, the opposition leader says she reached out to the PM after question time yesterday. I didn’t receive an offer from the prime minister to meet I texted him after Question Time and the tax remains unanswered. I come back to the point about the lack of good faith negotiations because, we know that this could have gone into next year we could have taken the time to get it right. The opposition are also highly critical of the government for putting a tight time limit on debate of the bill in the Senate. The debate will go to 3.30pm today, when a vote will take place. Updated at 12.32am GMT 11.56pm GMT Ley says ‘dirty deal’ will hike up energy prices The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says the government and the Greens have come up with a “bad deal” and it was “not necessary” for the bill to be passed this year. As she speaks to reporters, she’s holding the Coalition’s energy policy booklet. She accuses the Greens of being anti-gas and anti-resources and says the concessions by the government will lead to communities and jobs being under threat. What is very clear from the reaction so far to the dirty deal done by the Labor party with the Greens, a deal that was not necessary to conclude today or this year what is absolutely clear is this going to put energy prices up. It will provide further pressure on electricity bills for struggling households and families … The Greens party has always been at war with gas. The shadow environment minister, Angie Bells, rejects “assertions” the Coalition was not at the table to negotiate with the government. Murray Watt said this morning the Coalition’s negotiations were a “shambles”. Bell says: It is a bad bill for those Australians who work in the sectors that will be impacted by this and I reject any assertion that the Coalition was not at the table right up until the very last point last night, 9:30pm. We were still talking to the government around our commitments and adjustments we feel that were needed for this bill. Updated at 12.05am GMT 11.51pm GMT Telecoms ombudsman records spike in complaints about triple zero around Optus outage The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) noticed a spike in complaints about customers having difficulty reaching triple zero on mobile phones around the time of the Optus outage in September, but cannot attribute all to the Optus outage. The ombudsman went from recording six complaints in August this year, to 22 in September and 34 in October, according to data provided to the Senate inquiry on the Optus outage. The TIO said this spike does not necessarily demonstrate an increase in network outages or failed calls, with more than half of the complaints occurred in the weeks or months prior to the 18 September Optus outage. It is also likely that media on the Optus outage encouraged consumers to make complaints about triple zero that may previously have gone unreported. The TIO said many of these failed attempts appear unrelated to network outages such as pre-existing reception issues, handset faults, or landline issues. Two of the complaints related to the Optus outage, and one is linked to a TPG outage in June. The complaints appear for all three major mobile networks, and across at least five different states or territories over a range of dates. The TIO also revealed it received two complaints on the date of the Optus outage relating to the same medical emergency where they weren’t able to call triple zero on Optus, before eventually calling on another network. The TIO passed these issues on to Optus at the time, but did not get confirmation of the outage from Optus until the company announced it at the press conference held late Friday. Updated at 11.58pm GMT 11.43pm GMT Australian Energy Producers chief says government’s environmental deal ‘not in the national interest’ The peak body for gas producers has denounced the government’s environment deal with the Greens, and called it a “squandered opportunity”. While environment groups have largely welcomed the deal (though expressed concerns it will still allow the expansion of fossil fuel projects), the fossil fuel sector is unhappy. The Greens deal removes fast-tracked approvals for fossil fuel projects. Australian Energy Producers chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, said carving gas out of streamlined reforms is “not in the national interest”, and the laws won’t address costs and delays in delivering gas to Australians. [This] is a squandered opportunity to address the significant costs and delays in delivering gas to Australian consumers … Carving gas out of streamlined reforms is simply not in the national interest. The deal will entrench slow approvals which will drive up energy costs, deter investment and further delay the new gas supply Australia urgently needs. By conceding to the Greens, the Government has chosen more red tape and uncertainty instead of enabling new gas supply. Updated at 11.49pm GMT 11.33pm GMT Malcolm Turnbull’s portrait being unveiled in parliament Well it’s all happening today, isn’t it! As is customary for all past prime ministers, Malcolm Turnbull’s portrait is being unveiled this morning at parliament house. He has this to say: The challenges to democracy are very real, we look across the Pacific and we see what is happening in the United States and it shakes every assumption that we have had, you look at what is happening in Europe, we look at the challenges in our own region. Democracy is under siege, but here in Australia I believe it is stronger than just about anywhere else. Both Anthony Albanese and Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, are there for the unveiling. Updated at 12.17am GMT 11.21pm GMT Environmental groups welcome Labor-Greens EPBC deal but remain concerned over fossil fuel approvals The government and the Greens are pretty happy about their deal announced this morning, and so too are some of the climate and environment advocacy groups. But they warn the job of protecting nature isn’t done, and express concern that the legislation will still allow the expansion of fossil fuel projects. The Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO, David Ritter, said: The agreement announced today secures a significant improvement on the broken laws that for too long failed to deliver credible environmental protection. Removing the risk of fast-tracking coal and gas projects is also welcome. But the big sting in the tail is that the legislation still fails to address the enormous climate harm to nature from these sorts of projects. It still leaves the door open for the heedless expansion of coal and gas. The Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie, said the law still “fails” the 2025 climate test. This deal strengthens protections for our native forests, and provides a faster yes to responsible renewable energy projects that cut climate pollution … But this 2025 law fails the climate test. All new coal and gas projects still get a free pass on climate pollution. In fact, the law forbids the environment minister from considering a project’s climate pollution when assessing whether it should go ahead. Updated at 11.26pm GMT 11.10pm GMT Report finds ‘preventable hospitalisations’ make up 8.5% of admitted patients A new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found “potentially preventable hospitalisations” were 8.5% of total admitted patient spending in 2023-24, and totalled $7.7bn. It has prompted renewed calls for the government to spend more on prevention. The ‘Cost of potentially preventable hospitalisations in Australia 2023–24 report’ classifies preventable conditions into three broad categories; acute, chronic, and vaccine-preventable. Chronic conditions comprised most (45.2%) of total potentially preventable hospitalisations, followed by acute conditions (37.5%). Spending was highest for diabetes complications ($962m), followed by congestive cardiac failure ($861m) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ($797m). CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia, Adjunct Prof Terry Slevin, said; “This report tracked hospital expenditure from 2014-15 to 2023-24 and shows most people were hospitalised for chronic conditions that could be prevented”. For decades, all Australian and state/territory governments have prioritised spending on acute care instead of keeping people out of hospitals. 11.00pm GMT Opposition disputes PM meeting offer The opposition has disputed the PM’s claim that he’d offered to meet with Sussan Ley to negotiate the environmental reforms. A spokesperson for the leader has said: The prime minister is being characteristically tricky. He never offered to meet with the opposition leader about EPBC. The opposition has said this morning that they only found out their negotiations with the government were no longer happening when the PM stood up and announced the deal with the Greens. Updated at 11.03pm GMT 10.50pm GMT Regulator caps high-risk bank lending The financial regulator will put a limit on banks’ higher-risk lending, as part of a “pre-emptive” measure to curb a growing speculative fervour in the property market. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) had foreshadowed the potential for intervention after a surge in borrowing by investors sparked fears of declining lending standards. This morning, Apra announced the share of banks’ lending to borrowers with debt-to-income ratios above six would be capped at 20% from February. The regulator’s chair, John Lonsdale, said Apra was prepared to intervene further if needed. Although broader risks are contained, we have seen in the past that they can build rapidly when interest rates are low or declining, borrowers extend themselves and competition among banks for new mortgage lending intensifies. We will consider additional limits, including investor-specific limits, if we see macro-financial risks significantly rising or a deterioration in lending standards. Updated at 11.05pm GMT 10.45pm GMT First strong estimate of those living with incurable breast cancer About 21,000 Australians were living with metastatic (incurable) breast cancer in 2024, according to first-of-their-kind estimates published today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). This figure is double previous estimates, and exposes the scale of need and urgency for health system reform, the Breast Cancer Network Australia said in a statement, with the organisation releasing its own report on Thursday drawing on the new data and calling for action and change to help those diagnosed live better for longer. AIHW spokesperson, Justin Harvey, said; “Metastatic breast cancer develops when cancer spreads from the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body”. Until now, we haven’t been able to properly understand how many Australians live with stage four, incurable cancer that is managed as a life-limiting condition requiring ongoing treatment and support. An estimated 20,800 women and 150 men were living with metastatic breast cancer in 2024. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, said the national estimate marks an important milestone in Australia’s cancer data reform and said the achievement “has been driven by the leadership and advocacy of Breast Cancer Network Australia”. Updated at 10.49pm GMT 10.40pm GMT A done deal: pics of the morning Updated at 10.45pm GMT 10.34pm GMT ‘Dodgy dirty deal’: Coalition furious over EPBC agreement Jonathon Duniam, who was a key negotiating figure for the Coalition is ropable in the Senate – which has passed the motion to bring on debate of the environment bills. He says the bills will “now be rammed through in record time” and warns the bill will see native forestry “shut down” within years. The government was negotiating with both the Coalition and the Greens to pass the bill, with two separate sets of amendments. Duniam is not happy the Greens won out on the negotiations, and says the Coalition found out that the government was not accepting its amendments at the prime minister’s press conference this morning. This is a pattern of behaviour at the end of every sitting year we see the arrangement be the mighty new Labor-Green alliance come together, they’ve been together behind closed doors for a couple of weeks now hatching this one up. Where are they [Labor] standing up for the workers who have been abandoned under this the dodgy, dirty deal done behind closed doors at the 11th hour. He’s also critical of the Greens who had forced the parliament to set up an inquiry into the bill, that’s due to report back in March next year. Who’s voting to ram the bills through the Senate today, none other than the Australian greens enviro spokesperson senator Hanson-Young and all her colleagues. Updated at 10.43pm GMT 10.20pm GMT UTS backflips on restructure after internal and external backlash The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has announced a major backflip in its ongoing restructure after facing backlash from the NSW state government and sectors of the federal government, including Labor senator Tony Sheldon. In an email sent to staff on Thursday, the vice-chancellor, Prof Andrew Parfitt, said management had received more than 500 pieces of staff feedback over the ongoing academic change proposal and associated job cuts, as well as input from “external stakeholders and students”, which contained “very helpful insights and suggestions”. Initially, more than 1,000 subjects were due to be slashed and UTS was to close its teacher education program and public health school in addition to the cutting of about 400 jobs. Parfitt said individual outcomes for staff wouldn’t be confirmed before the end of the year, but a high number of redundancy requests would allow the university to reduce the majority of staff through voluntary separations. The university’s change implementation plan will be released in February. There was considerable feedback on also balancing the public good of delivering some courses with our capacity to resource these to ensure high quality relevant offerings. We acknowledge that discussions about course viability and future delivery can create uncertainty and concern for staff … Your feedback has been essential in identifying alternatives and options during change and informing decision making. Parfitt said the decision to slash teacher education courses would be reversed, with fewer staff, and international studies would also continue in a different form. An undergraduate program in public health would still face the axe. Updated at 10.30pm GMT 10.18pm GMT Government moves to suspend standing orders in the Senate to bring on EPBC bill With the deal now done, the government is moving a motion to suspend standing orders to bring on debate of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation bills. The PM has said the bills will pass the Senate today – but they’re not currently on the notice paper to be debated, so the government has to take action to do that. The motion would bring on the bill for debate immediately and guillotine debate (i.e force a vote on the bill) at 3:30pm. The Senate would then spend the rest of the evening voting on other legislation. There’s a few procedural motions and divisions – so the bells will be ringing several times before the debate can begin. The opposition is voting against the motions that will bring on the bill. Updated at 10.25pm GMT 10.10pm GMT PM brushes off questions on Nauru’s President Jumping back to the end of the PM’s press conference, my colleague, Tom McIlroy, asks the PM about accusations against Nauru’s president David Adeang – reported by the Guardian. Related: Nauru president accused in parliament of corruptly siphoning off millions of Australian funding Anthony Albanese brushes off the question and says the issues raised occurred before Labor was elected. Those suggestions [are] subject to a period before we were in office. I’m happy to answer questions and be accountable for what we’ve done in office and what we’ve done in office is entirely appropriate. 10.09pm GMT Woman dies after shark attack on mid-north coast of NSW To step away from politics for a second for some breaking news: A woman has died after a shark attack on the mid-north coast this morning, NSW police said. About 6.30am, emergency services were called to a beach at Crowdy Bay after reports two people had been bitten by a shark. Interactive NSW Ambulance paramedics attended but the woman, believed to be aged in her 20s, died at the scene. The man – also believed to be aged in his 20s – sustained serious injuries and has been airlifted to the John Hunter hospital in a critical condition. The beach has been closed. Updated at 10.35pm GMT 10.06pm GMT Hanson-Young digs into ‘rabble’ Coalition Sarah Hanson-Young says the Greens are the “true opposition” party in the parliament, and takes aim at the Coalition as “anti-climate and anti-environment”. Murray Watt called the Coalition a “shambles” during his press conference with the PM earlier. The PM had also said his offer of a meeting with Sussan Ley to negotiate on the bills had been rejected. Hanson-Young says: The Coalition, I must say, are an absolute rabble. They’re anti-climate and anti-environment, and I said directly to the government that if they wanted laws that genuinely protected our environment and protected our wildlife for the next generation, if they did a deal with the anti-climate Coalition, their credibility would be in tatters. The reason the Greens have come to this agreement with the government today is because we want to get things done. We want outcomes for the planet and outcomes for the people. Updated at 10.12pm GMT 10.01pm GMT What are some of the other elements that have been negotiated? The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, says the negotiated deal will make it illegal for a minister to tick off a project with an “unacceptable impact”. Waters also says the deal will stop the fast-tracking of more coal and gas projects from being approved. On native forest logging, she says the practice has been exempt from environmental laws for 25 years, but that will finally end under the new bill. At the moment, the minister’s got complete discretion to tick off on whatever destruction they would like to tick off on, and these changes will put in place some fetters on that discretion and will make it illegal for the minister to tick off on an unacceptable impact. That is an improvement. It’s not everything but it is a step forward … we are very, very proud that we were able to stop the fast tracking of coal and gas. That was an absolute red line for us, and that was a real possibility for this parliament to pass laws that would have allowed coal and gas to be approved within 30 days. That is not acceptable. Updated at 10.06pm GMT 9.55pm GMT ‘Negotiations were tough’, Hanson-Young says Well that deal was certainly “very close”, as Sarah Hanson-Young told ABC TV this morning, and she’s now celebrating the win for the Greens alongside leader Larissa Waters. The Greens have secured major concessions from the government to protect native forests from logging. The PM has said those protections will be sunsetted in to help the industry. Hanson-Young tells reporters at parliament the negotiations with the government were “tough” but the minor party “managed to deliver some tough blows”. This has been a tough negotiation … We’ve put a stop to the fossil fuel industry getting fast track and easy access to environmental approvals. When this piece of legislation was first tabled by the government, Chevron, BHP, the fossil fuel industry were cheering. They wanted it rammed through with the anti-climate Coalition. Updated at 10.10pm GMT 9.38pm GMT Watt says Coalition were a ‘shambles’ on environment negotiations The environment minister, Murray Watt, says the Coalition is in a “shambles” but that there would have been benefits to doing a deal with the opposition. He’s asked whether he believes the reforms will be enduring if the Coalition win government in the future, having not supported the passage of these current laws. There were some benefits in being able to reach a deal with the Coalition in terms of the enduring nature of the reforms. But as all of you can see every single day, the Coalition is a shambles, and they’ve been a shambles on these negotiations as well. So you can’t strike a deal with someone who doesn’t know what they want. But more broadly, I have great confidence that we’ve ended up delivering an enduring set of reforms by working with the Greens, because we have not only delivered wins for the environment, but also for business. So that gives me confidence that these laws will work for both the environment and for business. Updated at 9.47pm GMT 9.27pm GMT PM says offer to negotiate environment bill with Ley ‘wasn’t taken up’ Anthony Albanese says he offered to meet with the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, to negotiate the bill. The Coalition has said publicly that they were not “in a rush” to make a deal and would not support the bill in its current form. Albanese directly thanks Greens leader Larissa Waters and Sarah Hanson-Young, and Jonathon Duniam from the Coalition, and says he “offered to meet with Sussan Ley, and that wasn’t taken up, that offer, by the Coalition”. Albanese tells reporters the Greens have been “mature” and “constructive” in their negotiations with the government. He also confirms he has spoken to the WA premier, Roger Cook (who pushed Albanese to drop the previous environmental reforms during the last parliament). The Coalition did put forward a range of amendments. Now, some of those were straight from the business community … the problem that we had with the Coalition was that their final letters had in it, and there are other things to come. Now parliament stops today, you can’t the day before parliament say, ‘oh, well, we got some other things, but we can’t tell you what they are yet’. I must say that the Greens showed maturity in that they arranged the things that they wanted, they didn’t get the range of things we put forward that I said were not negotiable. Updated at 9.48pm GMT 9.20pm GMT Today a ‘landmark day’: Albanese Albanese is emphatic the deal will be good for business, and he thanks both the Greens and the Coalition for negotiating with the government. This is a landmark day for the environment in this country. It is also a good day for business in this country by providing more certainty, reducing delays and making sure that we get better outcomes and improve productivity. The environment minister, Murray Watt, joins the PM and also says the deal is a good one for business and will drive faster approvals and rejections of projects to provide more certainty. These reforms do respond to the major requests of the business community, which are all designed to speed up decision-making and lift productivity by giving business faster yeses and faster nos. So these reforms include a new streamlined assessment pathway to significantly reduce the timeframe for proponents who provide sufficient information upfront, new and improved bilateral agreements with states and territories to remove duplication for the assessment and approval of projects. Updated at 9.42pm GMT 9.13pm GMT Environment laws will pass the Senate today, PM says Speaking to reporters in Parliament House, Anthony Albanese says the reforms – five years after they were first recommended by Graeme Samuel – “will be passed by the Senate today.” The PM is unveiling some of the concessions made to the Greens – including key sticking points on native forests that the minor party was pushing for. Albanese says the government will remove the exemption for high-risk land clearing and will set up a fund for forests. The new laws will also require large emitting projects to disclose their carbon emissions. We are removing and sunsetting the exemption from the EPBC Act for high-risk land clearing and regional forest agreements so they comply with the same rules and standards as other industries. My government will establish a $300m forestry growth fund to deliver a bigger forestry industry that supports more secure jobs, better pay and high-value output. We will require proponents of large emitting projects to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and their emission reduction plans. We will maintain federal approval of water trigger on coal and gas projects, because the water table in areas like the Murray-Darling Basin obviously goes across state boundaries, and therefore the water trigger is absolutely essential. Updated at 9.48pm GMT 9.09pm GMT Breaking: Greens agree to nature laws deal Labor has struck a deal with the Greens to overhaul federal environmental protection laws on parliament’s final sitting day of the year, ending a five-year struggle to deliver on Graeme Samuel’s blueprint to fix the broken system. The Greens have agreed to support Labor’s re-write of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act after securing further concessions from the government amid tense and prolonged negotiations. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is announcing the deal at a press conference in Parliament House. The deal will clear the path for Labor to ram the legislation through the Senate on Thursday, handing Albanese a major political win to end 2025. Albanese became actively involved in the final stages of negotiations, speaking directly with his Greens counterpart, Larissa Waters, in a bid to resolve a weeks-long standoff. The Labor-Greens deal will sideline Sussan Ley’s Coalition, which refused to yield on their demands for more business-friendly concessions in exchange for supporting the legislation. Updated at 9.49pm GMT 9.00pm GMT Gallagher says Labor not enforcing ‘budget cut’ of 5% Katy Gallagher says there’s been “misunderstanding” around the government’s push for departments to find savings in their budgets. The public service minister tells the ABC it’s “not about job losses” or budget cuts. Labor has had to defend itself over its request for departments to reprioritise their budgets, but Gallagher says it’s not a “budget cut” of 5%. I think that there’s been a bit of misunderstanding about what’s going on here. We are certainly having since we with came to government, been seeking savings for the budget. We have asked departments to have a look at their lowest priority - essentially their lowest 5% of what their business is and have a think about whether or not they need to keep doing all those things. It’s really about fiscal discipline. There’s been no instruction to cut budgets by 5%. Or that we are cutting budgets by 5%. That’s just simply incorrect … it’s not about job losses and it’s not about budget cuts. Updated at 9.48pm GMT 8.54pm GMT Katy Gallagher says Labor has made ‘substantial progress’ on environment laws deal Cabinet minister Katy Gallagher is up on the ABC and says the government has made “substantial progress” in making a deal on its environment laws. A moment ago, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said her party is “very close” to a deal. Speaking to News Breakfast, Gallagher says there’ll be more to say later this morning. We’ve made substantial progress, including progress overnight and there will be more to say about that later this morning. We’re very keen to get these bills done and make sure that we’ve got them in place and got the right time to get them up and started. Updated at 9.04pm GMT 8.43pm GMT ‘We are very close’ on environment bill, Hanson-Young says Hanson-Young says she’s feeling more positive about a deal on the environment bill than she was at the start of the week. The Greens senator does sound pretty positive, saying her party is “very close” to a deal with the government on the environment protection and biodiversity conservation bills. It’s not there yet, she says, but it could be very soon – and by very soon, the government is hopeful that will be today. Hanson-Young tells ABC News Breakfast: I don’t expect that we will get everything we want. We’re just trying one last time [on the basis] that I wanted more protections for our forests, and protections for climate, of course. If we can get movement on those issues, I’ve always said that I’m up for helping the government improve these laws. We’re not there yet. But I’m feeling more positive than I was at the beginning of the week. Updated at 9.50pm GMT 8.38pm GMT Greens sceptical of social media ban for under 16s Sarah Hanson-Young (who’s also the Greens’ environment spokesperson) says she’s concerned the government’s social media ban won’t “keep our kids safe in the ways that we really want”. The senator tells ABC News Breakfast she’s been pushing the government to force social media companies to make their spaces safer for everyone – and particularly young people. The concerns that children will get around the ban are widespread and the government has acknowledged it won’t be foolproof. There’s no requirements on them to create a space that doesn’t have harmful content … That doesn’t target them with advertising. For those kids who just decide – oh, well we might not be on Instagram or Snapchat, but go over to somewhere else that hasn’t been designated – it’s those darker corners of the internet that I’m worried about. Updated at 8.46pm GMT 8.34pm GMT Ley won’t reveal whether she would support extension of energy subsidies Like Anthony Albanese’s Medicare card, Sussan Ley’s bringing her “Affordable Energy Plan” booklet around with her (she held it up a few times in question time yesterday), and it’s with her again on the Today show this morning. The Coalition has been challenged to explain exactly how their plan would reduce energy prices in the short and long term. Yesterday, at the Press Club, Ted O’Brien said prices would drop because there would be a lower spend on transmission lines needed to connect renewables projects. So far, experts have raised question about the plan, and the government has pointed to evidence that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy generation. Ley says: Our affordable energy plan, and I’m just going to reach for it now because it’s never far away, is all about bringing prices down for households and families. It’s about affordable energy first. And if you looked at those inflation figures yesterday, you would see that by far the highest one is actually energy gone up by 40%. The government has said it will soon make a decision on whether or not to extend its current program subsidising power bills. Asked if Ley would support an extension, she won’t say, only that she would “consider it in the normal way”. Australians don’t want the government to subsidise their power bill. They want cheaper power bills … But the critical thing here is this is not the solution to the problem. 8.28pm GMT Shadow treasurer declines to say where spending should be cut The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, is back at the mic this morning, after his National Press Club address yesterday, telling the government to reduce its spending. But he won’t say exactly where the opposition would cut either. Speaking to ABC’s AM program, O’Brien says he’d bring back fiscal rules that would put a roof on government spending, that would require any spending to have equivalent “offsets”. Where would those come from? Fringe tax benefits for EVs is one (which he also said at the NPC yesterday that he doesn’t support), but he won’t reveal any other substantial cuts. If you want to spend more money over here, well, you’ve got to find savings over there. And that’s the responsibility of the government. This government hasn’t done that, it hasn’t found savings. It’s about finding offsets. If I had to find an offset today, I would go immediately to the government’s fringe benefits tax carve-outs for electric vehicles. It’s costing about five times more than what the government estimated, and it is unfair. O’Brien has also blamed government spending for the rise in inflation, which the Labor has pushed back on, and said it’s not been an issue brought up by the Reserve Bank. Updated at 9.53pm GMT 8.19pm GMT Australia records largest annual drop in emissions outside pandemic Australia has recorded its biggest drop in carbon emissions in a financial year outside of the Covid-19 pandemic – with pollution falling 2.2% in the year to June. The government has released data this morning showing a reduction of 9.9m tonnes of carbon dioxide over the year. In the same timeframe, 437.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions were recorded, 28.5% below 2005 levels. Labor’s 2030 target is to reduce emissions by 43% on 2005 levels. Preliminary data from the government also shows a reduction of 2.8% on 2005 levels in the year to September 2025. The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen said: We are on track to bring down energy bills and meet our climate targets if we stay the course and continue to lift our efforts. You can read the full story from my colleague, Adam Morton, here: Related: Australia’s emissions from fossil fuels down as electricity from renewables passes 40% Updated at 8.27pm GMT 8.05pm GMT Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started. It’s the last sitting day of the year – it’s D-day for the government on environment and it needs to make a deal today to pass the laws through the Senate. If it does, there’ll be a very short sitting of the House tomorrow morning to pass the environment laws with the amendments made by the Senate. Being the final full sitting day, there’s bound to be plenty of action and drama to keep us busy, so grab your coffee and let’s get into it! Updated at 8.10pm GMT 7.56pm GMT UK AI 'nudify' company blocks Australian users The eSafety commissioner has said a UK-based company behind three of the most widely used “nudify” deepfake services has blocked Australian users after the company was given a warning by eSafety in September that its services were being used to generate AI child exploitation material. The regulator hasn’t named the company but correspondence from eSafety obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws reveal it is Itai Tech. eSafety said the services were receiving about 100,000 visits from Australians per month and were featured in high-profile cases related to the generation of sexual exploitation material of students in Australian schools. Julie Inman Grant said: We know ‘nudify’ services have been used to devastating effect in Australian schools and, with this major provider blocking their use by Australians, we believe it will have a tangible impact on the number of Australian school children falling victim to AI-generated child sexual exploitation. Itai Tech was fined by the UK regulator earlier this month for failing to have age checks on its site and also reportedly blocks UK users from accessing its services. eSafety said global AI model hosting platform Hugging Face has also changed its terms of service in a bid to prevent its models being used to create child exploitation material, after concerns raised by eSafety. Updated at 8.00pm GMT 7.49pm GMT Victoria police re-launch search for body of Samantha Murphy Victoria police have confirmed they have launched another search for the body of Samantha Murphy, who was last seen alive on 4 February 2024 when she left her home in Ballarat for a morning run. The search began yesterday and will resume today. In a statement, police said: Since February 2024, police have regularly undertaken a range of enquiries and small-scale searches as part of the current investigation. We are not in a position to supply further specific details of today’s operational activity at this time. Police ask that members of the public do not attend the search at this time. As the matter is currently before the court, we are not in a position to comment further about the investigation. In March last year, Ballarat man Patrick Orren Stephenson was charged with her murder. Read more here: Related: Samantha Murphy: Ballarat murder trial fast-tracked after Patrick Stephenson pleads not guilty Updated at 9.54pm GMT 7.40pm GMT Speculation grows over Barnaby Joyce defection to One Nation Barnaby Joyce could announce that he is quitting the Nationals and defecting to One Nation today, according to reports. The former Nationals leader said last month that he was considering his future in the party after his relationship with leader David Littleproud broke down, and that he would make a decision over the summer. But The Australian and Nine newspapers are reporting this morning that he could make an announcement before parliament rises today. The Australian said it “understands many of his colleagues believe it likely Mr Joyce would make clear his intention on Thursday”. The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, urged Joyce to stay in the party room, however, and said he “can make a contribution”. Littleproud told Sky News yesterday. We’ve given him [time and space] to work through where he wants to be. We want him back into our party room because that’s the contract that he and the people of New England signed, that he was a National party member, and we hope that he comes back in [so] he can make a contribution. The Sydney Morning Herald claimed last night that Joyce was about to defect to One Nation and reported that he had told the masthead he would have “more to say” today. The papers said Matt Canavan and Michael McCormack urged Joyce to stay in the Nationals but that Canavan was ready to “take the fight” to Joyce if he joined Pauline Hanson’s party. Updated at 7.48pm GMT 7.30pm GMT Welcome Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Krishani Dhanji will take you through to the end of parliament’s final week of the year. Barnaby Joyce could announce that he is quitting the Nationals and defecting to One Nation as early as today, according to reports this morning. The former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister said last month he would not stand as a National again in his New England seat and that he would consider his position over the summer. But speculation is mounting that he will reveal his plans today. More coming up. A UK-based company behind three of the most widely-used “nudify” deepfake services has blocked Australian users after it was warned by Australia’s eSafety watchdog in September that its services were being used to generate AI child exploitation material. We have more details coming up.