Exclusive: Jason Clare says new powers will ensure information is ‘accurate, comprehensive and representative’ to help government deliver ‘evidence-based reforms’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Labor is quietly advancing plans for universal childcare in Australia, with new laws to require private operators to hand over sensitive commercial data needed to design a new national system. Anthony Albanese wants a dramatic expansion in quality childcare services to form part of his political legacy and has pledged to move forward with the plans this term. Continue reading...

The EPBC Act has emerged as a key test, with the government hoping to score a political milestone while the Liberal leader needs to prove her authority * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The final sitting week of federal parliament before the summer break is not usually the most edifying example of democracy in action. Politicians and the media are spent and the sausage-making process can get a little rough. So it was at the end of 2024, as Labor moved to clear the decks with an election looming and rumours of a summer campaign spreading. On the last sitting day alone, more than 30 bills went through the Senate, including reforms to the Reserve Bank – and Labor’s landmark social media ban for under-16s, now just weeks away. Continue reading...

Mehreen Faruqi speaks to political editor Tom McIlroy about the political ‘whitewashing’ of racism and why a Labor-Coalition deal to pass nature laws would lack credibility

Stephen Gageler warns the speed of AI’s development could be outstripping people’s ability to ‘comprehend its potential risks and rewards’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The chief justice of the high court says judges around Australia are acting as “human filters” for legal arguments created using AI, warning the use of machine-generated content has reached unsustainable levels in the courts. Stephen Gageler told the first day of the Australian Legal Convention in Canberra on Friday that inappropriate use of AI content by litigants self-representing in court proceedings, as well as trained legal practitioners, included machine-enhanced arguments, preparation of evidence and formulation of legal submissions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guidance distributed to MPs seeks to pre-empt questions about plan’s compatibility with Paris agreement, indicating opposition is aware of potential breach

If Turkey and Australia can’t agree on who should host climate summit, rights will revert to a third country – if they want it * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast There’s a growing sense of desperation among United Nations officials in Bonn, the unofficial second capital of Germany. With a population smaller than Canberra, the city will be on the hook for next year’s Cop31 climate summit if Turkey and Australia can’t resolve their deadlocked race to host the event. Continue reading...

Prime minister says fight over hosting rights jeopardises global unity needed for action to help Pacific islands * Cop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of the climate talks in Brazil * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has said Australia will not stand in the way of Turkey hosting next year’s COP31 climate summit, insisting the interests of Pacific Island countries should be prioritised amid a deadlock over where the 2026 event should take place. As this year’s COP summit enters its final days in Brazil, Albanese said Australia wanted to win the hosting rights, but conceded the risk of the event defaulting to Germany would present a poor outcome for global action on climate change. Continue reading...

The party’s traditional voter base is ageing, or abandoning it for teals and even Labor due to policy divides, dysfunction and dinosaur thinking * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast If we needed any more evidence that the Coalition’s political stocks were tanking, the prospect of three leadership changes in two weeks might be it. The federal opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is under extreme pressure ahead of the last parliamentary sitting week of the year, while Victoria’s Liberal leader, Brad Battin, was rolled in his party room on Tuesday. In New South Wales, Mark Speakman appears to be on borrowed time. Continue reading...

Art can stir strong feelings in people, both good and bad. These artworks fell in the latter, provoking great controversy in Australia, and telling us a lot about who we are as a nation.

As Liberals join Nationals in abandoning a 2050 emissions target, we unpick some of the opposition’s talking points

The opposition leader risks compromising on everything, standing for nothing – and being rejected by voters * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Even before Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan confirmed the Liberal party was dumping its support for net zero policies in a packed press conference on Thursday afternoon, Coalition rightwingers were sizing up for their next fight. After weeks of messy posturing on climate and energy policy – slowly eroding Ley’s authority in the party room and credibility with voters – the Liberal-National MP Garth Hamilton put colleagues on notice that immigration was the next policy battle line for conservatives. Continue reading...

Sussan Ley appears to have given up trying to meet voters where they are, instead allowing conservative MPs to dictate policy to keep her job – and keep the Coalition together * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Six months ago on Thursday, the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, stood in the opposition party room at Parliament House and promised the Coalition would meet voters “where they are”. Six months on – and after another messy few weeks for the Liberals and Nationals – Ley was back in the same spot confirming the Liberals had dumped support for net zero emissions by 2050. Continue reading...

As the Coalition tears itself to shreds, the Albanese government must keep progressing its net zero policies * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast After a pretty scrappy week in federal parliament, Jim Chalmers went to the Crawford school at the Australian National University on Thursday night, speaking to an alumni event at his alma mater. The treasurer had survived a frenetic sitting of the House of Representatives, with no fewer than 40 divisions, the most votes in a single day for at least 50 years. Continue reading...

Minister endorses Keir Starmer’s grim view on global action, saying net zero by 2050 policies are ‘bare minimum necessary’, as Australia fights to host Cop

Chris Bowen speaks to Tom McIlroy about Labor’s free solar power scheme for some homes and the Coalition’s continued infighting on emissions targets

Defence minister says Xi Jinping should note resolve to stay the course by global democratic alliance, including Australia Defeating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is critical to restraining China in the Indo-Pacific, Finland’s defence minister has said, warning Europe and democratic partners, including Australia, face a fight of global consequences. Antti Häkkänen praised Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on two Russian oil companies last week, calling the move a major sign of resolve by the US president against Vladimir Putin’s three-year long war. Continue reading...

If Albanese and Chalmers are to achieve the intergenerational fairness they say Australia so badly needs, much bigger fights than this will be necessary * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It has been clear for a while that something was up on the government’s plans to wind back superannuation concessions for retirement accounts worth more than $3m. Announced way back in February 2023, Labor had gone quiet on the plan to impose an extra 15% tax on earnings for the most well off. Continue reading...

Introduced without consultation, the attorney general’s planned overhaul of freedom of information is part of a worrying drift away from truth and transparency in government * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast There’s a great story about the origins of Australia’s freedom of information rules and just how quickly governments can lose their nerve on the principle of transparency. Malcolm Fraser oversaw the introduction of Australia’s first freedom of information law in March 1982. He said citizens’ access to official information was critical to allow voters to make “valid judgements on government policy”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Department of home affairs links the changes to allegations against childcare workers in Victoria and NSW revealed earlier this year * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Federal police officers will get new protections to possess and share child sexual abuse material to target sex offenders online, with changes to national laws designed to ensure investigators are not themselves committing criminal offences. Parliament’s powerful joint committee on intelligence and security this week signed off on changes to telecommunications laws, including the new rules for dealing with child abuse material in so-called controlled operations. Continue reading...

Rather than a policy that experts say risks driving up property prices, Labor should be focused on its ambitious target of building 1.2m houses * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese had plenty of reasons to feel at home at the UK Labour party conference in Liverpool last weekend. Invited by Keir Starmer to deliver a major address, decades of attending party meetings in Australia clearly showed for the visiting prime minister. Some of the policy challenges were familiar as well. Continue reading...

Liberal MP resigns as shadow home affairs minister, increasing pressure on opposition leader Sussan Ley * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Andrew Hastie has quit the Coalition frontbench over a dispute on immigration policy, dramatically increasing pressure on Sussan Ley’s leadership. Hastie said he was resigning as the shadow home affairs minister on Friday night, following weeks of posturing and his refusal to see Ley during her visit to Western Australia this week. Continue reading...

Pumped hydro project in Kosciuszko national park is 67% complete, but supply chain cost increases and issues with a borer have caused cost overrun Snowy Hydro is preparing for another significant cost overrun on the massive Snowy 2.0 project in the Kosciuszko national park, with a line-by-line reassessment ordered from contractors on Friday. The giant pumped hydro project, first touted by the Turnbull government in 2017 as costing $2bn, was later revised to a cost of $5.9bn. Escalating to almost $13bn in 2023, construction is due to be completed by the end of 2028. Continue reading...

Australia could split Cop31 hosting rights with Turkey under potential compromise: Anthony Albanese pledges to continue talks with rival, as sources say previous climate summits have been co-hosted Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free...

Exclusive: Turkey’s climate minister says country is working on ‘innovative solutions’ as Labor privately downplays expectations impasse can be broken * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Turkey says it is pursuing “innovative solutions” in the race with Australia to host the Cop31 UN climate talks, arguing both countries can win from drawn-out negotiations over next year’s summit. After talks with the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York last week, Turkey’s climate minister, Murat Kurum, said he was optimistic about a resolution. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...