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Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Key events
Henry Belot
Asio warning ‘a wake up call’, Liberals say
The shadow minister for cybersecurity, Claire Chandler, says today’s warning of cyber espionage and sabotage from Australia’s intelligence agency should be “a wake up call for Australians”.
Mike Burgess accused “Chinese hackers” of seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks.
Chandler has urged the government to take the threat seriously:
Members of the Coalition, myself included, have warned for years about risks from foreign actors, particularly the CCP and Russia, targeting our critical infrastructure.
Australians deserve confidence that our essential services, like power, water, transport, and banking, are secure. Cyber sabotage could cripple our economy and endanger lives.
We need urgent, coordinated action to embed security into every layer of critical infrastructure before it’s too late, and I certainly hope the Albanese Government tackles this with the resources and urgency required.
Australia and Indonesia conclude negotiations on bilateral treaty on security
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Indonesia president, Prabowo Subianto, are holding a press conference in Sydney on the substantial conclusion of negotiations on a bilateral treaty on security.
Albanese said it is a “watershed moment” in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
It would see the two countries consult at a leader and ministerial level on a regular basis on matters of security, and if either country’s security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken to either individually or jointly deal with those threats, Albanese said.
He said the relationship between the two countries is the strongest it has ever been, and Albanese said he hopes to travel to Indonesia in January to formally sign the treaty once it has gone through the Australian domestic process.
Subianto said the treaty will commit the two nations to close cooperation on defence and security:
I mentioned many times that we cannot choose our neighbours, especially countries like us. It is our destiny to be direct neighbours. So let us face our destiny with the best of intentions. I believe in the good neighbour policy. Good neighbours are essential. Good neighbours will help each other in times of difficulties and in the Indonesian culture we have a saying: when we face an emergency, it is our neighbour that will help us.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Hastie says Coalition should be prepared to fight double-dissolution election on climate targets
The Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has told colleagues that a future Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election if it can’t repeal Labor’s legislated climate targets in the federal parliament.
The Liberal leadership aspirant and strident net zero opponent made the appeal at Wednesday’s party room meeting to decide whether to dump the emissions goal.
According to several sources in the room, the Western Australian MP told colleagues that the Coalition should commit to repealing the Albanese government’s legislated 2030 and 2050 climate targets if it wins the next election.
If the Senate repeatedly blocks a repeal bill, Hastie said a Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election and fight a campaign on climate targets.
In a moment of levity, what is the best wheat cracker in Australian supermarkets?
Nicholas Jordan risks it for the biscuits, sampling 19 wheat crackers in the driest taste test yet.
He sorted several hundred crackers into a complicated family tree-like categorisation system, then sorted that based on the following criteria: size and structure designed for dips, cheese and platters; unflavoured; and wheat-based. This left Jordan with 19 products, a mix of classic, water and wafer crackers.
So, what came out on top? Jatz are, predictably, awesome. So are the products trying to be like Jatz.
Read more here:
Donna Lu
Anti-renewables conservation charity grilled over use of AI in government submissions
A Queensland conservation charity known for its anti-renewables stance has been grilled over its use of artificial intelligence in submissions to government, in a fiery Senate hearing looking into the broader issue of climate change-related misinformation.
The Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah questioned Rainforest Reserves Australia over errors in submissions it made to the Queensland government over the proposed Moonlight Range windfarm, a development the state government ultimately rejected.
Referring to a submission, Ananda-Rajah said:
Seven of the 15 references you cite in opposition to this windfarm appear to be completely fabricated.
Ananda-Rajah also questioned the group over errors in its submissions, reported in the Guardian, such as mention of an “Oakey Wind Farm”, which does not exist, and reference to a 2023 report by the “Queensland Environmental Protection Agency”, which has not existed since 2009.
When asked whether AI was used to generate the submission, Steven Nowakowski, the RRA’s vice-president, said:
It was actually written by a human and artificial intelligence was used to edit it.
Kenneth Carey, an RRA supporter, said:
In regards to the use of AI within any submissions from Rainforest Reserves, we acknowledge minor factual corrections may be necessary in any large evolving data set …
The [EPA] examples that we provided are from a department that no longer exists, however, it has changed its name, so that data itself is absolutely correct.
Ananda-Rajah said:
The Oakey windfarm is a complete fabrication … Is it not conceivable given your reliance on AI, given the sloppiness of your own work, that you have misled community members? … You have undermined your own credibility.
In a previous response to Guardian reporting, an RRA volunteer said the citation relating to Oakey windfarm was “misattributed” but was “intended to illustrate a real and serious issue”.
Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Henry Belot
Asio boss says foreign delegate ‘ripped the branch off a fruit tree’
Earlier today we brought you details of Asio director-general Mike Burgess’ speech, which accused Chinese hackers of attempting to penetrate critical infrastructure.
Burgess also warned about an increase in corporate espionage targeting Australia’s research and development sectors.
He cited one example of a foreign delegation being given a tour of an unnamed research facility in Australia. He alleged one member of the group briefly broke away from their escort and was caught taking photos of a laboratory. The photos were subsequently deleted.
Burgess says the unnamed visitor managed to steal an object from the facility:
What they didn’t discover was [the delegate] ripped the branch off a fruit tree that was a special breed with 20 years of research and development put into it. They stole it and would have taken it back to their home country to reverse engineer it.
That’s outright intellectual property theft, happening at a scale that is unprecedented in human history. More than one nation has done that over the years. Right now, there is one nation that is doing a lot of that.
Aurora alert for southern Australia as severe solar storm reaches earth
Australian skies may be lit up with the technicolour of aurora tonight as an unusually severe solar storm affects the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an aurora alert for as far north as southern New South Wales, with Australian space weather forecasting centre data showing the strong solar storm is in progress.
Aurora australis is expected to be seen in night-time hours, provided skies are clear.
The bureau said three coronal mass ejections were observed between 9 and 11 November. The second and strongest of the CMEs was expected to reach earth today, with a chance the geomagnetic storm could reach G5 in strength.
According to Nasa, G5 solar storms can trip high-voltage lines, overheat transformers and cause GPS-guided vehicles to veer off-course.
Another big aurora graced Australia’s south-eastern skies in June, as seen in our gallery below:
Luca Ittimani
Australian travellers heading back to the US, Flight Centre says
Australians are starting to book more trips to the United States after being deterred in the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Flight Centre has reported.
Workers, entertainers, academics and gender-diverse Australians are among those who faced incidents or warnings over US border protocols earlier this year. The backlash saw a drop in long-haul US flights booked through Flight Centre in the first half of the year.
But the travel agency this morning said that was turning around, with Graham Turner, Flight Centre’s founder, telling investors:
We are, however, starting to see signs of recovery … Bookings from Australia to the US increased in October 2025 for the first time since the March quarter.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today confirmed Australians’ aversion to US travel had persisted into September, with just 58,610 residents returning from American holidays that month compared with more than 67,000 in 2024.
The September month data represents residents returning from trips they booked and took up to a year beforehand US government arrivals data up to August also shows a decline.
But on a wider view, Australians’ US travel has been relatively resilient through 2025 so far, totalling 541,000 by September compared with 546,000 for the same period to 2024.
Former CFMEU leader John Setka arrested and charged by Victoria police
Henry Belot
Former CFMEU leader John Setka has been arrested and charged by Victoria police after allegedly sending threatening and harassing emails to a union administrator.
The 61-year-old was arrested at a home in Footscray at about 6.40am on Wednesday. Police searched the property and seized a mobile phone and an iPad.
Setka was subsequently charged with seven counts of “using a telecom communications device to menace, harass and offend”. The arrest was first reported by the Age.
He has been bailed and will appear before Melbourne’s magistrates court on 30 January.
The police operation was led by Taskforce Hawk, which was established in July 2024 to target allegations of criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry.
According to police, Setka sent “a number of allegedly threatening, offensive and abusive emails to a CFMEU administrator following a notice to produce sent on 27 October and a follow-up letter sent on 28 October”.
Victoria police’s assistant commissioner Martin O’Brien has encouraged anyone with “information on concerning behaviour witnessed in any construction industry workplace to come forward and speak to police”:
As always, it can be done anonymously and reports will be treated with the strictest of confidence.
– with AAP
Luca Ittimani
Record high landlord lending prompts calls for intervention
The Greens have called for the banking regulator to limit loans to property investors, after new data showed landlord lending has hit record highs.
More than 57,000 investors borrowed nearly $40bn to buy homes from July to September, a $6bn increase on the previous three months and 13% increase in loan numbers. Owner-occupier numbers rose just 2%, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data out today.
Landlord loans have steadily increased since March 2023 at a faster rate than owner-occupier loans and now account for two in every five new home loans. Dr Mish Tan, ABS head of finance statistics, attributed 2025’s acceleration to interest rate cuts and low vacancy rates in rental housing.
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, two weeks ago said intervention by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority could be handy if the economy needed more rate cuts in future but wasn’t needed.
The Greens senator Barbara Pocock said today’s data showed that had changed, calling for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to make the regulator put the brakes on lending to landlords.
We need to urgently rein in an overheated credit market for property investors. Apra has intervened before and they must do it again.
Apra put a threshold on investor lending from 2014 to 2018. It said in October it was watching for risky lending and discussing limits on investor, interest-only or small-deposit loans with banks.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me. Daisy Dumas will be your guide until Josh Taylor picks up the blog later this arvo. Take care!
Patrick Commins
RBA worried about ‘very sharp’ drop in global markets
The head of the Reserve Bank’s financial stability department is worried about a “very sharp” drop in global markets, saying investors around the world are ignoring “a confronting set of potential risks”.
Wall Street is leading sharemarkets around the world to record highs, despite a litany of worries ranging from Trump’s trade aggression and the breakdown of the global order, structural worries about the Chinese economy, and hugely and unsustainably indebted advanced economies.
Brad Jones, an RBA assistant governor, told a super conference this morning that “a lot of central banks are sort of scratching their heads as to why market pricing looks so benign”.
The prices investors are prepared to pay for assets suggests they are not worried about any of the risks that keep central bankers like Jones awake at night.
He said some investors think they will get bailed out by monetary or fiscal authorities if things really go sour, which is “a pretty dangerous” way to invest.
Investors also have “a heck of a time” pricing in geopolitical risks. Jones said:
I look back, just for instance, at the Cuban missile crisis, (when) we stood on the brink of catastrophe. The stock market fell about two or 3% over that period. So I think, as a general rule, global financial markets have a tough time pricing binary risk like geopolitical risk.
High court challenge planned for child social media ban
Josh Taylor
Today marks four weeks until the under-16s social media ban kicks in on 10 December, and NSW Libertarian MLC John Ruddick says he plans to challenge the law in the high court.
The case has yet to be filed, but Ruddick’s office said the law would be challenged on the grounds of the right of freedom of political communication.
There are only a handful of days the high court will sit before the 10 December deadline, but Ruddick’s office expects it will get a mention before then.
Google – which had threatened to challenge YouTube’s inclusion in the ban on that ground, and two others – has yet to mount a challenge to the law.
Josh Taylor
Union calls for gig economy standards following Menulog shutdown announcement
The Transport Workers’ Union has called for the remaining food delivery companies, including DoorDash, Uber Eats and Hungry Panda to support work standards, following the announcement that Menulog would shut operations in Australia in two weeks.
Menulog had supported legislation to put the standards around pay and exit payments in place – which can be set by the Fair Work Commission.
The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said:
This will be a shock to the thousands of food delivery riders who rely on Menulog for income. We will be working to ensure those workers receive pay for their work and fair exit payments over the coming weeks.
In the gig economy, workers are still languishing with below-minimum wage rates, no sick leave or superannuation, and deadly pressure to rush to make a living and avoid being deactivated.
We urgently need standards in the gig economy to stop the relentless downward spiral. New laws introduced by the Albanese government will significantly level the playing field – but DoorDash, Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Easi now need to come to the table to ensure we get standards in place as soon as possible.
Tory Shepherd
Critics say effort is an attempt to ‘politicise abortion care’
South Australian Abortion Action Coalition co-convenor Brigid Coombe said the bill was a “cynical attempt to politicise abortion care” that ignored “years of expert patient-centred deliberation”. She said:
Its cruelty is out of step with medical and community values.
Fair Agenda’s senior campaign manager, Amy Barrett, said the bill “would deny a woman facing devastating pregnancy complications the chance to make the best decisions for herself and her families, in consultation with her healthcare team”.
Sarah Game has campaigned alongside anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe, who has been banned from the state parliament after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics”.
Game says if a mother’s life is at risk or her health is threatened, doctors should do an emergency caesarean or induce labour so the baby is born alive.
Tory Shepherd
New effort to water down abortion rights in South Australia
Another move to water down abortion rights is under way in South Australia, less than a fortnight after an ill-fated federal move.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie were among those suggesting a law to allow parental leave after a stillbirth would be used by women needing a late-term abortion.
Experts say anti-abortion tactics from the US that focus on late-term abortions – which happen rarely, and overwhelmingly for medical reasons – are being imported to Australia to “chip away at rights”.
Late today, the SA legislative council will debate a legislative amendment introduced by former One Nation MLC Sarah Game, who is now independent. The current law allows abortions from 23 weeks when there is significant risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person. Game’s bill would water that down to only allow abortion that saves the life of the pregnant person or another foetus, or if there was a significant risk of foetal abnormalities.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the bill was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding” of the “extraordinarily rare” procedures, which “almost always invariably involve circumstances of severe fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, or serious threats to the pregnant woman’s health and life”.
Albanese meets with Indonesian president
Indonesia’s president has met with Anthony Albanese for his first official visit to Australia since being sworn in as leader, AAP reports.
After arriving in Sydney on Tuesday night, Prabowo Subianto was welcomed at Kirribilli House ahead of one-on-one talks between the two leaders.
While the short trip will be the first time the Indonesian leader has come to Australia since being sworn in, with Prabowo previously visiting Canberra in August 2024 as defence minister and president-elect.
He has served as Indonesia’s president since October 2024.
After the meeting with the prime minister, Prabowo will travel the short distance to Admiralty House to meet with the governor general, Sam Mostyn, where there will be a ceremonial welcome and state lunch.
Albanese and Prabowo will then visit the Royal Australian Navy base at Garden Island.
Albanese said the bilateral meeting would strengthen ties between the two countries:
Australia and Indonesia share a deep trust and unbreakable bond as neighbours, partners and friends.
Together we are committed to working for a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
I look forward to building on our previous discussions about how we can develop the strength and depth of our bilateral relationship.
What to expect from Liberals’ net zero meeting
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs will soon begin filing into a Parliament House meeting room to thrash out the party’s position on a net zero emissions target.
Here’s a quick rundown of how the meeting is expected to play out.
The shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction, Dan Tehan, will put forward a set of “principles” to shape the party’s approach to climate and energy policy and a set of “open questions” for debate and endorsement of his colleagues.
We haven’t seen the exact wording of the proposed principles or the “open questions” but we can safely assume that MPs will be asked if they want to remain committed to a net zero emissions target.
Every member of the Liberal party-room will get the opportunity to contribute, meaning the 12pm meeting could drag on for a few hours.
Guardian Australia understands the decision on whether or not to retain the climate target will not be put to a formal vote.
We’re expecting Tehan to stand up for a press conference following the meeting to explain the outcome.
The Liberal members of the shadow ministry will reconvene at 9am to endorse the position before negotiations start on an agreed policy with the Nationals, who have already agreed to dump a net zero emissions target.
A joint party-room meeting is scheduled for Sunday to endorse the new Coalition position.
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Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Key events
Henry Belot
Asio warning ‘a wake up call’, Liberals say
The shadow minister for cybersecurity, Claire Chandler, says today’s warning of cyber espionage and sabotage from Australia’s intelligence agency should be “a wake up call for Australians”.
Mike Burgess accused “Chinese hackers” of seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks.
Chandler has urged the government to take the threat seriously:
Members of the Coalition, myself included, have warned for years about risks from foreign actors, particularly the CCP and Russia, targeting our critical infrastructure.
Australians deserve confidence that our essential services, like power, water, transport, and banking, are secure. Cyber sabotage could cripple our economy and endanger lives.
We need urgent, coordinated action to embed security into every layer of critical infrastructure before it’s too late, and I certainly hope the Albanese Government tackles this with the resources and urgency required.
Australia and Indonesia conclude negotiations on bilateral treaty on security
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Indonesia president, Prabowo Subianto, are holding a press conference in Sydney on the substantial conclusion of negotiations on a bilateral treaty on security.
Albanese said it is a “watershed moment” in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
It would see the two countries consult at a leader and ministerial level on a regular basis on matters of security, and if either country’s security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken to either individually or jointly deal with those threats, Albanese said.
He said the relationship between the two countries is the strongest it has ever been, and Albanese said he hopes to travel to Indonesia in January to formally sign the treaty once it has gone through the Australian domestic process.
Subianto said the treaty will commit the two nations to close cooperation on defence and security:
I mentioned many times that we cannot choose our neighbours, especially countries like us. It is our destiny to be direct neighbours. So let us face our destiny with the best of intentions. I believe in the good neighbour policy. Good neighbours are essential. Good neighbours will help each other in times of difficulties and in the Indonesian culture we have a saying: when we face an emergency, it is our neighbour that will help us.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Hastie says Coalition should be prepared to fight double-dissolution election on climate targets
The Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has told colleagues that a future Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election if it can’t repeal Labor’s legislated climate targets in the federal parliament.
The Liberal leadership aspirant and strident net zero opponent made the appeal at Wednesday’s party room meeting to decide whether to dump the emissions goal.
According to several sources in the room, the Western Australian MP told colleagues that the Coalition should commit to repealing the Albanese government’s legislated 2030 and 2050 climate targets if it wins the next election.
If the Senate repeatedly blocks a repeal bill, Hastie said a Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election and fight a campaign on climate targets.
In a moment of levity, what is the best wheat cracker in Australian supermarkets?
Nicholas Jordan risks it for the biscuits, sampling 19 wheat crackers in the driest taste test yet.
He sorted several hundred crackers into a complicated family tree-like categorisation system, then sorted that based on the following criteria: size and structure designed for dips, cheese and platters; unflavoured; and wheat-based. This left Jordan with 19 products, a mix of classic, water and wafer crackers.
So, what came out on top? Jatz are, predictably, awesome. So are the products trying to be like Jatz.
Read more here:
Donna Lu
Anti-renewables conservation charity grilled over use of AI in government submissions
A Queensland conservation charity known for its anti-renewables stance has been grilled over its use of artificial intelligence in submissions to government, in a fiery Senate hearing looking into the broader issue of climate change-related misinformation.
The Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah questioned Rainforest Reserves Australia over errors in submissions it made to the Queensland government over the proposed Moonlight Range windfarm, a development the state government ultimately rejected.
Referring to a submission, Ananda-Rajah said:
Seven of the 15 references you cite in opposition to this windfarm appear to be completely fabricated.
Ananda-Rajah also questioned the group over errors in its submissions, reported in the Guardian, such as mention of an “Oakey Wind Farm”, which does not exist, and reference to a 2023 report by the “Queensland Environmental Protection Agency”, which has not existed since 2009.
When asked whether AI was used to generate the submission, Steven Nowakowski, the RRA’s vice-president, said:
It was actually written by a human and artificial intelligence was used to edit it.
Kenneth Carey, an RRA supporter, said:
In regards to the use of AI within any submissions from Rainforest Reserves, we acknowledge minor factual corrections may be necessary in any large evolving data set …
The [EPA] examples that we provided are from a department that no longer exists, however, it has changed its name, so that data itself is absolutely correct.
Ananda-Rajah said:
The Oakey windfarm is a complete fabrication … Is it not conceivable given your reliance on AI, given the sloppiness of your own work, that you have misled community members? … You have undermined your own credibility.
In a previous response to Guardian reporting, an RRA volunteer said the citation relating to Oakey windfarm was “misattributed” but was “intended to illustrate a real and serious issue”.
Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Henry Belot
Asio boss says foreign delegate ‘ripped the branch off a fruit tree’
Earlier today we brought you details of Asio director-general Mike Burgess’ speech, which accused Chinese hackers of attempting to penetrate critical infrastructure.
Burgess also warned about an increase in corporate espionage targeting Australia’s research and development sectors.
He cited one example of a foreign delegation being given a tour of an unnamed research facility in Australia. He alleged one member of the group briefly broke away from their escort and was caught taking photos of a laboratory. The photos were subsequently deleted.
Burgess says the unnamed visitor managed to steal an object from the facility:
What they didn’t discover was [the delegate] ripped the branch off a fruit tree that was a special breed with 20 years of research and development put into it. They stole it and would have taken it back to their home country to reverse engineer it.
That’s outright intellectual property theft, happening at a scale that is unprecedented in human history. More than one nation has done that over the years. Right now, there is one nation that is doing a lot of that.
Aurora alert for southern Australia as severe solar storm reaches earth
Australian skies may be lit up with the technicolour of aurora tonight as an unusually severe solar storm affects the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an aurora alert for as far north as southern New South Wales, with Australian space weather forecasting centre data showing the strong solar storm is in progress.
Aurora australis is expected to be seen in night-time hours, provided skies are clear.
The bureau said three coronal mass ejections were observed between 9 and 11 November. The second and strongest of the CMEs was expected to reach earth today, with a chance the geomagnetic storm could reach G5 in strength.
According to Nasa, G5 solar storms can trip high-voltage lines, overheat transformers and cause GPS-guided vehicles to veer off-course.
Another big aurora graced Australia’s south-eastern skies in June, as seen in our gallery below:
Luca Ittimani
Australian travellers heading back to the US, Flight Centre says
Australians are starting to book more trips to the United States after being deterred in the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Flight Centre has reported.
Workers, entertainers, academics and gender-diverse Australians are among those who faced incidents or warnings over US border protocols earlier this year. The backlash saw a drop in long-haul US flights booked through Flight Centre in the first half of the year.
But the travel agency this morning said that was turning around, with Graham Turner, Flight Centre’s founder, telling investors:
We are, however, starting to see signs of recovery … Bookings from Australia to the US increased in October 2025 for the first time since the March quarter.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today confirmed Australians’ aversion to US travel had persisted into September, with just 58,610 residents returning from American holidays that month compared with more than 67,000 in 2024.
The September month data represents residents returning from trips they booked and took up to a year beforehand US government arrivals data up to August also shows a decline.
But on a wider view, Australians’ US travel has been relatively resilient through 2025 so far, totalling 541,000 by September compared with 546,000 for the same period to 2024.
Former CFMEU leader John Setka arrested and charged by Victoria police
Henry Belot
Former CFMEU leader John Setka has been arrested and charged by Victoria police after allegedly sending threatening and harassing emails to a union administrator.
The 61-year-old was arrested at a home in Footscray at about 6.40am on Wednesday. Police searched the property and seized a mobile phone and an iPad.
Setka was subsequently charged with seven counts of “using a telecom communications device to menace, harass and offend”. The arrest was first reported by the Age.
He has been bailed and will appear before Melbourne’s magistrates court on 30 January.
The police operation was led by Taskforce Hawk, which was established in July 2024 to target allegations of criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry.
According to police, Setka sent “a number of allegedly threatening, offensive and abusive emails to a CFMEU administrator following a notice to produce sent on 27 October and a follow-up letter sent on 28 October”.
Victoria police’s assistant commissioner Martin O’Brien has encouraged anyone with “information on concerning behaviour witnessed in any construction industry workplace to come forward and speak to police”:
As always, it can be done anonymously and reports will be treated with the strictest of confidence.
– with AAP
Luca Ittimani
Record high landlord lending prompts calls for intervention
The Greens have called for the banking regulator to limit loans to property investors, after new data showed landlord lending has hit record highs.
More than 57,000 investors borrowed nearly $40bn to buy homes from July to September, a $6bn increase on the previous three months and 13% increase in loan numbers. Owner-occupier numbers rose just 2%, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data out today.
Landlord loans have steadily increased since March 2023 at a faster rate than owner-occupier loans and now account for two in every five new home loans. Dr Mish Tan, ABS head of finance statistics, attributed 2025’s acceleration to interest rate cuts and low vacancy rates in rental housing.
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, two weeks ago said intervention by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority could be handy if the economy needed more rate cuts in future but wasn’t needed.
The Greens senator Barbara Pocock said today’s data showed that had changed, calling for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to make the regulator put the brakes on lending to landlords.
We need to urgently rein in an overheated credit market for property investors. Apra has intervened before and they must do it again.
Apra put a threshold on investor lending from 2014 to 2018. It said in October it was watching for risky lending and discussing limits on investor, interest-only or small-deposit loans with banks.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me. Daisy Dumas will be your guide until Josh Taylor picks up the blog later this arvo. Take care!
Patrick Commins
RBA worried about ‘very sharp’ drop in global markets
The head of the Reserve Bank’s financial stability department is worried about a “very sharp” drop in global markets, saying investors around the world are ignoring “a confronting set of potential risks”.
Wall Street is leading sharemarkets around the world to record highs, despite a litany of worries ranging from Trump’s trade aggression and the breakdown of the global order, structural worries about the Chinese economy, and hugely and unsustainably indebted advanced economies.
Brad Jones, an RBA assistant governor, told a super conference this morning that “a lot of central banks are sort of scratching their heads as to why market pricing looks so benign”.
The prices investors are prepared to pay for assets suggests they are not worried about any of the risks that keep central bankers like Jones awake at night.
He said some investors think they will get bailed out by monetary or fiscal authorities if things really go sour, which is “a pretty dangerous” way to invest.
Investors also have “a heck of a time” pricing in geopolitical risks. Jones said:
I look back, just for instance, at the Cuban missile crisis, (when) we stood on the brink of catastrophe. The stock market fell about two or 3% over that period. So I think, as a general rule, global financial markets have a tough time pricing binary risk like geopolitical risk.
High court challenge planned for child social media ban
Josh Taylor
Today marks four weeks until the under-16s social media ban kicks in on 10 December, and NSW Libertarian MLC John Ruddick says he plans to challenge the law in the high court.
The case has yet to be filed, but Ruddick’s office said the law would be challenged on the grounds of the right of freedom of political communication.
There are only a handful of days the high court will sit before the 10 December deadline, but Ruddick’s office expects it will get a mention before then.
Google – which had threatened to challenge YouTube’s inclusion in the ban on that ground, and two others – has yet to mount a challenge to the law.
Josh Taylor
Union calls for gig economy standards following Menulog shutdown announcement
The Transport Workers’ Union has called for the remaining food delivery companies, including DoorDash, Uber Eats and Hungry Panda to support work standards, following the announcement that Menulog would shut operations in Australia in two weeks.
Menulog had supported legislation to put the standards around pay and exit payments in place – which can be set by the Fair Work Commission.
The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said:
This will be a shock to the thousands of food delivery riders who rely on Menulog for income. We will be working to ensure those workers receive pay for their work and fair exit payments over the coming weeks.
In the gig economy, workers are still languishing with below-minimum wage rates, no sick leave or superannuation, and deadly pressure to rush to make a living and avoid being deactivated.
We urgently need standards in the gig economy to stop the relentless downward spiral. New laws introduced by the Albanese government will significantly level the playing field – but DoorDash, Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Easi now need to come to the table to ensure we get standards in place as soon as possible.
Tory Shepherd
Critics say effort is an attempt to ‘politicise abortion care’
South Australian Abortion Action Coalition co-convenor Brigid Coombe said the bill was a “cynical attempt to politicise abortion care” that ignored “years of expert patient-centred deliberation”. She said:
Its cruelty is out of step with medical and community values.
Fair Agenda’s senior campaign manager, Amy Barrett, said the bill “would deny a woman facing devastating pregnancy complications the chance to make the best decisions for herself and her families, in consultation with her healthcare team”.
Sarah Game has campaigned alongside anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe, who has been banned from the state parliament after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics”.
Game says if a mother’s life is at risk or her health is threatened, doctors should do an emergency caesarean or induce labour so the baby is born alive.
Tory Shepherd
New effort to water down abortion rights in South Australia
Another move to water down abortion rights is under way in South Australia, less than a fortnight after an ill-fated federal move.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie were among those suggesting a law to allow parental leave after a stillbirth would be used by women needing a late-term abortion.
Experts say anti-abortion tactics from the US that focus on late-term abortions – which happen rarely, and overwhelmingly for medical reasons – are being imported to Australia to “chip away at rights”.
Late today, the SA legislative council will debate a legislative amendment introduced by former One Nation MLC Sarah Game, who is now independent. The current law allows abortions from 23 weeks when there is significant risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person. Game’s bill would water that down to only allow abortion that saves the life of the pregnant person or another foetus, or if there was a significant risk of foetal abnormalities.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the bill was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding” of the “extraordinarily rare” procedures, which “almost always invariably involve circumstances of severe fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, or serious threats to the pregnant woman’s health and life”.
Albanese meets with Indonesian president
Indonesia’s president has met with Anthony Albanese for his first official visit to Australia since being sworn in as leader, AAP reports.
After arriving in Sydney on Tuesday night, Prabowo Subianto was welcomed at Kirribilli House ahead of one-on-one talks between the two leaders.
While the short trip will be the first time the Indonesian leader has come to Australia since being sworn in, with Prabowo previously visiting Canberra in August 2024 as defence minister and president-elect.
He has served as Indonesia’s president since October 2024.
After the meeting with the prime minister, Prabowo will travel the short distance to Admiralty House to meet with the governor general, Sam Mostyn, where there will be a ceremonial welcome and state lunch.
Albanese and Prabowo will then visit the Royal Australian Navy base at Garden Island.
Albanese said the bilateral meeting would strengthen ties between the two countries:
Australia and Indonesia share a deep trust and unbreakable bond as neighbours, partners and friends.
Together we are committed to working for a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
I look forward to building on our previous discussions about how we can develop the strength and depth of our bilateral relationship.
What to expect from Liberals’ net zero meeting
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs will soon begin filing into a Parliament House meeting room to thrash out the party’s position on a net zero emissions target.
Here’s a quick rundown of how the meeting is expected to play out.
The shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction, Dan Tehan, will put forward a set of “principles” to shape the party’s approach to climate and energy policy and a set of “open questions” for debate and endorsement of his colleagues.
We haven’t seen the exact wording of the proposed principles or the “open questions” but we can safely assume that MPs will be asked if they want to remain committed to a net zero emissions target.
Every member of the Liberal party-room will get the opportunity to contribute, meaning the 12pm meeting could drag on for a few hours.
Guardian Australia understands the decision on whether or not to retain the climate target will not be put to a formal vote.
We’re expecting Tehan to stand up for a press conference following the meeting to explain the outcome.
The Liberal members of the shadow ministry will reconvene at 9am to endorse the position before negotiations start on an agreed policy with the Nationals, who have already agreed to dump a net zero emissions target.
A joint party-room meeting is scheduled for Sunday to endorse the new Coalition position.
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Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Key events
Henry Belot
Asio warning ‘a wake up call’, Liberals say
The shadow minister for cybersecurity, Claire Chandler, says today’s warning of cyber espionage and sabotage from Australia’s intelligence agency should be “a wake up call for Australians”.
Mike Burgess accused “Chinese hackers” of seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks.
Chandler has urged the government to take the threat seriously:
Members of the Coalition, myself included, have warned for years about risks from foreign actors, particularly the CCP and Russia, targeting our critical infrastructure.
Australians deserve confidence that our essential services, like power, water, transport, and banking, are secure. Cyber sabotage could cripple our economy and endanger lives.
We need urgent, coordinated action to embed security into every layer of critical infrastructure before it’s too late, and I certainly hope the Albanese Government tackles this with the resources and urgency required.
Australia and Indonesia conclude negotiations on bilateral treaty on security
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Indonesia president, Prabowo Subianto, are holding a press conference in Sydney on the substantial conclusion of negotiations on a bilateral treaty on security.
Albanese said it is a “watershed moment” in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
It would see the two countries consult at a leader and ministerial level on a regular basis on matters of security, and if either country’s security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken to either individually or jointly deal with those threats, Albanese said.
He said the relationship between the two countries is the strongest it has ever been, and Albanese said he hopes to travel to Indonesia in January to formally sign the treaty once it has gone through the Australian domestic process.
Subianto said the treaty will commit the two nations to close cooperation on defence and security:
I mentioned many times that we cannot choose our neighbours, especially countries like us. It is our destiny to be direct neighbours. So let us face our destiny with the best of intentions. I believe in the good neighbour policy. Good neighbours are essential. Good neighbours will help each other in times of difficulties and in the Indonesian culture we have a saying: when we face an emergency, it is our neighbour that will help us.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Hastie says Coalition should be prepared to fight double-dissolution election on climate targets
The Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has told colleagues that a future Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election if it can’t repeal Labor’s legislated climate targets in the federal parliament.
The Liberal leadership aspirant and strident net zero opponent made the appeal at Wednesday’s party room meeting to decide whether to dump the emissions goal.
According to several sources in the room, the Western Australian MP told colleagues that the Coalition should commit to repealing the Albanese government’s legislated 2030 and 2050 climate targets if it wins the next election.
If the Senate repeatedly blocks a repeal bill, Hastie said a Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election and fight a campaign on climate targets.
In a moment of levity, what is the best wheat cracker in Australian supermarkets?
Nicholas Jordan risks it for the biscuits, sampling 19 wheat crackers in the driest taste test yet.
He sorted several hundred crackers into a complicated family tree-like categorisation system, then sorted that based on the following criteria: size and structure designed for dips, cheese and platters; unflavoured; and wheat-based. This left Jordan with 19 products, a mix of classic, water and wafer crackers.
So, what came out on top? Jatz are, predictably, awesome. So are the products trying to be like Jatz.
Read more here:
Donna Lu
Anti-renewables conservation charity grilled over use of AI in government submissions
A Queensland conservation charity known for its anti-renewables stance has been grilled over its use of artificial intelligence in submissions to government, in a fiery Senate hearing looking into the broader issue of climate change-related misinformation.
The Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah questioned Rainforest Reserves Australia over errors in submissions it made to the Queensland government over the proposed Moonlight Range windfarm, a development the state government ultimately rejected.
Referring to a submission, Ananda-Rajah said:
Seven of the 15 references you cite in opposition to this windfarm appear to be completely fabricated.
Ananda-Rajah also questioned the group over errors in its submissions, reported in the Guardian, such as mention of an “Oakey Wind Farm”, which does not exist, and reference to a 2023 report by the “Queensland Environmental Protection Agency”, which has not existed since 2009.
When asked whether AI was used to generate the submission, Steven Nowakowski, the RRA’s vice-president, said:
It was actually written by a human and artificial intelligence was used to edit it.
Kenneth Carey, an RRA supporter, said:
In regards to the use of AI within any submissions from Rainforest Reserves, we acknowledge minor factual corrections may be necessary in any large evolving data set …
The [EPA] examples that we provided are from a department that no longer exists, however, it has changed its name, so that data itself is absolutely correct.
Ananda-Rajah said:
The Oakey windfarm is a complete fabrication … Is it not conceivable given your reliance on AI, given the sloppiness of your own work, that you have misled community members? … You have undermined your own credibility.
In a previous response to Guardian reporting, an RRA volunteer said the citation relating to Oakey windfarm was “misattributed” but was “intended to illustrate a real and serious issue”.
Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Henry Belot
Asio boss says foreign delegate ‘ripped the branch off a fruit tree’
Earlier today we brought you details of Asio director-general Mike Burgess’ speech, which accused Chinese hackers of attempting to penetrate critical infrastructure.
Burgess also warned about an increase in corporate espionage targeting Australia’s research and development sectors.
He cited one example of a foreign delegation being given a tour of an unnamed research facility in Australia. He alleged one member of the group briefly broke away from their escort and was caught taking photos of a laboratory. The photos were subsequently deleted.
Burgess says the unnamed visitor managed to steal an object from the facility:
What they didn’t discover was [the delegate] ripped the branch off a fruit tree that was a special breed with 20 years of research and development put into it. They stole it and would have taken it back to their home country to reverse engineer it.
That’s outright intellectual property theft, happening at a scale that is unprecedented in human history. More than one nation has done that over the years. Right now, there is one nation that is doing a lot of that.
Aurora alert for southern Australia as severe solar storm reaches earth
Australian skies may be lit up with the technicolour of aurora tonight as an unusually severe solar storm affects the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an aurora alert for as far north as southern New South Wales, with Australian space weather forecasting centre data showing the strong solar storm is in progress.
Aurora australis is expected to be seen in night-time hours, provided skies are clear.
The bureau said three coronal mass ejections were observed between 9 and 11 November. The second and strongest of the CMEs was expected to reach earth today, with a chance the geomagnetic storm could reach G5 in strength.
According to Nasa, G5 solar storms can trip high-voltage lines, overheat transformers and cause GPS-guided vehicles to veer off-course.
Another big aurora graced Australia’s south-eastern skies in June, as seen in our gallery below:
Luca Ittimani
Australian travellers heading back to the US, Flight Centre says
Australians are starting to book more trips to the United States after being deterred in the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Flight Centre has reported.
Workers, entertainers, academics and gender-diverse Australians are among those who faced incidents or warnings over US border protocols earlier this year. The backlash saw a drop in long-haul US flights booked through Flight Centre in the first half of the year.
But the travel agency this morning said that was turning around, with Graham Turner, Flight Centre’s founder, telling investors:
We are, however, starting to see signs of recovery … Bookings from Australia to the US increased in October 2025 for the first time since the March quarter.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today confirmed Australians’ aversion to US travel had persisted into September, with just 58,610 residents returning from American holidays that month compared with more than 67,000 in 2024.
The September month data represents residents returning from trips they booked and took up to a year beforehand US government arrivals data up to August also shows a decline.
But on a wider view, Australians’ US travel has been relatively resilient through 2025 so far, totalling 541,000 by September compared with 546,000 for the same period to 2024.
Former CFMEU leader John Setka arrested and charged by Victoria police
Henry Belot
Former CFMEU leader John Setka has been arrested and charged by Victoria police after allegedly sending threatening and harassing emails to a union administrator.
The 61-year-old was arrested at a home in Footscray at about 6.40am on Wednesday. Police searched the property and seized a mobile phone and an iPad.
Setka was subsequently charged with seven counts of “using a telecom communications device to menace, harass and offend”. The arrest was first reported by the Age.
He has been bailed and will appear before Melbourne’s magistrates court on 30 January.
The police operation was led by Taskforce Hawk, which was established in July 2024 to target allegations of criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry.
According to police, Setka sent “a number of allegedly threatening, offensive and abusive emails to a CFMEU administrator following a notice to produce sent on 27 October and a follow-up letter sent on 28 October”.
Victoria police’s assistant commissioner Martin O’Brien has encouraged anyone with “information on concerning behaviour witnessed in any construction industry workplace to come forward and speak to police”:
As always, it can be done anonymously and reports will be treated with the strictest of confidence.
– with AAP
Luca Ittimani
Record high landlord lending prompts calls for intervention
The Greens have called for the banking regulator to limit loans to property investors, after new data showed landlord lending has hit record highs.
More than 57,000 investors borrowed nearly $40bn to buy homes from July to September, a $6bn increase on the previous three months and 13% increase in loan numbers. Owner-occupier numbers rose just 2%, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data out today.
Landlord loans have steadily increased since March 2023 at a faster rate than owner-occupier loans and now account for two in every five new home loans. Dr Mish Tan, ABS head of finance statistics, attributed 2025’s acceleration to interest rate cuts and low vacancy rates in rental housing.
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, two weeks ago said intervention by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority could be handy if the economy needed more rate cuts in future but wasn’t needed.
The Greens senator Barbara Pocock said today’s data showed that had changed, calling for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to make the regulator put the brakes on lending to landlords.
We need to urgently rein in an overheated credit market for property investors. Apra has intervened before and they must do it again.
Apra put a threshold on investor lending from 2014 to 2018. It said in October it was watching for risky lending and discussing limits on investor, interest-only or small-deposit loans with banks.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me. Daisy Dumas will be your guide until Josh Taylor picks up the blog later this arvo. Take care!
Patrick Commins
RBA worried about ‘very sharp’ drop in global markets
The head of the Reserve Bank’s financial stability department is worried about a “very sharp” drop in global markets, saying investors around the world are ignoring “a confronting set of potential risks”.
Wall Street is leading sharemarkets around the world to record highs, despite a litany of worries ranging from Trump’s trade aggression and the breakdown of the global order, structural worries about the Chinese economy, and hugely and unsustainably indebted advanced economies.
Brad Jones, an RBA assistant governor, told a super conference this morning that “a lot of central banks are sort of scratching their heads as to why market pricing looks so benign”.
The prices investors are prepared to pay for assets suggests they are not worried about any of the risks that keep central bankers like Jones awake at night.
He said some investors think they will get bailed out by monetary or fiscal authorities if things really go sour, which is “a pretty dangerous” way to invest.
Investors also have “a heck of a time” pricing in geopolitical risks. Jones said:
I look back, just for instance, at the Cuban missile crisis, (when) we stood on the brink of catastrophe. The stock market fell about two or 3% over that period. So I think, as a general rule, global financial markets have a tough time pricing binary risk like geopolitical risk.
High court challenge planned for child social media ban
Josh Taylor
Today marks four weeks until the under-16s social media ban kicks in on 10 December, and NSW Libertarian MLC John Ruddick says he plans to challenge the law in the high court.
The case has yet to be filed, but Ruddick’s office said the law would be challenged on the grounds of the right of freedom of political communication.
There are only a handful of days the high court will sit before the 10 December deadline, but Ruddick’s office expects it will get a mention before then.
Google – which had threatened to challenge YouTube’s inclusion in the ban on that ground, and two others – has yet to mount a challenge to the law.
Josh Taylor
Union calls for gig economy standards following Menulog shutdown announcement
The Transport Workers’ Union has called for the remaining food delivery companies, including DoorDash, Uber Eats and Hungry Panda to support work standards, following the announcement that Menulog would shut operations in Australia in two weeks.
Menulog had supported legislation to put the standards around pay and exit payments in place – which can be set by the Fair Work Commission.
The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said:
This will be a shock to the thousands of food delivery riders who rely on Menulog for income. We will be working to ensure those workers receive pay for their work and fair exit payments over the coming weeks.
In the gig economy, workers are still languishing with below-minimum wage rates, no sick leave or superannuation, and deadly pressure to rush to make a living and avoid being deactivated.
We urgently need standards in the gig economy to stop the relentless downward spiral. New laws introduced by the Albanese government will significantly level the playing field – but DoorDash, Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Easi now need to come to the table to ensure we get standards in place as soon as possible.
Tory Shepherd
Critics say effort is an attempt to ‘politicise abortion care’
South Australian Abortion Action Coalition co-convenor Brigid Coombe said the bill was a “cynical attempt to politicise abortion care” that ignored “years of expert patient-centred deliberation”. She said:
Its cruelty is out of step with medical and community values.
Fair Agenda’s senior campaign manager, Amy Barrett, said the bill “would deny a woman facing devastating pregnancy complications the chance to make the best decisions for herself and her families, in consultation with her healthcare team”.
Sarah Game has campaigned alongside anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe, who has been banned from the state parliament after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics”.
Game says if a mother’s life is at risk or her health is threatened, doctors should do an emergency caesarean or induce labour so the baby is born alive.
Tory Shepherd
New effort to water down abortion rights in South Australia
Another move to water down abortion rights is under way in South Australia, less than a fortnight after an ill-fated federal move.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie were among those suggesting a law to allow parental leave after a stillbirth would be used by women needing a late-term abortion.
Experts say anti-abortion tactics from the US that focus on late-term abortions – which happen rarely, and overwhelmingly for medical reasons – are being imported to Australia to “chip away at rights”.
Late today, the SA legislative council will debate a legislative amendment introduced by former One Nation MLC Sarah Game, who is now independent. The current law allows abortions from 23 weeks when there is significant risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person. Game’s bill would water that down to only allow abortion that saves the life of the pregnant person or another foetus, or if there was a significant risk of foetal abnormalities.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the bill was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding” of the “extraordinarily rare” procedures, which “almost always invariably involve circumstances of severe fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, or serious threats to the pregnant woman’s health and life”.
Albanese meets with Indonesian president
Indonesia’s president has met with Anthony Albanese for his first official visit to Australia since being sworn in as leader, AAP reports.
After arriving in Sydney on Tuesday night, Prabowo Subianto was welcomed at Kirribilli House ahead of one-on-one talks between the two leaders.
While the short trip will be the first time the Indonesian leader has come to Australia since being sworn in, with Prabowo previously visiting Canberra in August 2024 as defence minister and president-elect.
He has served as Indonesia’s president since October 2024.
After the meeting with the prime minister, Prabowo will travel the short distance to Admiralty House to meet with the governor general, Sam Mostyn, where there will be a ceremonial welcome and state lunch.
Albanese and Prabowo will then visit the Royal Australian Navy base at Garden Island.
Albanese said the bilateral meeting would strengthen ties between the two countries:
Australia and Indonesia share a deep trust and unbreakable bond as neighbours, partners and friends.
Together we are committed to working for a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
I look forward to building on our previous discussions about how we can develop the strength and depth of our bilateral relationship.
What to expect from Liberals’ net zero meeting
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs will soon begin filing into a Parliament House meeting room to thrash out the party’s position on a net zero emissions target.
Here’s a quick rundown of how the meeting is expected to play out.
The shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction, Dan Tehan, will put forward a set of “principles” to shape the party’s approach to climate and energy policy and a set of “open questions” for debate and endorsement of his colleagues.
We haven’t seen the exact wording of the proposed principles or the “open questions” but we can safely assume that MPs will be asked if they want to remain committed to a net zero emissions target.
Every member of the Liberal party-room will get the opportunity to contribute, meaning the 12pm meeting could drag on for a few hours.
Guardian Australia understands the decision on whether or not to retain the climate target will not be put to a formal vote.
We’re expecting Tehan to stand up for a press conference following the meeting to explain the outcome.
The Liberal members of the shadow ministry will reconvene at 9am to endorse the position before negotiations start on an agreed policy with the Nationals, who have already agreed to dump a net zero emissions target.
A joint party-room meeting is scheduled for Sunday to endorse the new Coalition position.
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5. Integrated Media & Links
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Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Key events
Henry Belot
Asio warning ‘a wake up call’, Liberals say
The shadow minister for cybersecurity, Claire Chandler, says today’s warning of cyber espionage and sabotage from Australia’s intelligence agency should be “a wake up call for Australians”.
Mike Burgess accused “Chinese hackers” of seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks.
Chandler has urged the government to take the threat seriously:
Members of the Coalition, myself included, have warned for years about risks from foreign actors, particularly the CCP and Russia, targeting our critical infrastructure.
Australians deserve confidence that our essential services, like power, water, transport, and banking, are secure. Cyber sabotage could cripple our economy and endanger lives.
We need urgent, coordinated action to embed security into every layer of critical infrastructure before it’s too late, and I certainly hope the Albanese Government tackles this with the resources and urgency required.
Australia and Indonesia conclude negotiations on bilateral treaty on security
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Indonesia president, Prabowo Subianto, are holding a press conference in Sydney on the substantial conclusion of negotiations on a bilateral treaty on security.
Albanese said it is a “watershed moment” in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
It would see the two countries consult at a leader and ministerial level on a regular basis on matters of security, and if either country’s security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken to either individually or jointly deal with those threats, Albanese said.
He said the relationship between the two countries is the strongest it has ever been, and Albanese said he hopes to travel to Indonesia in January to formally sign the treaty once it has gone through the Australian domestic process.
Subianto said the treaty will commit the two nations to close cooperation on defence and security:
I mentioned many times that we cannot choose our neighbours, especially countries like us. It is our destiny to be direct neighbours. So let us face our destiny with the best of intentions. I believe in the good neighbour policy. Good neighbours are essential. Good neighbours will help each other in times of difficulties and in the Indonesian culture we have a saying: when we face an emergency, it is our neighbour that will help us.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Hastie says Coalition should be prepared to fight double-dissolution election on climate targets
The Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has told colleagues that a future Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election if it can’t repeal Labor’s legislated climate targets in the federal parliament.
The Liberal leadership aspirant and strident net zero opponent made the appeal at Wednesday’s party room meeting to decide whether to dump the emissions goal.
According to several sources in the room, the Western Australian MP told colleagues that the Coalition should commit to repealing the Albanese government’s legislated 2030 and 2050 climate targets if it wins the next election.
If the Senate repeatedly blocks a repeal bill, Hastie said a Coalition government should be prepared to go to a double-dissolution election and fight a campaign on climate targets.
In a moment of levity, what is the best wheat cracker in Australian supermarkets?
Nicholas Jordan risks it for the biscuits, sampling 19 wheat crackers in the driest taste test yet.
He sorted several hundred crackers into a complicated family tree-like categorisation system, then sorted that based on the following criteria: size and structure designed for dips, cheese and platters; unflavoured; and wheat-based. This left Jordan with 19 products, a mix of classic, water and wafer crackers.
So, what came out on top? Jatz are, predictably, awesome. So are the products trying to be like Jatz.
Read more here:
Donna Lu
Anti-renewables conservation charity grilled over use of AI in government submissions
A Queensland conservation charity known for its anti-renewables stance has been grilled over its use of artificial intelligence in submissions to government, in a fiery Senate hearing looking into the broader issue of climate change-related misinformation.
The Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah questioned Rainforest Reserves Australia over errors in submissions it made to the Queensland government over the proposed Moonlight Range windfarm, a development the state government ultimately rejected.
Referring to a submission, Ananda-Rajah said:
Seven of the 15 references you cite in opposition to this windfarm appear to be completely fabricated.
Ananda-Rajah also questioned the group over errors in its submissions, reported in the Guardian, such as mention of an “Oakey Wind Farm”, which does not exist, and reference to a 2023 report by the “Queensland Environmental Protection Agency”, which has not existed since 2009.
When asked whether AI was used to generate the submission, Steven Nowakowski, the RRA’s vice-president, said:
It was actually written by a human and artificial intelligence was used to edit it.
Kenneth Carey, an RRA supporter, said:
In regards to the use of AI within any submissions from Rainforest Reserves, we acknowledge minor factual corrections may be necessary in any large evolving data set …
The [EPA] examples that we provided are from a department that no longer exists, however, it has changed its name, so that data itself is absolutely correct.
Ananda-Rajah said:
The Oakey windfarm is a complete fabrication … Is it not conceivable given your reliance on AI, given the sloppiness of your own work, that you have misled community members? … You have undermined your own credibility.
In a previous response to Guardian reporting, an RRA volunteer said the citation relating to Oakey windfarm was “misattributed” but was “intended to illustrate a real and serious issue”.
Liberals debate abandoning net zero target behind closed doors
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs remain locked in a party-room meeting to resolve their position on net zero emissions.
The meeting has been running for more than two hours and could drag long into the afternoon as MPs argue the case for against retaining the Scott Morrison-era commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The bitter internal dispute has pitted conservatives, who want all references to net zero dumped, against moderates, who want it retained in some form, meaning Sussan Ley will face an internal backlash regardless of where the party lands.
In a show of factional force ahead of the meeting, more than a dozen conservatives – including Angus Taylor and fellow potential leadership contender Andrew Hastie – walked into the Parliament House meeting room together.
The federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst, briefed the meeting on internal research on voter attitudes toward net zero and the energy transition before MPs made their contribution.
One Liberal source said Hirst told MPs that voters equated net zero with taking action on climate change.
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, emailed supporters with the text of the message that she planned to deliver at the meeting.
The message read:
We need to abandon net zero and give the Australian people hope. We need a short, medium and long term energy policy. We need 24/7 baseload power to back our sovereign manufacturing, including more gas. We need nuclear to power the future of our nation – the big data centres – to protect our information and our sovereign communications. We need to prioritise our nation when it comes to our natural resources.
Henry Belot
Asio boss says foreign delegate ‘ripped the branch off a fruit tree’
Earlier today we brought you details of Asio director-general Mike Burgess’ speech, which accused Chinese hackers of attempting to penetrate critical infrastructure.
Burgess also warned about an increase in corporate espionage targeting Australia’s research and development sectors.
He cited one example of a foreign delegation being given a tour of an unnamed research facility in Australia. He alleged one member of the group briefly broke away from their escort and was caught taking photos of a laboratory. The photos were subsequently deleted.
Burgess says the unnamed visitor managed to steal an object from the facility:
What they didn’t discover was [the delegate] ripped the branch off a fruit tree that was a special breed with 20 years of research and development put into it. They stole it and would have taken it back to their home country to reverse engineer it.
That’s outright intellectual property theft, happening at a scale that is unprecedented in human history. More than one nation has done that over the years. Right now, there is one nation that is doing a lot of that.
Aurora alert for southern Australia as severe solar storm reaches earth
Australian skies may be lit up with the technicolour of aurora tonight as an unusually severe solar storm affects the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an aurora alert for as far north as southern New South Wales, with Australian space weather forecasting centre data showing the strong solar storm is in progress.
Aurora australis is expected to be seen in night-time hours, provided skies are clear.
The bureau said three coronal mass ejections were observed between 9 and 11 November. The second and strongest of the CMEs was expected to reach earth today, with a chance the geomagnetic storm could reach G5 in strength.
According to Nasa, G5 solar storms can trip high-voltage lines, overheat transformers and cause GPS-guided vehicles to veer off-course.
Another big aurora graced Australia’s south-eastern skies in June, as seen in our gallery below:
Luca Ittimani
Australian travellers heading back to the US, Flight Centre says
Australians are starting to book more trips to the United States after being deterred in the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Flight Centre has reported.
Workers, entertainers, academics and gender-diverse Australians are among those who faced incidents or warnings over US border protocols earlier this year. The backlash saw a drop in long-haul US flights booked through Flight Centre in the first half of the year.
But the travel agency this morning said that was turning around, with Graham Turner, Flight Centre’s founder, telling investors:
We are, however, starting to see signs of recovery … Bookings from Australia to the US increased in October 2025 for the first time since the March quarter.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today confirmed Australians’ aversion to US travel had persisted into September, with just 58,610 residents returning from American holidays that month compared with more than 67,000 in 2024.
The September month data represents residents returning from trips they booked and took up to a year beforehand US government arrivals data up to August also shows a decline.
But on a wider view, Australians’ US travel has been relatively resilient through 2025 so far, totalling 541,000 by September compared with 546,000 for the same period to 2024.
Former CFMEU leader John Setka arrested and charged by Victoria police
Henry Belot
Former CFMEU leader John Setka has been arrested and charged by Victoria police after allegedly sending threatening and harassing emails to a union administrator.
The 61-year-old was arrested at a home in Footscray at about 6.40am on Wednesday. Police searched the property and seized a mobile phone and an iPad.
Setka was subsequently charged with seven counts of “using a telecom communications device to menace, harass and offend”. The arrest was first reported by the Age.
He has been bailed and will appear before Melbourne’s magistrates court on 30 January.
The police operation was led by Taskforce Hawk, which was established in July 2024 to target allegations of criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry.
According to police, Setka sent “a number of allegedly threatening, offensive and abusive emails to a CFMEU administrator following a notice to produce sent on 27 October and a follow-up letter sent on 28 October”.
Victoria police’s assistant commissioner Martin O’Brien has encouraged anyone with “information on concerning behaviour witnessed in any construction industry workplace to come forward and speak to police”:
As always, it can be done anonymously and reports will be treated with the strictest of confidence.
– with AAP
Luca Ittimani
Record high landlord lending prompts calls for intervention
The Greens have called for the banking regulator to limit loans to property investors, after new data showed landlord lending has hit record highs.
More than 57,000 investors borrowed nearly $40bn to buy homes from July to September, a $6bn increase on the previous three months and 13% increase in loan numbers. Owner-occupier numbers rose just 2%, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data out today.
Landlord loans have steadily increased since March 2023 at a faster rate than owner-occupier loans and now account for two in every five new home loans. Dr Mish Tan, ABS head of finance statistics, attributed 2025’s acceleration to interest rate cuts and low vacancy rates in rental housing.
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, two weeks ago said intervention by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority could be handy if the economy needed more rate cuts in future but wasn’t needed.
The Greens senator Barbara Pocock said today’s data showed that had changed, calling for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to make the regulator put the brakes on lending to landlords.
We need to urgently rein in an overheated credit market for property investors. Apra has intervened before and they must do it again.
Apra put a threshold on investor lending from 2014 to 2018. It said in October it was watching for risky lending and discussing limits on investor, interest-only or small-deposit loans with banks.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me. Daisy Dumas will be your guide until Josh Taylor picks up the blog later this arvo. Take care!
Patrick Commins
RBA worried about ‘very sharp’ drop in global markets
The head of the Reserve Bank’s financial stability department is worried about a “very sharp” drop in global markets, saying investors around the world are ignoring “a confronting set of potential risks”.
Wall Street is leading sharemarkets around the world to record highs, despite a litany of worries ranging from Trump’s trade aggression and the breakdown of the global order, structural worries about the Chinese economy, and hugely and unsustainably indebted advanced economies.
Brad Jones, an RBA assistant governor, told a super conference this morning that “a lot of central banks are sort of scratching their heads as to why market pricing looks so benign”.
The prices investors are prepared to pay for assets suggests they are not worried about any of the risks that keep central bankers like Jones awake at night.
He said some investors think they will get bailed out by monetary or fiscal authorities if things really go sour, which is “a pretty dangerous” way to invest.
Investors also have “a heck of a time” pricing in geopolitical risks. Jones said:
I look back, just for instance, at the Cuban missile crisis, (when) we stood on the brink of catastrophe. The stock market fell about two or 3% over that period. So I think, as a general rule, global financial markets have a tough time pricing binary risk like geopolitical risk.
High court challenge planned for child social media ban
Josh Taylor
Today marks four weeks until the under-16s social media ban kicks in on 10 December, and NSW Libertarian MLC John Ruddick says he plans to challenge the law in the high court.
The case has yet to be filed, but Ruddick’s office said the law would be challenged on the grounds of the right of freedom of political communication.
There are only a handful of days the high court will sit before the 10 December deadline, but Ruddick’s office expects it will get a mention before then.
Google – which had threatened to challenge YouTube’s inclusion in the ban on that ground, and two others – has yet to mount a challenge to the law.
Josh Taylor
Union calls for gig economy standards following Menulog shutdown announcement
The Transport Workers’ Union has called for the remaining food delivery companies, including DoorDash, Uber Eats and Hungry Panda to support work standards, following the announcement that Menulog would shut operations in Australia in two weeks.
Menulog had supported legislation to put the standards around pay and exit payments in place – which can be set by the Fair Work Commission.
The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said:
This will be a shock to the thousands of food delivery riders who rely on Menulog for income. We will be working to ensure those workers receive pay for their work and fair exit payments over the coming weeks.
In the gig economy, workers are still languishing with below-minimum wage rates, no sick leave or superannuation, and deadly pressure to rush to make a living and avoid being deactivated.
We urgently need standards in the gig economy to stop the relentless downward spiral. New laws introduced by the Albanese government will significantly level the playing field – but DoorDash, Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Easi now need to come to the table to ensure we get standards in place as soon as possible.
Tory Shepherd
Critics say effort is an attempt to ‘politicise abortion care’
South Australian Abortion Action Coalition co-convenor Brigid Coombe said the bill was a “cynical attempt to politicise abortion care” that ignored “years of expert patient-centred deliberation”. She said:
Its cruelty is out of step with medical and community values.
Fair Agenda’s senior campaign manager, Amy Barrett, said the bill “would deny a woman facing devastating pregnancy complications the chance to make the best decisions for herself and her families, in consultation with her healthcare team”.
Sarah Game has campaigned alongside anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe, who has been banned from the state parliament after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics”.
Game says if a mother’s life is at risk or her health is threatened, doctors should do an emergency caesarean or induce labour so the baby is born alive.
Tory Shepherd
New effort to water down abortion rights in South Australia
Another move to water down abortion rights is under way in South Australia, less than a fortnight after an ill-fated federal move.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie were among those suggesting a law to allow parental leave after a stillbirth would be used by women needing a late-term abortion.
Experts say anti-abortion tactics from the US that focus on late-term abortions – which happen rarely, and overwhelmingly for medical reasons – are being imported to Australia to “chip away at rights”.
Late today, the SA legislative council will debate a legislative amendment introduced by former One Nation MLC Sarah Game, who is now independent. The current law allows abortions from 23 weeks when there is significant risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person. Game’s bill would water that down to only allow abortion that saves the life of the pregnant person or another foetus, or if there was a significant risk of foetal abnormalities.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the bill was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding” of the “extraordinarily rare” procedures, which “almost always invariably involve circumstances of severe fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, or serious threats to the pregnant woman’s health and life”.
Albanese meets with Indonesian president
Indonesia’s president has met with Anthony Albanese for his first official visit to Australia since being sworn in as leader, AAP reports.
After arriving in Sydney on Tuesday night, Prabowo Subianto was welcomed at Kirribilli House ahead of one-on-one talks between the two leaders.
While the short trip will be the first time the Indonesian leader has come to Australia since being sworn in, with Prabowo previously visiting Canberra in August 2024 as defence minister and president-elect.
He has served as Indonesia’s president since October 2024.
After the meeting with the prime minister, Prabowo will travel the short distance to Admiralty House to meet with the governor general, Sam Mostyn, where there will be a ceremonial welcome and state lunch.
Albanese and Prabowo will then visit the Royal Australian Navy base at Garden Island.
Albanese said the bilateral meeting would strengthen ties between the two countries:
Australia and Indonesia share a deep trust and unbreakable bond as neighbours, partners and friends.
Together we are committed to working for a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
I look forward to building on our previous discussions about how we can develop the strength and depth of our bilateral relationship.
What to expect from Liberals’ net zero meeting
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberal MPs will soon begin filing into a Parliament House meeting room to thrash out the party’s position on a net zero emissions target.
Here’s a quick rundown of how the meeting is expected to play out.
The shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction, Dan Tehan, will put forward a set of “principles” to shape the party’s approach to climate and energy policy and a set of “open questions” for debate and endorsement of his colleagues.
We haven’t seen the exact wording of the proposed principles or the “open questions” but we can safely assume that MPs will be asked if they want to remain committed to a net zero emissions target.
Every member of the Liberal party-room will get the opportunity to contribute, meaning the 12pm meeting could drag on for a few hours.
Guardian Australia understands the decision on whether or not to retain the climate target will not be put to a formal vote.
We’re expecting Tehan to stand up for a press conference following the meeting to explain the outcome.
The Liberal members of the shadow ministry will reconvene at 9am to endorse the position before negotiations start on an agreed policy with the Nationals, who have already agreed to dump a net zero emissions target.
A joint party-room meeting is scheduled for Sunday to endorse the new Coalition position.
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