SA premier complains of ‘frankly obscene’ process that ended in Cop31 going to Turkey instead of Adelaide
South Australia is where Peter Malinauskas has been speaking about Australia not hosting Cop. He said he fought for it to be held in Adelaide, and after “a couple of years of effort”, SA won the right to host Cop if it was held in the country.
I understand the position the prime minister has taken. He has taken a position to try and navigate the frankly obscene process that exists internationally.
Of course, we did our best and South Australia, we won the host rights to be the host city in the event we won the rights internationally. They fell short and we accept that and we press on to pursue other opportunities for the state.
Key events
Papua New Guinea ‘not happy’ as Australia cedes Cop31 hosting to Turkey
Papua New Guinea has voiced frustration after Australia ditched a bid to co-host next year’s UN climate talks with its Pacific island neighbours, AFP has reported.
The country’s foreign minister, Justin Tkatchenko, told AFP after Australia ceded hosting rights to Turkey:
We are all not happy. And [we are] disappointed it’s ended up like this.
Australia had been pushing to host Cop31 next year alongside South Pacific nations, which are increasingly threatened by rising seas and climate-fuelled disasters. Tkatchenko on Thursday lashed the entire Cop summit process as a waste of time:
It’s just a talkfest and doesn’t hold the big polluters accountable
What has Cop achieved over the years? Nothing.
SA premier complains of ‘frankly obscene’ process that ended in Cop31 going to Turkey instead of Adelaide
South Australia is where Peter Malinauskas has been speaking about Australia not hosting Cop. He said he fought for it to be held in Adelaide, and after “a couple of years of effort”, SA won the right to host Cop if it was held in the country.
I understand the position the prime minister has taken. He has taken a position to try and navigate the frankly obscene process that exists internationally.
Of course, we did our best and South Australia, we won the host rights to be the host city in the event we won the rights internationally. They fell short and we accept that and we press on to pursue other opportunities for the state.
Greens say failure to secure Cop in Adelaide a missed opportunity for Australia
The Greens are using the news over the Cop negotiations to lambaste the government’s support for coal and gas companies and lament the lost opportunity for the country.
Larissa Waters, the leader of the Greens, said in a statement this morning:
This is an embarrassing outcome, but it was clear from the start that the government didn’t really want to host a climate summit. The Prime Minister never really wanted to host a climate conference if it meant being honest about the future of coal and gas while his mining corporation mates are watching.
If COP came to Australia, it would have been a good opportunity for the world’s leaders to grill Labor for their terrible track record on climate action.
Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens’ environment spokesperson, said:
As the first person to call for the COP to be in Adelaide I am deeply disappointed the Government has failed to secure the COP. This is a huge missed opportunity for the country and my home state. We are living the harsh reality of the climate crisis with the toxic algal bloom on our doorstep, yet we are leaders in the renewables transition.
This is a climate failure for the Albanese government. The Government has let South Australians down, let Australia down and let our Pacific neighbours down.
Albanese says result of Cop negotiations an ‘outstanding outcome’, despite event being held in Turkey next year
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is explaining the thoughts behind Australia’s decision to abandon its bid to host the next Cop summit and providing more details about the country’s role.
Albanese said Turkey will host the Cop and have the Cop presidency, but Australia would have the Cop presidency for negotiations in the lead-up to the conference and there will also be a pre-Cop meeting held in the Pacific.
He said:
That will enable us to invite world leaders to make sure that the issues confronting this region, the very existence of island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, the issue of our oceans – all of those issues will be front and centre so it’s an outstanding outcome. I congratulate minister Bowen on the work that he has done.
The prime minister added that he is “very pleased” with the outcome despite maintaining for weeks that Australia would continue to fight for the right to host the event in Adelaide next year.
Australia, by having the Cop presidency for negotiations, will be in a very strong position, and some might argue in the strongest-possible position because we will benefit from having Pacific issues and the issues confronting Australia that we know Australia’s particularly vulnerable for the extreme weather events which we are seeing more intense and more frequent.
Luca Ittimani
Australian sharemarket rises after Nvidia impresses with results
The Australia sharemarket is bouncing back after greater confidence in the US tech sector dispelled fears of an AI crash in the short term.
The ASX200 and the All Ordinaries, respectively the top 200 and 500 biggest companies on the market, have both picked up nearly 1% in early trading.
Jitters across global markets had dragged down US and Australian markets in the last month, with the ASX200 losing $200bn in value and hitting its lowest level since early June by Wednesday afternoon, at 8,447. It’s now back at 8,530 points.
The biggest company on the market, Commonwealth Bank, has picked up just over 1%, or about $1.8bn, now valued at $255bn. It had been worth nearly $300bn earlier this month.
Six in every seven businesses are seeing rising or steady share prices, though the tech sector is seeing the biggest increases, up 3.3%, with IT up nearly 5%.
Nvidia, the US tech stock that has led the AI charge, delivered stronger earnings and forecasts than expected this morning, Australian time. The company’s market value had slipped from $5tn to less than $4.4tn in the last month. In the last 12 hours, it has surged more than halfway back, to more than $4.7tn in after-market trading.
Ley says news Turkey will host next Cop summit should leave Australians ‘very pleased’
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says reports that Australia has dropped its bid to host next year’s UN climate summit should leave Australians “very pleased”, just days after the Liberal party formally dumped its net zero by 2050 targets.
Ley, speaking in front of an ice-cream freezer, just told a press briefing:
The fact that this government even considered spending $2bn of taxpayers money on this exercise just goes to show how their priorities are all wrong. Chris Bowen is very disappointed today, I am sure, but Australians should be very pleased with the decision that was taken away from this country and made overseas.
Ley said the Cop summit – which has resulted in landmark climate agreements and pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions – was a “largely symbolic” event.
What I want from every exercise that this government engages with is a real demonstration of how they are going to bring prices down.
New Zealand bans puberty blockers for young transgender people
New Zealand has announced it is banning new prescriptions of puberty-blocking drugs for young transgender people, in a move that critics warned could worsen the mental health of those affected.
The step comes amid growing global debate about the number of adolescents seeking to change gender, dividing those concerned about hastiness in prescribing such medications and those worried about access to remedies they deem life-saving.
The health minister, Simeon Brown, said doctors would no longer be able to prescribe gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues for gender dysphoria or incongruence to those seeking treatment for the conditions and not already on the drugs.
Read more here:
Victoria police searching for man who stole car then allegedly dumped baby in a box in the car park
Victoria police are searching for a man who allegedly stole a car, realised a baby was in the back seat and then removed the infant and placed the child in a box in a car park before driving away.
Police have appealed for information, saying a red Volkswagen was stolen in Shepparton just before 2pm on 14 November. The driver of the vehicle parked in a supermarket car park and “quickly ran into the store”, leaving the baby in the back seat.
An unknown man then allegedly stole the car before noticing the child. Police said:
The offender then realised a baby was in the back seat and removed the baby, placing the child in a box in the car park before driving away.
The victim returned and immediately located the toddler before raising the alarm.
The man is described as in his 20s to 30s, with a slim build and 165cm tall.
NSW opposition leader refusing to step down
Anne Davies
NSW opposition leader, Mark Speakman, is digging in and refusing to step down despite moves to encourage him to resign. He now seems to be indicating that colleagues will need to blast him out of the leadership, possibly as early as this afternoon.
Speakman told 2GB:
Well, Mark Twain once said, ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’, and that’s exactly the case in New South Wales. I’m the Liberal leader, and I intend to be until the next election.
Asked about a meeting in his office on Wednesday night, when he was visited by three colleagues – Chris Rath, Scott Farlow and James Wallace – Speakman said:
Well, we didn’t talk about the Christmas hamper, but I certainly didn’t get a tap on the shoulder, if that’s what you’re indicating.
Look, what my colleagues and I have to do is keep the focus on this government and stop talking about ourselves. It’s a government that is full of show ponies. The premier in particular, nice guy, but not delivering for New South Wales.
We’re seeing project after project after project started by the Liberals and Nationals. They’re cutting the ribbons, but they’re not coming up with any new ideas of their own. It’s a low vision, low energy, low value government, and we’ve got to keep taking the fight up for Labor.
Adam Morton
More on Australia ending its bid to host the Cop
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had signalled he had changed his messaging on hosting the world’s biggest climate meeting in a press conference in Perth late on Tuesday, local time, when he said his government would not block Turkey’s bid if it was chosen.
Longtime observers at climate negotiations said Albanese’s comments on Tuesday appeared to have undermined the Australia-Pacific bid and left Chis Bowen to sort out the details.
The prime minister’s intervention came just hours after Bowen, the main driver of the Australian bid, declared in a public event and media interview at Cop30 that Australia was “in it to win it” on Cop31.
The country’s position was further muddied by a statement issued by a government spokesperson a few hours after Albanese’s remarks. It said Australia had “the overwhelming support of our peers” and Turkey should not block Australia. It concluded: “But of course we will continue to negotiate with Turkey in good faith for an outcome in the best interests of the Pacific and our national interest.”
Read more here:
Airlines monitoring volcanic ash after Indonesian eruption, but no disruptions yet
Australian airlines are monitoring ash clouds after Indonesia’s Mount Semeru erupted on Wednesday.
A volcanic ash advisory centre in Darwin has issued a red aviation alert after the eruption, occurring on the highest peak on Java island, which sits just west of Bali. Indonesia’s Geological Agency said the event sent thick columns of hot clouds up to 2km into the air.
Both Qantas and Jetstar are monitoring the situation, but have had no changes to their schedules so far. Any customers affected by the eruption will be contacted directly should that change.
Virgin Australia has not cancelled any flights today.
Cait Kelly
Many locked into poverty amid lack of suitable jobs, report finds
A lack of suitable jobs and a trend towards insecure work is locking hundreds of thousands of people in poverty, according to a new report that finds there are 39 jobseekers for every entry-level position in Australia.
Anglicare’s annual Jobs Snapshot found that of those, 25 have barriers to work. This is the highest ratio ever recorded by the Snapshot.
Entry-level jobs now make up just 11% of all vacancies. This is their lowest share in a decade.
Anglicare Australia executive director, Kasy Chambers, says:
All of this shows that people are being failed by a system that treats unemployment as a personal fault instead of a policy failure.
Taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on private employment providers whose business model depends on compliance and punishment. They profit whether or not people find work. Meanwhile, people are stuck in endless appointments and meaningless activities – all while competing for jobs that simply aren’t there.
It’s time to end this failed experiment. The for-profit model has been running for over twenty years, and long-term unemployment has only grown.
Turkey to host Cop31 climate conference after Australia drops push
Adam Morton
Turkey will host the Cop31 climate conference after the Australian government dropped its push to hold the event in Adelaide at the last moment despite having launched a more than three-year campaign.
Independent sources confirmed to the Guardian that the fortnight-long event would be held in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya in November 2026, with the details of a deal being thrashed out between the countries’ climate ministers, Chris Bowen and Murat Kurum, at the Cop30 conference in Brazil this week.
Sources said Australia had proposed an arrangement under which it would take on the Cop presidency and lead the negotiations in return for backing down on the hosting venue.
South Australian education minister says the impact, and cost, from sand clean-up a big burden for the state
Blair Boyer, South Australia’s education minister, spoke about the heavy impact in schools across the state after the ACCC issued multiple warnings over children’s play sand potentially contaminated with asbestos.
Boyer said more than 400 public schools were affected so far, with crews working to either remove or deep clean facilities where the sand was found. Some schools requiring deep cleaning will likely cost “thousands” to remediate.
He told RN Breakfast:
The impact is big, the cost is big, and of course, the worry is big as well, I think, for people out there who are asking questions about how, in this day and age, products like that can make their way into the country …
I think people are rightfully asking a question about how it can get in, how it can be on the shelves of major retailers like Kmart and Target, and then wind up in not just schools and preschools, but it would be in so many homes right around Australia as well.
Boyer has called for a national inquiry into the matter, saying he’s happy for SA to “lead the way” on that effort.
I’m sure people would like some answers about what we can do to make sure we don’t go through a situation like that again.
Police appeal for information after three public place shootings overnight in Sydney
NSW police are calling for information after three public place shootings in south-west Sydney overnight.
Police said the first incident took place just after 11.15pm in the suburb of Fairfield, after shots were reportedly fired at a house before a dark SUV lot the scene. No one was injured inside the home.
A second shooting took place about 11.55pm in the suburb of Bossley Park. Police said a single shot was fired at a caravan parked on the street before a white Audi left the scene. No one was injured.
A third shooting took place just before 3am in the suburb of Wetherill Park after shots were fired at a business before a black SUV or ute left the scene. No one was injured in the event.
Police are looking to see if the incidents are connected, or if there are connections to two overnight car fires in Kings Langley and Lalor Park.
