23m agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:54pm

Lower house officially rises for the year(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Well, with that, the House has officially risen for the year, after this morning’s rubber-stamping the nation’s new environment laws.

As the House adjourned, there was a big applause from members.

A long line of MPs went to hug Environment Minister Murray Watt and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who watched on from the side of the chamber, after being locked in lengthy negotiations to pass the bill.

There was loud support from the government when the bill was put to a division, with the Coalition firmly opposed.

Only part of the crossbench turned up for the Friday morning vote, but those who did sat with the government to pass it.

30m agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:47pm

House of Representatives adjourns for the year

And with the passage of the government’s education integrity bill, parliament has adjourned for the year!

Federal parliament will resume sitting on February 3 next year.

(ABC News: Matt Roberts)33m agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:44pmBreaking: Labor’s environment protection bill passes parliament(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

The federal government’s overhaul of environment protection legislation has passed parliament.

The result was 89 for and 34 against.

All crossbenchers who turned up for the vote today voted with the government.

Labor secured the support of the Greens to pass the laws through the Senate yesterday with a few amendments.

Those amendments had to be approved by the lower house, which is sitting an extra day to pass the laws.

39m agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:38pm

Sussan Ley says ‘Labor-Greens alliance is well and truly back in business’(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is up on her feet and says the “Labor-Greens alliance is well and truly back in business”.

Those comments have fired up opposition MPs, who have been called to order by Speaker Milton Dick.

The opposition leader says the laws have tanked the government’s gas strategy because it will delay new gas projects.

“We’re not here for dirty deals with the Greens,” Ley says.

“After a disastrous year of no delivery with inflation and interest rates rising, we had to have this. Shame on this government for letting down the people of this country who pay the bills,” she says.

46m agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:31pm

Albanese declares Labor-Greens deal on environment laws a ‘yesalition’(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Labor’s environmental protection laws have landed back in the House of Representatives today after they were passed in the Senate.

The House of Representatives is sitting for an extra day to get final pieces of legislation passed through parliament before the summer break.

The environment laws passed the upper house yesterday with the support of the Greens with a few amendments that need to be approved by the lower house.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the opposition was incapable of coming up with amendments in negotiations.

Albanese declared the deal between Labor and the Greens was a “yesalition” of people who wanted reform.

“I thank the fact that Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Waters were prepared to be flexible and prepared to not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” Albanese says.

1h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:13pm

📷 Prime minister makes the walk to work this morning(ABC News: Matt Roberts)(ABC News: Matt Roberts)(ABC News: Matt Roberts)(ABC News: Matt Roberts)1h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 10:06pmJoyce would betray Nationals if he joined One Nation: Bridget McKenzie(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie says she hopes Barnaby Joyce will reconsider his decision to leave the Nationals over summer.

Joyce announced his resignation from the party yesterday and signalled he’s considering running for a Senate spot with One Nation.

The Nationals Senate leader says it was telling that Joyce didn’t announce he was joining One Nation, as was widely expected.

McKenzie says Joyce would betray everyone who has supported his rise in the National Party if he joined the minor party.

She says any move to One Nation would be a “futile decision” because the party “can’t get things done”.

“There’s a lot of anger [in the party] so I think if he actually went to another party he would absolutely trash his reputation and his legacy,” McKenzie says.

“He would be betraying everyone that’s voted for him as a National, everyone that voted for him as a National on the Senate ticket in Queensland at the 2004 election.

“So there’s a whole lot of betrayal going [on] if he turns his back not only on just the parliamentary party here in Canberra, but on the National party by joining another political movement.”

1h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 9:50pm

Aged care watchdog website too complex to navigate

The aged care watchdog has slammed the government’s My Aged Care website, saying it’s too complex for many older Australians to navigate.

The site is supposed to help older people get the information they need to access supports, but a review by Inspector-General Natalie Siegel-Brown has found the site is “insufficiently promoted” and “onerously complex to navigate,” particularly for people with limited digital literacy.

“For too many older people, access to the care and services that they need is further complicated and delayed by the very platform designed to facilitate this, compromising their ability to live independently and putting them at significant risk of further physical and cognitive decline,” she said.

Siegel-Brown has made seven recommendations, including calling on the government to redesign the website.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae has been contacted for a response.

1h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 9:36pm

Climate target projections would look better with climate trigger: Hanson-Young

The climate change minister has revealed Australia is projected to fall just shy of its 2030 climate target and badly miss its 2035 target without significant changes.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says her party pushed for a climate trigger in the overhauled environment laws.

The climate trigger, which was opposed by Labor, would have forced the minister to give consideration to a project’s impact on emissions before giving it the green light.

Hanson-Young says the government’s climate target projections would look a lot better if it included a climate trigger in the laws.

“They didn’t agree with it yesterday. They should have, but it’s inevitable. It will happen because our planet needs more action than what governments like the Albanese government are delivering,” Hanson-Young says.

1h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 9:25pmGreens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says environment laws are ‘a long time coming’(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says reforms to the nation’s outdated environment protection laws are “a long time coming”.

The Greens landed a deal with the government yesterday to pass overhauled environment laws through the Senate.

The South Australian senator says the laws will prevent land clearing going unchecked and the destruction of native forests.

Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast, Hanson-Young says the negotiations with the government were the toughest in her political career.

She says while her party extracted better protections for forests, they were unable to land better protections for the climate.

“It’s been a long time coming having to fix some of these major flaws in Australia’s environment laws,” Hanson-Young says.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted through these negotiations. That’s the nature of these things. We wanted the government, of course, to move more on climate.

“Saving our forests and putting more protections in place is really vital not just to our climate challenge but to the biodiversity crisis as well.

She says the Greens have put fossil fuels in the “slow lane”.

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 9:08pmCoalition has ‘no-one to blame but themselves’, environment minister says(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Environment Minister Murray Watt has rejected Coalition claims that overhauled environment laws will lead to higher electricity prices.

The environment minister has told ABC Radio National Breakfast the laws will help get energy projects online faster.

“I’m not going to make promises about what that means for bringing power prices down, but obviously, if we can have more supply in the system more quickly, then that is going to help moderate prices,” Watt says.

Watt says Opposition Leader Sussan Ley needs to accept that her side of politics was “completely incapable” of reaching a deal with Labor.

“I’ve lost count of the number of meetings, phone conversations I’ve had with numerous Coalition frontbenchers — not just one — trying to work out some sort of arrangement with the Coalition,” he says.

“They’ve got no-one to blame but themselves if they’re unhappy about a deal being struck with the Greens.”

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 9:05pm

New environment laws deliver winds for business and environment, Watt says

Environment Minister Murray Watt says he accepts not all business groups are happy with the government’s overhaul of environment laws.

To win the support of the Greens, Labor offered to add “high-risk land clearing” and regional forest agreements to the national laws, and exempted coal and gas projects from fast-tracked approvals.

The Business Council of Australia says there’s still “ambiguity and risk” in the overhauled laws, while the Minerals Council says the laws don’t find the right balance.

Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast, Watt says the Greens ultimately made some concessions on key concerns for the business community.

He says the government was able to convince the Greens to make amendments to the definition on “unacceptable impacts”.

“What that means is that we have ended up at that balanced package that I’ve been talking about for months, where we’ve actually delivered wins for both the environment and for business,” Watt says.

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:45pmO’Neil supportive of APRA action to limit high debt-to-income loans

The Australian financial services industry regulator has imposed limits on how many high debt-to-income loans banks can issue.

A high debt-to-income ratio is considered to be where someone is borrowing more than six times their annual household income.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says she’s supportive of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) action because she says there has been an increase in people owning multiple properties at high debt-to-income ratios.

“APRA just wants to put a signal out to say they don’t want to see consistent, ongoing and fast growth in that kind of lending,” O’Neil tells ABC News Breakfast.

Asked if that move by APRA could limit people from accessing the government’s 5 per cent deposit scheme, O’Neil says the concerns about loans are confined to investors.

“These are very much pre-emptive things and there is nothing in the economy now that APRA is deeply concerned about,” she says.

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:40pm

Housing minister says environment laws will have immediate effect on housing approvals

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says the passage of overhauled environment laws today will have an almost immediate effect speeding up approvals for housing projects.

The government’s new environment protection legislation, passed in the Senate yesterday with the support of the Greens with some amendments, is expected to pass parliament today.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, O’Neil says the new laws will fast-track housing approvals when they come into effect in 2026 and 2027.

“We’re talking about big housing developments that were taking years to approve down to months and sometimes even weeks,” O’Neil says.

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:32pm’Help to Buy’ housing scheme to launch on December 5

Up to 10,000 eligible Australians will be able to access a new Commonwealth housing program every year from December 5.

The Help to Buy scheme effectively allows participants to co-purchase a home with the government.

Under the program, the government will offer an “equity contribution” of up to 40 per cent of the cost of a new home, or 30 per cent of existing homes, to help buyers get onto the property ladder.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says the scheme is targeted towards low and middle-income first home buyers. 

“We don’t know exactly what demand is going to look like,” she told the ABC. 

“This is a new scheme for the Commonwealth government to run and operate, and I think Australians are going to take a bit of time to understand what it might mean for them.

“The important thing is this is 10,000 people each year who would otherwise have no realistic chance of home ownership.”

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:29pm

Mark Butler and Jane Hume quizzed on support for extending energy subsidies

Health Minister Mark Butler and Liberal senator Jane Hume have appeared on Channel Seven where they’ve been quizzed about their support for energy rebates.

The federal government’s electricity rebates, designed to relieve cost pressure for households, are due to expire at the end of this year.

Speaking to Channel Seven, Butler says the energy rebates will have to end at some point, and says the government will have more to say on it soon.

“Everyone recognises they can’t go on forever. They were put in place … [when the] invasion of Ukraine spiked energy prices right around the world,” Butler says.

Hume has been pressed on whether the Coalition would support extending the rebates beyond the end of this year.

The Liberal senator says the rebates have artificially held back inflation, but hasn’t said whether the opposition would support the extension.

“Our preference is to see inflation come down sustainably through hard fiscal work and reducing energy prices by getting rid of this mad ideological approach to the renewables rollout,” Hume says.

2h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:20pm

Iran condemns Australia’s listing of IRGC as sponsor of terrorism as ‘offensive and unjustified’

The Iranian government has condemned Australia’s formal listing of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a state sponsor of terrorism as “offensive and unjustified”, accusing the Albanese government of doing Israel’s bidding.

In August, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ASIO chief Mike Burgess revealed Iran was behind at least two antisemitic attacks in Australia.

Iran’s ambassador was kicked out of the country days later — the first diplomatic expulsion since World War II. Legislation passed the parliament earlier this month allowing the government to designate the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism.

That happened on Thursday, with the IRGC becoming the first organisation to be listed under the new regime.

Read the full story from Middle East Correspondent Matt Doran in the link below.

3h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:16pmMatt Canavan says he wants Barnaby Joyce back in the Nationals(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Nationals senator Matt Canavan has tried to downplay Barnaby Joyce’s departure from the Nationals.

The New England MP announced on Thursday he will move to the crossbench and is considering a tilt for the Senate for One Nation.

Speaking to Channel Nine, Canavan says Joyce’s resignation from the National Party is “not the tragedy a lot of us feared”.

The Nationals senator says he’s going to try to convince Joyce to rejoin the Nationals over the summer break.

“I mean, he could be the ultimate prodigal son. He’s still on the transfer market. I mean, nothing really has changed,” Canavan says.

“He hasn’t signed up a contract with a new team. So to my mind, he’s a free agent and I’d still like to have him on our team.”

He says he hopes Nationals leader David Littleproud will reach out to Joyce over summer because the party “can’t afford to keep losing people”.

3h agoThu 27 Nov 2025 at 8:04pm

Good morning 👋

Hello and welcome to another edition of our federal politics live blog. It’s great having you here!

The fallout from Barnaby Joyce’s resignation from the National Party continues this morning, with Nationals MP Matt Canavan saying the departure isn’t as bad as it looks.

We expect the government’s environmental protection legislation will pass parliament today.

Labor landed a deal with the Greens yesterday to pass the legislation through the Senate with some amendments. It has to go back to the lower house for final approval.

Let’s get this show on the road and see what today brings us!