Australian news and politics live: Ley leadership doubts swirl as net zero debate divides Coalition

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You can read tonight’s edition of The Nightly below:

Boomer retirees, not workers, are the surprise losers from Australia’s renewed inflation problem that could delay or cancel interest rate cuts next year.

Age pensioners suffered a whopping 3.9 per cent increase in living costs in the three months ending September 30, well above the 3.2 per cent rate of inflation across the economy, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures said on Wednesday.

Employees’ living costs rose by 2.6 per cent, which was near the middle of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 2-to-3 per cent target. Self-funded retirees’ living costs rose 2.8 per cent.

Grattan Institute economist Matthew Bowes said older Australians on fixed incomes were suffering the most from price rises.

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South Australia’s top cop has moved to defend the search efforts for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont, more than five weeks after he vanished from his family’s remote sheep station.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said two reviews had found no flaws in the way the search had been conducted as he revealed police intended to conduct a fourth search of the property.

Gus vanished from his family’s Oak Park Station homestead on September 27. He was last by his grandmother playing outside on a mound of dirt and wearing a blue Minions shirt about 5pm. When she went looking for him half an hour later he was gone.

His disappearance sparked one of the longest and most intensive search efforts ever undertaken by South Australian police.

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Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has won the race for New York Mayor, becoming the first Muslim to lead New York City.

Decision Desk HQ made the call shortly after polls closed.

Mamdani won the Democratic primary earlier in 2025 was facing off against former governor Andrew Cuomo, who was running as an independent, and perennial Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who was trying to land a massive upset.

At 34, Mamdani will be the city’s youngest mayor in over a century.

Woodside Energy has played down forecasts of an LNG supply glut as it backed in gas and oil to still be providing the lion’s share of its earnings well into the 2030s.

Australia’s biggest independent energy company told investors on Wednesday that oil and gas were expected to make up 90 per cent of Woodside next decade as it tipped production to jump at least 50 per cent to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2032.

Chief executive Meg O’Neill said the growth would be dominated by existing and new fossil fuel projects in the US and Australia, supplemented by “focused” investments in new energy opportunities.

The combination, she told an investors’ briefing in Sydney, would help set “a pathway” for Woodside to achieve a 50 per cent increase in dividends out to 2032.

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Jake Weatherald is a step closer to a potential Test debut in The Ashes opener in Perth, but Mitch Marsh won’t receive a stunning call-up after being left out of Australia’s squad.

The Aussies announced a 15-man squad for the Optus Stadium fixture, with Weatherald included as an opening option on the back of strong form at Sheffield Shield level.

Marsh had been touted by some as a left-field opening option, but missed selection in what head selector George Bailey said was a difficult call.

Dashing young opener Sam Konstas was left out, having not made a score above 25 in nine Test innings since his blazing 60 on debut last Boxing Day, while there was also no room for Matt Renshaw.

​Read the full story here.​

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says the list of platforms covered by Australia’s under 16s ban will “always change” as platforms evolve.

It’s after Communications Minister Anika Wells announced Reddit and video streaming platform Kick would join six more well-known apps, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, in the world-first restrictions.

“This is a dynamic list and it will always change,” Ms Grant said.

“Companies have been told to continue self-assessing.

“When we assessed Roblox, online gaming was the sole and significant purpose. Chat functionality exists, but without gaming, kids would probably not use it.

“If a platform starts becoming more like social media, we will seek to capture them.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells says Australia is set to give kids a “three-year reprieve from algorithms, toxic popularity metres and harmful content manipulating Australian children,” confirming Reddit and Kick will join social media giants facing a strict under-16 ban in just over a month.

“E-safety has assessed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Threads, Reddit and Kick as age-restricted platforms,” Ms Wells said.

“From 10 December, these services must take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from holding accounts and failure to do so could warrant fines of up to $49.5 million.”

“Online platforms use technology to target children with chilling control. We are merely asking they use that same technology to keep children safe online.

“I want parents to have the ability to tell their children, ‘it is against the law for me to let you use this platform.’

“The statistics speak for themselves. The need to act is clear.”

China has been accused of widespread intellectual property theft and political meddling, with Australia’s spy chief also claiming Beijing fails to understand how Western intelligence services operate.

After addressing the Lowy Institute in Sydney, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess was asked why he didn’t mention China in his speech.

In front of an audience at Sydney’s Town Hall, the ASIO boss responded that he would continue to call out the rising superpower for harming Australian interests.

“We all spy on each other, but we don’t conduct wholesale intellectual property theft. We don’t actually interfere with political systems and we don’t undertake high-harm activity”.

“Every time I’ve done that (called China out), there’s an army of Chinese government officials that go around complaining to almost everyone in this country across the system — public and private — but not to me.” Mr Burgess said.

“If they were as smart as they should be -- and they are smart -- they would understand a Western liberal democracy and the role and the statutory standing of the security service. We work for the government of the day but our security assessments and our security action are independent”.

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With immigration concerns high and a broader “anti-woke” base than previous years, One Nation is attracting older Australians and disaffected coalition voters as support swells to record levels.

And perhaps more significantly, party operatives have been buoyed by new members across the country, leading to more branches.

The resurgence of the party founded and led by Queensland senator Pauline Hanson has been confirmed with a pair of polls within days registering 15 per cent support.

That means one in seven voters told both Essential and Newspoll they’d vote for the minor, right-wing party if an election were held.

It also represents a new, high-water mark for the party across its 28-year history, and well above its 6.4 per cent nationwide vote at the May election.

The figure is no outlier, with other pollsters Redbridge (14 per cent), YouGov, Resolve and Roy Morgan (all 12 per cent) also putting the party’s support in double figures.

“It’s definitely a surge,” YouGov polling director Amir Daftari told AAP.

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