Australian news and politics live: Russell Crowe jokes while delivering heartfelt eulogy at John Laws’ funeral

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has derided Sussan Ley’s new energy policy, suggesting it has been written by children and compared it to the new “six-seven” catchphrase popular in primary schools.

During a media conference at Perth’s Garden Island Mr Albanese stepped up his criticisms of the Coalition’s reworked climate and energy policies after the opposition dumped its commitment to a net-zero emissions target.

“I really think that the policy has been written by kids,” Mr Albanese told reporters at HMAS Stirling naval base as he attacked the opposition’s new policy.

“If you go into a local school here, primary school, you’ll have local kids stand up and they’ll say, ‘6-7, 6-7’. It’s a big thing. It’s driving teachers crazy.”

“Well, six-seven. What does it mean? It means nothing, a bit like the pamphlet that they’ve put out.”

What does 6-7 actually mean?

Two of Australia’s banking chiefs have told Canberra’s lawmakers that new gas investments should play a pivotal role in the shift to renewable energy as part of a drive to meet net zero emission targets.

At a parliamentary Economics Committee on Wednesday, National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Irvine said Australia “should be an energy superpower” given its abundant natural resources.

Mr Irvine also said his bank was ready and willing to lend to new gas development projects amid forecasts that Australia’s eastern states face gas supply shortfalls by 2028

“We have significant capacity as a bank to lend to natural gas for domesic resources,” Mr Irvine said. “I think there is too much debate here around net zero and energy prices being incompatible with each other and I strongly believe that is the wrong narrative.”

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Country music legend John Williamson delivered an acoustic performance of his iconic anthem, True Blue.

A close friend of the late John Laws, Williamson’s compositions were a defining feature of Laws’ radio show.

Known for writing and singing several self-congratulatory jingles specifically for Laws, Williamson’s connection to the broadcaster went beyond friendship. Laws would often open his hour with these jingles, penned and performed by Williamson, adding a personal touch to his program.

Russell Crowe is delivering a eulogy for radio legend John Laws, and says “he believed in me”.

He started his speech with a joke:

“A long, long time ago, John asked me if I would speak at his funeral. I said yes, and then he just kept on living. Year after year after year, I mean he lived so long that I thought at one point I might have lost the gig, however, here we are.”

“The very first time that I met John, he gave me the impression he believes in me. That is an undervalued gift. To instill confidence in others.

“I can probably confidently say that we hardly ever agreed on anything... However, we did agree that we liked each other’s company, and our different perspectives never stopped us from making each other laugh.

“He had an eye for composition and beauty, a nose for a good story, and beauty, a nose for a good story, and the heart of a lion. He was loyal, warm, and he lived life to the full.”

The state funeral for John Laws, the iconic Australian broadcaster who shaped radio in the nation for more than seven decades, is currently underway at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

The service opened with a stirring rendition of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’ El Presidente — the song famously known as the theme to Laws’ radio program, accompanied by his iconic greeting, “Hello world, I’m John Laws.”

The cathedral choir performed a hymn before Archbishop Kanishka Raffel offered a formal welcome to the gathered congregation, which includes family, friends, colleagues, and notable figures from across Australia.

Among those in attendance is former Prime Minister John Howard, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and NSW Premier Chris Minns.

Speaking outside the cathedral, John Howard admitted he never uncovered Laws’ secret to success. “He takes it to the grave,” Mr Howard told reporters.

Mr Howard also praised Laws alongside other great broadcasters, calling him “one of the greats, along with Alan Jones and Neil Mitchell.”

Wages have grown by 3.4 per cent in the year to September, in line with economist and Reserve Bank expectations.

While there was no change in the annual wage price index from the previous quarter, an intervening surge in inflation has eroded the improvement to workers’ incomes in real terms.

Real wages continued to grow for an eighth straight quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics report on Wednesday.

But after an inflation-adjusted increase of 1.3 per cent in the June quarter, real wages growth shrank to 0.2 per cent in September as a result of inflation rising to 3.2 per cent.

As expected by the forecasting consensus, wages grew 0.8 per cent in the three months to September 30.

“Annual wage growth remained steady compared to the June quarter 2025 but was slightly lower than this time last year,” said the bureau’s head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt.

​Read the full story.​

A war of words has erupted between current and former Liberal members after an ex-senator quit the party in disgust at the behaviour of some MPs.

Hollie Hughes, who lost her Senate seat at the last federal election, resigned from the Liberals on Tuesday, accusing some of her former colleagues of undermining Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.

“There are some people who are completely inept, who are lazy, who are not across the details,” she told 2GB radio.

“It is an absolute rabble.”

Ms Hughes also accused the conservative faction of using women to do the undermining, singling out Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Sarah Henderson.

“(They) are being used, quite frankly, by the boys who want to challenge but don’t have the gumption to go out and say anything themselves,” Ms Hughes said.

On Wednesday Senator Nampijinpa Price issued a fiery response on the same radio station.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he won’t be attending the opening day of the Ashes in Perth this Friday, because he has to attend the G20 meeting in South Africa but is predicting Australia will win the series 5-nil.

Appearing on Perth radio station 96FM Mr Albanese has revealed he’s planning to attend other test matches over the summer.

“I am hoping to get to the SCG test this year. I’ll get there, and maybe the Boxing Day. We’ll see how we go.”

ANZ new chief executive Nuno Mato said the 4500 redundancies, equivalent to more than 10 per cent of the bank’s workforce, were necessary to reduce duplication of roles and simplify the bank.

“It’s not something I am proud of, it’s not something a human being likes to do,” Mr Matos said of the redundancies. “The company was and still is too complex, there were a lot of initiatives that were not aligned to the objective of the company.”

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