What we learned – Thursday 20 November
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, will set out her priorities on defence preparedness and energy security in a speech to the Menzies Institute tonight. Ley will also focus on Australia’s role in resolving tensions within our region but warns Australia will have to “credibly deter others” from using force by increasing Australia’s military power and honour commitments it has made to defend friends and allies.
Tropical Cyclone Fina has intensified into a category 2 weather system and turned south towards the Northern Territory coast. Communities were preparing for it to hit.
Australian Facebook and Instagram users under 16 will be notified starting Thursday that their accounts will be deactivated by 10 December, as Meta begins to comply with the Albanese government’s social media ban.
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.
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.
The South Australia premier, Peter Malinauskas, complained of “frankly obscene” process that ended in Cop31 going to Turkey instead of Adelaide.
NSW police sprayed an 87-year-old with capsicum spray at a south-west Sydney aged care home yesterday.
ACT police arrested an Indigenous teenager on a bus at gunpoint last week and allegedly “slammed him on to the ground” before realising they had apprehended the wrong person.
The NSW opposition leader, Mark Speakman, stood down as leader of the NSW Liberals, after a day of drama in which he resisted moderate colleagues’ urgings to resign. The party’s health spokesperson, Kellie Sloane, is expected to succeed him as leader when the party room meets.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.
Updated
Kellie Sloane thanks Mark Speakman for leadership, endorsement
Kellie Sloane has thanked Mark Speakman for his endorsement of her candidacy for the leadership of the NSW Liberal party following his resignation, and confirmed she will nominate for the vacant position tomorrow.
In a statement shared to journalists just now, she says:
“I have enormous respect for Mark and thank him for his leadership of our party. I appreciate his endorsement of me this evening.”
Sloane says she will not make further comment until after the Liberal party room meeting to decide the new leader tomorrow morning.
Updated
