Australian news and politics live: SA Premier Malinauskas labels process for COP31 hosting rights ‘obscene’

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has labelled the process to bid for hosting rights of the COP climate summit as “quite frankly obscene”.

The Premier’s sour tone about the UN process, which requires a consensus with a string of nations in the same grouping, comes after Turkey has managed to secure the 2026 COP31 event over Australia.

Mr Malinauskas said he was “disappointed” Adelaide won’t have the chance to host the event, adding the result comes after Australia had to “navigate the quite frankly obscene process that exists internationally”.

“It’s very clear that the rest of the world largely would have preferred COP to be in Adelaide,” he said.

“It’s really disappointing that Turkiye’s expression to veto despite the will of the rest of the world.”

As part of the compromise between rival Turkey and Australia’s bids for the COP31 climate summit in 2026, Climate Minister Chirs Bowen has been appointed as a “COP president”.

After years of negotiations the nations have come to the deal that the Pacific hosts a “pre-COP” event, Mr Bowen receives a significant presidency role but Turkey ultimately gains hosting rights of the climate conference.

While the host nation always gets the COP presidency rights at the event — meaning Turkey will have that this year — Mr Bowen has been appointed president of negotiations in the lead up to the summit.

It means he’ll attend various engagements globally, deliver speeches and help shape debate in the lead up to the next COP summit.

“Basically, as COP president of negotiations, I would have all the powers of the COP presidency to manage, to handle the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text and to issue a cover decision,” Mr Bowen said, when asked to explain the nuance between the two presidency gigs.

“Obviously it’s tradition that the COP president is the host and handles the venues and the operation of the COP session.”

Anthony Albanese says the location of the pre-COP event in the Pacific will be decided by leaders in the region.

Speaking outside ABC Perth on Thursday, the Prime Minister said he had been up at 4am talking to his Climate Minister Chris Bowen in Brazil about the COP bid compromise.

If a deal wasn’t struck by the end of this week’s COP30 summit in Brazil, hosting rights would have defaulted to Germany’s city of Bonn.

“We didn’t want the conference to go to Bonn. We consulted our Pacific neighbours. What we did is come up with an outstanding result,” he said.

“Part of that will be a pre-COP meeting to be held in the Pacific at a location to be determined by our Pacific family friends.

“That will enable us to invite world leaders to make sure that the issues confronting this region… will be front and centre,

o it’s an outstanding outcome.

“The fact that we have managed to secure a significant role for the Pacific as part of this, that’s enough to offset the loss of Adelaide as host.

“I thank Turkiye as well for the constructive engagement. Two countries putting bids, they both have compromised which is in the interests of climate change action.”

Sussan Ley tells people to “watch this space” for the Coalition’s immigration policy, which she has pledged to release over the next couple of weeks.

The Opposition Leader said her party is “looking at the integrity of the entire system” as it considered which visa classes should be cut or restricted to bring migration numbers down.

“This is not a failing of any migrant or migrant community, it is a failing of infrastructure delivery in this country,” she says.

“Unfortunately, the infrastructure has fallen well behind.

“Labor governments have not got this right. Communities are telling me everywhere I go in Australia that the pressures on roads, schools, hospitals and public transport mean that balance is not right.”

The Opposition’s immigration policy might only offer underpinning principles to start with.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insists a failed three-year bid to host the COP31 climate conference is still a “big win” because a settlement reached with Turkey will still see Australia playing a leading role.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced on Thursday that as part of the deal he has been appointed COP31 president for the process of negotiations and that a Pacific destination will host a “pre-COP” event.

Mr Albanese has declined to say how much the government has spent on the failed hosting bit but says it was a “relatively small amount” that had the benefit of promoting Adelaide to the world.

“What we’ve come up with is a big win for both Australia and Turkey,” Mr Albanese told the ABC in Perth before he flies to the G20 meeting in South Africa.

“It is because our priority our bid was Australia and the Pacific co-hosting. So what has been agreed is that Chris Bowen Australia will be COP President, for negotiations, the conference and the cop presidency will go to Turkey and there’ll be a pre COP meeting, particularly focusing on climate financing.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has described COP — which is the world’s main conference to work together to tackle climate change — as a “talkfest”.

It comes as Turkey beat a rival bid by Australian to host COP31 in 2026 after both nations came to a compromise on the sidelines of the COP30 summit in Brazil this week.

“I think Turkey is doing the Australian Government a big favour because we had a $12 billion deficit last year,” Ms Ley said.

“We’re hearing (that there is a) $42 billion deficit this coming year. (And he) wants to spend $2 billion on hosting a talk-fest here and at the same time can’t look Australians in the eye and answer a simple question — which is when will energy prices come down?”

In a press conference on Thursday morning in Melbourne the Liberal leader doubled down — calling it a “largely symbolic gathering”.

She also continued their criticism of the Labor Government for pitching to host the costly event as Australian household energy bills rise.

“The COP summit is a largely symbolic gathering of, I think, about 200 countries. What I want from every exercise that this government engages with is a real demonstration of how they are going to bring prices down.”

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Australians aged under 16 are warned they have two weeks until their accounts are scrubbed from several popular social media platforms.

Three weeks out from Australia’s world-leading social media ban kicks in on December 10, Meta will begin notifying teen users they will lose access to Instagram, Threads and Facebook.

YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and live-streaming platform Kick are also included in the ban, while popular gaming platform Roblox remains exempt for now.

These platforms have been included in the ban because their “sole or significant purpose is to enable online social interaction between two or more users”, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has said.

Read the full story here.

Australia’s Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced on Thursday that as part of the deal he has been appointed as a COP31 president and that a Pacific destination will host a “pre-COP” event.

Mr Bowen admitted some people would be “disappointed” with the outcome but insisted they would be “more disappointed” if the conference defaulted to Germany’s city of Bonn.

“Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all, but we can’t have all,” Mr Bowen said.

“It was important to strike an agreement with Turkey, our competitor.

“I believe the model that I’ve talked about; ‘pre-COP’ in the Pacific, Australia as president of the COP for the purposes of negotiations… and the COP being held in

and therefore avoiding it going to Germany

is a model which achieves those objectives.”

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in four Israeli air strikes in a part of the Gaza Strip under Hamas control since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, health authorities say.

Medics said 10 people were killed in the Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun, two in Shejaia suburb to the east and the rest in two separate attacks in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said its forces struck Hamas targets across the strip after members of the Palestinian militant group fired on its troops in violation of the nearly six-week-old ceasefire.

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A state Liberal party leader is digging in as speculation mounts he will face a party room spill.

Two challengers - Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane and Wahroonga MP Alistair Henskens - are gunning for NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman’s position.

But the affable Mr Speakman is fighting back as Parliament wraps up for the year.

“My intention is to battle on,” he told conservative host Ben Fordham on 2GB on Thursday.

“I would expect anyone who wants to be the leader, who wants to knock me off ... would come and tell me and no one has.”

He blamed the political fallout from his federal colleagues as filtering down to the most populous state.

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