As it happened: Albanese meets Xi Jinping at G20 summit; Alan Jones faces more assault charges

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major stories:

• Alan Jones has been hit by fresh criminal charges as the number of his alleged victims grows to nine and high-profile supporters of the former broadcaster splinter over whether to continue publicly backing the accused abuser.

• Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he tanked Labor’s international student caps because they pandered to rich city universities whose students were furthering the housing crisis, as he promised deeper cuts to migration under a Coalition government.

• The Coalition will wave Labor’s contentious bill to strip big money out of politics through the House of Representatives, ignoring the fears of independents that the proposed election laws would make it harder for them to take on the major parties.

• In NSW, the state government has warned commuters the passenger rail network will shut down for three days from Thursday in a major escalation of a pay dispute with its workforce.

• In Victoria, convicted murderer Gregory Lynn will appeal against his conviction and sentence, and has formally lodged documents to fight to clear his name over the killing of camper Carol Clay.

• In Queensland, Brisbane City Council’s transport figurehead has conceded the administration might have “failed in communicating” its expectation that the much-hyped start of its $1.55 billion Metro bus project was only a trial.

• In Western Australia, one of the WA Liberals’ staunchest pro-life advocates, Nick Goiran, has brushed aside internal party concerns that abortion will flare up as a state election issue as he prepares to speak alongside some of the pro-life movement’s most controversial figures.

• In business news, Bunnings says it will seek a review of the privacy commissioner’s determination that it breached the privacy of hundreds of thousands of customers using facial recognition technology (FRT).

• In international news, Australian man Gordon Ng has been jailed for seven years and three months by a Hong Kong court in a mass sentencing of pro-democracy activists.

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The Australian sharemarket has hit another record high.

The S&P/ASX closed at 8374 points on Tuesday afternoon – 0.9 per cent higher than yesterday.

Tech and energy stocks led the market gains, but all 11 industry sectors rose.

The bullish session came after US stocks steadied overnight, with the S&P 500 ending 0.4 per cent higher for the first gain in three days.

The Australian dollar also strengthened on Tuesday, trading at 65.05 US cents as of 4.30pm AEDT.

Read a five-minute market wrap here.

Parents will not be able to give consent for their children to use social media under a blanket ban proposed by the Albanese government.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced everyone under the age of 16 would be included in the ban, which has sparked concerns kids will be barred from health and education information while others claim it will protect their mental health.

However, Labor is yet to specify which social media companies would be captured. While Instagram, TikTok and X – formerly Twitter – are likely to be affected, others may be exempt.

In a Labor partyroom meeting today, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland was asked if parents would be allowed to consent to their children being on social media at a younger age. She responded: “No.”

Rowland said people using social media would not have to upload proof of identity directly to those platforms when minimum age requirements kick in. The government wants 12 months of consultation to figure out exactly how the ban will be enforced.

“The opposition is the only party arguing that people should upload 100 points of ID and give it to TikTok,” she told the meeting.

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Shadow finance minister Jane Hume has indicated the government will need to amend its proposed laws to curb election campaign donations to win Coalition support, despite some crossbenchers already criticising the legislation as a major party stitch-up.

Earlier today, this masthead revealed the Coalition will wave Labor’s contentious bill through the House of Representatives, but wanted to move amendments in the Senate.

Shadow Minister for Finance Jane Hume.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Hume said she did not want “to foreshadow any amendments that might be necessary”. However, when asked if the Coalition would withhold support if Labor did not agree to any amendments, Hume said: “Well, this is not a bill we’re entirely comfortable with. The government know that, and the crossbench know that as well.”

Hume was later asked if the Coalition knew how much more money taxpayers might be giving to political parties, given private donations were set to be capped under the bill. In response, she said the Coalition “only saw the bill for the first time in its entirety last week” while it was formally introduced to parliament yesterday, meaning “all of that is pretty hard to navigate.”

Read more about the political donations reform here.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has confirmed Labor’s bill to cap foreign student numbers is dead in the Senate, reiterating the minor party would not pass the bill after the Coalition yesterday revealed it opposed it too.

“The Coalition will do whatever it does for its own purposes, but for us, we’re very clear: Universities need support, not cuts,” Bandt told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing this hour.

Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We’re not prepared to blame international students for problems like housing that they didn’t cause.”

Bandt said Labor’s bill would have “devastated” universities that now relied more on international students because of past funding cuts.

“They were – like us – rightly outraged by what was going be a very, very big attack on their ability to offer good quality education to everyone,” he said.

In contrast, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he tanked Labor’s international student caps because he believed they pandered to rich city universities whose students were furthering the housing crisis. He also promised deeper cuts to migration under a Coalition government.

Labor defector Fatima Payman has joined forces with CFMEU rebels fighting the government’s takeover of the rogue union, prompting the government to demand the senator rule out taking money from embattled construction figures.

The 29-year-old quit Labor in July when she broke party rules by crossing the floor of the Senate to support a Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood and has now teamed up with blue-collar unions that have pledged to spend millions against Labor in retaliation for the government’s reaction to alleged criminality in the CFMEU.

Senator Fatima Payman.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Payman is due to speak at a “defend the CFMEU” event in Melbourne on December 5 alongside sacked Queensland CFMEU leader Jade Ingham, who is leading the High Court challenge against laws placing branches into administration.

Read the full story here.

A Queensland mining technology company will be the first business to receive money from a multibillion-dollar federal manufacturing fund.

The Toowoomba-based Russell Mineral Equipment will get $40 million to keep manufacturing jobs in Australia under the Labor government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund.

The fund aims to drive investment in seven priority areas: resources, agriculture, transport, medical sciences, renewables and low-emissions technology and defence.

Industry Minister Ed Husic said this first investment – more than a year after the fund was set up – marked the start of the government’s plan to strengthen Australian manufacturing.

“It’s an investment we’ve made on behalf of the Australian people, an investment that will secure financial return, as well as keeping a great Aussie company in Aussie hands,” he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

Husic said announcements on other businesses in line for funding would be made soon, as this masthead reported last week. The decisions would be made independently, Husic said.

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Back in Canberra, Immigration Minister Tony Burke has accused the Coalition of deciding to increase net overseas migration after they announced yesterday they would block Labor’s international student cap bill.

During question time on Tuesday afternoon, Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan asked Burke if net overseas migration was higher or lower than under former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who famously once declared support for a “big Australia”.

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke attacks the opposition in question time.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

In response to Tehan’s question, Burke said: “I’m asked that on the exact day that those opposite commit publicly that they are going to vote to push net overseas migration higher – that’s a decision they have made today.

“Today they have made the decision and announced it in the press conference, where you can see them desperately trying … to talk about everything other than what they are trying to do.”

Burke added the Coalition’s decision meant “they will vote for more upward pressure” on population growth.

Three CFMEU-linked officials, including union firebrand Paddy Crumlin, will join the board of Cbus after they passed tests confirming they were “fit and proper” people to be appointed as directors.

The administrator of the disgraced construction union in September nominated Crumlin, Jason O’Mara and Lucy Weber to the board of the $94 billion superannuation fund.

Paddy Crumlin has been nominated to the board of Cbus.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

On Tuesday afternoon, Cbus announced all existing and new directors had satisfied the “fit and proper persons test” as part of a prudential regulator-ordered independent review, which is being conducted by Deloitte and is now expected to be handed down by the end of the year.

“Maintaining equal employer and union representation has been central to our success over 40 years, so we’re happy to welcome Jason back and look forward to Lucy and Paddy bringing their knowledge of our sectors to achieve the best possible retirement outcomes and meet the challenges of rapid growth,” a Cbus spokesman said.

Crumlin is the national president of the CFMEU and the national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, which is funding a High Court challenge against the federal government’s decision to place the construction union into administration. Crumlin was also the former chair of Maritime Super, which was ranked as the worst default super fund in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s first annual performance test in 2021.

O’Mara, the former ACT secretary of the construction union, had previously resigned from the Cbus board after administrator Mark Irving, KC declared he wanted a “clean sweep”.

Weber was nominated following the resignation of Rita Mallia, after she was sacked from her state construction president role.

The construction union retains its representation on the Cbus board even though it is under administration. Under the equal-representation governance model used by industry funds, union and employers get to choose several directors each.

Shortly before question time today, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton defended the Coalition’s decision to block Labor’s move to cap international student numbers, but ruled out proposing amendments while suggesting the legislation didn’t cut migration enough.

The Liberal leader said the bill “bakes in” high foreign student numbers that benefit the eight major Australian universities. “Why? Because it’s a unionised workforce,” Dutton said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton speaks in Canberra today.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

But the Group of Eight yesterday welcomed the Coalition’s stance that will kill Labor’s proposal, having previously called the government’s student cap bill “ill-conceived”.

Meanwhile, Dutton ruled out the Coalition proposing amendments to the bill.

“I just don’t think you can make such a bad bill better,” he said. “We will announce our caps and our reductions in due course.”

Asked how the issue of migration would be solved if his party voted against international student caps, Dutton said it would be resolved if he formed government.

“This problem can be solved with the change of government at the next election,” he said.

When the journalist argued that might not be until May next year, Dutton quipped: “I don’t think it’s going to be May next year.”