Australia news LIVE: Joyce mulls One Nation defection; Israel launches first attack on Beirut in months

As MPs return to Parliament House this week, Barnaby Joyce will continue to keep his distance from the Nationals’ party room, saying he doesn’t think it’s fair for him to be sitting in on private discussions.

Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce at a CPAC Christmas Party event on Saturday.

“I don’t think it’s fair for them and it’s not fair for me because obviously, you become privy to private conversations. They might want to have a private conversation about me,” Joyce told journalists in Canberra this morning.

The renegade MP has been mulling a defection to One Nation, but said he would wait until parliament rises to make any decision known. Hanson and Joyce met on stage at a Conservative Political Action Conference “Christmas Party” event in Brisbane on Saturday where VIP guests could pay $1000 to have dinner with the pair.

Last week One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said she was inviting Joyce to a home-cooked steak dinner during this sitting week of parliament to discuss his future. Joyce said he had yet to be formally invited.

“She hasn’t actually rung me up officially. I’ve been invited on television [sic], I’m waiting for a personal invite … I suppose it’s all colour isn’t it. Colour and movement,” Joyce said.

Liberal backbencher Jane Hume has criticised Environment Minister Murray Watt for “rushing” the government’s environmental reforms through parliament.

“I don’t understand exactly why, with a 1500-page piece of legislation, we need to rush it through in just a couple of weeks. There is time to get this right. It’s too important to get wrong,” Hume told Sky this morning.

Liberal backbencher Jane Hume.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Watt told the ABC this morning that there was “no doubt” in his mind the reforms would pass the Senate this week as politicians in Canberra kick off the last parliamentary sitting week of the year.

“The rush to get it done now… is from the government side of things. Murray Watt would like to have his desk cleared by Christmas. That’s not the role of the parliament. It’s certainly not the role of the Senate to make an environment minister’s life easier at Christmas time,” Hume said.

“We want to make sure that these laws are properly scrutinised. It’s a very thick, dense piece of legislation, and it’s too important to get wrong.”

The government’s contentious environmental reforms will pass the Senate this week before parliament rises for the summer break as negotiations with the Greens and the Coalition continue, Environment Minister Murray Watt has said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the parliament will be passing these much needed reforms to our national environment laws, and it’ll happen this week. The only question now is whether it will happen with the support of the Coalition or the Greens,” Watt told the ABC this morning.

Loading

“Both the Coalition and the Greens have got a really important choice to make about whether they want to be part of reforming these laws in a way that strengthens our environmental protections while also speeding up the approval processes for things like housing and renewables, or whether they want to sit on the sidelines and see the other one run past them. This is going to happen this week,” he said.

Labor needs the support of either the Coalition or the Greens to pass the bill in the Senate, and has offered both parties concessions. The Greens have been offered alterations to native forest logging and the approvals of coal and gas projects. The Coalition has been offered amendments to limit environment protection “stop work” orders and requirements on the federal EPA to provide more evidence to justify them.

“The Coalition want more changes made to support business. The Greens want more changes made to support the environment. And you will remember what I’ve always said through this process is that we need to have a balanced package that delivers wins for both the environment and for business. It’s not one or the other. We need to get both,” Watt said.

“We believe that the package that we introduced and have now passed through the House of Representatives does provide that balanced package. So in the end, I suspect that we’ll end up going with whichever of those two parties is more prepared to come closer to the package that we’ve already passed through the House of Reps.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O’Brien has criticised the government this morning for what he has labelled a “refusal” to engage with the Coalition on its environmental reforms, as Labor looks to the Greens to pass the new laws.

“I don’t know why they’ve taken so long and they refuse to actually really engage in good faith. So I’m hoping that [Environment Minister] Murray Watt changes his tune and engages proactively with the Coalition on it today,” he told Nine’s Today show.

Australia has been trying to pass environmental reforms for a number of years, following a landmark independent review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), which is now 25 years old.

Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O’Brien. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The Albanese government has offered the Greens a proposed alteration on native forest logging – which would not end it but would introduce stricter environmental standards – as it tries to secure an agreement that would usher through its environmental laws in the last parliamentary sitting week of the year.

“The only document that counts for households in this argument is your power bill. And power bills have gone up 40 per cent since Labor came to office. That’s got to be our focus. That should be the focus of Albanese and [Energy Minister] Chris Bowen too,” O’Brien said.

European leaders are seeking a deal with US President Donald Trump to amend his peace plan for Ukraine after warning it would leave the war-torn country exposed by scaling back its army and forcing it to cede land to Russia.

Loading

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted the 28-point peace deal was written by the US and not the Kremlin amid a revolt from Republicans concerned it is effectively a Russian “wish list”.

Rubio flatly rejected that characterisation of the briefings. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he wrote on X. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”

The confusion comes as European leaders push for a rival 24-point peace plan that seeks to maintain pressure on Russia by holding sanctions in place and allowing foreign defence forces to be stationed on Ukrainian soil.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says the peace plan requires a difficult choice. Credit: Bloomberg

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not rule out the possibility of an agreement.

“Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice,” he said in a broadcast to the Ukrainian people. “Either the loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner.”

Israel’s military says it has killed a senior Hezbollah figure in a strike in Beirut, its first attack in the Lebanese capital in months.

The military, in a statement, described Haytham Tabtabai as the Iran-backed militant group’s chief of staff. Hezbollah did not immediately comment. Tabtabai had led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit.

Security officers gather near destroyed vehicles at the site where an Israeli strike hit at an apartment building in Dahiyeh, Beirut.Credit: AP

Civil Defence workers inspect site of the attack.Credit: AP

In 2016, the United States designated Tabtabai as a terrorist, calling him a military leader who led Hezbollah’s special forces in Syria and Yemen, and it offered up to $US5 million ($7.7 million) for information about him.

The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight killed five people and wounded 25 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

AP

The Albanese government has offered the Greens a deal sweetener on native forest logging as it tries to secure an agreement that would usher through its totemic environmental laws in the last parliamentary sitting week of the year.

The Greens are considering a concession to have native forestry fall under the proposed National Environmental Standards after a three-year transitional period. Yesterday, Environment Minister Murray Watt held a press conference in the Greens’ only lower house electorate to try to increase pressure for the minor party’s support.

Ending the parliamentary year with a win on environment reform would be a triumph for the government, which scrapped a previous attempt before the May election.

The Greens are reviewing the proposed alteration from the government, which would not end native forest logging but would introduce stricter environmental standards. Environment spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the change was welcome, but the time frame would take too long.

“Another three years of destroying our forests … I don’t think in any way deals with the urgency of protecting our native forests now,” Hanson-Young told the ABC TV’s Insiders on Sunday.