Australia news as it happened: Barnaby Joyce quits the Nationals; Hong Kong apartment fire death toll climbs

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:

• Barnaby Joyce formally resigned from the Nationals, ending his 20-year parliamentary career with the party he twice led as he confirmed he was “strongly considering” running for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation as a Senate candidate.

• Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in more than half a century spotlighted its risky use of flammable bamboo scaffolding and mesh for building work in a tradition dating back centuries to mainland China. The death toll from the disaster continues to climb, and we have been following developments in a dedicated live blog here.
• DFAT is not aware of any Australians affected by the Hong Kong fire at this stage.

• The Albanese government secured a historic deal with the Greens to pass major reforms to national environment laws.
• In NSW, the Liberal Party is on the hook for more than $100,000 in legal costs incurred by teal MP Nicolette Boele in defending its challenge to her election in the Sydney seat of Bradfield.
• Tasmania’s credit rating has been downgraded by a second credit agency over concerns about the size of its debt and deficit.
• And, in further world news, US President Donald Trump has declared the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, an act of terror and a crime against America, as a fresh political war over immigration looms following the crime.

Thanks again for joining us, we will be back tomorrow with more live news updates. This is Cassandra Morgan, signing off.

Independent MP Allegra Spender has asked a particularly meta question during question time, on the topic of … question time.

“Many constituents complain to me that question time is question time and not answer time, and that’s driven by the standing orders that don’t actually force real answers from the government,” Spender said.

“They say to me that it means that we don’t hold the government to account in the same way that they expect us to in this House. I ask the prime minister, have you considered reforming question time to give a greater expectation of answers, and in narrowing of relevance, so we can get better answers in this house?”

Anthony Albanese said Australia had the “most accountable parliament in the world”, and compared it with countries like Indonesia, India and the UK.

“There’s no parliament in the world in which a government is more accountable than this government, and Australian governments of both persuasions. That is just a fact,” Albanese said.

The prime minister did not say if he was considering reforming question time.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has offered a broadside attack on the prime minister’s governance, saying he has failed in his job since his election in 2022.

“In his self-described year of delivery, and after [3½] years of Labor, the prime minister has delivered the largest decline in living standards in the developed world,” Ley said.

“Lower productivity, more debt, higher inflation and now, as many economists warn, the real prospect of higher interest rates.

“Prime minister, on this final sitting day of 2025, will the prime minister finally take responsibility for all these failures?”

Anthony Albanese disputed her statement, saying the government had reduced debt and interest on that debt, provided budget surpluses and cut inflation.

“All of it opposed by those opposite. All of it opposed by a Coalition that’s just too busy fighting each other to fight for Australians,” Albanese said.

Independent MP Monique Ryan has asked Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke about the government’s dealings with Nauru, on the last parliamentary sitting day of the year.

Here’s Ryan’s question:

In the last three months, the government has signed a secret MOU to pay Nauru at least $2.5 billion to house an undisclosed number of asylum seekers.

Allegations of corruption have been made against multiple members of the Nauru government, and it’s been reported that Australian bikie gangs have won contracts to manage security on Nauru.

Minister, is it your position that the opacity, wastefulness and cruelty of these arrangements reflects well on this country?”

Burke responded by saying:

When I first came into that portfolio, the boats were at the highest rate they had ever been and there was a real human cost in that. I had 33 people die on my watch, drown at sea.

The youngest of them was a baby. His name was Abdul. Today, he should be 12. He should be 12 today. But he’s not. And to make sure that we have a pathway to stop that trade in misery is an important and decent thing for Australia to do.”

The minister said Ryan had ignored people “who have committed serious crimes in Australia” in her question.

“As a nation, it is right and proper that any country is able to have control of its visa system. And almost everybody, almost everybody who is in Australia on a visa, is a good guest in this country, respects this country and is welcome here,” Burke said.

The opposition has so far asked three questions about the government’s promise of a $275 energy bill reduction, which was brought to the 2022 election.

Opposition energy spokesperson Dan Tehan asked during question time: “When will Australians see a $275 reduction in their retail power bills?”

Energy Minister Chris Bowen acknowledged that energy prices were too high, but said the government was working to lower them.

“We’re doing that by introducing more supply into the system, reversing the situation where four gigawatts of dispatchable left the grid and only one gigawatt came on, reversing that,” he said.

“Making sure more energy is connected to the system, providing short-term bill relief in the meantime – something we have done three times, the honourable member opposed three times.

“It takes some gall to oppose energy bill relief and then come in here and demand energy bills should be lower.”