Australia news as it happened: Talkback radio veteran John Laws dies aged 90; BBC boss and news chief quit over Trump video outrage

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Not since former Qantas boss Alan Joyce was stripped of $9 million in bonus pay have we witnessed a former chief executive’s hip pocket denuded like ANZ’s former boss Shayne Elliott’s.

His bonus payment has been ransacked to the tune of $13.5 million as a result of a series of regulatory failures under his watch that cost the bank $240 million in fines and unmeasurable damage to its reputation.

In doing so, the ANZ has created a new high watermark for executive remuneration consequences.

Such an outcome might have the hallmarks of public relations gold for accountability, but the ANZ’s board has endured intense pressure from shareholders that had been unhappy with incumbent pay deals and hit the bank with a shareholder first strike last year on its remuneration report.

Read the full analysis here.

Australians could be delivered another subsidy within weeks by the Albanese government to reduce their power bills as signs grow that the Reserve Bank has finished cutting official interest rates.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday gave his clearest signal yet that the government is considering an extension to the $75-a-quarter power bill relief that is due to end with the calendar year in a move that would cost the budget up to $2 billion.

The subsidy, which went to all households and many small businesses, was extended for six months in this year’s budget. Along with substantially larger state government subsidies, it helped push down electricity prices.

Without those subsidies, electricity prices would have climbed by 22.2 per cent since mid-2023. Instead, they have lifted by 8.2 per cent.

But the end of the state subsidies and the impending demise of the federal assistance have increased concern among voters about the cost of living. The most recent Resolve Political Monitor found 42 per cent of respondents said the single policy that mattered most to them was “keeping the cost of living low”.

Read the full article. 

Just in from our US foreign correspondent Michael Koziol: The longest federal government shutdown in US history is poised to end after a number of centrist Democrats in the Senate broke ranks to support a bill that would restart funding and reverse the lay-offs of thousands of federal workers fired during the 40-day closure.

In a late-night session on Sunday (Monday AEDT), enough Democrats signed up to a plan to reopen the government – relenting on their demands for an immediate extension of expiring healthcare subsidies – that it should pass despite the objections of some colleagues.

The decision – which some Democrats will see as a capitulation – came as the consequences of the protracted shutdown intensified, with a dearth of air traffic controllers forcing mass flight cancellations, and millions of Americans losing food stamps they depend on to feed their families.

“This is a true crisis for those individuals,” said Angus King, a Democratic senator from Maine, explaining his decision to support the compromise.

Read the full article here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied that the government is sitting on a report into “jobs for mates” because it has appointed several former Labor politicians to taxpayer-funded roles.

In recent days, the government has handed jobs to former Labor politicians including former WA state MP Peter Tinley, who was given a seat on the council overseeing the War Memorial, and Jay Weatherill, a former SA premier. He will be Australia’s high commissioner to the UK.

Asked whether those appointments are linked to the government refusing to release a 2023 report on “jobs for mates” in the public service, which Labor commissioned after coming to office, Albanese gave a one word answer: “No.”

As a result of senate pressure, the report is now scheduled to be released by December 31.

Back to the Liberal Party’s internal ructions, where senator Sarah Henderson has doubled down on her criticism of Opposition Leader Sussan Ley after copping backlash from an upper house colleague.

Henderson told reporters in Canberra last week that internal Coalition fractures were the worst she’d ever seen and Ley was “losing support”.

Senator Maria Kovacic this morning said she was disappointed by Henderson’s comments, labelling them unhelpful and undisciplined. Henderson told Sky News she rejected the criticism.

“I’m not going to add to my comments, other than to reiterate that from the backbench, we can agree to disagree. So there’s nothing undisciplined about that,” Henderson said.

“One of the really big hallmarks with Liberal Party backbenchers is that we are entitled to speak our mind.

“I do commend Sussan for bringing us all together on Wednesday to thrash this out. And I’m really hoping … that we reject net zero in its entirety because it’s not fit for purpose for a country such as ours.”