Australia news LIVE: More parliamentarians embroiled in expenses scandal; Teens face day two of social media ban

The Australian sharemarket has advanced at the open ahead of the release of the latest unemployment data, while Wall Street rose after the Federal Reserve lowered its main interest rate and hopes strengthened for more cuts to come in 2026.

The S&P/ASX 200 was up 51.9 points, or 0.6 per cent, in early trade, with 10 of 11 industry sectors in positive territory, with only healthcare stocks trading lower.

Investors will be glued to the release of the latest unemployment data, which will be out before midday. The consensus view among market economists has unemployment ticking up from 4.3 per cent to 4.4 per cent in November.

Miners bounced higher as the price of commodities strengthened. Iron ore giants Fortescue (up 2.7 per cent), Rio Tinto (up 2.4 per cent) and BHP (up 2.1 per cent) surged, while gold miners Evolution Mining and Newmont were both 2.5 per cent higher.

Financials stocks also advanced, with ANZ Bank jumping 1.1 per cent, Westpac rising 0.8 per cent and National Australia Bank adding 0.4 per cent. However, the Commonwealth Bank lost 0.3 per cent in early trade.

Read the full markets wrap here.

High Country killer Greg Lynn has won a high-stakes appeal over his conviction and 32-year prison sentence for the murder of Carol Clay.

Court of Appeal justices Karin Emerton, Phillip Priest and Peter Kidd today unanimously agreed Lynn’s conviction should be quashed and ordered that he face a retrial.

Emerton said that “serious irregularities in the course of the trial were not capable of being remedied”.

Emerton said the conduct of the trial may have resulted in serious injustice.

“A new trial will be ordered,” she said.

Lynn was found guilty of murdering Clay, 73, at a remote campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley, Victoria, in March 2020. He was cleared of the murder of Clay’s camping partner, Russell Hill, 74.

The former airline pilot had pleaded not guilty, claiming the elderly pair both died accidentally and he had panicked, bundling Clay and Hill’s bodies into the back of his trailer and hiding their remains before returning and burning them.

The financial regulator has slapped extra licence conditions on the super fund HESTA, citing concerns about its risk management and governance during a recent technology change that left members in the dark.

Earlier this year HESTA had a major technology upgrade that resulted in members being unable to access their accounts online for about six weeks, and there were also delays in its call centres.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) today said it had found “deficiencies” in the fund’s board governance and management of risks, which meant it was not properly prepared to manage the transition.

HESTA, which has about 1.1 million members and manages about $100 billion in retirement savings, must now conduct independent reviews of its risk management framework, and the effectiveness of its board.

“APRA expects trustees to demonstrate strong governance and risk management in their oversight of critical operations and material service providers. That responsibility is further heightened when a service that is critical to members is at risk,” said APRA’s deputy chair, Margaret Cole.

HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey apologised to the fund’s members, and said it was committed to implementing any improvements that are identified to better support members.

“We take the matters raised by APRA very seriously and are cooperating fully with the regulator to resolve them. ​We apologise to members who experienced delays during our transition to a new administration provider,” Blakey said.

“The change to a new administration platform in June was made with a long-term focus on delivering better, more personalised service to our members.”

Liberal senator James Paterson says Anika Wells’s use of parliamentary expenses proves a lack of judgement on the communications minister’s part.

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” he said.

“You’re also capable of exercising judgement, and one of the principles in both the ministerial code of conduct and in the rules for parliamentary expenses is they have to be publicly justifiable and in line with expectations.

“It’s very clear, whether it’s the $100,000 fights in New York City, the almost $2000 meal at a Michelin star restaurant in Paris… whether it’s the keeping contract driver waiting for 10 hours, that Anika Wells has consistently exercised very poor judgement and not upheld those reasonable community expectations,” Paterson told Sky News earlier this morning.

The furore over Wells’ spending, which began last week when it emerged that taxpayers spent $95,000 to fly her, a staffer and a senior public servant to the United Nations in New York, has opened a public debate over MPs’ use of taxpayer-funded entitlements and whether they meet community expectations.

Wells referred her expenses to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority earlier this week.

Australian consumers have defied financial gravity, going on a music-fuelled spending spree last month.

Figures compiled by the Commonwealth Bank from its customers base shows overall household spending lifted by 0.5 per cent last month.

But spending on recreation jumped by 1.6 per cent due in part to our penchant for the story of Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked: For Good which was released in late November.

Australians also spent their hard-earned on hard rockers – AC/DC, Oasis and Metallica. Even the cricket helped push up spending.

The bank’s head of Australian economics, Belinda Allen, said it was clear consumers were happy to enjoy themselves last month.

“Households prioritised experiences in November, and the month’s busy calendar of sport and entertainment provided a strong boost to spending,” she said.

Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said the parliamentary expense rules should be reviewed to clarify which spending was in line with community expectations.

“I think it is something that’s worth having a sensible conversation about. How it can be reformed, refined, and ensure that there isn’t misuse of such a resource, especially some of the egregious cases we have seen, particularly by a couple of government ministers,” Duniam told Sky News.

“It is something that’s very difficult to justify. I mean, you spend $1 on a politician, and people think it’s $1 too much, frankly. And I get that sentiment, especially when people are struggling with power bills and mortgages and the like. That said though, the resources that are there should be used in alignment with community expectation.”

US President Donald Trump says the news network CNN should be sold as part of a deal for its parent company Warner Bros Discovery or separately.

“CNN should be sold,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros is for assets including HBO, but the deal excludes the company’s CNN and other cable networks. Those cable assets, including CNN, TNT, and TBS, are expected to be spun off into a separate entity ahead of the merger.

“I think any deal should – it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately,” Trump said during a meeting with business leaders at the White House.

“I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” he added.

Trump said his primary concern was that the current management of the network could be rewarded by being allowed to continue operating “with money” from a deal.

Trump has been a vocal critic of CNN, frequently branding the network as “fake news” and accusing it of biased coverage against him.

Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison – whose father, Larry Ellison, is a close supporter of Trump – has provided a competing offer that would include the cable networks.

Hollywood and Washington have been closely monitoring the president’s comments on the potential Netflix deal, in which the streamer would take over the Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming service — but linear cable channels including CNN would be spun off.

“I will be probably involved, maybe involved in the decision. It depends,” Trump said.“You have some good companies bidding on it.”

Reuters, Bloomberg

The prime minister is doing the radio FM circuit this morning after the teen social media ban began yesterday.

But Anthony Albanese has been asked repeatedly about whether the parliamentary expense rules are fit for purpose as more ministers get drawn into the scandal sparked by Communication Minister Anika Wells’ flights to New York.

“Do you feel like, with all these costs, and taxpayers finding out what’s included, it’s time for [the rules] to be reformed and maybe look at what is actually included?” B105 Brisbane hosts asked Albanese.

“I understand controversy here, and I get it completely,” Albanese said. “But I also get that the parliament is different from when I was elected 30 years ago, and if we’re going to have a parliament not made up of blokes my age, but made up of a representation of society … if you’re going to have a young mum in parliament – and there are many young mums in parliament – it’s a very different parliament.”