Key events
Josh Taylor
Instagram’s age-verification identified a moustachioed adult as over 16 – but how did it go with a 13-year-old?
Instagram’s process for determining whether a user is over 16 is relatively quick and painless if you’re clearly an adult – but how does it work if a 13-year-old tries to change their account’s date of birth to make them appear grown up?
Meta in November began notifying Instagram and Facebook users whose date of birth is set as under 16 – or who the platform understands to be under 16 – that their accounts will be deactivated as part of Australia’s social media ban for children. The ban takes effect on 10 December, but Meta has said it will start removing access to users under 16 from 4 December.
As part of Guardian Australia’s reporting on what the platforms show to various age demographics, a phone was set up with dummy social media accounts.
See what our reporter, Josh Taylor, found:
Benita Kolovos
Victoria government announces changes to political donation laws
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced changes to the state’s donation laws that will cap how much money major political parties can withdraw from their war chests during a campaign and set a 10-day early voting period.
It comes ahead of a high court challenge to the state’s donation laws next year, brought by two candidates who ran as independents at the 2022 state election. Melissa Lowe and Paul Hopper argued the government’s donation laws, which allow Labor, the Liberals and Nationals to withdraw unlimited sums from their fundraising bodies, known as “nominated entities”, set up a David and Goliath battle for independents.
Under the electoral amendment bill, to be introduced to parliament this morning, parties will be able to withdraw a maximum of $500,000 over an election period. Independent candidates will also be able to set up a nominated entity but will only be able to withdraw $50,000 during a campaign.
The bill also caps early voting at 10 days and ensures if a political party drops its support for a candidate or if a grouping of candidates changes mid-election, that will be reflected on the ballot paper.
Allan said:
We’re making elections fairer and easier to run while also ensuring there is integrity and transparency when it comes to political donations. Fair elections are the bedrock of democracy, and we are delivering these reforms to ensure Victorians can be confident in their electoral processes.
It’s unlikely to be the only changes to election laws before November 2026 – the government is also considering scrapping group voting tickets. More on that issue here:
NSW RFS urges holidaymakers to have a fire plan while traveling
With 36 fires burning across NSW at 6pm yesterday, the NSW Rural Fire Service told Guardian Australia it’s important for anyone living or travelling in a fire-prone area to have a discussion with their families about what you will do should a blaze threaten your location over the warm summer months.
That includes knowing where to go and tending to your property, including cleaning out guttering and removing overhanging trees and shrubs that could flare up.
If you’re travelling, the RFS says you should download the Hazards Near Me app on your phone and set watch zones for the areas you’ll be in. If there’s a new incident nearby, you’ll be notified straight away.
Also, if you see any new fires with open flames and no trucks on site, immediately call triple zero with as much information about your location as possible. Crews will attend to the blaze.
As of 6:00 pm, Monday 1 December, there are 36 fires burning across NSW, with 12 yet to be contained. While conditions are expected to ease over coming days, more than 500 firefighters will continue to strengthen containment lines ahead of worsening weather across the weekend. pic.twitter.com/VT1MfXVulE
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) December 1, 2025
Ebike rider dies after collision with garbage truck in Sydney CBD
An ebike rider has died this morning in Sydney’s CBD after a collision with a garbage truck, NSW police said.
Emergency services responded to the inner-city suburb of Ultimo around 6am this morning amid reports of a crash. Officers arrived to find the ebike and truck had collided.
The rider, a man in his 30s, was treated by paramedics at the scene, but died. The truck driver, a man, 28, was taken to the hospital for mandatory testing.
Police have established a crime scene and begun an investigation. No charges have been laid.
Minister says AI roadmap meant to give Australia a ‘stake’ in new technological future
Tim Ayres, the minister for industry and innovation, said Australia is a “terrific” place for AI investment, saying the country wants to make sure to “capture” the opportunity such technology presents.
Ayers spoke to RN Breakfast this morning as the government releases a federal roadmap on a national AI plan. He said:
It’s all about capturing the economic opportunity here in Australia in productivity terms, in investment terms, but also for the things that artificial intelligence can do for us. … That’s in our national interest to solve big national challenges.
Ayres admitted that AI wasn’t a major employer. But he said a national plan would give Australia a “stake in this system”.
Read more here:
Search to continue today for missing 18-year-old swimmer
Rescue officials are set to continue their search for a missing 18-year-old on NSW’s mid-north coast.
Emergency services were called to Little Bay beach in Arakoon on Sunday afternoon amid reports the man was in distress in the water. Authorities conducted a search in the area, but they were unable to find him.
Those search efforts continued for more than eight hours yesterday, with Marine Rescue NSW committing a large number of resources trying to find the teenager. The ABC reports the man recently graduated from high school and was on a schoolies trip with friends after the end of the HSC exams.
A search will continue today.
Josh Taylor
BoM pushes back on IT cost blowouts claim
Greens senator Barbara Pocock in Senate estimates on Monday night described the BoM IT project as a “nightmare handbasket case study in contract failure and management of contracts”.
The BoM CEO, Dr Stuart Minchin, said the Robust program had gone through multiple finance department reviews, and reviews by the Digital Transformation Agency and the 15% cost blowout to $866m was “well within the expectations of major technology projects”.
He said:
There was no contingency provided for this program when it was originally funded. So to actually only go 15% over despite Covid and the extension of the program overall was seen through those reviews as consistent.
The environment minister, Murray Watt, said the government was taking the issue seriously, and that the contracts awarded to Accenture as part of the website overhaul was being examined.
This may well be a contract that demonstrates the need for greater oversight … of consultants and greater use of public sector capacity wherever possible.
BoM chief information officer, Nichole Brinsmead, said the BoM had to understand the complexity of the old legacy systems and what it would take to rebuild and said she didn’t think the contracts “were as badly managed as you make out”.
We did actually have quite strong governance over the projects. They had contract managers, there were steering committees, there were meetings with the vendors, there was project control groups that had external members on them, and then we had the eight gateway reviews and external DTA reviews as well, and that all fed up into how those contracts were managed.
And never once did we get any commentary or recommendations from those reviews that related to how we manage those contracts.
Good morning, and happy Tuesday. Another day closer to Christmas. Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it.
Josh Taylor
BoM blames APS caps, Covid for website costs
The Bureau of Meteorology has blamed Covid-era inflation and a Coalition government cap on public service headcount for cost blowouts in the IT project and the use of contractors such as Accenture in its controversial overhaul of the agency’s website.
BoM revealed last month the true cost of its new website to be $96.5m after initially saying the user-facing aspect was just over $4m. It led to calls to explain why the cost had been so high given public outcry over issues with the new site.
The agency’s new CEO, Dr Stuart Minchin, told Senate estimates that the broader $866m IT overhaul program, known as Robust, of which the website accounted for 10% of the budget, was subject to “strict caps” on public sector employees meaning the agency was reliant on vendors and contractors. He said given it was delivered early in the Covid pandemic, that had an impact on labour markets and there was a period of beyond forecast inflation, “which particularly impacted technology costs”.
He said the cost of the website itself “reflects the significant investment required to fully rebuild all the layers of technology and system that underpins the website.”
He said:
We needed to make sure it is secure and stable and can draw in the huge amounts of data gathered from our observing network and weather models as we handle millions of visits each day.
Top super funds hold $33bn in big fossil fuel companies
Luca Ittimani
Australia’s top 30 super funds have a combined $33bn in investments in global companies with major fossil fuel expansion plans, new analysis shows.
Green advocacy group Market Forces found the investments had fallen from the $39bn recorded in December 2023, in part due to holdings in BHP and Woodside falling in value, and were still far more than the $19bn totalled in the group’s 2021 report.
Nearly $6 of every $100 in the average investment option across those super funds was backing major fossil fuel producers, according to the latest report, released on Tuesday.
Just one of the country’s 30 largest super funds had no investments in any major global coal, oil or gas producers: Australian Ethical, which actively excludes companies with substantial fossil fuel revenue.
Funds have maintained their exposure despite fossil fuel investments underperforming major share market indices over the last seven years. The funds have collectively invested less than $10bn in clean energy companies, despite these offering higher returns, according to Market Forces’ estimate.
One Nation threatens Liberals, not just Nationals: Canavan
Luca Ittimani
Matt Canavan, the Nationals backbench MP, has warned rising popularity of One Nation threatens the Liberal party as well as the National party.
The junior Coalition partner last week faced the departure of its former leader, Barnaby Joyce, who has hinted he may join Pauline Hanson’s increasingly popular rightwing minor party.
Canavan said One Nation was threatening the Coalition not only in rural seats but also in outer suburban Australia, which is typically represented by Liberals more often than Nationals. He told the ABC’s 7.30 :
Pauline Hanson started her career (and) is from the outer suburbs of Brisbane. There’s a misconception that somehow One Nation is just or only a regional, country phenomenon … The discontent we’re seeing across Australia is very much concentrated in our outer suburbs, and yes, in our larger regional cities.
Canavan also praised his ally and former employer as an effective politician and mourned his departure from the National party.
I’m disappointed in that, expressed that disappointment to Barnaby, to no avail.
Read more on Joyce’s move here, from political editor Tom McIlroy:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
Matt Canavan, the Nationals backbench MP, told ABC’s 7.30 last night that the rising popularity of One Nation threatens the Liberal party as well as the National party because it could take outer suburban seats from the former as well as regional ones from the latter. More details coming up.
And the Bureau of Meteorology has defended the cost of IT upgrades, including a revamped website which has drawn criticism from users, at a Senate hearing. Lots more on that soon too.
