Australian news and politics live: Albanese says Liberals learnt wrong lessons from two election defeats

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who won an absolute landslide victory in the 2025 Federal election, says the Liberals have not learnt from their embarrassing defeat.

“The idea that the lesson the Liberals have learnt from their defeat at the last two elections and the last election, where they had their worst result since 1943, is that they need to be more right wing, more sceptical, more in denial about climate change, and continue to engage in those climate wars…is extraordinary,” Mr Albanese said in Sydney on Thursday.

“I think people will certainly look at the Liberal Party policy as quite contradictory to what our Pacific neighbours want and what Indonesia and our ASEAN neighbours are calling for as well. But the Australian Government’s position is very clear,”

The Liberals are meeting again today, with their climate and energy policy set to finally be shared 193 days after losing the election.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the difficulties over negotiations for Australia to host COP in 2026 have been “no secret” and has vowed to continue to pressure Turkey to withdraw.

Australia has pitched to host the climate summit in Adelaide next year in partnership with the Pacific but has hit a roadblock because Turkey has refused to pull out of the race.

“It’s no secret these negotiations have been difficult and they have been difficult because Türkiye has been very focused on maintaining its bid,” Senator Wong told the Today Show.

“And we’ll continue to work with others and to engage with Türkiye to try and get the outcome that we want for Pacific island nations.

“The Pacific’s agenda should be more prominent in the global agenda. That has been really the impetus behind Australia’s bid to host this.”

Anthony Albanese says he has held talks with Pacific partners overnight after President Tayyip Erdogan again refused to withdraw Turkey’s bid for the COP climate summit next year.

Australia’s bid in partnership with Pacific Island nations is languishing after Turkey has refused to budge. And both nations could lose the hosting rights to the German city of Bonn if the matter isn’t resolved at the ongoing COP30 summit in Brazil.

After President Erdogan doubled down in correspondence with Mr Albanese overnight, the PM said he’d called Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr and PNG Prime Minister James Marape.

“I have spoken with Pacific neighbours in the last 24 hours including Prime Minister Marape and President Whipps of Palau,” he said.

“We’ll continue to argue our case for that bid. The Australian Government’s position is very clear. We want to host in partnership with the Pacific the COP.

“We want to see Australia host in partnership with the Pacific and that has the strong support of our neighbours.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has weighed in on the Liberals net zero drama.

“Australians have seen 15 years of the climate wars inside the Coalition and what that has meant is higher energy prices,” the one-time climate change minister told Seven’s Sunrise.

“We are providing policy certainty. We are working on the energy transition. We are clear about the need to make our energy system more reliable and, over time, to continue to bring down wholesale prices by investing in renewables.

“What we see on the other side is a recipe for higher energy prices and more leadership chaos.”

Anthony Albanese says Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has written to him overnight maintaining that he won’t withdraw his bid to host the COP climate summit in 2026.

Australia has been pushing a joint bid with Pacific nations to secure COP in Adelaide next year. If Turkey does not budge and the issue isn’t resolved at the current COP30 summit in Brazil, COP31 will be hosted in the German city of Bonn.

Speaking in Sydney on Thursday, the PM said he believed the Pacific bid had greater support from the international community.

“President Erdogan has written to me in the last 24 hours. He is maintaining his position in response to Australia maintaining our position,” he said.

“We’ll continue to advocate for Australia to host the COP in partnership with the Pacific and I believe it has the overwhelming support of the Western Europe group.”

Several Liberals who argued in favour of retaining the net zero by 2050 target during yesterday’s party room meeting warned that dumping it would make the chances of the party winning back metropolitan seats from Labor and independents an even harder task.

The point was underscored by party director Andrew Hirst, who told MPs that most Australians saw “net zero” as a proxy for action on climate change.

This morning, independent Sophie Scamps – who won Mackellar from the Liberals in 2022 and increased her margin this year – said the decision “signals the death knell of the Liberal Party” and that was why voters were abandoning them.

“They’ve been led around by the nose by the likes of Barnaby Joyce and Gina Rinehart for way too long,” she said.

“We have been facing climate change, which is the issue of our era, and the Liberal Party and the Nats have failed to act now for 25 years.

“Not only have they failed to act, but they’ve also failed to lead and they’ve obstructed action on this.”

Anthony Albanese can’t tell Australians when they can expect to see lower household power bills, given experts keep telling them renewables are cheaper than coal and gas.

The Prime Minister instead argued that the failure to have a certain, set climate policy meant there hadn’t been the investment environment needed to replace ailing coal-fired power stations in a timely manner as they aged out of the system.

“What we’re dealing with here is the result of 10 years of Coalition denial and delay,” he said – not answering a question of when power bills would get cheaper.

“What we know is that renewables are the cheapest form of energy.

“We’re making sure that we back that up with batteries, and with gas as well, for firming capacity, and that is the way to deliver the path that Australia needs.”

Anthony Albanese has used his press conference in Sydney about the new Defence treaty he signed with Indonesia to take a swipe at the Liberals for their infighting on climate change.

“While I was with President Prabowo, of course, focused on delivering for Australians and delivering on our national interests, the Liberals were conducting the first of four meetings in Canberra focused on themselves and each other,” he said.

“The Coalition are choosing to take Australia backwards. They’re walking away from jobs for Australians and investment certainty for business.”

The Prime Minister called the Opposition a “divided rabble” and said walking away from net zero would diminish Australia’s standing in the region.

Day two of the Liberals’ internal machinations over climate and energy policy dawns with the Liberal members of the shadow ministry about to enter a meeting to decide the formal policy.

This is expected to be significantly shorter than yesterday’s four-and-three-quarter-hour marathon.

Shadow minister Dan Tehan told media last night he anticipated by midday Eastern time today we’d know what the policy was.

He also flagged that he had a long night ahead of him to finish writing his proposal for colleagues, taking into account what was said during Wednesday’s party room meeting.

Shadow ministers heading into their gathering this morning were yet to see the submission.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan made history on Thursday, signing Australia’s first treaty with Aboriginal people.

The bill had already passed through the State Parliament, with the signing this morning officially bringing it into law.

The Victoria Statewide Treaty Bill 2025 formalises the establishment of a treaty between First Nations people and the State Government, and creates a new body for representation on First Nations matters.

A First Peoples’ Assembly will represent First Nations people in Parliament through a democratic elected process.