Social media’s 'profound reform'; Qantas A380 grounded; coal’s life extended
Published: December 10, 2025
Social media’s 'profound reform'; Qantas A380 grounded; coal’s life extended
News in brief
Less than a week ago, Qantas lauded the return of its 10th and final A380 to the skies, after it had undergone 100,000 hours of maintenance to prepare it to fly again. However, after one of its first flights – Sydney to Los Angeles – the plane was grounded following damage to the slat on its left wing.
The energy market operator has pushed out its forecast for the end of coal power in the eastern states by more than a decade and cut its forecast for the amount of new transmission lines by 2050.
Communications Minister Anika Wells, and the federal government, continue to face scrutiny over the travel expenses scandal. Wells said she won’t step down while a review of her expenses is undertaken by the Independent Parliamentary Authority.
The federal government is considering levying self-managed superannuation funds to help finance a compensation scheme for victims of financial misconduct, according to the AFR.
The number of US adults taking weight loss drugs have doubled over the past year to over 12 per cent, triggering a shake-up across the economy, from apparel, restaurants, gyms and travel.
Fear-o-meter
Will the ban on under-16-year-olds using social media work? Probably not but it gives parents another tool to protect their children against the ills of social media.
Yesterday the PM Anthony Albanese called it a “profound reform”. Judging from the international media coverage, it is at least a profound experiment that the world is watching.
Children are already finding ways around the ban. Yesterday morning the three most downloaded apps on Apple were social media sites. It will take the tech companies time to fully implement software to make the ban effective and deactivate users. No doubt more social media apps will be added to the banned list.
Other countries including Denmark, France, Britain, Germany and Spain are openly talking about following Australia’s lead. So too are Democrats in the US.
Kudos to the government and the Opposition, and architects of the ban – people like Nova’s Michael “Wippa” Wipfli – for attempting such a monumental task.
Fear & Greed Q+A today
On gold's stellar year, and what he expects the price of the precious metal might do in 2026:
“We’re not expecting another 60 per cent rise next year, but our base case has gold reaching US$4,500 - about 8 per cent upside from today, which is in line with the historical average annual gain of about 9%. Our bull case sees gold hitting US$5,000, but that requires unknown market volatility: an equity market shock, renewed fears of stagflation, or a sharper-than-expected fall in the US dollar if the Fed cuts aggressively. For the bear case, we see gold potentially moving to US$3,500 - and interestingly, that’s a level many central banks would treat as a buying opportunity. Emerging market central banks are very price sensitive. So if gold dips into the mid-$3,000s, we expect extremely strong demand to form a floor under the market.”
Day one of the social media ban yesterday and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was touting its impact, calling it a profound reform which will reverberate around the world. He said it was about families taking back control. Yesterday, there were plenty of people trying to break the social media sites – signing up under the age of sixteen – and seemingly doing it successfully. There will be teething problems as the big tech companies use age-verification technology – known as age-gating – to filter users. According to the eSafety Commission about 1.5 million accounts needed to be removed from online platforms due to age restrictions.
Greed-o-meter
| MP | Amount | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Willcox (Nat) | 123,769 | Mackay |
| Fatima Payman (Ind) | 119,790 | Perth |
| Don Farrell (ALP) | 116,306 | Adelaide |
| Patrick Gorman (ALP) | 112,866 | Perth |
| Madeleine King (ALP) | 76,692 | Perth |
| Malarndirri McCarthy (ALP) | 75,717 | Darwin |
| Anthony Albanese (ALP) | 75,321 | Canberra (PM) |
| Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (Lib) | 74,610 | Alice Springs |
| Melissa Price (Lib) | 73,215 | Geraldton |
| Sarah Hanson-Young (Grn) | 69,487 | Adelaide |
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As the travel expenses scandal continues to grow, Nine newspapers have compiled a list of the federal MPs who've claimed the most in family travel expenses since the election this year.
Listen to today's episode 🎧
Source: Nine newspapers