A group of Nationals senators who split with the Liberals to vote against hate speech laws are expected to lose their positions in Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s shadow cabinet.

Senior Nationals senators Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald, as well as backbencher Matt Canavan, voted against Labor’s hate crimes bill in the Senate on Tuesday night.

The move contradicted a party room meeting on Sunday landing on voting in favour of the laws after the coalition had committed to working with Anthony Albanese in response to the December 14 Bondi terrorist attack.

But just 20 minutes before voting started on the legislation in the Senate, Nationals leader David Littleproud released a statement announcing his party would vote against the bill if amendments guaranteeing greater protections against unintended consequences on freedom of speech failed to succeed.

Senator Cadell said he held real fears about the legislation and acknowledged his break with shadow cabinet solidarity.

“I am willing to take the consequences of my actions,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

“I think that is fair. It’s what I should do. I can’t do the crime if I’m not prepared to do the time.

“If more people stood up for what they believe … and didn’t play the game, this would be a better place. Australia would be a better country.”

Politicians in the shadow cabinet are required to stick to the position agreed to by the frontbench.

Senator McKenzie, leader of the Nationals in the upper house, said she was “very aware” of the conventions of parliament when pressed if her position was untenable.

“I will be doing what I’ve always done is trying to do my very best to conduct my career here with integrity,” she told Sky News.

The Liberals voted for the hate crimes bill in the lower house on Tuesday, while most in the rural party abstained.

The sole Nationals MP who voted in favour of the legislation, Michael McCormack, said he did so because he didn’t want to “let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.

But he respected the decision of his Senate colleagues to vote against the bill after they failed to get the amendments up.

“There were a lot of conventions that were broken this week,” Mr McCormack told AAP.

There was no backbench meeting to discuss the bill and the coalition joint party room meeting on Sunday had not seen the final draft legislation because it had not yet been completed, he said.

“If we want to talk about convention we also have to look at those conventions.”

It marks another flashpoint for Ms Ley’s leadership, after her authority was previously tested over the coalition’s climate policy.

Conservative Liberals Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price resigned from shadow cabinet in 2025 while Ms Ley has previously found herself at odds with Nationals leader David Littleproud over net zero policy.

Deputy Leader Ted O’Brien, a key lieutenant for Ms Ley, and mooted leadership rival Angus Taylor did not vote with the rest of the Liberals on the hate speech laws, instead abstaining from the vote.

Ms Ley was contacted for comment.

The first two major polls of the year since the Bondi massacre showed One Nation nipping at the heels of the coalition.

A Newspoll, conducted for The Australian, found Pauline Hanson’s party surpassed the coalition’s primary vote by a slight margin.

Asian stocks extended their losses for a third session, undone by heightened tensions over US ‍threats to acquire Greenland ahead of President Donald Trump’s Davos speech, while a global bond rout appeared to slow for now.

Fears of offshore selling of US assets – the ​so-called “Sell America” trade that emerged after last year’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements in April – gripped markets as Wall Street tumbled over two per cent overnight and the US dollar suffered its biggest fall in ⁠over a month.

That sent investors fleeing to the safety of gold and silver, which both notched record highs.

“The ‘sell America’ trade was the driving force behind major market moves overnight, as investors looked to reduce exposure to the US, seen by many as an unreliable partner pursuing self-defeating policies,” said Mantas Vanagas, a senior economist at Westpac.

Trump, however, doubled down on his rhetoric over Greenland, saying there was “no going back” on his goal to control the island, refusing to rule out taking it by force. His threat of tariffs ‌on Europe has also ​rekindled fears of a global trade war.

The European Union will convene an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the matter, with ‍the long-standing US-EU alliance clearly at risk.

All eyes are now on the World Economic Forum in Davos where Trump is due to deliver a speech on Wednesday.

In early trade, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei slumped 1.2 per cent on Wednesday, down for the fifth straight day.

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2 per cent after Wall Street suffered the biggest daily drop in three months overnight. The S&P 500 lost 2.06 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.4 per cent.

Both EURO STOXX 50 futures and DAX futures fell 0.4 per cent.

The global bond market was still reeling from a brutal selloff, having been ‌caught up in a perfect storm of worries over exposure to US assets and a surge in Japanese government bond yields.

Market worries over increased government spending under Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent bond yields ​there skyrocketing to record highs.

Investors were trying to catch their breath in early trading. Providing some relief to frayed debt market nerves, the 40-year Japanese government bond yields ‍retreated six basis points on Wednesday to 4.145 per cent after surging 26 bps a day earlier to a record high of 4.215 per cent. Liquidity in other tenors remains thin.

US Treasury yields were also steady on Wednesday. The benchmark 10-year yield slipped one bp to 4.285 per cent, having jumped seven bp overnight to a five-month high ​of 4.313 per cent ​amid the “Sell America” fears.

Danish pension fund AkademikerPension said on Tuesday it would ​sell off its holding of US Treasuries, worth some $US100 million ($A149 million), by the end of ​this month, blaming weak US government finances.

In the currency markets, the US dollar held steady at 98.56 against its major peers, having dropped 0.5 per cent overnight – the biggest daily fall since early December.

The yen was steady at 158.19 per dollar, but lost out on a number of crosses, with the Swiss franc hitting a record high of 200.19 yen.

The Bank of Japan meets on Friday and though no rate hike is expected this time, policymakers could flag a tightening as soon as April.

Oil prices fell as pressure from geopolitical tensions and an expected build-up in US crude inventories outweighed a temporary halt in output at two large fields in Kazakhstan.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices for March fell 1.31 per cent to $US59.57 ($A88.48) a barrel.

Gold prices ‍rose 0.8 per cent to $US4,806 ($A7,138) an ounce, a new record high, while silver climbed 0.4 per cent to $US95.01 ($A141.11), just short of a record top ​of $US95.87 ($A142.39) hit on Tuesday.

Australia’s biggest rare earths producer has posted a strong uptick in revenue, despite a steep dip in production as commodity prices soar.

Lynas Rare Earths earned $201.9 million in gross sales revenue in the December quarter, despite a 30 per cent drop in production due to power outages at its processing plant in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

Lynas rare earths oxide output was 2382 tonnes, down from 3993 tonnes in the three months to September.

Revenue was slightly above the previous quarter, and beat the same quarter in 2024 by a whopping 43 per cent.

Rare earths minerals are key to a wide range of technology applications including wind turbine magnets, smartphones, and solar panels, and Lynas is their biggest producer outside of China, which accounts for up to 70 per cent of global output.

Their prices skyrocketed in 2025 after Beijing significantly tightened controls on exports, prompting a global scramble find other sources.

The average selling prices across all rare earths products was $85.60/kg, compared to $49.2/kg a year earlier.

The federal government has prioritised rare earths, as well as antimony and gallium, to be the first critical minerals included in a taxpayer-backed strategic reserve to counter China’s stranglehold.

Upward price pressure in the December quarter has continued into January, Lynas said.

Investors – who had been warned about the production shortfall in November – reacted positively to the report, sending Lynas shares 4.6 per cent higher to $15.94 in early trade.

As for the power outages behind the output drop at the Kalgoorlie processing plant, Lynas said they had stabilised after works from the electricity provider.

“Notwithstanding the short-term improvement, we are continuing to develop plans for an off grid solution to ensure energy stability for the Kalgoorlie Facility,” the miner wrote in the update.

The report came a week after influential chief executive Amanda Lacaze announced she would retire after 12 years at the helm.

The miner’s search for her replacement continues.

Lynas’ market value has increased under Ms Lacaze’s stewardship from around $400 million in 2014 to close to $15 billion.

David Beckham says parents must let their children “make mistakes” on social media, a day after his eldest son Brooklyn exposed their family feud in an explosive Instagram post.

Brooklyn made a host of damning claims regarding Sir David and his wife, singer and fashion designer Victoria Beckham, on Monday which included that his parents control narratives about his family in the press and tried to “ruin” his relationship with his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham.

The former England football captain did not answer when asked questions about Brooklyn during his public appearance in Davos, Switzerland where he also recorded a podcast with US popular science author Adam Grant at the World Economic Forum.

The lengthy Instagram post confirmed the rumours that have swirled since Brooklyn’s wedding to the daughter of US billionaire Nelson Peltz in 2022.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box amid the family feud, Sir David addressed the scathing post.

“I’ve always spoke about social media and the power of social media for the good and for the bad,” he said.

“The bad we’ve talked about with what kids can access these days.

“It can be dangerous, but what I’ve found personally, especially with my kids as well. Use it for the right reasons.

“I’ve been able to use my platform and my following for Unicef and it’s been the biggest tool to make people aware of what’s going on around the world for children.

“I’ve tried to do the same. I’ve tried to do the same with my children to educate them. They make mistakes. Children are allowed to make mistakes. That’s how they learn.

“So that’s what I try to teach my kids. But you know, you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well.”

In his statement, aspiring chef and photographer Brooklyn said he did not want to “reconcile” with his family.

“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private,” he wrote.

“Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed.

“For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family.

“The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into,” he said.

“Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade.

“But I believe the truth always comes out.”

His parents, known as Posh and Becks, have two other sons, Cruz and Romeo, and daughter Harper.

Brooklyn claimed his mother “hijacked” his first dance with Nicola at their wedding and danced “inappropriately on me” in front of guests, adding that he had never felt more “uncomfortable or humiliated” in his life.

He also alleged his wife had been “disrespected” by his family and was not invited to his father’s 50th birthday party.

“My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped,” he said.

“My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first.

“Family ‘love’ is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo opp, even if it’s at the expense of our professional obligations,” he said.

“My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press or manipulation.

“All we want is peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family.”

An agreement on sharing responsibility for the security of the Arctic and the North Atlantic could provide a way ​out of the stand-off between the United States and Europe over Greenland, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says.

Nauseda told ⁠Reuters an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting that the Greenland row was overshadowing the war in Ukraine and playing into Russia’s hands, and urged the US to de-escalate tensions.

“The best outcome would be just to agree on common responsibility on the security of the Arctic region and North Atlantic region. Is it possible to achieve? ‌We should do ​our best to go this way because this is the best way,” he said.

US President Donald ‍Trump said on Tuesday there was “no going back” on his aim of acquiring Greenland, refusing to rule out taking the Arctic island by force and rounding on allies.

Trump’s ambition to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark has threatened to tear apart the military alliance that has underpinned North American and European security for decades.

European Union leaders are due to discuss their ​options at an emergency summit on Thursday which Nauseda said would ‌show whether the bloc can present a united front over Greenland. 

He said the next two weeks would probably show how the dispute is resolved.

Nauseda ​said he hoped countries that can be sceptical about militarily supporting Ukraine would understand that Europe has reached a critical ‍juncture, arguing NATO’s future is at stake.

Trump is due to speak in Davos on Wednesday and Nauseda said his hope was that the US president would send out some signals towards de-escalating tensions over ​Greenland.

Describing ​upholding territorial integrity as an “untouchable principle,” Nauseda ​said there was always room to de-escalate.

“But of course the ​precondition is that both sides want this de-escalation, and now I’m not sure. Europe is obviously willing to de-escalate. I hope that the United States will be too.”

The Lithuanian president said the Greenland dispute had diverted attention away from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, posing additional challenges for Europe’s eastern flank.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pushed back against Trump’s announcement that, starting on February, a 10 per cent import tax will be imposed on goods from eight European countries that have rallied around Denmark if the US is not able to purchase Greenland.

She vowed that the EU’s response “will be unflinching, united and proportional”.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a news conference in the island’s capital Nuuk on Tuesday that “we need to have respect for international law and territorial integrity”.

He said those principles should unite democratic countries, and said he was grateful for support from EU allies.

“International law, it’s not a game,” he said.

“We have been a close and loyal ally to the United States, to NATO, through many, many, many years. We can do lots more in that framework. We are willing to co-operate much more but of course in mutual respect, and if we cannot see that, it will be very difficult to have a good and reliable partnership.”

Denmark has asked NATO for a permanent presence on Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday.

She said the increased NATO presence in the Baltic Sea and the Baltic States could serve as a model for this.

Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt had requested a NATO mission for the Arctic region during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday.

Frederiksen said “a stronger NATO strategy was positively received” at the meeting with the military alliance head in Brussels.

Denmark is strengthening its military presence in Greenland. 

Last week, soldiers from several European NATO countries were on the island for a multi-day Danish-led reconnaissance tour.

with DPA and AP

“I feel like I am a vampire pulling the blood, the money, from the machines. But then I realised – the machines are the vampires pulling the blood from me.”

These are the words Carol, a 58-year-old single mother from Queensland, wrote in her journal after hitting the lowest point of her 18-year pokies addiction.

A Royal Australian Air Force veteran, Carol fell into gambling following the premature death of her husband Lance in 2005.

Drowning in debt, Carol said the hardest thing was overcoming shame and embarrassment to open up about her money troubles.

“There was a lot of lying because I was so embarrassed,” she told AAP.

“It took opening up and it took tough love to finally get a handle on things.”

It’s a problem many Australians grapple with, as research shows nearly one-in-four (23 per cent) never speak to their family or friends about their finances.

Almost a third (32 per cent) feel uncomfortable discussing money whatsoever with loved ones.

The findings, from a nationwide Salvation Army survey of 2005 people, show people are staying silent even in the face of crippling debts.

Many leave these discussions too late, Kristen Hartnett, head of the Salvation Army’s financial counselling service Moneycare told AAP.

She recalled one client whose family had no idea he was in debt until he lost their home.

“I think in Australia, money is deeply personal,” Ms Hartnett said.

“We value our independence and our privacy, and that means when the financial challenges come, we’re often struggling in silence.”

Nearly 10 million Australians entered the new year in debt, the survey found, while nine-in-10 reported feeling as or more stressed about their finances than last year.

While credit card debt continues to be the most widely held kind, finance experts are raising the alarm about new borrowing methods, including the use of buy now, pay later (BNPL) services.

BNPL services allow consumers to finance purchases with interest-free repayments, often for everyday expenses such as groceries and entertainment.

While it has quickly cemented itself as a favourite among Australians, particularly younger people, Ms Hartnett says it carries unique risks.

“People might have one to three credit cards, but they can have ten to twenty buy now, pay later products,” Ms Hartnett said.

“They’re smaller debts but the stress can add up when you’ve got more noise coming at you from more creditors.”

Coral agreed, saying part of her recovery involved deleting her BNPL services, limiting herself to one credit card for essential expenses.

“Now, I’m very proud of myself,” she said.

“I got that tough love, which is what I needed to get a handle on my life.”

National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858

New hate speech laws are already facing a possible legal challenge from a prominent neo-Nazi after finally passing parliament.

The legislation which passed late on Tuesday night aims to restrict the ability of hardline radical groups to incite violence against people based on their faith, while also making it easier to deport extremists and deny them entry to Australia.

It was drawn up after the December 14 anti-Semitic terror attack at Bondi Beach which left 15 people dead.

The government’s bill went through with the support of most Liberals during a late-night Senate sitting, but the Nationals voted against it after raising concerns about its potential impacts on freedom of speech.

Liberal senator Alex Antic also crossed the floor to oppose the bill, while NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who sits in the Liberal party room, abstained.

Thomas Sewell, formerly head of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network, is raising money to challenge the laws.

“This will be a landmark case in protecting the rights of all Australians to politically communicate and organise for generations to come,” his fundraising page says.

“I have enquired with a number of highly respected law firms who wish to take the case to the High Court of Australia and challenge the existing and the proposed anti-free speech legislation.”

As of Tuesday evening, Sewell had raised almost $130,000 for his case.

The National Socialist Network, which has been involved in a number of increasingly public stunts calling for a white Australia, has promised to disband because of the laws.

Jewish groups have backed the hate crimes legislation as a welcome first step in cracking down on inflammatory language but believe it could go further.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said the measures to shut down hate groups, which would likely include the National Socialist Network and radical Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, were a good move.

“These are very, very sinister organisations who for years have been promoting extremist ideology and anti-Semitism, and have been doing so in a way to very carefully skirt around the law,” he told AAP.

The government was forced to strip out a number of tougher provisions, which would have created new criminal offences for racial hatred, to get the bill through parliament. Mr Leibler said Labor should revisit the issue.

“We are about to commence a royal commission into anti-Semitism. No doubt the royal commission will investigate some of these issues,” he said.

“I don’t think that we as a society can afford to abandon the possibility of strengthening hate speech laws.”

The ‍US Supreme Court has issued ​three decisions but did not decide the closely watched ‌dispute ​over the legality ‍of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs.

The court on Tuesday did not ​announce ‌the next date when ​it will issue rulings.

It does not announce ​in ​advance ​which rulings ​will be released on a given date.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said ‍on Tuesday that Trump’s tariffs ​under the International Emergency Economic Powers ⁠Act are the “most appropriate” remedies to the trade situations that the United States faces.

Greer told ​a forum in Davos, Switzerland ‍that there were other options to impose new tariffs if the Supreme Court were to strike down the IEEPA tariffs but ​declined to ‌discuss them.

“The president chose to use IEEPA because ​it is the most appropriate to ‍the situations we’re facing,” Greer said.

“For the emergency like the ​trade ​deficit, for ​emergencies related to national ​security, it’s the most appropriate. So if we aren’t allowed to use that, there are other tools we can use, certainly, but IEEPA ‍is the most appropriate.”

Netflix is revising its offer for Warner Bros Discovery to make it an all-cash transaction.

Netflix initially put forth a cash and stock deal valued at $US27.75 per Warner Bros share, giving it a total enterprise value of $US82.7 billion ($A122.8 billion), including debt.

Netflix and Warner Bros said on Tuesday that the revised deal simplifies the transaction structure, provides more certainty of value for Warner Bros stockholders and speeds up the path to a Warner Bros shareholder vote.

The companies said that the all-cash transaction is still valued at $US27.75 per Warner Bros share.

Warner Bros stockholders will also receive the additional value of shares of Discovery Global following its separation from Warner Bros.

“Together, Netflix and Warner Bros will deliver broader choice and greater value to audiences worldwide, enhancing access to world-class television and film both at home and in theatres,” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, said in a statement.

“The acquisition will also significantly expand US production capacity and investment in original programming, driving job creation and long-term industry growth.”

Warner Bros previously announced that it will separate Warner Bros and Discovery Global into two separate publicly traded companies.

The separation is expected to be completed in six to nine months, prior to the closing of the proposed Netflix and Warner Bros deal.

The transaction with Netflix is expected to close 12 to 18 months from the date that Netflix and Warner Bros originally entered into their merger agreement.

Both companies’ boards approved the amended all-cash deal.

Netflix has been in a tussle with Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros, with Paramount taking another step in its hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros last week, saying that it would name its own slate of directors before the next shareholder meeting of the Hollywood studio.

Paramount also filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to compel Warner Bros to disclose to shareholders how it values its bid and the competing offer from Netflix.

Warner’s leadership has repeatedly rebuffed overtures from Paramount – and urged shareholders to back the sale of its streaming and studio business to Netflix.

Paramount, meanwhile, has made efforts to sweeten its $US77.9 billion hostile offer for the entire company.

US President Donald Trump may ‍decide on who the next chair of the country’s central bank – the Federal Reserve – will be as early as next ⁠week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says.

“My guess is that the president will reach a decision, maybe as soon as next week. ‌We’ve had ​substantial conversations about this,” Bessent said in an ‍interview with CNBC.

“We’ve run a process that started in September. Eleven very strong candidates. We’re now down to four counts. The president has personally met ​with all of them.”

Trump ‌has sharply criticised Jerome Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends ​in May, for not lowering interest rates ‍fast enough.

The leading four candidates for the role are Trump’s economic adviser Kevin Hassett, Fed ​governor ​Christopher Waller, former Fed ​governor Kevin Warsh and ​BlackRock’s chief bond investment manager Rick Rieder.

Powell, nominated by Trump in 2017, does not have to leave the Fed entirely after his leadership term ends in May, and he has not indicated what he ‍will do.