Australia news LIVE: Greens push for changes as Digital Duty of Care to be introduced to parliament this week; Frydenberg hints at political comeback, says Liberals ‘need to do better’

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news for Monday, October 12. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s preferred prime minister rating rose by three percentage points to 32 per cent and Labor’s primary vote is up one point, this month’s Resolve Political Monitor has found. Voter support for One Nation fell from its high point in June, with the party’s primary vote down by 2 percentage points in the past month.
• Labor’s Digital Duty of Care laws will be introduced to parliament this week, and will require platforms such as Meta and X to exclude harmful content for under-18s including pornography, content that promotes eating disorders, and sites promoting hostility to women.
• The Greens are proposing changes to the bill that would allow individuals to sue big tech companies for compensation if they believed they were harmed online.
• During an interview with 60 Minutes last night, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Liberal Party faced an “existential threat”, and that leader Angus Taylor needed to “do better”. The remarks come amid renewed speculation Frydenberg could be making a return to politics. Senior Coalition figures, including Taylor, have said they would welcome him back.
• And Pope Leo will be undergoing surgery this week to remove a small growth in his lung in the first health scare of the 71-year-old’s tenure. The Vatican did not say whether the nodule was believed to be malignant.

Labor frontbencher Kristy McBain says banks should not be charging small businesses card surcharges, after the treasurer was forced to intervene to delay the Australian Taxation Office’s ban on credit card payments.

The ATO surprised small business owners earlier this month as the Reserve Bank of Australia’s ban on credit card surcharges came into effect, arguing it could not absorb surcharge fees. Labor ministers sent mixed messages over the move, and the opposition accused the government of failing to foresee the consequences of the ban.

“I think the RBA made the right decision to ban card surcharging. It costs customers about $1.6 billion every year, but they should have taken the next step and banned charging at the point of sale for small businesses,” the emergency management minister told Sunrise.

“These are banks making billions of dollars in profits every year, and small businesses are already paying account keeping fees and a range of other fees directly to their banks.”

Independent MP Monique Ryan, who ousted Josh Frydenberg from the seat of Kooyong at the 2022 election, says she is “not bothered” by reports the former treasurer could be making a return to politics.

“Josh does have a track record with the Kooyong community. He was the member for that seat for 12 years, and in 2022, our community rejected him because they were so frustrated with his inability to affect any change to government policy on climate change. People were unhappy with his economic management. People were very unhappy with the way that he punched down on Victoria during the COVID years,” she told Nine’s Today show.

Ryan suggested Frydenberg was more interested in his ambitions to be prime minister than in what was best for the electorate.

“He says he wants to be prime minister, but he doesn’t speak much about Kooyong, and that’s the part of the world that I’m most focused on,” she said.

“I will continue to fight to represent our community as best I can against whoever the Liberal Party decides to put up.”

During an interview on 60 Minutes last night, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Liberal Party faced an “existential threat”, and that leader Angus Taylor needed to “do better”.

The remarks come amid renewed speculation Frydenberg could be making a return to politics. Senior Coalition figures, including Taylor, have said they would welcome him back.

“The polls are showing that the Liberal Party is at an all-time low,” Frydenberg told the program.

“Things have to change. Because there’s something existential about the threat that I think the party now faces.”

Asked whether he wanted to be prime minister, Frydenberg said:

“Look, I certainly haven’t closed the door, but I don’t need to rush to a decision. The next election is 18 months away.”

Cairo: Saudi authorities say King Fahd International Airport in Dammam has been attacked, but revealed few details.

Saudi civil aviation said overnight that efforts were underway to assess damage at the airport about 400 kilometres east of the capital, Riyadh. Dammam is on the Persian Gulf near Bahrain and Qatar.

Earlier on Sunday, a projectile struck a passenger terminal at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh – a day after a missile hit the same terminal and killed at least 12 people, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said. The Houthis claimed responsibility for those attacks and others.

Saturday’s missile attack was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began – another 300 people were wounded, some critically. The airport was closed on Sunday.

Office-based Qantas engineers are expected to go on a two-hour strike in Mascot, NSW head office in a dispute over pay.

Without an improved wage offer from the airline, the engineers, represented by Professionals Australia, voted to stop work. They are expected to conduct a two-hour strike from 10am-12pm AEST and a planned protest at Qantas’ headquarters.

They will also begin a ban on performing work on Qantas’ long-haul 787 Dreamliner and A380 aircraft.

“The B787 and A380 are currently the aircraft that Qantas operates for their long-haul flights to destinations such as London and New York,” said.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news for Monday, October 12. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s preferred prime minister rating rose by three percentage points to 32 per cent and Labor’s primary vote is up one point, this month’s Resolve Political Monitor has found. Voter support for One Nation fell from its high point in June, with the party’s primary vote down by 2 percentage points in the past month.
• Labor’s Digital Duty of Care laws will be introduced to parliament this week, and will require platforms such as Meta and X to exclude harmful content for under-18s including pornography, content that promotes eating disorders, and sites promoting hostility to women.
• The Greens are proposing changes to the bill that would allow individuals to sue big tech companies for compensation if they believed they were harmed online.
• During an interview with 60 Minutes last night, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Liberal Party faced an “existential threat”, and that leader Angus Taylor needed to “do better”. The remarks come amid renewed speculation Frydenberg could be making a return to politics. Senior Coalition figures, including Taylor, have said they would welcome him back.
• And Pope Leo will be undergoing surgery this week to remove a small growth in his lung in the first health scare of the 71-year-old’s tenure. The Vatican did not say whether the nodule was believed to be malignant.