Australia news LIVE: Microsoft outage affects thousands of Outlook, Teams users worldwide; Petrol prices tumble as global oil cost falls

Hello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of Australian and world news this Friday, November 13. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s controversial $6 million election promise to a golf club in his electorate was based on rough estimates and internet research, a Senate inquiry heard yesterday, raising fresh questions about the allocation of taxpayer funds in the PM’s seat.
• Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has defended the cost to Australian taxpayers for his trip to this year’s COP31 summit in Turkey, including the tens of thousands of dollars spent on offering free coffees at the conference. He told reporters yesterday it was originally Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s idea to make the offering, back when he was minister for energy in 2021.
• Meanwhile, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg slammed Australia’s net zero pace as she broke her recent boycott of COP conferences to denounce this year’s leadership for losing control of rising temperatures.
• And Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has resigned after allegations he had two extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy.

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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says Microsoft is not dealing with a cyberattack as it responds to major outages this morning.

He told a press conference in Sydney just now that he had been briefed by Australia’s cybersecurity coordinator and the head of Microsoft Australia and that they did not believe they were dealing with a cyber threat.

“The perspective of Microsoft at this stage … they believe in some ways [similar] to what we saw with CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry,” Burke said.

Microsoft is receiving nearly 20,000 reports every minute as it scrambles to resolve the issue affecting 130,000 users.

Returning to evidence being given by the head of NAB to a parliamentary committee, Andrew Irvine is not optimistic about the economic outlook.

“I’m quite bearish about the outlook next year, given the underlying economy,” he said.

“The Australian economy will be more challenged next year.

“I don’t expect next year to be a very significantly profitable year for the bank, we’ll have to see.”

Irvine did say it was possible that if the economy is stronger than expected, then it would help the bank’s profits.

One Nation senator Sean Bell has accused the prime minister of lying, after revelations during a Senate inquiry yesterday that a $6 million election promise to a golf club in his electorate was based on rough estimates and internet research.

“There’s a problem with sewage spilling out of the mouth of the prime minister,” Bell told News24. “I mean, it’s absolutely outrageous.

“And why can’t he just apologise and admit he got it wrong? This government has a problem with the truth.”

He said the entire grant system needed to be overhauled.

“This is not just one grant to a golf club … It is completely endemic through the industry.”

The head of the National Australia Bank has warned that business leaders and politicians need to lead a national conversation about how AI will affect the economy.

Andrew Irvine, giving evidence to a parliamentary committee this morning, said the technology would have ramifications for workforces across the country.

“We must acknowledge the reality that artificial intelligence will ultimately have implications for the future workforce in banking or any other industry,” he said.

“Our responsibility as business and political leaders is to prepare people for the transition, to invest in the new skills and ensure the benefits of technological progress are broadly shared.

Virgin passengers will today have to figure out for themselves when to board, if their gate has changed and when the final call for their flight is taking place.

That’s because Virgin staff members of the Australian Services Union (ASU) are taking protected industrial action in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.

In addition to the silent treatment for customers, ASU members will waive fees on excess baggage, seat changes and late fees – all part of a union action protesting a proposed enterprise agreement that would force workers to cover nine-hour shifts, receiving no time in lieu.

ASU-covered workers will also stop performing lounge check-in duties, and queue in standard passenger security lanes, the union said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume says Labor’s decision to spend $32,000 on a coffee cart for this year’s COP31 summit is offensive to Australians who are suffering in a cost-of-living crisis.

“This is the priority and the choice that Labor have made to spend taxpayer money at a time when we’ve got a cost-of-living crisis, at a time when emissions aren’t coming down and when energy prices have gone up by 40 per cent,” she told Sunrise.

“I don’t think that the priorities and the choices of this government are serving Australians.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor introduced the offering of a coffee cart at the Australian pavilion of the annual climate conference when he was minister for energy in 2021.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said Australian creators were aggrieved by the copyright status quo, as the government mulls requiring rights holders to opt out of AI scraping.

“The work of Australian creatives is world-class. This is absolutely vital to our culture but it is a fact that the work of those creatives is being used without their consent or payment, and the prime minister made it very clear that this is an area where artists need to have ownership and control,” she told Radio National.

“Rights holders at the moment have every right to be aggrieved by the status quo … we recognise that there is a problem right now.”

Jimmy Barnes weighed in this week to demand the prime minister stand firm in the face of pressure to water down copyright laws to shore up global AI investment in Australia. The prime minister hit back, referring the Cold Chisel frontman to a July speech in which he insisted copyright would be protected.

“We welcome the contributions that have been made by eminent commentators in this area but we do need to look at solutions to make sure that our rights holders continue to be paid,” Rowland said.

South Australia is about to be the first state to plug into a Working With Children Check system that will stop people barred from childcare work in one part of the country from getting similar jobs elsewhere.

The criminal history tracking pilot comes almost 18 months after attorneys-general agreed to the overhaul following shocking allegations of child sex abuse in Victoria, and more than a decade after a royal commission recommended national oversight of the system to avoid predators slipping through the cracks.

“What this does is ensure that there is continuous, near-real-time monitoring of changes in criminal history,” Attorney-General Michelle Rowland told Radio National.

“There will be essentially a library of offences, and each state and territory will be able to plug in for a person who has a Working With Children Check, and be able to cross-check whether or not that person has committed an offence in any jurisdiction in Australia.”

Asked why it had taken more than a decade to fulfil the royal commission recommendation, Rowland said: “It is complex, it is hard, it is costly, but that is no reason – and I don’t cast aspersions on any former governments, Commonwealth or state and territory – but it’s one of the reasons why it has taken so long. But it needs to get done.”

Washington: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has given a top award to the service member who scolded him and his staff at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier following a Veterans’ Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Hegseth posted photos on social media that show him pinning the award on and shaking hands with a soldier. His post says, “We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist.”

Hegseth welcomed to the Pentagon the army unit that guards the tomb and awarded Spc. Thomas Iglesias the Joint Service Commendation Medal “for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 2026”, the Pentagon said.

Iglesias reprimanded Hegseth and a group of his staffers when a loud laugh was heard after they took photos at the site following a ceremony that included President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Liberal senator Dave Sharma says he is not sure whether reopening an investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal surrounding the Australian cricket team is productive, and warned of the possibility that fresh headlines were triggering a “witch hunt”.

“I don’t really like raking over old coals. I feel like this story was several years old now … I definitely think that if there was a cover-up at the time, people need to come clean now,” he told Nine’s Today show.

“I’m not sure how much you know Australian cricket or the integrity of Australian cricket is advanced in pursuing a further witch hunt eight or nine years later.”

Appearing alongside Sharma was Greens leader David Shoebridge, who said it was important that if there were “cultural issues” in the sport that they be brought to light.

Australia captain Pat Cummins is due to front the media later this morning to address Usman Khawaja’s claims that the whole squad knew about the cheating plot.