Australia politics live: speculation grows over Barnaby Joyce defection to One Nation; AI ‘nudify’ service blocks Australians | Australia news

Speculation grows that Barnaby Joyce has defected to One Nation
According to reports, Barnaby Joyce may announce that he is leaving the Nationals and joining One Nation today.
The former National leader said last month he was considering his future in the party after his relationship with leader David Littleproud soured. a decision in the summer.
However, The Australian and Nine newspapers report this morning that he may make an announcement before parliament meets today.
Australian said “He understands that many of his colleagues believe Mr Joyce will make his intentions clear on Thursday”.
But National Party leader David Littleproud urged Joyce to stay in the party room and said he could “contribute”.
Littleproud told Sky News yesterday.
we gave it to him [time and space] Working where you want to be.
We want him back in our party room because that’s a contract he and the people of New England signed that he’s a member of the National Party, and we hope he comes back. [so] can contribute.
Sydney Morning Herald It was claimed last night It reported that Joyce was about to defect to One Nation and told the imprint that he would have “more to say” today.
Newspapers said Matt Canavan and Michael McCormack had encouraged Joyce to stay in the Nationals, but Canavan said he was ready to “take the fight” against Joyce if he joined Pauline Hanson’s party.
important events
UK AI ‘nudification’ company blocks Australian users
josh taylor
A UK-based company behind three of the most widely used “nudification” deepfake services has blocked Australian users after the company was alerted by eSafety in September that its services were being used to create AI child abuse material, the eSafety commissioner said.
The regulator did not name the company but correspondence from eSafety obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws reveals it to be Itai Tech.
eSafety said the services are visited by around 100,000 Australians a month and students in Australian schools have come forward in high-profile cases involving the production of sexual abuse material.
Julie Inman Grant in question:
We know that ‘nudification’ services are having a devastating impact on Australian schools, and we believe that by blocking the use of these services by Australians by this major provider, this will have a material impact on the number of Australian schoolchildren who are victims of AI-generated child sexual abuse.
Itai Tech was fined by the UK regulator earlier this month for failing to perform age checks on its site, and was also reported to have blocked age checks for UK users. accessing services.
eSafety said global AI model hosting platform Hugging Face has changed its terms of service to prevent its models from being used to create child abuse material following concerns raised by eSafety.

Cait Kelly
Victoria Police has confirmed it has launched a new search for the body of Samantha Murphy, who was last seen alive as she left her home in Ballarat for a morning run on February 4, 2024.
The search efforts, which started yesterday, will continue today.
In a statement, the police said:
Since February 2024, police have regularly carried out a number of inquiries and minor searches as part of the current investigation.
We are not in a position to provide further specific details regarding today’s operational activities at this time.
Police are currently asking the public not to participate in the search.
As the matter is currently before the courts, we are not in a position to comment further on the investigation.
In March last year Ballarat man Patrick Orren Stephenson was charged with her murder.
Read more here:
Speculation grows that Barnaby Joyce has defected to One Nation
According to reports, Barnaby Joyce may announce that he is leaving the Nationals and joining One Nation today.
The former National leader said last month he was considering his future in the party after his relationship with leader David Littleproud soured. a decision in the summer.
However, The Australian and Nine newspapers report this morning that he may make an announcement before parliament meets today.
Australian said “He understands that many of his colleagues believe Mr Joyce will make his intentions clear on Thursday”.
But National Party leader David Littleproud urged Joyce to stay in the party room and said he could “contribute”.
Littleproud told Sky News yesterday.
we gave it to him [time and space] Working where you want to be.
We want him back in our party room because that’s a contract he and the people of New England signed that he’s a member of the National Party, and we hope he comes back. [so] can contribute.
Sydney Morning Herald It was claimed last night It reported that Joyce was about to defect to One Nation and told the imprint that he would have “more to say” today.
Newspapers said Matt Canavan and Michael McCormack had encouraged Joyce to stay in the Nationals, but Canavan said he was ready to “take the fight” against Joyce if he joined Pauline Hanson’s party.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I Martin Farrer with the best night stories and then Krishani Dhanji will take you through the end of parliament’s last week of the year.
Barnaby Joyce According to this morning’s news, she may announce earlier today that she is leaving Nationals and moving to One Nation. The former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister said last month he would not stand as a National again in the New England seat and would consider his role over the summer. However, speculation is mounting that he will announce his plans today. More is coming.
A UK-based company behind three of the most widely used “nudification” deepfake services has blocked Australian users in September after Australia’s eSafety watchdog warned its services were being used to create AI child abuse material. More details to come.




