Tuesday, 9 December - B-A-N-A-N-A-S

December 09, 2025

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 9 December. In your Squiz Today…

  • Barnaby Joyce joins One Nation

  • A verdict in Toyah Cordingley’s murder trial

  • And the Golden Globes nominees are announced…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“There were bananas flying everywhere!”

Said UK lifeguard Harry Emmence about thousands of the fruit that washed up on a West Sussex beach after falling overboard from a cargo ship. Locals looking to score a freebie for the fruit bowl were told the fruit could be hazardous, so best to let this bunch go…

It’s official…

The Squiz

Former Nationals leader/Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has joined One Nation. It’s been a long goodbye to his former party, but it comes less than 2 weeks after he left the Nats, and he’d been toying with the idea of joining Pauline Hanson’s party for months. Yesterday, she said she was “pleased” to welcome him and “his experience, his advice and his determination to get a fair go for farmers and regional Australia”. Joyce praised Hanson for driving “the political agenda” in recent years, and says he’s made the move so he could “go to work and deliver outcomes”.

Why did he defect?

In short, he’s clashed with Nats leader David Littleproud - particularly over the Coalition’s net zero commitment (which has since been scrapped…) on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Joyce was a high-profile Nat, so many of his colleagues appealed for him to stay, but to no avail… Yesterday, Littleproud said it was “disappointing” for Joyce’s constituents in his New England electorate, and for the party, which he said had “supported Barnaby through many difficult times, including during his darkest moments”, including a very public marriage breakdown/new relationship with his press secretary and health concerns. Joyce joins the ranks of other high-profile political defections, including former Labor leader Mark Latham (who joined - and left - One Nation…) and Cheryl Kernot leaving the Democrats for Labor.

So what happens now?

Joyce will stay on as the One Nation MP for New England for the remainder of his term, and will then run on the NSW Senate ticket at the next federal election in 2027-28. That’s despite some of his former teammates, like Michael McCormack, tipping Joyce and Hanson could “butt heads” before then... As for the Nats, they’re searching for a new candidate to run for the seat of New England. Something else for your radar while we’re talking federal pollies… Communications Minister Anika Wells is still in the hot seat after more family travel expenses charged to taxpayers surfaced yesterday. Reports say the expenses so far have met parliamentary rules, but the Coalition wants a deeper investigation…

Protecting your big idea

Trademarks are one of those things nobody tells you about when you start a business. Former Australian Women's Weekly editor Helen McCabe is running a free webinar December 10 with IP Australia that breaks down what's worth protecting and how to actually do it. Grab a spot if protecting your ideas has been nagging at the back of your mind.

Squiz the Rest

A tragic start to the fire season

An experienced firefighter has died in NSW after being hit by a tree and going into cardiac arrest. The 59yo worked for National Parks and Wildlife and was leading backburning operations in an area where 4 homes were lost at Bulahdelah, about 90kms north of Newcastle. Rural Fire boss Trent Curtin says the man was checking on his team when he was struck, and his death is a reminder that there’s “something deeply Australian about people who put themselves forward to protect our community in their time of need”. There was some reprieve on the fire front yesterday with some rain around, and milder conditions - but there are still dozens of uncontrolled fires burning across a number of states…

A verdict has been reached in Toyah Cordingley’s murder case

Former nurse Rajwinder Singh has been found guilty of killing the 24yo on Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland in 2018… Singh was put on trial over Cordingley’s murder earlier this year, but it ended in a hung jury. The 41yo was subsequently re-tried, and yesterday, the jury unanimously found that he killed her before fleeing to India in the days afterwards. He spent 4 years in hiding there, but police tracked him and brought him back to Australia to face a murder charge, to which he pleaded not guilty. During the trial, Crown Prosecutor Nathan Crane said that Cordingley had been walking her dog on the beach, and there had been “a confrontation” with Singh before he attacked her. We're likely to hear more about the case today, when sentencing submissions begin.

Thailand launches airstrikes 

A serious skirmish between Thai and Cambodian troops along a section of their disputed border is threatening the ceasefire in place. A Thai soldier was killed, and in retaliation, Thailand’s air force bombed 2 Cambodian military sites. Things have been fraught since July between the neighbouring countries, when at least 48 people died in cross-border fighting before a peace deal was brokered in October by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and US President Donald Trump. That truce was again jeopardised when a Thai soldier was seriously injured last month by a landmine. To stop things from escalating any further, Cambodia's influential former PM Hun Sen has urged his country’s forces to exercise restraint. 
*If you want to get across the background to this conflict, our Shortcut will help you out…

Tim Tam’s global slam…

The iconic Aussie chocolate bickie is set for world domination, thanks to the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund, which is chipping in $45 million to help manufacturer Arnotts get them onto supermarket shelves around the world. While the Brits have already got a taste for Tim Tams (they’ve bought more than 5 million packets in 18 months), the rest of the globe’s been a bit trickier to conquer. The Fund uses taxpayer money to invest in our manufacturing, and it recently lent $36 million to the maker of Four’N Twenty Pies. While Arnotts hasn’t been Aussie-owned since 1997, it still produces a bunch of classics on home soil, including Tim Tams, Jatz, Iced Vo Vos and Scotch Fingers - but surely it’s time the rest of the world embraced the Tim Tim slam…

Awards season buzz

We got a hint of what’s coming next year with the Golden Globes nominees announced this morning - and leading the field is Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest movie One Battle After Another, with 9 nods. Another one creating some chatter is Timothee Chalamet's flick Marty Supreme about a table tennis star, and the new take on Frankenstein starring Aussie actor Jacob Elordi. He’s up for best supporting actor for that role, and another for his turn in the miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Here’s a roundup of all the noms (which also include Aussies Rose Byrne and Joel Edgerton)... On the TV front, some notable additions included Pluribus in the drama category, and teen drama series Adolescence which is up for 5 awards. And while it might seem early to be talking awards season, we haven’t got long - the ceremony is on 11 January…

Apropos of Nothing

A 3yo Indian boy has become the youngest chess player in history to earn an official rating from the International Chess Federation. To get the honour, he needed to win against another rated player - he’s already beaten 3. His next goal: grandmaster.

Oprah’s in Oz, and in between attempting Tim Tam slams, taking coastal walks and sampling the ricotta hot cakes at Bills, the superstar surprised Brisbane fan Clarissa Hill at her 80th birthday party. Cake and Oprah - a double treat…

And staff at the Louvre might be considering 2025 a bit of a write-off… After the now-infamous theft of priceless French crown jewels in October, a water leak has damaged hundreds of books in the Egyptian department. You win some, you Louvre some…

Squiz the Day

8.00am (AEDT) - The Environment and Communications References Committee will hold a public hearing as part of the Senate inquiry into the Triple Zero service outage - Canberra 

8.45am (AEDT) - The State Library of NSW’s Macquarie Street building is set to re-open after its recent upgrade - Sydney

9.00am (AEST) - The Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety will hold a public hearing - Brisbane

10.00am (AEDT) - Elena Anita Begovic is set to be sentenced over the death of 12yo Marshall Oakley-Stagg in a car accident outside of Cosgrove High School in April 2024 - Hobart

10.15am (AEDT) - The National Archives of Australia will release the Cabinet records from 2005 - Canberra

10.30am (AEDT) - A state funeral will be held for former Labor Senator Graham Richardson at St James Anglican Church - Sydney

11.00am (AEDT) - Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will hold a special sitting of Victorian parliament to make a formal apology to First Peoples on behalf of the state, under the recommendation of the Yoorrook Justice Commission and part of the agreement of Victoria's recent treaty - Melbourne 

2.30pm (AEDT) - Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock will hold a press conference to announce the latest decision on interest rates - Sydney

6.00pm (AEDT) - The Lowy Institute will launch the 2025 edition of the Asia Power Index, which maps the changing distribution of power in Asia - Sydney

7.10pm (AEDT) - Cricket: Perth Scorchers v Melbourne Stars in the Knockout of the Women's Big Bash League - The Knockout, watch on 7+

The Great Barrier Reef's annual mass coral spawning is expected to start late this evening - Moore Reef

ABS data releases: Index of Household Advantage and Disadvantage, 2021; Building Approvals, Australia, October 2025

Independence Day in Tanzania - this year's celebrations have been cancelled, and protests outlawed due to election-related unrest 

International Day of Veterinary Medicine

National Pastry Day

Christmas Card Day

The one and only Dame Judi Dench’s birthday (1934)

Anniversary of:

  • the birthdays of actor Kirk Douglas (1916) and former PM Bob Hawke (1929)

  • the premiere of the longest-running TV soap opera, Coronation Street (1960)

  • the premiere of the film Brokeback Mountain (2005)

  • the passing of same-sex marriage legislation through the Australian Parliament (2017)

  • the eruption of New Zealand's White Island/Whakaari volcano, which killed 22 people (2019)