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James Corden has used part of his farewell speech in the final episode of The Late Late Show to address the deep rift in America over hot button issues including politics and ideology.

"We started this show with Obama, then Trump and a global pandemic. I've watched American change a lot. I've watched divisions grow and I've felt a sense of negativity boil over," he said on Thursday.

He asked his audience to "remember what America signifies to the rest of the world. My entire life it has always been a place of optimism. ... Yes, it has flaws but show me a place that doesn't. Show me a person that doesn't.

"Just because somebody disagrees with you it doesn't make them bad or evil. We are all more the same than we are different. There are so many people who are trying to stoke those differences and we have to try as best we can to look for the light, look for the joy. If you do, it's out there. That's all this show has ever been about," he said.

Corden announced one year ago that he would be ending his late-night show after eight seasons, citing a desire to return to his native Britain to be closer to family and loved ones. His parents were seated in the audience for the final taping, and his sisters, he joked, were in town too - but at a bar instead.

Harry Styles and Will Ferrell were Corden's final guests. Styles has been a frequent visitor to the show, and has even guest-hosted twice.

"As a friend, I'm so incredibly proud of you," Styles told Corden.

"On a personal note, you've been a safe space to me always as a friend."

He added that he was '"selfishly very excited that you're coming home."

Styles, Corden and Ferrell then embraced in a group hug.

There were also goodbyes from the other late night hosts. Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and David Letterman all appeared in a pre-taped segment with Corden. They joked that since Corden was ending his show, they could each call dibs on one of his segments.

They all chose Carpool Karaoke, referencing Corden's most popular sketch where he drives around Los Angeles with celebrities and sing songs. Paul McCartney, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder and Chris Martin are a few of his Carpool Karaoke passengers. The segment was such a hit that it spun-off into its own series for Apple.

Corden closed out the night by playing a piano and singing a song with the crew and staff gathered around the stage.

"Part of me thinks I should stay here forever but deep in my heart I just know," Corden sang.

"No more shows to be showing, it's time I was going, It's time. Thanks for watching, that's our show."

© AP 2023

National cabinet has agreed to a suite of health measures in an effort to make medical services more accessible.

State and territory leaders met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Brisbane on Friday and endorsed plans to improve access to after-hours care for patients, as well as expanding the number of nurses in the workforce.

A patient ID system called MyMedicare will be introduced as part of six reform measures outlined at national cabinet.

The measures include more than $2 billion spent on health in the federal budget, including support for workers such as paramedics and pharmacists.

Mr Albanese said health would be the main focus for national cabinet for 2023, with reform in the sector to be discussed at a meeting in the last quarter of the year.

"One of the things identified is patients who will regularly turn up at emergency departments. We want to make sure that there is registration there so we can reach out," he told reporters on Friday.

National cabinet also discussed the National Disability Insurance Scheme, committing to a framework to ensure it is made more financially viable.

Mr Albanese said the NDIS was not sustainable at present and it was set to be the biggest cost to the federal budget.

More than $720 million has been committed to boost the capability of the agency in charge of the scheme to better support participants.

"We need to have a sustainable growth trajectory for the NDIS in order to support equity and fairness for all Australians who are living with disability, including those not eligible for the NDIS," Mr Albanese said.

"We want to make sure that the promise of the NDIS is fulfilled."

The NDIS framework calls for a target of no more than eight per cent annual growth in the scheme's costs by July 2026.

State and territory leaders also agreed to support plans for national cabinet to develop reforms for improving the rights of renters.

"What we're not seeking to do is to be absolutely uniform because different states will have different circumstances, but there are measures and commitments every state and territory is doing something in this area," Mr Albanese said.

"There are a range of measures that will be considered by state and territory governments to strengthen the system of renters' rights."

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley earlier said the Medicare system needed more support.

"Wrangling the state premiers has become a bit of a national sport," she said.

"People need access to doctors, and absolutely, that discussion today is a vital one. We do need to have our healthcare system back where it was."

It was the first national cabinet meeting for newly elected NSW Premier Chris Minns, leaving Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff as the only Liberal leader in the group.

National cabinet also discussed national skills agreements, the transition towards net-zero, as well as support for the Indigenous voice referendum.

© AAP 2023

Jerry Springer, the one-time mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional guests willing to bare all - sometimes literally - as they brawled and hurled obscenities before a raucous audience, has died.

He was 79.

At its peak, The Jerry Springer Show was a ratings powerhouse and a US cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favourite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey's show.

Springer called it "escapist entertainment," while others saw the show as contributing to a dumbing-down decline in American social values.

"Jerry's ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word," said Jene Galvin, a family spokesman and friend of Springer's since 1970, in a statement.

"He's irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humour will live on."

Springer died peacefully on Thursday at home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness, the statement said

On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly declared himself as "Talk show host, ringmaster of civilisation's end." He also often had told people, tongue in cheek, that his wish for them was "may you never be on my show".

After more than 4,000 episodes, the show ended in 2018, never straying from its core salaciousness: Some of its last episodes had such titles as "Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight," "Stop Pimpin' My Twin Sister," and "Hooking Up With My Therapist".

In a "Too Hot For TV" video released as his daily show neared 7 million viewers in the late 1990s, Springer offered a defence against disgust.

"Look, television does not and must not create values, it's merely a picture of all that's out there -- the good, the bad, the ugly," Springer said, adding: "Believe this: The politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our treasured freedom than any of our guests ever were or could be."

He also contended that the people on his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever ridicule or humiliation awaited them.

Gerald Norman Springer was born February 13, 1944, in a London underground railway station being used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, in which other relatives were killed in Nazi gas chambers. They arrived in the United States when their son was five and settled in the Queens borough of New York City.

He was active in politics much of his adult life, mulling a run for governor of Ohio as recently as 2017.

He entered the arena as an aide in Robert F. Kennedy's ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. Springer, working for a Cincinnati law firm, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.

In 1974 - in what The Cincinnati Enquirer reported as "an abrupt move that shook Cincinnati's political community" - Springer resigned. He cited "very personal family considerations," but what he didn't mention was a vice probe involving prostitution. In a subsequent admission that could have been the basis for one of his future shows, Springer said he had paid prostitutes with personal cheques.

Then 30, he had married Micki Velton the previous year. The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.

Despite the limits Springer's show put on his political aspirations, he embraced its legacy. In a 2003 fundraising infomercial ahead of a possible US Senate run the following year, Springer referenced a quote by then National Review commentator Jonah Goldberg, who warned of new people brought to the polls by Springer, including "slack-jawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs and whatnots".

In the informercial, Springer referred to the quote and talked about wanting to reach out to "regular folks ... who weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth."

© AP 2023