What we learned: Friday 13 December
We are wrapping up the live blog here for the night. This is what made the news:
The Coalition claims its nuclear energy plan will lead to 38% of electricity coming from nuclear energy and 54% from renewable sources by 2050, costing $263bn less than Labor’s policy to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
However, the modelling relies on demand not increasing as much as the government expects despite the growing popularity of electric vehicles and energy-hungry technologies.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the Coalition’s nuclear costings are “riddled with fundamental errors [and] heroic assumptions” and have three fatal errors.
Former professional tennis player turned Victoria Liberal party MP Sam Groth quit the frontbench after his leader, John Pesutto, refused to stand down after a damning defamation judgment.
There are heatwave warnings in place for four states and territories, while severe thunderstorms are in store for parts of WA and NSW, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.
South Australian police arrested two parents for allegedly pretending their child had cancer to garner $60,000 in donations.
Hundreds of Qantas engineers walked off the job for 24 hours amid pay negotiations.
Updated
Staged introduction of pricing caps for in-home aged care providers until July 2026
The Albanese government will “stage” the introduction of pricing caps for in-home aged care providers until July 2026 after industry groups warned providers would not have enough time to prepare.
The Department of Health and Aged Care released the news on Thursday explaining the plans to introduce pricing caps in Labor’s $4.3bn in-home aged care program, Support At Home, would be pushed back one year.
The existing home care program, which supports people who want to remain in their own house rather than enter residential care, will transition to Support At Home from 1 July 2025. The government said amid “changing preferences” of older Australians, home care participants have quadrupled in the last decade; with an expected 1.4 million people by 2035, changes are required to that system.
The new program is expected to support another 300,000 people, with promises of shorter waiting times, better support, and access to funds for home modifications, walkers, wheelchairs, and a new equipment loan system.
But the changes to bring in pricing caps were due to come into effect from July 2025 after consultation with the sector in early 2025. The pricing guide will be set by the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority on an annual basis.
The aged care minister, Anika Wells, explained:
This decision has been made based on feedback from the sector and the opposition about the need to avoid service disruption and ensure continuity of care for older people. Providers will continue to set their own prices for services in the first year of the program from July 2025, as currently occurs in the Home Care Package program. The government will introduce additional consumer protections to monitor prices and to ensure pricing is fair during the transition year. The government will consult with older people, consumer advocates and the sector on the development of these measures from January 2025.
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Migrant arrivals down 10% in last financial year
Australia’s migrant arrivals are down 10% to 667,000 in the 2023-24 financial year from 739,000 a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed.
Net overseas migration was 446,000 in 2023-24, down from 536,000 a year earlier. The largest group of migrant arrivals was temporary students, with 207,000 people and migrant departures increased by 8% to 221,000 from 204,000 departures a year earlier.
It’s the first annual decrease in net overseas migration since Covid border restrictions were lifted.
The federal government aims to slash net migration by 260,000 this financial year, but as Paul Karp reported earlier in the week, one migration expert says this is no longer achievable.
Read more:
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Government lists ageing submarines as ‘product of concern’
Australia’s ageing Collins-class submarines have been listed as a “product of concern”, with only one of the six boats fully operational, AAP reports.
Following the recommendation by Defence, enhanced ministerial oversight of the submarines’ sustainment will be enacted amid a plan to extend their lives by another decade.
On Friday, the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, said that Defence would develop a remediation plan by early next year.
By listing Collins class sustainment as a Product of Concern, the government is demonstrating its commitment to remediating these challenges and ensuring the Submarine Enterprise, which includes Defence and ASC Pty Ltd, delivers and sustains improved performance.
Australia operates a fleet of six Collins-class submarines, which entered service in the mid-1990s but have recently been hit with corrosion issues and maintenance delays.
Last month, media outlets revealed the navy had been left with just one fully operational boat as the rest of the fleet underwent urgent repairs or waited for scheduled upgrades.
Conroy pointed the finger at the former Coalition government for cutting the sustainment budget.
This is another example of the Albanese government bringing the necessary energy and oversight to fix troubled projects.
I have convened seven Projects of Concern summits in just two-and-a-half years as minister.
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Here’s Amanda Meade’s round up of the media news of the week in Weekly Beast.
Shareholder activists probe Westpac on fossil fuel financing
Westpac executives have caught another earful from shareholder activists who are disappointed the country’s oldest bank is not doing more to distance itself from fossil fuel companies, AAP reports.
Shareholders have again handily rejected an effort brought by activist group Market Forces related to climate change, with a preliminary tally indicating the first of two resolutions on the matter would receive about 6.6% of the vote at Friday’s annual general meeting.
Westpac passed a climate action plan last year requiring its upstream oil and gas customers to have credible climate transition plans by September 2025 to receive further corporate lending and bond facilitation.
However, the Market Forces chief executive, Will van de Pol, told the meeting Westpac had not clearly explained how the policy would be applied.
This calls into question the purpose of this cornerstone climate policy.
Existing fossil fuel customers, the reality is that many are doing everything they can to delay the transition by seeking to lock in fossil fuel expansion projects that will emit for decades to come.
The policy did not clarify to investors whether Westpac would continue to provide financing to companies such as Santos, which was working to develop three new oil and gas projects, van de Pol said.
Company executives said they took climate change very seriously, with the bank meeting its goals for cutting emissions six years ahead of schedule.
Westpac has also committed to zero lending to thermal coal projects by the end of 2025 and would not lend to new metallurgical coal projects, its chief executive, Peter King, said.
We’re a big bank. We’re making huge efforts here. I understand where you’re coming from, but I do believe we’re making a big difference here.
Westpac chair Steven Gregg said the bank’s policy had focused on upstream developers because that was where it thought it could make the biggest difference.
In time to come, we will review our downstream policy as well.
So we hear what you’re saying, and we’ll be reviewing.
King said Westpac provided $10bn in sustainable finance and $5bn in bond issuance related to helping companies with their climate transition in 2023/24.
Updated
Australian teen stabbed to death in Bangkok
A 14-year-old Thai-Australian schoolboy has been stabbed to death by another 14-year-old in Bangkok’s Sattahip district on Tuesday night, local media reports. The alleged attacker has been arrested.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson confirmed to Guardian Australia that consular assistance was being provided to the boy’s family:
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian who died in Thailand.
We send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time.
Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.
Updated
‘He can test it out, and good luck to him’: Liberal MP calls for Pesutto to spill leadership
Following on from the previous post.
It remains unclear if this means Sam Groth will have a tilt for John Pesutto’s job – it’s no secret that over the past year, he has harboured leadership ambitions.
Today, Liberal house upper house MP Bev McArthur, a conservative, took the rare step of holding a press conference to call for Pesutto to spill the leadership. She told reporters:
If John is confident of the numbers of his leadership, then he can test it out, and good luck to him.
To which Pesutto replied at his press conference:
What she said is nothing new to me … Bev’s views are well known.
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Sam Groth quits Victorian shadow frontbench after John Pesutto defamation ruling
Former professional tennis player turned Victoria Liberal party MP Sam Groth has quit the frontbench after his leader, John Pesutto, refused to stand down after a damning defamation judgment.
A federal court judge on Thursday found Pesutto defamed MP Moira Deeming and ordered that he pay $300,000 in damages, but he said he would remain party leader.
Groth – the member for Nepean – said he can no longer serve as opposition spokesperson for tourism, sport and events and youth. He said in a statement:
At all times in my life, both professionally and personally, I have believed in acting with integrity. It is with regret that, following yesterday’s federal court judgment against John Pesutto and his subsequent decision to remain as Liberal leader, I have decided to resign from his front bench. In good conscience, I can no longer continue to serve in this role. My loyalty remains with the members of the Liberal Party, the people of my electorate of Nepean, and all Victorians. I will continue to represent them and work alongside my colleagues to develop the vision and policies we will take to the election in November 2026. I will be making no further public comment at this time.
Continued in next post.
Updated
TikTok’s own research found 66% of Australian users say it helps them ‘stay up to date with current events’
To follow up on Sarah’s post on TikTok’s argument against being forced to pay news companies because it is “never the go to place for news”, an Oxford Economics study commissioned by the social media company in April (to avoid the app being banned in Australia) reported that 66% of Australian users say it helps them “stay up to date with current events”.
I asked the company about this at the time, and the argument was that current events don’t necessarily imply news or engagement with news brands.
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Politicians keep mum on news media bargaining incentive
The Greens and federal cross-benchers want to see more details on the Albanese government’s plans to force big tech companies to enter commercial deals with Australian news publishers or be slapped with multimillion dollar tax bills.
The new model, announced yesterday, will require digital platforms with Australian revenues of more than $250m, including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), ByteDance (TikTok) and Google, to participate by paying a fixed charge or entering direct deals with media outlets.
The exact amount platforms will be stung with if they don’t follow the rules will be determined after consultations next year, but the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, said it would be “in the millions, not billions”.
So, how popular is it across parliament? The answer is being kept close to most politicians’ chests.
The Greens want more details but have previously been supportive of a “tech tax” to make the likes of Meta, Google and TikTok “pay for the journalism and content they monetise”.
The opposition appears generally supportive, with the shadow communications minister, David Coleman, saying the Coalition “fundamentally believes that Australian journalism must be paid for” in a statement yesterday. For the opposition, it’s a matter of when media companies will start being paid by the platforms when the rules kick in from 1 January 2025.
And what of the cross-bench? ACT independent senator David Pocock said he was “supportive in principle” but needed to see more on how the levy could operate.
A healthy diverse media is critical to a healthy democracy … The key issue for me is ensuring these big multinationals pay tax and contribute to the communities they operate in, rather than profit shifting.
While we heard from Google and Meta on Thursday, TikTok said the app was an “entertainment platform” and never “the go to place for news”.
A spokesperson said it would “actively engage in the consultation process” and also looked forward to further details.
Read more:
Updated
Victoria to axe final EV incentive as it introduces new property owner levy
The Victorian government is axing its last remaining electric vehicle incentive as it introduces a new levy to fund emergency and disaster responses. The state’s treasurer says efforts to reduce debt are beginning to bear results.
Tim Pallas, on Friday, released the state’s mid-year budget update, which shows the 2024/25 deficit is expected to grow to $3.6bn, up from a forecast $2.2bn in May.
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Swimmers urged to exercise caution this summer
Swimmers are urged to exercise caution this summer after a coroner found four international visitors became stuck in a rip and drowned in a state’s worst beach tragedy in nearly two decades.
Reema Sondhi, 42, her 23-year-old nephew Jagjeet Singh Anand, 20-year-old niece Kirti Bedi, and 20-year-old family friend Suhani Anand all died at Victoria’s Forrest Caves Beach on 24 January.
They were visiting Phillip Island for a family day trip and were part of a group of nine with relatives from India.
But Sondhi, Singh Anand and Bedi would never make it home as they were pulled unconscious from the water and died on the beach. Anand died in hospital the next day.
Coroner Sarah Gebert found all four had drowned after being caught in a rip, in findings released on Thursday.
Signs at the beach’s entrance had general warnings including, “No Lifesaving Service”, “Dangerous Currents”, and “Submerged Objects” and were clearly displayed and visible on the day, lead investigator Sergeant Leigh Cole said.
But he noted there were no provisions to translate the messages into foreign languages.
Other group members later told police that they did not notice any warning signs.
Gebert said education, safety and water awareness “is paramount” to prevent more fatal drownings this summer.
It appears that in many cases, including this coronial investigation, clear signage warning of risks alone is inadequate.
I implore the Victorian community and visitors to our state to be aware of the risks of Australian beaches and take precaution where needed.
Almost one third of death claims at Australia’s largest super funds not processed within five months
A multinational company handling superannuation payments for 20 Australian funds says it only processes 70% of death claims within five months of lodgement.
Members pay for death cover to ensure that when they die, their family members can receive a lump sum of money. This can be used to settle debts and pay bills.
Last month, Asic lodged federal court proceedings that allege Cbus failed to process more than 10,000 claims for death and disability payments within 90 days.
The financial watchdog accused Cbus of failing vulnerable members at their time of need and warned other funds may be doing the same.
MUFG Pension and Market Services, which processed claims for Cbus, has told a parliamentary inquiry into superannuation that delays are common across the sector.
Here’s MUFG’s chief executive, Dee McGrath:
We are currently paying the majority of death claims at around 70% within a five-month time frame. That does vary on the type of the claim and the complexity.
[It takes longer] for some claimants who are in a very vulnerable state, to be able to gather information and provide that to us.
Jacinta Allan describes visit to Adass Israel synagogue
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has posted on Instagram about her visit to the firebombed Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea.
She said in the post:
The first thing that hits you is the smell. The smell of char. The smell of hate.
Then you realise just how much has been lost: the texts, the structure, the records, the history.
Then you meet with the leaders of this synagogue and the Jewish community, and you can see the light again.
It was a profoundly emotional experience to return to Adass Israel Synagogue one week on to see the damage of this terrorist attack up close, and to comprehend the antisemitic evil that committed it.
It was impossible not to be moved by this horror.
And yet, it was impossible not to be awed by the dignified presence of the synagogue’s leaders, who are calmly and diligently focused on the practical task ahead.
Brick by brick, day-by-day, this building will be rebuilt and the light will shine within these walls once again.
It will take time, strength, love and action. I’m here to help in any way I can.
Updated
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Josh Taylor will here to take you through the rest of our rolling coverage this Friday afternoon. Take care, and enjoy your weekend.
Man charged with alleged domestic violence murder of woman in October
A man has been charged with the alleged murder of a woman in the NSW north-west in October.
The body of a 47-year-old woman was found outside a home in Bourke on 29 October. Police will allege the woman had suffered significant injuries. An investigation was commenced, a crime scene established at the home and a number of items were seized.
A 49-year-old man, who was arrested at the home on the day the woman’s body was found, was subsequently charged on 6 November with wounding with intent (domestic violence).
He was refused bail after appearing in Bourke local court and remanded in custody to appear in Bourke local court on 23 January.
Following forensic analysis of the seized items and the results of the post-mortem examination, detectives spoke to the 49-year-old man at a correctional facility at Sydney yesterday and charged him with murder (DV). He remains in custody until his appearance in court next year.
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Funding for communities affected by ex-tropical cyclone Jasper
Earlier today, the commonwealth and Queensland governments announced more than $206m in long-term disaster funding for the communities hit by ex-tropical cyclone Jasper last year.
The package also includes $1.75m for communities affected by south-east Queensland storm events.
The long-term recovery support package is provided through state-commonwealth disaster recovery funding arrangements, and includes:
$130m betterment package to rebuild infrastructure to a more resilient standard
$61.2m water and sewerage infrastructure package for specific LGAs impacted by ex-tropical cyclone Jasper
$13.9m Wujal Wujal targeted assistance package.
$1.5m for a legal assistance disaster-related package
$1.5m for monitoring and evaluation of recovery initiatives
Updated
Severe heatwave conditions and severe thunderstorm warnings across country
There are currently heatwave warnings in place for four states and territories, while severe thunderstorms are forecast for parts of WA and NSW, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.
In Western Australia severe heatwave conditions are peaking over south-west areas, including Perth, and are expected to move east over the weekend.
Meanwhile, a severe thunderstorm warning is in place in the south today, amid the humid air mass. Locations which may be affected include Norseman, Hyden, Kambalda, Lake King and Salmon Gums.
⛈️ Severe thunderstorms are possible for much of #WesternAustralia today, except for the west coastal fringe of the #SWLD, SW corner, and SE parts.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Western Australia (@BOM_WA) December 13, 2024
Thunderstorms may bring heavy rainfall, locally intense where storms become slow-moving.
More forecasts: https://t.co/nJiDsJm5M9 pic.twitter.com/O6tg3fGPto
Severe heatwave conditions are also being felt throughout parts of Queensland, with a severe thunderstorm warning over the north-east.
In South Australia and the Northern Territory, severe heatwave conditions are set to remain over the next few days.
Updated
Australian shares on track for fourth day of losses
The local share market has fallen to a three-and-a-half-week low and is on track for its fourth day of losses, AAP reports.
At noon AEDT the benchmark S&P/AS200 index was down 52.5 points, or 0.63%, to 8,276.9, while the broader All Ordinaries had dropped 53 points, or 0.61%, to 8,534.2.
With a few hours of trading left, the ASX200 was on track to finish the week down 1.7%, its worst week since a 2.1% loss the first full week of August.
Every sector of the ASX at midday was in the red except for energy, which was up 0.3%.
The mining sector was the biggest mover, dropping 1.8%. Fortescue had fallen 2.7%, Rio Tinto had subtracted 2.5% and BHP had dipped 1.6%.
In the financial sector, ANZ and Westpac were both down 0.4% as the latter held its annual general meeting, CBA dipped 0.3% and NAB fell 0.6%.
Coalition nuclear costs based on electricity system producing 31% less electricity than Labor’s
Earlier, we pointed out the Coalition’s reported cost savings for nuclear power were comparing two different scenarios of the future.
Tristan Edis, director of Green Energy markets, said the “progressive change” scenario “involves total electricity consumption in 2052 of 311TWh, whereas Step Change is 450TWh or almost 45% greater electricity demand.”
We (and that means me) made the mistake of saying this meant that the Coalition’s nuclear costs were based on an electricity system producing 45% less electricity than Labor’s.
But that’s not right. It should be 31% less than Labor’s.
We could have said Labor’s preferred approach would produce 45% more electricity than the Coalition’s. That is correct.
Updated
Amnesty International opposes calls to ban pro-Palestine protests from city centres
Amnesty International Australia says it strongly opposes calls from Australia’s antisemitism envoy to ban pro-Palestinian protests from city centres
In a statement the human rights group said that Australia had a “long and proud history of anti-war protests”, opposing the Vietnam war, against nuclear weapon proliferation and the Iraq war.
The human rights organisation said it “ abhors antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism” – but that “criticism of blatant human rights violations and genocide is not hate speech.”
It said it was “crucial to differentiate between hateful acts and calls for justice”, and that calls to ban peaceful protests in city streets are “out of step with the value placed on the right to protest in Australia and risks silencing pro-Palestinian voices”.
The organisation’s spokesperson for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Mohamed Duar, said:
To characterise these demonstrations as ‘intimidatory’ is not only misleading but dangerous. It delegitimises the voices of those calling for justice in Gaza and beyond. Criticism of state actions is not hate — it is the exercise of freedom of expression, a right that must be safeguarded, not suppressed.
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Queensland high school graduates woke to Atar results this morning
The wait is over for 28,845 Queensland graduates, who this morning woke up to receive their Atar results.
One in four (25%) of students received an Atar of 90 or above, and 36 received a perfect score of 99.95.
The state’s minister for education, John-Paul Langbroek, congratulated all Year 12 students on completing high school.
All of you have worked extremely hard, with the support of your teachers, family and friends. I’d like to acknowledge the talented individuals who achieved an impressive score of 99.95.
Anyone who didn’t quite get the result they were looking for shouldn’t be disheartened. There are many avenues you can explore, including Vet or bridging course pathways.
Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre interim CEO, Chris Veraa, said there were “many pathways” to tertiary study.
While competitive entry requirements play a significant role in tertiary courses, remember there are many pathways to tertiary study and a high Atar is not the only way to gain entry.
Queensland’s total Year 12 cohort was 55,469 in 2024, with around 49% graduating without an Atar.
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Steggall lashes Coalition’s ‘war on renewables’
Independent MP Zali Steggall has responded to the Coalition’s nuclear policy in a statement:
Peter Dutton and the Coalition’s war on renewables provides no relief to Australians trying to reduce their energy bills, locks in expensive coal and gas for another 10-15 years and does nothing to address escalating climate risks.
Updated
Police memorial in Melbourne vandalised
Victoria police are investigating vandalism to the police memorial on St Kilda Road in Melbourne.
Police believe the memorial was graffitied overnight by unknown offender(s), with the incident reported to police by a passerby around 7am.
Investigators believe spray paint was used to deface the memorial. The investigation remains ongoing.
Updated
After a few more questions, Chris Bowen’s press conference in Sydney has wrapped up.
Robert Menzies would be ‘rolling in his grave at this stuff’ – Bowen
Chris Bowen says the Coalition has identified seven sites, and “at least six of the owners have said they’re not interested in nuclear for those sites” – which implies compulsory acquisition.
The minister says that Robert Menzies “would be rolling in his grave at this stuff”.
If the Labor party tried this, the Liberal party would say it’s Venezuelan-style socialism. This is Peter Dutton’s style of intervention and one where the Australian people lose.
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Bowen lashes Liberal party for not including private investment in energy plan
Chris Bowen has also taken aim at the Coalition for using only taxpayers’ money for its energy policy, and no private investment. He has told reporters:
This great free market party, this great free enterprise bastion, the Liberal party of Australia, is saying the taxpayers will pay it all. No private sector investment, not a dollar … They know this is a dog, they know no one will invest in it. Hence you’ve got to create a taxpayer-funded bureaucracy and throw hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ dollars into it …
What impact will it have on the books in coming decades? Well, they got questions to answer about that.
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Bowen says Coalition plan would discourage those who have already invested in rooftop solar
Our own Peter Hannam has asked another question – he noted the Coalition’s plan implies that nuclear is always on, meaning renewables could be turned off in various places. Is this likely to discourage investors?
Chris Bowen says yes, and that it would also discourage millions of Australians who have invested in solar panels on their roofs.
They’ve invested in solar and Peter Dutton is saying he’ll switch it off more often.
I mean, he’s saying that we’ll have nuclear running the whole time whether we need it or not, that can only lead to one conclusion. We’ve had four million solar installations in Australia and those millions of people who feed into the grid will be turned off more often. I’ll be saying more about that in coming days and weeks.
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Bowen says Coalition plan would mean scrapping renewable projects Labor has committed to
Under the Coalition plan, renewables would supply 53% of the grid by 2050 – does that mean that projects committed to by Labor have to be scrapped?
Chris Bowen says yes, and that the Coalition would have to answer to what it would choose to scrap:
They have to answer the questions about what they would scrap, what sovereign risks they will create, what approvals they would decline. They have to answer that but the short answer is yes, less renewables.
Updated
Bowen says Coalition nuclear plan ‘unrealistic’ and ‘a complete farce’
Under the Coalition’s proposed policy, wind and solar would account for 49% of the energy grid, and nuclear 38%, by 2050.
Chris Bowen says the 38% figure would see “more nuclear in the Australian grid than many, many other countries”.
It would put us as one of the world’s biggest nuclear producers from nothing, from zero. I mean, it’s just totally unrealistic, the entire plan is. Just a complete farce.
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Bowen: Labor’s approach is not renewables-only because it includes gas
Chris Bowen says that Peter Dutton is lying when he claims the government is taking a renewables-only approach, because gas would be included in the mix.
Answering a question, he says:
Our position on gas is reflected in the ISP, that you need increased gas capacity but less gas dispatch, as you have more renewables – that’s a very sensible plan. When Mr Dutton says our plan is renewables only, he’s lying. It is a lie. Our plan clearly has gas as a peaking and firming backup to renewables.
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Bowen argues Coalition doesn’t believe in net zero by 2050
Our own Peter Hannam has asked Chris Bowen if this is the Coalition working towards ditching net zero by 2050? Bowen said he doesn’t think they “really believe in 2050”.
If you heard Barnaby Joyce this morning on radio it was the least convincing performance for some time when he was committed to net zero by 2050.
The people who call the shots in the Liberal party or the LNP – which is the National party – your Barnaby Joyces, your Alex Antics, your Matt Canavans … these are people who don’t believe in net zero.
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Bowen says Dutton has got basic facts wrong about energy ‘all through his leadership’
Continuing to address reporters, Chris Bowen says more analysis on the costings is needed but “just over the last couple of hours, we have found these three fatal errors which lead to a very big black hole.”
We’ll be saying more about costings, I’ll be saying more about other things like water use and other implications of their nuclear plan over coming days and weeks. But all this underlines one fundamental thing – that Peter Dutton is a huge risk, a huge risk to Australia’s energy system and a huge risk to Australia.
Bowen accused the opposition leader of getting “basic facts wrong about energy all the way through his leadership”.
The Liberals say they can produce power on their own calculations, nuclear power by 2037, which every expert says is wildly ambitious and not realistic. But even if it’s true, it’s too late. The alternative is to keep going with the government’s plan, which is seeing more renewable energy connected to the grid this year than any other year in Australian history.
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Chris Bowen outlines 'three fatal errors' with Coalition's nuclear plan
Chris Bowen says the Coalition’s nuclear costings are “riddled with fundamental errors [and] heroic assumptions” and have three fatal errors.
Firstly, the costings assume Australians will need less electricity in 205o than suggested by Aemo, he says.
This is a fatal error in their costings and it is a dangerous error because it is risky, it runs the risk of leaving Australians short of the energy they need.
Secondly, the Coalition rejected the work of CSIRO and Aemo and have “assumed an ongoing cost of $30 a megawatt hour when it comes to nuclear.”
Aemo and CSIRO say to recoup the capital cost of nuclear, that would need a price of $145 to $238 a megawatt hour. That’s a big difference.
And thirdly, the Coalition has assumed their plan would need less transmission.
On page 45 of their modelling, they assume savings because of fewer transmission lines. They haven’t outlined what transmission lines they will cancel – presumably not the project Energy Connect, which is well under construction. Presumably not Marinus Link connecting Tasmania and the mainland, which Peter Dutton has previously said he’s committed to. Presumably not HumeLink, which connects Snowy 2.0 to the grid.
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Bowen responds to Coalition nuclear plan: ‘They couldn’t even put a price on the impact of their plan’ on energy bills
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is addressing reporters in Sydney in response to the Coalition’s nuclear energy costings announcement.
He begins by saying Peter Dutton “wants you to believe he can introduce the most expensive form of energy and somehow that will reduce power prices.”
AEMO and the CSIRO say nuclear is expensive. Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien say it’s cheap. I know who I believe.
Bowen says among all the costing details the Coalition announced, they forgot one key point – energy bills – telling reporters just now:
After months of talking about what nuclear would mean for energy bills, they couldn’t even put a price on the impact of their plan on the average bills of Australians …
We know the experts have already done that work and have said it could increase bills by up to $1,200 a year. I suspect Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien know that’s true, hence they have chosen to remain silent.
Updated
Chris Bowen expected to address media in five minutes
Just a reminder that the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is due to start speaking shortly in response to the Coalition’s nuclear energy costings.
We will bring you live updates from that, and you can read more about the Coalition’s earlier announcement below:
Man’s charges upgraded to murder after allegedly assaulting woman at aged care facility
A man who allegedly sexually assaulted an elderly woman at an aged care facility last year has had his charges upgraded to murder.
On 15 November last year, the man allegedly broke into a Bateau Bay facility and sexually assaulted a 90-year-old woman. Two days later, detectives charged a 34-year-old man who remains before the courts.
On 28 November last year, police were told the woman died in hospital as a result of her injuries. As a consequence, the man’s charges were today upgraded to include murder and manslaughter.
The man is next due to appear before Gosford local court on 21 February.
Majority of children in detention are Indigenous boys
Almost 850 young people are locked up in detention nationwide on any given night, with nine in 10 being boys, and the majority Indigenous children.
As AAP reports, a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare today showed how many young people were in detention between June 2020 and June 2024.
There were 845 youths in custody in the June quarter this year, with 90% of those being teen boys. Six in 10 were Indigenous children, with 39% non-Indigenous.
The rate of First Nations young people aged between 10 and 17 in detention increased. Indigenous children were 27 times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be in detention.
The report found Indigenous people only make up 5.7% of 10-17 year olds, but just under two thirds in youth detention are First Nations.
Although the number of people in detention has fluctuated, it has risen from 791 in the June quarter of 2020. Of the total number of children in custody, 317 were in Queensland, followed by 240 in New South Wales, and 88 in Victoria.
Queensland had more young people locked up than Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT combined.
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Bandt labels Coalition nuclear plan ‘a dangerous con job’
Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has labelled the Coalition’s nuclear plan as “a dangerous con job”. In a post to X, he argued it was a “cover up for more coal and it’s a threat to people’s safety.”
Nuclear is not safe. Coal and gas are not safe. Clean energy is the only safe future.
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Mark Butler wants private maternity and mental health to be more affordable
The health minister wants to see maternity care covered by a greater number of private health insurance policies instead of only “gold” level policies.
It’s part of a package of reform proposals to support the viability of private hospitals the minister will suggest at a private health CEO forum being convened today. (You can see the full list of attendees here).
The government announced it would hold the forum after it released the results of its Private Hospital Sector Financial Health Check, which had been undertaken following a series of contract disputes between private hospital companies and health insurers.
The health minister Mark Butler says the key options for reform he will present to the group for their advice today include:
Changes to improve access to “hospital in the home” care, by requiring insurers to cover safe hospital-run models where patients get hospital-quality care from the comfort of their home.
Changes to make maternity care more accessible and affordable, by including maternity cover as a standard inclusion across a greater number of policies, instead of only “gold” level policies, expanding access to new models of care, and making it easier for insurers to cover this critical service.
Changes to improve access to mental health care, by increasing the supply of internationally educated psychiatrists.
Changes to make contract negotiations fairer between hospitals and insurers, by improving the “default benefits” system that guarantees the funding that hospitals receive when they don’t have a contract with an insurer.
Other reforms to reduce red tape and improve productivity.
Butler said the options he presented to the CEO Forum today would “kickstart the reform process and fast-track the sector to a place of viability and sustainability.”
Importantly, these reforms will make maternity, mental health and ‘hospital in the home’ services more available and affordable for millions of Australians, while underpinning the viability of the private health sector into the future.
The peak body for obstetricians and gynaecologists held a round table last month to highlight that women are being disproportionately disadvantaged by the stoush between insurers and private hospitals because women-specific care services are the first to go when the system comes under pressure:
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Number of residential aged care staff drops
The number of staff working in residential aged care services has decreased since 2020, leading to a lower staff to client ratio, but in the same period staff numbers have doubled in in-home care programs, according to a government report.
The 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare presents the findings on the size, composition and characteristics of the aged care workforce in residential and in-home care settings.
It has found that from 2020 to 2023, the total estimated number of staff in residential aged care has decreased from 277,671 to 273,000, including a decrease of nursing and personal care staff from 123,400 positions to 111,000 positions.
The staff to client ratio also decreased from one nursing/personal care position per 1.5 clients to one nursing/personal care position per 1.7 clients.
In the same period the total estimated number of staff increased in Home Care Packages Program (HCPP) has more than doubled from 80,340 to 170,000, including an increase of nursing and personal care staff from 24,876 to 43,000.
However, due to the increase in older adults accessing home the program the staff to client ratio decreased from one nursing/personal care position per 5.7 clients to one nursing/personal care position per 6.0 clients.
In the same period there was also an increase in staff in the Commonwealth Home Support Programme from 76,096 to 97,900.
Chris Bowen to respond to Coalition’s nuclear costings
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, will step up for a press conference in response to the Coalition’s nuclear energy costings announcement at 1pm AEDT.
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Read more on the Coalition’s nuclear policy
Here is our full story from Karen Middleton and Graham Readfearn on the Coalition’s nuclear policy costings:
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Coalition nuclear costs based on electricity system producing 45% less electricity than Labor’s
The Coalition has just wrapped a press conference spruiking its nuclear plan, and has told reporters that the plan delivers an electricity system that costs 44% less than the government’s – or $263bn less.
But the detail in the Frontier Economics report, released this morning and being used by the government, shows that 44% cost reduction comes by comparing two different scenarios.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has three potential future scenarios for the electricity grid and Frontier looked at two of them – the “progressive change” and “step change” scenarios.
Frontier says that the “progressive” scenario is preferred by the Coalition, and adding nuclear to this “is 44% cheaper than the Step Change future as envisaged by the federal Labor government.”
Crucially, Tristan Edis, director of Green Energy markets, tells me the “progressive change” scenario “involves total electricity consumption in 2052 of 311TWh, whereas Step Change is 450TWh or almost 45% greater electricity demand.”
So the Coalition’s plan to deliver nuclear is based on a scenario where the system is producing 45% less electricity than Labor’s preferred plan.
How much of the supposed $263bn saving the Coalition is pointing to is down to simply adopting a scenario that produces much less electricity, is something we will try and get to the bottom of.
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Main takeaways from Coalition’s nuclear costings announcement
The press conference has just wrapped up. Here are the key points the Coalition announced in regard to the costings of its $330bn nuclear energy policy:
Wind and solar would account for 49% of the energy grid, and nuclear 38%, by 2050. Coal and gas-fired power plants would also stay open for longer.
The Coalition claimed its plan would be 44%, or $263bn, cheaper in comparison to modelling of future power prices under a different plan, rather than a reduction on current costs.
On near-term power price reductions, Peter Dutton answered “we’ll have more to say about our energy policy in relation to the near term”.
Dutton said he believes bipartisan nuclear support is possible post-Albanese leadership.
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Ted O’Brien: Labor wants to ‘force the hand of’ Australians on renewables
Ted O’Brien has been taking aim at Labor’s energy policy, seemingly tapping into the concerns of Australians in the bush, and said:
[Labor is] going to be rolling out tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission lines. We have already heard from the minister that he wants 22,000 solar panels installed a day, 30 wind turbines a month, all the way through to 2030, basically carpeting Australia.
Why? Because Labor believes they can force the hand of every Australian to behave the way Labor wants them to behave, to electrify exactly how Labor wants to electrify.
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Dutton ‘confident’ states will work with commonwealth on nuclear
Peter Dutton was asked about progress on working with the states to override the current ban on nuclear power? He responded:
Well, we are in opposition so we’re not in a position to negotiate contracts with governments that have been elected.
He later added he was “confident”, and he thinks SA premier Peter Malinauskas would be the first to sign up.
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Are subsidies on the table during the construction phase? Ted O’Brien suggests not:
When it comes to the construction of the power plants, that’s fully built into our modelling without any consideration for subsidisation.
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Ted O’Brien is asked about modelling
Ted O’Brien argued there was a cost difference of $263bn through to 2050 between the Coalition and Labor’s plans. Is there modelling on this? He responded:
The modelling goes to the cost of the total system between Labor’s approach of renewables only and the Coalition’s approach. So it is a cost modelling all the way through to 2050.
But no projections on power prices?
It is not a pricing analysis, but as Frontier Economics makes it very clear in the report that prices, ultimately, reflect costs over time …
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Dutton: ‘we’ll have more to say’ in relation to near-term prices
Asked about power prices in the near term, Peter Dutton says “we’ll have more to say about our energy policy in relation to the near term”.
He didn’t outline a near-term plan, but instead criticised the government, arguing:
The government has ramped up electricity prices after promising to reduce by $275 and people are now playing $1,000 more than what Labor had promised.
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Dutton repeats 44% cheaper claim and says nuclear essential to reaching net zero by 2050
A reporter notes that the politics of nuclear are divisive – what can Australians expect in the next term?
Peter Dutton argues that Australia is at a “crossroad” because “if you look at every other comparable economy around the world, they have adopted or signed up to the use of nuclear energy”.
He argues there is “no hope of reaching net zero by 2050 without nuclear in the system firming up renewables”.
I think Australians are smarter than what the prime minister credits and Australians are well read, they understand what is happening internationally …
He touts the 44% figure again, claiming the Coalition’s nuclear policy would “bring prices down by 44% compared to Labor’s cost”.
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Dutton makes election pitch on energy prices
Taking questions, Peter Dutton is making an election pitch on energy – arguing a Labor government would lead to higher energy prices. He told the press:
What I would say to every Australian is at the next election people can vote for higher electricity prices under Anthony Albanese or they can vote for the system where we won’t have blackouts, will have consistency of power, but importantly for families right now, will have cheaper cost electricity.
Earlier this morning, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce was unable to promise that power prices would go down over the next term under a Coalition government, under this policy.
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Coalition claims its nuclear policy would lead to 44% reduction in power prices
The shadow treasurer Angus Taylor claimed the Coalition’s nuclear plan would lead to a “44% reduction in the cost of energy for Australian consumers” – he did not qualify this but we assume he means in comparison to modelling of future power prices under a different plan, rather than a reduction on current costs.
The shadow climate change and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, is also touting the 44% figure, and said:
Frontier Economics has now crunched the numbers and shown that it is 44% cheaper to get to net zero through a balanced energy mix when you have nuclear in that mix. This is a direct impact on families and businesses right across the country.
O’Brien claimed that the renewables and nuclear pathway is 37% cheaper than a renewables-only pathway.
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Littleproud pitches nuclear policy to regional Australia
The Nationals leader David Littleproud is next to speak, and he claims that “there is no country the size of Australia’s industrial scale that has gone down the path of renewables only”.
He pitches the Coalition’s nuclear policy to those in regional Australia, saying that teals in the city “want us to go down an accelerated path of renewables”.
Understand the burden you are asking us to bear. There is another way to achieve it.
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Peter Dutton has just raised the Ontario example – which our team has already fact checked in the past:
Peter Dutton says bipartisan nuclear support possible post-Albanese leadership
Peter Dutton has begun outlining the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy costings at his press conference in Brisbane.
He said the Coalition had earmarked seven end-of-life coal-fired power stations across the country for its proposed sites, and now “it comes down to the cost and it comes down to timelines”.
Dutton told the press he believes there can be bipartisan support for nuclear, and said:
We have the situation here where I think it will be post-Anthony Albanese’s leadership – which I don’t think is too far away – in that scenario I think there can be bipartisan position in relation to the vision we put to the Australian people today.
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$380,000 in overpayments made via Centrepay to Ergon Energy, estimates hears
Late on Thursday, officials from Services Australia were quizzed about the reforms to Centrepay, the government-run system allowing approved businesses to automatically deduct money from a person’s welfare payment.
Guardian Australia revealed a range of failings with the system earlier this year, including that major energy retailers were using Centrepay to continue receiving money from the welfare payments of departed customers.
One of those companies is Queensland-based Ergon Energy. At a spillover session of estimates yesterday, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne asked officials how much Ergon is alleged to have taken in overpayments.
Cathy Toze, a general manager at Services Australia, said about $380,000 in overpayments had been made via Centrepay to Ergon. About $280,000 of that had been returned to welfare recipients as of October.
Services Australia announced reforms, including stronger compliance activity, earlier this year.
Labor senator Louise Pratt, who has persistently raised concerns about the system for years, asked how many businesses had been removed from the system.
Toze said four businesses were formally removed as a result of a compliance review. Another 3,000 businesses were removed because they were inactive. Toze said:
Other businesses have started to self-select out of the program because of the more stringent reporting requirements we have put in place.
Peter Dutton about to hold press conference in Brisbane on nuclear costings
The opposition leader Peter Dutton is about to address the media in Brisbane, where he is expected to outline the Coalition’s long-awaited nuclear energy costings.
We’ll bring you all the key points and claims here on the blog – and stay tuned as Adam Morton and Peter Hannam will be providing fact checks for us throughout the day.
The Frontier Economics report unpacking the costings is also due to be released around now. Our Canberra team will be looking at this and bringing us the latest.
Labor’s Patrick Gorman says Coalition forgot WA in nuclear modelling
The Labor MP for Perth, Patrick Gorman, has taken aim at the Coalition for apparently not including Western Australia in its nuclear modelling.
As reported by the Australian, the modelling does not include Western Australia, which is earmarked for a nuclear option under the Coalition plan.
Gorman wrote in a post to X:
How loose has Peter Dutton been with his nuclear reactor costings? So loose he forgot an *entire* state. ‘The modelling did not include Western Australia.’ The arrogance is astounding.
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Climate Council accuses Coalition of ‘cooking the books’ on nuclear costings
The Climate Council has labelled the Coalition’s nuclear modelling as “misleading” and leaving out “big ticket items like the costs of dealing with radioactive waste”. It has accused the Coalition of “cooking the books” with their nuclear costings in four ways:
1) Ignoring the costs of keeping our ageing coal-fired generators operating for longer, which would cost a bomb in constant maintenance and fault repairs, and produce far more climate pollution.
2) Failing to account for Australia’s growing electricity needs, producing up to 45% less power than our current plan by 2050. The Australian Electricity Market Operator expects power generation to double by 2050, and assuming any less is inaccurate.
3) Underestimating the cost and timeline of building nuclear reactors, which international experience has shown cost on average 2.2 times more to build than their initial estimate, and take at least 15 years for construction alone.
4) Excluding significant and certain costs from their estimates, including the costs of managing highly radioactive nuclear waste.
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Couple arrested for allegedly faking child’s cancer diagnosis to obtain $60k in donations
South Australian police have arrested two parents for allegedly pretending their child had cancer to garner $60,000 in donations.
A 44-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man from the state’s western suburbs have been arrested for criminal neglect and deception offences.
Police will allege the couple caused psychological harm to their child by falsely purporting a cancer diagnosis, shaving their six-year-old’s head, eyebrows and placing them in a wheelchair with bandages to imitate radiotherapy treatment.
The couple allegedly requested donations to fund ongoing medical treatment, with about $60,000 donated in a two-week period. But investigations have confirmed the child is not seeking medical treatment, police allege.
Acting assistant commissioner John DeCandia said both people have been refused police bail and will face court today:
We believe this farce illness is causing significant and serious psychological harm to the child and their sibling.
The children have been removed from the custody of the parents, police confirmed, and a relative is providing short-term care.
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More details on Qantas engineers strike
AAP has more details on the Qantas engineers strike, with hundreds of staff walking off the job today. The strike comes after a six-week pause in industrial action during which the parties resolved to continue negotiations over a new enterprise agreement.
The union consortium, made up of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, Australian Workers’ Union and Electrical Trades Union, said Qantas forced the walkout by refusing to negotiate. Qantas is offering the workers a 9% pay rise over three years.
Further industrial action is planned for next Friday and during the Christmas period. The AMWU secretary, Steve Murphy, said:
Workers were asked by Qantas in good faith to not take industrial action as a commitment to resolve bargaining. For six weeks, Qantas has shown they cannot live up to their own values – they lied … workers are feeling disrespected by the behaviour of Qantas and we all know how that feels.
Unions have been negotiating for a deal with the airline since April but were unable to reach agreement before the exisiting arrangements expired in June. Qantas said it was offering a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling and career progression.
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Electrical Trades Union says Coalition nuclear proposal ‘kills jobs and sows chaos’
The national secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, Michael Wright, has issued a statement on the Coalition’s nuclear costings. He said:
The members of this union are building Australia’s energy transition today with the lowest cost generation and transmission infrastructure plus battery storage for reliability.
And this is happening today. It is no assumption, we are living it. Tens of thousands of additional jobs for young electricians are being created every year under the low-cost generation and battery fast track.
Wright said that Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal “kills jobs and sows chaos”, all to “generate less energy than we need, much later than we need it, for more money than anyone would pay”.
Taxpayers, power users and energy workers deserve real answers rather than the buried, delayed, half-baked effort we have seen today.
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Nobody has ‘foggiest idea’ of what nuclear plans will really cost, energy thinktank head says
Standing up the validity of Danny Price’s estimates of the costs of the Coalition’s nuclear plans is pointless without seeing the modelling “black box” of assumptions that went into it.
We might see Price’s report later this morning – so his firm Frontier Economics tells us – but it would need an economic modeller to unpick the calculations even if they are transparent.
Bruce Mountain, head of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, says the claims should not “be paid much mind”. (Those by the Australian Energy Market Operator shouldn’t be taken as gospel either.)
No one really has the foggiest idea of what it will cost to develop nuclear in Australia. So many things in the production, distribution and consumption of electricity are changing quickly and many of the factors that affect costs and implementation are simply not known. Those claiming to know these things with certainty, should not be taken seriously.
It’s perhaps worth remembering that former agriculture economist Brian Fisher claimed in 2019 that the then opposition Labor’s climate policies would cost $542bn just between 2021 and 2030. The claim got a lot of media traction in the run-up to that election even though the modelling made some “ridiculous” claims as noted at the time.
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Jeroen Weimar to become Victorian transport department secretary
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced the state’s former Covid-19 commander, Jeroen Weimar, will become the secretary for the Department for Transport and Planning.
Weimar has also previously held the role as the chief executive of the 2026 Commonwealth Games organising committee before the government scrapped its plans to host the event. He is currently in charge of the government’s housing policy implementation in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Allan said in a statement:
Jeroen has significant logistical and leadership experience in transport and planning. I look forward to the energy and enthusiasm he will bring to the task of leading teams that will deliver the ongoing transformation of the transport network and the government’s agenda to build more homes.
Over the last 10 years, Jeroen has held roles as head of transport services at the department of transport, CEO of VicRoads and CEO of Public Transport Victoria, where he worked to deliver a more reliable and accessible network for Victorians. He was previously chief operating officer of Transport for London.
He will begin on 27 January after the current secretary, Paul Younis, retires.
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Dutton to front media in 90 minutes
We won’t have to wait too much longer for the Coalition’s long-awaited nuclear energy costings. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has just announced a Brisbane news conference in about 90 minutes’ time (9.30am local time, 10.30am AEDT).
We understand the Frontier Economics report unpacking the costings will be released around the same time. We’ll be bringing you a lot of coverage of this press conference and through the day.
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Man charged after police discover firearm stash
More than 70 guns have been discovered at a residential property, AAP reports, with one man charged.
Police searched a house in Denistone East in Sydney’s north today where they seized 27 firearms, 45 other prohibited weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
A 41-year-old man was arrested and taken to Gladesville police station, where he was charged with a slew of weapons offences. He was refused bail to appear before Burwood local court today.
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Rowland, Karvelas sign off on ABC hosting roles
ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland has just signed off, as he leaves the program after 15 years.
As Amanda Meade reported earlier this month, Rowland is leaving six months after his former co-host Lisa Millar quit after five years. She was replaced by Bridget Brennan. The sports presenter Tony Armstrong also left News Breakfast in October.
Just a moment ago, Rowland gave his sign-off surrounded by his team and family:
Surrounded by the wonderful News Breakfast team, I want to take the opportunity to thank all of you. It’s a massive team effort … I’m so proud of the audience we have helped build over the years. And [I’ve] got lots of messages, I’ve been truly overwhelmed by them.
Today was also Patricia Karvelas’ last day as the host of ABC Radio National Breakfast after three years.
Qantas says 97% of domestic flights have departed on time amid strike
Qantas has just provided an update amid the engineers strike this morning.
As we flagged earlier, about 500 engineers across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth airports started walking off the job from 3.30am, local time.
The airline said that as of 8.30am, more than 97% of domestic Qantas flights have departed on time.
It said passengers should continue heading to the airport as they normally would but “as always, unplanned maintenance issues, weather, or other events may impact operations on the day.”
Conservation foundation says one-fifth of nuclear price tag could fund rooftop solar on every house that doesn’t already have it
The Australian Conservation Foundation has conducted analysis showing that for one-fifth of the Coalition’s nuclear price tag, the government could install rooftop solar on every house in the country that doesn’t already have it.
And for less than half of the $331bn price tag, the government could also install a battery system on every Australian house that doesn’t already have one, it found.
The analysis found the cost of installing solar PV systems on 6.9m dwellings would be about $63bn – based on the average installation cost for a 10kw solar system, at $9,120 in New South Wales and average battery installation costs, at $13,000 (AGL) – not including inverter costs.
The foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said the CSIRO’s GenCost work and multiple independent analyses “consistently rank nuclear as Australia’s most expensive energy option”.
The Coalition’s assumptions defy lived experience of the nuclear industry overseas, where nuclear projects routinely run over time and over budget, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab.
She said in the “unlikely” event the Coalition’s nuclear plan goes ahead, “we would be waiting at least 20 years for the reactors”.
That is far too slow to be an effective response to the climate crisis, which is affecting Australians right here, right now. We don’t have two decades to waste … The Coalition’s plan … lacks fundamental detail on reactor types, the proportion of nuclear slated for the national grid, as well as site preparation, assessment, licencing and regulatory costs.
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Forrest says nuclear power doesn’t stack up for families or businesses
Nuclear power doesn’t stack up for Australian families or businesses, Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest has said.
As AAP reports, he said in a statement today:
As our national science agency has shown, ‘firmed’ solar and wind are the cheapest new electricity options for all Australians. The cost of electricity generated on a grid dominated by firmed renewable energy in 2030 will be half what you would have to pay if it came from nuclear, CSIRO found.
Forrest, who is now a big player in the non-fossil fuels energy market, said that without continued action on “low-cost, high-efficiency renewable energy” Australians will be left with “pricier power and crumbling coal stations”.
We must never forget – Australia has the best renewable resources in the world. Seizing these Australian opportunities must be our shared national goal.
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Smart Energy Council lashes Coalition nuclear policy
The Smart Energy Council says the Coalition has “followed through on their threat to shut down the renewable energy industry and force Australians to pay for the most expensive form of power, nuclear.”
Its chief executive, John Grimes, said:
Dutton is proposing to slam the brakes on solar and renewables by halting clean energy generation at 54% of our power mix, even though we’re already at 40%, and will be at 50% within two years.
Nuclear reactors cannot be switched off, meaning they continue forcing power into the grid even when solar is literally producing free electricity for 4 million Australians. Nuclear and solar do not mix, and it will be Australians who have to pay the price for that.
Previous analysis from the Smart Energy Council shows Dutton’s nuclear plan would cost up to $600bn of taxpayer funds – but the group said today’s policy update reveals that figure could well be conservative.
Grimes said the renewables transition “will cost a fraction of that figure, is largely being paid for by private capital, and is forming the cheapest, cleanest and most reliable power grid”.
Meanwhile the Liberal and National parties want to spend $600bn of taxpayer money on nuclear reactors. Think how many fully staffed hospitals and schools you could build in each of the seven regions they’re trying to build nuclear reactors.
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Alliance of organisations wants Coalition to take action on power bills now – not ‘some scheme that kicks the can down the road’
A cross-sector alliance of more than 65 organisations has called on the Coalition to invest in cutting energy bills for households now, and “not waste further time, money and energy” on its nuclear policy “that would only saddle Australians with higher prices and pollution.”
Members of the alliance include Uniting, the Smart Energy Council, the ACTU and youth and community groups. A spokesperson for Renew Australia for All, Sawsan Alfayadh, said:
We are calling for action now on people’s household energy bills and addressing cost of living concerns – not some scheme that kicks the can down the road.
The country has just emerged from an unseasonal heatwave. We can’t afford at least another 20 years before addressing the increasing cost to all households and communities caused by climate pollution.
With coal-fired power stations across the country closing now and over the next 10 years, we call on all sides of government to come together and work to secure an affordable, sensible, renewable energy future.
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Long goodbye for beloved monkey troop over health fears
A troop of macaque monkeys that has called a Launceston park home for four decades will be prevented from reproducing, AAP reports, because of worries about ongoing inbreeding.
The monkeys, 10 of which were gifted to the Tasmanian town by Japanese sister city Ikeda in 1981, will die out in about 25 years as a result of a council decision.
The monkeys’ enclosure in a central park has been open to the public for viewing. In 2000, it was revealed the herpes B virus had spread through the monkeys but discussions about euthanising the troop were not well received.
Concerns about a lack of genetic diversity have increased in recent years. Veterinary advice said the best way forward was for surgical reproductive control of males, as opposed to culling or neutering some reproductive animals.
A council meeting yesterday afternoon, which voted 10-1 in favour of sterilisation, was told there were signs of miscarriages and stillbirths in the troop. The Launceston mayor, Matthew Garwood, said.
[The] decision was a difficult one but it prioritises the welfare of the monkey troop so we can keep them as healthy and happy as possible for as long as possible. [The] monkeys will still be with us for decades to come and we’ll continue to care for them to the highest possible standards.
Garwood said he would write to the mayor of Ikeda to explain the decision. Desexing of male monkeys is expected to take place across two years.
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‘The biggest hoax since Milli Vanilli’ – Clare on Coalition nuclear policy
The education minister, Jason Clare, has labelled the Coalition’s nuclear plan as “the biggest hoax since Milli Vanilli”.
Speaking on Sunrise just earlier, he lashed the policy and said:
I think it is the biggest hoax since Milli Vanilli. Apologies to the kids, ask your mum or your grandma. This is never going to happen. Best-case scenario is it will take 20 years before it turns a lightbulb on.
We can’t wait until I’m in my 70s before you get the energy we need as a country. We need it right now. That’s before you get to costs. I back the CSIRO before I back Frontier Economics any day of the week.
Clare said that the policy “has the shelf life of a seafood milkshake” and continued his criticism:
The bottom line is this will cost a bomb, it is going to take way too long to build and it will jack up your prices. This is a dog of a policy. I suspect that Australians know it and that’s why they’ll vote against it at the next election.
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McKenzie questioned on whether nuclear plan will bring power prices down
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie was also on the program and, much like her colleague Barnaby Joyce a moment ago, did not answer directly whether the Coalition could bring down power bills in the near term:
Our plan is absolutely cheaper than Labor’s plan to get to 2050 … by adding net zero nuclear to firm up [the] renewables that we’ve got in the grid as well is the way to actually get prices down over the long term.
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Shorten labels Coalition nuclear plan a ‘fantasy’
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, also weighed in on the Coalition’s nuclear plan this morning, while speaking with the Today show. He told the program just earlier:
I think that the heroic assumptions of Peter Dutton promising some sort of fanciful solution in 25 years’ time is just a crock of the proverbial.
Mike Tyson once said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. All I can say about Peter Dutton’s plans is wait until I get punched by the facts, and we are going to just examine it.
The idea we’re going to come from scratch and build a whole nuclear industry in Australia is, you know, just a fantasy.
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Joyce unable to promise power prices would come down over next term under Coalition government
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has been speaking with ABC RN about the Coalition’s nuclear policy costings. He said that amid the announcement there would be “all the hypothesis and all the rhetoric”, but pitched the policy to voters:
Here’s the two points of truth you have to ask yourself. Is my power bill cheap? Am I happy with what is happening? And is every other country on the globe off their head with nuclear power, or are we actually dragging the chain?
Host Patricia Karvelas has asked multiple times if he could promise power prices would go down over the next term under the Coalition? But he will not answer directly, instead criticising Labor’s plan.
Joyce went on to say:
That is asking for a hypothetical question, which I could answer for you, but I would not be telling the truth, because I don’t have the facts before me.
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Hundreds of engineers strike at Qantas
Qantas says it has put a number of contingencies in place as hundreds of engineers have walked off the job for 24 hours, amid pay negotiations.
Qantas said it has been notified about work stoppages by some of its aircraft maintenance engineers today and on 20 December. The airline said it expects to have the resources available to cover today’s flights, and that about 160 engineers are rostered on today.
The ABC reports that about 500 engineers across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth airports started walking off the job from 3.30am, local time, and would not return until 7.30am, local time, on Saturday.
Pay negotiations have broken down between Qantas and the unions representing engineers, over their request for a 25% pay rise.
A Qantas spokesperson said “at this time of year our aircraft are full and airports are busy so we urge customers to give themselves more time to get through security and get to their aircraft”.
We’re offering our engineers a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling and career progression that will enable them to earn significantly more over the next few years.
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Does Labor regret promising back in 2022 that power prices would fall by $275 a year for Australians by next year?
Chris Bowen said he doesn’t regret “pointing out that renewables are the cheapest form of energy”.
Pushed on the specifics of the question, Bowen cited “a different set of circumstances internationally” that the government is dealing with.
Australia’s increase in energy prices has been less than a lot of other comparable countries. We delivered billions of dollars of energy bill relief which has been the appropriate thing to do, which has been opposed by the Liberal and National party.
Bowen lashes Coalition plan to keep ageing coal-fired power stations open beyond middle of next decade
Under the Coalition’s plan, ageing coal-fired power stations would stay open beyond the middle of the next decade when most of the operators say they’ll have to shut – is that realistic?
Chris Bowen said no, and that this was “terrible news” for Australia’s emissions and the reliability of Australia’s energy grid.
The biggest threat to reliability in our energy system is coal-fired power now. We are dealing with … outages, breakdown, on a daily basis and that is what is the biggest threat to the reliability of our energy system and it’s a recipe for blackouts to keep ageing coal-fired power stations in the grid for longer.
He continued lashing the Coalition policy, arguing it would “not survive contact with reality”.
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Bowen rejects renewables price tag from Frontier Economics
Asked if he accepts that $594bn figure arrived at by Frontier Economics for renewables, Chris Bowen responded “no, of course not”.
What they have also done is very clearly in their costings of their own policy rejected the CSIRO and Aemo’s work. Now, CSIRO and Aemo have been talking about the cost of nuclear since way before we were in office as being the most expensive form of energy available.
Fundamentally what the Coalition is asking the Australian people to believe is this: that they can introduce the most expensive form of energy and it will be end up being cheaper. It won’t pass the pub test. It won’t pass the sniff test because it is just a fantasy.
The climate minister said he stood by the $122bn figure for his policy “because it’s the figure in the ISP which is the most detailed roadmap of any energy system in the world”.
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Bowen says Coalition would have had to ‘stretch truth’ to arrive at ‘dodgy figures’
Chris Bowen also accused the Coalition of “making it up as they go along” – claiming Aemo has got it right for everything except transmission “and then just doubled the cost of transmission just plucked a figure out of the air”.
And they have implied – which I imagine we’ll see in the costings today – that nuclear needs less transmission which it doesn’t. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. You still got to get the electricity around the country. I’m not sure how they’ll get the nuclear power into the grid, maybe by carrier pigeon if they’re going to assert if somehow you’ll need less transmission.
They have had to make some very heroic assumptions here, and they have had to really stretch the truth to try to get some very dodgy figures.
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Bowen accuses Coalition of ‘mathematical gymnastics’ to make ‘vague’ nuclear costs add up
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, says that the Coalition would have had to do some “mathematical gymnastics” to make its “vague” nuclear costings add up.
Asked if he accepts the Coalition’s nuclear policy would be $263bn cheaper than Labor’s renewable policy, Bowen said “maybe they’ll throw in the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House as well with that sort of costing”.
We’ll go through the details today. I don’t believe they have released it to the ABC or the ALP, funnily enough, but clearly they had to do some mathematical gymnastics to make this in any vague way add up. They have even downgraded their costings of renewable energy by around $30bn over the last couple of weeks. If that policy didn’t last pass an election, why would the nuclear costings last any longer?
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Factcheck of Coalition’s case for nuclear
For those who want to know more about the nuclear debate, here is a factcheck we published in June:
More facts to consider as we learn more of Coalition nuclear costings
Continuing from our earlier post: there are a few other things worth considering as we hear more about the Coalition’s nuclear proposal.
It claims nuclear plants could be developed and operational by the mid-2030s, depending on the tech used. Few experts believe this is credible. Why? Only five large-scale nuclear plants have reached construction stage in the US and western Europe this century. Four were spectacularly over time and over budget. The fifth was cancelled after A$13bn had been spent.
CSIRO found it would take at least 15 years to develop a nuclear industry and have a generator running in Australia.
Experts say this raises questions about grid reliability as the coal plants that the Coalition wants to replace with nuclear are ageing and mostly won’t last that long. It says Peter Dutton’s pledge to slow the roll out of renewable energy and wait for nuclear plants puts the grid at risk. According to reports this morning, Frontier Economics assumes two-thirds of coal plants that the government expects to close by 2034 will still be operating then.
Like solar and wind, nuclear energy generation is zero emissions. But burning more coal and gas before it could become available would add significantly to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. It means climate pollution would be higher under the Coalition’s plan – and scientists say deep cuts in emissions are needed now. The opposition has voted against all of Labor’s climate policies and has no emissions reduction policies of its own for the next decade.
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Good morning
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties this Friday. I’ll be taking you through our live coverage for most of today.
As always, you can read out with any tips via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s get started.
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Coalition’s nuclear costings contain some big unknowns
We’ve asked Danny Price and Frontier Economics (which he co-founded and of which he is managing director) for a copy of the report he has compiled for the Coalition on its nuclear plans.
From what’s reported in the media given excerpts from Price’s report, we find a few puzzling results. As we reported here last month, Price’s part 1 of two reports was intended to set a “base case” for the second component.
For unexplained reasons (so far), that base shifted to the tune $48bn in a couple of weeks, at least as far as Price’s estimate of what Labor’s net zero plans for the grid entail. Price claimed the latter – based on the Australian Energy Market Operator’s most likely “step change” scenario – would cost $642bn but that number drops to $594bn in the second report, according to details in the Daily Telegraph. That’s not so far off Aemo’s “real cost” estimate of $580bn, or so Price stated in his “base case” part 1 report.
(The $122bn Aemo tally was based on standard accounting methods to assess the “net present value” of future spending, a requirement imposed on Aemo by former Coalition energy minister Angus Taylor, the government revealed this week.)
According to the version in the Daily Telegraph, only one-third of the remaining coal-fired generators will close by 2034, compared with 90% in Aemo’s “step change” scenario by then. The extension of already unreliable power plants would include additional fuel and maintenance costs, not to mention additional carbon pollution from the relatively emission intensive energy source.
Media outlets, including the Australian Financial Review, which have been giving snippets of the Frontier Economics report, report overall electricity use will be lower by 2050 than Aemo estimates. One reason is that there will be less electrification of transport than Aemo forecasts but that presumably brings with it an additional fuel cost – not yet made public by Frontier – and additional carbon emissions that will count against a net zero achievement by 2050.
Outlets given access to the extracts say nuclear is assumed to be “always on” and operating “around the clock”. This assessment compares with the 53%-89% range assumed by CSIRO in its latest GenCost report, based on operations of the present coal fleet average over 2011-21. In recent decades, the average capacity use globally has been in the 80% range, with 10% of reactors operating at a capacity factor of 60% or less. To run nuclear plants at full capacity – an unlikely assumption given maintenance needs, for starters – would also mean curtailing (block) output for renewable energy generators, undermining their costs and investment appeal to owners and their financial backers.
No doubt there will be other assumptions carrying big question marks if/when we see the modelling Price plugged in.
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Coalition to release nuclear costings – what we know so far
We haven’t seen the details, but the opposition has released them to some newspapers. It reports that the opposition will claim its plan will lead to 38% of electricity coming from nuclear energy and 54% from renewable energy by 2050 and cost $263bn less than Labor’s policy to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
We can’t assess the Coalition’s claims without seeing them in detail, but there are a few things worth remembering today:
Most independent experts including the CSIRO don’t agree that adding nuclear power could lead to a cheaper grid. They have repeatedly found that solar and wind with firming support from energy storage, new transmission connections and “peaking” gas plants is the cheapest source of electricity.
CSIRO’s latest draft Gencost report – its annual assessment of electricity costs – this week found electricity generated from renewable energy with firming support in 2030 would cost at least 50% less than nuclear.
Several energy experts told Guardian Australia that international experience suggested the cost of building nuclear power plants could be much higher than the CSIRO has suggested – possibly more than double.
The Coalition will defend its policy using analysis by Danny Price, from the consultants Frontier Economics. He has a long history in national energy and climate debates, mostly working with the Coalition.
Price reportedly says his modelling shows the “total system cost” of the electricity grid is cheaper with 38% nuclear power and 53% renewable energy than if it runs overwhelmingly on solar and wind plus firming. A first stage of Price’s analysis last month argued the Australian Energy Market Operator had underestimated the cost of running the grid predominantly on renewable energy and storage, largely because the operator had adjusted for inflation, a standard accounting practice.
The Coalition and News Corp tabloids have claimed that Price’s work was evidence of a “$500bn green hole” in Labor’s plan. But this is not a widely held view.
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Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. We’ll start today with what we know about the Coalition’s nuclear costings, based on the detail that has been reported, and bring you all the news around Australia as it happens.
