‘Aemo has confirmed it has adequate levers available to address any issue if it materialises,’ a spokesperson for energy minister Chris Bowen said on Friday. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
‘Aemo has confirmed it has adequate levers available to address any issue if it materialises,’ a spokesperson for energy minister Chris Bowen said on Friday. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
And that’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s just a snippet of what we’ve learned today:
Anthony Albanese said Peter Dutton’s nuclear power announcement “doesn’t stack up”.
The minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, has admitted Australian funding for a Pacific NRL team is “not about sport” but is intended to serve Australia’s national security interests, at a time of intense competition with China for influence.
Smaller publishers in Australia are already feeling the effects of a potential ban of news on Facebook and Instagram, a joint select committee on social media and Australian society heard.
The Victorian Greens blasted the state Labor government over a memorandum of understanding with Israel’s defence ministry to capitalise on “global tensions” and countries wanting to “protect their national interests”.
WA Nationals MP Louise Kingston stunned the state’s Legislative Council by resigning with a tearful statement alleging she had been the victim of “relentless bullying and harassment” by the leader of the party.
An Australian is among hundreds of people who have died at the Hajj pilgrimage amid soaring temperatures in Saudi Arabia.
Thirteen people have been arrested in connection with a $10m illicit tobacco network after WA police seized 5.9m cigarettes, 1.4 tonnes of loose tobacco, $1.7m in cash and 41,000 vapes.
Prosecutors will use material gained in phone taps in their case against four teenagers charged with terrorism offences after a bishop’s stabbing.
The energy market operator has warned of “potential risks” for gas shortages in southern states, but the federal government says the gas market is functioning “exactly as it should”.
Phone taps to be used against alleged teen terrorists
Prosecutors will draw on material from phone intercepts in their case against four teenagers charged with terrorism offences after a bishop’s stabbing, a court has been told.
Assyrian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and priest Isaac Royel were stabbed during a livestreamed sermon at a western Sydney church in April.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act over the stabbing at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, which police allege was religiously motivated.
Police investigate after Assyrian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and priest Isaac Royel were stabbed during a livestreamed sermon at the Christ the Good Shepherd church in April. Photograph: James Gourley/The Guardian
Six more teenagers, allegedly connected with the accused stabber, have also been charged with terrorism offences, including conspiring to engage in preparations for a terrorist act and possessing or controlling violent extremist material.
Four of those accused attended Parramatta children’s court on Friday, when their lawyers agreed to an eight-week adjournment to give time for prosecutors to compile and hand over their full brief of evidence.
The court heard that telephone intercept, body-worn camera footage and CCTV footage had still not been handed over to defence counsel.
Police had already completed a review of the four accuseds primary communications devices and were still going through their secondary devices, the prosecutor said.
The matters will return to court on 16 August.
The terror arrests came after a joint counter-terrorism team involving 400 police officers undertook 13 raids at several homes across Sydney in response to the Wakeley attack.
The stabbing also led to violent riots around the church with those in the angry throng demanding that the alleged teenager stabber, who had been subdued inside the place of worship, be handed over to the mob outside.
Police have charged 30 individuals in relation to the riots.
Government: gas market working ‘exactly as it should’
Peter Hannam
A spokesperson for energy minister Chris Bowen says the southern gas market is not in dire straits, but instead working “exactly as it should”.
The spokesperson said:
Aemo has confirmed it has adequate levers available to address any issue if it materialises.
The Albanese government has worked with states to expand Aemo’s remit so it now has the power to manage the east coast gas market through both existing market responses as well as its own powers to direct gas supplies around the system and between states.
The fine print of those powers is that the market operator can intervene to halt gas supplies (presumably to a large industrial customer) and divert it elsewhere (presumably to households to ensure heating and eating proceeds without a hitch).
The spokesperson continued:
Unlike the Coalition which ignored gas shortage warnings for years, the Albanese government took immediate strong action when it came to government, on both gas supply and price, by introducing the gas mandatory code of conduct.
Guess we’ll find out in the next days and weeks whether that action has been strong enough.
Energy system in ‘dire trouble’ amid gas squeeze, O’Brien says
Peter Hannam
It’s been a busy week for energy news, and not just for the 2035 and beyond nuclear plans proposed by the federal opposition.
As noted in the blog earlier today, the energy market operator has warned of “potential risks” for gas shortages in southern states. Basically, it’s been cold (more heating) and relatively still (more gas-fired power generation, rather than wind), so that gas storages have been drawn down.
The problems have prompted shadow energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, to break away from the 64th annual Liberal party conference in Sydney to declare our energy is in “dire trouble”.
The shadow minister for climate change and energy, Ted O’Brien. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/AAP
“We know very well that Labor has been suffocating the supply of gas,” he said. “Right now the operator is warning Australians, that unfortunately, it could be lights out.
“We’re talking about winter,” he went on. “Senior citizens don’t know if they should eat tonight, or turn the heater on.”
(He was also asked about safety issues related to building a nuclear plant in Lithgow, near the headwaters feeding Sydney’s main dam. Be prepared for the “mother of all scare campaigns”, he said. Everyone is a bit jumpy, it seems.)
Anyway, the Coalition’s plans imply an increased use of gas as coal exits and nuclear plants get built (with the inevitable delays – should they ever get started). O’Brien was coy about what a Coalition government would do to ensure that extra gas was available when needed.
“We have shortages of gas today as a direct consequence of bad government policy that needs to be fixed and it will be our priority,” he said. “We need to make sure we clear the decks when it comes to unnecessary red tape. We’ve got to make sure that we have a fair and efficient approvals process.”
Sydney bartender jailed for sharing photos of female friends and colleagues on porn site
A Sydney bartender who took photos from a string of women’s private social media accounts and shared them on a pornography website has been jailed for nine years.
Andrew Thomas Hayler, 38, posted photos of friends, colleagues and housemates and encouraged people to share fantasies about the victims alongside his own desires to sexually assault the women.
Victims revealed the unnerving and disturbing impact of being told their images had been shared, with many fearing for their safety after learning of the threats on the forum.
Hayler also superimposed the faces of his victims onto sexually explicit images and posted them on the same site.
He pleaded guilty to 28 counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend, telling a court his offending was an “outlet for a part of his psyche he didn’t want”.
The prime minister of Solomon Islands, Jeremiah Manele, will make his first official visit to Australia on Sunday since taking office in May.
Manele will meet with Anthony Albanese and also travel to Queensland to see how the Pacific Australia Mobility Scheme – which sees Pasifika travel to Australia to work in various industries – is operating.
Among items to be discussed are labour mobility pathways between the countries, and humanitarian and policing operations.
Albanese said of Manele’s planned week-long visit:
I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Manele to Australia for his first international visit, following Solomon Islands’ historic joint elections in April.
We highly value our position as Solomon Islands’ partner of choice.
My Government is committed to listening and working with Solomon Islands as equals, and to discussing how we can deepen our partnership into a new era of cooperation.
Solomon Islands PM Jeremiah Manele (right) with Penny Wong in Honiara. Photograph: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)/AFP/Getty Images
Environment ministers unite to stamp out disposed battery fires
Australia’s environment ministers will unite to stop batteries ending up in landfills and causing dangerous fires as the industry warns rubbish collection workers are at risk.
Waste and recycling workers face increasing risks as fires ignite from lithium-ion batteries, the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia said.
It has demanded immediate action to come up with a solution to the battery-fire crisis enveloping the industry, calling for collection points for all batteries in all states while a plan is developed.
The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, on Friday met with her state and territory counterparts in Sydney to discuss better ways to manage battery disposal.
The ministers acknowledged battery fires were an issue of priority that required “interventions through the battery life cycle”.
They said in a joint statement:
Ongoing fires and emergency situations illustrate the critical importance of acting quickly on batteries to protect lives and property.
The leaders committed to fast-track work towards reducing the environmental impact of all batteries throughout their life cycle, with Queensland, NSW and Victoria leading the charge.
WA opposition leader denies bullying former Nationals colleague
Western Australia’s opposition leader, Shane Love, has denied bullying a fellow Nationals MP, Louise Kingston, who resigned from the party during a tearful address to parliament.
Kingston made the claim during an address to the state’s Legislative Council on Thursday afternoon. She said:
It gives me no pleasure to have to say what I am going to have to say today.
Unfortunately, I’ve been the victim of relentless bullying and harassment by the leader of the Nationals.
Kingston said she had raised the issue with others and Love directly and did not make a formal complaint with the party because she “believed the situation had been resolved”.
Love said he doesn’t know what he allegedly did to Kingston and that he had tried to contact her but received no response. He told ABC News on Friday:
I think that this is the result of a difficult and bruising pre-selection process.
We have a small party but we’re a party that actually cares about people.
On Thursday afternoon Love confirmed Kingston’s resignation from the party, saying in a statement:
While it is disappointing Ms Kingston no longer wishes to be part of our Nationals WA team, we thank Ms Kingston for her service to our party.
The Bureau of Meteorology has your weather forecast for the weekend
The upshot is the cold and frosty weather will continue in many areas throughout the weekend, and showers on the east and west coast are forecast for Saturday.
Here's what to expect across Australia over the weekend, including cold & frosty weather in many areas, and showers on the east and west coasts. Video current as of 11:30 am AEST, Friday 21 June 2024.
Publishers already feeling potential news ban on Facebook and Instagram, MPs told
Josh Taylor
Smaller publishers in Australia are already feeling the effects of a potential ban of news on Facebook and Instagram, the chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance, Tim Duggan, has told MPs.
There is concern that if Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is designated under the news media bargaining code and forced to pay news companies for news, then it will block news on its platforms similar to what is in effect in Canada.
At the inaugural hearing of the joint select committee on social media and Australian society, Duggan said the ban would cause a substantial loss of traffic for smaller publishers more reliant on social media for traffic, but he said the effects of the government considering designation were already being felt.
He said:
There would also be the fact that revenue is generated through these platforms, particularly Instagram for digital publishers is for many digital publishers is a large source of revenue to be able to amplify content. And there are even more indirect ones around most of our members rely on advertising from media agencies and brands. And we have already seen an impact to some members of brands and agencies holding back some of their revenue and some of their campaigns in the anticipation that a news ban will come into effect in the next few months.
He said advertisers are getting nervous and are holding back advertising dollars. The committee has also heard from the bosses of News Corp, Seven, Nine and ACM Media, all calling for social media platforms to fund journalism.
Missing teen Amber Haigh was ‘removed from the equation’ after giving birth, court told
A couple from country New South Wales used intellectually disabled teenager Amber Michelle Haigh as a “surrogate mother” so they could have another baby, before killing her, a court has heard.
Robert and Anne Geeves, now of Harden, face one count each of murder, over the suspected killing of Haigh, who disappeared without trace in June of 2002.
Haigh’s disappearance, its circumstance and enduring irresolution, has been a high profile public mystery in the Harden area of New South Wales’ Riverina, where she was living at the time.
Robert and Anne Geeves spoke in court Friday morning only to individually plead “not guilty” to murder.
Victorian Greens blast state government over MoU with Israel defence ministry
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, has commented on a report we brought you today on documents showing the state government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israel’s defence ministry to capitalise on “global tensions” and countries wanting to “protect their national interests” militarily.
Sandell says the documents show “Labor has directly supported [the] Israeli’s military objectives”:
It’s very clear from these documents that Victorian Labor is in bed with the Israeli defence ministry.
These documents expose that Labor signed an MOU to ‘capture opportunities’ from increased tension and militarisation overseas.
I think Victorians would be pretty disgusted to know that the Labor government could be seeking to profit or gain from war and killing overseas.
The Greens are calling on Labor to immediately rip up its MOU with the Israeli Defence Ministry and end all military ties with Israel.
Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell. Photograph: James Ross/AAP
Some more from the Antarctic. Casey station leader Dave Buller said:
As seen in previous years, some will demonstrate a newfound skill of simultaneously entering and jumping out of the water at the same time.
It’s a somewhat brisk and confronting experience.
Over at Macquarie Island, they swim twice! According to the Australian Antarctic Division, expeditioners jump in the water on the east, then run across to the west, “with someone keeping watch for orcas and leopard seals”. That frivolity is followed by a festive lunch, gift giving, and a pantomime.
Macquarie Island station leader Rebecca Jeffcoat said:
Midwinter has historically been celebrated by the earliest of Antarctic explorers and continues to be the most important day on the calendar for all expeditioners, even more than Christmas.
It’s a rite of passage to have spent midwinter in Antarctica!
Time for a swim. Photograph: Australian Antarctic Division
