Australia news live: Coalition’s nuclear policy has ‘fallen apart within 24 hours’, Albanese says | Australian politics
PM: Coalition nuclear policy has ‘no serious timeframe’ and ‘no details’
Albanese went on to say the policy had “fallen apart within 24 hours.”
He said there had been “no costings. There’s no serious timeframe. There’s no proportion of how much nuclear will be as part of the energy system. There’s no details on what type of reactor they will build.”
And the absurdity of Angus Taylor speaking about hypotheticals. Well, is that hypothetical or is it real? The seven sites going to get nuclear reactors imposed on them, it must be said, [are] some time two decades away. But still, that’s what they’re saying. Is the consultation just just going through the motions? They can’t say if they’ll provide a real consultation or not.
Key events
Steven Miles says Queensland would oppose Coalition nuclear policy
Queensland’s premier, Steven Miles, has flagged his state would oppose the Coalition’s nuclear policy plan, raising issue with the cost and the potential waste management.
Miles was on ABC News Breakfast, where he said Queensland just “didn’t need it” and that opposition leader Peter Dutton has a problem in that the state government owns the two sites picked for a potential nuclear reactor:
Well, quite simply we disagree with them. The two big problems with this plan is that the cost and how the waste will be managed. We know this will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and that will mean people’s electricity bills will be higher and I’m concerned about the future generations of Queenslanders who will need to manage this dangerous radioactive waste forever.
We just don’t need it. We have a detailed, costed plan to get to net zero emissions in our energy system through renewable, through solar and wind and pumped hydro storage in particular, and that’s the plan we’re pursuing here.
The other big problem for Peter Dutton is he’s chosen sites we own. We still own those generators and we own that land and we own the transmission network from there and so without our cooperation it’s very hard to see how he can do it. You got to assume he’s counting on an LNP state government cooperating with him.
I tell you what – if Labor is in government we will do everything that we can to block his plan to build expensive nuclear reactors on sites we own here in Queensland.
Cait Kelly
Domain predicts house prices will continue to rise
Home prices will continue to rise across Australia, with most capital cities expected to reach new record highs for both houses and units, Domain’s FY25 price forecast report has predicted.
Nicola Powell, Domain’s chief of research and economics, said:
We predict that population growth, construction challenges, and borrowing power will be the key drivers behind the price growth. Demand has risen as housing composition changes, demographic shifts, and robust population growth. We have seen an increase in single-person households and a decrease in household size in general (fewer people, on average, living in each household), both amplifying housing demand, further compounded by migration.
Home building has also struggled to keep up with population growth due to the scarcity of land, weak building approvals, and high construction costs, exacerbating the existing structural undersupply. This will lead to an ongoing limited supply of new homes on the market.
Cait Kelly
Half of 4,000 interveiwed migrant workers being underpayed, research shows
A new report from Migrant Justice Institute has revealed just how widespread underpayment is. Of the 4,000 migrant workers interviewed, over half were underpaid. Most knew this, but 9 in 10 did nothing. One went to court – but recovered none of their wages.
It is not clear that wages claims are being systematically resolved via other legal forums or by the Fair Work Ombudsman, the report said.
For these migrants, the risks and costs of taking action substantially outweighed the marginal prospect of success. However, 45% of these participants indicated that they were open to trying to recover unpaid wages in the future.
Associate Prof Laurie Berg said:
The court processes must be reformed to deliver migrant workers the wages they’re owed. It is currently almost impossible for many migrant workers to make and pursue wage claims without legal support.
The report called for a new pathway for wage claims at the Fair Work Commission, and potentially establishment of a new fair work court, more funding for legal assistance and a new government guarantee scheme so workers get paid when the employer disappears, liquidates or refuses to pay.
Migrant Justice Institute’s previous survey found that out of 4,000 migrant workers, at least a third earned less than $12 an hour.
PM: Coalition nuclear policy has ‘no serious timeframe’ and ‘no details’
Albanese went on to say the policy had “fallen apart within 24 hours.”
He said there had been “no costings. There’s no serious timeframe. There’s no proportion of how much nuclear will be as part of the energy system. There’s no details on what type of reactor they will build.”
And the absurdity of Angus Taylor speaking about hypotheticals. Well, is that hypothetical or is it real? The seven sites going to get nuclear reactors imposed on them, it must be said, [are] some time two decades away. But still, that’s what they’re saying. Is the consultation just just going through the motions? They can’t say if they’ll provide a real consultation or not.
Albanese calls Coalition nuclear policy a ‘fantasy’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has slammed the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, calling it a “fantasy” and saying it was “Peter Dutton and the Seven nuclear reactors.”
Albanese was on RN Breakfast this morning, where he said the plan would take a “radioactive sledgehammer” to the Australian economy:
What you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy, instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.
This is just absurd, to have a big buildup for an announcement and then say we won’t give you the details. I’ll make this prediction. All the details won’t be out there before the election. It will be just “trust me”, just the same as Peter Dutton said that [for the] 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, “I will let you know all of that after the election.”
This is a political party that had 22 different energy policies when they were in government. Not one of them mentioned nuclear. They’ve just come out of office two years ago. They didn’t mention it for the previous decade, because it doesn’t make sense. They spent a decade saying coal would continue, that they’d have new coal fired power stations as well. And none of that happened.
The primary concern I have is that this is a recipe for higher costs, lower rates of reliability, and these major cracks in their nuclear reactor plan.
Angus Taylor on power: ‘we want to have every horse in this race’
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, was just grilled by Patricia Karvelas on ABC Radio National earlier, where he was pushed to answer questions on when Australians would see benefits to nuclear energy.
Asked when bills would get cheaper, Taylor danced around the question, refusing to be pinned on anything:
Well, our energy policy will and is absolutely focused on driving down prices as we did in government at … this is the important point. And that is because of a range of technologies, not one, nuclear needs to be part of that mix. You need to have every horse in this race. This is a hard race to win. And we want to have every horse in the race. Nuclear is an important one, gas is an important one.
Everyone wants to sort of say there’s one technology this the answer to everything. No. I’m just wondering. It’s a balance of technologies and right now, what is clear is Chris Bowen’s strategy is not getting us to where we need to go.
Wong on Coalition’s nuclear plans: ‘risky, expensive, and won’t work’
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has called Dutton’s nuclear plan “a risky and expensive gamble that won’t work.”
Speaking on ABC News Breakfast from PNG, Wong said the Coalition was “allergic to renewables”:
It’s a risky and expensive gamble that won’t work. I mean that’s the reality. I mean this is decades of subsidy from Australians on, you know, infrastructure and technology we don’t have, in order to deliver higher electricity prices.
We’ve seen what happens when the Coalition does this. They are so allergic to renewables. We saw under them coal-fire power exit the system because they gave the private sector no certainty. No-one was investing in energy, and now he wants to delay for decades and ensure that taxpayers stump up the money to build these plants. It’s risky, expensive, and won’t work.
Woman shot and killed in Mackay, Queensland
An emergency declaration was made in Mackay in Queensland last night after a woman has been shot dead and a man injured in an alleged attack.
Police arrested a 31-year-old man outside a fast-food restaurant hours after the “absolutely shocking” incident resulted in a number of streets being locked down.
District Superintendent Graeme Paine said a 34-year-old woman had driven into Robb Place in South Mackay on Wednesday afternoon when a 31-year-old man approached and fired into the vehicle, striking the woman.
Two young teenagers who were also in the vehicle fled to a nearby residence, after which a 66-year-old man came to the woman’s aid, Supt Paine told reporters.
The gunman allegedly shot him in the chest.
The woman died from her gunshot wound, while the 66-year-old was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Police were called to the scene after 4.30pm and made an emergency declaration and put an exclusion zone in place at 5.20pm.
Patrols later found a suspect vehicle and about 7.45pm arrested the 31-year-old man outside a fast-food restaurant about 2km away from the scene of the shooting. He was assisting police on Wednesday night.
“I don’t have any details at this stage in relation to any sort of motive or reasons behind what’s occurred,” Paine said.
Police did not know if the woman and two men were known to each other but believed they “resided in close proximity to each other”. Paine said police were examining a number of scenes and the shootings were “an absolutely shocking thing” for the teens to have experienced.
“They obviously were very fearful and they’ve gone and sought help and that help was provided and unfortunately that male who also provided help has been injured, so an absolutely tragic situation,” Paine said.
The emergency declaration was revoked late on Wednesday around Robb Place, Paradise Street, Archibald Street, Kindermar Street and Denton Street.
Via AAP
Dutton claims ‘datasets’ and AI will play role in convincing communities of merits of nuclear
After shrugging off multiple attempts to get a sense of how much the proposal will cost (or to admit he doesn’t know that), Dutton is then asked about community consultation and the reluctance of some communities to move away from renewables.
Dutton didn’t actually say how he would convince people, instead pointing to shuttered shops in Lithgow that he said could be helped by “datasets” and AI:
In the end, we make decisions that are in our country’s best interests. And I believe very strongly that the communities will receive a great benefit. We’ve had in depth conversations with our local members who know their communities better than anyone about the options available.
I see some of the commentary in relationship to Lithgow for example, where, you know, shops are shut up, and we have the ability to bring in datasets, AI will play a huge role into the future, but it’s very energy intensive.
And all of that industry is attracted to a low-cost environment where you’ve got reliable baseload power.
And that’s the reason that we’ve looked at the world experience. And we believe that there’s significant benefit for that community. But I respect that we have diversity of views,
Dutton says Coalition’s nuclear policy will come out ‘in bite-sized bits’
And we begin largely where we left off yesterday, with the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, attempting to convince people of his nuclear power policy.
Dutton was on ABC News Breakfast earlier, where he was asked when Australia will actually get details on this plan, like where the modelling for the promises come from. But the opposition leader said he didn’t have thos details just yet:
So we have taken a deliberate step not to be held hostage by the Labour party and the scare campaign. We want the information out there in bite-sized bits, if you like, so that people can consume exactly what it is that we’re proposing and understand what it’s not proposing.
We’ll release the next stage, in due course, and there’s been months and months and months of work put into this policy, I believe it’s our country’s best interests. I understand that sectional interests and people who invest into green technologies and the rest of it, but my job is not to make rich people richer, my job is to provide an environment where electricity is cheaper, it’s consistent.
Business insolvencies at new high, research shows
High interest rates and rising prices of everything from copper wire to the office coffee are starting to kill off Australian businesses, with insolvencies at a new high, research shows, according to Australian Associated Press.
In the year to May, external administrations increased 38% on average across all industries, reflecting stubborn price pressures, higher interest rates and squeezed margins from consumers reining in spending.
Small businesses in electricity, gas and waste services drove the increase in the insolvency rate, with the broader category clocking an 89% increase in firms entering external administration since last year.
Deteriorating conditions in the business sector, highlighted in CreditorWatch’s business risk index, follows the Reserve Bank of Australia adopting a more hawkish footing on future interest rate moves.
CreditorWatch’s CEO, Patrick Coghlan, said multiple interest rate hikes and persistently high inflation had forced consumers at all income levels to cut back on spending.
“We don’t expect a meaningful turnaround in consumer confidence until the impact of at least two rate cuts has been felt, which won’t be until well into 2025,” he said.
Businesses failures, which include insolvencies, closures, deregistrations and strike-offs by the financial regulator, continue to be dominated by food and beverage services firms.
Business-to-business trade payment defaults also hit a record high, which is a metric strongly linked to business failures and points to cash flow problems.
Mostafa Rachwani
Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you to take you through the day’s news.
Australia to invest in PNG’s legal system
Sharlotte Thou
The Australian government has announced it will invest in Papua New Guinea’s legal system and “non-traditional” security areas, amid ongoing efforts to strengthen its relationship with the Pacific country.
In December 2023, Australia committed $200m as part of a security deal with PNG, and it has now confirmed how some of those funds will be used.
The initiatives will include increasing the safety of PNG’s correctional facilities, investing in programs that will improve access to justice for young people and regional and remote communities and helping PNG’s legal system to investigate and prosecute financial crime.
Other initiatives include support in non-traditional security areas such as improving cybersecurity and biosecurity and addressing gender-based violence.
Defence-related support includes Australia gifting 12 up-armoured Land Cruisers to the PNG defence forces and helping with an operation to dispose of unexploded ordnance in East New Britain and Bougainville.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, who is part of a big Australian delegation to visit PNG this week for talks, said the initiatives would “further strengthen our security partnership and deliver on commitments under our landmark bilateral security commitment”.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news coverage. While Mostafa Rachwani prepares to start the day, I’m Martin Farrer with some of the stories making the headlines overnight.
After all the talk and announcements, we still don’t know how much the Coalition thinks its nuclear plans will cost – but our top story says that experts think it will cost a lot more than if we just stick with renewables. One energy expert tells us there is “no credible reason” to think adding “the most expensive form of bulk electricity” would cut prices. More coming up.
With a large Australian government delegation in Papua New Guinea this week led by the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, Canberra has announced it will invest in the country’s legal system and other “non-traditional” security areas. It is part of ongoing efforts to counter Chinese power in the Pacific and strengthen its relationship with the Port Moresby government by building on the $200m security deal signed by Anthony Albanese in December. More coming up.
High interest rates and rising prices are starting to kill off Australian businesses, with insolvencies at a new high, research shows. In the year to May, external administrations increased 38% on average across all industries, reflecting stubborn price pressures, higher interest rates and squeezed margins from consumers reining in spending.
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