Peter Dutton's 'nuclear train' push would cost $387bn

NUMBERS NUKE PETER’S PIPE DREAM

Opposition Chief Peter Dutton’s push to modify coalmine websites out for small nuclear reactors (SMRs) would price us $387 billion, the Division of Local weather Change and Power discovered, as a result of we’d want at the least 71 to match the coal energy. Guardian Australia experiences that’s about $25,000 a taxpayer — way more per megawatt hour than low-cost energy from the solar or wind, per the most recent Internet Zero Australia report. Not that it’s stopped Dutton from droning on about Australia needing to leap on the “nuclear practice”. Will we? China has 50 gigawatts of nuclear energy capability and 95-120 gigawatts of photo voltaic anticipated this yr alone, The Dialog provides. Multibillion-dollar SMRs within the US, France, Finland and the UK have both blown means over funds, means over time, or been deserted altogether. This comes because the South Australian Chamber of Mines & Power — whose largest member, the AFR ($) notes, is uranium miner BHP — advised the state authorities nuclear is the “logical answer”.

In the meantime, whereas politicians dither, we endure — some 18.1 million Australians, together with almost each individual in Queensland (97%) and NSW (93%), have been hit by floods or fires prior to now yr. We’ve received to vary our “resilient infrastructure”, one knowledgeable stated by way of Brisbane Occasions ($), as a result of it’s based mostly on milder climate circumstances that at the moment are a factor of the previous.

WHISTLEBLOWER HERO

A taxpayer who was helped by Australian Taxation Workplace (ATO) whistleblower Richard Boyle advised the ABC he blames himself for Boyle’s authorized mess. Boyle was arrested after he spoke to ABC and 9 newspapers (then Fairfax) about unethical ATO techniques to focus on susceptible small companies to satisfy income targets. Journal writer Dirk Fielding, who was recovering from an aneurysm whereas a employee quietly defrauded him, remembers his desperation when the ATO out of the blue drained his account for a tax debt. Boyle helped restore the funds and arrange a cost plan as an alternative. We wouldn’t be right here at present with out his assist, Fielding stated — however when 4 Corners contacted him about Boyle, he rang to warn the previous ATO employee. The cops raided Boyle’s residence quickly after. Fielding feels “in charge” and known as Boyle’s persecution “madness”.

In the meantime ASIC goes after boards and executives who don’t defend firms towards cyberattacks, the AFR ($) experiences. It comes a yr after Residence Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil stated Optus left “the window open” for hackers to steal our private information. The regulator stated enterprise should take “cheap steps” or “cheap investments” in any other case it’ll “begin proceedings”. There have been 409 information breaches between January and June, information from the workplace of the Australian info commissioner discovered, and the ABS reckons one in 5 companies have been hacked final yr. Lastly, Bumble, Tinder and Hinge have additionally been advised to wash up their safety or the federal government will intervene. The Albanese authorities is looking for an business code to bar predators and criminals, the Herald Solar experiences.

UNWELCOME IN THEIR WORLD

“‘Like all good Liberal features, no Welcome to Nation,’’ Sky Information’s Peta Credlin reportedly advised an occasion to commemorate former PM Tony Abbott’s temporary management to cheers from the room. Dismal. Opposition Chief Peter Dutton, former prime minister Scott Morrison, former treasurer Joe Hockey, Liberal MP Angus Taylor, former radio shock jock Alan Jones, and “desiccated” ex-senator Eric Abetz have been among the many 250 in attendance, the SMH ($) says. It comes as Sure campaigner Megan Davis deleted a tweet remarking “ABC simply frequently platforms the NO marketing campaign”, The Australian ($) experiences, after No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine appeared on Insiders, and Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle was on 7.30. Greater than 1,500 folks had preferred the tweet. Paradoxically, ABC’s Laura Tingle was compelled to defend the alternative — that the Sure facet had been given priority — in a press release on X.

Talking of Information Corp… its new digital hub for playing protection, which provides experiences, movies, podcasts, previews and evaluation about Ladbrokes, Bet365, TopSport and Betr provides, has been known as a “new low,” Guardian Australia experiences. CODE Wager is a piece of the sports activities journalism web site CODE Sports activities — one of many headlines from final yr was “If we may wager on pogo stick races, we’d.” Information Corp is “preying” on “susceptible” Australians who already lose probably the most worldwide from playing, Alliance for Playing Reform boss Carol Bennett stated. Lastly Information Corp’s protection of historic Sure marches was begrudgingly headlined “Sure camp streets forward, at the least for a day” in The Australian ($). An estimated 200,000 Australians joined Sure marketing campaign marches throughout the nation yesterday — Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney stated she was “virtually crying” on the measurement of the turnout.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Reza Baluchi longs to cross the excessive seas in an enormous floating hamster wheel, however the US coast guard simply received’t let him. He was arrested late final month simply off the coast of Georgia in a do-it-yourself cylinder product of buoys and wire — with a very straight face, the Iranian-born man advised authorities that he was en path to London, England, some 6,500 kilometres away. Uhuh, they stated, and is that this… vessel…. registered? Baluchi stated he completely had the registration however simply couldn’t discover it proper now. So the enjoyable police — excuse me, the coast guard — advised him they have been ending his unsafe voyage.

However that is hardly the primary time he has tried to cross the ocean on his do-it-yourself tube. Baluchi set off again in 2014 earlier than being thwarted by the pesky coast guard. So he tried once more two years later, however the coast guard intervened once more. This may be the time, Baluchi assured himself when he set off in 2021 — earlier than the coast guard arrested him. So why does he do it? “If you happen to drive a ship, no person cares,” he advised VICE. “Bubble, no person did earlier than.” One man who labored from the coast guard stated it was the weirdest name he’d ever acquired — some man was in a bubble, a boater reported, and had requested for instructions to Bermuda. We known as Baluchi’s vessel the “hamster wheel of doom”, the employee added. Baluchi doesn’t get it — he has six lights, two life jackets, and a laptop computer to observe films. And he’s not going to cease making an attempt. “Dream no coming after you,” Baluchi advised VICE. “You have to observe your dream.”

Wishing you a spot of Baluchi’s adventurousness at present.

SAY WHAT?

The No marketing campaign slogan — ‘If you happen to don’t know, vote No’ — is morally bankrupt. It encourages residents to not interact with an essential challenge. Actually, when you don’t know, it is best to discover out.

Barry Jones

The previous Labor minister known as it “fundamental decency” in relation to a query as essential as recognising Indigenous peoples in our structure.

CRIKEY RECAP

Worth’s denialism takes the Coalition to a brand new Indigenous Affairs coverage: erasure of First Peoples

Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Worth (Picture: AAP/Lukas Coch)

“With non-Indigenous colleagues cheering her on, [Jacinta Nampijinpa] Worth lays the best way open not merely to the defeat of the Voice referendum, however to a sea change in Indigenous relations. Presumably the Coalition place — Worth is the portfolio shadow minister — is now that colonisation was totally a very good factor, that intergenerational trauma is a type of rip-off, that there is no such thing as a want for a separate Indigenous Affairs portfolio.

“The best way is open to a full assimilationist coverage and the closure of any Indigenous-specific program of any form — in any case, they’re certainly ‘divisive’, aren’t they? That is the place the No marketing campaign inevitably leads — any type of recognition of the expertise of First Peoples should be suspect and divisive, not merely that proposed for the structure.”

The lie that introduced down Gladys Berejiklian

“This revealed an awesome deal about this explicit period of Australian politics. [Gladys] Berejiklian’s political demise got here at a time when Australia’s federal Parliament was beset by scandals, some involving the usage of public funds, others involving severe allegations regarding males in highly effective positions abusing their energy.

“It’s straightforward to grasp the sentiment voiced by many citizens that one thing was deeply amiss when a strong feminine chief could possibly be introduced undone by a scandal like this, however males in energy within the federal system couldn’t. It was clear that this parallel failure of scrutiny and accountability had fuelled a way of loss and anger amongst voters.”

Anatomy of a media pile-on: the crucifixion of Marcia Langton

“Final Wednesday, Professor Marcia Langton addressed the Nationwide Press Membership with a stark warning: Don’t think about that there’s one other alternative across the nook, don’t assume your No vote goes into a special pile marked ‘subsequent time’. At one level, her voice audibly wavering with emotion, she implored the media to ‘not take part in pile-ons’.

“One week later, feedback she’d made at a discussion board hosted by Edith Cowan College have been taken out of context and shortly dominated Information Corp headlines. It didn’t take lengthy for her then to grow to be the important thing assault determine of Coalition speaking factors and social media posts. Crikey lays out a chronology of the pile-on of Langton.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Israeli forces assault Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque (Al Jazeera)

Landmark Sudan skyscraper engulfed in flames (BBC)

Halliburton gear value $7.1m imported into Russia in previous yr, customs data present (The Guardian)

Irregular migration wants a ‘European reply,’ says EU chief throughout go to to Lampedusa (euronews)

Rugby World Cup: Fiji beat Australia for the primary time in 69 years (Stuff)

Trump says it was his resolution to stick with 2020 election challenges (Reuters)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Resurgent Libs supply higher imaginative and prescient than Labor’s dystopia — Tony Abbott (The Australian) ($): “Our celebration is the liberty celebration, the custom celebration and, above all else, the patriot celebration, as a result of we expect that is the very best nation on the planet and need to preserve it that means. We help better freedom, decrease taxes, smaller authorities; we help the household, small enterprise and establishments which have stood the take a look at of time, and; above all else, we need to make our nation even higher by constructing on its strengths. And since we’re the one main celebration that’s not based mostly on a piece, on a area, on a singular concept, or on one dominant persona, we’ve got the potential to succeed in out to each Australian, no matter start or background, particularly to all these Australians who assume one of the best ways to get a good go is to have a good go your self. That’s why it’s our celebration that’s presided over our nation’s greatest instances.

“And that’s why in these instances when Labor governments across the nation variously inform public servants they’ll preserve the identical wage however solely work 4 days per week, principally from residence; inform folks they need to aspire to be renters for all times, with out the important stake in our society that residence possession provides; assume Catholic hospitals can arbitrarily be nationalised, exhausting medication decriminalised and euthanasia for depressed youngsters legalised, and promote a dystopian imaginative and prescient of boundless plains of photo voltaic panels and infinite forests of wind generators as our vitality future, our celebration is overdue for an awesome resurgence. At a excessive stage, politics entails one thing akin to an apostolic succession.”

My nation is not only a geopolitical chess piece. It’s within the line of fireplace — Brian Hioe (The SMH) ($): “Taiwan, not a spot of worldwide obscurity, now looms massive within the public consciousness as a possible flashpoint for battle between nice powers. This can be a sharp distinction to a decade in the past, when Taiwan was largely overshadowed by the financial and political rise of China. Again then, I used to be a scholar participant within the 2014 Sunflower Motion — which concerned the month-long occupation of the Taiwanese legislature to protest towards nearer political relations with China. The shift has been hanging. There was hardly any consideration to our actions however, against this, Hong Kong’s ‘umbrella’ motion later that yr attracted important worldwide protection.

“Taiwanese voices proceed to be overlooked of discussions of their very own future. Taiwan is commonly spoken of by way of the US and China, however not by way of what its personal folks hope to see relating to their destiny. That is what the fast shift within the worldwide discourse occludes — that Taiwan remains to be mentioned as a geopolitical chess piece. Taiwan has its personal authorities, army, economic system, and free democratic elections. It possesses a lot of the hallmarks of being a nation-state, although Chinese language territorial claims stop its recognition by nearly all of the worldwide neighborhood. The Folks’s Republic of China (PRC) has by no means managed Taiwan. Although the PRC claims to have inherited the territory in the course of the Qing empire, Taiwan was solely spuriously a part of China in dynastic historical past, having been a province of the Qing for a mere seven years and a hinterland of the Ming.”