COAL MINING APPROVALS
We made it of us, welcome to the ultimate Worm of 2024. In a becoming finish to proceedings we’ve obtained rows over local weather selections and disagreements over financial coverage to play us out.
The ABC, Guardian Australia, The Australian and others all led at sure factors in a single day on the Albanese authorities’s choice to approve the growth of 4 coal mines.
The Australian stories the approvals “cowl three mines in Queensland and one in NSW that produce coal utilized in steelmaking, and embody a inexperienced tick for Vitrinite to proceed with its Vulcan South mine within the Bowen Basin”. The paper flags Surroundings Minister Tanya Plibersek claimed on Thursday that the choices had been made on a case-by-case foundation.
“The entire mines produce minerals important for producing metal for issues similar to houses, bridges, trains, wind farms and photo voltaic panels. There are at the moment no possible renewable alternate options for making metal,” she stated.
Plibersek stated yesterday the federal government’s selections associated to extensions of present operations, stating: “There aren’t any new mines.” Her put up on X yesterday claiming the Albanese authorities had not accepted any new coal mines in 2024 has been given a neighborhood observe disputing the declare.
Greens chief Adam Bandt described the federal government’s approvals yesterday as “despicable”, Guardian Australia flags. Joseph Sikulu, of the Pacific arm of marketing campaign group 350.org, reacted with: “Australia’s dedication to local weather destruction makes a mockery of the ‘household’ they declare to name the Pacific.” Gavan McFadzean, local weather program supervisor on the Australian Conservation Basis, stated the approvals had been “undermining Australia’s emissions targets and our claims to be a great international citizen and a great neighbour to Pacific nations”.
The positioning stories local weather campaigners reckon the growth of the coalmines “will launch greater than 850 million tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime — equal to virtually double Australia’s annual emissions”.
The ABC highlights Greens atmosphere spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Younger saying the announcement coming on the finish of the final week earlier than Christmas was “the last word dumping of garbage on Christmas Eve”.
Speaking of disagreements over local weather insurance policies, The Australian has the information Nationals MP Keith Pitt is quitting politics.
The paper stories he has warned the Nationals underneath chief David Littleproud had been changing into irrelevant to its regional-based constituency with its dedication to internet zero emission targets.
Pitt has beforehand referred to as for the Nationals to withdraw their help from the Liberals’ internet zero emissions aim. He advised The Australian: “You’ve obtained to separate out of your brothers and sisters within the Liberal Celebration as a result of they’ve, on events, totally different views to us”. He added: “I’m speaking concerning the affect in the price of committing to internet zero emissions targets and the next inexperienced insurance policies that should be paid for. And whereas there may be actually zero affect on the temperature of the planet, it has enormous impacts on the wallets of regional individuals.’’
Requested about Littleproud’s management, he stated: “We clearly have very totally different views on what’s the precedence and path for the Nationals. In my opinion, political events with out goal quickly disappear.”
The paper provides it understands Coalition chief Peter Dutton will this weekend unveil his closing frontbench reshuffle forward of the federal election following the retirements of the likes of Senator Simon Birmingham.
AUSTRALIANS RETURN HOME
Tons of of Australians had been flown residence from Vanuatu on RAAF flights on Thursday night following this week’s devastating earthquake.
AAP says 136 Australians returned on two RAAF planes yesterday night with 148 returning the day earlier than.
The newswire says at the least 14 persons are feared useless and at the least 200 injured on account of the 7.3-magnitude quake on Tuesday.
The pure catastrophe is claimed to be the worst earthquake to hit the Pacific island nation in additional than a century with widespread destruction and subsequent landslides.
The ABC stories Australian groups stay in Vanuatu working with native authorities on search and rescue operations in addition to eradicating hazardous supplies and supporting well being officers treating the injured.
The broadcaster carries eyewitness statements from survivors, like Emer Entiana who stated she was swimming along with her household in a lagoon when she stated the water “immediately turned brown”. “We had been very removed from the place we stayed. It was stunning. We had been struggling to get again to the resort as a result of there have been landslides in every single place,” she stated.
Shane Cook dinner, who was within the capital Port Vila, stated: “I watched buildings come down round me and I had no thought what to do, so we simply began following the gang operating up an enormous hill, as a result of individuals began screaming ‘tsunami!’”
AAP highlights that native authorities have issued a low-to-medium danger of a cyclone and rain which may trigger landslides, including additional urgency to restoration efforts.
Again in home information, The Sydney Morning Herald is main with an interview with Treasurer Jim Chalmers through which he, unsurprisingly, says the Albanese authorities has been vindicated in its financial method, regardless of this week’s mid-year fiscal replace exhibiting a funds deficit of $26.9 billion (following a $15.8 billion surplus final yr) and the continued criticism from the opposition that authorities spending is placing stress on inflation.
In a line used many occasions this yr, Chalmers stated: “It’s fairly clear that if we had taken quite a lot of the free recommendation we’ve been getting during the last 12 to 18 months, Australia could be in recession. We’ve rejected this free recommendation that claims slash and burn within the funds for good motive, and we’ve been vindicated as a result of there wouldn’t be progress within the economic system had been it not for our efforts.”
The paper stated the treasurer signalled additional plans to assist households could be introduced earlier than the federal election subsequent yr with financial savings and tax measures getting used to assist fund the insurance policies.
On model, Dutton this week referred to as for decrease spending with out giving any info on what the Coalition proposes to chop, with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor saying: “It’s not austerity, however it’s restraint within the progress of spending that issues a lot.”
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
“They hold one another younger,” is how Bernie Littman’s granddaughter described the 100-year-old’s latest marriage to 102-year-old Marjorie Fiterman.
The pair discovered love in a Philadelphia nursing residence after transferring onto the identical flooring after their spouses handed away.
They tied the knot earlier this yr after a nine-year relationship and, with a mixed age of 202 years and 271 days, have now been declared the world’s oldest newlywed couple by Guinness World Data.
The organisation stated “Bernie hit it off instantly with Marjorie after they first met at a dressing up social gathering on their flooring, and the romance started shortly after”.
Bernie’s granddaughter Sarah Sicherman wrote on social media: “At the moment my 100-year-old grandfather married his 102-year-old girlfriend! They each had 60-plus years of marriage to their first spouses and located love once more at 100 years previous!”
And with that, the Worm is completed for 2024. Thanks for tuning on this yr, we’ll be again in your inbox with all of the information you must know on January 6, 2025. Have an exquisite vacation interval — don’t do something I wouldn’t do.
Say What?
The pen has run dry, its ink now not flowing — but Mr Curly and his geese will stay etched in our hearts, cherished and everlasting.
Michael Leunig’s studio
A put up on Instagram from the Australian cartoonist’s studio introduced the demise of 79-year-old Michael Leunig on Thursday night.
CRIKEY RECAP
Opponents detest him, some allies can’t stand him… saying Crikey’s Shitstirrer of the Yr
Regardless of the general energy of the sphere, one individual has stood head and shoulders above the remaining. It brings us nice pleasure to award the highest gong to somebody whose shitstirring has outlined not solely the yr but additionally this session of federal Parliament. They’ve an uncanny capacity to get underneath the pores and skin of seemingly everybody — politicians, media commentators, common punters — and to make use of that capacity to drive consideration in the direction of their political trigger.
His political opponents visibly detest him. Hell, even these sympathetic to his trigger aren’t all too keen on him. And, most tellingly, probably the most highly effective man within the nation, Anthony Albanese, very clearly fucking hates him.
You already know who I’m speaking about, don’t you?
A hung parliament is all however sure. After months of interviewing the crossbench, right here’s what I’ve learnt
Once I began writing my weekly column Overlook the Frontbench, inspecting the gamers shaking up Australia’s main social gathering duopoly, a hung parliament regarded doable. Because the yr has worn on, it has change into all however a certainty, with the newest Accent/Redbridge MRP placing the percentages above 98%. It’s due to this fact important to look at the rising third drive, the “bums on seats” who can now not be dismissed as “different” — as polls and graphs recurrently do.
So what have I found from six months of chatting with our numerous new crossbench? Listed here are 5 issues I’ve learnt or confirmed by means of this column to date.
What are Australia’s journalists studying, listening to and subscribing to?
We started Crikey’s Movers and Shakers sequence with a have a look at what the most important names in Australian journalism thought of to be the final nice piece of journalism they learn. We end the sequence with a have a look at their media diets.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
With responsible verdicts, sufferer’s rape ordeal in France turns into a message of hope (The New York Instances) ($)
Putin says he ought to have launched full Ukraine invasion earlier, as he holds marathon reside occasion (BBC)
GOP scraps authorities funding invoice after Trump calls for modifications (CNN)
Dutton stated a reactor’s waste would fill a Coke can. Strive 27,000 of them (The Sydney Morning Herald) ($)
John Pesutto ordered to pay Moira Deeming’s courtroom prices within the run as much as the federal election (The Australian) ($)
Raygun musical creator declares ‘utterly authorized’ new present after authorized menace from breaker (Guardian Australia)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Dutton not match match after dodging the pack, or so Labor hopes — Phillip Coorey (AFR): The Coalition swears its worst week of the marketing campaign was when Albanese was sidelined with COVID-19 and Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong, Richard Marles and Jason Clare shared the duties. If solely as a result of it highlighted the depth behind Albanese, one thing the Coalition frontbench lacks.
There’s a perception, or at the least a hope, in Labor that it might probably deliver Dutton undone underneath the glare of the marketing campaign as a result of he’s not believed to be match match.
One senior member of the federal government notes that on three vital events this yr when the opposition chief has made a foray into coverage element, he’s discovered himself on the sticky paper.
Angus Taylor’s phrase salad blurs the reality about energy payments underneath the Coalition’s $331b nuclear plan — Brett Worthington (ABC): It’s not like Taylor or Dutton shall be within the federal Parliament when the rubber hits the highway on the financial savings by 2050, which is when Taylor says Australians should wait to see the complete 44% delivered.
However it might probably’t go with out being stated that the 44% family declare merely isn’t backed up within the modelling the Coalition relied upon to price its plan.
Frontier Economics didn’t mannequin what nuclear would imply for family costs as a result of the Coalition didn’t ask it to.
Overlook economics 101. Not asking for one thing that might provide you with a solution you may not like is politics 101.
To cite the shadow treasurer himself: Properly carried out, Angus.
