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Stories of the day
By James Lemon
Thanks for following along with us today but it’s time for me to say goodbye. You can look forward to our live coverage picking up tomorrow morning.
Before I let you go, let’s have a look back at the day’s top national stories:
Labor’s energy market intervention bill has passed through federal government, legislating a 12-month gas price cap of $12 a gigajoule, a framework for a mandatory code of conduct for gas companies, and $1.5 billion in power subsidies for households and small businesses.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned resources companies against talking their industry down by complaining the bill will dampen investment in Australia.
Australia is home to nearly 26 million people as the country’s population growth rate continues to rise since plummeting during the pandemic.
Top News Corp executive Siobhan McKenna has been appointed chair of Australia Post.
Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil says parliament will have to confront “deep and important policy questions” after police officers and a civilian were killed in Monday’s deadly shooting west of Brisbane.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, a former Queensland police officer, had to pause several times during an emotional tribute in parliament to those killed.
Conspiracy theories, misinformation a rising national security threat: Labor
By Matthew Knott and Angus Thompson
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says intelligence agencies are investigating the national security implications of the Queensland shoot-out that led to the death of six people, including the role online radicalisation may have played in sparking the tragedy.
O’Neil said conspiracy theories, disinformation and misinformation were being “turbocharged” by the internet, presenting a new kind of national security threat for law enforcement agencies and policymakers.
Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
While Queensland Police are still investigating the case, O’Neil said online radicalisation was likely to form part of the explanation for why police officers were fired upon when they approached a property at Wieambilla, near Brisbane.
Online accounts sharing the name of one member of the now deceased trio inside the home, 47-year-old Gareth Train, had been active on conspiracy websites for years and suggested an interest in the topics for decades.
The account had posted about entwined theories spanning vaccines, the Port Arthur massacre being staged to take away the nation’s guns and broader anti-authority beliefs, and bragged about previously telling “coward” police to leave his property.
Australia’s largest abortion services provider hit with Google ad ban
By Nick Bonyhady
Search giant Google has blocked ads from the country’s largest abortion provider, MSI Australia, for the last two weeks, claiming the ads violated its policies that are based on Australian law.
Google says it has longstanding rules on abortion-related ads.Credit:AP
But a version of the ads are likely to be allowed to go live after questions from this masthead, pressure from MSI and a review by Google.
Australia has medical advertising laws that prohibit the promotion of prescription medicines, such as abortion-inducing pills, but allows medical services such as abortion clinics to promote themselves.
The ads that MSI, which is the country’s largest abortion provider, has wanted to run since December 3 include one for “Telehealth abortion clinic, supportive & caring staff”.
Google previously reversed an inadvertent ban on similar abortion ads in 2019, blaming an unspecified “temporary issue”. MSI was previously known as Marie Stopes Australia.
Contentious energy bill passes amid industry uproar
By Angus Thompson
The government’s contentious energy prices bill has become legislation after it passed the upper house 28 votes to 22, with the government securing the support of senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell, as well as the Greens.
It passed the House of Representatives 85 to 41 earlier today, with the Greens and other members of the crossbench siding with the government.
The bill legislated a 12-month gas price cap of $12 a gigajoule, created a framework for a mandatory code of conduct for gas companies, and authorised $1.5 billion in power subsidies for households and small businesses.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in parliament today.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Andrew Forrest, chair of resources group Fortescue, welcomed the legislation. “This was not the time to sit back and do nothing. It was a time for action. Action was critical to stop the pain on Australian families and that has occurred today,” he said in a statement.
A number of resources companies have said the legislation will dampen investment in Australia.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to the uproar from parts of the sector by saying the $12 a gigajoule “ceiling” imposed on gas prices was higher than the vast majority of prices in 2021 and “the idea that this will somehow inhibit investment” was wrong.
“They want to be careful that they’re not talking themselves down,” Albanese said on Sky News. “If you go out there and you say, ‘This will inhibit investment, this will create issues for us going forward’, then you’re essentially talking down your industry.”
Australian population nears 26 million
By James Lemon
Australia is home to nearly 26 million people as the country’s population growth rate continues to rise since plummeting during the pandemic.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released its latest estimate of the Australian population on Thursday: 25,978,935 people as of June 30, 2022. The annual population growth was 290,900 people.
The rate of growth has been rising since it fell to nearly zero during the pandemic, when migration and even the return of citizens were at times restricted. The Australian border reopened to international visitors in February 2021.
Though rising, the 1.13 per cent quarterly growth measured in June this year is still a lower rate than any quarter since December 2004.
Net overseas migration was 170,900 people, including 395,000 people immigrating to Australia – more than those who left. Arrivals increased 170.5 per cent since the previous year.
The annual natural increase (the difference between births and deaths) was 124,400, including 306,500 births.
Population growth was a relatively subdued 0.7 per cent in NSW, well below Queensland (2 per cent) and WA (1.3 per cent) and Victoria (1 per cent).
Breaking: Energy market intervention bill passes Parliament
By James Lemon
Labor’s energy market intervention bill has passed the Senate after making its way up from the House of Representatives earlier today.
The bill legislated a 12-month gas price cap of $12 a gigajoule, created a framework for a mandatory code of conduct for gas companies, and authorised $1.5 billion in power subsidies for households and small businesses.
The Greens, in return for their support, secured a program for future federal budgets that would help cover the costs for households to switch from gas appliances to electric.
Federal parliament was recalled for a day to see the bill through. It was contested by the Coalition after it failed to convince Labor to split the household compensation part of the bill from the market intervention.
Star replaces one of two executives accused of breaching duties
By Amelia McGuire
Star Entertainment Group has replaced one of the board members accused of contravening their directorial duties after the news the corporate regulator is suing former members of the group’s leadership.
Outgoing director Katie Lahey will be replaced by Motorcycle Holdings chairman David Foster at the end of this month. Foster is an observer on Star’s board.
Current chairman Ben Heap – who is also one of the 11 members accused of contravening the Corporations Act during his tenure as a director – said Lahey had made “significant contributions” to the casino giant over the past nine years. Lahey previously chaired the group’s People, Remuneration and Social Responsibility committee.
The Star in Pyrmont, Sydney.Credit:Oscar Colman
The Star released a statement to the ASX on Tuesday indicating Heap and Lahey intend to fight the ASIC allegations in the Federal Court.
If found guilty of the alleged breaches they face millions of dollars in penalties and potential disqualification from current and future board positions. Lahey is accused of six breaches of section 180 of the Corporations Act while Heap faces two. Heap has indicated his intentions to resign as chair when the Star finds a suitable replacement.
ASIC’s action in the Federal Court comes months after two inquiries, in Queensland and NSW, found Star was unfit to hold its coveted casino licences over ongoing suspected breaches of anti-money laundering laws.
It comes just two weeks after the federal government’s financial regulator lodged similar proceedings against the company in the Federal Court.
Opinion: Dutton dices with voters’ hip pockets
By David Crowe
The old advice about how to respond to an economic crisis sums up the approach Peter Dutton is taking as opposition leader at a miserable time to lead a group of demoralised Liberals and Nationals who have just been thrown out of government. “Go early, go hard, go households,” was the rallying cry for the officials who drafted the stimulus during the global financial crisis.
Illustration: Simon LetchCredit:Simon Letch
Dutton goes hard. That is his style. And he has gone very hard very quickly against Anthony Albanese after the prime minister slowly decided to impose price caps on coal and gas, along with spending $1.5 billion on cuts to energy bills.
Dutton clearly thinks he has the right message for households, also, but his approach is a huge gamble. His decision on the energy package, in the end, is to oppose measures that will curb the upward pressure on household bills.
This was not the only way for the Coalition to attack the Labor plan. It was open to the opposition leader to criticise the price caps, back the household assistance and vote for the entire package with a show of great reluctance at the end. That would be the cautious approach. But Dutton goes hard.
This looks like a Christmas gift for Albanese because it means the prime minister can spend all of 2023 describing Dutton as the man who voted against household help on energy bills.
Read chief political correspondent David Crowe’s full article here.
Deliveroo burnt through $120 million in lead-up to Australian collapse
By Jessica Yun
Deliveroo was never profitable in Australia and incurred losses of more than $120 million this year alone, a report from administrators for the collapsed group shows.
The Australian operations of the UK-based food delivery company went into administration last month, owing creditors $129.4 million. The administrators report also shows that a pool of $18.8 million has been set aside for employees, riders, restaurant partners, suppliers and other creditors.
Deliveroo fled Australia earlier this year, putting thousands of employees and riders out of work.Credit:Mikael Buck
The food delivery company entered Australia in 2015 but failed to gain market share. It appointed KordaMentha as administrators after abruptly pulling the pin last month, leaving 121 employees and more than 14,000 riders without work.
COVID-19 lockdowns were initially a boon for Deliveroo, with net revenue hitting its highest level of $130.5 million in 2021. However, this was surpassed by an increase to cost of sales totalling $140.8 million, largely made up of rider pay, which led to a gross loss of $10.3 million that year.
Deliveroo Australia then accumulated losses of $120.3 million in 2022.
PM tells fossil fuel industry not to talk itself out of investment
By Angus Thompson
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned those resources companies complaining the energy price bill will dampen investment in Australia against talking their industry down.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s energy price bill is set to pass parliament.Credit:AAP
Speaking to Sky News, Albanese responded to the uproar from parts of the sector by saying the $12 a gigajoule “ceiling” imposed on gas prices was higher than the vast majority of prices in 2021 and “the idea that this will somehow inhibit investment” was wrong.
“They want to be careful that they’re not talking themselves down,” Albanese said. “If you go out there and you say, ‘This will inhibit investment, this will create issues for us going forward’, then you’re essentially talking down your industry.”
He said there was nothing in the legislation that should prompt such a conversation, and compared it to the loud opposition to the government’s industrial relations omnibus bill that passed earlier this month.
Albanese was asked about several topics, including the prospect of gun reform after the Queensland siege.
He responded that there was a police investigation now taking place, and “we’ll examine any issues which arise out of this tragedy; we’ll do so in a coherant and constructive way”.
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2022-12-15 07:39:48Z
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