Australia's largest gas project approved for life extension
The federal government has approved Woodside's request to extend the life of a massive gas project off Western Australia. ( ABC News: Charlie Mclean )
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West Australian
38 minutes ago
- West Australian
Transport minister Catherine King reaches out to State counterparts over e-scooter regulation
The Federal Government is talking to its State counterparts about regulation of e-scooters after a spate of incidents involving riders, including the death of a pedestrian after a serious crash in Perth. Transport Minister Catherine King sees making cities safer for pedestrians and other road users as a priority for the national road safety strategy. She's facing calls from the Opposition to convene a road accidents summit with all stakeholders and users to look at how best to make sure the rules are the same across the country. Thanh Phan, 51, died in hospital following a serious crash in Perth's CBD earlier this month, prompting inner-city councils to suspend e-scooter programs and police to launch a crackdown. Research published about the same time found almost 180 young people aged under 16 on Queensland's Sunshine Coast required hospital treatment over two years after being seriously injured while riding e-scooters. Transport expert Geoff Rose said the Federal Government should step in to coordinate measures across all jurisdictions to make sure scooters were used safely. A spokeswoman for Ms King said the Commonwealth worked with State and Territory governments to reduce road trauma, although regulation of e-scooters was ultimately a matter for the lower jurisdictions. 'One of the Australian Government's responsibilities under the strategy's action plan is to invest in infrastructure and non-infrastructure programs to reduce risks to vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians, and we continue to do this through programs like our Active Transport Fund,' she said. 'We consider a wide range of things in relation to road safety and will continue to work with state and local governments to make our cities safer for pedestrians and road users.' The minister's thoughts were with Mr Phan's family and loved ones after the tragic incident. Shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie said the idea of harmonising regulations across the country should be examined. 'I think it's worthy, because it isn't just happening in WA it's happening wherever these e-scooters abound,' she told The West. 'A road deaths, road accident summit with all representatives, users and all modes of transport would be a positive step and something that the Federal Government could take a leadership role (in), even though the regulatory environment for many of these things is at a local and state level.' Senior Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she regularly heard from community members worried about the safety of e-scooters and how they were regulated, as did other politicians. 'I am always of the view that if we can have Federal cooperation and consistency with regulation that's in the best interest of the community, then we should do that,' she said.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
World Bank slashes global growth forecasts amid trade tariffs, economic uncertainty
The World Bank has slashed global growth forecasts for 2025, blaming tariffs and heightened uncertainty for some of the weakest economic conditions since the 2008 global financial crisis. In its twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects report, the bank lowered its forecasts for nearly 70 per cent of all economies, including the United States and Europe. It also downgraded growth for six emerging market regions from the levels it projected just six months ago — before US President Donald Trump took office. The projections factored in some of the the Trump administration's latest tariff policies, which have up-ended global trade and prompted significant business uncertainty. A series of on-again, off-again tariff hikes have increased the effective US tariff rate from below 3 per cent to the mid-teens — its highest level in almost a century — and triggered retaliation by China and other countries. The bank stopped short of forecasting a recession, but said global economic growth this year would be its weakest outside of a recession since 2008. By 2027, global gross domestic product (GDP) growth was expected to average just 2.5 per cent, the slowest pace of any decade since the 1960s. The World Bank's downgrade follows on from a similar move by the International Monetary Fund in April. At the time, the IMF said Australia's economic growth would be impacted and also warned of "upward revisions" to inflation in the US and other major western economies. The World Bank's latest forecast, released on Monday, showed economic growth in Australia's largest trading partner — China — was expected to slow to 4.5 per cent in 2025 and 4 per cent in 2026. "This is in line with the January forecast, reflecting the impacts of higher US tariffs and slower growth in major advanced economies, which are assumed to be offset by the announced fiscal policy support measures," the report said. It also noted that "in regions with a large number of commodity exporters … growth is expected to face drags from weakening outlook for external commodity demand". The report forecast that global trade would grow by 1.8 per cent in 2025, down from 3.4 per cent in 2024 and roughly a third of its 5.9 per cent level in the 2000s. The bank said global inflation was expected to reach 2.9 per cent in 2025, remaining above pre-COVID levels, given tariff increases and tight labour markets. The World Bank did not provide a projection for Australia, but the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last week showed domestic economic growth slowed to just 0.2 per cent in the March quarter. The US GDP forecast was slashed by 0.9 percentage points from its January forecast to 1.4 per cent, and the 2026 outlook was lowered by 0.4 percentage point to 1.6 per cent. Europe's economy could expect only a 0.7 per cent expansion in 2025. "Uncertainty remains a powerful drag, like fog on a runway. It slows investment and clouds the outlook," World Bank Deputy Chief Economist Ayhan Kose told Reuters in an interview. But the report warned poor countries would suffer the most, with developing economies likely to be 6 per cent smaller in 2027 than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. It could take these countries — minus China — two decades to recoup the economic losses of the 2020s. ABC/Reuters
The Australian
an hour ago
- The Australian
Anthony Albanese ‘open' to defence funding boost
You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Anthony Albanese is opening the door to lifting defence spending ahead of his potential meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 next week, while declining to confirm publicly whether he considers China a national security threat to Australia. The Prime Minister has for weeks stood firm on his position that he would not blindly tick off on the call from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth for Australia to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent, but on Tuesday left the door open to increasing funding for defence more broadly. 'Arbitrary figures lead to a cul-de-sac and we want to make sure as well that every single dollar that defence spends results in actual assets,' he told the National Press Club ahead of travelling to the G7 this week. When asked if defence spending as a portion of GDP could feasibly increase as investment in such assets and capabilities went up, Mr Albanese said: 'Of course, we'll always provide for capability that's needed. I've made it very clear – we will support the capability that Australia needs. 'I think that Australia should decide what we spend on Australia's defence. Simple as that.' It follows senior ministers such as Richard Marles and Pat Conroy indicating a similar willingness to boost spending on defence, with Mr Conroy confirming last week the government was 'open to having a conversation about increasing defence funding'. Former Defence Department deputy secretary Peter Jennings said the critical question for Mr Albanese was whether the current defence spend was adequate to the strategic challenge, arguing that the answer was a resounding 'no'. 'He's got a little bit of wriggle room now, if he finds that he's under pressure from Trump or other allies or the calls for increasing spending just get too great, too loud domestically, well, then he does have a way out of it,' Mr Jennings said. 'What he's doing is just describing a process; when he's pressed on this issue, all he says is, 'well, what we do is that we consider our needs based on proposals that are put in cabinet'. 'He's not locking himself out of doing more, but clearly, I think he's reluctant to, because they haven't so far.' Strategic Analysis Australia head of research Marcus Hellyer said he was sceptical over Mr Albanese's language, arguing that for more investment to be made in specific capabilities, the government had to tick off on an increase in defence spending, rather than the process occurring the other way around. 'We have had review after review … and assessment after assessment, which have determined the capabilities we need, yet the current investment program doesn't include them, why?' he said. 'Because the current investment program was designed around a certain funding envelope. 'That's why it's ludicrous when people pompously say 'we will acquire the capabilities we need' when governments are the ones setting a funding envelope.' While giving himself room to move on the issue of defence spending, Mr Albanese also sought to dodge direct questions over whether China posed a national security threat to Australia and argued that simplifying what was a 'complex set of relationships' was neither 'diplomatic' nor 'mature'. 'We engage constructively in the region, including with China, and including with ASEAN nations and what we say is that it is in Australia's interests and indeed, the world's interest for there to be peace and security in our region,' he said. 'That's our position. That's the mature way in which we are able as a middle power to exercise influence in the region.' It follows a Chinese flotilla circumnavigating Australia ahead of the election, with Mr Marles confirming Australia engaged in an 'unprecedented level of surveillance' of the ships that he said were conducting exercises and 'seeking to … demonstrate' capabilities. 'We are very aware of what that task group was doing, the exercises that it was engaging in, what it was seeking to be able to demonstrate,' he told Sky. Despite the expected meeting with Mr Trump being just days away, Mr Albanese once more made veiled inferences over the danger of 'copying' policies from overseas – or more specifically the US – that would leave Australia 'narrower, less generous and more divided'. It followed Labor accusing the Coalition of importing policies from overseas numerous times during the election, arguing the opposition would 'Americanise Medicare' if it won office. Mr Albanese also confirmed that other policies on top of the question of defence spending, such as the news media bargaining code and the under-16s social media ban, were also not 'on the table' when it came to speaking to Mr Trump about lifting the tariffs imposed on Australian products by the US.
