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Carly Williams: Grief and loss on the streets of Alice Springs. Loved ones of Kumanjayi White used gum leaves to sweep, a traditional Warlpirri sorry business custom. Elder Valerie Napaljarri-Martin says this finishing up protocol must be done where he took his last breath in an Alice Springs supermarket.
Valerie Napaljarri Martin : Glance our spirit. I hope that we can get justice for this young fella. He was hungry. That's not a crime.
Carly Williams: Mr White was accused of assaulting a security guard in the store and passed away after being restrained by police who were not wearing uniforms. Members of his family and community travelled hundreds of kilometres for Alice Springs' third vigil mourning the 24-year-old. Mr White's grandfather, Ned Jampinjimpa Hardgraves, was among hundreds there.
Jampinjimpa Hardgraves: We want justice. Come on, say it with me. Justice.
Carly Williams: He renewed calls for an independent investigation and the release of CCTV and body cam footage to the family.
Jampinjimpa Hardgraves: We do not want police investigating and we want the two police to stand down.
Carly Williams: Speaking in a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday, the acting police commissioner Martin Dole said the footage is an exhibit in the criminal investigation and its integrity needs to be maintained. Like thousands who have rallied across the country over the past week, Gurindji Yarramun man Michael Smith supported the family's requests.
Michael Smith: We need to have an investigation, an independent one. Nobody's really listening. So I think the more people that show up and continue to keep supporting this, hopefully the people that do make those decisions will start listening to us for once.
Carly Williams: Acting Commissioner Dole has ruled out an independent investigation.
Martin Dole: That's not something we can just hand to somebody else. And if we were to bring in an independent investigator, they'd have to be sworn in as members of the Northern Territory Police Force in any case.
Carly Williams: Grandmother and Warlpiri woman Lynette Tasman wants to know why Mr White, who lived with disabilities and in full-time residential care, became one of almost 600 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission.
Lynette Tasman: Where are the carers?
Carly Williams: Arrentre woman Barbara Shaw also questions the care services.
Barbara Shaw: We're the only people who can care for our people. Service providers are not giving Aboriginal people a chance to take care of their own.
Carly Williams: In a statement, Life Beyond Barriers said it was deeply saddened by this tragedy, but could not answer questions about any carers involved at the time. For Valerie Martin, the place of this Alice Springs vigil is sadly familiar. It's here that the Yuendumu community gathered for every one of the 66 days the Northern Territory coroner heard evidence in the inquest into the 2019 shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, another Warlpiri man who died in police custody.
Valerie Napaljarri Martin : When are we going to have justice?
Isabella Higgins: Warlpiri elder Valerie Napaljarri Martin ending that report by Carly Williams.
Isabella Higgins: Australia's rooftop solar boom has been a runaway success, slashing household power bills and cutting emissions. But there lies a growing problem. The industry is warning of a looming tsunami of solar waste, with millions of panels being ripped out and no national recycling scheme in place. This story from national business reporter Rianna Whitson.
Rhiana Wilson: Australia now has more than 4 million solar powered homes. Add in commercial sites and that's an estimated 150 million panels across the country. But they can have a limited lifespan.
Jake Warner: So sometimes it can be workmanship, maybe an older system can fail. It's also increased technology.
Rhiana Wilson: Solar panel installer Jake Warner says new federal battery subsidies are speeding up the transition and the waste.
Speaker 4: I think post July 1 we'll see another uptick of those who have been looking into a complete solar and battery system from scratch.
Rhiana Wilson: The Smart Energy Council says about 4 million panels are decommissioned every year, a figure set to double based on solar uptake alone, let alone batteries. Jake Warner says Australia is unprepared to handle the waste.
Jake Warner: Right now the challenge is that we don't really have these recycling facilities ready at scale, like what I think we're going to need in the next 10 years or so.
Rhiana Wilson: Currently, only about 10% of solar panels are recycled. The rest stockpiled, sent overseas, and to landfill. Darren Johannesson is from the Smart Energy Council.
Darren Johannesen : In a solar module, there are metals that are in short supply, copper and silver. And in fact, the silver that's contained inside solar modules equates to, in its totality, Australia's biggest silver mine. So landfilling these modules is wasting critical resources.
Rhiana Wilson: Darren Johannesson says it's costly for both the environment and the economy.
Darren Johannesen : By 2035, there'll be a 30% shortfall in globally in copper. And so the IEA, the International Energy Agency, is recommending that all countries adopt a regulatory policy framework that encourages recycling, so that we can use urban mining to bridge that 30% gap.
Rhiana Wilson: That'll require federal government action. Darren Johannesson says the industry has been waiting almost a decade for a mandatory stewardship scheme. That could involve a levy and manufacturers taking some responsibility for what happens to decommissioned panels. Darren Johannesson says without one, recycling solar panels doesn't stack up economically.
Darren Johannesen : There's a sense of general optimism that the government will act. And so investors are still prepared to invest. But for how long they'll stay in the market is anyone's guess. Nine years is a long time to be waiting for a national scheme. The time to act is now.
Isabella Higgins: Darren Johannesson from the Smart Energy Council, ending that report from business reporter Rianna Whitson. And in a statement, the federal government has acknowledged the importance of saving critical minerals from landfill, but hasn't said when a stewardship scheme for solar panels will be in place.
Isabella Higgins: Now, can we trust our sunscreen to protect us? Well, the latest testing by Consumer Group Choice has found many fail to meet their SPF claims. Twenty sunscreens were tested and only four met their advertised ratings. But the brands have rejected the findings. Rachel Carbonell reports.
Rachel Carbonell: It's considered essential to reducing Australians' high risk of skin cancer. But testing by Australia's peak consumer group has found many sunscreens don't meet their SPF label claims. Choice tested 20 sunscreens and CEO Ashley De Silva says they found 16 with a lower sun protection factor than advertised on their labels.
Isabella Higgins: We had things in their 20s, 30s and 40s when we were looking for 50 or more.
Rachel Carbonell: Choice tested the sunscreens in an accredited independent lab and many came back in the 20s, including Bondi Sands, Banana Boat and two Cancer Council products, which should have returned results of SPF 50 or above. The product that received the lowest SPF results was Ultraviolet Lean Screen Mattifying Zinc Sunscreen. Choice director of testing Matthew Steen says the results were double checked in an overseas lab. Just to see whether there was any problem and it came back with SPF 5, so almost identical. So we're sure that the results are legit. Ultraviolet says Choice has got it wrong and says it has since had the product retested and it returned a result of more than SPF 60. Some other brands also said they would pursue additional testing, including the Cancer Council. In a statement to the ABC, the Cancer Council said it was doing so out of an abundance of caution and it was critical that Australians have confidence in the sun protection factor of their sunscreen. The head of dermatology at the Melanoma Institute of Australia, Dr Linda Martin says while testing needed to improve to make sure labelling is accurate, adequate application of sunscreen was just as important.
Linda Martin: Most sunburns when they occur are occurring because people are not using enough sunscreen or because they're not using sunscreen at all.
Rachel Carbonell: Dr Martin says people can overestimate the difference between higher and lower sun protection factors.
Linda Martin: An SPF 30 will let through 3% of the sun's rays, whereas an SPF 50 will let through 2% of the sun's rays.
Rachel Carbonell: Choice now wants the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which regulates sunscreen, to test the 16 products. In a statement, the TGA said there was variability in SPF testing results across laboratories, largely because of the reliance on human subject testing. The TGA said it can check that companies were complying with safety regulations and direct them to investigate and retest if there were any potential issues with the product. But it said it is investigating the Choice findings and will take regulatory action as required. Choice said its results have also been submitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission so the watchdog could determine whether any of the brands made misleading claims about their sunscreens.
Isabella Higgins: Rachel Carbonell with that report.
And that's AM for today. Thanks for your company. I'm Isabella Higgins.