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Sky News AU
8 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese doubles down on renewables and net zero in National Press Club address
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will reaffirm his commitment to renewable energy and net zero targets in his National Press Club address on Tuesday. Mr Albanese will deliver his first speech to the press club after being re-elected as Prime Minister of the 48th Parliament of Australia at around 12.30pm. He has outlined his agenda—focusing on housing, healthcare, education, cost of living relief and renewable energy—in an excerpt of his speech provided to Sky News. will stream Mr Albanese's National Press Club address live at 12.30pm AEST. Mr Albanese will say the path to net zero must be grounded in delivery, not ideology, and stress the importance of seizing the economic opportunity of the global shift to clean energy. He has described his vision of the future, 'where we realise our potential as a renewable energy superpower'. 'We are working to meet the environmental challenges of climate change and seize the economic opportunities of renewable energy,' Mr Albanese will say. 'We have legislated our 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 and our commitment to Net Zero by 2050. 'We are delivering our energy policy – renewables, backed by gas, batteries and hydro.' The comments come as political pressure mounts over the mounting cost of the government's climate policy. New analysis from the Institute of Public Affairs revealed that annual federal spending on climate and net zero programs has soared to about $9 billion. IPA deputy executive director Adam Creighton described the scale of climate-related spending as 'ridiculous'. 'Decades of poor decision making, based on flawed and misleading advice and ideology, is crushing… household budgets,' he said. Energy Minister Chris Bowen has repeatedly argued that renewables remain the 'cheapest and cleanest' source of power. The Australian Energy Regulator's default market offer has risen by up to 50 per cent in parts of the country since 2022. Neither Mr Bowen nor Mr Albanese have conceded their 2022 election promise to lower household power bills by $275 has not been met. The government's clean energy transition has also drawn criticism from the Greens following its decision to approve the extension of the North West Shelf gas project. 'You can't have renewables unless you have firming capacity. You don't change a transition through warm thoughts,' Mr Albanese said of the decision. The extension of the gas project was made under the existing Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. The EPBC does not require consideration of a project's climate impact. Despite long-flagged reforms to the EPBC Act, Sky News understands the government has decided not to include a climate trigger as part of the update, rejecting calls from the Greens. Greens leader Larissa Waters slammed the gas approval, saying it 'totally undermines the government's commitment to net zero by 2050'. Despite criticism from activists, Mr Albanese maintained the transition must be done responsibly and with a clear-eyed understanding of the challenges ahead. 'Our government's vision and ambition for Australia's future was never dependent on the size of our majority,' he will say in his Press Club speech. 'But you can only build for that future vision if you build confidence that you can deliver on urgent necessities.' He said Australia's mix of natural resources, a skilled workforce and geopolitical stability made it the best place in the world to lead the net zero transition. 'When you consider the resources and energy and technology that a world moving to Net Zero needs… there is nowhere else you would rather be than right here in Australia,' he said.
Daily Mirror
02-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Brave tourists speak out following great white shark encounter at busy beach
Nash Core said his "heart was pounding" when he and his 11-year-old son Parker came across the writhing great white shark off the shore at Ardrossan, South Australia A dad spoke of his close encounter with a great white shark off the coast of a beach. Nash Core and his 11-year-old son Parker found the three-metre shark writhing as it had become stranded in shallow water near Ardrossan, South Australia. They helped with the hour-long rescue effort to return the distressed animal into deeper water. And Nash admitted his "heart was pounding" throughout the mission, which saw tourists and local people work together to move the creature. They used crab rakes — a garden rake-like tool for digging small crabs from sand — to entice the shark out to the ocean. Speaking about the encounter on Thursday, father-of-two Nash said: "My heart's pounding. To be honest, I did have some thoughts about, 'oh, why am I going out here?' As we were going out, my young son, Parker, turned to me and said ... 'My heart's pounding.' I said, 'Yeah, mine's beating pretty fast too.'" The dad managed to used his drone to record a short clip of the animal before the rescue mission began. He and another hero, Tony Dew, saw the shark was moving slowly on the sand bank and they became concerned. "It was either sick or … just tired,' said Nash, who was visiting with his family from Gold Coast in Queensland state. He added: "We definitely got it into some deeper water, so hopefully it's swimming still." Scientists believe only around 8,000 to 10,000 great white sharks exist across Australia. The species was declared vulnerable by the Australian Government in 1999 because of significant population decline and is still protected under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. So Tony, one of the rescuers, was keen to help the animal on Tuesday. He told Seven Network Television: "We were in about waist-deep water so if it wasn't going to survive, I didn't want to stand there and watch it and if it did recover, I really wanted to be back on the beach. I hope it did survive. We did what we could." Tony, an Ardrossan local, added he had never seen a beached shark before. Macquarie University wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta said while shark strandings were not common, they were becoming more visible through social media. There could be a number of reasons why marine animals like sharks might strand, including illness and injury. The shark could also have chased prey into the shallows, Pirotta said. "If you see something like this, human safety comes first and foremost. You can contact environmental authorities … who will get someone appropriate to come and assist," Ms Pirotta said.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Urgent plea to protect Aussie bird as numbers plummet to 'dangerous levels'
As one of the world's rarest birds migrates across Bass Strait, there are fears its northern homeland is being destroyed at a rate that could push it to extinction. With autumn setting in, Tasmania is cooling and the last surviving wild swift parrots are making their annual journey of up to 5,000km to Victoria, NSW and southern Queensland. Experts from Birdlife Australia and the Nature Conservation Council NSW are particularly concerned about the rate of native forest logging in NSW and they've suggested a simple solution to counter its impact on the swift parrot. With just 300 to 1,000 of these birds left on Earth, they've issued a joint request, urging the state to stop destroying critical habitat like flowering trees for feeding and old, hollow trees that provide shelter. Nature Conservation Council CEO Jacqui Mumford warned swift parrots are 'copping it from all sides' as trees are cut down across both Tasmania and NSW. 'Breeding and feeding grounds are being logged and numbers are falling to very dangerous levels. Make no mistake, extinction is almost certain if we don't act decisively,' she warned. Yahoo News contacted the offices of Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty about the warnings. While a direct response was not supplied, it's understood the Minns Government remains steadfastly committed to the timber industry. Related: Aussie state where future generations will only see iconic wildlife in zoos While the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act is designed to safeguard endangered species from threats, including habitat destruction, state logging operations are exempt from these regulations. In NSW, the Environment Protection Authority has a separate suite of 'protections' called the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operation Approvals which contain regulations for logging around swift parrot feeding and roosting habitats. 'These include a 25-metre exclusion zone around every swift parrot roost, and a minimum retention of five nectar trees (for every hectare of net harvest area) in any compartment within 2km of a swift parrot record,' an EPA spokesperson told Yahoo. But some critics argue these rules are flawed because trees are only protected when a swift parrot is sighted, and the tiny 60-80 gram birds are near impossible to spot in the wild. They say even larger species like koala-sized greater gliders can be missed by the state logging agency Forestry Corporation of NSW, noting a 2024 report estimated just 1 per cent of the species' dens were identified in pre-logging surveys. Addressing concerns raised by conservationists about the swift parrot, Forestry Corporation told Yahoo it operates in a 'highly regulated environment' that delivers 'ecologically sustainable forest management'. Despite these assurances, Birdlife Australia argues ending native forest logging would be an important step towards ensuring the nation doesn't lose this bird. Less than 30 per cent of its foraging habitat remains and according to the Commonwealth, clearing of its habitat is a key driver of its demise. It's predicted the species will be extinct in the wild in the next 20 years. "The swift parrot needs the NSW government to protect its feeding range. Protecting native forests from logging would go a long way to achieving this," its nature campaigner Tarquin Moon said. Last year, the plight of the swift parrots received international attention with Hollywood actor Leonardo Dicaprio calling for an end to native forest logging across Australia. In a post to his 60 million Instagram followers, he said it was the "only way to protect the swift parrot and hundreds of other threatened Australian forest species". Australia is the only developed nation declared a deforestation hotspot, and the swift parrot is just one of more than 2,200 species listed by the Commonwealth as threatened with extinction. In November, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young appeared to have agreed on a plan to end native forest logging across the country, however the deal was ditched following an intervention from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
