Australia news live: Labor unveils billions in new climate and energy funding as it sets ‘responsible’ 62-70% target to cut emissions

Albanese is asked whether the range means the government’s target is actually 62%.

He says the target is consistent with those of other nations who also have a target range, and says it’s consistent with technological development that will help Australia achieve that target range.

The government is also asked whether the range means the government isn’t aligned with the goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

But Bowen says the target still has that objective.

It is very clear that we have set a target based on science and the objective of 1.5 degrees. That is what we are required to do under law.

They [CCA] said we should go for maximum ambition. They then looked at what is achievable in the Australian context and that is exactly 62-70%. This range reflects two things, it reflects that technology changes over a decade in ways that not everyone can easily predict 10 years out and we recognise that.

‘We think we have a sweet spot’: PM

Anthony Albanese says the independent advice from the Climate Change Authority is based on science but is also consistent with the European Union’s target.

This is ambitious but achievable.

We think we have a sweet spot that will be criticism from some who say it is too high some who will say it is too low. What we have done is accept the Climate Change Authority’s advice and, importantly, this is worlds best practice.

Climate Change Authority chair, Matt Kean, says the targets are about opportunity and delivering a “cleaner and safer and better” world for future generations.

He says the CCA considered more than 500 submissions and conducted over 560 meetings and events to reach the target range.

There is a path that will deliver benefits and savings, not cost. Our leading scientific body, the CSIRO has done that work. This is a range that I am hopeful we can overachieve on. Our range positions Australia is a global leader on climate.

Today’s report is ambitious for Australia, ambitious for a prosperous future.

Treasurer: net zero transition ‘golden opportunity’

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says he asked his department to model several scenarios, which found a “disorderly transition” would result in lower wages and higher electricity prices.

But a 65% target, which is what Treasury modelled for the government – broadly in line with what the Climate Change Authority would recommend, Chalmers says the department found the economy would be better off.

The baseline scenario would see our economy $2.2tn bigger by 2050 and an extra $36,000 per person wealthier 5.1 million jobs and investment up 80%. That is the baseline scenario that represents the trajectory that the government believes is the baseline coming from the arrangements that we are announcing today.

If we leave the heavy lifting to others at the start of the 2040s and where our country and economy would need to scramble to hit net zero by 2050 and in the disorderly transition the economy would be a cumulatively $1.2tn smaller.

Chalmers also adds that he welcomes the unemployment rate remaining at 4.2%, and says the labour market has been a “genuine source of strength”. On the immigration rate he says:

We are now 17,000 people lower than the Treasury forecast for net overseas migration and 40% below the peak that we saw in that overseas migration following Covid.

The global shift to clean energy is the “biggest economic transition since the Industrial Revolution” says the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, who takes the mic after Albanese.

Bowen says the advice from the Climate Change Authority was to help determine an “achievable and ambitious” target, and one that can be done in “a realistic fashion”.

Bowen says the target comes with a comprehensive plan on how to get there.

The updated plan that we are releasing today is that path together with the six sector plans that we release today that show industry and investors what the government thinks is the most feasible decarbonisation pathway beyond 2030.

There’s a few commitments under the target that are being announced today:

• $2bn for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

• A $5bn net zero fund within the national reconstruction fund.

• $1.1bn for the production of clean fuels – announced yesterday.

• $40m to speed up the rollout of kerbside and fast EV charging.

• $85m for frameworks to help households and businesses improve their energy performance.

• $50m for sports clubs to decarbonise.

Renewables backed by gas and battery storage, says PM

Albanese says emissions need to drop in electricity, transport and industry, and announces $2m for the clean energy finance corporation, to “accelerate long term renewable projects”.

There’s also $40m on the table to accelerate the rollout of curb-side fast EV charging.

He also takes a swipe at the opposition for their “23 different energy policies and did not land one of them”.

Today we announce a fund in the national reconstruction fund to help large industry decarbonise and scale up more renewables and low emissions manufacturing. This builds on what we have been doing through the safeguard mechanism.

[Renewable] capacity is up 45% since we came into government, enough to power some 6m households.

Labor has announced it will set a 62-70% emissions reduction target by 2035, taking the advice of the Climate Change Authority and says it’s the “right target”.

Anthony Albanese is standing up with the energy minister, Chris Bowen, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and Climate Change Authority chair, Matt Kean, in Sydney.

This has been a highly anticipated announcement, and comes just ahead of the PM taking off to New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly, where he will submit the target.

Albanese says:

This is a responsible target supported by science and a practical plan to get there and built on proven technology. It is the right target to protect our environment, to protect and advance our economy and jobs and to ensure that we act in our national interest and in the interest of this and future generations.

Jobless rate steady at 4.2% despite fall in employment

The unemployment rate stayed at 4.2% in August, despite the number of employed people falling by 5,000 people in the month.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed a 41,000 drop in full-time employment, partially offset by a 36,000 rise in part-time jobs.

The steady jobless rate was expected, although economists had forecast employment growth of 21,000, so the jobs report is broadly a disappointing one.

A slight drop in the workforce participation rate – essentially the pool of people either working or actively looking for work – helped explain the unchanged jobless rate, despite a drop in employment.

The key unemployment measure has been bumping around in the low 4s since early 2024.

Krishani Dhanji is going to take the reins ahead of the big climate announcement.

Labor to set 62-70% climate target

Australia will aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 62% and 70% on 2005 levels by 2035 under the Albanese government’s new climate target, a Labor source told Guardian Australia.

The prime minister is due to unveil the target at 12pm in Sydney after cabinet met on Thursday morning to consider the Climate Change Authority’s advice.

The authority’s preliminary advice suggested a target of between 65% and 75% was ambitious but achievable.

Net overseas migration contributed 315,924 people to Australia’s population in the year to March, new official data has revealed, slowing from 334,565 people in the year to December.

Our estimated national population as at 30 March was 27.5 million people, or 423,400 higher than a year earlier, according to the quarterly estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Migration has become an increasingly fraught political topic in the wake of a spike in overseas arrivals that followed the end of Covid lockdowns.

Net overseas migration, or Nom, peaked at nearly 555,798 in the year to September 2023 – a powerful catch-up after migration collapsed and went into reverse through 2020 and 2021.

Nom is now retracing back towards pre-pandemic annual growth rates of about 240,000 people, and annual Nom has dropped in every quarter since late 2023.

The Human Rights Law Centre has sent a formal complaint to the UN over the “violent arrest” of Hannah Thomas and the “wider erosion” of protest rights in New South Wales.

In a statement, the centre said the complaint warned:

The NSW “protest permit” Form 1 system is being increasingly misused as a protest authorisation system, forcing protest organisers to seek police approval or face significant financial penalties and/or imprisonment.

NSW Police have unchecked discretion to determine which protests receive legal protection and which do not.

The dangerous consequences of these powers [were] seen most starkly in Ms Thomas’ violent arrest, where the absence of a Form 1 was used as the basis for dispersal and arrest, with serious consequences for her safety.

The complaint called on the United Nations Special Rapporteur that focuses on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association to request the Australian government to explain how the form 1 system and NSW anti-protest laws are compatible with the nation’s human rights obligation.

Earlier this month, the office of the director of public prosecution dropped charges against Thomas, a former Greens candidate who was arrested at a Sydney protest in June.

The 35-year-old, who is now suing the State of NSW, was taken to hospital after she was arrested and underwent two rounds of surgery to her eye, with her lawyers alleging a police officer punched her in the face.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will unveil Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target at 12pm in Sydney.

Cabinet met to sign off on the announcement on Thursday, with Labor caucus also briefed.

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will also stand up at the press conference.

ANU’s interim vice-chancellor will not ask Julie Bishop to resign

Brown said she will not ask the university’s chancellor, Julie Bishop, to step down.

Last week, Bishop vowed to stay on as chancellor after Prof Genevieve Bell tendered her resignation, ending a tumultuous two years at the institution marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture.

In a staff question at the town hall, Brown was told the university had “no confidence” in any plan moving forward while Bishop remained in her role, with the questioner asking: “If the university is serious about rebuilding trust, will you commit to asking the chancellor to step down?”

Brown replied “the short answer is no”, going on:

It’s not the interim or vice-chancellor’s prerogative to ask a chancellor or any member of council to step down, that is a decision for council … I have no aspirations [or] intentions to change the existing leadership team. The university leadership group is over 70 members of our staff.

Many of her answers were met with applause from the crowd, but this one was met with a beat of silence.

Interim vice-chancellor of ANU says ‘we will do better’

The interim vice-chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU), Prof Rebekah Brown, says there will be a “different type of communication” after the exit of Prof Genevieve Bell and she will “expect better” from management going forward.

Brown is responding to questions at an all staff town hall at ANU. Pointed to the fact the university’s restructure had “demonstrably caused harm” at the university and what accountability would look like going forward, Brown said it was “her job” to take responsibility as ANU’s interim leader.

She also apologised for the harm caused by a “confusing email” in recent weeks that led staff to believe there would be no further involuntary redundancies, which was inaccurate at the time. Brown said:

We are going to be having a different type of communication. That is really significant. I’d say also that what we can do is be better going forward, act differently going forward. So what I can say is that at least under my interim leadership, we will do better. I’ll expect better.

Brown also said ANU would also do a stocktake of its finances and “be transparent” with its community. She said the university’s model going forward would be to rely on its own people before employing the use of consultants.

Shares in oil and gas producer Santos have fallen more than 10% this morning, after an Abu Dhabi-led consortium withdrew its $30bn takeover bid for the Adelaide-headquartered company.

XRG, the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, was required to submit a binding proposal by Friday after lodging an indicative bid in mid-June.

It withdrew its offer last night.

The proposal was expected to receive significant scrutiny from the Foreign Investment Review Board, which provides advice to the treasurer.

Santos shares are now priced below $7, which is around the same level they traded at before the June bid.

Takeovers generally lead to a spike in the target’s share price given most buyers need to pay a premium to secure control of another company.

No further job cuts at ANU sends ‘powerful message’ to Australia’s universities, union says

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) says “every university staff member” facing job cuts around the nation can “take heart” from the Australian National University’s announcement that there will be no forced redundancies.

Its ACT division secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, said the interim vice-chancellor, Prof Rebekah Brown, deserved credit for “reading the room accurately” on the issue. The announcement at a town hall this morning came just a week after the exit of former vice-chancellor, Prof Genevieve Bell.

Clohesy said the university’s restructure process, Renew ANU, had “damaged the university and its people”:

It has broken the University. While there is work to do, we can now start to pick up the pieces. Today demonstrates that much of the pain and psychological damage of recent times was not necessary. I hope that leadership at UTS is taking note of what has happened at the ANU.

NTEU national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said the announcement sent a “powerful message” to “all vice-chancellors pursuing reckless and unjustified cuts” and pointed to the need for major governance reform.

The town hall is continuing, with staff waiting to ask questions of Brown.

There will be no more involuntary redundancies at the Australian National University, the interim vice-chancellor, Prof Rebekah Brown, has confirmed.

Briefing staff at a town hall meeting on Thursday morning, Brown became emotional before confirming she and the chancellor had supported no more involuntary redundancies at the institution.

She said the university would still need to do realignments and consolidate its professional services in colleges flagged for restructures, saying:

We still need to be really mindful of our expenditure. It’s critical. What I would like to say also is that the other four colleges that are not listed here in these change proposals, they’ve been able to meet their 2025 budgetary targets, which were all contractions as well through vacancy management retirements [and] attritions.

Brown said an “anonymous donor” had also offered a generous philanthropic gift in order to continue the Australian National Dictionary Centre for the next two years. The School of Music will also be saved, Brown confirmed.

Migration and jobs numbers to be released today

While the government’s announcement of its 2035 emissions reduction target will rightly dominate our collective attention, today we also get new figures on another increasingly hot button issue: migration.

The ABS at 11.30am will release estimated population stats for the March quarter.

Net overseas migration (or Nom) was 340,750 in the year to December, and it reached a remarkable peak of nearly 556,000 in the year to September 2023 – a rebound from the Covid-era lockdowns and closed borders.

In the few years leading up to the pandemic net overseas migration averaged about 240,000 people a year.

Today’s data should show Nom slowing again, but perhaps not as quickly as Treasury officials have forecast in the budget.

And if that wasn’t enough, the ABS will also publish labour force figures for July.

Unemployment has been in the low 4s for more than a year now, and the consensus forecast among economists is for the jobless rate to stay at 4.2% – good news that will probably keep it out of the headlines.

More from the privacy commissioner’s findings on Kmart’s use of facial recognition tech

Kind found that the collection of biometric information was a disproportionate interference with privacy. The privacy commissioner considered the estimated value of fraudulent returns against Kmart’s total operations and profits as part of the evaluation.

Kind said:

I do not consider that the respondent (Kmart) could have reasonably believed that the benefits of the FRT system in addressing refund fraud proportionately outweighed the impact on individuals’ privacy.

Hardware giant Bunnings is now challenging a 2024 privacy commissioner ruling over its use of facial recognition technology in the Administrative Review Tribunal.

Kmart was approached for comment.