Australia news live: Pocock says Labor’s emissions target not ambitious enough after Ley lashes government’s ‘trifecta’ of energy failures

More on the developing Townsville mayor story

Townsville mayor Troy Thompson has responded to the announcement that he faces sacking from the council in parliament this morning.

Thompson was elected mayor last year, but was suspended over allegations he’d misled the electorate about his military history. Local government minister Ann Leahy told parliament she had issued him with a 14-day show cause notice to explain why he shouldn’t be dismissed from the council. Thompson said on Facebook:

These are allegations – not findings. And they have been brought forward by a minister who, in my view, is politically conflicted in this matter. Her recent comments suggest more about point-scoring and political distraction than genuine concern for due process or the Townsville community.

My legal team is prepared to respond in full once the allegations have been formally provided. Until now I have not been afforded natural justice by either the state or local government. That is unacceptable in a democratic system that claims to value fairness and integrity.

Thompson was referred to the state’s Crime and Corruption Commission last year after allegations he embellished his military record by stating he spent five years in the army, including time with “SAS Swanbourne”.

Townsville mayor asked to ‘show cause’ to save job

Controversial Townsville mayor Troy Thompson will be issued with a show cause notice today to explain why he shouldn’t be sacked by the state government.

Local government minister Anne Leahy told parliament on Thursday that she had made the decision after a briefing by the Crime and Corruption Commission last month which “set out serious allegations”. Leahy said:

I will today issue councillor Thomson with a formal show cause notice. This will provide him with 14 days to respond and sets out in detail the basis of my concerns, as required under Section 120 of the Local Government Act 2009. The notice includes a detailed explanation of the factual basis for forming my reasonable belief that dismissal may be appropriate.

Following the 14-day period and upon receipt of councillor Thomson’s response, I will carefully consider the matters raised before making a final decision.

Mr Speaker, these are serious matters, and the actions I have taken reflect this government’s firm commitment to transparency, natural justice and the highest standards of integrity in local government. At every step, my focus has been on the people of Townsville, they deserve a council that is stable, accountable and able to deliver for its community.

Thompson was elected as Townsville mayor last year. He was suspended by Leahy on full pay after allegations he misled the electorate about his military history.

Greens also lash Labor’s emissions target

The Greens, as it happens, are also not fans of Labor’s emissions target, describing it (over and over again) as an utter failure.

Greens leader Larissa Waters said in a statement:

Coal and gas corporations will love this utter failure of a target.

Labor has sold out to coal and gas corporations with this utter failure of a target.

Labor’s utter failure of a climate target is a betrayal of people and the planet and a win for coal and gas corporations.

Littleproud says Nationals won’t support ‘nonsense’ targets

Unsurprisingly, Littleproud says of the target:

So we won’t be supporting these interim targets. We won’t be legislating targets. That’s nonsense.

What we’ll do is be responsible. What we will be is sensible and what we’ll make sure is we put Australian families and Australian business at the core of this because, coming to Australian families, whether it be directly through job losses or through their energy bill or through their food bill or whether their daily movement around this country, you are going to pay the price of this.

Climate target ‘nothing more than an expensive charade’, Nationals leader says

Nationals leader David Littleproud is speaking about Labor’s new emissions target.

He says it’s “nothing more than an expensive charade on the people of Australia”.

The reality is that in three years of government they haven’t reduced emissions at all, yet they’re trying to tell us that they’re going to take us from around 26 to 28% of reduction that we achieved … to 62% by 2035. They can’t do it and they can’t explain how they’re going to do it. And the detail around the cost. Australians need to know that they’re going to foot the bill for this. They’re going to foot a very expensive bill, either through their energy bills but also through their grocery bills and everything else they buy. So the Albanese government is very much big on rhetoric, but not a lot on detail.

That’s all from me! Nino Bucci will take the blog from here. Enjoy the rest of Thursday.

‘Worst is over’ when it comes to cocoa prices but retail chocolate prices to remain high for longer

The cost of cocoa is forecast to reduce significantly by mid-2027, but retail chocolate prices will take longer to fall and are still expected to remain higher than they were four years ago.

Researchers at the agribusiness bank have published a new report that found consumers can expect some relief from rising chocolate prices, which are today more than 50% higher than they were in 2021.

The price has jumped markedly in the last year alone. In September last year, a premium-branded 100g chocolate tablet retailed at EUR 2.93 at the time at a Dutch supermarket, the report said.

The same product is now retailing at EUR 3.95, an increase of nearly 35% in just 12 months.

Paul Joules, an agriculture analysist at RaboResearch, says the surge in retail chocolate prices was caused by a “cocoa shock” or crisis in the industry caused by poor harvests, crop disease and “structural supply issues”.

Joules says while the worst is over, global cocoa prices will remain above “pre-crisis” levels due to ongoing issues including aging trees, crop disease, and climate volatility, which means retail prices could take longer to fall. He said:

The chocolate market is entering a new era of higher costs and persistent volatility, requiring agility and continuous adaptation from industry players.

While the peak of chocolate retail price inflation may be behind us, the pressure remains, and the industry is hedging its bets for a resilient future.

Independent senator David Pocock just spoke to the media about the emissions reduction targets, saying the levels announced by the Albanese government did not go far enough to address the major threat of climate change.

He said:

It is not ambitious enough to allow us to go to the world stage and to push big emitters, the rest of the world, to do better. We know what is at stake. We have seen in the national climate assessment just what climate change is going to do to our country, is going to do to our communities, the ocean that we love, the reefs that we love, the bushland that we love, the native species that make this continent so incredible.

And yet we have a government that is not listening to the science.

Pocock added:

We cannot give up on this. We have to keep fighting and keep pushing, the Labor party, the major parties to take our future seriously.

Ley says there is ‘no division’ among Coalition to oppose ‘latest piece of trainwreck energy policy’

Ley said she just came out of a shadow cabinet meeting and said the Coalition is unified in its plans to oppose the emissions reductions targets.

She said:

I can assure you there was absolutely no division in opposing Labor’s latest piece of trainwreck energy policy. And we know that we’re doing this on behalf of hard-working Australians who actually expect better from a government whose credibility is in tatters.

The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says the Albanese government’s emissions reduction targets “fails on both counts” when it came to cost and credibility, adding she is deeply concerned about how much the plan will cost Australians and the details as to how it will take place.

She said during a press conference:

Under this government we’re seeing a trifecta of energy failures. Costs are up. Reliability is down. And emissions are flatlining.

… You cannot trust a single thing this government says.

If the government wants to have an honest conversation with Australians, they need to be upfront about announcements they make in critical areas of energy. Energy is the economy. They need to be upfront about what it will actually cost. Australians deserve to know this.

More than 600,000 Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people enrolled to vote

For the first time, the estimated Indigenous enrolment rate is more than 600,000 people, according to new figures from the Australian Electoral Commission.

The new data shows an estimated 93% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are now enrolled to vote, with 16,000 First Nations people estimated to have enrolled in the past year. The AEC has visited 50 communities since the 2025 election to improve electoral participation.

The national enrolment rate for the general population is 98.1%.

Jeff Pope, the acting commissioner of the AEC, said in a statement:

We’ve been working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for many years now as part of our commitment to closing the gap in the Indigenous enrolment rate.

There is clearly still more work to do, but we’re very pleased with the significant increases to the figures over the past several years.

Australian government announces 2035 emissions reduction target – video

In his announcement, prime minister Anthony Albanese said: “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”.

Emissions reduction target ‘a denial of climate justice’, 350.org says

350.org, a major international climate change group, said the targets announced today were “nowhere near what is needed to secure our survival”.

Fenton Lutunatabua, the group’s deputy head of regions, said in a statement:

Anything less than a 75% cut this decade backed by a plan to phase out coal, oil and gas is not a climate plan, it’s a denial of climate justice.

Pacific peoples are already living the losses that come from every fraction of a degree of warming. The supposed ‘sweet spot’ decided by the Albanese government is nowhere near what is needed to secure our survival. Not only that, but it doesn’t address the enormous burden of Australia’s fossil fuel exports, the consequences of which the children of the Pacific will have to bear.

Brittany Higgins to appeal damages after defamation ruling

Brittany Higgins will appeal a $341k payout and 80% of legal costs to her former boss, ex-Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, after a Western Australian supreme court ruled last month she defamed the once-Liberal frontbencher in two social media posts.

Two appeal notices, submitted to the court on Wednesday, show Higgins’ defence team will fight the orders delivered by Justice Paul Tottle on 27 August.

Tottle ruled Reynolds’ reputation was damaged by a 2022 social media post from Higgins’ partner David Sharaz, which Higgins responded to, as well as an Instagram story published by Higgins in July 2023.

Higgins’ legal team, however, successfully defended a third social media post – also found to be defamatory – as honest opinion, fair comment and qualified privilege. Reynolds was unable to prove Higgins and Sharaz had concocted a conspiracy to publicly release the details of Higgins’s alleged rape with the “sole or predominant purpose” of destroying the former senator’s reputation, Tottle’s judgment said.

The court ruled that Higgins pay $315,000 in damages with an additional $26,109.25 in interest. Earlier this month, the court made a separate ruling on additional costs, ordering Higgins to pay 80% of Reynolds’ legal costs for the five-week defamation trial. It’s expected the total bill will easily surpass million-dollar territory.

The appeal notices show Higgins’ legal team is not appealing the judgment but focusing on the damages payout and the direction to pay 80% of Reynolds’ legal bills.

Well that was a highly anticipated announcement, and there’ll be plenty more reaction to it throughout the day! I’ll hand you back over to the wonderful Nick Visser to bring you all that.

The Albanese government has announced an Oprah Winfrey-style emissions target for 2035 — tried to promise (nearly) everyone a prize.

We haven’t had time to absorb the advice that underpins it, but the range of 62% to 70% is clearly at least partly a political solution. It is extraordinarily wide.

At the bottom end, the goal is clearly designed to dampen criticism from business organisations arguing for less action. At the top end it meets a demand from some scientists and climate campaigners that it must include a number with a “7” in front of it — that is, that it reaches into the 70s.

This won’t be enough to nullify criticism: it is already pouring into my inbox from climate-focused organisations and scientists. The reality is the target sets a minimum goal of 62% but scientists say the country’s part in meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement would be more than 75% — possibly significantly more.

The range is well below what the Climate Change Authority thought was “ambitious, but achievable” early last year when it nominated 65% to 75%. Why the change? We need more detailed answers on that than we got at the press conference.

Will this goal help Australia take a leading role in avoiding the worst projections set out in the national risk assessment released on Monday? Certainly not if we end up at 62%.

But what matters now is the policies. And we will need a lot more — a lot more — to get where we need to be.

Fortescue head says Labor has shown ‘courage of leadership’ but calls for even higher emissions cuts

Andrew Forrest, chairman of mining giant Fortescue, has also called on the government to be more ambition, arguing the upper range of 70% should be a “floor” not a ceiling.

It [the government] has shown the courage of leadership. Yet let me be clear: the upper range of its target – 70% – must be a floor, not a ceiling.

A cut of at least 75% is what is needed for Australia to pursue emissions reductions in line with the science. This remains the only course that can avert the accelerating impacts of a world warmed beyond 1.5°C.

Fortescue was one of more than 500 businesses including Atlassian, Canva, and Unilever calling for a 75% target in the lead up to the announcement.

Former emergency leaders are also warning the target will leave emergency responders in a critical situation. The Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group warns the bottom end of the target will fall “dangerously short of what’s needed to protect both communities and emergency responders.” The former commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW, Greg Mullins, says:

If that’s the level of risk we’re accepting, then what’s the plan for dealing with it? Emergency leaders want to see a concrete, well-funded plan for how the Albanese government is going to support communities and first responders to adapt to the compounding, cascading and concurrent disasters its own risk assessment outlines if we’re choosing not to cut climate pollution any further or faster.

Environmental groups’ verdict on Labor emissions targets: ‘weak’

We’re getting plenty of reaction to the 2035 target, and environment groups are pushing for far more ambitious action.

Greenpeace has called the target “weak” while the Australian Conservation Foundation has labelled it “timid”.

Both groups accuse the government of prioritising the fossil fuel industry over community safety.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific says the target is “not science-aligned, and undermines global action under the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5C”.

It prioritises fossil fuel profits and business interests over people, and effectively abandons our commitment under the Paris Agreement… a temperature goal that is non-negotiable for Pacific nations staring down the barrel of climate catastrophe.

The ACF’s climate and energy program manager, Gavan McFadzean, says:

A target range of 62% to 70% falls significantly short on all measures of what’s needed, with the government’s plans preparing Australia only to meet the bottom end of the range.

PM won’t say how much power bills will drop under 2035 plan

The prime minister says there needs to be “lean in” from all levels of government and business to get to the target.

He also adds that the amount of wind and solar power in China is now “nearly twice as much as the rest of the world combined. Just a fun fact”:

We have a target range, it depends upon as we have outlined, whether there is a lean in and by other levels of government, by the private sector as well, industry … we know that the federal government can only do so much.

Finally, Albanese is asked exactly how much power bills will come down (which makes all the journalists in the room laugh).

Albanese won’t give a figure – you might remember how much the opposition likes to bring up Labor’s pre-2022 election promise of a reduction in energy bills by $275, which they had to abandon. The PM says:

You yourself laughed when he asked that question so, it should be treated in the spirit which you’ve done. What we know is if we do not act, they will be a cost [to] the economy as [the] treasurer has outlined. They will be: lower wages, lower growth, less jobs.