Plibersek faces court action over climate harms - The Australian Financial Review

Ukraine’s grain ships try to break Russian blockade

Key Posts
Ukraine’s grain ships try to break Russian blockade
Union warns of risk to power supplies in Qld amid industrial action
Dating apps must improve safety: minister
Chevron brings Wheatstone LNG back to full production
Police investigation under way after man shot in Darlinghurst
Plibersek faces court action over climate harms

The New York Times

Kyiv | The first cargo vessels to arrive at a Ukrainian port since Russia terminated a deal under which Kyiv was able to export food crops across the Black Sea were moored on Sunday (Monday AEST) in Chornomorsk, offering early signs of hope that Ukraine could open an alternative route for grain shipments.

Ukraine’s grain exports provide a vital source of foreign exchange and are also important for global food markets, particularly for countries in Africa and the Middle East that are facing hunger.
Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline in the Donetsk region as part of a slow-going counteroffensive. AP

Russia has imposed a de facto blockade on Ukrainian cargo ships since July, when the Kremlin terminated an agreement that had allowed Kyiv to export grain by sea, a deal that was seen as essential to keeping the world’s food prices stable.

But establishing a corridor secure enough for a regular flow of cargo vessels to sail from Ukraine’s seaports is risky, not least because the Black Sea has become an increasingly critical theatre in the war as Ukraine contests Russia’s naval dominance.

Union warns of risk to power supplies in Qld amid industrial action

Angela Macdonald-Smith

The Mining and Energy Union has advised of potential widespread power disruptions in Queensland because of protected industrial action that is due to commence at the Kogan Creek coal power station on Thursday.

MEU Queensland district vice-president Shane Brunker warned of “dire consequences for energy security running into the peak period of summer power generation” in the absence of direction from government to state-owned CS Energy at the negotiating table.

The Kogan Creek generator, near Chinchilla, supplies 10 per cent of Queensland’s power and much of northern NSW.

The union representing operators, fitters, electricians and power workers at the generator secured the right from the Fair Work Commission last week to take protected industrial action. The dispute relates to plant owner CS Energy’s “inability to abide by the freshly inked Queensland Energy Workers’ Charter”, the union said.

Members want guarantees they won’t be replaced by contractors and a “fair distribution of attraction and retention provisions in the enterprise agreement so the generator can continue to run safely”.

Dating apps must improve safety: minister

Ronald Mizen

Dating apps including Tinder, Bumble and Grindr have been put on notice by Communications Minister Michelle Rowland that they either voluntary improve user safety or the Albanese government would force them to.

Dating apps are the No. 1 way Australians meet partners, but Rowland said the level of violence against them was “increasingly concerning”.

Following a national roundtable on online dating safety in January, Rowland has written to online dating sites telling them to establish a voluntary code of conduct by mid-2024 or face government regulation.

“Online dating platforms must do their part to end violence against Australians,” she said.

“I have made it crystal clear that if the industry fails to improve safety outcomes for Australians, we will not hesitate to develop legislative options.”

Research from the Australian Institute of Criminology released in October 2022 found three in four people using dating apps or websites experienced some form of sexual violence in the five years to 2021.

This violence included sexual harassment, abusive or threatening language, image-based sexual abuse and stalking.

Chevron brings Wheatstone LNG back to full production

Angela Macdonald-Smith

Chevron restored its Wheatstone LNG plant to full output on Sunday evening after a technical fault last Thursday, despite the industrial action plaguing that plant and two other Chevron gas sites in Western Australia.

The US major said it produced LNG at about 80 per cent of usual rates during the partial outage, and loading of vessels continued.

“There has been no change to scheduled LNG deliveries,” a Chevron Australia spokesman said on Monday morning.

“Domestic gas facilities and supply were unaffected.”

Chevron had been expected to struggle to restore full output at the 8.9 million tonnes-a-year Wheatstone plant near Ashburton North because of the industrial action, which is involving work bans and partial stoppages at the plant, and at the Wheatstone offshore gas platform and the Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island.

Mediated talks between Chevron and the Offshore Alliance – comprising the Australian Workers’ Union and the Maritime Union of Australia – are due to restart on Monday ahead of a full bench hearing on Friday in Sydney on Chevron’s application for a declaration of intractable bargaining, which the unions are opposing.

Police investigation under way after man shot in Darlinghurst

A critical incident investigation is under way following a police shooting in Darlinghurst yesterday afternoon.

Emergency services were called to Chisholm Street in Darlinghurst at about 4.40pm on Sunday, NSW Police said in a statement.

Officers from Surry Hills Police Area Command were allegedly confronted by a 32-year-old man, who was armed with a knife, when they arrived at the scene.

The man allegedly approached officers and NSW Ambulance paramedics while armed, before a constable discharged his firearm.

The man was treated at the scene before being taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in a stable condition.

Police established a crime scene and closed a number of residential streets.

A critical incident team from Leichhardt Police Area Command will investigate the incident, including the discharge of a police firearm. The investigation will be subject to an independent review.

Plibersek faces court action over climate harms

AAP

The federal environment minister is being taken to court, accused of failing to protect the Great Barrier Reef and Australia’s other living treasures from climate harms caused by coal mining.

The Federal Court will hear the case against Tanya Plibersek in Melbourne this week and those behind it say the outcome could have implications for major coal and gas projects across Australia.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is accused by The Environment Council of Central Queensland of failing to protect the environment from damage caused by coal and gas mining. Alex Ellinghausen

The Environment Council of Central Queensland is pursuing the minister after she refused its request to reconsider the full scope of climate impacts from two coal mining projects at Narrabri and in the Hunter Valley in NSW.

The companies behind the projects – Whitehaven Coal subsidiary Narrabri Coal Operations, and MACH Energy – have joined the proceedings in support of the minister.

Lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) are representing the council and will argue federal environment laws generally require the assessment of climate impacts, caused by fossil fuels, on 2100 matters of national environmental significance.

They range from entire ecosystems such as the reef and the Tasmanian wilderness to individual species including the critically endangered Baw Baw frog and the blue-top sun-orchid, which is down to 130 plants.

Optus under no obligation to release hack report: O’Neil

Tess Bennett

Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil says Optus is under no obligation to release the report into the hack that compromised the personal data of more than 9 million of its customers.

The telco said it would not make the details of a Deloitte investigation into its cyber breach last September public.

“Optus is entitled to do with the report what they want to,” O’Neil told The Australian Financial Review Cyber Summit on the one-year anniversary of the Optus data breach.

“I don’t have a lot more comments to make about this. I think I’ve said it over the last year, my focus really is on the future.”

In response to a question, O’Neil says she doesn’t think her response to Optus breach was too tough.

“I call it as I see it ... and I did that because that’s something I’ve done my whole political career.”

Labor taking up ‘the fight’ to safeguard business from hackers, says O’Neil

Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil has promised Australia’s new cyber security strategy will be a detailed plan to introduce six “cyber shields” that protect Australian businesses from hackers.

Speaking at The Australian Financial Review Cyber Summit in Sydney on Monday morning, O’Neil said the government had already introduced 10 major reforms in the last year, and will release Australia’s new Cyber Security Strategy before the end of the year.
Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil speaks at The Australian Financial Review Cyber Summit. Peter Rae

“These shields will help protect our businesses, our organisations and our citizens. It will mean that we won’t be all in our siloes, tackling the problem alone. It will mean that we have a cohesive, planned national response,” O’Neil said.

The “six shields” refer to strategies which protect business and citizens, safe digital technology, sharing threat intelligence in real time, access to critical services if water, energy or healthcare systems are compromised, sovereign capabilities and stronger regional relationships.

“When our government unveils the strategy later this year, we will share the detailed policy under each of these shields,” O’Neil said.

“We heard clearly that the community and business want government there, in the fight and at the table with them. But, government has to show some leadership. We can’t demand business improve, but not have our own house in order.”

‘A fantasy’: Bowen blasts Coalition’s nuclear plan

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has described the opposition’s proposal to replace coal-fired power with nuclear energy as a fantasy.

Bowen said it would cost taxpayers $387 billion to replace Australia’s coal-fired power stations with small modular nuclear reactors and the technology was yet to be proven commercially successful around the world.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has urged the opposition to provide the public with details about how it would fund the establishment of a nuclear energy industry in Australia. Nine

“It strikes me as utterly bizarre that the opposition is hanging its hat on this unproven technology,” he told ABC’s RN Breakfast.

The opposition wants to build nuclear reactors in Australia, which Bowen said were 300 megawatts each, meaning 71 reactors would be required to replace the 21 gigawatts of coal-fired power currently in the system.

“It’s a unicorn and a fantasy and somebody has to pay for it,” he said.

Bowen also said if the opposition wanted its plan to be taken seriously, it would need to explain to the public how it would fund the proposal.

Asked whether Labor’s $387 billion price tag was accurate because it assumed no role for private enterprise, Bowen said the cost would be passed on to taxpayers regardless of business’ level of involvement.

“If it was the private sector, they would need to be able to send those costs on to consumers. So the Australian person taxpayer is going to pay either by energy bills or their tax bills one way or another.”

‘Long-term solution’: Ultra-fast insulin drug added to PBS

Children with diabetes will have long-term access to a fast-acting insulin medication at $30 per script rather than $220 per script, after the Albanese government added a new product to its list of subsidised medications.

Used by 15,000 Australians, global pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk’s Fiasp medication was due to come off the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) on October 1, which would have sent the price per script rising by 630 per cent.

“This has been such an important product for people living with diabetes, particularly for families who have a child with type-one diabetes”, Butler told 2GB Sydney, which first reported the announcement.

“They’ve been very nervous about the decision the company took earlier this year and finding a long-term solution will give them peace of mind.”

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