Health News at Your Fingertips

OK that was a big day – and we are going to put this blog to bed now. But before we go, let’s recap the big stories:

• The Australian Energy Market Operator suspended the spot market for electricity nationally for the first time, and New South Wales residents were asked to reduce power in the evening if safe.
• The RBA boss, Philip Lowe, announced inflation could hit 7%.
• Sarah Hanson-Young said Australia was being “held hostage’ by energy companies.
• Bill Shorten highlighted the wider economic benefits of NDIS.
• Derryn Hinch confirmed he will run for parliament in Victoria.
• Brisbane says it will increase council rates on short-stay rental properties to help address housing crisis.
• The Fair Work Commission ruled on 5.2% increase to minimum wage, which was welcomed by the ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, welcomed the increase while the chamber of commerce boss said wages should be flexible and “driven by the market”.
• Consumer sentiment plunged towards historic low, according to a Westpac survey.
• Blackstone’s takeover of Crown Resorts approved by federal court.

Thank you for spending today with us – we will be back again tomorrow!

Plans to rewild captive koalas in New South Wales

A new project aims to “rewild” captive koalas by gently releasing them into larger sanctuaries, AAP reports.

The plan is to house the endangered marsupials at a breeding site near a NSW national park before releasing them into a safe, 1,500-hectare wild sanctuary in the state’s north.

The goal is to equip the animals with the necessary skills to flourish in a wild environment – called “wild translocation”.

Conservation groups WildArk and Aussie Ark aim to launch the project in 2023 once facilities are built, predators and weeds are removed, and protective fencing is in place.

The organisations are partnering with ice-cream brands Connoisseur and NUII to realise the project.

The federal government in February uplisted the conservation status of koalas from vulnerable to endangered, as recommended by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

In May, the NSW government also listed koalas as endangered.

Victorian energy minister says state has sufficient reserves

After a big afternoon Peter Hannam has clocked off but he wanted me to share this last thought with you:

“If Vivid Sydney goes dark, what do you get? Livid Sydney?”

We also have a statement from the Victorian minister for energy, environment and climate change, Lily D’Ambrosio.

Aemo have advised that we continue to have sufficient energy reserves and that the suspension is to protect energy users and put certainty back into the market.

We have been engaging very regularly with Aemo and understood they were considering a range of options, including suspending the National Energy Market. It is disappointing that energy generators were potentially gaming the system and not utilising the options available to them – this behaviour is unacceptable and will be investigated.

We continue to push for reforms that put the needs of Victorians ahead of big company profits.

Victorian households and businesses continue to be in a better position than those in the other eastern states due to our nation leading investments in renewables. This investment is delivering cheaper energy prices for Victorian households and businesses, while we work towards net zero emissions by 2050.

Socceroos back on home soil

The Socceroos have landed back home after securing a place in the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Fans gathered at Sydney airport to welcome them:

Ben Butler

Consumer confidence lowest since pandemic peak

Consumer confidence has plunged as sharemarkets fall and the cost of living soars because of surging inflation and rising interest rates.

Benita Kolovos

Victorian Greens convener criticised for past comments about trans people

The newly elected Victorian Greens convener, Linda Gale, co-authored a 2019 document which has been described as “inconsistent with Greens values”.

Senator Janet Rice says Gale’s position is “untenable” unless she distances herself from the comments that have been labelled transphobic.

Read the story here:

Greater gliders get new homes after fires

Greater gliders that lost their tree-trunk homes in the black summer bushfires have been given new hi-tech digs with great insulation, top-notch security and killer views, AAP reports.

The world’s largest gliding marsupial was already considered vulnerable to extinction before ferocious bushfires wiped out almost a third of its habitat.

Experts quickly realised they were facing a housing crisis, with the flames destroying mature, hollow trees the gliders use for shelter.

Their minds turned to nesting boxes as a stop-gap measure. But standard models with their thin walls and lack of thermal protection were unsuitable for gliders, which won’t eat if they get too hot.

That’s a recipe for death within days because gliders have low fat stores and rely on low-calorie eucalypt leaves for both food and water.

“They are just like us,” Dr Kara Youngentob, from the Australian National University, said. “We don’t feel like a big meal when we’re hot and neither do they. But their food isn’t full of energy and fat.

“They also get all of their water from their leaves. So when they’re not eating as much they get dehydrated.”

The NSW energy minister, Matt Kean, has called on residents in his state to reduce their power consumption this evening to help the grid cope with a lack of supply.

As it stands, the crunch time will come about 8.30pm, according to Aemo’s latest alert for NSW.

If there is an opportunity to reduce their energy usage, like not using their dishwasher until they go to bed, that would help.

A number of coal-fired power stations that were expected to be working tonight have not come online, Kean said. Vivid will still go ahead, he said.

Earlier, Kean welcomed the decision to suspend the wholesale power market across the five eastern states and the ACT – the first time the proverbial plug has been pulled on the whole scheme.

This decision will help prevent energy companies from putting energy reliability at risk by unnecessarily withdrawing supply.

I expect power companies to do the right thing by their customers and the country.

We will continue to work closely with the federal government and other states as well as the independent market operator to navigate the situation in the Nem.

Daniel Hurst

Richard Marles to attend Commonwealth meeting in Rwanda

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, confirmed he would be representing Australia at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda next week.

He is also set to visit to India next week to reinforce ties with the country.

Anthony Albanese meets Nadesalingam family

On Twitter, the PM said he had met with the Nadesalingam family.

Daniel Hurst

Richard Marles speaks of greater cooperation between Australia and Japan in the Pacific

The defence minister, Richard Marles, has also spoken about the potential for “greater cooperation between Australia and Japan in the Pacific”.

Marles said the issue came up during the meeting with Japan’s defence minister, Nobuo Kishi, in Tokyo today. Marles told reporters:

The Pacific is obviously a part of the world which is deeply critical for Australia, but it’s also a part of the world where Japan has had a long engagement. And I’ve seen that first-hand in the work that I’ve done in Pacific island countries. Japan’s reputation amongst Pacific Island countries for the provision of infrastructure is unsurpassed. They do a wonderful job.

Today, they [Japan] talked about doing more port visits to countries in the Pacific, including Solomon Islands. That’s a really important initiative that we welcome. And earlier this year, Australia and Japan worked together in terms of the provision of assistance to Tonga after the tsunami.

Asked about joint ventures on infrastructure in the Pacific, Marles said partnering with Japan was “fundamentally a good idea” and “the more we do that, the better”.

When we combine resources, we can do so much more. Japan acknowledges Australia’s proximity to the Pacific, the fact that the Pacific is an area where we seek to lead in the context of other countries’ engagement in the Pacific. We talk in terms of earning the right that we seek to do to be the natural partner of choice of the countries in the Pacific. Japan supports that and welcomes that. But there are things that Japan can do in the Pacific which greatly add to our joint capability and one of those is infrastructure.

Ahead of foreign minister Penny Wong’s visit to Honiara this Friday, Marles said the new Australian government wanted to send a message to Solomon Islands “that we intend to make the Pacific an absolute focus of our foreign policy”.

We want to revitalise our relationships in the Pacific – we are going to do the work.

Daniel Hurst

Richard Marles asked about meeting with Chinese counterpart

The defence minister, Richard Marles, was also asked about his meeting on Sunday with his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, in Singapore and whether the trade tensions had been part of that discussion.

Marles confirmed that he had raised China’s security agreement with Solomon Islands in Sunday’s meeting.

Marles said there were other discussions that he would not disclose publicly, but added:

The meeting with Minister Wei began and more importantly ended with a desire on the part of both of us to try and put the bilateral relationship [between China and Australia] into a better place, not just in terms of the area of defence, but generally.

Marles reiterated that it was “only the first step” and there was “a long way to go”.

(The trade minister, Don Farrell, has not been able to secure a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization conference in Geneva this week.)

Daniel Hurst

Japan and Australia are the very best of friends, deputy PM says in Tokyo

Richard Marles has spoken to reporters in Tokyo. The defence minister and deputy prime minister said the relationship with Japan was “front and centre in terms of our national interests”.

He said today’s meeting with his counterpart, Nobuo Kishi, was “of real substance”. He said in the 1980s commerce was at the heart of the Australia-Japan relationship. That element remained, he said, but now the building of the defence and security relationship was “at the heart of the work we are doing together”.

Marles said the pair had used today’s meeting to “put the meat on the bones” of a defence deal – the reciprocal access agreement – that was reached under the former Morrison government. That agreement sets up a legal framework for their forces to train in each other’s territory:

It allows our defence forces to operate in each other’s countries and I think what we will see is more of that. We take this a step at a time.

Marles said that Japan would, for the first time, send aircraft to participate in the Royal Australian Air Force’s Exercise Pitch Black in August. He said that was “emblematic of the kind of activity that we can both engage in going forward”.

From the perspective of Australia, we obviously see Japan as being really important to our strategic future. But what’s been so gratifying about this visit is that that feeling is reciprocated. It’s very clear that from the perspective of Japan, they see their relationship with us in Australia as being one of the highest order. That presents such an enormous opportunity for us to take the relationship forward and we were very pleased to be able to take steps in doing that today.

This all comes days after Marles met with his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, in Singapore on Sunday, ending a diplomatic freeze of more than two years.

Marles’ trip to Japan appears to be designed, in part, to assert that Australia is not changing its fundamental foreign policy and defence settings.

Marles said:

It is really clear that when times are tough, friends come to the fore. And today, Japan and Australia are the very best of friends.

NSW treasurer Matt Kean to speak on electricity market

The NSW treasurer and energy minister, Matt Kean, will address the media at 5.15pm following the decision to suspend the electricity market. We will bring you that when it comes.

Union calls for review of ‘broken’ national electricity market

The Electrical Trades Union is calling for an independent review of the entire national electricity market (Nem) following the unprecedented decision by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) to take over national energy supplies.

The union’s acting national secretary, Michael Wright, said:

The ETU has been sounding the alarm about the Nem for years. This vindicates our long-held concerns that the market is broken and beyond repair.

The experiment in synthetic markets, trying to deliver essential public services through profit-motivated, tax-avoiding multinational energy corporations, has failed shockingly.

Gas and coal companies prioritising the export market is just a symptom of a problem, not the cause. The cause is complete regulatory failure.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese and energy minister Chris Bowen now have a clear mandate to step in and order an urgent review of the entire national electricity market.

Even if Aemo’s unprecedented intervention gets us through this acute phase of the crisis, we cannot return to the status quo. There is a serious question of whether the Nem should ever be allowed to resume.

A national review must consider how to remove the dead wood of rampant financialisation and short-termism that now dominates the Nem, which is placing a huge brake on the energy sector’s capacity to improve productivity and efficiency.