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Funding finalised for one of Australia’s largest renewable hydrogen plants
One of Australia’s largest renewable hydrogen plants is a step closer after funding was finalised with boosts from the federal and Victorian governments, AAP reports.
Australian Gas Infrastructure Group’s Hydrogen Park Murray Valley project will house a 10MW electrolyser next to a wastewater treatment plant in Wodonga near the Victoria-NSW border.
The electrolyser, which extracts hydrogen from water molecules, will be eight times larger than the biggest currently operating in Australia and, once completed, will be the largest on the east coast.
The project will receive $36.1m in federal funds via the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and $12.3m from the Victorian government through the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
The Arena CEO, Darren Miller, said the project was paving the way for renewable hydrogen in Australia.
“It’s essential to scaling up Australia’s renewable hydrogen industry that we get these first-generation projects up and running,” Miller said.
The renewable hydrogen will initially be blended in with natural gas in existing distribution networks to supply roughly 85,000 people along the state border.
Adding 10% hydrogen is estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4,000 tonnes each year.
The Granite Lane fire is burning in Tabulam, 60km north-east of Tenterfield. No properties are under direct threat, however smoke is visible from Tabulam and the Bruxner Hwy.
Even in the cooler months, windy conditions can cause fires to spread rapidly. #NSWRFS pic.twitter.com/IWRCNJwbcT
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) June 24, 2023
TODAY 24 June marks 45 years since the first @sydneymardigras Parade. THANK YOU to the brave 78ers who marched then and continue to march now, leading every Parade. They show us the way 🌈❤️ pic.twitter.com/VrfUlU9XR2
— Sydney Rainbow Flag (@rainbowflagsyd) June 24, 2023
Tiny radio transmitters to track orange-bellied parrots released into wild
Orange-bellied parrots fitted with tiny radio transmitters have taken to the skies in an Australian-first as experts watch on from afar, AAP reports.
Wild populations of the critically endangered species have slowly swelled from a dismal fewer than 50 birds six years ago, to about 140 birds.
This year will be the fourth in a row that more than 100 orange-bellied parrots naturally migrate north from their breeding grounds in Tasmania.
The Mainland Release Trial is behind the bolstered numbers, with the program since 2017 releasing more than 120 orange-bellied parrots into Victoria.
The birds have joined other wild orange-bellied parrots once released.
In the seventh and final year of the state’s trial, another 19 birds from Zoos Victoria along with the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment have been released at Lake Connewarre, south-east of Geelong.
Animal experts generally lose track of the birds, but that won’t be an issue as they trial a system called Atlas (Advanced Tracking and Localisation of Animals in real life Systems).
Australia to move last refugee from offshore processing on Nauru
My colleagues Ben Doherty and Eden Gillespie have this on what is changing in Australia’s offshore detention regime, and what remains the same.
On Saturday, Australia was about to move the last refugee from offshore processing on Nauru, ostensibly ending the second iteration of offshore processing on the Pacific island, after nearly 11 years.
Several refugees were flown to Canada this week for resettlement, while the rest have been brought to Australia temporarily. Two asylum seekers will remain on the island for domestic legal reasons. A policy that was only ever intended to be temporary lasted more than a decade, at immense human and financial cost.
Award-winning houses show how to do more with less
At first glance, the Booth Farrow-Palmer family home in Lane Cove looks like many others dotted around Sydney’s urban landscape: an old brick house that has been given a facelift with a lick of paint.
But the property, designed by architecture firm Saha, won two gongs in this year’s NSW Architecture awards – one for sustainability and another for renovations to allow it to comfortably house three generations. The residence is home to an older couple and their son and daughter-in-law who have two young children.
It joins another award winner, 19 Waterloo Street in Sydney’s Surry Hills by architecture firm SJB, in testing the boundaries of what can be done with less amid calls for more medium-density housing.
Read more here:
Garrett condemns Aukus as the riskiest decision ever taken by an Australian government
The Midnight Oil frontman and former Labor cabinet minister Peter Garrett has again condemned Australia’s security deal with the US and UK, calling the $368bn Aukus agreement costly and risky, AAP reports.
Garrett said the decision to purchase a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines was a huge gamble and should not be allowed to proceed, while speaking at a public forum in Melbourne.
“It’s the biggest, it’s the most costly and it’s the riskiest decision ever taken by any Australian government short of governments committing us to war and should not be allowed,” he said on Friday.
He applauded recent backlash from some Labor party members and unions, saying a slew of academic and foreign policy experts also backed the push against Aukus.
“So we are not alone, a basic and a major objection to Aukus lies in the aspects of the arrangement which see us reversing our foreign policy and defence posture that’s been generally in place since world war two,” Garrett said.
“We’re going from a focus of direct defence as it is currently constituted to a concentration on forward defence.”
Russia should withdraw from Ukraine, Albanese says
When questioned about the reports the Wagner chief is attempting to stage a coup in Russia, the Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, does not comment directly on the reports, but says the war in Ukraine is illegal.
Well, my view is very clear. That the Russian invasion of Ukraine is illegal, is a breach of international law. Shows no respect for the sovereignty of a democratic nation, and Russia should withdraw from this action. It should withdraw today. It is Russia and its involvement that keeps this war going. The people of Ukraine are showing incredible courage in fighting not just for their national sovereignty, but fighting for the international rule of law to be upheld.
On the high court challenge to the legislation cancelling the Russian Federation’s planned lease of land close to parliament house for an embassy, Albanese says he’s confident in the government’s position and the matter was acted on national security advice, and will be dealt with in accordance with Australian law.
Australians will make up their own minds on voice referendum, Albanese says
Turning to the referendum, Albanese says the parliamentary process to set up the referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament and recognition is now finished and it now turns to the people.
He said:
This is a change that’s from the bottom up. It is a change that Indigenous Australians have advocated for when they met at Uluru in 2017. And if not now – when? We need to recognise First Nations people in our constitution. We should be proud of sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth, and we know that when we listen to people who are directly affected, we’ll get better outcomes. And that is what this is about.
He said voting for the referendum can be a moment for unity for Australia and make the country stronger, and dismisses questions about polling on the yes vote. He says the yes vote still remains higher than the no vote in polling, and Australians will make up their own minds.
Government will ensure childcare subsidies are passed on to parents: Albanese
Albanese says the government will be monitoring childcare fees to ensure that the subsidies are passed on to parents, and the centres don’t just hike fees.
He says it is “extraordinary” the opposition is claiming that the subsidies will add to inflation, saying when you boost childcare, you boost productivity, and that is good for the economy.
Prime minister holds press conference
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is holding a press conference in Petersham in Sydney.
He is talking up the increased childcare subsidy policy, which will come into effect from 1 July.
Albanese says 1.2m Australian families will benefit from the change, and it will boost workforce participation and benefit the economy.
He said:
Now, Treasury estimates that these changes will result in some 1.4m additional hours per week being worked. The equivalent of putting 37,000 additional full-time workers into the workforce.
We know one of the challenges that Australia is facing is changes to the labour market. The other thing that it will do is that if women are able to work full-time rather than the current circumstances where, if a woman, and it largely is women, work a fourth or a fifth day, they’re working essentially for nothing, or sometimes actually, their income going backwards, then it means higher retirement incomes for women as well.
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