Source : the age
Returning to the story about the crisis in the recycling industry, Environment Minister Murray Watt has defended the fact his government does not plan to introduce national packaging laws this term of parliament.
“The Albanese government is working closely with industry, and state and territory governments to strengthen the systems that support recycling, and improve the circularity, of Australia’s packaging,” Watt said.
“We’re committed to delivering stronger environmental outcomes while keeping costs to consumers and wider industry in check.
“Our immediate focus is to work with state and territory governments to reduce waste by harmonising packaging and recycling policy in Australia.
A controversial gas pipeline is a step closer after a government streamlined assessments and approvals for the proposed $3 billion project.
On Wednesday, the Queensland government took steps to pave the way for the North to East Australia Pipeline stage, which is set to carry gas from the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.
It comes a day after the first gas from fracking projects at Beetaloo Basin flowed into NT homes and businesses.
This new project involves the construction and operation of a 900-kilometre pipeline from the NT border to Queensland’s south-west gas network.
Pakistan is engaged with the US and Iran on talks to end their conflict and is positive that the countries “will return to the table for dialogue”, foreign ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Wednesday.
The visit of Pakistan’s chief of defence forces, Asim Munir, to Tehran last month created “considerable momentum” on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, he said.
After a respite of more than a month, fighting between the US and Iran has been increasing since the weekend after the American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran retaliated by firing missiles at US bases in Jordan, which were all intercepted.
Bahrain intercepted an Iranian aerial attack early on Wednesday, as Tehran continued to fire on allies of the US in the Gulf region despite threats from President Donald Trump to escalate American military attacks.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan has been grilled over his comments from earlier today, in which he said boys engaging with the manosphere was the result of the “feminisation of our curriculum”.
On ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing, Canavan gave what he saw as an example of this: the Respectful Relationships program.
“In its words, it said it provides opportunity for young boys to explore and reflect on their personal male privilege and power,” he said.
“And I don’t know how young boys in country towns, working-class suburbs of our country, have such privilege and power. Why are they boxed in like this? That’s absolutely ridiculous. You are getting an obvious backlash to it when people are told that … it shouldn’t be government funded.”
Sydney Swan Riley Bice has been cleared of any criminal conduct in the unfolding police investigation into the alleged sexual assault of exotic dancers at a Melbourne hotel last month.
A source with knowledge of the Victoria Police inquiry, but not authorised to speak publicly, also confirmed that detectives had finished a round of voluntary interviews with the four other Swans players but revealed some had not taken part in the process.
Australia’s shadow treasurer has expressed his thoughts on the news that the economy grew by 2.1 per cent in the past year, and by 0.4 per cent in the June quarter.
Wilson said families dealing with the cost-of-living crisis and small businesses going to the wall “in record numbers” didn’t share Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ enthusiasm for the economy.
“Their budget, and the dodgy numbers that underpin it are catching up with the government, and that’s why Chalmers had such a tetchy and cranky press conference because the numbers simply don’t stack up with what Australians are living,” Wilson said on News24 (formerly Sky News).
Asked if he feared a property market crash if rates rose again, Wilson claimed: “I’m very concerned with what’s happening in the property market. Australians on average are having up to $100,000 wiped off their wealth because they’re having real wages going backwards, now they’re having their wealth wiped out.
“But we should never lose sight,” he further claimed, “this was by design of the federal budget. It was Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers’ intention to wipe out the wealth of the nation, to reduce and undermine real wages, and that’s what they’re delivering to the Australian community.”
Australia’s biggest business group has warned MPs against restricting data centre construction, telling a Senate inquiry the country “needs a data centre plan, not a data centre panic”.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (ACCI) submission to the inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centres says blanket restrictions, moratoriums or one-size-fits-all rules would drive investment offshore without solving energy, water or planning constraints.
It comes as communities across the country fight new developments over water use, noise and consultation, and as the inquiry’s chair, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, argues for a moratorium on new builds until regulation catches up.
ACCI is calling for “source-neutral” energy decisions for data centres, arguing a diverse energy mix delivers better prices and reliability. That position aligns it with the Queensland and NT governments.
Chief executive Andrew McKellar said Australia could seize its share of the AI opportunity, but only if economic settings were correctly set.
“We also must ensure Australia has policy settings that enable the responsible growth of data centres, not stand in their way,” he said.
China has fully reopened the only road leading to the Gyirong border crossing into Nepal a week after it was torn apart by catastrophic flooding, allowing heavy machinery to reach the core disaster zone for the first time.
Rescue teams worked around the clock to rebuild the G216 national highway after debris flows washed away sections of the road when a glacier collapse unleashed mudslides and floods through river systems on both sides of the China-Nepal border on August 26.
Before the road reopened on Wednesday, China had been air-dropping equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers, while soldiers used life-detection equipment to search for the missing, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
The broadcaster also showed footage of multiple rescue teams and excavators carrying out intensive searches for people still missing.
China reported on Sunday that 546 people remained unaccounted for in Tibet, including 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries, while the death toll stood at 16. The death toll in Nepal surpassed 1000 on Wednesday. Across the two nations, 38 Australians remain missing.
Reuters
Another plastic recycling company has collapsed, while Environment Minister Murray Watt has flagged he will not introduce long-promised national packaging reform in this term of parliament.
Adelaide-based Recycling Plastics Australia, which processes 20,000 tonnes of plastic annually, has gone into voluntary administration. The company previously received a $20 million grant from the federal government.
The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, the Australian Council of Recycling, and the Boomerang Alliance today issued a joint call for national packaging laws to deal with about 7 million tonnes of packaging every year, about 40 per cent of which is destined for landfill.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has sent correspondence, seen by this masthead, to those who responded to a consultation for Design for Kerbside Recyclability Grading Framework that Commonwealth-led reform is off the table for this term.
Humanity has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming’s harms, according to the United Nations.
Now the world must figure out how to get temperatures below the danger zone and back to safety, officials say.
The Earth is soon going to exceed the safe temperature threshold agreed upon by the world in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate because of warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, according to a bleak first-of-its-kind report issued by the United Nations Environment Program Wednesday.
They say warming will peak at around 1.8 degrees about mid-19th century levels in the best-case scenario, or at roughly 2.6 degrees under current policies.
