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The issues that most concern me in thinking about Australia’s need for reform are not the external developments that seem to get most attention, like the prospect of global recession or resurgent protectionism, or even the “climate emergency”, as it is now called. The biggest challenges are ones we’ve created for ourselves. I don’t just mean the inflationary fallout from Covid, which the Treasurer has recently called the “defining challenge of our time”, but policies that have damaged our economy’s ability to cope with change, to be competitive and support economic growth. These and other findings went over pretty well with both sides of politics at the time, as I recall. So the policy outlook seemed hopeful. How on Earth then did we end up with the costly hotchpotch of measures we’ve got today? How did we get to a situation in which electricity will not only become a luxury but an unreliable one?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says additional gas exploration will be critical to Australia’s energy transition. Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, Mr Albanese said gas would play a “key role” in the country’s push to greener energy and was a needed firming fuel source for businesses, while options like hydrogen remain more than a decade away.

Iron ore miners surged in their best session since November, extending recent share prices gains over the past few months based on optimism that China’s reopening was a win for steel demand. “We expect China’s steel output to continue to increase in coming months, as the industry restocks and prepares to meet pent-up demand. And this should support iron ore prices coming into Q2,” he said. Energy was the only other sector to end higher as Woodside firmed 2.2 per cent to $37.59 after another rally in crude oil on Chinese demand hopes.

Two of the country’s biggest companies have raised major concerns about the Albanese government’s second tranche of workplace relations reforms, warning restrictions on casuals and labour hire could disrupt their business.

17 February 2023. Ambassador to Japan expresses energy concerns.

The events of the past few weeks have brought Australia’s energy future into sharp focus – we won’t have one. Green enthusiasts who dominate the public debate have insisted that much of the east coast’s reliable power supply must cease operating by about the middle of next decade, but there may not be anything to put in its place. Those same activists insist that a vast network of renewable energy projects can take over the role of coal plants, ignoring considerable evidence that they cannot. However, state governments are relying on private investors to create this dense network, despite investment in the area having tanked. This heroic attempt at ruining Australia’s power supply is all the more remarkable for occurring during an international energy crisis and with the policymakers apparently oblivious to the notable failure of renewable energy to make much of a contribution to the overall energy supply, despite decades of investment.

Japan, which has sunk many tens of billions of dollars into projects here, is horrified by Australia’s suicidal madness. Its Prime Minister rushed here to ask Albanese to promise not to disrupt Japan’s supplies.

Mr Sugahara, who is chief executive and chairman of the Japanese trading giant’s Australian operations, is the first representative of a major Asian buyer of LNG to voice concern over the proposed changes. He has previously made clear that Japan will need a secure supply of LNG from Australia for decades to come, and also anticipates Australia will be a major source of supply of low-carbon ammonia, which is expected to be crucial for the decarbonisation of Japanese industry. “While I have no intention to intervene in domestic politics, I take the position that government intervention in markets can have unintended consequences,” he told The Australian Financial Review when asked about the ADGSM reforms. “From a Japanese corporate perspective, I am personally concerned that short-term interventions may jeopardise business practices which have been built over the long term.”

Senex chief executive Ian Davies, in a blunt submission to the government’s gas market consultation that closed last week, urged Labor to avoid crashing the industry as it scrambles to meet demand in coming years.
“Senex’s EOI process demonstrates there is no market failure for gas supply from 2025 and therefore no case for heavy-handed and enduring market intervention,” he wrote.

“I didn’t know anyone other than my family in this huge country I now called home.” After finishing high school in Bunbury, Ms Farquhar became the first member of her family to attend a university UWA. After four years in management consulting, she took a FIFO job at Rio Tinto where she worked on the Hope Downs project Rio co-owns with Dalkeith billionaire Gina Rinehart. “Being a young female certainly had its challenges,” she said.