Australia news live: Labor finally announces fuel efficiency standards; near-40C forecast for country’s south-east | Australia news

The coastal drowning toll rose on Saturday with Surf Life Saving NSW say they fear more deaths with hazardous surf conditions and low intensity heatwave warnings issues across the state.

Saturday saw one person drown at Iluka Bay on the state’s far north coast when a body was found washing up on the rocks in the area.

This followed two -near-fatalities at Puckeys Beach in the Illawarra and at Freshwater Beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. In one incident, a 20-year-old woman was saved after she was pulled unconscious from the surf and a member of the public activates a nearby Emergency Response Beach to call for help.

Police will also resume a search for a rock fisher who was swept into the ocean at Fingal Bay on Sunday at 9am.

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO, Steve Pearce urged the public to practice good beach safety.

We’re expecting extreme temperatures across the state today and with the big surf as well, it’s a recipe for a dangerous day on our coastline.

We know the public is going to seek the beach as refuge from the heat, and all we can ask is that if you’re going to go in the water, that you do so at a patrolled location and between the red and yellow flags where our dedicated volunteers can see you.

Australia backs airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen

Josh Butler

The Australian dumpster divers who find treasure in the trash

Tim Fisher stands with his arms on his hips, inspecting the bins in front of him.

“It’s always a bit of hit and miss,” he says, digging through the mountains of disposed food on a muggy night in Sydney’s inner west.

You never know what you’ll find – some of it is obviously about opposing waste and consumption, but some of it is the thrill of the chase.

Fisher has come equipped with plastic tubs, tongs, bags and hand sanitiser – and a sense of what to look for.

He’s part of a growing community of dumpster divers in Sydney who share tips and locations on private Facebook groups. Many are people looking to dumpster dive for the first time, interested in the practice as a way to live more ethically.

Grocery prices and supermarket profit margins have been under intense scrutiny amid an ongoing cost of living crisis. In January, prime minister Anthony Albanese announced supermarkets would be targeted in an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry.

For Fisher, dumpster diving is less about saving money, and more about reducing supermarket waste.

It comes from a distaste for these supermarket giants, but it’s also altruistic in a way. We share locations with people, support food pantries and always leave food for others.

For more on this story, read the full feature from Guardian Australia’s Mostafa Rachwani:

Uber hopes for influx of affordable SUVs

Uber Australia’s managing director Dom Taylor has also reacted to the Australian government’s proposed fuel efficiency standards, welcoming their introduction as a means to attract more affordable EV models to Australia.

Taylor said an influx of more affordable EVs would “address the biggest barrier we know drivers face when making the switch”:

It’s encouraging to see the government propose a fuel efficiency standard that will catch Australia up to its international peers and have a meaningful impact on the country’s emissions targets.

We’re working to eliminate tailpipe emissions from the Uber platform by 2040, and a robust standard will help bring a wider range and greater volume of lower-cost EVs to Australia, making it easier for rideshare drivers to make the switch to a zero-emissions vehicle.

This is great news for Australia, as our data shows an EV on rideshare can have four times the emissions reduction impact compared to private ownership.

According to a company survey of more than 2,000 rideshare drivers, half said they were open to buying an EV as their next car and a third planned to get an electric vehicle in the next year.

But many cited the high upfront cost and lack of affordable models as the biggest barrier to change.

A search has resumed this morning for a man swept into the sea while rock fishing near Port Stephens.

Emergency services responded to reports four rock fishers had been swept into the waters of Fingal Bay at about 9.20am on Saturday.

Two men and a woman were rescued and treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics; however, a fourth angler – a man in his 60s – was not found.

An extensive search was initiated involving officers attached to Port Stephens-Hunter Police District, Marine Area Command, local Water Police, the police airwing PolAir, Marine Rescue and Surf Life Savers.

The water-based search was suspended at 6pm, due to dangerous surf conditions but will pick up again at 9am on Sunday.

David Pocock supports fuel efficiency standards

The ACT’s independent senator David Pocock has joined the list of those throwing their support behind the government’s efforts to introduce fuel efficiency standards.

The senator said the proposed standards were a good starting point but there was “scope for even more ambition in what the government has announced to ensure a quick catch up and get us on par with countries like the US earlier”:

For years Australia has languished at the back of the pack. The absence of fuel efficiency standards have made us the world’s dumping ground for the most fuel inefficient vehicles.

Our lack of any standards has cost Australians at the bowser, and has damaged the climate due to high emissions.

Finally, we have an opportunity to turn this around. Australians will save up to $1,000 a year as a result of these changes, which will go a long way in the current cost-of-living crisis.

I congratulate the government on taking strong action on what was a key election commitment.

I want to see these new standards implemented as soon as possible and call on the government to bring forward the slated commencement date of 1 July 2025 to at least the end of this year.

Anything less ambitious than what is being proposed will increase the cost of transport and do further damage to our climate.

Solid-state batteries: inside the race to transform the science of EVs

Working in the dry room at Deakin University’s Battery Research and Innovation Hub is no day at the beach.

“[It’s] more desert than beach,” says its general manager, Dr Timothy Khoo. “At the beach, you at least still get the moisture coming in.”

The 150-sq-metre dry room is, as far as Khoo knows, the largest in Australia for research purposes and essential to work prototyping and testing the next generation of batteries:

“It’s very difficult working in there for extended periods. It’s not dangerous but your eyes starting getting dry, your skin starts getting dry and it feels like you’ve been outside in the sun all summer.

The room must be dry because water, moisture and humidity is lethal to a battery during production. Contamination, Khoo says, means it might not work or its performance will be compromised.

Most will be familiar with the lithium-ion battery, first commercialised by Sony in the 1990s to power its portable music players. From these humble beginnings, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery is now king, powering mobile phones, laptops and – in their most high-performance application – electric cars.

One McKinsey analysis suggests the global lithium-ion battery market will grow into a $400bn industry by 2030. But with lithium-ion technology well-understood, those seeking transformative change are increasingly looking to solid-state batteries.

For more on this story, read the full feature here:

Nationals defend utes amid fuel efficiency standards release

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has accused the Australian government of trying to take away the country ute and of discriminating against regional people ahead of its fuel efficiency standards release.

Speaking to Weekend Today, Littleproud was asked about comments by the former prime minister Scott Morrison that electric vehicles would “end the weekend” in light of the government’s plan to introduce fuel efficiency standards by the end of the year.

Responding to the question, Littleproud said “we need to let technology take its course and it’s not there yet”:

We can’t let ideology get in the road of practical reality. If you take away particularly utes, they’re tools of trade, particularly for people, not just tradies in the cities, but also people in the bush.

And if you put a tonne on the back of an electric ute at the moment, you don’t get far. And then if you put a trailer on the back of it, towing another tonne, you get even shorter distances. And so I’ve got properties, that are over a hundred kilometres to their front gate – 400, 500 kilometres to the town nearest them.

Though not available yet – partly due to a lack of support by the previous Coalition government for the introduction of electric vehicles, there are several EV ute models likely to be headed for Australia, including the Rivian R1t and Ford F-150 Electric.

Electric motors are also capable of producing more power than internal-combustion engines – a lesson the carmaker Toyota learned the hard way. In 2022 its engineers failed to calculate the additional force applied to the wheels from a more powerful engine on its first EV model, causing them to fall off and forcing a recall.

In 2018 a Tesla X electric vehicle broke a new record by towing a Qantas 787-Dreamliner 300 metres.

Climate groups support fuel efficiency standards

Climate groups and industry bodies representing electric vehicle companies have praised the introduction of fuel efficiency standards in Australia.

Behyad Jafari, from the Electric Vehicle Council, said previous governments had turned Australia into a “dumping ground” for fuel-thirsty, inefficient, petrol guzzling cars that can no longer be sold elsewhere:

Australia has always been at the back of the queue when it comes to the best and cheapest electric vehicles, because carmakers have been incentivised to offer them elsewhere first. That should end now with this policy, and Australian car buyers should notice the change very quickly.

By bringing Australia into line with the US and Europe, car manufacturers will now be incentivised to offer Australians their best zero- and low-emission vehicles. Motorists will still have the choice to buy what they want, but they will be offered much better options to choose from.

The Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie, said the regulations were “simple and transparent” and encouraged the government to “put the pedal to the metal” to get them over the line:

Today’s important announcement gets us off the starter’s grid and on the road to cheaper, cleaner transport.

Many Australians are doing it tough right now, with petrol one of the expenses causing the most financial stress for households. At the same time, pollution from inefficient petrol-guzzling cars is fuelling harmful climate change.

By giving Australians better choice of cleaner, cheaper-to-run cars, a strong fuel efficiency standard will cut household costs and clean up our air.

The announcement has also been welcomed by the car insurance company NRMA, whose CEO, Rohan Lund, said it would open the market to greater options while adopting targets that were reasonable and achievable:

Australia could not continue down the path of voluntary targets as it left us behind when it came to choice and the NRMA is strong advocates for choice so that motorists can buy the cars they wish to drive.

The business as usual approach meant that Australian families and businesses were not benefiting from the best technology designed to reduce fuel consumption. The NRMA’s opposition to Australians being forced to spend more money on fuel than they otherwise should have to, is well known across the country.

Australia will finally get fuel efficiency standards

More rain for Queensland

Queenslanders can expect another day of wet weather before relief arrives as ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily makes its final run through the state.

Kirrily’s remnants are moving through the south-west along the Northern Territory border on Sunday.

The Bureau of Meteorology warns of severe thunderstorms bringing heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging wind gusts in western and north-western Queensland.

As the weather system made its way south, areas in its path could receive between 15mm and 50mm, bureau meteorologist Angus Hines said.

Across the border in the NT, eastern parts of the Barkly and Simpson districts face heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding today.

But Hines says brighter skies are coming early this week when the weather system finally leaves the rain-battered sunshine state:

On Monday, the whole system will move into northern NSW and should clear Queensland entirely through the day and not bring too much further rainfall there.

It would eventually cross the coast and clear away from Australia entirely about the end of Tuesday.

Despite the relief, the full extent of Kirrily’s damage may not be known for some time as regions continue to face flooding.

Strong, gusty winds and possible showers and storms could hit Queensland in the second half of this week even if the system does not cross the coast.

with AAP

Crisis-hit consultancies throw money at political parties

Consultancy firms and other businesses engulfed in scandals threw money at political parties last year as they struggled to contain reputation damage.

In some cases donations were made while politicians investigated allegations of wrongdoing and planned tougher regulations that could affect the companies’ revenue.

PwC Australia – which plunged into crisis after it monetised confidential Treasury information – donated $369,973 directly to Labor and the Liberals last financial year. This was a 50% annual increase and its highest spend since 2018-19.

On 24 January, a day after an industry regulator announced it had banned a former partner for integrity breaches, PwC Australia gave $49,500 to the federal Labor party. The next day, the treasurer declared he was “furious” about the breach.

For more on this story, read the full report by the Guardian Australia’s Henry Belot and Cait Kelly:

‘We need to de-escalate,’ PM says of Middle East

Just to go back to the prime minister’s comments during his ABC Insiders appearance regarding the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state.

Anthony Albanese suggested Australian support of a Palestinian state could be based on it being “demilitarised”:

We need to de-escalate. Part of that might mean, for example, any existence of a Palestinian state would be one that was a demilitarised state as well. Those are the sort of issues that need to be on the table.

Albanese did not provide additional detail.

In late January the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Gaza “must be demilitarised, under Israel’s full security control” once its military campaign had ended. He then went much further by stating that he would “not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River”.

For more, read this Guardian Australia report from the time:

Greens reiterate opposition to Australia’s support for Israel

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has reiterated his party’s opposition to Australia’s support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza before an appearance by the party leader at a pro-Palestine rally today:

Labor must stop backing the invasion. With 26,000 people dead, a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding and the international court of justice intervening, Labor must withdraw its support for the invasion when parliament resumes.

Since the parliament tragically declared its support for Israel’s invasion, over 26,000 Palestinians have died, many of them children. Israel’s government has cut off food and humanitarian aid, pushing Gaza into a humanitarian crisis.

Labor must stop backing the invasion and join the community in pushing for a permanent ceasefire, the release of the hostages and an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Pro-Palestine rallies have been planned in Sydney and Melbourne:

Australians can expect next election in 2025, Albanese says

Asked whether he will consider calling an election before the end of the year, Albanese says “I think three-year terms are too short,” suggesting that the next election will take place in 2025:

I’m looking at 2025 in the normal pattern of things. We will make a decision. That is, as prime minister in consultation. I think governments as a general rule should serve the full term and that means an election in 2025.

And then that’s a wrap.

PM on inflation

There is a long discussion about tax arrangements before the prime minister is asked about inflation.

Albanese is quick to claim this as a win:

Not by accident. Inflation is coming down because of the responsible policies my government has put in place and in contrast with – you spoke about what happened before the last election – yes, inflation peaked in the March 2022 quarter before we came to office at 2.1%, and the response of the former government under Scott Morrison, and Josh Frydenberg and Peter Dutton all sitting there as part of the ERC, was to pour money into the economy, which made inflation worse. We’ve been dealing with that.

‘I’ve listened to people’ on cost of living, PM says