Ads at Samoan airport will advocate for global plastics treaty as King Charles arrives
As we flagged earlier, King Charles is off to Samoa this morning for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Apia.
The Minderoo Foundation says it will be placing ads in the Samoan airport as delegates arrive showing a young child vomiting up plastic as part of its campaign for a global plastics treaty.
The ads will be placed at the arrivals exit and baggage claim, as well as an external welcome screen, roadside and at a VIP airport terminal, it said, with geotargeted ads on social media as well.
The foundation’s director, Jay Weatherill, said Chogm was an “ideal place to ramp up advocacy” for the treaty given that 33 of the world’s 42 small states are Commonwealth members:
Nine are from the Pacific. These small states are particularly vulnerable to issues such as climate change and the environmental and human health impacts being driven by plastic pollution …
2.5 billion citizens live in Commonwealth countries, with more than 60% aged 29 or under. Our children deserve to have a future where their bodies are not involuntary riddled with dangerous chemicals stemming from plastic.
Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
The vice chancellor of the Australian Catholic University (ACU), professor Zlatko Skrbis, has offered staff wellbeing counselling after an address from former union boss, Joe de Bruyn, at a graduation ceremony on Monday evening which opposed reproductive rights and same sex marriage.
In an email to staff, seen by Guardian Australia, Skbris said an honorary degree was conferred on de Bruyn in “recognition of his dedication to the rights of workers, educational advancement, and improving social welfare”, adding they did “strongly encourage” him to reconsider his speech ahead of time.
de Bruyn told Guardian Australia the topics he spanned were “perfectly logical” given he was being honoured by a Catholic university on his services to the Catholic church, describing abortion as a “catastrophic issue” that needed to be discussed.
Skbris:
“We want to acknowledge the hurt and discomfort that many of you felt during Mr de Bruyn’s occasional address, which included his views and commentary on polarising issues such as abortion, IVF and same-sex marriage. I understand this may have affected you personally and we deeply regret any distress this has caused to our community.
We are not in the business of censoring occasional addresses or dictating content to our guest speakers. That would be completely at odds with our values of freedom of expression and academic thought. However, we did strongly encourage Mr de Bruyn to reconsider his speech through the lens of the graduating students’ achievements, hopes and aspirations. We are deeply disappointed that the speech was not more befitting of a graduation ceremony.”
Skrbis said staff would be offered face-to-face counselling sessions at the Melbourne campus for staff on Wednesday and group counselling sessions from 10-4pm in light of the speech.
“Please know that your wellbeing is our priority, and we are here to support you.”
Australia has ‘greatest blessing’ of energy in the world, so why is it so expensive?
Peter Hannam
More on that Senate energy inquiry, where Matt Canavan put forward this point:
“I suppose the thing that perplexes me more than anything else is that we have probably per capita the greatest blessing of energy resources in the world, amazing resources of coal, of gas, and the world’s largest uranium reserves. Yes, we have the sun as well,” Canavan said (omitting wind, for some reason).
And yet we now have left ourselves with a situation where the United States have power prices a third of ours. How have we allowed that to happen?
Aemo officials didn’t have an answer. “I can’t answer that today,” the chief executive, Daniel Westerman, replied.
There are actually a range of answers. A key one was the linking of the east coast Australian gas market to the global one a bit over a decade ago.
As we noted a couple of years ago here, before that rather radical decision, gas prices were about $3 a gigajoule. Prices are more like $12/GJ now, if you can secure contracts, and have been a lot higher.
And as gas-fired power plants often set the price in the whole electricity price market, our power prices have soared too.
(The US has had curbs on gas exports, which have helped keep a lid on prices there. It’s a policy approach applied in Western Australia through a reservation system for local use.)
Peter Hannam
Senate inquiry scrutinises energy organisations – with a certain slant
The Senate inquiry into energy planning and regulation has started today, kicking off with the Australian Energy Market Operator in the dock. (You can stream it here.)
It’s not quite clear what this inquiry will unearth, but its first session suggests the results might have a partisan bend.
David Van, the committee chair – a former Victorian Liberal senator before he resigned to become an independent last June after denying accusations of inappropriate behaviour – has pressed AEMO on its integrated system plans. (See 2024 version here.)
In short, Van and LNP senator Matt Canavan aren’t happy the ISPs only examine the “least cost pathways” to whatever policy settings are in place. Aemo doesn’t consider, say, an energy system without a net zero goal by 2050. Van stated:
It’s not an economic test. It’s not testing the productivity from an economic point of view that will contribute to the Australian economy.
And Canavan, perhaps sailing towards a rocky shoal, asked:
If we were to ask you, ‘go and model this particular option, go and model nuclear, go and model no climate targets’, would that be useful … information that you could produce for people?
The answer was yes, Aemo’s models can accommodate various inputs – provided they are actual policy.
Should the Coalition win office and start implementing plans to build seven nuclear power plants, Aemo would recalculate its ISP. It would likely show a much more costly pathway than is presently put forward for the transition to net zero (assuming the latter remains policy).
More on the King and Queen’s departure from Australia
A pool reporter has informed us that King Charles and Queen Camilla were farewelled by a small crowd of fans, plus the NSW deputy premier, Prue Car, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, and the NSW governor, Margaret Beazley.
The pair farewelled the Australian contingent for potentially the final time before heading up the steps on to the Royal Australian Air Force jet.
They will travel to Samoa after spending a short five days in Australia with a packed itinerary, including a visit to Parliament House and the War Memorial in Canberra.
The Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Samoa is expected to discuss climate change, the impact of colonialism and reparations.
Goodbye royalty: King and Queen leaving Australia after five-day tour
King Charles and Queen Camilla are about to take off for Samoa, where the King will attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting.
Images are being broadcast of their plane circling the tarmac, preparing to take off.
The royals made their way up the stairs and waved goodbye after their first official tour of Australia as King and Queen.
Pay boost for workers to help fix ‘broken’ child protection
New child-protection workers will be offered more than $8000 in higher pay to fill critical shortages in NSW and help fix a “broken” system, AAP reports.
More than 2,000 public-sector caseworkers will get a pay rise of at least 4% under the deal with the Public Service Association. But starting pay rates for new caseworkers will get a much-larger increase, rising by $8,283 in the current financial year.
The NSW families minister, Kate Washington, said child-protection caseworkers have “one of the most challenging and important jobs in the world: keeping vulnerable children safe”.
I have seen first-hand the incredible difference these workers make to children and families and I hope that this agreement will encourage more caseworkers to take up positions with [the government].
As part of the new agreement, all child-protection workers will receive a minimum 4% rise and a 0.5% superannuation bump, backdated to the start of July.
Chris Minns to visit Broken Hill after major power outage
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, will travel to Broken Hill tomorrow, AAP reports, after severe thunderstorms that wiped out powerlines and faulty generators left locals with minimal electricity for the better part of a week.
Most residents currently have power, but some fear it could cut out again before the transmission infrastructure is fixed to reconnect the town to the national grid.
A backup gas-fired generator has been offline for nearly a year, while a second one tripped on Monday under high power demand due to hot weather.
Tom Kennedy, Broken Hill’s mayor, believes Minns will face unsatisfied locals when he heads to the region. He told ABC RN earlier this morning:
A lot of people in Broken Hill are just not happy, considering we shouldn’t have gone through this. There should have been two generators that would ensure Broken Hill kept its power supply and also the outlying regions that have been several days without power at different times during this disaster.
As we reported earlier, Minns said he had declared a natural disaster in Broken Hill to allow funds to flow, that “compensation for communities must happen” and an investigation into how this occurred will take place.
Fire danger period to begin next week for some areas of Victoria
VicEmergency says that the fire danger period is “fast-approaching” and will be declared as soon as next week in some areas.
In a post to X, it said it is “critical” for those in high-risk locations to “be prepared for the coming fire season”.
CFA declares the fire danger period for each municipality (shire or council) at different times in the lead up to the fire season. It is declared during periods of increased fire risk considering local conditions.
The fire danger period may be declared as early as October in some municipalities and typically remains in place until the fire danger lessens, which could be as late as May.
In NSW the bushfire danger period runs from 1 October to 31 March.
Ads at Samoan airport will advocate for global plastics treaty as King Charles arrives
As we flagged earlier, King Charles is off to Samoa this morning for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Apia.
The Minderoo Foundation says it will be placing ads in the Samoan airport as delegates arrive showing a young child vomiting up plastic as part of its campaign for a global plastics treaty.
The ads will be placed at the arrivals exit and baggage claim, as well as an external welcome screen, roadside and at a VIP airport terminal, it said, with geotargeted ads on social media as well.
The foundation’s director, Jay Weatherill, said Chogm was an “ideal place to ramp up advocacy” for the treaty given that 33 of the world’s 42 small states are Commonwealth members:
Nine are from the Pacific. These small states are particularly vulnerable to issues such as climate change and the environmental and human health impacts being driven by plastic pollution …
2.5 billion citizens live in Commonwealth countries, with more than 60% aged 29 or under. Our children deserve to have a future where their bodies are not involuntary riddled with dangerous chemicals stemming from plastic.
Bureau of Meteorology testing tsunami warning system
The Bureau of Meteorology says it will be testing its tsunami warning system from 11am to 4pm Aedt today.
The tests will be marked as “TEST” and appear on the Bureau’s website and weather app, it said.
The Bureau is conducting routine testing today, Wednesday 23 October 2024 from 11am to 4pm AEDT for:
• Tsunami warning system
Test products will be marked as ‘TEST’ and appear for short periods of time on the Bureau’s website and BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/vDXYAMHkqF
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) October 22, 2024
Melissa Davey
Queensland chief health officer ‘concerned’ about health harms of vapes
Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard, says he is concerned about the growing evidence of the health harms of vapes – including “damaged lungs, toxicity, seizures, poisoning and increasing evidence of adverse events on heart health”.
Addressing the Oceania tobacco control conference in Queensland being hosted by the Cancer Council, Gerrard said it is important not to forget the considerable harms to health that tobacco products, including cigarettes, continue to cause to Australians.
While there has been considerable success in reducing the smoking rate across the country in recent years, I’m concerned about the potential for the widespread sale of cheap, illicit tobacco products.
As we gather at this conference, it’s important to note that tobacco use is the cause of more preventable death and disease than any other modifiable health risk factor. We must whenever we do all we can to prevent smoking and assist current smokers to quit.
