Australia will finally get fuel efficiency standards
Australia and Russia have been the two only advanced economies without fuel efficiency standards.
But today the minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, and the minister for transport, regional development and local government, Catherine King, announced that Australia will adopt the “new vehicle efficiency standard”.
The standard, which was made available online today, will apply to new passenger and light commercial vehicles in Australia, and bring it into line with the US.
Bowen said the standard meant Australians would save about $1,000 from 2028:
Because of a lack of action on an Efficiency Standard, Australian families are paying around $1,000 a year more than they need to be for their annual fuel bill – the Albanese Government is delivering long-term cost-of-living relief to fix that for new vehicles and put money back in people’s pockets.
We’re giving Australians more choice to spend less on petrol, by catching up with the U.S. – this will save Australian motorists $100bn in fuel costs to 2050.
This is about ensuring Australian families and businesses can choose the latest and most efficient cars and utes, whether they’re petrol and diesel engines, or hybrid, or electric.
The government will consult on the preferred model for a month and introduce the legislation as soon as possible, with the new cost saving rules to come into effect by 1 January 2025.
Key events
Renowned Aboriginal civil rights campaigner Lowitja O’Donoghue dies
Lowitja O’Donoghue, a Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara leader and activist, has died at the age of 91.
The Lowitja Institute announced her death today. A pioneering leader in Aboriginal advancement and recognition campaigns, she was a “formidable leader who was never afraid to listen, speak and act”, her family said.
The statement read:
Yankunytjatjara woman, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG, aged 91, died peacefully on Sunday 4 February 2024 on Kaurna Country in Adelaide, South Australia, with her immediate family by her side.
Our Aunty and Nana was the matriarch of our family, whom we have loved and looked up to our entire lives. We adored and admired her when we were young and have grown up full of never-ending pride as she became one of the most respected and influential Aboriginal leaders this country has ever known.
For more on this story, read Guardian Australia’s full report:
Josh Butler
Australia has once again lent “support” to US and UK-led strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, according to a statement distributed by defence minister Richard Marles.
The deputy prime minister shared the statement this morning, a joint statement on behalf of the governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States. The statement said they had “conducted an additional round of proportionate and necessary strikes against 36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea.”
It went on to say:
These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade, and the lives of innocent mariners, and are in response to a series of illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi actions
Today’s strike specifically targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defence systems, and radars.
The governments said they aimed to “de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea” and sent a warning to Houthi leaders that they “will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats.
Warning to beachgoers as drowning toll rises
The coastal drowning toll rose yesterday, with Surf Life Saving NSW saying it fears more deaths amid hazardous surf conditions and low-intensity heatwave warnings across the state.
One person drowned yesterday at Iluka Bay on the state’s far north coast; 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. A 20-year-old woman was saved after she was pulled unconscious from the surf and a member of the public activated an emergency response beacon to call for help.
Police will also resume a search for a rock fisher who was swept into the ocean at Fingal Bay at 9am yesterday.
Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steve Pearce urged the public to practise 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
Australia air has once again lent “support” to US- and UK-led airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, according to a statement distributed by defence minister Richard Marles.
The deputy prime minister shared the statement this morning, a joint statement on behalf of the governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States.
The statement said they had “conducted an additional round of proportionate and necessary strikes against 36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea”:
These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade, and the lives of innocent mariners, and are in response to a series of illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi actions.
Today’s strike specifically targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defence systems, and radars.
The governments said they aimed to “de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea” and sent a warning to Houthi leaders that they “will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats”.
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.
Search resumes for fisher swept into ocean near Port Stephens
A search has resumed 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 about 9.20am on Saturday.
Two men and a woman were rescued and treated by NSW ambulance paramedics. A fourth angler – a man in his 60s – was not found.
An extensive search began 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 picked up again at 9am this morning
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.
