Key events
Automotive manufacturer Polestar says it is ‘poised to leave’ Australia’s main auto industry lobby group, one day after Tesla quit.
Yesterday, Tesla announced it was quitting the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), asking the consumer watchdog to investigate what it says are the organisation’s “demonstrably false claims” about the impact of the Albanese government’s clean car policy.
You can read the full details from Adam Morton below:
Laurissa Mirabelli, a spokesperson for Polestar, told ABC radio today that the FCAI’s campaign against the government’s proposed vehicle efficiency standard “really doesn’t represent our position” on the shift to electric, and that the campaign has done “serious damage to consumer perception and trust” .
Polestar is currently a member of the FCAI. Mirabelli said that when you look overseas, the price increase that FCAI has been touting just has not been seen.
There’s no reason why Australia wouldn’t be able to introduce cost effective solutions to meet this standard, and closer to home, the Grattan Institute has actually said that they don’t think the prices will increase more than average of 1% and that even if that happens, the lower fuel and maintenance costs are really going to make consumers better off in the long term.
Emily Wind
Good morning, and happy Friday. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be bringing you our live coverage today.
See something that needs attention? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: [email protected].
Let’s get started.
State funeral to be held for Lowitja O’Donoghue in Adelaide
Hundreds of mourners are expected to mark the loss of Aboriginal rights trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue at a state funeral in Adelaide today, AAP reports.
The Yankunytjatjara woman, who played a key role in the 1967 referendum, lobbied the Keating government to recognise Indigenous land ownership through native title laws and advised on the apology to the stolen generation, will be remembered at a ceremony at St Peter’s Cathedral.
She died on 4 February aged 91 on Kaurna Country in Adelaide with her immediate family by her side.
She gained prominence after becoming the first Aboriginal person to train as a nurse at Royal Adelaide hospital in 1954. After being denied the opportunity because of her Indigenous heritage, she successfully lobbied then-premier Thomas Playford to win her right to admission, setting her on a lifelong path of fighting for equality.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described her as one of the most remarkable leaders the country had known.
O’Donoghue became the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 1990. One of her greatest achievements was lobbying the Keating government to recognise Aboriginal land ownership through the Native Title Act.
The non-profit Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation was set up in 2022 to continue her legacy. Her family has asked mourners to donate to the foundation in lieu of flowers.
Could the Coalition make nuclear power work?
We’ve already mentioned our piece today looking at some of the problems that might stand in the way of the Liberals’ new policy of building nuclear power stations in Australia.
You can read environment writer Graham Readfearn’s full piece here:
And the wider issue of what policies the Liberals will actually run on is the issue tackled in today’s Newsroom edition of the Full Story podcast.
Gabrielle Jackson talks with head of newsroom Mike Ticher and national news editor Patrick Keneally about how the Dunkley byelection exposed the problem.
Listen here:
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our end-of-week news blog. I’m Martin Farrer bringing you the best of the overnight stories before my colleague Emily Wind gets into the main business.
One of the big stories of the day will be the court hearing in Sydney where the company at the centre of the investigation into contaminated mulch will try to have an order preventing it from making mulch products quashed. In documents lodged with the court, the parent company of Greenlife Resource Recovery will point out today that the NSW environment court cannot be certain that the contamination took place at its facilities, and complain about the order’s “unjustified impact” on its business.
The Coalition appears set to commit itself to a policy of building nuclear reactors across Australia to replace ageing coal-fire generators. But is it practical? Graham Readfearn assesses the challenge.
The identity of the 22-year-old man charged with the murder of Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy could be revealed today as the search continues for her body. The Scotsburn man appeared in Ballarat magistrates court on Thursday but his name was concealed because his lawyer argued releasing the name could cause prejudice to the man’s right to a fair trial. That will be challenged at hearing at the court today, AAP reports. We’ll have all the details as the story develops.
And hundreds of mourners are expected at St Peter’s Cathedral in Adelaide today for the state funeral of Aboriginal rights trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue. More on that coming up.
