Australia politics live: Pesutto ‘very concerned’ over Deeming tweets; Origin Energy takeover confirmed

Brookfield makes $20bn renewables pledge in taking over Origin Energy

Peter Hannam

Peter Hannam

Back on Origin Energy’s takeover by Brookfield and MidOcean – it’s subject to shareholder approval, but with the price about 53% above what it was trading at before the bid, there shouldn’t be much fuss.

Anyway, Brookfield says it will accelerate renewables investment and “make a material difference to achieving Australia’s net zero targets at this crucial time in its energy transition” (ping, Chris Bowen):

The business plan for Origin Energy Markets contemplates at least $20bn of additional investment during the next decade to construct up to 14 gigawatts of new renewable generation and storage facilities in Australia.

This is expected to enable the retirement of one of Australia’s largest coal-fired power generation plants, Eraring, and will be undertaken with the highest regard for network reliability and security.

(Note: No timetable given.)

Origin accounts for about a quarter of electricity in the grid now, and Brookfield’s plans represent about “one-fifth of the new utility-scale renewable capacity identified by the Australian Energy Market Operator that is required to be developed across the National Electricity Market through to 2030”, it said.

Brookfield’s credentials include developing about 25GW of generating capacity now, with a 110GW development pipeline globally.

MidOcean, meanwhile, says it “recognises that LNG and natural gas are integral to the economies of Asia and Australia and is committed to continue delivering meaningful gas volumes into Australia’s east coast domestic market”.

Guess we’ll see if “meaningful” satisfies governments eyeing a lack of local gas, after some bright sparks thought it was a great idea to lock east coast gas to global markets while forgetting to reserve some for domestic use.

WA’s 15% reservation was panned by the industry at the time (circa 2006) but it didn’t stop $100bn in investment in that state’s gas sector.

Key events

Queensland proposal on restricting times rent can be increased not linked to CPI

The proposal put forward by the Queensland Labor government won’t stop rents from going up from $200 or even $400 a week – because it has walked away from looking at linking increases to CPI.

Instead, a Queensland landlord would only be able to raise rents once a year – but by how much is still up to the landlord.

Today we’re taking action to give people who are renting a fairer go.

Weekly rents are rapidly increasing – sometimes going up $200 or even $400.

It’s not right.

That’s why we’re proposing to limit rent increases to once a year, rather than every six months.

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) March 27, 2023

Collins tells crossbenchers vulnerable people cannot afford delay on housing future fund

Julie Collins’ housing future fund bill is still struggling to find the support it needs to pass the senate.

There is a rally today outside parliament, calling for the government to go further in its ambition. David Pocock and the Greens will be taking part.

But Collins is now moving to the argument Chris Bowen used with the safeguard legislation – it is this or nothing, and does the crossbench want nothing? (Not exactly ambitious but this is where we are at.)

Collins told Radio National:

This bill is urgent in terms of vulnerable people in Australia today who need this bill to pass the parliament.

What we’re talking about here is a $10bn housing fund. It is the single biggest investment from a federal government, single biggest investment in social and affordable homes in more than a decade. It is obviously very substantial.

It’s obviously not the only thing we’re doing in housing, but as you rightly point out, people that are on the frontline dealing with vulnerable people every day – such as Homelessness Australia, National Shelter, community housing providers – all say that this bill needs to get done and we need to get it done quickly. And we know that the longer we delay, the less homes are on the ground quickly.

We are absolutely as a federal government doing our share, and we are lifting from where the former government was substantially. The $10bn is the most significant investment by a federal government in social and affordable housing in more than a decade.

It is very significant, and what I would say to the Greens and to other crossbenchers in the Senate is that vulnerable people cannot afford for this to delay. If their response is “it’s our way or zero”, I mean, that is just unacceptable when you’ve got vulnerable people on the ground who need housing today.

Fossil fuel industry thinks safeguard mechanism deal will hurt gas supply

The fossil fuel industry is not happy with the safeguard mechanism deal, so surely that is a win for the Greens and a vote of confidence the legislation will do something. The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association’s chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, said in a statement it would stop gas supply:

New gas supply investment needs policy and regulatory certainty but instead, the Labor-Greens deal creates additional barriers to investment, further diminishing the investment environment and adding to the growing list of regulatory challenges facing the sector.

But Chris Bowen says gas will be just fine:

That’s just not right, of course. What we’re requiring is international-best practice for all facilities, including gas. Gas does not get a free pass from the requirement for new facilities to be international best practice when it comes to emissions.

In relation to the proposals that are currently on the books … they’re for export. Of course, one of them is covered by the Western Australian reservation policy but they are being developed for export. None of them feed into the east coast gas market, none of them.

Simply they’ll be required to comply with international best practice and indeed Australian best practice and several gasfields have been operating on those rules since 2007. That’s not an onerous [burden] with the gas industry … there are sensible ways of meeting [that].

Paul Karp

Paul Karp

Government puts Twitter on notice over ‘spotty’ engagement regarding safety

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has held a press conference with eSafety commissioner Julie Inman-Grant about keeping Indigenous Australians safe online.

Perhaps the most interesting point was Inman-Grant’s observation that Twitter’s engagement has been “inconsistent” due to the “lack of trust and safety staffing”. She said:

I met with the Asia-Pacific public policy representative last week. Her team has been decimated, she’s trying to cover all of the Asia-Pacific. We have some legal notices around child sexual abuse material, sexual extortion and their algorithms and whether they might be promoting harmful content. They have committed to me that they’re working on this and will get it to us in time.

They have a severely diminished trust and safety team, we escalate directly to headquarters when we see harm. We … have seen some recent positive activity in terms of taking down content. But I would say it’s spotty, it’s less consistent.

Rowland added that she’d written to Twitter noting the “decimation” of Australian staff, and setting out expectations they meet requirements of Australian law. Twitter hasn’t responded, which has been noted. She said:

They have been put on notice, the first priority of the Albanese government is to keep Australians safe. I’ll continue to consult the regulator, the eSafety commissioner to ensure whatever action is graduated and proportionate.

Pollies vs press touch footy – in pictures

It is also politicians vs press sport season, which is another tradition where a team of press gallery members play a team of politicians outside of business hours. You can tell Michael McCormack has been in many of these team photos – he’s the only one who knows how to sit properly.

Mike Bowers tells me the politicians won, four to three.

The Pollies vs Press annual touch football match
The Pollies vs Press annual touch football match. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Angus Taylor running with the ball
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor makes a play. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Brookfield makes $20bn renewables pledge in taking over Origin Energy

Peter Hannam

Peter Hannam

Back on Origin Energy’s takeover by Brookfield and MidOcean – it’s subject to shareholder approval, but with the price about 53% above what it was trading at before the bid, there shouldn’t be much fuss.

Anyway, Brookfield says it will accelerate renewables investment and “make a material difference to achieving Australia’s net zero targets at this crucial time in its energy transition” (ping, Chris Bowen):

The business plan for Origin Energy Markets contemplates at least $20bn of additional investment during the next decade to construct up to 14 gigawatts of new renewable generation and storage facilities in Australia.

This is expected to enable the retirement of one of Australia’s largest coal-fired power generation plants, Eraring, and will be undertaken with the highest regard for network reliability and security.

(Note: No timetable given.)

Origin accounts for about a quarter of electricity in the grid now, and Brookfield’s plans represent about “one-fifth of the new utility-scale renewable capacity identified by the Australian Energy Market Operator that is required to be developed across the National Electricity Market through to 2030”, it said.

Brookfield’s credentials include developing about 25GW of generating capacity now, with a 110GW development pipeline globally.

MidOcean, meanwhile, says it “recognises that LNG and natural gas are integral to the economies of Asia and Australia and is committed to continue delivering meaningful gas volumes into Australia’s east coast domestic market”.

Guess we’ll see if “meaningful” satisfies governments eyeing a lack of local gas, after some bright sparks thought it was a great idea to lock east coast gas to global markets while forgetting to reserve some for domestic use.

WA’s 15% reservation was panned by the industry at the time (circa 2006) but it didn’t stop $100bn in investment in that state’s gas sector.

Amy Remeikis

Amy Remeikis

It’s quiet – too quiet …

Things are a little quiet this morning, as the party room meetings are on, which tends to corral the MPs into their respective rooms.

The press gallery is also having a photo – it’s a tradition which happens once a parliament (or so, there is no prescribed method) when the gallery journalists gather in one spot, a timer is set (or a poor parliament house worker is corralled into hitting the shutter) and a photo is taken and put on the press gallery hall walls.

Alas, I shall miss it, as the blog stops for no one (and also I have not brushed my hair in more than three days).

‘Critical’ for Liberal party to prove it has listened to Australians by next election: Birmingham

The Liberal’s Simon Birmingham was asked on Sky News this morning whether there was any truth to Anthony Albanese’s criticism the opposition had a “tin ear” when it came to learning lessons:

I think there’s always a case for political parties to make sure they’re listening. And it’s going to be critical for us as we work over the next two years towards the next federal election, in 18 months or two years’ time to ensure that we have a compelling set of policies that have listened to the election, including effective policies to achieve Australia’s emission reduction targets.

That will be a key point of credibility that we have to outline and demonstrate to the electorate, along with, of course demonstrating that we also have the types of policies to actually deal with the cost-of-living pressures that Australians are facing at present, which clearly the Labor party have no plans or policies to effectively do.

Allegra Spender announces lineup for Friday tax roundtable

Wentworth’s independent MP, Allegra Spender, has organised a tax roundtable for Friday.

Spender has spoken about the need for tax reform – and she is serious. There are some very big thinkers among the group she has pulled together:

  • Prof Robert Breunig – director, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (Australian National University)

  • Robert Carling – senior fellow, Centre for Independent Studies

  • Dr John Daley – partner, EY Port Jackson Partners, and professorial fellow, University of Melbourne. Formerly executive director, Grattan Institute.

  • Dr Ken Henry – chair, Australian Climate Biodiversity Foundation. Formerly secretary of the Treasury and chair of National Australia Bank.

  • Prof Greg Kaplan – cofounder, e61 Institute, and professor of economics, University of Chicago

  • Michelle de Niese – executive director, The Corporate Tax Association

  • Danielle Wood – CEO, Grattan Institute

Social housing sector backs Labor’s housing future fund as a ‘good start’

The Greens and the crossbench – including David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe – aren’t over the line on the housing fund as yet.There is a rally being held in Canberra today on housing, with calls for rental freezes and more affordable housing.

The government has received a boost for its legislation from the social housing sector, though. Community Housing Industry Association’s CEO, Wendy Hayhurst, has spoken today about how the housing fund (a $10bn term deposit, where the interest will be used to fund and maintain 30,000 homes over the next five years) was a start.

Hayhurst told ABC News Breakfast:

We have been arguing for the … federal government to invest in social affordable rental housing for a very, very long time. So in principle, we’re very pleased that the federal government has come forward with these three bills to establish the housing Australia future fund, to establish a national housing agency … and also to set up an independent housing supply and affordability council to advise them.

So the package of measures we think is a good start and the start that needs to be made now. We know it isn’t sufficient. We have done our own research.

We know the census, last week, was at least 123,000 Australians on census night were homeless. We have done further analysis, we know that around about 650,000 households were either homeless or in rental stress. Low-income households pay more than 30% of their income on housing.

So it’s a massive problem. What we’re saying is: the legislation is a start to make a difference.

Origin Energy takeover confirmed, split to come

Peter Hannam

Peter Hannam

As has been anticipated for some time, the electricity giant Origin Energy has been taken over after its board accepted a $18bn-plus bid by Brookfield and MidOcean Energy.

The so-called binding scheme implementation deed follows most of the deal announced back in November. The bid was worth $9 a share then and after negotiations that price has been trimmed to about $8.91 each.

Here’s how we reported it at the time:

There will still be a bunch of regulatory hurdles to clear, with Canadian asset manager Brookfield and US based MidOcean needing foreign investment review board approval, for starters.

The competition implications will also feature. Assuming the takeover gets all the appropriate approvals, the deal means Australia will only have one publicly listed energy player of any size: AGL Energy.

Origin says it will accelerate investments into renewable energy in the section to be run by Brookfield. A lot of interest will focus on the future of Eraring, the 2,880MW coal plant (Australia’s largest), which Origin has said it wants to close in 2025. Let’s see.

The gas assets, mostly in Queensland, will be MidOcean’s concern, and subject to a gas price cap for domestic users for about another year. Also an area of flux.

Bowen: emissions reduction ambitions are now reflected in the legislation

Chris Bowen responded to the “half of the projects” line on that same program:

No, that’s Adam’s talking point … he’s entitled to his talking points, but that’s not what we negotiated. What we negotiated is a very clear cap on emissions which is perfectly reasonable and sensible for the country.

I thank Adam for his engagement on behalf of the Green[s]. He had a list of demands and clearly in negotiation, many of those were ruled out, but we continue to work on the things we could agree on.

What we agreed on is that the emissions reduction – that we outlined is our ambition in January as part of these reforms – should be reflected in the legislation.

And there should be various mechanisms, CCA advice, transparency, public transparency about whether that budget is likely to be met, whether it’s been threatened, including if there are any new proposals, we have already committed to outlining their emissions through Tanya Plibersek’s process, reviewing the Samuel Review, that will feed into the safeguard system now …

And the minister of the day, me – for the foreseeable future and for a long time I hope – and my successors will be obliged to consider policy options if that carbon budget is not being met. That’s perfectly appropriate, and new facilities will need to comply with international best practice when it comes to emissions reduction.

We made that clear as our proposal in January and we provided further clarity about how that will work yesterday.

Bandt: first time Australia has had a hard limit on coal and gas pollution

Adam Bandt on ABC News Breakfast summed up the safeguard negotiations:

Coal and gas take a bit hit as a result of the changes secured by the Greens. For the first time now in this country, there’ll be a limit on how much coal and gas and other corporations can actually pollute. They won’t be able to offset their way out of that by buying tree-planting permits on the other side of the country.

And what that does is it puts a limit on coal and gas expanding. Now, that’s really significant because under Labor’s plan originally, pollution from coal and gas were set to go up; that’s because coalmines and gas mines … could just buy some tree-planting permits to offset their pollution.

Pollution from coal and gas were set to soar under the original safeguard. We put a hard limit on that. That means, on our estimate, about half of those 116 new coal and gas projects that are in the pipeline won’t be able to go ahead.

Secondly, for the other ones that Labor still wants to open, they’re now going to have to go through a test under the legislation, or pass what’s call[ed an] add[ed] safeguard trigger.

… if those new projects are going to lift real pollution above the levels that they’re at, the minister can take steps to restrict them or indeed stop them from going ahead and so that means now every new coal and gas project has to pass through a new test – and if it goes ahead, it will be squarely on the Labor government’s hands, given they [have] got the power to stop it.

Amy Remeikis

Amy Remeikis

Views on the safeguard mechanism: Greens and Labor reasonably happy, Coalition less so

Both Adam Bandt and Chris Bowen have been on the media victory lap this morning over the safeguard mechanism.

The Greens say they didn’t get no new coal or gas, but that the hard cap on emissions they won will mean that projects will hit a pollution trigger which they won’t be able to emissions trade their way out of.

Labor says it took amendments that were in the spirit of the legislation and will be able to put the scheme in place for the 1 July open trading deadline.

The Coalition doesn’t like any of it and is very upset at the outcome of the negotiations it was not part of at any stage because it made a decision to bow out at the starting blocks, even though the legislation was based on Abbott-era legislation and business and industry were pleading with it to come on board because they wanted investment certainty.

Eden Gillespie

Eden Gillespie

Queensland to introduce rent increase limits

The Queensland government has announced it will limit rent increases to once a year, as the government prepares to meet stakeholders at Tuesday’s housing roundtable.

The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, made the announcement on Twitter, saying the government was “taking action to give people who are renting a fairer go.”

Weekly rents are rapidly increasing – sometimes going up $200 or even $400. It’s not right. That’s why we’re proposing to limit rent increases to once a year, rather than every six months.

In Queensland, landlords can currently increase rents every six months. The measure would bring Queensland in line with Australian jurisdictions like Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales.

Queensland’s Make Renting Fair Campaign has been calling on the government to limit rent increases to 10% above CPI like the ACT government does.

The premier had said last week the government was “very seriously” considering a rent cap, drawing immediate backlash from the real estate sector. The deputy premier Steven Miles said such a cap could be tied to CPI, but the government appears to have since walked away from the idea.

It comes as the government is set to hold a housing roundtable with stakeholders on Tuesday, which is expected to have 30 to 40 participants.

Amy Remeikis

Amy Remeikis

Amy’s analysis on Moira Deeming

So the short version of that interview is: Moira Deeming is suspended and not a member of the Liberal party, so what she does for the next nine months is for her to answer for.

And in nine months’ time, the Liberal party room will review her conduct and decide whether she has met the spirit of the suspension terms.

But Pesutto ain’t spending any more time on that (to paraphrase Bob Katter).

Victorian Liberals: ‘we’ve dealt with’ the Deeming issue and are ‘moving on’

So what happens in nine months, when the suspension period ends?

Well, there’ll obviously be consideration by [the] party room about whether Moira has acted consistently with the outcome of the party room decision.

John Pesutto says it is up to Moira Deeming to prove to the party room that she has taken on board their concerns to see whether or not she will be coming back.

I don’t want to be spending time having to come back to these issues. We’ve dealt with it. We’ve dealt with it yesterday, and we’re moving on.

Is this what Pesutto wants to be spending his time on?

Do you think, Patricia, for one moment [that] I want to be speaking to you about this this morning and not about corruption or project blowouts?

… If I can make this point for all of your listeners, to offer them this assurance – I know these things are not what I want to be talking about, what your listeners want to be listening to. But this was important. I had to mark this turning point for the party. And to make it clear that going forward, we will always, as I said before, [be] being inclusive, welcoming and represent the diversity of our community and all its facets.

source: theguardian.com