Australia information stay: Qantas warns travellers of potential delays as engineers go on strike; Coalition to disclose nuclear energy plan

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has been talking with ABC RN in regards to the Coalition’s nuclear coverage costings. He stated that amid the announcement there could be “all the hypothesis and all the rhetoric”, however pitched the coverage to voters:

Right here’s the 2 factors of fact you need to ask your self: Is my energy invoice low cost? Am I proud of what is going on? And is each different nation on the globe off their head with nuclear energy, or are we really dragging the chain?

Host Patricia Karvelas has requested a number of occasions if he might promise energy costs would go down over the subsequent time period below the Coalition? However he won’t reply immediately, as an alternative criticising Labor’s plan.

Joyce went on to say:

That’s asking for a hypothetical query, which I might reply for you, however I’d not be telling the reality, as a result of I don’t have the details earlier than me.

Qantas says it has put plenty of contingencies in place as tons of of engineers have walked off the job for twenty-four hours, amid pay negotiations.

Qantas stated it has been notified about work stoppages by a few of its plane upkeep engineers at this time and on 20 December. The airline stated it expects to have the assets accessible to cowl at this time’s flights, and that about 160 engineers are rostered on at this time.

The ABC reviews that about 500 engineers throughout Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth airports began strolling off the job from 3.30am, native time, and wouldn’t return till 7.30am, native time, on Saturday.

Pay negotiations have damaged down between Qantas and the unions representing engineers, over their request for a 25% pay rise.

A Qantas spokesperson stated “at this time of year our aircraft are full and airports are busy so we urge customers to give themselves more time to get through security and get to their aircraft”.

We’re providing our engineers a aggressive package deal together with pay rises, upskilling and profession development that may allow them to earn considerably extra over the subsequent few years.

Does Labor remorse promising again in 2022 that energy costs would fall by $275 a yr for Australians by subsequent yr?

Chris Bowen stated he doesn’t remorse “pointing out that renewables are the cheapest form of energy”.

Pushed on the specifics of the query, Bowen cited “a different set of circumstances internationally” that the federal government is coping with.

Australia’s enhance in vitality costs has been lower than lots of different comparable international locations. We delivered billions of {dollars} of vitality invoice reduction which has been the suitable factor to do, which has been opposed by the Liberal and Nationwide social gathering.

Bowen lashes Coalition plan to maintain ageing coal-fired energy stations open past center of subsequent decade

Beneath the Coalition’s plan, ageing coal-fired energy stations would keep open past the center of the subsequent decade when many of the operators say they’ll should shut – is that practical?

Chris Bowen stated no, and that this was “terrible news” for Australia’s emissions and the reliability of Australia’s vitality grid.

The most important menace to reliability in our vitality system is coal-fired energy now. We’re coping with … outages, breakdown, every day and that’s what is the largest menace to the reliability of our vitality system and it’s a recipe for blackouts to maintain ageing coal-fired energy stations within the grid for longer.

He continued lashing the Coalition coverage, arguing it could “not survive contact with reality”.

Bowen rejects renewables price ticket from Frontier Economics

Requested if he accepts that $594bn determine arrived at by Frontier Economics for renewables, Chris Bowen responded “no, of course not”.

What they’ve additionally achieved could be very clearly of their costings of their very own coverage rejected the CSIRO and Aemo’s work. Now, CSIRO and Aemo have been speaking about the price of nuclear since approach earlier than we had been in workplace as being the costliest type of vitality accessible.

Basically what the Coalition is asking the Australian individuals to consider is that this: that they’ll introduce the costliest type of vitality and it is going to be find yourself being cheaper. It gained’t move the pub check. It gained’t move the sniff check as a result of it’s only a fantasy.

The local weather minister stated he stood by the $122bn determine for his coverage “because it’s the figure in the ISP which is the most detailed roadmap of any energy system in the world”.

Bowen says Coalition would have needed to ‘stretch truth’ to reach at ‘dodgy figures’

Chris Bowen additionally accused the Coalition of “making it up as they go along” – claiming Aemo has acquired it proper for all the pieces besides transmission “and then just doubled the cost of transmission just plucked a figure out of the air”.

They usually have implied – which I think about we’ll see within the costings at this time – that nuclear wants much less transmission which it doesn’t. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. You continue to acquired to get the electrical energy across the nation. I’m undecided how they’ll get the nuclear energy into the grid, perhaps by provider pigeon in the event that they’re going to say if one way or the other you’ll want much less transmission.

They’ve needed to make some very heroic assumptions right here, and so they have needed to actually stretch the reality to attempt to get some very dodgy figures.

Bowen accuses Coalition of ‘mathematical gymnastics’ to made ‘vague’ nuclear prices add up

The local weather change and vitality minister, Chris Bowen, says that the Coalition would have needed to do some “mathematical gymnastics” to make its “vague” nuclear costings add up.

Requested if he accepts the Coalition’s nuclear coverage could be $263bn cheaper than Labor’s renewable coverage, Bowen stated “maybe they’ll throw in the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House as well with that sort of costing”.

We’ll undergo the main points at this time. I don’t consider they’ve launched it to the ABC or the ALP, funnily sufficient, however clearly they needed to do some mathematical gymnastics to make this in any imprecise approach add up. They’ve even downgraded their costings of renewable vitality by round $30bn during the last couple of weeks. If that coverage didn’t final move an election, why would the nuclear costings final any longer?

Adam Morton

Factcheck of Coalition’s case for nuclear

For many who need to know extra in regards to the nuclear debate, here’s a factcheck we printed in June:

Adam Morton

Extra details to contemplate as we be taught extra of Coalition nuclear costings

Persevering with from our earlier publish: there are a couple of different issues value contemplating as we hear extra in regards to the Coalition’s nuclear proposal.

• It claims nuclear crops could possibly be developed and operational by the mid-2030s, relying on the tech used. Few specialists consider that is credible. Why? Solely 5 large-scale nuclear crops have reached building stage within the US and western Europe this century. 4 had been spectacularly over time and over finances. The fifth was cancelled after A$13bn had been spent.

• CSIRO discovered it could take no less than 15 years to develop a nuclear business and have a generator working in Australia.

• Consultants say this raises questions on grid reliability because the coal crops that the Coalition needs to switch with nuclear are ageing and largely gained’t final that lengthy. It says Peter Dutton’s pledge to gradual the roll out of renewable vitality and await nuclear crops places the grid in danger. In accordance with reviews this morning, Frontier Economics assumes two-thirds of coal crops that the federal government expects to shut by 2034 will nonetheless be working then.

• Like photo voltaic and wind, nuclear vitality era is zero emissions. However burning extra coal and fuel earlier than it might turn into accessible would add considerably to Australia’s greenhouse fuel emissions. It means local weather air pollution could be larger below the Coalition’s plan – and scientists say deep cuts in emissions are wanted now. The opposition has voted in opposition to all of Labor’s local weather insurance policies and has no emissions discount insurance policies of its personal for the subsequent decade.

Good morning

Emily Wind

Emily Wind right here, signing on for running a blog duties this Friday. I’ll be taking you thru our stay protection for many of at this time.

As at all times, you’ll be able to learn out with any ideas by way of e mail: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s get began.

Coalition’s nuclear costings comprise some huge unknowns

Peter Hannam

We’ve requested Danny Value and Frontier Economics (which he co-founded and of which he’s managing director) for a duplicate of the report he has compiled for the Coalition on its nuclear plans.

From what’s reported within the media given excerpts from Value’s report, we discover a couple of puzzling outcomes. As we reported right here final month, Value’s half 1 of two reviews was supposed to set a “base case” for the second part.

For unexplained causes (to date), that base shifted to the tune $48bn in a few weeks, no less than so far as Value’s estimate of what Labor’s internet zero plans for the grid entail. Value claimed the latter – based mostly on the Australian Power Market Operator’s more than likely “step change” state of affairs – would value $642bn however that quantity drops to $594bn within the second report, in accordance with particulars within the Every day Telegraph. That’s not to date off Aemo’s “real cost” estimate of $580bn, or so Value said in his “base case” half 1 report.

(The $122bn Aemo tally was based mostly on commonplace accounting strategies to evaluate the “net present value” of future spending, a requirement imposed on Aemo by former Coalition vitality minister Angus Taylor, the federal government revealed this week.)

In accordance with the model within the Every day Telegraph, solely one-third of the remaining coal-fired mills will shut by 2034, in contrast with 90% in Aemo’s “step change” state of affairs by then. The extension of already unreliable energy crops would come with extra gasoline and upkeep prices, to not point out extra carbon air pollution from the comparatively emission intensive vitality supply.

Media retailers, together with the Australian Monetary Assessment, which have been giving snippets of the Frontier Economics report, report total electrical energy use will likely be decrease by 2050 than Aemo estimates. One motive is that there will likely be much less electrification of transport than Aemo forecasts however that presumably brings with it a further gasoline value – not but made public by Frontier – and extra carbon emissions that may depend in opposition to a internet zero achievement by 2050.

Shops given entry to the extracts say nuclear is assumed to be “always on” and working “around the clock”. This evaluation compares with the 53%-89% vary assumed by CSIRO in its newest GenCost report, based mostly on operations of the current coal fleet common over 2011-21. In latest many years, the common capability use globally has been within the 80% vary, with 10% of reactors working at a capability issue of 60% or much less. To run nuclear crops at full capability – an unlikely assumption given upkeep wants, for starters – would additionally imply curbing (block) output for renewable vitality mills, undermining their prices and funding attraction to house owners and their monetary backers.

Little question there will likely be different assumptions carrying huge query marks if/after we see the modelling Value plugged in.

Coalition to launch nuclear costings – what we all know to date

Adam Morton

We haven’t seen the main points, however the opposition has launched them to some newspapers. It reviews that the opposition will declare its plan will result in 38% of electrical energy coming from nuclear vitality and 54% from renewable vitality by 2050 and value $263bn lower than Labor’s coverage to achieve internet zero emissions by 2050.

We are able to’t assess the Coalition’s claims with out seeing them intimately, however there are some things value remembering at this time:

• Most impartial specialists together with the CSIRO don’t agree that including nuclear energy might result in a less expensive grid. They’ve repeatedly discovered that photo voltaic and wind with firming help from vitality storage, new transmission connections and “peaking” fuel crops is the most cost effective supply of electrical energy.

• CSIRO’s newest draft Gencost report – its annual evaluation of electrical energy prices – this week discovered electrical energy generated from renewable vitality with firming help in 2030 would value no less than 50% lower than nuclear.

• A number of vitality specialists informed Guardian Australia that worldwide expertise steered the price of constructing nuclear energy crops could possibly be a lot larger than the CSIRO has steered – presumably greater than double.

• The Coalition will defend its coverage utilizing evaluation by Danny Value, from the consultants Frontier Economics. He has an extended historical past in nationwide vitality and local weather debates, largely working with the Coalition.

• Value reportedly says his modelling reveals the “total system cost” of the electrical energy grid is cheaper with 38% nuclear energy and 53% renewable vitality than if it runs overwhelmingly on photo voltaic and wind plus firming. A first stage of Value’s evaluation final month argued the Australian Power Market Operator had underestimated the price of working the grid predominantly on renewable vitality and storage, largely as a result of the operator had adjusted for inflation, an ordinary accounting follow.

• The Coalition and Information Corp tabloids have claimed that Value’s work was proof of a “$500bn green hole” in Labor’s plan. However this isn’t a broadly held view.

Good morning and welcome to our stay information weblog. We’ll begin at this time with what we all know in regards to the Coalition’s nuclear costings, based mostly on the element that has been reported, and convey you all of the information round Australia because it occurs.