Received
- Details
- Written by Grant Broadcasters
- Category: Received
- Hits: 77
Households are set to save at least $230 on average on their power bills after national cabinet agreed to energy price relief measures.
After a virtual national cabinet meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state and territory leaders signed off on plans to cap the price of coal and gas, as well as financial support for power bills.
The federal government will provide $1.5 billion in energy bill relief to eligible households and small businesses, which will be paid through state or territory governments.
The temporary support is expected to come through in the second quarter of 2023, following a national cabinet meeting in March.
Gas prices will be capped for one year at $12 a gigajoule, with gas retailers subject to a mandatory code of conduct.
The consumer watchdog will also be given new powers to enforce and monitor the new code.
Federal parliament will be recalled next week in order to pass the changes.
Coal prices will also be capped a $125 a tonne.
Modelling has shown the average family would be $230 worse off if the coal and gas prices weren't capped.
Further savings are expected to be made for households once the $1.5 billion financial package comes into effect next year, but further details will need to be worked out by state and territory treasurers on how jurisdictions pass on the savings.
Mr Albanese said the bill relief would not be direct cash handouts, to protect inflation levels.
"It will not be the same plan in each state and territory, given each of them have different systems," he said.
"That is part of the complexity of what we have been dealing with is the fact that we have eight different systems around the country."
Gas prices were expected to rise by 20 per cent in both this financial year and the next.
However, modelling has shown the intervention will limit the rise to 18 per cent this financial year and four per cent the year after.
The modelling has also shown expected electricity price rises of 36 per cent during 2023/24 will instead be 23 per cent during that time.
Mr Albanese said extraordinary measures would be taken to lower the cost of energy.
"We're taking urgent action to shield Australian families from the worst impacts of these price hikes," he said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the agreement reached at national cabinet was a sign the government had broken promises on energy bill relief.
He said there had been no experience globally of success in capping energy prices.
"This is a very difficult situation for families and for small businesses to see a government that has no idea as to what they're doing," he said.
"The prime minister ... could not answer the most basic details, it's obvious that there is fracturing between the states and territories."
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott welcomed the relief measures but said long-term plans needed to be managed.
"This is a hugely complex system and there are no easy answers," she said.
"Without careful management price caps will have long-term consequences that drive up and sustain higher prices for consumers."
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said the deal only created further uncertainty for the sector.
"You don't fix the system by making it more complex. The solution is more supply, not more regulation," she said.
"To truly address the high cost of electricity that is hurting households, business and the mining sector, governments must act quickly to increase the supply of gas into the market."
© AAP 2022
- Details
- Written by Grant Broadcasters
- Category: Received
- Hits: 78
Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Todd Greenberg claims the Test team is frustrated by the handling of David Warner's leadership ban, hitting out at Cricket Australia for losing control of the process.
Warner's decision to abandon his review application to have his ban lifted, and the fury over an independent panel's desire for his appeal to be held in public, has hung over the Adelaide Test.
Greenberg claimed the Test opener had little choice but to withdraw his pitch, with the 35-year-old concerned for the wellbeing of both his family and the Australian team.
He also indicated the union's belief that the situation could now not be salvaged, with any hope of the only-remaining sanction out of the 2018 ball-tampering saga being removed now gone.
Greenberg says he was at a loss to understand how the situation had reached this point, given both Cricket Australia and Warner had expected to process to be played out in private.
But he said besides Warner, the biggest losers were players and Australian cricket with Warner's teammates also frustrated by the situation.
"It would be a fair understatement for me to say we are unbelievably frustrated," Greenberg told SEN.
"That is the overarching emotion I felt. We are very frustrated, not just for David and his family.
"But also his teammates who I know are really annoyed about this process, that it has been allowed to drag into the Test summer."
Greenberg said any retracing of steps in the lead up to the Cape Town affair would not be helpful, after Warner's manager James Erskine sensationally claimed on Thursday players had been given permission to tamper with the ball from as early as 2016.
The ACA chief also believed there was no reason why the hearing should be held with media present, labelling the entire process convoluted after the union first made a pitch to have the ban lifted in February.
"The code of conduct amendments introduced by Cricket Australia were that the review would be conducted privately unless there was a very good reason for it not to be," Greenberg said.
"There is nothing remarkable about that at all. It is how every code of conduct hearing has been conducted from the beginning.
"So why the panel decided the issue needed to be a public hearing after both CA and Dave agreed the matter be held privately is beyond me and I think lacks a real level of commonsense."
Greenberg has personal experience in dealing with integrity matters, most notably rolling out the controversial no-fault stand-down policy during his time as boss of the NRL.
That rule, which was unsuccessfully challenged in court by the Rugby League Players Association, was created without an independent panel and still requires no outside organisation to decide sanctions.
The experienced administrator therefore questioned why CA had not dealt with the lifting of Warner's ban entirely in-house.
"I hoped, maybe naively, that the question around leadership would be decided by the governing body who originally took the leadership away," Greenberg said.
"But sadly, nine months on, with the benefit of hindsight, we may never have asked the question if we knew what the answer would look like."
© AAP 2022
- Details
- Written by Grant Broadcasters
- Category: Received
- Hits: 81
Star Entertainment will get another roll of the dice in Queensland for a $100 million buy-in after being scolded for "criminal behaviour" in running its two casinos.
The state government fined the ASX-listed gambling giant a record $100 million on Friday after finding it unfit to hold its two gaming licences last month.
That decision came after an inquiry found Star neglected its anti-money laundering and responsible gaming duties, and deliberately misled the regulator, in pursuit of profit.
Corporate integrity expert Nick Weeks and senior public servant Terri Hamilton have been appointed special managers to overhaul operations at the Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane casinos.
Mr Weeks is already in charge of reforming the Star Sydney after NSW authorities fined the company $100 million for similar compliance breaches.
Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman says Star "have 12 months to get their house in order" or both its licences will be suspended for three months.
"They were not truthful with the regulator, they were not truthful with their own bank, this is why we have taken this action today," she told reporters on Friday.
"This is a very strong message that criminal behaviour, that unlawful behaviour, that one-eyed focus on profit above their corporate social responsibility, will not be tolerated in Queensland."
However, even if Star doesn't change its ways it will still be able to cut the ribbon on its $3.6 billion Queens Wharf casino in Brisbane next year.
"If Star is not suitable by the time they want to open their doors then there will be significant conditions placed on their licence," Ms Fentiman added.
When asked if the government was being lenient with Star because it was "too big to fail", Ms Fentiman said the government had to try to protect the jobs of the company's 8000 workers, most of whom are in Queensland.
"It's in the public interest for those Queenslanders to continue to be employed, but at the same time (we're) doing everything we can, sending that very strong message with $100 million in fines, that this can't happen again," she said.
Star booked a loss of almost $200 million in 2021/22, down from its $116 million profit the previous financial year.
Its shares were in a trading halt on Friday afternoon after being paused an hour before the Queensland attorney-general's announcement.
Star is also facing civil penalties in the Federal Court after the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) lodged a case against it over hundreds of compliance breaches.
The regulator alleges the company allowed customers to move money through non-transparent and highly risky channels, didn't know where the money in those channels was coming from and failed to consider their ongoing business relationships with higher-risk patrons.
AUSTRAC alleges Star Sydney has breached the law 1189 times, and Star Queensland has breached the law 325 times, since November 2016, with each individual breach carrying a maximum penalty between $18 million and $22.2 million.
© AAP 2022
- Details
- Written by Grant Broadcasters
- Category: Received
- Hits: 95
Embattled casino operator Star Entertainment has been slapped with a $100 million fine over compliance breaches in Queensland.
State Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said the record fine sends a clear and strong message that unlawful and criminal behaviour would not be tolerated in casinos.
She said Nick Weeks had been appointed special manager to reform the ASX-listed company's operations in Queensland.
Mr Weeks has also been appointed by NSW authorities to rehabilitate Star's Sydney casino operation.
Star faces a 90-day suspension of its two casino licences if it fails to enact reforms by December 2023.
"This is a significant pecuniary penalty of $100 million, which sends a very strong message to the Star that they absolutely have to get this right and they have to get back to suitability," Ms Fentiman told reporters.
"Essentially, this means that Star has 12 months to get their house in order If they do not want to see a 90-day suspension of their licence," Ms Fentiman said on Friday.
"These penalties have been considered very carefully following the damning findings from the Gotterson review as well as considering the responses from Star as part of the show cause process."
However, Ms Fentiman said it was time for Star to get its house in order.
"What we saw coming out of the Gotterson review was that one-eyed focus on profits, where they did not really resource their anti-money laundering policies.
"They did not take it seriously. They allowed patrons excluded from New South Wales into Queensland casinos, and they lied to the regulator and their bank about the nature of China Union Pay transactions.
"Clearly, they are the actions of a company that is not suitable to hold a licence."
The blow comes after the gambling giant was also hit with a $100 million fine and the suspension of its casino licence after an inquiry in NSW that sparked the Queensland probe.
The Queensland review found Star was found unfit to hold its two Queensland casino licences which initially put the future of the company's $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf Brisbane casino and resort in doubt.
However, a last-minute change to casino laws paved the way for Star to open the development as planned next year.
Star Entertainment is also embroiled in a civil action in the Federal Court after the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) lodged a case against the ASX-listed gambling giant.
AUSTRAC alleges Star allowed customers to move money through non-transparent and highly risky channels, it claimed it didn't know where the money in those channels was coming from and failed to consider their ongoing business relationships with higher-risk patrons.
The regulator says Star Sydney has breached the law 1189 times, and Star Queensland has breached the law 325 times, since November 2016, with each individual breach carrying a maximum penalty between $18 million and $22.2 million.
© AAP 2022
Page 501 of 1496