Received

Details
Category: Received
Hits: 128

Some renters are sweltering in unhealthy conditions over summer, prompting calls for new standards for air-conditioning and insulation to keep tenants alive.

Rental homes regularly exceed safe temperature limits and, on average, cracked 30C degrees for one in six days over summer, research by advocacy organisation Better Renting has found.

Night-time temperatures were high enough to impair sleep almost half the time, the temperature tracking research report released on Thursday shows.

Adam McFillin rents a home with his partner and baby in Yeerongpilly in Brisbane's south, where the indoor temperature topped 36C and was above 25-30C for more than two-thirds of the summer.

He says he's so worried about the heat he's losing sleep, and it's affecting his mental health.

"These old houses are like living in a tent - if it's hot outside it's hot inside, if it's cold outside it's cold inside," he said.

Rosa Hicks, who rents with housemates in South Fremantle, Western Australia, has no ceiling insulation and no air-conditioning.

"The temperature in my room didn't drop below 30 degrees for days," she said.

"My cat struggled and I had to keep giving him ice packs and wet flannels."

Australian Council of Social Service head Cassandra Goldie said millions of people on low incomes were getting sick or dying because they couldn't afford higher energy bills, and were unable to install measures to keep their homes cool in summer.

Better Renting executive director Joel Dignam said high indoor temperatures were a threat to health.

"Almost eight million people rent across Australia - that's a huge number of people who can't install ceiling insulation, put in a ceiling fan, or set up air-conditioning," Mr Dignam said.

More than 100 organisations have joined Better Renting in calling for governments to implement enforceable minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties.

Adelaide GP Kate Wylie said she was concerned about the heat-related risk to patients as the climate changes, because it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Better Renting worked with 50 households to track summer temperatures in their rental homes and found safe temperatures of 25C were exceeded for more than nine hours a day on average.

Risk from heat begins to increase above 25C, and healthy building standards recommend 30C should be exceeded only one per cent of the time, Mr Dignam said.

© AAP 2022

Details
Category: Received
Hits: 138

Scott Morrison has hinted the government could soon wind back spending measures ahead of the upcoming federal budget.

Speaking to reporters in Perth on Wednesday, the prime minister said the government aimed to return the country's balance sheet back to where it was before the pandemic.

"Labor knows how to start spending but they never know how to stop. We knew we had to stand during the pandemic to get the economy through," he said.

"We also know when it's the responsible time to stop that and start returning the ... government back to more normal settings and the treasurer will have more to say about that this week."

It comes as Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese indicated they would seek to highlight cost of living issues after the budget at the end of the month.

Mr Albanese said the government had been complacent about the rising cost of living.

"There's a range of measures that could be looked at in terms of cost of living, we'll wait and see," he said.

Despite calls for the government to cut the fuel excise in response to rising petrol prices, Mr Morrison has not said whether such a measure would be included in the budget.

It comes as the prime minister told business leaders the increasing demand for critical minerals would present new opportunities for WA's resource sector in coming decades.

Mr Morrison told the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA on Wednesday the demand in critical minerals was driven by their use in aerospace, defence and other technological applications.

"This is not just an economic imperative. It is also a strategic imperative in areas vital to our national interests," he says.

Ahead of the March 29 budget, Mr Morrison announced the critical mineral sector will be bolstered with a further $243 million to be spent across four projects in the sector.

The government is also providing a further $200 million over five years through its critical minerals accelerator initiative to support strategically significant projects.

The initiative will consider proposals ranging between $1 million and $30 million for each project, with the projects expected to contribute 50 per cent co-funding.

It is also committing $50 million over three years to establish the virtual National Critical Minerals Research and Development Centre.

This will drive breakthrough collaborative research, drawing together expertise from CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

"Our goal is to make Australia a critical minerals powerhouse in the new global economy," Mr Morrison said.

"Critical minerals are key to a stronger economy for Australia, and key to a stronger future."

Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is reportedly still considering extending the low and middle income tax offset, which is due to end this financial year.

It would give an eligible taxpayer an offset of up to $1080 for another 12 months.

© AAP 2022

Details
Category: Received
Hits: 132

The devastation caused by floods in northern NSW and southeast Queensland could be replicated in vulnerable towns and suburbs across the country, new data reveals.

Climate Valuation, a group of climate risk analysts, has identified more than one million properties across 30 local government areas that are exposed to low, moderate or high-risk riverine flooding.

Queensland has the most local government areas in the top 30 with 10, followed closely by Victoria (eight), NSW (five), South Australia (four), Western Australia (two) and Tasmania (one).

Brisbane has the greatest number of properties exposed to a high risk of riverine flooding, with 47,091 of 692,121 in that category.

Other high-risk areas include Gold Coast (23,115), Greater Shepparton (21,030), Ballina (8341), Wangaratta (7924), Port Phillip (7263), Tweed (7037), Charles Sturt (6341), Western Downs (5464) and Logan (4922).

The northern NSW town of Lismore, which has endured record flooding in the past month, has 2247 high-risk properties, many of which are likely uninsurable or so exposed it is unaffordable to do so.

Climate Valuation chief executive Karl Mallon said those living in highly flood-prone suburbs need to come to grips with the reality they may face similar scenarios in future.

"It's unfair and unacceptable to leave people in harm's way when we know the high risk addresses, and we know which can be protected and which will need to be moved," Dr Mallon said on Wednesday.

"Just as governments have to deal with reducing emissions, they must provide leadership and financial support for communities to prepare for the climate impacts that are here and worsening."

Natural disasters are already estimated to cost Australia an average $38 billion a year and that figure could rise as high as $94 billion by 2060 under a high-emissions scenario, according to research from Deloitte Access Economics.

Climate Valuation's own sums show climate change-fuelled riverine flooding is expected to precipitate a $170 billion drop in Australian property values by the middle of this century, an equivalent loss of $45,000 for every exposed property.

It wants further federal government investment on risk-mitigation strategies to avoid disaster-driven property devaluation.

"Planning codes must be changed, building codes need to be upgraded and a massive grants program will be needed to overhaul Australia's high-risk housing so that it is ready to cope with the reality of climate change," Dr Mallon said.

© AAP 2022

Details
Category: Received
Hits: 141

Scott Morrison believes increasing demand for the critical minerals required for the global transition to clean energy will present significant new opportunities for Western Australia's resources sector for decades to come.

The prime minister told the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA that demand for critical minerals is increasing due to the expansion of their use in aerospace, defence and other high-end technological applications.

"This is not just an economic imperative. It is also a strategic imperative in areas vital to our national interests," he says.

Critical minerals, such as nickel, magnesium and other rare-earth elements, are heavily used in the manufacture of technology such as mobile phones, electric cars and solar panels.

Ahead of the March 29 budget, Mr Morrison announced the critical mineral sector will be bolstered with a further $243 million to be spent across four projects in the sector.

Nearly half of the funding, $119.6 million, will go towards an integrated nickel manganese cobalt battery material refinery hub in Kalgoorlie.

Meanwhile, $49 million will be spent on processing high-grade vanadium from a Western Australian mine and transporting it to a plant powered by clean hydrogen.

There will be $30 million set aside for a rare-earth separation plant in the Northern Territory, the second of its type outside China and the first in Australia.

The fourth package will be $45 million to help construct a high-purity alumina production facility near Gladstone in Queensland to help meet rising demand for lithium-ion batteries and LED lights.

It is expected the four projects will help create more than 3400 jobs.

The government is also providing a further $200 million over five years through its critical minerals accelerator initiative to support strategically significant projects.

The initiative will consider proposals ranging between $1 million and $30 million for each project, with the projects expected to contribute 50 per cent co-funding.

It is also committing $50 million over three years to establish the virtual National Critical Minerals Research and Development Centre.

This will drive breakthrough collaborative research, drawing together expertise from CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

"Our goal is to make Australia a critical minerals powerhouse in the new global economy," Mr Morrison said.

"Critical minerals are key to a stronger economy for Australia, and key to a stronger future."

The critical minerals projects will form part of the federal government's $1.3 billion modern manufacturing initiative.

In a statement, Industry Minister Angus Taylor said the projects would mean Australia would capture more of the global supply chain.

He said the initiatives would help address the dominance of China in the area, which is currently responsible for between 70 and 80 per cent of critical mineral production.

"Australia is lucky to have some of the largest reserves of the critical minerals and metals which drive the modern global economy ... this initiative is designed to address (China's) dominance," he said.

Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is reportedly still considering extending the low and middle income tax offset, which is due to end this financial year.

It would give an eligible taxpayer an offset of up to $1080 for another 12 months.

This would come at a time of increasing cost of living pressures, not least record petrol prices at over $2 a litre.

© AAP 2022