logo
‘No surprise to anybody': $4b project delay another hit to government's green ambition

‘No surprise to anybody': $4b project delay another hit to government's green ambition

Sky News AU14 hours ago
The Australian's Environment Editor Graham Lloyd has weighed in on the two-year delay for the $4 billion Victoria–New South Wales power project.
VNI West, a 240-kilometre transmission line to connect Victoria and New South Wales, will be pushed back, which is a major hit to the nation's renewable energy goals.
'It should be no surprise to anybody,' Mr Lloyd told Sky News host Steve Price.
'It's another reminder that it's a lot easier to put these things down on paper than it is to produce them in reality.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘Third-tier alliance partner': Australia's relationship with US in ‘shabby' condition says foreign affairs expert as rift deepens
‘Third-tier alliance partner': Australia's relationship with US in ‘shabby' condition says foreign affairs expert as rift deepens

Sky News AU

timean hour ago

  • Sky News AU

‘Third-tier alliance partner': Australia's relationship with US in ‘shabby' condition says foreign affairs expert as rift deepens

Australia is taking all the wrong steps to revitalise its strategic relationship with the US according to a leading foreign affairs expert as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plays down concerns of a deepening rift between the two nations. Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday in Washington DC in addition to other Quad partners including India and Japan. Ms Wong conveyed confidence in the strength of Australia's alliance with the United States and said that Mr Rubio had 'expressed his regret' after Mr Albanese's meeting with the US President at the G7 summit abruptly fell through. She also acknowledged the government's 'differences with the Trump administration,' while Mr Albanese dismissed reports of an emerging rift and said he and the President had a 'respectful' relationship. However, the foreign editor of The Australian newspaper Greg Sheridan blasted the Prime Minister for downplaying the severity of the situation and said that Australia's place as a core ally and strategic partner of the United States had all but vanished. 'We've moved from being a first-tier alliance partner to a third-tier Alliance partner,' Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Steve Price. 'So Trump has been elected for eight months, and Albanese hasn't seen him. Albanese was stupid not to go there before the inauguration because everything with Trump is a personal relationship.' Despite stating that the alliance was in the interest of both countries, Mr Sheridan reiterated that the US President's decision to meet with a litany of other global leaders apart from Mr Albanese was calculated and spurred by actions made by the Albanese government. 'You can be sure that the Americans know just what they're doing in the way they're snubbing Albanese. And Albanese has nothing of interest to say to them.' Mr Sheridan said Australia's refusal to increase its lagging defence budget, a decision to seek legal advice on the US strikes against Iran and its move to sanction hardline Israeli ministers among other factors had damaged Australia's reputation in Washington DC. 'We've got an anaemic, hopeless, pitiful defence budget. We got an economy that's going backwards, negative productivity, negative per capita living standards growth.' 'We have got the smallest manufacturing sector in the OECD, the least complex economy and Albanese is a man from the left who channels every bit of politics that Trump hates. So, there's no positive agenda there.' The international relations specialist also said defence spending was a significant point of tension in the feud and stated that Australia should follow in the direction of NATO member states and bolster its defence capacities in line with the expectations of the US. 'It's just a joke. Every European NATO partner has agreed to spend three and a half percent of their GDP on defence. We spend just over two percent. It was two percent when Albanese first came into office, it's still two percent.' 'They tell us we're facing the most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War Two. Now the Americans won't cut us adrift simply because our geography is very useful, but we are contributing nothing to the Alliance. They contribute... Everything to the alliance.' With the US recently launching a review into the landmark AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, Mr Sheridan cast serious doubt over the tenability of the agreement and said there were no concrete assurances for the Americans to follow through on their commitments. 'We're giving them 800 million and are going to give them $5bn Australian, $3bn US over several years and this is designed to get them keeping talking nice to us.' 'That's to allegedly to enhance their industrial capacity so they'll build subs more quickly. But the agreement says not until 2031 does a President have to decide whether he actually sells one to us.'

‘Culture of grievance': Sky News hosts tear into the Yoorrook Commission's 'incredibly divisive' findings for the Victorian govt
‘Culture of grievance': Sky News hosts tear into the Yoorrook Commission's 'incredibly divisive' findings for the Victorian govt

Sky News AU

time5 hours ago

  • Sky News AU

‘Culture of grievance': Sky News hosts tear into the Yoorrook Commission's 'incredibly divisive' findings for the Victorian govt

A trio of Sky News hosts have torched the Yoorrook Commission's "incredibly divisive" recommendations which they claim seek to sow a "culture of grievance" rather than heal the nation. The commission found the First Peoples of Victoria have been subjected to genocide and that the state had been illegally occupied. Included in the final report, the Yoorrook Commission made 100 recommendations covering policy areas such as education, criminal justice, housing, and employment. The findings from the four-year inquiry into historical and ongoing injustices experienced by First Peoples recommended the Victorian government hand over a portion of the government's 'land, water and natural resource-related revenues' to First Nations Victorians. The report also recommended the government negotiate with the First People's Assembly to secure the ongoing funding streams needed for the 'nation-to nation' transition. 'All major political parties, whether in government or in opposition, have perpetuated and compounded the trauma, injustice and suffering of First Peoples,' the report states. 'First Peoples have demonstrated that with secure access to their lands, waters and resources, they are better able to provide for the social, economic and cultural needs of their community than government or industry.' The inquiry said it expected the Allen government to 'immediately commence work' on the 'urgent recommendations' in order for them to be achieved within 12-24 months. Sky News host James McPherson hit out at the commission's report on Wednesday night, calling it 'so ambitious even Santa Claus would have thought twice about drafting this list'. 'The report says, and I quote, 'the taking of country and resources was violent as First Peoples were displaced and massacred by European settlers… the legacy of colonisation is still manifest in every aspect of life'. And no, they're not referring to roads, plumbing or electricity,' McPherson said. ' The report recommends that Indigenous Victorians should be exempt from taxes, rates and charges relating to water because, as the report notes, the resources belong to them in the first place. 'So their plan, as I understand it, is to heal the nation by breaking it up into smaller ones. Can't you just feel the reconciliation? 'Reconciliation - that noble sounding term which I always took to mean, you know, coming together but now apparently translates to invoices. Lots and lots of invoices.' McPherson said Premier Jacinta Allen's remarks about the recommendations were 'highly contested', after she said the report's finding were 'incredibly challenging because they tell the truth'. ' I'm not so sure the majority of Victorians will find the Commission's recommendations particularly just. They read less like a plea for justice than like a shopping list drawn up by opportunists holding someone else's credit card,' he said. Labor went to the last election promising to spend $27 million setting up a Makatratta Commission, $5.8 million of which was put aside in their first budget to set up the organisation. The truth-telling commission was one of the three planks of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, with the others being a treaty with Indigenous Australians and the Voice to Parliament, which more than 60 per cent of Australians rejected in 2023. Sky News host James Morrow said the Victorian Labor government was the 'hardest left government' in the whole of Australia and torched the Yoorrook report as 'incredibly divisive' and 'absolutely untenable'. 'It stems out of this whole settler-colonist mentality, which is this whole hard-left doctrine that Australia is essentially an illegitimate nation,' he said. 'It is making demands of the government that are not the demands of citizens trying to come together on an issue. They are almost like they've inverted history.' Sky News host Caroline Marcus said if the Victorian government picked up the recommendations of the commission other states and territories would eventually 'fall into line'. Marcus said the report was not only divisive, but 'dangerous' due to its approach to education, recommending Indigenous children be excluded from attendance requirements at school. 'We already know that attendance levels for Indigenous children fall well below the rest of the population as it is… How is this going to help in closing the gap?' she said. 'The whole thing stinks, and it just sets up further this culture of grievance among Indigenous Australians. We have had enough of that.'

‘Mum and Dad are fighting again': Elon Musk ‘sincerely hates' Trump's bill
‘Mum and Dad are fighting again': Elon Musk ‘sincerely hates' Trump's bill

Sky News AU

time12 hours ago

  • Sky News AU

‘Mum and Dad are fighting again': Elon Musk ‘sincerely hates' Trump's bill

The Megyn Kelly Show host Megyn Kelly discusses Elon Musk and US President Trump 'fighting again' as their dispute continues to erupt. 'Mum and Dad are fighting again, it's always uncomfortable for the children,' Ms Kelly told Sky News host Paul Murray. 'You don't want to witness it, you want it done behind closed doors, where they can work things out quietly. 'Elon hates the Big, Beautiful Bill; I'm sure he genuinely, sincerely hates it.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store