Latest news with #SkyNews.com.au
Sky News AU
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Exiled Iranians claim spies stalking, threatening them, call on Albanese government to shut Tehran's embassy
A group of exiled Iranians have called on Labor to shut down Tehran's Australian embassy, telling The Australian they had been stalked and threatened by spies. Catch up with all of the day's breaking news and live interviews from politicians and experts with a Streaming Subscription.
Sky News AU
5 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
'Smoke and mirrors': Chris Bowen's claim power prices are coming down dismantled by energy expert
Energy Minister Chris Bowen's boasts about energy prices have been dismantled by an energy expert, with the Coalition calling on Bowen to "come clean" with the Australian people. On Wednesday, Mr Bowen was asked if he stood by the Albanese government's commitment to cut power bills by $275 by the end of the year. At first Mr Bowen insisted energy bills have come down since last year, pointing to ABS data released on Wednesday. ' People looked at the fact that energy prices have fallen, as I just said, by 6.2 per cent in a year just gone,' he said. 'They would have been 16.6 per cent higher if [Tehan] had had his way and energy bill relief had not applied. That was the key difference.' Frontier Economics co-founder and Managing Director Danny Price, Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan and Nationals MP Matt Canavan have objected to Mr Bowen's claims. Speaking to Mr Tehan said his Labor counterpart 'must come clean' with the Australian people. Mr Tehan said once the $3.5 billion in energy bill rebates were taken out of consideration, power bills in Australia have gone up by 10 per cent since June last year, and up 32 per cent since the June before. 'We need to stop energy prices rising, not take billions of dollars from Australians every year, to give it back to them to temporarily hide the price rises,' Mr Tehan said. 'This is not honouring a commitment it is deceiving people.' Frontier Economics Managing Director Danny Price told the subsidy was put in place to 'disguise' the electricity price rise which was announced the Australian Energy Regulator in March. 'Cost increases across nearly all components of the DMO (Default Market Offer) have resulted in draft DMO 7 prices for residential customers increasing between 2.5 per cent and 8.9 per cent compared with DMO 6, depending on the region. Small business customers could see rises between 4.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent,' the AER said. Mr Price said the Energy Minister's claim that electricity consumers were better off by 6.2 per cent was due to taxpayers 'paying for their own price reductions by funding the subsidies to themselves'. Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said once the subsidies run out, power bills will go 'through the roof'. 'Chris Bowen's claim is like stealing $100 from someone and giving $20 back so they can thank him,' he said. 'It's all smoke and mirrors.' According to Budget Paper No. 1 (2025-26), the government will commit an extra $1.8 billion to extend energy bill relief, in the form of two quarterly $75 rebates, to the end of 2025. The rebates are on top of around $5 billion in rebates being applied to electricity bills for millions of households and small businesses since 2023. The Frontier Economics boss said households were 'actually worse off' thanks to the Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief Fund, and pointed to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' explanation that the price reductions were an 'artifice of taxpayer funded subsidies' and the annual fall in price was directly due to the handouts. 'Electricity [prices] rose 8.1 per cent this quarter, following a 16.3 per cent rise in the March quarter,' the ABS said. 'Despite two consecutive quarterly rises in electricity, the series has recorded a fall of 6.2 per cent over the past 12 months. 'The annual fall is due to the introduction of the second round of the Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief Fund (EBRF) rebates from July 2024, which continue to reduce electricity costs in most capital cities.' Mr Price said despite the 'massive subsidies', consumers were much worse off than a few years ago because of the relentless price rises that have already occurred that were not offset by subsidies. 'Australians now pay some of the highest electricity prices in the world. It seems as though now taxpayers will continue to pay for the ever-rising costs of renewable subsidies,' he said. The Energy Minister also claimed on Wednesday that 'most cheapest form of energy ... is renewable'. Mr Price said it was 'deceptive and misleading' for individuals to make comparisons between the stand-alone costs of wind and solar and coal, gas or nuclear. 'Consumers are supplied with a mix of generation sources, not just wind and solar. The only valid way that generation costs should be compared is the total cost of the least cost mix of generation,' he said. 'Frontier Economics showed that the highest cost system is one that relied on renewables and batteries. The reason is simple. Renewable generators only produce about a quarter or third of the electricity for the same capacity.' 'And then you need to pay for the costs of storing excess renewable energy to supply consumer for the majority of time that these generators do not generate electricity, and you also need to pay for the back-up generation when storages are depleted,' he said. 'Once all these costs are included, which the CSIRO don't include ... then renewables are not the cheapest form of generation."
Sky News AU
17 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Atlassian CEO and eco warrior Mike Cannon-Brookes replaces 150 workers with AI after defending private jet purchase
Atlassian's billionaire chief executive and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has axed 150 jobs at the software giant in favour of new artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It is understood staff received a pre-recorded video from Mr Cannon-Brookes on Wednesday morning explaining that some of their jobs would soon be replaced by AI. In vision seen by the high-flying CEO is wearing a faded green hoodie while speaking from a home office as he announced the cuts. Mr Cannon-Brookes, 45, did not name who would be axed and impacted staff reportedly had to wait 15 minutes for an email about their fate. Staff impacted had their laptops blocked, but Atlassian are expected to pay impacted staff for the next six months. Mr Cannon-Brookes, who is worth an estimated $13.9 billion USD, has increasingly turned to investing his colossal wealth in eco-friendly projects, including an ambitious project to build an undersea cable between Darwin and Singapore to deliver solar-generated electricity. Despite his climate advocacy, the high-flying CEO recently went ahead with the controversial purchase of a gas-guzzling private jet. In March, the CEO defended his decision to purchase a Bombardier 7500, an aircraft believed to cost upwards of US$75m (AU$119.2m) and said the plane would allow him to be a 'present dad'. 'I'm not denying I have a deep internal conflict on this,' Mr Cannon-Brookes wrote on LinkedIn. 'There's a couple of reasons I've purchased a plane. Personal security is the primary reason (an unfortunate reality of my world), but also so I can run a global business from Australia, and still be a constantly present dad.' The brutal redundancies at Atlassian fall on the same day the firm's other co-founder Scott Farquhar publicly praised the benefits of AI during a National Press Club of Australia appearance. 'Firstly, most people don't think about where their water or power comes from and people don't think about where AI comes from or where the AI they use on their phone comes from every day,' he said on Wednesday. 'There is a huge boom in creating data centres for the region and, beyond that, there is a huge boom in using AI for everyday life. 'Every person should be using AI daily for as many things as they can. 'Like any new technology, it will feel awkward to start with, but every businessperson, every business leader, every government leader and every bureaucrat should be using it.'
Sky News AU
20 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
WATCH LIVE: Prime Minister faces grilling on cost of living and social media ban in Question Time
Anthony Albanese will come under scrutiny over cost of living in Question Time while fresh inflation data shows CPI falling. Watch live on Inflation data released today shows consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 2.1 per cent in the June quarter, down from 2.4 per cent in March as markets now anticipate a near-certain rate cut in August. Mr Gazard warned that policies in industrial relations under the current Labor government have played a significant role droving inflation higher in the first place. Catch up with all of the day's breaking news and live interviews from politicians and experts with a Streaming Subscription.
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Labor confirms YouTube included in under-16s social media ban, platforms facing $49.5 million fines for failing to prevent access
The Albanese government has announced it will include YouTube in its under-16s social media ban, with the site and other platforms facing fines of up to $49.5 million for failing to prevent access. Catch up with all of the day's breaking news and live interviews from politicians and experts with a Streaming Subscription.
