Key posts
- Labor open to overseas-built submarines
- Senate clash looms over carbon credits
- NSW Liberals brace for Barilaro’s evidence
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Labor open to overseas-built submarines
Defence Minister Richard Marles has cleared the way for a fundamental shift in the $90 billion plan for a fleet of nuclear-propelled submarines by saying Australia’s strategic need must take priority over calls for local construction – even if that means buying vessels made overseas.
Marles says he is open to every option to bring forward the first submarine from the 2040 delivery date set out by the former government, stepping up his concerns about the looming gap in defence capability during what’s being described as the worst strategic environment Australia has seen in decades.
Defence Minister Richard Marles.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
With Chinese fighter aircraft and ships encircling Taiwan in live-fire exercises for the fourth day in a row, the regional conflict has heightened Australian concerns about the capability gap in submarines, a new fleet of frigates and missile defence.
“Capability and strategic need must drive decision-making,” Marles told this masthead.
Read the full story here.
Senate clash looms over carbon credits
A new clash over carbon emissions will decide a crucial Senate vote on the federal government’s climate change bill.
There is an attempt by crossbench senators to strike down rules that offer financial rewards to schemes that claim to help the environment by planting trees.
David Pocock was an early supporter of the Albanese government’s target but has concerns about accountability.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen yesterday declared that he was “very, very confident” the government will gain the numbers in the upper house to pass the bill and its 43 per cent emissions reduction target. But he is yet to secure the crossbench support needed for a majority.
The latest pressure point is a row over rules in parts of the $4.5 billion Emission Reduction Fund that offer Australian Carbon Credit Units, or ACCUs, to rural projects that develop new plantations or plant new trees to replace timber cleared from existing plantations.
Senators including David Pocock of the ACT and Jacqui Lambie of Tasmania want to halt changes to the ACCU rules before they go ahead because they believe the projects may not deliver the promised cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
Labor has support from the Greens but needs at least one additional vote to gain a majority in the upper house, making Pocock and Lambie crucial to the outcome because the Coalition, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet oppose the Climate Change Bill.
More on this issue here.
NSW Liberals brace for Barilaro’s evidence
The Perrottet government is bracing for its most politically challenging week in power, with former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro to appear at a parliamentary inquiry into his trade appointment today and a bitter internal spat erupting within the Liberals over the deputy leadership.
The parliamentary probe into Barilaro’s appointment to a $500,000 a year US trade role that he withdrew from will also be expanded to examine the agent-general’s role in London amid revelations Premier Dominic Perrottet canvassed the job with one of his ministers.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.Credit:Rhett Wyman
The NSW state Liberals are caught in a nasty internal spat over electing a new deputy leader, after former trade minister Stuart Ayres was forced to quit the role over his involvement in the Barilaro appointment was highlighted in a draft report into the saga. Ayres denies any wrongdoing.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It’s Monday, August 8. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started.
- Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro is due to appear at a parliamentary inquiry today. The Perrottet government has come under fire in recent weeks after Barilaro was appointed to a $500,000-a-year United States trade position (which the former deputy premier later withdrew from). Yesterday, this masthead revealed that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet offered to create a parliamentary trade role for Transport Minister David Elliott as a sweetener for dumping him from cabinet.
- David Crowe reports that a new clash is looming in the Senate over carbon emissions. Crossbench senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie are attempting to strike down rules that offer financial rewards to schemes that claim to help the environment by planting trees. The Albanese government needs the support of one of the senators to pass its signature climate change bill because the Coalition, One Nation and United Australia Party are opposed to Labor’s legislated emission reduction targets.
- And Defence Minister Richard Marles says he is open to overseas-built submarines while the country waits for a new fleet to be made in Australia given the current “capability gap” and the situation in Taiwan. It’s significant because Labor has traditionally called for major projects, such as the building of submarines, to occur onshore.
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