What we learned: Thursday 20 March
We will wrap up the live blog here for the evening. Here’s what made the news today:
A re-elected Labor government would reduce the price of PBS-listed medicines to no more than $25 a script in a major election pledge to be included in next week’s budget.
The proposal was quickly matched by the Coalition.
The government said it would not negotiate over the PBS, in response to US drug companies writing to the Trump administration complaining about the Australian scheme.
In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said the Coalition would pursue free trade agreements with the EU and Israel if they win the election.
Australia’s population grew by 1.8% in the year leading up to last September, according to new statistics from the Bureau of Statistics.
The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1% in February, despite a surprise 53,000 drop in the number of employed Australians in the month.
The Victorian and federal governments and the operators of Melbourne airport signed an agreement to push ahead with the construction of a long-awaited train line.
Victoria’s number of recorded criminal offences increased by more than 13% in 2024, amid a proposed bail crackdown by the state government.
Walter Sofronoff will launch a legal challenge against yesterday’s finding of serious corrupt conduct by the ACT integrity commission.
Until tomorrow, enjoy your evening.
NSW government considers lithium battery regulation
Common lithium batteries with the potential to spark toxic fires could be regulated in NSW in a national first, AAP reports.
The batteries are the first target of a NSW plan to requiring makers and sellers of products deemed to pose a risk of environmental harm to follow requirements in design, safe disposal, recycling and other aspects.
The state’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe, says consumer batteries, solar power system batteries and electric bikes and scooters must be made as safe as possible.
We want batteries out of bins, we want them out of trucks and we want them out of waste facilities.
The state will be the first to implement such laws, if they pass, creating a framework for suppliers to participate in mandatory stewardship schemes.
There are between 10,000 and 12,000 fires each year in trucks and at waste facilities caused by the improper disposal, use and poor design of lithium batteries, according to estimates by the waste and recycling industry.
Fire and Rescue NSW have dealt with hundreds lithium-ion battery incidents in recent times, that have led to multiple fatalities and at least 33 injuries.
Under the planned laws, battery suppliers will have to register battery products and facilitate safe disposal or recycling through dedicated collection points.
They will be charged with running public education campaigns and required to enhance their battery products in areas ranging from packaging and importation to safety and recycling potential.
The laws and regulations will apply to smaller embedded batteries found in everyday devices such as cordless vacuums, electric toothbrushes, children’s toys, bikes and scooters.
Updated
