What we learned: Thursday, 3 July
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Have a lovely night, we’ll be back first thing tomorrow for all the latest news.
Until then, here were the major developments of the day:
Former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and senior bureaucrat Pamela White have been appointed by the Victorian government to lead its review into early childcare safety.
The education minister, Jason Clare, will introduce legislation to cut funding to childcare centres “that aren’t up to scratch”, after a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with allegedly sexually abusing infants and children in his care.
Meanwhile, the Greens say new early childhood education and care safety measures announced by state and federal governments this week are not sufficient to keep children safe and a national, independent watchdog is required.
The federal government will financially back the Queensland government’s new Victoria Park stadium plan.
Clare O’Neil, says tackling the “crazy thicket of red tape” facing builders will be crucial to meet the government’s target to build 1.2m homes by 2029.
Eileen Bond, the first wife of Western Australian business tycoon Alan Bond, has died of a stroke at age 87.
And a man in his 50s has died after contracting the first case of Australian bat lyssavirus in New South Wales.
Greens say government ‘greenwashing their support for coal and gas’
The Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young accused the government of “greenwashing their support for coal and gas” and likened the announcement to past controversy over the description of the proposed Middle Arm precinct in Darwin as “sustainable”.
In a LinkedIn post, energy analyst Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance claimed the CCS proposal had “zero connection to renewable energy”.
A spokesperson for Ayres said projects given major project status did not receive direct government funding and took in “a wide range of technologies and tools to achieve the net zero transformation”. They said “carbon capture and storage in hard-to-abate sectors is one such tool”.
In a statement on Thursday, the Bonaparte joint venture said the government’s announcement “highlights the Bonaparte CCS Project’s recognised potential to support a lower carbon future”.
They said the site approximately 250 km offshore from Darwin was “proving to be one of the most promising carbon dioxide storage sites globally” after appraisal works “confirmed a high-quality saline aquifer reservoir with thick sealing formations”. They said:
This means the Bonaparte CCS Project could substantially contribute to decarbonising northern Australia and potentially the wider Indo-Pacific region.
Updated
