That's it for today, thanks for reading
Here are the main stories on Friday, 24 January:
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, addressed the National Press Club in his first major speech for the year, setting out Labor’s re-election bid;
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, spoke to reporters in Adelaide, teeing off at suggestions his tax breaks for business lunches policy would include golf;
Airline disruptions flagged as 1,000 ground workers walk off the job;
The anti-fracking group Lock the Gate Alliance has launched a legal challenge to a Northern Territory government decision to approve another gas exploration project in the Beetaloo basin;
Twenty statues of former Australian prime ministers are vandalised in Ballarat, with Victorian police investigating;
Today Show presenter Alex Cullen will leave the network after allegedly accepting a $50,000 cash prize in return for comments he made on air; and
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Police investigating after a Captain Cook statue was vandalised in the Sydney suburb of Randwick.
Enjoy the rest of your evening and have a great weekend.
Twiggy’s Fortescue joins international group pushing for Fossil Fuel Treaty
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s energy and mining group Fortescue has become the first major industrial firm to join a push for a fossil fuel treaty to end the expansion of oil, coal and gas.
Forrest, an iron ore mining billionaire who is increasingly outspoken on climate change, joined the treaty initiative’s founder, Canadian environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, to make the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The initiative has the backing of 16 governments, many from low-lying Pacific nations, alongside the World Health Organisation, the European Parliament and thousands of scientists, civil society groups and more than 850 elected officials from 85 countries.
Forrest has been pushing for companies and governments to adopt “real zero” targets for greenhouse emissions, rather than “net zero” targets. Forrest said:
While fossil fuel companies bury their heads in the sand as while hellish wildfires cause unimaginable damage to Los Angeles, Fortescue and the growing bloc of countries seeking to negotiate a Fossil Fuel Treaty understand the need for real action to combat climate change.
Negotiating a Fossil Fuel Treaty presents a unique opportunity to help realise Real Zero at a global scale through meaningful government and corporate action. I call on other heavy emitters to endorse the treaty proposal and commit to a future beyond fossil fuels.
Yesterday Forrest was pictured at a Davos event sitting alongside former US vice president Al Gore and former US secretary of state and climate change ambassador John Kerry.
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