Germany and Australia on Sunday signed a bilateral alliance on hydrogen production and trade to attempt to facilitate a renewable energy-based hydrogen supply chain between the two nations. According to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, their ambition is to produce the cheapest clean hydrogen in the world.
Commonwealth-owned energy company Snowy Hydro has sought to justify the Morrison government’s $600 million investment in building a gas-fired power plant.
Net Zero: Australia doubles down on gas-fired recovery By iPolitics. Published on May 19, 2021 12:22pm
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The Lead
The new plant is part of the government’s “gas-fired recovery” from the pandemic, and is needed to avoid “unacceptable price increases,” Australian Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said in a statement.
Morrison government to spend $600 million on new Hunter Valley gas power plant 9news.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 9news.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Liberal Party is full of Dries, and dripping Wet policies
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One policy area demonstrates the weakness of fiscal conservatives within the modern Liberal Party more than any other: superannuation.
The Morrison government’s decision, in this year’s budget, to allow the proportion of wages set aside for compulsory savings to rise from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent was a repudiation of Liberal backbenchers who once would have been known as “Dries”.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s colleagues do not refer to him as a fiscal conservative.
Alex Ellinghausen
The policy environment seemed ripe for change. An independent review had argued persuasively that superannuation increases would come from wages. Even the superannuation lobby conceded the point. Weak wages growth was, and continues to be, one of the biggest economic challenges.