by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Emmanuel Macron
Sydney : Visiting French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the Australian government to intensify its efforts in the fight against climate change and expressed his concern for the future of the countries in the Pacific.
“Numerous states in the Pacific are at direct risk of disappearing completely in only a few years if we do not take action,” Macron said at a dinner on Tuesday night at the Sydney Opera House, attended by the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife as well as French politicians, businessmen and expatriates.
Macron stressed that the fight against climate change is an “absolute priority” and urged the Turnbull administration to show the “power of conviction” in confronting this global issue, despite the opposition they may face, reports Efe news.
“I am aware of the political and economic debate surrounding this problem in the country, and I respect it, but I believe that the real leaders are those who can respect existing interests and at the same time decide to participate in something broader and more strategic,” the president said.
“There is no Planet B,” Macron said, stressing that the fight against climate change is an “historic opportunity”.
Australia committed in the Paris Accord to reducing its emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from the 2005 levels by 2030, a target that Canberra says it will meet “without compromising economic growth and jobs”.
On Wednesday morning, Macron joined a special ceremony honouring Australian and French war veterans in Sydney.
It is expected that later Wednesday the two leaders will discuss the growing influence of China in the Pacific, where France maintains overseas territories, as well as the Iran nuclear deal.
Regarding trade, Macron and Turnbull are expected to discuss France’s resistance against a potential free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union (EU).
Although not on the agenda, it is expected that both leaders will also talk about the contract of French company Naval Group (DCNS) to build Australia’s new fleet of 12 submarines in the shipyards in the southern city of Adelaide.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, World
Canberra : Australia’s Royal Commission into misconduct of the financial sector began its first public hearing on Tuesday with a focus on residential mortgages, car finance, and credit cards.
Several major banks, including the National Australia Bank (NAB), the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ, as well as other financial entities, are among the institutions facing the investigation of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, reports Efe news.
Evidence will be presented to the Commission in the next two weeks that consumers have not always been treated fairly and honestly when they received the loans through bad practices such as the alleged manipulation of interest rates.
The assistant counsellor of the inquiry, Rowena Orr, said that residential mortgages represent about two-thirds of total loans granted by Australian banks.
Currently, there are more than $AUS 1.7 billion ($1.33 billion) in outstanding mortgages, according to Orr.
The Commission will seek to determine at hearings in Melbourne the reasons behind unfair lending, although it is feared that hundreds of alleged victims will not appear for fear of legal retaliation by banks and other and financial institutions.
Cases of improper lending have already been addressed by banks and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, resulting in many cases in fines against banks and refunds to clients.
The Australian government established the Royal Commission last November to inquire into financial sector misconducts after months of pressure from the opposition Labor Party and the Green Party.
The opposition parties were later backed by some officials from the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who at first opposed the initiative.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Canberra : At least 57,000 illegal firearms were handed in during the three-month national gun amnesty period in Australia, which would help prevent their use in terrorist acts, official sources said on Thursday.
The national gun amnesty, from July 1 to September 30, 2017, was the first of its kind since 1996, when 35 people were shot dead in Port Arthur, Tasmania, reports Efe news.
Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity Angus Taylor said the results exceeded his expectations and added that almost 2,500 of the total firearms delivered were semi-automatic or fully-automatic.
The minister also expressed satisfaction over the large number of firearms seized from the “grey market”, referring to unregistered weapons owned by criminals.
About a third of the total weapons, most of them rifles, were destroyed.
This was the first nationwide campaign on illegal firearms since the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, which left 35 people dead in 1996, prompting purchases of almost 700,000 illegal weapons as part of the gun control laws enacted after the tragedy.
After the Port Arthur incident, the Australian Government approved the current National Firearm Agreement, which regulates gun control in the country through a firearm-licensing system and prohibits the sale of all automatic and semi-automatic weapons.
Due to this law, the number of gun-related crimes in Australia has shrunk considerably.
Australia has suffered several terrorist attacks involving firearms, including the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis in which two hostages and the gunman were killed, and the 2015 Parramatta shooting, in which a 15-year-old boy shot and killed an accountant of a police station in New South Wales.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Canberra : The Australian government has spent more than $8 billion on weapons and military equipment from the US in the past four years, a report has found.
More than half of the money was spent on Information Technology (IT), telecommunication, broadcasting, engineering and research contracts, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) analysis, released on Thursday, found that from 2012-13 through 2016-17, $8.01 billion were spent by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) on US Foreign Military Sales (FMS).
The sales were administered by the US Department of Defence which has responsibility over the transfer of American equipment and weapons.
Andrew Davies, a defence expert from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), said the figure was not surprising considering technological advancements within the ADF.
“We’ve been buying a lot of systems, from America in particular, because we’re in the middle of recapitalising the Air Force and also buying weapons that help support the operations in Iraq and Syria,” Davies said.
Although, the government has announced its intention to create a sovereign defence industry, Davies said that the defence force would continue to rely on the US for the foreseeable future.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodity Market, Investing, Large Enterprise, World
Canberra : Australia’s Port of Newcastle, the world’s biggest coal port, has announced a transition away from fossil fuels, saying “continued investment in Australian coal is a losing proposition”.
It said on Sunday that the long-term outlook for coal was a threat to the port and it needed to diversify its business.
Rob Henderson, a former chief markets economist at the National Australia Bank (NAB), said the Port of Newcastle’s announcement was indicative of the shift underway in the world of power generation and investment.
“Newcastle, the world’s largest coal port, is now transitioning to a lower carbon world and is actively planning for the time when less of the Hunter’s wealth and income will be generated from coal,” he said in a statement on Monday.
“It should reaffirm to investors that the transition away from coal is taking place rapidly now, that continued investment in Australian coal is a losing proposition in the medium to long term and that diversification is critical.”
The Port of Newcastle is currently the world’s largest coal export port by volume. It is the economic and trade centre for the resource rich Hunter Valley in Australia, an area blessed with enormous agriculture, viticulture and tourism export opportunities.
Coal exports currently represent just under 90 per cent of tonnage through the port. It currently handles more than 2,258 ship visits per annum.
Roy Green, who was appointed chairman of the Port of Newcastle on Sunday, said the port would pursue a strategy of diversification with a new container port and cruise terminal in the pipeline.
“Coal has been at the heart of the Hunter’s economy for the better part of two centuries, and it will continue to be central to the prosperity of the region and Port of Newcastle for some time to come,” Green said. “However, there is also an urgent need to diversify the Hunter economy and the port’s business.”
Henderson, the former Chief Economist (Markets) at NAB, said: “Renewables seem to have reached a tipping point, with many countries now reporting that the cost of electricity supply is coming in well beneath present tariffs for coal fired power.”
“The economics of rising relative costs of coal generation is driving investors away from fossil fuels, especially coal, towards wind, solar and hydro. This shift will only accelerate ahead.”
“Of course, this means that the government’s continued backing for the mega Adani coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin is backing a dead horse. The government should rule out NAIF funding for Adani and follow the Port of Newcastle’s lead by using NAIF funds for environmentally sustainable and economically justifiable projects in Northern Australia.”
“The Port of Newcastle if following the money trail, by adopting the position taken by major Australian banks, including my former employer NAB, over recent weeks, who have sought to distance themselves from financial ties with new coal projects and focus on the growth industries of the future,” Henderson added.
—IANS
