Australia news LIVE: Ley concedes new coal-fired power plants ‘highly unlikely’; Miners, farmers and business groups plead for deal on environmental laws

Big miners, farmers and business groups are pleading with Labor and the Coalition to get a deal done on a long-delayed overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws.

Displaying a united front, a coalition of heavy hitters from the Business Council to the Minerals Council of Australia and the Farmers’ Federation has written to the two major parties urging them to drop their differences.

“We need to accelerate the delivery of housing, energy and critical minerals projects while also strengthening the protection of nature,” BCA chief Bran Black said.

Environment Minister Murray Watt during a doorstop interview at Parliament House in Canberra.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Key changes are needed so the unacceptable impacts test doesn’t go further than intended. We need to fix the broad and complex criteria so we don’t knock out projects that should rightly be assessed, not outright rejected.”

Parliament will resume next week for the last time before the long summer break.

Environment Minister Murray Watt has been prioritising a deal with the Coalition, but it is not clear if Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is willing to back Labor on a bill that some conservatives worry could lead to more renewables projects being built in the regions.

In Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s final interview of her marathon Monday media blitz to promote the Coalition’s energy policies, she conceded to ABC’s 7.30 that coal-fired power plants were “high unlikely” to stack up economically.

“The point is that it has to stack up,” Ley said when pushed on whether new coal-fired plants could be subsidised under a “technology agnostic” plan.

“There’s nothing on the table that looks remotely like it will at this point in time.”

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Later in the interview, she again appeared to rule out any plans for new coal, instead emphasising the need to release more gas into the domestic market.

“We won’t be building coal-fired power stations, and there are no proposals for new coal, recognising that existing coal assets are being kept open for longer.”

Moderates on the Sunday dial-in meeting to finalise the Coalition policy objected to allowing the possibility of funding coal plants in the future but were overruled.

The policy released on Sunday said the Coalition supported “both new and existing generation (including gas, hydro, batteries, coal and renewables in the right place) with modest, targeted underwriting to keep prices down and ensure investment happens when and where it is needed.”

In an interview on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, deputy leader of the Nationals Kevin Hogan twice backed the possibility of underwriting new coal plants, saying “there are lots of coal-fired power stations being built in the world right now that are high-energy, low-emission. There will be guidelines”.

Asked by 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson if she could guarantee she would still be the opposition leader at the next election, Ley said “absolutely”.

“I am the leader and was elected six months ago.”

Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, November 18. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage throughout the first part of the day. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.

• Opposition Leader Sussan Ley conceded last night that coal-fired power plants were “highly unlikely” to stack up economically, following the Coalition’s new joint energy policy released on Sunday which said the Coalition supported “both new and existing generation (including gas, hydro, batteries, coal and renewables in the right place) with modest, targeted underwriting to keep prices down and ensure investment happens when and where it is needed.”
• Big miners, farmers and business groups are pleading with Labor and the Coalition to get a deal done on a long-delayed overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws. A coalition of heavy hitters from the Business Council to the Minerals Council of Australia and the Farmers’ Federation has written to the two major parties urging them to drop their differences to have the reforms passed.
• The Trump administration’s prosecution of one of President Donald Trump’s top political enemies was dealt a major blow after a judge made a rare intervention upon finding “government misconduct” may have tainted the case. Former FBI director James Comey, who oversaw probes into Hillary Clinton’s emails and the alleged ties between Trump associates and Russia in 2016, was indicted on criminal charges in September, days after Trump publicly instructed Attorney-General Pam Bondi to expedite the prosecution of several political enemies. But overnight, magistrate William Fitzpatrick identified several irregularities with Comey’s indictment, and, in what Fitzpatrick himself described as a rare and extraordinary move, ordered all grand jury evidence to be unsealed and handed over to Comey.

• A tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to death yesterday after convicting her of crimes against humanity, including murder and ordering the use of lethal weapons against protesters during the student uprising that ultimately ousted her last year.

Stay with us here as we bring you rolling news updates throughout the day.