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The Albanese Government has marked a significant milestone in delivering Australia’s future surface combatant fleet today, with the laying of the keel for the first Hunter class frigate at South Australia’s Osborne Naval Shipyard. 

Honouring a centuries-old naval tradition, the keel laying sees a coin placed beneath the keel of the ship to bestow good fortune on the vessel during its construction and throughout its life at sea. 

Construction of the Hunter class frigates is part of the Albanese Government’s commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding in South Australia and the delivery of a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet for the Royal Australian Navy. 

The Hunter class will provide Navy with an advanced anti-submarine warfare capability, one of the most important capabilities for Australia’s maritime security, and strengthen our ability to operate alongside allies and partners. 

This program, being delivered by BAE Systems Maritime Australia, is directly supporting more than 2,500 jobs, with the majority of the workforce based in South Australia. An additional 5,000 Australian industry jobs are being supported through the supply chain for the build. 

The Hunter class fleet will also integrate Australian‑made radar technology and advanced combat system elements from the United States.

Construction of 20 of the first ship’s 22 blocks is already underway, which will see the Royal Australian Navy receive the first Hunter class frigate in the early 2030s.

Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles:

“Today’s milestone is a vital step forward for the Australian workers building these ships, the men and women who will serve on them, and our nation’s future maritime security.

“The laying of the keel for the first Hunter class frigate demonstrates tangible progress in the delivery of a more capable, lethal and resilient surface combatant fleet for Australia.

“The Hunter class frigates will provide a world-class anti-submarine warfare capability, designed to operate in complex maritime environments.”

Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:

“This Hunter class frigate program is already supporting thousands of high-skilled and well-paid jobs. So, this is a landmark moment that demonstrates Australia already has the skilled workforce needed to undertake complex projects like this. 

“The Hunter class frigate program is a critical part of the Albanese Government’s plan for giving the Navy the capabilities it needs to help keep Australia safe. It’s also about supporting continuous naval shipbuilding and contributing a secure future made in Australia.

“Through the construction of the Hunter frigates, we are strengthening South Australia’s role as a national centre for complex naval shipbuilding and supporting skilled Australian jobs across the broader national supply chain.”

Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas:

“This is a momentous day for South Australian shipbuilding.

“More than 2,500 highly skilled men and women are now working at Osborne building the Hunter Frigates, a massive undertaking that represents the start of continuous naval shipbuilding here in Adelaide.

“BAE have almost 600 tradespeople now working on this project — some of them young people trained up at our remarkable Technical Colleges, and now locked into well paid, interesting lifelong careers. And there’s still AUKUS to come.

“Recruiting the workforce for these tasks represents a massive challenge. But it is also a massive opportunity for our state, and we are working hand in hand with the Albanese Government to ensure we can capitalise on it.”

The Victorian Greens say explosive new forecasts showing data centres could consume 13 per cent of electricity on the national grid within a decade make it clear that Labor must immediately halt its reckless fast-tracking of new data centres. 

New AEMO forecasts show the number of proposed data centres seeking to connect to the national electricity market has more than doubled in just a year, from 97 to 225.

By 2036, data centres are now expected to consume 34TWh of electricity – almost as much as every household in Victoria and NSW currently uses combined.

The Greens say the extraordinary revision shows governments have completely underestimated the speed and scale of the data centre boom, while the Victorian Labor Government has been actively courting the industry and fast-tracking new developments.

The Victorian Greens have introduced legislation to Parliament for an immediate moratorium on new large-scale data centres while proper rules are put in place around energy, water, planning and community impacts.

In addition, they have put forward a parliamentary documents motion and FOI requests for any modelling forecasting the impacts of data centres including energy usage. 

Victorian Greens AI and data centres spokesperson, Dr Sarah Mansfield:

“AEMO has just sounded the alarm on exactly what we’ve been warning about – the scale of this data centre boom is completely out of control. Labor has been approving first and asking questions later. These figures show how reckless that is. 

“In just twelve months the number of projects in the pipeline has more than doubled and forecasts for their electricity use have skyrocketed. Yet Labor’s response in Victoria has been to roll out the red carpet and fast-track as many as possible.

“We are trying to replace coal, electrify homes and businesses and bring power bills down. Allowing multinational tech corporations to suddenly swallow 13 per cent of the grid fundamentally changes that task.

“Ben Carroll should close the floodgates he’s swung open for Big Tech and instead support the Greens’ moratorium today. Anything short of that is Labor saying they are fine with watching Victorians bills go up and our clean energy transition put at risk.” 

The Greens welcome today’s announcement that Youth Action will lead the first statewide mapping of youth spaces across NSW, but say the NSW Government must fund the gaps it finds. 

Youth Action will lead the statewide project, funded by the NSW Office for Youth, mapping youth hubs and informal gathering spaces where young people connect, participate and access support across NSW. 

NSW Greens spokesperson for Youth and Mental Health, Dr Amanda Cohn, says the findings can only make a difference to young people if the NSW Government commits to funding the gaps it uncovers. 

Dr Cohn said the mapping was a welcome first step, which will highlight many of the gaps we already know exist, like safe spaces for young people who are LGBTQIA+, or living in regional communities. 

“It will come as no surprise when this mapping project identifies significant gaps where young people don’t have spaces to connect safely in the community.” 

“The government has funded this research project, but they must also commit to funding the gaps that research identifies for it to have any impact.” 

“This investment would make an enormous difference for the mental health and wellbeing of young people, as well as preventing escalation to crisis.” 

The Victorian Greens say explosive new forecasts showing data centres could consume 13 per cent of electricity on the national grid within a decade make it clear that Labor must immediately halt its reckless fast-tracking of new data centres. 

New AEMO forecasts show the number of proposed data centres seeking to connect to the national electricity market has more than doubled in just a year, from 97 to 225.

By 2036, data centres are now expected to consume 34TWh of electricity – almost as much as every household in Victoria and NSW currently uses combined.

The Greens say the extraordinary revision shows governments have completely underestimated the speed and scale of the data centre boom, while the Victorian Labor Government has been actively courting the industry and fast-tracking new developments.

The Victorian Greens have introduced legislation to Parliament for an immediate moratorium on new large-scale data centres while proper rules are put in place around energy, water, planning and community impacts.

In addition, they have put forward a parliamentary documents motion and FOI requests for any modelling forecasting the impacts of data centres including energy usage. 

Victorian Greens AI and data centres spokesperson, Dr Sarah Mansfield:

“AEMO has just sounded the alarm on exactly what we’ve been warning about – the scale of this data centre boom is completely out of control. Labor has been approving first and asking questions later. These figures show how reckless that is. 

“In just twelve months the number of projects in the pipeline has more than doubled and forecasts for their electricity use have skyrocketed. Yet Labor’s response in Victoria has been to roll out the red carpet and fast-track as many as possible.

“We are trying to replace coal, electrify homes and businesses and bring power bills down. Allowing multinational tech corporations to suddenly swallow 13 per cent of the grid fundamentally changes that task.

“Ben Carroll should close the floodgates he’s swung open for Big Tech and instead support the Greens’ moratorium today. Anything short of that is Labor saying they are fine with watching Victorians bills go up and our clean energy transition put at risk.” 

Tomorrow’s National Cabinet must show that governments will act on the scale of the epidemic of violence in Australia, before it is too late. 

Two years ago, prompted by public outrage over a rise in women being murdered and assaulted the federal government commissioned a Rapid Review and convened an urgent National Cabinet meeting to address gendered violence.  

Despite the urgency required, many of the commitments made at that National Cabinet meeting remain unfinished or ignored, with Women’s Safety Ministers recently giving themselves a further year to report back on progress.  

Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Leader and Spokesperson on Women said:

“In the last two weeks in Australia, we have been bombarded by devastating headline after devastating headline, each one leaving women feeling less safe in their communities. 

“Two years on from the last urgent National Cabinet meeting to address gendered violence, commitments remain unimplemented and underfunded. And they just gave themselves a one year extension to report – so much for this being an urgent crisis.

“Tomorrow’s National Cabinet must commit to fully fund frontline services so no woman or child is turned away when they seek to escape violence, and to increase funding for prevention work to address the worrying slide in attitudes to violence, particularly by young men. 

“Every day, underfunded services are forced to turn women away or put them on unacceptably long wait lists. Every week 225 women and children are turned away from crisis accommodation. Every barrier and delay is traumatic and makes women less safe.

“DV NSW has consistently called for a 50% uplift in funding, given referrals to frontline services have increased by at least 22% while the frontline DFSV workforce in NSW has been reduced by 12%. In Victoria, Safe and Equal estimates that a 62% funding increase is needed to fully meet demand in Victoria. In Queensland, the government has recently cut funding to prevention services, and threatened services who complained.

“We need to fully fund the frontline services that do the hard work to support the women and children who experience it, and invest more deeply in programs to prevent violence. 

“Too many women and children are being killed by violence, primarily by men and most often by someone known to them, to wait any longer. We don’t need more ideas, we need the funding and the political will to turn them into action. 

“The government seems to always be able to find money for war but when it comes to keeping women safe or helping us recover, Labor cries poor.”

“The Albanese government has been caught laying yet another tax landmine in its Budget to feed its spending addiction, and this time it’s targeting superannuation” said Shadow Treasurer, Tim Wilson.

Mr Wilson’s comments come in the wake of reporting in The Australian that Labor’s capital gains changes contain a hidden tax on superannuation. The Treasury estimates it will add $372 billion of new taxes to Australian’s retirement savings.

“The Albanese government can’t stop taxing because he can’t stop spending and our trillion dollar Treasurer keeps digging us into a debt hole”, Mr Wilson said. 

“On top of the taxes targeting small businesses, family savings, and rents, the Albanese government’s Budget has been filled with secret tax landlines that are being revealed:

• A death tax targeting family savings.
• A widow’s and divorce tax that hits family savings. 
• A hidden super tax that undermines family savings”.

“Labor thinks super is their money, and they’ll rig the rules to ensure Australian’s super goes into the funds their mates control, and tax anyone who wants to control their own retirement”.

“These tax hits are all about feeding the Prime Minister and Treasurer’s spending addiction which stokes inflation and destroys Australian’s standard of living”.