Industry News

Origin Energy has signed an agreement with the Santos-led Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project with 365 petajoules of gas across 10 years from 2015: about 7 per cent of its gas requirements.

The sale is estimated to be valued at $3 billion.

Origin Managing Director, Grant King said, “The gas sales agreement with GLNG will deliver significant value to Origin, opening an export channel to market for our legacy fuel reserves and allowing a more rapid monetisation of the resource in line with international oil-linked pricing.

"The transaction demonstrates the strength and value inherent in Origin's diverse and flexible portfolio of physical and contracted fuel resources, which has positioned the company to capitalise on the growing demand for gas in the energy markets of Asia," Mr King said.

Origin has a substantial reserves position with access to more than 2,500 PJe of contract rights and uncontracted 3P equity gas reserves. Origin also possesses gas development options on Australia's east coast including Ironbark (Queensland) and Halladale/Blackwatch (Victoria).

"Gas demand in eastern Australia is expected to triple over the next five years and Origin continues to invest in exploration and development in anticipation of this growth," Mr King said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Australia has the potential to become a future food superpower in an address to the Global Foundation in Melbourne.

"Just as we have become a minerals and energy giant, Australia can be a great provider of reliable, high-quality food to meet Asia's growing needs," she said.

"In doing this, we are not just an exporter of commodities but a partner in growing international markets and a provider of higher value products and services for the global food industry."

Ms Gillard’s also anticipates Australia providing methods for food production to Asia also.

"It's not just about more exports. It is about developing the systems and services that add extra value to them and participating in the development of a market-based solution to food security across the region," she said.

"Building our food processing industry so that it can supply Asia's growing consumer markets and developing the research, technologies and logistics that strengthen irrigation, grow higher-yield crops and improve safety."

"If you think the change we have lived through already in our region and in our nation is amazing, then hang on to your hats because so much more change is still to come," she said.

"Today, for example, 30 per cent of global output is created within 10,000 kilometres of Australia's shores. That may double by 2050."

Virgin Australia revealed the contemporary design of its new Airbus 330-200 aircraft.

The airline will receive the first two new aircraft direct from the manufacturer Airbus this month and a third later in the year, creating a fleet of five Airbus 330 aircraft by the end of 2012.

The aircraft will operate trans-continental services from Sydney and Melbourne to Perth and are ideally suited to medium-haul travel, with wide and spacious cabin interiors, lie-flat Business Class seats in a two-two-two configuration, luxury leather seating and LED mood-lighting throughout the cabin.

Virgin Australia Chief Executive Officer John Borghetti said the introduction of the new Airbus 330 product would take the standard of domestic travel to a new level in Australia.

“We are focused on becoming Australia’s airline of choice and key to that is creating a consistent experience of relaxation and comfort across all of our aircraft, complemented by the best of service.

“These new Airbus 330 aircraft will be the flagship of our domestic fleet, providing Business and Leisure travellers with the kind of experience that is valued on longer flights,” Mr Borghetti said.

The new aircraft is scheduled to go into service from 15 May 2012 and will form an important part of the Business Class end-to-end customer experience that includes kerbside valet parking; lounge access; award-winning in-flight entertainment and gourmet dining.

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) has appointed Dr John Skerritt as the new National Manager of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

The TGA  is responsible for regulating therapeutic goods including medicines, medical devices, blood and blood products.

Dr Skerritt has a PhD in Pharmacology and is an adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, and is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries in the Victorian Government.

Announcing the appointment, the Secretary of the DoHA, Professor Jane Halton, said Dr Skerritt has extensive experience in medical, agricultural and environmental policy, regulation, research, research management, technology application and commercialisation.


“Dr Skerritt currently leads more than 1200 staff (including 700 regulatory staff in two major science-based regulatory Divisions) and has more than 17 years experience managing laboratory programs and operations in diagnostics, cell culture, biomedical instrumentation, chemistry and biochemistry,” Professor Halton said. “He also has recent experience in the regulatory reform of veterinary drugs and agrochemicals, which includes chairing a national committee of Commonwealth and State Regulators. “


Dr Skerritt is the former Deputy CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (a commonwealth statutory authority) and a two term Ministerial appointee on the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee (Office of Gene Technology Regulator). He has experience on Boards of international and national organisations and more than 25 years experience in negotiating, leading major technical and commercial collaborations with OECD and Asia-Pacific countries.


He takes up the position at the TGA at the end of May 2012.

The Australian National University, the University of Canberra and the Southern General Practice Network have received joint funding of $31 million to improve medical care infrastructure in the Canberra region.

Awarded by the Department of Health and Ageing’s Health and Hospitals Fund, the funding will go towards upgrading clinical and training facilities in Moruya, Bega and Cooma. The project will also develop e-Health infrastructure to support shared medical records, local workforce education and specialist tele-health services for patients.  

Dean of the ANU Medical School Professor Nicholas Glasgow said the partnership has a strong focus on training medical, nursing, pharmacy and allied health students as future health professionals who will work in the region.

“The generous funds that are being provided by the Federal Government will support essential infrastructure including accommodation for medical and other health professional students training in the region, new clinical facilities and educational infrastructure” he said.

“It will also result in enhanced opportunities for our medical students to experience practice in rural and regional Australia. It provides really exciting opportunities for our students to work with students in other health disciplines, developing inter-professional working relationships across health disciplines.

Construction of the new training facilities will commence this year and is expected to be completed by 2014.

The Federal Court has found that Energy Watch Pty Ltd misled consumers in relation to its energy price comparison service and the savings that could be achieved using the service following action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The conduct occurred between January and September 2011 through an extensive advertising campaign.

The Court also found that its former CEO, Benjamin Polis, contravened the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) through his role as the voice-over in the radio advertisements.

Justice Marshall found that 80 Energy Watch advertisements misled consumers in contravention of sections 18(1), 29(1) and 34 of the ACL. They comprised of:

• 8 television advertisements broadcast in Melbourne and/or Brisbane,
• 9 radio advertisements broadcast in Brisbane,
• 33 print advertisements in The Age and Herald Sun newspapers,
• A wrap around to an issue of the AFL Record,
• Statements made on an Energy Watch website and other websites,
• 11 billboards in or around Melbourne; and
• Advertisements on a scoreboard at the MCG during 3 AFL games in the 2011 AFL season.

Justice Marshall described the representations as having been made with a view to ‘entice’ consumers to become customers of Energy Watch.

Energy Watch had represented in its advertising that it compared the rates of all or many of the energy retailers in a person’s area when in fact the service it provided was to compare the rates of a person’s current energy retailer with those of the energy retailers with which Energy Watch has commercial agreements in place (referred to as its preferred suppliers).

Energy Watch had also falsely represented that:

• It had an adequate basis to claim that it had saved residential customers $386 and business customers $1,878 in the 12 months following switching their energy retailer through Energy Watch;
• It would save residential and business customers those amounts in the 12 months following switching their energy retailer through Energy Watch.

“Energy Watch blatantly misled consumers about the service it provides and the savings they could obtain, as Energy Watch was earning commissions from its preferred suppliers for each customer who switched to them using the Energy Watch service,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

“Both residential and business energy users are increasingly sensitive about the cost of gas and electricity and are looking to reduce their cost. To take advantage of these consumers by misleading them in this manner is deplorable.”

“The ACCC will continue to work towards ensuring providers of energy price comparison services such as that provided by Energy Watch meet their obligations under the law and do not mislead consumers.”

A further directions hearing has been scheduled for Friday 25 May 2012 at 9am. The relief being sought by the ACCC includes declarations, injunctions, corrective advertising, civil penalties and costs. Civil penalties for corporations are up to $1.1 million and for individuals up to $220,000 for each contravention.

Australia’s  first National Centre of Research Excellence in Nursing has been launched at Griffith University's South Bank campus.

Griffith University Vice Chancellor, Professor Ian O'Connor, described nursing at Griffith University as a major teaching and research strength and said NCREN was a platform for the further development of clinical nursing research expertise in Australia.

More than 10,000 nurses have graduated from Griffith University.

NCREN has received $2.5 million funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council for an initial five-year program of research focused on skin integrity and symptom management.

Ten chief investigators, among them eight nurses, are leading the research which is building an unprecedented body of evidence to inform nursing practices into the future.

The centre is partnered with the Gold Coast, Princess Alexandra and Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospitals in southeast Queensland, and the partnerships have already also extended to the Prince Charles and Royal Children's hospitals in Brisbane.

The Money Market and Debt eXchange (MMADX) has announced it has appointed Michael Go as the company’s first executive director.

Mr Go joins the start up from the National Australia Bank, where he was global chief operating officer, global markets. Mr Go boasts a 25 year career in global markets, having worked with a number of heavy hitting financial services and banking companies.

MMADX has announced plans to launch in the second half of 2012 and will be the first fully electronic trading system operating in the Asia pacific for market securities and repurchase agreements.

“MMADX offers a fantastic opportunity to the market given the perfect regulatory environment for a business of this type,”  Mr Go told Global Custodian.

“The chance to help shape and build a business in the new regulatory world of financial markets is very exciting.”

The Australian High Court has ruled that seven former non-executive directors of beleaguered construction firm James Hardie breached corporate law by misleading the Australian Stock Exchange over its asbestos compensation fund.

The High Court upheld a previous 2009 ruling that found the non-executive directors acted deceitfully in approving a statement issued to the ASX that claimed sufficient amounts of funds had been allocated to the fund.

The previous finding supported accusations by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) that the company had under resourced the fund by more than $1.5 billion.

“We made it clear when launching these proceedings that the action was in the public interest as it would involve the responsibility of executives and non-executives when boards of public companies make important or ‘bet the farm’ type decisions,” ASIC Chairman Greg Medcraft said.  

Transurban’s CFO Tom Honan has announced his immediate resignation from the company and will br replaced by Samantha Hogg, three weeks after the appointment of Scott Charlton to the role of chief executive.

Ms Hogg, who has been with the company since her appointment as Treasurer in 2008, has been welcomed to the position by Chairman Lindsay Maxsted.

“I am delight that Sam has accepted the offer to become Transurban’s CFO. Sam has been an integral part of the executive leadership team over the last four years,” Mr Maxsted said.

Mr Maxstead praised the efforts of Mr Honan, describing him as ‘instrumental’ in guiding Transurban through the economic crisis.

“On behalf of the Board, I sincerely thank Tom and wish him the very best for the future. Tom leaves Transurban on an extremely solid financial footing,” Mr Maxstead said. 

The Acting Chair of the National Water Commission (NWC), Stuart Bunn, has released a position statement detailing the need for Australia to draw on its experience and knowledge to protect and sustain the unique water resources in the country’s north.

“Because the diverse hydrological and ecological systems in our north differ so much from other systems, development in northern Australia presents inevitable challenges for water management,” Mr Bunn said.

“We now have a historic opportunity to make sure that these largely undeveloped water systems support productive and healthy ecosystems, vibrant communities and rich Indigenous cultures.”

The position statement outlines five key principles to support the sustainable management of water resources as the region develops.

The key points are:

• Fully adopt and implement the National Water Initiative (NWI) water reform framework
• Undertake transparent and inclusive water planning as an essential prerequisite to effective water management
• Develop an informed and shared understanding of northern Australia’s unique water resources based on robust science and socio-economic information
• Recognise Indigenous interests in water planning and management
• Strengthen cross-jurisdictional institutions and forums across the north to support efficient and effective water management and planning

Transparent and inclusive water planning that balances development aspirations with environmental and cultural water requirements will be critical to building community confidence in decisions about how we share resources.

‘Achieving this will require an informed and shared understanding of northern Australia’s water resources based on robust science and socio-economic information.

The statement can be found here

The Federal Government has released a revised National Carbon Offset Scheme (NCOS), aiming to assist Australian businesses to offset their products with pollution reduction initiatives under the Federal Government’s Carbon Farming Initiatives (CFI).

The NCOS scheme was first introduced in 2010 to ensure national consistency and consumer confidence in the voluntary carbon market, and was revised following a review conducted in late 2011.

The Standard provides guidance on what is a genuine voluntary offset and sets minimum requirements for calculating, auditing and offsetting the carbon footprint of an organisation, product or event to achieve carbon neutrality.

"The NCOS provides a means of ensuring the integrity of the carbon offsets and carbon neutral products available in the Australian voluntary market for consumers and businesses alike," Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Mark Dreyfus said.

The NCOS has been revised in light of the Clean Energy Future package and the CFI, and provides increased opportunities for consumers and businesses to access domestic offsets under the Standard.

"Carbon credits created under the CFI can now be used to meet carbon neutral commitments under the NCOS, providing another market for landholders who voluntarily undertake greenhouse gas abatement activities," Mr Dreyfus said.

The revised Standard also allows carbon credits issued under the Government’s previous Greenhouse Friendly scheme to be used to offset emissions under the NCOS.

The revised Standard is available at National Carbon Offset Standard.

The CSIRO team behind one of the biggest developments in recent wireless local area networking technology has been named a finalist in the prestigious European Inventor Award 2012.

The team, comprising Dr John O’Sullivan, Dr Terry Percival, Diet Ostry, Graham Daniels and John Deane, have been nominated in the ‘Non-European countries’ category of the awards for developing the breakthrough technology which was the precursor to modern Wi-Fi.

The announcement marks only the second time an Australian team has ever been nominated as a finalist for the award.

“This is a great recognition for an invention that has transformed the way we work and live. We’re delighted that the inventors are being recognised through nomination for this award,” said Nigel Poole, CSIRO’s Acting Group Executive for Information Sciences.

“Australians can be proud that the rapid global expansion of indoor wireless communications is in part possible because of the WLAN technology invented by scientists at CSIRO.”

Winners of the 2012 award will be announced at an award ceremony in Copenhagen on 14 June. 

Trucking logistics 1^st Fleet has ceased trading after the company entered voluntary administration last week.

The news comes after around 1,000 of the company’s staff were locked out without warning. The appointed administrators, de Vreis Tayeh, have placed the company into liquidation.

“This is a regrettable outcome but de Vries Tayeh are working closely with the Transport Workers Union to assist 1st Fleet’s workforce in being placed with other employment,” read a statement on the de Vreis Tayeh website.

The company said the administrators are currently in negotiations with a number of possible buyers for the sale of some or all of the businesses segments.

The company has operations in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

A draft of the Productivity Commission’s Barriers to Effective Climate Change Adaptation report has found that local governments are likely to play a leading role in the relation to key risks, including longer term sea level rise.

The report concludes that state and territory governments will need to support local governments in adapting to the effects.

The Commission will be holding public hearings in July and is seeking responses to its draft recommendations and a number of information requests contained in the draft report. A final report will be submitted to the Australian Government in September 2012.

The draft can be found here

Insurance group QBE has announced a series of major changes to its Group Executive structure following the announcement of Frank O’Halloran’s retirement form the role of Group Chief Executive Officer and John Neal’s appointment to the role effective this August.

In addition to Mr Neal and Mr O’Halloran, the Group Executive body will comprise:

• Steven Burns – Chief Executive Officer European Operations
• Neil Drabsche – Group Chief Financial Officer
• Colin Fagen – Chief Executive Officer Australian and New Zealand Operations
• John Rumpler – President and Chief Executive Officer North America Operations
• Jenni Smith – Group Executive Officer People and Communications
• Jose Sojo – Chief Executive Officer Latin America Operations
• George Thwaites – Group Chief Risk Officer

With the exception of Mr O’Holloran, the Group Executive body will report directly to Mr Neal.

“The changes are an important step in our leadership transition. They put in place the team that will work with John Neal to lead the business into the future. I look forward to continuing to mentor John and the team over the next three and a half months,” Mr O’Holloran said. 

The Commonwealth Bank and the NAB have passed cuts to their standard variable mortgage rates after the Reserve Bank slashed the official cash rate by 50 basis points.

The CBA cut its rate by 40 basis points, taking it down to 7.01 per cent per annum, while the NAB cut its rate by 32 basis points, down to 6.99 per cent.

While the CBA and NAB have cut their rates, the ANZ will wait until next Friday to make any announcement on their rates. 

The Victoria Government has announced Melbourne’s Webb Dock will keep the roll-on, roll-off car export and import after an ‘extensive feasibility’ study found impediments to the move to the Port of Geelong.

State Minister for Port Denis Napthine said the Department of Transport had explored the possibility of shifting the car trade to Geelong, but had found ‘significant’ issues with a lack of inabilities of suitable land, as well as concerns regarding shipping issues.

"That report has now been finalised and unfortunately it found that this move would not be viable,” Dr Napthine said.

"These concerns include the lack of suitable land at the Port of Geelong which is required to conduct pre-delivery inspections on imported vehicles as well as to consolidate and prepare vehicles for export.

"Access to the shipping channel also proved to be an issue with ships facing delays due to restrictions in windy conditions, coupled with the fact the channel is one-way," Dr Napthine said.

Dr Napthine said after announcing the expansion of container capacity at Webb Dock, the Government had further discussions with the automotive industry who made it clear that they opposed any move to Geelong.

"The automotive industry made it clear that their preference was to relocate to a new location at Webb Dock where there is sufficient land and round-the-clock access for shipping lines," Dr Napthine said.

"Regrettably the lack of available land combined with channel access issues and strong opposition from the automotive trade mean the proposed relocation of the car trade to the Port of Geelong is neither feasible nor viable," Dr Napthine said.

The feasibility study can be found at: www.transport.vic.gov.au/freight/ports/port-of-geelong-feasibility-study/_nocache 

The Imperial College of London has announced a breakthrough in breast cancer research, detailing findings that reveal a strong connection between molecular, or ‘epigenetic’, changes and the risk of blood cancer, meaning that early detection of the disease could be only a blood test away.

The research, published in Cancer Research, involved a study of 640 women with breast cancer and 741 controls.  The research analysed blood samples of the women to find out whether the alteration of single genes by a process called methylation can predict whether women have an increased breast cancer risk.

Lead researcher Dr James Flanagan found that the women with the highest level of methylation on one area of a gene called ATM were twice as likely to get breast cancer as women with the lowest level. This result was particularly clear in blood samples taken from women under the age of 60.

Importantly, because this is the first study using blood taken on average three years before diagnosis and in some cases up to eleven years, it shows that the genes were not altered because of active cancer in the body or by treatments for cancer, which has been a problem with previous studies that took blood after diagnosis.

The findings show strong evidence of a connection between a certain type of epigenetic alteration and the development of breast cancer, in some cases indicators showing up three years before the presentation of symptoms.

“We know that genetic variation contributes to a person’s risk of disease. With this new study we can now also say that epigenetic variation, or differences in how genes are modified, also has a role,” Dr Flanagan said.

“We hope that this research is just the beginning of our understanding about the epigenetic component of breast cancer risk and in the coming years we hope to find many more examples of genes that contribute to a person’s risk. The challenge will be how to incorporate all of this new information into the computer models that are currently used for individual risk prediction.

The Tasmanian Government has received the final report on the review of the role and function of the Tasmania’s public VET providers from the commissioned consultant Virginia Simmons.

The review covers the current governance, funding and operational arrangements of public providers of VET in the state, including covering their capacity to improve participation.

 “The future of VET in Tasmania rests on the issues canvased by this review, and it is crucially important that we take the time necessary to ensure we move forward in a considered manner.

“It is my intention to consider in detail the recommendations contained in the report over the coming weeks, and release the report in full after a Cabinet decision has been reached.

The review was conducted by Virsis Consulting director, Virginia Simmons AO, a former director and CEO of the Chisholm Institute of TAFE and a Deputy Vice Chancellor (TAFE) and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Industry Relationships) at Swinburne University of Technology.

More information can be found here