Bowen’s alone on EV plan
The Albanese Government must reconsider its “overly ambitious” emissions standards for new vehicles, an automotive expert has warned, after it was revealed that the US was walking away from its own plans to force Americans into electric cars.
The US is reportedly planning to relax strict vehicle emissions rules designed to make around two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the US fully electric by 2032.
While the federal government has not finalised its own targets, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has frequently referred to the US model in promoting emissions targets.
Tony Weber, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, said the US appeared to be rethinking.
“I did not think the government’s preferred position was possible before this news, and I certainly don’t think it is after this,” he said. Mr Weber pointed out that the US scheme was also based on subsidies to purchasers and manufacturers, which Australia was not contemplating.
A High Court judge presiding over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s final appeal asked if the 52-year-old could be extradited to Australia as it was revealed he was the subject of a CIA murder plot for exposing state-level crimes.
A five-hour hearing in London heard the Townsville-born activist’s legal team argue he was the subject of a CIA murder plot for exposing statelevel crimes in US president Barack Obama’s reign, and his successor Donald Trump had requested options to kill him.
Judge Dame Victoria Sharp asked if extraditing Assange to Australia was an option, to which Assange’s lead lawyer Edward Fitzgerald replied it was “too late” and he could only be sent once he had been tried. Speaking after the hearing, the barrister said: “The damage by then would have been done; he can only go to Australia once he has been tried … it’s too late to extradite him to Australia.”
KC for Assange, Mark Summers, told the court there was evidence of a “truly breathtaking plan” to kidnap or murder the activist while he was in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he had sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden, and claimed Mr Trump had asked for “detailed options” to kill him.
“Senior CIA officials requested plans, the president (Trump) himself requested being provided with options on how to do it and sketches were even drawn up,” Mr Summers told the court. In written submissions, Mr Fitzgerald said if Assange was extradited, he would be trailed with “tainted evidence” and by jurors “prejudiced irretrievably by public denunciations of him made by the President downwards”.
He argued Assange was at risk of extrajudicial action – meaning he could be assassinated or harmed after receiving a fair trial in America.
Outside the court, Assange’s wife Stella likened her husband’s case to Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly in prison on Friday while serving a 30-year jail term. “Julian is a political prisoner and his life is at risk,” she said outside court where crowds of thousands chanted for his release. “What happened to Navalny can happen to Julian.” If convicted in the US, Assange faces a 175-year sentence but is likely to serve between 30 to 40 years.