Program: Warnings on power station closures

Sabra Lane: Good morning, welcome to AM. It's Monday the 1st of December. I'm Sabra Lane coming to you from Nipaluna, Hobart.

Australia's energy market operator known as AEMO fears the nation's electricity grid isn't prepared for the closure of Australia's largest coal-fired power station. Eraring Power Station in the New South Wales region, north of Sydney, is slated to close in 2027, but AEMO says this might have to be extended due to delays to critical infrastructure needed to ensure the smooth supply of renewable power. AEMO says it's been warning about the heightened risk for years, but without more investment it could be forced to rely on expensive fossil fuel generators, driving up costs for households and businesses. Daniel Westerman is AEMO's Chief Executive. Daniel Westerman, thanks for joining AM.

Daniel Westerman: Thanks Sabra.

Sabra Lane: The national grid is undergoing a massive transformation. This latest report from AEMO looks ahead to the next 10 years on reliability and system security. For everyday Australians, what's the difference there?

Daniel Westerman: Right, well it's a bit of a complex topic, but electricity grids around the world need to be both reliable and secure, and ours is no different. And when people consider the sort of future of the electricity system, often the focus is reliability, and that's whether there's enough energy generation to meet demand at any point in time. This report is specifically about system security, and system security is really whether the electricity grid can maintain a stable heartbeat and maintain its resistance to shocks and disturbances and be stable through those. And today we've released a report called the Transition Plan for System Security. It highlights the main transition points in the national electricity market over the next decade, and the collective actions that are really needed to enable that next phase of Australia's energy transition.

Sabra Lane: Right, we know that transformation is not a smooth process. What issues does AEMO see with, for example, the closure of the Eraring plant in New South Wales?

Daniel Westerman: Well, from a system security perspective, we've outlined the main transition points in the decade ahead, which really fall into two categories. So the first is that coal-fired power stations are retiring, and this is not new news. 10 have retired since 2012, and the remaining fleet are getting old. So there's a set of transition points that keep that steady heartbeat when each of those coal-fired power stations retire. Second, you know, there are 4 million homes out there with rooftop solar who have been just the driving force of the energy transition, and sometimes the flood of that power from rooftops can create a bit of a challenge for how the system operates. And so there's a set of transition points to manage those too. But what's really important here is that for each of those transition points, you know, system security is very well understood. The solutions are well known. This report builds on reports that we've published each year for many years now, but it does underscore the need for investment in the energy system.

Sabra Lane: Yeah. And to the particular point of that question, what does it mean in terms of the coal-fired plants closing or earmarked for closure in Eraring in New South Wales and Yallourn in Victoria?

Daniel Westerman: Well, for each of those transition points that considers the closure of a coal-fired power stations, and our coal power stations are getting old and they are retiring, we need to make sure that the grid has a steady heartbeat. And really, there are a set of investments made by transmission companies. You'll hear the name synchronous condensers. These are big spinning machines on the grid that really keep a stable heartbeat, and they need to be in place before the closure of major coal-fired power stations.

Sabra Lane: And at the moment, they're not scheduled to be ready on time?

Daniel Westerman: Well, as it stands today, and AEMO has been flagging the need for investment in these big spinning machines in each year since 2021, the currently installed date of those synchronous condensers is after the retirement date of Eraring as it's currently announced. But what I would say to listeners is that this is not new news. The New South Wales Government, Origin, the transmission company are all working together very collaboratively to make sure that there is no disruption to electricity consumers.

Sabra Lane: So, for example, there is the risk of blackouts there in Victoria and New South Wales if various people don't get their acts together and get these synchronous replacements in place?

Daniel Westerman: Well, these are highly technical reports. They're not... Yes, there's a series of kind of implications laid out for various different extreme events. What I would say, though, is that the Government, Origin and Transgrid, the transmission company are all working very collaboratively to make sure that there is no disruption to consumers.

Sabra Lane: I can't let this interview go by without asking. I mean, politically, there is a lot of debate. We hear people say, why can't you just extend the lives of these coal plants? Do you have a response to that?

Daniel Westerman: Well, the average age of our remaining coal-fired power stations is 38 years old. Ten have retired since 2012, and the average age of those is 44 years old. These coal plants are just getting old. They are going to retire. If they're not withdrawn, they're going to break. And we need to be ready for that. I don't think Australian consumers would expect... would allow for disruptions to the power system from old generators that had broken down without sufficient investment to replace them.

Sabra Lane: You also talked about four million households now having rooftop solar. That is, I mean, people do want to be more in control of their own power bills and source electricity as cheaply as possible. But getting so much of that into the grid as possible, is that also creating problems?

Daniel Westerman: The Australian story of rooftop solar has just been such a stunning success of our energy transition. Four million homes have rooftop solar, and now increasingly more and more have batteries and electric vehicles. Yes, there are periods of time when the sun shines incredibly brightly around the country, there are a very small number of occasions where that might be a bit too much power to the grid. And of course, grids can't have either too little or too much. And so those situations do need to be managed. But the tools exist. Batteries are very helpful in this situation. And there are plans for each of those transition points as well.

Sabra Lane: All right, Daniel Westerman, thank you very much.

Daniel Westerman: Thank you, Sabra.

Sabra Lane: And Daniel Westerman is the Chief Executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Australia's e-safety commission has issued a new warning for smart car owners, saying that they're being weaponised in domestic and family violence cases. Perpetrators are using the technology to track, intimidate and control their victims. It's prompted the federal government and safety advocates to intervene with calls for tech companies to do better and embed safety features in smart devices. Julia Bergin prepared this report.

Julia Bergin: Smart devices are used by almost everyone these days. Phones, watches, speakers, home security, vacuum cleaners, fridges and of course cars. They're all linked to the internet and that means they can be remote controlled on apps or cloud services. It means someone can set an alert, monitor a location and issue a command, all from afar. Australia's e-safety commissioner Julie Inman Grant says these technologies can pose a serious threat.

Julie Inman Grant: We've seen much more pernicious and creative misuses of technology like using a cat feeder to surveil your former partner or even remotely turning up the thermostat or locking the refrigerator to control when your former partner can eat or not.

Julia Bergin: Electric cars might save on emissions but abusers are turning their technology against their partners. Not just location tracking but also things like remotely unlocking doors, blasting horns and even making a car shut down.

Julie Inman Grant: In this particular case a few years ago a kill switch would go off every time the woman went more than a kilometre beyond her home so she basically had this very small environment where she could drop her kids off at school, go to the grocery store but couldn't do much beyond it.

Julia Bergin: In the past year the e-safety commission has had 400 calls for help and 20,000 requests for information on smart car abuse. It's prompted a new online safety advisory and a call to action to better support frontline services. Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin.

Micaela Cronin: The way technology is being weaponised changes all the time and it's increasing all the time.

Julia Bergin: Micaela Cronin says that makes it very difficult for frontline services to support victims especially when victims are unaware they're being controlled.

Micaela Cronin: The problem with technology facilitated abuse is that you don't know it's happening to you until you know and then it's often too late.

Julia Bergin: Federal Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek says better understanding of internet control goes hand in hand with better understanding coercive control.

Tanya Plibersek: I think a lot of people would be shocked to consider how often those bits of convenient tech that we all take for granted are actually being weaponised against victims of domestic violence.

Julia Bergin: But in the interim she wants to see more accountability from tech companies.

Tanya Plibersek: A lot of this tech facilitated abuse is about following people, spying on them, controlling them without their knowledge and I really do think that tech companies could do a lot better understanding how widespread this is, making sure that their products are designed in a way that makes them safe and keeps them safe.

Sabra Lane: The Federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek ending that report by Julia Bergin and Clare Armstrong. The Electric Vehicle Council was contacted for comment. If this story has raised issues for you, you can call 1800RESPECT that's 1800 737 732.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party has set up a youth wing with tens of thousands of protesters clashing with police. The political party secured a fifth of votes in a snap German election in February. The party's previous youth group was disbanded after intelligence services labelled it an extreme organisation. Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss reports from London.

Kathryn Diss: In the central German town of Giessen, chaos on the streets as a wall of protesters were met by riot police and water cannon. They're protesting the creation of a new youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany party and the election of its new leader. 6,000 police were sent to control the crowds, estimated to top 50,000.

Protester: And of course I'm here against the right wing. I believe we must take a stand and send a message that things should not go as far as they did almost 100 years ago.

Protester 2: We're here today because we have a very clear goal to prevent the founding of the AfD youth wing. This is a right-wing extremist youth organisation that is to be founded and we believe that this must not happen and we will prevent it.

Kathryn Diss: They may have disrupted the start of proceedings but the party was formed and 28-year-old Jean-Pascal Holm was elected leader.

Jean-Pascal Hohm: We are the generation that will save our homeland from decline. We are the generation that will take responsibility and fight with all the necessary determination to ensure that Germany has a great future. We are Generation Germany. Join us.

Kathryn Diss: I was in Germany ahead of the February poll and spoke to Dante Reidel, a representative from the youth movement. He wouldn't be drawn on why the organisation was being disbanded but gave me insight into the views they were spreading about masculinity and immigration.

Dante Reidel : We know how the algorithm works. The young men of Germany don't want to paint their nails, they want to work on their cars, they want to do martial arts. And this is the main reason why we are so successful.

Kathryn Diss: While the new chapter promises to be more mainstream, politics and education researcher Nina Kolleck from the University of Potsdam isn't convinced. She says bringing it into the main party, however, will help control its public messaging.

Nina Kolleck: Public messaging is more careful and more disciplined. Our idea remains similar to the past but that it's only the presentation to the outside which has changed now.

Kathryn Diss: After greatly increasing its vote share in the February poll to a fifth, national support for the AFD has continued to rise, with recent polling putting it at 27 per cent. This is Kathryn Diss in London reporting for AM.

Sabra Lane: The Pope has been welcomed in Lebanon by big crowds as he visits the Middle East during his first overseas trip as the head of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo says he's bringing a message of hope and solidarity to the region which has faced war and instability for the past two years. From Beirut, Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek reports.

Eric Tlozek: Lining Beirut's streets in the rain, Lebanese Christians wait for a glimpse of the Pope. Myrna Abi Moussa is one of many who thinks he's come at a particularly difficult time.

Myrna Abi Moussa: We have always, always, always stress about the situation. We have stress about the war.

Eric Tlozek: People waved the flag of the militant group Hezbollah as the Pope passed through the southern suburbs of Beirut. His visit has brought a brief reprieve from Israeli strikes against the group which fought a war with Israel last year. While Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim group, many Lebanese from the country's other sects say they're also badly affected by the situation. Catholics like Hassan Ayash hope the Pope's visit might help resolve it.

Hassan Ayash: Lebanon needs it. There are many problems. The fact the Pope is coming helps us to find solutions for this country, to help it prosper and to be peaceful and to be good and loving.

Eric Tlozek: At the St Michael Maronite Church north of Beirut, worshippers were preparing to see the Pope and attend a holy mass at the city's waterfront, near the site of an explosion which killed 218 people in 2020. Australian Lebanese retiree Joe Khoury, who used to live in Sydney, says he's heartened the Pope chose to come to Lebanon in a time of crisis.

Joe Khoury: At this time, everybody is talking about war and bad things are going to happen to this country. Just the fact of the Pope coming here, I think it's going to change the whole situation. It gives me assurance that we are not alone.

Eric Tlozek: The Vatican says the Pope is particularly excited to meet young Lebanese and Syrian Christians in a special session for youth leaders. Cub Scout leader Christy Eid is one of the young people who will be attending.

Christy Eid: It definitely means more to me, especially right now, because I think he's not just coming to do a regular visit, he's here and he's bringing peace with him, which is really what we're waiting for right now.

Eric Tlozek: Even Hezbollah has welcomed the Pope's visit, asking him to condemn Israel's actions. The group is refusing demands by the United States, Israel and the Lebanese government to disarm. Israel says it may escalate strikes further if Hezbollah doesn't surrender its weapons, setting the stage for a potential confrontation once the Pope finishes his tour and leaves Lebanon. From Beirut, this is Eric Tlozek reporting for AM.

Sabra Lane: Dogs have been banned for years on Christmas Island to protect the territory's rare and endangered wildlife but there is one lucky dog left. A Labrador has become marooned on the island in the Indian Ocean. She's never making sad eyes for a walk with residents eagerly volunteering. Alistair Bates reports.

Alistair Bates: A chocolate Labrador is an unlikely castaway on Christmas Island. So when five-year-old Shiloh walks down the street, heads turn.

Tanya Sehonwald: I hear this little voice in the distance, Shiloh! Not Tanya, Shiloh! It's become a bit of a routine now in the morning to walk with Shiloh to school. We have a small crowd of kids that come along.

Alistair Bates: Feral dogs were eradicated from the remote territory years ago and strict biosecurity laws have blocked the arrival of any domestic dogs since. But support coordinator Tanya Sehonwald says Shiloh is an exception.

Tanya Sehonwald: She came up as an assistance dog for someone with a disability to the island and at the time was the only dog, well still is the only dog on island and she caused quite a stir.

Alistair Bates: Tanya is Shiloh's de facto caregiver. That's because when Shiloh's owner moved back to the mainland, expensive relocation costs and lengthy quarantine rules meant she was left behind. Her work isn't finished though.

Tanya Sehonwald: I've recognised that there's a real need on the island as far as emotional support animals and Shiloh fits that bill. She's got that training.

Alistair Bates: Retiree Neesha Copley is one of Shiloh's most frequent dog walkers.

Neesha Copley: Where's your stick? You're not showing off your best side are you?

Alistair Bates: Today they've gone for a game of fetch at the beach.

Neesha Copley: We've always had dogs. I guess the unconditional love even that we don't know her, yet she'll sit here with us, she cuddles up to you, she gives you those big eyes. Just feels super super lucky to be able to be trusted with this beautiful girl.

Alistair Bates: Shiloh also pays regular visits to the Christmas Island Senior Citizen Centre. Where a community elder by the name of Uncle Tan spoils her rotten. Ratu Razad runs the centre. She says Shiloh brightens their days.

Ratu Razad: It's definitely a great thing when Shiloh comes to visit us because it really does brighten your mood doesn't it Uncle? How does it make you feel Uncle? Very happy.

Alistair Bates: This so-called community dog is likely to be the last of her kind on Christmas Island. In recognition of Shiloh's special job she's been granted one-off amnesty by local authorities. Tanya Sehonwald says Shiloh isn't going anywhere.

Tanya Sehonwald: I just expect her to continue to work with the community that's what her job is. She works with the community and gets to have lots of fun and hugs.

Sabra Lane: Christmas Island Support Services Coordinator Tanya Sehonwald, Alistair Bates the reporter there.

And that's AM for today. Thanks for your company. I'm Sabra Lane.