Australia news as it happened: More parliamentarians embroiled in expenses scandal; Teens face day two of social media ban

Residents in an area bounded by Welshpool Road East, Tonkin Highway, Kenwick Road, Brixton Street and Roe Highway are under an emergency warning alert.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has urged those fleeing the area to head south towards Albany Highway and to take an emergency kit.

Those who cannot flee or have chosen to stay need to shelter in their homes before the fire arrives.

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But they have angered conservation groups worried about the impact that more gas drilling will have on the marine environment, and those who fear that increasing gas supplies will make it harder to combat climate change. Gas is a key source of carbon dioxide and methane emissions, which are contributing to dangerous levels of global warming.

“It’s deeply disturbing that while parts of our country are on fire, fuelled by climate heating and burning of fossil fuels, the Albanese government is mindlessly paving the way for new gas drilling,” said Fern Cadman, a campaigner at the Wilderness Society.

“Australia is meant to be on a path transitioning away from fossil fuels, not opening the door to brand-new gas.”

Households across Australia are increasingly switching from gas appliances to electric alternatives, driving forecasts that residential gas demand will fall 30 per cent over the next 10 years. However, that shift is not happening fast enough to offset a supply crunch.

The energy market operator has warned Victoria and NSW are headed for shortfalls by 2029 because old gas fields in the Bass Strait are being rapidly depleted with not enough new gas projects available to replace them.

On Thursday, the federal government said addressing shortfalls was particularly critical for manufacturers that needed gas to for their kilns and furnaces or as a feedstock, and “cannot transition to alternatives in the short to medium term”.

The government is also expected to imminently announce a domestic gas reservation scheme, which would force Queensland gas exporters to hold back a prescribed volume for the local market only.

The new offshore drilling areas announced on Thursday were in deep, wild ocean in a region containing threatened species and whale habitats, Cadman said. “They include geologically unstable deep-water submarine canyon systems, where gas drilling is high risk and a spill would be catastrophic,” she said.

An Optus spokesperson told this masthead this afternoon that the outage, which affected customers in the Warrnambool and Southern Grampians areas, was caused by “dual fibre breaks” which occurred at about 2pm.

“About 30,000 services were impacted until the network was restored before 8pm,” the spokesperson said.

“Customers needing to call Triple Zero were able to connect via an alternative carrier.”

The commissioner would reveal the platforms’ responses within two weeks, and they would be required to provide monthly updates for six months.

The companies face fines of up to $49.5 million if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16.

Wells said the European Commission, France, Denmark, Greece, Romania, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand were considering following Australia’s lead in restricting children’s access to social media.

“There has been a huge amount of global interest, and we welcome it, and we welcome all of the allies who are joining Australia to take action in this space to draw a line to say enough’s enough,” Wells said.

AP