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Infrastructure

Yesterday

Queues at Tullamarine Airport International Terminal in Melbourne.

Melbourne Airport flags $4.5b investment in international terminal

The airport’s capital expenditure program is set to ramp up, sparking tensions with big airlines over passenger charges.

  • Ayesha de Kretser

This Month

Industrial action by tug workers could disrupt LNG exports from Gladstone over the next two weeks.

Gladstone industrial action threatens LNG exports

Any disruption to shipments from the Queensland port could temporarily boost gas supplies for the domestic market just as the ACCC is warning of potential shortages in the southern states.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Rooftop solar adoption has taken off.

Vic minimum solar tariffs to be slashed close to zero

Solar households in Victoria will hardly get anything for exports to the grid under a regulatory proposal that reflects the shrinking value of power on sunny days.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the Capacity Investment Scheme will help Australia achieve its 2030 climate targets.

Green power scheme’s flaws emerge after making crucial progress

Action is needed to turbocharge the build-out of clean generation, but the shortcomings in Labor’s game plan mean 2030 climate targets remain in doubt.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Katrina Sedgwick says the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation Project is about “the identity of the city”.

Former child actor becomes producer of a $1.7b show

Katrina Sedgwick played the first HIV-positive character on Australian TV. Now she’s running the $1.7 billion Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation Project.

  • Michael Bleby
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Emma Shipley has been appointed managing director of contractor Roberts Co.

Roberts Co names Emma Shipley MD, George Kostas as chair

The Rich Lister-owned building contractor gave little detail about the resignation of its previous CEO Matt Bourne just before Christmas.

  • Michael Bleby
Jim Chanos has been long been a bearish investor, and once oversaw a portfolio of more than $11 billion.

The wall of money heading for data centres has short-sellers excited

High-profile fund manager Jim Chanos says there’s too much exuberance about the sector and developers see only growing demand driven by artificial intelligence.

  • Tess Bennett
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in Rockhampton with Minister Catherine King, Senator Nita Green and Labor’s candidate for Capricornia, Emily Mawson.

PM ignored independent adviser on Queensland road spend

A bypass project that Anthony Albanese visited to spruik a $7.2 billion Bruce Highway outlay had failed a cost-benefit assessment by Infrastructure Australia.

  • John Kehoe
Laura Caspari, Managing Director of renewables at Engie

Engie woos data centres to set up near wind and solar farms

The French utility giant has ambitious plans to help meet Australia’s clean energy targets, but its executives say we need to think outside the box to get there.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

December 2024

Southern is under pressure to carry out more infrastructure works, but its owner, Macquarie, will be able to increase how much it charges customers considerably.

Macquarie’s embattled UK water asset gets go-ahead to jack up bills

Southern Water’s debt was downgraded to junk status this year, and regulators have prevented the company from paying its Australian owner any dividends.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
APA’s AGM in October attracted protesters concerned about the development of Beetaloo gas.

New pipeline unlocks Beetaloo gas for NT customers in 2026

A deal signed with pipeline owner APA Group looks set to stoke controversy over the development of a massive new onshore gas resource.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Australian Retirement Trust’s head of global real assets Michael Weaver has signed another investment to cap a big year.

The $330b fund busting big super’s ‘buy and hold’ myth

Australian Retirement Trust’s real assets arm has been the biggest driver of infrastructure and utilities deals in Australia and New Zealand this year.

  • Anthony Macdonald
Loscam previously attempted to hive off its Australian business via Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Brookfield in advanced talks to buy Loscam Asia-Pacific division

While there have been plenty of false starts in the efforts of Loscam’s owners to exit the business, sources said the transaction was on track to sign soon. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Much less new transmission would be needed under the Coalition’s nuclear plan.

Dutton’s nuclear costings underpinned by ‘distorted numbers’

Critics point to what they call four miscalculations in the modelling by Frontier Economics.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Greg Boorer, CEO and founder of CDC Data Centres

CDC Data Centres $16b sale off to the races; three big funds prep bids

Kyle Mangini, the global head of IFM Investors’ $110 billion infrastructure business, will be the one to watch.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
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Sailing into uncharted territory? Queensland needs to abandon past procurement models and embrace public private partnerships to deliver the Olympics infrastructure it needs, consultancy Arcadis says.

Queensland may have to tap private funds for Olympic projects

With construction cost growth outstripping Sydney and Melbourne, Brisbane 2032 might need private consortia to deliver and operate Games infrastructure.

  • Michael Bleby
Potentia Energy CEO Werther Esposito in Sydney on Friday.

Revamped Potentia Energy scours market for big battery investments

The company once known as Enel Green Power Australia has plenty of cash to splash on renewable assets.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy is about to be tested.

CSIRO doubles down on nuclear power as too costly, slow

The science agency’s latest report on future energy needs comes just ahead of the long-awaited costings for Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy policy.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
for sale sign: The Victorian government wants to sell the operating rights to its Mt Baw Baw and Lake Mountain alpine resorts. 

Why Victoria will struggle to sell Mount Baw Baw alpine resort

More than one-third of the resort’s commercial sites are vacant and it doesn’t have enough power to use them all, business owners say.

  • Michael Bleby
A BHP pilot boat near the mining giant’s iron ore facilities at Port Hedland in the Pilbara.

The Pilbara plots its path from diesel to clean, green mining

Port Hedland is bang in the middle of the country’s industrial engine. There are ambitious plans to decarbonise with miles of transmission and new generation.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/infrastructure-hqi