It's D-Day for the National Energy Guarantee – here's what to expect

Editor's note

It’s crunch time for the federal government’s National Energy Guarantee, as state energy ministers gather for what has been billed as a ‘deadline day’ meeting. Getting them all signed onto the flagship policy is a tricky prospect – each state and territory has its own energy issues, and crucially many Labor-led states are concerned that the policy will put the brakes on their own clean energy ambitions.

To make sense of these competing factions, we and the Grattan Institute have put together an interactive state-by-state guide, which details the likely approach that each government will take into the talks.

And speaking of interactives, today we’re publishing a fun drag-and-drop graphic that reveals how incomes, financial well-being, and housing stress have changed since 2001 for various “family types”, including singles or couples with no children. How has your household fared?

Michael Hopkin

Section Editor: Energy + Environment

Top story

Ministers at the last COAG Energy Council meeting, in April 2018. Some faces have since changed, while some states have entrenched their positions. AAP Image/James Ross

What’s your state’s position at the crucial National Energy Guarantee meeting?

Tony Wood, Grattan Institute

As energy ministers head into a crucial meeting with their federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg, our state-by-state guide compares their various stances on the future of the National Energy Guarantee.

Environment + Energy
Trees are made of human breath Cris Brack, Australian National University Urban trees are literally made with the help of human breath – they turn the carbon dioxide we breathe out into the building blocks of plant growth. So your local trees have a piece of you inside them.

Business + Economy

Interactive: how have your family’s fortunes changed? Use this drag-and-drop tool to find out

Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation

Use our drag-and-drop interactive to find out how incomes, financial wellbeing, and housing stress has changed since 2001 for various 'family types', including singles or couples without children.
Vital Signs: is the economy getting stronger? The RBA says ‘time will tell’

Richard Holden, UNSW

The new RBA monetary statement is just like the old one.
Paying an extra $150 million a year to protect growers? That’s bananas!

Gigi Foster, UNSW

Analysis suggests import restrictions on bananas in Australia are a classic rent‐seeking policy, leaving Australians to subsidise each grower by more than $250,000 a year.

Politics + Society

Australian media are playing a dangerous game using racism as currency

Denis Muller, University of Melbourne

The dilemma for the rest of the media is: to report or not to report? And how?
Grattan on Friday: Turnbull is trying to turn Emma Husar story into a Bill Shorten narrative

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra

Turnbull is weaving the extraordinary saga of this first term MP into the government's familiar narrative about Shorten - that he doesn't tell the truth and his workers-friend credentials are phoney.
Polls update: Trump’s ratings held up by US economy; Australian polls steady

Adrian Beaumont, University of Melbourne

As the US president brags about his approval ratings, an analysis of the poll numbers shows the upcoming mid-terms to be very tight races.
Why young women say no to rural Australia

Rae Dufty-Jones, Western Sydney University; Neil Argent, University of New England

Research shows that young women are more ambivalent than young men when it comes to employment opportunities and other reasons to relocate to rural communities.

Arts + Culture
Friday essay: The Meg is a horror story but our treatment of sharks is scarier Vivienne Westbrook, University of Western Australia The latest scary shark film, The Meg, opens this week. But fictionalised tales of monster fish blind us to the important role sharks play in maintaining the health of our oceans.

Science + Technology

A disappointing earring, and the world’s hottest rock: zirconia

Nick Timms, Curtin University

Zirconia is a mineral with a crystal structure made from the elements zirconium and oxygen. It looks pretty like diamond, but is only worth a fraction of the value.
I’ve Always Wondered: Why are the volcanoes on Earth active, but the ones on Mars are not?

Helen Maynard-Casely, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Compared to Earth, more "oomph" is required to bring magma to the surface of Mars, and this is probably why we haven't seen any recent eruptions on the red planet.

Cities
Heritage value is in the eye of the beholder: why Fed Square deserves protection James Lesh, University of Melbourne Federation Square may be less than 20 years old, but that doesn't mean it can't be heritage listed. Heritage value depends on many things including cultural significance

Health + Medicine
Dieting after birth can make mum’s self esteem worse Megan Lee, Southern Cross University; Susan Williams, CQUniversity Australia Many mothers experience body dissatisfaction after birth. Dieting is not the answer.

Education
Disabled teens suffering the mental health effects of bullying Tania King, University of Melbourne; Anne Kavanagh, University of Melbourne New research shows the effect of bullying on disabled teenagers and suggests what schools can do to help.