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It’s been an epic corporate battle, pitting Australia’s third-richest man, billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, against the board of Australia’s biggest greenhouse emitter, AGL Energy.
Yesterday AGL’s board waved the white flag on its proposal to split the company into two - a plan Cannon-Brookes, now AGL’s biggest single shareholder, worked hard to derail.
A few months ago he failed in his bid to take over AGL, but he still wants AGL to shutter its coal-fired power stations sooner rather than later.
Mark Humphery-Jenner dissects the issues at the heart of this stoush. They’re bigger than either Cannon-Brookes or AGL, and speak to a problem embedded in corporations law: what to do when the perceived interests of shareholders and the planet don’t align?
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Tim Wallace
Deputy Editor: Business + Economy
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Mark Humphery-Jenner, UNSW Sydney
Mike Cannon-Brookes has blocked AGL’s demerger – for now. But can he force it to accelerate the closure of its coal and gas-fired power stations?
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Barnaby Joyce rolled by party leadership spill, while Peter Dutton pledges to lead the Liberals with “policies squarely aimed at the forgotten Australians in the suburbs”.
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Emma Shortis, RMIT University
American institutions are seemingly powerless to enact gun reform because so many Americans believe – consciously or not – that any sacrifice is worth it to live in the best country in the world.
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Neera Bhatia, Deakin University; Charles Corke, Deakin University
Aged care facilities and hospices can block access to voluntary assisted dying, despite it being legal in your state.
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Sonia Palmieri, Australian National University
It looks as though the House of Representatives will have at least 57 women, making 38% of the chamber female.
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Manisha Caleb, University of Sydney
The object has a highly unusually long rotation period, and was found in an area we call the neutron star ‘graveyard’.
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Cherine Fahd, University of Technology Sydney
I have been re-drawing my data to make visible what Strava cannot. The unheroic stuff: emotions, persistent thoughts, body sensations, lyrics from the songs, the weather.
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Politics + Society
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Anthony Albanese is bringing in an outsider, former University of Melbourne 20-chancellor Glyn Davis to head his Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
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Adam Simpson, University of South Australia
The new prime minister seems to have the temperament that would favour a collaborative approach. He could usher in a golden era of stable government, with more generous and compassionate politics.
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Adrian Beaumont, The University of Melbourne
With just three more seats to be finalised in the House of Representatives, Labor will be hoping to pick up at least one of those to obtain a majority. Meanwhile, the Senate is looking promising too.
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Health + Medicine
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Mischa Bongers, CQUniversity Australia
Social media is awash with ads for interactive games and devices to strengthen the pelvic floor. But do they work?
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Nicole Lee, Curtin University; Jarryd Bartle, RMIT University; Paula Ross, Australian Catholic University
We might think we know a lot about drug and alcohol treatment, as it’s so often depicted on the silver screen. But there’s a lot film and TV get wrong.
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Science + Technology
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Toby Walsh, UNSW Sydney; Alexandra George, UNSW Sydney
Can software be an ‘inventor’? As courts wrestle with AI patent applications, the law must change to keep up.
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Environment + Energy
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Anita Parbhakar-Fox, The University of Queensland
Environmentalists are worried the shift to green energy means damage from more mines. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
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Education
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Hannah Matthews, Victoria University; Peter Hurley, Victoria University
Cutting the cost of childcare for families won’t help them if there are no places available at local childcare centres or people to staff them.
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Books + Ideas
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Jessica Gildersleeve, University of Southern Queensland
In her first novel, Michelle Cahill gives a marginalised character from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway the opportunity to speak for herself.
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