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Senex Energy will push ahead with a $1bn expansion of its Atlas and Roma North natural gas fields after receiving ­federal approval for the stalled project.

Australia faces power blackouts unless regional communities back the acceleration of renewable ­energy and construction of 10,000km of transmission lines, with authorities raising the alarm that not enough green electricity will be built before coal exits the grid by 2038.

The federal Labor government has approved the $1bn expansion plan of Senex Energy, owned by South Korean steel giant Posco and Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, in a decision which will temper some concerns over medium-term gas supplies across Australia’s east coast.

There is no escaping this impenetrable fact. If Australia is to remain competitive in the global marketplace, its industries must be given every opportunity to reduce emissions in a cost-effective way, while maintaining access to reliable baseload power.

“Nuclear power would be a win for the environment and an essential part of attacking global warming.”

Lengthening approvals processes and rapid cost escalation has forcedMineral Resources to shutter its iron ore operations, according to thecompany’s iron ore boss, rather than concerns about the outlook for thesteelmaking commodity.

Mining giant Brazil has big ambitions to build a rare earths industry as Western economies push to secure the metals needed for magnets used in green energy and defence and break China’s dominance of the supply chain.

Gina Rinehart said Australians are “truly fortunate to be able to enjoy the high quality of the agricultural products our farmers work so hard to produce.”

Too many aspects of economic policy, unfortunately, are heading in the wrong direction. The government should look at foundations set in the Hawke-Keating and Howard years and attend to basics, optimising conditions to encourage private sector investment, profit, employment, productivity gains and growth. Policies that limit the footprint of government by reducing regulation, holding down company tax and payroll tax at state levels, and giving employers and workers greater autonomy to negotiate work practices, pay and benefits to suit their industries would be a basis for reviving growth.

Native title groups hosting Australia’s iron ore industry are holding more than $1 billion of net assets in trusts, but after 30 years of the native title regime, there is little to show for the vast majority of Indigenous Australians.

Tanya Plibersek’s bill to create a new environmental watchdog has fallen flat with business, conservationists and the Greens, and looks set to face opposition from key crossbenchers in the Senate.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has unveiled Labor’s new nature cop to a storm of criticism, as doubts surround the future of the third and most contentious piece of her Nature Positive plan.