THE Queensland Resources Council has welcomed the Palaszczuk Government’s designation of the proposed $1.5 billion Glencore Valeria coal mine in central Queensland as a coordinated project.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the Valeria coal project, near Capella on the Central Highlands, offers 1400 construction jobs and 950 ongoing jobs once operational.

“Queensland needs these jobs more than ever,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“The announcement today means the Valeria project will start the comprehensive assessment process as a coordinated project through the Office of the Coordinator-General.

“It is projects like these that create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment, exports and royalties."

Last financial year, the resources sector supported 372,000 jobs and generated $74 billion in economic activity, $61 billion in exports and more than $5 billion in royalties that the Queensland Government could reinvest on behalf of all Queenslanders in services and infrastructure.

www.qrc.org.au

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THE Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has announced it would introduce a Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism (DRM).

The  DRM will pay large energy users, such as water treatment plants, if they reduce their energy use at times that benefit the energy system. Reducing demand during a heatwave, or when the output of generators is very low, can help keep the electricity system stable and lower energy bills for all energy users.

This reform will support the development of more demand response capacity in the National Electricity Market (NEM), and has long been advocated by a broad coalition consumer, environment and industry groups.

AEMC chief executive, Benn Barr, said, “We have considered requests to delay this reform, but we think the case for pressing forward is strongest because acting now will help keep the power system reliable and secure ahead of the 2021/22 summer. Despite COVID, we still need to keep prices down, keep the market working efficiently and work to lower emissions in the energy sector.”

Energy Efficiency Council CEO, Luke Menzel, said, "Kudos to the AEMC for pushing ahead with this crucial reform. And congratulations to the many passionate advocates that have driven this conversation over the last decade. The hard work has paid off, and resulted in a rule change that will deliver lower energy bills for everyday Australians.”

www.eec.org.au

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UNIVERSITY research projects and jobs are being given a vital boost with prominent early-stage venture capital fund Stoic Venture Capital increasing its investment in start-ups that are commercialising university inventions.

Stoic is bucking the trend of other venture capital funds that are backing away from university research and start-up companies because of heightened volatility and risk.

Stoic Venture Capital managing partner for investments, Geoff Waring said the impact of COVID-19 was exacerbating the short supply of early stage venture capital in Australia leaving universities unable to commercialise their innovations.

“Stoic presents universities with a critical source of seed stage capital to help transform their research into emerging companies,” Dr Waring said.

“This will ensure that many high potential university research projects can move out of the lab and into development or trials despite the impact of COVID-19.”

Stoic is an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) which gives investors rare access to disruptive companies not available elsewhere with added tax benefits.

Stoic’s team includes executive chairman of Atlas Advisors Australia and former chief executive officer of award-winning private bank Macquarie Private Bank Guy Hedley, executive director of Atlas Advisors Australia Fiona Zhuang and Dr Waring. 

“Our close partnership with university-backed investment fund Uniseed gives Stoic investors access to returns commensurate with the rich opportunities coming out of Australia’s top universities,” Dr Waring said.

“These leading universities produce some of the country’s highest potential technology addressing global unmet needs.

“Investing in unlisted start-ups via top performing venture capital funds presents higher long term returns than top fund managers in more established asset classes such as property, public equities or bonds. 

“It also offers diversification benefits with less exposure to market volatility and risk because of their lower correlation with traditional asset classes.”

Stoic’s portfolio of investments includes some of Australia’s most game-changing products in robotics, computer hardware, medicine, science, agritech and biotech.

These include Agerris (robotics), Aurtra (power management), Cardihab (telehealth), Certa (biotech), Ena Therapeutics (immunity enhancer), Exonate (eyedrops for macular degeneration), Ferronova (cancer diagnostic) Forcite Helmet Systems (motorcycle tech), Kinoxis (treating addiction), Nexgen Plants (genetics), PERKii (probiotic armour), Que Oncology (drug) and Wildlife Drones (tracking).

“These companies are potentially Australia’s future exporters that will help grow our economy, jobs and reward investors,” Dr Waring said.

About Stoic Venture Capital

Stoic Venture Capital provides financing for early-stage companies, particularly those arising from university research. Stoic is unconditionally registered as an ESVCLP and it takes a collaborative approach to investing in the highest potential companies.

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SLATER AND GORDON has filed a class action against Commonwealth Bank, alleging the Big Four bank sold its customers junk credit card and personal loan insurance.

The class action, filed in the Federal Court, is the fourth in the #GetYourInsuranceBack campaign.

The Commonwealth Bank has admitted that these products were worthless, even though they were sold to hundreds of thousands of their customers, Slater and Gordon claimed.

During the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, it was revealed the bank’s CEO Matt Comyn, had pushed for the bank to stop selling the junk insurance in 2015. Mr Comyn was, however, told by the then CEO to “temper [his] sense of justice”, and the products continued to be sold until March 2018.

Existing policies, however, have simply been rolled over and many customers are continuing to be charged thousands of dollars in fees for the worthless products to this day.

Slater and Gordon practice group leader Andrew Paull said the class action gave a voice to those who were vulnerable and duped into buying worthless insurance. It would allow those customers to hold the bank to account for its wrongdoing.

Mr Paull said he hoped the class action would help the customers get their money back, while keeping corporate giants honest.

“A 2018 review of the Commonwealth Bank’s sale of consumer credit insurance products revealed that more than 200,000 people who were unemployed or not working full time had been sold this type of policy, meaning it was very unlikely they would have been able to claim against the insurance,” Mr Paull said.

“This is reprehensible behaviour by the bank, which has chosen to compensate only a negligible portion of its customers, despite their admission that they knew the insurance was worthless.

“This move to return only a small portion of its customers premiums seems to have been a tokenistic effort to protect the bank’s brand, rather than a genuine attempt to make good its past wrongdoing.

“Slater and Gordon is still being contacted by large numbers of Commonwealth Bank customers who should never have been sold the products, yet have never been remediated.”

Mr Paull called on the Commonwealth Bank to do the right thing and properly address the claims brought in this class action by ensuring that all aggrieved customers are compensated.

Slater and Gordon recently settled a class action against NAB for $49.5 million and is preparing to start distributing compensation in the coming month. The firm filed similar class actions against ANZ and Westpac earlier this year.

Consumers who purchased either Credit Card Plus, or Personal Loan Insurance and have paid a premium since 2010 may be included in the class action.

The class action is being run no-win, no-fee.

www.slatergordon.com.au

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