Australia news live: record renewable capacity added in last quarter of 2025; wage growth expected to remain on hold

LIVE Updated 3m agoTue 17 Feb 2026 20.56 CETFirst published on Tue 17 Feb 2026 20.30 CETKey events9m agoWage growth expected to remain on hold25m agoLast quarter of 2025 saw record-breaking renewable energy added to grid29m agoWelcomeThe new renewable capacity is enough to power Brisbane 1.5 times over. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/APThe new renewable capacity is enough to power Brisbane 1.5 times over. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/APShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureFrom 25m agoLast quarter of 2025 saw record-breaking renewable energy added to gridPetra StockRecord-breaking amounts of new wind, solar and storage were added to Australia’s electricity grid in the final quarter of 2025, enough new renewables to power Brisbane 1.5 times over.After a slower start, the year culminated in a rush, with nine wind and solar farms – 2.1GW in all – brought online in the final three months. The result outperformed all previous quarters, breaking the previous record of 1.3GW added in the third quarter of 2021, according to the Clean Energy Council’s latest quarterly investment report.Four new utility-scale batteries were deployed in Q4 – totalling 1GW/2.3GWh – tripling the record set in the previous quarter (Q3 2025). The largest was Victoria’s Melbourne renewable energy hub with a size of 600MW/ 1,600MWh.The CEC chief executive, Jackie Trad, described the result as an “Aussie first” that coincided with renewable energy supplying more than half of grid electricity for the first time. The final quarter of last year saw many new renewables records broken. Sixty-three per cent of total renewable generation capacity that was switched on in 2025 was delivered in Q4. The seasonal rush to close out on projects before years’ end, together with more political stability in the second half of 2025, ended the year on a stronger note than where it started. However, there is still much work to be done to accelerate future investment in large-scale generation. Overall the year ended on a high, with 3.3GW of renewable energy brought online. That made 2025 the second largest year for new projects commissioned after 2021. More battery storage was added in 2025, than the previous eight years combined.Clean Energy Council chief executive, Jackie Trad Photograph: Dan Peled/AAPKey events9m agoWage growth expected to remain on hold25m agoLast quarter of 2025 saw record-breaking renewable energy added to grid29m agoWelcomeShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureIndonesian men convicted of illegally fishing in Australian waters acted out of ‘desperation’, lawyer saysAn Indonesian boat crew caught illegally fishing in Australian waters have been handed suspended jail sentences after a trial in which lawyer argued they acted out of desperation to support their families, Australian Associated Press reports.Six crew members arrested by border force officers in mangroves on the Australian mainland on 29 January pleaded guilty to illegal fishing when they appeared in the Darwin local court on Tuesday.Indonesians Kasman, Syamsudin, Ramli, Adisianadna, Anton and Hasba, the oldest aged 60, were all charged with using a foreign boat to fish in the territorial seas of Australia.Kasman, the master of the unseaworthy boat, which has been destroyed, was charged with an extra count of being in charge of a boat equipped for fishing within the Australian fishing zone.The men’s lawyer, Lyma Nguyen, told judge David Woodroffe her clients were from poor island villages, many of their families deep in debt just to survive and their fishing venture was “born out of desperation”.They also faced the prospect of having to reimburse the boat’s owner for the equivalent of $20,000 for the loss of the vessel, she said.Wage growth expected to remain on holdWage growth is expected to remain on hold, despite large pockets of the workforce receiving a pay bump, Australian Associated Press reports.Data for the December quarter will be released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with annual growth set to be steady at 3.4%.Annual growth has been at 3.4% since the March quarter, despite a rise in quarterly figures.Should the forecasts hold true, wages would be trending below inflation, which ticked up to 3.8% in the year to December.The December quarter will take in a pay rise for aged care workers across Australia, which came into effect from October.The increase in salary was the final stage of wage rises for the sector following a case lodged by the Health Services Union to the Fair Work Commission at the end of 2022.Last quarter of 2025 saw record-breaking renewable energy added to gridPetra StockRecord-breaking amounts of new wind, solar and storage were added to Australia’s electricity grid in the final quarter of 2025, enough new renewables to power Brisbane 1.5 times over.After a slower start, the year culminated in a rush, with nine wind and solar farms – 2.1GW in all – brought online in the final three months. The result outperformed all previous quarters, breaking the previous record of 1.3GW added in the third quarter of 2021, according to the Clean Energy Council’s latest quarterly investment report.Four new utility-scale batteries were deployed in Q4 – totalling 1GW/2.3GWh – tripling the record set in the previous quarter (Q3 2025). The largest was Victoria’s Melbourne renewable energy hub with a size of 600MW/ 1,600MWh.The CEC chief executive, Jackie Trad, described the result as an “Aussie first” that coincided with renewable energy supplying more than half of grid electricity for the first time. The final quarter of last year saw many new renewables records broken. Sixty-three per cent of total renewable generation capacity that was switched on in 2025 was delivered in Q4. The seasonal rush to close out on projects before years’ end, together with more political stability in the second half of 2025, ended the year on a stronger note than where it started. However, there is still much work to be done to accelerate future investment in large-scale generation. Overall the year ended on a high, with 3.3GW of renewable energy brought online. That made 2025 the second largest year for new projects commissioned after 2021. More battery storage was added in 2025, than the previous eight years combined.Clean Energy Council chief executive, Jackie Trad Photograph: Dan Peled/AAPWelcomeGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before Nick Visser steps up.Record-breaking amounts of new wind, solar and storage were added to Australia’s electricity grid in the final quarter of 2025, enough new renewables to power Brisbane 1.5 times over. We’ll have more details in a moment.Wage growth is expected to remain on hold at about 3.4% when the ABS releases figures for the December quarter later this morning. That means wage growth is running behind inflation – or to put it another way, real wages are falling. More to come.Most viewedMost viewed