Holden: Last vehicle rolls off production line as Australian car manufacturing ends.

The Holden production line in northern Adelaide has shut down for the last time, ending 69 years of Australian-made car manufacturing reports the ABC. Workers posed for photos with the final car made as they marked the plant's closure, the Elizabeth plant opened in 1963 and at its peak, between June 2003 and July 2005, produced up to 780 vehicles per day, including the VY Commodore, the Adventra, Crewman, Caprice and Statesman. In it's final year it produced 175 cars a day at the plant. Car enthusiasts lined the streets outside the plant. The ABC reports that it is the last day of work for up to 950 staff members at Elizabeth, with 800 having left since the company's 2013 announcement that it was withdrawing from Australian manufacturing. The closure of the Holden factory has also affected thousands of people employed by component suppliers to Holden — businesses that have had to downsize, cut staff, or close altogether. Approximately 700 Holden employees will remain in Melbourne, including more than 300 designers, engineers and technical staff, who will continue to design cars for the Australian market but the cars will now be sourced from Europe, North America and Asia.

Euthanasia: Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill passes Victoria's Lower House after 26-hour debate.

Victoria's controversial voluntary euthanasia legislation has been passed in the Lower House of Parliament after a marathon debate that lasted more than 24 hours reports the ABC. The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill passed 47 votes to 37, after a conscience vote, the majority of Labor MPs backed the bill, along with two Greens, two independents and a handful of Coalition MPs. The bill will now go to the 40-member Upper House, where the numbers are also tight, for debate in a fortnight. If it gets through the Upper House, the new legislation will mean that terminally ill people over the age of 18, in severe pain and with only a year to live will be able to access lethal drugs to end their lives. The legislation also includes a range of safeguards reports the ABC, patients would have to make three requests and see specially trained doctors, and coercing someone to seek a medically assisted death would become a crime. In most cases — estimated to be about 150 a year — the lethal dose would be self-administered but in some cases where patients cannot administer the drug, doctors could be involved. If passed in the Upper House, the legislation will not come into effect for 18 months to allow for its implementation.

Gas prices to remain high, says UBS.

East coast gas prices are not likely to come down any time soon, despite recent government intervention to boost domestic supplies, according to UBS analysts reports SBS. Detailed supply-demand modelling for east coast gas shows that there are insufficient gas supplies available over the next five years without the need for Queensland LNG supplies to be diverted into the domestic market, UBS says.

"With diverted Queensland LNG supplies being one of the more expensive gas supply options available, our near term outlook is for east coast gas prices to continue to increase as legacy contracts roll off," the analysts said in a report.

New contract prices could settle in the range of $8-$10 per gigajoule, with prices in most capital cities to migrate towards the $9-$11 range over the next five years, the UBS report says.
The federal government this month signed a deal making the three giant Queensland LNG ventures responsible for making up any shortfall in the east coast gas market in 2018 and 2019.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/20/gas-prices-remain-high-says-ubs

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