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We’re using more energy to stay in to “save money”

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Soaring energy costs are a major factor in the global cost-of-living crisis. The conventional wisdom is people will reduce their energy use in response to rising prices.

However, our research published today suggests rising costs of living are more likely to increase household energy use as people economise by doing more at home.

Our research shows people relate to energy through what it helps them do: feed the family, clean the house and stay healthy, comfortable and entertained. Energy itself is rarely the first consideration. When we understand energy as embedded in everyday life, the simple laws of supply and demand become complicated.

For example, in the face of the cost-of-living crisis, households are investing in home luxuries, our research shows. Rather than spending money on outside activities, it’s going into upgrades and technologies that bring them fun, comfort and safety.

Many are adding air conditioning, air filtration, pools, spas, heated outdoor entertaining areas and bar fridges. They are adding or renovating sheds and outdoor areas to create extra living space. All these changes increase their energy use.

Drawing on a four-year study of households in Victoria and New South Wales, our research developed four scenarios of everyday life in 2030 and 2050. In two scenarios, the home takes on an even more essential role in everyday life. This has significant implications for both energy forecasts and social inequality.

Many people reason investing in a home cinema, kitchen appliance, spa or bar is more affordable than going out all the time. Setting up a home office may also be cheaper and more convenient than commuting.

For example, research participants Haruki and Sara (both pseudonyms) were converting a disused shed into a recreation space, complete with a television, video games, refrigerator, heating and cooling, and an electric drum kit. It would be a space where their three children spend their free time, but also serve as an office for Sara to teach music.

Covid lockdowns

COVID-19 lockdowns were a strong impetus for these trends. Many people’s homes became their main site of work and play. They were schools, workplaces and gyms all in one. They also become a haven from the airborne threats outside.

Some might expect these trends to reverse with COVID restrictions lifted and the cost of living soaring. However, our research shows these expectations of the home are continuing and accelerating.

As activities like going on holidays, or going out for dinner, become more expensive, investing in the home makes sense. Staying home, even if it involves higher energy costs or buying new appliances, may still mean big savings for the overall household budget.

Our in-depth research provides a nuanced view of how diverse consumers will engage with the energy system beyond merely responding to energy prices. This evidence can help the sector improve forecasting and energy future scenarios. We provide resources to help incorporate aspects of our scenarios into industry modelling.

Industry modelling

Our team at Monash University’s Emerging Technologies Research Lab developed the Scenarios for Future Living report. It presents four scenarios of everyday life – two each in 2030 and 2050.

The scenarios are based on qualitative research with households in Victoria and New South Wales for the Digital Energy Futures project, as well as national data from the Energy Consumer Behaviour Survey. We studied people’s everyday routines, priorities and future visions, including the use of emerging digital and energy technologies. The scenarios also draw on broader demographic, technological, economic and environmental trends and the latest climate science.

One 2030 scenario, called “Creature Comforts”, envisions a world where, in response to rising living costs, households invest in consumer electronics and home upgrades. Energy use remains high as households seek to create a comfortable and safe haven.

The 2050 scenario, “Hunkering Down”, takes this trend further. Homes are optimised to provide a safe, productive and comfortable refuge from extreme weather and climate change. Institutions regularly close due to more frequent extreme weather events. People who can afford housing and technology upgrades stay home, where additional spaces and advanced equipment enable most work, school, exercise and entertainment activities.

In the second 2030 scenario, “Sharing the Load”, households continue to invest, where possible, in solar panels, household batteries and electric vehicles. They prioritise being resourceful and generous with excess power by sharing it with others.

In the second 2050 scenario, “Sunrises and Siestas”, institutions and society adapt to climate change through policy and community initiatives and infrastructures. The home remains important to people’s safety and comfort – but there are more services and technologies that ease the financial pressures on households due to their energy use.

To bring these scenarios to life, we created narratives for three households: a wealthy and technology-savvy suburban household, a low-income renter, and a retired rural household. Following these households across each scenario reveals the varying impacts on households of different socio-economic and geographic backgrounds.

Wealthy households can afford to insulate themselves from external threats. They manage changing conditions by upgrading their homes. In contrast, people without the means to invest in such upgrades are left exposed to rising costs and extreme weather conditions.

Our research has critical implications for energy policymakers and industry. It underscores the need for a sophisticated, comprehensive approach to considering people’s lives, social change and household investment. Energy planning must account for how various futures can amplify or reduce inequities.

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Defending the Territory – Can Darwin be the AFL’s 20th Club?

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When the Tassie Devils join the AFL, in 2028, as the 19th team, Darwin will be the only capital city in Australia without an AFL or NRL team. Will the AFL go in and defend their territory which it failed to do in Canberra all those years ago?

The Footy Case for the Northern Territory

The case for a NT team in the AFL – to be called the Darwin Dingoes or Darwin Crocsis considered a romantic notion in some ways, but the footy case is strong. The Territory has produced rich reservoirs of football talent from Alice Springs to the Arafura Sea. Playing talent like Michael Long, the Rioli family, Andrew McLeod and Nathan Buckley roll off the tongue of any Aussie Rules diehard, and many Territory (often Indigenous) players become famous in the state leagues of SA and WA as well as the AFL. Many play in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) before heading down south in what is the ‘off season’ for the Top End.

In fact, according to James Coventry’s neat little book, Footballistics (2018), the NT is truly Aussie Rules heartland in terms of participation and talent. In terms of ‘footy readiness’, according to Coventry, the NT often comes top in terms of participation rates.

For a small population of just over 240,000 people, over 13 percent of Territorians participate in AFL programmes, compared to 8 per cent in WA, 6 per cent in SA and 2 per cent in Victoria. NT is top in terms of adult participation and top four in terms of children’s participation. In fact, in non-metropolitan areas, Coventry found there were 22,000 registered participants (in 2018), which means every child outside Darwin and Alice Springs plays footy—not allowing for the many unregistered participants who are also playing. In 2022, this had grown to around 40,000 participants. And in terms of talent, the NT produces 56 elite AFL players per million people, with only Victoria and SA ahead.

And in the NT, they simply love footy. Just watching the finals from the Tiwi Islands or Central Australia will tell you that! It also shows up statistically, with almost half the population favouring the AFL column in terms of Google searches—ranking it with the traditional Aussie Rules states Tasmania, SA, Victoria and WA.

AFL Club Taskforce – The Strategic Business Case

The NT AFL Club Taskforce, in their Strategic Business Case for the 20th licence, has examined a number of options. These include more AFL matches in Darwin and Alice Springs, a relocated team, or a Darwin-based stand-alone Northern Territory team that also plays in Alice. They even consider a Northern Australia team (Darwin-based but also playing in Cairns in Far North Queensland), although it may be better to have the Queensland teams—Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns—develop Far North Queensland, Central Queensland and the Sunshine Coast, and let the NT team focus on Darwin and Alice Springs. Hawthorn is also considering playing a few games in Cairns.

The Economic Challenge

Of course, that’s the footy case. It seems an open and shut case. But the economic case for the NT is much harder—especially given climate, population and financial considerations if the NT team requires a new stadium or upgrades to TIO Stadium in Marrara, Darwin and TIO Traeger Park Oval in Alice Springs.

As experience shows with NT teams, even the basketball team the Darwin Crocs struggled.
ABC News: NT Sports Club Struggles

Even with a significant AFL contribution of $7.83 million per year, the Taskforce forecasted that the NT AFL Club would need Federal and NT Government to fund an operational funding gap of $18.89 million per annum. This would include a new or upgraded stadium, with AFL NT chairman Sean Bowden explaining that:

The Stadium will anchor the opportunity to bid for a 20th licence in the AFL should that opportunity arise.”

However, the Taskforce noted:

The economic benefit to the NT could be as much as $559 million if the new club was provided with a new stadium. The Strategic Business Case indicates that an AFL Team would create 160 full-time jobs, bring game day activation of the economy and add $116M a year in economic output to the Territory economy.”

AFL NT makes its case

Social Impacts and National Significance

Hand in hand with the economic benefits come the social impacts. The NT has a serious problem with diabetes and associated health problems, low educational attainment and imprisonment. The Taskforce would develop pathways for participation—not only for elite footballers in an AFL and AFLW team—but also create a social safety net of social programs for all Territorians under the umbrella of the NT AFL team. Social cohesion is important for internal security in the same way as defence is important for external security.

In some ways, the NT team might be considered a national security (internal social cohesion) project. In the same way as the PNG team in the National Rugby League (NRL) is getting support from the Commonwealth Government for geo-political reasons (external security) to the tune of $600 million as part of a $750 million ambitious investment by the NRL:

An AFL team in Darwin might be considered in the same way. Darwin was the only capital city bombed in wartime in 1942. It is considered vital to our defence strategy, and the new tensions in global geo-politics will see a review of our defence assets and arrangements. For instance, the lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese Government-linked company would never have happened in today’s global climate.

So just like having an NRL team in PNG, the Commonwealth might consider having an AFL team in Darwin as important to national security.

And as many seasoned commentators (hello Ross Gittins) always say—what do you do when economists question a project? Put it in the defence budget under ‘national security’. It may be a stretch to consider it part of defence, although the AFL might like this, as it would allow them to ‘defend their territory’ and keep the NT a predominantly Aussie Rules zone.

Completing the National Jigsaw

And there’s no doubt that the Aussie Rules footy community would love it. As the legendary AFL commentator Bruce McAvaney once said, the NT would “complete the jigsaw” in the national competition of Australia’s truly indigenous home-grown game.
McAvaney’s View on the 20th Team

There’s that romance coming up again. Australia’s only indigenous game—with AFL teams from Tasmania to the Top End, and from the East Coast to the West Coast in every Australian capital city. It might be just too much for the AFL, as custodians of the great Australian game, to resist.


*Professor Tim Harcourt is Industry Professor and Chief Economist at the Centre for Sport, Business and Society (CSBS), University of Technology Sydney, and author of Footynomics and the Business of Sport.

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Secret IMF meeting sparks US-China truce

Covert IMF meeting sparks US-China trade breakthrough with 115-point tariff cut for 90 days, marking significant progress since the Trump trade war.

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Covert IMF meeting sparks US-China trade breakthrough with 115-point tariff cut for 90 days, marking significant progress since the Trump trade war.


A covert meeting in the basement of the IMF has set off a diplomatic shockwave, leading to a major breakthrough in US-China trade talks.

Top officials from both nations have now agreed to slash tariffs by 115 points for 90 days—marking the first real progress since the Trump-era trade war began.

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#USChinaTruce #TariffRollback #IMFSecretMeeting #TradeWar #TickerNews #EconomicCeasefire #TrumpTariffs #GlobalMarkets #GenevaTalks

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Gen Z and millennials surpass boomers in voting power

Gen Z and Millennials outnumber Baby Boomers in Australian elections, signaling potential reforms in taxation and inheritance laws.

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Gen Z and Millennials outnumber Baby Boomers in Australian elections, signaling potential reforms in taxation and inheritance laws.


For the first time in history, Gen Z and Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers at the ballot box in Australia, marking a seismic change in the country’s political landscape.

Experts say this electoral milestone could spark major reform debates on taxation, superannuation, and inheritance laws as younger voters prioritise different values.

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#AustraliaPolitics #GenZ #Millennials #Boomers #TaxReform #Superannuation #Inheritance #StevenEnticott #CIA #MoneyMatters #TickerNews

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