Rudd could push for an early ETS

AS the dust settles after the Labor leadership spill, climate observers are wondering what the future holds for Australia's carbon price under a Rudd government.

The change in leadership - coupled with the departure of Climate Change Minister Greg Combet - has led to speculation Prime Minister Kevin Rudd might bring forward the start date for a floating carbon price.

Under Labor's clean energy laws, Australia's existing carbon pricing mechanism isn't due to transition to a market-based emissions trading scheme (ETS) until July 2015.

Until then carbon prices would remain fixed, currently at $23 per tonne of emissions but set to rise from Monday and once again in 2014.

Business has complained that Australian companies are slugged with a higher pollution impost than their competitors, and have lobbied for an early move to an ETS to drive down their carbon liability.

The Business Council of Australia on Thursday said bringing the carbon price into line with global prices - EU allowances have traded recently for around $6 - should be on the agenda for Mr Rudd.

Such a move would be attractive politically for Mr Rudd, who vowed upon taking the Labor leadership on Wednesday that his government would work closer with business.

Lower carbon prices would also flow through to consumers and diffuse the coalition's charge that Australia pays more than other nations for its emissions.

The Climate Institute's John Connor said there was "short-term appeal" to lower carbon prices, but it wasn't a long-term solution.

He urged Mr Rudd to use his new tenure to ramp up climate action in areas like renewable energy and preparing for the impacts of global warming.

When ousted as Labor leader in 2010, Mr Rudd said his efforts to introduce an ETS were among his proudest as prime minister.

Analysts have pointed to Mr Rudd's previous calls for a review of the fixed-price period and a faster transition to an ETS as a sign change could be on the way.

Carbon advisory firm RepuTex said the market would notice if Mr Combet - seen by many as the strongest advocate of Labor's carbon laws - wound up back on the frontbench but without the climate portfolio.

"A fresh face should be interpreted by the market as a stronger chance of a new policy," RepuTex's Hugh Grossman told AAP.

"If there is to be a policy change then certainly ... the early start and the early transition to a market price would be that logical step."

Labor MP Richard Marles told reporters on Thursday climate change was an area of passion for Mr Rudd, and an announcement in relation to this policy would likely be made in coming days.

Greens MP Adam Bandt hoped Mr Combet's departure wasn't a sign Mr Rudd was preparing a "backflip" on climate policy by watering down the carbon laws achieved under Julia Gillard.

Climate think tank Zero Emissions said Mr Rudd had form on climate policy, and urged him to take action to lock in the Renewable Energy Target introduced during his previous stint as prime minister.

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Samsung puts curve in new televisions

SAMSUNG Electronics is rolling out a curved TV that uses an advanced display called OLED.

Samsung said on Thursday the 55-inch TV will sell for 15 million won (about $A14,000) in South Korea. That is more than five times expensive than LCD televisions of the same size.

The TV industry has been struggling to excite interest with new technologies.

Samsung is not the first to introduce a curved TV using OLED. In May, LG Electronics launched a 55-inch curved OLED TV in South Korea.

Samsung and LG are the only companies to begin sales of OLED TVs.

Mass producing OLED displays is difficult so prices are high.

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Man dead, another injured in Vic crash

POLICE continue to investigate a fatal crash in northern Victoria which has left one teenager dead and another seriously injured.

A Holden Commodore sedan was reportedly travelling westwards along the Toolamba-Rushworth Road, near Winter Road, Tatura when it veered off and crashed into a tree.

The 16-year old driver died at the scene, while the other occupant, also 16, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

A witness said he drove past the car at 3am (AEST), but did not check for any occupants until he saw it again at 5am.

Police are preparing a report for the coroner.

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China furious at US spy's phone hack claim

Whistleblower Edward Snowden says the US is hacking Chinese mobile phone companies. Source: AAP

CHINA has attacked the United States as an espionage "villain" after former spy Edward Snowden raised new allegations about the far-reaching extent of US cyber-snooping against Chinese targets.

The official Xinhua news agency noted Washington was now pressing Hong Kong to extradite the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor after he turned up in the Chinese territory last month.

But the US government first owes the world an explanation, it said, as a prominent Hong Kong lawmaker noted the territory has the legal right to resist an extradition request made for political reasons.

In the latest revelations published by Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post, Snowden said the NSA was hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to gather data from millions of text messages.

He said US spies have also hacked the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing - home to one of six "network backbones" that route all of mainland China's internet traffic - and the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which operates one of the Asia-Pacific region's largest fibre-optic networks.

"These, along with previous allegations, are clearly troubling signs," Xinhua said in a commentary.

"They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age," it said.

The United States slapped an arrest warrant on Snowden on Friday, and White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said the charges "present a good case for extradition under the treaty, the extradition treaty between the United States and Hong Kong".

"Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case," he told CBS Radio News on Saturday.

There was no immediate comment from authorities in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, but the government and police have said that the law will take its course.

And that, experts say, could take months if not years if Snowden appeals against any extradition ruling by a Hong Kong court. Beijing, meanwhile, has the right ultimately to intervene.

Xinhua noted Washington had set the extradition process in train.

"But for other countries, Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes too an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on. It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs," it said.

The Sunday Morning Post said that Snowden, who turned 30 on Friday, remained "safe" in Hong Kong and had not been detained by police after he was charged in the United States with theft and espionage.

Abandoning his well-paid job as an intelligence technician in Hawaii, Snowden came to Hong Kong on May 20 with a cache of documents detailing the reach of NSA operations around the world.

"The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese mobile phone companies to steal all of your SMS data," Snowden said in the Post interview, which the newspaper said was conducted on June 12 and released after it had scrutinised and clarified his claims.

His claims about Pacnet followed a report in the Guardian in which he claimed the British government's electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ had gained secret access to fibre-optic cables carrying global internet traffic and telephone calls, and was sharing the information with the NSA.

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