Australia news live: Chalmers says Treasury fuel price modelling looks ‘pretty conservative now’; national cabinet to meet again next week on fuel crisis

<p>Follow updates live</p><ul><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p></p><p>The government has announced the federal and Queensland governments will each chip in $1bn to Rio Tinto’s Boyne aluminium smelter in central Queensland, to keep it viable into the future.</p><p>The government says the move, which will include Rio “underwriting significant investment in energy and transmission”, will unlock almost $7.5bn in investment in Queensland.</p><p>With a considerable public investment, we are catalysing a fourfold private investment that will build out the renewable energy grid and keep thousands of good regional jobs in central Queensland.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/mar/25/politics-federal-queensland-nsw-parliament-tony-burke-jim-chalmers-middle-east-fuel-crisis-ntwnfb">Continue reading...</a>