By Tom Major Australia's boom in renewable energy faces an impasse unless more is done to develop infrastructure to complement wind, solar and pumped hydro storage systems, an expert has warned.The expanding footprint of renewables represents a radical change from traditional large-scale, centralised generation, necessitating more national planning for sending power where it is needed.Australian National University's Energy Change Institute director Kenneth Baldwin said the remote locations of present and future renewable facilities meant Australia's 20th century power grid required reform."This is a seismic shift in the way electricity is generated and distributed," he said."In the future it will look...

By Damian McIver Telecommunications workers have launched what lawyers have called an "unprecedented" class action, alleging they are victims of sham contracting. The case is against workforce management company ISGM (now trading as Tandem Corporation), which supplies subcontractors to Telstra, Foxtel and NBN Co. "In terms of class actions, we think this particular action is the biggest in Australia and probably quite unprecedented," said Vicky Antzoulatos, a special counsel for Shine Lawyers, which is running the case."We expect that there's over 4,000 people that are eligible to join the claim."In documents filed to the Federal Court, lawyers alleged that the...