MELBOURNE, Australia — With 20 species facing extinction without intervention over the next two decades, the future of some of Australia’s best-loved fauna is bleak, as per a leading wildlife campaigner. “It’s incredibly concerning,” said Australian Conservation Foundation program manager Basha Stasak. “And it’s something that, unfortunately, the federal government isn’t paying enough attention to.” It’s an assessment backed by heavy-hitters in the field. The University of Melbourne’s Professor Brendan Wintle describes Australia as a world leader in extinctions and notes that since 1985, threatened bird populations have declined at least 50 percent. “We’re in a dreadful situation,” he told a Senate committee last month.…
Author: zenger.news
CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government will pay an Iraqi asylum seeker AU$350,000 ($271,724) in compensation for illegal detention after the federal government conceded it sat on its hands for two years. Justice Geoffrey Flick on June 7 found the man’s detention had become unlawful shortly after he withdrew a request to be deported to Iraq in March 2019. The judge said it was “of real concern” that the Home Affairs department failed to give Immigration Minister Alex Hawke proper advice about the man’s case in January 2021. The document did not expressly present evidence or analysis of the potential for detention…
SYDNEY — Two-thirds of households in Australia would be less likely to buy rooftop solar under a plan to see panel owners being charged for exporting energy. The estimates are from a survey of more than 1,000 residents living in the southeastern state of New South Wales, commissioned by the group Solar Citizens, which opposed the plan and labeled it a “sun tax”. The proposed changes to energy market rules could see network operators levy rooftop solar owners for exporting energy to the grid at peak times, such as in the middle of sunny days. “We fear once these charges are in…
SPREYTON, Australia — A woman from Tasmania, an island state in Australia, is busy planning stage two of a truly heavenly home for orphaned pets. Rita Lynd is an expert in dog behavior who spent her working life running a training school for them. Now, she’s spending her retirement making sure that beloved pooches – and soon enough, cats – have a loving place to call home when they lose their owners. It was 2009 when Rita found her dear friend John died at his home, his faithful elderly boxer Hannah steadfastly sitting beside him. By then, he’d been gone four…
SYDNEY — Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has labeled opposition to carbon tariffs as naive as Scott Morrison prepares to warn powerful world leaders against the measure. Turnbull is hopeful growing global pressure will convince the coalition government to make stronger international climate change commitments. Morrison will head to the G7 conference in the United Kingdom later this week as opposed to trading measures designed to punish countries without ambitious emissions reduction targets. Turnbull said there was growing momentum for carbon tariffs within the Biden administration, while European nations were strongly committed. Former prime minister is hopeful growing global pressure will convince…
BRISBANE, Australia — Treasury chief Steven Kennedy told senators last week many of the people out of work due to the JobKeeper wage subsidy ending should find employment in coming weeks. The latest ANZ job advertisement report for May, due for release on June 7, will outline the strength in demand for workers to potentially absorb those job losses. In April, job ads rose a further 4.7 percent to a 12-year peak and were 27.8 percent higher than their pre-pandemic level. Addressing a senate hearing last week, Kennedy estimated that using Australian Bureau of Statistics data, some 56,000 people lost jobs in the four weeks following the…
BRISBANE, Australia — A federal government decision on a controversial mine expansion plan in Tasmania’s northwest wilderness has been pushed back by more than a month. The majority of Chinese government-owned company Minerals and Metals Group, is proposing to build a new tailings dam in the Tarkine rainforest to store waste. The move has sparked protests spearheaded by the Bob Brown Foundation, including a rally of several hundred people at Hobart City Hall at the weekend. Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley was due to make a preliminary decision about the proposal by June 8. However, the Department of Water, Agriculture and the Environment has issued a…
BRISBANE, Australia — Keeping manufacturing within Queensland’s borders will be a key part of post-pandemic recovery as the state announces a billion-dollar jobs fund ahead of the June 15 budget. The first beneficiary is Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute, which will receive AU$20 million ($15.50 million) to improve manufacturing capability. The Translational Research Institute (TRI) is a unique, Australian-first initiative of ‘bench to bedside medical research. The institute combines clinical and translational research to advance progress from laboratory discovery to application in the community. “We can make sure that they don’t just invent those innovations here, that they can manufacture them too…
BRISBANE, Australia — The Morrison government is providing AU$16.6 million ($12.8 million) in grants to support the mental health and wellbeing of expectant and new parents through nine new projects. It is estimated that up to 10 percent of women experience depression while pregnant, and one-in-seven women in the year after birth. Men can also experience perinatal mental illness, with approximately one-in-10 expectant and new fathers experiencing depression, anxiety, or other forms of emotional distress in the perinatal period. Among the grants, Karitane — a non-profit leader in parenting services — will receive AU$9.44 million ($7.3 million) over four years for…
SYDNEY — Food delivery riders would be penalized for riding unsafely and be issued with safety equipment from platforms like Uber Eats and Deliveroo under new laws flagged by the New South Wales government. The safety requirements will be the “toughest” in the country, according to Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson. Kevin John Anderson, an Australian politician, is the New South Wales Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation in the second Berejiklian ministry since April 2019. Anderson is also a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Tamworth for the Nationals since March 26, 2011. They were sparked by the…