RAVENSHOE, Australia — It remains unclear whether the energy department advised Australia’s resources minister to veto a loan for a wind farm in far north Queensland. Senior officials from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources are on May 25 appearing at Senate estimates, facing questions about government spending and decisions. The officials spent the morning answering broad questions about the government’s recent AU$600 million ($465 million) cheque for a gas-fired power station in New South Wales but avoided answering questions about a Queensland wind farm. Resources Minister Keith Pitt used his ministerial veto power to stop an AU$280 million…
Author: zenger.news
BRISBANE, Australia — The Australian Queensland government will review its industrial relations laws with a particular focus on introducing further protections for courier drivers and clamping down on workplace sexual harassment. The review of the Industrial Relations Act 2016 will commence in the coming weeks’ Education Minister Grace Grace says, with a focus on ensuring new industrial protections that “keep pace with the changes in work. Grace says the review will explore protections for workers in short-term employment and how state industrial relations laws interact with federal regulations with regard to casual work. It will also examine the implementation and effectiveness of reforms…
SYDNEY — Australia’s New South Wales will lead the country with a radical overhaul of sexual consent laws that will make it easier to successfully prosecute offenders. The reforms announced by Attorney-General Mark Speakman on May 25 mean accused rapists would only be able to prove sex was consensual if they took active steps to obtain consent. Speakman said the reforms went further than those recommended by the New South Wales Law Reform Commission in its review into consent laws delivered last September. “The accused will have to have done something or said something reasonable in the circumstances to ascertain consent,”…
BRISBANE, Australia — The Queensland premier says the plan for a regional quarantine camp near Toowoomba cannot be released publicly because they are still being considered by the cabinet. The Wagner Corporation wants to build a Covid-19 quarantine facility that would host up to 1000 travelers and 300 staff at Wellcamp near Toowoomba. The federal government has repeatedly said the plan lacks crucial detail, including who will run the health operations and how much it would cost. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has denied media reports the document outlining the scheme is only 15 pages long and mostly pictures. She says she is unable…
MELBOURNE, Australia — South Australia has imposed new travel restrictions on people with exposure to critical sites in Melbourne linked to the city’s new Covid-19 cases. With four new cases confirmed, South Australia will stop travelers who visited several locations in Melbourne’s north from traveling to South Australia. The restrictions will also require anyone who recently visited those sites and who is already in South Australia to self-isolate for 14 days and get tested three times. Less severe measures have been imposed for anyone who visited the City of Whittlesea. Those arrivals in South Australia are required to have a Covid-19…
ADELAIDE, Australia — Supermarkets, motels, holiday parks, and petrol stations are among more than 600 sites keen to host electric vehicle charging stations under the South Australian government’s plan to boost the state’s charging network. The government will invest $13.4 million ($10.4 million) in the strategy designed to end “range anxiety” and make electric cars the preferred choice for consumers by 2030. The huge public reaction to the scheme demonstrates the increasing public support for electric cars in a state that has led the world in the transition to green energy. “Electric vehicles will lower motoring costs, air, noise, and carbon…
BRISBANE, Australia — The Australian federal government has been accused of putting the rich and famous ahead of vulnerable families stranded overseas. Greens senator Nick McKim said the government allowed movie stars, business people, and tennis players into Australia while leaving many desperate citizens overseas during the coronavirus pandemic. McKim fired up during a heated debate in Senate on May 24. “If you are rich and famous or wealthy, it is off you go, come and go as you please, or we will exempt you from the guidelines,” he said. “Whereas if you are a separated family, it is tough luck, off you…
BRISBANE, Australia — Australia’s federal environment department wrongly skipped a key assessment when approving a water pipeline for Adani’s massive Carmichael coal mine, a court has ruled. India-based Adani Group is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The North Galilee Water Scheme would extend a dam and pump water 110 kilometers (68.35 miles) to the coal mine in central Queensland, to suppress dust and wash coal. The project equates to 12.5 gigalitres of water scheme and includes a water pipeline, pump station system, and the extension of an existing dam in the Belyando and Suttor river catchment areas. A department…
The world’s largest composite superyacht — Majesty 175 — officially launched in Dubai on May 23 after lengthy sea trials. The flagship superyacht of Gulf Craft, based in the United Arab Emirates, was built in the company’s shipyard in Umm Al Quwain. The megayacht has an overall length of 178 feet, 4 inches and a beam of 31 feet 6 inches. The efficient hull, designed by naval architect Massimo Gregori from Yankee Delta Studio, is made of carbon fiber and vinyl ester, among other materials, for greater strength and less weight. Award-winning Cristiano Gatto Design of Italy styled the lines…
Word of the fire reached Uri Jeremias at his world-renowned Uri Buri restaurant on May 11: Arab rioters had thrown a Molotov cocktail at his award-winning Efendi Hotel nearby. His two businesses, situated in restored ancient buildings, are proud symbols of coexistence in the evenly Arab and Jewish northwest coastal city of Acre (Akko). What were his first thoughts when he heard his hotel had been attacked? “I didn’t have time to think. I had to act,” Jeremias said. He raced to the Efendi and worked with the staff and Arab neighbors to evacuate guests. The 12-room boutique hotel was…