PERTH, Australia — Aboriginal groups are not opposed to mining but want a seat at the table, the traditional owners of Juukan Gorge have said ahead of the anniversary of its destruction. Mining giant Rio Tinto blew up the sacred 46,000-year-old rock shelters in Western Australia’s Pilbara region on May 24 last year to extract AU$ 188 million ($145.6 million) worth of high-grade iron ore. The incident devastated the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, and prompted a global backlash. In a rare video interview released on May 18, Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People Aboriginal Corporation spokesman…
Author: zenger.news
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian political party, The Victorian Greens are urging the Government not to make further cuts to the public sector as part of its efforts to repair the state’s Covid-19 ravaged budget. Last week, Treasurer Tim Pallas confirmed the guaranteed annual increase of taxpayer-funded jobs would be cut from 3 percent to 2 percent from 2022. Teachers, nurses, paramedics, firefighters, police officers, and the public service are among the workers who will be affected. It is expected further efforts to constrain spending within government departments will be unveiled on May 20 state budget. In 2019, the Government paid consultants AU$ 9 million ($6.98…
KINGSTON, Australia — Dozens of legal, health and community organizations have again called on all levels of the Australian government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years. The Australian Medical Association and the Australian Lawyers Alliance were among 76 groups that say urgent reform is needed for the almost 600 children under 14 locked up in Australian prisons each year. The groups on May 19 publicly released 48 submissions handed to the Council of Attorneys-General more than a year ago, which they claimed provided extensive evidence that change is necessary for the physical and psychological health of the children. “If our governments are serious about Closing…
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson will resist working up an Australian-style appetite for debt and deficit when he delivers New Zealand’s budget. The budget which will be presented on May 20 is his fourth, but the first of Jacinda Ardern‘s second term with the Labour Party in the majority. So while Robertson is free of the constraints of a coalition, his hands are tied by the pandemic, which has ballooned debt to uncomfortable levels. “It is a budget put together still in the shadow of Covid-19,” he said. “That means we require it to do two…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian prime minister’s lawyers resist independent senator Rex Patrick’s demand for the public to see the medical advice behind the national cabinet’s decisions on the pandemic response. Andrew Berger QC informed the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on May 19, and it was irrelevant that there’d never been a federal cabinet before. He argued the paper trail to and from the committee of Australia’s prime minister, premiers, and chief ministers must be exempt from freedom of information laws. Presiding officer Federal Court Justice Richard White is considering whether the national cabinet can remain exempt from the laws intended to support free and open government. Five hours into proceedings,…
KURRI KURRI, Australia — The Morrison government is pressing ahead with a new gas-fired power plant in the Australian state of New South Wales Hunter Valley, as a major report calls for an end to investment in fossil fuel technology. Government-owned Snowy Hydro Limited has been given up to AU$600 million ($465.9 million) to construct a 660MW open cycle gas turbine at Kurri Kurri’s old aluminum smelter. Energy Minister Angus Taylor claims that the project would create up to 600 new jobs during peak construction and 1200 indirect jobs across New South Wales. However, it will require only ten jobs when…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s economists expect wage pressures remained subdued in the first three months of the year, even as the economy rebounded strongly and unemployment fell faster than many had predicted. The release of the Wage Price Index (WPI) for the March quarter on May 19 — a key gauge used by the Reserve Bank and Treasury to measure wages growth — is forecast to rise by 0.5 percent, slightly smaller than the 0.6 percent increase recorded three months earlier. This will leave the annual rate at just 1.4 percent, and way short of what the Reserve Bank of Australia…
TOWNSVILLE, Australia — An application designed to help small businesses prepare for and respond to disasters has been launched by Australia’s north-eastern state of Queensland’s government. The Disaster Hub application will allow businesses to access checklists, financial assistance, and other resources when disasters strike in Queensland. Businesses will find “prepare, respond and recover” checklists, suggested communication messaging, how-to video animations, small business resilience case studies and links to access information and financial assistance. It’s hoped the free app will help small businesses get back on their feet sooner after a disaster. Small Business Minister Di Farmer says the government sought feedback from…
CANBERRA, Australia — Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers believes former United Kingdom prime minister Margaret Thatcher would be “mighty proud” of the Morrison government’s record on wages growth. The former UK prime minister is one of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg‘s political idols. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. Chalmers will use his post-budget address to the National Press Club on May 19 to slam the government’s record on jobs and wages, saying it has racked up AU$1…
DARWIN, Australia — The Australian Defense Force’s new Joint Strike Fighter has hit the skies above the Northern Territory for the first large-scale air combat training exercise since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multi-role combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. About a dozen Royal Australian Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighters made the trek to the Top End, along with 40 other aircraft and over 500 Defense…