CANBERRA, Australia — The disability support scheme must be culturally appropriate otherwise Indigenous Australians will miss out, a parliamentary inquiry has been warned. The cautionary note comes as the Australian Labor Party’s spokesman for the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill Shorten prepares to map out his vision for the program’s future. Shorten, who was integral in setting up the National Disability Insurance Scheme, will address the National Press Club in Canberra on April 28. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a scheme of the Australian Government that funds cost associated with disability. The scheme was legislated in 2013 and went into…
Author: zenger.news
PORT ARTHUR, Australia — A small commemoration service will be held at Australia’s southern Tasmania’s Port Arthur to mark 25 years since the 1996 massacre. At the time, the incident was considered the world’s worst mass shooting, with 35 people killed and 23 injured at the popular tourist site on the Tasman Peninsula. It remains Australia’s most deadly massacre. Port Arthur has been a place of hardship and punishment. Now, the site is one of Australia’s most important heritage destinations, where the story of Australia’s colonial history is written in stone and brick. The shooting prompted significant gun reform under then-prime minister John Howard via the 1996…
SYDNEY, Australia — An expected rise in the inflation rate for the first three months of the year won’t stir the Reserve Bank of Australia from its steady interest rate outlook. The April 28’s release of the March quarter consumer price index is expected to show a solid 0.9 percent increase due to higher petrol prices, the rising cost of home building and an increase in rents. It will lift the annual rate of inflation to 1.4 percent compared to just 0.9 percent at the end of 2020, which was the result of last year’s recession. Underlying inflation, which smooths…
SYDNEY, Australia — A prominent tech watchdog said Australian teenagers on Facebook can be profiled and targeted by advertisers promoting alcohol, smoking, gambling, adult dating sites, and extreme weight loss. While underage Facebook users can’t be served alcohol, cigarette, or gambling ads specifically, a report by Reset Australia has identified a loophole that allows underage profiles to be targeted based on these interests. Reset Australia works to counter digital threats to democracy and is demanding more excellent data protection for teens. Facebook builds profiles based on interests and then sells access to these profiles to advertisers for direct, targeted advertising. Reset Australia…
DARWIN, Australia — Five refugees detained in a Darwin hotel in Northern Territory, Australia, for more than a year are taking the federal government to court for false imprisonment and negligence after witnessing their friend self-immolate. Iranians Afsaneh Khademi, 43, Mojtaba Hamedani, 37, Behnam Rangzan, 25, Afsaneh Ghodsi, 40 and Mojtaba Haghighat, 39, came to Australia by boat in 2013. The two families have spent most of the time since on Nauru, a tiny island country located northeast of Australia, before being transferred to the Northern Territory in early 2020 for medical treatment they have never received. “The Australian government…
TOOWOOMBA, Australia — When it comes to exotic new locations, few places are hotter right now than TOI-1431b. TOI-1431b is an ultra-rare planet discovered by researchers at the University of Southern Queensland’s Centre for Astrophysics in Toowoomba. Sure, it takes 490 light-years to get there, and if by some miracle you were to arrive safely, your metal jewelry and tooth fillings would vaporize along with your body. But Australian state of Queensland’s astrophysicist Brett Addison claims it is a stunning location, notable for its lovely warm weather. With a daytime temperature of 2,700 degrees Celcius, the newly discovered planet is one of the hottest…
KOLKATA, India — “For almost half of a year, we remain drowned in floods,” Montu Mian, a 45-year-old farmer from Satkhira district in southwestern Bangladesh, told Zenger News. “Salinity is a perennial problem. So, we can neither cultivate crops nor fishes. If we cultivate fish in ponds, we cannot use the water for drinking or cooking purposes, as it becomes filthy. We cannot afford that luxury as the source for drinking water is scarce due to salinity.” Two-third of Bangladesh is wetlands, and most parts remain submerged for eight months at a stretch almost every year. Bangladesh is prone to floods…
CHENNAI, India — With Covid-19 infecting over 300,000 Indians every day, start-ups and entrepreneurs have been raising funds and resources needed to deal with the pandemic. Now, Indian-American Big Tech leaders have added their might to the fight. U.S. search engine giant Google announced INR 135 crore ($18 million) on April 26 to help India combat the second wave of Covid-19. Google joined many Indian start-ups like fintech players Razorpay, Paytm, and food-tech firm Zomato who are pitching in to fight the Covid-19 crisis. India is witnessing a shortage of oxygen, beds, vaccines, and essential medicines, and social media is inundated with pleas…
Archeologists have discovered more than 100 ancient tombs, some at least 5 millennia old, in northern Egypt. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the find by the archeologic team headed by Sayed Al-Talhawi on April 27. The 110 tombs were unearthed at the Kom Al-Khalejan archeologic site in Egypt’s Dakahlia Governorate in the Nile Delta region. Among the graves are 68 oval-shaped tombs, which have been dated back to Egypt’s Predynastic era from 6000 to 3150 B.C. One of the ancient tombs with human remains that was unearthed in the Koum el-Khulgan archeological site, in the Nile Delta province…
A female elephant takes time for a key activity: rolling around in the mud at a zoo in Australia. Video from Taronga Zoo Sydney shows the elephant swaying in the mud bath in the sun while being splashed with water. Mud baths serve a critical purpose for elephants. The mud not only cools them down, but also provides a protective layer to shield their body from the sun’s rays and safeguard them from insect bites. “Humans aren’t the only ones in the animal kingdom that enjoy being a little kid from time to time,” the zoo posted on its Facebook…