Business

TRA has now published the  State of the Industry 2022  report. This annual report presents a snapshot of Australia’s visitor economy in 2022.

Viva Energy announced plans to build infrastructure which will enable its refinery at Geelong to receive and process feedstocks such as used cooking oil, animal fats and synthetic crude made from waste plastics which would otherwise find their way into landfill. These feedstocks will be blended with crude oil to reduce the energy intensity of fuels that are produced at Geelong Refinery and recycle waste plastics through the polypropylene plant which was acquired by the company last year.

A fresh study on the environmental impacts of lab-grown meat has led an internationally recognised expert on the future of cell-based protein, Professor Paul Wood, AO, to confirm the economics of producing lab-grown meat at scale “just won’t work” and will be less sustainable than traditional red meat production systems. The new study from the University of California, Davis, argues the global warming potential of cell-based meat production could be up to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.

A recent analysis by EP3 of the wool market got me thinking about wool, which seems to be staggering around and yet again threatening to repeat its long term boom and bust cycle, despite what we are repeatedly told about the huge demand for clean green natural fibres.

Australia is now grappling with a labour shortage across multiple sectors including health, aged care and agriculture. And our policymakers seem to continue to overlook retirees as part of the solution to the crisis.

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency CEO Priscilla Atkins, who says she is currently on leave, discloses she was “excluded from the beginning” from an  investigation  by KPMG, a world-wide professional services firm which produced a scathing report about the law firm, the Territory’s biggest.

An industry-led, wide-scale search through previously mined and discarded rock and earth could help boost Australia’s global position as a clean energy powerhouse ... Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said the new Atlas of Australian Mine Waste, could provide industry with additional opportunities to extract valuable resources from previously mined rock and earth.

The Victorian Government has taken another step to accelerate the Victoria-New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) project at the expense of Mallee landholders. "State Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has used her powers to order the Australian Energy Market Operator AEMO to proceed with another new preferred route for the project, Option 5A, following weeks of tokenistic and rushed consultation that has frustrated concerned farmers and communities," says Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster.

Barkly Regional Deal Backbone Team has secured five tractor packages to improve services in the bush. The funding package from the Barkly Regional Deal Community Projects Fund will enable communities to look after their Country in a range of ways including slashing grass, building fire breaks, moving wrecked cars and rubbish to make their communities safer.

Queensland Country Rugby Union have announced that the 2023 Queensland Country Rugby Union Championships will be hosted at Victoria Park in Rockhampton, proudly sponsored by Rockhampton Regional Council. The event is expected to attract between 700-800 players and their families at the end of June this year and will be held in Rockhampton again in 2024.

Gannawarra Shire Council has welcomed a proposed realignment of the VNI West route, which would involve constructing new high capacity electricity transmission lines that will pass through the Gannawarra ... “Council, along with the Murray River Group of Councils, has been advocating for VNI West to pass through the Gannawarra, and we have been promoting the benefits of these works to our residents for the past six years,” Mayor Charlie Gillingham said.

Electric vehicles were the focus of a Totally Renewable Denmark showcase on May 21 at Berridge Park with keen interest among the group. Apart from promoting ‘electrify everything’ running off ‘renewable energy’, TRD’s objective is ‘reduction revolution’ which means considering resource consumption when swapping goods for electric ones.

More than 400,000 homes and small businesses across Australia can now access a new nbn satellite plan, which provides access to uncapped data usage* to meet the growing data demands of regional, rural and remote communities across Australia. The new plan, named nbn Sky Muster Plus Premium, is the latest step in the evolution of the nbn satellite network and adds to the suite of existing nbn Sky Muster Plus plans.

Telecommunications company Telstra is seeking ratepayer funding to help build towers in the Limestone Coast region as part of a "big project". In a proposal to the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council, a Telstra SA and Tasmania area general manager Michael Patterson outlined Telstra's proposal for the South-East, asking for a five percent funding investment by the council.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has described regional newspapers as ‘absolutely vital’ and as the ‘lifeblood of their communities’ before offering to help ensure that a larger share of the Queensland state government advertising budget be directed at communicating with regional Queenslanders through independent regional newspapers.

As government policies lead to soaring energy prices, the Victorian Government is changing the preferred route and accelerating works on the 500 kilovolt double-circuit overhead transmission line between Victoria and New South Wales ... According to the AEMO report, councils have indicated there is a broader social licence for VNI West crossing the Murray River north of Kerang (option 5a) instead of the Echuca route, and therefore more likelihood of timely implementation.  

Australian pharmacies pleas to scrap the 60-day dispensing policy have fallen on deaf ears with the proposal confirmed in the recent budget release. The 60 day dispensing reform will mean that patients will be able to claim double the amount of medication with one script at no extra cost.

Businesses in regional and rural Australia have prospered in the past year and are well placed to consolidate their gains in the year ahead, NAB’s second annual Horizons Report shows. NAB Executive for Regional and Agribusiness, Khan Horne, said the report reflects a recovery from a bust-boom cycle of drought years followed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Nationals leader and Member for Maranoa David Littleproud said the first 12 months of an Albanese Labor government had been tough for Australian agriculture, with the full effect to be felt in the coming few years ... Mr Littleproud said farmers and processors were making investment decisions not to plant and not to invest, because the government could not provide them confidence of a stable workforce, which was driving down supply and consumer prices up.

Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson is continuing his push for greater local control and decision making in TAFE campuses across the New England Northwest. Mr Anderson said the community and local teachers had raised concerns with the lack of local control and the local decision-making process in our region, with local businesses expressing frustration with the disconnect between class offerings and the needs of the business community.

From the days when smoking in the hospital room was the norm, and becoming a nurse saw you trade in much of your freedom to live full time in nurses' quarters at the hospital, to advances in technology, a COVID pandemic and everything in between, Pam van Kempen has been through it all, and she’s here to share her tale ahead of her well-deserved retirement.

David Landini. The closure of the Victorian native timber harvesting industry has not occurred due to legal threats; it has occurred due to the Green orientation of the Victorian urban population and this population’s insurmountable political power ... There are more Green voters in Victoria, mostly in the urban areas, than the total number of voters in the 10 marked electorates.