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An advocacy group has slammed what it calls “inaccurate and harmful” reporting of an issue that is crucial to rural communities and the national prosperity. Speak Up Campaign chair, Shelley Scoullar, said rural Australians are ‘fed up’ with unacceptable media standards and the lack of effort to ensure crucial issues are reported accurately and with balance. Mrs Scoullar said the latest example was from the ABC’s national environment and science reporter, Michael Slezak, and his reporting of Australia’s State of the Environment document, in which he used selective information that presented a false picture of Murray-Darling Basin Plan progress in broadcasts and online, including ABC National News.

ASX-listed local and international supplier of medicinal cannabis ECS Botanics is offloading its production enterprise in Tasmania’s Northern Midlands ... ECS cultivates and manufactures medicinal cannabis products in both Tasmania and Victoria, and supplies domestic and overseas markets. Last year, it secured a five-year, $4.5 million deal to supply Polish company Alivio Spolka with GMP-manufactured medicinal cannabis, and a one year rolling supply agreement with local company Canngea, after it took over Murray Meds early in the year as part of a $1 million deal.

The world’s largest macadamia producers, the Zadro family, have tipped their Gemfields aggregation in Queensland’s Central Highlands to the market, with expectations of $70 million as institutional investors grow their focus on horticulture ventures. At the same time, the Elliot River horticulture portfolio in the Coastal Burnett region has been listed for sale with a circa $30 million price tag, making for $100 million worth of sunshine state horticultural assets available.

The federal government will add $455 million to its coffers after Treasurer Jim Chalmers moved swiftly to double foreign investment application fees. Labor’s election promise will become reality from this Friday. Foreign purchasers buying a residential property worth $1 million will be slugged an application fee of $13,200, up from $6,600. The same will apply to foreign buyers acquiring agricultural assets worth $2 million, and commercial assets worth $50 million ... “Australia welcomes foreign investment that is in Australia’s interests,” Chalmers said.

With Australian biodiversity under significant threat, the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) is urging the federal government to look to investment and collaboration with farmers. The call from the NFF comes after the recent release of the State of the Environment Report which revealed biodiversity across the country is experiencing a massive decline and currently remains under threat of further deterioration.