Politics

Legendary music icon Paul Kelly is heading to Alice Springs this October to headline an exciting new event, The Warm-Up ... His performance will complete a program of activity for The Warm-Up, which will celebrate one-year-out from the return of the 2024 Alice Springs Masters Games.

Vic Jurskis. Since NSW koalas were declared endangered 12 months ago, they’re turning up everywhere. Here's the latest: "... uncovered a new population of 42 koalas at Coolah Tops, north west of Sydney, when the previous government only had five documented koala sightings in the area over the past 70 years."

Regional Cities Victoria (RCV) launches ‘The Winning Formula for Regional Victoria’, a document outlining the group’s priorities to ensure a lasting legacy is created for the whole of regional Victoria as part of the 2026 Commonwealth Games ... The Winning Formula for Regional Victoria examines six key areas with recommendations that will ensure a lasting legacy for every regional city beyond the event period and across the whole state, not just for the five cities hosting events...

Pest animal control works will commence across Tweed coastal areas from 6 June 2023 after a successful program in previous years. Recent camera monitoring has recorded pest animal activity in the coastal bushland areas at Fingal Head, Kingscliff, Hastings Point and Pottsville. Species recorded on the cameras have included foxes and European hares...

The four-year long community led rehabilitation of ‘Rum Jungle’ is nearing completion with a final clean-up and Boxthorn Blitz workshop taking place next weekend. To celebrate the successful initiative, members of the community who come out one last time will be treated to morning tea, giveaways and a couple of numbers from Geraldton’s Sea Shanty group aptly called Rum Jungle.

Fin Hansen. Elderly people and those with disabilities are being encouraged to sit back while someone else pedals. Wallaroo Community Development Association has launched a Cycling Without Age chapter and purchased a trishaw bike to transport people across the Copper Coast comfortably.

Australia needs a high-quality, universally accessible and affordable early learning childcare system, according to Thrive by Five. The organisation is calling on federal and state governments to reform early learning and child care to benefit more families and early education staff.

We want to understand how we can better work with our communities to ensure you have the information you need and the opportunity to provide feedback as Inland Rail progresses. Now is your chance to provide anonymous feedback on how we can improve our future communication and interactions with you by completing this quarterly communication and engagement survey.

The ANZ Clarkson branch is set to close this week while the ANZ Joondalup branch will move to a new location. In letters to customers the ANZ said its Clarkson branch at Unit 2, 23 Ocean Keys Blvd would close at 4pm on Wednesday, June 7.

The independent, global Gender Representation in the Meat Industry 2023 report draws on international data from more than 50 major meat organisations ... Australia's OBE Organic - whose MD Dalene Wray is herself a notable woman in the meat business - featured as a case study in the report ... ARR.News asked some questions about women in the meat business of Dalene and Laura Ryan, Founder and Global Chair of Meat Business Women.

The NFF Horticulture Council has rung the alarm bells loud and clear that the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is now heading toward calamity ... Horticulture Council spokesperson Rachel Chambers said it was increasingly clear relevant ministers aren’t working together to ensure the scheme meets the long-terms interests of the Pacific and Australian industries it’s meant to serve. 

Richmond Valley Council has welcomed the release of the draft Resilient Lands Strategy by the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation. The strategy has identified Fairy Hill as a flood-safe housing opportunity.

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos announced construction will soon begin on the Wycheproof Wetlands Precinct – which is backed by the Labor Government. The project is helping to create a 70,000m2 wetland system, transforming the area into a world-class nature-based tourism experience while offering new recreation opportunities.

Farmers are calling on the Federal Government to implement competition reforms that will tackle cost of living pressures. NSW Farmers CEO Pete Arkle said the ACCC had made a number of recommendations in its 2020 Perishable Agricultural Goods Inquiry that would bring food prices down for consumers, but so far they had been largely ignored.

The devil’s in the detail of the federal budget’s announcement of a new 10 per cent Biosecurity Protection Levy ... Federal Agriculture Minister, Murray Watt, has proposed raising $47.5 million per year across all producers from the added 10 per cent levy, as part of a ‘sustainable’ funding model for biosecurity protections ... we don’t know what the value proposition is for grains and if it will actually deliver better protections.

Questioning by the WA Opposition’s Mia Davies has revealed that the Forest Products Commission is not planning on issuing any timber contracts from 1 January 2024 until an indeterminant time in the future ... “It is a clear tactic to force businesses out of the sector”, said David Utting, convenor of the Sustainable Forest Industries Roundtable.

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

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.