Federal politics

In 1983, the local Aboriginal people set up a blockade at Mutawintji. Why: Aboriginal people wanted control over their own heritage. They wanted respect for Aboriginal culture.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan and Page Research Centre CEO Gerard Holland have announced today a REAL productivity summit to take place in Canberra alongside the Labor Government’s fake productivity summit.

Joanna Tucker. Hundreds gathered in Edithburgh on Vietnam Veterans' Day to honour the bravery of Australians who served throughout the Vietnam War and to officially open the Vietnam War Memorial Walk. The opening drew more than 700 people, making it one of the bigger events in southern Yorke Peninsula's history.

Foresters and environmentalists in Australia may not have seen eye to eye of late, but on the subject of forest clearances for large scale renewable energy developments, there are increasing instances where their objections to the consequential impact on the forest make them de facto allies.

NSW Farmers is urging the Australian Government to commit to a plan to drive productivity through the agricultural sector and get the economy back on track ahead of a national economic reform roundtable on Tuesday. NSW Farmers’ President Xavier Martin said scrapping the super tax on unrealised gains, boosting mobile coverage and developing laws to protect farm data were just some of the solutions farmers had put forward to the roundtable in a call to fix the nation’s productivity woes.

More than 200 residents and concerned citizens from neighbouring municipalities turned up on Sunday at the Corryong Memorial Hall to protest against the redevelopment of the Albury Hospital and to continue the fight to have a new facility built on a greenfield site to meet the future needs of Albury Wodonga and surrounding communities.

An Australian grape-export company was fined more than a million dollars last week for deliberately trying to bypass controls to export table grapes to New Zealand. The Grape House Pty Ltd pleaded guilty on 3 June to 6 counts of making false representations with the intention of dishonestly influencing a Commonwealth Official.

Angourie residents came together on Sunday as they traditionally have a family to discuss serious concerns about the escalation of crime in the village. The meeting at the Blue Pools carpark was convened by resident of 30 years, Lindsay Hunter, who said the situation escalated last month when carloads containing 12 people came to the town and threatened residents.

Sunrise Christian School Naracoorte principal Aaron Haines says there is a lot of misunderstanding about how independent schools are funded and is calling for a clearer, more balanced discussion. Mr Haines said school funding was incredibly complex, and all stakeholders had a responsibility to help teachers, parents, and the wider public understand how the Australian education system worked.

A woman who illegally misdeclared a package as lingerie and shoes when it really held 57 cacti and succulents has been convicted. Kirsten Mae Fearn pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court to 14 biosecurity charges on Friday 25 July.

Grain Producers Australia is calling for a rigorous investigation of the recent acceleration of Australian farmland purchases, by US-owned foreign investors with serious financial clout, emboldened by major tax breaks. 

A stop work order has been issued covering operation of the Boera Dam river regulator in Toorale National Park following an extensive investigation by the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR). Chief Regulatory Officer Grant Barnes said NRAR issued the order yesterday (Wednesday, August 6) because the operation of certain water infrastructure allegedly did not fully account for water use, as required by the Water Management Act.

The Albanese and Cook Labor Governments have officially opened the Kimberley Cotton Gin in Kununurra, which is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs over the next decade in a new billion-dollar industry for the State's north ... The $60 million high-tech processing facility is owned by Kimberley Cotton Company...

Under the current outlook the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is confident that system demands will be met across the 2025-26 water year, despite a dry start to the season. The MDBA has released its Annual Operating Outlook for 2025–26, which outlines how the River Murray System might be managed under different water availability scenarios for the year ahead.

The Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) has welcomed the Council of Financial Regulators’ (CFR) report on small and medium-sized banks as positive first step in a broader reform journey. “We welcome the Government’s statement of intent on improving the regulatory framework, and the greater consideration of how future policy changes will impact customer-owned banks,” COBA CEO Michael Lawrence said.

While politicians and activists agonise over the merits of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, a far more insidious war rages on — not between nations, but between species. It’s the war we barely talk about, yet one we’re losing badly: the war against invasive pests. From farmland to forest, the frontlines are everywhere, and the casualties aren’t measured in headlines but in trees, crops, ecosystems — and billions of taxpayer dollars.

Long?suffering readers know I like to poke around in the world of agricultural science particularly anything to do with carbon farming and climate change, so — without drawing on the untapped wisdom of my son Thomas — I’m going to argue, once again, that soil carbon farming in the WA Wheatbelt belongs firmly in the fantasy section of the library, not the science shelves.

A delegation from the Country Mayors Association of NSW (CMA) had an intensive series of meetings with Australian Government and Opposition representatives in Canberra last week, with a focus on improving awareness of the financial plight of rural, regional and remote Councils and the dire need to improve Federal Financial Assistance Grants to support sky-rocketing operating costs.

The Towong Shire Council is expecting a large turnout for the community rally in Corryong this Sunday calling for a new single-site regional hospital on a greenfield site in Albury Wodonga. Sunday's protest is the latest step in a protracted campaign that has snowballed since the NSW and Victorian governments announced a joint $558 million funding commitment to redevelop the existing Albury Base hospital.