Federal politics

Clarence Nationals MP Richie Williamson has again taken the fight for local fishing families to Macquarie Street, delivering a Private Member’s Statement in the NSW Parliament on Tuesday night, calling on the Minns Labor Government to provide immediate financial support for Clarence River and Evans Head commercial fishers impacted by the extended white spot biosecurity orders.

The illegal importation of 62 tonnes of pork and other animal protein from Thailand into Australia proves the urgent need for increased funding and resources for frontline biosecurity services ... a District Court judge sentencing her to a 24-month intensive corrections order and 150 hours of community service ... “The two cases demonstrate that food smugglers can get away with breaching our biosecurity laws too easily and for too long before being found out, and face too small a punishment”: CA Chief Executive, Dr Chris Parker.

Work has started in Stockinbingal on building an accommodation camp for workers on the Illabo to Stockinbingal (I2S) section of Inland Rail. The accommodation camp will provide a home away from home for 350 workers who will be helping build the 39km of new track over the next two years.

Stakeholders call for local government reforms. Many local councils in the MacKillop electorate are facing serious financial strain, struggling to meet community demands while navigating complex partnerships with state and federal governments under the Local Government Act 1999.

The Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, Tony Mahar, met with locals in Moulamein on Tuesday to listen to their experience of the country's energy transition to date ... many of the complaints heard were not new to Commissioner Mahar. “Community engagement is nowhere near where it needs to be.”

An investment of more than $30 million to upgrade one of South Australia’s most important airports has been completed, allowing vital services to the Whyalla region to continue.

Australia runs a reasonably large migration program by international standards but getting migrants out of the big cities ­­­- particularly Melbourne and Sydney - and into the regions has always been a challenge ... Australia’s regions need strengthened incentives and concessions to encourage migrants to settle in regional areas, fill regional labour shortages, and in turn strengthen our regions and ease population pressures on our big cities. It’s time for action.

Australia’s co-operative and mutual sector has ambitions to emulate its UK counterpart’s planned doubling in size, after recording an 8.4 per cent increase in annual revenue. The latest National Mutual Economy Report (NME) … shows continued resilience by the sector against a backdrop of on-going global volatility and stabilising inflation.

The brutal truth? We’ve hit the wall on new mobile towers in the bush ... If the government wants to be taken seriously on regional development—and on spreading the half-million migrants arriving each year beyond our major cities—then it must stop treating mobile connectivity as a private-sector problem. It’s time to treat it like the essential service it is.

A Queensland man, 63, is scheduled to face Cairns Magistrates Court today (18 June, 2025) charged with allegedly producing child abuse material in the Philippines. Australian Border Force (ABF) officers searched the man’s phone after he returned to Australia on an international flight at Cairns Airport on 25 December, 2024. 

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has welcomed the announcement by the Victorian and Federal Governments of new funding for water infrastructure and environmental projects in northern Victoria ... The VFF also welcomed the new feasibility studies, which will enable further assessment of water projects identified in last year’s Victorian water prospectus.

Joe Lauria. The Australian government whistleblower David McBride is headed back to jail with no end of incarceration in sight. He is serving nearly six years for leaking documents to the media exposing Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. A three-judge panel at the Supreme Court in Australia's capital on 28th May spent less than one minute dismissing all appeals by David McBride ...

With a renewed mandate in hand, the Albanese Government and its new Cabinet will have no barriers for further delay to implement the many health, disability and ageing sector reviews, reforms and recommendations it worked on with stakeholders in its first term of government ... The 7.3 million Australians living in rural and remote areas don’t need more consultations. They need a government that will implement the solutions that have already been developed, debated, and recommended.

The community of Birchip, an epicentre of three wind farm proposals and four significant mineral sands mining retention licences, played host to a community meeting addressing turbines, lines, mines and property rights ... Three key speakers addressed an audience exceeding three hundred people from across Western Victoria, who filled the Birchip Leisure Centre to capacity.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says a Ricardo report commissioned by Dairy Australia raises serious concerns over the future of the dairy industry, with water buybacks potentially leading to a further 270 million litre decline in milk production.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has slammed the Federal Government for paying a staggering premium of $1,000 per megalitre above the seasonal average in its recent purchase of Goulburn water, calling it a reckless move that distorts the market and punishes farmers.

Milk production could plummet by up to 15 per cent in the southern Murray Darling Basin if water buybacks are not halted immediately, a new study has shown. The Dairy Australia report … Australia’s annual milk production could plummet by up to 270 million litres if the federal government pressed on with water buybacks that would strip dairy farms of vital water supplies.