Federal politics

The NSW Government has announced that licences have been issued to airline operators to provide flights from Sydney to Lord Howe Island and Sydney to Moree. These two routes are the only regulated routes in NSW that require licences under the Air Transport Act (NSW) 1964.

Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud, said this week that Labor’s planned 240-kilometre Victorian stretch of the VNI West powerline will rip up prime agriculture land ... Yeungroon farmer Glenden Watts said the whole project isn’t necessary ... “The route does a dog-leg into farming land, rather than the populated areas."

More than 1650 gigalitres of water for the environment was provided to South Australia in the 2023-24 financial year, the largest volume since the introduction of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in November 2012. ... "All of this work highlights the importance of recovering the final 450 gigalitres of environmental water under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to ensure we deliver better outcomes for the River Murray": Susan Close.

The State of the Climate Report 2024 has found Australia’s weather and climate has continued to change, with an increase in extreme heat events, longer fire seasons, more intense heavy rainfall, and sea level rise. The report, prepared every two years, was released today by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and the Bureau of Meteorology.    

Consultation on the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority’s (APVMA)  proposed regulatory decision on paraquat  closed ... The APVMA Chief Executive Officer Mr Scott Hansen said the regulator received submissions from across industry, community, medical and public health sectors.

Forestry Australia is calling on the Australian Government to ensure that new ACCU Scheme carbon methods developed for managing native forests are truly ‘nature positive’ ... “The proposed method,  Enhancing Native Forest Resilience, is focussed on improving the health and resilience of native forests and encouraging active, adaptive management of native forests across all land tenures to assist Australia in meeting its Paris Agreement targets": Dr Bill Jackson.

The National Farmers’ Federation warns that the Federal Government’s dismal response to the Red Imported Fire Ant Senate Inquiry Report will come back to bite ... “It appears the Government is underestimating this pest. Red fire ants pose a mammoth risk not only to farming, but to humans, animals, plants and the quintessential Aussie backyard barbecue”: NFF Sustainable Development and Climate Change Committee Chair Angus Atkinson.

Mrs Dalton wants the NSW Government to take a stand against the Federal Government’s move to take productive water from regions under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan using the water buyback scheme. A petition organised by Ms Dalton needs 10,000 signatures, and Ms Dalton said she’s got just over 5000 so far ... "10,000 signatures will bring on debate in NSW parliament."

Hugh Schuitemaker. The State Government says the Riverland’s wildlife and plant species are seeing benefits of increased environmental water, however, senior local politicians have described the announcement as "misleading" ... Chaffey MP Tim Whetstone said the increased environmental flows were due to high storage volumes and the 2022-23 flood event.

The NFF Horticulture Council ... confirmed it cannot support an updated Food and Grocery Code of Conduct that resembles the draft recently shared for comment. Chair of the Council, Jolyon Burnett said ... the core concerns of the fresh produce industry remained ignored ... "despite the time available and keen public interest, neither Dr Emerson or the Treasury appear to have been interested in understanding how fresh produce supply chains work and how best to protect vulnerable suppliers."

Rachel Hagan. Viterra's proposed purchase of the Maitland AWB Grainflow site, along with two other facilities, has been reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission by T-Ports. The proposed acquisition of Grainflow sites at Maitland and Crystal Brook, and Cargill’s mobile shiploader at Port Adelaide, has caused backlash from T-Ports…

I’ve already outlined Canberra, our very own isolated political bubble in the bush, but make no mistake—there’s a whole global club of purpose-built capitals that decided to swap sense for seclusion. These cities, built from scratch, aimed to be the shining beacons of national pride, but somehow all have ended up as bubbles of bureaucrats, completely detached from the real world.

Canberra is a very strange place. The nation's purpose-built capital has been the subject of debate and controversy since its conception ... Where are the alternative voices? ... Politicians are only hearing one side, largely because no one’s challenging the narrative. Even our peak agricultural bodies have been sucked into the progressive undertow ...

...the administrators for Rex Airlines have advised the sale of Pel-Air, part of the Rex business, to Helicorp Pty Ltd, part of Toll Aviation. Pel-Air is the contractor supplying ambulance services to Ambulance Victoria and NSW Ambulance, along with specially-modified aircraft for international and domestic aeromedical transfers.  

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has today released Australia’s State of the Forests Report: Synthesis 2023. ABARES Executive Director, Dr Jared Greenville, said the five-yearly report covered all areas of Australia’s forests—public and private forests, forests managed for production and forests managed for conservation…

Panel members have now been appointed to lead the independent review into the Wilcannia Weir Replacement Project, marking a significant step forward in the review process. It comes following the NSW Government’s commitment to undertake a review of the Wilcannia proposed weir design.

Researching the Robodebt controversy couldn’t have been easy – journalist Rick Morton faced the challenge and wrote a book about it. Morton will discuss his new book  Mean Streak  in a special conversation with author Melissa Lucashenko in Kyogle...

Rainer Chlanda. Those who work in the social service sector in Alice Springs, as I do, know this fact intimately: there is an incredible amount of money funding our response to a community who have incredibly little. Our system watches as desperate people stumble and waits for them to fall before extending a paternalistic hand or one gripped around a gavel.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has completed a timber testing trial investigating the best ways to implement technologies verifying claims of species and harvest origin of regulated timber and timber products ... Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Policy Matt Lowe said globally, it has been estimated that about 15-30 per cent of all wood traded is a product of illegal logging and illicit wood.

The Centre for Population has published two publications on Deaths of Despair and our submission to the Excess mortality inquiry. This short guide prepared by the Centre for Population compares deaths related to suicide, drug and alcohol induced deaths in Australia, the UK and the US.