State politics

The Rookwood Weir project is helping fish species move safely and more freely in the Lower Fitzroy River system. As part of the project’s environmental offset strategy, a $7 million fishway is to be added to the Fitzroy Barrage, located at Rockhampton, downstream of the weir.

The largest and most ambitious trade initiative in Australian horticulture has been given the green light with a host of partners signing on to an historic $130 million program, the Fresh and Secure Trade Alliance (FASTA) ... As part of the program, FASTA will also boost biosecurity initiatives to solidify Australia’s strong reputation in pest-management and as a responsible trading partner for years to come.

Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party MLC Robert Borsak and SFF Goulburn Branch President Andy Wood have called out the hypocrisy of the Liberal member for Goulburn, Wendy Tuckerman, for her recent motion in the NSW Parliament about the proposed Tarago Incinerator. The proposed incinerator at Tarago will burn 380,000 tonnes of Sydney's waste each year, including plastics, municipal and industrial waste.

NT Minister Chansey Paech has not responded to a question, put to him three times yesterday by the  Alice Springs News, whether his government is buying the land of the former  St Mary’s  Children’s Village just south of The Gap ... This has caused distress to some former residents as well as concern over the future of the  chapel  on the site.

Peter Walsh has just missed his first day of work as a state politician since he was elected to the seat of Swan Hill 21 years ago (before winning Murray Plains in 2014). It has taken a lot to stop him from maintaining his perfect parliamentary record – such as a ruptured Achilles tendon...

David Prestipino, NIT. A prominent First Nations leader in the Kimberley has called for an independent panel chaired by an industry leader and Indigenous expert to re-draft WA's doomed Aboriginal Cultural Heritage legislation. Nyikina man and former Kimberley Land Council CEO Wayne Bergmann said a roundtable of industry, pastoralists, farmers, native title holders and land councils should be involved in drafting the new laws.

Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke has challenged the NSW Premier Chris Minns to show that he governs for the entire State and to do what is needed to improve Narrandera’s water supply. Ms Cooke said … he should do so in what he has already tagged as the "insta-worthy township of Narrandera".

A new Sustainable Procurement Policy has been implemented across the State Government’s infrastructure and transport programs as we continue working to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 ... The introduction of this new policy by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport will ensure sustainability risks...

There have been growing community concerns about the frequency of thefts of metals including copper from energy, communication and transport networks, as well as local schools, sporting clubs and other properties ... The inquiry will look at options for curbing the ability of criminals to dispose of, and profit from, the sale of stolen metal through the scrap metal industry.

Victorian farmers will descend on Parliament House in Melbourne next Tuesday 15 August for the ‘Stop the Towers’ rally, in response to the proposed VNI West and Western Renewables Link transmission projects.

Will Hunter. Unemployment figures for Yorke Peninsula’s local government areas continue to fall and businesses are still grappling with workforce shortages. In a sign of a tightening local labour market, Copper Coast, Barunga West and Yorke Peninsula Council areas all recorded at least a 1.3 per cent decrease in unemployment in the quarter ending March 2023, compared with December 2022.

On Tuesday, August 15, the Regional Victoria Power Alliance of farmers, their rural, regional, and suburban neighbours, retail and tourism business owners, and many other community members will be holding their "Stop the Towers" Rally in Melbourne, on the steps of Parliament and in Spring Street itself ... "Stop the Towers" spokesperson Glenden Watts, "the naked farmer" from Yeungroon, says that he and everyone else in the western and northwestern regions only learnt earlier this year that they were in an "area of interest" for VNI West.

Media reports of  a new government plan to combat the spread of Red Imported Fire Ants only serve to further highlight the government’s continuing failure to fulfil one of its most basic responsibilities ... CANEGROWERS CEO Dan Galligan has said ... a much smaller treatment area around the Scenic Rim and Gold Coast will be targeted, effectively allowing one of the most dangerous and destructive invasive species in the world to continue spreading north and west unhindered.

The Palaszczuk Government has recently finalised the purchase of around 8000 hectares of land near Hughenden which will form part of Queensland’s newest National Park ... So far in 2023, the size of Queensland’s national parks estate has grown by more than 12,500 hectares

The NSW Government is seeking feedback on a proposed amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan. The proposed amendment would allow aerial shooting as an additional option for the control of wild horses alongside the existing methods such as trapping and rehoming, and ground shooting.

"A damning new report has laid bare the cost blowout and waste of the Western Victoria energy transmission project, threatening prime Mallee farmland," Member for Mallee, Anne Webster says. The Victoria Energy Policy Centre’s (VEPC) "No Longer Lost In Transmission" report highlights the VNI West) costs are understated by the AEMO and already reliant on outdated data.

Vic Jurskis. The facts haven’t deterred the ecowarriors of North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) from trying to hasten the demise of the sustainable, renewable, solar-powered native timber industry. They don’t care about habitat for people, other than themselves. They’ve launched an application for an injunction to ‘save’ the overcrowded koalas that are breeding more rapidly than ever on all the soft new growth resprouting after the Black Summer holocaust that they helped to create.