Category: Australian News

People at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) have propagated around 3,000 native plants over the past year to help Murrumbateman Landcare Group (MLG) restore endangered grassy woodlands in the Yass region. 

The species – including various eucalypts, wattles, shrubs and groundcovers – were chosen by the MLG for their ability to withstand future climate conditions. The native tubestock plants were grown as seeds from both local and non-local sources to ensure genetic diversity and improve soil health on both private and public lands in the Murrumbateman region.

The seven people employed in the AMC’s Production Nursery and Horticulture Program have mastered various propagation techniques, including hot and smoke-water treatment as well as cold stratification, ensuring the plants’ optimal germination and resilience.

Minister for Corrections and Justice Health Emma Davidson said this program is just one of several opportunities offered to people at the AMC to learn new skills, build confidence and give back to their community. 

“Everyone has the power to make our environment more resilient to better respond to the climate crisis,” Minister Davidson said.

“There are commercial grow houses and stock gardens in AMC to empower those who care about our environment to take meaningful action and be part of the collective community effort to keep the ACT region’s environment thriving

“Programs like this help people learn and build new skills, explore their interests, and connect with the broader community. When people have opportunities like this, they feel a stronger sense of belonging, respect, and care for themselves and those around them.”

Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said this partnership demonstrates that rehabilitation and community engagement can go hand-in-hand with positive results.

“This approach aligns with our commitment to evidence-based rehabilitation programs that reduce recidivism and promote successful reintegration. It’s a powerful example of how innovative programs can deliver benefits for detainees and the community alike,” the Attorney-General said.

MLG volunteer Fiona Hamer, whose sheep farm is among the project’s revegetation sites, said she was thrilled to see the region’s blossoming biodiversity.  

“Last year’s (plants) went to the top of a rocky gully, plus a high ridge-line where they will help hold the soil and provide refuges for wildlife. This year’s plants are going into a windbreak that will connect bird-friendly plots from earlier years, help protect ancient remnant paddock trees, as well as reduce stress for lambing ewes by providing shade and shelter,” Ms Hamer said.

ACT Corrective Services Commissioner Bruno Aloisi:
“We are incredibly proud of the dedication and skill demonstrated by the detainees in this program. Their contribution to reforestation efforts not only benefits the environment but also equips them with valuable work and general life skills.”

AMC Production Nursery and Horticulture Program supervisor Leigh:
“This program has been running for three years now. It not only provides valuable horticultural skills to the detainees but also fosters a sense of purpose and connection to the environment.

“The experience has also given detainees a real sense of achievement while nurturing their own personal growth. For some, these programs are more than a way to pass the time of their sentences – it can open up pathways for life after prison.”

Murrumbateman Landcare Group Committee Members Gill Hall:
“This partnership is a wonderful example of how we can work together to achieve positive outcomes for both the environment and individuals involved. The detainees were able to raise some species that the nursery has struggled to grow in Murrumbateman. The tubestock we collect from them always looks so big and healthy, and we love having this connection with the AMC.”

The 46th session of the Unesco World Heritage Committee in New Delhi has overnight decided not to declare the Great Barrier Reef be placed on a list of World Heritage sites ‘in danger’.

This decision ratifies the draft recommendation made to Unesco in June 2024.

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:

“The devil is in the detail with this now-confirmed updated decision. The Albanese Labor Government will crow about the work it is doing to protect the Great Barrier Reef, but it is not off the hook, not by a long shot.

“Unesco has clearly called on the Albanese Government to increase its climate ambition to bring Australia into line with the 1.5C target of the Paris Agreement. How do the Scarborough, Barossa and Beetaloo climate bombs, supported by Labor, stack up against this?

“When I travelled to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef in April this year to witness the destruction of the most recent bleaching event with my own eyes, one thing was undeniable – the Great Barrier Reef is in danger.

“This isn’t difficult – the more coal and gas mines the Albanese Labor Government rips open, the closer the Great Barrier Reef is to becoming irrevocably degraded and changed forever. It’s new coal and gas or the Reef, you can’t have both.

“Just this week the Albanese Labor Government announced new permits for gas drilling along Australia’s west and south-east coastlines. The science is clear – if we are to meet the Paris target, and protect the Reef, there can be no new coal and gas development. Labor continues to remain in denial.

“Australia remains one of the world’s largest exporters of both thermal coal and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Recent data in the UN’s Sustainable Development Report also shows that under Labor, Australia is the fourth largest per capita exporter of CO2 emissions embodied in fossil fuel exports in the world, with only Qatar, Norway and Brunei Darussalam beating us to the top of that unenviable and shameful list.

“Unesco gave the Albanese Labor Government until February this year to demonstrate drastically stronger climate ambition, or else risk the Great Barrier Reef being declared ‘in danger’. Federal Labor has categorically not increased its ambition and is relying primarily on actions taken by the Queensland state government to placate the concerns of Unesco.

“Rising global emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels are boiling our oceans and killing the Great Barrier Reef. Until the Albanese Government commits to ending new coal and gas this destruction will continue.”

The Australian Greens have urged Labor to support and establish a real federal Truth and Justice Commission that can inquire into historic and ongoing injustices against First Nations people and make recommendations to Parliament.

Not, as they have suggested, a bare-minimum, watered down version that won’t address the systemic oppression and racism that communities continue to face.

Overnight, The Age reported Labor was looking to establish a ‘minimalist’ truth-telling plan that would help educate Australians about First Nations history.

It would reportedly contrast the much stronger model in Victoria, which has seen the Yoorrook Justice Commission make many important recommendations for change.

Australian Greens First Nations spokesperson, Senator Dorinda Cox:

“The Greens have a bill for a Truth and Justice Commission before Parliament that Labor could help pass in the coming weeks. This bill is supported by key stakeholders and members of our communities. 

“If Labor is serious about First Nations justice and implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, as they promised, they would back our bill. 

“Why would they not want to give a voice to First Nations peoples and support processes that for the first time would record our rich and vibrant culture and heritage in both pre and post-colonial times? Which would allow us to move towards righting the wrongs of the past and healing as a nation.

“Instead they are suggesting ripping the guts out of a First Nations-led federal Truth and Justice Commission and pushing through a watered down ‘plan’ that will do nothing to address the injustices our communities continue to face and further the sideline reparative processes for healing this nation.

“A ‘minimalist’ model will do nothing and certainly won’t allow us to record the pre-colonial history of Australia and make recommendations to the Parliament on how to address the ongoing systemic issues, which will bring practical changes to close the gap for our people, we need something stronger like the Victorian model.

“We cannot change the past, but we can build a better future for First Nations and non-indigenous Australians with a federal Truth and Justice Commission, which will help us to heal and move forward together as a nation.” 

Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May returns to her Ballarat roots today to listen to community concerns about the current cost of living crisis.

“Time and time again, I’m hearing from people who can’t afford basic food items.” 

“People are telling me that they’re skipping meals and being forced to make tough choices between medical expenses, groceries and rent.”

According to the Ballarat Foundation, more than 12 percent of the population in Ballarat relies on some kind of support for accessing meals and groceries in order to survive.

“This shouldn’t be happening in a wealthy country like Australia, but that’s the reality when Labor refuses to take action on cost of living.”

“Here in Ballarat, like in so many regional communities across the country, shoppers have little choice but to shop at either Coles and Woolworths.”

“The Coles and Woolworths duopoly is blatantly price gouging. Shoppers are paying more for groceries, while supermarkets are profiting billions.”

“Having grown up in Ballarat, I’m hearing directly from locals who are fed up. People have had enough of the supermarket price-gouging, they’ve had enough of not being able to put food on the table for their kids – all while supermarkets make huge profits.”

The Greens are campaigning hard to hold Coles and Woolworths to account, the Senator said.

“Food and grocery prices won’t come down unless we make price gouging illegal, and create powers to break up the supermarket duopoly.”

“Only the Greens have consistently proposed measures in Parliament that will result in lower food and grocery prices.”

“It’s time for the Labor Party to decide whether to protect the profits of supermarket giants or provide relief to Australian shoppers in a cost of living crisis.

Over the next week I will travel to Laos for ASEAN meetings, Japan for the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the Republic of Korea for a bilateral visit. 

This year we proudly mark 50 years since Australia became ASEAN’s first dialogue partner. A strong ASEAN underpins regional stability, contributes to prosperity and reinforces the rules and norms that protect us all.

At the ASEAN-Australia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Laos, we will progress outcomes agreed at the Special Summit held earlier this year in Melbourne.

In Laos, I will also attend the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and ASEAN Regional Forum, which provide important platforms for cooperation with ASEAN on regional priorities.

Australia strongly supports Laos’ leadership as the 2024 ASEAN Chair. Our friendship with Laos is built on longstanding development cooperation and people to people ties, forged over 70 years.

In Tokyo, I look forward to meeting my counterparts from Japan, India and the United States at the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

The Quad is working closely with Indo-Pacific countries and institutions to deliver on a positive agenda that responds tangibly to the region’s priorities and most pressing challenges.

Quad Foreign Ministers will take forward cooperation on infrastructure, supply chains, connectivity, education, research, humanitarian and disaster responses, counterterrorism and security.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) is a close friend and a comprehensive strategic partner. I look forward to meeting Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul in Seoul to progress implementation of the outcomes from our May 2+2 meeting in Melbourne.

Australia and the ROK are building on our strategic alignment with expanded bilateral and regional cooperation, including on the energy transition and economic security.

While in the ROK, I will visit the UN Command Buildings in the Joint Security Area within the Demilitarised Zone, which is an enduring symbol of international cooperation in addressing North Korea’s challenges to security and stability.

This visit to Laos, Japan and the Republic of Korea is an opportunity to promote Australia’s interests and deepen collaboration with key partners and regional architecture in pursuit of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

The Victorian Greens have thrown their support behind journalists from Nine newspapers who are set to strike for the next five days. 

Journalists from Nine mastheads such as the Age in Victoria have planned the industrial action after Nine Entertainment chief executive told staff the company was cutting 200 jobs, including 90 positions across the legacy mastheads. 

Journalists have asked for fair wages, greater diversity, protections against the use of AI and to reduce the number of redundancies. 

The Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell says that these demands are fair and sensible and that journalists need a better deal to support bold, independent, and fearless journalism, which is at the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. 

Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell: 

“All strength to the journalists striking for fair wages, greater diversity, AI protections and fighting back against huge slashes in jobs. 

“It seems Nine are trying to cut costs at every corner instead of investing in public interest reporting which is what journalism is actually all about. 

“It’s a dire reminder of the consequences of successive governments handing over the bulk of our media to a couple of billionaires. 

“A free and fearless press that speaks truth to power is at the cornerstone of our democracy. This relies on good journalists who are empowered to do their job.”

The AFP has charged three men over the alleged forced marriage of two teenage children in Perth, the first time the AFP has laid charges in Western Australia for this crime.

The men – two of whom are related to the boy and one who is related to the girl – faced Perth Magistrates Court today (26 July, 2024) each charged with one count of causing a person to enter into a forced marriage in circumstances of aggravation, contrary to sections 270.7B(1) and 270.8 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth). The matter has been adjourned until next month (August, 2024).

The maximum penalty for the offence is nine years’ imprisonment.

Police will allege the teenagers, one of whom was aged between 13 and 15 and the other who was 17, wanted to date each other but the relatives told them they would have to be married for cultural reasons.

The men then allegedly facilitated the marriage of the children in a religious ceremony last year (2023).

AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Chwal said the definition of a forced marriage was when a person married without freely and fully consenting, because they had been coerced, threatened, or deceived, or because they were incapable of understanding the nature and effect of a marriage ceremony, for reasons including age or mental capacity.

“The legal age for marriage in Australia is 18; and while a child aged 16 to 18 can obtain permission from a Court to marry, the person they wed must be an adult,” he said.

Det-Supt Chwal said forced marriage was a complex crime because it often involved family members as victims and perpetrators, and the number one priority for the AFP was the wellbeing and safety of victims.

“The AFP’s key focus is to disrupt and prevent this crime – by building awareness of the laws in Australia, the warning signs of forced marriage, and the help that can be provided to victims,” he said.

“If victims do not feel comfortable speaking directly to police, there are many services and agencies which can provide support to help ensure their safety.”

Det-Supt Chwal said forced marriage was not limited to any cultural group, religion or ethnicity.

“Anyone can be a victim of forced marriage, regardless of their age, gender or sexual orientation,” Det-Supt Chwal said.

Forced marriage has been illegal in Australia since 2013 and can apply to legally recognised marriages, cultural or religious ceremonies, marriages which occur in Australia or where a person is taken overseas to be married, and can include the conduct of those involved in facilitating the forced marriage.

If you suspect that you or another person is experiencing, or at risk of, forced marriage or human trafficking, call 131 AFP (237) or use the AFP’s human trafficking online information report. If you have immediate concerns for your safety, the safety of another person, or there is an emergency, dial Triple Zero (000).

The Support for Trafficked People Program is a key component of Australia’s response to support victims of human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices.

If you or someone you know is being exploited, help is available. For information and confidential advice please contact Australian Red Cross. Call 1800 113 015 or visit redcross.org.au/stpp.

Common signs of forced marriage

Common signs of forced marriage include a person who may:

have a family history of elder siblings leaving education early, marrying early or indicating concerns of an early marriage;
be highly controlled by family or community members in and outside of the home, including surveillance; always accompanied; limited or no control of finances; limited or no control over life decisions, education and career choices;
have communications monitored or restricted;
express concern regarding an upcoming family holiday or overseas travel;
demonstrate feelings of conflict or concern for the ramifications if they do not go ahead with an agreed marriage or engagement; and,
express concern of physical or psychological violence for not fulfilling family or community expectations.

The Australian Government has imposed Magnitsky-style targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli individuals, and targeted financial sanctions on one entity, for involvement in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The individuals sanctioned today have been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians. This includes beatings, sexual assault and torture of Palestinians resulting in serious injury and in some cases, death. The entity sanctioned is a youth group that is responsible for inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinian communities.

We call on Israel to hold perpetrators of settler violence to account and to cease its ongoing settlement activity, which only inflames tensions and further undermines stability and prospects for a two-state solution.

The Albanese Government has been firm and consistent that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace.

Australia will continue to work for a just and enduring peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

For further information on the sanctions frameworks, please visit: Australia and sanctions. For details on all individuals and entities listed under Australia’s sanctions frameworks, please visit: Consolidated List.

Published by Julie Hall, Candidate for Whitsunday

As a vehicle for reconciliation, native title has been a complete failure. All it does is create further division in Australia.

Reconciliation should be a process entered into freely and with goodwill, not arbitrarily imposed on unwilling participants.

Native title claims are imposed. Affected non-indigenous individuals and communities are not consulted. Governments and councils get a say, but their submissions on these claims never reflect the views of the communities they’re supposed to represent.

Australia today is not the largely unexplored continent of scattered British penal colonies and stone-age hunter gatherers it was in the early 19th century. Today, it’s a modern nation that has been built by every Australian, indigenous or otherwise. We have all contributed to the Australian story, and we should all share its land and its wealth, as well as its history—the good and the bad.

Native titles contradict this principle of equality. For one group of Australians to take over the country using exclusive rights that other Australians do not have is discrimination.

The proposal for a voice to Parliament also contradicted the same principle, but in that case, at least every Australian had a say in it and most of us – especially here in Central Queensland, where the no vote was around 80%—firmly rejected it. What a waste of $450 million that could have been better spent, for example by restoring funding to councils now shouldering the legal costs associated with assessing native title claims, while the claimants’ costs are still funded by taxpayers.

There are more than 70 native title applications waiting for determination. One of them includes a claim on the Central Queensland coast from Bowen to Midge Point, extending west to Monte Cristo and east to encompass Lindeman Island, the Whitsundays, Gloucester Island, and all the waters in between. Do we really know what these claims legally mean? My concern is how will these titles affect us in the future? The possibility that it will affect our tourism industry is real, given that this native title claim encompasses the Islands of the Whitsunday, including Whitsunday Island with its iconic Whitehaven Beach. Could it also affect fishing the waters contained within the title area or your ability to island hop in the future?

We’re told there’s nothing to worry about, nothing to see here, life will go on as usual. And that might be true of some of these claims under the existing legislation. But legislation can be changed, and who’s to say that a settled native title claim won’t lead to more exclusive rights and access being claimed later under a minority Labor government depending on the Greens to stay in power?

Australia should be able to be enjoyed by all Australians with equal rights; native title shows dangers of rights being based on race. It also raises concerns about what effect native title will have on our economic future and industry in the years to come regarding tourism, mining, farming and fishing. If Queensland becomes one big native title cultural heritage site what will that actually mean? We should get really clear on this now because we are heading down a very slippery slope of division as more and more titles are approved and more and more native title claims threaten to lock out anyone who is not a traditional owner.

If this is concerning you, then save the date of Sunday 4 August where I will be hosting special guests One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts and law lecturer Hugh Carter here in the Whitsundays to explain native title and its legal implications. Venue to be advised. 

The Greens have called on the new Premier to listen to the expert advice and expand safe injecting room services following the inquest into the tragic death of 15-year-old Tyrone Woxvold who died of a heroin overdose just a few hundred metres from Richmond’s supervised injecting room. 

The Victorian Greens have fought to expand the eligibility criteria in line with the recommendations from the expert Ryan report. The Greens moved amendments through Parliament in May 2023 seeking to expand the service, including making it accessible to people under the age of eighteen. 

The Victorian Greens drug harm reduction spokesperson, Aiv Puglielli said that as synthetic opioids take root in Victoria, the new Premier must stop blocking new injecting rooms or more lives will be at risk. 

Victorian Greens drug harm reduction spokesperson, Aiv Puglielli: 

“The Greens warned the Labor government that the deliberate exclusion of young people from injecting rooms would lead to preventable overdose deaths. The new Premier is ignoring the expert advice in continuing to block minors from life-saving care.

“The Ryan review into the North Richmond injecting room highlighted the need for these health services in the community. The evidence is clear –  injecting rooms save lives.

“As synthetic opioids take root in Victoria, the new Premier blocking new injecting rooms and refusing access to existing care services for people who need them is putting lives at risk.

“Not a single death has occurred at the North Richmond injecting room since its establishment. If given access to this service, this young person’s life could have been saved.”