Latest Australia News
RSS-
New medicines lowest in 20 years
Just 15 new medicines were added to the scheme last year, 40 per cent fewer than the 20 year annual average of 25 new drugs a year. The slow down listings came despite the government saving five times more than predicted from its reforms to ...
-
Holdens signs similar to Mitsubishi
"I see similarities and some significant differences [between Mitsubishi and Holden]. But what troubles me most is that combination of the [high] dollar and [cheaper] production costs offshore are a powerful cocktail that make it difficult for the industry to survive here. The likelihood of further job losses in manufacturing is very ...
-
Abbotts legal team pro-bono again
TONY Abbott won't be paying a cent to fight a $1.5 million lawsuit by One Nation co-founder David Ettridge with the Opposition Leader getting his high-powered legal team ...
More Australia News
RSS-
Fast food fat tax debate on menu
A GOVERNMENT backed study is investigating whether to back a fat tax on McDonalds, KFC and other fast foods in a bid to tackle Australia's obesity ...
-
Boy 13 assaulted with bat in Sydney home
A 13-YEAR-OLD boy has been assaulted with a baseball bat while he was home alone in Sydney's southwest. Three men, armed with the bat and with their faces concealed, forced their way into a home on Cowdrey Way, Bonnyrigg, about 2.30pm (AEST) on Sunday, police said. The boy was threatened and assaulted with the bat before the trio escaped empty-handed towards a nearby shopping plaza. The ...
-
Cairns turns out in Ride for Tanya
The sun had not yet risen when more than 1000 cyclists made their way to the field, warning lights flashing, and began the 14km north to Trinity Beach.The procession stretched for 4.5km as the riders, wearing everything from lycra and cycling shoes to thongs, made their way past the site on the Captain Cook Highway where just a week before Tanya Roneberg was struck by a car and died.Her parents ...
-
Today The Cairns Post launches its Share The Road Campaign
Since 2006, 13 people in the region have died after being hit by a vehicle, the most recent of these being Tanya Roneberg, who was killed on May 11 while cycling along the Captain Cook Highway.This is more than double most other regions and still well above the southeast corner, with South Eastern region being the next highest at eight deaths, according to figures released by the Department of ...
-
Polls good news for ag
NEWSPOLL research has painted an optimistic picture of Australian agriculture's future and highlighted stronger than anticipated support for corporate farming. The Rural Pulse research was released last week, launching a new series investigating issues pertinent to rural and regional Australians. The issues included rural business and community wellbeing contrasted with metropolitan ...
-
Getting sowing dates right
Crops are only as early as the first rain THE ISSUE of optimum sowing dates is something that is intensely scrutinised among the farming sector. The wide range of planting dates for the same crop you can see paddock by paddock reflect that it is very much an individual decision for farmers. And DEPI Victoria grains industry program manager Chris Sounness said time of sowing would continue to be ...
-
Bring back Grandmas best
Country girl Rebecca Sullivan is a champion of good food, which is probably why she heads a 'granny movement' that brings back old kitchen skills. Rebecca's aptly titled book Like Grandma Used To Make reveals simple household skills such as how to bake bread, make jam, pickle onions, and sew a button on a blouse - skills that have largely been lost. "The idea for the book ...
-
State fruit fly threat grows
INDUSTRY will have to pay for increased roadblocks entering South Australia in response to a heightened risk of fruit fly infestation, according to Agriculture Minister Gail Gago. The Minister told Parliament earlier this month that calls for a round-the-clock quarantine station at Bordertown and running existing stations 24 hours a day would require co-investment from industry. "If they ...
-
Thousands of new mums face mental illness
THOUSANDS of Australian babies are being born to mothers with mental health problems, according to research which highlights the need for early intervention and ...
-
Racing Innes beats Aussie jockeys
Leith Innes says, no, he's not looking to establish himself in Australia despite winning Saturday's A$500,000 Doomben Cup and after comments by the Cup-winning trainer Chris Waller. Innes, on a Queensland working holiday, won the Doomben Cup on Beaten Up, one of Waller's three runners in Saturday's feature. In a late-week interview Waller said Innes had been engaged for Beaten Up ...
-
Economy wide spending up in April
The prospects for Australian businesses are looking healthier, with spending across the economy rising for the eighth consecutive month.Commonwealth Bank's Business Sales Indicator (BSI) found that spending rose 0.5 per cent in trend terms in April.It was the eight month-on-month increase in a row, with spending up 4.9 per cent in April compared to a year earlier.CommSec chief economist ...
-
Folau in Cooper out for Australia
Australia's coach Robbie Deans has not often been described as a risk taker and after scrutinising the Lions squad and noting their power and physicality he decided the mercurial attributes of the fly-half Quade Cooper, who is not the most eager of tacklers, would have worked more to the advantage of the opposition than the Wallabies.Cooper, who fell out with Deans last year after ...
-
Vic third runway to impact on 3000 homes
MELBOURNE Airport's proposed third runway will put more than 3000 homes in Tullamarine, Gladstone Park and Broadmeadows under the new flight ...
-
Hate crimes on the rise in Victoria
VICTORIA Police want tougher penalties handed out to people convicted of hate crimes after new figures show hundreds of Victorians have been the target of racial, religious or sexual ...
-
Fears innovation precinct may head to Cairns
CITY leaders fear James Cook University is pushing for Cairns rather than Townsville to be the headquarters of a future Industry Innovation Precinct which has the potential to attract more than $50 million in Federal Government funding annually. Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said she was concerned the hub was being earmarked for Cairns, despite Townsville being far better placed to host the ...
-
State Grid taps into Australian power
The State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), the world's largest State utility, has agreed to buy large stakes in Australian power companies from Singapore's Temasek in a deal worth over A$5 billion ($4.93 billion), as it searches overseas for higher-yielding assets.State Grid will buy 19.9 percent of electricity supplier SP Ausnet for A$824 million, and 60 percent of energy infrastructure ...
-
Voters cant decide on preferred PM poll
The latest Fairfax-Nielsen poll has Labor as the underdog to win the federal election but voters can't seem to choose a leader. Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott are back on par as preferred prime minister, the poll shows. Both leaders are on 46 per cent as preferred prime minister, an eight point improvement for Ms Gillard since last month. On a ...
-
PMs advice sign up to Gonski or average state school to lose $1.9m
Victorian government schools would lose $1.9 million in funding over six years on average if the states and territories do not sign up for the Gonski reforms, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Sunday. The difference in schools funding would be $16.2 billion nationally over six years, she said. ''The current funding system is broken. Schools that are teaching similar children get ...
-
Labor going nowhere in latest Newspoll
The opinions of Australian voters are now entrenched and not even a federal budget promising help for the disabled and education reforms will change their minds, the latest Newspoll suggests. The Newspoll in The Australian newspaper, taken over the weekend, shows that not much has changed in previous polling going back three months except that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has narrowed the gap ...
-
Railing against sidetracking history
Open the Firefox browser Click Tools>Options>Privacy<Use custom settings for history Check Accept cookies from sites Check Accept third party cookies Select Keep until: they expire Click ...
-
No penalties no work
Heather Thomas spends her weekdays at university and her weekends waiting on tables at an inner-city Sydney restaurant. But the 21-year-old says that, if a push by restaurants across Australia to end extra pay for working weekends and at night is successful, she will be among droves of workers to leave the industry. ''If I wasn't being paid adequately for a weekend I definitely ...
-
New judges to ease load
Three new judges will be appointed to the Federal Court this year to ease its workload and lessen a shortage on the bench. The federal budget allocated $10.8 million over the next four years to appoint the judges, who are expected to be based in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. A spokeswoman for federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the judges will be appointed in coming months. ...
Melbourne Featured
-
Melbourne will be IT capital of country
Melbourne has been selected by the federal government as the location where the NBN’s operations centre will be headquartered, setting the stage for the city to become the IT, technology and communications capital of Australia.
Melbourne has a long-running rivalry with Sydney and, to a lesser degree, Perth. The two biggest cities in Australia competed intensely to be designated the capital in the early 20th century and Canberra was built from scratch and designated the national capital in large part because of such rivalry, but now Melbourne is set to have something that Sydney will not, the city has been officially chosen as the centre of operations for the ground-breaking National Broadband Network. Analysts and city leaders see the decision as one which will in time make Melbourne the IT hub of the country. Read more
News from around our Network
