Australian News Headlines, Auspol News Headlines Friday 12 January 2018

aussienews (53)in #news • 7 years ago

Melbourne police say that the Daily Mail provoked the African ‘gang flare-up’ scuffle.

The Guardian reports that violence by African Australian youths has been a mainstay of the media silly season over summer, with incidents involving young African men making front-page news and being politicised in spats between the federal and state government. Meanwhile they report, the issue has been politicised thanks to statements by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, blaming the state government of Victoria for going soft on the issue. However the Guardian writes, how real is the supposed spate of African gang violence in Melbourne’s suburbs? In at least one case they report, it seems that the media’s reporting is having a toxic observer effect. The Guardian reports that a scuffle described by the media last week as “the latest gang flare-up” involving African teenagers was in fact entirely provoked by the journalists who reported it, according to Victoria police. The article reports the Guardian, published by the Daily Mail on 3 January, was billed as an exclusive and headlined “Police SPAT ON and abused as officers arrest African teenagers outside a shopping centre in Melbourne’s west in broad daylight – in latest gang flare up”.

$500m meant for Indigenous services was spent elsewhere by NT government.

The Guardian reports that the Northern Territory underspent about $500m in GST payments meant for disadvantaged Indigenous communities in 2015-16, the Yothu Yindi Foundation has told the Productivity Commission’s GST review. They report that it accused governments of running policies that prevented Indigenous people in the NT from contributing to the economy and participating in the wealth of the nation.

“The full potential of the Territory will never be realised until Aboriginal people living in remote and regional parts of the Territory are able to assume a rightful place in its economic and social life,” the foundation’s chief executive, Denise Bowden, commented.

The Productivity Commission is due to deliver its final report in May on its review of the horizontal fiscal equalisation system, which underpins how GST revenue is distributed to the states and territories. In its submission writes the Guardian, Yothu Yindi analysed billions of dollars in GST revenue apportioned to the NT through the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC), and found that about half a billion dollars assessed for Indigenous services in 2015-16 was spent elsewhere by the NT government.

China lodges diplomatic complaint following Australian minister's comments.

SMH reports that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has weighed into the row over China's Pacific aid program, criticising loans that "impose onerous debt burdens on regional governments". It is reported that China lodged a diplomatic complaint on Wednesday, labelling an attack on its Pacific aid program by Turnbull government minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells as "full of ignorance and prejudice". SMH writes that Fierravanti-Wells, the international development minister, earlier accused China of building useless buildings, white elephants and "roads to nowhere" in the Pacific. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang responded by saying China's aid program had "brought real benefits to local people" and had been welcomed by Pacific governments writes SMH.

New Tesla, Neoen deal would make the world's biggest battery yet - in Queensland.

The Australian Financial Review reports that the developers of the world's biggest lithium-ion battery project may surpass their own record as French renewable-energy developer Neoen looks into building another supersized unit in Australia with Elon Musk's Tesla. It is reported that a battery with capacity surpassing the old project's 100 megawatts may be developed at Neoen's Kaban Green Power Hub, 80 kilometres south-west of Cairns in Queensland state, according to Garth Heron, Neoen's head of wind development for Australia. The AFR writes that Tesla may provide the battery given the two companies have already collaborated on two other renewable projects in Australia, he commented.

"We are looking to do a very large battery as there is a lot of need for electricity storage up in Queensland," Heron said in a phone interview on Tuesday. The Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, which started supplying power to the national grid in December, "really opened up our thinking with respect to large-scale storage and has been a great success for us", Heron commented.

Risks to coral reefs accelerating due to human activity: Science journal.

The Australian Financial Review writes that the risks to coral reefs are accelerating largely due to human activity, with rising water temperatures meaning they now have about 80 per cent less recovery time between bleaching episodes than just three decades ago, according to a report in the journal Science. The AFR writes that in a study of 100 reefs around the world, the report found coral will have a bleaching event every six years, from every 27 years in the 1980s, when mass bleaching events began to be observed. It is reported that with the likelihood of human activity causing further increases in sea temperature, reefs may bleach every hot summer in coming decades, the report said.

"Scientists have been saying for 30 to 40 years now that annual bleaching events could be a possibility unless we address climate change, so it's a little bit disappointing," study co-author Andrew Baird commented to Australian Broadcasting Corp's Radio National program. "Human folly is an extraordinary thing."

It is reported that coral reefs are being damaged at increasing rates and even safe pockets are at risk of destruction by the middle of this century, the report said, citing an earlier study.

Immigration paid out $230,000 in compensation claims last year, FOI documents show.

The ABC reports that more than 20 compensation cases brought against the Immigration Department for wrongful imprisonment or personal injury have been paid out in the past financial year, costing the Federal Government $230,000. They report that in documents obtained under freedom of information by the Australian Lawyers Alliance, the Department of Finance settled 23 cases relating to immigration detainees and staff between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017.
It is reported by the ABC that in one case in Indonesia, $32,313 was awarded for personal injury in detention, while in Australia two cases were paid the total of $69,508 for wrongful detention.
Nine cases involved detention staff, including two claims from workers on Manus Island were also compensated $69,108. These cases do not include what is thought to be the largest human rights settlement in Australian legal history last year, when the Commonwealth was ordered to pay $70 million, plus $20 million in legal costs it is reported.

Family violence rates rise in Kimberley towns with cashless welfare.

The Guardian reports that domestic violence has increased significantly in the East Kimberley since the introduction of the cashless welfare card, casting doubt on the government’s claims of its success. It is reported that police data obtained under freedom of information law shows domestic-related assaults and police-attended domestic violence reports increased in the Kimberley communities of Wyndham and Kununurra since trials began in April 2016. Melbourne University researcher Elise Klein writes the Guardian, who has studied the card’s impact in the Kimberley, said the data showed there was no clear evidence to support making the card permanent. Klein lodged the freedom of information request for the police data they write. She that said the information had taken too long to be made public reports the Guardian. She believes there is a link between the card, financial hardship, and family violence they write.

“There’s huge amounts of money being spent here, and I guess the real question is, what other wonderful things could be put in place instead of this card?” Klein said.

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