The Queensland government is considering offering HECS debt repayment discounts to students who take jobs picking fruit in regional areas.

The plan has been proposed to make up for a shortage of backpackers due to travel restrictions, and may mean that students on welfare could keep JobKeeper payments while earning a wage.

The number of backpackers in Australia on working holiday VISAs has almost halved in the wake of coronavirus, and Richard Shannon from GowCom says they need to be replaced by Queenslanders. 

From the 30th of September the Queensland Government will lift bans on the eviction of residential tenants who have had their income affected by COVID-19. 

Advocacy group Tenants Queensland have called on the government to offer tenant protections until at least the end of the year, but Queensland housing minister Mick de Brenni said it is the right time to end the ban.

Mr de Brenni says that the reason the government is confident in lifting the bans is because of Queensland’s strong health response to the virus, and says the state economy is primed for recovery.

Brazil’s Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands, is on fire and threatens thousands of the most biodiverse species including jaguars, anteaters, and caimans.

NASA satellites show the fire is quadruple the size of the largest fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest which threatens 36 species on the verge of extinction.

This is unusual for the Pantanal, the world's largest floodplain is meant to fill with water during the rainy season from November to April.

Whilst the Pacific island nation of Fiji produces less than 1% of the globe's carbon emissions, the impact of climate change is urgently felt by the nation.

Vunidogola locals relocated 2km inland in 2017, one local expressed the dire situation stating " The sea levels are rising  …we were born here, we were raised here, all of the crops were destroyed".

Since then, there have been over 80 coastal communities in Fiji forced to relocate.

The Federal Government has drafted a bill to allow more data sharing, the Data Availability and Transparency Bill would allow government bodies to collect more personal data.

Digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) is worried there is no way for the public to argue the decision to share data across the public sector.

The Northern Territory Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority is alleging Parks Australia of illegal walkway construction on a sacred site near Gunlom Falls in Kakadu National Park.

The AAPA has filed charges under the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act (1998) as the track is situated close to a ceremonial area which is restricted according to the local Indigenous traditions.

If found guilty, Parks Australia could face a maximum penalty of up to  $314,000. 

Brendan Thoms is suing the Australian Government for $4.1million for holding him in immigration detention for over 500 days.

Thoms lawyer, Claire Gibbs, says her client suffered from stress while being detained, calling the case a serious infringement of human rights; the High Court has rulled First Nations peoples are exempt from immigration laws under alien powers in the constitution.

As food waste currently makes up one quarter of the Brisbane bins, The Brisbane City Council has introduced a new initiative where, According to the National Food Waste Strategy, households could save between $2000- $3000 a year.

Food waste in our city has significantly dropped by 16kg per person since 2017.

The new 'Love Food, Hate Waste' program is an initiative for locals to further reduce this number and consider their environmental impact when it comes to food consumption, by partaking in a 6 week challenge.