12PM ZEDLINES - SEPTEMBER 15TH
[Image: North Queensland Register]
Push for quarantine hub in Cairns
There has been a push for a quarantine hub to be created in far north Queensland to assist Australians stuck overseas with the chance to return home by Christmas.
The far north Queensland federal MP, Warren Entsch, has declared Cairns would be a perfect spot for a quarantine centre, due to multiple hotels being empty due to travel restrictions.
Entsch says Cairns is equipped with the facilities and experience to cater for such a situation, and would help assist with people arriving from overseas who currently have to do a 2 week hotel quarantine at their own expense.
One new case of coronavirus in Queensland
In Queensland, there has been one new case of coronavirus recorded overnight, leaving the state’s total number of active cases at 31.
The new case was an arrival from overseas, who is already in quarantine.
First rocket launch on Indigenous Land
The Koonibba Aboriginal Community in South Australia are bracing themselves with excitement for their first rocket launch on Indigenous Land.
A pair of Adelaide companies, Southern Launch and DEWC, have joined together to launch the rocket on a testing range near the town.
The town of 200 people will see their figures rise, with 250 visitors set to arrive to view Australia’s first private rocket launch.
The elders of the community believe the launch will put their small town on the map.
Zero coronavirus deaths in Victoria
For the first time in two months, Victoria has recorded zero deaths of coronavirus.
The news comes as a positive indicator of the employed Victorian restrictions, with 42 cases reported overnight but no fatalities.
The state’s next goal in easing the restrictions is to have an average of 30 to 50 cases per fortnight by the 28th of September.
Putin loans $1.5 billion to Belarus
The Russian President Vladiimir Putin has loaned $1.5 billion to the country of Belarus, to help its leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has been facing protests from locals urging for his resignation.
After continuing weeks of hundreds of thousands of protesters marching the streets of Minsk, Lukashenko met with Putin in an urgent request for his help to continue his reign over the country.
Putin states the loan is to indicate financial support for Belarus, who believes the country needs to resolve its issues without any interference or pressure from foreign countries.
Greenland glacier melting
A large block of a Greenland ice cap, believed to be around 110 square kilometres, has broken off in the far-north east Arctic, which scientists are claiming is an indicator of climate change.
The National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) states this incident is concerning, as it appears to be a continuous disintegration of the Arctic’s largest remaining ice shelf.
Ruth Mottram, an ice scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen, advised “this year the ice sheet has lost more ice than has been added in the form of snow”.
Last Quokka: Unconscious Drivers
- Maybe the cutest of all marsupials, land clearing has not been kind to the Quokka. These days its habitat is confined almost entirely to Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth, though in recent years the apparently smiling demeanour of the quokka has made it a bit of an internet meme. Thriving in the realm of cyberspace while the conditions required for life are rapidly being destroyed, there is something symbolic about the fate of the Quokka.
Kim Salmon & The Surrealists: Rantings From The Book Of Swamp
<p><span><span>- Kim Salmon’s latest album with his band, The Surrealists is a true lockdown album. <em>Rantings</em> <em>From The Book Of Swamp</em> was recorded this year in Melbourne during the beginning of the pandemic and invites the listener in as if they were attending an actual gig at a dark and dingy dive bar in Melbourne’s inner north.
Including disability in the workplace starts with understanding people with disability
Around one in five Australians live with a disability, often a physical, sensory or learning disability, but also invisible disabilities such as psychosocial and mental health disabilities.
The United Nations defines disability as a long-term impairment that affects daily functioning. But it's the interaction that individuals have with society that actually causes the disability.