Australia needs a sugar tax, the Senate reports

A Greens-led Senate inquiry has recommended.Australia’s obesity epidemic should be targeted through a sugar tax and advertising restrictions. 

Greens leader and committee chair, and former general practitioner, Richard Di Natale, said similar taxes in other countries has led to manufacturers reducing sugar content in products.

Di Natale said that this is not something that only affects consumption, but production, forcing healthier products to be made available.

Crossbench MPs pressure Government to remove refugee children from Nauru and Manus Island

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has ramped up his attack on Labor as he faces prospects of defeat on a bill to get more refugees off Nauru and Manus Island.

Labor, the Greens, and crossbenchers have teamed up to legislate faster medical treatment for refugees in offshore processing and remove children from the islands.

The Government is strongly opposed to it but there is a chance the bill has enough support to pass the Lower House.

 

Liberal Party donor pressures minister over development on sensitive bird habitat

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) show the former federal environment minister rejected advice from his own department that a $1.4 billion development on protected wetlands being proposed by a major Liberal Party donor was “unacceptable”.

One of Australia’s largest private diversified development companies, Walker Corporation, wants to build a precinct that includes 3,600 apartments, a hotel, convention centre and marina on a stretch of coastline south-east of Brisbane.

Former league star in The Teacher’s Pet podcast lands in Sydney

Former rugby league star, Chris Dawson, has been handed over to the police in Sydney where he will be charged for the murder of his wife Lyn Dawson in 1982.

Mr Dawson was in a relationship with one of his students Joanne Curtis, 16, at the time when Lyn, then aged 33, disappeared. Ms Curtis moved into the family home two days after Lyn went missing.

All eyes are on the 70-year-old former Newtown Jets star and high school teacher as he is expected to be charged with the murder of his wife.

US military aircraft in ‘mishap’ off Japan

Seven US military personnel are missing after two Marine Corps aircraft crashed in an unexplained mishap off Japan.

The Marine Corps say the aircraft launched from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and were conducting regularly scheduled training when the unexplained blunder took place.

The Marine Corps say Japanese search and rescue aircraft immediately responded to aid in recovery efforts. It is unclear if US military officials are assisting with the search.

Indonesia: exorcisms performed on LGBT population

An Indonesian city has launched a new campaign against the LGBT community, with locals viewing homosexuality as a "social sickness" which can be cleansed through religious exorcisms.  

There is the belief that homosexuality and transgenderism are caused by a mental health disorder triggered by supernatural and demonic influences. Locals believe exorcisms can be used as conversion therapy to rid the body of such influences.  

PM backs calls for QLD bushfire inquiry

The Prime Minister has backed calls for an investigation into whether Queensland's land-clearing laws fuelled the state's bushfire crisis.

Scott Morrison has accused Queensland's Labor government of negligence, and has called the state's vegetation management laws 'outrageous'.

Morrison has backed calls by Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan for an independent judicial inquiry into the two-week bushfire crisis and what role Queensland's land-clearing laws may have played in it.

New Queensland technology helps the visually impaired reach for the stars

An app developed by a University of Queensland student is assisting the visually impaired to navigate the stars and planets in our solar system.

Student Yuma Decaux fell in love with space at the age of seven; however, he lost his sight in 2009.

The app was created so other blind users who share the same interest and curiosity for space are able to learn more about the solar system.

Mr Decaux and his team won the Brisbane leg of the Nasa Space App Challenge with the app concept.