Indonesian government orders foreign aid workers to leave Sulawesi disaster area

Indonesia has ordered foreign aid workers to leave the disaster area on the island of Sulawesi, which is recovering from an earthquake and tsunami which hit on September 28th.

Indonesia has traditionally been hesitant to accept international help for recovery efforts from natural disasters and rejected assistance earlier this year following the earthquakes that struck the island of Lombok.

Berlin court orders diesel ban

A Berlin court has ordered the German capital to ban older diesel car models from major roads and establish exclusion zones for them.

The suit was brought by environmentalists in the wake of a series of scandals over diesel emissions, and the Volkswagen scandal.

Hamburg, which is being taken as a model city, has already closed two major roads to certain diesel models.

Labor Bill Shorten pledges to employ thousand of extra teachers in $14 billion plan

Labor Leader Bill Shorten is promising to employ thousands of extra teachers at public schools as part of a 14 billion dollar 10 year education plan if he wins the next election.

Bill Shorten says the promise will fund more than 13,000 extra teachers or 23,000 teachers aides, in the biggest investment in public schools in Australian history.

Student activists rally against 'weapons research' at Adelaide university

A new partnership between an Adelaide university and one of the world's largest arms manufacturers was met with criticism, prompting protestors to fight to end the relationship between universities and weapon dealers.

Adelaide university activist Daniel Neser described the partnership as "disgraceful" and said the 'Disarm Unis' campaign had received a lot of support.

Emails obtained by the ABC show Council knew about IT worker ‘exploitation’ in 2015

Emails provided to the ABC reveal Brisbane City Council knew about allegations of exploitation of IT workers almost three years ago.

Last month The Services Union publicly alleged Council were involved in the wage theft of IT workers at the Australian arm of the Indian tech firm, HCL.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk responded to these allegations saying Council had not been aware of any exploitative practices in relation to HCL.

LNP allows conscience vote for decriminalisation of abortion in Queensland

Laws to decriminalise abortion in Queensland are set to pass parliament after LNP members moved to give MPs a conscience vote when the government’s bill is introduced to parliament.

A special meeting was held yesterday afternoon where party members voted unanimously in support of the free vote.

Opposition leader Deb Frecklington says although she supports the free vote, she does not support the bill and will outline her reasons why in the parliamentary debate.