Future university site in trouble

Redland City mayor Karen Williams is ‘fuming’, following the release of the 2018 federal budget regarding land wanted for a future university campus.

 

Williams and senior council staff travelled to Canberra in late March to lobby Communications Minister Mitch Fifield to buy the land for education and community purposes.

 

Budget documents show the 80-hectare site at Birkdale, east of Brisbane, could “support up to 400 homes and will increase the supply of land for housing in metropolitan Brisbane”.

$30 million landmark discrimination case

447 Palm Island residents have received part of a $30 million payout following a landmark racial discrimination case.

 

The settlement will be paid by the Queensland Government, but not everyone will receive cash for their claim, raising concerns of rising tension on the island.

 

Mayor Alf Lacey says the will of the community is just as important as the money and urged residents to avoid exploitation and spend wisely.

17 dead in Ebola outbreak

At least 17 people have died north-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the Ebola virus being confirmed as the cause.

 

Health officials have confirmed that this is another outbreak of the Ebola virus, marking it as the 9th outbreak recorded in the DNC.

 

The health ministry said: “Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency.

20,000 baby chicks gassed at Brussels Airport

20 000 baby chickens were gassed at Brussels Airport as they were suffocating in a “baking-hot” cargo container.

 

After their flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo was cancelled, the exporter refused to take the chicks back.

 

A spokesperson for the Flemish animal welfare authority says the airport firefighters did not want kill them, so an independent team was called in to put the baby birds out of their misery.

Indigenous rangers in danger of proposed Foreign Influence legistlation

Senators have warned that Indigenous rangers could be unfairly caught up in the Government’s crackdown on foreign political influence.

 

The Greens are calling on the Government to acknowledge that foreign influence legislation could cause problems for the Indigenous Rangers.

 

The rangers are partly funded by an American charitable trust which raises concerns that the proposed laws could harm this funding.

New tax cuts for Aussie workers

Beginning July 1st, a tax cut of $10 million for workers will begin under the new Turnbull government plan to win back middle Australia and prepare for an election.

 

The tax cut will take place over seven years and will create a single low rate of just 32.5 per cent for workers earning between $41,000 and $200,000 a year.

 

The overhaul is the centerpiece of a budget that forecasts a slim surplus of $2.2 billion in 2019-20.

Search for missing fisherman called off

The search for a Sunshine Coast man who is believed to have fallen off a fishing boat in Queensland has been called off.

 

The search for the thirty-five year old man began after it was reported he was missing from a 24-metre charter fishing vessel, the MV Night Crossing, on Sunday.

 

Queensland police were advised on Tuesday afternoon to suspend the search after expert advice indicated he couldn’t have survived that long in the water.