Minister for Employment Di Farmer is announcing an $8 million grant to help create jobs over the next two years.

The Social Enterprise Jobs Fund aims to help the sector to grow, scale-up activities and create more training and employment opportunities for vulnerable and disadvantaged Queenslanders.

The grant applications will open on Thursday 3 June 2021, with further grants to be rolled out in the coming months.

Victoria’s fourth lockdown continues, following the mystery COVID-19 case of a person working in aged care.

People who are vulnerable to COVID-19 were meant to have been vaccinated by Easter, but not all have been.

The deputy prime minister, and senior ministers, are arguing about whether the country should be ‘racing’ or not to vaccinate Australians against the virus.

The Victorian industry groups are calling on the Prime Minister to bring back JobKeeper amid the state’s 4th lockdown.

It is reported that 90,000 businesses have been affected by the current lockdown. 

While the Victorian state government has introduced grant packages to support businesses, there is a push to get federal funding as well, as Victorians worrying they will be left without a job.

Content warning: This story mentions the death of Indigenous Canadians.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of what was once Canada’s largest residential schools for Indigenous children on Friday is a shameful reminder of Canada’s colonial history.

The children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, which closed in 1978. 

The Federal Coalition government is considering new regulations that would deregister charity organisations if any of their volunteers is convicted of a summary offence, the lowest level of legal breaches.

The regulations would apply to over 59,000 registered not-for-profit groups, many of which engage in political advocacy. 

University of Sydney academic, Professor Ruth Phillips, says these regulations target political protest and dissent.

SpaceX is launching its 22nd cargo resupply mission on 4 June, which will carry science experiments supplies, including 128 baby luminescent bobtail squid and 5,000 tardigrades.

The research will investigate how zero gravity affects the symbiotic relationship between the squid and the beneficial microbes that they host. On the other hand, the tardigrades, a species famous for tolerating extreme environments, will be studied for effects of spaceflight on biological survival. 

COVID-19 vaccinations in Queensland have almost tripled since last week, with almost all Queensland vaccine hubs now fully operational. 

Health Minister Yvette D’ath is urging those who are eligible for the vaccine to make an appointment with their GP.

Minister D’ath says 9049 COVID-19 tests have been done in the last twenty four hours alone, in wake of rising cases in Victoria.