Australia and Oceania news and discussions

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
Time_Traveller
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by Time_Traveller »

Australia’s minimum wage earners to get $40 a week pay rise, Fair Work Commission rules
Wed 15 Jun 2022

Minimum wages will increase by at least $40 a week, with the hourly pay rate lifting from $20.33 to $21.38, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

The commission handed down its decision in the annual wage review on Wednesday, granting a 5.2% increase to the national minimum wage and 4.6% for award minimums, amid a tight labour market and skyrocketing inflation.

The decision sets the pay of at least 2.7 million Australians on the national minimum or awards and will come into effect from 1 July.

But the commission ruled the increase will be delayed to 1 October in the aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors because of “exceptional circumstances”, including their slower recovery from the Covid recession.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... sion-rules
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by caltrek »

This article (see below) is a little dated, but as there have been no more recent articles on the topic and as the last post in this thread precedes this article, I thought it would still fit.

Australian Energy Crisis Prompts Suspension of National Electricity Market
by Sonal Patel
June 16, 2022

Introduction:
(Power) The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on June 15 indefinitely suspended spot markets in all regions of its National Electricity Market (NEM), citing critical power generation supply shortfalls that it said made it “impossible to continue” operations under national electricity rules.
AEMO—the independent system operator (ISO) that operates the competitive market serving New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania—said its spot market suspension stems from unprecedented market volatility that has been exacerbated by several factors.

Scrambling to meet supply shortfalls forecast in Queensland and New South Wales for June 14, AEMO was forced to activate 5 GW of generation that hadn’t bid into the market “through direct interventions,” said AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman. While the grid operator managed to avoid load shedding, those interventions, which follow a series of similar near-misses, showed “it was no longer possible to reliably operate the spot market or the power system this way,” Westerman said.

“In the current situation suspending the market is the best way to ensure a reliable supply of electricity for Australian homes and businesses. The situation in recent days has posed challenges to the entire energy industry, and suspending the market would simplify operations during the significant outages across the energy supply chain,” he said.

The market suspension is temporary—but no end is in sight. AEMO said the suspension “will be reviewed daily” for each NEM region. “When conditions change, and AEMO is able to resume operating the market under normal rules, it will do so as soon as practical.”
Read more here: Australian Energy Crisis Prompts Suspe ... rmag.com)
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
Time_Traveller
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by Time_Traveller »

Kiribati faces constitutional crisis after government suspends both high court justices
Fri 1 Jul 2022

Kiribati is embroiled in a constitutional crisis after the government suspended its chief justice, leaving the judiciary in disarray as experts raise concerns about the rule of law. The move escalates an ongoing controversy over separation of powers in the Pacific nation, after Kiribati’s only other high court justice, Australian David Lambourne, was suspended in May.

On Thursday the chief justice, distinguished New Zealand judge William Hastings, was due to begin hearing a legal challenge brought by Lambourne. The suspended judge was seeking initial orders restoring his salary and facilitating his return to the country, ahead of a constitutional challenge to the suspension.

Yet rather than commence the hearing, Hastings read out a letter from the government stating that he too had been suspended with immediate effect pursuant to the Kiribati constitution. The remarkable development was first reported by the Kiribati Newsroom.

The stated reason for the suspensions of Hastings and Lambourne are allegations of misbehaviour, with a tribunal established to investigate. However, the substance of the allegations have not been made public, leaving observers concerned about the veracity of the claims. Lambourne has engaged lawyer Kiata Kabure in Kiribati and leading Australian barristers Perry Herzfeld SC and Daniel Reynolds to represent him in the case.

“The protracted dispute between judges and the executive clearly raises concerns for judicial independence,” said Anna Dziedzic, an expert on Pacific judiciaries at Melbourne Law School.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... t-justices
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
Time_Traveller
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by Time_Traveller »

New Zealand minister: Trade deal with EU set global example on sustainability
8/11/2022 7:00 (updated: 12:04)

The sustainable food system chapter in the recently signed EU-New Zealand trade agreement should become an example for the rest of the world, New Zealand’s agriculture and trade minister Damien O’Connor told EURACTIV.

The deal, which was 14 years in the making including four years of negotiations, is the first ever to include the new EU approach towards trade and sustainable development, in which trade partners agree to follow internationally recognised environmental and social standards.

“We see the value of setting an example for the rest of the world when it comes to trade,” O’Connor told EURACTIV when asked about the sustainable food chapter in the deal.

“The greatest value of the trade agreement between the EU and New Zealand was the standards that we have set across many areas of government procurement, environmental goods and services transfer, animal welfare and labour standards,” he said.

The text does not contain binding commitments but the pledge of both parties to cooperate together, both at bilateral and multilateral levels, to promote sustainable food systems.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/agricu ... inability/
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

:shock:

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

Post Reply