Australia and Oceania news and discussions

[wjfox]

This thread is for news and discussions pertaining to the following geographic region.

Mainly the countries of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and New Caledonia, but many smaller island nations too.

[wjfox]

Tasmanian devils born in the wild on Australian mainland for the first time in 3,000 years

May 26, 2021 / 12:22 PM / CBS News

Australia is experiencing a very unique baby boom. Tasmanian devils have just been born in the wild on the continent's mainland for the first time since they disappeared there about 3,000 years ago.

Last year, conservationists released 26 of the adult carnivorous marsupials into a sanctuary at Barrington Tops, north of Sydney. It marked the first step in their attempt to establish a sustainable population of the endangered species, which has been decimated by illness in its remaining habitat on the island of Tasmania.

They hoped their efforts, over a decade in the making, would achieve similar success as the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the United States in the 1990s.

"There's so much at stake here. We've done everything we can, but if the devils don't breed, it's all over," conservation group Aussie Ark president Tim Faulkner said in a statement.

Researchers have been studying the ferocious animals from afar since their release. This week, they celebrated the birth of seven Tasmanian devil joeys in the nearly 1,000-acre Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/endangered ... -mainland/

[Ozzie guy]

Article a few weeks old, Sky News Australia is going to be rebranded as Fox News Australia.

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2021/05/ ... ews.com.au.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

UN irks Australia by recommending that Great Barrier Reef be listed 'in danger'

June 22, 2021

CANBERRA, June 22 (Reuters) - The Great Barrier Reef should be added to a list of World Heritage Sites that are "in danger", a United Nations panel said on Tuesday, drawing an angry response from Australia, which called the recommendation politically motivated.

Australia has lobbied furiously for years to stay off the endangered list as it could lead to the world's biggest coral reef ecosystem losing the U.N. heritage status, taking some of the shine off its attraction for tourists.

Making its recommendation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) committee said action was needed to counter the effects of climate change as the prospects of the reef retaining that cherished status had deteriorated.

At Australia's invitations, UNESCO delegates visited an unspoilt stretch of the reef in 2015, but scientists say it has suffered three major coral bleaching events since, caused by severe marine heatwaves.

"This decision was flawed. Clearly there were politics behind it," Leys said, adding that Australia had conveyed its concerns to UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 021-06-22/

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Australia Aided by 'Fossil Fuel Pariah States' in Bid to Keep Great Barrier Reef Off 'In Danger' List
by Andrea Germanos
July 14, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... anger-list

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Just ahead of a United Nations World Heritage Committee meeting weighing updated classifications for U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization sites, new reporting on Wednesday reveals how Australia is working to thwart the Great Barrier Reef being designated as "in danger."

According to The Guardian, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are co-sponsoring amendments that reject UNESCO's finding, released last month, that the reef is in danger and would prevent such a designation until 2023 or later.

"Imagine teaming up with fossil fuel pariah states to delay saving Australia's greatest natural wonder," quipped Jo Robb, a Green Party councillor for South Oxfordshire in England. Prime Minister "Scott Morrison's Australia is a disgrace."

In its draft recommendation in June, UNESCO said (pdf) the reef should be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger as it's facing "ascertained danger," language the body uses to refer to "specific and proven imminent threats." The draft pointed to ongoing deterioration from threats including the climate emergency and suffering from significant coral bleaching events in 2016, 2017, and 2020.

That recommendation drew immediate criticism from Morrison's government, which continues to prop up the fossil industry. Climate campaigners, however, said the recommendation was totally unsurprising. “The UNESCO warning could not be any clearer," Greenpeace Australia Pacific spokesperson Martin Zavan said last month. "The Great Barrier Reef is in danger because of the Morrison government's failure to act on climate change."

[Time_Traveller]

Australia Aided by 'Fossil Fuel Pariah States' in Bid to Keep Great Barrier Reef Off 'In Danger' List
by Andrea Germanos
July 14, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... anger-list

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Just ahead of a United Nations World Heritage Committee meeting weighing updated classifications for U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization sites, new reporting on Wednesday reveals how Australia is working to thwart the Great Barrier Reef being designated as "in danger."

According to The Guardian, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are co-sponsoring amendments that reject UNESCO's finding, released last month, that the reef is in danger and would prevent such a designation until 2023 or later.

"Imagine teaming up with fossil fuel pariah states to delay saving Australia's greatest natural wonder," quipped Jo Robb, a Green Party councillor for South Oxfordshire in England. Prime Minister "Scott Morrison's Australia is a disgrace."

In its draft recommendation in June, UNESCO said (pdf) the reef should be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger as it's facing "ascertained danger," language the body uses to refer to "specific and proven imminent threats." The draft pointed to ongoing deterioration from threats including the climate emergency and suffering from significant coral bleaching events in 2016, 2017, and 2020.

That recommendation drew immediate criticism from Morrison's government, which continues to prop up the fossil industry. Climate campaigners, however, said the recommendation was totally unsurprising. “The UNESCO warning could not be any clearer," Greenpeace Australia Pacific spokesperson Martin Zavan said last month. "The Great Barrier Reef is in danger because of the Morrison government's failure to act on climate change."

I think this is absolutely disgusting, Scott Morrison is definitely corrupt.

[Time_Traveller]

New Zealand farmers stage huge protest over environmental rules

Fri 16 Jul 2021

Thousands of farmers have descended on dozens of towns and cities across New Zealand in their tractors in a nationwide protest against a swathe of new environmental regulations.

The Howl of a Protest event was tipped to be the largest of its kind for the rural sector, with motorcades expected in 51 towns and cities.

Farmers drove tractors, bearing placards, from the outskirts of Auckland into the city centre on Friday morning, causing gridlock on the motorways. In Whangarei, protesters took over a sports field, while in Dunedin, a five-kilometre long convoy snaked its way through the city, bringing it to a standstill.




Wellington, where parliament is based, was deliberately left off the itinerary.

The protest was organised by Groundswell NZ, a grassroots organisation made up of farmers, growers, contractors and tradespeople, who say they are frustrated with the interference in private property rights, unworkable climate-change policies and unfair costs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... ntal-rules

[Time_Traveller]

‘Extraordinary profits’: New Zealand considers breaking up supermarket duopoly

Thu 29 Jul 2021

New Zealand’s government will consider breaking up its supermarket duopoly to secure more affordable food prices for shoppers, after a new report that found the grocers were making huge profits and charging some of the highest prices in the OECD.

David Clark, the commerce and consumer affairs minister, said on Thursday the government would “do whatever it takes to make sure New Zealanders get a fair deal at the checkout”.

“There have been extraordinary profits made in the sector over a period of time compared to international settings … We want everybody to be winning, not just one part of the sector to be taking out super profits,” Clark said.
a woman packing her shopping

The new draft report by the Commerce Commission, the government agency that regulates competition, monopolies and fair trading, found New Zealand shoppers face some of the most expensive groceries in the OECD.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... foodstuffs

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Now *this* is how you handle a pandemic...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58182418

[wjfox]

Victoria consents to gas production from well near Twelve Apostles

Sun 15 Aug 2021 18.30 BST

The Victorian government has given consent for a gas company to produce gas extracted from beneath a national park in the state’s south-west, near the celebrated tourist site the Twelve Apostles.

[...]

The Victorian Greens deputy leader, Ellen Sandell, said state support for fossil fuel expansion was “bonkers”, particularly in the wake of a landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that confirmed greenhouse gas emissions from human activity was unequivocally changing the Earth’s climate in ways “unprecedented” for thousands of years.

She said no one would visit the Twelve Apostles “if it’s surrounded by gas drilling rigs”.

“The risks are very profound for our climate. We know that burning any more gas is contributing to more fires, more floods,” she said. “There’s also risks to the marine environment – this is an area that is a migratory path for humpback whales and the southern wright whale.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... e-apostles

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Violent protests in Melbourne against lockdown.

[caltrek]

Before getting too mad at me for being an American that is posting an article that is critical of the Australian government, please note that the author lectures at the University of Melbourne.

Australia’s Man in Washington: Morrison’s Tour of Deception
by Binoy Kampmark

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/28 ... deception/

Introduction:

(Counterpunch) It was startling and even shocking. Away from the thrust and cut of domestic politics, not to mention noisy discord within his government’s ranks, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison could breathe a sign of relief. Perhaps no one would notice in Washington that Australia remains prehistoric in approaching climate change relative to its counterparts. Being known in his own country as “Scotty from Marketing”, he just might pull it off.

Besides, a security compact with the United States and the United Kingdom had just been cemented, one promising Canberra eight submarines with nuclear propulsion. That these promised to be eye-wateringly expensive and available sometime in the 2040s, were they to ever make it to water, was a point not even worth considering.

In the US press, Morrison was careful to toe the line of the partner made supplicant. On CBS’s Face the Nation, he was asked whether the US and its allies were moving towards conflict with Beijing. “I don’t think it’s inevitable at all,” he chirped, claiming that it was “in everybody’s interest” that we all co-exist. But this “happy co-existence” was premised on keeping China in the box or, as he preferred to put it, a committed role of “free nations like Australia” and others in the Indo-Pacific region to stay vigilant.

On climate change, he was also pressed on having not “given a timeline” on placing Australia on the path to net zero emissions. He admitted this to be the case and vacillated. Slipping back into advertising mode, Morrison said that “performance matters” for Australia. The net zero target was being pursued, and would be achieved “preferably by 2050.” The usual half-baked assurances followed: Australia’s record was “strong”. “We’ve already reduced emissions in Australia by over 20 percent since 2005. We committed to Kyoto. We met that target and beat that target.” As for the Paris target? Not an issue: Australia would romp it.

At that point, CBS’s Margaret Brennan could only observe that no country had actually delivered on such targets.

The article also discusses the AUKUS security pact.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Google: US technology giant to invest $740m in Australia

By Katie Silver
Business reporter
Published 1 day ago

Google has announced that it will invest A$1bn ($740m, £550m) in Australia over the next five years.

It is the US technology giant's largest investment in the country to date.

Google says the money will be used to build a research hub, increase its cloud computing capacity and fund partnerships with local organisations.

The move - named the Digital Future Initiative - is expected to directly create 6,000 jobs and support 28,000 overall.

"Australia can help lead the world's next wave of innovation, harnessing technology to improve lives, create jobs, and make progress," Google boss Sundar Pichai said at the initiative's launch in Sydney.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59257322

[caltrek]

New Zealand to Send Dozens of Peacekeepers to Solomon Islands
December 1, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... acekeepers

Introduction:

(Agence France-Presse via The Guardian) New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered police and troops to join an international peacekeeping mission in the crisis-hit Solomon Islands following deadly anti-government riots.

Ardern said on Wednesday the deployment of 65 peacekeepers followed a request from the Solomons government, which was almost toppled during the unrest that claimed at least three lives and reduced much of downtown Honiara – the country’s capital – to smouldering rubble.

She said an initial force of 15 New Zealand personnel would set off on Thursday and another 50 would join them over the weekend.

The New Zealand leader said they would work with Solomons police and about 200 peacekeepers already on the ground in Honiara from Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

“We are deeply concerned by the recent civil unrest and rioting in Honiara, and ... we have moved quickly to provide urgent assistance to help restore sustained peace and security,” Ardern said in a statement.

Solomon Islands