The latest national news update from the National Indigenous Radio Service.
Baird speech to be shadowed by protest
NSW Premier Mike Baird will give an address on the state’s economic and social prosperity later today, while conservationists plan to protest simultaneously outside the Sydney venue.
Mr Baird’s annual State of the State address will be delivered to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Sydney as protesters gather outside Dockside Pavilion in Darling Harbour to object to the premier’s new tree-clearing and biodiversity laws.
Mr Baird is expected to outline the government’s plans to charge the NSW economy through jobs and other measures.
Protesters from Stand Up for Nature will argue that Mr Baird’s biodiversity laws will increase the rate of land clearing and add extinction pressure to koalas and other endangered species.
WA jobless figure nation’s second-highest
Western Australia’s jobless rate returned to a decade high of 6.3 per cent last month, compared to 5.7 the previous month, in the latest negative economic sign for the state that was until recently the nation’s strongest.
WA now has the second-highest jobless rate in the country among the eight states and territories, with only South Australia faring worse, with its unemployment falling from 7.0 to 6.4 per cent.
The recent Commsec State of the States report rated WA’s current economic performance as seventh, ahead of only Tasmania, while job insecurity was the nation’s highest in a report by Members Equity Bank earlier this month.
Australia’s unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent in July was down from 5.8 per cent, but the increase in employment was all part-time jobs – up 71,600, compared with a fall of just over 45,400 full-time workers.
Teen aviator to touch down in Australia
Teen aviator Lachlan Smart is just eight days from being the youngest person to fly solo around the world when he touches down in Broome next Friday.
The 18-year-old Queenslander began his record attempt on July 4. He departs Jakarta, Indonesia early on Friday and expects to land in Broome in far north West Australia at about 4pm.
Since leaving Australia, he has touched down in 18 countries and when he completes his journey at the Sunshine Coast on August 27 he will have travelled about 45,000km.
If successful, he will become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo in a single-engine aircraft.
Gordon kills off Qld tree clearing bill
Independent MP Billy Gordon has withdrawn support for his former party’s vegetation management reforms, delivering the Palaszczuk government its first major defeat in Queensland’s hung parliament.
The Cook MP’s vote was crucial in securing the passage of Labor’s divisive tree-clearing legislation, which would reverse the former Liberal National Party (LNP) government’s more relaxed 2013 framework.
Part-way through a marathon debate yesterday afternoon, Mr Gordon released a statement declaring he would not back the changes, saying the proposed vegetation management reforms don’t strike the necessary balance between Indigenous economic development, protecting the environment and supporting farmers.
Woman injured as shots fired at Vic home
A woman has suffered pellet wounds to her lower back after shots were fired into a house at Panton Hill in Melbourne.
The woman was taken to hospital with minor injuries after emergency services were called following the shooting at about 9.30pm last night.
Three other occupants in the house were not injured.
Big year for earthquakes in Australia
A second earthquake in a week has been recorded off the coast of Queensland, with Geoscience Australia says there’s been numerous quakes in the past 12 months.
The magnitude 5.8 earthquake, about 70km out to sea north east of Bowen yesterday, was the second recorded off the coast of Queensland in a week.
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred off the coast of Bundaberg, 800km south of Bowen, on Saturday.
Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate said the magnitude of the Bowen earthquake was significant but not the biggest in recent years in Australia.
