Page 80 - Rex Patrick News Today

Interim standards proposed by the government look nothing like those put forward in the final report of a once-a-decade review of national environmental laws. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA The Morrison government is preparing to reject a recommendation it introduce strong national environmental standards to improve protection of Australian wildlife, opting to instead mimic the failing existing laws. A document, seen by Guardian Australia, sets ou...

‘Chairman Mao Would Have Approved’: Critics Liken Big Tech to CCP Critics of Google and Facebook have compared the tech giants’ recent actions to the behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the long-running dispute over an Australian media payment law continues. Last month, Google Australia floated the idea of pulling its search service from the country, sparking a hostile response from Independent Senator Rex Patrick, who likened the tech giant’s threat to Beijing’s ongoin...

Some senior figures in the union movement feel the ad, from the construction and electrical trades unions, is counterproductive.

Young drug users who have seen their welfare payments soar due to Covid-19 should have their Centrelink cash taken away to stop them falling into addiction and destroying the lives of innocent Australians, a federal MP is proposing.  Andrew Lamings electorate of Bowman in Brisbanes east was rocked by a drug tragedy on Australia Day when Kate Leadbetter, her boyfriend Matthew Field and their unborn child were allegedly killed by a 17-year-old intoxicated driver.  The Liberal-National MP is ...

Strengthen Legislation to Allow Suspension of Xinjiang Imports Workers amidst massive piles of cotton in Chinas Xinjiang province.  © 2015 Imaginechina via AP Images (Sydney) – The Australian government should strengthen legislation to suspend the import of goods made with forced labor, Human Rights Watch said today in a submission to Australia’s Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee. Australia needs to adopt urgent measures to ...

The scale of the forced labour problem in Xinjiang has been proven time and again. Last year, the Center for Global Policy released research suggesting half a million people from ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been coerced into picking cotton. That report came after the Australian Strategic Policy Institute identified a series of factories linked to a program of forced labour involving 80,000 Uighurs in Xinjiang, some of whom were shipped far from their homes to factories across China ...

The government’s royal commission bill mandating a move to annual fee renewals will now not be debated in parliament until at least mid-February, raising hopes in some corners of the industry that t

Regulator found a power imbalance between media and Google and Facebook  Australian government wants to pass a new law to force big tech to pay for news  Google has threatened to leave the Australian market if the code goes ahead Facebook said it may be forced to stop Australians from seeing news content    Microsoft says it would never threaten to leave and has supported the code 

The motion passed on Thursday, but only after references to Kelly and Christensen were removed, and condemnation of far-left extremism, communism, anarchism and violence generally were added. Commenting on the Scanlon report, which found rising complaints of racism, particularly among Chinese-Australians, Hawke said “the government rejects [shadow home affairs minister Kristina] Keneally’s thesis, that there is rising extremism in Australia”. “It is extreme elements, fringe elements, in...

Labor has accused the government of seeking to “downplay and dismiss” the threat of rightwing extremism in contradiction of national security advice, after the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, denied extremism is on the rise in Australia. Hawke made the comments on Sky News on Thursday morning, and was backed by his Senate colleagues who rewrote a motion deleting references to a “significant increase in far-right extremism” in Australia. Labor...