The federal government has passed a law preventing Australian companies from relying on data from animal testing for ingredients to be used solely in cosmetics. More than 500,000 animals – mainly rabbits,
YOU can think of yesterday's green paper as a sandpaper job. Labor had already committed to introduce emissions trading as the best way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Such a plan has sharp edges that stand to hurt voters and business alike. The green paper is about keeping the design while smoothing off the sharp edges.
THE Government's green paper on carbon trading uses adjectives like "smoother", "gradual", and "measured" to describe the scheme's implementation, because cutting Australia's emissions by 60% in four decades is going to produce profound structural change, and, inevitably, political repercussions. Like a dentist poised above you, drill in hand, the Government wants to warn us the process will be difficult and reassure us it will be no more painful than is necessary.
ONE of the first things Kevin Rudd did as Prime Minister was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to bring Australia into line with most of the world on climate change. It was a gesture loaded with good intentions and purpose. Yesterday the Government released its green paper on how to tackle global warming. In the face of this "daunting reality" as Climate Change Minister Penny Wong described it yesterday, how has Canberra reacted? It has spoken loudly and carried a small stick
Australian households will receive either tax cuts or increased family payments to offset higher electricity and fuel prices, as the government admits its climate change plan will drive up inflation. The framework of Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has been released in Canberra, detailing the government's plan to meet its target of bringing down greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2050. The higher family assistance may start before the trading system begins on July 1, 2010, possibly ahead of the next election.
THE Federal Government's draft legislation for a world-first regulated carbon capture and storage (CCS) system has failed to pass muster with the very groups it is meant to help, including backers of the $5 billion Monash Energy coal-to-liquids project in the Latrobe Valley. Complaints with the draft legislation raise doubts about the Government's plan to make CCS integral to Australia's move to an emissions trading system under a policy paper to be released today by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.
The burden of Labor's climate change plan will be carried by Australia's big business, particularly those operating in the powerful resources sector. The government's Green Paper, released today in Canberra, outlines that the pollutions penalty will apply for businesses that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon each year. Labor has guaranteed that it will apply protection towards domestic industries that are emission-intensive but could be threatened by overseas competition if production prices were to rise.
FOUR in 10 doctors are thinking of leaving their profession because of disenchantment with the Rudd Government's health-care reforms, a survey has found. The survey, in the doctors' journal Medical Observer, shows doctors have savaged plans to overhaul primary health care and found three-quarters of them believe proposed super-clinics will not lead to better patient care. Last month, Health Minister Nicola Roxon proposed opening up primary health care to allow nurses and allied health professionals such as psychologists and physiotherapists to do jobs that were the domain of doctors.
An undersea earthquake measuring 6.3 points on the Richter scale struck the south-east Aegean island of Rhodes today, the Institute of Geodynamics at the National Observatory of Athens said. The US Geological Survey said earlier the quake measured 6.4 at a depth of 68 kilometres and 147 kilometres south-west of Mugla, Turkey. The tremor was recorded at 6.26am (1326 AEST) with the epicentre located 445 kilometres south of the island. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
$5 billion of federal taxpayers' money to create 900 gigalitres of water "savings" from the Victorian part of the Murray-Goulburn Basin. The water will be allocated a third each to the rivers, the Victorian irrigators and Melbourne (via the north-south pipeline). This is a lot of water. It is equal to three times Melbourne's consumption. The savings are achieved by preventing the leaks in the main channels that distribute the water to each irrigator.
AUSTRALIA lags behind most rich nations in taking the easiest steps to make an emissions trading scheme as cheap as possible: becoming more energy efficient at home, work and on the road. Due largely to a love of petrol-guzzling cars and an energy-intensive manufacturing sector, Australia's energy efficiency improved at only a third of the rate of the OECD average between 1990 and 2004. According to a report released today by the Climate Institute, only Canada and the US, among developed countries, use more energy than Australia on the goods and services they produce.
