Other stuff of interest to rural & regional people.
Todays National Weather | Weather Zone: A front is bringing a burst of colder, showery winds to TAS, southern VIC and southeastern SA. Weak highs are keeping the rest of SA, VIC and southern NSW and southeast QLD dry. A trough in WA is drawing warm northeast winds to the southwest and causing inland thundery showers.- Futuris Cuts forecast, changes name | The Age: Futuris the owner of Elders is to change its name to Elders. Also announces that profits will be lower than forecast.
- Has surplus disappeared? | Terry McCrann: IF Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan really believed in honesty and transparency in government they would release an updated Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook to incorporate the COAG spending and any change in the economic outlook.
- Premier in line for more water torture | The Australian: QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh’s spectacular backdowns on recycled water and on the controversial Traveston dam project will not save her at the next state election. Not unless she shelves her plan to add fluoride to the drinking water.
- Conroy ignored AG’s advice by accepting Telstra’s NBN non-bid | IT Wire: Shadow communications minister Nick Minchin claims that communications minister Stephen Conroy has ignored written advice from the Attorney General that he could only accept Telstra’s non-compliant bid for the national broadband network by altering the terms of the RFP.
- Springborg’s pitch to commuter vote | Courier Mail: LAWRENCE Springborg has moved to exploit anger with public transport by offering free train trips to tens of thousands of disgruntled commuters. In a major bid to lure crucial city votes away from the Bligh Government, the Liberal National Party has promised a free trip a day to save rail commuters up to almost $2000 a year.
- Central cane growers get R&D green light | NQ Register: Six groups of Central Queensland cane growers have been successful in attracting funding to investigate everything from precision agriculture to fallow crops and skip row planting. In announcing $600,000 in new grower group innovation projects … growers from Mackay and Sarina have again proved their willingness to embrace innovation, with six of the 12 projects funded coming from the area.
- CQ reps thrash out grain storage and transport issues | AgForce: Grain storage and transport bottlenecks in central Queensland were raised at a meeting of all interested parties in Emerald late last week and although some progress was achieved on storage problems, the transport issues remain unresolved. Meeting chair, AgForce vice president Ian Burnett, said GrainCorp acknowledged problems with storage and handling …
- A new look at three-day sickness | NQ Register: Following on from heavy stock losses in the Belyando region after this year’s floods, DPI&F principal veterinary pathologist Dr Bruce Hill is spearheading a project to investigate anecdotal field evidence that BEF is changing its characteristics, or that a possible new virus that mimics BEF could have emerged.
More Later
- Lobby group labels GM crops report misleading | ABC: The Network of Concerned Farmers has labelled a new Government report into genetically modified (GM) crops as misleading… Newdegate farmer Julie Newman says the report’s assertion that fewer insecticides and herbicides will be used on GM canola crops is flawed.
- Fined landowner may replace trees elsewhere | ABC: South Australian Farmer Rocco Lamatinna has been fined nearly $120,000 for clearing 275 red, pink and bluegum trees from his property near mt Gambia.
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