Category: AUSTRALIAN

Independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, will be moving legislative changes to Australia’s visa rules to encourage migrants to invest in the state.

Under the current Significant Investor Visa rules, a migrant can become a permanent resident if they have at least $5million to invest in a particular state, and maintain that investment for four years.

Senator Xenophon is proposing an amendment to the Migration Act to be introduced later this year, that will lower the threshold for the visa requirement from $5million to $2million if a state has regional migration status and population growth at least 30% below the national average.

The current average national population growth is 1.8%—South Australia at 0.9% is 50% below the national average, with the only state lower being Tasmania, at 0.1%.

“If you want to give this state a massive boost overnight, we need to change the Significant Investment Visa rules,” Nick said.

Senator Xenophon unveiled the plan at the SA Press Club ‘State of the State’ forum this afternoon.

“Just imagine what 3000 skilled investor migrants each with $2million would do for the state—it would be the equivalent to $6billion investment alone and a significant shot in the arm to start-up and existing businesses, and with it, a massive investment in investment and jobs.”

Source: News

Source: ABC

ABCThe SARS virus appears to have originated in horseshoe bats from China.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus which killed 774 people originated in horseshoe bats from China, scientists have confirmed.

SARS killed nearly 10 per cent of the people it infected during the 2002-2003 pandemic, mainly in China and Hong Kong.

A research team, which included scientists from the CSIRO in Geelong, found a very close relative of the virus in faecal samples from horseshoe bats.

Researcher Gary Crameri said scientists long suspected bats were the origin of the virus.

“We’ve been looking at bats for the past eight years, looking for this particular virus,” he said.

“Although a lot of groups across the world have been, this particular virus can affect humans like the original one and that’s really been the key to this particular virus.”

Mr Cameri said it was possible the bats had developed a productive relationship with the virus over many years.

“But when they spill out into other mammals, like humans, they can be devastating,” he said.Â

Mr Crameri said the focus had been on finding the virus’s origin and other similar viruses, rather than a vaccine.

“It’s key for us to get a clear understanding of bats and the role that not only them, but other animals will play in future health scenarios,” he said.

Mr Crameri said SARS bats do not pose a risk to people in general, but he encouraged people to be wary when handling them.

“The less we encroach on their environments, the better,” he said.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome also originated in bats

While SARS is now under control because wet markets are being controlled by authorities, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), caused by another coronavirus, is currently a problem.

Mr Crameri says the MERS virus, which also appears to come from a microbat, binds to human cells via a different receptor and is less infectious than SARS, although kills a higher percentage of those it infects.

Bats are an ancient animal that diverged from other mammals 80 million years ago and Mr Crameri said this could explain why they carry a high number of pathogens that they themselves are unaffected by.

“The bats and the viruses have evolved together,” he said.

Experts have welcomed the new research.

“To this point, no one had been able to find the SARS coronavirus in bats,” Sanjaya Senanayake, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Australian National University, said.

“Of the 40 or so new infections in humans discovered in the last 40 years, most have come from animals.

“Now that animals, including bats, and humans live closer together as our population expands globally, the opportunity for direct transmission of these dangerous viruses becomes more and more of an issue.”

Professor Charles Watson, John Curtin Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University, says the recent outbreak of MERS reminds us coronaviruses are a potential cause of major human epidemics.

“The 2002 coronavirus pandemic, caused by the SARS coronavirus… was a serious public health threat, with over 8,000 cases worldwide,” he said.

“While the MERS… outbreak has so far infected less than 200 individuals, it is clear that the coronavirus must be carefully watched.”

The research has been published in the journal Nature.

Source: SMH

Michael Evans looks at what a divide will mean for residents.

It’s one thing to come from the wrong side of the tracks: it’s another entirely to come from the wrong side of Military Road.

A proposal to split Mosman into five is being considered by the Geographical Names Board, which wants community feedback before making a decision.
Dividing the suburb that began as a whaling station may yet spark more wailing.

As secessionist moves go, subdividing Mosman might not appear to hold a candle to the annual threat of Western Australia breaking away from the rest of the continent.

Nor does it bear the gentle disdain of the citizens of Queens Park splitting from their more salubrious neighbours in Bondi Junction in 1992. (And we all know whose property prices benefited from that move.)

But for residents of Mosman, home of the lower north shore’s haves and have yachts, these are uneasy times.

Dividing the suburb that began as a whaling station may yet spark more wailing.

A great number of residents are set to be moved out of Mosman – at least in name.

For years, the ties binding residents have been obvious: rugby, rowing, the professions and Volvos.

According to the census data, nearly 7 per cent of working Mosman residents are engaged in the legal or accounting professions; nearly 6 per cent in financial services. The median weekly household income is $2465 and the median monthly mortgage repayment is $3033.

It’s where company directors bump into investment bankers and trip over their lawyers picking up their gluten-free spelt loaf on a Saturday morning.

But the suburb has become unwieldy. Since 1997, residents of Clifton Gardens, Beauty Point, Balmoral, Georges Heights and the Spit have technically lived in Mosman – although they were able to use traditional locality names if they wished.

No more! Mosman will be rent asunder – with obvious concern over the impact on property prices.

But the blow-ins visiting Balmoral Beach will now more easily be able to find the $35 four-hour parking meters.

After all, you can take the investment banker out of Mosman, but you can’t take Mosman out of the investment banker.

Source: DailyTelegraph

68 Wehlow St, Mt Druitt sold for $1,066,000 at auction by Laing + Simmons Mt Druitt. Source: Supplied

MT Druitt’s property market is smashing the million dollar mark, with the suburb recording two residential sales of more than $1 million in less than a month.

Known as an entry-level suburb for families in Sydney, the recent sales are a sign that Mount Druitt is on the move as its big blocks attract interest because of their development potential.

On September 30, a property at 28 Paull St was sold for $1.1million and on Saturday, a home at 68 Wehlow St, Mt Druitt sold for $1,066,000 at auction by Laing + Simmons Mt Druitt.

The Wehlow St home is modest in size, between 50 and 60 years old and currently returning just $300 a week in rent, but 80 people turned up for the auction and nine registered buyers battled for the property.

The house is on 2024sq m of prime land a few hundred metres from the heart of Mt Druitt and close to a train station, hospital and a Westfield shopping centre.

Lang + Simmons sold this home on Wehlow St in July for $780,000. Source: Supplied

Selling agent Basel Nahas, licensee of Lang + Simmons Mt Druitt , said for the house to achieve more than $1 million was a sign of of confidence in the area.

He said Mt Druitt prices were increasing steadily and buyers could not rely on its affordability to continue.

“Prices are going through the roof. By the time you sell something, the next month when you try and use it as a comparable, it looks like it’s worth more,” he said. “Prices increase month by month.”

The median house price in Mount Druitt is $371,000 and in five years, values have increased by 21.6 per cent. In the greater Sydney metropolitan area, the suburb ranks in the bottom 15 per cent for median house prices.

A typical Mt Druitt street with smaller, older homes on large blocks of land. Source: News Limited

Mr Nahas said the Wehlow St property attracted attention from long-term investors because of the large block, equivalent to about two standard blocks, and its location.

“It had development significance to it. It was massive – (Blacktown) council had a draft zone on it to eventually put units on it. The minimum is 3000sq m to build units so it’s an investment.”

Mr Nahas said the investor who bought the property would continue renting it, but may buy homes next door in the future to develop and realise the land’s full potential.

“It’s in a good spot in what will be a high capital growth area and position,” he said.

He said the vendor was extremely happy with the result.

Neighbour Mark Eattell lives in a townhouse opposite the property and was at the auction.

“I was surprised but then again it’s a large block so obviously it will be redeveloped,” he said.

Mr Eattell said he expected unit developments on the street in the future, similar to other parts of Mt Druitt.

Mark Eattell Source: Supplied

Neighbour Kelly Barton said while she doubted the old house was worth much, the buyer got good value based on the land size.

“If it was a smaller block I would have been shocked but for that block, when you divide it and look at the price I think it’s OK for what they (the buyer) got,” she said.

She said the area was popular and Wehlow St residents were prepared to sell to investors and developers if the price was right.

Lang + Simmons sold another home on the street in July for $780,000, smashing the previous suburb record of $569,950, set in May.

Mr Nahas said strong demand in Mt Druitt would eventually impact its affordability but for now houses and units were still the cheapest in Sydney although “too many buyers are buying so there is a shortage of properties.”

Units prices, which had averaged around $220,000-$230,000, had increased by about $60,000, he said, and prices were likely to rise again next year with no signs of stabilising.

“Mt Druitt is a good suburb… for it to have all its amenities with good rentals and vacancy rate and the M7 and M4 – it all plays a big role,” he said.

Source: News

By day, the Monte Cristo homestead at Junee looks like any other grand manor. Source: Supplied

By night, it’s Australia’s most haunted house. Spooky. Source: Supplied

REGINALD Ryan and his wife Olive had just moved into a beautiful homestead in Junee, NSW, when they drove downtown for supplies one foggy night in 1963.

When they turned up their driveway on the return trip, a brilliant fierce light was streaming out of every door and window of the house.

They thought they were being burgled, but as they drove cautiously closer to the house, the lights suddenly switched off and the house was again lost in the ghostly fog and darkness.

The Ryans had no idea the Monte Cristo homestead was the country’s most haunted home. And it doesn’t seem to have fazed them – they still live there.

Reginald’s nephew and his wife once visited Monte Cristo and were looking for the loo late one night. A young woman dressed in white appeared before them, whispered “Don’t worry, it will be all right” and vanished.

Olive once found dead and mutilated cats in the kitchen. Visiting children inexplicably throw tantrums around the staircase, where a child once died. There are phantom footsteps, strange apparitions and haunting noises.

It’s little wonder the home’s ghost tours are booked out months in advance.

But Monte Cristo isn’t the only haunted place in the country, of course. Here are seven more of our spookiest.

 

STUDLEY PARK HOUSE, NSW

The eerie house at dusk. Source: News Limited

On October 15, 1909, in the grounds of the then Camden Grammar School, 14-year-old Ray Blackstone drowned in the dam after failed rescue attempts by his school mates, ancestry.com.au tells us.

His body was placed in the cold, dark cellar of the school until his burial.

Three decades later, while living in the transformed school house, 13-year-old Noel William Gregory – son of Twentieth Century Fox sales manager Arthur Adolphus Gregory, died from appendicitis.

It’s believed that the spirits of both boys play together and remain in the house as a constant reminder of their tragic lives.

 

REDBANK RANGE TUNNEL, NSW

The disused tunnel is said to be haunted by a death that occurred in 1914. Source: News Limited

Emily Bollard entered a railway tunnel at Picton (no longer in use) and met the oncoming train. It didn’t end well.

Emily’s ghost is said to wander the tunnel.

 

NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, ACT

The National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. Fine by day, but would you wander around at night? Source: Supplied

In its current incarnation, this grand art deco building in Canberra is a living archive of important images and sounds deemed worthy of preservation.

But until 1984, it operated as the Australian Institute of Anatomy, where notable body parts were kept and collected.

Some people believe the spectres of the dead haunt the hallways.

The downstairs corridor, which once housed hundreds of human skulls, is said to be a hive of poltergeist activity.

And a contractor claims to have been pinned against a wall in the basement by an unexplained presence.

 

BOGGO ROAD JAIL, QLD

The Boggo Road Jail, in Brisbane’s inner-south, has a checkered history of violence. Source: News Limited

It’s one the country’s most infamous prisons – known for tough inmates and even tougher wardens.

Boggo Rd was a place of execution until 1913, and held some of Australia’s most dangerous men and women including the Whiskey Au-Go-Go firebombers James Finch and Andrew Stuart, and the only woman hanged in Queensland, Ellen Thomson.

Given its long history of rooftop riots, executions and fatal overcrowding, Boggo understandably has a ghostly folklore surrounding it.

No longer running as a prison, the historic site is now open to ghost tours.

 

FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE, WA

A bustling cultural hub today. A lunatic asylum in the past. Source: Flickr

Before this 150-year-old building was Fremantle’s home of live music and weekend crafternoons, it was the local insane asylum.

It’s believed to be one of the southern hemisphere’s most active haunted places.

Visitors have reported all the spooky hallmarks of a haunted house: cold spots, ghostly touches, apparitions, moving lights and generally strange feelings.

Ghost hunters investigated it recently and heard creepy voices saying creepy things like “Those are chains” and “It’s not cold”. CREEPY.

 

PORT ARTHUR, TAS

Ghost tours operate at Port Arthur. Source: Supplied

Hundreds of men died during Port Arthur’s first decades as a convict settlement, and many people believe those lost souls have hung around.

Tour guides show interested rubber-neckers around the spooky historic town, convinced that the wall separating the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest in Port Arthur.

Some of the local accommodation houses even have an “Unusual Occurrence Form” that guests can fill out when they’ve seen something ghostly.

Recurring visions include the Lady in Blue – apparently the weeping spectre of a young woman who died in childbirth.

More than 2000 apparitions have been lodged in the past two decades.

 

PRINCESS THEATRE, VIC

The grand old dame of Melbourne’s theatre scene in 1908. Source: Flickr

In March 1888, the baritone Frederick Federici was performing a scene from Faust when he had a sudden heart attack and died.

It’s said his phantom still haunts the opera, and for many years a seat was reserved for him in the third row of the dress circle. Touching. But creepy.

Source: News

THIS time, the winner ISN’T Sydney.

Or Melbourne.

Instead, it’s Adelaide that has scored a mention in Lonely Planet’s list of the world’s best cities to visit in 2014.

Joining the likes of Paris and Shanghai on the list, Adelaide, which attracts just 332,000 visitors a year, has been deemed an emerging hotspot due to its secret beaches, arts and wine scene.

“Having always lived in the shadow of its gregarious eastern-seaboard cousins,” the Lonely Planet review said, “the ‘City of Churches’ has been quietly loosening its pious shackles and embracing its liberal foundations.

“The year 2014 beckons big changes for the city’s heart, with the completion of the multi-million-dollar refurbishment of the Adelaide Oval, which will link central Adelaide with the Oval and its beautiful surrounding parklands, and historic North Adelaide further on.”

“Adelaide is effortlessly chic – and like a perfectly cellared red, it’s ready to be uncorked and sampled.”

South Australian Tourism Minister, Leon Bignell, said Adelaide has undergone a huge transformation in recent years, making it a ‘more appealing destination’.

Last year, it was Hobart that made the Lonely Planet list due to its ‘natural beauty, arts and foodie scene’.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Should Adelaide be at the top of tourists’ bucket lists? Tell us below.

The top 10 cities are:

1. Paris, France

2. Trinidad, Cuba

3. Cape Town, South Africa

4. Riga, Latvia

5. Zurich, Switzerland

6. Shanghai, China

7. Vancouver, Canada

8. Chicago, US

9. Adelaide, Australia

10. Auckland, New Zealand

 

Visit the ‘City of Churches’ in 2014. Picture: Thinkstock Source: ThinkStock

Source: NickXenophon

Following the success of yesterday’s Farming Forum in Beaufort, senators John Madigan and Nick Xenophon are looking forward to holding similar events across regional Victoria and South Australia in the future.

The day provided local farmers the opportunity to raise any issues they saw as important to the future viability of their industry, with a common theme being that both state and federal governments aren’t doing enough to assist food producers.

Key issues that need to be addressed immediately are: clearer labeling laws; a reduction of bureaucratic red tape; the supermarket duopoly of Coles and Woolworths; fair trade, not free trade; and a greater understanding of life on the land by city-centric government departments.

“Many people spoke about how their children had left the farm, never to return, because of the difficulty in making a decent dollar in a sector where successive governments have favoured multinational companies and supermarket lobbyists, rather than local food producers,” Senator Madigan said.

“I empathise with these people and can only imagine how frustrated they must be with politicians.

“Yesterday’s event will not be a one-off. Attendees were thankful that they had finally been given an opportunity to air their grievances to relevant stakeholders, and I look forward to giving more Australian farmers a voice in the coming months and years.”

Senator Xenophon told attendees that he would continue to fight for a fairer go for Australian farmers.

“Australian farmers have been thrown to the wolves of free trade – our farmers have been abandoned by successive governments and left to fend for themselves in an uneven playing field,” Senator Xenophon said.

“Unless there is urgent action, there won’t be a new generation of farmers to replace this one as they retire or walk off the land.

“We need to look at reinstituting a rural development bank – as we used to have in Australia – to provide long-term, sustainable finance for farmers.”

Speakers on the day were BeyondBlue ambassador Tony McManus, VFF vice-president David Jochinke, DEPI regional director (Grampians) Brendan Roughead, Pyreenees Shire councillor and farmer Robert Vance, and legal specialist Tom Moloney.

Senators Madigan and Xenophon are co-founders of the Australian Manufacturing and Farming Program:

Source: News

NSW bushfire recovery co-ordinator Phil Koperberg has praised the response of insurance companies, saying he has heard no reports of difficulties so far.

Mr Koperberg, the former NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner, says insurers have been timely in assisting customers among the 208 victims of this month’s fires.

“They’ve been more than reasonably helpful in the main, and I’ve not heard of any exceptions,’ he told Fairfax Radio on Monday.

“… they have been very, very responsive, I know that a number of claims have already been settled.”

The real problem was with residents who were under-insured or un-insured and now needed aid to rebuild, he said.

“These people of course also need help and are entitled to help and it’s a complex issue,” he said.

Mr Koperberg said the bushfire recovery centre had information available on accommodation options and aid.

“Things are being made as relatively easy as they can be in extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” he said.

Damage from the NSW bushfires has been estimated at $138 million but the Insurance Council (ICA) of Australia on Friday said it expected the figure to increase with more inspections.

The state’s major fires, which are in the Blue Mountains and southern highlands, have all been downgraded to “advice” level warnings, under cooler, wetter weather conditions.

Source: SMH

Residential outrage may spark an independent review of potential mercury contamination near Orica’s Botany site.

Chemical giant Orica has tried to keep secret a potentially damaging report into whether the dangerous metal mercury might have been leaking off site from its former chlor-alkali plant, which it operated at the Botany Industrial Park for almost 60 years.

The report, written by two University of Sydney professors 20 years ago, only recently came to light when a former Orica employee revealed its existence. It was written after revelations that about a kilogram of mercury a day was being lost from the site.

A company spokesman said the secrecy was because ‘Orica has concerns the report must be seen in the correct context’.

It is understood that the report, a copy of which is now in the possession of the Environment Protection Authority, concluded that the mercury was going down the drain which ran from the Botany site to Malabar.

The secrecy has sparked outrage among residents, who had to fight to get the EPA to agree to an independent review of potential mercury contamination around their homes, after being repeatedly told there was no reason to believe the situation needed investigation. They have called for the report to be released for public scrutiny.
Long-time resident and campaigner Len Mahoney said it was ”absolutely astounding” Orica could withhold information that could be critical to the health and safety of residents. ”What gives them the right? We have the right to know, and it makes you question what else they are holding that we don’t know about,” he said.

Labor’s leader in the upper house, Luke Foley, has threatened to use a parliamentary call for papers to order the EPA to release the document.
Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi said: ”Given Orica’s toxic waste legacy, it is imperative that they fully disclose all activities past and present likely to endanger the health of the surrounding community.”

Orica expressed concerns about giving a copy to the EPA and did so on the strict condition that the report be viewed only by the EPA and a panel set up to consult on an independent review of potential off-site mercury pollution.
The EPA told panel members the document could be viewed at its offices but its contents had to be kept confidential.

NSW EPA chief environmental regulator Mark Gifford denied it had agreed to secrecy but said: ”It is the EPA’s practice to not release third party documents without permission from the owner.”

A company spokesman said the secrecy was because ”Orica has concerns the report must be seen in the correct context” and that the latest risk assessments of the mercury contamination – which have been approved by the EPA – considered 30 more up-to-date reports.

He said the report recommended improvements for effluent treatment to ensure compliance with the then Sydney Water Board’s requirements, and the majority of those recommendations were adopted.
A spokesman for Environment Minister Robyn Parker said the report would be made public after the review was completed.

The document, titled ”Review of the mercury pollution abatement programme at ICI Operations Botany” by W.A. Davies and R.G.H. Prince, dated October 1991, was written after Orica, then known as ICI, tried to reassure the public in a 1990 newspaper ad that it was reducing the amount of mercury going down the sewer pipes.

The sewer led to Sydney Water’s Malabar treatment plant, where it was disposed either by going into the ocean at Malabar headland before 1990, or subsequently into the deep ocean outfall, or into sludge waste deposited to authorised landfill.