PNG seasonal workers to arrive in Australia next year
ABC Tue Dec 9, 2008
The Papua New Guinea government says it plans to send the first group of seasonal workers to Australia by the end of next year. Australia has included PNG in a Pacific wide seasonal labour mobility scheme to do fruit picking jobs in Australia’s horticulture industry.
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http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200812/s2441878.htm
ABC – Posted Tue Dec 2, 2008
“The Northern Territory Minister for Central Australia has told a workshop that many remote outstations are home to mainly birds and lizards and the government can’t continue to fund them.”
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Australian Human Rights Commission
Sunday, 30 November 2008
The Close The Gap coalition has congratulated the Council of Australian Governments on taking substantial steps towards making health equality for Indigenous Australians a reality.
At this weekend’s COAG meeting, the Federal government committed an additional $806 million over 4 years, with the states and territories also contributing matched funds of $772 million totalling $1.6 billion.
The Federal and state governments’ announcement constitutes the biggest single injection of new funding by a government to improve Indigenous health outcomes.
Chair of the Close The Gap steering committee and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma – whose 2005 Social Justice Report laid the groundwork for the Close The Gap campaign – said the funding for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer would more than dent the surface in the chronic disease crisis dogging Indigenous communities around the country.
“This is a watershed moment in our efforts to close the life expectancy gap. Never have we seen such concentrated and determined effort from all governments working together. We applaud the emphasis from COAG on preventative health and access to primary care,” Mr Calma said.
“For some time the Indigenous led steering committee has been saying that all governments throughout Australia need to lay down the money so that their commitments can be achieved.
