Victoria

What value our wetlands? How do you value a wetlands environment? How do you value the indirect ecosystem and biodiversity benefits of having healthy wetland environments? An economic study of the Hattah wetlands within the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park in northern Victoria attempts to answer these questions putting a direct economic value of $14.5 million dollars per year for maintaining the Hattah Lakes in a healthy state with adequate water levels.

Related: Protection of Murray River redgum wetlands 'sold down the river' by NSW government

Testimony presented to the Victorian royal commission into the Black Saturday fires indicating that powerlines sparked several major bushfires has been virtually ignored by the media. The silence is in marked contrast to the frenzied reportage immediately following the February 7, 2009 fires of allegations that many blazes had been lit by arsonists.

On Thursday 6th May the AEU the public school teacher union backed down on a NAPLAN boycott in the face of an anti-worker attack from the Federal ALP led by Julia Guillard. The AEU responding to grassroots teacher anger had called a boycott of the NAPLAN to prevent the publication of “League Tables” of schools based on the new Federal “MySchools” Website. Teachers across the country had been threatened with disciplinary action and individual fines of up to $6600 as Guillard gleefully used anti-worker laws to bully teachers into submission.

An Australian court finds that the existing drug laws, by reversing the onus of proof, violate the presumption of innocence. But all convictions stand. To any legislator who willingly allows the reverse onus of proof to continue, I say: May it please God that you become a victim of it. [From OpEdNews, USA.]