Tag Archives: Victoria

Australia

Australia News Live: Australia Post chairman says he will “not resign” over the Holgate scandal | Australian News | Instant News


On the financial front, Australian businesses have suspended successful employer programs for now while consumers appear happier they can rest in New Zealand rather than worrying about a vaccine launch.

Businesses enjoyed their best performance on record during March, with strong forward orders indicating growing activity in the coming months.

The AAP reports that while the National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey released on Tuesday also showed a decline in confidence, it remained well above average.

“This in combination with a very strong reading for orders ahead suggests continued strength in activity, which is expected to see conditions remain high, even as we pass the end of the job holders program,” the NAB chief economist. Alan Oster the word.

The NAB business conditions index rose eight points to a record 25 index points, while confidence eased three points to an index 15.

The expiration of job holders’ wage subsidies last month has raised concerns about the impact on jobs.

The Ministry of Finance estimates as many as 150,000 people could lose their jobs without subsidies.

ANZ-Roy Morgan’s weekly consumer confidence index also jumped 5.9%, hitting its highest level since September 2019 and topping its long-term average.

“The withdrawal of the Brisbane lockdown and the announcement of a trans-Tasman travel bubble have seen confidence soar,” Australia chief economist ANZ David Plank the word.

“The surge has occurred despite the delay in the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine.”

The confidence survey, conducted over the weekend, will capture last week’s decision by state health authorities to recommend that the AstraZeneca vaccine not be given to people under 50.

This follows the case of blood clots overseas among younger people after getting the vaccine. Two similar cases have been recorded in Australia.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison Since then, the government has announced that it will no longer set targets for the remainder of the vaccine launch, a schedule that has been in tatters.

“Those surveyed seem to ignore concerns about the delay in launching the coronavirus vaccine and the end of JobKeeper’s salary subsidies,” a senior Commonwealth Securities economist. Ryan Felsman the word.

But he hopes that as the government’s household stimulus support wanes, and uncertainty increases around the delayed Covid-19 vaccine launch, the government will announce a number of targeted business policy steps in next month’s budget.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show payroll jobs rose 0.8% over the month to March 27, and rose 0.1% in the past two weeks, ahead of job closings.

Over the year, payroll jobs were 1.0% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The data is a prelude to Thursday’s full labor force report, which economists expect will show employment grew a further 35,000 in March, bringing the unemployment rate down to 5.7% from 5.8%.

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Australia

Victoria will soon regard all of Australia as a ‘green zone’ after Brisbane, the risk of the Byron Bay coronavirus is lowered | Instant News


Victoria will downgrade the Brisbane, Gladstone and Byron Bay areas from “orange” to “green” from midnight.

The changes mean people traveling from these areas to Victoria will no longer need to be quarantined and tested once they arrive in the state.

Once that goes into effect, any part of Australia and New Zealand will be considered a “green zone” under the Victoria travel permit system.

Everyone entering Victoria must apply for a travel permit, which classifies areas as red, orange or green zones based on coronavirus risk.

Green zone permit holders are free to enter the country without any other restrictions.

People from the orange zone must undergo testing and self-isolate until they get a negative test result.

Red zone pass holders will need to self-isolate for two full weeks, even if they test negative for the virus during that period.

However, under the rules, people can only enter Victoria from the red zone if they are residents, have an exemption, or qualify for a work or transit permit.

This is more relaxed than the red zone rules imposed late last year, which prevent Victorians from entering their own state.

Nearly two weeks of limited travel ended

Victoria sets out The Greater Brisbane area became the red zone late last month, after the Queensland government announced a rapid lockdown in response to COVID-19 cases detected in the community.

The Gladstone Region, on the coast some 500 kilometers north of Brisbane, and the Byron Bay region in northern New South Wales, are designated as the orange zone.

On 1 April Brisbane’s red zone classification was downgraded to orange.

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Australia

Australian portrait photographer June Newton has died aged 97 | Instant News


Australian photographer and actress June Newton – also known by the pseudonym Alice Springs – has died aged 97

April 10, 2021, 15.03

2 minutes reading

BERLIN – Australian photographer and actress June Newton – also known by the pseudonym Alice Springs – has died at the age of 97, the Helmut Newton Foundation said in Berlin on Saturday.

Newton, who was also the wife of the late photographer Helmut Newton, died Friday at his home in Monte Carlo. The cause of death was not stated.

“We mourn the loss of this extraordinary person and internationally recognized photographer,” wrote the foundation on its website.

Newton, who was born June Browne in Melbourne, Australia in 1923, trained as an actor and frequently performs under his stage name June Brunell, the foundation said.

In 1947, he met Helmut Newton, a German-Jewish photographer who had fled the Nazis and had recently set up a photo studio in Melbourne. They married a year later and were together until 83-year-old Helmut Newton died in a car accident in Los Angeles in 2004.

In 1970, after moving to Paris with her husband, Newton began her own career as a photographer under the pseudonym Alice Springs and soon became a famous artist focusing on portraits.

“Alice Springs does more than just document the appearance of anonymous celebrities and contemporaries; he captures their charisma, their aura, “the foundation said, describing its work. “His eyes for people are mostly concentrated on people’s faces.”

The couple has had several shows around the world. In 1978, he had his first solo portrait exhibition in Amsterdam, followed by other international shows.

“The list of artists, actors and musicians portrayed by Alice Springs over the past 40 years reads like anyone from the international cultural scene on both sides of the Atlantic,” the foundation said. “Many portraits are magazine assignments from Paris to Los Angeles; others come from personal initiative. “

In 1981, the couple moved to Monte Carlo. After her husband died, Newton opened The Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, which her husband founded several months before his death. Until his death, he was president of the museum, which has been an important location for contemporary photographic performances.

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Australia

April 10 Letter: Studying from Australia; skip the euphemisms; make Victoria even better | Instant News


Can we learn from the Australian example?

A note from my daughter in New South Wales on March 29: Her mother-in-law is expected to arrive from Brisbane, Queensland, in the next few days, but the city and surrounding hot spots have been under lockdown for three days. due to the outbreak of eight cases of COVID that were transmitted by the community.

Eight. At the same time, other Australian states, including New South Wales, imposed travel restrictions from Queensland.

This week, I’m sending my daughter a note reporting 4,000 new cases in BC over the Easter weekend. Response from Down Under: “Zero here”.

The lockdown is over, her mother-in-law is visiting and they go on a wine tour of the nearby Hunter Valley; all bitter for my other daughter, who had no one outside of her immediate family in her home in Ontario for a year.

Indeed, Australia does not share the same long and porous international borders as we do.

However, goods and people enter the country and anyone arriving from abroad automatically spends two weeks at the quarantine hotel.

Canadian Government and Dr. Good Bonnie Henry will be well aware of the Australian example.

It’s been more than two years since I saw my daughter and grandchildren in the Southern Hemisphere, and I’m afraid that if we don’t get tougher soon on our way to and from islands and provinces, it could be even longer.

Gery Lemon
See Royal

Dr. Henry, let me euphemism

With all due respect to Dr. Bonnie Henry, I’m sick of hearing about very serious problems called “challenges” and potentially deadly and pervasive variants called “worrying”.

Call for the shovel of shovel and instead of worrying about the public, stop minimizing and start dealing.

We need to take more action, not less. We need to take steps to stop tourism to Vancouver Island, stop the spread of transmission through arriving travelers and impose more serious consequences for people who ignore vigilance and harm others.

Things are not getting better. They get worse and it is much more than just challenging and concerning.

It’s deadly.

Palset Launa
Victoria

Go hard to stop the pandemic

I’m pretty sure people around the world are fed up with COVID-19. Countries that have leaders willing to step in, doing what is necessary to stop the spread, should be applauded.

In Canada, COVID is out of control. First our seniors, the older population, the people with compromised health.

Now the younger crowd. Still our leaders don’t take a tough stance.

If we lockdown properly, we won’t be in the middle of this pandemic swamp. Open, close, open too fast, close but not tight, open again, close again. We are all sick and tired.

Let’s get tough. The locks of this country are so tight that COVID has nowhere to go but.

You are not allowed to spread COVID if you feel entitled and do not wear a mask, cannot travel and bring back the variant. It is not good.

How many more people have to die?

Rebecca Evans
Brentwood Bay

Another day of too many cases of COVID

Like Canada, Australia is a federation with a strong central government and a similar population. And like Canadian cities, Australian cities continue to rank in the top 10 most liveable cities in the world.

But unlike Canada, Australia adopted a violent initial hardline response to a pandemic that resulted in low numbers of COVID-19 and returned to normalcy quickly.

On par with our province, the Australian state not only limits domestic travel within the country, but occasionally, travel between geographic areas within the same state – complete with road checkpoints and police enforcement.

While our government’s response to the pandemic has been laudable in the North American context, as our numbers on Vancouver Island climb to record highs, it is sometimes difficult to understand (despite constitutionality) why our province has not adapted a similar hardline tactic.

Dave Nonen
Victoria

Thunberg’s title was wrong

The University of British Columbia awarded Greta Thunberg an honorary degree.

Thunberg is an activist who demands the world tackle the effects of using fossil fuels, carbon dioxide and air pollution in general.

Current activism uses whatever confrontational activity is necessary to promote opinion on climate issues. In this case facing world leaders, world population and world opinion who oppose the fossil fuel industry.

Thunberg championed a laudable ideology that draws large crowds to this end. However, I object to this method of intimidating people for narrow ends without discussing its impact on the world economy.

Young people are deeply affected. Thunberg was well guided to deliver his address at the United Nations Assembly. The show was well-orchestrated with a bold tone that spewed violence upon the adult audience of captive world leaders.

Its main promotion is to call on the world’s young people to leave their class to join demonstration protests. It is not wrong to hold demonstrations every week that attract students from educational institutions.

Public schools and universities are educational facilities. Pulling students out is a cost to our system. Young protesters are attracted to the joy of cause without understanding the social effects and consequences.

Human ingenuity and creativity will solve climate problems. Not from the influence of foreign environmental groups who are involved in governance and our economy.

I do not support this distraction, nor do UBC have to respect the people who do it. Canada is filled with green plants that consume carbon. We are a small population that accounts for less than two percent of the world’s pollution.

We are not a problem globally. Respect our efforts, not tough speculators.

Bruce E. Hornidge
Port Alberni

The progressive council is making Victoria better

Subject: “Give high marks to the Victorian council,” letter, April 7.

I also appreciate the opinion and recent letter acknowledging the positive action taken by Mayor Lisa Helps and the progressive majority elected to the Victorian council.

These changes to make our cities more livable, walkable, and cycling – and thus more socially, culturally and economically dynamic – are long overdue. The allocation of scarce public road space is very unbalanced for the benefit of private cars and for everyone and others.

The humanitarian catastrophe of homelessness and untreated mental illness and the addictions that occur in our streets and parks is not the fault of the Victorian council. Health and housing are primarily provincial and federal responsibilities.

This catastrophe was mainly caused by decades of cuts in social programs by right-wing governments to pay for tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich.

Despite some recent increases in funding, the provincial and federal governments are still not dealing with this humanitarian crisis with the disaster response that is needed.

Of course, Victorian councilors made mistakes sometimes.

But all in all, I give the mayor and council credit for doing a great job during these very challenging times, and remaining focused on making our city more sustainable, vibrant and people-centered.

Graham Briggs
Victoria

The decision about a bike path boggles the mind

What was the thought process when the new bike path in Victoria was considered? Did Mayor Lisa Helps and councilors look at decades of data and figure out where the collision between vehicle drivers and cyclists occurred? I doubt that.

It’s mind boggling that Richardson Street and Kimta Road will be changed in any way while East Gorge Road is definitely a death trap for cyclists.

Likewise, the new bike routes for Jubilee, Oaklands and Fernwood seem to fall into the favorite category of many critics: solutions to problem solving.

Is East Gorge Road not getting the attention it deserves because no one running the show in Victoria is using it to cycle to work?

It would be enlightening for the Times Colonist to provide readers with a map showing roughly where the mayor and councilors live in relation to the approved bicycle routes.

Trevor Amon
Victoria

SEND YOUR LETTER

• Email a letter to: [email protected]

• Letter: Letter to the editor, Times Colonist, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, BC V9A 6X5

• Submissions must not exceed 250 words; subject to editing for length and clarity. Provide your contact information; it will not be published. Avoid sending your letter as an email attachment.

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Australia

Australia news live: New Zealand’s Covid travel bubble expected to be announced by Jacinda Ardern | Australian News | Instant News


First of all we have a problem in Australia. Bangladesh, Senegal and Rwanda have all vaccinated proportionately more people than Australia. I think there’s some basic common sense needed.

First, let’s involve the Australian GP in the presentation. Only 4,600 doctors out of about 8,600 were involved.

Second, we have compensated for a huge pharmaceutical loss for launch, why not do it for the large managing worker.

Three: why don’t we add money to pay the labor penalty rate so that people can work on weekends and after hours.

And here’s another great idea: if you’re going to ask doctors to set up a daily clinic and for whatever reason they are losing money, let’s say we’ll help you with the cost of setting up a daily clinic. There it is, the four-point plan and we will carry on with it.

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