Keating: income inequality crisis looming 16/3/2018 (Translation appears in Arabic section) Brisbane: Income inequality in Australia is growing to the point where the country risks a similar situation to the US housing meltdown which led to the Global Financial Crisis. That's the warning from former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, who argues Australia's political class on both sides needs to embrace policies which reduce the distance between the richest and poorest. Speaking at a book launch in Brisbane, the former PM pointed to his own record as treasurer and later prime minister for 13 years between 1983 and 1991 as an example of a government which had sought to raise the standard of living for all people. In the years since, Mr Keating argued, economic policy had been driven by short term thinking. "If you don't have the imagination, you will never get to the destination," he told the crowd at Brisbane's Customs House. 
Queensland Premier moves to stop NSW dumping its rubbish north of the border Brisbane: Queensland is moving closer to shutting the door on an interstate trade that sees upwards of a million tonnes of waste a year generated in NSW dumped across the border. The state looks set to reintroduce a waste levy that would hike up charges for waste disposal firms on every tonne of waste that wasn’t recycled. On Tuesday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk faced a room of 400 residents of the Brisbane suburb of Ipswich. “We’ve got to stop all that NSW rubbish coming into Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “The idea of the (NSW) waste levy was to divert from landfill in NSW but now that levy is subsidising the cost of transporting waste to landfill from NSW to Queensland,” Tony Khoury, the Executive Director of the Waste Contractors and Recyclers Association said. 
The $60b decision we have to make Canberra: LABOR is going head-to-head with the Government, as the Opposition pushes to scrap a tax policy that was introduced almost 20 years ago — and is now costing $60b a year. Australians today are being asked to decide if it is fairer to keep giving retirees billions in cash refunds on taxes or use the money for essential services such as education. The tax debate has erupted into a policy showdown with competing Labor and Government positions on how best to use some $60 billion over 10 years. The Government is marshalling half a million pensioners and self-funded retirees to attack Labor’s plan to end a multi-billion dollar tax refund measure. “Labor has deliberately hit 230,000 pensioners,” Treasurer Scott Morrison told ABC radio. 
Is Australia prepared for an exploding population influx? Canberra: EXPERTS warn Australia is ill-prepared to handle an exploding population, which is evident in commute times, packed transport and unaffordable housing. Sydney is on track to hit a population of around 8 million in the middle of this century. Perth will grow from just over 2 million to 4.5 million. Brisbane is projected to grow from 2.4 million to 4 million people. “What we’re facing now is a change in the face of our cities,” Infrastructure Australia chief executive Philip Davies said. “Cities such as Melbourne and Sydney becoming of the scale of global cities like London and Hong Kong. “And then some of our slightly smaller capital cities, Perth and Brisbane becoming, in the future, the same size as Melbourne and Sydney. “So we need to up our game in terms of planning.” If the population grew, experts argued there would be no choice but to expand and build, especially when it came to public transport networks. Co-ordinator general at Transport for NSW Marg Prendergast told Four Corners Australians’ reliance on cars would need to change. The device can be attached to the back of a smartphone and paired
with an app to take real-time blood pressure readings  This smartphone case can read your blood pressure US: The device can be attached to the back of a smartphone and paired with an app to take real-time blood pressure readings. Measuring your blood pressure could one day be as simple as pressing your fingertip against the back of your smartphone and watching the results show up in a corresponding app. A team of US researchers has developed a prototype device that can take real-time blood pressure readings using a smartphone case with embedded sensors, they report in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The researchers hope this type of easy-to-use device could improve rates of blood pressure measurement in the future. 
Australia won't join US steel WTO action Canberra: Australia won't join an international revolt against the United States' steel tariffs because local steel is exempt from the price hikes. Some countries may take action against the United States' 25 per cent tariffs on imported steel, but Malcolm Turnbull says Australia is exempt and won't join them. "I know there's been speculation in the media about action being taken by other countries in the World Trade Organisation about the US steel and aluminium tariffs," the prime minister told reporters. "As as a country that will be exempt from those tariffs, we don't have a basis to bring a complaint." |
