Active News | Archived News   2006   2005

2006 News

DECEMBER NEWS UPDATES

NOVEMBER NEWS UPDATES

NASA announced on 21 August 2006 that rockets will be launched from Woomera, South Australia, to service the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has selected two U.S. companies, Rocket Plane Kistler and Space-X, to launch rockets from the Woomera base. Starting in 2008, the companies will conduct orbital flight tests and commercial operations from the site

With NASA's existing space shuttle fleet due to be retired in 2010, the organisation is looking to commercial firms to take over ISS transportation services. If trials are successful, the Woomera site would be used to launch cargo such as fuel and food to the ISS as often as every two weeks. A tendering process for the design and construction of a $100 million launch site is expected to begin early next year.

SEPTEMBER NEWS UPDATES

On Monday 4 September 2006, Steve Irwin died tragically while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in Far North Queensland.

A champion for wildlife and for the environment, Steve made an enormous difference to Queensland and to Australia. His achievements in promoting tourism and a greater understanding of our natural environment were outstanding. His loss will be felt by all those who followed his extraordinary passion for his work and his life.

Click here to send a message of sympathy and support to be passed on to Steve's family.

AUGUST NEWS UPDATES

The so-called "brain drain" that plagued Australia in the late 1990s has turned into a "brain gain" because of a massive increase in the number of skilled foreign professionals immigrating.

The trend of Australians leaving to work overseas has also eased, with many choosing to return, according to a new Department of Immigration report released yesterday. The report, by demographer Bob Birrell, comes as debate continues over the increase in temporary skilled migration under the Government's 457 visa program. "The scale of the net inflow is very striking now and it indicates how dependent we are becoming in Australia on overseas skills," Mr Birrell said. An analysis of the number of people moving to and from Australia during 2004-05 found the nation had a net gain of 44,443 people with a skilled occupation during the period.

The increase was driven by an influx of professionals, with a net gain of 29,054 people. "Australia's net gain from international movement of skilled persons has nearly doubled since the end of the 20th century, with the most rapid growth occurring amongst professionals," says the report, which analyses the impact of population movements on the size and make-up of Australia's skilled workforce.

In addition to the increase in skilled foreign labour, evidence of a "brain drain" was diminishing as expatriate Australians who left in the late 1990s returned home, Mr Birrell said.

The surge in Australian resident departures during 1999-2000 and 2000-01 - which had fuelled concerns about the brain drain - was in fact reversed just two years later, the report finds. Ben Buchler, a postdoctoral research fellow with the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence in Quantum-Atom Optics, left for Switzerland in 2002 and returned earlier this year. However, he did not count himself as part of the brain drain when he left Australia because he had always intended to return. " I always wanted to return to Australia eventually because I like it here," Dr Buchler told The Australian yesterday.

The report identified the largest number of settlers worked in the fields of computing, accounting, building and engineering. Nurses and doctors also experienced large increases, reflecting areas of domestic skills shortages, the report says. Geologists, geophysicists, medical scientists and mathematicians have also experienced consistent, though slight increases, despite earlier concerns about decreases. Australia also made a net gain of 6098 tradespeople in 2004-05.

JULY NEWS UPDATES

Australian Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane, has announced the award of five new offshore petroleum exploration permits: two off Tasmania, one off Western Australia and two in the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands.

"There is currently very strong interest being shown by petroleum explorers in Australian offshore areas," said Mr Macfarlane. The new permits awarded are as follows:

• Two in the Bass Basin off Tasmania, situated close to southeast Australian gas markets in shallow water, to Bass Strait Oil Company Ltd;

• One in the Browse Basin off Western Australia, a proven major hydrocarbon province, to Nexus Energy Australia NL; and

• Two in the Bonaparte Basin, in the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands off north-western Western Australia, close to areas with demonstrated commercial potential, one to Eni Australia Limited and the other to Auralandia N.L., Natural Gas Corporation Pty Ltd and Gascorp Inc.
   

Every year the Australian Government releases a round of offshore areas for petroleum exploration as part of its commitment to ensuring the development potential of these areas is properly identified. This provides a steady supply of new areas for bidding in Australia's vast offshore sedimentary basins. The bidders also draw heavily on Geoscience Australia's pre-competitive data which is maintained and updated through government support.
"The annual acreage release and the recent additional A$61 million put into updating Geoscience Australia's pre-competitive data underlines the Government's commitment to encouraging further petroleum exploration," commented Mr Macfarlane.
 

JUNE NEWS UPDATES

2006 AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL BUDGET SUMMARY

On 9th May 2006, The Honourable Peter Costello MP, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia, released the 2006  Federal budget. Key aspects of the budget included personal tax cuts, simplified superannuation and increased support for families, older Australians and carers.

Click Here for a brief summary of the budget  or view the full budget report (1.7Mb).

MAY NEWS UPDATES

THE AUSTRALIAN DIASPORA, SIZE, NATURE, SIGNIFICANCE - be part of Professor Hugo's continuing research

Professor Hugo, Director of the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographical Information Systems, University of Adelaide is a major contributor to raising the profile of the significance of Australia’s diaspora. In 2002, he secured a AUD$1.125 million an ARC Federation Fellowship Grant over 5 years for his research project “The new paradigm of international migration to and from Australia: dimensions, causes and implications”. His important research is ongoing and is seeking assistance with the following research project.

Kelly Parker a PhD student at the University of Adelaide is working with Professor Hugo on a research project looking at the experiences of Australians moving between Australia and the United States. Kelly's aim is to capture the profiles of as many and as diverse a range of Australians as possible and learn about their experiences and what their movement to the United States means to Australia.

Please do your bit towards achieving a better understanding of the United States aspect of Australia's diaspora. If you are in the United States, please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Or pass the message onto other Australians you know of in the United States. The survey can be accessed at: http://www.aisr.com.au/AustraliansinUS.asp

Individual responses are completely confidential; all results will be presented in aggregate form and will be used for academic purposes only. Kelly has promised to keep the SCG updated as the study progresses and inform us of all research results. If you have questions about this project, or are willing to be one of a number of Australians in the US interviewed by Kelly about the findings of the survey at a later date, please contact her directly:

Kelly Parker, PhD Candidate Geographical and Environmental Studies

Level 8 Napier Building

University of Adelaide,

SA 5005, AUSTRALIA

Tel: +61 8 8303 6415

Fax: +61 8 8303 3772

kelly.parker@adelaide.edu.au

Invest Australia’s International Data Comparison Fact Sheet, provides an easy-to-read comparison of Australia’s performance and position across a range of key economic and investment related indicators. View the International Data Comparison Fact Sheet for April 2006.

Australian Cities - Great Places for Expatriates to Live and Work

Australian cities continue to be among the most attractive places for expatriates to live and work, according to the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2006.

Australian cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane all feature in the top 10% of the 350 cities surveyed, and were all ranked ahead of major centres such as Paris, London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.

Cities were evaluated against a set of 39 quality of life criteria which included political, social, economic, and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. New York was used as a benchmark for the survey. The analysis is undertaken to help governments and multinational companies make decisions relating to the placement of employees on international assignments.

APRIL NEWS UPDATES

New agreement to supply LNG to Japan
North West Shelf Australia LNG has reached agreement to sell up to 1.4 million tonnes of LNG per year to Japanese utility Chugoku Electric Power Company. The deal is a 12 year contract that commences in 2009. The Japanese utility is one of the venture’s foundation customers with the original agreement signed in 1985 to purchase 1 million tonnes of LNG per year. LNG is Australia’s second-largest export to Japan, with exports to Japan in 2005 worth up to A$4 billion.

Scientists of Australia and USA Strengthen Ties Thanks to New Treaty

A new treaty-level agreement signed this month will facilitate closer ties and cooperation between Australia and the USA in the areas of science and innovation.

The Agreement relating to Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Australia was signed by the US Chargé d’Affaires ad interim, William A. Stanton, and the Australian Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP.

“Australia and the United States of America have enjoyed very strong collaborative research ties for many years and this Agreement cements our countries’ commitment to continuing and furthering that relationship,” Ms Bishop said after signing the treaty.

“The new Agreement acknowledges the benefits which flow from the highly successful science and technology relationship between Australia and the US and establishes a formal framework upon which to build this relationship,” she added.

Agreed principles support Australian and US researchers who wish to form collaborative partnerships and will assist scientists from both countries to exchange information and undertake joint research projects. These principles include: equitable sharing of the costs of establishing and supporting joint research programs; the exchange of information;

the use and exploitation of intellectual property; and the joint training of scientists and technical experts.

The Agreement also seeks to maximise the economic and social benefit of research and development for both countries by including a provision for Technology Management Plans which will specify intellectual property rights based on the relative contribution made by researchers from each country.

New Australian Government-Industry Strategy to Secure Energy Future

By 2015 Australia could be exporting more than 50 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) while also supporting a much-expanded domestic gas market which fires up to 70% of the country’s new energy generation capacity.

That’s the industry ambition laid out in a new government-industry strategy announced this month by Australian Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane, at an Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference in Perth.

Work has started on the national strategy at a Federal, State, Territory and industry level, with an issues paper to be released in the coming months on the measures needed to see Australia move to a natural gas-fuelled economy over the next decade.

• The new strategy, with industry leadership from APPEA, outlines a plan to:

• ensure natural gas is used for up to 70% of all new energy capacity;

• increase LNG production to more than 50 million tones; and

• double the use of natural gas as a feedstock for resource processing.

Mr Macfarlane, who has spent much time encouraging new markets, including China, Mexico and California, to consider the safe and competitively priced option of importing Australian LNG, said there was a new need to also squarely focus on growing the domestic gas market.

“The underlying priority is to see Australia claim its rightful place as one of the world’s top five LNG exporters – we are currently still outside the top 10 despite our vast reserves – but that has to be backed by a solid domestic usage program,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“APPEA is stepping up to the mark with this new alliance which will be an industry-led strategy to dramatically alter the ways and quantities in which natural gas is used for the Australian domestic market.”

“The key is the industry enthusiasm for this strategy because it will have to involve changing business and community attitudes about energy production and opening doors which are currently closed, but not locked, to natural gas options.”

“This new alliance is about keeping the home fires burning in a figurative sense through the use of natural gas, in a very real sense.”

“It’s not pie-in-the-sky policy, it’s industry-led ambitions which will secure our national energy future as much as the future of our LNG exporters and producers,” Mr Macfarlane said.

MARCH NEWS UPDATES

The 2006 Australia-Japan Year of Exchange (YOE) commemorates the 30th anniversary of the signing of the 1976 Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Australia and Japan, known as the NARA Treaty. The Year of Exchange was proposed by the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Koizumi, during Mr Howard’s visit to Tokyo in July 2003, and reaffirmed during Mr Howard’s visit to Japan in April 2005.

The aim is to promote friendship, deeper mutual understanding and cooperation between Australia and Japan through bilateral exchanges, collaborative activities and events in the fields of politics, business, the arts and culture, education, science and technology, sport and tourism.

In general, YOE seeks to incorporate such events, exchanges and activities that are planned as part of existing relationships in the above fields across private and public sectors and at a state and local level, through official endorsement under the one YOE banner, to create a higher profile and awareness.

Events will be held in both Australia and Japan. Special commemorative events at a national level will be organised in addition to this, which may present opportunities for participation.

Individuals, government agencies, business, community groups and schools can apply for endorsement of events. To be considered for endorsement by DFAT, events must:

• take place or culminate in Japan in 2006, or in Australia in cooperation with Japanese partners, or to promote elements of the Australia–Japanese relationship.

• actively promote friendship, deeper mutual understanding and cooperation between Australia and Japan, in the spirit of the 1976 NARA Treaty, through -Bilateral exchanges in the fields of politics, business, the arts and culture, education, science and technology, sport and tourism.

- Bilateral collaborations in these fields.

-Events or activities that showcase Australia in these fields to a Japanese audience.

-Strengthening existing bilateral links, for example, sister city/sister state relationships.

For further information, please go to www.2006yoe.dfat.gov.au/guidelines.html or contact: Katherine Hoar at Katherine.HOAR@doir.wa.gov.au