Canberra Talk

I urge every one of my friends from other states and overseas to visit Canberra and settle here. I moved to the city in 2017 from China, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. The city is well planned, modern, safe, and clean. The city is historically and culturally rich. It has a great education and healthcare system, which makes it an ideal place to live with your family. The people are welcoming, and the city is a melting pot. So, if you are interested in moving to Canberra, Here are a few things you really need to know... https://www.betterremovalistscanberra.com.au/moving-canberra-things-really-need-know/

I wonder if it winds up Peter Dutton to know that Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist, award-winning author and former Manus Island detainee, is a free man in the continent’s orbit. Boochani, the best-known witness, critic and victim of Australia’s offshore “processing centres”, remains in New Zealand after his 30-day visa came to an end. No one quite knows what the No Friend But the Mountains author is planning next, but it seems safe to assume that sooner or later he’ll lodge an application for asylum in New Zealand. A permanent reminder to Dutton, his predecessors and the country’s immigration detention system that they are not as close to vanishing the “boat people” problem as they might have thought. Read more:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/24/new-zealand-would-be-honoured-to-take-behrouz-boochani-australia-be-damned

Two super funds into which a court has found Westpac wrongly tipped customers through a telemarketing campaign have been identified by the prudential regulator as among the poorest performers in Australia. The BT Lifetime Super Employer Plan and BT Business Super were two of 10 into which Westpac persuaded its customers to roll their superannuation as part of a marketing campaign that brought more than $646m in deposits into the bank between 2013 and 2016. In data comparing low-cost MySuper funds published on 10 December, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said both funds underperformed compared with a model investment portfolio it set up. Read more:  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/24/westpac-persuaded-its-customers-to-join-two-super-funds-among-australias-worst

"When that photo was taken of me, I had done a 15-hour shift out there." He is one of thousands of Australians who've dropped their ordinary lives to battle the nation's raging fire crisis. For weeks, the 22-year-old landscaper has lived around his phone, springing into action when called upon. He is part of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) which calls itself "the world's largest volunteer firefighting organisation". Its 70,000 members are extensively trained and, except for a few senior staff, mostly unpaid. Read more:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50887982

About five million hectares of Australia has burned and nine people have died since September in an “unprecedented” start to the summer fire season. Guardian Australia spoke to fire authorities in every state about what they expect to happen next. New South Wales The total area burned in NSW is 3.41m hectares, according to the Rural Fire Service. The scale of the bushfires is “unprecedented” for this point in the season, RFS spokeswoman Angela Burford said. Read more:  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/24/australian-bushfires-the-story-so-far-in-each-state

Selecting the most suitable day of the week for moving is one of the most challenging tasks these days. Since you are a working professional, it is difficult to take a leave and shift the belongings on a weekday. But moving on a weekday means you can hire an experienced Removals Company at a cheaper rate. On the other hand, many people prefer weekends for their relocation as they can get assistance from their friends and family with ease. In a nutshell, both weekday and weekend moves have their own pros and cons. If you are planning for your next relocation, then read the article shared below and move to the new place on the most suitable day. http://www.betterremovalistscanberra.com.au/weekday-vs-weekend-moves-pros-cons/

Any shame white Australians might have felt about the country’s origins as a penal colony has long since disappeared. For many decades those with convict ancestors have tended to proudly claim them. By the time of my primary education in the 1980s, the crimes of those transported tended to be minimised by teachers. Almost all, the comforting story ran, had stolen loaves of bread. By then the condition of our ancestors had folded into a self-congratulatory mythos: our convict past, as Russel Ward first asserted in the 1950s, was the font of our subversive, anti-authoritarian sense of humour. Read more:  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/09/australia-needs-to-challenge-authority-if-were-going-to-confront-water-fire-and-climate-crises

The Australia Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) is forecasting a heatwave across the northern half of the country this week as firefighters continue to battle bushfires. The heat began this weekend across northern areas of Western Australia (WA) and the Northern Territory (NT), with some regions experiencing extreme heatwave conditions. The BoM states: "Low intensity to severe heatwave conditions are forecast from the west coast of WA, across the central and northern parts of Australia and into northern and eastern New South Wales (NSW) for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday." Over the weekend, firefighters took advantage of improved weather conditions, as winds eased across areas of NSW. The lighter winds also came with increased moisture in the air, which allowed fire crews to carry out back-burning. Read more:  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/heat-builds-fires-burn-australia-191209102814901.html

Australia’s plan to use an accounting loophole to meet its international emissions targets has been formally challenged at UN climate talks, with about 100 countries wanting the practice banned under the Paris agreement. Delegates from developing countries led by Belize and Costa Rica have introduced a ban on using carryover credits from the Kyoto protocol into the text of the rulebook for the Paris climate agreement, which is being debated at a meeting in Madrid. Read more:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/09/about-100-countries-at-un-climate-talks-challenge-australias-use-of-carryover-credits

South Australians are, unfortunately, well aware of the phrase the "valley of death". The doom-and-gloom term has been used by both sides of politics, particularly over contracts for the building of new navy ships and submarines. The "valley" is the gap between the end of one project and the start of the next. The "death" is what happens to jobs, opportunity and the future when they fall into the valley. But now, social researcher Mark Dean said the state faces a valley of death in a different area — demographics — and it is largely driven by the changing nature of work. "In South Australia, we have a ballooning population of young people and a ballooning population of older people and somewhat of a valley of death of young people," Dr Dean said. Read more:  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-10/south-australias-job-market-is-changing/11739578