Industry News

An international survey of hourly wage earners by US human resources firm Kronos has shown that Australian workers believe their employers frequently break overtime laws.

The Tasmanian Government is proposing to establish an independent statutory body to manage commercial forests as part of the restructure of Forestry Tasmania.

University of Newcastle researchers led by Associate Professor Michael Stockenhuber are exploring more efficient and safer methods of ventilation air methane (VAM) oxidization – a technique used to destroy methane in the exhaust air released from underground coal mine shafts.

NBN Co has withdrawn the Special Access Undertaking that it lodged with the ACCC last year, removing the need for the ACCC to make a decision on the undertaking by 17 September 2012.

CSIRO and Chile’s Ministry of Mining have signed an agreement to improve education, safety and technology development in the mining and minerals sector.

The NSW Government has unveiled its Strategic Regional Land Use Policy, outlining 27 new measures designed to control competing land uses, with a focus on the impacts of coal seam gas mining on land and water resources.

Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 5.1 per cent in August, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The Northern Territory Minister for Tourism Matt Conlan has announced the creation of a new Northern Territory Tourism Commission and the relocation of Tourism NT to Alice Springs as part of plans to revitalise tourism in the Northern Territory.

A new website has been launched to provide information about threatened species in Tasmania and their protection.

The WA Environment Minister Bill Marmion has announced funding of $3 million as part of the recent $15.5million allocation from the State’s Natural Resource Management (NRM) program to support conservation measures to protect WA’s biodiversity.

The Queensland budget has announced around 10,600 redundancies in 2012-13, with total job losses amounting to around 14,000, taking into account discontinuing temporary positions and not filling vacant positions.

Staff numbers in the Queensland Energy and Water Supply Department will be reduced by half, with 135 job losses reducing the department to a workforce of 273. 

The Queensland Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Andrew Powell has announced an overhaul of the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP), with 220 job losses announced in the State budget.

Southern Cross Computer Systems has opened a new $6 million office and innovation laboratory established in Melbourne that will create 60 new jobs over the next three years.

A new online Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Atlas has been launched, presenting the first comprehensive picture of Australia's groundwater-dependent ecosystems.

A postgraduate engineering program at the University of Sydney has received full accreditation from Engineers Australia, making it unique in Australian universities.

Legislation has been introduced in Parliament to extend the legal powers of the Environment Minister, Tony Burke, over the super trawler FV Abel Tasman, (formerly FV Margiris), to prevent the vessel from fishing in Australian waters.

The University of Tasmania has been awarded two projects worth more than $2 million to establish new computing and modelling facilities that will revolutionise the capability of scientists to undertake computational studies.

The Minister for Workplace Relations Bill Shorten has released Trends in Enterprise Bargaining Report for the June quarter 2012 which shows that more than 20,500 enterprise agreements covering 2.62 million employees have been made since the agreement making provisions of the Fair Work Act began on 1 July 2009.

One of the most senior officers in the Australian Defence Force, Air Vice-Marshal Margaret Staib, has been appointed as the new CEO of Airservices Australia.

As Commander Joint Logistics, Air Vice-Marshal Staib planned, coordinated and delivered logistics support for Australian Defence Force operations and exercises overseas and in Australia. She also played a key role in developing and implementing the $2.4 billion logistics reform program, an initiative of the 2009 Defence White Paper.

A posting to the United States Air Force at the Pentagon furthered her experience in logistics and procurement. For her work on logistics transformation, Air Vice-Marshal Staib was awarded the United States Meritorious Service Medal.

In January 2009, Air Vice-Marshal Staib was appointed as a Member in the Military Division of the Order of Australia.

Air Vice-Marshal Staib will take up her position on 15 October.

Airservices Australia is a wholly government-owned statutory authority which manages around 11 per cent of the world’s airspace through which more than three million flights carrying 75 million passengers travel each year.

As well as providing air-traffic control services, the organisation also delivers rescue and fire fighting services at the nation's major passenger airports.

More information about Airservices Australia and its current Board Members is available at: www.airservicesaustralia.com.