Australia

Australia will increase its missile defence capability after China’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the South Pacific raised “significant concerns” and as the Asia Pacific region enters a “missile age”.

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Australia has previously said it would spend 74 billion Australian dollars ($49bn) on missile acquisition and missile defence over the next decade, including 21 billion Australian dollars ($13.7bn) to fund the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise, a new domestic manufacturing capability.

“We must show potential adversaries that hostile acts against Australia would not succeed and could not be sustained if conflict were protracted,” Conroy said in the speech.

A Malaysian man was recently caught by Australian authorities while trying to import 100kg (220 pounds) of methamphetamine into the country. Working together with the Australian Border...

This is in addition to the HECS indexation etc changes that have been proposed.

The post-War order is meant to provide a check on the untrammelled power of the powerful, whether through military invasions or more subtle ways of bending the will of other countries—methods such as interference, coercion and malicious cyber intrusions.

Yet when asked recently how Australia would address China’s influence in the Pacific, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, ‘China’s doing what great powers do, and great powers try to lift their influence and expand their influence in the region that they wish.’

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The type of influence China exercises is not something we can accept as simply ‘what great powers do’. It launched a cyber attack on the Pacific Islands Forum, spreads online disinformation in the Pacific to undermine democracies and weaken Pacific partnerships, sought security agreements that lack public transparency, and undertaken various other malicious activities—such as hybrid and grey zone operations.

And that’s just in the Pacific—China is carrying out this malicious activity globally, not to mention being the main supporter enabling Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Of course, other significant powers seek influence, but responsible nations don’t behave like this.

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Australia has described the outcome of a meeting between members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources as a "backwards step".

Attendees said Russia and China vetoed all proposed measures, including one to renew existing krill management measures.

Conservationists say member countries should regroup and figure out how to tackle Russia and China ahead of the next meeting in 2025.

Nice to see a date put forward following the previously announced upgrades. Interested in the newer 2000/200 tier announced as well, as the higher upload speed will be really nice for pushing my excessively large photo backup onto backblaze, that said if it's priced too outrageously I'm not certain what the take-up would be for normal home users initially.

Australia is reportedly set to boost its missile defence capabilities after the recent Chinese test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the South Pacific, which has raised "significant concerns" in Canberra as the Indo-Pacific region enters a "missile age".

In a speech on Wednesday, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy was quoted as saying by international news agencies [...] that his country plans to increase its missile defence and long-range strike capabilities. Conroy added that Australia will cooperate with its security partners -- the United States (US), Japan, and South Korea -- on issues of regional stability.

Why does Australia need more missiles?

"Why do we need more missiles?," posing this question, Conroy answered before the National Press Club in Canberra that "strategic competition" between the US and China "is a primary feature of Australia's security environment".

Conroy added that that competition is "at its sharpest in our region", the Indo-Pacific, which is on the cusp of a new missile age, where missiles will also serve as "tools of coercion".

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Initiated by the Albanese government in 2023, the 866-page report finds people still feel ‘resentment about what they lost’ during pandemic lockdowns

The ABC analysed the online prices of nearly 44,000 products at Coles and Woolworths, revealing a sales technique used on thousands of items.

Title is borderline rage-bait (for younger generations), but it seems like they're trying to lure in the baby boomers who want to be told how tough it was back in their day, and then they hit them with some actual facts.

E.g.

The 25 to 39-year-old baby boomers in 1991 were three times more likely than the 25 to 39-year-old millennials in 2021 to own their home outright.

Whether you like Guy Rundle's work or not (and yes his article on Britney Higgins in 2023 was in very poor form), I think it's fair to consider his response to the comments that resulted in his sacking from Crikey.

Original guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/oct/18/crikey-condemns-columnist-guy-rundles-text-message-to-abc-that-claimed-every-grope-is-now-sexual-assault-ntwnfb

Statement by Private Media CEO: https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/10/23/crikey-no-longer-publishing-guy-rundle/

Response published in Arena: https://arena.org.au/on-guy-rundles-sms/

The Australian government should take the lead with other governments to continue to publicly criticize grave human rights abuses in China, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. An Australian-led joint statement at the United Nations General Assembly on October 22, 2024, expressed ongoing concerns about the Chinese government’s serious human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s criticism of the General Assembly statement and of Australia in particular highlights the importance of countries raising these matters in public forums.

“The Chinese government’s human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet have continued unabated in recent years and in some respects have gotten even worse,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s crucial for Australia to work with other concerned governments to take strong, coordinated action to hold the Chinese government to account.”

For reference, my kids both reached 30kg when they were seven!

Another piece on topic: Liberal Senator James Paterson rejects 'lectures' from Chinese Communist Party on human rights after Beijing's shock claim

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected accusations from Beijing that his country is “plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes” after an Australian diplomat led a group of Western nations in renewing concerns about human rights violations in China.

“When it comes to China, we’ve said we’ll cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in our national interest, and we’ve raised issues of human rights with China,” Albanese told reporters on Thursday as he arrived in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa for a Commonwealth leaders’ summit.

A day earlier, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian had denounced a statement made by 15 nations to the United Nations General Assembly this week — presented by a top Australian envoy — underscoring “ongoing concerns” about “serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang and Tibet.

James Larsen, Australia’s ambassador to the U.N., urged China to “uphold the international human rights obligations that it has voluntarily assumed” by releasing “all individuals arbitrarily detained in both Xinjiang and Tibet, and urgently clarifying the fate and whereabouts of missing family members.”

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Singling out Australia for rebuke, Jian said the country was “long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes” and should resolve its own affairs rather than criticizing China’s.

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The Chinese government launched in 2017 a campaign of assimilation in the northwestern Xinjiang region — home to 11 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities — that has included mass detentions, alleged political indoctrination, alleged family separations and alleged forced labor among other methods.

More than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic minorities are estimated to have been held in extralegal internment camps. The Chinese government at the time described the camps as ” vocational training centers.”

The U.N. Human Rights Office in 2022 found accusations of rights violations in Xinjiang “credible” and said China may have committed crimes against humanity in the region.

Larson in his statement also cited “credible” reports of China subjecting Tibetans to coercive labor, separation of children from their families, erosion of cultural and religious freedoms, and detention for peaceful political protests.

He urged “unfettered and meaningful access” to Xinjiang and Tibet for independent observers.

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Appen says nearly one-third of the company’s projects worked on by contractors were not paid on time as a result of issue with payment processing integration

Opposition leader adds caveat to campaign vow on eve of Queensland election day as polls tighten

The Labor opposition, conservationists and Indigenous groups have expressed shock at the move