Eight ways life in Melbourne will change in 2019. Posted about an hour agoWed 26 Dec 2018, 8:15pm According to the experts, Victoria's population will continue to boom and house prices in Melbourne will keep falling next year. And Labor's re-election means Daniel Andrews has the green light to continue his big infrastructure build. But what else can Victorians expect from 2019? Some TAFE courses will be free From the start of 2019, the State Government will cover the cost of 30 TAFE courses and 18 pre-apprenticeship courses.
Included in the list of "priority courses" the Government will pick up the tab on are: AccountingAgeing SupportAgricultureDental AssistingCommunity ServicesMental HealthNursingPlumbing There's a lot more, which we've listed here. Obviously there are some caveats — you have to be Australian or a New Zealander and be aged under 20, upskilling, unemployed or looking to change careers. Commuter prices will go up (but not by much) Public transport's going to get more expensive in Melbourne. AFL will look a bit different. Will Manus Island deal benefit business in Papua New Guinea? - Business Advantage PNG. PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill (l) signs the agreement with Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd The agreement with the Australian Government will deliver Papua New Guinea a comprehensive package of direct assistance from Australia worth hundreds of millions of kina.
In return, Papua New Guinea will accommodate hundreds, if not thousands, of asylum-seekers while officials decide if they are genuine refugees. But some business leaders are concerned about the deal. PNG Business Council President Ernie Gangloff told Radio Australia the country will have trouble processing that number and wants to meet the Prime Minister. The PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry says business is supportive of the deal. ‘It worked well under (former Australian Prime Minister) John Howard,’ said Chamber Secretary, Phil Franklin. Landowners’ doubts ‘We hope it does not end in empty promises. Much depends on how many asylum-seekers will be sent to Manus Island, or elsewhere, and when. Construction delays. Manus Island. Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km.
According to the 2000 census, the whole Manus Province had a population of 43,387, rising to 50,321 as of 2011 Census.[1] Lorengau, the capital of Manus Province, is located on the island. Momote Airport, the terminal for Manus Province, is located on nearby Los Negros Island. A bridge connects Los Negros to Manus Island and the province capital of Lorengau. In addition to its resident population, asylum seekers have been relocated here from Australia between 2001-2004 and since 2012.[2] Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles, which can be broadly described as lowland tropical rain forest. Manus Island is home to the Emerald green snail, whose shells are harvested to be sold as jewellery. History[edit] See also[edit] Admiralty Islands languages Notes[edit] Papua New Guinea villagers the new refugee victims | Breaking National News and Australian News.
Chiildren at the Hanuabada stilt village in Port Moresby. Picture: Brian Cassey Source: CourierMail GIDEON Mahiro is one of about 3000 whose home is in line to be bulldozed to make way for a new refugee processing centre. His shanty town, opposite the airport in Port Moresby, has been identified as a potential new site where genuine asylum seekers would be resettled in Papua New Guinea under the deal. Children from the shanty town who could lose their homes as part of the asylum deal. Picture: Brian Cassey Source: DailyTelegraph The 47-year-old electrician, a father-of-seven, sees brutal irony in his family being dispossessed of their tiny shack to make way for boatpeople out of Manus Island detention centre.
MORE: Rudd asylum-seeker deal half-baked CAMPAIGN: Rudd launches advertising blitz Children at a squatter settlement next to Jackson Airport, Port Moresby. "It is a big headache," said Mr Mahiro, who trained for his trade at TAFE in Queensland. One of the Botai children at the village. Kevin Rudd's boat plan starts to leak as rejected refugees left in limbo. Sorry, but this video is not currently available. Premium Content To access premium content, please login or set up a subscription. It's quick, and easy. SubscribeLog in LABOR is racing to close a gap in its new border protection regime as Papua New Guinea warns of putting the "brakes" on the plan and says that it will not resettle asylum-seekers who are refused refugee status. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has made it clear that asylum-seekers will be "Australia's problem" for years to come, putting more pressure on Kevin Rudd to find new locations for those who cannot be kept on Manus Island.
The riot at Australia's detention centre on Nauru has also challenged Labor's goal of signing up more countries to host facilities just as Foreign Minister Bob Carr heads to Solomon Islands in the hope of finding new partners. Yet the riot at Australia's detention centre on Nauru risks undermining the goal of signing up more countries to host facilities across the region.
Boats, aid and the art of the possible. Retired Brigadier Gary Hogan has been Australia’s Defence Attaché in both Papua New Guinea and the Republic of Indonesia. In March 1964, the 'Year of Living Dangerously', Indonesian President Sukarno, speaking at a public rally, told the US ambassador in attendance to 'go to hell with your aid!
' Aid programs with Indonesia, even ones as massive as ours, at over half a billion dollars annually, have never been an effective means to garner support from, exercise influence over, or curry favour with its leaders. If there are Australians who presume otherwise, tell 'em they're dreaming. In sharp contrast, last week's announcement of the 'Papua New Guinea Solution' to illegal boat arrivals by Prime Minister Rudd was a direct offshoot of the tens of billions of aid dollars Australia has poured into that country since its independence in 1975. Only the passage of time will tell whether the policy is a masterstroke or too cute by half. Australia seeks to stop boats. Regional Settlement Arrangement with PNG - The Drum.
Posted Mon 22 Jul 2013, 12:56pm AEST Disagreement between the Australian federal government and opposition emerged this past weekend about how to interpret the Regional Resettlement Arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea, which was signed on Friday. In the joint press conference with PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: "From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees.
" He continued: Asylum seekers taken to Christmas Island will be sent to Manus and elsewhere in Papua New Guinea for assessment of their refugee status.If they are found to be genuine refugees they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea... Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott says the Arrangement makes no guarantee that “everyone who came illegally by boat to Australia would go to PNG and that no one who went to PNG would ever come to Australia”. Enhanced cooperation to combat people smuggling. Asylum deal a nightmare for PNG and Australia. Deni ToKunai is a political commentator who writes PNG's leading political blog, The Garamut.
In the public commotion and media frenzy of Kevin Rudd's announcement that a new arrangement will see Australian asylum seekers resettled in PNG, one key point has gone largely unnoticed: it was his counterpart Peter O'Neill who approached Kevin Rudd with the deal. This is interesting for a number of reasons.
It is clear that when Rudd and company briefly visited PNG on 14-15 July, the issue of asylum seekers was on the bilateral agenda, albeit not advertised as prominently or publicly as concerns such as the PNG LNG project or the state of PNG's hospitals. The machinations of the discussion surrounding the new asylum seeker arrangement is there for all to see: a proposal was put forth by Rudd and it needed time to be discussed by O'Neill with his coalition partners as dictated by the Alotau Accord, the post-election coalition agreement.
Refugees - PNG’s impossible responsibility & burden - Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE. Australia's PNG solution to refugees: A digest. This is a digest of news, opinions, comments and announcements concerning the recent agreement between Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) to process asylum seekers and refugees. The so-called ‘PNG Solution’ will see all asylum seekers and refugees, who are travelling to Australia by boat, transferred to Manus Island for processing. Those determined to be refugees will be resettled not in Australia, but in PNG. The agreement is valid for 12 months. Pre-19th July: Rumours & preparation Australia, PNG ‘mindful’ of UN criticism on refugees - AFP, GlobalPost ‘Rudd said Australia and PNG were working together against “our common enemy — people smugglers”.’ Explainer: Australia’s obligations under the UN Refugee Convention - Azadeh Dastyari, The Conversation “It is important to note that the term “asylum seeker” does not exist under the convention but is a politically expedient label given to people who are seeking recognition of their refugee status. 19th July: Announcement Credit: Joel Gibson.
Australia to resettle refugees in Papua New Guinea - World. Australia's prime minister warned Friday that all refugees who arrive in the country by boat will be resettled on the island nation of Papua New Guinea, a policy shift that rights groups immediately condemned. The move, described by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as "very hard line," aims to deter an escalating number of asylum seekers who travel to Australia in rickety fishing boats from poor, war-torn homelands through other countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. The growing influx is a major political problem for Rudd's Labor Party, which is the clear underdog in elections expected within months. "From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees," Rudd told reporters after signing a pact with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill of Papua New Guinea that will enable Australia to deport refugees there. 'Contempt' for moral, legal obligations The policy was condemned by refugee and human rights advocates.
Peter O’Neill’s refugee gamble. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill either played a blinder or sowed the seeds for social turmoil when he signed off on the Regional Resettlement Arrangement with Australia last week. If the arrangement does stop the flow of asylum seekers to Australia, then Mr O’Neill will have secured a chunk of additional aid and more leverage with the Australian government and not have to do much in return. But it is a risky bet. In return for agreeing to process all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat and resettle those found to be genuine refugees, PNG gained a new package of assistance from Australia directed at health, policing and university education.
Mr O’Neill is using this sweetener to counter concerns about the new refugee agreement that has already caused consternation in PNG. Opposition leader Belden Namah has vowed to challenge it in court and ordinary citizens are questioning the government’s ability to do what it has promised Australia. He may be right. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: West Papuan refugees hope for citizenship | Papua New Guinea. Dan Hanasbey was born in Papua New Guinea PORT MORESBY, 17 December 2012 (IRIN) - Access to citizenship could prove the best hope yet for thousands of West Papuan refugees living in Papua New Guinea (PNG). “I want citizenship. I’ve been here 28 years and want to get on with my life,” said Donatus Karuri, a 57-year-old father of six, outside the shelter he shares with five other families at the Hohola refugee settlement.
It is one of four settlements for West Papuan refugees in the capital Port Moresby. Like most West Papuan refugees, he is unable to work legally and has only limited access to public services. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are more than 9,000 West Papuan refugees in PNG today, many of whom have been in the Pacific island nation for over three decades. Others know no other home and can’t imagine living anywhere else. “I was born here. Flight from Indonesia The government estimates only 40 percent of West Papuan refugees hold PRPs. The cost of citizenship. Refugees - PNG’s impossible responsibility & burden - Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE. UNHCR: Australia-Papua New Guinea asylum agreement presents protection challenges. Canberra, 22 April 2014 (UNHCR): I arrived in Australia as a refugee with my sister in August 2009 after fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was fourteen years old at the time.
Since arriving in Australia I have been grateful for the gifts and opportunities this country has given me. I have learnt the language, become the first qualified African lifesaver in Australia, and received the Medal of Pride of Australia in 2013. I am interested in using my experiences as a refugee to help .... CANBERRA, 14 April (UNHCR), As conflicts in Syria, Central African Republic and South Sudan continue to rage, and the scale of the global refugee crisis escalates, the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is as relevant now as it was 60 years ago. Syria: An agreement with the Syrian Government and the opposition allows UNHCR and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver humanitarian assistance to the besieged city of Aleppo.
BEIRUT /GENEVA, 3 April. GENEVA: 28 March 2014. Colonialism, sovereignty and aid: what refugees mean for PNG. At first glance, the deal between prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Peter O’Neill transferring all Australian-bound asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea appears to deliver many benefits to that small poor country. In return for housing the boat-arriving asylum seekers and resettling those found to be refugees, PNG receives a package of much-needed assistance, that includes redeveloping its universities, a new hospital, upgrading roads, a new courts complex, and the deployment of Australian police.
In addition, the processing centre on Manus Island will be expanded, PNG’s naval facilities on the island will receive a facelift, and schools and health centres will be constructed for Manus Islanders. But despite these advantages, opposition to the deal has been increasingly strident, with the PNG opposition centring on what one commentator has called Australia’s “neo-colonialism”. Is the deal just another iteration of the long-term relationship between our two countries? A changing relationship. What life can a resettled refugee expect in PNG?
Prime minister Kevin Rudd’s plan to resettle asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea is already being compared to John Howard’s hard line on the Tampa, which won Howard the election in 2001. It might be good politics in an election year, but it is unlikely to be good policy in the longer term. The majority of asylum seekers picked up by the Tampa and shipped to Nauru were later granted refugee status and resettled in Australia or New Zealand. So what can asylum seekers shipped to and processed and eventually resettled in PNG expect? The Australian media gives us little information on our closest neighbour, except to report sensationalist stories of cannibals - such as former Today Tonight host Naomi Robson’s attempt to rescue six year-old Wawa from being eaten by his own tribe - and corruption. Recently, PNG has seen a spate of horrendous attacks on women accused of being “witches” that have captured the Australian media’s attention. So where, exactly, will they be resettled?
Colonialism, sovereignty and aid: what refugees mean for PNG. FactCheck Q&A: how hard would it be to defeat the PNG asylum-seeker deal through the courts? Rudd's PNG plan could worsen asylum seekers' mental health.