Australia Archives

Two British colonies fighting over flags, New Zealand claims Australia copied its flag

July 25, 2018 by administrator

New Zealand’s acting prime minister claims Australia copied its flag

New Zealand’s acting prime minister wants Australia to come up with a new flag, claiming it copied New Zealand’s. The Australian and New Zealand flags are often mixed up due to their similar appearance.

New Zealand’s acting Prime Minister Winston Peters on Wednesday alleged that Australia had copied New Zealand’s national flag and demanded Australia design a new one, local media reported.

Peters, who is holding the fort while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is on a six-week maternity leave, flagged the issue on local broadcaster TVNZ.

“We had a flag that we’ve had for a long time, copied by Australia, and they should actually change their flag and honour the fact that we got there first with this design,” Peters said.

The Australian and New Zealand flags are often confused due to their similarities. Both flags are blue with the Union Jack in the top left corner and the stars of the southern cross.

The New Zealand flag’s southern cross has four red stars outlined in white, while Australia’s southern cross has five white stars and an additional Commonwealth star with seven points — six for the Australian states and one representing its territories.

The New Zealand flag was adopted in 1902, while Australia adopted its current flag design in 1954 — more than 50 years later — but after going through three previous versions since the first 1901 design.

Two years ago, New Zealand spent about $18 million (€15.4 million) on a referendum to decide whether to change its flag, but New Zealanders ultimately voted no, with 56.6 per cent choosing to stick with the current flag.

Deportation controversy

Peters’ flag accusation comes after he criticized Australia for deporting New Zealand nationals without a trial.

“When you’re in a foreign country you’re expected to obey their laws,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Peters as saying. “But someone should be tried before they’re evicted from a country,” he continued.

Peters, who is also New Zealand’s foreign minister, and Justice Minister Andrew Little appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s “Foreign Correspondent” program last week, where he said there appeared to be a “venal, political strain” to them and “certainly not consistent with any humanitarian ideals that I thought both countries once shared.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/new-zealands-acting-prime-minister-claims-australia-copied-its-flag/a-44815568

Tesla launches world’s biggest battery in Australia

December 1, 2017 by administrator

It is three times larger than the next biggest lithium-ion battery and can power up to 30,000 homes. Elon Musk has said it is “just the beginning.”

Tesla activated the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery in Australia on Friday, an achievement Tesla CEO Elon Musk had previously promised would be “just the beginning.”

The roughly football pitch-sized 100-megawatt battery is more than three times larger than the next largest site in Mira Loma, California.

The company says it draws on power delivered from a nearby windfarm and has the capacity to power 30,000 homes for up to an hour during blackouts.

The battery is located some 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of South Australia’s capital Adelaide and will also be used to boost electricity supply in the state during peak demand periods.

“South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy, delivered to homes and businesses 24/7,” State Premier Jay Weatherill said after the launch’s announcement.

Musk keeps his promise

Tesla worked with French renewable energy company Neoen to build the farm in little over over 60 days after the companies had signed a contract with South Australia.

Musk had promised to build the site within 100 days of signing or give the battery to the state government for free.

Neither side has disclosed how much the government paid for the battery.

Australia’s dirty power

South Australia’s decision to build the battery farm is part of a larger $510-million Australian dollar (€325 million/$385 million) plan to make the state independent of Australia’s national power grid.

The battery and the plan, which was announced in March, have been controversial. Opponents have derided Tesla’s battery as a “Hollywood solution” to the state’s energy supply problems.

South Australia gets over 40 percent of its electricity from wind and solar power, but it has struggled to provide electricity during windless periods of peak demand.

Australia is a major exporter of liquid natural gas and coal. It uses coal to power much of its national electricity grid, making it one of the world’s worst emitters of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis.

amp/ng (AP, Reuters)

Australia Suspends Syrian Airstrikes Over Russia, U.S. Tensions

June 20, 2017 by administrator

A Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18F Super Hornet at an air show. Australia’s decision to back out of the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria follows Russia’s warning that it would track American and coalition aircraft in the country as targets. PHOTO: IAN HITCHCOCK/GETTY IMAGES

By Ben Kesling

June 20, 2017 7:06 a.m. ET

BAGHDAD—Australia has suspended air operations in Syria amid escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow after Russia threatened to track American and coalition aircraft in the war-torn country as targets.

“As a precautionary measure, Australian Defense Force strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased,” a statement from the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The American ally’s decision to back out of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria comes hours after the U.S. shifted some of its own flight patterns in the country to minimize risks, following Russia’s warning on Monday that it would use air defense systems or Russian pilots to track flights west of the Euphrates.

The current tensions between the U.S. and Russia, which back opposite sides in the Syrian conflict but are also fighting Islamic State in the country, began Sunday when an American jet fighter shot down a Syrian regime warplane after it targeted U.S.-backed Syrian fighters who were leading the assault on Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa.

Russia, allied with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, responded to the U.S. strike with threats to cut official lines of communication that are meant to prevent midair mishaps and to treat U.S.-led coalition planes as “targets.” It, however, stopped short of threatening to shoot them down, giving some U.S. officials hope that the situation won’t worsen.

“ADF personnel are closely monitoring the air situation in Syria and a decision on the resumption of ADF air operations in Syria will be made in due course,” Australia’s defense ministry said in the statement. It will continue its mission in neighboring Iraq, the statement added.

The U.S.-led coalition has stepped up its operations to push Islamic State out of its strongholds in Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. Australia has deployed six warplanes, as well as an aerial tanker and an airstrike control aircraft, to the region to support the fight against the extremist group.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-suspends-syria-air-strikes-over-russia-u-s-tensions-1497956784?mod=e2tw

The rise of Gladys Berejiklian to premier – The Sydney Morning Herald

January 25, 2017 by administrator

By James Robertson
Following the shock resignation of Mike Baird on Thursday, speculation surrounds NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian to succeed him.
In the teeth of difficult polling, she took to the Glad-mobile.
The white delivery van plastered with posters calculatedly omitting her last name (it’s pronounced Ber-a-jik-lee-en), helped her sneak over the line by fewer than 150 votes, in a result that wasn’t known for days.
At the last state election, she nearly tripled the vote of her rival and claimed a two-party preferred vote of 75 per cent.

On Monday morning, Ms Berejiklian, the kindergartener who barely spoke English but became school captain of her public school, will transform again, from the quintessential local member, to the Treasurer in charge of a $70 billion budget, to NSW’s 45th premier.
There’s a lot the state is yet to learn about the Masterchef-loving former checkout chick. (Her aisle had a cohort of loyal customers who noticed she would mistakenly scan artichokes as much-cheaper chokos).
Her colleagues believe her authenticity will be the key to connecting with voters as premier, after years of favouring diligent work to conspicuously building a profile.

“People may know that NSW is number one again,” one senior NSW Liberal says. “But there’s a bit of a sense that not everyone is sharing [the proceeds]. She’s the perfect person to tell that story.”
In more than one way Ms Berejiklian is the photo-negative of Premier Mike Baird, the Kings-educated son of a former Liberal Minister.
She was the daughter of a welder and nurse who came to Australia from Jerusalem and Syria in the 1960s. She spoke English only occasionally before the age of five. Her mother encouraged her to speak up in class whenever possible to practise the language.
Friends say her Armenian heritage influenced her progressive brand of Liberalism.
But she counts a sit-in demonstration in the principal’s office of her public high school as lighting the fuse on a career in politics that has often seen her stake out tough positions. (The school closure was reversed.)
“She was Young Liberal president when Pauline Hanson was first on the scene,” says North Sydney federal Liberal MP and friend of two decades Trent Zimmerman. “She was adamant that the party had to take a stand against racism. She took the view the best way to counter extremism is to speak out.”
(The Left-faction stalwart has also broken with other party members, including Mr Baird, to vote for same-sex adoption and stem-cell research.)
Friends describe a woman of incredible discipline and who starts her days reading ministerial briefings over breakfast and who is often caught checking emails under the dinner table.
But she never misses Sunday visits with family and is extremely close to her two sisters and six godchildren.
She made her name as transport minister, once thought to be the cursed portfolio of NSW politics.
“She really is the most determined, hard-working person I know,” says Liberal MLC and President of the NSW Upper House, Don Harwin. “And yet I struggle to think of anyone who doesn’t like her.”
But even former premier Barry O’Farrell, perhaps her biggest backer in politics, conceded she didn’t put herself forward enough.
Opponents sense a weakness. Even before she’s been sworn in, attacks from shock jock Alan Jones and Labor, which is counting her understated style as a weakness, have already zeroed in on the question of whether she’s ready for the top job.
But her colleagues, who coalesced around her in little more than a day, say they have little doubt.
“Once she’s made up her mind, she doesn’t waver,” Mr Zimmerman says.

Armenia PM congratulates Gladys Berejiklian on becoming PM of Australia’s largest state

January 23, 2017 by administrator

YEREVAN. – Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on Monday sent a congratulatory letter to Ms Gladys Berejiklian on assuming the office of the premier of New South Wales (NSW), the largest state of Australia.

The letter reads as follows:

“Dear Ms Berejiklian,

I congratulate you most warmly both on my behalf and on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia on assuming the post of the New South Wales (NSW) state of Australia.

It is praiseworthy that being actively engaged in the social and political life of the country, the Armenian community of Australia uniquely contributes to the development of Australia in different spheres, your fruitful activity being indicative of this.

I hope that during your office new impetus will be given to the development of relations between Armenia and Australia, in particular to the decentralized cooperation between our provinces and cities.

Taking advantage of the occasion, I would like to wish you success and new achievements in favor of the prosperity of the friendly people of Australia and strengthening of Armenian-Australian friendship.”

BREAKING NEWS: Armenian Gladys Berejiklian a new Premier of Australia’s largest state of New South Wales (NSW),

January 22, 2017 by administrator

Gladys Berejiklian is the new Premier of Australia’s largest state of New South Wales (NSW),

ANC-AU Report: after being elected to the role unopposed by her Party this morning.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia congratulates our former board member, who is also a former member of the Armenian Youth Federation of Australia, and a former basketballer and Scout with Homenetmen Australia.

Parliamentary friendship group for Armenia announced in Australia parliament

December 11, 2016 by administrator

The Parliamentary Friendship Group for Armenia was announced in the Federal Parliament of Australia by the group’s elected Chair, Trent Zimmerman MP.

The Member for North Sydney has been working closely with fellow MPs and the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) to re-form the group after the most recent Federal Elections.

Zimmerman told the House of Representatives: “Our relationship with modern Armenia – which celebrated 25 years of independence just this year – is an important one. I am pleased this has been recognised through the establishment of a Parliamentary Friendship Group for Armenia and I am honoured to have been appointed as its Chair.”

He added: “I want to thank the many members who have helped establish the group, including the Member for Hunter (Joel Fitzgibbon MP) and the Member for Bennelong (John Alexander MP) – both of whom have been such strong supporters of the Australian-Armenian community. I also want to particularly acknowledge the advocacy of the Armenian National Committee which has done so much to encourage the formation of the Group.”

ANC-AU Managing Director, Vache Kahramanian welcomed the formation of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Armenia.

“The Armenian National Committee of Australia always looks for ways to improve ties between Australia and Armenia, and the formation of this group – which has a sister group in Armenia’s National Assembly.

Australia ruling conservatives win tight election

July 9, 2016 by administrator

Mr Turnbull is still short of a majority

Australia’s ruling conservatives have been confirmed winners in last week’s general election, after opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten conceded.

Mr Shorten said it was clear PM Malcolm Turnbull’s coalition had won, adding that he had already congratulated him.

Votes are still being counted, but the government is expected to win just enough seats for a majority.

However, a strong swing against it has left doubts about its agenda and Mr Turnbull’s leadership.

The Liberal-National coalition still remains short of the 76 seats it needs to claim a majority in the lower house, the House of Representatives.

But it should secure at least 74, and also has the support of three independent and minor party politicians – Cathy McGowan, Andrew Wilkie and Bob Katter – guaranteeing budget supply and confidence.

Labor is currently on 66 seats, with five still in doubt.

“It is clear that Mr Turnbull and his coalition will form a government,” Mr Shorten said.

“So I have spoken to Mr Turnbull earlier this afternoon to congratulate him

and [his wife] Lucy and to wish them my very best.”

Analysis – Shaun Davies, Australia Editor, BBC News Online

Malcolm Turnbull has his majority, but he is beset on all sides.

Inside his party he faces a restless right wing that disapproves of his small-l liberal leanings.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten is taunting Mr Turnbull at every opportunity and predicting a return to the polls within a year.

The Senate promises to be unruly – several senators elect are already bickering. With Australia’s AAA credit rating under a cloud, Mr Turnbull will need to corral populist senators into passing budget cuts.

The prime minister has his party’s support for now, but his enemies are watching closely.

Former Australian leader Paul Keating once said Mr Turnbull was brilliant and fearless, but had no judgment. The prime minister can’t afford to put a foot wrong now.

Stringent requirements for verifying votes meant the count progressed slowly after the 2 July poll.

Postal votes, which are counted after votes received on polling day, heavily favoured the coalition and helped them across the line in a number of closely run electorates.

The tight result is likely to put pressure on the government’s agenda, particularly in the Senate, where many independent and minor party candidates are set to take office.

The massive scale of Australia’s election

Australia’s new powerbroker

Cartoon: Planet of Forbidden Prime Ministers

While final Senate results may not be known until August, anti-immigration politician Pauline Hanson is likely to hold at least three seats.

South Australia’s Senator Nick Xenophon and his newly formed Nick Xenophon Team are also likely to hold three spots, while former shock jock Derryn Hinch has secured a seat.

Conflicting agendas and strong personalities could make it difficult for Mr Turnbull to pass legislation through the Senate.

Uncertain future

Mr Turnbull has come under pressure both internally and externally since the worse-than-expected election result became clear on 2 July.

Senator Cory Bernardi, one of the coalition’s most vocal right-wingers, called the election “a disaster” and has since made moves to establish his own conservative movement, although he denies plans to defect from the Liberal party.

Mr Shorten has repeatedly called on Mr Turnbull to stand down, saying he has lost his mandate.

On Thursday ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered Australia’s credit rating outlook from stable to negative, warning the country could lose its AAA rating unless it undertook budget repair.

Treasurer Scott Morrison described the downgrade as “sobering” and said the government’s budget savings needed to be implemented.

But shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the opposition would campaign against any spending cuts that would hurt Australians on low incomes.

Doubts have been raised over the passage of government’s Australian Building and Construction Commission bill, which aims to re-establish a watchdog that monitors union activity in Australia’s building industry.

The bill’s non-passage provided Mr Turnbull with the trigger to call an early “double-dissolution” election where all 76 Senate seats were up for grabs, rather than the usual half.

Independent MP Bob Katter has already indicated that he will withdraw his support from the government if it engages in what he sees as “union bashing”.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-36757307

Top Australian politicians to attend Armenian Genocide Commemoration

April 22, 2016 by administrator

210858 The National Armenian Genocide Commemoration Evening on Sunday, April 24 will host supporters and friends of Armenian-Australians from both the Federal and NSW governments, who will gather with the community to honor and remember the over 1.5 million innocent victims of the first Genocide of the 20th Century.

The gathered will hear from keynote speaker, prominent military historian and co-author of the recently-published “Armenia, Australia & the Great War,” Professor Peter Stanley, Armenian National Committee of Australia reports.

The Member for Bennelong, John Alexander OAM will be in attendance, continuing his full-fledged support to the cause of Federal recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Alexander has been vocal in raising the issues and concerns of the Armenian community in the Australian Parliament.

The new Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman will also be attending the Commemoration for the first time in his capacity as a Member of the Australian Parliament since taking over his seat from Joe Hockey, now Australia’s Ambassador to the United States.

On March 2, Zimmerman gave his maiden speech in Australia’s House of Representatives, calling on Turkey to recognise and atone for the Armenian Genocide.

Also, Senator Lee Rhiannon, NSW Treasurer and prominent Armenian-Australian, Gladys Berejiklian, the Member for Davidson from the NSW Parliament, Jonathan O’Dea will be joining the Commemoration.

Also joining Armenian-Australians on the night will be the Hon. Reverend Fred Nile MLC, Leader of the NSW Christian Democratic Party, who continues to pursue his party’s policy of full recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Australia. The Hon. David Clarke MLC, Hon. Courtney Houssos MLC from the NSW Upper House and member of the Parliamentary Friendship Group will also be in attendance.

The National Armenian Genocide Commemoration Evening will take place at The Concourse in Chatswood from on Sunday, April 24.

Austrailan MP Zimmerman calls Turkey recognize Armenian Genocide during maiden Parliamentary speech

March 2, 2016 by administrator

Trent Zimmerman MP calls for recognition of Armenian Genocide

CANBERRA: On Wednesday, 2nd March 2016, newly-elected Federal Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman gave his maiden speech in the Australia’s House of Representatives, calling on Turkey to recognise and atone for the Armenian Genocide.

Zimmerman was elected at a recent by-election, taking the seat vacated by Joe Hockey MP (now Australia’s Ambassador to the United States), a long-time advocate for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia’s (ANC Australia) Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian commented: “We thank Mr. Zimmerman for proving he will continue Mr. Hockey’s fine work on the advancement of recognition and justice for the Armenian Genocide.”
In his speech, Zimmerman acknowledged the “great historical injustices” that the Armenians have suffered, particularly through the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

He said: “The Armenians are a people who have suffered great historical injustices. They are one of the few people against whom genocide has been attempted, and the awful legacy of those events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire is deeply felt in their community today.”

Zimmerman added: “We know such horrific events are best healed through reconciliation, recognition and atonement. I hope that we will see a day when Turkey, indeed the global community through the United Nations, properly recognises the Armenian Genocide.”

ANC Australia has written to Zimmerman, congratulating him on his maiden speech, wishing him a fruitful career representing the electorate of North Sydney and the greater Australian community.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PORTION OF MR. ZIMMERMAN’S MAIDEN SPEECH