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An animal rights organisation has embarked on the holy grail of PR campaigns. People for the Ethical Treatment Animals has written to the iconic Australian band, Hunters and Collectors, calling for it to change its name. PETA says the group's name glorifies hunting and has suggested some alternatives, like Hunters and Collectors of Antiques.
Topics: animal-welfare, music, human-interest, australia
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| UpdatedThe family of Albert Namatjira, one of Australia's greatest artists, is launching a campaign to gain control of the copyright of his paintings. The rights were sold by the Northern Territory public trustee in 1983, reportedly without consultation with the Namatjira family. It's a deal perceived by many as a serious cultural injustice, which has also deprived the artist's descendants of millions of dollars. Launched today, the Namatjira Legacy Trust aims to set up a lasting legacy for the family and help a new generation of Aboriginal artists.
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, visual-art, painting, community-and-society, australia
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| UpdatedThe consumer watchdog has raised concerns that some hearing aid retailers may be exploiting vulnerable Australians and selling them expensive products they don't need. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is particularly concerned about companies working on commission and being given incentives to sell certain products.
Topics: consumer-protection, hearing, australia
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| UpdatedAs property prices in Australia cities continue to soar to new, eye-watering heights, a move by the Victorian Government to make regional houses more affordable has given first home-buyers some hope. The State Government is doubling the first home owners' grant for newly built homes in regional areas so that young people have a better chance of getting their foot in the property market door. But the Real Estate Institute of Victoria says the incentives don't go far enough and there is the risk of further fuelling property prices.
Topics: housing-industry, government-and-politics, housing, vic, australia
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The South-East Regional Hospital in the New South Wales town of Bega opened barely a year ago and has been the subject of rumblings about understaffing and complaints about management. In the past week the issues have spilled out into the open in spectacular fashion over the head of orthopaedic surgery, whose contract has not been renewed. Fellow surgeons have cancelled their surgery lists in support of their colleague.
Topics: healthcare-facilities, health, doctors-and-medical-professionals, bega-2550, nsw
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| UpdatedA Nepalese asylum-seeker who was 'involuntarily removed' from Australia's offshore detention centre on Manus Island three weeks ago and flown back to Nepal, says he's in hiding and fears for his life. His deportation has reportedly sparked a rise in the number of unsuccessful asylum-seekers who are accepting cash incentives to return to their countries of origin.
Topics: refugees, nepal, australia, papua-new-guinea
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| UpdatedPeter Feaver served in President George W Bush's National Security Council between 2005 and 2007. He's now a Professor of political science at Duke University in the United States. He says the questions around Russia's interference in the US election will not end until there is an independent commission investigating what happened, and that for Russia, the meddling was a 'tactical success, but a long term strategic blunder'.
Topics: united-states, russian-federation
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The US Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, has stepped down from an FBI investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election. But Jeff Sessions denies he lied under oath when he told his Senate confirmation hearing that hadn't had any communication with Russians during the campaign. Democrats are not satisfied and have called on him to resign.
Topics: united-states, russian-federation
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| UpdatedMembers of the Federal Government's independent advisory council on redress are urging the states to sign up to the Commonwealth Redress Scheme. They say abuse survivors have been let down by governments for decades and that it's time to make amends.
Topics: child-abuse, government-and-politics, law-crime-and-justice, sexual-offences, royal-commissions, australia
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Amber Harrison's high-profile legal battle with Seven West Media, relating to her affair with chief executive Tim Worner, appears to have escalated. Ms Harrison is now considering a counter-claim against Seven for breach of contract, as the media organisation continues to count the financial and reputational cost of the scandal. Counsel for Seven West Media Sandy Dawson SC warned Ms Harrison's claim could contain 'scurrilous and scandalous material'.
Topics: courts-and-trials, media, sydney-2000
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The chief of the NAB, Andrew Thorburn, has faced a grilling in Canberra over why the bank doesn't want to report cases of staff misconduct publicly. Mr Thorburn also revealed that the manager responsible for NAB's wealth division was given a bonus, even though that division has had to pay out millions of dollars in compensation to customers whose superannuation accounts were overcharged.
Topics: banking, federal-parliament, canberra-2600
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Veterans' Affairs Minister Dan Tehan says that the legislation to share veterans' information is 'completely different' to the legislation under which Human Services Minister Alan Tudge shared a Centrelink client's personal details with a journalist. Speaking with The World Today's Tom Iggulden, he says that the legislation would only be used in very rare circumstances, that extensive bipartisan consultation took place in drafting the legislation, and that it will be introduced as a 'disallowable instrument' which could be revoked by the Parliament.
Topics: veterans, government-and-politics, canberra-2600
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| UpdatedA backlash is brewing to the Federal Government's planned new power that would allow it to release the personal information of war veterans, if it wanted to correct the record in media reports. The legislation giving the Government that power passed the House of Representatives yesterday. Labor's now asking for 'clarification' about how it'd work, while at least two crossbench Senators want the legislation to be scrapped.
Topics: government-and-politics, veterans, information-and-communication, canberra-2600
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The Snapchat app is best known for disappearing messages and quirky facial filters for selfies. Now the company that owns the Snapchat messaging service has been valued at $US24 billion, after selling all of the 200 million shares it offered to investors. It's the biggest Wall Street debut of a tech company since Facebook in 2012.
Topics: stockmarket, company-news, social-media, united-states
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Federal MP Bob Katter is pushing to clear the name of a former Supreme Court judge he helped sack from the bench nearly 30 years ago. Angelo Vasta is the only judge to have been dismissed by a parliament in Australia in a century. Bob Katter was a member of the state cabinet that decided Mr Vasta should be removed, but Mr Katter says the sacking was unfair and it's been nagging his conscience. His State colleagues have tabled a bill in the Queensland Parliament to revoke the decision. The former judge says he's not after compensation, but the former premier who oversaw the process says the decision should not be overturned.
Topics: judges-and-legal-profession, states-and-territories, courts-and-trials, qld
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| UpdatedLabor is reviewing its support for legislation it voted for only yesterday that would allow the head of the Veterans' Affairs Department to share personal information of veterans in certain circumstances. The Opposition says it received reassurances about the way that information could be shared, but has now changed its mind in the wake of revelations that Human Services Minister Alan Tudge shared the personal Centrelink file of a welfare recipient with a journalist.
Topics: federal-government, information-and-communication, canberra-2600
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Losing a national security adviser over links to Russia was a major embarrassment for Donald Trump's White House. Now the President's political opponents are baying for the scalp of his Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, who stands accused of lying to the Senate over his contact with Russians. The President has affirmed his support for Mr Sessions. The controversy calls into question the depth and breadth of the Trump administration's ties with Moscow.
Topics: government-and-politics, united-states, russian-federation
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| UpdatedThe Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that Australia's exposure to a possible real estate bubble could end in a damaging housing rout. The OECD says that Australia could face a hard landing after recent gains in real estate prices along the east coast. The organisation is also concerned about the widening gap between rich and poor in Australia, saying that the nation's long period of economic growth has seen high-income households benefit disproportionately.
Topics: housing-industry, housing, australia
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| UpdatedThe Prime Minister and a clutch of senior ministers will witness first-hand today the arrival of two Joint Strike Fighter aircraft in Australia, which will take to the skies at the Avalon Air Show near Melbourne. Australia has ordered 72 of the aircraft at a cost of nearly $18 billion dollars. Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne speaks with AM's Sabra Lane ahead of the air show and says the deployment of the JSF program will be worth $1 billion a year to the Australian economy and will support up to 5,000 jobs. He says the long-standing criticisms of the program from a number of sources have been 'exaggerated'.
Topics: defence-industry, defence-and-aerospace-industries, air-force, federal-government, lara-3212
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The National Disability Insurance Scheme says its enrolment numbers are back on track after a shaky start to its transition phase. Nearly 26,000 people signed on the scheme in its latest quarter from October to December last year, more than three times the number of the previous quarter. But disability advocates say, in the race to meet enrolment targets, people entering the NDIS are losing out.
Topics: disabilities, insurance, welfare, carers, australia
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| UpdatedThe election of Donald Trump has seen Australia's foreign policy landscape turned upside down, with trade deals abandoned and airports thrown into chaos. In particular, security experts say the new US administration has heightened the threat of a clash with China. If such a crisis occurred, they say Australia's reliance on oil from Singapore would be a big problem. One analyst has called for another Defence Force Posture Review.
Topics: foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, world-politics, australia, china, singapore
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| UpdatedLosing a national security adviser over links to Russia was a major embarrassment for Donald Trump's White House. Now the President's political opponents are baying for the scalp of his Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, who stands accused of lying to the Senate over his contact with Russians. The controversy calls into question the depth and breadth of the Trump administration's ties with Moscow.
Topics: government-and-politics, united-states, russian-federation
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A group of British scientists claim to have found the earliest evidence of life on Earth. The microfossils were discovered on coastal rocks, along the Quebec shoreline in Canada. And they're thought to have been formed up to 4.2 billion years ago. But some scientists are sceptical.
Topics: fossils, science-and-technology, biology, earth-sciences, evolution, canada, australia, united-kingdom, england
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| UpdatedOn Thursday's program: UN investigators accuse both sides in the battle for Aleppo of committing war crimes with a report also finding it was Syrian government aircraft that 'deliberately' bombed a humanitarian convoy last September; Scientists say they've found 4-billion-year-old micro-fossils, which could be the earliest evidence of life on earth; And new research shows plain cigarette packaging is proving to be effective in reducing smoking rates.
Topics: australia
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A cyber hacking expert in Moscow has predicted the world is on the verge of a cyber war, as politicians in Europe accuse Russia of starting to interfere with their election campaigns. An investigation is still underway in the US over what happened with the campaign there. Andrei Soldatov is an investigative journalist and author of The Red Web. And he told Europe correspondent Lisa Millar that it's not a surprise Russia is considered 'ground zero' for hacking. He's also outlined another twist that he says will be more serious than campaign hacking.
Topics: australia