The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative international body on climate change science and impacts, released its Fifth Assessment Report, earlier this week.  The report evaluates how patterns of risks and potential benefits are shifting due to climate change and how risks can be reduced through mitigation and adaptation. It recognizes that risks of climate change will vary across regions and populations and time, dependent on myriad factors including the extent of mitigation and adaptation. It finds Australia is at increasing risk of heat extremes, bushfire weather and extreme rainfall. The report singles out the Great Barrier Reef as being at serious risk from rising ocean temperatures and acidity.

Climate Council's Professor Lesley Hughes, one of the lead authors of the IPCC report, said it highlighted the vulnerability of key Australian sectors like agriculture and coastal infrastructure to climate change.

Key findings of the report for Australia include:

• Marked decreases in agricultural production in the Murray-Darling Basin and south western and south eastern Australia could occur if projections of severe dry conditions are realised
• There are significant future risks of increased loss of life, damage to property, and economic loss due to bushfires in southern Australia.
• Since 1950 hot extremes have become more frequent and intense, while cold extremes have become rarer.  Increased hot weather is expected to hit major population centres, with hot days, for example, in Melbourne expected to increase by 20 to 40% by 2030, and by up to 190% by 2070.
• The iconic Great Barrier Reef is under threat. Under current rates of ocean warming and acidification, coral reef systems could be eliminated by mid- to late-century. If average global temperatures rise above 2°C it is expected that few coral-dominated systems will survive.
• There are risks from increased frequency and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall events, causing damage to infrastructure.

The full report is available here.

The Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, will chair a new ministerial working group set up to identify new infrastructure projects that can deliver Australia's water supply needs in the future.

The first task of the group, which was established by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, will be to identify priorities, investment and processes to fast-track development. Minister Joyce said water infrastructure had to keep pace with economic opportunities in Australia's region and with national population growth. "Australia's population is expected to reach 35 million by 2050 and we also have to take advantage of the growing wealth of hundreds of millions of people who live close by," Minister Joyce said.

The ministerial working group is part of the Coalition's commitment to plan for the dams of the future and gives the opportunity to prioritise Australia's water and infrastructure needs, Mr Joyce said.   The working group brings together key areas of the government including infrastructure, water, agriculture and the environment. 

The Group will look at priorities for investment in new dams, as well as options like harvesting and storing water in underground aquifers to make Australia's water useage more sustainable and provide proposed approaches to improve the management of Australia's water resources to support economic development, flood mitigation and respond to community and industry needs.  It will produce a water infrastructure options paper by July 2014, so that its outcomes can be considered as part of the White Papers on Northern Australia and Agricultural Competitiveness.

Last week the government released accreditation standards for environmental approvals - Standards for Accreditation of Environmental Approvals under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - to progress the One-Stop-Shop policy reform. 

The standards set out the various matters for consideration in accrediting state and territory assessment and approval processes, to ensure high standards of environmental protection continue to be maintained.

Each state and territory may achieve the standards through their own regulatory systems and processes, but this must be consistent with the requirements of national environmental law,  according to Environment Minister, the Hon Greg Hunt MP.  The One-Stop Shop policy will create a single environmental approval process that satisfies both state and Commonwealth requirements.

Further information can be found here.

The Australian Government will provide $115 million to ensure critical homelessness services continue to support some of Australia's most vulnerable people.

Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews announced the funding on 30 March, saying it would reinstate the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness funding for another year, providing certainty for homelessness services.

The National Agreement currently funds over 180 initiatives across Australia to help those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.  These initiatives provide critical support to vulnerable Australians to rebuild their lives and to find affordable and sustainable housing.

Mr Andrews said that the Australian Government would work with state and territory governments to talk to service providers in their jurisdictions on future funding arrangements.

As part of the NSW Government's crackdown on public drug and alcohol fuelled violence, anyone engaged in such behaviour will face an on-the-spot fine from 31 March.  Criminal Infringement Notices for offensive language and offensive behaviour will rise to $500, while continued intoxicated and disorderly behaviour, after a direction to move on, will attract a fine of $1100.

The NSW Attorney General and NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services said the "message to drunken thugs is clear: violent, offensive and anti-social behaviour simply won't be tolerated.  Anyone ignoring that message should prepared to learn a very expensive lesson."

Other measures to reduce drug and alcohol fuelled violence in NSW include an 8 year minimum sentence for those convicted under new one punch laws; introduction of 1.30am lockouts and 3.00am last drinks and state-wide 10.00pm closing time for bottle shops and liquor stores.

The NSW/ACT Alcohol Policy Alliance (NAAPA) will be holding a Forum on Alcohol Policy in NSW on 15 April in the Theatrette at NSW Parliament House, commencing at 6.00pm.  For more details please contact Stefany Spyropolous at stefany.spyropoulos@fare.org.au or 02 6122 8600.

Australians born overseas were more likely to live in major urban areas, with half of all migrants living in Sydney or Melbourne according to the latest Australian Social Trends (AST) released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this month.

With one in four Australians born overseas, the AST article looks at the 2011 Census of Population and Housing to see where people live by country of birth.  ABS Assistant Director of Social and Progress Reporting, Ms Guinevere Hunt, said that in all capital cities except for Hobart and Darwin, more than half the CBD residents were born overseas.

"We found that the suburbs with the highest proportion of people born overseas included Haymarket in Sydney, Clayton in Melbourne, Robertson in Brisbane, Regency Park in Adelaide, and Northbridge in Perth. 

"Suburbs near universities also have high proportions of migrants," said Ms Hunt.

The largest migrant group in Australia are people born in the United Kingdom (UK), followed by people born in New Zealand, China and India. This has changed from 2001 when the largest migrant groups were from UK, New Zealand, Italy and Vietnam.

"In Sydney, two in five residents of Harris Park were born in India, and Hurstville had the highest proportion of people born in China. In Melbourne, one in four people living in Sunshine North was born in Vietnam, and in Perth, two in five residents of Jindalee were born in the UK," said Ms Hunt.

AST articles are freely available here.

The NSW Government has expanded a $14.6 million emergency drought assistance package to include an additional four local government areas (LGAs), Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner and Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson announced on 31 March.   

The additional LGAs include Mid Western, Gloucester, Liverpool Plains and Oberon, with measures back-dated to 1 February 2014. In November 2013 the NSW Government announced a $7.6 million emergency assistance package for the Bourke, Brewarrina and Walgett LGAs, which was increased to $14.6 million in February and extended to an additional 20 LGAs and the far west Unincorporated Area.

The $14.6 million package is in addition to ongoing assistance available to all landholders in NSW.

Expansion of the measures is based on the expert advice of the independent Regional Assistance Advisory Committee.  Mr Stoner said the Government was listening to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee and other regional agencies and was well aware of the financial pressures and emotional stress farmers are facing in the drought crisis.  While the current spell of wet weather was welcome, it was not enough and the emergency assistance is to ensure farmers are supported, he said.

Measures include:  up to $20,000 per producer of  Transport Assistance Reimbursement; up to $30,000 per producer for Emergency Water Infrastructure Grants; and waiving of Western Land Lease Payments, Local Land Services rates and Wild Dog Destruction Board rates for a 12-month period, where applicable.

The NSW Government has announced $1m in grants for councils to bring planning on-line.  The grants will help councils to buy new software that allows the community to fast track applications online. 

According to NSW Planning and Infrastructure Minister, Brad Hazzard MP, e-Planning takes the headache out of planning by making it easy to lodge and track development applications.   E-planning speeds up the assessment process for both the community and councils.

"Users will be able to monitor the progress of their application and view up-to-date information on development applications in their neighbourhood on council websites", he said.

Recently released local development performance figures  (available here) show councils are increasingly taking advantage of automated processes and web-based tools to make local planning easier and more efficient for the community. 

Funding will be available to the 77 NSW councils which do not currently have online application tracking software, ensuring that all councils in NSW have this ability, Mr Hazzard said.

The Heart Foundation Local Government Awards (previously called the Heart Foundation Healthy Community Awards) recognise and showcase councils for their contribution to improving heart health.   Councils implementing policies, infrastructure and programs to improve the health of their community are invited to submit an entry for these awards.

Exciting winner prize package includes:

• Cash award
• Commemorative frame
• Profiling of Council's efforts through promotional material, presentation events, local media and case studies

Winners will be awarded at both the state and national levels. We encourage you to enter these awards to raise awareness of the work you do in your community.

Find more information and download the Application Information Pack here.

To register your interest in applying contact Teresa Gadaleta or call (08) 8224 2861.  Entries close Friday 23 May 2014

On 28 March 2014 the 26th Governor-General, General Peter Cosgrove AC MC, was sworn in. His formal title will be "His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd)".

He takes over from Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce who served as Governor-General since her appointment in 2008.

The position of Governor-General is an appointment made by The Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister.  The appointment is conventionally for a 5-year term; however this is not fixed. Former Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, served for 5.5 years following her appointment in 2008. The Governor-General and his wife Lynne will now reside at Government House in Canberra.

The Governor-General is the Queen’s representative in Australia.  Section 2 of the Constitution provides that :

A Governor-General appointed by the Queen shall be Her Majesty's representative in the Commonwealth, and shall have and may exercise in the Commonwealth during the Queen's pleasure, but subject to this Constitution, such powers and functions of the Queen as Her Majesty may be pleased to assign to him.

In addition to being The Queen's representative in Australia, the Governor-General also has specific constitutional and statutory powers, as well as reserve powers (the ability to appoint or dismiss a Prime Minister in certain circumstances).