1. This week 10 years ago, Federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland announced new laws to deal with international child abduction by a parent.
Mr McClelland said the laws would include new criminal offences, extend the coverage of existing offences, allow the Family Court to stop child support payments for children abducted overseas and create new information-gathering powers to help locate abducted children.
“On average, two to three children are wrongfully removed from Australia or retained in another country every week by one of their parents,” Mr McClelland said. “We are proposing these measures to ensure our laws remain as effective as possible to maximise the prospect of the safe return of children.”
2. The same Attorney-General, Robert McClelland also announced that the Australian Government would accept all the recommendations of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry’s interim report.
Mr McClelland said most of the report’s recommendations that were relevant to Commonwealth operations or responsibilities were focused on the Bureau of Meteorology’s provision of information and the contribution of the Australian Defence Force to disaster planning and preparation.
“We will work with the Queensland Government to ensure those recommendations that need to be addressed before the start of the upcoming wet season are indeed addressed,” Mr McClelland said.
3. New guidelines were introduced to make it easier for transsexual and gender diverse people to hold a passport in their preferred gender. Under the guidelines, sex reassignment surgery would no longer be a prerequisite to issuing a passport in a person’s preferred gender.
“Sex and gender diverse people now have the option of presenting a statement from a medical practitioner supporting their preferred gender,” Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd said.
“This amendment makes life easier and significantly reduces the administrative burden for sex and gender diverse people who want a passport that reflects their gender and physical appearance.”
4. The Queensland Police Service (QPS) was recognised for excellence, winning the State Government category in the 2011 State finals of the Australian Safer Communities Awards.
Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services, Neil Roberts said the QPS social media strategy was one of the great success stories to come out of Queensland’s flood and cyclone disasters.
“Disseminating public safety announcements through this page coupled with other initiatives like the livestreaming of press conferences proved extremely powerful, and far more effective than relying on traditional media alone,” Mr Roberts said. He said the Police used social media as one of their major avenues for getting up-to-date and relevant information to residents as quickly as possible.
5. Also this week a decade ago, the Australian Parliament passed new laws regulating the ingredients in cosmetics.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King said the new laws would cut red tape, eliminate overlapping regulation between Federal Agencies and better protect public health.
“This both addresses a public health gap and will reduce the regulatory burden on industry,” Ms King said. She said the new laws would also mean that consumers could find information about the regulation of cosmetic ingredients in one place, the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS).
6. And finally, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville won a Pinnacle Award from the US-based Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration.
Minister for Environment and Sustainability, Tony Burke noted it was the third year in a row the Aquarium had won the award, which recognised the educational content of the Aquarium’s Reef Videoconferencing Program.
“Reef HQ Aquarium was the only content provider outside of the United States and Canada to receive this prestigious award, based on evaluations from teachers,” Mr Burke said. “They competed against a high calibre of participants including NASA’s Digital Learning Network at the Kennedy Space Center.”