Calls for baby safe havens after dumping

The cases of baby dumping in Australia have increased significantly. It was estimated that a dozen babies were abandoned each year in different states of Australia. This issue has been vehemently debating and prompted “baby safe haven” facilities across Australia.

This programme aims to ensure the unwanted babies being abandoned legally into a safe and caring environment. Such programme has been implemented in Europe, United States and Japan. The children will be put up to adoption after a cooling-off period during which the mother can change her mind.

AMA president, Dr Andrew Pesce revealed that this programme should be considered as an alternative to mothers in order to prevent the abandoned babies from dying. He also urged the government to take prompt action to redress this problem.

Coalition pledges $120m for schools technology

Things are not out of what I had learnt in Economic lesson. I still remembered one of the weaknesses of fiscal policy. When election is near, fiscal policy is normally expansionary. This news has corroborated this lesson. Coalition government announced that they would allocate a $120 million fund to ameliorate the information and communications technology in school. In this case, bureaucratic effects would be avoided by granting the technology directly to schools. As a result, the time lag of the effects could be prevented. Besides that, coalition government also revealed that 30 new colleges would be established to provide an apprenticeship to students after they finished high school. All of these are considered as expansionary fiscal policy where the government expenditures were increased. As a conclusion, fiscal policy is abused for political reasons.

National Broadband Network to be 10 times faster

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy revealed that the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network (NBN Co) would be ameliorated to provide speed of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps). This was 10 times faster than originally envisaged. In this case, the businesses necessitating greater bandwidth for video conferencing would be advantaged. This speed of access was provided through fibre technology. Moreover, the prime minister,Ms Gillard demonstrated that the super-fast broadband was the economic infrastructure to generate economic growth in the future. However, Senator Conroy said that communities would lose the fast internet presently enjoyed if the coalition won the election. Currently, the introductory prices of the access to the fibre technology ranged from $29.95 a month for 25 Mbps to $59.95 a month for 100Mbps.

Boy plead guilty to taking gun to school

A 15-year old boy has been accused for taking gun to school. This led to evacuation and police lockdown around the school in Western Australia’s south. Fortunately, the school principal responded expeditiously by persuading the student to go to an office and talking to him. Eventually, the boy was convinced to put off the gun and was going to be sent to custody. Yesterday, the boy pleaded guilty in Esperance Children’s Court for his act that may cause fear. In the court, the boy’s lawyer claimed that the child was being bullied for years and this was the reason causing this incident to happen. With regard to this incident, Mr. Axworthy, from Education Department, praised the principal and all the staff reacted professionally. He also revealed that bullying was not allowed in schools and investigation had been launched. Currently, the boy stayed in a bail hostel in Kalgoorlie and arrangements were made for him to live with relatives.

$284m to tackle homelessness

The New South Wales Government has introduced a $284 million action plan. This unique plan aims to reduce the homelessness at a regional level right across the state. Under this initiative, $ 40 million has been directly allocated to make sure 20 important projects are carried out to tackle the problem. Besides that, regional communities are asked what kind of initiatives and services are relevant to meet the local homeless people’s needs. This is an important approach as the regional communities know what is needed in their local area clearer. Lastly, the Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek said the initiative will help to achieve the objective of reducing overall homelessness by half by 2020.