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Category: Australia

  • MIL-OSI: Magnite’s ClearLine Equips Cross Screen Media with the Tools to Maximize Voter Reach

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    WASHINGTON, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the largest independent sell-side advertising company, announced an expanded partnership with Cross Screen Media following a successful 2024 election cycle. The adoption of ClearLine, Magnite’s self-service buying solution, helped Cross Screen Media bypass middlemen, put more spend toward working media, and drive incremental voter reach.

    In a 2024 statewide race, ClearLine was used in parallel with two DSPs and a linear TV schedule. Cross Screen Media’s measurement solution found that over a two-week period in October, ClearLine drove 4% incremental reach beyond the other digital and TV components, and 8% incremental reach beyond the DSPs alone.

    “It’s the job of every political advertiser to identify the voters that will swing an election and ensure your message is reaching them,” said Chauncey Southworth, CEO of Cross Screen Media. “Adding ClearLine removes intermediaries, creates a more direct line between campaign ad dollars and voters, and in combination with our cross-screen measurement solution, drives incremental reach that can be the difference in an election.”

    Founded in 2017, Cross Screen Media offers advertising technology built for politics, empowering agencies and their campaigns to win elections through data-driven media planning, activation, and measurement. With 40% of swing voters nationwide unreachable via linear TV, and elections often decided by fractions of a percent, direct avenues to CTV inventory are crucial to ensuring advertisers can maximize reach amongst likely voters. The fast-paced nature of politics means buyers need a responsive platform that makes it easy to adjust budgets, creatives, and targeting in an instant. Magnite’s ClearLine delivers on this by streamlining the buying process, establishing a more direct and efficient route to premium inventory, and significantly increasing spend allocated toward working media.

    “The savviest political advertisers are always seeking innovative, highly efficient, and measurable ways to connect with voters,” said Erik Brydges, Head of Political Demand at Magnite. “ClearLine helps Cross Screen Media and their agency customers accomplish this goal, and represents the future of how we believe CTV will be transacted. As CTV’s share of spend continues to grow, executing budgets directly within the supply side tech ecosystem provides immediate advantages to political campaigns.”

    About Magnite
    We’re Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising company. Publishers use our technology to monetize their content across all screens and formats including CTV, online video, display, and audio. The world’s leading agencies and brands trust our platform to access brand-safe, high-quality ad inventory and execute billions of advertising transactions each month. Anchored in bustling New York City, sunny Los Angeles, mile high Denver, historic London, colorful Singapore, and down under in Sydney, Magnite has offices across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC.

    About Cross Screen Media
    Cross Screen Media is a leading CTV activation managed service for political and public affairs agencies, built on a proprietary technology platform that enables advertisers to plan and measure local advertising across Connected TV and audience-driven Linear TV. We seamlessly fit into existing workflows to help agencies scale, differentiate and deliver high-impact campaigns for their clients.

    Media Contact:
    Megan Hughes
    mhughes@magnite.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is Google Maps brainwashing us? It might be if the theory of ‘extended cognition’ is correct

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Susan Dieleman, Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership and Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge

    Over a billion people use Google Maps to help them navigate their world every month. If you own a smartphone, the odds are better than average you’re one of those people.

    If you’re using Google Maps in the United States, you may have noticed some recent changes to your world. The “Gulf of Mexico” is now the “Gulf of America,” and “Mount Denali” is again “Mount McKinley.” These are both changes instigated by U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Google is reportedly systematically removing resistance to these changes.

    When compared to how common it is for the Google search engine to boost misinformation and fake news, and feed into confirmation bias, changing the name of a body of water might not seem like a big deal. But the philosophical theory of “extended cognition” suggests such changes might not be so innocuous after all.

    Cognitive processes — not all in our heads

    The notion of extended cognition, along with the notion of the extended mind, was presented in a 1998 paper by British philosopher Andy Clark and his Australian colleague, David J. Chalmers.

    They argued that the environment plays an active role in our cognitive processes.

    Take their example of “the use of pen and paper to perform long multiplication” — something that could have been done in the mind is extended, as it were, to the external world. If it had been done in one’s mind, we wouldn’t hesitate to call this a cognitive process.

    The point is — moving this process outside the mind doesn’t change what it is. Rather, as they put it: “Cognitive processes ain’t (all) in the head!”

    They suggest that if the resources of an external tool are always there when we need them, then those resources are, in effect, “part of the basic package of cognitive resources that I bring to bear on the everyday world.”

    Back in 1998, almost decade before the advent of the iPhone, they used the example of a pocket calculator, with a suggestion that it’s unlikely the average person would always have one with them. Imagine, then, how smartphones play an integral role in many of our cognitive processes.

    In fact, as Chalmers pointed out in a later piece, the iPhone he purchased quickly became part of his mind. This is because it replaced part of his memory, harboured some of his desires, facilitated some of his calculations and more.

    In short, we outsource many of our cognitive tasks to our technologies. Our smartphones, in particular, play an important role in keeping track, remembering, calculating and finding our way.

    ‘Attention economy’

    In what’s come to be known as the attention economy, the role of technologies in our cognitive processes is amplified further.

    As Google strategist-turned-philosopher James Williams notes, technologies’ low-level engagement goals include “maximizing the amount of time you spend with their product, keeping you clicking or tapping or scrolling as much as possible, or showing you as many pages or ads as they can.”

    The more time spent on our phones, the more of our attention they demand, and the more integrated they are in our cognitive processes.

    When I’ve taught a unit on technology in Introduction to Philosophy courses in recent years, I’ve instructed students to read this piece by Canadian cognitive science scholar Karina Vold and reflect on their relationships to their phones — something most readily admit they’d never done before.

    As Vold points out, there could be significant legal implications if courts were to accept the theory of extended cognition in a world where smartphone technologies are ubiquitous. They might even include whether and how the law could protect “what and how we think from undue influence.”

    From this perspective, the fact that Google can change maps literally overnight gains new significance.

    If we take the theory of extended cognition seriously, we can understand Google’s changes, like renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as problematically undermining our autonomy. In a sense, Google is able to get into our cognitive processes and, at will, make changes — to our understanding and memory of how the physical world is structured and navigated — without our consent.

    As a result, such changes fall on the wrong side of the admittedly blurry distinction between persuasion and coercion.

    Persuasion versus coercion

    Traditionally understood, persuasion respects individuals’ autonomy. It requires critical thinking and argumentation, which involve presenting reasons in support of a claim to people, who then use their own cognitive powers to decide whether to adopt or reject those reasons and claims.

    Conversely, coercion is closer to a form of brainwashing. It involves undermining or bypassing a person’s ability to accept or reject an argument. It gets into the cognitive processes themselves, making changes without knowledge or consent.

    In an era when technology companies compete for increasing shares of our attention, and therefore of our cognitive processes, it becomes increasingly difficult, but also urgently important, to be aware of whether we are being persuaded or brainwashed, and what we are being persuaded or brainwashed to believe.

    Though the name of a body of water on a Google Map might not seem like a big deal, it’s at least a reminder to be vigilant.

    Susan Dieleman receives funding as the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at the University of Lethbridge.

    – ref. Is Google Maps brainwashing us? It might be if the theory of ‘extended cognition’ is correct – https://theconversation.com/is-google-maps-brainwashing-us-it-might-be-if-the-theory-of-extended-cognition-is-correct-251604

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: YieldMax™ ETFs Announces Distributions on CRSH (100.59%), ULTY (79.43%), TSLY (76.84%), LFGY (66.79%), SNOY (63.58%) and Others

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CHICAGO and MILWAUKEE and NEW YORK, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — YieldMax™ today announced distributions for the YieldMax™ Weekly Payers and Group A ETFs listed in the table below.

    ETF Ticker1 ETF Name Distribution Frequency Distribution
    per Share    		 Distribution Rate2,4 30-Day 
    SEC Yield3    		 ROC5 Ex-Date &
    Record Date    		 Payment
    Date
    GPTY YieldMax™ AI & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly $0.2640 33.60% 0.00% 0.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    LFGY YieldMax™ Crypto Industry & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly $0.4723 66.79% 0.00% 53.27% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    QDTY YieldMax™ Nasdaq 100 0DTE Covered Call ETF Weekly $0.3124 – – 47.65% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    RDTY YieldMax™ R2000 0DTE Covered
    Call ETF    		 Weekly $0.3193 – – 0.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    SDTY YieldMax™ S&P 500 0DTE Covered Call ETF Weekly $0.3175 – – 100.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    ULTY YieldMax™ Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF Weekly $0.0977 79.43% 0.00% 100.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    YMAG YieldMax™ Magnificent 7 Fund of Option Income ETFs Weekly $0.0850 29.28% 61.87% 24.87% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    YMAX YieldMax™ Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs Weekly $0.1526 57.05% 85.03% 43.60% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    CRSH  YieldMax™ Short TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.6458 100.59% 3.00% 98.10% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    FEAT YieldMax™ Dorsey Wright Featured 5 Income ETF Every 4 weeks $0.6925 25.57% 122.88% 0.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    FIVY YieldMax™ Dorsey Wright Hybrid 5 Income ETF Every 4 weeks $0.7092 25.90% 67.34% 0.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    GOOY YieldMax™ GOOGL Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.3284 33.98% 4.12% 0.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    OARK YieldMax™ Innovation Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.3210 51.60% 3.25% 71.26% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    SNOY YieldMax™ SNOW Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.8119 63.58% 2.45% 0.00% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    TSLY YieldMax™ TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.4638 76.84% 4.69% 94.16% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    TSMY YieldMax™ TSM Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.5772 47.98% 3.59% 93.02% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    XOMO YieldMax™ XOM Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.2950 26.06% 3.38% 77.73% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    YBIT YieldMax™ Bitcoin Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks $0.4357 56.11% 1.61% 97.70% 3/20/2025 3/21/2025
    Weekly Payers & Group B ETFs scheduled for next week: GPTY LFGY QDTY RDTY SDTY ULTY YMAG YMAX BABO DIPS FBY GDXY JPMO MARO MRNY NVDY PLTY
     

    Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted above. Performance current to the most recent month-end can be obtained by calling (833) 378-0717.

    Note: DIPS, FIAT, CRSH and YQQQ are hereinafter referred to as the “Short ETFs”.

    Distributions are not guaranteed.  The Distribution Rate and 30-Day SEC Yield are not indicative of future distributions, if any, on the ETFs.  In particular, future distributions on any ETF may differ significantly from its Distribution Rate or 30-Day SEC Yield. You are not guaranteed a distribution under the ETFs. Distributions for the ETFs (if any) are variable and may vary significantly from period to period and may be zero. Accordingly, the Distribution Rate and 30-Day SEC Yield will change over time, and such change may be significant.

    Investors in the Funds will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions with respect to the underlying reference asset(s).

    1   All YieldMax™ ETFs shown in the table above (except YMAX, YMAG, FEAT, FIVY and ULTY) have a gross expense ratio of 0.99%. YMAX, YMAG and FEAT have a Management Fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.99% for a gross expense ratio of 1.28%. FIVY has a Management Fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.59% for a gross expense ratio of 0.88%. “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are indirect fees and expenses that the Fund incurs from investing in the shares of other investment companies, namely other YieldMax™ ETFs. ULTY has a gross expense ratio after the fee waiver of 1.30%. The Advisor has agreed to a fee waiver of 0.10% through at least February 28, 2026.

    2   The Distribution Rate shown is as of close on March 18, 2025. The Distribution Rate is the annual distribution rate an investor would receive if the most recent distribution, which includes option income, remained the same going forward. The Distribution Rate is calculated by annualizing an ETF’s Distribution per Share and dividing such annualized amount by the ETF’s most recent NAV. The Distribution Rate represents a single distribution from the ETF and does not represent its total return. Distributions may also include a combination of ordinary dividends, capital gain, and return of investor capital, which may decrease an ETF’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment. These Distribution Rates may be caused by unusually favorable market conditions and may not be sustainable. Such conditions may not continue to exist and there should be no expectation that this performance may be repeated in the future.

    3  The 30-Day SEC Yield represents net investment income, which excludes option income, earned by such ETF over the 30-Day period ended February 28, 2025, expressed as an annual percentage rate based on such ETF’s share price at the end of the 30-Day period.

    4  Each ETF’s strategy (except those of the Short ETFs) will cap potential gains if its reference asset’s shares increase in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset’s shares decrease in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF. Each Short ETF’s strategy will cap potential gains if its reference asset decreases in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset increases in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF.

    5 ROC refers to Return of Capital. The ROC percentage is the portion of the distribution that represents an investor’s original investment.

    Each Fund has a limited operating history and while each Fund’s objective is to provide current income, there is no guarantee the Fund will make a distribution. Distributions are likely to vary greatly in amount.

    Standardized Performance

    For YMAX, click here. For YMAG, click here. For TSLY, click here. For OARK, click here. For APLY, click here. For NVDY, click here. For AMZY, click here. For FBY, click here. For GOOY, click here. For NFLY, click here. For CONY, click here. For MSFO, click here. For DISO, click here. For XOMO, click here. For JPMO, click here. For AMDY, click here. For PYPY, click here. For SQY, click here. For MRNY, click here. For AIYY, click here. For MSTY, click here. For ULTY, click here. For YBIT, click here. For CRSH, click here. For GDXY, click here. For SNOY, click here. For ABNY, click here. For FIAT, click here. For DIPS, click here. For BABO, click here. For YQQQ, click here. For TSMY, click here. For SMCY, click here.  For PLTY, click here. For BIGY, click here. For SOXY, click here. For MARO, click here. For FEAT, click here. For FIVY, click here. For LFGY, click here. For GPTY, click here. For CVNY, click here. For SDTY, click here. For QDTY, click here. For RDTY, click here.

    Important Information

    This material must be preceded or accompanied by the prospectus. For all prospectuses, click here.

    Tidal Financial Group is the adviser for all YieldMax™ ETFs.

    THE FUND, TRUST, AND ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY UNDERLYING REFERENCE ASSET.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable to all YieldMax ETFs referenced above, except the Short ETFs)

    YMAX, YMAG, FEAT and FIVY generally invest in other YieldMax™ ETFs. As such, these two Funds are subject to the risks listed in this section, which apply to all the YieldMax™ ETFs they may hold from time to time.

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer periods.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. 

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. 

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Call Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (ARKK, TSLA, AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, META, GOOGL, NFLX, COIN, MSFT, DIS, XOM, JPM, AMD, PYPL, SQ, MRNA, AI, MSTR, Bitcoin ETP, GDX®, SNOW, ABNB, BABA, TSM, SMCI, PLTR, MARA, CVNA), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Indirect Investment Risk. The Index is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GPTY)

    Artificial Intelligence Risk. Issuers engaged in artificial intelligence typically have high research and capital expenditures and, as a result, their profitability can vary widely, if they are profitable at all. The space in which they are engaged is highly competitive and issuers’ products and services may become obsolete very quickly. These companies are heavily dependent on intellectual property rights and may be adversely affected by loss or impairment of those rights. The issuers are also subject to legal, regulatory and political changes that may have a large impact on their profitability. A failure in an issuer’s product or even questions about the safety of the product could be devastating to the issuer, especially if it is the marquee product of the issuer. It can be difficult to accurately capture what qualifies as an artificial intelligence company.

    Technology Sector Risk. The Fund will invest substantially in companies in the information technology sector, and therefore the performance of the Fund could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. Market or economic factors impacting technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technological advances could have a significant effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. The value of stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology is particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in technology product cycles, rapid product obsolescence, government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology, especially those of smaller, less-seasoned companies, tend to be more volatile than the overall market. Information technology companies are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights, the loss or impairment of which may adversely affect profitability.

    Risk Disclosure (applicable only to MARO)

    Digital Assets Risk: The Fund does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than the Fund. Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to BABO and TSMY)

    Currency Risk: Indirect exposure to foreign currencies subjects the Fund to the risk that currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Currency rates in foreign countries may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time for a number of reasons, including changes in interest rates and the imposition of currency controls or other political developments in the U.S. or abroad.

    Depositary Receipts Risk: The securities underlying BABO and TSMY are American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). Investment in ADRs may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market.

    Foreign Market and Trading Risk: The trading markets for many foreign securities are not as active as U.S. markets and may have less governmental regulation and oversight.

    Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers involve certain risks that may not be present with investments in securities of U.S. issuers, such as risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations or to political or economic instability, as well as varying regulatory requirements applicable to investments in non-U.S. issuers. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. issuer than a U.S. issuer. Non-U.S. issuers may also be subject to different regulatory, accounting, auditing, financial reporting and investor protection standards than U.S. issuers.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GDXY)

    Risk of Investing in Foreign Securities. The Fund is exposed indirectly to the securities of foreign issuers selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers involve risks beyond those associated with investments in U.S. securities.

    Risk of Investing in Gold and Silver Mining Companies. The Fund is exposed indirectly to gold and silver mining companies selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies.

    The Fund invests in options contracts based on the value of the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX®), which subjects the Fund to some of the same risks as if it owned GDX®, as well as the risks associated with Canadian, Australian and Emerging Market Issuers, and Small-and Medium-Capitalization companies.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YBIT)

    YBIT does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than YBIT.

    Bitcoin Investment Risk: The Fund’s indirect investment in Bitcoin, through holdings in one or more Underlying ETPs, exposes it to the unique risks of this emerging innovation. Bitcoin’s price is highly volatile, and its market is influenced by the changing Bitcoin network, fluctuating acceptance levels, and unpredictable usage trends.

    Digital Assets Risk: Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility.  Potentially No 1940 Act Protections. As of the date of this Prospectus, there is only a single eligible Underlying ETP, and it is an investment company subject to the 1940 Act.

    Bitcoin ETP Risk: The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of the Bitcoin ETP. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of the Bitcoin ETP, even though it does not. Bitcoin ETPs are subject, but not limited, to significant risk and heightened volatility. An investor in a Bitcoin ETP may lose their entire investment. Bitcoin ETPs are not suitable for all investors. In addition, not all Bitcoin ETPs are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Those Bitcoin ETPs that are not registered under such statute are therefore not subject to the same regulations as exchange traded products that are so registered.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to the Short ETFs)

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Price Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the underlying reference asset. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the underlying reference asset, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, the Fund is subject to the risk that the value of the underlying reference asset increases. If the value of the underlying reference asset increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses.

    Put Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s put writing (selling) strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in decreases in the value of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold put options and over longer periods.

    Purchased OTM Call Options Risk. The Fund’s strategy is subject to potential losses if the underlying reference asset increases in value, which may not be offset by the purchase of out-of-the-money (OTM) call options. The Fund purchases OTM calls to seek to manage (cap) the Fund’s potential losses from the Fund’s short exposure to the underlying reference asset if it appreciates significantly in value. However, the OTM call options will cap the Fund’s losses only to the extent that the value of the underlying reference asset increases to a level that is at or above the strike level of the purchased OTM call options. Any increase in the value of the underlying reference asset to a level that is below the strike level of the purchased OTM call options will result in a corresponding loss for the Fund. For example, if the OTM call options have a strike level that is approximately 100% above the then-current value of the underlying reference asset at the time of the call option purchase, and the value of the underlying reference asset increases by at least 100% during the term of the purchased OTM call options, the Fund will lose all its value. Since the Fund bears the costs of purchasing the OTM calls, such costs will decrease the Fund’s value and/or any income otherwise generated by the Fund’s investment strategy.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. 

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. 

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in decreases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Put Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, for any Fund that focuses on an individual security (e.g., TSLA, COIN, NVDA), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole. 

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YQQQ)

    Index Overview. The Nasdaq 100 Index is a benchmark index that includes 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, based on market capitalization.

    Index Level Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the Index level. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the Index, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the Index level, the Fund is subject to the risk that the Index level increases. If the Index level increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses. The Fund may also be subject to the following risks: innovation and technological advancement; strong market presence of Index constituent companies; adaptability to global market trends; and resilience and recovery potential.

    Index Level Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will benefit from decreases in the Index level experienced over the Put Period. This means that if the Index level experiences a decrease in value below the strike level of the sold put options during a Put Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and any Fund gains may significantly differ from the level of the Index losses over the Put Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in decreases in value experienced by the Index level over each Put Period, but has significant negative exposure to any increases in value experienced by the Index level over the Put Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the inverse of the performance of the Index level. The Fund’s ability to benefit from the Index level decreases will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold put option contracts and will vary from Put Period to Put Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of component companies that comprise the Index, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of the Index and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the Index level changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Put Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly inversely correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of the Index level. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact that the value of the options contracts has on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the Index level will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than the inverse of the changes experienced by the Index level.

    YieldMax™ ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Foreside is not affiliated with Tidal Financial Group, or YieldMax™ ETFs.

    © 2025 YieldMax™ ETFs

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: InitVerse 2nd Anniversary Celebration — Full Breakdown of 500,000 $INI, Limited NFTs, and Exclusive Benefits

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — InitVerse, the next-generation Web3 SaaS platform, has rapidly expanded its footprint across nine countries, including Japan, Vietnam, France, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. With over 20 localized Telegram and Discord communities, InitVerse now boasts a global user base exceeding 400,000 users.

    On March 17th, InitVerse celebrates its 2nd anniversary, marking an exciting Web3 carnival where technology, profitability, and exclusivity converge. To express gratitude to the global community, InitVerse is generously distributing 500,000 $INI tokens through various activities, including NFT minting, on-chain tasks, staking and mining, and community KOL recruitment. Each activity incorporates limited-edition elements and high-reward mechanisms, creating a thrilling event that blends innovation with financial rewards.

    This article will dive deep into the anniversary celebration, focusing on technological empowerment, revenue strategies, and effective participation methods, helping you seize this golden opportunity to achieve high returns at zero cost.

    Tech at the Core: How INIChain Redefines Blockchain with Privacy Computing and Dynamic Block Partitioning

    From its inception to the upcoming 2025 mainnet launch, INIChain has established a foundational privacy computing infrastructure. Coupled with the InitVerse SaaS platform, which provides streamlined developer tools, the ecosystem covers the entire lifecycle of blockchain application development—from core privacy infrastructure to rapid dApp deployment. Together, INIChain and InitVerse have built a comprehensive ecosystem catering to miners, developers, and blockchain builders. At the core of this vibrant InitVerse ecosystem lies INIChain’s innovative technology, transforming traditional Proof-of-Work (PoW) from an “energy-intensive competition” into a collaborative privacy-computing infrastructure. The recent 2nd-anniversary event prominently showcased these groundbreaking technical capabilities:

    1. TfhEVM: The “Invisibility Cloak” for Private Smart Contracts
      • Technology Overview: TfhEVM integrates Fully Homomorphic Encryption (TFHE) with Ethereum’s EVM, enabling real-time computations on encrypted data. Input data is transformed into randomized polynomial ciphertexts, ensuring results are verifiable without decrypting sensitive information.
      • Developer Advantages: Through the InitVerse SaaS platform, Ethereum developers can easily deploy or migrate dApps with just one click, significantly reducing costs while providing robust privacy protection.
    2. DDA Mechanism: The “Hash Power Regulator” for Miners
      • Dynamic Block Partitioning: Blocks are segmented into high-privacy blocks (requiring TFHE computation) and standard blocks (traditional PoW). High-privacy blocks offer higher rewards but have a higher computational barrier, whereas standard blocks enable participation from regular CPU miners.
      • VersaHash Algorithm: A more equitable mining approach that dynamically adjusts computational difficulty, ensuring balanced earnings across miners of varying capabilities.
      • Miner Rewards Model:
        • Base Reward: Each block consistently yields 727.39 $INI, distributed proportionally based on mining contributions.
        • Privacy Computing Bonus: Miners participating in high-privacy block validation receive an additional 15% reward boost.

    Earn 500,000 $INI Risk-Free: Events You Shouldn’t Miss!

    The anniversary event offers a series of mini-challenges that caters to users of all levels, allowing you to get high returns and unique rewards. Participate via the official event page.

    Event 1: Limited NFT Minting – Guaranteed 5 $INI for First 10,000 Participants + Exclusive Epic Cards!

    • Total Rewards: 50,000 $INI + Limited Edition INIBoo NFTs
    • Event Period: From March 17th to April 13th. Split into 4 batches, each batch lasting 7 days (the first batch ends on March 13th).
    • Participation Steps: Log in to the Candy platform → Complete verification → Select the batch → Pay 0.5 $INI → Mint NFT and claim $INI.

    How It Works:

    • Step-by-Step Participation:
      • Follow InitVerse on X, join the Telegram and Discord groups—this grants eligibility for a free NFT mint.
      • $INI back immediately — even after deducting the 0.5 $INI mint cost, yielding a net profit of 4.5 $INI per mint.
    • Guaranteed Earnings:
      Each mint directly returns rewards—every user will profit at least 4.5 $INI per NFT minted.
    • Scarcity and Benefits:
      • The NFT collection “INIBoo” is limited, featuring epic cards whose availability decreases daily.
      • NFT holders get perks such as merchandise, early testing access, whitelist airdrops, exclusive event tickets, VIP privileges, and governance rights, with benefits expanding alongside ecosystem growth.

    Event 2: Earn 10 $INI + Mining Rewards in 4 Easy Steps!

    • Prize Pool: 100,000 $INI
    • Event Window: March 28 – April 16 (UTC), limited to the first 10,000 participants.

    Step-by-Step Guide:

    1. Follow the InitVerse X account and retweet the pinned tweet.
    2. Join the Telegram and Discord communities.
    3. Perform 10 mainnet transactions (e.g., token transfers between your addresses).
    4. Mine on C-Mining Pool via provided tutorials (only 5 hours required).

    After completing these tasks, claim your guaranteed 10 $INI reward.

    Extra Benefits: Double your earnings by stacking mining rewards and the 10 $INI task reward.

    Event 3: High-Yield Staking—Earn up to 50% APR!

    • Total Prize Pool: 300,000 $INI
    • Event Duration: March 28–April 16 (UTC). The staking period is fixed at 20 days, after which participation closes.
    • Eligibility: Must first complete Event 2.

    Participation Details:

    • Stake at least 10 $INI on the event page.
    • Rewards released after completing a 20-day staking period.
    • Open to all, making it accessible even to small token holders.

    Dynamic Reward:

    • If ≥50,000 participants join, staking rewards increase to 50%, encouraging collective community participation.
    • Guaranteed Minimum: Even if fewer than 20,000 users join, participants will still earn a guaranteed 10% return, far exceeding typical DeFi standards.
    • Low Barrier to Entry: Participation starts from just 10 $INI, with straightforward staking rules, ensuring inclusivity for small-scale holders.

    Ideal for: Long-term holders, community governance participants, and those seeking to maximize returns.

    Event 4: 50,000 $INI Partnership Program

    Details:
    Seeking partnerships and influencers who can bring additional traffic and collaborate with InitVerse.

    • Application:
      Directly message on Telegram: @samylmz

    Final Thoughts:

    InitVerse’s 2nd anniversary emphasizes universal community engagement, attractive rewards, and unique privileges, distributing 450,000 $INI directly to participants, with an additional 50,000 $INI allocated to strategic partnerships. This celebration isn’t just about rewards—it’s a decentralized initiative showcasing the power of community-driven innovation, paving the way for blockchain’s future.

    About InitVerse:

    InitVerse is an automated Web3 SaaS platform designed for streamlined DApp development and deployment, backed by INIChain and INICloud. It simplifies blockchain app creation, enhancing development efficiency through comprehensive, user-friendly tools.

    Contact:
    Sami Yilmaz
    support@inichain.com

    Disclaimer: This press release is provided by INIChain. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. Investing in crypto and mining related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sector–including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and mining–complete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release.Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose.

    Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an “as-is” basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a50c8380-529d-4650-97e4-fed7f10f3ace

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Labor promises PBS scripts will cost no more than $25, under latest health pitch for election

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    The Albanese government will make another pre-election offer in health, promising that if re-elected it will legislate to ensure people pay no more than $25 for a script under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

    The measure, to be announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday, would start on January 1 next year.

    The government says it represents a cut of more than 20% in the maximum cost of PBS medicines, and would save Australians more than $200 million a year. Four out of five medicines would become cheaper.

    The measure, included in next week’s budget, costs the government $689 million over the forward estimates.

    Pensioners and concession card holders will continue to have the cost of their PBS medicines frozen at $7.70 until 2030.

    This is the latest in a range of initiatives the government has taken in health, including promising billions of dollars to expand bulk billing and adding a number of drugs for women’s health to the PBS. The opposition, which matched the government’s bulk billing policy, will be under pressure to do the same with this latest measure.

    Anthony Albanese said: “With cheaper medicines, more free GP visits and a stronger Medicare, we say to Australians, we’ve got your back”.

    Health Minister Mark Butler said the last time Australians paid no more than $25 for a PBS medicine was more than 20 years ago.

    Butler said when Peter Dutton was health minister in the Abbott government “he tried to make medicines cost more”.

    “The contrast in this election is clear: cheaper medicines with a re-elected Albanese government or the frankly terrifying legacy of Peter Dutton, who wants medicines to cost more, not less.”

    Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Labor promises PBS scripts will cost no more than $25, under latest health pitch for election – https://theconversation.com/labor-promises-pbs-scripts-will-cost-no-more-than-25-under-latest-health-pitch-for-election-252510

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Members consider trade agreements involving Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Nicaragua

    Source: World Trade Organization

    The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement , covering trade in goods and services, came into force on 29 December 2022. Australia will eliminate customs duties on 98.3% of its tariff lines by the end of the implementation period in 2026, while India will do so for 69.8% by 2031. For trade in services, both parties have enhanced sectoral commitments beyond those under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), including the movement of natural persons.

    Australia said the landmark Agreement represents a significant development in the economic relationship between Australia and India and supports both countries’ deeper integration into the global economy. Australia added that the Agreement includes provisions on strengthening investment certainty, promoting regulatory cooperation and enhancing mobility for skilled professionals.

    India said the Agreement has driven mutual growth and showcases the complementarity of both economies. The Agreement has significantly advanced trade ties and created new opportunities for business and employment. India added that both countries are committed to building on the momentum to deepen economic integration.

    The Free Trade Agreement between China and Nicaragua,  goods and services, entered into force on 1 January 2024. At the end of the transition period in 2038, 95.2% of tariff lines of China and 94.8% of tariff lines of Nicaragua will be duty-free under the Agreement. Each party will retain tariffs on approximately 5% of tariff lines after full implementation.  On trade in services, the Agreement follows a negative list approach and adds new or improved commitments compared to the parties’commitments under the GATS in a number of areas including business services and health services. Moreover, the Agreement includes, among other things, provisions on the environment, competition, dispute settlement, small and medium enterprises, and e-commerce.

    China said the Agreement establishes a high level of openness between both economies in terms of trade in goods and services and for investment. China noted that both economies are highly complementary and that there is a great potential for trade and investment cooperation.

    Nicaragua said the Agreement, which builds upon the July 2022 Early Harvest Agreement, will produce mutual benefits for both countries. Nicaragua added that the Agreement provides an opportunity to transform the country’s structure of production, trading and investment.

    The Free Trade Agreement between China and Cambodia, covering trade in goods and services, came into force on 1 January 2022. Under the Agreement, China has committed to eliminating customs duties on 97.3% of its tariffs by 2041, while Cambodia has committed to eliminating 90% of its tariffs during the same period. Much of the tariff elimination has been “front loaded” by both parties, with most tariff reductions already applied since 2022. For trade in services, Cambodia’s sectoral commitments remain the same as in its GATS commitments, except for a limited number of sectors, while China’s existing GATS commitments are further enhanced for a number of sectors under the Agreement. The Agreement also contains provisions on cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

    China said the Agreement is its first bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) signed with a least-developed country (LDC), noting that this sets a good example of cooperation with LDCs. China said it is also the first FTA that sets an independent chapter on cooperation under the BRI and that it will enhance value chains between the two countries.

    Cambodia said the Agreement is consistent with WTO commitments as it eliminates duties on a substantial amount of trade between the two countries. Cambodia noted the Agreement provides benefits beyond the economic aspect as it also contributes to Cambodia’s broader development strategies.

    Implementation of the RTA Transparency Mechanism

    The Committee also took note of one new notification of an RTA, as well as five notifications of changes since its last session in November 2024. The signature of one Agreement was also the subject of an early announcement.

    The outgoing chair, Ambassador Salomon Eheth (Cameroon), noted that there are 30 RTAs involving only WTO members and 38 involving non-members for which a factual presentation has to be prepared, counting goods and services separately. In addition, there are at least 58 RTAs currently in force that have not been notified to the WTO, with an updated list of these circulated prior to the Committee meeting and available on the RTA database. A number of delegations encouraged members to notify these agreements as soon as possible, while noting that delays may be due to constrained capacities of small delegations.

    The Committee took note of the updated schedule for the submissions of  implementation reports on RTAs. It noted that as of 1 March 2025, such reports were due for 223 RTAs with an additional 15 becoming due in 2025.

    Election of new Chair

    Members elected Ambassador José Valencia of Ecuador as the new Committee Chair. He replaces Ambassador Eheth.

    Next meeting

    The next Committee meetings for 2025 are scheduled for 17 June and 10 November.

    Share

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: “A watch-and-learn moment”: Marshall Islands ratifies historic UN ocean treaty

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    SYDNEY/MAJURO, Friday 14 March 2025 — The Republic of Marshall Islands has become one of the first Pacific nations to ratify the historic Global Ocean Treaty, sending a powerful message to other world leaders: no more harm to the oceans.

    It comes as Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, arrived in Majuro to begin its six-week mission to elevate calls for nuclear and climate justice alongside the Marshallese community; and support independent scientific research into the impacts of decades-long nuclear weapons testing by the US government, including the impacts on the ocean – a main source of food, culture and livelihood for the Marshallese people.

    On the ratification of the treaty, Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: 

    “We congratulate the Government of the Marshall Islands for its commitment to protecting the global oceans by inking the Global Ocean Treaty into law,” he said.

    “The Marshall Islands continues to show its strength as a fearless and powerful custodian of its waters and lands. The ratifying of the treaty is a loud, clear message to the world that the Pacific Ocean and the world’s seas must be safeguarded. To the Global North, this must be a watch-and-learn moment.”

    The Marshall Islands is the second Pacific nation to ratify the treaty. It follows Palau as the first country in the world to ratify last year, showcasing strong ocean protection leadership from the Pacific region.

    “The global ocean connects us all. From the Marshall Islands to Tuvalu, Australia, Hawaii and beyond, we are all connected by these life-sustaining waters. It’s time for governments to follow the leaders and protect our blue planet for the good of our collective future,” Gounden added.

    The ratification comes after Marshall Island announced its first protected ocean sanctuary in January, which will protect a mammoth swathe of water in the country’s north.

    The historic Global Ocean Treaty is the most significant multilateral environmental deal since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Adopted in June 2023 and currently signed by 112 countries, it will only enter into force once it is ratified by at least 60. Including the Marshall Islands, 20 countries have ratified the treaty. Australia has signed, but is yet to ratify

    Greenpeace is urging governments worldwide to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty quickly to achieve the 30×30 target and start developing proposals for marine protected areas in the high seas.

    —ENDS—

    Notes

    Photos of the Rainbow Warrior arriving in Majuro can be found here

    Archival footage and images from the US nuclear weapons testing collected here 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Facilities to Local People by South Eastern Coalfields Limited

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 19 MAR 2025 2:59PM by PIB Delhi

    The facilities provided by South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) under CSR through various CSR activities are related to different themes viz. Healthcare, Education, Water Supply, Rural Development, etc., primarily for development of local populace residing within 25 KMs from SECL project sites/ mines/ Area HQ/ Company HQ and also for people residing in the operating state of SECL i.e. Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, SECL also provides a wide range facilities to the local populace by providing safe & free drinking water, better roads, organising periodical medical check-up camps/eye camps in affected and nearby villages, free OPD facilities in the dispensary / hospitals of the Company and vocational training to landless people displaced by the project.

    Further, SECL also provides facilities at the various R&R sites such as buildings for primary schools, shopping centres, buildings for community centres, buildings for health centres, wells, hand pumps, approach roads, Electric poles and electric wires and playgrounds as per the Act/Policy.

    Further, SECL has a range of welfare initiatives in place for its employees/workers. These initiatives focus on improving the well-being, safety, and quality of life for human capital. The key welfare measures by SECL to its workers are:

    1. Health and Medical Facilities

    • Healthcare Centres: SECL runs a number of health centres and dispensaries across its mining areas, providing primary and emergency medical care to employees and their families. The central Hospitals at Area provide emergency medical services and inpatient treatment to employees and their families.
    • Free Medical Services: Employees and their dependents are offered free medical treatment, including in-house medical care and the provisions of treatment at empanelled hospitals.
    • Medical Camps: Periodic health check-up camps are organized to monitor the health status of workers, especially in areas like respiratory health, which is critical for mining personnel

    2. Housing and Accommodation

    • Residential Quarters: SECL provides residential facilities to its employees, especially in mining regions where housing is a critical concern. These quarters are maintained and offer basic amenities.
    • Family Welfare: Efforts are made to ensure that the families of employees have access to amenities like clean drinking water, electricity and sanitation.

    3. Education and Skill Development

    • Schools for Children: SECL runs schools in its mining areas, providing education to the children of employees.
    • Scholarships and reimbursement of Tuition Fee: Scholarships are provided to the children of employees who excel in their academic pursuits. There are provisions of reimbursement of tuition fee of the dependents of employee for engineering and medical education au government institutes.
    • Skill Development Programs: SECL organizes various training and development programs to upskill its employees, improving their employability and career growth opportunities.

    4. Retirement Benefits

    • Pension and Gratuity: SECL offers comprehensive retirement benefits, including Coal Mines Pension Scheme, Gratuity, and Coal Mines Provident Fund (CMPF) to its employees.
    • Post-Retirement Welfare: SECL has welfare schemes in place for retired employees, offering post-retirement medical benefits and other postretirement support services.

    5. Financial Assistance and Loans

    • Housing Loans/ Car Loan: SECL provides employees with low-interest loans to construct or purchase houses and/or car.

    6. Cultural and Recreational Activities

    • Sports and Recreation: SECL encourages employees to participate in sports and cultural activities. The company organizes sports events, cultural festivals, and competitions for both employees and their families.
    • Clubs and Societies: Employees and their families can engage themselves in social and recreational clubs within the company, helping foster a healthy work-life balance.

    7. Women’s Welfare

    • SECL ensures equal opportunities for women in its workforce, with policies in place to prevent discrimination and promote gender equality.
    • Women employees are also provided with maternity leave, childcare facilities, creche at workplace and other benefits to balance work and family responsibilities.

    Further, the facilities provided to Contractors’ Workers in SECL are as follows:

    • First Aid facility in Mines Premises.
    • Medical OPD and indoor facility in company hospital are being provided to contractor workers on producing I/Card.
    • Drinking Water and sanitary facilities.
    • Personal Protection/ Safety Equipment as per terms of contract
    • Ambulance facility.
    • Canteen and Creche facility.
    • Group Personal Accident Insurance as per terms of contract.
    • Corporate salary package with Eight Nationalized Banks viz SBI, PNB, BOB, UCO Bank, BOI, Indian bank, UBI. The aforesaid Banks are also providing personal accidental insurance coverage of Rs. 40 Lakhs in case of death or for permanent total disability and other facilities as per MoU signed between Coal India Ltd and different banks.
    • Social Security as per statute, including ex-gratia of Rs 15 lakh to the next of kin of contractor worker in case of mine accident and even during Covid -19, similar amount was also paid to the next kin of contractor workers of SECL who died due to COVID-19.
    • The contractor workers are also covered under CMPF/EPF & Employees Compensation ACT. In addition, contractor workers are paid minimum Wages (Central) engaged in non- mining activities and in case of contractor workers engaged in mining activities are being paid wages as per High Power Committee of CIL. (HPC Wages are midway between wages prescribed by Central Government under the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for the workers employed in the scheduled employment for non- coal mines and the wages payable to the lowest category of regular workers i.e Cat-I of NCWA-XI for CIL and SCCL.)
    • Education facility to the children of Contractor workers in project school of SECL is also being provided.

    Various development works done in the concerned districts of Chhattisgarh by SECL during last five years (year-wise) and the current year i.e. 2024-25, under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) head (Sector-wise) is detailed hereunder:

    (Rs. in Crore)

    Financial Year

    Healthcare

    Education

    Water

    Supply

    Environmental Sustainability

    Rural

    Development

    Others

    Total

    2019-20

    18.50

    0.91

    0.69

    5.62

    1.94

    56.99

    84.65

    2020-21

    26.44

    4.74

    0.24

    0.11

    2.24

    4.56

    38.33

    2021-22

    45.55

    15.32

    0.00

    4.36

    5.14

    9.45

    79.82

    2022-23

    35.72

    12.77

    0.00

    0.42

    2.48

    7.89

    59.28

    2023-24

    32.07

    7.25

    0.00

    0.24

    6.54

    6.97

    53.07

    2024-25(Current)

    13.40

    5.12

    0.00

    1.09

    4.25

    1.49

    25.35

    Total

    171.68

    46.11

    0.93

    11.84

    22.59

    87.35

    340.50

     

    District wise CSR expenditure of SECL in Chhattisgarh State is detailed below:

                                                                                                                                 (Rs. in Crore)

    Name of District in Chhattisgarh

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    2024-25

    Grand Total

     

    		  
       

    Balrampur

    0.42

     

     

    0.11

     

    0.92

    1.45

    		    

    Balrampur-Ramanujganj

     

     

    3.52

     

     

     

    3.52

    		    

    Bastar

     

     

    0.21

     

    0.04

     

    0.24

    		    

    Bilaspur

    21.65

    11.45

    10.32

    0.96

    1.98

    4.18

    50.54

    		    

    Gaurella-Pendra-Marwahi

     

     

    0.2

     

     

     

    0.2

    		    

    Janjgir-Champa

     

     

    0.25

     

     

     

    0.25

    		    

    Korba

    0.99

    4.51

    7

    5.41

    11.74

    8.99

    38.64

    		    

    Koriya

    0.12

    0.01

    0.32

    0.06

    3.69

     

    4.2

    		    

    Raigarh

    0.36

    1.36

    7.25

    5.96

    1.67

    3.86

    20.47

    		    

    Raipur

    0.02

    0.27

    0.31

    2.83

    6.31

    0.69

    10.42

    		    

    Surajpur

    1.15

    1.11

    0.89

    0.73

    0.66

     

    4.53

    		    

    Surguja

     

    2.93

    1.6

    0.18

    0.6

    0.59

    5.91

    		    

    Other districts of Chhattisgarh

    58.49

    12.88

    10.88

    25.52

    9.29

    2.13

    119.19

    		    

    Administrative Expenditure in CG

    0.49

    3.33

    2.33

    2.73

    3.02

     

    11.9

    		    

    Grand Total

    83.69

    37.86

    45.07

    44.49

    39

    21.35

    271.46

    		    

    Overall, SECL’s CSR expenditure reflects a strategic shift towards targeted investments, adapting to evolving community needs while maintaining a strong focus on improving health, education, environmental sustainability, rural development projects etc.

    The details of the development works done under other heads in various districts of Chhattisgarh during each of the last five years and the current year is as under:

    • Providing filtered Mine water in various villages.
    • Construction of Community/ Multipurpose Hall.
    • Modification of existing Stadiums.
    • Construction of Boundary Wall of Schools/Townships, etc.
    • Construction of Sewerage Treatment Plants
    • Construction of Approach Road/Village Road, etc.
    • Construction of Cement concrete road with pavement, culverts, etc.
    • Strengthening and widening of existing roads.
    • Re-carpeting of PWD Road.
    • Construction of Hostels.
    • Construction of Badminton Court, Tennis Court, etc.
    • Addition of ICU Unit at Hospital.
    • Construction/Modernisation of Sport Complex.

    This information was given by Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

    ****

    Shuhaib T

    (Release ID: 2112724) Visitor Counter : 46

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Coal Gasification Initiative

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 19 MAR 2025 2:58PM by PIB Delhi

    The coal gasification initiatives taken by the Government are as under:

    (i) On January 24, 2024 the Government has approved an outlay of ₹ 8,500 crore as financial incentive, for promotion of coal/lignite gasification projects for both government PSUs as well as private sector.

    (ii) Government has also approved investment by Coal India Limited (CIL) in joint ventures of CIL-BHEL and CIL-GAIL for undertaking coal gasification projects.

    (iii) In 2022, a new sub-sector, “Production of Syngas leading to coal gasification,” was created under the NRS linkage auctions policy to support this initiative. Further under this sector the government has allowed auction with a floor price at the notified price of the regulated sector, for the projects commissioning within the next seven years.

    (iv) 50% rebate in the revenue share for coal used in gasification has been introduced in commercial coal block auctions, provided that at least 10% of the total coal production is used for gasification purposes.

    Coal is one of the most abundant natural resources in the country. Coal gasification technology enables conversion of coal into syngas (synthetic gas), which can be used to produce downstream products like methanol, ammonium nitrate, Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) and Fertilizers etc. Coal gasification technology provides alternative use of coal promoting environmental sustainability to align with vision of developed India 2047.

    The Government has not conducted any specific impact assessment of the financial incentive scheme for coal gasification projects.

    Coal India Limited (CIL), a CPSE under Ministry of Coal, has secured Khattali Chhoti Graphite Block in Madhya Pradesh, India through e- auction of critical mineral blocks conducted by Ministry of Mines. Besides, CIL has also signed Non-Disclosure Agreement with an Argentinian company and an Australian company for acquisition of lithium assets in Argentina.

    The Government has, inter-alia, taken the following steps to reduce India’s import dependency and build supply chain resilience in critical minerals:

    • Central Government has been empowered to exclusively auction mining lease and composite license for 24 critical minerals, with an aim to increase exploration and mining of critical minerals and ensure self-sufficiency in their supply.
    • The Government has announced in the Union Budget 2024-25 the setting up of a Critical Mineral Mission for a harmonized approach in areas including domestic production, recycling, overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets and research & development (R&D).

    This information was given by Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

    ****

    Shuhaib T                                                                                    

    (Release ID: 2112723) Visitor Counter : 61

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Surf therapy for children with disabilities: how it’s changing lives in South Africa

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Roxy Davis, Doctor of philosophy, University of Cape Town

    Children with disabilities face significant challenges in South Africa. Firstly there are delayed diagnoses which can lead to complications. The high cost of healthcare and little financial support for their families can limit their access to healthcare services altogether.

    There is also little access to rehabilitation services. Inadequate facilities and a shortage of trained personnel are just some of the obstacles.

    I started thinking about ways to get over these obstacles when I noticed that people with disabilities weren’t well represented in my sport.

    As a competitive surfer and instructor, I had always celebrated the ocean’s ability to inspire confidence and resilience.

    Every day, the beach was alive with activity – surfers, families and ocean lovers. Yet among them, I rarely saw people with disabilities in the water.

    I began to notice that the beachfront itself, the infrastructure, the culture, and even my own surf school, weren’t actively creating space for inclusivity.

    This would eventually become the cornerstone of the Roxy Davis Foundation, established in 2019, and later my doctoral research focusing on ocean-based therapy for children with disabilities.

    I found surf therapy enhanced the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of these children.

    New therapy

    Surf therapy teaches people with disabilities to surf to promote psychological, physical and psychosocial well-being.

    The first peer reviewed publication on surf therapy appeared in 2010 and focused on Aboriginal children in Australia. It was about mitigating the inter-generational trauma suffered as a result of the government-sanctioned removal of Aboriginal children from their families, a policy that only ended in the 1970s.

    In 2020 a review of a 10-year period included 29 studies into war veterans and young adult cancer survivors, among others.

    One such study focused on children with autism spectrum disorder. The study took place in the north-west of Ireland. Children said they felt happier and free, while their parents said they were more relaxed and confident.

    A South African study with children with autism spectrum disorder explored the feasibility and unique benefits of an existing surf therapy programme and reported largely positive results.

    My own research involved an adapted surf therapy programme for children with a range of disabilities.

    Five children aged between 12 and 16 were enrolled. Altogether there were 35 participants including parents, counsellors, volunteers, physiotherapists and surf instructors.

    Four of the five children were from under-resourced communities in South Africa’s Western Cape province and all had either a physical, sensory, intellectual or cognitive impairment.

    None of the children had taken part in ocean sports before.

    Getting into the water

    For six weeks the children took part in a three-hour surf therapy session on a Friday afternoon.

    The first goal was to get the kids in the water. We used mobility mats, surfboards with handles and amphibious beach wheelchairs to help.

    Each child was taught now to surf according to their pace of learning and ability.

    There was also a “surfers’ circle” with a discussion topic for each session.

    After six weeks we conducted follow-up interviews to see what changes the children had experienced, and if these had any influence on their lives outside surfing.

    We also asked parents and counsellors to identify the most significant changes in the children.

    ‘I felt free and confident’

    Final interviews were completed one year later.

    Charlie, aged 12, with cerebral palsy: “If my brothers want to go surfing I don’t have to stay behind and just watch them, I can go surf with them. It is so cool to surf with my dad and my brothers.”

    Charlie’s teacher: “His self-awareness level and how he sees himself in the world has really improved.”

    Tala, aged 15, with cerebal palsy: “Once I started surfing, I felt free and confident. Even in other spaces, when I’m not surfing, like, ‘Yeah I can surf, I can do something like surfing that I didn’t know that I could do before.’ ”

    Tala’s school psychologist: “She went into this feeling very insecure, nervous and anxious. She said she will always remember who she was and how she felt before she went to the programme and how she came out of it … to be able to use that feeling and apply it to a different situation, that’s huge for her.”

    Princess, aged 15, with spina bifida: was determined to “wean” herself off using nappies after gaining confidence through surf therapy.

    Princess’s guardian described her experience as similar to “winning a gold medal … She was more confident in herself than ever. She is off that nappy completely now.”

    Thabo, aged 14, a leg amputee: “Before session one, I was feeling nervous and excited, but as soon as I got in the sea, the nerves disappeared. You look and realise you can actually do that. I feel like I belong in the ocean.”

    After the final session he said: “I can relax, I can be in control of my urges and my temper. I’m now not always thinking about what people think about me. I can be myself in many ways.”

    Rowan, aged 15, a quadruple amputee: “Before I started surfing, I was thinking I can’t do it until I tried it and just being there was like beyond being able to speak in my wildest dreams. I couldn’t believe I could surf in the ocean riding some waves.

    “On my first session, I was like ‘If I can do it, I can do it for the rest of my life’.”

    In his second interview he said: “My goal is to become a national champion and to become a Paralympic champion.”

    One year after the surf therapy programme he entered a provincial parasurfing competition, which he won. He was then selected to participate in the South African Para Surfing Championships in 2022, where he came second. Later that year he was selected to represent South Africa at the World Para Surfing Championships in California. Nineteen months after starting surfing, in December, on his 16th birthday, he competed in the World Championships and was placed 17th.

    Surf therapy demonstrates what’s possible when we focus on ability rather than limitation.

    – Surf therapy for children with disabilities: how it’s changing lives in South Africa
    – https://theconversation.com/surf-therapy-for-children-with-disabilities-how-its-changing-lives-in-south-africa-245290

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Tasmanian ancestral remains to return home A ceremony to repatriate Tasmanian ancestral remains held in University of Aberdeen collections since the 1850s will take place on 21 March.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    Neil Curtis preparing the ancestral remains for transporA ceremony to repatriate Tasmanian ancestral remains held in University of Aberdeen collections since the 1850s will take place on 21 March.
    The University contacted the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in 2019, which led to a proposal to return the remains of a young man. This was approved unconditionally by the University’s governing body, Court, in 2020 and the Centre is now in a position to take the remains back to Tasmania where they will be laid to rest in a traditional ceremony conducted by Aboriginal people.
    Details of how the remains were acquired by the University are limited, with records listing only that it was part of the collection of William MacGillivray, Regius Professor of Natural History in Marischal College. After his death in 1852, the collection was purchased by the University and in the sale catalogue it was described as ‘Native of Van Diemen’s Land, who was shot on the Shannon River’.
    There is no record surviving to indicate how the skull was acquired by MacGillivray.
    The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, a non-profit community-based organisation established in 1973 to provide legal, health, educational, cultural and welfare services to Aboriginal people, considers that ‘there can be no doubt that this skull was removed from the man shot at the Shannon River in order to service (the) trade in Aboriginal body parts. The decapitation was most likely performed by one of the killers, stock-keepers, property owners or lessees involved in or associated with the man’s murder’. This may have taken place in the 1820s or 1830s.
    It is unlikely that the identity of the man will ever be known beyond that of his tribal group. The ‘Big River’ tribe to which he belonged is one of the many original tribes entirely wiped out and for which there are no surviving direct descendants.
    The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre is recognised by both Australian and international governments as the only appropriate organisation to which all repatriated Tasmanian Aboriginal skeletal remains and cultural property are returned.
    After acquisition by the University, the skull was kept as part of the Comparative Anatomy collection, before being transferred to the Human Culture collection in the early 2000s. It was used in medical education in the 19th and early 20th centuries but the collection is no longer used for teaching and there is no current or intended research associated with it.
    Andry Sculthorpe of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre said: “Aboriginal people feel the enormous responsibility of restoring to our own country both the physical remains, and through them, the spirits of our ancestral dead.
    “This is a record of racist attitudes to the study of humanity, including human remains acquired by grave robbing and other immoral activity; in this case, murder.
    “We applaud the institutions that have the courage to let go of their perceptions of intellectual supremacy, embrace their own humanity and do what is right by the people who are most impacted by the atrocities they have inflicted in the past. This young man’s murder will not be forgotten and we will bring him home to rest at last.”
    Neil Curtis, Head of University Collections at the University of Aberdeen, said: “Given the violence and racism that led to their acquisition, it would be unacceptable for these ancestral remains to be used for research, teaching or exhibitions purposes.
    “We are pleased that the remains of this young man can now be handed over to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for appropriate burial in his homeland.”
    The University has a well-established procedure for considering repatriation from the collections in its care, and welcomes proposals for returning ancestral remains, sacred and other items, especially where they can be returned to the community from which they were taken. The University is also reviewing its collections to identify items that were looted or unethically returned so that it can initiate discussions as well as responding to proposals. This has included the return of a Benin Bronze in 2021, the first such return in the world by a museum.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Sand-sized fossils hold secrets to the history of climate change

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Yuhao Dai, Research Fellow in Earth Sciences, Australian National University

    N-2-s/Shutterstock

    Between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere suddenly shot up. This caused rapid global warming, the mass melting of glaciers, and the end of the last ice age.

    Much of this sudden influx of atmospheric CO₂ came from the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, highlighting the key role this body of water plays in regulating the global climate.

    However, we have a poor understanding of how and why CO₂ release from this region changed during periods such as the end of the last ice age. But our new study, published in Nature Communications, reveals how much CO₂ was released to the atmosphere from the polar Southern Ocean during this period – and what factors were responsible.

    We reached these conclusions by examining the chemistry of sand-sized fossils, called foraminifera, from the seafloor south of Tasmania.

    Tiny shells preserved in mud

    Foraminifera are tiny single-celled organisms, either floating in the ocean surface or living on the seabed. Most of them build shells made of calcium carbonate to protect themselves. After death, these foraminifera shells are preserved in the mud on the seabed.

    Newer generations of foraminifera shells stack over older ones, like adding new pages to a book. Over time, these foraminifera shells form a book on the seabed that can be dated back to millions of years ago.

    Even more fascinating, trace amounts of elements in the seawater are incorporated into the calcium carbonate shells of foraminifera. In some foraminifera species, the amount of these elements is sensitive to the environment they live in.

    For example, the amount of boron in a species called Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi is sensitive to carbonate ion concentrations, and the amount of cadmium in another species (Hoeglundina elegans) is sensitive to phosphate concentrations.

    By looking at trace elements in these foraminifera shells found in the sequence of mud on the seabed, we can decipher mysteries about the past seawater condition in the book left by foraminifera on the seabed.

    In some species of foraminifera, such as Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi (pictured here), the trace amount of elements found in their shells is sensitive to their environment.
    Le Coze, François/WoRMS, CC BY-SA

    A giant metal straw

    How do scientists do this? First we go out to the ocean to collect mud.

    In this process, a giant metal straw is dropped to the seabed and then raised to our research ships, fully filled with mud. We take these mud samples back to our lab. There, we slice them into pieces and examine them separately.

    This allows us to extract information from each page of the book in chronological order. Foraminifera shells are washed out of the mud, and specific shells are picked out under a microscope, cleaned, and finally analysed for their chemical composition.

    Foraminifera have lived almost everywhere in the ocean for millions of years. Based on their chemical composition, scientists have reconstructed a continuous record of seawater temperature during the past 66 million years in great detail.

    Among a few places in the ocean where you cannot find foraminifera is the polar Southern Ocean. Although some foraminifera live there, seawater in this region is often too corrosive for their shells to preserve on the seabed. The lack of foraminifera in the polar Southern Ocean brings a huge challenge for scientists eager to understand past changes in CO₂ exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere.

    Among a few places in the ocean where you cannot find foraminifera is the polar Southern Ocean.
    Mathias Berlin/Shutterstock

    From Antarctica to Tasmania

    We decided to tackle the problem using mud on the seabed 3,300 metres below the surface just south of Tasmania.

    Seawater at that depth near Tasmania is ideal for studying the chemistry of the polar Southern Ocean. That’s because seawater from the polar Southern Ocean sinks to the bottom of the ocean, moves northwards, and eventually occupies the seabed south of Tasmania.

    Seawater chemistry – including concentrations of carbon, phosphate and oxygen – does change along its way at the bottom of the ocean.

    These changes are, however, generally proportional to each other. So if all these concentrations are known for seawater at depth near Tasmania, we can work out their concentrations in the polar Southern Ocean.

    Fortunately, there were plenty of foraminifera shells in the mud for all these reconstructions at the site we examined near Tasmania.

    Reconstructing ancient chemical concentrations

    Using the chemistry of foraminifera, we reconstructed changes in concentrations of carbonate ion (which is largely related to carbon), phosphate and oxygen at the bottom of the ocean near Tasmania during the end of the last ice age roughly 20,000–10,000 years ago. This period is known as the last deglaciation.

    Based on these reconstructions, we calculated the amount of CO₂ released from the polar Southern Ocean during the last deglaciation. Some of this CO₂ came from biological processes – changes in the amount of carbon used by microscopic organisms living near the ocean surface. The rest was from physical processes – CO₂ molecules escaping from seawater directly to the air.

    We found that biological processes were more important for CO₂ releases during the earlier stages of the deglaciation, while the physical processes contributed more during the later stages.

    From the polar Southern Ocean, seawater sinks to the bottom of the ocean and moves northwards to reach the seabed south of Tasmania.
    Steve Todd/Shutterstock

    So why is this important?

    Scientists use climate models to predict future climate and to reproduce past atmospheric CO₂ changes.

    Our results provide testing targets for climate models to reproduce.

    Better reproduction of past changes will improve climate model design for predicting future changes.

    This will help us understand how future changes in the polar Southern Ocean can affect atmospheric CO₂, contributing to making effective plans to mitigate CO₂ emissions.

    Yuhao Dai receives funding from the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science.

    – ref. Sand-sized fossils hold secrets to the history of climate change – https://theconversation.com/sand-sized-fossils-hold-secrets-to-the-history-of-climate-change-250928

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Putin made Trump wait, then strung him along – it’s clear his war aims in Ukraine have not changed

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Jon Richardson, Visiting Fellow, Centre for European Studies, Australian National University

    US President Donald Trump’s phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, didn’t take a tangible step towards ending the hostilities in Ukraine, let alone finding an enduring peace. Rather, it provided further evidence of Putin’s ability to string along and outsmart Trump.

    For starters, Putin sent a signal by making Trump wait for more than an hour to talk. Putin was speaking at a televised conference with Russian businesspeople and even made a joke about the delay when told the time for his call was approaching.

    This was clearly designed to show his alpha status, both to Trump and the Russian public. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, was reportedly made to wait eight hours by Putin when he arrived in Moscow last week for talks.

    And after Tuesday’s call, Putin only agreed to pause attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, rather than the total ceasefire proposed by Trump and agreed to by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

    And even this agreement lacked clarity. The lengthy Kremlin statement on the call said the pause would only apply to attacks on energy infrastructure, while the vaguer White House read-out said it included a much broader “energy and infrastructure” agreement. The Kremlin will doubtless stick to the narrow concept.

    The Kremlin’s statement also said Trump proposed this idea and Putin reacted positively. This seems implausible given that pausing attacks on energy infrastructure would be the least costly partial ceasefire for Russia to agree to.

    It seems more likely this proposal came from Putin as a “compromise”, even though Trump was earlier threatening fire and brimstone if Russia did not agree to a proper ceasefire.

    Russia will still be able to continue its ground offensive in Ukraine, where it has the upper hand thanks to Ukrainian manpower shortages (despite its own horrendous losses). It will also be able to maintain its bombardment of Ukrainian civilian targets that has already cost possibly as many as 100,000 civilian lives and half a trillion US dollars in mooted reconstruction costs.

    Ukraine, meanwhile, has only rarely hit residential areas in Russia. However, it has achieved considerable success with long-distance drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure, threatening one of the main funding sources of Moscow’s war effort.

    Putin’s war aims remain unchanged

    The Kremlin’s read-out of the call also noted that various sticking points remain to achieve a full ceasefire in Ukraine.

    These included the Kyiv regime’s “inability to negotiate in good faith”, which has “repeatedly sabotaged and violated the agreements reached.” The Kremlin also accused Ukrainian militants of “barbaric terrorist crimes” in the Kursk region of Russia that Ukraine briefly occupied.

    This is not new language, but shows breathtaking chutzpah. It’s Russia, in fact, that has broken several agreements vowing to respect Ukraine’s borders, as well as numerous provisions of the Geneva Conventions on treatment of civilian populations and prisoners of war. It has even violated the Genocide Convention in the eyes of some scholars.

    That a US president could let this kind of statement go unchallenged underscores the extent of the White House’s volte-face on Ukraine.

    The Kremlin also asserted that a “key principle” for further negotiations must be the cessation of foreign military aid and intelligence to Ukraine.

    Given Trump has already frozen arms and intelligence support to Ukraine to make Zelensky more compliant, Putin no doubt thinks he might do so again. This, in turn, would strengthen Russia’s leverage in negotiations.

    Trump has already given away huge bargaining chips that could have been used to pressure Russia towards a just and enduring outcome. These include:

    • holding talks with Russia without Ukraine present
    • ruling out security guarantees for Ukraine and NATO membership in the longer term, and
    • foreshadowing that Ukraine should cede its sovereign territory in defiance of international law.

    Putin may be content to string out the ceasefire talks as long as he can in the hopes Russian troops can consolidate their hold on Ukrainian territory and completely expel Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region inside Russia.

    He shows no sign of resiling from his key aims since the beginning of the war – to reimpose Russian dominance over Ukraine and its foreign and domestic policies, and to retain the territories it has illegally annexed.

    The fact Moscow has signed treaties to formally incorporate and assimilate these Ukrainian regions fully into Russia – rather than merely occupying them – underlines how this has always been a war of imperial reconquest rather than a response to perceived military threat.

    At the same time, if he can get much of what he wants, Putin may just be tempted to end the war to further a more business-as-usual relationship with the US. Trump has dangled various carrots to encourage Putin to do this, from renewed US investment in Russia to easing sanctions to ice hockey games.

    Ukraine’s lines in the sand

    Ukraine’s immediate reaction to the Trump-Putin call appears to be cautiously accepting of a limited ceasefire on energy infrastructure. This is no doubt to avoid incurring Trump’s wrath.

    At the same time, Ukraine’s bottom line remains firm:

    • Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty are non-negotiable
    • it must be able to choose its own foreign alliances and partnerships, and
    • it must be able to defend itself, without limits on the size of its army or its weaponry.

    The only way to square the circle would be to freeze the conflict at the current front lines in Ukraine and leave the status of the annexed Ukrainian regions to be resolved in future negotiations.

    But even this would have little credibility unless Russia revoked its annexations and allowed international organisations and observers to enter the region to encourage a modicum of compliance with international law.

    Jon Richardson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Putin made Trump wait, then strung him along – it’s clear his war aims in Ukraine have not changed – https://theconversation.com/putin-made-trump-wait-then-strung-him-along-its-clear-his-war-aims-in-ukraine-have-not-changed-252497

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI China: MOFA response to false claims by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson regarding Taiwan and its president

    Source: Republic of Taiwan – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

    MOFA response to false claims by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson regarding Taiwan and its president

    March 14, 2025  

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) strongly refutes false claims made at a regular press conference on March 13 by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who said that “Taiwan is part of China” and that “there is no so-called president in Taiwan.” These statements not only completely ignore the facts and status quo across the Taiwan Strait but also aim to mislead the international community.

     

    The Republic of China (Taiwan) successfully held its eighth presidential election on January 13, 2024, setting another milestone in its democratic development. Government officials and parliamentarians of 50 nations—including 12 diplomatic allies and other friendly countries, such as the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia—praised this achievement and offered congratulations to Taiwan. Many democracies hope that the people of China will one day also be able to hold direct presidential elections, thereby determining their nation’s leaders and future. 

     

    MOFA solemnly reiterates that neither the Republic of China (Taiwan) nor the People’s Republic of China is subordinate to the other, that the PRC regime has never governed Taiwan, and that no narratives distorting Taiwan’s sovereign status can change the objective reality and internationally recognized status quo across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s future must be collectively decided by the 23.5 million people of Taiwan. China has no right to interfere. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: MOFA response to false claims by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson regarding Taiwan and its president

    Source: Republic of China Taiwan 3

    MOFA response to false claims by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson regarding Taiwan and its president

    March 14, 2025  

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) strongly refutes false claims made at a regular press conference on March 13 by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who said that “Taiwan is part of China” and that “there is no so-called president in Taiwan.” These statements not only completely ignore the facts and status quo across the Taiwan Strait but also aim to mislead the international community.
     
    The Republic of China (Taiwan) successfully held its eighth presidential election on January 13, 2024, setting another milestone in its democratic development. Government officials and parliamentarians of 50 nations—including 12 diplomatic allies and other friendly countries, such as the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia—praised this achievement and offered congratulations to Taiwan. Many democracies hope that the people of China will one day also be able to hold direct presidential elections, thereby determining their nation’s leaders and future. 
     
    MOFA solemnly reiterates that neither the Republic of China (Taiwan) nor the People’s Republic of China is subordinate to the other, that the PRC regime has never governed Taiwan, and that no narratives distorting Taiwan’s sovereign status can change the objective reality and internationally recognized status quo across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s future must be collectively decided by the 23.5 million people of Taiwan. China has no right to interfere. 

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI: BlackRock® Canada Announces March Cash Distributions for the iShares® ETFs

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (“BlackRock Canada”), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), today announced the March 2025 cash distributions for the iShares ETFs listed on the TSX or Cboe Canada, which pay on a monthly or quarterly basis. Unitholders of record of the applicable iShares ETF on March 26, 2025, will receive cash distributions payable in respect of that iShares ETF on March 31, 2025.

    Details regarding the “per unit” distribution amounts are as follows:

    Fund Name
    		 Fund
    Ticker    		 Cash
    Distribution
    Per Unit
    iShares 1-10 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF CBH $0.049
    iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF CBO $0.051
    iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index ETF CDZ $0.112
    iShares Equal Weight Banc & Lifeco ETF CEW $0.059
    iShares Global Real Estate Index ETF CGR $0.158
    iShares International Fundamental Index ETF CIE $0.077
    iShares Global Infrastructure Index ETF CIF $0.238
    iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF CLF $0.032
    iShares 1-10 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF CLG $0.037
    iShares US Fundamental Index ETF CLU $0.173
    iShares US Fundamental Index ETF CLU.C $0.222
    iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF CPD $0.058
    iShares Canadian Fundamental Index ETF CRQ $0.181
    iShares US Dividend Growers Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) CUD $0.079
    iShares Convertible Bond Index ETF CVD $0.071
    iShares Global Water Index ETF CWW $0.069
    iShares Global Monthly Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) CYH $0.080
    iShares Canadian Financial Monthly Income ETF FIE $0.040
    iShares ESG Balanced ETF Portfolio GBAL $0.219
    iShares ESG Conservative Balanced ETF Portfolio GCNS $0.229
    iShares ESG Equity ETF Portfolio GEQT $0.166
    iShares ESG Growth ETF Portfolio GGRO $0.193
    iShares U.S. Aggregate Bond Index ETF XAGG $0.105
    iShares U.S. Aggregate Bond Index ETF(1) XAGG.U $0.061
    iShares U.S. Aggregate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XAGH $0.091
    iShares Core Balanced ETF Portfolio XBAL $0.153
    iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF XBB $0.079
    iShares Core Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF XCB $0.069
    iShares ESG Advanced Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF XCBG $0.119
    iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF XCBU $0.121
    iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF(1) XCBU.U $0.076
    iShares Canadian Growth Index ETF XCG $0.071
    iShares Core Conservative Balanced ETF Portfolio XCNS $0.135
    iShares S&P/TSX SmallCap Index ETF XCS $0.119
    iShares ESG Advanced MSCI Canada Index ETF XCSR $0.442
    iShares Canadian Value Index ETF XCV $0.373
    iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF XDG $0.061
    iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF(1) XDG.U $0.042
    iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XDGH $0.060
    iShares Core MSCI Canadian Quality Dividend Index ETF XDIV $0.115
    iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF XDU $0.064
    iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF(1) XDU.U $0.044
    iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XDUH $0.059
    iShares Canadian Select Dividend Index ETF XDV $0.114
    iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XEB $0.057
    iShares S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index ETF XEG $0.133
    iShares S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend Index ETF XEI $0.111
    iShares Jantzi Social Index ETF XEN $0.219
    iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio XEQT $0.090
    iShares ESG Aware MSCI Canada Index ETF XESG $0.189
    iShares Core Canadian 15+ Year Federal Bond Index ETF XFLB $0.111
    iShares Flexible Monthly Income ETF XFLI $0.194
    iShares Flexible Monthly Income ETF(1) XFLI.U $0.135
    iShares Flexible Monthly Income ETF (CAD-Hedged) XFLX $0.180
    iShares S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index ETF XFN $0.140
    iShares Floating Rate Index ETF XFR $0.063
    iShares Core Canadian Government Bond Index ETF XGB $0.049
    iShares Global Government Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XGGB $0.040
    iShares Core Growth ETF Portfolio XGRO $0.111
    iShares Canadian HYBrid Corporate Bond Index ETF XHB $0.073
    iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XHD $0.083
    iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF XHU $0.080
    iShares U.S. High Yield Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XHY $0.084
    iShares Core S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF XIC $0.273
    iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XIG $0.070
    iShares 1-5 Year U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XIGS $0.122
    iShares Core Income Balanced ETF Portfolio XINC $0.133
    iShares Core Canadian Long Term Bond Index ETF XLB $0.062
    iShares S&P/TSX Capped Materials Index ETF XMA $0.043
    iShares S&P/TSX Completion Index ETF XMD $0.169
    iShares MSCI Min Vol USA Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XMS $0.102
    iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor Index ETF XMTM $0.070
    iShares MSCI Min Vol USA Index ETF XMU $0.242
    iShares MSCI Min Vol USA Index ETF(1) XMU.U $0.168
    iShares MSCI Min Vol Canada Index ETF XMV $0.298
    iShares S&P/TSX North American Preferred Stock Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XPF $0.071
    iShares High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF XQB $0.053
    iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor Index ETF XQLT $0.058
    iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF XRE $0.065
    iShares ESG Aware Canadian Aggregate Bond Index ETF XSAB $0.047
    iShares Core Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF XSB $0.071
    iShares Conservative Short Term Strategic Fixed Income ETF XSC $0.057
    iShares Conservative Strategic Fixed Income ETF XSE $0.052
    iShares Core Canadian Short Term Corporate Bond Index ETF XSH $0.060
    iShares ESG Advanced 1-5 Year Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF XSHG $0.119
    iShares 1-5 Year U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF XSHU $0.127
    iShares 1-5 Year U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF(1) XSHU.U $0.080
    iShares Short Term Strategic Fixed Income ETF XSI $0.061
    iShares S&P/TSX Capped Consumer Staples Index ETF XST $0.130
    iShares ESG Aware Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF XSTB $0.047
    iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XSTH $0.037
    iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond Index ETF XSTP $0.042
    iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond Index ETF(1) XSTP.U $0.029
    iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA Index ETF XSUS $0.088
    iShares 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XTLH $0.117
    iShares 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index ETF XTLT $0.125
    iShares 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index ETF(1) XTLT.U $0.087
    iShares Diversified Monthly Income ETF XTR $0.040
    iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XUH $0.108
    iShares S&P U.S. Financials Index ETF XUSF $0.160
    iShares ESG Advanced MSCI USA Index ETF XUSR $0.174
    iShares S&P/TSX Capped Utilities Index ETF XUT $0.090
    iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF XUU $0.142
    iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF(1) XUU.U $0.099
    iShares MSCI USA Value Factor Index ETF XVLU $0.148

    (1) Distribution per unit amounts are in U.S. dollars for XAGG.U, XCBU.U, XDG.U, XDU.U, XFLI.U, XMU.U, XSHU.U, XSTP.U, XTLT.U, XUU.U

    Estimated March Cash Distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF

    The March cash distributions per unit for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF are estimated to be as follows:

    Fund Name Fund
    Ticker    		 Estimated
    Cash Distribution
    Per Unit
    iShares Premium Money Market ETF CMR $0.121

    BlackRock Canada expects to issue a press release on or about March 25, 2025, which will provide the final amounts for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF.

    Further information on the iShares Funds can be found at http://www.blackrock.com/ca.

    About BlackRock

    BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @BlackRockCA

    About iShares ETFs

    iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 1500+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and US$4.2 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2024, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.

    iShares® ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

    Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.

    Standard & Poor’s® and S&P® are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (“S&P”). Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC (“Dow Jones”). TSX is a registered trademark of TSX Inc. (“TSX”). All of the foregoing trademarks have been licensed to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and sublicensed for certain purposes to BlackRock Fund Advisors (“BFA”),  which in turn has sub-licensed these marks to its affiliate, BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (“BlackRock Canada”), on behalf of the applicable fund(s). The index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, and has been licensed for use by BFA and by extension, BlackRock Canada and the applicable fund(s). The funds are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones, S&P, any of their respective affiliates (collectively known as “S&P Dow Jones Indices”) or TSX, or any of their respective affiliates. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices nor TSX make any representations regarding the advisability of investing in such funds.

    MSCI is a trademark of MSCI, Inc. (“MSCI”). The ETF is permitted to use the MSCI mark pursuant to a license agreement between MSCI and BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A., relating to, among other things, the license granted to BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. to use the Index. BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. has sublicensed the use of this trademark to BlackRock. The ETF is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by MSCI and MSCI makes no representation, condition or warranty regarding the advisability of investing in the ETF.

    Contact for Media:                
    Sydney Punchard                                                        
    Email: Sydney.Punchard@blackrock.com         
      

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Minister Rishworth interview on ABC Adelaide

    Source: Ministers for Social Services

    E&OE TRANSCRIPT

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ, HOST:    Well, if you are really struggling to pay for some of the basics, maybe your fridge has stopped working or you need a new one, or you’re struggling to pay medical bills. A new no interest loan program has been launched by the Federal Government. It’ll be run by Good Shepherd Australia, giving interest free loans, loans of up to $2,000. Amanda Rishworth is the Minister for Social Services and is with us this afternoon. Minister, thank you for your time.

    AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE NDIS:    Great to be with you. 

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    What does it say about our community that a service like this is needed and seems to be facing a lot of demand?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    This program has been going on for some time. In fact, the partnership between Good Shepherd and the NAB has been around for 20 years or so. But what the Federal Government’s saying is we think have a role to play as well. Of course, for a whole lot of unexpected reasons, people might find that their car breaks down or their fridge stops working. And rather than turn to typically buy now and pay later, which can get people into a bit of financial trouble or indeed payday loans, this is a really important alternative that is available to people. But more importantly than just the no interest loan, it also connects people up with financial counselling and other support they might need as well.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    So, why do you feel like the Government has needed to step in? What hasn’t been working if this scheme’s been going along for 20 years?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, we’ve supported this scheme since 2009. We’ve been trialling first the NILS scheme and now we also trialled NILS for Vehicles, which is no interest loans for vehicles. And really the funding agreements were coming up for reassessment. We see a huge benefit in this and that’s why we have committed for five years of funding this program. So, what our funding goes to is supporting Good Shepherd do the casework that they need to do to support a person, whereas the NAB provides the loan directly. But people do need support and it was wonderful to hear some stories today. But what we’re committing to is $50 million to this program over the next five years to give it some certainty.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    And so it’s open to individuals who earn less than $70,000 a year. $100,000 for a couple or person with dependants is part of the challenge that, you know, maybe not that long ago $100,000 used to be seen as a liveable household wage, but wages have not been rising anywhere near inflation.

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Firstly, I’d say what the funding is for is to help with those unexpected items. People do have to demonstrate that they can pay this back, but rather than go and, for example, get a loan from a payday lender. I heard one example today where the car loan was going to have 36 per cent interest on it. So, that obviously would put the individual into a real crisis point. So, that’s where these loans come in. So, it really is looking for people that might need this extra support for the loans, the ordinary loans for sort of household goods, the maximum is $3,000. For vehicles, it’s $5,000. So, we’re talking about a small loan. The impact it’s had on some of the people I spoke to today has been life changing.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    How many people are in crisis? 

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    In terms of how many people have applied for these loans, there’s about, in total, 37,000 people in the last financial year that applied for these loans. So, these people are looking for extra support. Of course, there’s other people in crisis that are not looking for loans. They might be looking for emergency relief. We’ve obviously got a range of different other supports. For example, if someone’s leaving a violent relationship, this may not be the option for them. It might actually be the Escaping Violence Payment, which gives people $5,000 to set up a new home. So, there are different programs for different people, but this one in particular provides approximately 35,000 loans in a year.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    It is 28 past five. 891. ABC Radio, Adelaide. Nikolai Beilharz’s with you for Drive. Also with you, Amanda Rishworth, the Minister for Social Services, is also the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Yesterday we were talking about some articles that have been published online, including in the Australian Financial Review, which said that National Cabinet was going to move support services for children with mild autism and early developmental challenges back to the state and territory level and that services would be provided through schools, childcare centres and other government settings. Just quickly, a couple of issues there, starting with the shift of responsibility to schools, early childhood centres and the like. Can you confirm that responsibility is shifting?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    No, that’s not correct. I need to dispel that myth completely. What was agreed to at National Cabinet was making sure, and this was recommended in the NDIS Review, that there would be extra supports for people that may not need an individualised NDIS plan but still have needed some support in terms of their developmental trajectory. They were what the NDIS Review called foundational supports and they were disability specific supports. The locations of where they would be delivered are still being negotiated between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. There was a commitment of 50/50 funding from both the Commonwealth and the states and territories, but it was not about taking people and reducing access to the scheme. What it was is identifying that there are a group of children that are not getting the support now. And we needed to build that support up, but it is not being foisted onto schools or other places. The concept of foundational supports is being still worked up with states and territories to identify the best locations, deliver them.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    Is the reality though that schools’ early childhood care centres will need to put on some extra additional form of support though if responsibility is moved to them?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, the responsibility is not going to be moved to them. What it was identified that these could be locations in which perhaps allied health could deliver support. So, I need to be clear, the responsibility is not being put onto schools or childcare centres. What we were talking about when it came to foundational support was making sure that perhaps they were the right settings to deliver these supports in. Now that doesn’t say that schools and other early childhood settings shouldn’t be looking at how they move to more inclusive education. That’s something that is in Australia’s Disability Strategy and something that we continue to work towards. But certainly it was never envisaged that schools and early childhood settings would have to take on this responsibility. The delivery of foundational support is being currently worked on between the states and territories about how best to deliver. But there is still access through the NDIS for those with developmental delay or that need early intervention. That they are the early intervention and developmental delay pathway. Where we were talking about foundational supports is where those supports might be better delivered outside the NDIS or indeed for children that are not being able to access those supports at the moment.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    OK, and just very quickly, the use of the term mild autism, should that have been included?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:   Look, I’m not using that term. Everyone is individually assessed. But what we know is, for example, and I’ll give an example here, is that with putting the right support around a child very early on can actually, and this has been demonstrated through the Inklings program which we are jointly funding with the South Australian Government, putting the right parenting supports in place for a child might mean they don’t get a diagnosis of autism later on because they are on a strong developmental trajectory. So, for me it is about making sure that people are getting the right supports where they need it, when they need it. For some children, individualised clinical supports might not be the right answer. It might be another type of supports.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    OK Minister, just before you go back to the cost of living side of things, we heard from Linda who rang into Rory McLaren on 891 Mornings. This morning, here’s a bit of what she had to say.

    Audio of interview: 

    Linda: I’ve never been so insulted by a government giving a pensioner $4.60 a fortnight pay increase, saying it will give us a boost. And I am beyond anger, frustration, being insulted. How dare they think that $4.60 a fortnight is going to change my life? It’s appalling.

    Rory McLaren: Are you by yourself, Linda?

    Linda: I am. I live alone and I’m in a retirement village which I put all the money I had in the world in and it was great and I love it. My motor insurance has gone up 30 per cent. My health insurance gone up about 15 per cent. Everything I go, I ring around, I use a spreadsheet. I’m the best budgeter that you will ever know with what I do with that pension. And then I get the biggest insult and kick in the teeth by a government thinks that $4.60 a fortnight is going to help just beyond anger. There’s so many people I’ve spoken to who are in the same boat, they are devastated. I want to look at Albanese in the eyes and tell, ask him, what am I going to do with that $4.60, Anthony, what am I going to do with it?

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    Amanda Rishworth, what would you say to Linda?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:    I understand that a lot of people are doing it tough. What I would also say is the way that the indexation is applied to the pension has not changed. There’s a formula that gets applied twice a year and over the last, since we were elected, that formula has delivered about a 16 per cent increase in the pension. It’s based on basically a better off over all three tests. So, there’s three different measures and the best one is applied. So, this has been the same way that indexation has been applied since 2000 and 2009.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    Does that need to change, though?

    AMANDA RISHWORTH:   Well, it has been set in a way twice a year, it takes the best of three tests. But I would say what our Government has also been doing is looking at other ways we can help pensioners. For example, the cost of the PBS for concession cardholders has been frozen for three years. Sorry, for five years at $7.70. There’s been energy bill relief of $300 for households over the last two years. So, we’ve been looking at ways we can help, particularly pensioners. Rent Assistance has had, for example, a 45 per cent increase in the maximum rate. So, we’ve been looking at how we can best support people and support pensioners. Of course, it is tough, but back in 2009, it used to be only set by CPI. It was actually a Labor Government that changed these settings. Now, I would say also Peter Dutton has said that this type of indexation is wasteful and that he would review whether indexation is actually applied. He’s called it wasteful spending. So, while I understand it is difficult for people, it is the settings and the way it’s been set back since 2018, where it was changed to be a more generous indexation. And we’ve looked at other ways we can support pensioners with cost of living support as well.

    NIKOLAI BEILHARZ:    Minister, thank you for your time this afternoon. Amanda Rishworth, the Minister for Social Services.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI: Nykredit extends the offer period concerning the recommended, voluntary public tender offer for Spar Nord Bank A/S until 3 April 2025 – Nykredit Realkredit A/S

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO SECTIONS 9(3)-(5) AND SECTION 21(3) OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 636 OF 15 MAY 2020

    NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR TO ANY JURISDICTION WHERE DOING SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

    Publication of supplement concerning extension of offer period for Nykredit’s recommended, voluntary public tender offer for Spar Nord Bank A/S until 3 April 2025

    19 March 2025

    Nykredit extends the offer period concerning the recommended, voluntary public tender offer for Spar Nord Bank A/S until 3 April 2025

    In accordance with section 4(1) of the Danish Takeover Order1, Nykredit Realkredit A/S (“Nykredit”) announced on 10 December 2024 that Nykredit intended to submit a voluntary public tender offer (the “Offer”) to acquire all shares in Spar Nord Bank A/S (“Spar Nord Bank”), with the exception of Spar Nord Bank’s treasury shares, for a cash price of DKK 210 per share, valuing the aggregated issued share capital of Spar Nord Bank at DKK 24.7 billion.

    On 8 January 2025, Nykredit published the offer document regarding the Offer (the “Offer Document”), as approved by the Danish FSA in accordance with section 11 of the Danish Takeover Order. In the Offer Document, the offer period was set to expire on 19 February 2025 at 23:59 (CET) (the “Initial Offer Period”). On 18 February 2025, Nykredit published a supplement to the Offer Document, which extended the offer period to 20 March 2025. The background for the extension was to provide Nykredit with more time to obtain the approval from the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority required to complete the Offer.

    Today, Nykredit published a supplement (the “Supplement”) to the Offer Document, which further extends the offer period for the Offer. The Supplement has been approved by the Danish FSA on 19 March 2025 in accordance with section 9(3)-(5) of the Danish Takeover Order. The Supplement should be read in conjunction with the Offer Document and the previous supplement as published on 18 February 2025.

    With this Supplement, Nykredit further extends the offer period, such that the Offer will expire on 3 April 2025 at 23:59 (CEST). Subsequently, any reference to the “Offer Period” in the Offer Document or other documents relating to the Offer will refer to the period commencing on the day of publication of the Offer Document on 8 January 2025 and ending on 3 April 2025 at 23:59 (CEST) (the “Extended Offer Period”).

    The purpose of the extension is to provide Nykredit with time to obtain the approval from the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority required to complete the Offer.

    If the approval from the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority has not been granted by the expiry of the Extended Offer Period, Nykredit expects to extend the offer period further.

    The extension of the offer period entails that the expected completion of the Offer and settlement of the offer price to the Spar Nord Bank shareholders who have accepted the Offer will be extended correspondingly. Completion is subsequently expected to take place on 11 April 2025 (provided that the offer period is not extended further than to 3 April 2025 23:59 (CEST)).

    At the time of this announcement, Nykredit holds 32.79 per cent of the shares in Spar Nord Bank. A preliminary compilation of the acceptances that Nykredit has information about shows that, including the irrevocable undertakings, acceptances corresponding to more than 46 per cent of the share capital of Spar Nord Bank has been submitted, and that Nykredit’s ownership interest in Spar Nord Bank, together with the irrevocable undertakings and the binding acceptances submitted that Nykredit has information about, totals more than 80 per cent of the total share capital (excluding treasury shares) of Spar Nord Bank, indicating that the 67 per cent acceptance limit stated in the Offer has been reached. The final result of the Offer will be determined on expiry of the offer period and published in accordance with section 21(3) of the Danish Takeover Order.

    Nykredit intends to delist Spar Nord Bank from trading on Nasdaq Copenhagen and complete a compulsory acquisition of the remaining Spar Nord Bank shareholders, provided that Nykredit has obtained the necessary ownership interest, and the Offer has been completed. Spar Nord Bank shareholders who have opted not to accept the Offer, should expect that Nykredit, provided that the Offer is completed, will take steps to combine Nykredit Bank A/S and Spar Nord Bank, which will result in a further increase in Nykredit’s ownership interest in Spar Nord Bank. Not later than in continuation of the combination, Nykredit thus expects to hold a sufficient ownership interest to be able to delist Spar Nord Bank from trading on Nasdaq Copenhagen and complete a compulsory acquisition of the remaining Spar Nord Bank shareholders.

    The full terms and conditions of the Offer are contained in the Offer Document as amended by the Supplement. The Offer Document and the Supplement are published in the Danish FSA’s OAM database: https://oam.finanstilsynet.dk/ and can also, with certain restrictions, be accessed at https://www.nykredit.com/kobstilbud-spar-nord/ and https://www.sparnord.dk/investor-relations/overtagelsestilbud.

    About Spar Nord Bank

    Spar Nord Bank was founded in 1824 and is now a nationwide bank with 58 branches. Spar Nord Bank offers all types of financial services, consultancy and products, focusing its business on retail customers and primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the local areas in which the bank is represented. The bank is also focused on leasing operations and large corporate customers, which are both business areas handled by the head offices.

    Spar Nord Bank has historically been rooted in northern Jutland and continues to be a market leader in this region. However, in the period from 2002 to 2024, Spar Nord Bank has established and acquired branches outside northern Jutland. Over the course of the years, the bank has adjusted its branch network in an ongoing process and now has a nationwide distribution network comprising 58 branches. These 58 branches are distributed on 32 banking areas, each of which is headed by a manager reporting directly to the bank’s executive board.

    The Spar Nord Bank Group consists of two earnings entities: Spar Nord Bank’s branches and the Trading Division. As an entity, the Trading Division serves customers from Spar Nord Bank’s branches as well as large retail customers and institutional clients in the field of equities, bonds, fixed income and forex products, asset management and international transactions. Finally, under the concept Sparxpres, the bank offers consumer loans to personal customers through Sparxpres’ platform as well as debt consolidation loans and consumer financing via retail stores and gift voucher solutions via shopping centres and city associations.

    About Nykredit

    Nykredit Realkredit A/S (“Nykredit”) is a public limited company incorporated under the laws of Denmark, company reg. (CVR) no. 12 71 92 80, having its registered office at Sundkrogsgade 25, 2150 Nordhavn, Denmark. Nykredit is a mortgage credit institution and, together with its wholly-owned subsidiary Totalkredit A/S, is a market leader of the Danish mortgage credit market with a market share of some 45.2 per cent. Nykredit offers mortgage financing for private individuals and businesses.

    Nykredit is part of the Nykredit Group, which historically dates back to 1851. In addition to carrying on mortgage credit business, the Group carries on banking business through Nykredit Bank – including banking and wealth management operations – and has a total of around 4,000 employees in Denmark.

    Nykredit is owned by an association of the Nykredit Group’s customers, Forenet Kredit. Forenet Kredit owns close to 80 per cent of Nykredit’s shares. Other major shareholders are five Danish pension funds: Akademikernes Pension AP Pension, PensionDanmark, PFA and PKA.

    Nykredit is known for the advantages offered through the association. Forenet Kredit makes capital contributions to the Nykredit Group when times are good, and Nykredit has decided to pass these on to its customers.

    Since, 2017, Forenet Kredit has paid over DKK 8 billion in capital contributions to the Nykredit Group, and in the period to 2027, Forenet Kredit has provided a further DKK 7 billion.

    Questions and further information

    Any questions concerning the Offer may be directed to:

    Nykredit Bank A/S

    Company reg. (CVR) no.: 10 51 96 08

    Sundkrogsgade 25

    2150 Nordhavn
    Denmark

    Telephone: +45 7010 9000

    and

    Carnegie Investment Bank

    Filial af Carnegie Investment Bank AB (publ), Sverige

    Company reg. (CVR) no. 35 52 12 67

    Overgaden Neden Vandet 9B

    1414 Copenhagen K
    Denmark

    E-mail: annette.hansen@carnegie.dk

    For further information about the Offer, please see: https://www.nykredit.com/kobstilbud-spar-nord/.

    This announcement and the Offer Document (with supplements) are not directed at shareholders of Spar Nord Bank A/S whose participation in the Offer would require the issuance of an offer document, registration or activities other than what is required under Danish law (and, in the case of shareholders in the United States of America, Section 14(e) of, and applicable provisions of Regulation 14E promulgated under, the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended). The Offer is not made and will not be made, directly or indirectly, to shareholders resident in any jurisdiction in which the submission of the Offer or acceptance thereof would be in contravention of the laws of such jurisdiction. Any person coming into possession of this announcement, the Offer Document or any other document containing a reference to the Offer is expected and assumed to independently obtain all necessary information about any applicable restrictions and to observe these.

    This announcement does not constitute an offer or an invitation to purchase securities or a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities in accordance with the Offer or otherwise. The Offer will be submitted only in the form of the Offer Document (with supplements) approved by the FSA, which sets out the full terms and conditions of the Offer, including information on how to accept the Offer. The shareholders of Spar Nord Bank are advised to read the Offer Document and any related documents as they contain important information.

    Restricted jurisdictions

    The Offer is not made, and acceptance of the Offer to tender Spar Nord Bank shares is not accepted, neither directly nor indirectly, in or from any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance of the Offer would not be in compliance with the laws of such jurisdiction or would require any registration, approval or any other measures with any regulatory authority not expressly contemplated by the Offer Document (the “Restricted Jurisdictions”). Neither the United States nor the United Kingdom is a Restricted Jurisdiction.

    Restricted Jurisdictions include, but are not limited to: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.

    Persons obtaining documents or information relating to the Offer (including custodians, account holding institutions, nominees, trustees, representatives, fiduciaries or other intermediaries) should not distribute, communicate, transfer or send these in or into a Restricted Jurisdiction or use mail or any other means of communication in or into a Restricted Jurisdiction in connection with the Offer. Persons (including, but not limited to, custodians, custodian banks, nominees, trustees, representatives, fiduciaries or other intermediaries) intending to communicate this announcement, the Supplement, the Offer Document or any related document to any jurisdiction outside Denmark or the United States should inform themselves about these restrictions before taking any action. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the laws of such jurisdiction, including securities laws. It is the responsibility of all Persons obtaining this announcement, the Supplement, the Offer Document, earlier supplements, an acceptance form and/or other documents relating to the Offer, or into whose possession such documents otherwise come, to inform themselves about and observe all such restrictions.

    Nykredit is not responsible for ensuring that the distribution, dissemination or communication of this announcement, the Supplement or the Offer Document to shareholders outside Denmark, the United States and the United Kingdom is consistent with applicable law in any jurisdiction other than Denmark, the United States and the United Kingdom.

    Important Information for Shareholders in the United States

    The Offer concerns the shares in Spar Nord Bank, a public limited liability company incorporated and admitted to trading on a regulated market in Denmark, and is subject to the disclosure and procedural requirements of Danish law, including the Danish capital markets act and the Danish takeover order.

    The Offer is being made to shareholders in Spar Nord Bank in the United States in compliance with the applicable US tender offer rules under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the “U.S. Exchange Act”), including Regulation 14E promulgated thereunder, subject to the relief available for a “Tier II” tender offer, and otherwise in accordance with the requirements of Danish law and practice

    Accordingly, US Spar Nord Bank shareholders should be aware that this announcement and any other documents regarding the Offer have been prepared in accordance with, and will be subject to, the disclosure and other procedural requirements, including with respect to withdrawal rights, the Offer timetable, settlement procedures and timing of payments of Danish law and practice, which may differ materially from those applicable under US domestic tender offer law and practice. In addition, the financial information contained in this announcement or the Offer Document has not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or derived therefrom, and may therefore differ from, or not be comparable with, financial information of US companies.

    In accordance with the laws of, and practice in, Denmark and to the extent permitted by applicable law, including Rule 14e-5 under the U.S. Exchange Act, Nykredit, Nykredit’s affiliates or any nominees or brokers of the foregoing (acting as agents, or in a similar capacity, for Nykredit or any of its affiliates, as applicable) may from time to time, and other than pursuant to the Offer, directly or indirectly, purchase, or arrange to purchase, outside of the United States, shares in Spar Nord Bank or any securities that are convertible into, exchangeable for or exercisable for such shares in Spar Nord Bank before or during the period in which the Offer remains open for acceptance. These purchases may occur either in the open market at prevailing prices or in private transactions at negotiated prices. Any information about such purchases will be announced via Nasdaq Copenhagen and relevant electronic media if, and to the extent, such announcement is required under applicable law. To the extent information about such purchases or arrangements to purchase is made public in Denmark, such information will be disclosed by means of a press release or other means reasonably calculated to inform US shareholders of Spar Nord Bank of such information.

    In addition, subject to the applicable laws of Denmark and US securities laws, including Rule 14e-5 under the U.S. Exchange Act, the financial advisers to Nykredit or their respective affiliates may also engage in ordinary course trading activities in securities of Spar Nord Bank, which may include purchases or arrangements to purchase such securities.

    It may not be possible for US shareholders to effect service of process within the United States upon Spar Nord Bank, Nykredit or any of their respective affiliates, or their respective officers or directors, some or all of which may reside outside the United States, or to enforce against any of them judgments of the United States courts predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or other US law. It may not be possible to bring an action against Nykredit, Spar Nord Bank and/or their respective officers or directors (as applicable) in a non-US court for violations of US laws. Further, it may not be possible to compel Nykredit and Spar Nord Bank or their respective affiliates, as applicable, to subject themselves to the judgment of a US court. In addition, it may be difficult to enforce in Denmark original actions, or actions for the enforcement of judgments of US courts, based on the civil liability provisions of the US federal securities laws.

    The Offer, if completed, may have consequences under US federal income tax and under applicable US state and local, as well as non-US, tax laws. Each shareholder of Spar Nord Bank is urged to consult its independent professional adviser immediately regarding the tax consequences of the Offer.

    NEITHER THE U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY SECURITIES COMMISSION OR OTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY IN ANY STATE OF THE U.S. HAS APPROVED OR DECLINED TO APPROVE THE OFFER OR THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, PASSED UPON THE FAIRNESS OR MERITS OF THE OFFER OR PROVIDED AN OPINION AS TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT OR ANY OFFER DOCUMENT. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE IN THE UNITED STATES.

    1 Executive Order no. 636 of 15 May 2020

    Attachments

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Knocknoc Raises Seed Funding to Scale Its Just-In-Time Network Access Control Technology

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SYDNEY, Australia, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sydney-based cybersecurity software company Knocknoc has raised a seed round from US-based venture capital firm Decibel Partners with support from CoAct and SomethingReal.

    The funding will support go-to-market, new staff, customer onboarding and product development. The company has appointed Adam Pointon as Chief Executive Officer.

    “The opportunity here is limitless,” Pointon said. “You’d be hard pressed to find an organisation that couldn’t benefit in some way from using Knocknoc.”

    Knocknoc orchestrates network infrastructure to remove risk exposure by tying users’ network access to their SSO authentication status.

    By selectively opening network connections to users on a just-in-time basis, Knocknoc eliminates attack surface and solves compliance challenges. Knocknoc prevents would-be attackers from being able to connect to the types of network devices and applications that are prone to falling victim to zero-day attacks.

    Customers use Knocknoc to protect VPNs and firewalls, IP cameras, payroll systems, file transfer appliances, bastion hosts and other applications and network services. Knocknoc is also easy to use with cloud-based infrastructure.

    It can also be used on internal networks to add multifactor authentication to legacy systems to satisfy compliance requirements.

    Knocknoc has also appointed Decibel Partners Founder Advisor and Risky Business Media CEO Patrick Gray to its board of directors.

    “Knocknoc is a terrific way for organisations to quickly and easily reduce their exposure to the types of attacks that are plaguing enterprises right now,” said Gray. “It’s simple, quick to implement and delivers an immediate benefit.”

    Knocknoc is already in use in Australian and US critical infrastructure, large telecommunications networks and media companies.

    The Knocknoc founders are Andrew Foster, David Kempe and Adam Pointon.

    More information at https://knocknoc.io

    Contact

    Cofounder & CEO
    Adam pointon
    Knocknoc.io
    hello@knocknoc.io

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e67ebd9b-2f89-40e0-b0eb-df616cf39693

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Press conference, Bruce Highway

    Source: Australian Ministers 1

    GLEN KELLY: Well, this is a great honour today as the Member for Mirani. It’s my honour to welcome today, we have our Federal Member, Infrastructure Minister, Catherine King. We have our state transport minister, Brent Mickelberg. And it’s an honour to have our two colleagues here, Donna Kirkland from- member for Rockhampton, and our member for Keppel, Nigel Hutton. Today is a big announcement today on the Bruce. The Bruce Highway. The Bruce Highway is the busiest highway in Queensland, and today’s announcement is going to be very welcome to the electorate of Mirani, as Mirani has 400 kilometres of the Bruce. And today’s announcement is going to go a long way into supporting the area of Mirani. Thank you and I’ll welcome Catherine King. Thank you very much.

    CATHERINE KING: Thank you. Well, look, it’s terrific to be here today. Can I thank very much my state counterpart, Brent Mickelberg. This is the first press conference we’ve done together, and this is a great partnership on the Bruce Highway. Back in January, Prime Minister Albanese, and I announced the $7.2 billion to fix the Bruce after a significant campaign by the RACQ. And I thank and acknowledge that David is here with us, and all of the communities along the highway. Matched then, or put in by $1.8 billion by the Queensland state government, and we are getting on with it. We are getting on with fixing the Bruce.

    Today we’re announcing that we’re releasing $300 million for the first stage of projects. 23 projects, 16 of them are shoulder widening, dividing the road, making sure that we’re putting those safety improvements in place. And then a further number of projects are the planning stages of the next tranche. We’ve got the Bruce Highway Advisory Committee is meeting in Rockhampton today. Brent and I will both be meeting with them to work through what are the next stages of projects. We want to get this done. This, of course, the $9 billion safety program is in addition to the money that is already being spent on the Bruce Highway, over $10 billion of major projects that are already underway. And today, we’re announcing some additional money for some of those. 200 million to deal with some cost pressures that have occurred again on the Rocky Ring Road, and Minister Mickelberg will talk a little bit about those, but making sure that we didn’t have to reduce the scope of the Rocky Ring Road in any way, but putting that additional money in from the Commonwealth to make sure that full scope of the project is realised.

    We’re also- finally, we’ve got some agreement on what the projects are under the Beef Road corridors. This is a $500 million program between the Queensland Government and ourselves. So 38 million is being released for that today. And then some further money being released for the Rockhampton to Gladstone corridor projects. But this is a really good day for the Bruce. What we’re trying to do as a joint government initiative is to really fix this road. We know that its safety is not up to scratch. We hear it every single day, and the fact that 41 people lost their lives last year alone is way too many. A single life lost is too many, but 41 was certainly something that we were highly concerned about, hence the commitment. So really what we’re trying to do here is improve the safety of the Bruce substantially, lift it from where it is two star to at least three star. If we can get it higher, we will through road safety treatments, but really concentrating on the worst bits first. And that’s what these projects do. And I want to thank very much, Minister Mickelberg, for working so closely with ourselves to really get this first tranche $300 million released, for getting on with it. The work has started. I think you’ll see workers on the road either today or in the coming days actually getting on with these projects. I’ll hand over to Minister Mickelberg and then we’ll take some questions.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Thank you very much, Minister. Well, it’s an absolute pleasure to join here today with the Australian government delivering on our commitment to better the Bruce Highway. We made it very clear over the last four years and through the recent election campaign that the Bruce Highway was one of our key priorities as a new Queensland Government, and it has been a tremendous privilege to be able to partner with the Australian government to deliver these critical works on the Bruce Highway. Nine billion dollars over the next six years to fix those worst parts of the Bruce Highway. And work has started today. We have workers on site now working on that early works package. So $300 million of funds, which has been released already, and they’re getting on with the job to address those immediate priorities.

    As the Federal Minister mentioned, we have the Bruce Highway Advisory Council here in Rockhampton today, our second meeting of the Bruce Highway Advisory Council, which has local representatives from up and down the Bruce Highway in every single region that the Bruce Highway passes; key stakeholders like the Queensland Trucking Association – we’ve got Gary Mahon here from the Queensland Trucking Association, who you’ll hear from soon; the RACQ – David Carter from the RACQ as well. This is a body by which we can consider what needs to be done to address the Bruce Highway and prioritise the work across the Bruce Highway. We know there is considerable amount of work that needs to be done on the Bruce.

    As the Federal Minister mentioned, over 40 lives were lost on the Bruce Highway last year. That is simply unacceptable. We’re committed to ending that toll which impacts Queenslanders every single- nearly every single week we lose a Queenslander on the Bruce Highway. That is simply unacceptable, and we can and must do more to make the Bruce Highway both safer and more resilient and more reliable. And that’s our commitment today. We’ve got a broader package of works outside this $9 billion program, projects like the Rockhampton Ring Road and others, and we’re committed to getting on with the job of delivering those projects on time and on budget. And it’s an absolute pleasure to be able to join with the Federal Government to kick off those works on the Bruce Highway here today, and hopefully we’ll see many more projects over the next six years delivered under this program. And I just want to thank the Federal Government for their commitment. It is a testament to being able to deliver for communities that we can work together to deliver a very considerable investment in Queensland’s major road network, of which- I think about 62 per cent of Queenslanders used the Bruce Highway in any given year. Many people use it every single day, including myself. I know the work that needs to go on the Bruce Highway, and we’re committed with getting on with the job of delivering that.

    I’ll hand over now to Gary Mahon from the Queensland Trucking Association to talk about what it means for Queensland’s trucking industry.

    GARY MAHON: Thank you, ministers. We’re absolutely delighted to be here today to see and acknowledge the state and federal ministers working together in partnership on what is the most critical road in the state as far as we’re concerned. It is the spine of the state in terms of road freight resupply, but it also has significant safety implications for everybody who uses that road. As far as we’re concerned, the safety improvements obviously are essential, but we also need to remind that other treatments that go to the sustainability of this route are vitally important as well. Overtaking lanes, you know, bridge treatments, bridge replacements, wide centreline marking and all of those treatments need to be dealt with together because we also have a situation unfolding right now in Far North Queensland where it’s cut off yet again. So Far North Queensland right now is fully cut off for the second time in about five weeks. So when you look at that section between Townsville and Cairns, it deserves a fair bit of remedial treatment as well, and it needs to be sooner rather than later. I heard the word unacceptable used before. It is unacceptable in today’s day and age that Far North Queensland has to live with being fully cut off more than twice a year. So if this event goes on up North Queensland the way it’s going, we could be in the order of 14-odd days where Far North Queensland cannot be supplied with daily normal replenishment. Supermarkets, hardware, pharmaceuticals, people getting to medical treatment, and all of those things that go with daily life. So we’re delighted to be endorsing this program of works. We’re even more pleased to see the state and federal governments working so closely together. And as a third point, to have that being done within the next six years is even better. So that will make a material difference to regional Queensland in a very quick space of time, and we couldn’t endorse that more strongly. Thank you.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Thanks, Gary. Hand over now to David Carter from the RACQ.

    DAVID CARTER: Thank you. And I’d also like to start by just endorsing a lot of Gary’s comments there. It’s great to see federal and state governments working well together to sort out a problem that is significant for all of Queensland. The Bruce Highway needs work. It needs a long term program of work. The $9 billion commitment is a terrific signal from both governments about how important this road is. The package of works that’s been announced today, the $300 million of funding, allows for projects that are ready to go, that Main Roads have identified as ready to go, to start and get going on lifting the safety on these roads. There are so many places where we can improve from two stars to three. There’s no shortage of work. This allows work to commence now and more work to be done on the next phase of those projects that can be done as well.

    We also need to acknowledge, as RACQ, the great support and collaboration we had with Gary and the Queensland Truckers Association, with the Farmers’ Federation, with the Local Government Association of Queensland, the College of Surgeons, and indeed the tourism industry as well in this conversation about the importance of fixing the Bruce for the benefit of all Queenslanders, which is really- as Minister Mickelberg just said, this road is vital to all of us here in Queensland. So it is a very good day to see money actually hitting the ground now, to see the work commencing, and we look forward over the next six years or so to see this $9 billion spent well and safety on the Bruce Highway improved significantly.

    CATHERINE KING: Thank you. Happy to take questions. We’ll start with me or with-

    JOURNALIST: Catherine [indistinct]…

    CATHERINE KING: Yes, of course, of course.

    JOURNALIST: Gary just touched on Far North Queensland, with the flooding event up there. Will you make flood proofing work a priority as part of this package?

    CATHERINE KING: So separately to this package, there’s already- I’d have to check the figures, but there’s already a couple of billion dollars allocated to the Bruce Highway in Far North Queensland, including, I think, [indistinct] that’s yet to be allocated to a specific project. We’ll work, obviously, with the Queensland Government about how that money is to be spent on the Bruce on some of those bigger projects. Obviously, as part of our disaster recovery arrangements, we have now built in that we will build back better rather than just replacing what is existing. So obviously, around that particular area, there was some flooding earlier in the year. We’re still working our way through those disaster arrangements with the Queensland Government about what we do. But obviously, as we continue- as we do the safety work, we want to continue with those projects that are already existing within the pipeline to make sure we actually get some substantial improvements to the movement particularly of freight and people around the state.

    JOURNALIST: Do you think it’s good enough that regional Queenslanders, particularly in the north, has continually had their lives and businesses disrupted by the state of the highway?

    CATHERINE KING: Well, again, this is why we’re putting this investment in. This is a $9 billion investment on top of the $10 billion worth of projects that we’re already delivering along the highway. In particular, what we’ve tried to do with this package is to look at not down south, but really look to central and north because they are the areas where the road is at its worst, and that’s why we’re concentrating on those areas with these projects.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: I might just touch on that [indistinct]…

    CATHERINE KING: Yes, sure. Of course.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Just in relation to the flooding in the north, obviously, we had a significant event about six weeks ago I think it was. And we had the Prime Minister and the Premier on the ground at Ollera Creek, which was washed away, and the commitment from both the Prime Minister and the Premier, as the Federal Minister alluded to, is to build back better. So we’re focused on building in flood mitigation and improvements to capacity where we can, where we need to rectify damage. For example, at Ollera Creek, we’re going to build that crossing back better and build flood resilience into it.

    Now, will we be able to make the Bruce Highway completely flood-proof? No, it’s built on a floodplain, but we can certainly reduce the impact and the incidence and the severity of the flooding that occurs in places like Ingham. And right now, the Bruce Highway is cut again at the Seymour Bridge, and as Gary spoke about, so too are the inland routes. So we need to be looking at all aspects of the routes, north and south, in North Queensland. So whether that is the Kennedy Development Road, the Hann Highway, the Bruce Highway, we need to be building in resilience wherever possible, and we’re committed to working with the Federal Government to delivering just that. And I think you’ve got a unity ticket from the Prime Minister and the Premier of Queensland to deliver better roads and more resilient roads, both on the Bruce Highway and on our inland routes as well.

    In relation to this package, though, one point I wanted to make. So this $9 billion, every single dollar of this package will be spent north of Gympie. None of this money will be spent in the south east. It will address critical concerns, safety issues from Gympie through to Cairns, and I think that’s a really important point to make. We know that those sections of the Bruce Highway are where the safety issues are greatest. And while we have flood impacts closing the Bruce Highway, so too do we have serious motor vehicle crashes which also closed the Bruce Highway, and this money will go a long way to reducing some of those instances.

    JOURNALIST: Minister, you’re here today to announce stage one works. Where will that work begin?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, there’s 16 projects up and down the Bruce Highway. [Indistinct] So we actually inspected one of those sites yesterday, south of Tiaro, but there’s also works to the north of Townsville, south of Townsville, in Central Queensland here as well. We can provide you a map incidentally as well for your story subsequently. So the 16 early works packages, this is about getting on with the job of those areas where the work had already been done, the design work had been done. And we know there’s a critical need. Things like turning lanes off the Bruce Highway and onto the Bruce Highway, wide centreline, widening the shoulder, addressing the pavement where it is in a particularly bad state, these are projects that we could get on with the job of delivering straight away, and we have workers on site right now delivering those projects.

    JOURNALIST: Can you tell us a bit more about the committee meeting today?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Yeah. So, one of the tasks I was given by the Premier was to re-establish the Bruce Highway Advisory Council. We had our first meeting in Townsville before Christmas. And one of the other tasks I was given was to seek 80-20 funding from the Federal Government. I’m very pleased that the Australian Government have come to the party and provided 80-20 funding for this package of $9 billion on the Bruce Highway. It’s a welcome investment, and it’s a recognition of the fact that we needed to invest in this critical road for Queensland’s future.

    Look, the committee meeting today will actually be considering where we can best target the spending for the balance, the $8.7 billion of the balance of this program. There are many, many works that need to be done up and down the Bruce Highway. My department, the Department of Transport and Main Roads, have done a considerable amount of work over many years working out where those critical needs are. And today we will be discussing – the Federal Minister and myself and committee members which, as I said, includes local representatives, people who use the Bruce Highway for all sorts of different reasons, whether they’re truck drivers, a local representative here, her mother was tragically or was seriously injured in a motor vehicle crash on the Bruce Highway – and so people are invested in making sure that the Bruce Highway is safer, more resilient and more reliable. So, today’s meeting we will be discussing how we can best roll out these funds. And then the Federal Government and the Queensland Government will work collaboratively to get work started as soon as possible. 

    JOURNALIST: So, how important is it having everyday Queenslanders who have been impacted by the Bruce on that committee?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, I think it’s incredibly important to have local voices informing government policy wherever we can. And I was- one of the things I wanted to see when we re-established the Bruce Highway Advisory Council is to ensure that all sections of the Bruce Highway are representative- represented. So, whether that’s the Sunshine Coast right through to the far north, there’s our local representative from every single one of those districts on the Bruce Highway Advisory Council.

    They all bring a different approach and different challenges. The challenges on the Bruce Highway in my part of the world, on the Sunshine Coast, are fundamentally different to the challenges in the far north and in North Queensland, or here in central Queensland for that matter. And I think it’s really important that those who use the road every single day are listened to and that we take their views into account. Now, industry is a big part of that. Queensland Trucking Association, the RACQ, Local Government Association of Queensland, they’re really important stakeholders and they’re all members of the Bruce Highway Advisory Council as well. But so too are those local voices, because they bring a different way of looking at the problem. And they bring lived experience of having to drive the Bruce Highway every single day, in many cases.

    JOURNALIST: Minister, specifically in Paluma, near Townsville…

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Yes.

    JOURNALIST: …these residents have been taking three hour detours for a month now. Can you reassure them it’ll be fixed soon?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Look, we’ve got massive issues on the Mount Spec Road, which is the road to Paluma. Considerable impacts as a consequence of the flooding and the rain associated with the event six weeks or so ago in the north. It is going to take a considerable amount of time to rectify those, the damage to that road. We’re committed to working with the local community to support them through that process [indistinct], but the reality is it will take time. We have had significant landslips and, as a consequence, the road is currently not safe to be able to traverse.

    However, that’s why we appointed a local disaster coordinator in Andrew Cripps, and I’ve been working with both Andrew and the local member, Nick Dametto, local state member Nick Dametto, to ensure, one, that the community is informed, and two, to ensure that we get those works completed as soon as possible. But it will take time. The damage is very, very considerable and- but we’re committed to ensuring that we both address the immediate concerns of reopening the roads for locals so they can get to and from home and to and from work, but also ensuring that we build in resilience in the long term so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past.

    JOURNALIST: Two questions. How much has the Ring Road project in Rockhampton blown out to?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: So, the Federal Government have committed an additional $200 million today, and the federal minister may wish to speak to that. Look, my focus as the new Transport- Queensland Transport Main Roads Minister is to deliver this project. And far too many projects have run over budget and over time here in Queensland for too many years. And I have a very clear directive from the Premier, which is to end that. And part of that is getting on with the job of finishing the projects that are in train now. Another part is ensuring that we address the drivers that are driving cost overruns.

    Rocky Ring Road has exceeded budget again and that is unacceptable, but by the same token we’re focused on delivering the project. It’s an important project that will deliver benefit to, not just people from central Queensland but all road users who traverse through this part of the world. It’s a safety improvement. It takes trucks off the road through the Rockhampton CBD, where we’ve got schools right now, and I think 26 odd sets of traffic lights off the top of my head. It’s an important project that must be delivered. My focus is delivering that project now.

    We were on site earlier this morning actually having a look at one of the bridge- bridges at the northern end. They were going to do a concrete pour this morning but they’ve been interrupted as a consequence of the rain. But we’re just focused on delivering the project now that it’s well advanced, and ending the blow-outs that existed under the former government. Minister, so you want to add anything to that?

    CATHERINE KING: No.

    JOURNALIST: When will it be delivered?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, we’re focused on delivering the project. The initial- so there’s two packages of works effectively at either end and the last package is for the centre which is for the bridge. We’re focused on ensuring that it’s delivered within the existing time frame. So at the moment, we’re working to a time frame of around 2029. However – and it is a complex project, I’m not going to shy away from the fact it’s a complex project. What we need to ensure, though, is that what we deliver reflects what the community needs, both here in central Queensland, and more broadly as a key spine of Queensland road- Queensland’s road transport network.

    JOURNALIST: When will the funding come through for the [indistinct] project?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Well, Federal Minister, I think that’s included in this batch as well. I might let you talk to that.

    CATHERINE KING: Yeah. No, I think it is. Yeah.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: So, I understand that’s actually included in these announcements from the Federal Government as well.

    JOURNALIST: Can you tell us anything more about the beef corridor works?

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Yeah. Look, the Queensland beef corridors initiative is a tremendous initiative which aims to build capacity and reliability into some of our inland routes which are traversed right through central Queensland here. So, it’s a partnership between local councils, the state government and the Federal Government. Minister King will probably like to speak to this, and Glen might like to talk to it given much of it sits in his electorate as well. But it’s a really important project that will both boost capacity for the beef industry, hence its name. But it’s also about building resilience and capacity into the- those regional interconnecting roads, roads between Moranbah and Emerald and Rockhampton, and to the south. These are critical roads that should have been invested in and need to be invested in to unlock both productivity from an economic perspective, but also connect regional communities. I might…

    CATHERINE KING: Yeah, sure. We’ll get you a full list of the projects that have been announced under the beef roads corridor. But really, what this has required is for the local councils to work with TMR and the Queensland Government to decide where exactly the money is going to be spent.

    So, we’ve signed off on the release of $38 million today to start a range of projects, small and large, across that network. We know that, increasingly, our large freight vehicles are travelling on these local roads and that whether it’s weather, that it’s the weight of vehicles, that it’s the volume of vehicles we’re seeing erosion on those roads. And really this is designed to strengthen, widen, make sure that our freight routes for your magnificent beef industry here, which is the best not only in the country but in the world – my hometown of Ballarat will be upset that I’ve said that, there are beef producers there as well – but nothing quite like up here. We recognise this is the beef capital for a reason. But making sure that that fantastic produce can get to market both within the country and outside, and so that $38 million.

    But that’s really meant that we’ve got now local government all working together with TMR to identify where the money is to go. And that’s released today, and we’ll get you the full list.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Glen might add to it.

    CATHERINE KING: Yeah.

    GLEN KELLY: Yeah, thank. Well, thank you, Minister, for acknowledging the beef capital of Australia. It means a lot to me, actually. But no, the development package is very important to the electorate of Mirani because of the amount of produce that does come out of there, whether it be beef, or grain. And the May Downs Road is a very important part of that development project. It’s- we’re sort of talking up to, I think in a couple of those regions in the electorate of Mirani, 50,000 head of beef cattle coming out of two feedlots. I mean, this package is very welcome into this region of ours, of Mirani, and certainly looking forward to councils and the state government working together to make sure that where these issues are in these roads are done correctly. Because I’m a big believer in of a little bit of time goes a long way, because we only want to do these things once. And I think with this development road package it’s going to be so important to the electorate of Mirani. Thank you.

    BRENT MICKELBERG: Any other questions?

    CATHERINE KING: You’re done. Lovely. Thank you.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Press Conference in Hunter Valley

    Source: Australian Executive Government Ministers

    DAN REPACHOLI: Well, welcome back to the beautiful Hunter Valley the gateway to paradise. We have Saddlers Creek Winery One side of us we have Kelman Winery, the other side. This is literally the gateway to paradise. And we’re here, we’re joined by my good friend and colleague Catherine King again today. And we have some major announcements for this area to make it safer, quicker and easier for people to travel around the beautiful Hunter Valley area and get home to their loved ones quicker, to be able to get through our areas quicker and to be able to be safer. So, the Muswellbrook Bypass will be announcing some things on that, and we’ll also announcing the brand new Cessnock Bypass as well. So a little bit more on that one to come.

    But the Muswellbrook bypass, we know how important the Muswellbrook Bypass is for our area because for so long we’ve had trucks, we’ve had cars, we’ve had large vehicles going through the main street of Muswellbrook. It has been extremely unsafe for years and we’re here making it safer, quicker and easier for people to get around the upper part of the Hunter. It’s a $304.8 million commitment that we’ve got here that have been brought forward so that we can make sure that this work can happen quicker and that we can get people home safer, and to travel through the wonderful Hunter.

    And now on to the brand new Cessnock Bypass. For years, people have been telling me how congested it is here in Cessnock and it is very congested. People wait in lines, wait in queues everywhere in Cessnock. This year we’ve got $5 million announcement for the Cessnock Bypass to go for the planning works so that council can do all the work that they need to do to make sure that people can get around this town safer, quicker and more efficiently because it is a big issue in this area. We have been having massive, massive growth here and will continue to grow. We’re the second fastest growing LGA in all of New South Wales, and we will continue to work together with council, with state government to make sure that we can deliver on roads, deliver on infrastructure. And I’ll let Catherine King talk a bit more about infrastructure here today. So thank you, Catherine.

    CATHERINE KING: Thanks. It’s terrific to be here in the Hunter once again, Dan. Three weeks ago, we went and had a good look at the Singleton Bypass and the terrific work that is going underway there and the huge progress that’s being made. That is a game changer for Singleton, will give people back their community and back their neighbourhood. What that work has been able– because they’ve done so well with that work that has enabled us now to bring forward money to start Muswellbrook Bypass. We were concerned about the capacity constraints in labour in the region, and now, what we’ve seen with that great work on Singleton, we can now bring money forward to get Muswellbrook underway.

    What you’ll see– I just might pause for a minute while we get this tractor to go past. Thank you. What you’ll see on Muswellbrook, alongside with the New South Wales Government, the bring forward of that money, means that all that early work, all of the earthworks, the movement of services, you’ll start to see that happen in the coming months in preparation for the major construction to start early in 2026. We are bringing this forward by over 12 months. It’s a great announcement for Muswellbrook. I know it will see continued work in the region, but also really give people back their main street, have that ability to get over 13,000 to 20,000 cars out every single day out of the main streets of Muswellbrook, and also that 9.3 kilometres of road that will be the bypass, again, really important to jobs in the region.

    In terms of– because the job, of course, of infrastructure is never done, what we’re announcing today is $5 million from the Albanese Labor Government that will be in the upcoming budget to start the planning work for an alternate route past a bypass– past Cessnock. We know that there has been significant housing development that is coming into Cessnock. That’s a great thing. We love seeing new people coming into the region, but of course our infrastructure needs to be able to keep up. So getting that alternate route ready, planned, locked in so that we can make the decisions about investment later on, getting that planning work done so that we’re keeping ahead of the development that we’re seeing in this region. Great announcements for the Hunter. Would not have happened without a Labor Government and without Dan Repacholi, who is such a great advocate for the Hunter. Happy to take questions, and I’m sure Dan is as well.

    JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] for Dan. Where’s the start and end of this bypass going to be? Can you take us through the basics?

    CATHERINE KING: Well, again, this is part of the planning works. Council have done some early concept ideas about that. But really this is about planning. There’ll be significant consultation that will be needed to be undertaken with the community. Dan will have a better idea in terms of what council has initially sort of thought through, but really what this money is to enable that work to actually be done and that consultation with the community as well. Did you want to…

    DAN REPACHOLI: Yeah. Good question. It’s the million-dollar question everybody wants to know. But it’s coming around the back of Bellbird there through here around into past the airport and around back onto pretty much Wine Country Drive there. Yeah. So fully bypass to get the traffic away from the centre of town, which has been a massive congestion for years and years.

    JOURNALIST: Obviously, locals, for years, have been asking for upgrades to some particular roads. Hart Road, Wollombi Road. Would you expect to see some upgrades to those roads as part of this project?

    DAN REPACHOLI: So Wollombi Road upgrades are already happening. There was announcement by council and by us and the state government a couple of weeks ago on that one for Wollombi Road. So Wollombi Road is starting. It starts in March. So this month it’s starting for the upgrades there. Hart Road, there needs to be some work done there and we’ll continue to work with council along the way and see what they need there. And I’m sure they’ll keep coming to us as projects come up. But we know how important infrastructure is in this area and that’s why we’re getting this Cessnock Bypass done because it really does matter for the area.

    JOURNALIST: And Muswellbrook Bypass, obviously something locals have wanted for a very, very, very long time.

    DAN REPACHOLI: Muswellbrook Bypass has been waiting there for a long, long time. Same as Singleton Bypass. Singleton Bypass is powering through which is great to see. Catherine and I were there a few weeks ago having a look at that. And the Muswellbrook Bypass now has just been brought 12 months forward, which is great for the residents there. And not only just the residents, but the people travelling up to Tamworth, anywhere around that they use the New England Highway, like anywhere that they go on that, they really need to that bypass to be right, because it is such a crucial part of what we have there.

    JOURNALIST: And looking down the track to get– you mentioned a big [inaudible]… a whole lot of fuel energy, bits and pieces out to the central west, possibly going through Muswellbrook. That’s obviously going to help with that down the track.

    DAN REPACHOLI: Certainly will help with that as well. And there is other routes they can go with those items. But this will cut those travel times down hugely. And it’s about local government working together with state government and federal government, all three levels of government working together to try and make sure we have a plan that we can go forwards with, with infrastructure for not only this state but Australia.

    JOURNALIST: So when do you think we can see this completed, this new system?

    DAN REPACHOLI: Well, I’m very optimistic but we’ll leave that for council. Council– that’s a council discussion. So, this is the planning work, and the state government have got some announcements around this as well of what they’re putting into this project also. But I’ll leave that for them to announce. But they will continue to do the planning work through this, through this period. And they I’m sure that they will reach out again for some more cash along the way. So lucky we’ve got a great infrastructure minister and I will be knocking on her door very quickly.

    JOURNALIST: All right. So $5 million. That’s planning money, basically.

    DAN REPACHOLI: Yeah.

    JOURNALIST: Any idea what it’s going to cost in the end?

    DAN REPACHOLI: Look, the planning has got to be done first. They’ve got to get the exact route of where this is going to go. So, until we find that out and what has got to happen with land acquisitions or things like that, or widening of roads or changing of roads, it’s really too early to tell.

    JOURNALIST: At this stage, Cessnock is a growing area. So what’s the need for this study for this particular bypass? Why is it needed now?

    DAN REPACHOLI: The need for this bypass is huge. We’re the second fastest growing LGA in New South Wales, only beaten currently by the Maitland LGA. So people want to come here. And why wouldn’t you want to come here? Look at it. As I said, the gateway to paradise. We have the world’s best wineries. We have such fantastic job opportunities. Our schools, we have some schools that are performing out of this world. Like, we are a great place to be and a place that people want to come. We’re two hours from Sydney. Why wouldn’t they want to come?

    JOURNALIST: Interesting to note– sorry, changing the subject slightly. Stuart Bonds is back in the race for Cessnock. How do you view that?

    DAN REPACHOLI: Look, I’m– I’m keen on everybody having a crack at this. And good on him for coming in and having a go. It’s not an easy job going and putting your whole life in the limelight where everyone can dig through every part of your life. So I take my hat off to him for having another go and look forward to the challenge that we’ll have coming ahead.

    JOURNALIST: Do you think it’ll be a close race?

    DAN REPACHOLI: Look, it’s always going to be a close race, no doubt about that. We’re probably going to have 9 or 10 candidates running for the Hunter. So that’s a lot of people to go up against. All I’ll continue to do is keep working with my team and work with people around the area. We’ve worked hard over the last three years, and I’ll continue to work hard.

    JOURNALIST: Dan, it seems a lot of the Liberal candidates don’t even mention nuclear power on their websites. Does this surprise you, and what does it say about nuclear as a policy? 

    DAN REPACHOLI: Look, I think a lot of the Liberal candidates are very much against nuclear energy. They’re not even having it on their websites. They’re not talking about it. I think they’re scared. They are not happy with going down the pathway that their leader, Peter Dutton, has taken them and Ted O’Brien. And I think now that they’ve seen our interim report that came out from the inquiry into nuclear energy, I think they understand that it just isn’t going to be done in a time frame that is suitable for Australian workers. Isn’t going to be done in a time frame that’s suitable for people with their power and they know it’s going to push their power prices up. Like, they understand that – they can’t tell us how much it’s going to cost. They can’t tell us how long it’s going to take to build. They can’t tell us how much water they’re going to use. They can’t tell us where all these sites are and how many reactors, apart from the seven sites around Australia. They can’t tell us what reactors they’re going to use. There’s a lot of can’ts in that, and there’s not a lot of positives either. So, while they continue this on, I think this is just tearing their party apart. And honestly, I think it’s a good thing that these guys can’t even agree on whether this is a good thing for Australia or not in their own party, let alone talking to the Australian public.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Animal cruelty: International student receives prison term for wildlife smuggling

    Source: Government of Queensland

    Issued: 19 Mar 2025

    Open larger image

    The woman attempted to smuggle 15 native lizards overseas.

    An international university student studying in Australia has been convicted of multiple wildlife trafficking offences and sentenced to eighteen months in prison.

    Ms Yinan Zhao appeared in the Brisbane District Court on 27 February 2025 to face seven charges of attempting to send native Australian wildlife by post to China.

    Between 12 May and 1 November 2023, Zhao attempted to export ten individual packages containing 15 lizards from Queensland to China, with an estimated ‘street value’ of $74,207.

    The lizards were packed in small boxes containing children’s toys with some intercepted by Australia Post in Brisbane and others in Sydney after being X-rayed.

    The successful prosecution was the result of a joint operation between the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCCEEW) and the Queensland Government Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI).

    Much of the offending took place in Queensland, while some offences occurred in New South Wales.

    DESTI Compliance Manager Warren Christensen welcomed the prosecution and the minimum five-month prison sentence.

    “Unfortunately, international students, such as those from China are often targeted through social media and other means to make easy money by smuggling wildlife,” Mr Christensen said.

    “This prosecution should serve as a warning to others considering smuggling animals to make a quick buck that they will be caught and face very serious, life changing consequences.

    “This operation was an excellent example of state and Australian government agencies working cooperatively with Border Force and Australia Post to detect and prevent international wildlife smuggling.

    “DETSI wildlife officers seized the packages suspected by Australia Post and Border Force of containing protected wildlife.

    “We formally identified all wildlife recovered from the packages and assisted with the identification of Zhao and the execution of the warrant that led to her arrest.

    “During her arrest, we also found more unlawfully held wildlife that were also being prepared for sale on Chinese markets.

    “Sending reptiles in the mail is extremely cruel as they won’t have access to food, water or fresh air for weeks and sadly, most of the animals will die before they get to their destination.

    “Of those we intercept, many can never be released into the wild because we don’t know where they were captured or if they have been exposed to disease while in captivity.

    “We thank the Australian Government, Border Force and Australia Post for their efforts in assisting in detecting this crime and in securing this conviction.”

    Zhao was convicted on all charges and sentenced to 18-months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 5 months.

    The successful conviction follows the prosecution of another foreign national, Mr Man Lung Ma, who was convicted of nineteen charges relating to twenty-nine separate attempts to export protected native wildlife, including five attempts from Queensland.

    In November 2024 Lung Ma was sentenced to 3 years 6 months in jail, with a 2-year non-parole period.

    Lizards attempted to be smuggled:

    • 5 Shinglebacks
    • 5 Blue tongues
    • 2 Geckos
    • 2 Tree skinks
    • 1 Cunningham skink

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: If your tween or teen doesn’t know how to swim, it’s not too late for lessons

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Peden, NHMRC Research Fellow, School of Population Health & co-founder UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, UNSW Sydney

    Marcos Castillo/ Shutterstock

    New figures show shocking numbers of Australian kids are not achieving basic swimming skills.

    Royal Life Saving Australia data estimates 48% of Year 6 students cannot swim 50 metres and tread water for two minutes. For those in high school, the results are even more worrying. Teachers estimate 39% of Year 10 students still cannot meet the same benchmark.

    These skills are based on minimum swimming and water safety standards children should achieve to have fun and stay safe in the water. They are a key strategy to reduce the risk of drowning.

    While this research indicates we may no longer be a nation of swimmers, there’s still plenty parents, schools and governments can do. And if your child’s lessons have fallen behind, it is not too late to catch up.



    Read more:
    Thinking of quitting your child’s swimming lessons over winter? Read this first

    Why are we seeing this?

    This latest research builds on previous worries about Australian children’s swimming skills. During COVID, there were concerns children would not come back to lessons after lockdowns.

    While participation in lessons post-lockdowns has been promising, some pools have had difficulty finding qualified staff.

    In 2023, Royal Life Saving Australia also cautioned about 100,000 children in late primary school were unlikely to return to swimming lessons before they started high school.

    It’s not too late

    If you have stopped lessons with your children – or if you never started – it is not too late to go to the pool.

    Research comparing children between the ages of three and eight indicates the optimum age to begin formal swimming lessons is around five to seven years.

    But children can still learn to become safe and competent swimmers in later primary years and into high school. We know this because adults can, and do learn to swim later in life.

    Research also suggests older children may learn to swim more quickly than younger children, so they may need fewer lessons to attain skills than their younger counterparts.

    Children can learn to swim in later primary school and beyond.
    Andrii Medvednikov/ Shutterstock

    Make sure lessons are regular

    If you have an older child starting swimming lessons it’s important to maintain regular classes.

    For example, a 2018 study on a group of 149 Latino children in the United States aged three to 14 showed those who had learned the most skills had the highest attendance – attending at least ten lessons over an eight-week period.

    If weekly lessons are too difficult, you could consider holiday intensive programs and supplement this with informal practice in the water. Research shows informal swimming – such as playing – can help children build their swimming skills if they are also having lessons.

    There are barriers to regular lessons

    We know some families find it difficult to commit to swimming lessons. On top of the cost, there may not be a local pool available or enough instructors.

    These barriers disproportionately impact people from low-socioeconomic backgrounds and those living in rural and remote areas. Royal Life Saving survey respondents from these groups were more likely to report their school-aged children had never attended swimming lessons.

    Some communities don’t have easy access to a local pool.
    CoolR/Shutterstock

    Schools also find it hard

    Schools can help by offering swimming lessons at key points. For example, two weeks of daily lessons when children are in Year 2 is a common model in New South Wales public schools.

    In Tasmania, children in Years 3, 4 and 5 have a mandatory requirement to attend swimming lessons. There is optional attendance for those in Year 6 if they are identified as being at high risk.

    But schools also report challenges in teaching kids how to swim.

    Swimming lessons are expensive, schools are short-staffed and dealing with a crowded curriculum. This is why 31% of surveyed schools don’t offer swimming education.

    For some children, who are behind in their swimming skills – or who cannot swim at all – a short burst of school lessons may not be enough to catch them up.

    We need to do more

    Schools still have a vital role to play in ensuring children are not missing out on developing these minimum, lifesaving skills. So Australian governments need to prioritise swimming as one of the few sports you can learn that will help to save your life.

    Royal Life Saving Australia says the following four measures would help prevent drownings:

    1. increased funding for existing school and vacation swimming programs

    2. increased grants targeting people with vulnerabilities to drowning, including those from refugee, migrant, and regional communities, as well as for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

    3. increased access to lifesaving programs in high schools

    4. building and refurbishing public swimming pools and swim schools.

    Rates of fatal drowning in Australia are increasing. They were up 16% on the ten-year average in 2024. We have just had a particularly horrific summer where 104 people drowned, a number that is higher than both last summer and the five-year average. Swimming skills are more important than ever.

    Amy Peden receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She maintains an honorary affiliation as a Senior Research Fellow with Royal Life Saving Society – Australia.

    – ref. If your tween or teen doesn’t know how to swim, it’s not too late for lessons – https://theconversation.com/if-your-tween-or-teen-doesnt-know-how-to-swim-its-not-too-late-for-lessons-252504

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Charges – Aggravated assault – Alice Springs

    Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

    The Northern Territory Police Force has arrested a 40-year-old female in relation to a road rage incident that occurred in Alice Springs yesterday.

    Around 6:40am on Tuesday 18 March, police responded to reports of a collision involving two vehicles at the intersection of Tuncks Road and South Terrace. A 54-year-old female driver had failed to give way to oncoming traffic, causing a collision with another vehicle.

    The 40-year-old female driver of the second vehicle allegedly approached the 54-year-old female driver after the collision and physically assaulted her, resulting in minor injuries. No injuries were reported to police in relation to the initial accident.

    Police attended and conducted roadside breath tests and drug tests on both drivers. The 40-year-old female tested positive for cannabis and was subsequently charged with:

    • Aggravated assault
    • Drive motor vehicle unlicensed
    • Drive with prohibited drug in body
    • Drive unregistered / uninsured
    • Disorderly behaviour in Police Station
    • Damage property

    She is due to appear in court today.

    Police continue to urge anyone who witnesses crime or antisocial behaviour to call police on 131 444. In an emergency call 000. You can also report anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via https://crimestoppersnt.com.au/.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia

    Source: Australian Human Rights Commission

    My name is Giridharan Sivaraman and I’m the Commonwealth Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

    Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.  

    I wish to acknowledge the Kaurna peoples as traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on and recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of this region.

    I wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.

    I would also like to acknowledge and welcome other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may be attending today’s event.

    Acknowledging that I’m on country is important. For me, as a non-First Nations person, but who has lived experience of racism and is leading anti-racism work, it’s important to understand the difference between the racism someone like me suffers, and that which is suffered and has been suffered for 238 years by First Nations people. Someone like me may suffer racism through a denial of equality, dignity and respect. The racism First Nations people suffered and continue to suffer is also a denial of equality, dignity and respect. But in addition, it is a denial of self-determination and sovereignty which included the taking of their land by settlers before me. And I, as a settler, have benefited from that denial of sovereignty. I have benefited from the taking of their land. Therefore, it is a small but important step for me to acknowledge I’m on country.  

    As many of you know, this week has been traditionally celebrated as Harmony Week in Australia, and the 21st of March as Harmony Day. This is the context in which I’ve been invited here to speak today.  

    The 21st of March has been a date globally recognised as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD). It was designated as such by the UN in 1966 and began as a day of mourning. It is a day set aside to annually observe and reflect on the mass murder of 69 people, by police, at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid in Sharpeville, South Africa. The United Nations frames the day as one in which we should be “building solidarity with the peoples struggling against racism and racial discrimination.”

    For me, it is somewhat jarring that a day recognising a massacre born of racism, is replaced with a day of celebration under the banner of Harmony Day. And Australia is the only country in the world to do so.  Harmony is a wonderful ideal. But we have to ask ourselves, as a country, why are we so loathe to talk about racism? Because to get to a harmonious society, we first need to address racism.

    Racism is rarely about race. Ta Nehise Coates wrote, ‘race is the child, racism is the parent’. It’s usually about power and privilege. Structural racism ensures that power and privilege is maintained by the dominant race. In Australia that dominancy is white. It is white Anglo race, culture and identity which remains dominant, and structurally so.    

    If you are white, it’s the power and privilege to know that the institutions around you were built by people like you, for people like you and privilege people like you.  

    It is also the power and privilege to decide on the narratives that influence politics and public discourse.  

    It was a deliberate decision to rename IDERD to Harmony Day. The change was made in 1999 under former Prime Minister John Howard, to celebrate diversity and multiculturalism, instead of focusing on racism and discrimination.  

    Celebrating the diversity within our communities has value. However, in Australia, the refusal to name and confront racism has prevented meaningful progress on eliminating it.  In our work at the AHRC we have found that approaches to anti-racism across all levels of government is ad-hoc, disjointed and piece meal. Many areas of government don’t even want to use the word racism. They would rather use terms like social cohesion, or harmony. Racism isn’t Beetlejuice. Naming it doesn’t make a demon appear, the demon is already amongst us. Anyone who’s watched a horror movie knows that closing your eyes and pretending the monster isn’t there doesn’t make it go away. It’ll still get you.

    Australia is often eager to promote itself as a successful multicultural nation. But are we genuinely pluralistic or are you forced to express your culture in the shadows? I think of my own life and journey into the world of law. I was brought up in a Tamil speaking, Hindu, teetotalling, vegetarian household. I was acutely conscious of fitting into the world of law. It rewarded conformity not difference. I let go of Tamil so as to not sound different. It’s a beautiful language, of poetry and literature but it had no place anywhere outside private spaces. I remember my ceremony to be admitted as a lawyer. I was given a choice of an oath on a bible or a secular affirmation. No room for Hindu beliefs there. I remember attending events started with a Christian prayer. Even now the only religious public holidays recognised by law are Christian ones. Alcohol was the key to mingling with clients or other lawyers, otherwise you were left out. So, all I maintained was my vegetarianism. For a while their veganism was in vogue which meant i was cool for a bit but that quickly passed.  I’m part of the multicultural success story. Yet my culture, language and religion were all obstacles to my success.

    When it comes to calling the 21st of March IDERD or Harmony Day, it can be easy to say that it’s just a choice of words. But words are never neutral.  

    Throughout history, language has been used to label people, to erase struggles and to strategically shape political narratives. In Australia’s own history, racist policies enacted towards First Nations communities were called ‘protection policies’. Yet these policies involved abhorrent racial segregation, dispossession, and the tragedies that we now refer to as the Stolen Generations.

    Language is powerful. It can empower people or silence them. It can expose or obscure the truth. It can challenge or reinforce injustice.  

    In this case, replacing acknowledgement of racism with words of harmony risks contributing to the notion that racism is not a significant problem in Australia — one that requires urgent attention and policy change.  

    In 2024, polling by Essential Media found only 37% of respondents believed Australia was a racist country. Meanwhile 64% expressed that they were scared to say what they really think in case they’d be labelled as racist. Spoiler alert: if a person is worried that something they want to say may lead to being called racist… most of the time, that’s because it is racist.

    And despite the Essential Poll showing only about a third of people acknowledge racism is rife across our society, reports of racism are only rising. For example, many organisations and peak bodies, including Reconciliation SA, have noted the increase in notifications of racism since the referendum in 2023.

    Moving forward

    Racial literacy and intro to Framework

    Before we can tackle racism, it is necessary to first meaningfully acknowledge the issue. We must call out racism for what it is and recognise its ongoing harms, instead of allowing it to be obscured under words like harmony or social cohesion.  

    But there is still cause for optimism. That’s because we have a roadmap for the future.

    In November, the Commission released the National Anti-Racism Framework. It contains 63 recommendations for a whole of society approach, with proposed reforms across Australia’s legal, justice, health, education, media and arts sectors as well as workplaces and data collection.  

    In the Framework, a key theme is the need to build racial literacy. When I walk into a room, people will automatically have assumptions about me based on my name and the way I look. Understanding that is racial literacy. The next step is understanding how our institutions and systems disadvantage some people based on race. That is building our racial literacy in a way that allows us to improve our institutions and systems.  

    Stronger racial literacy across society is essential for initiatives like the Framework to properly address racism in all forms across vital areas of our lives like health, education, workplaces, justice and the media.

    Learning and education  

    Skills in racial literacy are built over a lifetime.  

    None of us can be expected to know everything. For us to tackle racism, we must all make a genuine commitment to ongoing learning and educating both ourselves and others.

    I am encouraged by noting that Reconciliation SA has taken proactive steps to deliver anti-racism training at schools and organisations.  

    However, enhancing racial literacy and education alone is not sufficient for addressing racism. It must be accompanied by actively challenging racist systems, structures, and ideas.

    Action 

    The National Anti-Racism Framework aims to tackle racism in Australia through real action and change, instead of symbolic words and gestures.  

    We are all too familiar with seeing corporate diversity campaigns that showcase staff of different backgrounds, while there are no steps to address the discrimination those staff are being actively subjected to.  We are tired of people in authority publicly condemning a horrific act of racism when it occurs, and then seeing no action being taken. We no longer want the pain and suffering of so many communities being swept under the rug and silenced with platitudes.  

    Examples like referring to IDERD as ‘Harmony Day’ hinders our collective anti-racism journey. It weakens our ability to identify and address the harm experienced by negatively racialised communities. We need to take this chance to address racism in Australia. Let’s question how racism affects our society and commit to anti-racist efforts to eliminate it.  

    I encourage everyone here today to read the Framework and reflect on your own areas of work and influence and commit to meaningful change as we embrace this collective journey to eliminate racism. 

    In my explanation of structural racism, I have talked about how it is inherently tied to, and upheld by, power and privilege. Fortunately, it is also power and privilege that can be used to dismantle it.  

    Yes, tackling racism on a systemic level in Australia requires significant action – some of which requires commitment from government. But each of us still have a role to play. 
    Everyone in this room today, whether institutionally or individually, has some sort of power or authority.  We therefore have the privilege of being able use our power to lead the way.  Challenge racism in your workplaces, advocate for anti-racism policies and speak up when you see injustice. When we collectively commit to a better future and reflect this commitment in our everyday actions, change is possible.  

    Many of the rights we take for granted today exist because people came together in solidarity, refused to accept injustice and demanded change. History shows us that when communities unite in this way, systems have to shift. At a time when the road ahead might seem overwhelming, this is the hope we must remember.  

    And if you are someone who does not experience racism, your role is even more important.  As Lilla Watson and other Aboriginal activists once said “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”  

    I’m not asking for anyone to give anything away. Defeating racism is not a zero-sum game. If we live in a society where everyone feels safe, everyone can be their whole selves, everyone can prosper and everyone can be happy, imagine how much better that would be for all of us. That’s my vision and I ask you to join me help us realise it together.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Charges – Breach Domestic violence order – Karama

    Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

    The Northern Territory Police Force has arrested a 19-year-old male in relation to a domestic violence incident that occurred in Karama this morning.

    About 12:50am, police received reports of a disturbance at residence in Karama involving a group allegedly armed with weapons. The group were reportedly armed with a bow and allegedly threw bottles and loosed arrows at the home. One of the offenders is known to one of the victims.

    General duties and Dog Operations Unit members commenced investigations and subsequently located the 19-year-old man at a residence in Gunn. He was arrested for Breach domestic violence order and was remanded in custody to appear in Darwin Local Court tomorrow.

    Investigations remain ongoing.

    If anyone has any information in relation to this incident police urge you to make contact on 131 444. You can anonymously report crime via Crime Stopper by calling 1800 333 000.

    If you or someone you know are experiencing difficulties due to domestic violence, support services are available, including, but not limited to, 1800RESPECT (1800737732) or Lifeline 131 114.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Address to the Catholic Social Services Australia Conference, Sydney

    Source: Australian Treasurer

    Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to all First Nations people present. Their connection to community and country reminds us of our ongoing responsibility to care for each other.

    The Gospel of Matthew teaches us powerfully:

    ‘Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

    This teaching resonates deeply with Australia’s ideals of fairness and community. Yet, our society today faces a significant challenge: inequality. Inequality matters profoundly – not just economically, but morally, socially, and spiritually. It shapes opportunities, influences life outcomes, and determines who shares in our national prosperity.

    In reflecting upon inequality today, I’d like to begin with a thought experiment developed by the Dutch economist Jan Pen.

    Imagine all Australians marching in a one‑hour parade, their height reflecting their wealth.

    At first, you wouldn’t see anyone – the poorest Australians, submerged by debt, would be underground. Several minutes would pass before you see people the height of tiny insects, representing those with minimal savings and precarious jobs. At half‑time, the parade participants would be barely waist‑high, reflecting an average wealth level that is far below what many expect.

    It isn’t until the last few minutes that the parade gets dramatic. Australians become giants, several metres tall, owning investment properties and multiple cars. In the last seconds, billionaires appear, their heads literally in the clouds. The richest Australian would tower over 46 kilometres high – far above Mt Everest.

    This image vividly captures the scale and drama of inequality in Australia today.

    The historical journey of Australian inequality

    Yet it was not always like this. As I documented in my book Battlers and Billionaires, Australian history shows fluctuations in inequality, shaped by policy, events, and the collective actions of citizens.

    When British settlers first arrived in 1788, inequality was limited – not due to idealism, but survival. Governor Arthur Phillip’s invitations to dinner famously concluded, ‘Please bring your own bread,’ reflecting the scarcity of resources and the reality that inequality was limited by necessity.

    Yet inequality quickly rose through the nineteenth century, driven by land distribution favouring the wealthy. Under Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who ruled the colony from 1810 to 1821, more than half the land granted went to just the top 10 per cent of settlers. By the late nineteenth century, disparities between landowners and labourers were immense. Historian Stuart Macintyre describes colossal extremes between the luxurious life of pastoralists like Richard Casey and the hard labour endured by workers like Jock Neilson, who struggled through bush labour with minimal wages and harsh living conditions.

    The early twentieth century brought change. In 1907, the Harvester Judgement established a basic wage designed to lift families out of poverty. Australia saw the creation of institutions such as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, introducing worker rights into the national conscience. Still, stark inequalities remained, with large segments of society excluded from prosperity.

    However, the post‑war period between the 1940s and 1970s marked what economists call the ‘Great Compression.’ Strong unions, progressive taxation, expanded public services, and affordable housing policies dramatically reduced inequality. For several decades, Australians experienced significant upward social mobility and rising standards of living for the majority.

    Yet since the 1980s, Australia has seen what economists describe as a ‘Great Divergence,’ reversing the gains of earlier decades. Today, the top 1 per cent of income earners receive nearly 10 per cent of national income, nearly doubling their share from 40 years ago. Wealth inequality is even more extreme, with the richest fifth owning more than 60 times the wealth of the bottom fifth.

    This widening gap is not just economic – it profoundly affects people’s everyday lives. Those at the bottom face greater health challenges, including a stark difference in life expectancy – Australians in the richest fifth of the population live an average of 6 years longer than those in the poorest fifth. The poorest Australians have 7 fewer teeth on average due to poor dental care. In education, the wealth gap translates into substantial resource disparities between affluent and poorer communities.

    Why inequality matters

    Inequality does not simply represent a difference in wealth; it shapes our society. Excessive inequality erodes social cohesion, reducing empathy and undermining community bonds. When wealth is concentrated among a few, society becomes fragmented. Our sense of collective responsibility diminishes, and the fabric that binds us as Australians weakens.

    Catholic social teaching stresses the inherent dignity of every person, the importance of community, and the imperative to act justly towards one another. From Pope Francis’ call for inclusive economies to teachings on the common good, Catholic faith underscores the urgency of addressing rising inequality.

    For too many Australians, the promise of a fair go – the belief that effort and hard work determine success, not birth or background – has felt increasingly out of reach. Inequality is not just an abstract economic issue; it affects our communities, our health, our opportunities, and our sense of national cohesion.

    No government is perfect, but I want to argue today that ours has done more to address inequality than any government in well over a decade.

    Taking office 3 years ago, on the tail of the Covid pandemic, we have acted decisively to ensure that prosperity is shared more fairly across our society.

    Lifting wages and supporting secure work

    One of the most direct ways to reduce inequality is by lifting wages and ensuring job security. Since coming to office, the Albanese government has delivered consecutive wage increases for 2.6 million Australians, particularly benefiting low‑ and middle‑income earners. These pay rises ensured that minimum wage workers were not left behind as the cost of living rises.

    Furthermore, our government has tackled insecure work by introducing stronger protections for casual employees who want to transition to permanent work, establishing minimum standards for gig economy workers, and enforcing ‘same job, same pay’ provisions to prevent labour hire workers from being exploited. These reforms help ensure that Australians can rely on stable incomes, reducing the financial precarity that fuels inequality.

    A fairer tax system

    Tax policy plays a crucial role in shaping economic fairness. The Albanese government has delivered tax cuts that benefit every Australian taxpayer, allowing people to keep more of what they earn while ensuring that the system remains progressive.

    This approach contrasts with our predecessors, whose tax policies disproportionately benefited the highest earners, widening the gap between rich and poor. By maintaining a fair and responsible tax structure, we can fund essential public services while ensuring that the most fortunate Australians contribute their fair share.

    Strengthening the social safety net

    A strong, targeted welfare system is essential to reducing inequality, and our government has taken decisive action to support those who need it most. We have increased JobSeeker and other income support payments, ensuring that Australians doing it tough can afford the basics. Recognising the unique challenges faced by older Australians, we have also expanded eligibility for higher JobSeeker rates for those over 55, providing more security and dignity in later years.

    Rent assistance has been increased by over 40 per cent, helping Australians struggling with rising housing costs. Single parents have received greater support through extended access to the parenting payment, making it easier for them to balance work and caregiving responsibilities without falling into poverty. These targeted measures lift Australians up rather than trapping them in cycles of disadvantage.

    Investing in affordable housing

    Housing inequality is one of the most pressing economic issues facing Australia today. The Albanese government has responded with the largest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade. Through the Housing Australia Future Fund, we are building over 55,000 new social and affordable homes, directly addressing homelessness and housing stress.

    Beyond construction, we have strengthened renters’ rights, introducing minimum rental standards, limiting rent increases to once per year, and requiring genuine grounds for eviction. By making renting fairer and ensuring more Australians have access to stable, affordable housing, we are creating a foundation for economic security and social mobility.

    Early childhood education and skills training

    Breaking the cycle of inequality starts with education. That’s why we have delivered cheaper childcare for 96 per cent of families with children in early education – an investment that not only reduces financial strain but also ensures that more children, regardless of their family’s income, start life with the educational support they need.

    In schools, we have delivered on the promise of the Gonski report by ensuring that all schools are funded to the schooling resource standard. This isn’t just about money, it’s about delivering the resources required to drive reform. We know that Australia’s OECD PISA scores have been slipping backwards for the past quarter‑century. If we do not turn this around, the most vulnerable stand to suffer most.

    Our government has also committed to over half a million fee‑free TAFE places, ensuring that Australians can gain the skills needed for secure, well‑paying jobs. By making education more accessible, we are expanding opportunities for people from all backgrounds, ensuring that no one is locked out of good jobs because they cannot afford the necessary training.

    Fairer pay for women

    We cannot talk about overall economic inequality without considering gender inequality. The Albanese government has delivered historic pay rises for aged care and early childhood education workers – sectors dominated by women – while expanding paid parental leave to 26 weeks by 2026 and adding superannuation to government‑paid parental leave. These measures help to close the gender wealth gap, ensuring that women are not financially penalised for caring responsibilities. The gender pay gap is still too high, but it is also at an all‑time low.

    Tackling the cost of living

    Inequality is exacerbated when basic essentials become unaffordable. That’s why we have delivered targeted cost‑of‑living relief, including $300 in energy bill relief for every household and cheaper medicines that allow millions of Australians to buy 2 months’ worth of prescription medication for the price of one. We have also ensured that HECS‑HELP loans will never grow faster than wages, reducing the financial burden on young Australians starting their careers.

    Another major reform is our work in the energy sector. By expanding investment in renewable energy and breaking down barriers to new market entrants, we are reducing energy costs for consumers while ensuring a transition to a cleaner economy. High energy prices disproportionately impact low‑income Australians, and our efforts to foster a more competitive and efficient energy market are directly reducing cost‑of‑living pressures.

    Historically, reducing inflation in Australia meant higher unemployment. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, bouts of inflation were met by job losses. Often, it took a recession to bring prices under control. Yet this time is different. Uniquely in Australian history, we have brought inflation under control while maintaining what economists call ‘full employment’. We have tamed inflation while creating over one million jobs. Unemployment remains low, and the participation rate is at a record high. This is a remarkable achievement for our nation.

    Investing in health equity

    Health disparities are one of the most damaging consequences of inequality, with lower‑income Australians facing shorter life expectancies and higher rates of chronic illness. Our government has made the largest investment in bulk billing in Medicare’s history, restoring affordable access to GPs for millions of Australians. We have also established new urgent care clinics and expanded mental health services, ensuring that healthcare is based on need, not wealth.

    Competition reforms to reduce inequality

    A truly fair economy is one where businesses compete on a level playing field, ensuring that consumers and small businesses are not left behind. Monopolies increase inequality by transferring resources from consumers (the many) to shareholders (the few). The Albanese government has prioritised competition reform to prevent market concentration from deepening inequality.

    One of our key achievements has been strengthening competition in the grocery sector. By increasing regulatory oversight and cracking down on anti‑competitive behaviour by major supermarket chains, we are ensuring fairer prices at the checkout. We know that when competition declines, consumers pay more, and smaller businesses struggle. Our policies ensure that Australian families are not subject to artificially inflated food prices while smaller retailers have a fair chance to succeed.

    Through the biggest overhaul of merger laws in half a century and a revitalised National Competition Policy, we are putting downward pressure on prices and increasing fairness. This approach reflects our commitment to an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.

    A commitment to evidence‑based solutions

    A key principle of our government is ensuring that policies are grounded in evidence, not ideology. That is why we have created the Australian Centre for Evaluation, and committed to expanding the use of randomised trials in policymaking, ensuring that every dollar spent on social programs delivers real results. By rigorously evaluating what works, we can scale up the most effective initiatives, ensuring that public investment leads to meaningful reductions in inequality.

    Conclusion: a shared moral and national imperative

    Inequality is a profound challenge – but not insurmountable. Australian history reminds us that inequality is never inevitable. It expands or shrinks based on the decisions we make collectively as a society.

    There is much more to do, but I have given you a flavour today of what we have already done together. The Albanese government has chosen to lift wages, invest in housing and education, strengthen social protections, reform competition, and deliver targeted cost‑of‑living relief. These policies lift people up – not just economically, but socially and morally.

    As the Gospel of Matthew reminds us, true compassion is measured by our actions towards ‘the least of these.’ We must constantly ask ourselves: Are our policies fair? Are our communities inclusive? Is every Australian being given the chance to thrive?

    The Albanese government is committed to answering these questions positively – not just with words, but through meaningful action. Together, we can create a society where dignity, justice, and opportunity are the lived reality for every Australian.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Address to the Corones’ Law Competition Reform event, Sydney

    Source: Australian Treasurer

    I acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to First Nations people taking part in today’s event.

    Fresh out of law school, I had the privilege of working as one of Justice Michael Kirby’s High Court associates. I answered the phone, put thousands of letters in envelopes, made hundreds of cups of Ceylon Orange Pekoe tea and occasionally had the chance to do some legal research (Leigh 2016).

    One of the things I learned was that lawyers would be lost without resources like Corones’ Competition Law (Svetiev 2023). Pages dog‑eared and tabbed to death, Corones is a trusted source of how the courts have ruled and how arguments have been won and lost.

    Corones texts also stand as a record of reform. Over many editions, it has captured everything from judgments on the original 1974 legislation, to reforms allowing third parties to access infrastructure in the 1990s, to the introduction of criminal cartel sanctions in the 2000s.

    And today, a new round of competition reforms takes shape. This includes the new merger regime – the largest shakeup of Australia’s merger settings in half a century. And it includes a revitalised National Competition Policy agenda. These are the 2 areas I want to cover today, with a focus on the microdata underpinning these macro reforms.

    Building an innovative economy

    Ultimately, competition reform is about improving the long‑term prosperity of the Australian people. This means getting the policy settings right if we want to build a stronger, more resilient and dynamic economy.

    Think of the end‑game as more like Lego than Monopoly. In Monopoly, one person gets everything while everyone else watches in frustration. In Lego, all the players get to build something – though in both cases, stepping on a piece can be painful.

    As US congressman Jake Auchincloss put it, ‘Everybody, when they think about playing with Legos, has this sense of creativity and empowerment.’ (Klein 2025)

    Competitive markets help ensure Australians pay fair prices for goods and services (Leigh 2024a). Without competition, businesses can charge whatever they like – kind of like airport food courts, where a ham and cheese sandwich requires a mortgage.

    Competition also promotes choice and freedom.

    The challenge is Australia’s competitiveness has been declining since the 2000s, while market concentration has nearly doubled since 2010 (Chalmers and Leigh 2024).

    Using microdata to get a better picture

    The Australian Government’s establishment of a Competition Taskforce within the Treasury in 2023 reflects the importance we place on competition reform and finding solutions.

    In just over a year, the Competition Taskforce has made significant contributions.

    This includes using microdata to identify competition issues and develop tailored policy and regulatory responses (Leigh 2024b).

    For example, the Competition Taskforce has relied on data to:

    • develop a robust evidence base on the prevalence and use of non‑compete clauses in Australian labour contracts to inform policy (Andrews and Jarvis 2023, ABS 2024)
    • provide new and powerful insights into how competition can reduce airfares (Majeed, Breunig and Domazet 2024)
    • explain patterns and trends in mergers and show how competition has declined in Australia (Competition Taskforce 2024).

    Understanding competition

    Unit‑level records that track businesses and households over time allow granular analysis of the way policies are influencing the economy.

    Using bigger datasets, more refined econometric techniques and most up to date theories, economists have provided new insights on trends in market concentration and the relationship between competition and productivity.

    For example, researchers found an increase in market power partly explained Australia’s productivity growth slowdown. Industries with the greatest increase in concentration also had the greatest increases in markups (Hambur 2021).

    In this context, high‑growth firms act like Lego builders in the economy – constantly assembling, adapting, and expanding their creations. Rather than dominating like a monopoly, these firms thrive by snapping together innovative ideas, new markets, and fresh talent, driving the majority of turnover and employment growth.

    Typically small and young, they grow by more than 20 per cent over a three‑year period, often reshaping the landscape and challenging the older, more rigid structures of established incumbents. Think of them as the startups disrupting the economy – just as streaming services disrupted DVDs, Uber disrupted taxis, and toddlers disrupt your ability to get a full night’s sleep. As vital builders of sales and employment, a decline in high growth firms can lead to a less dynamic, less flexible economy (Majeed et al., 2021).

    Concentration hot spots

    The Competition Taskforce is working with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to develop a microdata screening tool to identify concentration hot spots. This innovative tool leverages the increasingly detailed geospatial data that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has added to its microdata assets.

    The resulting tool will identify regions or segments of the economy that are already very concentrated, where further market consolidation through mergers and acquisitions poses the greatest risk to competition. Concentration hotspots are like a heat map of where Monopoly is being played a little too well, allowing policymakers to find solutions before someone tries to build hotels on every property.

    The Taskforce’s use of administrative data to systematically understand economic activity at the local level will be a novel approach to competition policy both in Australia and among our peers. It will complement the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s thorough knowledge of markets developed through its many inquiries and day‑to‑day experience administering the competition laws.

    This hot‑spot tool should help the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administer the new merger system and inform decisions about the sectors requiring mandatory notification. After all, if a Monopoly player already owns Park Place (or Park Lane), it’s best for the other players that they don’t own all the other dark blue properties. When monopolists dominate the board, it can be expensive for everyone else in the economy to move forward.

    These examples showcase how increased availability of microdata has transformed the way we can use empirical evidence in the policy decision making process: to better identify issues, understand the problems, and develop effective and targeted solutions.

    Microdata gives us the tools and understanding to target policies.

    National Competition Policy

    Building a more productive, dynamic and resilient economy and giving Australian consumers access to a wider range of higher quality products and services at lower prices from across the country and overseas requires collaboration and trust.

    That is why Australian, state and territory governments have been working together to coordinate competition reform efforts under a revitalised National Competition Policy agenda.

    Almost 30 years ago, states, territories and the Commonwealth agreed to put competition policy front and centre by agreeing to the National Competition Policy following the Hilmer Report. This was the era of economic reform, as well as grunge music, dial‑up internet, Blockbuster video rentals, Tamagotchis, and arguing over whether Ross and Rachel were really on a break.

    The original Hilmer reforms outlined a set of competition principles that transformed our economy in ways we largely take for granted today. These included structural reform of public monopolies, introducing competitive neutrality so that government businesses do not enjoy unfair advantages over their private peers, arrangements for third‑party access to nationally significant infrastructure, and an obligation on all governments to review and reform laws that restrict competition.

    These reforms, which focused on removing regulatory barriers in the non‑traded sector, were credited with boosting Australia’s GDP by 2.5 per cent – equivalent to around $5,000 per household per year today. That’s basically the economic equivalent of finding an extra $50 in your jeans – twice a week, every week.

    Commonwealth, state and territory treasurers agreed in November to revitalise National Competition Policy to drive growth, improve choice and put downward pressure on prices (Chalmers 2024). Renewing the government’s commitment to put competition policy front and centre once again but tailored for the new challenges and opportunities of the modern economy – we’re now a digital economy, we’re looking for ways to make the transition to net zero at least cost, and we have a growing care and support economy.

    We have also updated the original National Competition Principles to drive better outcomes for the community, requiring governments to consider the competition impacts of government decisions and establish protections against poorly managed privatisations, empower consumers and address remaining barriers to the movement of goods, services and workers across the country.

    Competition reform isn’t straightforward. If it was easy, past governments would have done it already. Competition reform can be like assembling flat‑pack furniture – you know it’ll be worth it in the end, but along the way, there’s a lot of frustration and some pieces don’t seem to fit where they should.

    Trajectory of the government’s competition reforms

    This recommits governments to a new wave of pro‑competitive reforms over the next decade. Work is already underway on a first tranche of 5 priority reforms to ease the cost‑of‑living pressure and reduce regulatory complexity. The 5 pillars are:

    • Streamlining commercial planning and zoning systems to improve competition by encouraging firm entry and expansion and reducing business and regulatory costs.
    • Lowering barriers to the adoption of international and overseas standards in regulation. As a first step, we are fast‑tracking the recognition of equivalent or superior overseas product safety standards, rather than relying only on domestic standards, to deliver safer and cheaper products. Following this, we will be working collaboratively to identify the priority sectors for the next phase of this reform.
    • Supporting modern methods of construction such as prefab and modular by levelling the regulatory playing field with traditional methods of construction, unlocking time and cost savings, overcoming labour shortages and boosting lagging construction productivity.
    • A nationally consistent worker screening check to boost labour mobility for care workers.
    • Developing broader rights to repair, including for agricultural products, which could reduce repair costs and waste by providing consumers and businesses more choice for repair services.

    State and territory reforms are backed by the government’s $900 million National Productivity Fund. This allows for the fiscal benefits of these reforms – which mostly flow to the Commonwealth – to be shared with those states and territories that choose to implement them. The idea is to encourage states and territories to undertake meaningful reforms for the benefit of the Australian people and the economy.

    And this is just the start. The government will continue to work closely with industry and state and territories to build a more productive economy through national pro‑competitive reform options.

    Further reform rounds will be informed by community consultation and the Productivity Commission’s 5 new inquiries.

    They include inquiries into:

    • creating a more dynamic and resilient economy
    • building a skilled and adaptable workforce
    • harnessing data and digital technology
    • delivering quality care more efficiently, and
    • investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.

    Significant benefits flow from National Competition Policy

    Significant benefits will flow from a revitalised National Competition Policy.

    To help us understand the magnitude of the benefits, the Productivity Commission modelled the impact of 19 potential competition reforms (Productivity Commission 2024).

    The Productivity Commission estimated that a revitalised National Competition Policy could result in an ongoing boost to GDP of up to $45 billion, an increase of up to $5,000 for every Australian household per year as well as lower prices by an estimated 0.7 to 1.5 per cent in the long run. This is significant. It is an enduring benefit for consumers, businesses and the economy. On‑par with the highly successful reform efforts of the 1990s and 2000s.

    And the benefits of the reforms extend beyond their economic effect. For example, reforms in the care and support economy would increase the quality of care in areas such as health and disability support.

    There is tough reform work to be done, but the benefits of delivering meaningful reform speak for themselves.

    Closing remarks

    I’d like to leave you with this final thought.

    When Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen created his iconic company almost a century ago, he named it LEGO after the Danish phrase ‘leg godt’, which means ‘play well’ (LEGO n.d).

    Christiansen understood that openness, rather than monopolistic drive, enabled dynamic, productive and constructive play that benefitted everyone involved.

    Instead of a blood sport where players knocked each other out one by one, participants benefitted when they could create, learn, collaborate and share ideas.

    Today, Lego is the world’s most popular toy, with consumers buying over 30 billion blocks per year.

    Raising my 3 sons, I found that an afternoon spent playing Lego inspired creativity and laughter. Our evenings spent playing Monopoly often ended in tears.

    In much the same way, we are all grappling with changes that are shifting the parameters of the playing field. The digital economy and transition to net zero are equivalent to that moment in time that Congressman Auchincloss described as ‘…throwing the board’, when people ‘get so frustrated that another person – out of, frankly, pure luck – ends up on Park Place and is able to just extract rents every time you cross or you pass go’ (Klein 2025).

    Through microdata‑driven analysis of market concentration, revitalised National Competition Policy, and the continuation of productive collaboration between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, competition should foster innovation and opportunity. More Lego, less Monopoly.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: High Court rules on Commonwealth liability for native title acquisitions in the NT

    Source: Allens Insights

    Commonwealth exposed to compensation claims for pre-1975 native title extinguishments 3 min read

    The High Court has recently ruled, in Commonwealth of Australia v Yunupingu (on behalf of the Gumatj Clan or Estate Group) & Ors,1 that any actions taken by the Commonwealth before 1975 that extinguished or impaired native title, without providing just compensation, are invalid acquisitions of property under section 51 (xxxi) of the Constitution.

    As a result, these actions can be considered ‘compensable acts’ under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (the Act), exposing the Commonwealth to potentially significant compensation claims by native title holders in the Northern Territory, and potentially other parts of Australia. We explain the implications, including the effect on private entities.

    The key questions and decisions

    There were two key issues for the High Court to decide:

    1. whether the Commonwealth’s power to make laws under the territories power in s122 of the Constitution empowered it to enact laws allowing the acquisition of property but without the requirement to provide ‘just terms’ under s51(xxxi)—the court ruled it did not, and that the ‘just terms’ requirement must apply to any such acquisition; and
    2. whether the extinguishment or impairment of native title by the Commonwealth constitutes an ‘acquisition of property’ under s51(xxxi) —the court said it does.

    Background

    The Gumatj Clan initiated two claims in the Federal Court—one seeking a determination that they hold native title rights to an area of the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory; and a second one for compensation against the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory, challenging land acquisitions on the Gove Peninsula between the 1930s and 1960s.

    The claim focused on a series of grants and appropriations made under ordinances issued by the Governor-General under the Northern Territory (Administration) Act 1910 (Cth), including relating to the vesting of minerals in the Crown, and the granting of special mineral leases under the ordinances and the Mining (Gove Peninsula Nabalco Agreement) Ordinance 1968 (NT).

    The Gumatj Clan succeeded in their arguments that:

    • if these acts extinguished native title, they were constitutionally invalid due to the absence of just terms compensation, as required by s51(xxxi); and
    • if that was so, the acts could be categorised as ‘compensable acts’ under the Act, triggering a right to compensation.

    What is the significance of the case?

    It has always been accepted that if native title rights were extinguished or impaired after 31 October 1975, when the Racial Discrimination Act commenced, native title holders are entitled to compensation from the government responsible.

    Now, the High Court’s decision has opened the door for compensation claims against the Commonwealth under the Act for its historic actions that extinguished or impaired native title before 1975, when that was not done on ‘just terms’—which will likely have almost always been the case, given native title was not recognised until 1992, in the Mabo case. It will be particularly relevant to what acts the Commonwealth has taken in the territories, and the Northern Territory in particular.

    What’s next?

    This is primarily an issue for the Commonwealth and its liability exposure, and will have less relevance to the states. State government actions are primarily responsible for pre-1975 extinguishment of native title but, unlike the Commonwealth Constitution, there is no ‘just terms’ obligation in state constitutions. There could, though, be some limited application to states where the Commonwealth has taken action regarding land acquisitions in a particular one.

    The decision does not have any direct impact on private entities currently using land and waters, or planning future projects. It does not invalidate their approvals or activities, and does not itself expose them to compensation claims. However, there would be an impact on private entities if they are exposed to an arrangement, through legislation or contract, where the Commonwealth has the right to pass on its native title liability.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why did the Israel-Hamas ceasefire fall apart? It was never going to solve the root causes of the conflict

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

    When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief.

    However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated negotiations, have now been cast aside by new Israeli attacks on Gaza.

    A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strikes came after Hamas’ “repeated refusals” to “release our hostages”, and the group’s rejection of all proposals presented by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

    Even before Israel cut off all humanitarian aid and electricity to Gaza in the past two weeks, Hamas claimed it had not met the levels of humanitarian aid, shelter and fuel it agreed to provide in the terms of the ceasefire. However, this is a distraction from a larger issue.

    This ceasefire was always more like a strangle contract than a negotiated agreement between equal parties. Israel, as the party with far greater military and political power, has always had the upper hand.

    And while the first phase of the ceasefire, which lasted 42 days, saw the successful release of 33 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, the ceasefire also enabled Israel to use it for its own political and military ends.

    Buying time

    The most common conventional concern about ceasefires is that the parties to a conflict will use them for their own ends.

    Typically, the worry is that non-state armed groups, such as Hamas, will use the halt in violence to buy time to regroup, rearm and rebuild their strength to continue fighting.

    But states such as Israel have this ability, too. Even though they have standing armies that might not need to regroup and rearm in the same way, states can use this time to manoeuvre in the international arena – a space largely denied to non-state actors.

    Trump’s rise to power in the US has seemingly given the Israeli government carte blanche to proceed in ways that were arguably off limits to previous US presidents who were also largely supportive of Israel’s actions.

    This includes the plan of forcing Gaza’s population out of the strip. This plan was raised earlier in the war by Trump advisor Jared Kushner and Israeli officials as a supposed humanitarian initiative.

    Trump has now repeated the call to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan – or possibly other parts of Africa – and for the US to take “ownership” of the coastal strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

    On the face of it, this plan would be a war crime. But even if it is never fully implemented, the fact it is being promoted by Trump after many years of domestic Israeli and international opprobrium shows how political ideas once thought unacceptable can take on a life of their own.

    Political and military maneouvering

    Israel has also used the ceasefire to pursue larger political and military goals in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon and Syria.

    Even though the ceasefire did reduce overall levels of violence in Gaza, Israel has continued to carry out attacks on targets in the strip.

    It has also escalated the construction of settlements and carried out increasingly violent operations in the West Bank. In addition, there have been egregious attacks on Palestinian residents in Israel.

    And though nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners were released during the ceasefire, Israel was holding more than 9,600 Palestinians in detention on “security grounds” at the end of 2024. Thousands more Palestinians are being held by Israel in administrative detention, which means without trial or charge.

    During the ceasefire, Israel also accelerated efforts to evict the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from its headquarters in East Jerusalem. And the Israeli government has also proposed increasingly draconian laws aimed at restraining the work of Israeli human rights organisations.

    On the military front, the ceasefire arguably alleviated some pressure on Israel, giving it time to consolidate its territorial and security gains against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and in Syria.

    In the past two months, two deadlines for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon passed. Israel has instead proposed establishing a buffer zone on Lebanese territory and has begun destroying villages, uprooting olive trees and building semi-permanent outposts along the border.

    In a speech in February, Netanyahu also demanded the “complete demilitarisation of southern Syria” following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. And Defence Minister Israel Katz said this month Israel would keep its troops in southern Syria to “protect” residents from any threats from the new Syrian regime.

    Be careful what you wish for

    While Palestinians are known for their sumud – usually translated as steadfastness or tenacity – there is a limit to what humans can endure. The war, and subsequent ceasefires, have created a situation in which Gazans may have to put the survival and wellbeing of themselves and their families above their desire to stay in Palestine.

    There is a general assumption that ceasefires are positive and humanitarian in nature. But ceasefires are not panaceas. In reality, they are a least-worst option for stopping the violence of war for often just a brief period.

    A ceasefire was never going to be the solution to the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, it has turned out to be part of the problem.

    Marika Sosnowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why did the Israel-Hamas ceasefire fall apart? It was never going to solve the root causes of the conflict – https://theconversation.com/why-did-the-israel-hamas-ceasefire-fall-apart-it-was-never-going-to-solve-the-root-causes-of-the-conflict-249944

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –