PETA pushes wool growers overboard

ANIMAL activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has urged Australian wool producers to jump ship from Australian Wool Innovation and cease mulesing now.

PETA Asia-Pacific director Jason Baker said the AWI board was "completely ineffective" and warned the Australian wool industry faced "disaster" if it did not honour its commitment to end mulesing by 2010.

Mr Baker's comments come after newly elected AWI chairman, Wal Merriman, said the industry would not be tied to a deadline to phase out mulesing.

Mr Merriman said at yesterday's AWI annual meeting in Perth that he would continue mulesing his sheep beyond 2010 if a viable alternative had not been found.

Mr Baker said reneging on the commitment was "an embarrassment to the wool industry".

Riots in two Aboriginal communities

Riots have broken out in two separate Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory today.

Darwin's Tactical Response Team was called into the remote Arnhem community of Milingimbi after a riot broke out involving 60 people.

Police said the group was armed with weapons and started fighting late last night.

Calm was restored, but reignited again about 11:00am.

Also this morning, a riot involved about 200 people broke out on the Tiwi Islands.

That incident started in the main street if Nguiu and five people have been arrested.

Extra police were called in from the neighbouring Melville Island.

Police said peace has now been restored and about 30 people are expected to be summonsed.

Secrecy over Mount Isa children's lead levels

Mt Isa children still at risk for lead

AT least 12 children in Mount Isa still have dangerously high lead levels but the State Government is refusing to give details of the cases.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson was yesterday forced into a partial backdown by releasing test data - only a day after claiming the information could not be made public for legal reasons.

The State Government was still refusing to release case progress reports amid claims it was not being open and accountable with residents and was dragging its heels on the issue.

Several families have already begun legal action against the Government and Swiss mining giant Xstrata, which owns the town's mine, over allegations of negligence which resulted in lead poisoning among children.

A Queensland Health report in May found 45 children - about 11 per cent of those tested - had elevated blood lead levels.

It has also emerged five of another 36 children tested since June also had dangerously high levels.

New figures released in State Parliament yesterday by Mr Robertson showed only 22 of the original 45 children underwent re-testing in recent months.

Twelve still had levels higher than 10 micrograms/decilitre - the point where intellectual and behavioural problems could occur - while 10 had levels that were now below 10 micrograms.

Slater & Gordon lawyer Damian Scattini, who is acting on behalf of families engaged in a class action, yesterday said the results showed education such as glossy pamphlets was failing.

"The Minister should be releasing all the reports (even with names censored)," Mr Scattini said. "They promised they would be open and accountable. How many (children poisoned) is too many for this Government?"

Mr Robertson acknowledged the huge public interest but said the current legal action could not be compromised.

"Each of the families of the children with elevated lead levels has been given advice on methods to reduce their child's exposure to lead," Mr Robertson said. "Detailed environmental audits have been conducted on the households that have children with elevated lead levels."

Farmers protest coal mine plans

Hundreds of farmers in the north-west of New South Wales are protesting about mining expansions outside a coal industry conference in the Liverpool Plains.

About 200 farmers travelled from throughout the region to met outside the annual coal conference in Gunnedah to protest BHP Billiton's Caroona Basin exploration plans.

They want an independent study into the effect this could have on local water supplies in one of the state's biggest food producing areas.

The federal MP for New England, Tony Windsor, has been asked to speak to the conference.

He says local landholders stand to lose their livelihoods if mining destroys inter-connected water tables.

"They have no idea what slashing these arteries can do in terms of potential downstream impacts," he said.

He says the industry should contribute financially towards the study, but he says they will have to overcome their own fears of what a study might find.

"At a government level and at an industry level they know they can't prove you can successfully longwall mine in that sort of flat alluvial plain that's underpinned with underground water systems," he said.

"They know you can't assure the community there is no risk."

The farmers have vowed to take their concerns to Sydney.

Qld has highest homeless rate in Australia

The figures show more than 26,000 people were living on the streets in Qld in 2006.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show Queensland has the highest homeless population in Australia.

The figures show more than 26,000 people were living on the streets in Queensland in 2006.

Mission Australia spokesman Tony Stevenson says thousands more are homeless now.

The ABS report shows 105,000 Australians were homeless on Census night in 2006.

He says rapid urban sprawl has reduced the amount of affordable housing across the state.

Caravan parks were one source of affordable housing for many people and that is now not available.

Mr Stevenson says increasing rent prices in mining towns like Mackay and Mount Isa are also forcing people out of their homes.

"There are lots of rural and regional towns that have now become absolutely unaffordable to people who have traditionally lived in those communities," he said.

The report shows the Queensland's homeless population rose by 2,000 in five years and that more than half of Australia's homeless are under 24 years of age.

Related:

More homeless seeking help: report
A new report shows there has been a substantial increase in the number of homeless Australians seeking government help.

Remote mental health services falling short

A report has found governments are still struggling to meet the mental health needs of people living in remote areas.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looked at spending on mental health services between 2001 and 2006.

It found relatively low numbers of psychiatric services were provided outside major cities.

The institute's Jenny Hargreaves says 94 more services are provided per 1,000 people who live in Australian capital cities.

"We found some differences in the number of Medicare-funded services that were provided in city and country areas per thousand population," she said.

"For psychiatrist services there were 113 services per thousand population in major cities and 19 services per thousand population in very remote areas."

The report also found more Australians are seeing general practitioners about mental health issues, with depression still the most common diagnosis.

Ms Hargreaves says 34 per cent of the 10 million Australians who see a GP for mental health issues each year are treated for depression.

"One in 10 [general practice] encounters involved management of a mental health problem and amongst those depression was the most common, the second most common was anxiety," she said.

Calls for immediate moratorium on old growth logging

The Wilderness Society has called for an immediate end to old-growth logging after a new report identified forests that can absorb three times more carbon than international studies had previously suggested.

Scientists from the Australian National University examined 240 sites of intact natural forests in south-east Australia and found they can store up to 640 tonnes per hectare.

The largest stocks were in the central highlands of Tasmania and Victoria.

Virginia Young from the Wilderness Society says the research findings should prompt governments to protect native forests.

"If you were being sensible you would put an immediate moratorium on all old-growth logging all around the country because it's clear the carbon stocks are so much higher than anyone has previously analysed before," she said.

"The last thing you would do would be to log old-growth forests in Tasmania or Victoria."

Carbon sink tax bill 'seriously flawed'

There were extraordinary scenes in the Senate last night as the Greens combined with the Nationals and the Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan to attack part of a tax bill.

It was originally drafted by the previous Coalition government and has been reintroduced by Labor.

It gives a full tax deduction for the cost of planting forests as carbon sinks.

But Senator Heffernan, the Nationals and the Greens argued passionately in the Senate last night that it is flawed.

Senator Heffernan says the bill does not stop the trees being cut down or allowed to die within a year.

"There is absolutely no way in this legislation that you can prevent me from planting these trees and the year after I collect the tax deduction - me ploughing them in," he said.

"It is a national disgrace if we allow this Parliament to pass this legislation in the full knowledge that it is completely and fundamentally flawed."

Greens Senator Bob Brown agrees the bill is seriously flawed.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Jocye has called it a load of rubbish.

"Its very rare - to be honest - I would agree with the Greens but tonight's going to be one of those nights," Senator Joyce said.

But Government Senator Stephen Conroy says the bill was initially brought in by the previous Government.

"To be muttering up the back about what an evil plot this is - its your bill," he said.

The senators do not deny that they are negotiating on ways to to fix the problems they have complained about.

The Coalition is understood to be discussing technical aspects of how to do that.

New figures reveal farming family exodus

Forced off: The drought has wreaked havoc with farming families (Get Images)

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show more than 10,500 farming families have been forced off the land during the drought.

The figures, show there has been a 10 per cent drop in the number of farming families during the drought.

In the five-year period between 2001 and 2006, 10,636 families sold up or found other work.

It was a big increase from the previous Census period, when 2,500 families stopped farming.

The figures underscore the drought's deep impact on rural Australia and bring the long-term fall in the number of farming families to 30 per cent during the past 20 years.