Brisbane Dairies

Former Treasury boss Ken Henry says "something is desperately wrong" with Australia's economy, which is beset by "structural deficiencies" that cannot be fixed by interest rate cuts or government largesse. The latest official economic growth figures, released by the ABS earlier this week, show Australia's economy continues to languish at some of its slowest growth rates since it narrowly avoided recession in the wake of the global financial crisis a decade ago. However, in an exclusive interview with ABC TV's The Business program, Dr Henry said the nation's current economic weakness was potentially far more concerning because it appears to be driven by long-term "secular" problems, not a one-off shock. "We're not in the situation that we were in in the global financial crisis when there was a big negative shock hitting the Australian economy, I think it's time to start asking ourselves the question whether this is a mere...

The drought gripping eastern Australia is having consequences as far as 2,000 kilometres away, with the ice on New Zealand glaciers turning red and pink. Photographs of New Zealand's Mount Aspiring National Park, on the South Island, show discoloured ice across large swaths of the mountains. Travel blogger Liz Carlson took the images on November 28 while on a helicopter tour of the glacier. On her blog, Young Adventuress, she suggested the odd colour came from the 80 bushfires burning in Australia at the time. Read more:  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-06/glaciers-in-new-zealand-turn-red-from-australian-dust/11773458

In every city there are places where the road should be just a bit wider, where the bus stop would be better a few metres down or, perhaps, a multi-lane highway simply should not exist. Bad urban design is a barrier to what should be the smooth flow of life in cities. It ruins commutes and can make daily life unnecessarily difficult for disabled and elderly people. Guardian Australia spoke to experts and chose a few of the worst examples across Australia – from the crossing chaos of Sydney’s Central Station to the train stations in the middle of freeways in Perth. Read more:  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/06/frustrating-cities-behind-australias-urban-design-fails

SYDNEY, Australia — Flying into Sydney usually brings stunning views of rocky cliffs and crystal waters, but when Anna Funder looked out the window before landing this week, she saw only tragedy. Read more:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/world/australia/sydney-fires.html