POLITICS & POLICY

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have donated a Land Rover they received as a wedding gift to a rescue organization to improve the team's performance.

The Chinese government through its Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu has validated Libyan opposition spokesman Abdel Raham Busim’s statement that earlier this year, communist China accommodated Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in hope to purchase firearms and other high-caliber guns following the Libyan rebellion, reports said.

The NSW Government would punish all NSW households with a solar levy power price hike, while power companies continue to get cheap and often free solar power, the Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) warned today.

The NSW Government’s move to hike mining royalties would immediately hit Commonwealth infrastructure spending as well as plans to boost superannuation and cut company tax, the CFMEU Miners Union said today.

The federal government wanted it the easy way but Australians in general will have to pay the painful price for such monumental blunder, this according to banking stalwart Don Argus, who also warned on Monday that retreating local production, would in the long run hurt the economy.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s popularity drops to record low in an opinion survey released on Tuesday. The same Newspoll results happen to be the sixth in a row to show Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister over Gillard. The latest poll results prompted Newspoll CEO Martin O'Shannessy to say Labor would lose as many as 40 seats if an election was held today.

The Reserve Bank of Australia retained the 4.75 percent interest on Tuesday. The bank's Monetary Board cited the volatility which hounds the world financial markets as the reason why it kept the rates which had been unchanged since November 2010.

Fears of internal inflationary pressures and redounding volatility of global markets prompted Australia's central bank to keep the country's cash rates at its current level of 4.75 percent for the ninth straight meeting on Tuesday. This is still the highest among developed nations across the globe trudging with the slow economic recovery.

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has contributed an interesting idea to the asylum seeker debate in the wake of Prime Minister Julia Gillard leaving for the Pacific Islands Forum. Ms Bishop has suggested that the PM should use this particular trip to explore the possibility of Nauru taking asylum seekers.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is recommending in a discussion paper that Australian banks must meet the Basel minimum capital requirements by January 2013, two year early.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il expressed his distrust in his country's number own trade partner and political ally China, in spite the support the latter has extended to the communist nation, reports said.

Finance Minister Penny Wong has conceded that the downward spiral in the popularity of Prime Minister Julia Gillard is not unexpected.

Europe is apparently moving closer to a fiscal union to address the lack of central coordination of the eurozone's debt and spending policies. That lack has been blamed for the inability of zone authorities to find a solution to the debt crisis even if they had been attempting to solve it the past 18 months,.

There is no immediate possibility that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will face prosecution in Australia despite his site’s recent leaks of U.S. diplomatic cables that compromised sensitive information about the country’s intelligence activities.

Economic contractions in recent months, controversial tax proposals and a rebuff from the Australian High Court on her government’s immigration policy proved damaging on the popularity of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, whose support from the public steadily dwindled according to a latest newspaper poll.

Things get a little stickier for Julia Gillard as needed public support for her wanes further.

An online survey released Monday found that 46 percent of Australians favor the government planned 30 per cent minerals resource rent tax (MMRT). The survey by Essential Research said 34 per cent are against the MMRT, reported the Herald Sun.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is confident that the country’s Migration Act would be far more effective through introduction of amendments that would legally allow the processing of asylum seekers by use of a well-defined partnership from a foreign country.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard got significant boosts on her carbon pricing campaign as leading European figures lauded Canberra for its responsible move that will introduce taxes on industries tagged as contributors to air pollution.

Newcastle residents affected by the Orica chemical (hexavelent chromium) leak have been assured by health specialists that the leak does not pose much health risks.

For the year 2010/11, Australia's mining industry is expected to pay the federal and state governments a total of $23.4 billion in taxes and royalties.

James Murdoch declined a bonus amounting to almost $US6 million ($5.63 million) because of the phone hacking scandal at the defunct UK newspaper News of the World. He was supposed to get a payout of $US17.9 million, inclusive of the $US6 million bonus and $US8.3 million in stock awards. James' bonus was set to increase his compensation package by 74 per cent. Without the bonus, his remuneration will rise 16 per cent to $US11.9 million.

The resources sector has been paying its dues and contributes huge amount of money to the federal coffers, basing on the new data furnished on Monday by finance services firm Deloitte Access Economics.

The Australian Prime Minister has defended comments she has made about the High Court in relation to the Malaysian refugee deal initially proposed by the Government, eliciting criticism from the Law Council of Australia.

Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Hailong on Friday called for larger representation of developing countries within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), specifically African nations, in line with the UN's goal for reform.

Three successful multimillion-dollar farm industry research programs were axed yesterday by the Gillard Government.

Giant global beverage company SABMiller scored Foster’s Group on Friday as it claimed that the Australian brewer utilised questionable information on its latest financial figures to likely thwart the takeover proposal lodged by the UK-based firm.

Telstra Corporation is far from being alarmed over the assessment issued this week by the country’s consumer watchdog, stating that the present form of its structural separation undertaking (SSU) leaves more room for improvements.

Responding to reports of disenchantment inside Labor about her leadership in the wake of a High Court decision scuttling the government's asylum-seeker swap deal with Malaysia, Ms Gillard is remaining steadfast in the face of criticism.