The Northern Territory news Tue 2 Apr 2013
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2013-04-02
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English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Darwin
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Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/244764
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/592280
8 NT NEWS. Tuesday, April 2, 2013. www.ntnews.com.au P U B : N T N E W S D A T E : 2 -A P R -2 0 1 3 P A G E : 8 C O L O R : C M Y K NEWS l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l ntnews.com.au Kids hung out to dry after bureaucrat bubbler bungle By CONOR BYRNE A student drinking from a bubbler at Milingimbi School Kids are drinking from the fire hose STUDENTS at a remote Territory school are being forced to drink from a fire hose because the bubbler is too filthy to use. Australian Education Union NT branch president Matthew Cranitch said teachers at Milingimbi school, 400km east of Darwin, had been battling with senior departmental bureaucrats for three weeks over the issue without success. Over 330 students are re quired to drink from this mess, he said. Kids are drinking from the fire hose. Its not good enough in our view. Clearly, this wouldnt be acceptable in an urban school, so why is it acceptable for indigenous kids? NT Education Department spokeswoman Georgia McCabe said six new bubblers, costing $18,500, would be fitted by a Gove company in three weeks. The school is aware of the issue and is taking action to address it as a matter of urgency, she said. The school principal has made it a priority to inspect the water bubblers each morning and the grounds person will be cleaning them daily. There has been some difficulty in locating a water trough, but one is now being shipped from Perth. Students were given refillable water bottles in Term 4 last year and water coolers have been ordered. Education Department executive director for the Arnhem region Marion Guppy said she was disappointed it had taken so long for action but was pleased the situation was now being resolved. Demand for childcare rises A RECORD number of families are accessing childcare, latest statistics from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations show. More than 700,000 families were using childcare at the end of June last year. There were 986,000 in approved care and a further 15,000 attending centres across Australia. More than one quarter of children aged up to 12 years receive child care. Only rich in danger of super tax grab By STEVE LEWIS and LANAI SCARR THE vast majority of taxpayers will be exempt from Budget superannuation changes, with Treasurer Wayne Swan to target uberrich people earning $300,000-plus. As Labor MPs continued to brawl over super reforms, key cross-bench MPs warned the Gillard Government to be cautious before making any changes to retirement savings. Former Opposition leader Simon Crean claims there is widespread unrest within Labor over potential reforms, although he backed away from suggestions he would vote to block superannuation measures. I have never threatened to cross the floor on any issue and I am not going to start now, Mr Crean said. With the Government desperate to find savings to fund its Gonski education and disability insurance reforms, it is understood the super changes to be unveiled in the May 14 Budget will impact on fewer than 100,000 people. These are expected to see the tax paid on superannuation earnings increase, from 15 to 30 per cent, for people earning more than $300,000. Only 91,000 people earned $264,000 or more, the most recent Tax Office data, for 2009/10, shows. In last years Budget, the Government increased the tax to 30 per cent on super contributions paid to those earning $300,000-plus. It is expected the proposed crackdown will reap about $2 billion in extra revenue over four years enough to help fund bigticket education and disability reforms. Treasury forecasts show superannuation tax concessions this financial year will overtake negative gearing for the first time. Economists say rate cut wont be happening THE Reserve Bank will keep the official interest rate on hold today, economists believe, despite fresh evidence that the outlook for business investment is deteriorating. Leading economists are united in predicting the cen tral bank will keep the cash rate on hold but say RBA board members are likely to debate just how effective their earlier cuts have been. It comes as Dun & Bradstreet research suggests businesses are far more like ly to use the low-rate environment to pay off debt rather than borrow to invest in new growth. Some 40 per cent of businesses expect to take advantage of low interest rates to cut debt, the survey found. Michael Franchi took this stunning picture at Fogg Dam as part of his time-lapse photography project Capturing Mother Natures finest hours By SARAH CRAWFORD NT NEWS photographer Michael Franchi is one of a few people who looks forward to the build-up. That is when clouds build into monstrous towers creating the perfect subject for his time-lapse photography. Definitely the build-up and the wet season are my favourites. I look forward to it and dread it at the same time, Mr Franchi said. The sky builds up clouds and the rain plays up to make for fantastic images. Mr Franchi has spent months trekking about the Top End to capture the Territorys stormy skies. He has used time-lapse photography to show clouds swirl around Darwins highrises, roll over creeks, brush across cerulean blue skies and flush copper orange during sunsets. His favourite time-lapse was at a small dam at Holtze in Darwin. It was a fiery sunset over the water out in the bush, Mr Franchi said. Some of Mr Franchis time-lapse photographic sequences are cloud movements over the space of 30 minutes to two hours. Other sequences took more than a day. Mr Franchi said this series of time-lapse photography was just the beginning. I plan to go to more remote parts of the Territory, he said. Check out Mr Franchis pho tography at ntnews.com.au/