Australia’s criminalisation and detention of children as young as ten is a “crime scene and a human rights catastrophe,” disproportionately impacting First Nations kids, Senator Lidia Thorpe has said. In separate comments to the Senate inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system, which reported last month, Senator Thorpe explicitly named detention centres as “sites of systemic child abuse".
The Australia Institute’s Chief Economist Greg Jericho has slammed the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to raise interest rates again, arguing there is no data to justify increasing them to the highest level seen in 15 years.
Sydney Water will seek expert advice on whether data centres could release “forever chemicals” into the wastewater system after the possibility was raised at a Senate inquiry. The scrutiny comes as Swedish nonprofit ChemSec reported earlier in September that most of the world’s top 10 PFAS producers are planning to expand production, with some framing their investments around the “AI revolution”.
At a Senate inquiry into AI and data centres, Senator Sarah Henderson challenged property giant Goodman Group over its proposed Lane Cove facility, which residents said would be around 16 metres from a neighbour’s property line.
New South Wales planning officials allegedly bypassed consultation with key agencies over a proposed data centre and gas-fired power station after the developer threatened legal action, a Senate inquiry has heard.
