President Ashraf Ghani鈥檚 first visit to Australia prompted a sizable protest on April 3 among the Australian Hazara community amid claims of institutional discrimination against Hazaras in Afghanistan.
Numbering thousands, peaceful protesters gathered from across the country and demanded from the Afghan President equality, fair distribution of resources, and an end to governmental discrimination.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered on April 1 to send rescuers and other disaster relief experts to Colombia to help victims of a mudslide that has killed at least 154 people.
The mudslide, which overtook the small city of Mocoa in southern Colombia, left about 400 people injured and 220 missing. Mocoa was left in almost total ruin, as buildings, trees and infrastructure were toppled by muddy water and debris.
鈥淲e鈥檙e brotherly people who are there to be together and show respect for one another in trying times,鈥 Maduro said.聽
The office of Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad was occupied for 11 hours on April 4 by Galilee Blockade grandparent activists. As Infrastructure Minister, Trad has the power to veto the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan funding to Adani (or Aurizon) for the development of rail links, which are essential for the coalmine to go ahead.聽
Foreign Correspondent disappointed with 鈥淰enezuela Undercover鈥, a good-looking but trivial piece of 鈥渋nvestigative journalism鈥.
The 30-minute documentary by reporter Eric Campbell and producer Mike Davis was first screened on ABC on March 21.
It begins by asserting that Venezuela is, today, a 鈥渄isaster鈥, though very little in the documentary is offered that might allow the viewer to understand why.
According to federal government ministers, Medicare is unsustainable. The aged pension is also unsustainable. The NDIS is unsustainable. Many other social services are unsustainable. However, billions of dollars of tax cuts to big Australian companies are perfectly sustainable.
In the short term, the government will be stealing $5.2 billion from the public purse and handing it over in the form of tax cuts to companies with an annual turnover of up to $50 million. In the medium term the cuts go further and will cost $24 billion.
The US military鈥檚 top official for Latin America presented聽聽to the US Senate on April 6 warning that Venezuela could be a 鈥渄estabilising鈥 factor in Latin America.
The controversial Adani Carmichael coalmine was granted an unlimited 60-year water licence by the Queensland government on March 29. Environmentalists fear the mine will drain huge amounts of water from the Great Artesian Basin and say it is yet another example of governments giving the mine special treatment.
Below is an open letter to ABC鈥檚 Foreign Correspondent by Eulalia Reyes, a Venezuelan activist and Brisbane co-coordinator of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. It was written in response to March 21 program titled 鈥淰enezuela Undercover鈥.
听***
As a Venezuelan that has once again had to endure being insulted by you presenting my country as on the brink of disaster and Venezuelans as bring incapable of liberating ourselves from this situation, I am writing to demand respect for my country and its people.聽
Thousands of people turned out to packed out and sold out in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne between March 28-31. The enthusiastic response is a tangible demonstration that the Adani Carmichael coalmine project can be defeated.
Peter Cundall鈥檚 90th birthday on April 1 was celebrated in Hobart with 鈥淧ete鈥檚 Picnic鈥, a public picnic in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.
Born in Manchester to a poverty-stricken family in 1927, Cundall migrated to Tasmania in 1956.
He became a household name as the host of ABC TV鈥檚 Gardening Australia but his love of nature also led him to become an environmental activist.
He was involved with protests against the Franklin Dam in the 1970s and 鈥80s.
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory released its . Commissioners Mick Gooda and Margaret White are now due to deliver their final report on August 1.
"The NSW land titles registry's $190 million-a-year revenue stream could soon start flowing towards the Cayman Islands," the Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 3.
A Fairfax Media investigation found that 鈥渂ehind the newly created companies that may house Land and Property Information are an array of foreign players, a mysterious trustee, and business links to tax havens such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.鈥