Meghan Markle 'hated every second' of the 'pointless' engagements on 16-day Australia tour despite it happening in the peak of 'Megmania', according to royal expert
For many, a two-week, state-funded trip to Australia would be a dream.
The endless sun and trips to Sydney Opera House, Taronga Zoo and Bondi Beach would be enough to turn most Britons green with envy.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Tasmanian leaders struggle with a basic fact: environment laws should protect the environment
Tasmania has a complicated relationship with its natural beauty. Australia's smallest state is marketed for its 'clean and green' environment and produce, and the government runs tourism campaigns with the tagline 'come down for air' that lean heavily on its stunning landscapes, coastlines and wildlife. But the state also has a hard-earned reputation for backing environmentally damaging industries that grab national, and sometimes international, attention: hydroelectric dam expansion, logging of old-growth forests and, most recently, salmon farming. The response to criticism of these industries often includes a reference to more than half of the state being protected in either public or private reserves. It's a good line, but one that doesn't survive much scrutiny. The Tasmanian world heritage wilderness covers about 20% of the state, but development, logging and mining are allowed in some areas counted as protected. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter Where the line is deployed, it is mostly to suggest that nature already gets a pretty good run and environment protection should be reduced. The Liberal state government used it to defend a yet-to-be-delivered policy of opening up nearly 40,000 hectares of protected forests for logging – a step that would reduce the amount of the state that is in protected reserves to less than 50%, and that even some members of the timber industry say makes little sense. On Saturday, the Tasmanian Labor leader, Dean Winter, rolled out the line out as he launched an equally remarkable policy before the state election on 19 July: that the state's industries should not have to answer to Australia's environment laws. To be fair, that's not how he put it. Winter said he would make a case to the federal environment minister, Murray Watt, that industries including salmon farming, energy and mining should be granted a similar exemption from the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act that has been granted to native forestry. In his view, it would allow industries to be assessed through a 'streamlined single regulatory framework'. He said it would not mean that laws were bypassed, only that environmental assessments weren't duplicated. In an interview with The Australian, Winter said this approach 'works well' for forestry. He suggested it would have led to faster approvals on some long-running contentious proposals, including a windfarm planned for an environmentally sensitive island used by migratory birds, a tailings dam on the edge of the Tarkine wilderness, and salmon farming in Macquarie harbour. The Liberal government, led by premier Jeremy Rockliff, pumped out a press release saying it also wanted faster approvals, accusing Winter of stealing a policy it released earlier this year. Both parties have a point. It is widely acknowledged that the EPBC Act is not fit for purpose. Decisions on some developments have taken longer than necessary. On the other hand, some developments are problematic and shouldn't be approved quickly, or at all. It says something about the debate that this even needs saying, but: environment laws should protect the environment. A 2021 five-yearly state of the environment report found that wasn't happening – that nature was in poor and deteriorating health, in part because forest and other vegetation has continued to be knocked down without proper oversight. Where do Winter's claims about native forest logging fit into this? Awkwardly, at best. The exemption for logging in the EPBC Act is included in regional forest agreements signed between the Commonwealth and individual states. Small problem: the states have not always lived up to their commitments. In 2006, then Australian Greens leader Bob Brown won a federal court case against Forestry Tasmania over its failure to protect three endangered species. It didn't last - the wording of the agreement was changed to prevent further challenges, and the judgment overturned - but more cases followed. Most notably, a landmark judgment in 2020 found that a Victorian logger had breached the terms of a forestry agreement and should be subject to the EPBC Act. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion The latter failure was recognised by former consumer watchdog chair Graeme Samuel in a once-a-decade statutory review of the EPBC Act in 2020. He concluded there were 'fundamental shortcomings' in how the system was working and significant change was needed. He called for the introduction of national environmental standards – benchmarks against which major operations, including logging, would be measured – and an accreditation system that included 'strong Commonwealth oversight'. In other words, Samuel found the current system wasn't actually 'working well'. The former federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, agreed that a revamp of the EPBC Act should include national environmental standards being applied to regional forest agreements. That revamp is still yet to happen. The work to re-write the laws was delayed in the last parliamentary term, and is now starting again under the new minister. It is too soon to know where Watt will land on the forestry exemption, and a range of other issues. For the moment he is sticking to federal Labor's mantra – that a deal can be reached to satisfy industry and conservation advocates. Quite how that will happen, given the evidence of environmental decline and the extent to which it is disregarded by those who wear being anti-green as a badge of honour, is difficult to imagine. Not impossible. But difficult. Speaking before he met interest groups last week, Watt says he thought environmental standards would be a necessary part of it, but he had an open mind. The Tasmanian debate is playing out in parallel to this, but an air of unreality hangs over what most people agree is an unnecessary early election. Neither major party has explained why they implicitly disagree with Samuel on regional forest agreements. Neither has levelled with the public about the economic decline of the native forestry industry, other than to promise they will support jobs in what Winter calls 'traditional industries'. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Australian timber comes from plantations. Both parties say they won't deal with the Greens, who go into the election with five out of 35 MPs and a good chance of again being a key balance-of-power player. And a Tasmanian state of the environment report released last year gathers dust. It told a similar story to the national report – that, on a majority of indicators, nature in the state was in poor or declining health. The Liberals accepted only six of the report's 16 recommendations in full and announced no new policies to address the problems identified. Labor didn't respond at all.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking moment man and woman fall into the sea as brutal punch-up breaks out in Ibiza after 'Brits are asked to leave boat party'
This is the dramatic moment a man and a woman crashed into the sea during a mass brawl in the party resort of San Antonio on Ibiza. Chaos erupted near a party boat which, according to local reports, had to suspend a scheduled excursion because of the outbreak of violence. The fight was said to have started when a group of tourists, described as British, were asked to leave the boat before it went out to sea, local press reported. It was not immediately clear why they had been asked to leave, or whether any arrests were later made. Footage showed an unidentified man pushing another into the water before getting involved in another fight further along the quayside. In the ensuing mayhem a woman described locally as the party organiser also ended up getting soaked. She was quickly pulled out of the water by two concerned bystanders as the punch-up continued nearby. A witness who posted the footage on TikTok titled the video: 'English people in Ibiza', adding: 'English people are so problematic.' When asked by other social media users how she knew their nationalities, the TikTok user Marylou1313 replied: 'Because I was there.' Another Brit joined in the conversation, insisting: 'English people are very educated, we are not all the same.' The witness replied: 'I know.' Yesterday, footage from an explosive altercation at the popular Marco Polo hotel in the same resort made headlines. One man was struck by a flying chair in the poolside fight and a woman was knocked unconscious. It was not immediately clear what had led to the violence. The footage of the hotel brawl was shared on Instagram yesterday by @sanantonioibiza. In May an easyJet passenger branded English tourists she had to share a flight to Ibiza with as 'animals' in an angry rant at the type of holidaymakers her island is letting in. Ibiza resident Erika Barrachina posted footage of the boisterous Brits online as she dubbed them 'scum' and insisted they shouldn't have been allowed on the plane in the first place. In a no-holds-barred message alongside a video of the packed plane where passengers could be seen banging on luggage compartments above them and yelling, the local said: 'My flight from London to Ibiza was absolutely horrible. 'I was scared. A plane full of real English animals. 'Everyone standing, screaming, guys hitting each other, drinking bottles of alcohol one after the other and stopping the flight attendants from doing their job. Real hell. 'This video is just the end because I couldn't film what happened during the journey. 'It was a really wild 2.5 hour flight. This shouldn't be allowed. They shouldn't let scum like this get on a plane or sell alcohol on board. 'We don't want this type of tourism in Ibiza, they should stay at home. 'I had a very bad time and the flight attendants unable to do anything because how do you control this wild animals inside a plane. There has to be a solution.' Locals in Ibiza took part in an anti-tourist demonstration on June 15. In the march that took place in the Majorcan capital Palma 8,000 people took to the streets, although organisers put the number at 30,000. Erika claimed the two male air stewards and an air stewardess on board had asked some passengers for their documentation but were met with shouts of 'F*** off.' Around 100 noisy activists banging drums surrounded upmarket eatery Cappuccino Borne next to a McDonald's in the centre of Palma after their protest finished. Police moved in to ease tension as the demonstrators held up cardboard posters reading: 'As You Come I Have To Go.' The protestors also chanted 'The Streets Will Always Be Ours', Go Home' in English and 'No Balconing' in a reference to the young tourists who have traditionally been blamed by islanders for the dangerous practice of jumping from Magaluf hotel balconies into their swimming pools or trying to climb between balconies while under the influence of drink and drugs. The Balearics Islands Government vice-president Antoni Costa said their behaviour had been 'unacceptable.'
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Shocking moment female tourist is bashed in the head with a CHAIR while another topples into pool in Ibiza hotel brawl
THIS is the manic moment a female tourist is clobbered in the head with a flying chair during a violent poolside brawl in Ibiza. The dramatic footage was captured when a fight broke out between raging tourists at the Marco Polo hotel in the Spanish holiday hotspot. 3 3 In the dramatic video taken in San Antonio, a group of tourists are seen yelling at each other, with one woman dropping to the floor after being struck. She appears to remain on the floor injured for the rest of the shocking clip, only moving briefly when staffers try to help her up. The fight ramps up when one of the tourists who was also caught in the crossfire steps back before falling into the water. Suddenly, his pal is then hit by a soaring white chair and also falls backwards. The two tourists continue to tread water - until the same holidaymaker that hurled a chair moments before goes in for seconds. He lifts up another poolside chair and proceeds to slam it down into his victim's bald head. A group of lifeguards and security attempt to intervene, but their efforts amount to nothing as the chair-hurling man seemingly ignores them. The two hurt holidaymakers then stay in the pool surrounded by foes, while their opposition continue to shout at and taunt them. One of the men is even seen mocking the victims as he dances by the side of the pool. A seemingly ironic sign, which reads "Good Vibes Only", can be seen by the side of the pool. Moment topless, beer-swilling teens erupt in fistfight behind beach huts in days of seaside yob chaos Online users pointed this out when watching the chaotic clip, with one user saying: "Good vibes only sign does it for me." The account that posted the viral video captioned the brawl: "The chaos was temporary. The memories? Permanent." Other viewers seemed to find the mayhem absolutely hilarious, and heavy speculation suggested the men were all British. One user commented: "Can smell the Stella, Joop and British passports from here." Another said: "Typical British behaviour." But some viewers were outraged by the fight. One account said: "Doesn't look like good fun happening there. Looks too intimidating and aggressive. No thanks." While another said: "Embarrassingly British." It is unclear if the men were British nationals, and the hotel have not commented on the brawl which left one woman lying on the floor. In 2022, two people ended up in the sea when a mass brawl erupted in Ibiza after Brits were reportedly banned from a party boat. The fight saw brawlers punching each other and rubbish bins being used as weapons in the popular resort of San Antonio. The chair-throwing fight also comes after an EasyJet passenger on board a flight to Ibiza was left petrified after a group of rowdy "drunk" Brits turned her journey into a "nightclub". Furious Spaniard Erika Barrachina claimed she suffered a "panic attack" after having to cope with "scum" passengers. The Ibiza resident blasted that these type of tourists should never have been allowed to board the plane in the first place. Shocking footage showed a packed plane with passengers appearing to bang on luggage compartments and yell: "Come on Ibiza!"
