NAPLAN has changed the way schools teach, with one top-performing school revealing it has sparked a return to rote learning.
RECENTLY unemployed, and with a partner on less than $70,000 a year, Nick Kuiper's one real concern about tomorrow's Budget is the rising cost of fuel.
A HUGE increase in the number of obese women having caesarians is blowing out surgery times and placing pressure on the maternity system, anaesthetists warn.
NAPLAN has changed the way schools teach, with one top-performing school revealing it has sparked a return to rote learning.
At least 29 police have been injured in China during a protest over a proposed waste incinerator. Source: AAP
A PROTEST in eastern China over a plan to build a waste incinerator has turned violent with state media reporting at least 10 demonstrators and 29 police injured in clashes.
State-run Xinhua News Agency says 30 vehicles were overturned as protesters on Saturday set two police cars on fire and blocked a highway linking Hanzhou with another city.
One protester and a policeman have been reported seriously injured.
An official in the city's Yuhan district government confirmed the incident on Sunday but would not offer details.
An online statement posted by the district government says construction on the incinerator would not begin until the project had won public support.
Treasurer Joe Hockey has avoided a question about a tobacco tax after being caught having a cigar. Source: AAP
JOE Hockey probably hoped he had got away without being questioned about having that sly cigar with his finance minister.
But in any interview there is always that last question.
Twitter has been abuzz since Friday ridiculing photographs of the treasurer and Senator Mathias Cormann having a cigar after putting together their first budget.
"There's nothing like the satisfying flavour of other people's dreams ... going up in smoke!" was one tweet.
Having a puff is not illegal, but having a celebratory drag on a fat cigar when you are about to impose the budget with the toughest impact on Australians in almost two decades isn't a particularly good look.
The latest ribbing came in a more traditional form.
In an interview on Channel Nine on Sunday, political stalwart Laurie Oakes just had to ask one last question after a 15-minute grilling that covered broken promises, infrastructure, rising petrol prices and a freeze on politicians pay.
"For some reason there has been speculation on Twitter about the impact for the budget from the price of cigars. Will tobacco excise go up?" Mr Oakes teased.
Mr Hockey declined to comment on that.
"But I do note that I think in the first budget in 1901 they had taxes on opium, so I can assure you that's certainly not in the budget. There is certainly nothing to tax there," he said.
A HUGE increase in the number of obese women having caesarians is blowing out surgery times and placing pressure on the maternity system, anaesthetists warn.
NAPLAN has changed the way schools teach, with one top-performing school revealing it has sparked a return to rote learning.
NAPLAN has changed the way schools teach, with one top-performing school revealing it has sparked a return to rote learning.
RECENTLY unemployed, and with a partner on less than $70,000 a year, Nick Kuiper's one real concern about tomorrow's Budget is the rising cost of fuel.
NAPLAN has changed the way schools teach, with one top-performing school revealing it has sparked a return to rote learning.
RECENTLY unemployed, and with a partner on less than $70,000 a year, Nick Kuiper's one real concern about tomorrow's Budget is the rising cost of fuel.
