Latest News

  • Adult Proof of Age Card ID

    The Queensland Government is introducing the Adult Proof of Age card.

    Currently the 18+ card costs $25.65. The Adult Proof of Age Card is a more secure, more durable and more credible replacement for Card 18+, a five year Adult Proof of Age card will cost $35.80 when it is introduced.

    The Adult Proof of Age Card will provide proof of age for Queenslanders 18 years of age and older. It is ideal for people who do not drive.

    All current Card 18+ products will still be recognised and moving to the new card is optional. However, new cards will be given to all new Adult Proof of Age Card applicants.

  • New Queensland Driver's Licences-more secure ID - RSA

    The Queensland Government is introducing more secure, more durable and more credible licences, authorities and proof of age cards to replace the laminated cards and marine licence confirmation reports that have been used for the past 20 years.

    Unlike the current laminated cards, the new cards use smartcard technology and are extremely hard to tamper with or duplicate.

  • Pub under fire after pot plant death

    DARWIN pub could face legal action for contributing to "drunken mayhem" in the city, an inquest has heard.

    Adam Francis Chandler, 20, had been drinking with a group of friends at the Victoria Hotel until it closed on August 13 last year. After, while on his way to Uncle Sam's on Smith St, a 20kg pot plant was dropped on his abdomen.

    The four young men had been wrestling, and were soon after taken into police protective custody.

    Mr Chandler - who was studying to be a PE teacher - was seriously injured, but no one realised and he died from internal bleeding in Royal Darwin Hospital about 8pm on August 13.

  • Suspect water taken for sale

    Water trucks have been taking domestic supplies from springs near where contaiminated groundwater was found at Kingaroy, locals claim.

    The residents claim contractors took water from a main spring inside a marked 2km exclusion zone after farmers were ordered to shut down their bores after toxic chemicals benzene and toluene were found.

    A DERM spokesman said officers had advised

  • Hotline to dob in the gastro spreaders - Food Safety

    Coughs, colds and stomach viruses are being spread through restaurants, cafes and takeway shops this winter by employees who are being pressured into working while they are sick.

     The NSW Food Authority has investigated several reports of businesses suspected of allowing staff with symptoms of gastroenteritis, such as vomiting and diarrhoea to handle food or serve customers........

  • Up in arms over shonky service

    The consumer people at Choice offer some advice:

    Taste is subjective, so asserting your rights about unsatisfying food in restaurants can be tricky.  According to state fair trading laws, you have the right to a refund or remedy if the products or services do not meet reasonable expectations.  But if you think the food is too salty or sour, you have the right not to eat it and

  • Keeping an Eye on Food Recalls - Food Safety

    Food identified as a risk to public health and safety is recalled. Recalls are normally triggered by consumer complaints, company testing or government testing.

  • Roquefort cheese

    Roquefort cheese, which is made from raw sheeps' milk and is unpasteurised, was approved for sale in Australia by federal authorities after a ten year ban. Cheese produced in Australia must be heat treated to destroy dangerous food pathogens, such as E Coli and Listeria.

  • Betting is on Cairns

    Cairns would become Australia's answer to Las Vegas under a controversial scheme to transform it into the national centre for poker machines.

    The proposal was aired on 5th July at Brisbane at one of the touism industry's key annual conventions, Tourism Futures.

    It would copy the US model, where Nervada is the only state to have no significant restrictions on gaming machines.

  • Online pokies are a political gamble

    A recent article by Peter Cameron of the Gold Coast Bulletin makes us question the sudden push to legalise online poker in Australia, when our annual gambling losses are nudging $20 billion.

    Even though the number of poker  machines in Queensland is capped at 47,000 and $50 and $100 notes cannot be fed into them, regular machine players spend up to $8,000 a year.

    There is p