2011

Business grants for Tourism industry

July 24, 2013 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) has welcomed new State Government grants to help business ventures related with tourism get off the ground.

Australian business grants | Business News Australia | Startups In Australia

This grant from the government allows Businesses to apply for up to 75,000 in assistance, which can be used to attract financial backers, with a total of $500,000 being made available.

This grant could help in new theme parks or accommodation in national parks and is aid to generate income and employment for regional Queensland

More information on TQUAL Grants including Tourism Quality Projects and Strategic Tourism Investment Grants is available at www.ret.gov.au/tqual or by calling 13 28 46.

Different Australian states Government Grant funding for tourism

Funding Programs – VIC

The following are funding programs that may be suitable for tourism projects.

http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/

Victorian Government

Tourism Victoria

Event funding is available through the Tourism Victoria Events Program and the Country Victoria Events Program.

Funding and Grants – NSW

Below is a listing of specific tourism funding and grants programs available to NSW tourism businesses.

Two types of funding are available:

T-QUAL Grants – Tourism Quality Projects
Funding of between $15,000 (plus GST) and $100,000 (plus GST) is available on a matched funding basis.
T-QUAL Strategic Tourism Investment Grants of up to $1million to fund a small number of larger scale projects to support Indigenous tourism and/or economic development/tourism employment.

2012 applications have now closed.

See the Other Government Support page for information about other types of services available to boost your business.

Australian Government funded Tqual Grants are competitive grants program to promote strategic investment in quality and innovation in the Australian tourism industry. Tqual Grants will support initiatives that develop innovative product, services or systems within the tourism industry, contribute directly to long-term economic development in the host region or develop or support high quality visitor services and experiences

GRANTS AND FUNDING – NT

The following grants and funding opportunities are available to eligible NT tourism operators.

Grant and Funding Guidelines 2012 (PDF, 209KB)

Enterprise connect Funding

Enterprise Connect, an Australian Government initiative in the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education provides just that.

Enterprise Connect offers comprehensive advice and support to eligible Australian small and medium-sized enterprises to help them transform and reach their full potential. Eligible businesses are able to request a comprehensive, confidential and independent Business Review at no charge

Australian business grants | Business News Australia | Startups In Australia

Life Insurance Policies – Ins and outs

August 22, 2012 by Reporter Leave a Comment

With the so many uncertainties in life,Everyone needs to find a way of ensuring that they have their lives well secured. We never know when a tragedy like death or an illness might strike.

Is life insurance cover a necessity ?

When death comes, it might be of a spouse or a father who is the breadwinner of a family and when this happens, it means that the family is left with no one to cater for their basic needs. That is why it is very very important to have a life insurance cover policy that will ensure security for the future.

At the work place, we have employers getting relevant life insurance policies for their employees. They ensure that these policies are well explained before any agreements are made. We have different insurance companies that deal with different insurance services eg cars, businesses, health and many others.

This article will look at life insurance policies. Life insurance policies are simply contracts signed by an individual and an insurer with the individual agreeing to be paying an agreed amount of money to the insurer either annually or at a lump sum. The insurer on the other hand agrees to pay the benefits to the beneficiary just in case the insurer dies or is stricken by a terminal illness and are no longer in their healthy state. The beneficiary is chosen by the insurer, it can either be a spouse, children, brothers or sisters, grandchildren etc.

Employer / Eemployee Life insurance

When an employer decides to offer insurance to his or her employers, they go for the life policies insurance. This is where we have the employer subscribing to an insurance company on their behalf and he pays the premiums to the insurance company. The employer has the money used to pay the premiums deducted from their salaries but these money is not counted or considered to be benefits and these premiums do not determine employers annual allowances.

When an employer decides to go for the life policy, they should have all the relevant life policies well explained to them before going ahead with the venture.

One thing they will need to know is that A Relevant Life Policy will not in any way benefit or profit them just in case their employee dies. Some employers can decide to insure their workers with the misconception that this will in a way bring a personal profit to them. This is however not the case because in the contract, the employee has beneficiaries listed down and so there is no chance of them getting the benefits. Another important thing they should know is that this policy is only available to their employees and cannot be extended to their family members, if they need to insure them, they will need to go for a different life insurance policy. The employer needs to play a role also in ensuring that the scheme succeeds by for example ensuring that the benefited fall into the right hands when death strikes.

They should also provide tax efficient benefits on death to make sure the beneficiaries do not end up paying half of their benefits to the tax collectors. However, there are circumstances where the policies cannot be used. Such are for example when the cause of death is not death or a terminal illness, there can be no benefits e.g. if the beneficiary who is the employee commits suicide, they will not get any benefits. In such a case, the policy is declared null and void Another is when one is not an employee of the insurer or is beyond employment age which is 75years old.

A life policy has benefits to both the employer and the employee e.g. to the employee, it assures them that when they die, their families will not be left to suffer or live in poverty because they are insured. A gain they are guaranteed of having their hospital bills catered for just in case they get some terminal illness. Last but not least, they have the advantage of choosing a beneficiary or beneficiaries of their choice. For The employer one of the most important benefit is that they will pay for the premiums with friendly tax deductions which will guarantee them of not getting losses at the cost of insuring their employees.

After having the Relevant Life Policies Explained. It is upto the employer to go ahead and get their employees insured.

Guest post by youell for relevantlifepolicyinsurance.co.uk

The year that was – 2011

December 27, 2011 by Reporter Leave a Comment

There will be news and then there will be more news , but every new year brings a new flavour of news and this year it was a mix of upbeat and downbeat for economy, stock market and Politics. Here’s what everybody was talking or reading about in 2011 in Australia.

The 2011 Business Year in review

The boat Tragedy of Christmas island – On December, 15th 2010, a boat carrying around 90 asylum seekers, mostly from Iraq and Iran, sank off the coast of Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian ocean. For a period of about one hour, the unpowered boat was washed back and forth as backwash water pushed it away from the cliff and finally the boat broke Killing and injuring many.

The Queensland floods – Floodwaters rushed through much of Queensland in December 2010 and January 2011

The Malaysian Asylum swap deal – The Australian High Court declared the Federal Government’s so-called Malaysia solution invalid, leaving the Federal Government’s refugee policy in tatters.

Overseas Student murder,India Media and threat to billion dollar education industry .A Indian student murder leads to press in India labelling it a race murder and dwindling of student admissions.

Pic: ref thevine.co.au

Online shopping in Australia and Brick and mortar shops..Online retailers who have not joined the new online shopping revolution whinge about online retailers getting GST tax benefit

The tsunami in japan – A magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit off the coast of Japan, near the city of Sendai and followed with a tsunami wrecking havoc in japan and then also triggered the worst nuclear disaster sine Chernobyl, causing a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Europe crisis and US stock market volatility

Subdued Real estate sector and when it will be up again. The Global Real Estate Trends report stated the warning of “further slowing in sales and price appreciation in 2011” which has come true.

The china Real estate bubble – In China, house prices throughout the country have fallen as strict government policies aimed at cooling the property market start to take effect, prompting fears from many analysts that the china house price bubble is bursting.

The Arab uprisings – A revolution took place across the Arab world in early 2011, with hordes of protesters taking to the streets in Tunisia and Egypt, then later in Libya, Bahrain & Iran.

The Christchurch earthquake – A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand’s at 12:51pm on February 22, creating havoc and killing many people in central Christchurch and Canterbury

The riots in london – Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson.

I also came across a interesting post ( year 2011, according to Thomas Edison in 1911 ) .check o it out

Some of our other popular Blog posts in 2011

Are Australian Wineries in trouble ?

Mining rivals Mongolia & South Africa increase mining projects

Royal wedding cartwheels by Holy man

Wrap up – Diggers & Dealers 2011 Conference

War of the Pc Tablets reaches Australia

December 12, 2011 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Apple started the tablet war In the US and the court cases soon reached global corners with APPLE and SAMSUNG filing multiple cases in different countries apparently to protect their copyrights. Apart from the US where they are ongoing cases , these two companies are also fighting cases in Japan, France, Italy and Australia

With Samsung now getting a decision in their favour in Australia they will be laughing all the way to the bank by being able to sell their SAMSUNG TABLETS in Australia which apple was trying to block. The market for smartphones and tablets are hot and there is a lot of money involved in sales of these latest hot products and now companies are willing to file court cases just to get their fair share of this pie. with sales in smartphones and tablets booming Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in some 30 legal cases in 10 countries since April

Samsung galaxy tablet and Apple ipad are fighting it out to become the markets leaders in the tablet market

Samsung Electronics Co won this round of its global patent fight with Apple Inc on Friday when an Australian court lifted a ban on the sale of its Galaxy tablet computer just in time for the busy Christmas shopping season.

Samsung’s bid to block iPhone 4s sales in France was also recently rejected allowing Apple to sell its new iPhone 4s range of smartphones.

Now Amazon.com has also entered the fray with its Kindle Fire tablet joining the tablet wars

Article provided by pctablets-reviews.com

Wrap up – Diggers & Dealers 2011 Conference

August 5, 2011 by Reporter 1 Comment

Some of the highlights of the just wrapped up Diggers and Dealers Mining Conference Held in the gold-prospecting hub of Kalgoorlie, Western australia from 01 Aug- 03 August 2011.

Diggers & Dealers Conference 2011- Highlights

For a forum that started with a dozen blokes in a pub in the West Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Diggers and Dealers has morphed into the largest mining conference of its type in Australia and the third largest in the world.

The dealing and digging at Kalgoorlie WA

Iron ore company Gindalbie Metals’ has earned it the Dealer of the Year award at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie due to managing a clever relationship with Chinese steel maker Ansteel

The digger of the year was WA-based miner Independence group which has made major developments on their mines near Kambalda in the Goldfields.

Small miners complained that the big miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Xstrata – will be able to manipulate the MRRT’s rules to claim depreciation of their existing multi-billion-dollar mining assets against their expected MRRT liability, and almost completely negate the effect of the tax on their profits.

Gold miner Ramelius Resources is cashed up and ready for acquisitions. Ramelius’ shares have jumped more than 300 per cent in 2010/11, from 39 cents.

The dealermaker award went to Ivanhoe Capital Corporation for its success in developing gold and coal projects in Mongolia and Queensland.

KEITH JONES, MANAGING PARTNER DELOITTE (WESTERN AUSTRALIA), on china’s growth

"The going out policy initiated by the Chinese government at the turn of the century resulted in a surge of direct Chinese investment, up from $500 million in 2000 to $59 billion in 2010. While Australia remains one of the preferred destinations for Chinese investments, other regions such as Africa and Latin America have seen accelerated inflows of Chinese capital over the past three years."

Joseph Riggio, of Casimir Capital, says cashed up investors in New York, Boston and Chicago want to diversify out of the floundering US dollar and are increasingly looking to ASX listed miners to do that. He said "There’s a perception that Australian companies represent a better value than their Canadian counterparts because of their focus on cash flow,"

Another Qantas Incident on Perth to London flight

July 31, 2011 by Reporter 1 Comment

31 July 2011: Qantas had another incident today on its Perth to London flight that left Perth on July 30 . we just got informed by a passenger who was travelling on the flight that the Qantas flight midway between Singapore and London suddenly started descending rapidly mid –air and swaying side to side.

The pilot announced that there was turbulence later. She said she felt as if the aircraft had lost control as it was swaying wildly and descended rapidly for some time.

Qantas turbulence problems on london flight

Qantas has been hit by a string of problems in recent years

Quote passenger from the Perth to London flight on qantas

“They said it was turbulence but it was quite bad turbulence and am not sure the pilot handled it well cos the landing was bad too. About 3 hours after take off from Singapore, the flight suddenly started to shake and sway from side to side and lose altitude and the crew ran to their stations. Lunch trays fell off the tables and people were clutching their seats, the girl in front of me started feeing pukey.This went on for about 5 minutes and then there was an announcement saying it was turbulence and will last for 15 minutes, which made me relieved that it wasn’t engine problems. Incidentally this aircraft was delayed by 2 hours from taking off from its starting point, Melbourne so I guess this got us all even more panicky. But yes, thank God we ere all safe.”

This incident that occurred today sounds quite similar to this previous incident which has occured before with a Qantas flight. More detailed information to follow soon…..

Previous Qantas incidents

7 hurt after Qantas flight hits severe turbulence – World – CBC News

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/story-e6frezi0-1111119018754

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/story-e6frg8ro-1226059449143

http://www.guardian.co.uk/qantas-plane-forced-land-engine

Article by sheldonsingh

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Australia Made proud by Cadel Evans Tour De France win

July 26, 2011 by Reporter 2 Comments

Cadel Evans is the first Australian to win the world’s toughest cycling race “ the tour de france”.

Australian Cadel Evans wins Tour de France

At 34 he’s also the oldest winner of the Tour in nearly 90 years and he had a word or two in his wining commentary for all his skeptics, who had doubted him.

His achievements on the cycling race at Tour de France is now set to ensure his status as a barrier-breaking legend of Australian sport. "A few people always believed in me, I believed in me and here we are today," he said after crossing the finish line.

Hers is an interview with radio australia just after he won the tour de France . –> Interview

Tour de France – Cycling race

The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling’s three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. Individual times to finish each stage are aggregated to determine the overall winner at the end of the race

According to the website http://www.cadelevans.com.au/ Cadel was born on the 14th February 1977 at the Katherine Hospital, Katherine, in the Northern Territory (Australia) and is currently Living between Barwon Heads, Victoria, Australia half the year and Stabio, Switzerland the other half. You can also check out his diary on the website

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has congratulated Cadel Evans on his expected Tour de France win

Carbon Tax Reporting from Australia

July 13, 2011 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Like it or not, the carbon tax is here to stay. At least the Australian government is made it much easier for the people to accept the carbon tax with compensating people with tax cuts to make up for the rsie in some expenses due to the carbon tax.

Reform done good is definitely much more acceptable as can be seen by the way the Australian people and economists and analysts have received the new carbon tax. Much more reforms are promised by the Julia Gillard government whereby it will encourage stay at home moms to come take part in the workforce without getting penalized by more taxes.

How the World is reporting out initiative on the New carbon tax

Snippets from different online websites from different countries reporting the new Australian carbon tax

– CBC News – Australia unveils carbon tax

Australia has unveiled a new carbon tax that will force its 500 biggest polluters to pay for emissions — the country’s biggest economic reform in a generation. More..

– Australia carbon tax plans spark protests

Rallies have taken place in Australia in protest at plans by the Labor government to bring in a carbon tax. More..

– www.trust.org – SINGAPORE, – Funny thing, Australians thought they were going to get a carbon tax aimed at reducing emissions, but what they ended up with is a welfare scheme being paid for by polluters and households deemed wealthy. More…

– Australia carbon tax unlikely to impact Indian cos –Australia carbon tax- a green initiative: Australia announced yesterday its carbon tax plan in an effort to help fight climate change. More..

– How mining and media distort Australia’s carbon tax debate. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s influence is being felt in Australia’s carbon tax battle through TV and newspapers. More…

TAX-NEWS.COM – Carbon Tax In Australia Starts In July 2012 – The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced this week that the government will be putting a price on Australia’s carbon emissions, starting in July next year. More..

– Australia’shistoricLabor-Greenscarbontaxagreement

You could feel the increased energy in Parliament House yesterday after the historic carbon tax agreement between the Labor Government and the Australian Greens. More..

– Australia sets carbon tax to fight climate change

Australia announced plans on Sunday to tax carbon pollution at Aus$23 (US$24.74) per tonne to help battle climate change, as it moved towards creating the region’s biggest emissions trading scheme. More..

– Australia PM unveils carbon tax targeting biggest 500 polluters – Australia will force its 500 worst polluters to pay AU$23 (US$25) for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit, with the government promising to compensate households hit with higher power bills under a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unveiled Sunday. More..

What is a carbon tax and why is it being proposed?
The government plans to tax the carbon pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels, including coal and petroleum. A carbon tax puts a price on the carbon released when fossil fuels are burned. It is designed to include in the price of fossil fuel use the cost of the environmental damage it causes.

Info Links

http://www.aph.gov.au/li/economic/carbontax.htm

Credit card statistics 2011

June 19, 2011 by Reporter 1 Comment

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) this week just released their latest credit and “debit card statistics” which made for some interesting reading.

Consumers have continued their caution in spending and borrowing, despite strong growth in national income, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Credit Card Sales slow down in australia

The report says that, the number of credit card accounts has increased by just 1.9% for the year to April 2011. The average credit card had an outstanding balance of $3,326 while the number of transactions has increased by 4.4% over the year. Surprisingly enough in comparison to this, the number of debit card accounts has increased by 7.8% over the year and purchase only transactions are also up by 22.2%.

This definitely shows a new trend forming that consumers are less inclined to spend up big on credit cards and are more focused on savings now and are going back to using their own money to make purchases with 49% more purchase transactions made on debit cards than credit cards during the month.

Links:

http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/xls/additional-credit-card.xls?accessed=1906-10:21:31

http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/xls/c01hist.xls?accessed=1906-10:21:31

http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/xls/c02hist.xls?accessed=1906-10:21:31

Refugees sue Australian government for thousands of dollars for trauma.

June 9, 2011 by Reporter 3 Comments

Australian taxpayers will be forking out multi-million dollar compensation payouts to current and former asylum seekers who are preparing claims in courts that they suffered trauma and psychological damage while in detention.

Legal and medical sources have informed “The Daily Telegraph” that many detainees were preparing claims against the Australian government and detention centre operators Serco and G4S for million dollar payouts.

Australia’s Immigration Program has two components

Migration Program for skilled and family migrants

Humanitarian Program for refugees and others in refugee–like situations.

This fact sheet provides details of Australia’s Humanitarian Program. Details of the Migration Program are available in Fact Sheets 20–40.
See: Fact Sheet Index

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/docs/resources/Intake%20Sub%202010-11.pdf

Mr.Parvez Yousefi’, a former Iranian oil industry engineer, who was granted a record $800,000 in damages achieved notoriety while in detention when he sewed his lips together and attempted suicide while in the Woomera Detention centre between 2001 and 2004. Among those making claims are Iranian Mehrnoosh Yousefi and her adult son, who have both been granted refugee status. Slater & Gordon’s Bill Madden confirmed the pair had claimed detention had “resulted in serious psychological damage”

In some lawsuits against the Australian government, asylum seekers are seeking damages for claims for lost earnings during since their detention, claiming factors such as an inability to concentrate and the need for ongoing medical treatment.

The Australian government can soon be using more taxpayers money for payouts to the refugees if lawsuits like these become more regular.

2010–11 Refugee and Humanitarian program

The Humanitarian Program for 2010–11 is set at 13 750 places and comprises:

refugees from overseas—6000 places

other humanitarian—7750 places (this includes places for the SHP and for persons granted protection after arrival in Australia).

Dr Zachary Steele from the University of NSW tells Jason Morrison refugees have rights. 65% of refugees have been in custody for longer than six-months, a period medical experts say causes mental health issues

Comments

Judicus of Brisbane Posted at 7:58 AM Today

What the hell is this country coming to when this garbage happens. They choose to come here under those circumstances, and then sue us because of it. I just can’t believe this, and I can’t begin to explain or describe how bloody angry this makes me. We are so stupid to allow this to happen, our courts are there to pay anything to anyone who comes with the most lame excuse ever and give them what they want. While long suffering tax payers, our very neglected older people, disabled and ill Australians can’t afford the very basic of human rights like a hospital bed or shelter over their heads, we are paying out hundreds of thousands to boat people who have been in a detention centre for longer than 6 months. What a bloody disgrace it is. I almost despair at this type of do-gooder nonsense. I strongly encourage our sick, elderly and disabled to sue the government for psychiatric damage due to the non-availability of services for them then. If the illegal boat people can have such a huge win in the courts then these Australians can surely do so as well. What a pathetic joke it is. Come over here illegally, destroy our property then sue us. WTF??

From: http://www.news.com.au/national/refugees-set-to-sue-australia-for-millions-for-psychological-damage/story-e6frfkvr-1226069828228#ixzz1ORr3b9nm

David of Sydney Posted at 7:57 AM Today

So not only do Australian taxpayers foot the bill for the accomodation, meals and “entertainment” of these illegal asylum seekers, now we are paying for the reconstruction of their detention centres after they set them on fire, and then to add the ultimate insult to injury we are paying compensation after they come here illegaly and claim they can no longer work from the trauma they have suffered. There is something very wrong with this picture. Laws should be passed preventing oppotunistic “ambulance chasing” Australian lawyers from convincing illegal immigrants that they could become instant millionaires by coming to Australia and they should be sent back immediately to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

From: http://www.news.com.au/national/refugees-set-to-sue-australia-for-millions-for-psychological-damage/story-e6frfkvr-1226069828228#ixzz1ORrEAv95

Go back to where you came from Airs on Sbs 1

An interesting show that is soon going to launch on SBS based on the refugee situation is “Go back to where you came from”. In the show , Six ordinary Australians agree to challenge their preconceived notions about refugees and asylum seekers by embarking on a confronting 25-day journey. Tracing in reverse the journeys that refugees have taken to reach Australia, they travel to some of the most dangerous and desperate corners of the world, with no idea what is in store for them along the way. This drama airs on sbs 1 on june 21,22,23 0830 pm wst.

2011

Australian business grants | Business News Australia | Startups In Australia

Different Australian states Government Grant funding for tourism

Funding Programs – VIC

Victorian Government

Two types of funding are available:

The following grants and funding opportunities are available to eligible NT tourism operators.

Is life insurance cover a necessity ?

Employer / Eemployee Life insurance

The 2011 Business Year in review

Some of our other popular Blog posts in 2011

Diggers & Dealers Conference 2011- Highlights

The dealing and digging at Kalgoorlie WA

Qantas turbulence problems on london flight

Previous Qantas incidents

Australian Cadel Evans wins Tour de France

Tour de France – Cycling race

How the World is reporting out initiative on the New carbon tax

Credit Card Sales slow down in australia

Australia’s Immigration Program has two components

2010–11 Refugee and Humanitarian program

Go back to where you came from Airs on Sbs 1

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