Australia Weekly
The New Guinea Crisis is Resolved:
Yesterday, Prime Minister David Walker was able to meet with Oceanic leaders to discuss the current situation regarding both countries claims in and around the Soloman islands and Papau New Guinea. With Oceania giving up its plans to bring the Island of Manus, The D'entrecasteaux Islands, and the Louisiade Archipelago. In Exchange Australia reasured the Oceanic nation that it had no intentions of taking the Soloman islands other than Bougainville which is already part of the Greater Australian Nation. However the issue of Oceania's breach of Australia's national Sovereignty and Territorial integrity was dealt with a couple of days ago, allowing for these talks to ultimately take place. With the Oceanic government officially apologizing for their breach of Australian Sovereignty it looks like Oceanic and Australian relations will be reaching a new high, hopefully it will stay this way. Australia Daily will continue to feature updates on Australian and Oceanic relations as they develop.
Thorium Reactors for Australia
This morning Prime Minister David Walker announced Australia's plans to begin funding for Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors and increased Thorium mining operations. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors or LFTR are an improvement over regular Nuclear reactors for multiple reasons. First and foremost Thorium is an extremely abundant compared to Uranium, especially in Australia which has 19% of the worlds Thorium deposits. In addition to using a far more abundant material LFTR don't have to operate at high pressure and is far more efficient than Uranium. Over all Thorium is safer because of the way Thorium reactors are built and run. Perhaps the best advantage of LFTR is that the waste is very difficult to make weapons.
Because of the advantages LFTR has with energy production, and how abundant Thorium is in Australia this probably doesn't come as a surprise. The government has begun work on the first LFTR and will continue to build and operate reactors until they will provide the sole source of electricity for the nation, replacing much older and outdated fossil fuels. Research is also being done to make smaller reactors for use in the Australian Navy
Australian Naval Expansion
Because of the Papau New Guinea crisis it has become greatly obvious that the Australian navy is outdated, and needs improvement. The Government has announced that the old Australian navy, based mostly on old 21st century designs and ships will be scraped in exchange for a newer, more advanced navy that fits to Australia's military doctrine of Rapid Response and Surgical Strikes closer than the previous navy. While were unable to get any more information regarding the new Australian navy and her ship classes, we can assume that the navy will over include cheaper and smaller ships built for a specific task.
Election Time
This year the Republic of Greater Australia and New Zealand will be holding elections for their Respective Parliaments. As usual the elections will take place in September. We would like to remind everyone how the Elections in Australia and New Zealand works. The nations of Australia and New Zealand are unified politically, sharing a common Prime Minister and Governor General. The Senates of New Zealand and Australia work together to elect a Prime Minister as Australia and New Zealand has a Parliamentary system of government.
The citizens of Greater Australia vote for the politicians they want to represent them in the Australian Parliament, while the Citizens of New Zealand vote for the politicians they want to represent them in their parliament. This year the people of Papau New Guinea will also be able to elect members to their own Parliament along with voting for member of the Greater Australian Parliament.
As usual here are the Parties and their current control of the respective Parliaments.
Australian House of Representatives:
National Party of Greater Australia - 38%
The Greater Australian Labor Party - 25%
Liberal Party of Greater Australia - 17%
Democratic Labour Party - 13%
Liberal Democratic Party - 7%
Australian Senate:
National Party of Greater Australia - 43%
The Greater Australian Labor Party - 20%
Liberal Party of Greater Australia - 21%
Democratic Labour Party - 14%
Liberal Democratic Party - 2%
New Zealand House of Representatives:
National Party of New Zealand 50%
The New Zealand Labor Party - 6%
Liberal Party of New Zealand - 29%
Democratic Labour Party - 10%
Liberal Democratic Party - 5%
New Zealand Senate:
National Party of New Zealand - 41%
The New Zealand Labor Party - 14 %
Liberal Party of New Zealand - 21%
Democratic Labour Party - 24%
Liberal Democratic Party - 10%