Nathan Spicer looks back at the events and issues from December in The Guardian’s Year in Review series.
Friday, December 9
• The Federal Attorney-General’s Department announced they would provide funding to establish a new children’s contact service in Swan Hill. The service was expected to enable children of separated parents to re-establish or maintain contact with both parents. Mallee Family Care chief executive Teresa Jayet said Mallee Family Care was well placed to provide the service. “Our primary focus is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and to assist parents with their co-parenting relationship,” she said.
• The Reserve Bank increased the cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.1 per cent, marking the largest rate tightening cycle since the early 2000s. It was the highest target adopted in 10 years. The RBA had signalled it was committed to tackling inflation.
Tuesday, December 13
• The full cost of the floods to Victorian farmers was totalled by Agriculture Victoria. At the start of the previous week, 484,475ha had gone under water, along with 12,000km of fencing. The toll for livestock was 15,489 reported dead, with a further 1935 missing. Of the almost 500,000ha inundated, 214,289ha of crops had been lost and 161,086ha of pasture ruined.
• Weeks after starting search efforts to retrieve stressed fish in the deoxygenated waters of the Murray River, rescue teams were hopeful a decline in sightings meant conditions were beginning to improve. OzFish Unlimited Murray-Darling Basin manager Braeden Lampard said that while his crews were not collecting water data, the decline was a “sure sign” the situation had improved.
