Community members will have the opportunity to learn more about the detailed environmental investigation into the detection of elevated per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels in the Mission Creek catchment area, with consultants Senversa commencing their work on Island on Monday.

The Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories, the Honourable Nola Marino MP, has extended the declared State of Emergency for the Jervis Bay Territory (JBT) for a 30-day period from 25 November 2020, as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By doing this, the JBT community will continue to be protected and supported during this time, with the health and wellbeing of the community the first priority.

As at 26 November 2020, there were no known cases of COVID-19 in the JBT.

The difficulty of planning and investing in productive infrastructure—Western Sydney airport

It is just over a year since the Australian Government announced that Badgerys Creek would be the site for a Western Sydney airport.

Construction is planned to commence next year and it is anticipated that services will commence by the mid-2020s.

The decision to proceed was a critical one, as it ended 60 years of debate on the location and timing of the project.

The Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories, the Honourable Nola Marino MP, has extended the declared State of Emergency for the Jervis Bay Territory (JBT) for a 30-day period from 18 January 2021, as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By doing this, the JBT community will continue to be protected and supported during this time, with the health and wellbeing of the community the first priority.
As at 20 January 2021, there were no known cases of COVID-19 in the JBT.

The Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities will be moving some older coastal trading documents from the Department's website.

The documents will still be publicly available on the Australian Government Web Archive.

The affected publications are:

• Temporary Licence Publications and Variations Received.
• Temporary Licences Granted.
• Temporary Licence Applications and Variations Refused.

The most recent documents will still be available on the Department's website.

The Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories has agreed to the Norfolk Island Regional Council (NIRC) election now taking place on Saturday, 14 November 2020.

This follows a request from the elected members of the Norfolk Island Regional Council. The election date has been postponed to enable an independent governance and financial audit of NIRC operations to be undertaken.

The Prime Minister today announced that Dr Martin Parkinson AC PSM will conclude his tenure as Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) on 30 August 2019 and that Mr Philip Gaetjens, currently Secretary of the Treasury, has been appointed as the next Secretary of PM&C, commencing 2 September 2019.

The Prime Minister further announced my appointment as Secretary of the Treasury, also commencing 2 September 2019. This is a great honour and I am very much looking forward to my new post.

Work is underway to improve the operation of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1963 (NI).

The Act sets out how records of births, deaths and marriages on Norfolk Island are made and amended.

The main changes proposed are to give the Registrar discretion to determine what information is collected for most records. The information that is required for other records would be set out in the Act. It is also proposed to update the provisions relating to registration of names, and registration of a married person's change of sex.

Recent media articles have depicted flight path designs for the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport.

The Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities is responsible for the development of the flight paths and wishes to clarify to the community that this work is still in development.

The media reports do not represent the work being undertaken by the department.

This work is being undertaken by a team of airspace design experts, working closely with Airservices Australia.