The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources has confirmed it is responding to the stink bug contamination situation unfolding in the Pacific.

A department spokesperson says the ships have been coordinated toward our shores.

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Up to 7000 new and used cars are expected to go through extensive quarantine at Australian shipping docks to stop a stink bug infestation that threatens Australian and New Zealand agriculture.

An industry source has told AutoTalk the process to decontaminate the Mitsui OSK-owed Courageous Ace cargo ship, which was turned away from Port of Auckland this week, is expected to happen in Australia.

“The Australian Department of Agriculture & Water Resources are currently aware of the situation in New Zealand and have been monitoring situation,” the source says.

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Australia could receive four barred cargo ships bound for New Zealand with an infestation of Japanese stink bugs found on board.

Brown mamorated and yellow-spotted stink bugs were found on the Glovis Caravel in particular this weekend, operated by Mitsu OSK Lines, a Japanese shipping company, and could devastate local agriculture if allowed in.

The delay in supply of vehicles to the New Zealand market could affect thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses as the Kiwi car market relies heavily on imports. Read the full story »

Australia is well down on the list of 20 countries in a report on the state of global autonomous vehicles (AV) preparation.

It comes in at 14th, well behind New Zealand in 9th.

That’s according to the KPMG 2018 Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI). Read the full story »

Holden has released the pricing of its new HSV Colorado SportsCat 4×4 utility range.

The vehicle will launch with a recommended retail price of A$60,790

The high-series version featuring rugged styling, premium suspension and braking packages will start from A$66,790. Read the full story »

Stephen Mulligan
Image: Stephen Mulligan/Facebook

South Australian transport and infrastructure minister Stephen Mulligan has announced all vehicle registrations can be now be managed online.

In addition, the state’s push toward driverless vehicles continues with a ten-passenger autonomous shuttle to commence trials later this year.

Mulligan says shredding roughly 430,000 paper-based vehicle registration applications and ownership transfers every year will save red tape. Read the full story »

Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand has been awarded the JD Power most dependable premium brand for the seventh year straight.

The US Vehicle Dependability Study conducted by JD Power measures problems experienced per 100 cars, scoring carmakers on the lowest number of problems in a two-year period.

Overall VDS scores ranked Lexus first, Porsche second, Buick third, Infiniti fourth and Kia fifth. Read the full story »

Mazda Australia has given Australia an exclusive collectable variant of the beloved MX-5 sports car.

The 110 limited edition is based on the top-spec MX-5 RF GT and comes with Mazda’s Skyactiv-G petrol engine and manual gearbox, and gains front-end winglets to direct air away from the high-pressure wheel well.

Also improved is revised suspension which sees a front strut added to suspension towers under the bonnet to improve lateral chassis stiffness, paired with racing Bilstein dampers behind slick new BBS 17-inch alloys. Read the full story »