PM Julia Gillard was supposed to launch Labor's new policy to tackle climate change on July 23. But in essence she merely restated the same old Labor climate policy: delay, delay and delay again.
Gillard's speech was pages long, but her climate agenda can be summarised in just four words 鈥 more talk, less action.
The core promise was that her government would create a "citizens assembly" to discuss options to deal with global warming. Perhaps the government will propose the ice caps and glaciers hold off from melting until Gillard's august assembly has concluded its deliberations.
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Work at all P&O Automotive and General Stevedoring (POAGS) wharves shut down nationwide in all 15 ports for 24 hours at midday on July 14 after the death of another waterside worker. It was the third this year, the second at POAGS operations and the third fatality at Appleton Dock in seven years.
A 41-year-old Melbourne waterside worker, Stephen Piper, was crushed to death that morning at Appleton Dock.
On July 6, while 32-year-old Mustansar Rindhawa was listening to a worker who had not been paid his wages by a textile boss, an unknown person with a Kalashnikov entered the front room and fired.
Mustansar tried to save his life by running to the next room, but 10 people were determined to finish him off.
I met Mustansar briefly on June 19 in Faisalabad, less than a month before his murder. He was one of 30 participants in a trade union training course at the Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM) offices.
Pressure is now bearing down on the Australian climate movement because there has been so little forward progress in the federal government鈥檚 climate policy.
The pressure is for the movement to accept, support and campaign for weak and inadequate climate policies on the grounds that something is better than nothing.
This is plain from looking at the new, media-driven 鈥渃onsensus鈥 about the need for a 鈥減rice on carbon鈥.
On July 12, state environment minister Donna Faragher approved an additional three coal-fired power stations in Western Australia. These power stations will contribute to a 75% increase in the state鈥檚 greenhouse emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Authority.
Of the three power stations, one is a brand new private sector development. The other two are older power stations that were built in the 1960s and have not been in use for some time, which will be expanded and refurbished. This will more than double the number of coal-fired power stations in Collie.
Hundreds of angry Queensland nurses rallied outside Queensland parliament on July 14 to protest against the ongoing pay debacle caused by problems with the new computerised payroll system.
Queensland Health introduced the system four months ago. Problems have included health workers being underpaid or not being paid at all, ABC Online reported on July 15. The rallying nurses chanted "No pay, no work!", and many threatened to quit if the errors were not fixed soon.
The article below is the Socialist Alliance鈥檚 updated Climate Charter. For more information, visit .
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For years, climate scientists have warned us that we need to act on climate change. Now, science is saying that climate change is taking place more rapidly than everyone previously thought.
The warning signs are obvious. April and May were the world鈥檚 hottest months since records began. This year鈥檚 Arctic ice sheet melt is taking place at a pace never seen before.
Last year, 20-year-old Aboriginal dancer Rarriwuy Hick was put on welfare quarantining under the Northern Territory intervention. The difference was that she was living outside the government's prescribed zone 鈥 in New South Wales. Hick spoke to Ash Pemberton, from 麻豆传媒 Weekly and Resistance about her experience with welfare quarantining and the affects of the intervention on her home community of Dhalinybuy in east Arnhem Land.
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What led to you being put onto welfare quarantining while you were living in NSW?
SYDNEY 鈥 Dr Adam Lucas, the Sydney coordinator of the climate research and advocacy group Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), told a July 14 meeting that BZE's stationary energy plan showed it was possible for Australian to move to 100% renewable energy in a decade.
Lucas gave an outline of the report, which will be launched publicly in Sydney in August.
In her speech to the National Press Club on July 15, Prime Minister Julia Gillard threw down the gauntlet to the labour movement. In a speech outlining the plans for a second-term Labor government, Gillard promised to run a regime of 鈥渞eforms鈥 that would entrench greater competition and privatisation.
There should remain little doubt about Gillard鈥檚 intentions. Her speech was aimed directly at the wallets of big business.
Existing levels of greenhouse gases may be enough to push Arctic temperatures 19掳C higher, a recent study has found.
A University of Colorado at Boulder scientific expedition to Ellesmere Island in the high Arctic found evidence that the ice cap may be far more sensitive to warming than had been thought, the team said on June 29.
The team used fossil records to measure temperatures on the island during the Pliocene period 鈥 2.6 to 5.3 million years ago.
The research confirmed the area was mostly ice-free and about 19掳C warmer on average than it is now.
Staff at the University of New South Wales are in a protracted dispute with a notoriously right-wing and anti-union administration, which is refusing to negotiate a new and fair collective agreement.
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