Prime Minister Julia Gillard鈥檚 catch phrase for this election is "sustainable". No longer, according to Gillard, should we look to a big Australia, but a "sustainable" population.
In a speech in western Sydney on July 21, Gillard emphasised the squeeze on health services, transport, roads and infrastructure. She hinted her "sustainable population" mantra would ease the squeeze.
Apart from rhetoric largely designed to pander to irrational fears of immigrants and prejudices against asylum seekers, Labor has failed to explain what it means by "sustainable".
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The Sandon Point Aboriginal Tent Embassy (SPATE) is set to appeal a July 26 Land and Environment Court dismissal challenging the proposed Stockland 181-lot residential super development at Sandon Point, in the Wollongong suburb of Bulli, New South Wales.
Aboriginal activist Michael Eckford, better known as Michael Anderson, launched his campaign for the NSW Senate on August 3. Eckford was forced to stand under his birth certificate name because of Australian Electoral Commission regulations.
Eckford is running with former ALP member Criselee Stevens, who said she quit Labor because 鈥渢hey are so out of touch with the real grassroots concerns and priorities鈥.
WYONG 鈥 Climate action activists confronted Prime Minister Julia Gillard on August 3 when she appeared at a soccer club in Wyong on the NSW Central Coast.
She was handed a statement from the local climate action group about transitioning as soon as possible from fossil fuels, to renewable energy and a copy of the Zero Carbon Australia plan by Beyond Zero Emissions.
Activists held placards that said: 鈥淔und solutions not pollution鈥 as Gillard was speaking. They then confronted Gillard as she left the soccer club.
The Parramatta Climate Action Network (ParraCAN) staged a series of rolling protests outside New South Wales state government ministers offices calling for no new coal
The NSW state government is planning to construct two new coal-fired power stations, which will increase the state鈥檚 greenhouse gas emissions by up to 15%.
ParraCAN is circulating a petition calling for the prohibition of the construction of new coal-fired power stations; the development of a phase-out plan for coal; and that the state government support job creation in renewable industries.
Dismayed by the Labor government鈥檚 inaction on climate change and looking for an alternative? Don鈥檛 look to the Liberals.
If the ALP has been dodgy on the issue, Tony Abbott鈥檚 party has been dodgier.
Sincere commitment on the issue is hard for Abbott. At a public meeting last September, he said global warming was 鈥渁bsolute crap鈥.
But the Liberal leader is remarkably consistent on one thing 鈥 the 鈥渘eed鈥 to funnel large amounts of public money to big business.
The Socialist Alliance proposals for the federal election, detailed at www.socialist-alliance.org, won鈥檛 come cheap. They include lifting welfare payments above the poverty line, ending the 200,000 public housing waiting list, achieving 100% renewable energy by 2020 through a plan of public investment, boosted public transport including inter-city high-speed rail, and closing the gap in Indigenous health, education and housing.
Conservation groups from Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, Canberra and Queensland took part in local actions on August 5 to highlight the threats to biodiversity that burning native forests for electricity will create.
Review: The Imperial Controversy: Challenging the Empire Apologists
By Andrew Murray, Foreword by George Galloway
Manifesto Press, 152 pages, paperback 拢12.95
In the past decade or so, politicians, journalists and academics have attempted to rehabilitate the notions of empire and imperialism. For example, in 2009 then-British PM Gordon Brown told the Daily Mail newspaper: 鈥淭he days of Britain having to apologise for its colonial history are over. We should move forward. We should celebrate much of our past rather than apologise for it.鈥
Ker-ching! Its half-year profit time and those poor, tax-oppressed, big mining companies are announcing huge profit increases.
Rio Tinto announced a half-year net profit of $6.39 billion, up 260% from the same period last year. And this huge profit came even after the company reduced its net debt by a whopping $27 billion to $12 billion.
VoteClimate.org.au has released a detailed description of the climate policies of parties contesting the August 21 federal election. It is the world鈥檚 first dedicated climate election website and is run by climate activist Adrian Whitehead, a founder of Beyond Zero Emissions and a Target300.org campaigner.
The site, which includes links to each partiy鈥檚 policies, ranked the policies as following:
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