The news that former Geelong Grammar School student Rose Ashton-Weir for failing to secure her a spot at Sydney University's law school has been the source of much mocking on the internet as a classic case of a spoilt brat's temper tantrum.
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Activists expected that a new 鈥渁nti-association鈥 law would be passed by the Western Australian parliament on May 1. Instead, the law has been debated inside and outside parliament since then.
The new law would give power to a judge to declare an organisation to be a 鈥渃riminal association鈥. Members of declared organisations can be given 鈥渃ontrol orders鈥 restricting their contacts with other people and could even prohibit their use of telephones or email.
Freedom to protest
Congratulations to the Sydney Al-Nakba Planning Committee for successfully defying police and winning its case in the Supreme Court to be allowed to protest on Al-Nakba Day. The Supreme Court decision on May 14 sets an important precedent for future protest groups in Sydney when they come up against police opposition. The police will not be in a hurry to take a protest group to court again.
A newly formed group, , has put some early runs on the board by forcing the Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi .
The findings of the Climate Commission report The Critical Decade will be a focus of discussion at the upcoming Climate Change Social Change conference.
The report has generated much heated debate by suggesting that rising temperatures in western Sydney will affect everything from our water supply to mental health and crime levels.
The impact of the carbon price on the environment and working families in western Sydney will also feature at the conference. It will be held at the Parramatta Town Hall and will take place on June 30, the day before the tax officially takes effect.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is being set up under the Clean Energy Future legislation (the carbon price package). It will provide $10 billion to support renewable and low-emissions energy.
That鈥檚 the message that most climate-concerned people have been hearing from the Labor government and the Greens.
Unfortunately, it now seems overly optimistic. shows it may give most of its support to gas projects.
The rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin are dying. While average inflows decline due to climate change, extractions for irrigation remain at environmentally damaging levels.
But the plan for management of the basin鈥檚 water resources drawn up by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), due to be adopted by federal parliament later this year, ignores fundamental problems.
Unscientific and politically-driven, the plan needs to be torn up, and the tasks of saving what can be saved of the rivers, their ecosystems and their human communities addressed afresh.
Exploration licences for coal seam gas mining (CSG) cover 75% of the land in New South Wales where people live. Residents are worried about the effect CSG mining could have on their land and water, and angry about the lack of consultation by the gas companies.
Federal resources minister Martin Ferguson released a report on May 14 into Australia鈥檚 gas reserves. The report signalled a huge expansion of gas mining in the NT and bad news for the environment.
Two new areas have been opened for gas exploration: shale gas exploration in the central NT, and conventional offshore gas exploration north-west of Darwin. Both of these present serious environmental problems.
The shale gas industry relies on capturing gas by pumping sand, water and chemicals into the ground 鈥 a process commonly known as fracking.
The 麻豆传媒 Weekly fighting fund has received a huge boost over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the efforts of hard working supporters and volunteers around the country. So far this month, $24,600 has been sent in to the fighting fund, largely from successful fundraising events organised by our supporters.
A huge thanks to everyone who helped organise and attend these wonderful events.
Socialist Alliance Brisbane released the statement below on May 18
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The expresses its full support and solidarity with the Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy in Musgrave Park, South Brisbane, and strongly condemns the actions of police and Brisbane City Council in forcibly evicting the Aboriginal community members at the embassy on May 16.
The use of more than 200 police to stage a dawn raid on the peaceful embassy is a return to the police state tactics of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen regime in Queensland 30 years ago.
Truck safety is down, down at Coles
Truck drivers and their families rallied outside Coles stores on May 10 to protest against the supermarket giant鈥檚 treatment of drivers, which they say is causing road deaths.
The market power that Coles and other big retailers have 鈥 including control over a third of the truck driving market 鈥 allows them to dictate price and delivery schedules to drivers.
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