Mining Corporations’ lackey Martin Ferguson undermining Australia’s democratic rights
His moves to spy on peaceful anti-coal protesters is a clear case of ideology politics trumping democratic principal.
Let’s hope that he comes to feel the impact of his political manoeuvres on Election Day.
Democratic freedoms under attack from Ferguson, The Drum, James Norman, 17 Jan 12, In Australia in 2012, it seems that all pernicious roads lead to Martin Ferguson. Whether it’s selling uranium to India, dumping radioactive waste on Indigenous people in the Northern Territory or spying on peaceful protesters – chances are it has his fingerprints all over it.
In a Machiavellian twist, it seems Mr Ferguson is better able to advance his rapacious anti-environmental, pro-resource extraction agenda within Gillard’s Labor Government than his counterparts on the other side of politics – even though the Coalition would seem a better fit.
The latest revelations that Martin Ferguson has authorised spying on environmental protesters is just his latest salvo to undermine the right and might of peaceful protesters to take a stand against Australia’s continued reliance on fossil fuels……. Continue reading
THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper twists climate information to benefit fossil fuel industries
The Australian newspaper’s war on science, truth and journalistic ethics continues. Independent Australia, Managing editor David Donovan reports. 17 Jan 12,
In last Wednesday’s The Australian newspaper, columnist Imre Salusinszky came out with the quite extraordinary claim that the world had “beaten global warming”.
He said we should congratulate ourselves; that the worst dangers no longer loom over us……. Here’s some of what he said:………
“Last year was the sixth coldest since 1997, which shows the catastrophic scenarios of recent times are no longer looming over us.”
According to Salusinszky, because last year was only the 8th hottest in the last 14 years, and some parts of the world had below average temperatures, global warming is beat……
Because if Salusinzky had looked at the data from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) as he suggests he has, he must know that, although 2011 was “the sixth coldest since 1997” (or the 8th hottest, whichever you prefer) it was also, according to the WMO, the 10th hottest year the world has ever recorded and the hottest ever during a La Nina weather event…….
the newspaper has been conducting a calculating and concerted campaign to discredit the established and very clear consensus in global warming science and foster doubt about the need for climate action. It is the only newspaper in Australia that publishes these sorts of unscientific denialist articles — and it does publish this anti-science on a daily basis.
And while The Australian fiddles with public opinion, the world gets hotter. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/media-2/the-australian-declares-victory-in-war-on-global-warming/
Japan’s government informed U.S. military of Fukushima radiation, but delayed informing Japanese people
Radiation-dispersal data was provided to U.S. before Japanese public, Mainichi Daily News, 17 Jan 12, TOKYO (Kyodo) –– Japan’s science ministry provided data on the dispersal of radioactive materials to U.S. forces a few days after the nuclear crisis erupted at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, far earlier than the disclosure of the information to the Japanese public, a ministry official said Monday.
The revelation came amid criticism that the government’s delay in releasing data from the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information may have resulted in the unnecessary radiation exposure of people who later evacuated from their homes around the plant.
The data was provided to U.S. forces via the Japanese Foreign Ministry on March 14, three days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear crisis, according to Itaru Watanabe, an official of the Science and Technology Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
But it was not until March 23 that the public was officially informed. Watanabe, speaking at a meeting of the nuclear accident investigation panel set up by the Diet, said that the science ministry passed on the data to U.S. forces “to seek support from them” in dealing with the nuclear crisis…..http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120117p2g00m0dm037000c.html
Australia’s Aboriginal Tent Embassy – a renewed drive for Aboriginal rights
Michael Anderson is preparing to launch a legal campaign to overturn the lie of peaceful British colonial settlement of Australia. This legal action will establish beyond dispute that Aboriginal people never ceded our sovereign rights over this land.
This legal challenge will be taken to the international community. We need to seek a binding treaty to fully recognise our rights. This will recognise our demands for comprehensive land rights and an end to mining on our land…..
Aboriginals of Australia: Tent Embassy Celebrates 40 – Year Anniversary Unrepresented Nations and people’s Organisation (UNPO) 16 Jan 12, On January 16, Activists and supports came together to celebrate the achievements of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
Few Australian political protests can claim to have made an impact as great or as lasting as the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. First set up on the lawns of Old Parliament House in January 1972, the embassy has been a focal point for the struggle for Aboriginal rights.
Four Aboriginal men, Michael Anderson, Billie Craigie, Tony Koorie and Bertie Williams, launched the embassy in response to then-prime minister Billy McMahon’s refusal to grant Aboriginal land rights. Instead, McMahon had offered to lease stolen land back to Aboriginal people. Continue reading
Radioactivity in Japanese building materials
Radioactive Concrete Is Latest Scare for Fukushima Survivors, abc News, 16 Jan 12, By Akiko Fjitau The Japanese government is investigating how radioactive concrete ended up in a new apartment complex in the Fukushima Prefecture, housing evacuees from a town near the crippled nuclear plant.
The contamination was first discovered when dosimeter readings of children in the city of Nihonmatsu, roughly 40 miles from the reactors at Fuksuhima Dai-ichi, revealed a high school student had been exposed to 1.62 millisieverts in a span of three months, well above the annual 1 millisievert limit the government has established for safety reasons. Further investigation traced the radiation back to the student’s three-story apartment building, where officials detected
radioactive cesium inside the concrete.
Radiation levels at the 6-month-old apartment were higher inside the building than outside. A dozen families live in the new apartment complex.The gravel used in the cement came from a quarry in the town of Namie, located just miles from the Fukushima plant. Continue reading
South Australia’s Supreme Court rules in favour of Aboriginal landowners
Mining exploration on indigenous land blocked , WA News. com.yu 15 Jan 12,AN exploration venture in South Australia’s north has been blocked by a court ruling in favour of the land’s traditional owners. Argonaut Resources and its joint venture partners, Straits Resources Ltd, were planning to start drilling for copper, gold and iron-oxide in parts of Lake Torrens and Andamooka Island.
The companies had been given ministerial approval to access the area, which is part of the traditional lands of the the Kokatha Wati and Adnyamathantha people.
But the South Australian Supreme Court has overturned that approval, ruling that the traditional owners were denied procedural fairness in not being properly consulted.
The court also found problems with the nature of the approval, ruling that Straits did not actually hold any exploration rights but that they were held by another company……
South Australia’s Aboriginal Heritage Act requires TRUE consultation with Traditional Owners
the chair of the Andyamathanha Traditional Land Association, Vince Coulthard, says the aim of the Supreme Court challenge was not to block mining, but to challenge Government process.
He says Aboriginal Affairs Minister Grace Portolesi is legally required to consult with Traditional Owners before making a decision on exploration. But Mr Coulthard- who received the Premier’s NAIDOC award last year for work in his community- says that process never occurred
Aboriginal leader hits back at mining claim ABC News, 16 Jan 12, An Aboriginal leader in South Australia’s far north has rejected claims by explorer Argonaut Resources that the state’s Aboriginal Heritage Act is anti-mining.
In 2010, the Government granted Argonaut a licence to explore 6300 hectares of land near Lake Torrens in a joint venture with Straits Resources. Traditional Owners appealed against that decision, taking their case
to the South Australian Supreme Court. Their appeal was upheld, prompting Argonaut to claim the Act gives too
much power to Traditional Owners to veto mining……. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 