Traditional Aboriginal owners at Muckaty gear up for renewed fight against nuclear waste dumping
Muckaty landowners say nuclear dump fight is ‘back to square one’ http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/13/muckaty-landowners-say-nuclear-dump-fight-is-back-to-square-one Helen Davidson in Darwin The owners feel the only way to protect the station is for it to be within the borders of the neighbouring Central Land Council The proposal of a second site for nuclear dumping at Muckaty Station sends the fight “back to square one,” traditional landowners say. They feel the only way to protect the area is to be within the borders of the neighbouring Central Land Council, which decided not to make a nomination last week due to local opposition.
Last week the case for a storage facility on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory was reopened when one of the clan groups proposed a second parcel of land, just months after a bitter seven-year dispute appeared to have ended.
The Northern Land Council (NLC) had abandoned its nomination to the federal government to store low and intermediate radioactive waste in the area north of Tennant Creek as part of a settlement reached outside the federal court. It is now considering the new proposal.
One of the traditional owners, Dianne Stokes, told Guardian Australia the new proposal takes the fight “back to square one.” Continue reading
Australians embarrassed by their Prime Minister – show their disgust in mocking. with heads in sand
Australians Stick Their Heads In The Sand To Mock Prime Minister Abbott’s Climate Stance http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/13/australians-stick-heads-sand_n_6150606.html Reuters | By Sue-Lin Wong SYDNEY, Nov 13 (- More than 400 protesters stuck their heads in the sand on Australia’s Bondi Beach on Thursday, mocking the government’s reluctance to put climate change on the agenda of a G20 summit this weekend.
“Obama’s on board, Xi Jinping’s on board, everyone’s on board except one man,” activist Pat Norman, 28, bellowed into a megaphone on the Sydney beach.
“Tony Abbott!” the protesters shouted back.
Folks with babies, school children and working people in business suits dug holes on the beach and stuck their heads in them. The ostrich is said to stick its head in the sand in futile bid to avoid danger.
Ornithologists say the African bird does no such thing but that didn’t spoil the cheeky protest.
“Wiggle ya bums if you feel like it,” Norman shouted over the megaphone.
A few athletic types did handstands with their heads in the sand.
“To be so far behind the rest of the developed world embarrasses progressive Australia,” he said.
Final deal on uranium to India will not be signed during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia
Pact to operationalise nuclear deal won’t to be signed during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia Indian Express by Shubhajit Roy | New Delhi November 13, 2014
Two months after India and Australia signed the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement, a pact on the administrative arrangements — key to operationalising the uranium supply deal — is not likely to be signed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Australia from November 14 to 18. However, officials said the two sides are aiming to conclude the deal in the first-half of 2015.
The pact on administrative arrangements is important for the Australian government to put it before the Australian parliamentary committee on treaties. After the committee examines the civilian nuclear deal and the administrative arrangements and prepares a report, it goes to the Australian parliament for approval. Only after the parliamentary nod can the Australian companies get into commercial negotiations with Indian counterparts for uranium supply………http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/pact-to-make-n-deal-with-australia-operational-wont-be-signed-this-time/
G20 heatwave makes it hard for Tony Abbott to sell his climate denialist policies
Abbott’s nightmare: World leaders to swelter through G20 heatwave, Climate Spectator JOHN CONROY 14 NOV, As it seeks a growth-focus at the G20, the Abbott Government has been struck by another development which will only compound the attention on climate change generated by the US-China vows in Beijing this week.The Bureau of Meteorology is expecting a heatwave across Queensland, with temperatures to be more than 10 degrees above average in parts of the state – including Brisbane.
In the state capital, the bureau is forecasting 35 and 39 degrees across the weekend, considerably higher than the city’s November average of 27.8.
Nearby Ipswich – 40km southwest of Brisbane – will touch 41 on Saturday, according to the bureau, it’s hottest November day since 1968 and well above its 30.8 November average, while further inland towns are expecting to reach the mid-40s in the first half of next week.
There will be little overnight relief at the G20, too, with temperatures to remain around the mid-20s in the evenings and only bottom out at 20 degrees early Sunday.
“We’re going to have hot days and hot nights as well,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore said, according to Fairfax Media……….
The heatwave comes as the world tracks for its hottest calendar year on record, having already experienced the hottest consecutive 12 months from October 2013 through to September this year.
Ahead of the G20, a group of health organisations – including the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and the National Toxics Network – have called on climate change to be on the summit’s agenda, with the chief executive of the Public Health Association of Australia pointing out the increased risk of heatwaves. ……..http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/11/14/science-environment/abbotts-nightmare-world-leaders-swelter-through-g20-heatwave?utm_source=exact
President Obama and Ban Ki-moon outspoken about climate change action
Obama’s University of Queensland speech: President throws down gauntlet to act on climate change news.com.au, 15 Nov 14 PRESIDENT Obama has used his speech at the University of Queensland to throw down the gauntlet on climate change, urging Australia’s young people to act before it’s too late.
“If China and the US can agree on this, the world can agree on this. We need to get this done,” the President told a crowd of around 2000 students and politicians at the University of Queensland on a sweltering day in the city.
“I have not had time to go to the Great Barrier Reef and I want to come back and I want my daughters to come back and I want their daughters and sons to come back and have that be there in 50 years,” he said.
The reference will no doubt put pressure on Prime Minister Tony Abbot, who has been heavily criticised this week by media for refusing to put climate change on the G20’s official agenda.
In his opening address this morning United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said climate change was the “defining issue of our times” and it’s “only natural” G20 leaders should make it a priority.
President Obama also used the speech to announce a $3 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund which aims to help developing nations deal with climate change………http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/obamas-university-of-queensland-speech-president-throws-down-gauntlet-to-act-on-climate-change/story-e6frflo9-1227124098927
World Energy Outlook warns on growing problems and costs of burying dead nuclear recators
World Energy Outlook Warns Nuclear Industry On Decommissioning And Disposal 12 Nov (NucNet): The nuclear energy industry needs to be ready to manage “an unprecedented rate” of decommissioning with almost 200 of the 434 reactors that were operating commercially at the end of 2013 to be retired by 2040, a report by the International Energy Agency says. World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO), released today in London, says “the vast majority” of these reactor retirements will be in the European Union, the US, Russia and Japan. … The IEA estimates the cost of decommissioning plants that are retired to be more than $100 billion.
Regulators and utilities need to continue to ensure that adequate funds are set aside to cover these future expenses, WEO says.
It also warns that all countries which have ever had nuclear generation facilities have an obligation to develop solutions for long-term storage.
In one scenario examined in WEO, the cumulative amount of spent nuclear fuel that has been generated (a significant portion of which becomes high-level radioactive waste) more than doubles, reaching 705,000 tonnes in 2040.
Today – 60 years since the first nuclear reactor started operating – no country has yet established permanent facilities for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste from commercial reactors, which continues to build up in temporary storage, WEO says..
Canada developing medical isotopes without need for nuclear recator
Harper Government Supports Canadian First in Medical Isotope Production http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1446457/harper-government-supports-canadian-first-in-medical-isotope-production SASKATOON, Nov. 14, 2014 /CNW/ – Parliamentary Secretary Kelly Block, on behalf of the Honourable Greg Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, today joined research and development teams from Saskatchewanand Manitoba to celebrate a major milestone in the production of medical isotopes using a linear accelerator. Continue reading
Nuclear submarine part of Russia’s fleet North of Australia for the G20
G20 News Roundup: Russian Nuclear Submarine 5th In The Fleet, World Leaders Coming, Beach Protest Happening International Business Times By Athena Yenko | November 14, 2014 A Russian nuclear submarine maybe the fifth ship to the four Russian warships spotted in north of Australia. A United States submarine had reportedly followed the four Russian warships as the fleet sail across the international waters and have kept the Russian vessels under radar near Japan as the fleet head south, The Australian reported Continue reading
Australia’s deadlock over Renewable Energy Target *RET)
RET fate deadlocked, Stock & Land DANNIKA BONSER 13 Nov, 2014 AUSTRALIA’S future in sustainable energy is on shaky ground as the federal government remains in a stand-off with Labor over proposed cuts to the Renewable Energy Target (RET).
The Abbott government is pushing to slash the RET from 41 terawatt hours per year by 2030 to 26tW hours/year but needs support from Labor or the Palmer United Party to get the change through the Senate.
Labor was willing to bargain the RET down slightly but walked away from talks with cabinet ministers after a compromise could not be reached. Continue reading
International pressure on Abbott, over his climate sceptic policies
Abbott continues to allow vested interests and narrow definitions of Australia’s business priorities to control the agenda. These priorities emphasise protecting mining and resource companies, no matter what the long-term costs, even when they are becoming less successful with their largest client.
US–China emissions deal puts pressure on Abbott Macro Business Cross-posted from The Conversation: Unconventional Economist November 14, 2014 | While most of the world is celebrating the US–China pact on climate change, the deal puts pressure on the Australian government and resources companies to rethink relations with China.by Kerry Brown, Executive Director, China Studies Centre at University of Sydney
The deal, signed at the APEC summit in Beijing this week, includes agreement to cut emissions and work together to mitigate the impact of climate change. For the first time China has set 2030 as the year in which its emissions are expected to peak. The deal creates a common framework with the United States, the other largest greenhouse gas producer in the world, to take action.
Chinese President Xi Jinping started the APEC summit hoping for blue skies in the capital. With this deal, he is showing he is prepared to take action to achieve this.
For Australia this means that environmental compliance costs in China will rise. Australian companies will have additional costs of doing business there. Meanwhile Chinese companies will drive a harder bargain as their cost base lowers. Continue reading
Tony Abbott repeats his offensive statement on Aborigines, to an international audience
Mr Abbott did not mention the hundreds of Aboriginal nations who made this land home for almost 60,000 years, who managed the vast swathes of country under an extraordinary and complex land management system that incorporated aspects of their spirituality.
He also did not mention that the belief there was nothing in Australia but bush was overturned in the 1992 Mabo High Court decision, which paved the way for the Native Title Act, a weaker form of land rights.
Tony Abbott Says ‘Nothing But Bush’ In Australia Before White Settlement https://newmatilda.com/2014/11/14/tony-abbott-says-%E2%80%98nothing-bush%E2%80%99-australia-white-settlement By Amy McQuire In the presence of British Prime Minister David Cameron, Abbott doubled down on previous remarks about the unsettled nature of Australia before white invasion. Amy McQuire reports.
The self-appointed “Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs” Tony Abbott has reiterated the legal fiction of “terra nullius” stating that Australia was “nothing but bush” before British invasion and called pre-colonisation civilisation “extraordinarily basic and raw”.
Mr Abbott made the comments to an international business breakfast in Sydney this morning in an audience that included British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was in town before the G20 summit in Brisbane this weekend. Continue reading
Western Australian Govt’s costly and racist move to get 137 Aboriginal communities off their land
Cost of closing remote communities greater than tackling issues, Aboriginal leaders say, ABC News, 13 Nov 14 By Nicolas Perpitch and Anna Vidot Aboriginal leaders and advocates are warning the “chaos and dysfunction” caused by closing down remote Indigenous communities will cost the West Australian Government far more than addressing existing issues.
Premier Colin Barnett has acknowledged his decision to shut about half the state’s 274 remote communities will cause distress to the more than 12,000 Aboriginal people living there and cause problems in the towns they move to………
Amnesty International’s indigenous peoples’ rights manager Tammy Solonec said there was no plan to help people evicted from Ooombulgurri integrate into Wyndham or other towns, leaving them “highly traumatised”……..
She said governments needed to support communities rather than shutting them down.
Greens MLC Robin Chapple has gone one step further, accusing the Government of peddling a racially-motivated agenda. “It’s smacks of the assimilation policies over the early 60s,” he said. “It’s horrendous. This is a diabolical, in my view, highly racially motivated agenda.”
The Barnett Government has said it was forced to accept a $90 million payment from the Commonwealth to take over responsibility for the remote communities.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-13/closing-remote-aboriginal-communities-cause-chaos-leaders-say/5889278
Western Australian Aboriginal Kardooloo fight back against removal from their land
‘This land is ours, you can’t kick us off it’ VICTORIA LAURIE THE AUSTRALIAN NOVEMBER 15, 2014 Aboriginal community Kardaloo community leader Bill Pearce and his extended family say they will not be moved.
If they are among the estimated 150 remote Aboriginal communities to close across Western Australia, they say history will repeat itself. It will bring them back to the days when they camped on the fringes of Mullewa, 30km down the road in the state’s midwest.
“They can keep their money — all we want is our land to live on,” said 84-year-old Mr Pearce.
Money has been central in the argument this week over the future of Western Australia’s 274 remote communities and about 60 in South Australia. West Australian Premier Colin Barnett argues his government cannot afford to service the communities which were, until September this year, a federal responsibility…….http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/this-land-is-ours-you-cant-kick-us-off-it-aboriginal-community/story-e6frgczx-1227123627993
G20 fetish for Growth will not bring better job outcomes
Will growth mean more jobs? Not necessarily The Drum By Anthony D’Costa 13 Nov 2014, We can expect to see the continuing fetishisation of economic growth at the G20 this weekend, but that’s not the magic potion when it comes to employment, writes Anthony D’Costa………
The G20 leaders are bent on raising the global economic growth rate to 2 per cent or more than current projections. The economic logic behind this mysterious number is an unspecified investment commitment and reforms that collectively would induce economic growth and get the world economy moving again.
The question is, will it get the economy moving again in terms of jobs? In fact, there is no explicit discussion by the G20 on the employment challenges that confront the world economy…….. Continue reading
Coal companies funding renewable energy projects in India, Pakistan, Peru
Coal giants turn to renewable energy, Sunshine Coast DailyNicky Moffat | 15th Nov 2014 SUNSHINE Coast environmentalists are calling on coal companies to come clean about how coal helps developing nations overcome energy poverty.
An Australia Institute report released last week revealed that when coal companies funded energy- poverty reduction projects, they used renewable energy sources such as hydro and solar – and not coal.
Report author Rob Campbell said Indian mining company Adani distributed solar street lighting to villages in India, BHP Billiton donated solar panels in southern Pakistan and Rio Tinto helped connect Peruvian locals to the local hydro-powered grid.
“Coal companies talk about coal being the answer to energy poverty. That’s what they say, but when you look at what they do, it’s a totally different story,” he said…..http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/coal-giants-turn-to-renewable-energy/2454075/
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 