“Direct Action” – Tony Abbott’s slush fund for polluting industries
“What is clear in the green paper is that there is no requirement for business to reduce carbon pollution,” Mr Burke said. “The policy offers no response for businesses that increase pollution.”
No penalty for carbon polluters GRAHAM LLOYD THE AUSTRALIAN, 7 JAN 14 COMPANIES will not be punished if they fail to meet their carbon emissions targets under the Coalition’s Direct Action plan.
Instead, the government will introduce “flexible compliance arrangements”, some of which are more generous than those argued for by industry.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt told The Australian yesterday the Direct Action scheme, outlined in a green paper now open for comment, was not designed to be punitive. Continue reading
Renewable Energy Target (RET) makes good business sense
The RET and greedy grid owners Online opinion, By Luke Beattie Tuesday, 24 December 2013 We need a rethink on the motivating factors of renewable energy. On one side of the coin it’s the reduction of pollution produced by burning fossil fuels. On the other there’s a real and quantifiable cost reduction for businesses that are impacted most by rising energy costs…….
What’s emerged is a resilient and viable industry that isn’t reliant on Government incentives. A general population that can, for the most part, afford to buy a basic solar system to reduce cost of living pressures. But it doesn’t end there.
Many companies, including those in the manufacturing industry, have installed privately-funded solar systems in order to reduce their energy and also to hedge a portion of the cost of energy over the long term. These commercial solar systems do not place excessive pressure on the grid infrastructure. Many are non-exporting and are just used to manage their base load.
Regardless of the Prime Minister’s personal views on the science of climate change, it makes economic sense to encourage high energy consumers in the manufacturing industry to look at integrating renewable energy into their supply. Even China has recognised the value of renewables in industry and is well on track to achieving their goal of 15% renewable energy production by 2020. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from their commitment?……. Continue reading
Trans Pacific Partnership’s investor-state dispute settlement mechanism puts democracy in peril
Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement favours foreign investors over citizens’ rights Canberra Times, January 4, 2014 Without debate, increased rights for foreign investors will undermine our way of life, writes Thomas A. Faunce. All the indications from the recent Singapore meeting on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) are that Australian society is about to undergo a momentous shift in its governance arrangements. The recent Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) gives a pointer.
It includes an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. This provides rights of foreign investors (additional to those of local businesses) to challenge our legislation where it impedes their profits overseas before panels of trade arbitrators. Our government claimed it had ”ensured the inclusion of appropriate carve-outs and safeguards in important areas such as public welfare, health and the environment.”
The Australian government has no mandate to introduce such a significant change in our sovereignty and governance. Though the present author and others raised the issue of such greater rights of foreign investors over local businesses during the preceding electoral campaign it was never the subject of major policy debate or positioning.
The insertion of such foreign investor rights into our governance system is a momentous event in the history of our democracy.According to the central document in our social contract, fundamental alterations in Australia’s governance arrangements require not just legislation but a referendum. Thus, a majority of Australian citizens in a majority of states were needed to support the creation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or the citizenship of Aboriginal Australians.
Yet, as a result of the TPPA, this country risks displacing the authority of citizens who live and support families, friends, local communities and ecosystems in this land, in favour of a system privileging artificial people called corporations.
The multinational corporations to which the KAFTA and the TPPA will be ceding rights to challenge our democratic laws are regarded by the law as ”people”. They can sue in courts to protect their rights. But they lack conscience, empathy, the capacity to develop virtues though consistent application of generally applicable principle, that constitute the richness of our character. Corporations can never marry or have children. They seek to fulfil a monomanical basic craving – to maximise shareholder profit.
Perhaps the big issue in our nation should not be gay marriage, but corporate marriage – using the corporations law to link a broader public purpose.
It is ironic and sad that the privileging of corporate elites over the rights and interests of our citizens implicit in such foreign investor rights was rejected by conservative former prime minister John Howard at the time of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement in 2004. It also has been deprecated by Pope Francis as part of his recent apostolic exhortation……
At the same time as foreign investors are gaining these extra rights, our government is preparing to turn more of our social infrastructure over to them. The new era for infrastructure financing involves projects financed by taxpayers and superannuants, that then are sold to private corporations who manage them…..
The deliberate disengagement of Australian citizens from the governance changes being wrought on Australia through the TPPA may mark a turning point in a wider disengagement of citizens from the political process in this country.
♦ Thomas A. Faunce is professor, jointly in the college of law and college of medicine, biology and the environment at the Australian National University. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement-favours-foreign-investors-over-citizens-rights-20140103-309nb.html#ixzz2peyYTVFd
Constitutional Preamble is irrelevant: Aborigines need a Treaty!
Forget the Preamble, what Australia needs is a Treaty Woollydays, Derek Barry January 3, 2014 The new Coalition Government has been making noises on a referendum to change the constitution to recognise First Australians. The wording of the change has yet to be announced but Prime Minister Tony Abbott is saying the change would “complete our constitution rather than change it.”
What exactly Abbott means by completion rather than change is not clear from the article but I assume it means the change will have purely ornamental rather than legal force. According to his deputy Julie Bishop, the government wants to have a “deep discussion” with the Australian people before agreeing to the wording but here’s a free tip from me if the changes are purely for show: Forget it.
I say forget it, not because Australian constitutional referendums have a habit of failing, but because there are genuine things constitutional change could do to improve the situation of First Australians. The most profound change would be to turn the preamble into a Treaty, common enough in other settler countries, but the first ever in 225 years of European occupation of Australia. Unlike a flowery but pointless preamble, a treaty would genuinely acknowledge past failures and injustices and show sincere desire for a better future and more just relationship……. Continue reading
Australians will pay heavy price for government climate denialism policies
The international Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that planet earth is on track for an overall increase of 3 degrees Celsius by the year 2030.
Australia is predicted to fare worse with an average temperature rise of 3 – 5 degrees Celsius for the same period unless we drastically reduce our CO2 emissions, which sadly appears most unlikely.
Now we find our Federal government approving the gigantic ‘China First’ coal mine in Queensland (owned by Clive Palmer).
Sure, there are conditions which must apply, but if this is to proceed then we Australians will race to the top as the world’s worst polluters per capita.
in Australia we can expect more extreme weather events including more bushfires
Time to accept responsibility for climate change, Bendigo Advertiser, By IAN COOPER, California Gully Jan. 5, 2014 FOR some decades now, climate scientists have been alerting us to the consequences of man-made global warming.
The physics of global warming is that Earth’s surface absorbs short wavelength ultra-violet radiation from the sun and re-radiates this energy as longer wavelength infrared radiation at a frequency that coincides with carbon dioxide’s absorption spectrum at approx 667 cycles per cm.
As a consequence, the CO2 molecules in the atmosphere absorb this energy as quantised energy of vibration, or simply heat; heat which otherwise would have radiated to outer space. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more heat trapped and the more green-house effect.
Put simply, “If we continue to increase the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, then Earth’s average surface temperature will inevitably rise”. Continue reading
Why successive Australian governments rejected a Treaty with Aborigines
Forget the Preamble, what Australia needs is a Treaty Woollydays, Derek Barry January 3, 2014“………..A Treaty is a political document between sovereign people and it was this difficulty that saw John Howard reject the idea 
as far back as 1988 as an absurd proposition that “a nation should make a treaty with some of its own citizens.” Yet the idea is far from absurd to the many Indigenous people who see this as the first step in the recognition of the wars and dispossession of their country and the genocide that followed. It was Howard’s assimilatory ideas in the face of historical evidence that were blatantly contradictory and hence absurd. Howard’s culture of forgetting was shared by his later immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock who told ABC in October 1998 there couldn’t be a treaty because there never had been a war in this country.
Ruddock’s idea of war was flawed as was his view of a Treaty. A Treaty (also known by its Yolgnu name Makarrata meaning thigh) was long established as an appropriate way by which whites could acknowledge Aboriginal equality and prior ownership. In 1979 an Aboriginal treaty committee was formed by prominent whites almost all came from political and intellectual left. Then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser offered to discuss treaty conditions with Aborigines while 8 years later his successor Bob Hawke spoke of ‘a compact of understanding’. But this whitefella idea of a treaty was rejected by the Federation of Aboriginal Land Councils because of insufficient consultation with Aborigines, doubts of its significance and consequences and because it would legalise occupation and use of sovereign Aboriginal lands by the Australian settler state…… https://woollydays.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/forget-the-preamble-what-australia-needs-is-a-treaty/
Abbott govt and Murdoch Press attack Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Murdoch and Abbott combine to silence the ABC, Independent Australia, 3 January 2014 Reports on the Abbott Government and News Corporation’s coordinated assault upon Australia’s public broadcaster have ignored numerous key factors, writes Alan Austin.
The Abbott Government is ramping up endeavours to reward its principal promoter Rupert Murdoch with greater media control.
Ministers are now openly attacking the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s foreign television service. As usual, neither Murdoch’s nor the Coalition’s people are telling the truth.
This week’s mini-furore started whenThe Australian ran a front page beat-up attacking the national broadcaster’s management ofAustralia Network, headed ‘ABC put on notice over foreign TV’. Continue reading
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and the struggle against mining takeover of the land
the establishing in Canberra, 1972, of the Tent Embassy, to protest against a court decision over mining operations on Aboriginal land.
To many it came as a shock when in April 1971 the Northern Territory Supreme Court decided against Aboriginal people and in favour of a mining company to have access to Aboriginal land. Australian common law, the justice concluded, did not recognise Aboriginal land rights (Reconciliation Australia, 2012).
on January 26th, 2012, the Tent Embassy held its 40th anniversary, making it the longest site of political agitation. The Embassy helped in the struggle for land rights and to end racial discrimination, sadly this is still an ongoing struggle (Korffs, J., 2012).
The Rights For Freedom Of Aboriginal Australians History Essay UK Essays.com 3 Jan 14 This essay focuses on the rights for freedom for the Aboriginal Australians who have lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years. The arrival of the Europeans in 1788 resulted in the significant change to traditional Aboriginal customs and way of life. Up until 1901 colonial governments and communities formally and informally discriminated against Aboriginal people (Rights and freedoms, 1945- the present, n.d.).
Austrlalian Government colluded with British to deny justice to Maralinga Aborigines and veterans
Independent senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon plans to step up pressure this year to ensure those affected by the nuclear tests can be compensated properly.
UK opposed compensation for Maralinga nuclear victims BRENDAN NICHOLSON DEFENCE EDITOR THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 01, 2014 THE Anangu Aboriginal people who inhabited the Maralinga area of South Australia called it ”puyu” or ”black mist” the dirt that rolled across the landscape and sickened, blinded and killed them.
As the Hawke government faced growing pressure for fair compensation for those affected by fallout from the British nuclear bomb test program at Maralinga and Emu fields and the Monte Bello Islands between 1952 and 1963, it ran into strong opposition from United Kingdom officials. Continue reading
Queensland’s Bjelke-Petersen government wanted to discriminate against Aborigines
Joh’s cabinet anxious about Labor rise, news.com.au Wednesday January 1, 2014 “…….Attorney-General Sam Doumany said the election of the Hawke government had paved the way for the Commonwealth to start making new sexual and racial discrimination laws.
His warning came in the wake of a 1982 High Court decision which found the Bjelke-Petersen government was acting discriminatorily by blocking the purchase of land by Aboriginal people in northern Queensland.
He said the High Court would ‘no longer provide any great protection’ because the majority of justices were ‘opposed to the long-term interests of the states’…..
The disposal of radioactive sand left over from sand mining was also at the fore as the government grappled with where to dump the substance, which had a half-life of 10,000 million years….. http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/johs-cabinet-anxious-about-labor-rise/story-e6frfku9-1226792829851
Maurice Newman’s anti-science ravings are government policy
Newman is no outlier – he is meeting Abbott at least once a week, and the CEDA speech was drafted in close consultation with the PM and his office:
In other words, this is Abbott by proxy. He still thinks climate change is crap, he’s just using a ventriloquist
This is not just dog-whistling to climate skeptics, this is part of policy formulation. Abbott is already dismantling climate change policies and institutions and seeking to replace it with Direct Action, a program that is dismissed in both the scientific and investment worlds
Australia, ‘hostage to climate change madness’? To say so is madness indeed Tony Abbott still thinks climate change is ‘crap’, he’s just using his controversial business adviser Maurice Newman as a ventriloquist to say so Giles Parkinson theguardian.com, Wednesday 1 January 2014 When the Russian scientific vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy gotstuck in ice earlier this week while hosting a mission to retrace the steps of Sir Douglas Mawson and to conduct research on climate science, the blogosphere and talk-back radio were quick to gloat. What would the scientists say now, the deniers demanded to know, as if the presence of sea ice was enough to disprove the entire theory of climate change.
When expedition leader Chris Turney was informed of the comments in an ABC radio interview on Tuesday morning, he was dumbstruck and mildly amused. There were all sorts of explanations for the proliferation of ice at this location, such as thecalving of the large B09B iceberg and its spectacular collision with the extended tongue of the Mertz Glacier. But none that would ever satisfy such people, Turney suggested.
- Disconcertingly, these claims are no longer the province of bloggers, right wing media and talk-back radio. They now have currency in the highest corridors of power in Australia. Continue reading
How Australia caved in to Britain, in not properly cleaning up Maralinga bomb sites
Why cabinet sought only a partial clean-up of British nuclear test site Archives give new insight into Hawke government’s response to royal commission on weapons testing in Maralinga region Paul Chadwick theguardian.com, Wednesday 1 January 2014
Gareth Evans, the energy minister at the time, said ‘a non-confrontational approach’ had been adopted in dealing with the Thatcher government.
The complete rehabilitation of areas of Australia used to test British nuclear weapons may not be possible, the Hawke cabinet was advised in 1986.
Cabinet was warned that a full clean-up may have been more expensive than the British government would be willing to contemplate, according to documents released this week by theNational Archives.
They provide new insights into the Hawke government’s response to the recommendations of the McClelland royal commission into British nuclear tests in Australia. Continue reading
Australia’s inadequate decontamination of radioactive nuclear test sites
Cabinet Papers 1986-87: The struggle for indigenous land rights, SMH, Damien Murphy, 28 Dec 13, “……….. Decontaminating radioactive sites The McClelland royal commission on British nuclear tests in Australia had recommended that the Maralinga and Emu test sites should be decontaminated to a standard suitable for unrestricted habitation by the traditional owners.
But a technical assessment group found that even the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars would not achieve complete decontamination.
The Resources and Energy Minister, Senator Gareth Evans, recommended that Cabinet consider the lesser option of decontamination sufficient to allow casual access to a larger area than was currently permissible. This option might cost between $20 and $30 million, “much more within the ball park that the UK Government is likely, on present indications, to be prepared to contemplate”.
Cabinet also decided that compensation claims for diseases that might have been caused by radiation would be resisted if the Commonwealth did not believe that a liability existed……….
Traditional owners had been dispersed to Yalata and the Pitjantjatjara lands in South Australia and Coonana in Western Australia. Cabinet allocated an initial $500,000 for projects of lasting and general community benefit…….. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/cabinet-papers-198687-the-struggle-for-indigenous-land-rights-20131228-3017r.html
Australia willing to market uranium to Indonesia, despite nuclear weapon worries.
Threats of a nuclear Indonesia and a provocative New Guinea BRENDAN NICHOLSON DEFENCE EDITOR THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 01, 2014 AT a time of frosty relations with Jakarta, the Hawke government was warned that Indonesia ultimately might aim to obtain nuclear weapons.
Cabinet also was concerned that Australia might be drawn into conflict in the region as the result of impulsive and unwise behaviour by a poorly led government in Papua New Guinea……..
Despite the concerns raised in the briefing paper about Indonesia’s possible nuclear ambitions, it went on to suggest that Australia might supply Indonesia with uranium to increase its influence with Jakarta and to serve its “commercial, strategic and non-proliferation objectives”.
The paper said the nuclear program should be closely monitored, and it warned that a nuclear accident in Indonesia could have serious effects on areas of northern Australia…….http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/cabinet-papers/threats-of-a-nuclear-indonesia-and-a-provocative-new-guinea/story-fnkuhyre-1226792638737#
Australian government didn’t want to know about Aborigines affected by atomic tests
Cabinet rejected the royal commission’s recommendation for the creation of a new register of persons who may have been exposed to “black mist” or radiation at the tests.
The actions of previous Australian government [sic] in shepherding Aboriginal people from their traditional lands for the purpose of conducting atomic tests were both immoral and appallingly executed.
Why cabinet sought only a partial clean-up of British nuclear test site Paul Chadwick theguardian.com, Wednesday 1 January 2014 “…………An aerial survey of radioactivity around the test sites would be followed by a more detailed ground survey. Five studies would “define the areas – hopefully quite small – which must remain surrounded by fences, and further outer areas in which activities such as food gathering and excavation should not occur”.
A report by technical experts attached to the cabinet submission states: “Aboriginals living and gathering food on the Maralinga lands may be exposed [to contaminants] … in three major ways – by inhalation, by ingestion and by entry of contaminated material through open flesh wounds and abrasions.”
The experts considered options for burial of contaminated soil. They noted that since one of the contaminants had a half life of 24,000 years it was a prerequisite to make a prediction about the sort of changes in the earth expected to occur in the Maralinga area in the timeframe. Continue reading
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
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AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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