Lest we forget – the history of Australia’s Aboriginal tent embassy
Lease of ‘own land’ was impetus for campaign, Canberra Times, BY BREANNA TUCKER 28 Jan, 2012 It was pitch black in the earliest hours of the morning the minute the tent embassy was born.
About 1am on January 26, 1972, four Aboriginal men from Sydney had pitched a beach umbrella on the lawns of Old Parliament House and waited for the sun to rise so they could declare a new ”embassy” for Canberra.
The Koori men – Billie Craigie, Tony Coorie, Michael Anderson and Bert Williams – claimed to be ”aliens in our own land” after the federal government of the day announced a land rights policy suggesting Aboriginal people take out 50-year leases on land parcels they believed already belonged to them. A mate of the crew, Aboriginal activist Chicka Dixon, later said the men decided that if their country would not treat them fairly, they would establish an embassy to fight for their rights as foreigners.
”I … joined them on the Friday. The Member for the ACT, Kep Enderby, informed me that there was no legislation under the federal Act to remove campers, so we put up eight tents and gave ourselves portfolios,” he said. ”A dear, kind lady from Canberra gave us a big blue tent which became the official tent embassy.
”Like all embassies we needed a flag, so Harold Thomas, [designer of the Aboriginal flag] from Adelaide, gave us his flag to fly.” The creation of the tent embassy became the trigger for what would become a controversial 40-year campaign for Aboriginal rights…
.. The embassy was pulled down by authorities and re-established by demonstrators time and time again, moving from Old Parliament House to an army corporal’s home in Red Hill, across to Capital Hill and back to its roots at Old Parliament House.
The tent embassy has recorded several victories with the creation of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, the negotiation of an Aboriginal rights treaty and a National Heritage Listing that made the camp the only nationally recognised site for the political struggle of Aboriginal people. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/lease-of-own-land-was-impetus-for-campaign/2435783.aspx
Japanese nuclear cult Aum Shinrikyo and its Australian activities
Aum In Australia Aum also launched a scheme of exploring the uranium mines in Australia. …… They also formed two Aum companies – Mahaposya Australia Pvt Ltd and Clarity Investments Pty Ltd – as front businesses to cover up their true activities…
Aum Shinrikyo In Pursuit Of Nuclear Weapons – Analysis, Eurasia Review by: Muhammad Jawad Hashmi February 2, 2012 Aum Shinrikyo has an apocalyptic belief 
structure where the world is divided into two opposing forces, good and evil. Shoko Asahara, who is leader of the cult, firmly believes that they will prevail after the apocalypse and are motivated to trigger the apocalypse because their own salvation depends upon fighting the final fight and eliminating the enemy. The prospect of nuclear war shaped Shoko Asahara’s concerns to preach that Aum followers would be the only survivors of a coming Armageddon.
Central Australia ideal for becoming a renewable energy exporter
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201202/s3421358.htm Central Australia bursting 
with renewable gold, ABC Rural, By Caddie Brain, 02/02/2012 A new study shows central Australia could become a major renewable energy exporter to Asia and major Australian cities. The former chair of the Climate Impact Group at the CSIRO, Dr Barrie Pittock, says the region holds an abundance of solar and geothermal resources.
He says the cost to harness the energy would be similar to the National Broadband Network, but would create local employment. “Eventually if we were generating so much electricity, we could start exporting it by undersea cable to Indonesia. There would be a huge market up there. “But I think in the near future we’re just talking about getting it to the west Australian grid or the east Australian grid.”
Renewable Energy Project for Wagga
Energy plant back on the agenda Daily Advertiser, 02 Feb, 2012 THE development of a proposed $13 million renewable energy plant in Wagga looks to be back on the agenda after the company behind the project received $800,000 to put towards new business ventures.
Representatives from the Adelaide-based company, Syngas, arrived in Wagga on Tuesday to continue the negotiations which began in April last year. Plans were first announced then for a power plant that would use green waste from Wagga’s kerbside collections to generate electricity.
Last September Syngas managing director Merrill Gray said the plant would be established on a 16,000 square metre block at the Bomen Industrial Park, with an underground cable connecting the power plant to neighbouring abattoir Tey’s Australia. The renewable energy generated by the plant would then be sent through
the cable, circumventing the grid….. http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/energy-plant-back-on-the-agenda/2441039.aspx
Gina Rinehart and her influence on Australian media
Like him, [her father, Lang Hancock], she once advocated opening up new mines in Australia by using nuclear explosions. Hancock got the idea of using nukes to excavate harbours from Edward Teller, the fiercely anti-communist ”father of the H-bomb”
She is now putting her wealth into the climate change sceptics’ movement.
right-wing Melbourne think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, which has a long association with the mining industry. The IPA is secretive about its funding but it would be a reasonable suspicion that its rapid expansion during the past two years has been financed by Gina Rinehart.
Will readers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald soon have to endure regular opinion pieces from climate sceptics like Monckton and Plimer, and various others still stuck in the politics of the Cold War?
Mining in a new vein, SMH Clive Hamilton, February 2, 2012 IF GINA Rinehart succeeds in getting a controlling
interest in Fairfax Media, the only competition to the Murdoch stable of newspapers in Australia, the nation’s political landscape will be changed.
Although she is famously shy of publicity, enough has emerged to make it clear that Rinehart has political views on the far right of the spectrum. Those close to her have reported that she would like to use her wealth to gain political influence.
Last year Rinehart was named by Forbes magazine Australia’s richest person. She is reported to hold more than $20 billion in assets. Citigroup estimates she is on track to become the richest person in the world.
Rinehart inherited more than father Lang Hancock’s mining company; she took on his politics, too. Hancock was described by one journalist as “a swashbuckling right-winger who believed people and governments should bow to his will”. On workers’ rights, WA secession and special deals for mining, Gina is her father’s daughter. Continue reading
Climate denialist campaigner joins Gina Rinehart’s boards
Plimer does very nicely from the mining industry which has set him up for a very comfortable retirement. He is a director of mining companies Ivanhoe Australia, Silver City Minerals and the UK-listed Kefi Minerals, , and is chairman of TNT Mines. He is reputed to earn more than $350,000 in director’s fees and shares — a lot more than he receives from the University of Adelaide where his fellow academics have written him off as a joke. . http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/politics/plimer-and-howard-ape-creationists/
Gina brings climate sceptic on board, BY: ANDREW BURRELL The Australian February 02, 2012 GINA Rinehart’s crusade against the Gillard government’s carbon tax has gathered steam with the appointment of one of Australia’s most prominent climate-change sceptics, Ian Plimer, to the boards of two of her key companies.
Professor Plimer, of the University of Adelaide, has served as an informal adviser to Mrs Rinehart and spoke at an event she organised for world business leaders in Perth last year.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-plan/gina-brings-climate-sceptic-on-board/story-fn99tjf2-1226260017472
Extreme weather rains on uranium mining company’s parade
Toxic year for ERA unlikely to get better, SMH, Peter Ker, February 2, 2012 THE struggling uranium miner Energy Resources Australia has underwhelmed the market with its production forecasts, raising fears its poor year last year could continue into this one.
The stock plunged almost 14 per cent yesterday after the company, majority owned by Rio Tinto, revealed a $153.6 million loss for the year to December 31. The result, despite being 427 per cent worse than the previous year, came as no surprise. The company’s Ranger mine was shut down for much of last year, and a massive depreciation of assets had already been
announced in August.
The bigger surprise for the market came when ERA forecast production of between 3000 and 3700 tonnes of uranium oxide this year, well below the 4100 tonnes forecast by analysts at Goldman Sachs.
Production figures at Ranger are highly dependent on the weather. Water management problems during the Northern Territory’s wet season often cause interruptions.
There was record rainfall in December, and ERA warned that its underwhelming production forecasts could be further affected if bad weather returned.
The ERA board has approved spending of $220 million on a brine concentrator, which will help mitigate its water problems. ERA’s future rests on hopes of finding uranium deposits beneath the Ranger open cut and turning it into an underground mine. Investors will have to wait until 2014 before knowing if the project, known as Ranger Deeps, will proceed.
ERA shares fell 21¢ to $1.33 yesterday….. Hopes that Rio Tinto will come to the rescue of another ASX-listed
uranium company, Extract Resources, appear dashed after Rio sold a strategic investment to state-owned Chinese interests. http://www.smh.com.au/business/toxic-year-for-era-unlikely-to-get-better-20120201-1qtgb.html#ixzz1lFkRZG00
Malaysian opposition to Lynas, the Ugly Australian company overseas
“We are disappointed but not surprised by the very weak application presented by Lynas. Most worrying of all is that Lynas’ proposed waste management plan is full of holes and is totally unsafe. ”
Raw Earth Miners and Processors, Bad Developers, 2 Feb 12 Today marked the final day for public comments on Lynas’ application for the pre-operational licence for its Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng.
Together with concerned citizens including representatives from the Pahang Bar Council and the Malaysian Medical Association who converged at the Pahang Secretariat Office, SMSL and SLC delivered a joint
submission to MOSTI and the AELB urging the two authorities to reject Lynas’ application until a safer plan is produced. Continue reading
Still no plan for radioactive waste disposal, but Australian company Lynas gets temporary license
Lynas’s plant is near Kuantan, the capital city of the central Pahang state. Protests by residents and non-governmental organizations over the past 10 months included a march on Malaysia’s parliament and the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur….
China has been limiting rare-earth output and exports since 2009 on concerns mining activities caused pollution
Lynas Granted Temporary Rare-Earth Refining License From Malaysian Board, Bloomberg, By Manirajan Ramasamy – Feb 1, 2012 Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board granted Lynas Corp. (LYC) a temporary operating license to begin refining rare earths under certain conditions following public protests.
The Sydney-based miner will be able to start refining under conditions that include a plan for a permanent disposal facility and paying the government a $50 million security bond in installments, the board said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Lynas’s plant would be the world’s largest refinery of the minerals with total capacity of 22,000 tons per year should a second phase be approved and completed, the company said on Nov. 16.
Its plan to start production in September was delayed after the government imposed extra safety standards recommended by an international review panel after residents expressed fears over possible radiation and contamination. Continue reading
Solar power and energy efficiency save money for Queensland hospital
Hervey Bay solar projects keep powering on, My Sunshine Coast, 2 Feb 12, Energy Minister Stephen Robertson has welcomed another key milestone in the Bligh Government’s $4 million plan to help power Hervey Bay with clean energy.
Mr Robertson said Queensland Health had now completed contractual arrangements with ABB Australia to install a $1.3 million 266 kilowatt solar panel system at the Hervey Bay Hospital.
“Depending on the weather, installation will begin within a few weeks on a solar panel system that will generate approximately 385 megawatt hours of energy each year, saving the hospital around $20,000 per year on electricity costs,” Mr Robertson said. “It will also help to reduce the hospital’s carbon emissions by 400
tonnes a year.
“An interactive web-kiosk and large screen television showing the energy being produced by the system daily, monthly and annually will also be installed in the hospital’s foyer as an education tool for visitors.
“This project and the $2.7 million Fraser Coast Community Solar Farm are part of the Bligh Government’s commitment to renewable energy
projects…. “ABB will draw from our global expertise in the solar industry to deliver a solar power system which operates at high efficiency, providing a lower cost per kilowatt production. “Our innovative technology and expertise is gained by our involvement in many of the world’s largest turnkey solar projects.
“The hospital has already reduced its energy consumption significantly by implementing a number of energy efficiency initiatives, and with the addition of the renewable energy from this system, they will become more self sufficient.”
http://www.mysunshinecoast.com.au/articles/article-display/hervey-bay-solar-projects-keep-powering-on,246
Australia Day fracas: police violence rather than Aboriginal “riot”?
“[One officer] can be seen in footage that has now emerged attacking at least two different protesters, none of whom were aggressive towards him. He also uses foul language, including using the c-word at a cameraman and telling media to f— off. That is not the actions of a professional police officer. “Indeed Aboriginal people are arrested for that sort of conduct every
single day.”
Call to investigate police after tent embassy protest, SMH, Saffron Howden January 31, 2012 Indigenous groups are calling for an independent investigation into the “violent” conduct of police officers during last week’s tent embassy protest. The NSW Aboriginal Land Council asked the Human Rights Commission to investigate as new video footage emerged today depicting federal police officers yelling, swearing and using physical force after Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott were rushed from The Lobby restaurant in Canberra last week. Continue reading
Nuclear submarines in our ports, a new target for terrorism?
NUCLEAR SUBMARINES NOT WELCOME IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA , 1 feb 2012, Plans to host American nuclear submarines at Garden Island should be rejected, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam said. Senator Ludlam said the Australian Defence Force posture review – an inquiry into Australian defence bases – was off target with the suggestion that US nuclear submarines should be serviced at Garden Island. The risks of routinely floating nuclear reactors in and out of Cockburn sound shouldn’t be underestimated. Western Australian police and emergency services personnel are completely under-resourced to cope with even a minor reactor leak.
Call for more US nuclear sub facilities Canberra Times, BY DAVID ELLERY, DEFENCE REPORTER, 31 Jan, 2012 American nuclear submarines could call Australia home if a proposal by two of Australia’s leading Defence experts is included in the 2014 Defence White Paper. Former Defence Department secretaries Allan Hawke and Ric Smith have called for billions of dollars to be spent to protect Australia’s approaches and keep the fast emerging ”energy belt” safe from attack.
One of their suggestions, released in the interim report of the Force Posture Review, is for the submarine facilities at Fleetbase West – Perth’s HMAS Stirling – to be upgraded so they can be used to support US nuclear submarines….
Current Labor policy rules out any consideration of a nuclear option in $36billion replacement of the Collins fleet. Continue reading
Aboriginal tent embassy – its purpose as relevant today as 40 years ago
Why did she not speak with them, and why did she run away in fear?
It was not because there was a ‘riot’ or any great threat of violence, as the corporate media would later falsely claim.
It was Labor that reneged twice on promises (in 1972 and 1983) to enact national land rights law, to meet the just demands
of the traditional owners. This, of course, had been the main demand of the Tent Embassy in 1972. Yet land rights are today enjoyed by far less than 10% of the Aboriginal population.
In place of land rights, Labor offered ‘reconciliation’ and a stinking piece of hypocrisy called ‘native title’, the weakest land title imaginable and which firmly denies (by ‘extinguishment’) any land rights to the vast majority of traditional owners….
Julia Gillard’s words of respect to Aboriginal Australia, Green Left, January 30, 2012 By Tim Anderson Moments before Julia Gillard was whisked away from the angry crowd, losing her shoe in the process, she began an awards ceremony speech with these words: “Can I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and in the spirit of reconciliation pay my respects to elders past and present.” Continue reading
Australian media: lies and distortions about a legitimate Aboriginal protest
That evening the WIN TV news repeatedly referred to “violence” and used other inflammatory terms so inaccurate as to amount to lies. The Canberra Times front page next day screamed “Australia’s day of disgrace”. There are disgraces involved, but the rowdy protest was not one.
The media, unfortunately typically, reported inaccurately and used inflammatory language, thereby promoting division.
Aussie Day ‘riot’: perspective and balance hard to find The Drum, Geoff Davies, 30 Jan 12 The bias, hysteria and divisiveness of our public political conversation is never far from view, but this week I encountered it firsthand.
I watched outside as the Aboriginal protest unfolded at The Lobby restaurant on Australia Day. The event reported in the media and reacted to by many commentators is a lurid parody of what actually happened. Perspective and balance are hard to find.
The protest was not violent. It was certainly rowdy and confronting. The protesters chanted loudly and angrily, and some beat time on the glass walls of the restaurant. There was some pushing and shoving as the VIP cars finally moved out. Police on the day said there were”scuffles” and no arrests would be made. Continue reading
Western Australia’s new Labor leader speaks with forked tongue
from our Western Australian commentator 30 Jan 12 Few remember McGowan’s sabotage of Geoff Gallop’s Core Consultative Committee on Hazardous Waste (3Cs) a committee dedicated to reforming the hazardous waste industry, protecting public health and a fragile biodiversity.
Remember the Bellevue chemical fire at a hazardous waste plant, allegedly the largest chemical fire in Australia’s history? The disgraceful mismanagement of the Brookdale hazardous waste plant? The lead poisoning of Esperance and the destruction of 9,500 native birds by Magellan Metals? The 400 strong protest march in Kalgoorlie against the foulness of Total Waste Management, operating just 500 metres from a restaurant and a fuel station?
Industry, lobbyists of the haz. waste industry (including Burke and Grill) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry were jubilant when McGowan sacked the 3Cs without explanation in November 2006.
It will come to pass when the people of WA will understand that both Barnett and McGowan are the dancing boys of industry – both wear the same hat in the environmentally desecrated state of WA which has 85,000 abandoned and toxic mine sites.
December 8th, 2011: “No Labor minister or public servant responsible to a Labor minister will issue any approval to facilitate a uranium mining project under a WA Labor government. It does not matter how advanced the projects are. I’m putting the industry on notice. You won’t have your final approvals by the time of the next election and they will not be granted if WA Labor is elected.” (Eric Ripper)
The duplicitous McGowan speaks with forked tongue. Be afraid, be very afraid.
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