STAND UP TO NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP BULLIES
Kim Mavromatis No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia
 The Federal Liberal Govnt Nuclear Waste Dump Process is subjecting people to intimidation, insults, threats and bullying.The Federal Liberal Govnt process has been appalling and is feeding the bad behaviour of pro nuclear waste dump bullies. The Federal Liberal Govnt nuclear waste dump process has fractured the communities in the Flinders Ranges and Kimba regions (near the proposed nuclear waste dump sites) and has encouraged intimidation, insults, threats and bullying. Why on earth would the Federal Liberal govnt want to dump nuclear waste in the Flinders Ranges, on a floodplain, in a seismically active region, bordered by natural springs, in an iconic tourism destination, or on Eyre Peninsula farmland, near Kimba and next to Lake Gilles Conservation Park????? https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/ |
|
||||||||
Gross injustice: the relentless destruction of Julian Assange
The charge against Julian is very specific; conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq War logs, the Afghanistan war logs and the State Department cables. The charges are nothing to do with Sweden, nothing to do with sex, and nothing to do with the 2016 US election; a simple clarification the mainstream media appears incapable of understanding.
The campaign of demonization and dehumanization against Julian, based on government and media lie after government and media lie, has led to a situation where he can be slowly killed in public sight, and arraigned on a charge of publishing the truth about government wrongdoing, while receiving no assistance from “liberal” society.
Unless Julian is released shortly he will be destroyed. If the state can do this, then who is next?
The Annihilation of Julian Assange, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-annihilation-of-julian-assange/, Craig Murray “In Defense of Julian Assange,” edited by Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler, is now available for OR Books.
I was deeply shaken while witnessing yesterday’s events in Westminster Magistrates Court. Every decision was railroaded through over the scarcely heard arguments and objections of Assange’s legal team, by a magistrate who barely pretended to be listening.
Before I get on to the blatant lack of fair process, the first thing I must note was Julian’s condition. I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated aging. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight.
But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both. I will come to the important content of his statement at the end of proceedings in due course, but his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought.
Until yesterday I had always been quietly skeptical of those who claimed that Julian’s treatment amounted to torture – even of Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture – and skeptical of those who suggested he may be subject to debilitating drug treatments. But having attended the trials in Uzbekistan of several victims of extreme torture, and having worked with survivors from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, I can tell you that yesterday changed my mind entirely and Julian exhibited exactly the symptoms of a torture victim brought blinking into the light, particularly in terms of disorientation, confusion, and the real struggle to assert free will through the fog of learned helplessness. Continue reading
Nuclear weapons and Australia’s hypocrisy about them
from congratulating ICAN for the first Australian-born Nobel Peace Prize. While a childish move, this only served to highlight the government’s discomfort with the treaty and its clear challenge to Australia’s position on nuclear weapons. As the signatures and ratifications continue to stack up and the treaty nears entry-into-force, this challenge persists.Financial institutions are divesting from nuclear weapon producers, citing the treaty as their reason for doing so even though it has yet to enter into force. These include ABP, the largest Dutch pension fund, and Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund. Cities and towns are declaring their support for the treaty, including Paris, Berlin, Geneva, Washington DC, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne.
This year’s Nobel Peace Laureate, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, has been rewarded for formalising a peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea. For ICAN, the Nobel Peace Prize served a directive upon all nations to sit up and pay attention to the fresh 10-page nuclear weapon ban treaty. We know that we’re up against powerful nations, a lucrative industry and deeply entrenched modes of thinking. The real prize will be the total elimination of nuclear weapons, and we have the tools to get there. It’s up to all people, civil society and governments to turn the tide of history. Our collective security depends on it.
- Gem Romuld is the Australian director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and a recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6442739/nuclear-hypocrisy-cant-continue/?cs=14246
Scott Morrison doesn’t like even the “quiet people” speaking up
Morrison doesn’t like it when the quiet Australians start to speak up, Canberra Times, Ebony Bennett , 2 Nov 19,
In his government’s latest free-speech crackdown, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to outlaw civil society groups campaigning against Australian businesses that work with companies with dubious environmental, human rights or ethical records.
The bank ruled out lending to Adani, as did other banks – in part because AYCC’s Dollarmite protests were a real risk to their brand (this was before the banking royal commission tanked it) but also because Adani’s coal mine is a dud project that has failed to secure finance from virtually any bank or investor, except for billionaire Gautam Adani himself.
Scott Morrison says this style of campaigning “is a potentially more insidious threat to the Queensland economy and jobs and living standards than a street protest”.
That was in 2014, when former prime minister Tony Abbott proposed a ban on secondary boycotts. Australia’s competition laws already restrict secondary boycotts – but that is mostly targeted at unions, with exemptions for campaigns run by environmental and consumer groups……
Scott Morrison doesn’t like it when quiet Australians break their silence and take aim at dodgy companies or those who choose to provide services to them – especially when they’re in his favoured industries, like the coal industry. While the Coalition government rolls out the red carpet for the coal industry, it can’t pull up the drawbridge fast enough when it comes to renewables.
If the Minerals Council says jump, the federal government (and NSW and Queensland governments) say “how high?” Whereas the Coalition government has done its level best to kill off the renewables industry. Thankfully, in the long term they have been about as effective at killing off renewables as they have been at cutting emissions: hopeless.
The Morrison government regularly boasts about Australia’s record on renewables, but the fact is it is single-handedly destroying the holy trinity of renewable energy policy: the Renewable Energy Target (RET), the Australian Renewable Agency (ARENA) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
Collectively, the RET, ARENA and the CEFC are responsible for unleashing $23.4 billion worth of investment in renewable energy over a five-year period (2013-18). But there’s nothing the Coalition loves more than throwing sand in the gears of the success of the renewables industry.
Looking ahead, the RET has been exhausted, ARENA is running out of money and the last bastion of renewable energy investment, the CEFC, is now being bastardised to fund fossil-fuel projects……..
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has gone to great pains to talk up renewables, but the truth is that the PM is quite happy to wreck the renewables revolution. He labels those who protest companies wrecking our environment as “selfish and indulgent”, but the truth is that under Scott Morrison, free speech is reserved only for people with paid jobs, and protests are only to be tolerated at convenient times, in convenient places.
If you don’t like it, shut up – or Scott Morrison will make you shut up.
How good is Australia?
- Ebony Bennett is deputy director at independent think tank the Australia Institute. Twitter: @ebony_bennett. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6470618/morrison-doesnt-like-it-when-the-quiet-australians-start-to-speak-up/?cs=14246
Scott Morrison delivers a speech that sounds very like an attack on democracy
|
Scott Morrison threatens crackdown on protesters who would ‘deny liberty’ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/01/scott-morrison-threatens-crackdown-on-secondary-boycotts-of-mining-companies?CMP=share_btn_tw
PM signals action on secondary boycotts of resources companies and says progressives want to tell Australians ‘what you can say, what you can think’ Paul Karp @Paul_Karp Fri 1 Nov 2019 Scott Morrison has branded environmental protesters “anarchists” and threatened a radical crackdown on the right to protest in a speech claiming progressives are seeking to “deny the liberties of Australians”.In a speech to the Queensland Resources Council on Friday, the prime minister said a threat to the future of mining was coming from a “new breed of radical activism” and signalled the government would seek to apply penalties to those targeting businesses who provide services to the resources industry. Civil society groups, including the Human Rights Law Centre and Australian Conservation Foundation, and the Greens immediately attacked the proposal as undemocratic and a bid to stifle a social movement fighting for Australia to take action on climate change. Morrison told Australian corporations to listen to the “quiet shareholders” and not environmental protesters, who he suggested could shift targets from coal companies to all carbon-intensive industries including power generation, gas projects, abattoirs and airlines. In a speech proposing limits on free speech advocating boycotts against polluting companies, Morrison said progressives wanted to tell Australians “what you can say, what you can think and tax you more for the privilege of all of those instructions”. He claimed that “progressivism” – which he labelled a “new-speak type term”, invoking George Orwell – intends “to get in under the radar, but at its heart would deny the liberties of Australians”. “Apocalyptic in tone, it brooks no compromise,” Morrison said. “It’s all or nothing. Alternative views are not permitted.” He pointed to the “worrying development” of environmental groups targeting businesses or firms involved in the mining sector with “secondary boycotts”, such as businesses refusing to provide banking, insurance or consultancy services. “They are targeting businesses of all sizes, including small businesses, like contracting businesses in regional Queensland.” “Let me assure you this is not something my government intends to allow to go unchecked. “Together with the attorney general, we are working to identify mechanisms that can successfully outlaw these indulgent and selfish practices that threaten the livelihoods of fellow Australians.” But Morrison admitted the government “can’t force one Australian company to provide a service to another”. The Greens were quick to reverse the charge of intolerance and level it at Morrison, with acting leader Adam Bandt labelling him “a direct threat to Australian democracy and freedom of speech”. “The prime minister’s commitment to outlaw the peaceful, legal protest of Australian individuals and community groups reads like a move straight from the totalitarian’s playbook,” he said. |
It’s time that the Australian government declared a water emergency
Declaring a water emergency means putting people before profit, mo https://www.michaelwest.com.au/declaring-a-water-emergency-means-putting-people-before-profit/by Quentin Grafton and John Williams — 1 Nov 19, The current drought in Eastern Australia has focused the attention of all Australians on water but effective policy responses are missing in action. Isn’t it time to call it a water emergency? Quentin Grafton and John Williams report.
The dictionary defines an emergency as “a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action”. If there is a climate emergency – and 330,000 Australians have already signed a petition to the Australian Government to declare a climate emergency – then surely there must also be a water emergency here, right now, in Australia. As in any emergency, it requires that we be told the truth and, importantly, act on the truth.
Political leaders, however, prefer the word ‘drought’ because Australia has experienced it in the past and it is ‘solved’ when the rains come. Politicians cannot be blamed for acts of nature. ‘Drought relief’ also gives politicians the opportunity to pretend to fix the problem while showing compassion for those doing it tough.
Income support in the form of a farm household allowance for eligible households with less than $5 million in assets, and that pays more than $30,000 per farming couple per year for up to four years, is, no doubt, very welcome to those who qualify. Unfortunately, it does not solve our water emergency. In this make-believe narrative, all blame accrues to the heavens.
The current drought began in 2017, and came less than 10 years after the Millennium Drought ended. Yet the nation’s elected leaders are surprised by another major drought. Like rabbits on the road facing the full beam of an approaching vehicle, they seem unable to move beyond last century solutions to respond to this water emergency.
Instead, they announce multi-billion dollar commitments of taxpayer money for dams, many of which won’t be completed for years and would never fill until the drought ends. Water extracted from the dams would also be subject to water extraction limits under the Basin Plan.
So why do Australian political leaders support dam building as a solution knowing that dams don’t make it rain or snow? Is it because they are stuck in the past, trapped in myths or delusions, or asleep at the wheel?
If only this were true. Australia could then solve the water emergency by simply ‘briefing’ the Prime Minister, Premiers, and Water Ministers about the 21st Century solutions to the water emergency.
They could be informed of solutions like comprehensive water accounting so that everyone knows who has the water and what it is being used for. Other solutions include water planning that leaves sufficient water in the dams for people to drink by setting enough water aside for the worst droughts, and water recycling and reuse by communities to reduce extraction. Or even managed aquifer recharge to reduce surface water evaporation, and dynamic water pricing that increases the volumetric price paid when dams have less water — the list goes on.
So what is getting in the way of implementing these solutions? Money, power, and influence. Both rent-seeking and regulatory capture, represent the demand for and the supply of water respectively, and are affecting decision-making that benefits particular interests, rather than the broader public interest.
Rent-seeking is when actions are undertaken by people and organisations outside of government to influence decision-making for self-interest, rather than for the sake of improving the decision. Many forms of rent-seeking are legal in Australia, including lobbying — a multi-billion-dollar business.
Rent-seeking allows privileged access to our elected leaders and advisors to those with the means to get it. For example, between 2014 and 2018 the NSW Irrigation Council had more than 25 water-related meetings with New South Wales Ministers, yet many non-industry and non-irrigation entities had only one meeting. All combined, Indigenous, catchment, and environment entities had just 20 per cent of the total number of ministerial meetings given to irrigation and industry entities in the period.
So what does privileged access mean? Decision-making that the NSW Natural Resources Commission has described, in relation the Barwon-Darling River Water Sharing Plan, that has
“…increased allowance for extractive use at lower flow classes that are critical to the environment. These provisions benefit the economic interest of a few upstream users over the ecological and social needs of the many”.
This decision-making contributed to the dire situation in the Murray-Darling Basin and the massive fish kills along the Darling River in January 2019. Sadly, it is just one of many examples of water decision-making not made in the public interest, and described by the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission in January this year as “gross maladministration”.
Billions of dollars in expenditure on irrigation infrastructure, including the construction of private dams, highlighted in the ABC’s Four Corners program in July 2019 Cash Splash, and supported by evidence in peer-reviewed academic research, shows that such subsidies are likely to reduce return flows from irrigators’ fields to groundwater, streams, and rivers.
Yet, the Australian Government has spent some $4 billion on subsidising irrigation infrastructure in the Murray-Darling Basin without any cost-benefit analysis or even comprehensive measures of the impacts on stream flows.
To add to our water woes, more billions of dollars have been allocated to further subsidise water infrastructure, including dams, and announced as a ‘solution’ to the water emergency. Such spending is highly unlikely to generate a net public benefit.
As Rome burns, people in towns like Wilcannia on the lower Darling get their drinking water from 10 litre cartons delivered from the back of trucks. In a desperate cry of help, and defiance, one Barkandji Elder from Wilcannia, Kerry ‘Sissy’ King, has a message for politicians to
“Come out here and see how you feel about living [with no water]. They’ve taken it from the nation that lives off the river system. Come and sit in the gutter with us.”
Australia must stop blaming the river and recognise that capture by special interests has led to this water emergency. It is not simply an act of God; it has arisen from a lack of planning and decision-making that benefit the few at the expense of the many. Neither drought relief nor dams are solutions. Instead, Australia needs its political leaders to lead, to put the national interest first, and to make decisions that place people before profit.
Australian film-makers to join in 10th Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro May 2020
Marcia Gomes de Oliveira shared a link. 2 Nov 19
These filmmakers and producers have already agreed to come to Rio 2020: Peter Kaufmann (Australia), Kim Mavromatis (Australia), Laura Pires (Brazil), Angelo Lima (Brazil), Miguel Silveira (USA/Brazil), Cris Uberman (France), Marcus Schwenzel (Germany), Rainer Ludwigs (Germany), Michael von Hohenberg (Germany), Peter Anthony (Denmark), Michael Madson (Denmark), Lise Autogena (Denmark), Masako Sakata (Japan), Maurizio Torrealta (Italy), Alessandro Tesei (Italy), Amudhan R.P. (India), Tamotsu Matsubara (Japan), Tamiyoshi Tachibana (Japan), Tineke Van Veen (Netherlands), Mafalda Gameiro (Portugal), James Ramsay Cameron (Scotland), José Herrera Plaza (Spain), Marko Kattilakoski (Sweden), Edgar Hagen (Switzerland),Tetyana Chernyavska (Ukraine), Brittany Prater (USA), Ian Thomas Ash (Japan/USA).
Rio’s 10th International Uranium Film Festival is scheduled for May 21st to 31st. Do not miss it!
Climate change is bringing more extreme weather events to Sydney and Melbourne
Hail, cyclones and fire: Extreme weather risks on the rise, SMH, By Peter Hannam, November 1, 2019, Sydney and Melbourne will most likely be exposed to more intense hailstorms, tropical cyclones will track further south and bushfire risks will increase in most of Australia as the climate warms, new research shows.The modelling based on a 3 degree temperature rise is contained in a severe weather report to be released on Friday by IAG, the country’s largest general insurer, and the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research.
“Climate change is not just about the future,” the report states. “There is already solid evidence that there have been measurable changes to weather and climate extremes with the [1 degree of] warming to date.”
Changing insurance claims data are among the indications that major damaging hail events for Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne have already been increasing in the past decade……
Insurance and other financial firms have been reassessing their risks to climate change, prodded in part by international groups such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
IAG managing director Peter Harmer said there was “an urgent need for Australia to prepare for and adapt to climate change”.
“[It] is critical there is a co-ordinated national approach from governments, industries and businesses to build more resilient communities and reduce the impact of disasters.”
Executive manager of natural perils at IAG Mark Leplastrier said that, apart from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, communities had two main tools to shape the future risk profile: the tightening of land planning and improving building codes.
“There’s a huge opportunity to adapt,” he said……..https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/hail-cyclones-and-fire-extreme-weather-risks-on-the-rise-20191031-p536aw.html
December 2-13 UN Climate Summit in Madrid (Scott Morrison is supposed to attend?)
 UN climate talks to take place in Madrid https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/un-climate-talks-to-take-place-in-madrid/news-story/49630507277946754406e42af4685d2c, Australian Associated Press
November 2, 2019, The United Nations has confirmed Spain will host the organisation’s annual climate conference after Chile pulled out following weeks of violent unrest.
UN Climate Change head Patricia Espinosa said in a statement that the conference, known as COP25, will now take place in Madrid on the same dates – December 2-13. Weeks of violent unrest led Chile to cancel the COP25 and its hosting of the APEC trade talks that Prime Minister Scott Morrison was due to attend in mid-November. The high-profile climate summit is slated to finalise negotiations around rules for the Paris emissions reduction targets – to which Australia has agreed. Countries were going to be encouraged to improve their pollution reduction goals. |
|
Coal from six biggest miners in Australia produces more emissions than entire economy
Big emitting companies should be held responsible for the burning of their coal overseas, report says Adam Morton Environment editor, Guardian, @adamlmorton, Fri 1 Nov 2019 Coalmining in Australia by the nation’s six biggest coal producers ultimately results in more greenhouse gas emissions each year than the entire domestic economy.In the latest report to estimate the role fossil fuel businesses play in driving the climate crisis, researchers from the University of New South Wales calculated the total emissions from the coal and gas produced by Australia’s top carbon companies, from extraction to the resources being burned for energy, mostly overseas.
They found the top six coal producers – BHP Billiton, Glencore, Yancoal, Peabody, Anglo American and Whitehaven – were in 2018 linked to 551m tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Total emissions from all activity within Australia were 534m tonnes.
When the list was expanded to include Australia’s 10 biggest carbon producers, adding Chevron, Woodside, ExxonMobil and Santos, the combined emissions from their products was found to be 670m tonnes a year, equivalent to that from about 75% of global air traffic.
The UNSW report follows the Guardian’s global series The Polluters, which revealed 20 fossil fuel companies including BHP could be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. In Australia, it found a wave of planned developments by major fossil fuel companies across the north would significantly increase the amount of coal and gas the country planned to sell into Asia and could push the Paris climate agreement goals further beyond reach.
The report’s lead author, Jeremy Moss from the UNSW Practical Justice Initiative and a professor of political philosophy, said there was a clear case that big emitting companies, which the report calls “carbon majors”, should be held responsible for the consequences of their products……. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/01/six-biggest-coalminers-in-australia-produce-more-emissions-than-entire-economy
Hotter and drier- Australia’s weather records set to be broken this year
Australia’s annual heat records may melt after hot and dry October, The Age, Peter Hannam, November 1, 2019 Almost the whole Australian mainland is likely to have a warmer and drier than normal final two months of the year, boosting the odds that 2019 will be the country’s hottest on record.
Nationally, maximum temperatures last month were almost 3 degrees above the 1961-90 average used by the Bureau of Meteorology, making it the second hottest October in records going back to 1910.
For the first 10 months of the year, average daytime temperatures are running at 1.88 degrees warmer than the 1961-90 yardstick, placing 2019 well on track to smash Australia’s record anomaly of 1.59 degrees set in 2013, the bureau said. Mean readings are in line with the record, also set in 2013.
October capped another dismal month for rainfall, with an average of 8.3 millimetres – or about a third of the monthly average. That made it Australia’s equal-fifth driest October.
Most of the nation shared the relatively hot and dry conditions. In NSW, for instance, it was the state’s fourth-hottest October – with daytime readings 3.3 degrees warmer than average – and its fifth driest with just a quarter of the usual rain.
So far in 2019, NSW is running at the hottest for any similar period for both mean and maximum temperatures, while having among the five driest January-October periods on record……
The bureau’s latest three-monthly outlook offers little relief for most of the country.
“November and December rainfall is likely to be below average across most of the country,” it said, adding that the relatively dry conditions were likely to extend through to the end of summer for most of eastern Australia.
For November to January, the odds are running at more than 80 per cent for warmer than average days for the Australian mainland…….https://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/australia-s-annual-heat-records-may-melt-after-hot-and-dry-october-20191101-p536mw.html
Scott Morrison’s threats against climate activists – getting a bit sinister
As he rails against activism, Scott Morrison is turning a bit sinister, a bit threatening, The government the PM leads finds activism inconvenient, but it is the same government that has sparked the activism. Guardian, Katharine Murphy Political editor, @murpharoo, Fri 1 Nov 2019 It takes some chutzpah to stand up with a straight face and deliver a speech foreshadowing a government crackdown on protest activity while in the same breath declaring that a new insidious form of progressivism is intent on denying the liberties of Australians.
But Scott Morrison has never lacked confidence.
In the florid prime ministerial tale unfurled on Friday at the Queensland Resources Council (and boy folks, it was a doozy), progressivism wanted to tell you what job you can have, what you can say, what you can think “and tax you more for the privilege of all of those instructions that are directed to you” – which made progressivism kind of busy, and a whole lot more organised and efficient than progressivism generally is.
We could, on Friday, have been treated to a measured prime ministerial reflection on the problems associated with cancellation culture. The Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil showed this week that conversation can be attempted without everyone losing their minds. We could have had some words to bring the country together.
But after a brief touchdown in the goat’s cheese circle, which was somehow intrinsically hostile to mining in ways that weren’t really unpacked (and perhaps that might have been risky, given Morrison was addressing a business lunch where goat’s cheese might, accidentally, have featured) – we arrived, unexpectedly it must be said, at the sneering apocalypse.
Morrison warned that a new breed of #RadicalActivism™ was the on the march, “apocalyptic in tone, brooks no compromise, all or nothing, alternative views not permitted – a dogma that pits cities against regional Australia, one that cannot resist sneering at wealth creating and job creating industries, and the livelihoods particularly of regional Australians including here in Queensland”.
Apart from this being overhyped, high-velocity bollocks, it pays to remember right at this juncture that the actual purpose of Morrison’s address on Friday was to foreshadow a government crackdown against forms of activism and protests that the Coalition and the mining industry finds inconvenient.
So, just in case this unclear, let me spell it out: we were being treated to the spectacle of a prime minister teeing off against intolerance while in the same breath foreshadowing his own bout of government sanctioned intolerance – the type where police might be involved, and people might be bundled away in vans.
Yes, that happened. I saw it, because the prime minister’s speech was broadcast outside Queensland. It wasn’t always clear that Morrison knew the audience looking on at lunchtime on Friday might be broader than the residents of central Queensland, but it was broadcast nationally. To the south-east corner of the sunshine state, and Sydney, and Melbourne.
Unremarked in this stirring presentation was the fact that climate-related activism is building right at the moment, both at the community level, from the schoolkids to the grandmas, and also at the shareholder level, in large part because the Coalition has invited it.
The government who finds this activism inconvenient is the same government who has sparked the activism, given its purpose and salience and traction, because of its own woeful record on climate change……..
Apart from the perversity of a government railing against a set of conditions it has, itself, created, there was also the curiosity about carbon risk, which was presented implicitly by Morrison as a fiction of progressivism, #RadicalActivism™ and the sneering apocalypse. ………
This strange diktat will be news to the regulators – the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – who are calmly out in the marketplace warning stakeholders on a regular basis to get their houses in order or risk being stranded in the inevitable transition, who present carbon risk as what it is: a threat to financial stability in Australia.
They’ll be astonished to learn they are the unwitting tools of the deep progressive state, co-opted by the noisy Australians. Shh, no one tell them.
This strange diktat will be news to the regulators – the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – who are calmly out in the marketplace warning stakeholders on a regular basis to get their houses in order or risk being stranded in the inevitable transition, who present carbon risk as what it is: a threat to financial stability in Australia.
They’ll be astonished to learn they are the unwitting tools of the deep progressive state, co-opted by the noisy Australians. Shh, no one tell them. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/01/as-he-rails-against-activism-morrison-turns-a-bit-sinister-a-little-bit-threatening
Shire of Leonora deputy president says no thanks to foreign nuclear waste pitch
|
Leonora was identified as a prime candidate in WA for a dumping site similar to a facility being built in Finland, where a 2km-deep tunnel would be drilled to store bentonite clay-sealed copper cylinders full of radioactive waste.Speaking on Channel 7’s Flashpoint on Monday night, Shire of Leonora deputy president Ross Norrie said he didn’t feel there was any amount of money that could convince residents to get onboard plans for a global nuclear waste dump.
“They are offering big bucks to store it, but I think Finland and Norway are way more advanced with their storage projects,” he said. “The feeling was, no, we are not going to accept nuclear waste from offshore and currently the policy is we don’t any way.” Leonora has been touted as a local nuclear waste storage site due to the proposed Azark Project at Clover Downs Station 15km out of town. Mr Norrie said the Shire was only interested in storing waste produced locally, such as at the proposed Yeelirrie uranium mine, and from Lucas Heights in NSW. “The storage facility we are talking about is one of the safest going,” he said. “We need to be around the table because we do have Australia’s largest deposit of uranium.” Australian Nuclear Association president Robert Parker said safety would not be a concern if a global waste storage was built in the Goldfields. When they drill down into the rock and they go down 500m they check that water hasn’t moved for millions of years,” he said. “If that water has not moved, and they can verify it hasn’t, then that (nuclear waste) is going down there and it is not coming back ever. “It is a certain, sure, engineered solution to the migration of these old bits of waste through the environment.” Former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said storing the world’s nuclear waste near Leonora would be disastrous. “The reason the industry asks for remote high isolation sites … is they know the engineered containment will leak,” he said. “How will you explain that to Aboriginal people or crew who live in these remote mining towns or remote communities that the reason you are trying to put it as far from centres of population as possible is that you know the stuff is going to leak.” Reform WA president Daniel Nikolic said economic benefits of nuclear waste storage were big. |
|
|
South Australia – the nuclear wasteland state
South Australia – the wasteland state, SEBASTIAN TOPS, PORT LINCOLN TIMES OCTOBER 17 2019 South Australia’s Nuclear Citizens’ Jury had many researched reasons to say ‘no’ to another’s (nuclear) waste.“Have Your Say” on nuclear waste dump – just a window-dressing exercise by the Australian govt
Kazzi Jai No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 30 Oct 19, In today’s Transcontinental paper on page 4 there is a half page ad for “Have your Say on the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility”. It says…
In November and December 2019, the Australian Government will survey businesses and neighbours of the proposed sites to determine if they support hosting the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in their community. These surveys are in addition to the Flinders Ranges Council Community Ballot (Mon 11 November to Thurs 12 December 2019).
Also, anyone can make a submission by 12 December 2019 to radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au
It then says in bold letters at the bottom “Further information, including an ‘opt-in’ process for surveys, is available at www.radioactivewaste.gov.au/have-your-say”
But alas – it only goes to https://www.industry.gov.au/strategies-for-the-future/managing-radioactive-waste page……..
So….is there something sneaky going on here??
The presumptive flip side to that is therefore The Minister has already determined everyone else will NOT be detrimentally affected & so not worth greater effort. LMFAO https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 