Australian govt to open up nuclear weapons test site to Aboriginal people, AND to uranium mining!
Traditional Maralinga Tjaruta people gain unrestricted access to rehabilitated land where nuclear testing occurred news.com.au 3 June 14 The federal government will on Wednesday announce 1782 square km in area will be formally excised from the Woomera Prohibited Area at the request of the Maralinga Tjaruta people……..
Maralinga Tjarutja general manager Richard Preece said the decision would enable the traditional owners to enter section 400 without seeking approval from the Defence Department.
“We didn’t think it’s sensible to have within the range something that would probably be the last place in Australia you’d want to drop bombs on,’’ Mr Preece said…….
Nuclear testing was conducted by the British government in Australia between 1952 and 1963.
Maralinga was officially closed in 1967.
The federal government hopes a bill opening the Woomera Prohibited Area for exploration and mining will be passed by Parliament during its winter sittings. Up to $35 billion worth of iron ore, gold and uranium is believed to lie beneath the ground in the prohibited area.
If the bill becomes law, it will create a new access regime for non-Defence users.
The State Government and federal Labor MPs have been pushing for the bill to be passed as soon as possible, arguing it will create new economic opportunities for South Australia, which could help offset the impact of the Holden closure. http://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/traditional-maralinga-tjaruta-people-gain-unrestricted-access-to-rehabilitated-land-where-nuclear-testing-occurred/story-fnii5yv4-1226942188796
Spying by people employed by coal companies to infiltrate activist groups
Australian Coal Companies Used Spies To Infiltrate Group Of Activists Climate Progress, BY WILL FREEMAN ON JUNE 3, 2014 Two Australian coal companies have been exposed for hiring former soldiers and intelligence officers to spy on anti-coal protests in New South Wales, according to revelations published by the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.
In interviews with Fairfax Media, the undercover agents revealed they were employed by the Centre for Intelligence and Risk Management (CIRM), a private intelligence firm run by Tony Groves, a former Australian military intelligence officer. The Idemitsu mining company openly admits it contracted CIRM in order to gather information about protesters. For five months, the firm’s undercover operatives pretended they were anti-coal activists and used fake names, secretly sending detailed field reports back to CIRM relaying sensitive information about protest leaders and plans of action.
The spying “could fall foul of provisions in the corporations, consumer and privacy laws,” Barbara MacDonald, a law professor at Sydney University, told the Sydney Morning Herald, particularly if “someone had acted on the deception to the material detriment” of those being spied on. Given the information that has recently come to light, Idemitsu and Whitehaven Coal could be charged with seriously violating Australian law.
Both the Boggabri and Maules Creek mines have stirred up considerable controversy among locals and international environmental groups alike, who claim the large scale mining projects will exacerbate already intense effects of climate change in Australia. The past few years have seen record high temperatures and several extreme weather events in the nation, such as droughts and increasingly severe wildfires in the Australian bush.
Despite these warning signs, the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismantled much of the country’s progressive environmental legislation and, as leader of the G20 summit, argued that climate change should be excluded from the meeting’s agenda. Greg Hunt, Abbott’s Minister of the Environment since 2013, gave the green light to Whitehaven Coal to proceed with construction of the Maules Creek mine despite mounting evidence that the coal industry is endangering public health.
If the Maules Creek mine is finished, it will release nearly 20 thousand tons of dust into the surrounding area, causing severe health problems and destroying fields of crops.
A coalition of local farmers and aboriginal groups, concerned that the Maules Creek mine will bring a similarly devastating tide of environmental degradation to their communities, have actively resisted the construction project for over six months. Farmers fear the impact of drought on their livelihood, as the mine threatens to drain up to seven meters from the water table in the area. The Gomeroi people, an aboriginal group and the traditional owners of the land, will see destruction of sacred sites and historical artifacts if the mine is completed.
Over the months, a group of doctors and medical students, dubbed Medics Against Coal, and religious leaders from several faiths joined in the protests as well. Since December, police have made over 120 arrests, even detaining a 92-year-old World War Two veteran for his participation in the protests. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/03/3443822/australia-coal-spies/
Abbott government cuts Aboriginal funding, and promotes discrimination
Budget cuts stir Aboriginal anger in Australia Ft.com By Jamie Smyth in Sydney, 3 June 14, “……This is our land. They have pulled our houses down and want to replace them with student accommodation and shops,” says the 66-year-old, who has lived for a half century in Redfern, seen by many Aboriginals as their spiritual home in Sydney.
This battle for social housing is just one of the many struggles Aboriginal communities face as they strive to emerge from two centuries of discrimination and grinding poverty.
The Redfern protest – timed to coincide with National Reconciliation Week – is taking place against the backdrop of a A$500m cut in Aboriginal funding programmes in the federal budget, which includes A$160m in health services alone. It also comes as Canberra proposes a watering down of the racial discrimination act, which was introduced in 1975 following a long and bitter political battle.
The government changes are alarming Aboriginal leaders, who were told by Tony Abbott when he was elected in September 2013 he would be a “prime minister for Aboriginal affairs”. Critics say it is a broken promise by Mr Abbott, who has been accused of backtracking on several key election commitments since May’s budget – the toughest in Australia for almost two decades.
“What beggars belief is they are saying they support freedom of speech while at the same time they are taking away money from [Aboriginal] advocacy bodies,” says Thomas Calma, an Aboriginal elder from Darwin and former race discrimination commissioner
The coalition wants to repeal a section of the race discrimination act, which makes it unlawful to “offend, insult or humiliate” another person because of their “race, colour or national or ethnic origin”.
“People do have a right to be bigots,” said George Brandis, Australia’s attorney-general, when he proposed the changes to parliament as a way to bolster free speech.
“With this budget the government is really moving back to the discriminatory policies we saw in the past. It is back to the future in Australia.” http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5d031d70-eab5-11e3-80fb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz33hiLRfqj
Federal Court hears of invalid plan to dump nuclear waste on Aboriginal land
Nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land invalid, court told The West Australian, 3 June 14. Sydney (AFP) – The earmarking of a remote Australian outback area as a nuclear waste dump was invalid because officials failed to contact all traditional Aboriginal landowners affected, a court heard Monday.Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory was nominated in early 2007 as a site to store low and intermediate radioactive waste under a deal negotiated with the Aboriginal Ngapa clan.
While Australia does not use nuclear power, it needs a site to store waste, including processed fuel rods from the country’s only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, on the outskirts of Sydney,…..Opponents have fought against the dump for years, with a trial starting in the Federal Court in Melbourne Monday alleging Muckaty’s nomination was invalid due to a failure of the government and the land council to obtain the consent of all Aboriginal owners.
“What we’re here to say is ‘no more’ and that this process was so legally flawed that it is invalid,” Ron Merkel, who is representing traditional owners, told the court.
“The opposition is in no small part based on a spiritual affiliation to the land and that radioactive waste will poison the land,” he said in comments cited by Australian Associated Press.
The court was told the consent of all groups with a claim to the land was required for the facility to go ahead, but some Aboriginals whose country was affected have never had a chance to voice their concerns until now……..Speaking to reporters, Kylie Sambo, of the Warlmanpa people, said the idea of a waste facility on the land, which is in the centre of the country, was “poison”.
“We don’t want it to spoil our country because we love our land and we’ve been there for centuries,” she said. “My uncle once told me, ‘You may think you own the land, but in fact the land owns us’.”
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the case raised questions about the country’s management of long-lived radioactive waste.
“Australia has never has an independent assessment of how best to manage radioactive waste; now we urgently need one,” campaigner Dave Sweeney said.
The case is set to run for five weeks. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/24084083/nuclear-waste-dump-on-aboriginal-land-invalid-court-told/
Abbott unable to censor Climate Change from G20 and from talks with Obama?
Barack Obama’s climate change moves put heat on Tony Abbott The Age, June 3,Mark Kenny Chief political correspondent A dramatic acceleration of America’s response to climate change, including strong caps on coal-fired pollution threatens to expose Australia’s humble 5 per cent emissions reduction target by 2020 as too low and out of step with the rest of the world.
The US move may overshadow the first bilateral talks between Prime Minister Tony Abbott and President Barack Obama to take place in Washington next week. Those talks will cover trade, economic and strategic issues but with climate change again dominating the US political cycle, the environmental challenge is likely to arise.
And that may see Mr Abbott under direct presidential pressure to re-include climate change as a key economic issue on the agenda of the G20 when Australia hosts the premier international economic forum later this year.…….http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barack-obamas-climate-change-moves-put-heat-on-tony-abbott-20140602-39f0s.html#ixzz33djzH13e
Aboriginal elders were misled by Northern Land Council over Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan
Northern Land Council ‘misled’ elders over Muckaty Station nuclear dump site http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/northern-land-council-misled-elders-over-muckaty-station-nuclear-dump-site/story-fn9hm1pm-1226940619084# PIA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN JUNE 03, 2014 ONE of the country’s most powerful Aboriginal bodies has been accused of misleading Top End residents about the safety of using Muckaty Station as a nuclear waste dump site.
In the opening day of the legal challenge to the proposed nuclear waste facility at Muckaty, 110km north of Tennant Creek, opponents of the plan said they would never accept nuclear waste there.
Ron Merkel QC, representing Mark Lane Jangala and three other elders who oppose the waste dump, told the Federal Court that the Northern Land Council had acted outside its powers and misrepresented the facts during “consultations’’ with traditional landowners.
“This is a matter which has literally torn the Muckaty community apart,” he said.
Mr Merkel’s submissions claim the NLC failed to ensure traditional owners understood the effect of nominating Muckaty as a nuclear waste site, telling them it was safe to bury it and downplaying any risks. The NLC is also accused of incorrectly identifying people with an interest in the land and not consulting in a culturally appropriate manner with Aboriginal interpreters.
Muckaty Station was chosen by the Howard government in 2007 after being volunteered by the NLC in a deal worth more than $12 million to the NLC and $10m initially to the Northern Territory government, which would receive another $2m a year from other governments once the facility was operational.
Mr Merkel said “not one” Aboriginal person at Muckaty had any right to any money if the dump went ahead according to a deed that nominated the site.
The hearing continues in Melbourne this week before moving to the NT.
Uranium company gives up – switching to property development
United Uranium Limited moving from resources exploration to property development United Uranium Limited moving from resources exploration to property development http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/55373/united-uranium-limited-moving-from-resources-exploration-to-property-development-55373.html June 02, 2014 United Uranium Limited moving from resources exploration to property development
United Uranium Limited (ASX:UUL) is exploring opportunities that will most likely result in a shift away from resources exploration to property development in a bid to increase shareholder value.
This follows completion of a strategic review that identified the unwillingness of the investment community to invest in junior resources companies, particularly those focused on uranium.
It added the early stage status of its projects required significant funding to explore, with no guarantee of commercial success.
These add to the continued depressed uranium prices, and commodities prices in general.
In contrast, it noted that investors were willing to invest in property developments with the sector currently experiencing strong housing demand.
Permanent gloom for the uranium industry – the crisis is terminal?
We are heading for a uranium crisis , Investor Intel, June 2, 2014 by Robin Bromby“……Welcome to the “perma-gloom” with spot uranium now at $28.25/lb. But it really does portend a very troubling situation. We could be on the brink of a real uranium crisis, one that could have serious ramifications down the road. This is because, on top of all the doubts about nuclear post-Fukushima and the slowness of Japan to get reactors back on line, uranium is caught up in the general malaise affecting the mining industry ……….the uranium price has fallen by 30% over the past year. If it keeps falling, and it well might, more and more companies will either go into hibernation mode or quit the sector all together ……..
A surer sign that all is not well can be evidenced from an ominous trend — exploration companies quitting the sector. Others are making cuts: Cameco closed its Cheyenne office, while BHP Billiton has deferred its expansion at the world’s biggest uranium deposit, Olympic Dam in South Australia. Australia’s Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) has put one of its mines, Kayelekera in Malawi, on care and maintenance.
Back in 2007-8, after spot uranium hit $137/lb, this was the place to be. Suddenly every mining explorer was keen to be in the uranium hunt. At one stage, more than 260 companies listed on the Australian Securities claimed to have uranium projects (many of them in what the Canadian miners call “moose pasture”).
Now, it seems, those small number remaining can’t wait to get out. FYI Resources (ASX:FYI), which got into uranium after quitting the eye care business (it’s previous name was Freedom Eye) in 2009, is now concentrating on potash in Thailand. Uranex (ASX:UNX) is staying in Tanzania, but has put its uranium on the back-burner in order to pursue graphite.
But possibly the most startling change was reported today. Junior United Uranium (ASX:UUL) which has six projects in Western Australia [and A$3.41 million in the bank as at March 31] is getting out of uranium and into — wait for it — property development.You can’t exactly blame the directors. The shares are trading at a discount to the company assets (the market capitalisation being just A$2 million), all its projects are early-stage ones that will require considerable sums to explore and may not turn out to be viable, no one is investing in the sector, the uranium price is depressed as is the resource sector generally.
Just two weeks ago another uranium explorer working in Western Australia, Prime Minerals (ASX:PIM), signalled it was changing direction. It is merging with Cocoon Data Holdings which has data security software. The news lifted Prime’s stock from A0.9c to A2.2c.
Back in 2007, announcing you were getting into uranium could see your stock price double. Now announcing you’re switching focus away from uranium does the trick. This is not a good trend. http://investorintel.com/rare-earth-intel/may-heading-uranium-crisis/#sthash.l5sn96vF.dpuf–
Aboriginal owners fear that radioactive waste dump will poison their land
NT nuclear dump will ‘poison’ land: trial The indigenous owners of Muckaty Station, which is earmarked for a nuclear waste dump, fear it will poison their land. SBS News, 2 June 14, Source AAP “….…The indigenous owners of the Northern Territory’s Muckaty Station were asked to welcome a nuclear waste dump while waving away their rights to compensation, a court has heard.The remote site near Tennant Creek has been earmarked, since 2007, as the site of a major Commonwealth-run radioactive waste storage facility.
A seven-year bid to halt the project reached the Federal Court on Monday, where Justice Anthony North was told its indigenous owners were being short-changed………
Mr Merkel said the waste to be stored at the site would remain dangerously radioactive for 200 years, and indigenous people he represented had a connection to the land for 50,000 years. The indigenous owners did not want it to proceed, he said, because they believed it would affect their spiritual affiliation with – and “poison” – the land.
The court was also told proper process to determine Muckaty Station’s indigenous ownership, or to obtain consent from all affected families, was not followed.
“It is an unusual structure for what is a compulsory acquisition of land,” Justice North said………
Kylie Sambo, 20, of the Warlmanpa people, said it was a relief for her community to get its day in court after more than seven years of campaigning against the waste dump. “It’s a poison. We don’t want it to be there,” she told reporters. “We don’t want it to spoil our country because we love our land and we’ve been there for centuries. “My uncle once told me, ‘You may think you own the land, but in fact the land owns us’.”Muckaty Station has been selected as the preferred site to provide long-term storage for radioactive waste that is now being held at Lucas Heights and then sent to France for further processing. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/06/02/nt-nuclear-dump-will-poison-land-trial
Solar thermal energy a step closer with CSIRO breakthrough
CSIRO Newcastle solar breakthrough for supercritical steam ABC News 3 June 14 The CSIRO is describing research at its Newcastle energy centre as a game-changer for the renewable energy industry. The CSIRO is describing research at its Newcastle energy centre as a game-changer for the renewable energy industry.
Researchers have used solar energy to generate hot and pressurised ‘supercritical’ steam at the highest temperatures ever achieved outside of fossil sources.
Supercritical solar steam is water pressurised at enormous force and heated using solar radiation.
Around 90 per cent of Australia’s electricity is generated using fossil fuel, but only a small number of power stations are based on the more advanced supercritical steam.
The world record set at the CSIRO’s Energy Centre in Newcastle this month, was at a pressure of 23.5 megapascals and temperatures up to 570 degrees Celsius.
Project leader, Robbie McNaughton says it is the combination of pressure and temperature demonstrated at scale, that makes it such a breakthrough for solar power…… CSIRO’s Energy Director, Dr Alex Wonhas says the milestone is a game-changer for the industry.
“It’s like breaking the sound barrier,” he said.
“This step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources.”
The $9.7 million research program is supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht says although more work is needed before the technology is ready for commercialisation, it is an important breakthrough and demonstrates the importance of research and development.
Mr Frischknecht says it brings solar thermal energy a step closer to cost competitiveness with fossil fuel generated power.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-03/csiro-newcastle-solar-breakthrough-for-supercritical-steam/5495744?§ion=news
Aboriginal culture preserved and shared along New South Wales far South Coast
In the 1840s Ben Boyd, as he was developing a settlement on Eden’s Twofold Bay, wanted to see some of his vast land holdings on the Monaro.
He needed to find a way up from the coast to the high country and it was Aboriginal people who showed him how to get there along the Bundian Way.
The 265km track had for generations connected Bilgalera (which non-Aboriginal people now called Fisheries Beach) with Targangal (now called Mt Kosciuszko).
Ben Boyd, with a young artist, Oswald Brierly, were guided to the high country by a young Aboriginal man, Budginbro, on horseback from the coast, along river flats and over some of the wildest and most rugged and beautiful parts of Australia.
For a large part of the journey they travelled along the Bundian Way and deviated along connected pathways.
The pathway has been surveyed and is now being rehabilitated, section by section, to be opened again for walkers, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, as a shared history experience celebrating that first joint expedition.
It’s a shared history which encapsulates the heritage of the early settlers and the heritage of our people who were here for many generations before the settlers came,” said Aboriginal elder Ossie Cruse as we spoke at the community’s Keeping Place………
Aboriginal work teams are currently clearing the pathway around Twofold Bay, a stunning walk around the undeveloped shoreline, little changed from Boyd’s time.
Above a beautiful beach on Eden’s Twofold Bay and looking across to the tree lined southern and eastern shores the Bundian Way project manager Noel Whittem says that the walk will emerge as a major tourist attraction especially for the visitors arriving on the cruise ships that are increasingly visiting the picturesque harbour, and where a new wharf is to be built.
The full 265km track he says will also be an attraction for bushwalkers and for those walkers who travel the world to walk ancient cultural heritage roads and tracks.
The Bundian Way is one that would predate most and tells a poignant story of the two cultures.
“We have people who want to walk the Bundian Way already.”
See the related audio for a fascinating insight into the Bundian Way project as we journey from Twofold Bay to the Keeping Place with Noel Whittem, Franz Peters, and Ossie Cruse. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/06/02/4017106.htm
AUDIO: Muckaty Nuclear waste case in court today – puts scrutiny on Northern Land Council
Muckaty nuclear waste proposal in Federal Court today, ABC Rural By Lauren Fitzgerald , 2 June 14, A row over the future site for Australia’s first nuclear waste dump hits the Federal Court today. Muckaty Station, 600 kilometres north of Alice Springs, was nominated by the Howard Government as its preferred site for storing low and intermediate level nuclear waste in 2007.
That policy, continued under Labor, has been met with vocal resistance from some traditional owners since its inception. Muckaty Station was declared Aboriginal land under the Land Rights Act in 1997, with seven different clans identified as part of the Muckaty Land Trust.When the Northern Land Council nominated a small part of that property to host a nuclear waste facility, they did it on behalf of the Ngapa clan.
But four other groups say they also lay claim to that particular area.
Dianne Stokes is one of the traditional owners opposing the dump. She says she has waited a long time to have her case heard in court.”While I was waiting we went around to all the big cities to protest, went to public meetings to let everyone know that we’re still going ahead on this court challenge,” she said.
“The Commonwealth and the Northern Land Council weren’t talking to the traditional owners and they weren’t consulted properly at the beginning.”………
Maurice Blackburn Social Justice Practice will represent the Traditional Owners opposing the facility, on a pro-bono basis. Lawyer Elizabeth O’Shea says the case is significant for a number of reasons.
“There’s also some provisions about misleading and deceptive conduct, which is traditionally consumer protection and we’re alleging that the Northern Land Council was engaged in that behaviour. “And it will test some provisions as well that the Commonwealth is relying on, so some technical legal stuff.
“But mostly I think it’s interesting because the Northern Land Council is never usually put under this level of scrutiny, and we’re ready to undertake that process and give traditional owners the opportunity to be heard.” She says that if the case is successful, she hopes the decision will give Traditional Owners more say over particular land use proposals…….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-02/muckaty-nuclear-waste-federal-court/5492958
Secret agents hired to spy on anti-coal activists in New South Wales
Undercover: Spies hired to infiltrate anti-coal campaign The Age, June 1, 2014 Tom Allard National Affairs Editor Former soldiers and intelligence operatives have been sent to infiltrate a network of anti-coal protesters aiming to thwart a multibillion dollar expansion of coal production in northern NSW. Using false identities, the spies-for-hire have attempted to penetrate the inner sanctum of a group of environmentalists and local landowners who have vigorously attempted to stop the coalmines at Maules Creek and Boggabri.
In what represents a significant escalation of a heated battle between Whitehaven Coal and Idemitsu Australia Resources and anti-coal activists, a Fairfax Media investigation has uncovered a clandestine campaign of significant scale but ham-fisted execution.
Several undercover agents were discovered by the activists, including one alleged spy Marnie Tisot, who was confronted on camera. The operation raises questions of its legality given the outright deception to disrupt protest movements.
Fairfax has interviewed individuals directly involved in the espionage and multiple sources with detailed inside knowledge of the surveillance have independently alleged it was orchestrated by a company run by a former Australian military intelligence officer, Tony Groves, and his partner, Maria Topia. While their firm, the Centre for Intelligence and Risk Management, had direct operational responsibility for the espionage, it is only one link in a chain of companies believed to be involved.
Who the ultimate client was remains a mystery. Spies in the field were not told, although it was clear the Centre for Intelligence and Risk Management was acting for another party or parties.
Several leading corporations and prominent Australians are also involved in the coal expansion in northern NSW and the security operations that protect them……. http://www.theage.com.au/national/undercover-spies-hired-to-infiltrate-anticoal-campaign-20140601-39ci6.html
Our fool of a Prime Minister connects World War 2 ‘s dead soldiers with business investment!
Tony Abbott raises eyebrows after linking WWII D-Day memorial with policies on mining and carbon taxes, Brisbane Times Alexandra Back June 2, 2014 Prime Minister Tony Abbott has courted controversy by linking a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day to his government’s policies.
On Sunday afternoon the Prime Minister released a video which he began by saying the D-day landings had changed the course of human history. Seconds later Mr Abbott makes an odd segue into a message for overseas investors, that Australia is open for business.
- He goes on to talk about the government’s commitment to repealing the carbon tax and the mining tax, then returns to D-day.
“The United States, Canada and France are long standing friends. We stood together at D-Day, we trade every day and we have always shared a commitment to democracy, to enterprise and to people’s right to be free,” he says in the video.
The conflation of the two messages raised eyebrows on Twitter with Greens leader Christine Milne, political commentator George Megalogenis and comedian Charlie Pickering among those criticising the PM.
Each week Mr Abbott posts a video detailing ”important events for the week”.
On this most recent post, and after Fairfax Media became aware of the video on Sunday night, someone changed the title from ”A message from the PM – 70th Anniversary of the D-day landings” to ”A message from the PM – Visit to France, Canada and United States”.
Unfortunately for the Prime Minister’s office the opening graphic on the video retains the original title. The link to the transcript of the video can no longer be accessed……….
Over 3000 Australians were involved – including 2500 air force personnel who provided air support for the Allied landings. Following the D-day commemorations, I will be travelling to Canada and the United States – and will be joined by Australian business leaders.
”My message to overseas investors is that Australia is open for business.”……..http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-raises-eyebrows-after-linking-wwii-dday-memorial-with-policies-on-mining-and-carbon-taxes-20140602-39cuy.html
Ian Dunlop on how Tony Abbott is gutting science in Australia
Grandees such as John Howard and Cardinal George Pell parade cynical climate denialism before international audiences, putting more peer pressure on the current incumbents to toe that line and providing rare insight into the widespread denialist groupthink within conservative ranks.
Literally and figuratively, we are witnessing a “burning of the science books”, the like of which has not been seen since medieval times. It did not work for the Catholic Church in the days of Copernicus and Galileo, nor in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. It will not work today.
Tony Abbott is gutting science just when we need it most, SMH, Ian Dunlop, June 1, 2014 Australia has an enviable reputation for scientific research, extending long before the heyday of the CSIRO in the 1950s under the visionary leadership of Sir Robert Menzies and Sir Ian Clunies-Ross. On the hottest and driest continent on Earth, our prosperity would be non-existent had it not been for the enlightened application of science. So it has been of mounting concern over recent years to see governments of all persuasions adopt increasingly anti-science agendas.
The federal government is taking anti-science to new heights. Its scorched earth approach discards virtually everything not in line with narrow, free-market ideology, centred on sustaining Australia’s 20th century dig-it-up and ship-it-out economic growth model. Continue reading
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