Trans Pacific Partnership a political minefield for the Abbott government
Opening Australian governments to lawsuits over resource extraction, foreign land purchases, pharmaceutical benefits and health measures is a potential minefield for the new government.
Trade treaty stance the same, despite promise, http://www.theage.com.au/business/trade-treaty-stance-the-same-despite-promise-20130922-2u7wm.html#ixzz2fkoj8kHt The Age September 23, 2013 Peter Martin
Foreign corporations wanting to sue Australian governments will have to cool their heels. New trade minister Andrew Robb says Australia’s negotiating position on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement remains the same despite an election commitment to overturn the blanket prohibition on ”investor-state dispute settlement” provisions.
The previous government declared point-blank that Australia would never again sign an agreement that included the provisions. One of the few trade agreements Australia has signed with such a clause allowed a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of tobacco giant Philip Morris to take Australia to an international tribunal over its plain-packaging laws, despite having lost its case in the High Court. Continue reading
Abbott government tight-lipped about Australia’s presence at Global Climate Fund in Paris.
Coalition no comment on UN climate meeting, The Age, September 23, 2013 Peter Hannam Carbon economy editor
Australia’s international commitment to tackling climate change is in doubt with the Abbott government refusing to say if a senior bureaucrat will lead a key meeting of a giant new United Nations fund for developing nations.
Ewen McDonald, acting director-general of Australia’s main aid arm AusAID, is scheduled to co-chair the board meeting of next month’s Global Climate Fund in Paris. The fund is intended to become a conduit for state and private funds of up to $US100 billion ($106 billion) a year by 2020 to help poorer nations shift to low-carbon energy. ”The [fund’s] Interim Secretariat expects that Mr McDonald will attend and co-chair the meeting,” said a spokeswoman for the fund.
AusAID’s executive, though, would not say whether Mr McDonald will take his leadership role in France. The Department of Foreign Affairs, which Prime Minister Tony Abbott directed to absorb AusAID, also refused to comment. Greg Hunt, the new environment minister, referring to Australia’s support for the fund refused to say if Mr McDonald would go to the Paris meeting. Continue reading
Abbott govt likely to speed up uranium sales deal with India
Australian Election Seen Likely to Speed Talks with India on Uranium Deal National Journal, By Rachel Oswald, Global Security Newswire September 11, 2013 WASHINGTON — Newly elected leaders in Australia likely will push to conclude a trade agreement aimed at allowing uranium exports to India, issue experts told Global Security Newswire.
While it was earlier predicted to take two years to conclude the export negotiations, a new Liberal-National government led by conservative leader Tony Abbott likely will push to have trade discussions finished “within the year,” according to Amitabh Mattoo, director of the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne. Continue reading
Tony Abbott about to make the mistake of signing Australia up to the Trans Pacific Partnership
PM-elect Tony Abbott speaks with US president Barack Obama about Syria conflict ABC News By political correspondent ABC News, Simon Cullen, 12 Sept 13 US president Barack Obama has phoned Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to congratulate him on the Coalition’s election win.A spokesman for Mr Abbott says the pair reaffirmed the strong relationship between the two countries, …..
The two leaders also discussed the need to improve trade and investment links in the region, and agreed to work cooperatively towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership….
.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-12/tony-abbott-barack-obama-syria-diplomacy/4953584
Australia’s hypocrisy on the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty
Declassified documents from the National Archives of Australia, including the 1985 Cabinet minute about the SPNFZ Treaty, show clearly that Australia designed the treaty to protect US interests in the Pacific, including the deployment of nuclear-armed warships and the testing of nuclear missiles.
Hayden’s cabinet submission includes details of Australian negotiating positions in the final months before the treaty was signed:
(iii) Australia oppose the inclusion in the draft SPNFZ Treaty of a ban on missile tests.
(iv) Australia oppose the inclusion in the draft SPNFZ Treaty of a ban on the facilitation of the stationing of nuclear weapons,
Delaying the nuclear-free zone in the Pacific, Inside story, 27 Aug 13 As Pacific leaders gather this week in the Marshall Islands, the United States continues to delay ratification of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. Using previously classified documents Nic Maclellan recounts a history of opposition to a nuclear free Pacific, and a reminder that Australia could be breaching the treaty
AT THE height of the nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union, a treaty to create a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, or SPNFZ, was opened for signature on Hiroshima Day, 6 August 1985, at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Rarotonga. Twenty-eight years after it was signed on that day by Australia, New Zealand and island nations, the United States still hasn’t ratified its protocols, Continue reading
Malawi losing $millions due to its poor uranium deal with Paladin Energy
Malawian dies on duty at Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga, By Nyasa Times Reporter July 31, 2013
| “………The tragic incident has cast a shadow over the company which is already facing mounting criticism following reports the country was losing out from the favourable tax regime agreed with the company by the former administration of late President Bingu wa Mutharika. |
Last week, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, also reiterated that Malawi was losing out due to tax incentives given to Paladin……..
As a result of tax incentives, one estimate suggests that Malawi may lose between US$ 205 million and US$ 281 million over the 13 years of the project.
But the current government of Joyce Banda has indicated it has started negotiations with the company to have the agreement reviewed. http://www.nyasatimes.com/2013/07/31/malawian-dies-on-duty-at-kayelekera-uranium-mine-in-karonga/
Australian company Paladin’s uranium contract with Malawi -the “worst possible swindle”
Malawi gov’t and Paladin: Act on Kayelekera uranium raw deal now! By Veronica Maele-Magombe Nyasa Times, By Veronica Maele-Magombe July 30, 2013 Since last week’s stinging observation by UnitedNations (UN) Special Raportuer on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter regarding Malawi’s Kayelekera Uranium Mine deal, two elusive culprits remain pretty much intact in their hard shells. It is as if the country’s most guarded contract between government and Australiancompany, Paladin Africa Ltd has not been unravelled as the worst possible swindle. Continue reading
UN says Malawi is getting a poor deal from Australian uranium mining company Paladin
UN rubbishes Malawi’s Paladin uranium deal, fertilizer subsidyBy Hudson Mphande, Nyasa Times July 23, 2013 United Nations Special Raportuer on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter who was in Malawi for an assessment of the food situation in the country has rubbished Kayerekera uranium mine deal between Malawi and Australian Paladin Mining Company saying the Southern African country has had a raw deal that is robbing the poor.
The UN Raportuer said the uranium mining deal was one of the investments in Malawi through which the country is losing resources that could otherwise make a difference in food security and other pro-poor initiatives. He said in the life span of the mine Malawi is expected to lose almost US$281 million…
“Mining companies are exempt from customs duty, excise duty, value added taxes on mining machinery, plant and equipment. They can also sign special deals on the rate of royalty owed to the government. I believe that there are more reasons that investors would come to Malawi without such incentives,” he said.
De Schutter was addressing journalists in the capital Lilongwe at the end of his 11-day tour of the country.
He bemoaned that due to illicit financial flows, tax envasion as well as tax incentives that the country offer to both domestic and foreign companies currently Malawi was failing to get maximum use of its resources.
De Schutter said that revenue losses from special tax incentives to Paladin Africa Mining alone are estimated at almost K67 billion (US$205 milion) since the mine started its operations and could reach almost K92 billion (US$281 million) over its13-year lifespan.
“Paladin alone is costing the budget more than US$20 million (almost K8 billion) a year in taxes,” he said.
He added: “I am convinced that unless combined with a comprehensive enhancement and optimisation of tax revenue, current macro-economic reforms may not have substantive positive impacts. There is need for
Malawi to examine its national tax laws and policies towards preventing illicit capital flight. As mining develops, Malawi can simply not afford business-as-usual.”
The UN Special Raportuer said it is estimated that the country has lost over 10 percent of its growth domestic product (GDP) to illicit outflows and tax evasion over the period 1980 to 2009……..
De Schutter also specifically expressed concerns on the country’s current minimum wage currently at K371 ($1.12) per day, describing it as the lowest in the world…… The UN special rapporteur said he will give a report and his recommendations to both the UN Human Rights Commission and the Malawi Government. http://www.nyasatimes.com/2013/07/23/un-rubbishes-malawis-paladin-uranium-deal-fertilizer-subsidy/
Paladin Energy – the Ugly Australian uranium mining company in Malawi
the British silently stole our uranium and left when their projections did not add up to their whims, and now we have the Aussies who are refusing to deal fairly.
Honestly I loved Crocodile Dundee the movie but this Aussie corporation turning Malawi land into some ‘plunder outback’ is making me sick
Killing Malawians through the rotten extractives deals: The case of Paladin’s uranium mining Nyasa Times, by Patrica Masinga, 24 April 13, Malawi has in the few weeks been engaged by a plethora of stakeholders discussing strategies to revive, or more on the ground, reclaim the benefits that Malawians are been milked of by the so-called extractive industry multi-national corporations.
They call themselves investors, and government believes that the Malawi Development Goals (MDGs – who cares if it’s the second phase) will be boosted, particularly that mining alone through Kayerekera of Paladin Energy Limited group of companies (trading as Paladin (Africa) Ltd in Malawi?) could provide a large economic base.
But that is all a fat lie. Paladin and many other foreign multinational mining countries are least interested to contributing to the Malawi economic growth. They are here to milk the country – exploiting all that it has rich in minerals and dump us when the time is right even poorer.
Imagine, to screw Malawians of their rightful economic gains, the company, incorporated in Australia first listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on March 29, 1994 under code ‘PDN’, and quickly changed its name from Paladin Resources NL to Paladin Resources Ltd in 2000 and listed under the Toronto Stock Exchnage (TSX) in Canada April 29, 2005, and again changed its name to Paladin Energy Ltd in November 2007 and listed on the Namibian Stock Exchnage on February 2008.
By such trends, one is compelled to question the motive, considering also that in Namibia itself the company owns the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine where it started production in 2008 and has Kayerekera Uranium Mine as its second largest mining venture in this part of Africa acting also as a good supllment to the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine. Continue reading
Australia must adopt an independent policy on Iran
Will Australia erode or build trust with Iran? Guardian UK, NAJ Taylor, 15 July 13 The way forward is clear: Australia must adopt an independent foreign policy towards Iran on the nuclear question, as well as commit to dialogue Iranians now comprise the largest cohort of those seeking asylum in Australia each year. The tendency to dehumanise and securitise them is not only deeply disturbing, it is also beset, in part, by a paradox of our parliament’s own making: Australia has imposed sanctions on Iran since 2008. Continue reading
Australia helping China to organise its emissions trading cheme
China seeks Australia’s help building emissions trading scheme The Age, July 11, 2013 Heath Aston Political reporter Australia has been drafted in to help design an emissions trading scheme for China, the world’s biggest polluter.
A deal announced in Canberra on Thursday will see the Australian National University take leadership of a program that will analyse pollution data provided by China and allow Chinese university researchers to examine Australia’s experience of the carbon tax and transition to an emissions trading scheme.
China is aiming for a full national emissions trading scheme by 2015.
The program, known as the “Australia-China research program on market mechanisms for climate change policy”, will team Australian researchers with those from three provincial universities in China and the Beijing Institute of Technology. The University of New South Wales and Melbourne University will also take part……. Climate expert and economist Ross Garnaut, a professor at ANU, said the most recent climate science showed a two degree warming of the planet was now a minimum and Chinese leaders understand there is a huge potential impact from climate for that nation. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/china-seeks-australias-help-building-emissions-trading-scheme-20130711-2prjh.html#ixzz2Ys4PY1At
A warning to Tanzania, (where an Australian company is to start mining uranium)
Health hazards posed by uranium mining IPP MEDIA 5th July 2013“…….. the developing countries in the process of starting mining uranium, must learn a lesson from the USA, the most powerful rich and technically advanced nation in the world, who for the sake of protecting its environmental pollution from the known post uranium mining hazardous health effects, to its citizen of today, tomorrow and future generation, admitted that enough was enough, and shut down most of uranium mining in their country.
The big lesson here for Tanzania with its Uranium deposit soon to be exploited is that; until now there is no proper way of destroying completely remains of uranium mining, and therefore it is difficult to control the effects of the mineral that will end thousands of years. Above all the cost of cleaning up the environment and avoidance of effects caused by remains of big uranium mines and management of radioactive waste will put a big strain on the already ailing country’s economy. Continue reading
More trouble hits Australian uranium company Paladin’s African empire
Some of the issues pertain to female worker’s miscarriages; [CEO] Duvenhage’s apparent failure to engage with the union; the company’s reluctance to give workers a “single cent” for an annual increment; unfair performance bonuses; nepotism and corruption.
Australian-based Paladin Energy Ltd. (TSE:PDN) owns 100% interest in the mine.
Protests hit second largest uranium mine in Namibia http://www.mining.com/protests-hit-second-largest-uranium-mine-in-namibia-85919/ Vladimir Basov | July 2, 2013 About 300 workers, including mine staff and contractor employees, picketed at Langer Heinrich Uranium (LHU) mine last Thursday over pay and working conditions, The Namibian reported.
Workers and media were barred from the minesite where the demonstration was supposed to take place although the protesters had organized the peaceful demonstration at the beginning of last week and had announced it to the mine’s management.
As a result, all day shift buses were forced to stop inside the concession area where workers then had to disembark – about five kilometres away from the actual site. To their dismay, the protesters were forced to picket at the concession area. The Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) branch executives felt that the mine’s management snubbed what it termed a legal and democratic action. Continue reading
Strong police presence at Paladin’s Malawi uranium mine; five arrests
the development has stunned most workers who think management’s move is aimed at eliminating workers deemed to be fighting for the employees’ welfare.Management already eliminated other employees through “unfair dismissals and retrenchment” of 25th January 2013.
Five held for ‘bomb’ threats at Paladin’s Malawi uranium mine, Nyasa Times By Nyasa Times Reporter, June 19, 2013 Malawi Police in the northern border district of Karonga are keeping in custody five Kayelekera Uranium Mine workers on allegations they threatened management to blow up the mine.
The five, arrested last Friday, are also suspected of being linked to the theft of explosives worth US$5780.76 (about K2, 150, 600) belonging to China Road and Bridge Construction Company in Chitipa.
There was no immediate comment from Karonga Police as officers said they are “still investigating”. But Nyasa Times sources said the five were arrested on orders from Paladin Energy Limited (owners of Kayelekera). The five, who are production plant operators, are reported to have threatened Kayelekera management that they would blow up the process plant if their salaries were not increased and foreign workers laid off…….. Continue reading
Danger in Australia selling uranium to undemocratic Middle Eastern regime
Australia’s plan to sell uranium to the UAE is ill-considered. It essentially requires us to turn a blind eye to the UAE’s poor democratic form and strikes a blow to the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East. It also fails to apply adequate scrutiny and attention to Australia’s corner cutting uranium trade – an industry described by a Senate report as needing urgent changes in order to protect the environment and people from ‘serious or irreversible damage’
Why Australia shouldn’t sell uranium to the UAE Online opinion, By Dave Sweeney , 17 June 2013 For most Australians nuclear issues are the concern of other nations, largely because we don’t, and are most unlikely to ever have, domestic nuclear reactors. But as home to one third of the world’s uranium Australia is a significant player in the global nuclear game and we are playing an increasingly irresponsible hand.
Today in Canberra representatives from the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons will have a rare window of opportunity to put their case to a Parliamentary committee as to why Australia should not sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The UAE is country with an illiberal government situated in one of the world’s most insecure regions. The commercial interests of multi-national uranium producers have been prioritised over the wider national interest. Instead of industry assurances it is now time to test the claims – and examine the costs – of Australia’s uranium industry.
The value of the employment and economic contribution made by the Australian uranium sector is consistently exaggerated while its risks and liabilities are routinely played down. When it comes to jobs and dollars uranium is a small contributor to Australian export revenue and employment, but when it comes to global impact and risk Australian uranium is in the major league.
From 2002 to 2011, uranium sales averaged $627 million annually and accounted for only 0.29 per cent of all national export revenue: small beer, but with a big hangover…… 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.
.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 