Abbott very keen to be Australia’s “indigenous affairs prime minister”
Tony Abbott overruled advice on indigenous advisory council BY:PATRICIA KARVELAS :The Australian August 12, 2013 TONY Abbott’s proposed indigenous advisory council was only supposed to last for six months to undertake a significant review of indigenous affairs, but the Opposition Leader changed the policy late in the process.
The Australian understands the policy, which had been planned over many months, was rewritten by Mr Abbott who decided, against advice, to make it a permanent feature of his government rather than a short-term audit………..
Mr Abbott ultimately made the call to create an ongoing council similar to Mr Howard’s national indigenous council, of which Mr Mundine was also a member.
Mr Mundine is committed to the objectives of Mr Abbott’s plan for indigenous affairs ……
it is understood that Mr Abbott’s desire to become the first “indigenous affairs prime minister” is so strong he decided a permanent body was a better policy and it could still perform an audit-style role. His office settled on the policy…………. The council will inform the policy implementation of a new Coalition government……….http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/tony-abbott-overruled-advice-on-indigenous-advisory-council/story-fn9hm1pm-1226695197188
Liberal, Labor, and Warren Mundine in lockstep on Aboriginal issues
I don’t understand why SBS World News would think that indigenous land rights are an “election issue”. Seeing that Australians face two major parties that are in lockstep about Aboriginal matters.
Both Liberal and Labor are keen to keep the Northern Territory Intervention going. Both are all out to promote the 
uranium industry, on Aboriginal land. Both are keen to establish a nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land.
So – no doubt, both major parties are happy to have Aboriginal puppet Warren Mundine close to the helm of whoever wins. As for Mundine – well – he has shown how expert he is, at being “on the side of the winner”. Which definitely does not mean on the side of the Aboriginal people. – C.M
Indigenous land rights emerging as key election issue, SBS World News 12 Aug 13 “………….. the Coalition’s unveiling of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Policy, centred on a new Indigenous advisory council headed by the former President of the Labor Party Warren Mundine……. The advisory council will inform the Prime Minister on policy development and implementation, and it will start with a major review of Indigenous spending and service delivery — most notably land rights reform…….
Hear Kellie Tranter – a formidable election candidate for Wikileaks
AUDIO: Wikileaks seeking accountability in the Senate http://blogs.abc.net.au/nsw/2013/08/wikileaks-seeking-accountability-in-the-senate.html You may have watched or heard the leader’s debate last night that covered the subjects of boats, the economy, tax and the NBN. But did you hear much about monitoring government practice, governmental and public service transparency, internet freedom or your right to protest?
The fact that you didn’t is a major failure by the system and the media who monitors it, according to the new political party; Wikileaks.You may in fact know Wikileaks as a new media organisation-come-whistlebowing operation. But it now wants to take the principles that have made it a household name and form the platform of a senate run.
As far as we know, Julian Assange is under protection in Ecuador, but will still head the Victorian senate ticket.
So what does all this mean for the Hunter? Maitland human rights lawyer Kellie Tranter will head the NSW Senate ticket, and she joined Aaron Kearney to discuss what a vote for Wikileaks actually means in the upcoming election.
Tranter believes the genesis of the Wikileaks party has come from public concern and public groundswell against government secrecy, and that if the public wants to hold the government accountable for its actions, they should cast a vote her way. When questioned about the role of Wikileaks in the senate, Tranter said the Wikileaks party and the Wikileaks organisation are separate entities and that the Wikileaks party is needed to ensure the government is held accountable for its actions.
“We are absolutely fed up with a country being dragged to the far right and we’re looking to pull that back to the middle ground,” Tranter said.
Wikileaks Party strong advocates for Aboriginal rights
Mr Assange said that the WikiLeaks Party stands alongside all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in their struggle and right to self-determination. The party has an eleven member National Council, with one of its national councillors Gamilaroy man Luke Pearson. Mr Pearson, a teacher and the creator of the highly respected social media project @IndigenousX, is unfolding, alongside others, policy positions and calls for justice for Aboriginal peoples. Mr Pearson is well known for his passion for Aboriginal education as part of a true Australian society and the common good.
“[The Northern Territory Intervention] one of the saddest, if not the saddest episodes of Australian history of the past ten years. A comic-book abuse of the role of the Australian military. A terrible violation of the right of Aboriginal Australia to determine its own destiny.”
Mr Assange said that the Intervention was “…aided and abetted by the credulous mainstream media’s demonization of Aboriginals as sexual deviants.”
Julian Assange on what the WikiLeaks Party will mean to Aboriginal peoples, Wikileaks Party August 10, 2013 by Gerry Georgatos, lead WikiLeaks Party Senate candidate for Western Australia First published in The Stringer, August 10 2013
There is a new political party on the horizon – the WikiLeaks Party. Founded by Julian Assange the fledgling party is bidding for Canberra through the Senate. They have seven Senate candidates including Julian Assange.
Mr Assange was interviewed this week by The Stringer, while holed up in London’s Ecuadorean Embassy in his seeking of Asylum to protect him from the fate that Private Bradley Manning faces in the United States.
The WikiLeaks Party is polling strongly and if the polls were to reflect accurately on election day, September 7, the party would find it has three and maybe four Australian Senators. Continue reading
Independent Australia exposes Abbott’s fraudulent Climate Change “Direct Action”
Tony Abbott’s “direct action” dud, Independent Australia 9 August, 2013 Doug Evans examines the Coalition’s climate change policies …… In the Liberal Party’s election pamphlet Real Solutions for Australians the Party commits to taking:
‘…direct action to reduce carbon emissions inside Australia, not overseas — and also establish a 15,000-strong green army to clean-up the environment.’
One of the main tasks intended for the green army is proposed to be plantation tree planting for purposes of carbon storage.
Widely known as the Direct Action Policy (DAP) this ‘policy’ comprises:
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An “Emissions Reduction Fund” of $3 billion to fund projects that would reduce carbon emissions, based on a tender process.
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Support for projects such as “soil carbon technologies and abatement”.
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A commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 5 percent by 2020.
In my assessment of Labor Party climate policy, I showed the inadequacy of the bipartisan 5% emissions reduction target. This time, I will address the likelihood that the measures nominated in the DAP could achieve even this modest emissions reduction. Continue reading
Election danger to Liberals in Western Australian backlash over attack on solar energy
Could Barnett’s Solar Attack Impact The Federal Election? http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3884 12 Aug 13, The knee-jerk reaction by Western Australia’s government to its failure to rein in increasing power prices by targeting solar households could cost it – and the Coalition – dearly.
As mentioned on Friday, the Western Australian Government has said it will retrospectively slash the solar feed-in tariff rate for approximately 75,000 households that installed systems between mid 2010 and mid 2011.
A similar move was attempted by the New South Wales Government in 2011; which resulted in that government on the receiving end of a black eye – and the same fate may be in store for Premier Barnett, amplified by its timing.
The decision could have dramatic impacts on the Federal Election in key seats says Dr. Geoff Evans of Solar Citizens. Continue reading
Warren Mundine , nuclear lobby’s Aboriginal spin doctor, enters election campaign
Christina Macpheson, 10 August 13, Australia’s uranium-nuclear lobby must be ecstatic. After all that Aboriginal opposition to their mines, and their nuclear waste dump plans, now their very own Aboriginal stooge has stepped in. Warren Mundine, former National President of the Labor Party, has well and truly jumped political party ship, to head a new Liberal party indigenous advisory council .
Warren Mundine has an impressive pro nuclear record. He has been promoting the nuclear industry , praising nuclear energy,saying that it is necessary for nuclear medicine. Most alarming of all, Mundine advocates the “full nuclear cycle”. That means Australia not only having nuclear power, but taking in nuclear waste from overseas countries.
Mundine’s nuclear lobbying activities have been documented on this website several times. He was appointed by Queensland Premier Newman to the uranium implementation committee. He is co-convener of the Australian Uranium Association’s Indigenous Dialogue Group,
There’ll be a few Aboriginal people who will,not be happy with Mundine’s latest effort. He’s been slammed in the past by Noongar anti-nuclear activist, Marianne McKay of the West Australian Nuclear Free Alliance.
Warren Mundine is a Director of the Australian Uranium Association
Nuclear Lobby’s Warren Mundine and Tony Abbott are kindred spirits
Indigenous affairs: Tony Abbott says he and Warren Mundine are ‘kindred spirits’ Coalition
leader wants to work in close partnership with Mundine, who would head a new indigenous advisory council under an Abbott government Paul Owen in Sydney and agencies theguardian.com, Saturday 10 August 2013
The Coalition leader said there was a need to convert all the good thinking from indigenous leaders such as Mundine, Noel Pearson and Alison Anderson into practical action on the ground.
“Warren and I are kindred spirits and I’m really excited at the changes that have taken place in thinking about these issues over the last decade or so,” he told ABC radio on Saturday morning.
Abbott said he wanted to work in close partnership with Mundine, who would head a new indigenous advisory council under a Coalition government, and said the arrangement could make the difference needed to improve indigenous lives…… Mundine, the executive chairman of the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce, is to spell out his vision at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory on Saturday night. That will reportedly involve abolishing a range of indigenous governance bodies and excising townships from community-owned land to allow for private ownership of homes and businesses….. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/10/indigenous-affairs-tony-abbott-warren-mundine-kindred-spirits
Australian political parties’ policies on nuclear power and uranium mining
Well – you’d be hard put to find out about this. I scoured the web to get anything up to date about this. But no ! – in spite of all the media rubbish going on lately about how great nuclear power would be for Australia – no political party has a word to say about nuclear issues.
It seems that they think (even the Greens) that nuclear power is just irrelevant to the coming Australian election.
As for uranium mining – well despite its disastrous financial and environmental state, Australia’s mainstream media regards uranium mining as a great investment, terrific, we all love it
Indeed, the mainstream media does not cover nuclear/uranium issues as relevant. Even the current radiation crisis at Fukushima is not relevant news. (The ABC is an exception) Hiroshima Day came and went, as far as I could see, it was ignored by the mainstream media.
If it weren’t for Gem Romuld Outreach Coordinator International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons- Australia www.icanw.org.au we just wouldn’t know about our election parties’ nuclear policies.
So, thanks, Gem, for taking the trouble to let us know about party policies on nuclear power
Australian political parties’ policies on climate change and environment
Environment policy: where the parties stand ABC, By Sarah Clarke and Andrew Greene Aug 5, 2013 After slipping from the national agenda, the environment and climate change are now back to prominence. When the ALP was elected in 2007, prime minister Kevin Rudd made climate change centre-stage at the UN climate meeting in Bali, where he declared that Australia would ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Mr Rudd first proposed an emissions trading scheme but postponed the idea. When she became prime minister, Julia Gillard revived a carbon price, in the form of a carbon tax, as a condition for getting the independents and Greens on side to form minority government.Following her departure, Mr Rudd has declared the carbon tax “terminated” as Labor promises to move to an emissions trading scheme by July 2014, one year earlier than planned.
The Coalition plans to scale back staff in the newly created Climate Change department, and merge it with the Environment Department. Under its “Direct Action” policy a number of initiatives and agencies set up by Labor will go.
On an international scale, Australia is one of the largest per capita emitters in the developed world. Australia’s carbon pollution represents 1.5 per cent of global emissions of greenhouse gases and our emissions are projected to continue growing by almost 2 per cent a year.
What aspects do the major parties agree/disagree on?
Greenhouse gas emission reduction targets
Both ALP and the Coalition agree on the science of climate change, and have formally backed Australia’s emissions reduction target of 5 per cent by 2020. But there are some differences:
- ALP: Committed to 5-25pc reduction on 2000 levels by 2020, based on the ambition of global agreement and 80pc reduction by 2050 which is in line with the UK and Germany. Signatory to second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol for 2020 reduction and intention to ratify.
- Coalition: Committed to the 5-25pc reduction on 2000 levels based on ambition of global agreement. Review in 2015 to consider longer term target in light of international agreement. Coalition has stated “in principle” support for second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol but no position on ratifications announced.
- Greens: Committed to 25-40pc reductions on 1990 levels by 2020, net zero emissions by 2050 and the second period of the Kyoto Protocol.
Carbon price
- ALP: Carbon pricing legislated in 2011 along with independent Climate Change Authority, Clean Energy Regulator, and Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Climate Commission established administratively in February 2011 to explain the science of climate change. Announced in July 2013 bringing forward emissions trading scheme to 1 July 2014 and cutting back Energy Security Fund from $4.3 billion to $2.5 billion.
- Coalition: Committed to abolish carbon price. Abolish the Climate Change Authority, Climate Commission, and the Energy security fund. Retain the Clean Energy Regulator and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS) as part of the administration of the Emissions Reduction Fund. Committed to introducing a carbon buyback via an Emissions Reduction Fund.
- Greens: Made carbon pricing a condition of supporting the Gillard Government after the 2010 election, including the creation of Multi Party Climate Change Committee. Do not support bringing forward emissions trading to 1 July 2014.
Clean Energy Finance Corp
- ALP: CEFC legislated in 2012 with funding of $10 billion over 5 years to leverage private investment to deploy and commercialise large scale renewable energy and energy efficiency projects with funding from July 1, 2013. Investment functions of Low Carbon Australia now merged into CEFC.
- Coalition: The CEFC to be axed and contracts already issued will not be acted on.
- Greens: Will oppose any attempt to repeal the CEFC.
International climate deal
- ALP: Labor supports a global deal through the United Nations negotiations and along with all member countries has agreed to set up a legally binding international deal for all major emitters by 2015 in Paris, to be up and running by 2019. Supports G20 and Major Economies Forum to shape global solution and climate deal.
- Coalition :The Coalition supports the role of the UN and will be engaged in the international negotiations. In addition, the coalition believes that as Chair of the G20 there’s an opportunity for Australia to further negotiations between the US, China, India and the EU to secure an international deal.
- Greens: Greens support a legally binding global deal through the UN negotiations by 2015.
Renewable Energy Target (RET)
- ALP: Committed to the RET of at least 20pc by 2020 which maintains target of 41,000 GWh large scale renewable energy generation by 2020. Commitment not to review RET until 2016.
- Coalition: Committed to the RET of 20pc by 2020 but will review it in 2014.
- Greens: Committed to the RET of at least 20pc by 2020 which maintains target of 41,000 GWh large scale renewable energy generation by 2020; 2030 RET target is 90pc.
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
- ALP: Established ARENA but cut its budget in 2013. Approx $3 billion of support maintained and receives dividends from the CEFC.
- Coalition: Maintain ARENA and accepts Labor’s budget cuts. Would not receive dividends from CEFC if it was abolished.
- Greens: Opposed Labor’s cuts to ARENA in the 2013 Budget.
Carbon farming
- ALP: Set it up and committed $290 million to Carbon Farming Futures and Skills program. $44 million for complementary improvements in Natural Resource Management planning. Adopted new international rules which allow virtually all Carbon Farming Initiative credits to be sold to all polluters in the carbon pricing mechanism.
- Coalition: Committed to keeping it, and vowed to expand to include a wider range of emissions reduction methodologies to be available for purchase via the Emissions Reduction Fund.
- Greens: Supported the establishment of the CFI and negotiated amendments under the auspices of the Multi Party Climate Change Committee adding a ‘negative list’ which bans a range of project types……. http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2013/policy/climate-change/
Tony Abbott aims to shut down clean energy initiatives
Renewables fear the worst as Tony Abbott targets clean energy REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 6 August 2013 Australia’s clean energy industry leaders have been invited to a special meeting next week to discuss the future of renewable energy policy in the country and to contemplate the unpalatable, as Coalition leader Tony Abbott began his campaign with an early lead and a call to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to cease its operations immediately.
A meeting of the CEOs of Australia’s largest companies involved in the renewable energy industry is believed to have been called by AGL Energy managing director Michael Fraser, who doubles as chair of the Clean Energy Council, to discuss strategies to protect the renewable energy target (RET). Or indeed to assess whether they have the political capital or influence to maintain the target as is under a Coalition government.
The crisis meeting comes as the Coalition takes an early lead in the first days of the election campaign, and with increasing uncertainty about the likely make-up of the Senate. The renewables industry fears that with a Coalition win, the lobbying from incumbent utilities and generators, including the Business Council of Australia, to have the RET diluted or removed will intensify, and there may be little political protection for the current target.
The renewable energy industry is probably the industry sector most directly affected by the outcome of this election. While Labor has vowed to push the next RET review out to 2016, the Coalition wants to have yet another review of the RET in 2014, and has expressed sympathy with pleas to dilute the fixed 41,000GWh target because of falling demand.
The uncertainty that this has created has already brought most large-scale developments to a halt. Continue reading
Labor’s “captain’s pick” Northern Territory candidate opposes Muckaty nuclear waste dump
Nova happy to spoil the party, NT News XAVIER LA CANNA | August 1st, 2013 LABOR’S “captain’s pick” Senate candidate Nova Peris said she would have crossed the floor to oppose the Muckaty nuclear waste dump – and would vote against her party if she felt strongly about other issues.
Ms Peris said the Muckaty nuclear waste dump – planned to be built near Tennant Creek – was one area where she would go against Labor Party policy.
“I met with the anti-nuclear campaign people and I also met with the NT environment mob, and I have met with the Tennant Creek residents, I have met with the unions and I have met with three of the traditional owner groups,” Ms Peris told the NT News .
“In my view I do stand with them in opposing that (nuclear dump).” Continue reading
Abbott’s gung-ho plans for Northern Australia might meet Aboriginal resistance
Developing Australia’s ‘frontier’ may be political pipedream
Stuff NZ, JAMES REGAN 29/07/2013″………ABORIGINES CONTROL THE NORTH Australia’s miners and Aborigines are uncomfortable bedfellows. The minerals beneath aboriginal land in the north can benefit the nation’s most disadvantaged people, but often mineral wealth clashes with their ancient beliefs.
In 1991 Australia’s then prime minister stopped then BHP’s planned Coronation Hill gold mine because of local Aborigines believed a giant serpent lived beneath the hill. A fifth of the Northern Territory is now owned or controlled by aboriginal groups and Abbott will need to convince them of the benefits of mining if he is to see a new resources boom.
Many Aborigines have joined environmentalist to discourage mining. Electronic sensors have even been installed in some places to warn if mining companies trespass.
The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corp is campaigning for the massive Jabiluka uranium deposit, 300kms (185 miles) south of Darwin, to be included in the nearby Kakadu National Park to stop further development. Resources multinational Rio Tinto’s Energy Resources of Australia Ltd subsidiary is permitted to mine uranium around the site until 2021 but only as long as it adheres to restrictions imposed by indigenous land owners.
Green politicians, likely to be key swing votes in the upper house Senate after the election, oppose Abbott’s plan.
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Global warming – a crisis not really recognised by Rudd or Abbott
”It’s a gradually building crisis, or a looming emergency, which makes it hard for people to grasp and for politicians to react to,” he says. Woods likens the rise in average global temperatures (which are incontrovertible by anyone sensible) to the frog which is slowly boiled.It might not feel like a crisis now, but we will still be cooked by the end of it.
When everything is a crisis, whom should you believe July 27, 2013 The Age, Jacqueline Maley Parliamentary Sketch Writer for the Sydney Morning Herald “………..some crises are sexier than others.
Most credible scientists would call the warming of the planet a crisis, or at least an impending problem, but you will not hear either Rudd or Abbott declare it one. For different reasons, it is not in their political 
interests to do so.
Rudd has moved heaven and earth (and created a budget hole of $3.8 billion) to neutralise the opposition’s anti-carbon tax campaign. The Prime Minister acted to ease voter concern about rising cost of living pressures, which rather disrupted the Gillard government’s narrative that the cost of living had either not risen, or where it had risen, had been offset by government compensation.
It’s a confused message, and it’s difficult to believe the government has designed the best possible emissions abatement scheme when it was initially created as a political fix, and then tampered with for another political fix.
Meanwhile, though Abbott points to the Coalition’s 30-page Direct Action Plan as evidence he can be taken seriously on climate change, it is difficult to believe it is a policy area close to his heart when he has previously declared the science ”crap” (comments he made in September 2009 to a Liberal Party function, reported by the Pyrenees Advocate. Abbott has since said he believes climate change to be real).
But now the heat has come out of the carbon tax debate, which was so rageful for so long, it might actually be possible to set Direct Action side by side with the government’s emissions trading scheme, and compare the policies with (dare I write it) cool heads. Continue reading
Australia’s right wing in a right mess about policy on wind energy
The debate over climate change has been an intellectual debacle for the political right. Their tribal hatred of environmentalists has driven them into a position of denouncing any technology favoured by their enemies. The only invisible substance with which Abbott and his backers should be concerned about is their disappearing intellectual credibility.
The right’s anti-wind campaign is pure scaremongering http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/abbott-wind-turbines-health-effects by John Quiggan, 25 July13 Climate change is a debacle for the Australian right. Their tribal hatred of environmentalists has driven them to denounce any technology favoured by their enemies Tony Abbott’s quip that emissions trading schemes represent “a so-called market in invisible stuff” has been rightly derided as a dog-whistle to climate denialists, unsuccessful only in that it was not pitched high enough to escape detection by the rest of us. Critics have had plenty of fun pointing out the many examples of “invisible stuff” that is, like carbon dioxide, critically important despite the fact that we can’t see it – electricity, financial risk, and so forth.
A point that has attracted rather less attention is the extent to which the views of Abbott’s team on climate are being driven by claims about something that is not only invisible and inaudible, but indeed non-existent – namely the supposed health effects of wind farms. The belief that wind farms are dangerous to human health has been widely propagated on the political right, despite the absence of supporting scientific evidence.
The leading Australian promoters of wind paranoia are the Waubra Foundation, the Australian Landscape Guardians and 
the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF). These groups are often linked with each other and with rightwing organisations like the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). The AEF in particular is a straightforward front group – it was set up by former IPA senior fellow Jennifer 
Marohasy and originally operated out of the IPA offices in Melbourne.
The supposed health risks of wind turbines have also been pushed byGraham Lloyd in The Australian newspaper, other rightwing columnists like Miranda Devine, and conservative politicians including Craig Kellyand John Madigan.
To get the boring scientific facts out of the way, the National Health and Medical Research Council investigated the issue in 2009 and 2010. The review considered the potential health impacts of infrasound, noise, electromagnetic interference, shadow flicker and blade glint produced by wind turbines and concluded that, “at the time of writing, there was no published scientific evidence to positively link wind turbines with adverse health effects.” Continue reading
1 This month
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– go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com/
Antinuclear 