Pre election, Abbott dancing around on nuclear power
“We have no plans to promote nuclear power. We have no plans for local plebiscites. Nuclear power is not on the agenda at this time and I have no plans to put it on the agenda,” Mr Abbott said.
Poll-conscious Abbott dodges nuclear issue, Stock & Land, 13 Jul, 2010 OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has been forced to rule out going to the federal election with any plans to promote the use of nuclear power as a solution to climate change despite support by some Liberal and National members of Parliament. Continue reading
Australia’s nuclear lobby needs a carbon price – how embarassing!
John Howard asked Ziggy Switkowski in 2006 to look at nuclear power, and Switkowski told him it couldn’t happen without a carbon price. So, no nuclear power without a “great big new tax”………
No carbon price? You’re being conned | Crikey, 12 July, by Bernard Keane “……..The Coalition is dead keen on nuclear but won’t ever move without Labor giving them cover. But as Crikey showed in November last year, nuclear power is ludicrously expensive and needs massive taxpayer support, otherwise it costs a lot more to build and more to operate than renewables. And that’s before you figure out where to park the waste for a few hundreds of thousands of years or decommission reactors. Continue reading
Greens move to protect Arkaroola Wilderness from uranium mining
close to 95 per cent of South Australia, is available for mining but these precious places do need to be protected.
New step in Arkaroola wilderness mining fight – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Fri Jul 9, 2010 Greens MP Mark Parnell says he is confident of enough support in the South Australian Parliament to protect Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary from mining.
Gillard is pro Muckaty Nuclear Waste Dump, but Protest Grows
ACF last week launched its “Dump the Dump” campaign, raising money to campaign against the Muckaty proposal in the lead-up to the federal election.
Gillard OK with nuclear dump process, Sydney Morning Herald, GABRIELLE DUNLEVY, July 7, 2010 -A process that will see Australia get its first nuclear waste dump against the wishes of the site’s traditional owners will not change under Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Continue reading
Billionaire corporate miners now running Australia’s ship of state
Like the wealth that comes from iron ore and coal, the answer takes some digging but it appears to be corporate, not union, power that steers the ship of state.
Gillard Caves In To Miners, The Age , DAVID MCKNIGHT, July 6, 2010 Corporate, not union, power can frequently drive politicians’ priorities. The struggle to define the victor and vanquished over the new mining tax will continue until the election, but we are left with a larger question, one once scornfully directed at trade unions: who is running the country? Continue reading
BHP and Olympic Dam uranium mining – beyond the laws
BHP Billiton’s power in Australia seems to grow daily.
BHP , Rio Tinto, Xstrata showed their power by intimidating Julia Gillard with the threat of renewing their $100 million advertising campaign. She had to act fast – hence the new, watered-down Resources Rent Tax.
Exempted from Australia’s planned new Resources Rent Tax, and with BHP people in its policy-making, along with their lackey, Martin Ferguson, BHP adds to its achievements in being beyond both Federal and State laws.
Water: In South Australia, BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mining gets 37 million litres of water daily completely free of charge
SA Roxby Downs Indenture Act . This legislation allows the mine to operate with wide-ranging exemptions from:
Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act
Environment Protection Act
Natural Resources Act
Freedom of Information Act
No Resource Rent Tax for Olympic Dam uranium mine
Done deal for Rann as Olympic Dam emerges unscathed , David Nason : The Australian * July 03, 2010 THE compromise mining tax won’t wring a single extra cent from the country’s biggest proposed mining project in South Australia. BHP Billiton’s $20 billion-plus Olympic Dam expansion in South Australia is exempt from the new tax, Continue reading
Uranium mining exempted from Resources tax, Ferguson fixes it.
Tax deal lifts cloud over miners, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 july 2010, Australia’s biggest miners face paying more tax, but not nearly as much as feared, after winning big concessions from the federal government….
Most importantly, the new tax will not affect BHP Billiton’s $23 billion plan to expand the massive Olympic Dam mine, the world’s biggest uranium deposit ….
Having signed off on the resource rent deal, only one major uncertainty remains for the miners. Will this new tax be approved by Australia’s Senate following an election expected in the next few months? Continue reading
Young voters will judge Gillard on Climate Change action
The new Prime Minister has an opportunity to win voters with a fresh approach to climate change. Last year, 97.5 per cent of the 37,000 young people who voted in Youth Decide, a national youth referendum organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, supported stronger cuts in emissions than what was then offered by the ALP…
…At the next election, for the first time, more than one in five voters will be of Generation Y. Young people’s future, and Julia Gillard’s future, will depend on her ability to implement effective climate change solutions.
Gen Y to Julia: Take a bold stance for our climate, Sydney Morning Herald, from Australian Youth Climate Coalition, JOEL DIGNAM, June 28, 2010, Julia Gillard can be more than Australia’s first female Prime Minister: she can be our first prime minister to take the necessary steps to tackle carbon pollution.
Now Julia Gillard is in a perfect space to take prompt action to position the ALP as the only major party with a serious climate policy. Continue reading
Prime Minister Gillard will fight for a carbon tax
Gillard to fight for carbon tax, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Jun 27, 2010 Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she wants Australia to have a carbon tax and is prepared to fight for it.
Ms Gillard told the Nine Network this morning she had doubts about the emissions trading scheme because there was no lasting and deep community consensus for it….
Ms Gillard says she will work to get a price on carbon.”I believe in climate change. I believe it’s caused by human activity and I believe we have an obligation to act,” she said. Gillard to fight for carbon tax – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Will Gillard toe Ferguson’s line on Muckaty nuclear waste dump?
“In no way can we allow any state or Territory
government to get in the way of establishing a repository,” said Martin Ferguson
Hendo urges Gillard to dump Muckaty, Northern Territory News, NICK CALACOURAS June 26th, 2010 AUSTRALIA’S new Prime Minister Julia Gillard should rethink her predecessor’s decision to build a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory, Chief Minister Paul Henderson said. Continue reading
Mining corporations expecting Gillard to retreat on the Resources Tax
Australian Miners Won’t Mourn Rudd’s Departure, Wall Street Journal, by David Cottle, 25 June 2010, It’s safe to say the vast Australian mining industry isn’t going to miss ousted prime minister Kevin Rudd……. It looks as though a watered-down version of the levy is on the cards now, if not a total return to the drawing board……………………
Julia Gillard – an unknown quantity on nuclear issues?
Writing as the uninformed peasant that I am, I pose the question: “what can we expect from Prime Minister Julia Gillard.?”
I understand that Gillard is supposed to be a member of the “left wing” faction, but that her cause has been promoted by the “right wing”
What does it all mean? As Kevin Rudd vacates the throne, I am reminded of Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tale ” Always keep a hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse”.
Not perfect, but better: why we’re going for Gillard. « The Green Hat, 24 June 2010, What policies does she support for forestry in Tasmania, management of the Murray-Darling Basin, subsidising renewable energy and nuclear power, increasing high-density livingNot perfect, but better: why we’re going for Gillard. « The Green Hat
“…….February 25, 2007 .…….Earlier that day, deputy ALP leader Julia Gillard told the Ten Network that she supported ALP leader Kevin Rudd’s push to dump the ‘no new mines policy”, arguing that an expansion of uranium mining would bring “economic prosperity” to South Australia in particular. Uranium: Leave it in the ground! | Green Left Weekly
Greens and Liberal Senators push for Solar and Wind Power
Solar, wind power may meet 2020 energy use, Sydney Morning Herald, TOM ARUP, June 22, 2010 A MASSIVE introduction of solar-thermal power plants and wind farms would allow Australia to generate all its energy needs from renewable technologies by 2020, research shows.The report, to be announced today by the retiring Liberal Victorian senator Judith Troeth, the Greens senator Christine Milne and the Independent Nick Xenophon, finds a 100 per cent renewable plan by 2020 would cost $37 billion a year, in public and private money – or 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. Continue reading
Victorian Labor Party opposes sale of uranium to Russia
The Victorian ALP State Conference on Saturday 19th June passed a Motion opposing export of uranium to Russia.
This is a strong position and an important challenge to the Federal ALP government’s stated support for the Howard – Putin uranium deal that was cut by the preceding Liberal government before the last federal election.
The Motion calls on Federal ALP to accept the findings of a Federal Parliamentary Inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties that recommended the Russian uranium sales deal should not proceed and placed a set of strong preconditions in its path – conditions that the Federal Labor government are not honouring to date.
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.
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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)
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