Zane Alcorn speaks out: the uranium industry must go
Zane Alcorn, candidate for Newcastle , Green Left Weekly, 26 June 2010, We need to stand behind the first people of this country and fight for their land and cultural rights. The government’s so-called concern for Aboriginal welfare and living conditions is nothing but a cloak for a blatant land grab.The uranium-rich land of central Australia is coveted by government and private mining corporations alike. Aboriginal land rights are a direct threat to this potential source of huge wealth. 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)
Bendigo calls on Australian Govt for Solar Energy
Bendigo energy push, 28 Jun, 2010 Bendigo Advertiser, THE Bendigo Sustainability Group is calling on the federal government to look at a new renewable energy resource for Central Victoria that could be a first for Australia…… Continue reading
Climate Change will hit Australia hardest
Dire climate change warning to Australia Herald Sun: AAP * June 28, AN international conference on the Gold Coast this week will hear Australia will be one of the hardest hit developed countries when climate change starts to bite. Continue reading
Aboriginals to get basic rights in exchange for their land for uranium mining
For access to essential goods, services and infrastructure — a basic right for white Australia — communities are being forced to sign over their land rights. It’s a policy of starving people out to take their land…………
Youth candidates to witness NT intervention , Green Left Weekly, June 26, 2010 In July, Socialist Alliance election candidates…..— Jess Moore, Zane Alcorn and Ewan Saunders will join Indigenous activists, students, community groups and campaigners from across the country in Alice Springs for an important gathering of intervention-affected Aboriginal communities………….. Continue reading
Ewan Saunders comments on Northern Territory intervention
Ewan Saunders, candidate for Brisbane, Green Left Weekly, 26 June 2010, As Socialist Alliance candidates visit the NT in July to attend a national Indigenous and non-Indigenous convergence, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott will be sitting a very comfortable distance away from the communities affected by the NT intervention.
It makes for a revealing comparison: they can disagree on taxing the mining mega-corporations, but they can agree on stripping away the hard-won land rights of Aboriginal people in this country to hand over the land to mining interests.………Youth candidates to witness NT intervention | Green Left Weekly
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
Will Gillard ACT on Climate Change, as well as TALK?
New Australian PM ‘should focus on cutting emissions’, Low Carbon Economy, 6/25/2010 There are hopes that Australia’s new prime minister could help improve the country’s environmental record………..In her first speech as prime minister Ms Gillard said she believes in climate change and that humans are contributing to the problem….
..Greenpeace Australia Pacific said that the first steps Ms Gillard should take would be to move subsidies from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, introduce a carbon levy and limit emissions from new power stations. New Australian PM ‘should focus on cutting emissions’ – Low Carbon Economy
Griffith University’s Zero Energy building
Australia’s nuclear waste danger
Obama’s visit later this year may well lead to Australia becoming an international nuclear waste dump – THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY and RADIOACTIVE WASTES – our theme for June 2010 With the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill, the Australian government is setting Australia up for a possible later step in the sorry story of nuclear wastes.
The decision to impose a nuclear waste dump on Northern Territory Aboriginal land has been followed quickly by an agreement between the Australian government and President Obama, on sharing nuclear technology. And this will now be followed by Obama’s visit to Australia – just at the time when 
Obama is in deep trouble over the USA’s growing mass of nuclear wastes.
At the same time, Obama has set up a (somewhat pro-nuclear industry) “Blue Ribbon Panel” to find out what on earth to do with USA’s nuclear wastes
Australia is still signed up to the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation , (that’s the new name for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership), by which uranium -selling countries agree to take back nuclear wastes from overseas countries
Rudd undermined, but the Resources Tax idea spreads
Pressure from mining corporations like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, combined with the political ambitions of right-wingers, Bill Shorten and Paul Howe must have played a part in the undermining of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Kevin Rudd might not be a cuddly, warm and fuzzy person, but Rudd had the interests of Australians and their children and grandchildren at heart, in promoting the Super Profit Resources Tax.
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto etc had at heart the interests of corporate profit, in Australia, but also in other countries. They worried that other government’s might put their people’s future ahead of those corporate profits.
Well – the undermining of Rudd might have come too late – the idea lives and spreads- as for example in Germany – “The German Ministry of Finance, for example, has envisaged an additional €2.3 billion annual “windfall tax” on nuclear operators as part of the 2011 Federal Budget and its financial plan up to 2014.” – Wall street Journal
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……………………
Australia’s Enhanced Renewable Energy Target legislation passed
Australia’s Enhanced Renewable Energy Target : Renewable Energy News, 25 June 2010, After last minute amendments to satisfy all parties, long awaited changes to Australia’s Renewable Energy Target were finally passed on Thursday, changes some are calling the biggest climate change reform in Australia’s history. Continue reading
Was nuclear salesman Paul Howes behind Julia Gillard’s rise?
(I hope this is not true – Christina Macpherson)
The Left, the Right and union heavies; 
Julia’s rise to the top, Crikey.com 24 June 2010, ” The shocking idea that a 28-old-year-old right-wing unionist in the form of Howes can put the wheels in motion to dump the nation’s leader, even if acting as cover for Rudd-rival Shorten, has left the Victorian Left incredulous……..Howes won’t escape scrutiny for his role either.
“This was a loathsome performance … what the hell is Paul Howes doing instructing the caucus?,” one senior Victorian left faction source told Crikey this morning.
Uranium company director Ken Talbot and Arkaroola corruption charges
The death of Ken Talbot in an airplane crash puts a stop to the legal proceedings that have been ongoing over corruption charges, and the murky history of uranium miner Marathon resources.
The charges concerned $300,000 allegedly paid by Talbot to Nuttall while Nuttall was a Minister of the Crown. Nuttall was sentenced in July this year to seven year’s jail…………
Arkaroola uranium hunter on bribery charges, The Independent Weekly, HENDRIK GOUT17 Oct, 2009 The owner and director of the largest shareholder in the company which the state government allows to explore the Arkaroola wilderness for uranium, Marathon Resources, is awaiting trial on charges of having bribed a government minister.
Ken Talbot of Talbot Group Investments Pty Ltd is accused of corruptly making payments to Gordon Nuttall, then a Labor minister in the Queensland Government…………In December 2008, Gordon Nuttall and Ken Talbot were committed to stand trial on 35 corruption charges. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 