Australian author and commentator Clive Hamilton gave the speech below to Australia鈥檚 Climate Action Summit, held in Melbourne on April 9.
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The difficulty and importance of the global warming campaign is many times greater than every other environmental struggle. Controlling carbon pollution requires a wholesale industrial restructuring and defeat of the most powerful industry coalition ever assembled.
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In the lead up to the March 26 New South Wales state election, a concerted anti-Greens campaign was unleashed by the major parties and the corporate media. Despite this, Greens candidate and mayor of Leichhardt Jamie Parker won the seat of Balmain.
91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Kiraz Janicke spoke to Parker about the campaign and the Greens鈥 agenda in the next period.
Congratulations on being the first ever lower house Greens MP elected to the NSW parliament. Could you comment on the significance of this victory?
The family of an Aboriginal man, Herbert Mitchell, who died after being taken to Townsville鈥檚 police watchhouse on April 18, is calling for answers from the current police investigation and coroner's report.
Aboriginal activist and Townsville resident Gracelyn Smallwood said: 鈥淭he Mitchell family is in a state of shock and mourning at the sudden and unexpected death of their family member.
鈥淭he family has no clear information except that he was picked up by police for public drunkenness and within four hours he was on life support in hospital.鈥
Middle East Rebellions and Royal Weddings
While I think the world certainly needs good news stories, I am astounded at the focus of media attention on the wedding of one couple in England when there are truly amazing and historic scenes happening in our world that are real good news stories.
From Libya and Tunisia in North Africa to Syria, Yemen and Bahrain in the Middle East earth shattering events are taking place, that are not only powerfully transforming the region politically, but also are having a profound social and cultural impact there and elsewhere.
The chief operating officer for Apex Energy NL, Chris Rogers, contacted Stop CSG Illawarra on April 5. He accused the group, which is campaigning against coal seam gas (CSG) projects in the region, of publishing two inaccuracies on its website: that drilling had already commenced and that CSG鈥檚 contribution to global warming is equally as bad, if not worse, than coal.
It鈥檚 wonderful that WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are getting good publicity and support for their great efforts exposing the lies and deceptions of the US, Israel and others. But I also would like to draw some attention to the fate of two Israeli whistleblowers and political prisoners held in Israel, Mordechai Vanunu and Anat Kamm.
In 1986, Vanunu took a courageous moral stand against nuclear weapons. Vanunu exposed Israel鈥檚 secret nuclear weapons arsenal to the world after becoming disillusioned with his work at Dimona Nuclear Research Centre in Israel.
Three members of the Sydney-based refugee solidarity group the Cross Borders Collective occupied the rooftop of immigration minister Chris Bowen鈥檚 electoral office in Fairfield on April 29.
Their protest was a stand of support for the refugees who have been protesting inside immigration detention centres across Australia, including the week-long rooftop protest by three detainees in Sydney鈥檚 Villawood detention centre.
Police arrested the activists within a few hours and removed them from the roof.
After running a Google news search on Marrickville+BDS on April 18, I spent a half hour looking at just under 30 articles published over the past seven days on Marrickville council鈥檚 position of support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
I looked at every result published by a major news website (news.com.au, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Age, ABC) and omitted articles that contained duplicate AAP copy.
Aboriginal elders at Muckaty, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, have called for a weekend of protest in Tennant Creek on May 7 and 8 against the federal government鈥檚 plan to build a radioactive waste dump in the area.
Who were the actual criminals that sparked the refugees鈥 revolt in Villawood detention centre in late April?
There is no crime in climbing on top of a building and holding a banner saying 鈥淲e need help鈥, nor asking for a meeting with immigration officials after 15 months in detention, as two Kurdish Iranian refugees did on April 20, sparking protests that lasted for more than a week.
It鈥檚 not a crime to resist injustice 鈥 the refugees who have taken it on themselves to revolt inside Australia鈥檚 mandatory detention system must be defended and supported for their stand.
Last year, Marrickville council in Sydney passed a resolution in support of the non-violent struggle of the Palestinian people for their human rights.
Since then The Australian and other media outlets have gone into a hysterical frenzy, accusing the councillors of being dangerous, naive, anti-Semitic extremists.
Actually they are just ordinary community members; some of who are in the Australian Labor Party, some in the Greens and some who have no political affiliations.
As part of a National Day of Action for refugee rights, about 250 protesters turned out to Melbourne鈥檚 Maribyrnong Detention centre on April 25 to show solidarity with refugees in detention and to oppose the mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
The human rights activists gathered at the detention centre entrance. They were addressed by speakers from the Greens, Students for Palestine and two former detainees including Ali Bakhtiavandi from the Socialist Alliance, who had been held in Maribyrnong for 16 months in 2001 and 2002.
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