A magistrate dismissed charges against 49 climate activists on June 16. The protesters had committed non-violent civil disobedience at a climate camp against a new coal-fired power station being built in the Hunter Valley.
The charges related to an action on December 6 at the NSW climate camp near the Bayswater Power Station in the Hunter Valley 鈥 Australia鈥檚 single largest source of carbon pollution.
The ruling means they have no conviction recorded, no criminal record and their fines dropped.
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The Pilliga State Forest in northern NSW will be turned into a gas field if the government approves Eastern Star Gas's (ESG) mining proposal for the region.
The proposal set out by ESG seeks to develop the Pilliga into the state's largest coal seam gas (CSG) project.
The development would include the drilling of more than 1000 gas wells and the clearing of vast stretches of native bushland to make way for gas pipelines and other associated infrastructure, such as a water treatment facility and access roads.
In the first week of June, the Baillieu state government introduced new laws that give Victorian police the power to issue on-the-spot fines of up to $240 for using offensive language.
Victorian police already had the power to charge people with indecent language offences, but they had to do this through the court system. This meant that people had the opportunity to defend their behaviour through the judicial system and were more likely to get a fair hearing.
It wouldn鈥檛 be okay for Amnesty to take donations from military dictators or for Animal Liberation to accept abattoir-owners as sponsors.
Such scenarios are so unlikely they just sound bizarre.
So why should we accept that it鈥檚 okay for Australian environmental groups to take money from fossil fuel corporations?
Surely it鈥檚 the ultimate conflict of interest. How can groups set up to stop climate change accept cash from companies that make millions from polluting the planet?
Western Australia has always been proud of its natural resources and mining industries. Criticise it, and you bare the wrath of not only the elitism of rich investors and industrialists, but pretty much 80 to 90% of the population.
Woodside is considered one of the pride. When meeting its representatives in 2003, as one of the 40 of so school students attending the 鈥淎ustralian Student Mineral Venture鈥, we were told in loud volumes about how they employed Aborigines too 鈥 obviously the only tick box needed to be ethical, or so they thought.
Gaddafi has record of slaughter
Tony Iltis [GLW #882] perceptively takes apart the double-dealing of the major Western powers as they have responded to the Arab revolts. But he is on shakier ground when he argues in relation to Libya that 鈥渢here is no evidence that the (NATO) intervention saved thousands of lives鈥.
As reported by Reuters on March 17, Muammar Gaddafi in a radio broadcast threatened the people of the rebel city of Benghazi in these terms: 鈥淲e will come 鈥 house by house, room by room 鈥 We will have no mercy and no pity.鈥
About 500 people took part in a June 11 march to demand an end to victim blaming in sexual assault. This was followed by a screening of the film War Zone in the Adelaide Activist Centre. About 30 people attended.
The film screening was jointly hosted by the Socialist Alliance and the Femment Feminist Collective. It was followed by a discussion on the politics of Slutwalk and the future of feminism.
From the discussion the South Australian Feminist Collective (SAFC) was founded. All in attendance joined the contact list.
Ninety-one percent of Australians think the government should take more action to roll out renewable energy and create green jobs and 86% say the government should develop a plan to get to 100% renewables.
These were some of the outcomes of one of Australia鈥檚 biggest ever polls on climate change and climate policy, which was released by the 100% Renewable Energy Campaign on June 14.
Public opposition to a plan by an Australian mining company, Lynas, to build a rare earth refinery in Pahang, Malaysia, was on show at a protest outside Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on May 20.
Lynas plans to ship ore from its Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, through the port of Fremantle, to Malaysia. There it will be refined to extract rare earths, which are widely used in the manufacture of computers and electronics.
In April and May, while in South America as part of solidarity brigades to Venezuela and Bolivia, I met some people who have risked everything to make their communities and their countries better places to live. I became so used to people passionately fighting for things they believed in that when I returned to Australia I received a sharp shock.
Suddenly I was back among people who, in general, did not care much or want to know about issues of inequality or other problems in our society. It is for these people that this is written.
Multinational gas company Dart Energy met with residents from St Peters on June 6 to discuss the company鈥檚 plans to carry out exploratory coal seam gas (CSG) drilling in Sydney鈥檚 inner-west before the end of the year.
Dart have plans to drill at a now vacant industrial site in St Peters close to residential properties and Sydney Park.
The held by Dart covers not only St Peters but an area of 2392 square kilometeres, encompassing most of metropolitan and suburban Sydney.
Three Australian activists joining the Freedom Flotilla 2 were given a heartfelt sendoff by 91自拍论坛 Weekly at the Resistance Centre on June 15. The three will soon join activists from 50 countries taking part in this latest international action to pressure Israel to lift the illegal blockade on Gaza.
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