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.
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On Friday June 3, NSW Greens mining spokesperson launched a bill in state parliament that would place a 12-month moratorium on the coal seam gas (CSG) industry in NSW and prohibit CSG mining in the Sydney metropolitan area.
Speaking at the bill launch, Buckingham pointed out the risks associated with CSG extraction, including wastewater, fugitive emissions, land impact and depletion of aquifers.
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.
About 50 people rallied on June 16 under the slogan, 鈥淒on鈥檛 derail Altona. Save our trains.鈥
The rally was called to protest the Victorian government鈥檚 cuts to rail services on the Werribee line鈥檚 Altona Loop.
The service cuts mean the Altona Loop will lose direct access to the city loop and all of its express trains. Services will be cut from 20 to 22-minute intervals during peak periods.
Outside peak periods the service will be cut to a train shuttle from Laverton to Newport so most passengers will have to change trains.
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.
About 150 representatives engaged in the campaign against coal and coal seam gas mining attended the inaugural annual general meeting of the Lock the Gate Alliance, held in Murwillumbah, NSW, over June 11 and 12.
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.
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?
At a public debate on June 16, Icelandic journalist and WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson said WikiLeaks has strengthened democracy and revealed wrongdoings. Most of the 600-strong crowd said they agreed.
At the end of this year鈥檚 second IQ虏 debate, 58.2% of the audience voted for the proposition: 鈥淲ikiLeaks is a force for good鈥. Just 32.2% said they disagreed while 8.8% were undecided.
The debate did sway some people, however. Polled before the debate, only 6.3% of attendees said they disagreed and 30.7% said they were undecided.
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.
If you are a cow destined for someone鈥檚 dinner plate, the federal Labor government won鈥檛 send you to Indonesia without a guarantee you will be treated humanely.
But if you are an asylum seeker risking your life to reach Australia by boat in a desperate attempt to escape war, poverty and persecution, the government will send you to Malaysia with little regard for your welfare.
"It is definitely not on for Australia to outsource their refugee problem to Malaysia - and for Malaysia to agree to it", the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) member of parliament Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj told 91自拍论坛 Weekly at the PSM's 13th Congress held in this town, which is the population centre of his electorate.
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