The NSW government was evasive for several days on whether it would allow uranium exploration and mining, banned since 1986.
This followed the call by federal resources minister Martin Ferguson in May for NSW and Victoria to rethink their uranium mining bans.
Premier Barry O鈥橣arrell and resources minister Chris Hartcher finally said on August 5 they would not overturn the uranium mining ban.
In mid-June, Hartcher met the chief executive of the Australian Uranium Association Michael Angwin, who is lobbying to overturn the ban, the Sydney Morning Herald said.
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Mark Goudkamp from the Sydney Refugee Action Coalition, Gleny Rae, a participant in the SBS series Go Back Where You Came From, and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young addressed the biggest meeting supporting asylum seekers seen in Newcastle since the Howard era on August 4.
Goudkamp said 54 asylum seekers, 19 of them children, had recently arrived by boat on Christmas Island. They had not yet been told they would be sent to Malaysia. 鈥淭he media reports extra riot police have been sent there,鈥 Goudkamp said. 鈥淏ut the government is saying they have counsellors on hand.鈥
The grassroots campaign for a community driven council in Wollongong is well underway, as the election approaches on September 3.
Community Voice is standing a full ticket across all three local wards including Michael Organ, former Greens MP for Cunningham, for mayor.
Organ is a local historian and environmental activist. He has been actively involved in campaigns to save Sandon Point and Wollongong's Regent Theatre. He is also part of the recent campaign to secure land at Hill 60 for preservation and public ownership.
A coalition of groups in New South Wales came together in June to campaign against the federal government鈥檚 plan to introduce income management for welfare recipients in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown.
The , called 鈥淪ay no to government鈥檚 income management: not in Bankstown, not anywhere鈥, released the open letter below on July 27.
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To ministers Tanya Plibersek and Jenny Macklin and to the local federal members for Banks, Blaxland and Watson.
John Bellamy Foster, the keynote speaker at the upcoming 鈥 to be held in Melbourne from September 30 to October 3 鈥 is the co-author (with Fred Magdoff) of a newly published book: .
The ALP is the party for ordinary Australians, right?
Resistance members will often talk about the importance of political movements being independent of political parties, but what does this mean for the ALP?
Isn鈥檛 the ALP Australia鈥檚 party of progress? And surely they are better then the Tories? Isn鈥檛 it our party?
Well, it is a party that鈥檚 designed for progressives, unionists and activists, but that doesn鈥檛 mean that it's ours. If you look at its history, the ALP has attracted progressive people but rarely helped create change.
About 40% of new Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients may be ruled ineligible as the federal Labor government updates the tables for the assessment of work-related impairment for DSP.
Community services minister Jenny Macklin said on July 30 that the revised impairment tables will be implemented from January 1 next year and will apply to new recipients only. This is the first review of the DSP impairment tables since 1993.
released the statement below on August 5.
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This morning climate activists scaled a 15 metre high coal conveyor belt in Newcastle鈥檚 coal port and suspended a banner saying, 鈥淲e鈥檙e sorry Somalia. Coal = climate change and starvation鈥.
Their action comes as scientists this week have made the link between human-made climate change and the deadly drought affecting over ten million people across the Horn of Africa.
Rising Tide spokesperson Naomi Hogan is at the scene.
The Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network (DASSAN) released the statement below on August 3.
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DASSAN today expressed concern about the increase of the number of children being detained in immigration detention centres in Darwin. As at August 3, figures provided by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship indicated that there are currently 180 children being detained in Darwin.
War criminal and former British PM Tony Blair had only just completed a lucrative commercial speaking tour of Australia when Australia鈥檚 federal Director of Public Prosecutions began court proceeding to prosecute former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks under 鈥減roceeds of crime鈥 laws.
Government prosecutors want to seize the profits from his book , of which about 30,000 copies have been sold.
The (AFCA) released this statement on August 1.
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Forest conservation and climate action groups across Australia, joined by prominent conservationist Peter Cundall, today warned the Julia Gillard and Lara Giddings governments that their Tasmanian forest deal is a sham that will waste $250 million dollars of taxpayers鈥 money.
鈥淭his sham deal can not deliver 鈥榩eace鈥 in the forests,鈥 said AFCA spokespersons [representing] more than 30 groups around the country.
Conservation group South East Forest Rescue released the statement below on August 1 to coincide with its protest outside the headquarters of Forests NSW.
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