Healesville-based group, MyEnvironment, has lost a court case it mounted against government body VicForests over the logging of Victoria鈥檚 central highlands areas that include habitat for the endangered Leadbeater鈥檚 Possum.
Justice Robert Osborn handed down his decision in the Supreme Court on March 14. He refused to order a stop to logging in three forest coupes at Toolangi, including in late 2011.
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Of all the people infuriated by billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer鈥檚 March 20 claim that the Greens are funded by the CIA, it is not hard to imagine the angriest were heads of the Murdoch media.
Having declared in an Australian editorial in 2010 its intention to 鈥渄estroy the Greens鈥, the Murdoch press has worked hard to relentlessly spin a tale of the political party as far left lunatics 鈥 old-style commies in green T-shirts.
Mental health workers voted to escalate industrial action in two weeks unless Ted Baillieu's Coalition government begins to seriously negotiate with their union.
The Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) covers psychiatric nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists and support staff. The Australian Nursing Federation covers some mental health nurses as well.
In response to timber industry lobbying, independent MP Rob Oakeshott moved a motion in federal parliament to allow foresters to claim Renewable Energy Certificates for burning native forests for power.
The vote was lost on March 19 on a casting vote from the Speaker of the House Peter Slipper. The Labor Party, Greens, and independent MPs Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor voted against the motion. The Coalition voted for it.
After three weeks of action, warehouse workers at the Sigma pharmaceutical Melbourne plant returned to work on March 21. Workers fended off attempts by the company to abolish afternoon and night shift loadings. They also won a 4% pay rise.
The workers, members of the National Union of Workers at the Rowville plant in Melbourne鈥檚 south-eastern suburbs, had rarely been on strike.
On March 9, Gunns Ltd notified the Australian Stock Exchange that potential investor Richard Chandler Corporation pulled out of its bid to buy a 40% stake in the company.
The Singapore-based investment firm of New Zealand millionaire Richard Chandler had planned to invest $150 million in the company. But it dropped the plan after consulting with stakeholders and communities.
The news was welcomed by environmentalists as another big setback for Gunns鈥 plans to get its $2.3 billion Tamar Valley pulp mill started in northern Tasmania.
For many months now, major party politicians and the big business media have sung paeans to the Lucky Country鈥檚 luckiest mining bonanza yet, riding the coat-tails of the rapid industrialisation of China and India.
on March 5: 鈥淎sia鈥檚 enormous appetite for our mineral commodities drives an investment pipeline in the resources sector worth $456 billion.
For more than 100 days, . Dubbed the ObserverTree, it is in Tasmania's logging coupe TN044B, whose steeply forested slopes have been earmarked for cable logging.
The tree is in an area that is being assessed for reserve status under the Tasmania forestry peace deal. From the platform, Gibson can see areas of clearfelled forest around her.
Australian Treasurer (MRRT) was 鈥渃entral to the government鈥檚 plan to spread the benefits of the mining boom to more Australians for generations to come鈥.
Lauding the tax, which had passed through parliament the day before, he said the MRRT was about 鈥渆nsuring all Australians share in the benefits of the mining boom, not just a fortunate few鈥.
The Tasmanian and federal governments signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) last August that promised immediate protection for 430,000 hectares of high conservation value forest.
But it also agreed to continue supplying the industry hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer peeler logs. The agreement included more than $250 million in finance to restructure the timber industry.
Aboriginal rights protesters gathered outside the Northern Territory tourism bureau in Sydney on March 21 to protest the death in custody of 28-year-old Aboriginal man Terrence Briscoe, and to condemn the 鈥淪tronger Futures鈥 bill that will extend the NT intervention.
Deaths in custody campaigner Ray Jackson told the rally: 鈥淲hen Terrence died in a police cell, the family were first told it was a heart attack. Then it was respiratory. Then it was asphyxiation. How do you asphyxiate? When police jump all over you, forcing your breath out.
The Greens were dead against the former Rudd Labor government鈥檚 Carbon Pollution Trading Scheme (CPRS) in 2009 and voted it down in parliament. Today, the Greens are champions of the Gillard Labor government鈥檚 carbon price.
A says it only 鈥渉appened because of the Greens鈥.
The strangest thing is that the two carbon price schemes 鈥 Rudd鈥檚 and Gillard鈥檚 鈥 are mostly the same.
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