According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, the future of the Australian economy is so bright we should all start wearing shades. Justifying the RBA鈥檚 decision to lift official interest rates a further 0.25% on March 2, governor Glenn Stevens said, 鈥渢he risk of serious economic contraction in Australia [has] passed鈥.
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Carbon trading schemes have become the most favoured government strategy to deal with climate change, including in Australia. But as economics professor Clive Spash found out, government employees who question whether such schemes can actually deliver emissions reductions can find themselves under huge pressure to be silent.
Last year鈥檚 national Climate Action Summit was groundbreaking. It set a national grassroots movement on its feet, something I haven鈥檛 seen on such a scale in my two decades of activism. A new ongoing network has been set up, with more than 100 groups now signed onto the initial structure.
Greek workers shut down hospitals, schools and public transport again on March 5 in protest at the government's 鈥渟ocially unjust鈥 spending cuts.
The Socialist Alliance (SA) held its Victorian state conference on February 27, with about 80 people taking part.
Sex sells. So this year鈥檚 Mardi Gras flaunted itself. Its cod-piece was the python-esque parade snaking up Oxford Street, a ribald, risque body of bodies-politic. Marchers fed off a frenzied live street audience of more than 100,000 with even more watching on TV. It鈥檚 a show with a capital S, buoying pink-dollar tourism and state coffers by $30 million.
On February 18, Niger鈥檚 President Mamadou Tandja was overthrown in a military coup. A military junta calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, headed by Major Salou Djibo, took power.
Around 150 people protested against the proposed internet filter in Melbourne. The rally heard from speakers from Socialist Alliance, Greens, Electronic Frontiers Australia, Exit International, Pirate Party, Sex Party.
鈥淭here are two messages we want to get across as part of our campaign in the federal elections鈥, Socialist Alliance candidate Alex Bainbridge told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
Changes to Aboriginal employment, infrastructure and welfare programs have stripped remote Aboriginal communities of resources and left many Aboriginal people, in effect, working for rations.
When it comes to avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of global warming then whatever the financial cost, the price is still worth paying. But new research by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) shows Australia could meet 100% of its stationary energy needs from renewables in a decade and stimulate the economy at the same time.
Manju, one of the 254 Tamil refugees aboard the Jaya Lestari in Merak, Indonesia, is due to have her baby on 5 April.
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