Australia

The NSW Coalition government announced plans on December 13 last year to cut the Newcastle rail line at Wickham station. As part of the urban renewal strategy document, passengers would have to transfer to buses to complete the last two kilometres of their journey to Newcastle. A long-running community group, Save Our Rail, has twice stopped former Labor and Coalitions governments' attempts to cut the line. Here are ten reasons why the campaign needs to continue: There is no solution proposed for rail users affected by the cut
More than 40 people came to hear Miguel Angel Nunez, a co-founder of IPIAT (the Institute for Production and Research in Tropical Agriculture) in Venezuela and a former coordinator of the Latin American Agroecological Movement at a public forum in Sydney on January 30. The speaker was welcomed by Miriam Navarro, representing the Venezuelan embassy in Australia. The forum was organised by the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network and supported by the embassy and the Latin American Social Forum.
Residents of the south Gippsland town of Poowong are preparing to hold a public protest against coal seam gas (CSG) exploration in their area on February 17. Local group CSG Free Poowong conducted an extensive survey of the area last year. They asked: “Do you want to declare Poowong coal and coal seam gas free?” The survey results showed over 95% of the community does not want CSG mining in their region. The event on February 17 is being organised as a celebration of this result.
About 100 people gathered at the Jerrys Plains community hall on January 29 to outline concerns about the encroachment of the coal industry on their township and to begin a united fightback.
Front Line Action on Coal released this statement on January 30. *** Front Line Action on Coal has hit Whitehaven’s Tarrawonga mine and federal environment minister Tony Burke’s office in Roseland with simultaneous actions, unfurling huge banners that read: “The Burke stops here”.   The banners call on the Federal Environment Minister to reject coal expansions that would decimate the Leard Forest.  
Solidarity released this statement on January 30. *** Trade union activist Sulthoni Farras, a leader of the Indonesian union federation Progresip, union alliance Sekber Buruh, and member of Indonesian political organisation KPO-PRP, is in danger of arrest for leading a strike last year. Another activist, Bona Ventura, may also face charges. The Indonesian government and bosses are using these kinds of tactics against a growing workers’ movement in Indonesia. * * * Dear Comrade/Friend,
The latest weekly "Our Common Cause" column of the Socialist Alliance argues the time is well-over due to phase out fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy. * * * It's been another summer of record-breaking extreme weather in Australia.
Protect Arnhem Land is a campaign to fight offshore exploration, mining and drilling around the entire coastline of the Northern Territory Arnhem Land region. Last August, it came to light that there are more than 40 potential petroleum exploration sites off the coast of Arnhem Land. The people living on this country had not been informed of the submission of such exploration permits nor were they aware of what mining exploration entails.
A new report by the Australian National Audit Office has found the federal government spends more than $100 million a year to administer income management in the Northern Territory. Over 17,000 people were on income management at the end of June last year, while welfare quarantining remains a key component of the controversial NT Intervention, The scheme costs the Commonwealth Government between $6600 and $7900 per person, per year. Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney's Paddy Gibson says he condemns the government's decision to maintain compulsory income management.
Veteran political commentator Michelle Grattan has dubbed PM Julia Gillard's early announcement of a September 14 federal election as the opening of the “longest election campaign in history”. She says it's “clever tactics” on Gillard's part. Another prominent political commentator, Lenore Taylor, says that this is an attempt by an embattled ALP government to “reboot the political debate”.
A possible malaria scare in the Manus Island refugee detention camp has sparked new calls to label the offshore detention regime a violation of human rights. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said on January 27 that a 10-year-old girl had been in the camp's medical centre with malaria-like symptoms — high fever, shivering and bodily pain.
This is surely a country that could use a bit of good news. It has been a tough few weeks with raging bushfires, severe flooding and, just when it seemed it couldn't get worse, the heartbreaking news we will be subjected to the longest election campaign in Australian history.