Members of the Textiles Clothing and Footwear Union Australia (TCFUA), rallied outside boutique called Scanlan and Theodore against job cuts on July 15. The workers were employees of a company called Blossom Road, which made products for the high-end fashion label.
They were protesting because all Blossom Road’s 27 employees were suddenly sacked on May 19, without explanation and without being paid entitlements. The company was liquidated, but the very next day the company re-opened under a different name and owned by the previous boss Bill Jadilebovski’s son.
Australia
Critics have dubbed the Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill now before parliament the “WikiLeaks Amendment”.
It will strengthen the powers of Australia’s spy agency ASIO to target any individual or organisation that opposes the interests of the Australian government, even if Australia’s defence interests and international relations are not at stake.
This would include Australian citizens involved in non-violent political activities abroad, which do not constitute a threat to Australia’s security.
Climate campaigners have been understandably happy about the funding bodies for renewable energy contained in the carbon price package. It seems that these measures are largely in place because of strong campaigning by the grassroots climate movement and the Greens MPs in negotiations.
You could be forgiven for thinking that when the Labor government says its new carbon price plan will cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 5%, it means Australia’s emissions will fall by 5%. But you would be wrong.
Treasury modelling for the carbon price says Australia’s domestic emissions will go up by about 12% on 2000 levels by 2020.
There’s been so much political spin around the Julia Gillard government’s carbon tax announcement. Of course, there’s the predictable hysterical hollering from Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce and the climate change denier’s camp, but there is also tons of bullshit from the Labor government.
However, a couple of developments have provided a much-needed reality check.
Action on climate change is one of the most important issues of all. But the Gillard government’s carbon price plan is not a serious response, grounded in the climate science.
An impoverished Indonesian mother, in front of an Australian journalist, lies on a cement floor clutching a photograph of her 16-year-old son who is now in an Australian adult prison and whom she hasn't seen since he was 14.
Abject and acute poverty ravages Indonesia, a country where only 10% of the population has a refrigerator, where most people do not have electricity let alone a television, where many people live half lives working in sulphur mines and where most folk will never rise out of the shanty towns and villages they are born to die in.
More than 300 refugee rights protesters descended on Broadmeadows Detention Centre, in Melbourne’s inner north, on July 9.
The activists present were determined to have their voices heard, and make it known that ALP immigration minister Chris Bowen has backflipped on his promise to have all children out of detention by July.
The centre, which accommodates only asylum seekers under the age of 18, is indeed still open and running. And it doesn’t look like closing its razor wire gates any time soon.
About 100 people rallied in Brisbaen’s King George Square on July 9 as part of an International Day of Action against the Israeli Apartheid wall in the West Bank. Demands of the rally were: Tear down the wall, End the occupation of Palestine, Equal rights for Palestinians, and Right of return for Palestinian refugees!
The rally featured a large banner depicting the wall, along with a series of placards describing the impact the wall has on Palestinian communities.
Plans to give refugees deported from Australia a “special barcode” when they arrive in Malaysia were revealed by the June 29 Daily Telegraph. A final refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia is likely to be announced this month.
More than 340 refugees have arrived since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the plan on May 7 to “swap” 800 asylum seekers in Australia for 4000 “processed refugees” in Malaysia. The refugees affected by the deal are being held in various stages of isolation on Christmas Island.
It’s the best news on climate change for years, and you’ve probably not heard about it.
Spain’s new Gemasolar power plant produced uninterrupted clean energy all day and all night for the first time on July 3. That’s 24 hours of zero emissions power, here and now.
Gemasolar is a concentrated solar thermal power plant. It uses a field of mirrors to concentrate solar radiation in a central tower.
What’s new about Gemasolar is that the plant can store solar energy for up to 15 hours. That’s baseload renewable energy, supplied all through the night.
Eastern Star Gas were forced to halt coal seam gas workat a site in the Pilliga state forest on July 5 after an activist scaled a 25-metre high rig dropping a banner that read “No Pilliga CSG”.
The activist, Warrick Jordan, was on the rig for almost 16 hours as part of a protest against ESG's proposal for 1100 coal seam gas wells and their associated infrastructure in the Pilliga.
At the protest, about 20 people, mostly residents of nearby Coonabarabran, staged a peaceful day-long blockade of the gates of the Eastern Star Gas site.
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