For years, gas companies have been eyeing the Beetaloo Sub-basin, 500 kilometres south-east of Darwin, in the Northern Territory. Now, a compliant NT Labor administration, working hand in glove with the federal Coalition government, has emboldened them to step up production, despite widespread objections, writes Pip Hinman.
Pip Hinman
“It is time to abolish billionaires ... because we cannot afford them, the planet cannot afford billionaires,” Kenyan climate activist Njoki Njoroge Njehu told 10,000 protesters in Lausanne, Switzerland on January 17. She is right. It is the billionaire class that is blocking moves to make the urgent shift to create a safe climate.
Anti-war networks and progressive parties have urged the federal Coalition not to support the Donald Trump administration’s latest attack on Iran, that began with the illegal assassination in Iraq of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and deputy commander of the Iraqi government-affiliated Popular Mobilisation Forces Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3.
The horror of the devastating and apocalyptic fires in NSW and Victoria not only dampened the New Year party mood, it has fanned anger over the government's obvious failure to respond to the climate emergency.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres delivered another bleak warning about the climate emergency on December 2. He told the 197 country leaders assembled that global average levels of carbon dioxide have now gone over what used to be considered an “unthinkable global tipping point”.
Pro-choice campaigners are hopeful that Argentinian president-elect Alberto Fernández will act on his promise to put a pro-choice bill to Congress.
In the face of government inaction, unions are determined to do what they can to secure permanent, well-paid, sustainable industry jobs for their members.
On a catastrophic fire day for NSW, November 12, the Liberal-National government had planned to push through a bill to weaken the state’s planning laws, in favour of coal and gas corporations.
A snap action outside NSW parliament that day drew hundreds of people from across the state. They made their opposition to the bill known and expressed support for the NSW Rural Fire Service, which is battling the flames with shortages of equipment and personnel due to budget cuts.
Hong Kong police unleashed a new wave of violence against protesters on November 11, killing one and injuring others. Green Left’s Pip Hinman asked student activist Wlam*, who is currently studying in Australia, about the democracy movement and where things are headed. (*Wlam is a pseudonym to protect his identity.)
With all hell breaking loose as catastrophic fires ravage parts of New South Wales and Queensland, all Prime Minister Scott Morrison can advise is to pray. It’s a poor excuse from a government that has criminally refused to take action on the climate crisis.
We need to understand Morrison’s attacks on “progressivism” and a “new breed of radical activism” as more than just an attack on our right to protest or the right of investors to decide where to put their cash.
Environmentalists are going to have to get a whole lot more radical if Prime Minister Scott Morrison gets his way on proposed new measures targeting anti-mining activism.
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