1233

It is well past time for legislative change when it comes to abortion rights. If women are not to live with the fear of repressive and discriminatory legislation governing the choices they make over their bodies, immediate progressive reform is essential, writes Carmen Espinosa.

As an abortion provider, pro-choice advocate and a woman who has undergone abortion in New South Wales, I support the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill.

Even with the best access to sex education, contraception and emergency contraception (which NSW does not have), there is no pro-active way for people engaged in potentially reproductive sex but not prepared for parenthood to guarantee they will not become pregnant. Sometimes, planned pregnancies become impossible to continue, whether for health or personal reasons.

The world recently commemorated the anniversaries of the dropping of nuclear weapons on the people of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) in 1945. But it hasn't been a good few weeks for world peace.

The climate emergency is already impacting all our lives. As it gets worse, we will be affected by more catastrophic floods and storms, bushfires and droughts. Globally there will be less clean water and farmland available. It is a result of an economic system — capitalism — in which private companies’ profit-making is privileged over the real needs of communities and their environments.

A debate on the impacts of feral horses on Kosciuszko National Park will take place in NSW parliament on August 22, after more than 12,000 people signed a petition to demand the repeal of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018.

Homelessness is often seen as the result of personal factors. But, according to Peter Mares, author of No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis, homelessness and housing stress are systemic problems as the housing market is not providing for people's needs.

Residents of the troubled Mascot Towers apartment complex have targeted the state Coalition government over a series of building defects they say point to a serious failure in the regulation of construction standards.

Remember when Donald Trump campaigned for office in 2016 on getting the United States out of “endless wars”? He did, in part, to distinguish himself from the pro-war Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

Now, Trump and his band of hawks are pushing for a new war, most likely with Iran.

Australia’s bullying behaviour was in full view again at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu, as it ignored pleas to take climate change seriously.

The Philippines’ labour movement commemorated the first anniversary of the historic Pacific Plaza Towers workers’ strike on August 6.

Green Footprints
Ecopella
2018

If you like political music, and appreciate the power of many voices singing and harmonising together, then you should get a hold of this 2018 offering from Sydney-based choir Ecopella.

African-American novelist Toni Morrison — winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1988), the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993), and many other awards — died on August 5 at the age 88. 

Following the announcement, Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the civil rights organisation NAACP, remarked: "Rest in power to #ToniMorrison, one of the most prolific writers of our time."