694

George Browning, the Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, said on January 11 that it would not be morally responsible to vote in the next federal election for any party that did not have a credible climate change policy. He was speaking at the “Australia as a Neighbour” conference in Melbourne, organised by Initiatives of Change, Australia, and attended by 300 people from 17 countries.
For the first time since the foundation of the National Union of Students (NUS) 15 years ago, Labor’s right-wing student faction, Unity, was ousted from the office of general secretary at the NUS annual conference, held in Ballarat on December 4-7.
The Wilderness Society has called for more government funding and support for the Indigenous Protected Area program following the release on January 9 of an independent report that concludes that IPAs are one of the most effective initiatives in environment protection in Australia.
Three more people, including a teenager, have been charged following the November 19 protests against the G20 financial ministers’ summit in Melbourne, bringing the total number of participants charged to 11. The following is an abridged version of a statement Resistance issued in response to the arrests.
The decision this month by Bankstown City Council, in Sydney’s western suburbs, to cancel the venue for the January 27 Khilafah Conference “speaks volumes of the empty rhetoric surrounding the supposed noble epitomes of western liberal democracy”, said Wassim Doureihi, spokesperson for Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, in a January 10 media statement.
As the bulk carrier, Pilion, docked in Geelong on January 9 with phosphate from Western Sahara, the Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) called on the fertiliser company Incitec Pivot to stop violating UN regulations by importing phosphate from Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa.
Several Bushmen families who had been evicted from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve returned on January 12 following an historic December 13 court victory against Botswana's government. The High Court ruling deemed the government's
Pro-choice activists are angry that the federal government has subcontracted parts of its $51 million National Pregnancy Telephone Hotline contract to anti-abortion groups.
A national mobilisation for May Day 2007 is set to involve young people, workers, peace activists and others in solidarity with immigrant workers. The protest will say no to anti-immigration legislation, to the militarisation of the US border and to
“Aboriginal people across Queensland and across Australia have lost all confidence in the capacity of the criminal justice system to address our needs”, Sam Watson, the Socialist Alliance spokesperson on Indigenous issues said about the latest explosion of Aboriginal rage, at the Cape York community of Aurukun. The flare-up was caused by rumours that an Aboriginal man had been assaulted while in police custody.
In a report published on January 3, the Union of Concerned Scientists argues that ExxonMobil is employing disinformation tactics used by the tobacco industry to promote public confusion over climate change and to delay urgent action to halt global
Oliver Ressler, Austrian artist and co-director (with Dario Azzellini) of Five Factories - Worker Control in Venezuela, will be in Australia in January to host screenings of his new film, followed by discussion.