Analysis

What would Australia look like if Tony Abbott became the next prime minister? The Liberal leader is an outspoken climate denier, a hardliner on locking out refugees, determined to crack down on union and workers’ rights and wants to extend racist and draconian attacks on Aboriginal rights. Yet polls have consistently shown Abbott and the Coalition far ahead of the Julia Gillard Labor government, whose pro-business policies and internal scandals have made it deeply unpopular.

The radical ecologist Murray Bookchin once compared populationism to a phoenix, the mythical bird that periodically burns up and is reborn from its own ashes. No matter how often the “too many people” argument is refuted, it always returns, making the same claim that people are breeding too much and consuming too much, devouring the Earth like a plague of locusts. The latest incarnation of the populationist phoenix is People and the Planet, a report published in April by the leading organisation of Britain’s scientific establishment, the 350-year-old Royal Society.

Bimblebox is an 8000-hectare nature refuge in the Galilee Basin in central-west Queensland. It is an important site of biodiversity and is being used as a site for many long-term research projects in land management. It also lies in the path of what is planned to be Australia’s largest coalmine. Nine huge mines have been proposed for the Galilee Basin. Waratah Coal, owned by billionaire Clive Palmer, has an exploration permit over the entire Bimblebox refuge.

Politics in this country can sometimes seem like a magic trick aimed at young children. “Look over there! Do you see? Those Boat People are taking all your taxes and your homes and your bread! Look! What an outrage!” And then Gina Rinehart jumps up behind our backs and nicks all our resources. And that stuff is non-renewable. Once the mining bosses have flogged it off to China to fill their bloated bank account balances, it’s gone for good. We’ll just be left with a bunch of holes in the ground.

Victorian TAFE teacher and student Tashara Roberts released the open letter below on May 29. * * * Dear Mr Baillieu, I would like to tell you my story. I am of English, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. I had an abusive childhood; my parents divorced when I was about 12 years old and we had moved around a lot until I was about 15. I went to 5 different primary schools and 2 different high schools.

Who really runs this country? The announcement by the federal government that it has struck its first Enterprise Migration Agreement with the world's richest woman Gina Rinehart reveals just how eager our governments are to serve the mining millionaires.

The Sydney Stop the War Coalition released the statement below on May 29. * * * Foreign minister Bob Carr’s decision on May 29 to expel the Syrian Charge d’Affairs is lock step with NATO countries doing the same. It can only be read as the Australian government condoning steps towards overt foreign military intervention in Syria.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam released the statement below on May 31. * * * Around the country today we’re coming together to demand action from the Australian government to protect an Australian citizen from prosecution and from persecution. Yesterday’s verdict in the UK Supreme Court provides for another delay, another fortnight of legal limbo. It is another two weeks in which the important work of this publishing organisation stays on hold.

The open letter below was released on May 29. * * * There have been many public statements made about WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange that are factually inaccurate. For example, Prime Minister Julia Gillard: "It's illegal." Attorney General Nicola Roxon: "He fled Sweden" and the media generally: "Assange is charged/facing charges" (in relation to Swedish sex allegations).

The 2012 Resistance conference, in Adelaide July 20-22, will feature international guests including from CLASSE in Quebec (the largest and most radical student organisation leading massive student strikes); the Socialist Party of Malaysia (hugely involved in the Bersih democracy uprising); and from the brave Palestinian People's Party.

The Socialist Alliance released the statement below on May 29. * * *

Training for young people and permanent residency for migrant workers: Not the 457 visa rip off!

Socialist Alliance statement May 29, 2012

The announcement by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on May 25 that the Gillard Labor government has struck its first Enterprise Migration Agreement with mining billionaire Gina Rinehart reveals just how eager this government is to serve the mining millionaires.

Anyone who knows me will tell you straight up: I wholeheartedly believe in the United States' mission to spread democracy throughout the world. So when the Arab Spring broke out last year, how the hearts of the rulers of the land of the free must have soared at the sight of long-oppressed peoples demanding freedom! Except it soon became hard to ignore that, in case after case, the people were standing up to tyrants who were actually propped up by the United States.