Carbon trading schemes have become the most favoured government strategy to deal with climate change, including in Australia. But as economics professor Clive Spash found out, government employees who question whether such schemes can actually deliver emissions reductions can find themselves under huge pressure to be silent.
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The NSW government has just approved plans for two, 2000-megawatt power stations, one near Lithgow, the other in the Hunter Valley. If coal is chosen as the fuel source NSW’s greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 15.1%. If gas is chosen the increase will be 7.1%. It’s likely the government will go with coal.
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Shortly before Christmas, the owners of the big three free-to-air commercial television networks, Seven, Nine and Ten, accompanied by Free TV Australia lobbyist and former Queensland ALP premier Wayne Goss met with Kevin Rudd at Kirribilli House. They cried poor and demanded corporate welfare for their “struggling” businesses.
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Green Left Weekly can do better I have been a subscriber to the GLW for many years, because I believe it is essential to have publicly available sources of information that are independent of the mainstream media. But for the GLW to be of
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This year, International Women’s Day (IWD) coincides with the Labour Day weekend in Victoria and Tasmania. It gives an opportunity to highlight how much women have contributed to fighting for workers’ rights and civil liberties, and how little they have been acknowledged for it.
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The rapid melting of the Arctic sea-ice is one of the most alarming examples of the looming climate change catastrophe. But where most see disaster, some of the world's richest corporations see a business opportunity.
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Steve Gumerungi Hodder, an Aboriginal broadcaster in Central Australia, has taken legal action against Google to compel them to remove links to a site promoting extreme racism in the guise of humour. On January 27, Green Left Weekly ran an article by Edmund Parker arguing against using legal action in the fight against racist ideas. Hodder responds below.
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Responding to pressure from media, the community and the federal ALP, NSW Labor Premier Kristina Keneally dropped the state’s unpopular “Metro to nowhere” (planned to run from Barangaroo to Rozelle) on February 21.
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Under the Northern Territory intervention, in the “prescribed areas” the government has taken control of communities, acquired compulsory leases of Aboriginal land and introduced “welfare quarantining” — in which half the income of social security recipients is replaced with a “Basics Card”, which can only be spent at specified shops on specified items.
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It has come to the attention of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) that more than 40% of large businesses — those with a turnover of $250 million — paid no tax from 2005 to 2008.
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Tony Abbott (and maybe Paul Sheehan) have a hidden talent There was television footage of Tony Abbott at a shopping centre earlier this week. An angry woman complains about Muslims in Australia. His response is that he understands exactly where
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd released a new counter-terrorism white paper on February 23 that dramatically increases the powers of Australia's spy agency ASIO, attacks civil liberties and does nothing to improve the safety of Australian citizens.