People from across the nation are heading up to the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland to put themselves on the line to stop Adani’s coal mine going ahead. Green Left Weekly’s Coral Wynter has just returned from a week at the Frontline Action on Coal (FLAC) protest camp.
Analysis
The federal Coalition government’s reforms to private health insurance confirm its blind allegiance to a system most people do not support.
Most people prefer a universal public healthcare system, but ever since Medicare was introduced in 1984, successive governments have sought to divert public funds to the private health insurance sector.
The government spends about $6 billion annually on private health insurance rebates. Singles earning up to $140,000 and families earning up to $180,000 receive rebates of between 8.4% and 33.4%, depending on age and income.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced yet another inquiry into the family law system, with Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson as leader and deputy chair, respectively. Neither are known for supporting the Family Court nor their expertise in family violence issues, writes Sue Reilly.
The global Climate Strike was the largest climate protest in history — and could turn out to be a tipping point for radical action on climate change, writes Jim McIlroy.
A sophisticated greenwashing industry has emerged over the past few decades to not just mask the environmental destruction of corporations while blaming consumers, but to also present the climate crisis as a neutral and natural disaster, disconnected from a system of inequality. In fact, the climate crisis shows the wrong people are running the world, writes Tamara Pearson.
350.org co-founder Bill McKibben estimates that on September 20, about 4 million people took part in roughly 2500 Climate Strikes in more than 163 countries on seven continents. That is a phenomenal success for an emerging school student-led protest movement that only started last year.
We need to thank School Strike 4 Climate for being realistic by demanding the impossible, says Socialist Alliance Fremantle councillor Sam Wainwright.
The following speech was given by Barathan Vidhyapathy, from the Tamil Refugee Council, outside the Federal Court hearing into the fate of the Tamil family of Priya and Nades and their two Australian-born daughters, in Melbourne on September 19.
The family, who had lived in Biloela, Queensland, for four years before they were put in a Melbourne immigration detention centre in March last year, is being threatened with deportation to Sri Lanka.
A public debate has erupted over a decision by Moreland council, in Melbourne’s inner-north, to install armrests on benches outside Coburg Library.
Green Left Weekly’s Janet Parker spoke to four progressive candidates running for City of Fremantle and nearby City of Cockburn councils about their views on local government and campaign priorities.
Unsurprisingly, a debate has broken out within the relatively new Extinction Rebellion movement on the role of the police in society and, more specifically, the tactics towards police at protests.
While estimates of the size of the Climate Strike in Australia vary, one thing is certain: many generations want real action to deal with climate change — and they want it now.
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