Analysis

James and Erica Packer have just had a baby. Luckily this time it's a boy.

It seems bizarre that when the science of human-caused climate change is more worryingly conclusive than ever, climate denial could enjoy a resurgence. After all, no climate denier has published a peer-reviewed article in a scientific journal in the past 15 years.

When, after destroying Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal Party took a surprise turn and embraced Tony Abbott as leader, there were those on the left who greeted the news with combined incredulity and glee.

There can be no National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests in 2010. The Australian Education Union’s national conference in January reaffirmed that, if NAPLAN data was used by the media to publish league tables, teachers would not co-operate in implementing the tests this year.

On February 2, opposition leader Tony Abbott released the Liberal-National Coalition’s climate policy. For the Coalition, just as for the Rudd government, there’s one thing that’s irrelevant to climate policy — climate science. In Abbott’s 30-page document, the global warming crisis doesn’t rate one mention.

Increased interest rates, declining working hours and stagnating wages are still chipping away at working people’s living standards, despite small falls in the official unemployment rate in November and December.

On July 14, 2009, the Alyawarr people from Ampilatwatja, three hours’ north-west of Alice Springs, walked off their community and set up a protest camp on their traditional homelands.

The Australian Greens announced an “interim carbon price proposal” on January 21, whereby carbon would be taxed essentially within the framework of the federal Labor government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

The letter from Clare Sambrook last week on the detention of children (GLW #823) mistakenly said the writer was from Scotland. She is in fact from England. Scotland has, in fact, stopped detaining children and Scots Parliament is doing a good job

Green Left Weekly has a long and proud tradition of covering the many struggles for justice waged by Aboriginal people and their supporters. This has especially been the case since the Northern Territory intervention was introduced, with GLW journalists making trips to Central Australia to make contact with, and report on, the communities resisting the paternalistic policies.

Climate change minister Penny Wong has announced a target of a 5% cut in Australia’s carbon emissions by 2020, relative to emissions in 2000.

The actions of loan shark Sam Tomarchio, revealed on January 15 by the Australian, do not justify the expansion of “welfare quarantining” to the Aboriginal people affected.