Analysis

Three hundred climate activists participated in Australia’s second national Climate Action Summit in Canberra on March 13-15, marking an important step forward for the grassroots climate movement in this country.

On March 15, opposition leader Tony Abbott said the shadow cabinet would support the federal ALP government’s extension of “income management” to more welfare recipients in the Northern Territory — not just those living in targeted Aboriginal communities.

Western Australian attorney-general Christian Porter said on March 17 an interim payment of $200,000 to the family of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward should be “finalised’’ by the end of the month (leaving unclear whether this meant “paid” or “approved”).

“The Aboriginal community is moving to call for a national day of action against Black deaths in custody on Saturday April 10”, Queensland Aboriginal leader and Socialist Alliance member Sam Watson told Green Left Weekly on March 19. “We are calling on all state and federal governments across Australia to conduct a national audit of the implementation of the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody.

Hearings in the ongoing coronial inquest into the November 2004 death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a member of the Indigenous community on Palm Island, were held on the island and in Townsville from March 8-12.

Freedom to hate … injustice Regarding Steve Gumerundji Hodder's article, "Freedom to hate is not free speech" (GLW828). I believe we do have the freedom to hate injustice, tyranny, cruelty and racism, and to say so. I think, too, that the

“Earth Hour” will be held around the world on March 27. The event is organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and involves participants switching off their lights for the hour as a symbolic declaration of support for environmental action.

Western Australia needs a broad and inclusive mass movement to stop the Barnett government’s push to privatise public services and smash public sector workers’ conditions.

When a respected scientific journal carries a peer-reviewed article branding the key technology behind “clean coal” as “profoundly non-feasible”, you’d think governments and coal corporations would react in some fashion.

Well, now I really feel safe. The Australian defence department has finally started to buy up vital necessities to protect this country. Oil paintings, comfy handmade chesterfield lounges, memberships to exclusive golf clubs… You name it; our defence department now has it. I guess you can’t underestimate the usefulness of a well-rested backside and a perfect golf swing during hand-to-hand combat.

Witness Roy Bramwell told the re-opened inquest into Aboriginal man Mulrunji Doomadgee’s death on March 8 that police threatened to “come after him”, as they crushed his original damning witness statement and threw it in the bin.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Australia over March 9-11. Unsurprisingly, the issue of asylum seekers was the leading concern for the federal Labor government, the corporate media and refugee advocates alike.