Brisbane IMC

At 2pm March 18th the Queensland Uranium Implementation Report is expected to be released by the LNP government. This report is expected to give the green light for uranium mining in Queensland. In October 2012 the LNP government broke its clear commitment not to allow uranium mining in Queensland. This commitment was the position of the LNP at the March 2012 state election and was reaffirmed after they took office. In the absence of open, inclusive and evidence based policy making the Newman LNP government has set up the Uranium Implementation Committee.

Hidden under an old sugar cane plantation outside the Queensland city of Bundaberg lies an awful secret - the bodies of 29 South Sea Islanders buried in an unmarked grave. Bundaberg and District South Sea Islanders Action Group president, Matthew Nagas, says they could be his ancestors. And he believes they were probably worked to death "like pieces of machinery".

"If they weren't working anymore, you just pushed them aside and covered them with dirt," Mr Nagas told the AAP news agency. "They were buried in that place with no name, and forgotten. It cuts deep.”

William Brian Butler was born 13th September 1938 at the Bagot Detention Centre in Darwin, Northern Territory

My mother Emily Anne was born Annie Lawrie and my grandmother Eliza Gordon was born Lady Wilson and are of the Aranda tribe and my grandfather Toby is of the Luritja tribe from the Uluru and Areyonga areas.

My tribal name is Jangala.

Nana Eliza Gordon and her sister Nana Mabel Smith, my mother Emily Ann Gordon and her sister, my auntie Mavis Webb were taken from their homeland at Altunga east of Alice Springs in central Australia.

Increasing sea surface temperatures are imperilling coral reef ecosystems say Australian marine and climate scientists. A new scientific paper reveals that atmospheric warming of 2 degrees celsius is too much for nearly all the world's coral reef ecosystems, including the Great Barrier Reef. The scientists argue that to preserve greater than 10 per cent of coral reefs worldwide would require limiting global warming to below 1.5 °C. This equates to the goal of reducing carbon in the atmosphere to 350ppm, rather than a 2 degree rise or 450ppm that the UN Framwework Convention on Climate Change has adopted as the safe limit at several meetings.

Atmospheric concentration of CO2 currently stands at 392.41ppm. With current pledged reduction in emissions we are heading for 4.4 °C of warming by the end of the century according to the Climate Scoreboard.

Related: The True Cost of Australia's Coal Boom | Greenpeace report: Boom Goes the Reef: Australia's coal export boom and the industrialisation of the Great Barrier Reef (PDF) | The Conversation: - Climate change guardrail too hot for coral reefs?

Brough clashes with The National Indigenous - Brough accused of racism

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/media-diary/brough-clashes-with-na...

Brough clashes with National Indigenous Times

by: Lara Sinclair
From:The Australian
August 29, 20121:37PM

THE return to federal politics of one-time Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Mal Brough has been interrupted by a clash with the National Indigenous Times and indigenous leaders.

Gerry Georgatos
Renters Alliance (RA) WA coordinator Lea Keenan said that every week now Blackwood residents, renters and some who are home owners, are joining the movement and "are motivated for a united pursuance for legislation to make life fair for everyone."

Rally – August 15 – WA State Parliament – Rallies Australia-wide – October 16 – every capital city and many towns.
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/05/29/renters-rights-rally-wa-august-15-nat...

Gerry Georgatos
The Renters Alliance (RA) started only several months ago in Western Australia with a number of its original members from Bridgetown and the Blackwood region. The RA spokesperson Lea Keenan said the renters rights movement has spread Australia-wide after the RA was swamped with emails and calls from distressed renters.

To get involved write to rentersalliance@humanrightsalliance.org

or phone 0430 657 309 or 0412 833 733

http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/news/audio/2012/may/22/national-renters-allianc...

Gerry Georgatos
"For most of these women, the notion of human rights is unheard of. They have lived all their lives believing that they have no rights at all."

The Queensland Liberal-National government has withdrawn $120,000 annual funding from Sisters Inside, a long-time organisation that has provided counselling services for imprisoned women and for those recently released.

Sisters Inside website | Online Petition | Getup! message

Gerry Georgatos
If you want to know the hearts and minds of a nation, of its consciousness, of its legislators, then day and night look into our prisons.

The two century old modern day prison experiment is failing, that is if we look at the spiralling incarceration rates, adult and youth, and if we look at re-offending rates, the recidivism.

My PhD research argues that people who enter the prison experience, who are incarcerated for relatively short or long terms leave the prison experience worse than they came in.

"You do not honor the dead through mindless flag waving, rewriting history or promoting new wars," said Hamish Chitts, East Timor veteran and spokesperson for Stand Fast -- a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Related: Aborigines commemorated colonial battles and massacres in Australia | ANZAC Day Statement from Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group
Background: ANZAC DAY – Glorifying war and empire | The ANZAC Myth Booklet | Simpson and his donkey: the radical truth | 'Australia Day' and 'ANZAC Day' | ANZAC Day and the promotion of Militarism: WSWS

Gerry Georgatos
As my PhD progresses in researching Australian Deaths in Custody - I have visited Immigration Detention Centres - visited adult prisons - interviewed former detainees of the Immigration detention centres network - interviewed former prisoners of adult custodial jurisdictions.

In the lead up to the Queensland State Election on March 24, a group of Brisbane Anarchists launched an anti-election campaign. In the week prior to the election, anarchists began pasting up a couple of thousand anti politician and anti voting posters all throughout the city. Political party placards erected throughout Brisbane were torn down or defaced with anarchist and anti politician messages. Anti-voting and anarchist graffiti was scrawled and sprayed across walls, billboards, electricity boxes and telephone booths.

Greenpeace activists targeted a bulk coal carrier in Gladstone harbour early this morning. They painted 'reef in danger' on the side of the ship around dawn from two inflatable boats to highlight the massive expansion of coal port facilities and shipping through the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. The action was undertaken to highlight the threat to the Greet Barrier Reef from industrial development and expansion to a UNESCO team visiting Queensland to assess the dangers to the Great Barrier Reef and it's World Heritage status.

Related: Greenpeace Report -Boom Goes the Reef: Australia’s coal export boom and the industrialisation of the Great Barrier Reef (PDF) | Greenpeace - Live Action! A painted picture for UNESCO

Today Julian Assange faces court again to appeal the order to extradite him to Sweden. If his appeal fails he will face court in Sweden within a fortnight.

This is Assanges tenth court appearance since his arrest for questioning in relation to sex crimes in Sweden, over a year ago. Assange has maintained that the charges are politically motivated by Wikileaks release of secret US government documents and video, particularly that that show US military engaged in war crimes.