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Civil Society stages mass walkout protest from Warsaw Climate change negotiations

Civil society organisations abandoned the COP19 climate change negotiations in Warsaw on mass. Members from Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, Actionaid, Friends of the Earth, the International Trade Union Confederation (statement) and 350.org all started leaving the conference at 2pm. This is an unprecedented action, the first time several major civil society groups have staged a mass walkout.

Friends of the Earth International highlighted that the Warsaw Climate Change negotiations were failing, with Tension high in Warsaw talks as G77+China walk out. The role of Australia and reduced ambition of Japan  have been widely mentioned. Australia and Canada are seen as the major wreckers, but there has been substantial intransigence from much of the developed world to progressing the negotiations forward on finance, ambition, and a loss and damage mechanism. Poland's Coal Summit has shown the fossil fuel corporatism entwined in this COP with widespread dismay at the coal powered negotiations of COP19 and at UNFCCC official Christiania Figueres who gave the keynote speech at the coal summit 

Related: Democracy Now: "Nature Does Not Negotiate": Environmentalists Walk Out of U.N. Climate Summit in Warsaw | "Polluters Talk, We Walk": Civil Society Groups Abandon Warsaw Talks over Inaction on Global Warming | "We Have to Consume Less": Scientists Call For Radical Economic Overhaul to Avert Climate Crisis
Analysis: The Warsaw walkout and the Climate Movement

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Australia, the mother of all jailers of Aboriginal people

Gerry Georgatos - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Lo and behold, Australian prison numbers are on the increase, record high – and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples now comprise nearly one in three of all prisoners. 30 per cent of the Australian prison population is made up of Aboriginal peoples, up from the much touted 26 per cent, the more than one in four of all prisoners. As a researcher in custodial systems and as a prison reform advocate I predicted the rise, accurately.

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Thousands of children evicted – nowhere to go

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Recently in Western Australia, an 86-year-old grandmother, an Aboriginal lady, was threatened with eviction for non-payment of a state-housing water bill. Her eviction has only been stalled by the intervention of Kimberley parliamentarian, Kija woman Josie Farrer. Recently, two Perth families, once again Aboriginal, with 9 children and 11 children were evicted from their homes.

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Help us assist children in 68 countries

Brother Olly Pickett was building wheelchairs for children in a tiny workshop in Cambodia when he came across one of the youngest workers in the group. Brother Pickett told ABC journalist, Stephanie Dalzell, that the 15-year-old amputee was propped up on his knees, undeterred by the rough concrete floor he was kneeling on.

He was helping construct one of a dozen wheelchairs for children on the outskirts of the town who struggled to get to the local school each day.

Brother Pickett says at the end of his trip, the group decided to give the boy his own wheelchair.

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‘Close the Gap’ – failed

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - photo, Palm Island kids, courtesy of NACCHO - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Last week we revealed the lie of $25 billion spent on Indigenous disadvantage, and several weeks ago we revealed that almost 1000 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders died from suicide throughout Australia between 2001 to 2010, and that we estimate this national epidemic is probably twice the reported numbers.

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Australia’s Federal Parliaments still reflect a White Australia

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 sought to journey Australia in a new direction - having condemned The White Australia Policy. Australia, dominated by a majorly conservative class and apothegms, was in effect trying to catch up with social movements around the world – such as with the United States of America’s Civil Rights Bill 1965, and the more liberal precepts of most of Europe.

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Destroying 18C will give rise to “race hate”

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - The amendments sought to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 by the Australian Government will give rise to the advent of public race hate, foment racial tensions and solidify rampant racism according to the majority of non-Anglocentric cultures in Australia.

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600,000 Australian children in poverty, 18,000 kids homeless

Story by Gerry Georgatos, photo by Frank Violi - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ This morning, Federal Parliament resumed sitting, the first time since the Federal election. The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and UNICEF Australia immediately called upon the House of Representatives and the Australian Senate to develop an anti-poverty plan.

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Tens of Thousands rally for Climate Action across Australia

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have rallied or marched for climate action across Australia in a demonstration that a significant number of people view climate change as a serious issue requiring substantive action from all levels of Government, including the Federal Government lead by cinservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The rallies were organised by GetUp, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

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Australia wins Fossil awards for repeal of carbon pricing and abandoning neighbors on loss and damage

Just four days in to the United Nations climate negotiations in Warsaw and Australia are winning our 3rd Fossil award for abandoning our neighbours on loss and damage, and our 2nd fossil award for the first country to attempt to wind back an established carbon pricing mechanism. Earlier in the week Australia earnt it's first rebuke by civil society at UN climate change talks for not putting forward any new finance commitments at the Warsaw negotiations.

Related: Climate scientists say Success of climate talks vital for 2°C target | Youth observers expelled from UN climate change talks for Philippines Solidarity | Warsaw climate talks: nearly 3 in 10 countries not sending ministers | Poles back renewables and climate action despite Tusk government’s total support of coal | COP19: Your Guide to the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action | Japan's reduced emissions target a setback to climate change negotiations

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