Feature

Donā€™t abandon us as you did in other Royal Commissions

Courtesy of The National Indigenous Times

By Geoff Bagnall

Indigenous leaders have welcomed the announcement by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard of a wide ranging Royal Commission into child abuse but warned they will demand any recommendations by the Commission are not abandoned by government as they were with the findings into the Royal Commissions into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Stolen Generations.

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Climate change implications of new study on methane emissions in coal seam gas field

Coal seam gas has been touted as a green transitional fuel, far less polluting than coal, but a new study implies it may not be as green or climate friendly as the industry makes out. It hinges on the level of fugitive emissions produced in development and production of a gas field. A study by two scientists from Southern Cross University based in Lismore, northern NSW, detected much higher levels of the strong greenhouse gas methane around the Tara gas field on the Darling Downs of Queensland west of Brisbane.

Action: Getup! have started a Dirtier than Coal? campaign calling on Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet to commission urgent research into the climate impacts of coal seam gas, and to make sure that CSG companies start accounting, and paying, for fugitive emissions.

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Martin Ferguson rebuffs Coal CEO Twiggy Palmcock in launching Energy paper

While Federal Resources and Energy minister Martin Ferguson was launching a white paper on energy, the press conference was interrupted by that scallywag Victorian Coal CEO Twiggy Palmcock who thanked the Minister for his support of the fossil fuel industry.

Related: 2012 Energy white paper | RenewEconomy: Ferguson spies a green energy future ā€¦ and steps on the gas | The Conversation: Energy White Paper plans to burn, burn, burn it all | Tony Abbott rebuffs Victorian coal mining magnate

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What the NT Aboriginal people really said about Stronger Futures

A new book which tells what Aboriginal people told the Senate inquiry into the Stronger Futures legislation has been launched in Sydney. Launches in Melbourne, Canberra, Murray Bridge and Adelaide are to follow. It's called "A Decision to Discriminate: Aboriginal Disempowerment in the Northern Territory", published by the group ā€˜concerned Australiansā€™, which has put out several books on the NT intervention. This is the latest.

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FMG's "The True Yindjibarndi Story" versus YAC's "FMG's Great Native Title Swindle"

Two different sides to the Yindjibarndi/Fortescue story - make up your own mind ala Akira Kurosawa style!

This is a 10 minute 22 second clip commercially produced to depict a version of events from the March 16, 2011 Yindjibarndi community meeting to decide whether Yindjibarndi should negotiate with Fortescue over mining rights on the terms offered by Fortescue - Andrew Forrest spoke to the Yindjibarndi at the meeting:

The film was produced post April 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGZ_H_SWiQM

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Iraqi children need your help - 6000 Iraqi children, victims of the wars, need wheelchairs

Dear people,
Once again we are trying to urgently provide 330 wheelchairs to Iraqi children in Iraq.

Some of you have assisted in the past, we need your urgent assistance again please.

Fund raisers, donations, anything, please contact me.

Would you, your community groups, school, organisation help with urgent fundraisers or donations towards ensuring the shipment of 330 wheelchairs to Iraqi children doing it very tough in difficult circumstances in Iraq?

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"We smell death" - 350 bravely hunger strike in Nauru - 30 collapse

Gerry Georgatos
Heading into day four of the hunger protest on Nauru, in high temperatures, unhygienic high density conditions at the detention centre cropped by hills of disused phosphate mines and dugouts and thick jungle forest, here is the latest message from within:

More than 30 detained Asylum Seekers layed unconscious at the end of the third day of their hunger strike.

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Children attempting suicide in Immigration custody

Gerry Georgatos

The email below this one is the news that will imminently eventuate - which would grab the attention of the news media without fail. From Christmas Island families are transferred and crowded into Detention Centres - for instance Darwin Airport Lodge, which is bursting at the seams. Children are walking around witness to abominable tensions, in witness to young adults who are swathed in bandages from physical wounds - from injuries where blood stains are fresh.

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"Kill us all, and bury us here" - Solidarity from Australia to the Amazon's Guarani

Gerry Georgatos
ā€œKill us all, then bury us hereā€ is the breaking point desperation of the Amazonā€™s Aboriginal peoples who are being pilloried out of their country ā€“ lands, rivers and forests, from their whole way of life ā€“ by multinational giants rapaciously profiting from the mining of their lands. Not only is the Amazonā€™s forest rapidly diminishing but so are the numbers of its Aboriginal peoples. The Government is seeking to remove them to impoverished reserves and missions. Aboriginal leaders and rights advocates Australia-wide have sent messages of solidarity - Goolarabooloo Law Boss, Phillip Roe in his own battle with multinationals to save Walmandan (James Price Point) said of the Amazon tragedy that it is "racism and the rape of a people who have done no one any harm.ā€

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The call for a Royal Commission into the AWU scandal involving Julia Gillard IS LOUDER THAN EVER - Gillard, the lawyer, brought a defamation action in defence of the 'bagman' who now wants to testify 'with immunity'

THE CALL FOR THE ROYAL COMMISSION INTO THE AWU SCANDAL INVOLVING PRIME MINISTER JULIA GILLARD IS LOUDER THAN EVER ā€“ ā€œIt was not a slush fundā€ says AWU accountant ā€“ it was something more sinister ā€“ new revelation ā€“ Julia Gillard, lawyer, brought on a defamation action in defence of Ralph Blewitt (ā€œthe bagmanā€) ā€“ enough is enough, bring on the Royal Commission and step down Julia Gillard from the Office of the Prime Minister till the RC is concluded ā€“ The nationā€™s reputation is on the line

Gillardā€™s account of slush fund rejected ā€“ October 29, 2012 ā€“ Sydney Morning Herald

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