Brumby

The Victorian parliament tackled climate change on Friday with a climate bill passed in the Legislative Council with support of Liberals and Greens members to set a 20 percent emissions reduction based upon 2000 levels by 2020. "This is a significant Bill which has the potential to stabilise and then drive down our greenhouse emissions, while also creating certainty for investors and industry, and many new jobs across the state," said Friends of the Earth (FoE) campaigns co-ordinator Cam Walker.

With the start of the new duck killing season only a week away, opponents of the slaughter of native birds in the name of sport lined the steps of Parliament House on Sunday to condemn the Brumby Government’s decision not only to allow the season to go ahead, but even to increase the allowed catch – this in spite of overwhelming opposition from within the community and the ALP itself, not to mention the near-catastophic drop in bird populations after years of drought.