Two hundred people blockaded Parliament House in Canberra today calling on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to secure a strong, legally binding treaty at the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Police arrested 130 people, although it is believed none were charged.
The Tinka Tindung goldmine threatens rainforest and especially marine life off the Indonesian island Sulawesi.
The Minahsa region in northern Sulawesi (Indonesia) is in the running for a UNESCO world natural heritage listing. But its incomparable nature is in danger.
The Indonesian government has licensed the Toka Tindung gold mine in north Minahsa. A study by the University of Jakarta predicts fatal consequences for people and the environment of the region.
WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
WGAR website: http://wgar.info/
Contents:
Visit to Australia by Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan
Government progress report on the NT Intervention
Upcoming NT Intervention Protests
Other NT Intervention Articles
Other Aboriginal Articles
VISIT TO AUSTRALIA BY AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY GENERAL IRENE KHAN:
- News
National Indigenous Times:
Indigenous poverty as 'morally outrageous' as torture: Amnesty head
http://www.nit.com.au/story.aspx?id=19020
Did Privitization kill 121 people on Black Saturday? The power line implicated in the deadliest blaze of the day was faulty. It was checked by a linesman working for the contractors UAM, who worked for the Singaporean private power wholesaler SP Austnet. The fragmentation of knowledge, skills and responsibility under privitization, combined with the drive for cost reduction may have helped kill people on Black Saturday.
A new film shows rarely-seen footage of separatist rebels in Indonesian-ruled Papua province, who have been fighting a low-level insurgency for more than 40 years.
The military wing of the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, has control over some remote parts of Papua.
The international media and many NGOs are banned from Papua, but that did not stop young British film-maker Dominic Brown from visiting without the knowledge or authority of the Indonesian authorities and capturing rare video images of some OPM military camps.
Vegie Swap Meets
Kildonan Fresh Food Swap
Do you grow your own fruit or vegetables?
Do you have too much?
Come to the Kildonan Fresh Food Swap and swap your produce for something you don’t grow!
Items for swap can be:
• Fresh fruit , vegetables & herbs
• Seeds, seedlings, cuttings & flowers
• Jams, chutneys, sauces & eggs (all dated)
Feel free to bring along recipes and gardening tips to share with others too!
Date: Saturday, 7th of November at the Kildonan Community Day. Then, the first Saturday of every month.
Time: 10am-12pm.
Community and environment groups today started a 100km walk from Sorrento to Port Melbourne around Port Phillip Bay, to raise awareness about climate change and rising sea levels in Victoria and around the world. Markers were placed along the way to show where the sea level will rise to by the end of the century if efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution do not happen immediately.
Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General, announced after spending a week visiting Aborigines in central Australia, "In the heart of this first world I found scenes more reminiscent of the third world. That Indigenous peoples experience human rights violations on a continent of such privilege is not merely disheartening, it is morally outrageous. The moral imperative to eradicate such poverty is no less an imperative on government than to eliminate torture."
Sydney IMC: Firefighters demanded action on climate change from politicians in Canberra on November 19 while much of south eastern Australia sweltered and suffered with temperatures well above 30 degrees. Many regions were declared severe, extreme or catastrophic fire danger.
Fifty protestors were arrested on Thursday 19th November in an act of civil disobedience on the steps of the Tasmanian Parliament in Hobart. The protestors were not only calling for the mill to be stopped but against the corrupt passing of the Tasmania Pulp Mill Assessment Act that fast tracked approval of the Mill.
A pro-choice rally will be held in Brisbane on November 21 as part of the ongoing campaign against the prosecution of a Cairns couple under Queensland’s anti-abortion laws.
The rally will demand the dropping of the abortion charges and the repeal of the anti-abortion laws.
Pro-Choice Action Collective activist, Kathy Newnam said “The laws under which the Cairns couple have been charged should not exist. Abortion should not be on the criminal code. Abortion has been decriminalised in the ACT (2002) and Victoria (2008) and it’s high time that Queensland did the same.
The WSWS website has revealed that Indonesian police shot two Afghan Asylum seekers trying to flee to Australia from a high powered boat supplied by Australia. This is symptomatic of the way that Australia is trying to use its financial and diplomatic muscle to outsource the persecution of asylum seekers trying to come to Australia.
The most recent Global Carbon Audit has found that carbon emissions increased by %2 again in 2008, keeping the world on track for worst case scenario climate change of of 6 degree rise in temperature by 2100. Emissions dropped to %2 from an average of %3 increase annually because of the Global Financial Crisis showing how the current capitalist economy ties wealth creation and carbon pollution together.Incredibly carbon emissions have increased %40 globally since 1990. Shamefully Australia is rated as having the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world.
The first of the 22 people arrested at the dirty Hazelwood brown coal powered electricity generator on September 13th 2009 have faced court. The two protestors were offered a "Diversion" which is a legal process sometimes offered by police to first time offenders. It means they have to plead guilty but are dealt with by a Magistrate outside a formal court hearing and our guaranteed to not receive a conviction.
The police prosecutor asked for a $100 fine to be imposed but this was upped by the Magistrate to a $250 fine - the money to be donated to the RSPCA.
Catastrophic Fire Danger warning has been issued for two regions in South Australia - Flinders and North-West Pastoral districts - because of predicted extreme temperatures, strong winds and low humidity. This is the first time this top classification fire warning has been used in Australia.
While many recipients of Australia Day Awards are good citizens and deserving, others are not.
It is scandalous that public officials are nominated for the Public Service Award each year and the process is shrouded in secrecy. Neither the nominators nor the nominees are made public before January 26th, so the general public have no opportunity to lodge objections or allegations of corrupt conduct of these senior public servants.
Marine and climate scientists have called for at least a 25% cut in carbon emissions from developed countries like Australia to save the Great Barrier Reef. A 25% cut in emissions would amount to peaking at less than 450ppm atmospheric CO2 and a 50/50 chance of staying below 2 degrees Centigrade. And by 2050, emissions would have to decline by up to 90 percent below 2000 levels. Even with this scenario tropical reefs may be substantially degraded.
Gunns Ltd's case against the remaining Gunns 20 defendants will go to trial in February 2010, more than five years after the first writs were originally served in December 2004.
The case is now before Justice Forrest who has estimated that the trial, when it finally arrives, will run for up to five weeks. He has determined that the trial will be heard before a judge only, no jury.
The case has already cost an estimated $3 million and is likely to cost much more by the end. It is already considered the longest running and most expensive case of its kind in Australia's legal history.
A new report published by the Australian Government - Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts povides a risk assessment of climate change and rising sea level to Austrlian coastal communities. The report shows between 157,000 to 247,600 existing residential buildings will be at risk from sea inundation by 2100, under a sea-level rise scenario of 1.1 metres.
By the Save the Mary Coordinating Group and Diet Simon
A 2007 report by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney and Cardno Brisbane, found supply and demand options being implemented in Southeast Queensland sufficient to ensure adequate water supplies until about 2030 without the need for a Traveston dam.
Related: Gympie Times - Group wades in on debate
