Was Australia's Federal election a referendum on the carbon price and Australia's policies on climate change? Prime Minister Tony Abbott would have us believe that it was. Indeed, he campaigned strongly to 'axe the carbon tax'.
According to Climate Action Tracker, it is likely Australian emissions under the Liberals policy will actually increase by 12 per cent by 2020, instead of meeting the unconditional commitment of 5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020.
Newsletter date: 25 November 2013
Contents:
* Greens Senators Rachel Siewert & Penny Wright: Indigenous legal aid cuts must not go ahead
* Amy McQuire, Tracker: Come clean on Indigenous legal aid cuts: Greens
* Brooke Boney, NITV News: Nova Peris questions Indigenous legal aid cuts
* WGAR News: Coalition's proposed cuts 'a heartless decision' says ALSWA: Aboriginal Legal Service WA (9 Sep 13)
* Background to Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
* Amy McQuire, Tracker: White justice crippling a community
Heat and human health expert Elizabeth Hanna (ANU) on current and developing costs of climate heating.
For example, people dream of moving to Darwin. Some do, but then move back when they can't handle heat and humidity. With even Melbourne suburbs hitting almost 50 degrees C. - what will happen to Australia when the world warms more than 2 degrees C?
AUSTRALIAN DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION ARE YOU QUALIFIED ?
By Mim DiNapoli, photo by David Tong.
Australia has taken out the Climate Action Network's prestigious award of Colossal Fossil for 2013. This came as a shock to nobody following the leaderboard, as most punters had placed their bets on the land of girt by sea. You can read more here at the Climate Action Network.
Related COP19 Stories: India: whatever happened to fair play? It's just not cricket | Yeb Saño, The Rise of a Celebrity Climate Negotiator from the Philippines | Time for a climate change. Dreams or Numbers for Gender Equity | Australia wins unprecedented fourth Fossil of the Day award for finance stance | Tens of Thousands Rally for Climate Action | Australia not budging on climate position at home or in Warsaw | Climate Action Moreland: ALP opposes climate tax repeal
By Mim DiNapoli, photo by David Tong.
It was hardly a surprise to see India walk away from the Climate Action Network booth last night with a Fossil of the Day certificate tucked under one arm. Much like their performance in last Ashes test match against Australia, another high-ranking Fossil of The Day performer, other candidates were no match for India in blocking progress in negotiations.
By Jeppe Fischer, Photo by 350.org
The Philippines has been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan with at least four million people displaced. Haiyan has also had impact beyond the Philippines though, and in a different way, at the UN climate change summit in Warsaw, Poland. Media coverage of the negotiations has been overshadowed by the typhoon, and The Verb explores the impact.
By Cécile Schneider, photo by UNFCCC.
Tuesday’s UNFCCC ‘gender and climate change’ day was unconventional in many ways. In hosting the feature event, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, did not ask panellists to talk about their countries’ achievements, their experiences of gender inequality or even their proposals.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Welcome to The Stringer’s weekly newsletter - NEWS update: The Stringer went live February 20. The Stringer comprises thirty-odd contributors, from most States and Territories of Australia, from an increasing number of locations around our world. If you would like to become a regular contributor, or contribute an article, photograph/s, a radio or video piece, we would be glad to hear from you.
Newsletter date: 24 November 2013
Contents:
* Paddy Gibson, Socialist Worker: Utopia: The brutal theft of a continent goes on in Australia
* Australian Times: Interview - John Pilger exposes Australia's shocking secret in Utopia
* Niall Mulholland, from The Socialist: An interview with the maker of Utopia, John Pilger
* The Stringer: John Pilger - 'Utopia' - launches in Australia in January
* JohnPilger.com : "Utopia will be launched in Australia in January"
* JohnPilger.com : Utopia reviews
* Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention
Newsletter date: 23 November 2013
Contents:
* Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: 'Close the Gap' - failed
* The Wire: Slowly, closing the gap [Featuring Jack Bulman and Associate Professor Gracelyn Smallwood]
* Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Policy change needed to close the gap
* SNAICC News: COAG report - Lessons for federal reform
* NACCHO AGM Perth 2013 health news: Aboriginal life expectancy increases to Close the Gap
* ABC The World Today: Positive news from efforts to 'close the gap'
