In the midst of a Federal Election and with the major party leaders equivocating on climate change and a price on carbon, the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan will be launched at a free public forum in Sydney Town Hall on Thursday 12 August at 6.00 pm.
Hosted by the journalist and broadcaster, Quentin Dempster, the speakers will include:
路 Malcolm Turnbull, MP for Wentworth
路 Bob Carr, former NSW State Premier
路 Scott Ludlam, Greens Senator for WA
路 Matthew Wright, Executive Director, Beyond Zero Emissions
路 Allan Jones, Sustainability Expert, City of Sydney
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Sam Watson, Socialist Alliance Senate candidate for Queensland. Longstanding leader of the Aboriginal community of Brisbane, campaigner against Black deaths in custody and for Indigenous rights.
TOWNSVILLE 鈥 More than 230 miners at the Thiess Collinsville Coal Project walked off the job on July 27 over a two-year-old pay dispute. The strike has halted all production at the mine.
Secretary of the Collinsville lodge of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union Rick Grant told the July 29 Townsville Bulletin the miners had dug in and weren鈥檛 about to back down.
Grant said the dispute was over what workers considered an outdated enterprise bargaining agreement. He said the EBA was well below what miners in other parts of the Bowen Basin were being paid.
Internationally recognised legal standards are being flagrantly ignored in the treatment of political prisoners from the pro-democracy Red Shirt movement. The prisoners have been detained by the Abhisit Vejjajiva military government since the bloody crackdown against unarmed demonstrators in May.
On July 25, climate change minister Penny Wong, Australia鈥檚 first openly queer government minister, came out against equal marriage rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.
鈥淥n the issue of marriage I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious, historical view around that which we have to respect鈥, she told Channel 10.
Wong鈥檚 statement dramatically shows the utter moral bankruptcy of the Labor Party on the issue.
A prolonged industrial dispute is continuing at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) as a result of the ongoing refusal of vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer to bargain in good faith with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) over staff concerns about pay and conditions 鈥 especially job security.
Hilmer鈥檚 intransigence should come as no surprise.
When Hilmer announced his decision to take up a tidy $750,000 annual salary package as vice-chancellor of University of New South Wales back in 2005, he said partial deregulation of education was like being 鈥渉alf pregnant鈥.
Just hours before coming into effect on July 29, Arizona鈥檚 anti-immigrant law SB 1070 had some of its provisions overruled by federal district judge Susan Bolton.
The overruled provisions include:
鈥 The obligation for police officers to determine the immigration status of everyone they stop, if officers have a 鈥渞easonable suspicion鈥 that they might be in the country unlawfully;
鈥 Mandatory detention of people arrested even for minor offences (such as traffic violations), if they can't prove that they are in the US legally;
On July 27, Cockburn Shire council workers took industrial action in protest to the managements offer of a pay-rise in this years new enterprise bargaining agreement. The workers for the shire, which is in southern Perth, have refused the offer, which falls sort of what they consider fair.
The workers belong to two unions, the Australian Services Union (ASU) and the Local Government Racing and Cemeteries Employees Union (LGRCEU), which are organising their pay campaign.
A group of sixty refugee rights activists visited the Villawood Detention Centre on July 25 to take part in a planned soccer match and BBQ with refugees. It was organised by Socialist Alliance and Greens members and supported by the Construction Forestry, Energy and Mining Union (CFMEU) and Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA).
We wanted to show solidarity with refugees and highlight both the ALP and the Liberal鈥檚 inhumane refugee policies. However, when we arrived we were turned away, deemed a 鈥渟ecurity threat.鈥
Protesters had coal trains backed up for kilometres at the small mining town of Collinsville, inland from Bowen, north Queensland, on July 26. They were protesting against the dust and noise of the trains, and the plan to upgrade the rail line to bring up to 70 coal trains a day through their town.
About 15 coal trains a day rumble through the middle of Collinsville. The residents picketed the line for three days, bringing coal train traffic to a complete halt.
What do right-wing columnist Gerard Henderson and Australian Workers鈥 Union national secretary and ALP factional player Paul Howes have in common? A visceral hatred of Greens and socialists.
As the already widespread disillusion with politics-as-usual deepens, the Greens have a chance of holding the balance of power in the Senate after the August 21 poll.
This is grist to the mill for the right-wing commentators.
Henderson sounded yet another furious warning in his article in the July 27 Sydney Morning Herald titled 鈥淩adical roots seep through at the heart of Greens鈥.
The recent diplomatic manoeuvres by the US and Colombian governments against Venezuela have put the region on red alert.
There are a clear warning signs that US imperialism has stepped up its plans to overthrow the revolutionary government of Venezuela through military means, as support for opposition parties drops in the lead up to the September National Assembly elections.
An intense mobilisation within Venezuela and internationally is needed to make it clear that imperialism will pay the highest price possible if it attempts to plunge the region into war.
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