Don鈥檛 believe the hype. The carbon price deal announced by Labor and the Greens on February 24 is not a breakthrough and does not set Australia on a path to a zero-carbon future.
Rather, it entrenches a framework that puts market forces at the heart of Australia鈥檚 response to the climate emergency. It鈥檚 a step in the wrong direction.
The full details of the deal 鈥 including the price and compensation measures 鈥 are yet to be finalised. But the agreement made clear the scheme will begin by mid-2012 and become a fully-fledged emissions trading scheme three-to-five years later.
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Labor, Liberal and National MPs lined up to pass the Labor government's National Radioactive Waste Management Bill through the House of Representatives on February 23.
Greens MP Adams Bandt and independents Andrew Wilke, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter did not support the bill.
If passed in the senate, the bill will pave the way for the construction of a national nuclear waste dump at Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
The legislation overrides NT legislation designed to ban nuclear waste dumps in the territory.
Below is the text of a speech by Fremantle councillor and Socialist Alliance member Sam Wainwright to 麻豆传媒 Weekly's 20th anniversary celebrations in Perth on February 12.
In Australia, a society created on the basis of racial division and superiority, the ugly face of prejudice and discrimination is, unsurprisingly, still very evident today.
Regardless of the often mentioned idea of a 鈥渕ulticultural鈥 Australia, there seems to be a strong campaign to stigmatise, reject and isolate Muslims from mainstream values and norms.
Through recent comments and initiatives taken by several Liberal and Labor party politicians, the overt nature of anti-Islamic discrimination in Australia is as obvious as it is disgraceful.
I went down to Tasmania for the Southern Forests Convergence organised by activists at the Huon Valley Environment Centre (HVEC) over February 19 to 21. These folks are the heart and soul of ancient forest protection in Tassie and, as always, it was a great honour to work with them.
Below is the text of a speech by Pip Hinman, Socialist Alliance candidate for Marrickville in the NSW state elections, to the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre candidates meeting on February 23.
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I鈥檇 like to first acknowledge that we鈥檙e meeting on the land of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora nation, and I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
The two most important issues in this state election is to call a halt to the privatisations of our public assets and to immediately start a shift away from using polluting coal or gas for our energy needs.
The artwork for A History of Now, the new album from Asian Dub Foundation (ADF), is a set of iPhone apps. But instead of Apple鈥檚 tame applications, the band of British-born Indian genre benders have invented their own parodies.
Ahlem Belhadj is a Tunisian revolutionary socialist and member of the Ligue de la Gauche Ouvriers (Left Workers鈥 League). It is a part of the January 14 Front, which unites left-wing groups seeking to push Tunisia鈥檚 revolution forward by creating a new government free from members of the former ruling party, and supports policies reversing neoliberalism.
Belhadj spoke with 麻豆传媒 Weekly鈥檚 Tony Iltis on February 12 about the Tunisian revolution.
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Hidden beneath the spectacular street battles that forced Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak out of office was a trigger that exists in dozens of countries throughout the world 鈥 food.
Or, more specifically, the lack of it.
Commentators have focused on the corruption of the dictatorship, or the viral effects of the Tunisian uprising or what appears to be akin to an Arab political awakening.
But the inability of the Egyptian regime to ensure a steady flow of food staples should also be viewed as a critical factor driving this seemingly spontaneous movement for freedom.
A huge battle of the right of public sector workers to organise has broken out in the state of Wisconsin. In response to a law pushed by Republican Governor Scott Walker, protesters have held a sit-in at the state legislature in Madison, Wisconsin鈥檚 capital, since February 14.
Under heavy public pressure, the South Australian government of Labor Premier Mike Rann appears to be wavering in its support for mining uranium in the Arkaroola wilderness in the state鈥檚 north.
On February 18, the Adelaide Advertiser gave front-page headlines to reports that Arkaroola, a privately-held nature sanctuary and ecotourism site in the Flinders Ranges about 600 kilometres north of the state capital, could be declared a national park.
More than 100,000 protesters packed Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain's capital, Manama, on February 22, demanding an end to the regime of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
Protester Muhammad Abdullah told The New York Times: 鈥淭his is the first time in the history of Bahrain that the majority of people, of Bahraini people, got together with one message: this regime must fall.鈥
If the Khalifa family 鈥 which has ruled the tiny island nation for 200 years 鈥 falls, it could have major implications for the region and world politics.
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