Photos by Ali Bakhtiavandi
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Exploration licences for coal seam gas mining (CSG) cover 75% of the land in New South Wales where people live. Residents are worried about the effect CSG mining could have on their land and water, and angry about the lack of consultation by the gas companies.
Activists expected that a new 鈥渁nti-association鈥 law would be passed by the Western Australian parliament on May 1. Instead, the law has been debated inside and outside parliament since then.
The new law would give power to a judge to declare an organisation to be a 鈥渃riminal association鈥. Members of declared organisations can be given 鈥渃ontrol orders鈥 restricting their contacts with other people and could even prohibit their use of telephones or email.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is being set up under the Clean Energy Future legislation (the carbon price package). It will provide $10 billion to support renewable and low-emissions energy.
That鈥檚 the message that most climate-concerned people have been hearing from the Labor government and the Greens.
Unfortunately, it now seems overly optimistic. shows it may give most of its support to gas projects.
Attorney-general Nicola Roxon is planning a raft of new powers for ASIO to intercept and store any individual鈥檚 information. The move follows the adoption of new laws that allow Australia鈥檚 spy agencies to target individuals and organisations that oppose the government's interests 鈥 nicknamed the 鈥淲ikiLeaks amendment鈥.
Several proposed changes to telecommunications interception and access laws, as well as the Intelligence Services Act 2001, would expand ASIO鈥檚 powers of surveillance and reduce government oversight of ASIO activities.
Federal resources minister Martin Ferguson released a report on May 14 into Australia鈥檚 gas reserves. The report signalled a huge expansion of gas mining in the NT and bad news for the environment.
Two new areas have been opened for gas exploration: shale gas exploration in the central NT, and conventional offshore gas exploration north-west of Darwin. Both of these present serious environmental problems.
The shale gas industry relies on capturing gas by pumping sand, water and chemicals into the ground 鈥 a process commonly known as fracking.
A newly formed group, , has put some early runs on the board by forcing the Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi .
The rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin are dying. While average inflows decline due to climate change, extractions for irrigation remain at environmentally damaging levels.
But the plan for management of the basin鈥檚 water resources drawn up by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), due to be adopted by federal parliament later this year, ignores fundamental problems.
Unscientific and politically-driven, the plan needs to be torn up, and the tasks of saving what can be saved of the rivers, their ecosystems and their human communities addressed afresh.
The news that former Geelong Grammar School student Rose Ashton-Weir for failing to secure her a spot at Sydney University's law school has been the source of much mocking on the internet as a classic case of a spoilt brat's temper tantrum.
Freedom to protest
Congratulations to the Sydney Al-Nakba Planning Committee for successfully defying police and winning its case in the Supreme Court to be allowed to protest on Al-Nakba Day. The Supreme Court decision on May 14 sets an important precedent for future protest groups in Sydney when they come up against police opposition. The police will not be in a hurry to take a protest group to court again.
Thirty people attended a May 15 rally on the steps of South Australia鈥檚 Parliament House to protest the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration (Registration of Still-Births) Amendment Bill, also known as Jayden鈥檚 Law, introduced by Family First MP Robert Brokenshire, which was to be voted upon the next day.
However, in the face of community concerns regarding the intentions and wording of the amendment and a campaign organised by the South Australian Feminist Collective (SAFC), Brokenshire has delayed the vote for several weeks.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions unanimously passed a motion supporting self-determination for the people of Western Sahara at its national congress over May 15-17.
The motion also called for the Australian government to push local companies to 鈥渆nd the importation of phosphate鈥, which is plundered from Western Sahara by Morocco.
Saharawi human rights activist Malak Amidane spoke at a public forum in Sydney on May 17 as part of a national speaking tour, organised by the Australia Western Sahara Association and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
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