The big problem with the latest drought assistance package is that it lacks vision.

What we really need is a strategy to make the transition to a productive and sustainable agriculture in a changing and uncertain climate.

This means we need a better idea of what the projected impacts are for our agricultural regions and what the options are for improving the resilience of our farming systems and safely managing the risk of our farm enterprises.

The Coalition's latest ad hoc assistance package only seems to offer two choices - money to hang on and pray for rain, or money to get out while the getting is good.

Deep in the jungles of New Guinea the Melanesians of West Papua helped Australian diggers fight the Japanese. They carried wounded men, ammunition and supplies through difficult terrain. They provided food and worked at the massive naval base in Hollandia.

How does the Howard government, that rarely hesitates to wrap itself in the flag, repay this debt of honour? By turning away West Papuan asylum seekers who seek our protection, and turning a blind eye to the Indonesian military colonialism that many experts equate as genocide.

Christine writes in today's Crikey's daily email:

It's pleasing to see some critiques in today's media of Team Howard's decision to water down the MRET by including so-called 'clean coal' into a new 'Clean Energy Target'. But, as has been pointed out, even if it can be proven to work, 'clean coal' is too far away from commercialisation to make any real difference on a 2020 timeline. A more pressing issue which hasn't as yet been noted is the rubberiness of the figures that the PM and Mr Turnbull have been bandying about.

Yesterday's Prime Ministerial media release suggests strongly that the 30,000 GWh target is intended as a total figure. But this would amount to only 9% of the government's official energy demand projections of 342,000 GWh in 2019-20 [at p29 of this ABARE report]. That's a long way off 15-20%. Now, we could give the government the benefit of the doubt and add the original MRET baseline to the 30,000 GWh figure - on our estimates, around 16,000 GWh. But this still only adds up to 13% of projected energy demand.

Why wait for the election when you can VOTE today?!

Many of you may have seen the video that's been on our website and YouTube channel for a while of two Polar Bears discussing what might be causing climate change.

Well, we're very pleased to announce that this video, directed by the wonderful folks at eskimoproductions, has been shortlisted for a global short film prize, Filminute!

There are two prizes under the Filminute banner - one a jury prize and one a people's choice prize. Of course, we'd love to see as many of you as possible voting for the video and posting nice comments about it ;-)

You can go direct to the video at filminute's site and VOTE for it HERE.

Despite yesterday's unanimous agreement in the Senate of the urgent need to ‘Close the Gap' on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, the Senate today voted against taking the immediate steps required to implement this commitment.

Over 80 000 ordinary Australians, including Ian Thorpe, Michael Long and Cathy Freeman, have all signed on to the Close the Gap pledge within recent weeks - but today both major parties refused to follow their lead.

I've posted a short video on my YouTube Channel, explaining the desperate need for the Government to address this problem.

Writer and troublemaker George Monbiot once asked the question of an audience member at a public meeting: what would England look like if it were to cut its energy use by 80%? The sceptical audience member replied, "a very poor third world country."

It's safe to assume the same goes for Australia. In fact, now is a good time to admit that we don't know how to rapidly cut the greenhouse gas emissions of a heavily industrialised country like Australia by 80 or 90% without crashing the economy. No-one has ever done anything remotely like it before. The road ahead is strewn with powerful vested interests, a lifetime of habituation to wasteful energy services, and a century's worth of investment in infrastructure.

It is clear that the Government is not interested in providing assistance to people to help them understand the new Workplace laws and wants to cut access to independent advice.

When I cross-examined the Office of the Employment Advocate (now operating under the Workplace Ombudsman and the Workplace Authority) in May 2007 they were unable to justify the funding cuts to CLCs.

The Government claimed that they could provide the advice for better value for money, yet they have done no assessment of what value for money they provide and they continue to refer people to CLCs.

Community organisations looking to help out in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory are likely to think twice once they learn that Mal Brough is giving himself the power to seize their assets and appoint spies to their governing boards.

In an extraordinary admission yesterday during the debate on the NT Intervention Bills, the Government confirmed it is giving itself the powers to direct any community service providers in prescribed areas and seize or give away their assets. These are astonishing powers for the government to wield. Caring organisations providing services in prescribed Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory will not want to risk their limited assets.

Indigenous Australians continue to be breached under Welfare to Work at unacceptably high levels. 1644 Indigenous Australians received 8 week non-payment periods for breaching the welfare to work laws in the year ending 30 June 2007. This is an increase of around 250% from last year.

These massive increases should be ringing alarm bells within Government. It is completely unacceptable to implement a regime which is having such a detrimental effect on such a vulnerable group in our community. These figures are even more disturbing when the NT Intervention measures are taken into account. There was considerable evidence before the Senate Inquiry into the NT Bills that the Government's abolition of CDEP in the Northern Territory and the movement of people onto Welfare to Work will see these figures soar.