City of Exiles
Senator Scott Ludlam - Dharamsala 1-6 July 2009

On a dusty street in Lhasa, Tibet, a demonstration has gone bad. Tensions have been escalating for days; murmured opposition and spontaneous flashes of dissent spreading and finally igniting mass demonstrations from the Capital to every regional centre in Tibet. The security forces have been observing, documenting, falling back as numbers have grown.

It was great to visit Blackmans Bay Primary School last week for Schools Tree Day. This is a school that takes their environmental responsibility very seriously; and better still, they use it as an education resource. I arrived to find the kids digging, planting, driving in stakes and obviously enjoying themselves. Trees were going up everywhere, and by that I mean even outside the school where they've adopted a neighbouring plot of land and are in the process of revegetating a once barren piece of land. Fantastic stuff! Plus the school principal, Anthony Burrows, was kind enough to show me around the school's new sustainable classrooms currently under construction. They're bright, energy efficient, full of innovation, and allow the outside world to merge with the classroom. An inspirational place.

On July 4th 2009, the community owned Denmark Environment Centre, in Denmark, Western Australia, which houses the head office of Green Skills was completely gutted by fire.

Green Skills has been a long term resident of the community owned building since 1989 when it operated as a project of APACE AID. Green Skills has since grown to include offices in Perth and Albany and became an independent incorporated organisation in 1998.

I've just come across this and thought some of you might be interested in it - Good Magazine's Harmony interface. It's a great example of people using different interfaces and interactive measures to portray a message. The graphics are simple yet powerful, and each individual line in the story can be treated as its own timeline.

Australia's Anti-Terrorism laws were rammed through Parliament in haste and need to be reviewed to determine which merit retention and modernisation. However, some of the laws don't even deserve the dignity of being subject to review by the long-awaited independent reviewer of terrorism laws. I have introduced the Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009 to identify those parts of the anti-terrorism laws that are irrational, unused or extreme and should be removed from Australia's statues.

The Government and other naysayers say it can't be done. The Greens say it must be done, so it will be done.

Christine Milne spoke today at the National Press Club in Canberra, televised nationally on ABC1, setting out the Greens' vision for a safe climate and setting that against what the Government is proposing with the CPRS.

You can read the speech here and please use this as an open thread to discuss the issues it raises!

On Saturday 13th June, a national rally is being held in most capital cities around Australia. All five Greens Senators will be speaking at or attending rallies across Australia tomorrow calling for the CPRS to be scrapped and replaced with swift action to reduce emissions, drive renewable energy and create green jobs.

• Bob will address the Melbourne Rally, 1pm, State Library
• Christine will address the Hobart Rally, 12 noon, Parliament Lawns
• Rachel will address the Perth Rally, with Scott also attending, 12.30 pm, Forrest Place, Perth
• Sarah will address the Adelaide Rally, 11am, Victoria Square

We're right in the middle of Senate Estimates, and are slowly picking out the best bits to put up here on the website. For the uninitiated, twice each year, usually in May and November, the estimates of proposed annual expenditure of government departments and authorities are referred by the Senate to the relevant legislation committees for examination and report. At the estimates hearings, Senators may directly question Ministers and public officials not only about the details of proposed expenditure but also about the objectives, operations and efficiency of the programs for which they are responsible.

Sarah appeared on SBS's Insight program on Tuesday 19 May. The theme was 'Seeking asylum'. You can watch the video here. Sarah is in part three.