Mining, marsupials and rural self-determination
Blog Post | Blog of Rachel Siewert
Tuesday 23rd August 2011, 6:00pm
"There are things about growing up in a small town that you can't necessarily quantify". Hollywood is a long way from Broome, but when US actor Brandon Routh said this I felt that, in many ways, it summed up why some companies and politicians in the two major parties find it hard to understand why feelings are running so high in the community in regards to the James Price Point gas hub development.
Asylum seeker debate out of proportion
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Tuesday 23rd August 2011, 10:00am
by ParisLord in
- Environment
- Climate Change & the Zero Carbon World
- Human Rights & Justice
- Family & Community
- Aged Care
- Ageing
- Agriculture
- Alternative Fuels
- Australian Mining Overseas
- Biodiversity
- Carers
- Child Care
- Detention Centres
- Emissions Trading and carbon tax
- Environment & Planning Issues
- Gay Marriage
- Immigration
- Infrastructure
- Land Use Change & Forestry
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex (LGBTI)
- Mining
- Murray Darling
- Natural Resource Management
- Pensioners
- Refugees
- Renewable Energy
- Resource Use
- Transport
- Urban Planning
- Urban Water
Yesterday the full bench of the High Court began hearing a challenge to the Malaysian solution.
The Greens hope David Manne and Debbie Mortimer, SC, and their legal team succeeds, not least because we do not want unaccompanied children to be expelled to a country where their rights cannot be guaranteed. It's not yet clear when the court will issue its ruling, but it could permanently derail the Gillard government's plans to export Australia's international obligations to give protection to countries including Malaysia and, possibly, Papua New Guinea.
The Greens and others, such as human rights groups, have for years lobbied against mandatory detention. We think there's a better way, one that's humane and compassionate, in handling some of the world's most vulnerable people. We do not support the policy of locking fragile people up as a first resort, when it clearly should the last thing we should do. Indeed, Australia is the only country in the world as signatory to the Refugee Convention that arbitrarily detains asylum seekers, contrary to what the convention suggests.
Whenever the major parties, or shock jocks for that matter, seek to attack asylum seekers and others who lack a voice, myself and the Greens will be there to stand up for them. We refuse to follow the ALP and Coalition in a race to the bottom.
I think the Australian electorate is sick of that competition. They're tired of both sides repeating the same mantras, using the same language - indeed the same policies - to confront what is a relatively small problem, compared with the volumes of people arriving on the EU's shores. The major parties' responses cost billions of dollars and damage lives unnecessarily.
Australians want alternatives to a policy of mandatory detention because it has failed to be a deterrent for people seeking our protection since it took effect in the early 1990s. They want their government to explore other paths, such as those outlined in the Centre for Policy Development's report A New Approach, Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees and Asylum Seekers released yesterday.
They want their elected representatives to show results for policies to deal with Australia's ageing population, how to provide more affordable child care options, and a national dental health scheme. In addition to finally ensuring the future of a healthy Murray Darling Basin, they'd also like to see their parliament amend the Marriage Act, so same-sex couples can get married and formally celebrate their commitment to each other.
Everyday Australians are eager to see their government deliver a mining tax that fairly redistributes the wealth from the present boom so it is invested here and not sent overseas. They fear the proceeds risk being squandered instead of funding essential public transport and other infrastructure. And what about a sovereign wealth fund, which Treasury has supported, to invest in future generations?
The major parties have created these problems with immigration and asylum seeker policy, which serve their interests. But we can solve them all with practical measures and confront other challenges that the community would prefer we concentrate on.
First published in The National Times on August 23, 2011.
We're back in town
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Tuesday 16th August 2011, 8:23am
by ParisLord in
- Environment
- Climate Change & the Zero Carbon World
- Human Rights & Justice
- Access to Justice
- Agriculture
- Alternative Fuels
- Bill of Rights
- Carbon accounting
- Climate change and agriculture
- Coal
- Coal Mining
- Detention Centres
- Drought
- Emissions Trading and carbon tax
- Energy
- Energy Efficiency
- Environment & Planning Issues
- Fossil fuels
- Gas
- Geosequestration
- Green Carbon
- Immigration
- Judicial System
- Just Transitions
- Mining
- Natural Resource Management
- Oil
- Pollution
- Refugees
- Renewable Energy
- Resource Use
- Water
We politicians are back in Canberra this morning after a five-week winter recess.
Rights of children should be above politics
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Tuesday 9th August 2011, 12:22pm
by ParisLord in
Yesterday the High Court extended an injunction to hear a legal challenge to the Malaysian people-swap deal.
Let conscience rule on gay marriage
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Tuesday 2nd August 2011, 10:06am
by ParisLord in
It's been a bit of a Bizzaro World in Australian federal politics in recent weeks.
Government abandons principles over Malaysia deal
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Tuesday 26th July 2011, 10:57am
by ParisLord in
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has visited Kuala Lumpur to sign the Malaysian solution and now he and Prime Minister Julia Gillard are promoting it.
Save and expand foreign aid
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Tuesday 19th July 2011, 10:21am
by ParisLord in
This month the world is learning about the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa, where about 12 million people have been hit by the worst drought in almost 60 years. Australia has pledged more than $11 million in aid. It's heart-wrenching to see malnourished children in refugee camps in Kenya with tubes in their noses to feed them because their hungry mothers cannot.
Why this is better than Rudd's scheme
Blog Post | Blog of Sarah Hanson-Young
Wednesday 13th July 2011, 1:27pm
by OgySimic in
There are more than 13 billion reasons why the climate package unveiled on Sunday is better at putting a price on pollution than its predecessor.
Western Australia will be the energy transition winner
Blog Post | Blog of Scott Ludlam
Monday 11th July 2011, 12:45pm
by RachelPemberton in
Published in The West Australian: 11 July 2011
Sunday's announcement of the carbon price package fires the starting gun on the long-overdue clean energy transition.
Western Australia is uniquely placed to benefit from the enormous shift in investment as polluting industries are taxed for the first time and the clean technology sector finally gets the support it deserves.
While all eyes have been on the dollar cost of venting a tonne of C02 into the atmosphere, the Greens have negotiated a broad range of additional measures intended to supercharge the zero emissions economy. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will be responsible for disbursing more than $3 billion in renewable energy project funding. In addition, a new Clean Energy Finance Corporation will have a $2 billion annual budget funded from carbon tax revenues, a massive injection that is expected to leverage additional billions in private investment.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20110823200433im_/http://www.greensmps.org.au/files/imagecache/preview/images/solar_power_tower.jpg)
Your personal MPCCC briefing this Sunday
Blog Post | Blog of Adam Bandt MP
Thursday 7th July 2011, 5:30pm
by DamienLawson in
The price on pollution announcement is just days away.The package contains some great measures for renewable energy, constitutes a platform for action and most importantly provides for upwards flexibility. This is an historic opportunity for the nation and a great win for all of you who have worked so hard to keep climate action at the top of the political agenda.
We want you and the community to know just what gains were made for the climate.
We also need to ensure that all your hard work is not undone. Tony Abbott’s scare campaign continues and whilst we have come a long way to finding the common points of agreement between the Greens, the Independents and the government and negotiated some very important reforms, the package still needs to be communicated effectively with our local community and passed through the parliament.
Please join Greens Senator, Richard Di Natale and me this Sunday for an emergency meeting so that I can provide you with a personal briefing on our important achievements, celebrate your work and plan for our next steps!
Where: 6pm Sunday 10th July Hayden Raysmith room, Ross House, 241-251 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Click here to RSVP via facebook.
We want to hit the ground running on Monday and start telling Melbourne about this historic achievement. We’ll be hitting train stations, handing out leaflets at shopping centres and weekend markets. We will need your help to do this.
Please give whatever spare time you have to help with letterboxing and leafleting over the next two weeks - it's critical. If we don’t communicate directly with Melbourne, the community might not understand what an important reform this is, how it will affect them and transition us to the clean energy future we so desperately need.
Sign up here now to take action in your local community and get the real story out.