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Hundreds rally to oppose brown coal allocation and export from Victoria

Hundreds rallied outside the Victorian Parliament House opposing plans for brown coal allocation and development for a coal export industry from the La Trobe Valley and Gippsland.

Currently 13 billion tonnes of brown coal is being considered for allocation by the Napthine conservative state Government, despite the impact of this in carbon emissions on climate change and increasing temperatures and extreme weather. As well as the allocation of coal licences, $90 million of Federal and State subsidies are also up for grab. Does subsidising brown coal make sense when we should rapidly be transitioning to renewables?

Photos at Quit Coal Campaign Victoria Photoset at Flickr | Youtube Video

Major uranium leak endangers Kakadu - but played down

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - A million litres of radioactive slurry has contaminated Kakadu National Park from a burst tank at Ranger uranium mine. It is a significant toxic accident but it has surprisingly generated relatively minimal news coverage. It took the local Traditional Owners to break the news to Australia.

Forty uranium mines is the plan for Western Australia

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Credible sources in the uranium sections of resource companies first told The Stringer, in February, of futurist uranium mining plans that are being deliberated by mining companies for Western Australia – which is rich in high grade uranium, and which is easily accessible in this infrastructure wealthy State. They described a burgeoning relationship with India, the world’s most populous nation, as a market for the uranium.

Eureka Curse on Maurice Newman in Effigy burning at 2013 Eureka Dawn Vigil

Maurice Newman, Tony Abbott's chief business advisor, was cursed at the Eureka Dawn Vigil on December 3 when an effigy of him was burnt.

Lantern, banner and effigy maker Graeme Dunstan selected Prime Minister Tony Abbott's chief business advisor Maurice Newman as the candidate for an effigy to be burnt at the 2013 Eureka Dawn vigil on December 3 in Eureka Park at Ballarat.

Related: Takver's Photos of Eurekaday 2013 | Eureka Commemoration News

Effigy of Maurice Newman to be burnt as part of Eureka dawn commemoration in Ballarat

Media Release: A cardboard effigy of Mr Maurice Newman, head of PM Abbott's Business Advisory Council, will burn at the Eureka Stockade Memorial dawn of 3 December as part of the commemorations of the 159th anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion.

This will be the fifth Eureka Dawn effigy burning of the public figure judged to be this season's most offensive to the people's rights and liberties and the ritual now quite a following," said Eurekaphile effigy maker Graeme Dunstan.

Related: Effigy maker returns to Ballarat for Eureka Rebellion Commemorations | Eureka Events at Ballarat December 3

Australia, the mother of all jailers of Aboriginal people

Gerry Georgatos - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Lo and behold, Australian prison numbers are on the increase, record high – and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples now comprise nearly one in three of all prisoners. 30 per cent of the Australian prison population is made up of Aboriginal peoples, up from the much touted 26 per cent, the more than one in four of all prisoners. As a researcher in custodial systems and as a prison reform advocate I predicted the rise, accurately.

Thousands of children evicted – nowhere to go

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Recently in Western Australia, an 86-year-old grandmother, an Aboriginal lady, was threatened with eviction for non-payment of a state-housing water bill. Her eviction has only been stalled by the intervention of Kimberley parliamentarian, Kija woman Josie Farrer. Recently, two Perth families, once again Aboriginal, with 9 children and 11 children were evicted from their homes.

Australia’s Federal Parliaments still reflect a White Australia

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 sought to journey Australia in a new direction - having condemned The White Australia Policy. Australia, dominated by a majorly conservative class and apothegms, was in effect trying to catch up with social movements around the world – such as with the United States of America’s Civil Rights Bill 1965, and the more liberal precepts of most of Europe.

600,000 Australian children in poverty, 18,000 kids homeless

Story by Gerry Georgatos, photo by Frank Violi - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ This morning, Federal Parliament resumed sitting, the first time since the Federal election. The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and UNICEF Australia immediately called upon the House of Representatives and the Australian Senate to develop an anti-poverty plan.

$25.4 billion spent on Aboriginal disadvantage is a lie

By Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ It has been touted that $25.4 billion annually is invested in Aboriginal peoples – in order to raise those among them out of abject poverty –“through 86 initiatives”. This claim has dangerously washed through the Australian consciousness as ‘fact’ but it is instead a crock of shit. It is claimed this $25.4 billion spend represents 5.6 per cent of the national budget – for 2.6 per cent of the population.