Wednesday 20 March 2019
Estimated 100,000 attended School Strike For Climate rallies across Australia on 15 March 2019
New Zealand and Australia are setting the standard... and they are setting in very high!! #FridaysForFurture #SchoolStrike4climate #climatestrike https://t.co/rj59J6xw34— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) March 15, 2019
Goodness me! The amazing children of Wagga Wagga have replicated my cartoon in a photo! I could not be more proud!! #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/SizB6XY6kp— The Cathy Wilcox (@cathywilcox1) March 15, 2019
@TheNewDailyAU
— Monte Bovill (@MonteBovill) March 15, 2019
@scidocmartin
Photographs of some of the many thousands of students, their teachers, families and allies who attended this afternoon’s climate change rally in Sydney. #climatechange #rally #studentrally #climatechangerally #sydney #studentstrike4climate #schoolstrike4climate pic.twitter.com/K3pOyh73dr— William Brougham (@WilliamBrougham) March 15, 2019
#schoolstrike4climate Its happening in Perth West Australia @GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/kYX0Zkf5qu— Colin Hughes (@drcwhos) March 15, 2019
A few gaps at roll call. #schoolstrike4climate pic.twitter.com/GquSNl4R2s— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) March 15, 2019
Leadership. #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/Ifk59h2uvr— GetUp! (@GetUp) March 15, 2019
A+ crowd at the Newcastle Climate strike #climatechange #schoolstrike4climate #newcastle #climateaction pic.twitter.com/mf7iSD6ljQ— blaggie blurphy (@maggiebronwen) March 15, 2019
Man protests protest - drowned out by “No more coal” chants. #schoolstrike4climate @GCBulletin #goldcoast pic.twitter.com/ABaamDe58z— Kirstin Payne (@kpayneoz) March 15, 2019
The #climatestrike in Melbourne is way bigger than the last one. Spring and Collins intersection blocked by people rallying @abcmelbourne pic.twitter.com/43Cx9mKBEM— Stephanie Anderson (@skateanderson) March 15, 2019
From the small but passionate Gunnedah #schoolstrike4climate - young Hugh Hunter responds perfectly to heckling from National Party members #auspol pic.twitter.com/FWHTEk0BIb— Lock the Gate (@LockTheGate) March 15, 2019
All power to the students in 1,659 towns and cities in 105 countries taking part in today's #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/4SihvysM9c— David Pope (@davpope) March 14, 2019
After Lismore’s #ClimateStrike, the Labor candidate @JanelleSaffin1 offered some words of support for the striking kids demanding climate action. #SchoolStrike4Climate #NSWVotes #LismoreVotes pic.twitter.com/EVx0p8LRH5— Nature NSW (@naturensw) March 15, 2019
#SchoolStrike4ClimateAustralia Images from regional New South Wales 15 March 2019 https://t.co/FH4xqvNdqD including #Lismore #Murwillumbah #CoffsHarbour @MinhKular @YaThinkN @Captainturtle @lynlinking pic.twitter.com/ylLUDYXGM0— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) March 15, 2019
Labels:
#schoolstrike4climate,
Australia,
climate change,
people power
Tuesday 19 March 2019
Knitting Nannas from across NSW took their protest to Sydney on International Women's Day
United
to Protect Our Water
101 Knitting Nannas from around NSW converged
on Parliament House in Sydney on International Women’s Day (March 8) to protest
about water mismanagement and the lack of effective government action to protect
river and groundwater health. The theme of the protest was “No Water no Life”.
The Nannas came from Loops (local Nanna
groups) in the Northern Rivers, Grafton, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Midcoast, New
England-North West, Central Coast, Gloucester, Hunter Valley, Illawarra, and
Sydney.
The Nannas have long been very concerned
about unwanted water impacts around NSW – issues which have been raised with
elected representatives over a number of years.
· These include impacts on urban water catchments from coal mines - the Wallarah 2 mine on the Central Coast and the Hume mine in the Southern Highlands as well as the long-wall mining in the Illawarra which leads to massive water loss into mines.
· The North West of the state is also impacted by coal mines which use vast amounts of water – Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine and the proposed Vickery mine.
· Then there’s the threat to groundwater from Santos’ gasfield in the Pilliga State Forest. This project is slated to extract 35 billion litres of groundwater – most of it in the first five years.
· But the most dramatic impact is the most recent – the Darling fish kills - the result of years of mismanagement and favouring of irrigators over the health of the river system.
· These include impacts on urban water catchments from coal mines - the Wallarah 2 mine on the Central Coast and the Hume mine in the Southern Highlands as well as the long-wall mining in the Illawarra which leads to massive water loss into mines.
· The North West of the state is also impacted by coal mines which use vast amounts of water – Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine and the proposed Vickery mine.
· Then there’s the threat to groundwater from Santos’ gasfield in the Pilliga State Forest. This project is slated to extract 35 billion litres of groundwater – most of it in the first five years.
· But the most dramatic impact is the most recent – the Darling fish kills - the result of years of mismanagement and favouring of irrigators over the health of the river system.
The Nannas assembled in Martin Place where they donned their specially made t-shirts bearing a picture of a Nanna declaring “The Water Needs You” (in the spirit of the Lord Kitchener First World War recruiting poster) and their yellow, red and black suffragette-style sashes emblazoned with “No Water No Life”.
After a group photo under the big banner (“United to Protect Our Water”), the Nannas walked to Parliament House and ranged themselves along the fenceline. There they used their sashes to tie on to the iron railing of the fence in the manner of the suffragettes.
The brightly-dressed Nannas with their
banners and their singing and chanting attracted a great deal of attention from
pedestrians and those driving along busy Macquarie Street. A highlight of the
street performance was the powerful rendition by Nanna Purl Stockinstitch of
her poem about the death of farmer George Bender who was hounded by a CSG
company in Queensland. The Nannas hoped
that the pollies in our parliament heard and took note of the effect the
unconventional gas industry has had - and continues to have - on the lives of communities
in gasfields.
Various politicians met with the Nannas on
the footpath and were presented with their “knagging list” - the Nannas’
demands for action.
While the theme of the protest focused on the
major problems with rivers and water, the Nannas demands were much broader.
They included a call for immediate climate action, transition to 100%
renewables, a state-wide ban on gas extraction (including in the Pilliga),
proper protection of Aboriginal sacred sites and revocation of the draconian anti-protest
laws brought in by the current NSW Government.
The Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed are
hopeful that all of the state political parties will accept their calls for
effective action on these important matters. It should be noted that the Nannas,
who are very concerned about the protection of the land and water for future
generations, are non-party political and have a policy of annoying all
politicians equally – something we aim to continue doing!
- Leonie Blain
Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas Against
Gas & Greed
Monday 18 March 2019
Even as it devours itself the Morrison Coalition Government is determined to impose its warped 1950s ideology on women and girls
On 8 March
2019 the United Nations Human Rights
Council of which Australia is a member began its general debate on the promotion and
protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural
rights, including the right to development.
On that day
the Australian Human Rights Law Centre said that the [UN] High
Commissioner highlighted the importance of the right to social security and of
recognising the value of unpaid care work in addressing women’s
inequality. Yet the Australian Government was steadily undermining its
social security system and making life harder for many women. Currently
it was imposing its punitive ParentsNext programme on single mothers accessing
social security.
And Mexico
and Finland, speaking on behalf of a group of countries, stated
that human rights bodies’ remedies must fulfil the rights of victims, and
include adequate, effective and prompt reparation. Women and girls in
humanitarian settings were particularly vulnerable to human rights violations
such as sexual and gender based violence, human trafficking and forced abortions.
After a motion
was put forward in relation to Mexico and Finland’s concerns 57 countries including the United Kingdom signed the subsequent statement.
According to SBS News on 11 March 2019 the motion broadly called for greater
accountability for human rights violations against women and girls and the
statement proposed greater implementation
of 'policies and legislation that respect women and girls' right to bodily
autonomy'. This included guaranteed
universal protection of women's sexual and reproductive health, comprehensive
sexuality education and access to safe abortion.
Australia
refused to be a signatory to this official UN statement.
BuzzFeed was given to understand by a
departmental spokesperson that the Australian delegation, coordinated by
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, did not join the statement because
it called for access to safe abortion without referencing that this access
should be consistent with the law.
Why was
reference to existing law so important to Australia?
The
highlighted section in the Human Rights Law Centre news release below gives
the answer.
The Morrison
Government - dominated as it is by middle-aged far-right men - refuses to open the door to debate on decriminalising abortion in
the last three states which still retain a prohibition of abortion in their
criminal codes.
Apparently
Scott Morrison is averse to any debate on this issue, as in his own high-handed, paternalistic words “I don’t think it is good for our
country”.
Human Rights Law Centre, Morrison Government missing in action
at UN on International Women's Day, 9 March 2019:
The Morrison Government
has failed to sign on to an International Women’s Day statement at the United
Nations calling for access to safe abortions, comprehensive sexuality education
and sexual reproductive health.
As recently as last
week, in a speech to the UN Human Rights
Council,
the Australian Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, said the number one guiding
principle for the Government's time on the Council was "gender
equality". Yet when 57 countries came together on International Women's
Day to support a motion proposed by Finland and Mexico, the Morrison Government
chose not to back it.
Edwina MacDonald, a
Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, who is attending the session in
Geneva, said it was extremely disappointing to see the Australian
Government once again fail to live up to its promises at the UN.
“Being able to make
choices about our own bodies and access reproductive health are absolutely
essential to achieving gender equality. No government can truly support gender
equality and human rights without supporting access to safe abortions and
reproductive rights," said Ms MacDonald.
In Australia, abortion is still in the criminal statute
books in New
South Wales, South
Australia and Western Australia. This is a recognised form of sex
discrimination in international human rights law. The criminalisation of
abortion harms women by making it harder to access safe and compassionate
reproductive healthcare.
"The Morrison
Government holds a really important role on the Human Rights
Council, it should be using its voice at the UN to stand up for the rights of
women all around the world. Instead we get hollow words here in Geneva and a
failure to lift its game back home. It's so disappointing," said Ms
MacDonald.
Sunday 17 March 2019
Australia's paranoid, xenophobic, racist, bigoted, rage-filled and profoundly ignorant underbelly exposed in an horrific white supremacist terrorist attack on two New Zealand mosques
Australian-born and raised Brenton Harrison Tarrant aged 28 years who is alleged to have murdered
Note the right-handed US-style 'white power' sign being made by the prisoner Image: Al Jazeera |
An increasingly desperate Australian Liberal Prime Minister on the faux election campaign trail in March 2017
Shorter version of most of the dire warnings Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has been yelling at Australian voters as he faces the prospect of a 51st negative Newspoll in April.
Meme supplied |
Rate of land clearing in the Orara Valley causes community concern
Orara Valley NSW: Image from Trip Advisor |
The Daily Examiner, 13 March 2019, p.4:
Communities across the
Orara Valley have expressed outrage at the loss of mature trees in their
neighbourhood.
Fed up with tongoing
clearing, a community meeting has been organised for 3.30pm this Sunday at Nana
Glen Community Hall.
Posts on a number of
Facebook pages including the Glenreagh Community page reflect the growing anger
at the seemingly unregulated clearing taking place to make way for intensive
agriculture.
Tania and Gerry O’Connor
live nearby a stand of blackbutts recently taken down north of Nana Glen and
are concerned at how rapidly and irreversibly the landscape of the valley is
changing.
“The local council does
not seem to be keeping up with the fast-paced changes. It is sad to see
100-year-old trees bulldozed. When the first trees were cut across the road we
contacted council who informed us there was nothing they could do,” they said.
They contacted the
Environmental Protection Agency which stated that due to the zoning, the
clearing was legal.
“We are not against
farming, we know we live in a rural community but the system of checks and
balances seems to be outdated or non-existent.”.....
Labels:
coastal development,
flora and fauna,
land clearing,
Orara Valley,
trees
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)