A released on September 24 by Friends of the Earth has revealed that the new Victorian planning laws restricting wind farms are costing the state dearly in jobs and investment.
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Voters should expect to see 鈥渁 new Chavez, a rejuvenated Chavez, touring the country as a candidate, touring the streets at a rhythm set by the circumstances鈥, said Venezuela鈥檚 socialist president Hugo Chavez after the date for Venezuela鈥檚 presidential elections was announced as October 7, 2012.
The Venezuelan Electoral Commission鈥檚 (CNE) president Tibisay Lucena also announced that judicial, regional and local elections would take place on separate dates.
All Along the Watchtower: Memoir of a Sixties Revolutionary
By Michael Hyde
The Vulgar Press, 2010
272 pages, $32.95 (pb)
Red Silk: The Life of Elliott Johnston QC
By Penelope Debelle
Wakefield Press, 2011
212 pages, $32.95 (pb)
Phillip Adams: The Ideas Man 鈥 A Life Revealed
By Philip Luker
JoJo Publishing, 2011
337 pages, $34.99 (pb)
Nala Mansell-McKenna is a well-known Aboriginal political activist in Tasmania, who was recently elected state secretary of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC).
鈥淲e like to call the secretary the role that鈥檚 our main political spokesperson, but when you work in the same building as Michael Mansell you are usually the second main political spokesperson,鈥 she laughed, referring to the way that Michael (her father) is frequently contacted for comment on political issues.
In recent debates around solutions to the climate crisis, several ideas hold the largest share of government support and media coverage. These include: green consumerism, carbon offsetting, carbon taxes, carbon trading, geo-engineering and carbon capture and storage.
But do these 鈥渟olutions鈥 take, as their frame of reference, the full extent of the problem? Here are some reasons to be doubtful.
Green consumerism is one variation of the argument whereby 鈥測our dollar is your vote鈥.
Once I ruled the Northern plains,
my clan roamed free and wild,
the lush Dakotas were my home,
the gods were on my side.
Every leafy shrub was mine,
every blade of grass,
every creature trembled when
a herd of bison passed.
My family has been slaughtered
for food, for prize, for fun,
of all the kings that roamed the earth
I鈥檓 now the only one.
Am I now a laughing stock?
The object of your pity?
A weakling of the prairies, while
you prosper in the city?
And who was it that killed my clan?
Let鈥檚 set the record straight:
that bastard son of Europe鈥檚 womb 鈥
A dramatic stand-off between police and a group of squatters took place at the main campus of the University of Sydney on September 16. The squatters, who had been living at the abandoned St Michael鈥檚 College, staged a protest action during the eviction.
Cuba is a world leader in ecologically sustainable practices. It is the only country to have begun the large-scale transition from conventional farming, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, to a new agricultural paradigm known as low-input sustainable agriculture.
Thriving urban organic farms feed and beautify Cuba鈥檚 cities, strengthen local communities and employ hundreds of thousands of people thanks to government support.
A vote on the Labor government鈥檚 harsh proposed changes to Australia鈥檚 migration laws was postponed until October 11, after parliament failed to vote on them on September 22.
This followed a bizarre twist in the farcical refugee debate on September 19 when new laws were passed increasing refugee protection at the same time as the government pushed forward with its plans to expel refugees to Malaysia.
Australia introduced new rules on September 15 allowing people to nominate their gender as male, female or indeterminate on their passport. Sex reassignment surgery is no longer a precondition for nominating a passport gender different from the one on your birth certificate.
A group of refugee activists from the Refugee Advocacy Network and the Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) took on a very ambitious project a few years ago, which has culminated in the Just Like Us exhibition.
The exhibition opened on August 26 鈥 the 10th anniversary of the Tampa incident, when then-PM John Howard refused to allow the Norwegian ship Tampa to dock in Australia after it had rescued asylum seekers from a sinking boat.
With climate change, humanity basically doesn鈥檛 get any second chances. For a recognisable climate to be preserved, net global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak within the next decade, then decline to zero by around mid-century. It鈥檚 a tight call, so we have to get things right first time. If we delay, the laws of physics will not be kind.
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