Who would you rather vote for in a state election?
A candidate from a leafy-suburbs party that has not been able to quell its factional squabbling for long enough to win office since before the turn of the century? Or a know-nothing roped in a few weeks earlier to stand on behalf of a political opportunist, who bases his appeal on childish stunts?
More than 1500 people, including some who travelled hundreds of kilometres from the Eyre Peninsula and the Flinders Ranges, gathered outside Parliament House in Adelaide on December 2 for the Don鈥檛 Dump on SA rally.
Pas Forgione is state coordinator of Anti-Poverty Network South Australia (APNSA), a non-government organisation with a difference.
APNSA is made up of welfare recipients and other low-income people who organise and campaign in defence of society鈥檚 marginalised people.
91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Renfrey Clarke spoke to Forgione.
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Across South Australia, local governments are sticking up for residents who are out of work and living in poverty. This is part of a grassroots campaign being led by the with support from SA Council of Social Service and Uniting Communities.
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, made history on August 8 when it became the first local government in Australia to publicly advocate for the Newstart Allowance to be raised.
The motion, calling on Port Adelaide Enfield Council to lobby the federal government to raise Newstart, as well as produce聽a report into how council can assist local unemployed residents who are struggling, was sponsored by Councillor Michelle Hogan, and seconded by Councillor Peter Jamieson. It was passed by 11 votes to 2.
Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil has taken over two exploration permits from BP and plans to begin drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight by late next year.
Statoil and BP have signed a swap agreement covering four offshore petroleum titles. Under the deal Statoil transferred its 30% equity in two of its permits to BP and exited the licences. In return, BP has given its 70% equity in two other permits to Statoil and relinquished those licences.
Last November, two-thirds of the 350 members of a South Australian-government initiated rejected "under any circumstances" the plan to import high-level nuclear waste from around the world as a money-making venture.
Community campaigners rallied in Port Augusta on April 30 to make a final call for the South Australian government to build a new solar thermal power plant in the town.
BP鈥檚 recent decision to pull out of a plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight has been dubbed 鈥渟trategic鈥 by the company鈥檚 exploration managing director, Claire Fitzpatrick.
In public policy, there are many dog鈥檚 breakfasts presented as considered initiatives. Rarely, though, are we served up such a self-contradictory, irrational and generally talentless a dish as the new 鈥渆nergy intervention鈥 announced by South Australia鈥檚 Labor government on March 14.
Aimed at side-stepping conservative attacks over recent power cuts, the government鈥檚 plan makes some provision for storage back-up to underpin wind and solar. But mainly, the $550 million scheme consists of large-scale concessions to fossil fuel interests 鈥 in this case, the gas industry.
Right-wing politicians have blown hard on the anti-renewables dog-whistle since February 8, when extreme temperatures in South Australia were followed by rolling electricity blackouts.
Late that afternoon, power demand in the state spiked to near-record levels. From about 6pm, 100 megawatts 鈥 roughly 3% of the state鈥檚 total demand 鈥 was shed for about half an hour.
To most South Australians, Labor Premier Jay Weatherill鈥檚 plan for a vast outback dump to host imported high-level nuclear waste is dead, needing only a decent send-off.
Nevertheless, the Premier keeps trying to resurrect the scheme. Why?