Category: Archive

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has again split from the Government, this time over voting against introducting a tax on biofuels. Full article

With increasing competition for dwindling catches, the Federal Government has offered to buy out fishermen’s licences, effectively retiring their fish quotas. And this covers a huge area from Sydney right to Kangaroo Island including Tasmania. Full article

State Environment Ministers have accused the Commonwealth of attempting to curb the growth of wind farms in Australia in favour of nuclear power. Full article

The NSW Government needs to do more than just buy back water for marshes in the north west of the state, according to a waterbird and river ecology scientist at the University of NSW, Richard Kingsford, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald 921/6/2006, p. 5).

Entire ecosystem at risk: Kingsford said the government would have to protect the flood plains, wildlife habitats and river red gum communities. "The red gums are part of the river system," he said. "You might be looking after the water but you have to look after other parts of the system, too."

Illegal harvesting a common act: It was common, particularly in catchments such as the Gwydir and the Border rivers, for landowners to harvest floodwater, he said. "There is potential for people to take water that has not been allocated to them. You don’t want to lose that environmental flow to irrigators."

Iemma under pressure: Reece Turner, of the Wilderness Society said alleged largescale illegal clearing near the Macquarie Marshes "put the Iemma Government to shame".

$118m promised: "Iemma has announced $118 million for environmental flows for NSW’s stressed wetlands with a particular focus on the Macquarie Marshes," Turner said. "But his government has failed to stop illegal land-clearing occurring right on the back door of these internationally recognised marshes.

Govt fails to follow through: "The NSW Government has hundreds of cases of alleged illegal land-clearing sitting on its desk and has failed to bring one successful prosecution in the last two years… What is needed is political will from the premier to follow through with the three-year-old promise to end land-clearing," Turner added.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 21/6/2006, p. 5

Source: Erisk Net  

These days Australia likes to present itself as a helpful, generous neighbour of East Timor, after public opinion forced the government of John Howard to lead a UN peacekeeping force six years ago. East Timor is now an independent state, thanks to the courage of its people and a tenacious resistance led by the liberation movement Fretilin, which in 2001 swept to political power in the first democratic elections. In regional elections last year, 80 per cent of votes went to Fretilin, led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, a convinced "economic nationalist", who opposes privatisation and interference by the World Bank. A secular Muslim in a largely Roman Catholic country, he is, above all, an anti-imperialist who has stood up to the bullying demands of the Howard government for an undue share of the oil and gas spoils of the Timor Gap.

On 28 April last, a section of the East Timorese army mutinied, ostensibly over pay. An eyewitness, Australian radio reporter Maryann Keady, disclosed that American and Australian officials were involved. On 7 May, Alkatiri described the riots as an attempted coup and said that "foreigners and outsiders" were trying to divide the nation. A leaked Australian Defence Force document has since revealed that Australia’s "first objective" in East Timor is to "seek access" for the Australian military so that it can exercise "influence over East Timor’s decision-making". A Bushite "neo-con" could not have put it better.

The opportunity for "influence" arose on 31 May, when the Howard government accepted an "invitation" by the East Timorese president, Xanana Gusmão, and foreign minister, José Ramos Horta – who oppose Alkatiri’s nationalism – to send troops to Dili, the capital. This was accompanied by "our boys to the rescue" reporting in the Australian press, together with a smear campaign against Alkatiri as a "corrupt dictator". Paul Kelly, a former editor-in-chief of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian, wrote: "This is a highly political intervention . . . Australia is operating as a regional power or a political hegemon that shapes security and political outcomes." Translation: Australia, like its mentor in Washington, has a divine right to change another country’s government. Don Watson, a speechwriter for the former prime minister Paul Keating, the most notorious Suharto apologist, wrote, incredibly: "Life under a murderous occupation might be better than life in a failed state . . ."

Arriving with a force of 2,000, an Australian brigadier flew by helicopter straight to the headquarters of the rebel leader, Major Alfredo Reinado – not to arrest him for attempting to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister but to greet him warmly. Like other rebels, Reinado had been trained in Canberra.

John Howard is said to be pleased with his title of George W Bush’s "deputy sheriff" in the South Pacific. He recently sent troops to a rebellion in the Solomon Islands, and imperial opportunities beckon in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and other small island nations. The sheriff will approve.