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Category: General news

Managing director of Ebono Institute and major sponsor of The Generator, Geoff Ebbs, is running against Kevin Rudd in the seat of Griffith at the next Federal election. By the expression on their faces in this candid shot it looks like a pretty dull campaign. Read on

  • Reading them out loud, devastating: Domestic Violence

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    Reading them out loud, devastating:

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    Katrina Keshishian via Change.org
    11:50 AM (8 minutes ago)
    to me
    Change.org
    Hi everyone.

    I couldn’t bring myself to read them out loud until this week. Domestic violence, child abuse – the stories of people impacted by this cut to victims of crime support are truly devastating.

    Many of them can’t speak about it publicly, but asked me to help ensure their stories are told.

    That’s why I put together this video. To tell their stories, and help finally convince Premier Baird to do the right thing by reversing this cut to help for the most vulnerable.

    Please watch and share the video today to help ensure Premier Baird sees it too by clicking here.

    You can read an article just published on news.com.au about these stories here.

    What’s scary to think about, is there are 24,000 stories just like this: of everyday people struck down by a violent crime and who are still struggling.

    I’ve never been interested in politics. Going on Channel 7 to ask a question at the debate was so terrifying. But I’m speaking up because this cut to help to violent crime victims is unfair – and I know first-hand that it’s making recovering that much harder.

    If you can help by watching and sharing the video – and if you want to help send it to Mike Baird on Facebook or at manly@parliament.nsw.gov.au today I’d really appreciate it. 

    I couldn’t do this without knowing 130,000 of you are with me. Thank you so much.

    Katrina x

    katrina.petition@gmail.com

  • Our chance to “torpedo” pension cuts GET UP

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    Our chance to “torpedo” pension cuts

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    Georgina – GetUp!
    10:37 AM (4 minutes ago)
    to me
    Dear NEVILLE,

    We’ve discovered a powerful new ally in the fight against pension cuts: the Liberal Party backbench.

    The very same group that mutinied over the GP copayment has this week taken aim at Mr Abbott’s planned changes to the pension, calling it “the next public battle” in the Coalition party room.

    On Monday, key backbencher Andrew Laming named pensions as a priority issue for the backbench, warning the PM of “a couple of large missiles.. and torpedoes aimed at this policy”.1 Other backbenchers have since joined the chorus.

    With the battle lines drawn, Coalition MPs will be deciding whether to make the case on behalf of pensioners in their electorates. Let’s stir up the the backbench by arming them with thousands of compelling stories from their voters to take back to the party room.

    Click here to share your story with your Coalition MP and ask them to “torpedo” pension cuts once and for all.

    Figures released over the weekend by Australian National University show that Mr Abbott’s planned cuts would drive the age pension down from 28% of average weekly earnings to a shocking 16% by 2055. Australia hasn’t seen the pension below 20% of average earnings since 1965.2

    These cuts will hit full, single age pensioners the hardest, the majority of whom are women with no superannuation – individuals already living below the poverty line. Once again, this Government is placing the Budget burden on those least able to afford it.

    It’s evident the backbench is readying itself for a big push against pension cuts, with one backbencher telling reporters yesterday, “I will certainly be putting the case of my many pensioners to the party room and to the prime minister”. 3 With Mr Abbott already stepping on eggshells and eager to please, now’s the moment to add fuel to backbench’s fire.

    Will you write to your Coalition MP, to give them the powerful constituent stories they need to make a compelling case in the party room?

    https://www.getup.org.au/stop-the-cuts

    Coalition MPs have had a turbulent few months, but an informed, compassionate voice from GetUp members could help unite the party room against pension cuts at this critical moment. A dissatisfied backbench, bolstered by unhappy constituents, saw Mr Abbott drop his toxic Medicare copayment last month. So, with key members of the backbench already on side, will you encourage your MP to join the bandwagon?

    Thanks for speaking out,
    Georgina, Mark, Nat, Evan and Lily, for the GetUp team

    PS – Mr Abbott’s proposed cuts will cost retirees $23 billion over the next decade.4 The question we need to ask ourselves is: would we rather live in a country where pensioners live below the poverty line or where everyone has savings for their retirement? There are smarter, fairer ways to reform the budget that recognise the valuable contribution of older Australians and doesn’t risk the creation of an underclass of retirees. Click here to tell your MP how these cuts will affect you or someone you know.

    References
    [1] – Liberal MP Andrew Laming says missiles and ‘torpedoes’ aimed at Abbott’s pension policy, ABC News, 9 March 2015.
    [2] – PM shifts on age pension time bomb, The Australian, 7 March 2015.
    [3] – Second Liberal backbencher warns Coalition about age pension policy, The Guardian, 10 March 2015.
    [4] – Liberal MP Andrew Laming says missiles and ‘torpedoes’ aimed at Abbott’s pension policy, ABC News, 9 March 2015.

    GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Our team acknowledges that we meet and work on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and future – and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.

    Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

  • Welcome to the Australian Progressive Party

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    Welcome to the Australian Progressive Party

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    Australian Progressive Party <change@progressives.org.au>
    4:01 PM (31 minutes ago)
    to me
    Australian Progressive Party
    Neville —

    Welcome to the Australian Progressive Party. We have a plan over the next six months to get up and running, spread the word and give Australia a real choice for sensible politics.

    Our first step is to hold a ballot of members on a new name. We want a new name to reflect the ideas of members who have joined us from other parties and groups. We also want to make it clear that we are in the sensible centre of Australian politics, and we want a name that conveys this position very clearly.

    As a member-driven organisation, we’d like to hear your thoughts on a new name and give you the opportunity to choose one. The board has proposed four options that we’d like you to consider, ones that we feel closely represent our values and direction, but we’d like to hear your ideas too!

    To facilitate this discussion, we’ve set up a consultation forum on our member’s site. You will first have to register on the member site and will receive an invitation to join via email shortly.

    We’ll give you two weeks from today to review and discuss the proposed names, after which time you’ll be asked to participate in a formal ballot to choose our new name.

    We’re really excited by this opportunity to refresh, rebrand and more clearly articulate our centrist position. Of course, once you’ve chosen our new name we’ll need some help in the areas of graphic and web design, social media and much more. If you’ve got the skill and the will, let us know!

    So sign up, get discussing and give us a makeover!

    Australian Progressive Party
    http://www.progressives.org.au/

    Australian Progressive Party
    http://www.progressives.org.au/
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    Victoria’s Record Underemployment

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    Thomson, Kelvin (MP)
    10:47 AM (3 minutes ago)
    to Kelvin
    Dear All,
    Please see the following blog I have posted regarding Victoria’s underemployment and the recent Intergenerational Reports false claim that the workforce is constrained by the supply of workers.
     
    Regards,
    Kelvin Thomson MP

  • Your posters on campus LABOR

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    Your posters on campus

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    Kim Carr via sendgrid.info 
    10:26 AM (3 minutes ago)
    to me
    .
    Neville —
    I’ve had so much feedback streaming in from around the country — students are finding out about Tony Abbott’s plans for $100,000 degrees and that’s all thanks to you.

    You chipped in for our no debt sentence posters — and it’s with your donation that we designed them, printed them and delivered them to every campus we could.

    collage_2.jpg

    Bill Shorten and the Labor team will keep standing up against Tony Abbott’s plan for $100,000 degrees, because we believe that access to education is so vital for creating the Australia we want.

    It’s with your support that we can keep making that known.

    Thanks for your support,

    Kim Carr
    Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Industry

  • The John James Newsletter 49

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    The John James Newsletter 49

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    John James
    		5:30 AM (4 hours ago)

    The John James Newsletter 49
    7 March 2015

    YOU MAY NEED TO CUT AND PASTE THESE LINKS


    The Great Transition: Shifting from fossil fuels to solar and wind energy by Lester R. Brown
    The link is to Chapter One. “While France is completing construction of its last nuclear plant, it is in the process of developing 25,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity, of which 8,300 megawatts were already online in 2013. It is aiming to drop its nuclear share of power to 50 percent by 2025. China, which has 16,000 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity, has developed a world-leading 91,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity.”
    www.earth-policy.org/images/uploads/book_images/EPI_TGT-ch01.pdf

    Climate Change Hastened Syria’s Civil War
    Drought in Syria, exacerbated to record levels by global warming, pushed social unrest into an open uprising in 2011. The conflict has since become a major civil war with international involvement. Drought from 2006 to 2011 forced many farmers into the cities. The influx added to social stresses already created by refugees from the war in Iraq.
    www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-hastened-the-syrian-war/

    Australian science research facilities prepare for shutdown as government refuses to secure funding
    Some of the facility’s 94 staff – all but three of them researchers or technicians – will take jobs overseas, and one has already left for Canada  The uncertainty means the facility has not entered into any commercial contracts past the end of June, meaning revenue will likely fall even if the government money comes through.
    www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/04/research-facilities-prepare-shutdown-government-refuses-secure-funding?CMP=ema_632

    A Mediterranean diet is ‘better than exercise’ and can halve the risk of heart disease
    Those who stuck to the diet, consisting of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, olive oil, fish and even a glass of red wine were 47 per cent less likely to develop heart disease over a 10 year period.
    http//;www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2979508/A-Mediterranean-diet-better-exercise-halve-risk-heart-disease.html

    Wind Power Beats Nuclear in China
    h    ttp//:www.earth-policy.org/data_highlights/2015/highlights50


    Delhi Gang-Rape Convict Blames Victim
    “When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape,” Mr. Singh says in the BBC film. “If she hadn’t resisted, the rapists would have dropped her off after ‘doing her,’”.
    blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/03/02/delhi-gang-rape-convict-blames-victim-for-the-attack-bbc/?

    Intergenerational Report fails at first hurdle – ignores climate change
    Peter Costello introduced Intergenerational reports to assess the economy over the next forty years. Climate change is mentioned just 12 times – and only in passing – in the 175 page report. This is a massive oversight because the environment is the very foundation stone of Australians’ livelihoods and way of life
    reneweconomy.com.au/2015/intergenerational-report-fails-at-first-hurdle-ignores-climate-change-51863

    Russia ready to repel any nuke strike, retaliate
    Nationwide war games of Strategic Nuclear Missile Forces were conducted in February, with 30 missile regiments training in 12 regions of Russia. Missilemen performed ultimate combat operational readiness, counteraction to subversive groups and perfected defences against airborne precision weapons
    rt.com/news/236573-russia-repel-nuclear-strike/

    U.S. Strategy in Iraq Increasingly Relies on Iran
    “The only way in which the Obama administration can credibly stick with its strategy is by implicitly assuming that the Iranians will carry most of the weight and win the battles on the ground,”
    www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/world/middleeast/us-strategy-in-iraq-increasingly-relies-on-iran.html

    Police investigate Save the Children whistleblowers over Nauru abuse report
    staff had anonymously written a submission outlining cases of sexual and physical abuse of children, and acts of self-harm. “We believe that the children have been subjected to multiple violations of their human rights and wrongdoing from multiple parties.“
    http;//www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/04/police-investigate-save-the-children-whistleblowers-over-nauru-abuse-report?CMP=ema_632

    New Silk Roads and the Chinese Vision of a Brave New (Trade) World
    The Beijing leadership vision of a potentially mind-boggling infrastructure, much of it from scratch, that will connect China to Central Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. Such a development will include projects that range from upgrading the ancient silk road via Central Asia to developing a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor; a China-Pakistan corridor through Kashmir; and a new maritime silk road that will extend from southern China all the way to Venice. Don’t think of this as the twenty-first-century Chinese equivalent of America’s post-World War II Marshall Plan for Europe, but as something far more ambitious and potentially with a far vaster reach.
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175959/tomgram:_pepe_escobar,_inside_china%27s_%22new_normal%22/#more

    New Study Shows California Droughts Driven by Climate Change and Here to Stay
    The increasingly frequent and severe droughts that have punished California over the past two decades are primarily the result of human-caused climate change and will likely grow even worse. This new research analyzes historical records and computer simulations of global warming, to investigate the role of changing temperatures.
    www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/03/new-study-shows-california-droughts-driven-climate-change-and-here-stay

    Carbon crash, solar dawn: Deutsche Bank on why solar has already won
    Their report suggests solar will become the dominant electricity source around the world as it beats conventional fuels, generates $5 trillion in revenue over the next 15 years, and displaces large amounts of fossil fuels. But by 2030, the solar market will increase 10-fold, as more than 100 million customers are added, and solar’s share of the electricity market jumps to 10 per cent. By 2050 solar’s share will be 30 per cent of the market.
    reneweconomy.com.au/2015/carbon-crash-solar-dawn-deutsche-bank-on-why-solar-has-already-won-51105
    and
    Energy storage to reach cost ‘holy grail’, mass adoption in 5 years
    reneweconomy.com.au/2015/energy-storage-to-reach-cost-holy-grail-mass-adoption-in-5-years-18383

    Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

    to John