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They’re listening! Tell Myanmar to release its innocent prisoners now Amnesty international
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Inboxx George Wright Unsubscribe
1:27 PM (9 minutes ago)to meThe latest politics update from the Australian Labor Party | Unsubscribe 
Neville — This Saturday, the voters in Canning have a chance to send Tony Abbott and the Liberals a message. We need him to hear very clearly that we don’t like what he’s doing to our country. Right now volunteer and organisers in Canning are putting in a huge effort to persuade undecided voters.
Can you give them a hand? Tomorrow Tuesday 15 September we’re running another National Phone Banking Night. All across the country people will be making phone calls to voters in Canning to help our local candidate Matt Keogh.
Can you show your support for sending Tony Abbott a message?
Click here to sign up in Perth.
Click here to sign up in Sydney.
Click here to sign up in Melbourne.
Click here to sign up in Brisbane.
Click here to sign up in Hobart.
Click here to sign up in Darwin.
Click here to sign up in Canberra.
Email info@sa.alp.org.au to sign up in Adelaide.Come along and join 100s of other supporters across the country who will be working to send Tony Abbott a message. If you haven’t made these kinds of calls before – don’t worry, we’ll have people there who can help you out.
Thanks for your support,
George Wright
National Campaign Director -
Our new ad – banned ALECIA GET UP
More1 of 49Our new ad – banned
Inboxx Alycia – GetUp!
1:54 PM (20 minutes ago)to meUPDATE: We just received word that Channel 9 has banned our new TV ad from airing during the evening news — and they refuse to say why. The ad simply shows, in irreverent fashion, what the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will mean for Australian families. The Abbott government is trying to keep this deal secret from Australians, and now Channel 9 is joining in.But we won’t give up. We’re scrambling right now for ad spots during the news on other networks, before next Saturday’s critical Canning by-election (Channel 10 says they’ll air it!). Click here to check out the ad and donate to get it on the air in time.
Dear NEVILLE,
This is the decisive moment for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Upcoming elections in Canada and the US mean if the TPP isn’t signed soon, negotiations could push back another year, or fall over altogether.
You see, Trade Minister Andrew Robb is in a real bind. It turns out Australians hate the prospect of letting multinational corporations sue our government in secret corporate courts over laws that protect our children, our health and our environment — a clause being demanded by US interests.
If Mr Robb has no political room to give in to this demand, the whole deal could fall over. Before the last-ditch round of TPP negotiations (predicted to take place within weeks), voters in Canning WA will go to the polls in a critical by-election that’s become a referendum on the Abbott agenda.
This is our chance to prove once and for all how unpopular this deal is with Australian voters and leave Mr Robb no room to negotiate our sovereignty away.
We have an attention-grabbing TV ad ready to run in Canning starting this Sunday with a message proven to cut through. Then we’ll expand to a national TV buy in the lead up to the next (and likely final) TPP negotiations. But with airtime scarce for the by-election, we need to lock in this advertising now.
A recent GetUp poll of Canning voters showed two things:
- More than half of Canning voters don’t know much about the TPP.
- However, those who know about it are much more likely to vote against the government, which is why we need to get this ad out there fast.
Message testing shows the most effective way of reaching voters is explaining what the TPP means for their family. But it’s not always easy to cut through on a complex issue like the TPP. That’s why our new ad takes a cheeky approach to draw in voters.
And because the next few weeks are so critical, we won’t stop with TV ads — we’ll saturate Canning through targeted Facebook and YouTube advertising to ensure we get as many eyes on the ad as possible, right up until polling day. Then we’ll do the same for marginal seat voters, who the Government fears most, in the lead up to critical TPP negotiations.
Can you help air the ad during prime-time TV spots and online? https://www.getup.org.au/tpp-family
TPP negotiations are at a precarious stage. The key to blocking the deal is making it impossible for Minister Robb to cave in to demands from the US about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses. US politicians are demanding them, so US corporations can sue Australian governments over laws that affect their profits, even if they protect us from harm.
Tobacco has become a big sticking point, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who represents Kentucky, one of America’s biggest producers of tobacco — lobbying on behalf of Big Tobacco.1 He wants to make sure they have the power to sue our government over plain packaging laws, which help prevent our kids from taking up smoking, but hurt corporate profits. If Australia doesn’t agree to these demands, it could be a deal breaker.
Together, we can make sure Trade Minister Robb doesn’t cave in to US demands for Big Tobacco and other special corporate interests, and that could help kill off the whole TPP deal.
Chip into air this new ad and build public pressure against the TPP.
Let’s make sure Mr Robb doesn’t trade away the interests of Australian families – or Australian sovereignty – to multinational corporations.
Keep up the pressure, because it’s working!
Alycia, Mark, Nat and Daney for the GetUp teamReferences
[1] Will Trans-Pacific deal go up in smoke?, Politico, 12 August 2015 -
Coal is making us sick Cathy – via 350.org
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3 of 49Coal is making us sick
Inboxx Cathy – via 350.org <350@350.org> Unsubscribe
1:34 PM (31 minutes ago)
to meWhy then did Labor’s Tony Burke sign off to to 16 New Coal Mines in theHunter Vallet in 2012 ????This email is being sent to you on behalf of Newcastle nurse Cathy, via 350.org Australia. Your details have not been shared with anyone.
Dear Neville,
My name is Cathy. For the past thirty years, I have worked as a registered nurse in Newcastle, home to the world’s largest coal port.
Newcastle is the final destination for coal trains in the Hunter Valley. In fact, each year 22,000 trains with four million coal wagons travel through my home city. Four million coal wagons, each without any form of covering, constantly exposing our suburbs to harmful levels of coal dust — coal dust that is needlessly undermining the health of Newcastle and Hunter communities.
Coal dust is comprised of fine, rigid particles. When inhaled, these particles are breathed down into the lower regions of the lung, lodging themselves in the lining of blood vessels. This can lead to lung disorders in the short term, and heart disorders or cancer in years to come.
In Newcastle, we are constantly fighting back coal dust. We’ve done monitoring to show that coal dust frequently exceeds the benchmark for healthy air. But this evidence is repeatedly shrugged off by the coal industry and our government refuses to pull them into line.
But there is one group whose actions coal companies do care about – and that’s their investors.
HESTA invests in coal, and by investing in coal they are supporting an industry responsible for undermining the health of my community. HESTA has already divested from tobacco because of its health impacts. Now it’s time for HESTA to do the same for coal.
When coal’s impacts are combined with the health impacts of climate change, it becomes clear that the situation is even worse. The most respected medical journal in the world, The Lancet, recently reported that climate change could undo the last half century of heath development work.[1] That’s 50 years of tireless work to protect the wellbeing of communities around the world – thrown away.
And beyond Newcastle, communities across Australia are battling the health impacts of unconventional gas drilling – often known as ‘fracking’. Waste contaminates from the drilling process frequently leak into interconnected water ways, travelling long distances, before making their way into sources of drinking water.
As Australia’s largest health super fund, HESTA has the power to decide how much coal dust ends up in our suburbs, contaminates in our water, and pollution in our air. It’s time for HESTA to invest in our health, by divesting from fossil fuels.
Click here to support the health of my community by asking HESTA to divest.
Yours for a healthier planet and healthier communities,
Cathy
[1] Climate change threatens 50 years of progress in global health, study says, The Guardian, 23 June 2015.
350.org is building a global climate movement.You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and become a Climate Defender and donate monthly to help 350.org keep Australia’s fossil fuels in the ground.
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The John James Newsletter 78
1 of 43The John James Newsletter 78
Inboxx John James <gothic@johnjames.com.au>
7:26 AM (1 hour ago)to JohnThe John James Newsletter 7812 September 2015Wonderful, as usualI look forward to this every week nowit gives me a picture of what’s going on that I cannot get elsewhereit is, for me, better than the Economist, and that is very high praisefor the Economist is the best news publication in the worldI’m sending it on to a few friends who I think might also be interested in reading itand might like to subscribe (it’s free!)Australian bookmaker takes bets on first beaches to ‘disappear’ due to global warmingBetting agency Sportsbet.com.au says rising seas are threatening the nation’s beaches and invited bets on the first to go, with Palm Cove in Queensland at 4-1 favouriteGaza water shortage catastrophic: ‘We can’t drink, cook or wash with it’More than 90% of the Gaza Strip’s water is undrinkable. The rest is quickly running out. A combination of factors is rapidly depriving the population of this most basic of needs. RT investigated day-to-day life under these conditions.Israeli settlers set fire to dozens of olive trees after West Bank shootingThe Israeli army had deployed around the villages of Beita and Einabus and completely sealed their entrances, preventing Palestinian residents from entering or leaving “until further notice.”The Refugee Crisis Has Been A Long Time ComingThe forces that have created this crisis are massive and historic in scale. The crisis is a symptom of the far greater and far more brutal reality – a new Holocaust we refuse to acknowledge. There is widespread genocide in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. The US destabilises one country after another. It slowly builds and grinds. Areas that are lost to civil strife can never find peace. Cities reduced to rubble can never be rebuilt. Communities that are torn apart can never again knit together. Worse will come and it will not end until the US empire is destroyed. Please let us find a way to do that without another World War.Dead Refugees And Dead Topless GirlsFor a change those rightwing leaders in Europe may read history books. Europe has benefitted from migration immensely: when the continent was ravaged by war seven decades ago, rest of the world embraced the refugees with open arms. After the Second World War, Australia, New Zealand and rest of Americas accepted huge refugee population from Europe.Europe’s Migrant Crisis By the NumbersIn 2014, nearly 78% of asylum-seekers occurred at sea—the most common being Syrians attempting to traverse the eastern and central Mediterranean. Eritreans were one of the most frequent along the central Mediterranean, while Afghans, Somalis, and Iraqis along the eastern Mediterranean.The link between Amazon fires and devastating hurricanesPro-Kurdish HDP Party Offices Attacked Across TurkeyHaving suffered a serious setback at the general elections on 7 June, the President made his ambitions explicit when he declared,“None of this would have happened if we had won 400 seats in the parliament”.Ancient Mayan impact on the environment is still seen todayEvidence from the tropical lowlands of Central America has shown how activity dating back more than 2,000 years not only contributed to the decline of the culture’s surroundings, but continues to influence conditions today.Turn Cities Green to Save Trillions of DollarsThe massive savings could reach US$22 trillion by 2050, and by 2030 the equivalent of 3.7 gigatons of pollution could be avoided — higher than India’s present greenhouse gas output. The report debunks the idea that investing in preventing climate change is too expensive to be worth while.Ethiopia – Land for SaleAs the economy thrives, we examine the plight of Ethiopians forced from their land to make way for foreign (mainly Chinese) investors.Is left-winger Jeremy Corbyn about to shake up British politics?Jeremy Corbyn, a little-known backbench MP until a few weeks ago, is now the clear favourite to become the next leader of the Labour Party.Climate Change Is Already Reshaping The EarthAbout 6% of the global total land area has shifted toward warmer and drier climate types from 1950–2010, and significant changes include expansion of arid and high-latitude continental climate zones, shrinkage in polar and midlatitude continental climates.Rooftop solar states among top 30 generatorCalifornia Just Voted To Divest From Coal“Coal is the fuel of the past and it’s no longer a wise investment” California assemblyman Rob Bonta, who presented the bill, said in a statement. “I’m pleased that my colleagues agree: it’s time to move on from this dirty energy source.”Catholic leaders make climate change plea to California lawmakersTaking a cue from pope’s call to action, bishops ask legislators to say yes to proposed legislation that would reduce emissions and residents’ energy useSuper-rich = Super-Waste$us.23,000 to fly First Class.Washington’s Responsibility is Missing From Reports of Yemeni Carnage:The US was providing intelligence and logistical support for the campaign in Yemen, and that President Obama had authorized a ”joint planning cell” with Saudi Arabia to coordinate American support for the military offensive.‘Despair of a Generation’ as Violence Blocks Education for MillionsNearly 14 million children across the Middle East and North Africa prevented by war and conflict from attending school.Trees Are Disappearing From The World At An Alarming RateIn 2014, the planet lost more than 45 million acres of tree cover, with loss in tropical countries accounting for more than half of that total losing nearly 25 million acres of tree cover about the size of South Korea. Tree cover loss in the tropics is speeding up.California to List World’s Most Commonly Used Herbicide as CarcinogenWorld Health Organization found that glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup, was a probable human carcinogen based on extensive research.Monsanto Turns Its Attention to the Produce AisleIt’s the business model for distributing it that is so scary. The patenting of vegetable seeds will follow the path of corn and soybeans, where genetic diversity and quality of seeds has been lost as consolidation has increased.Bottled waterFollow the links – illusions of purityChina’s New ToysThe Dongfeng-21D, a land-based anti-ship ballistic missile capable of destroying one of those multibillion-dollar US aircraft carriers with a single hit. No wonder China’s parade celebrating the end of WWII had to be demonized.The 12 military ‘hits’ and ‘misses’ of China’s historic paradeStonehenge archaeologists discover ‘superhenge’ neolithic site buried undergrounThe monument is one of the largest known henges ever found. It measures 500 metres across and more than 1.5 kilometres in circumference. Surrounded by a 17.6-metre-wide ditch and a bank around 1 metre high, the site has long mystified archaeologists as one side is straight and the other curved. Now ground penetrating radar has revealed that the straight edge in fact sits on top of a “C-shaped” monumen.The “Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project”‘Hasn’t it been a terrific two years’Labor MP’s 90-second tirade against Abbott government goes viral – videoIn Africa, more smoke leads to less rainEach year, about half of all fires on Earth are in Africa. For centuries, Africans have been setting fires to increase agricultural productivity and clear land for farming. The smoke coalesces into huge plumes that have far-ranging impacts, influencing weather and precipitation patterns and supplying nutrients to land and ocean regions downwind. -
The #5and5 TONY BURKE LABOR
1 of 43The #5and5
Inboxx Tony Burke Unsubscribe
7:51 PM (56 minutes ago)to meThe latest politics update from the Australian Labor Party | Unsubscribe Neville — Forget the politics for a moment. This week started with the number of additional refugees to be helped by Australia at zero. By the end of the week 12,000 refugees displaced by the conflict in Syria will have a new start and a secure future in Australia. That change eclipses everything else.
Here’s the #5and5
BEST
1. The Syrian crisis represents the largest movement of displaced people since World War Two. On Monday Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek and Richard Marles all called for the help for Syrian refugees to be on top of Australia’s existing quota, as well as calling for additional support for the UNHCR. By the end of the week we had outcomes we could welcome.
2. On Tuesday – wait for it – Tony Abbott pulled a stunt. The Libs thought the Prime Minister pretending to still be in Opposition and moving a policy motion to wedge the other side of politics was really clever. Well they thought it was clever before they did it. Bill moved an amendment which made it clear Labor supports a Free Trade Agreement with China but we want guarantees of jobs for Australians to be legislated. Tony Abbott’s anger during the debate really said it all – in fact he stood up and left mid-way through. He only came back in to vote against an amendment calling on him to protect Australian jobs.
3. By Thursday the Government was so worried that they’d made a mess of the Free Trade Agreement with China they decided to change its name. All of a sudden it was now known as the “Export Agreement with China”. Julie Collins asked a really cutting question when she queried Andrew Robb: “I wonder if the Minister could tell us if any imports are allowed under the China Export Agreement he has just told the House about?”
4. Sometimes a speech just takes off. More than a million and a half Australians have already watched Jason Clare ‘celebrate’ the second birthday of the Abbott Government with a stinging 90 second speech. If you’re one of the few who hasn’t seen it yet, watch it here.
5. On Wednesday night Terri Butler had had enough of Government members claiming they cared about jobs yet always trying to destroy the organisations which are dedicated to giving people dignity at work. So just before Parliament finished for the night, Terri let fly.
WORST1. You know those movies where robots take over the world? It may have already happened. Here’s the direct transcript of an interview Tony Abbott gave from Parliament House on Wednesday night.
Leigh Sales: When Labor left office, unemployment was 5.8%; it’s now 6.3%. Growth was 2.5%; it’s now 2%. The Australian dollar was 92c, it’s now around 70c. The budget deficit was $30 billion when you took office and now it’s $48 billion. How do you explain to the Australian people that you were elected promising, in your words, to fix the budget emergency, yet in fact, Australia’s economic position has worsened under your leadership?
Tony Abbott: Well I don’t accept that. The boats have stopped.
Leigh Sales: We’re talking about the economy.
Tony Abbott: The boats have stopped…
2. Even though Tony Abbott’s savage cuts to young jobseekers were defeated in the Senate, Scott Morrison again committed the Government to bringing the cuts back to the Parliament. These are the cuts that leave young unemployed Australians with nothing to live on for a month.
3. Anthony Albanese has been exposing “WorkChoices on Water”. When it became clear the Government had advised a cruise company on the “benefits” of sacking the Australian crew and bringing it back as a foreign vessel with a foreign crew, both Tony Abbott and Warren Truss denied it had ever happened. Albo and I moved to suspend parliamentary debate on Tuesday to expose both the PM and the Deputy PM for lying about the impact of their agenda.
4. Greg Hunt’s legislation to stop community groups from being able to test whether the decision of an environment minister has been made legally passed the House of Reps. If it makes it through the Senate we’ll end up with a situation where an environment minister could make an unlawful decision and no-one who would have an interest in fixing it will be able to do a thing about it.
5. Chris Bowen took Joe Hockey on about the fall in consumer and business confidence. The Westpac data is down 5.6%, ANZ fell by 5.8% and the NAB Monthly index has fallen to one. Remember Joe Hockey claiming his mere election would be an adrenaline charge to the economy? It’s been less adrenaline and more Mogadon.
We’re now one week away from the Canning by-election. Alannah MacTiernan has been unstoppable taking the Government on over the chaos in their approach to WA. Please keep doing what you can to help Matt Keogh. He’s a great candidate.
The #5and5 will be back next week.
Thanks
TonyP.S. It was the second birthday of the Abbott Government and true to form the two-year-old birthday party was filled with tantrums and bad behaviour. So for the band, the name and the state of the Government: here’s LA indie pop band Fitz and the Tantrums with Merry-Go-Round.
