The biggest economic story of the 21st century has been the dramatic emergence in the last decade of the “BRICs” – Brazil, Russia, India and China.Their dramatic emergence onto the world’s global economic stage has produced a middle class in all BRIC countries, whose growing clout wants reliable 24/7 power. The Russian Federation is awash in oil and natural gas, Brazil after the 1973 oil embargo developed ethanol alternatives and last year became an oil exporter, which leave energy and resource-starved China and India scrabbling…
A new analysis of pollution data for the Port Augusta region contradicts reassurances from the South Australian Government that smoking can be blamed for high lung cancer rates.
Residents of the region have long complained about health problems they link with two power stations, Playford and Northern, which burn highly-polluting brown coal.
The lung cancer rates around Port Augusta are said by medical experts to be double the expected number.
The independent analysis has been presented in Adelaide at a briefing for state parliamentarians organised by Doctors for the Environment Australia.
Port Augusta mayor Joy Baluch lost her husband to lung cancer 16 years ago and he never smoked.
She dismissed the Government’s explanation of high lung cancer rates in the region.
“Of course I don’t believe the Government, why should I? After 40 years of constantly being told that the problems at Port Augusta are attributed to the high consumption of cigarettes. This is absolute rubbish,” she said.
“They are blatantly lying to the residents.”
Fight for data
Air pollution statistics for Port Augusta are collected by Alinta Energy, which owns the two power stations, in conjunction with the Environment Protection Authority.
Professor David Shearman, of Doctors For The Environment Australia, said it took a six-month battle to get the figures, so they could be independently examined.
“What it amounts to is the community feels they have not been listened to,” he said.
“When you look at how this community exists, it exists under the shadow of a power station that pours out pollution. They’ve had to stomach this for years because it supplies a large portion of the state’s energy and there’s been no alternative.”
Professor Shearman said smoking rates were about 7 per cent higher in the Port Augusta region than other areas.
“That’s really insufficient to account for a doubling of … lung cancer,” he said.
He said cleaner alternatives for power generation now needed to be considered for the area.
O’Farrell bids to pass law for health union administrator
May 3, 2012 – 5:11PM
The NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, says his government will seek to pass urgent legislation to ensure an administrator can be appointed to the NSW branch of the Health Services Union after doubts were raised about the Federal Court’s jurisdiction to make orders relating to a state union.
But the Federal Minister for Employment and Workplaces Relations, Bill Shorten, said the proposed legislation could prolong the factional dispute plaguing the HSU East branch, which is haemorrhaging hundreds of members a day.
As the state and federal government argued today over how to handle the scandal-plagued union, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions announced it would forward a report from Fair Work Australia into financial impropriety in the HSU’s national office to police.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Mr Shorten has asked the Federal Court to appoint an administrator to take over the day-to-day functions of the HSU East and to declare all offices vacant.
He said he has received legal advice that the offices of the NSW Union would be similarly vacated.
However, Federal Court judge Geoffrey Flick questioned the jurisdiction of the court to take action regarding a NSW organisation.
During a hearing this morning Justice Flick said a federal minister had not made such an application “in 100 years”.
Under the leadership of the HSU acting national president, Chris Brown, six branches of the HSU have also applied for an administrator to be appointed to the HSU East branch.
The court heard the jurisdictional issue could be resolved by the minister intervening in this application, rather than initiating his own.
Mark Irving, for Mr Brown, said the branch had ceased to function effectively, evidenced by the mass resignations and harassment and intimidation of members and the disruption of meetings.
Shortly after the hearing was adjourned, Mr O’Farrell told the NSW Parliament he did not want a “legal technicality to stop the appointment of an administration to a union that so desperately and badly needs one”.
In question time, Mr O’Farrell said the government would introduce urgent legislation to allow “an administrator proposed by the NSW government under NSW law to a NSW-registered union”.
The NSW Finance Minister, Greg Pearce, criticised Mr Shorten for not consulting him before “significantly intrud[ing] into the NSW industrial relations jurisdiction”.
In response, Mr Shorten said he welcomed Mr O’Farrell’s “belated support” for an administrator but stood by his decision to launch action in the Federal Court.
Justice Flick ordered the parties enter into mediation. If an agreement on an administration scheme is not reached, he will preside over a three-week hearing beginning on June 5.
He said the dispute should be heard as quickly as possible, given the damage being done to the union.
Earlier, the acting national secretary of the HSU, Chris Brown, said the branches had told the court that the East branch, covering NSW and parts of Victoria, was “dysfunctional”.
Outside the court, Mr Brown said if the application failed, he feared the other branches would withdraw from the HSU, which would spell the end of the union.
“If the application doesn’t work there will be so much reputational damage that it’s probably impossible to recover.
“If this fails, we’re probably pretty close to saying game over.”
An administrator would run the union from day to day in matters including finances. All elected positions would be declared vacant.
Justice Flick is also hearing a legal challenge by the National Secretary of the HSU, Kathy Jackson, to the voting entitlements of salaried members of HSU East.
She alleges up to 20 of the 70 members of the HSU East branch are not entitled to vote at union council meetings.
Justice Flick said he feared that hearing could become futile if the HSU East branch was placed into administration.
He said he was inclined to defer Ms Jackson’s case until the question of administration was heard.
Outside the court, Ms Jackson said she would not enter mediation with Mr Brown, despite the court order.
The Avaaz site is right now under massive attack by what an expert tells us is likely a government or large corporation. We’re still standing, but the attack is threatening our continued campaigning. We urgently need a defence fund to increase our security — let’s show the attackers they can’t silence us, and their attempts will only make us stronger:
Right now, the Avaaz website is under massive attack. An expert is telling us that an attack this large is likely coming from a government or large corporation, with massive, simultaneous and sophisticated assaults from across the world to take down our site.
We were expecting this. Our people-powered campaigning has been fearless, and we’ve taken on the world’s worst actors head-on, in ways that genuinely hurt them – from the Syrian and Chinese regimes to Rupert Murdoch, Big Oil and organized crime. The Syrian dictatorship called our campaigner ‘the most dangerous man in the world’, and a UK inquiry recently revealed emails between Murdoch’s news corporation and top levels of government saying the Avaaz campaign against Murdoch was their biggest concern. Sometimes I lie awake at night wondering when these people are going to come after us.
And it’s begun. We have urgent campaigns on oceans, forests and Syria we need to run, but the attack has been going on for 36 hours straight, threatening our ability to keep campaigning. Because of top-notch security, our site is still up, but it’s not enough. We need to show these actors that when they attack Avaaz, they’re messing with people. And people-power can’t be intimidated or silenced, it only grows stronger. Click below to donate to an Avaaz defence fund to take our security to the next level, and show our attackers that whatever they throw at us only makes us stronger:
National authorities have been alerted to the attack. But we urgently need the defence fund to help us:
rapidly build industrial-scale security so that no attack can stop us campaigning
hire top hackers and technologists to manage our systems, defend us and test our defences
increase the physical security of our most vulnerable staff in places like Lebanon and Russia
take a range of other actions to improve our technology and security
Avaaz is a lightning rod that channels voices from across the world, from incredibly brave Tibetan, Russian and Syrian demonstrators risking everything for their freedom, to Bolivian indigenous communities saving their forest from being chopped in half. These people face intense danger, and repelling this attack is just another front in their and our struggle for democracy.
Millions of us have campaigned to keep corporations and governments from censoring and controlling the web. Now one of them is trying to censor us. So far, we’re still standing, and our amazing member-funded systems mean that we can run this appeal for support safely and securely. But our campaigning is under real threat. We need to act, and show that these tactics only make us stronger:
Avaaz can stand up to governments and corporations only because all of our strength, legitimacy, and funding comes from people, and people alone. We don’t accept money – any money – from governments, corporations, foundations, or even large individual donors. It’s extremely rare among large civil society organizations today, but 100% of our money comes from small online donations, and we don’t accept gifts over 5000 Euros from anyone. That’s why we’re independent, and that’s why we’re a threat to those who put power before people. Let’s keep being a threat.
With hope and determination,
Ricken and the whole Avaaz team.
Avaaz.org is a 14-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making. (“Avaaz” means “voice” or “song” in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 19 countries on 6 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz’s biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
