EcoRadio

Author: Geoff Ebbs

  • Another Hazara beaten by the system

    Ahmad Ali Jafari, 20th February 1987 – 20th June 2013

    Report and tribute by Graeme Swincer, Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group

    Police inspecting Villawood

    Just before 4pm today, Thursday 20th June 2013, I said goodbye to my dear friend Ahmad Ali Jafari at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. Little did I know it would be the last time. As usual he had served me a cup of tea and this time he had also given me copies of his documents so that I could help him write a submission to the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship. It seemed like his last hope of obtaining what he had always longed for and deserved. But he is now beyond hope. He died of a heart attack late in the evening. He survived the Taliban and long and dangerous journeys but he did not survive Australia’s hideous refugee system.

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  • How many Iraqis died?

    How many Iraqis died?

    Pakistan-born Glasgow-based sociologist, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, writing in the UAE journal The National on 5 April 2013, provides some answers – see True costs of Iraq War Whitewashed by fuzzy maths, republished the same day by the UK Stop the War Coalition under the headline No more fuzzy maths: how many died in the Bush-Blair war on Iraq?.

    The most commonly cited source, the UK-based online initiative Iraq Body Count (IBC), uses a passive surveillance method to estimate what it calls “violent civilian deaths”, relying mainly on media reports, initially only in the English language. Current total: between 111,842 and 122,326.
  • Cheap drugs on the table in Lima

    Cheap drugs on the table in Lima

    Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is under attack at the 17th round of Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations underway in Lima. It is not just the cheap drugs enjoyed by Australia thanks to this brilliant scheme, it is the very question of national sovereignty.

    The Australian delegation  is winning accolades around the world for its stand on national sovereignty but this has not yet made headlines locally.

    This article discusses the reasons why these negotiations are so critical to our future and concludes with a plea to bring all the pressure we can to bear on politicians of all stripes to maintain our proud bipartisan stance on this issue.

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  • New environment laws increase flood risk

    New environment laws increase flood risk


    130509_Lokyer_wackers_bridge_jan2013Lockyer resident Diane Bruhn has produced evidence showing that clearing riverine trees increases sedimentation and increases flood risk. She said that the Queensland Government has used the recent floods as an excuse to repeal the sections of the water act controlling clearing of land in the riparian zone of Queensland’s rivers and streams.

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  • Qld amends 18 nature laws

    Robin McConchie QLD Country Hour 

     The Queensland Government has passed sweeping changes to rural land and water regulations.

    It’s amended 18 pieces of legislation, to implement some of the recommendations of the Floods Inquiry.

    The changes include extending the expiry date for water licences from 10 to 99 years, and removing the need to get a permit to destroy vegetation on a watercourse.

    Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps says there is no evidence to suggest the removal of the requirement for riverine protection permits to remove vegetation will result in the large scale clearing of riverine vegetation, nor will it cause degradation to watercourses.

  • Land clearing laws passed in Queensland

    NATURAL Resources Minister Andrew Cripps has rejected claims new vegetation clearing laws will damage the Great Barrier Reef and Moreton Bay.

    Mr Cripps last night described the claims as “alarmist rhetoric” based on inaccurate information.

    The comments were made during a debate on the wide-ranging Land, Water and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, which was passed in State Parliament on Thursday night (more…)