According to the National Litter Index (NLI) report, Queensland is officially known as the ‘most littered Mainland State’ in Australia.

To help combat this, not-for-profit environmental organisation Queensland Conservation, with the generous pro bono support of national advertising agency ‘George Patterson Y&R (GPY&R), have released a web film on the wasteful and deadly phenomenon – plastic bags.

Queensland Conservation Executive Director, Toby Hutcheon said that in Queensland alone it is estimated that 1 billion plastic bags are used every year and that the average household collects 60 bags per week.

“As the most littered ‘Mainland State’, it’s time that the Queensland Government got behind Queensland Conservations aim to have a ban on single-use plastic bags by 2015.”

Toby said that the web film titled ’PLASTIC BAGS – QLD’S HAD A GUTFUL’ aims to bring home the reality to shoppers that we wouldn’t feed plastic bags to our kids, so why do we release them in to the environment to hurt our wildlife – highlighting that each year 1 million sea birds die an agonising death after ingesting plastic.

“We’d like to take this time to thank GPY&R, as without their support this web film would not have been possible. It’s organisations like this, who get behind not-for-profits, that really make a difference to the environment and the lives of others,” Toby said.

When asked for comment as to why GPY&R worked on the film for free, Managing Director Phil McDonald said that he felt the need to get involved, as Queensland is lagging behind other States in banning single-use plastic bags.

“Other States and Territories have been running high-profile campaigns that have assisted them in banning the bag in their regions. I could see that Queensland Conservation was pushing the issue along, but felt that by offering our services that we could help to highlight the issue visually, which I think we have been successful in doing,” he said.

Also lending his support to the web film has been celebrity Chef, TV presenter and restaurateur, Ben O’Donoghue, who has personally donated his time and talent to help highlight the cause.

“When Queensland Conservation contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing this, I jumped at the opportunity no questions asked! To me the plastic bag is a modern day commodity that we can all re-learn to do without, and if by doing this it encourages people to take their own bag when shopping, then it’s been well worth my time,” he said.

The web film ’PLASTIC BAGS – QLD’S HAD A GUTFUL’ can be viewed online at www.QldsHadAGutful.org.au with the aim being to raise enough money to have it air on Queensland TV.

Eleven candidates have nominated to contest the 2014 Griffith by-election, the AEC announced on the 29th January. The candidate nominations, in ballot paper order, that were officially declared at 12noon on the 21st. Click below for the Westender story on the candidate or, failing that, the candidate statement.

You can meet the Griffith candidates in the flesh at the Souths Leagues Club on Wednesday February 6th. Don’t forget to register your questions with us online, now.

1. Timothy Lawrence, Stable Population Party
2. Geoff Ebbs, The Greens
3. Christopher David Williams, Family First Party
4. Karel Boele, Independent
5. Anthony Ackroyd, Bullet Train for Australia
6. Anne Reid, Secular Party of Australia
7. Terri Butler, Australian Labor Party
8. Melanie Rose Thomas, Pirate Party Australia
9. Travis James Windsor, Independent – Travis on Travis
10. Ray Sawyer, Katter’s Australian Party
11. Bill Glasson, Liberal National Party of Queensland

Election facts

• The same number of people nominated as a candidate in the electoral Division of Griffith at the 2013 federal election
• Candidates and the result for the seat of Griffith in the 2013 federal election

Extraordinary unity emerges as protests groups target Glasson, Abbott at Griffith campaign launch – “A sign of things to come”

An extraordinary “people’s coalition” is emerging as citizens across Queensland converge around a raft of “attacks on democracy” in the Sunshine State.

Throngs of protesters are set to descend on LNP Candidate for Griffith Bill Glasson’s campaign launch in Coorparoo tomorrow, according to protest organiser Ewan Saunders.

“The people of Queensland are twigging to the fact that we have both a state and federal government hell-bent on ripping away our basic rights to give big business a free ticket to our common wealth,” Mr Saunders said.

“Meanwhile, families, lives and careers are being decimated at the hands of Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie.”

“Day by day more people are realising that the VLAD laws in Queensland are no more than populist propaganda distracting us from plans to dismantle Medicare, smash our working people’s Unions, and sell off our few remaining public assets,” Mr Saunders said.

Tomorrow’s protest comes only days after LNP Candidate for Griffith Dr Bill Glasson distanced himself from earlier statements by the Prime Minister entertaining the idea of a $6 “co-contribution” to be imposed on formerly bulk-billled GP Medicare visits.

Protest groups which drew over 2000 protesters in Brisbane on Australia Day are promoting Saturday’s event. An image promoting tomorrow’s protest has attracted massive social media promotion, with hundreds of opponents of the Queensland Government’s “anti-association” laws sharing it, urging people to attend.

Mr Saunders said: “An unprecedented ‘People’s Coalition’ is emerging as more and more Australians come to grips with the fact that the crackdown on democracy in Queensland is part of a national strategy of the almost wall-to-wall LNP regime developing in Australia.”

“Mr Abbott’s extraordinary slamdown of our ABC is the first salvo in the war on the last remnants of an independent press we have in this country,” he said.

“This protest is just a small sign of things to come.”

Protesters will gather tomorrow at 10am at the entrance of Easts Leagues Club, 40 Main St, Coorparoo, BRISANE

Woollongabba Art Gallery (known as WAG to its friends) is hosting two new sets of paintings from the centre, for the next month

Downstairs

© Tilau Nangala

Ngurra Nganampa
“Community”

featuring

Papunya Tjupi

Opening

Friday, 7 February 6.00pm – 9.00pm

Exhibition Dates

4 February ~ 22 March 2014

~

Upstairs

© Wintjiya Napaltjarri

dot.dot.dot.

Paintings from Central Australia

Opening

Friday, 7 February 6.00pm – 9.00pm

Exhibition Dates

4 February ~ 15 February 2014

Woolloongabba Art Gallery
613 Stanley Street Woolloongabba Q 4102
Tuesday to Saturday 9am – 5pm

The Institute of Modern Art on the corner of Brunswick and Berwick St, Fortitude Valley has new Co-Directors, Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh.

Aileen and Johan are both writers and curators, and they join us from their previous post as Co-Directors of the Centre for Contemporary Art Derry-Londonderry (CCA), Northern Ireland. They bring with them a commitment to supporting the production of new artwork, inter-institutional collaboration, and education. Over the coming months, they will build a program of research-led thematic seasons, involving exhibitions, residencies, publications, and discursive initiatives, embedding the IMA in its region, while connecting it internationally.

At the CCA, Aileen and Johan produced exhibitions with such artists as Goldin+Senneby, Jesse Jones, Anja Kirschner and David Panos, Raqs Media Collective, and Haegue Yang. Recently they were part of the curatorial team for the 2013 Turner Prize. At CCA, with Independent Curators International, they organised the first Curatorial Intensive in Europe. The faculty included Mai Abu ElDahab, Annie Fletcher, Khwezi Gule, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Teresa Margolles, and Declan McGonagle. Previously, they curated exhibitions and projects for Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto; Konsthall C, Stockholm; Overgaden ICA, Copenhagen; and Western Front, Vancouver; featuring such artists as Bik Van der Pol, Geoffrey Farmer, and Superflex. They have written for Art in America, Art Papers, Fillip, Journal for Curatorial Studies,Kaleidoscope, Metropolis M, and Mousse, as well as for exhibition catalogues and books.

Queensland Arts Minister Ian Walker has congratulated Queensland Indigenous artist Danie Mellor on his international success, with the National Gallery of Canada purchasing a major work.

Mr Walker said the Gallery’s purchase of Mr Mellor’s triptych Maba-I-Bala Rugu (of Power in Darkness) showed the benefits of the Newman Government’s arts programs.

“Danie Mellor, born in Mackay, is an artist whose star is on the rise,” Mr Walker said.

“The Newman Government provided $25,000 to support Mr Mellor to show his work in the Berlin Art Fair in September 2013, where he appeared alongside fellow Queensland artists Brian Robinson and Christian Thompson.

“The showcase attracted international attention and led to the purchase from the National Gallery of Canada.

“Queenslanders can see Danie Mellor’s work on home turf with the exhibition Danie Mellor: Exotic Lies Sacred Ties, now on display until 27 April at the UQ Art Museum in Brisbane.

“The State Government is committed to the arts sector and we are delivering on our election commitment to give more Queenslanders access to the arts.

“The success of Danie Mellor also shows the benefits of the Backing Indigenous Arts International Arts Initiative.”

Mr Walker said Danie Mellor’s work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) and private collections nationally and overseas.

UQ Art Museum Director Dr Campbell Gray said Mr Mellor worked in media including ceramics, drawing and mixed media installation, with an eye to Australia’s colonial past.

“Mr Mellor came to national prominence when he won the 26th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2009 and his work has continued to demand attention for compelling images of this country’s shared history,” Dr Gray said.

Mr Walker said the Backing Indigenous Arts International Arts Partnership Program, delivered by Arts Queensland, helps to build a sustainable and ethical arts industry, taking the unique art of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to the world.

For more information on Danie Mellor: Exotic Lies Sacred Ties go to http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/current-exhibitions