Stop compulsory acquisition in the Kimberley...

Just a quick note further to yesterday’s post about Colin Barnett’s land grab in the Kimberley region… GetUp are helping out Indigenous leaders with a petition to Premier Barnett, protesting his unconstitutional attempt to simply take privately owned land and give it to oil and gas companies. Please show your support for us here in the West by signing it and sending it on to people who you think would...

What will be left of WA if Barnett keeps selling i...

Photo credit: Protect the Kimberley Facebook group, part of the Like Nowhere Else campaign I’ve had a rant here before about WA Premier Colin Barnett’s quarry vision. It won’t surprise anyone to find out that he’s still trying to sell off every inch of the state to multinational companies. WA Government partners with Monsanto - never mind that the evidence shows that GM crops provide more corporate...

Now what?...

So what does it all this hung parliament stuff mean for those of us who care about the environment? As John Hepburn at Crikey points out, this was the second climate change election (after the 2007 effort) even though neither of the major parties wanted to address it. But the people wanted it on the agenda, and voted as if it had been. As I said yesterday, I think politicians don’t listen to us, and the media doesn’t...

I love the smell of democracy in the morning...

Do Aussies want what's on offer? I love election days. No really, I do! I head off to the primary school down the road from us, dodge the leaflets, buy something from the sausage sizzle or cake stall, line up for a bit while I eat my snack, then put in my 2 cents on who should lead the country. It’s the bare minimum we have to do for democracy, and I’m glad that it works so well in Australia. Other countries...

More voting resources...

It’s easy to feel like your vote doesn’t even count when our leaders seem to be focused on the concerns of a handful of swinging voters in marginal seats. They’re taking the rest of us for granted. I think it’s time to remind them that there are 80% of voters out there who are unhappy with their climate change policies. Here’s a few resources to help you get the most out of your little bits of paper… Firstly:...

Carbon price now!...

Australian voting ballot Last week I saw an interesting idea put forward, on how people could emphasise their support for climate action when they vote. Robert Merkel over at Larvatus Prodeo remembered one of the factors that helped stop the Franklin Dam back in 1983, and I reckon it’d be great to try it again now. Volunteers went to polling booths, and asked voters who opposed the Franklin Dam to write “No...

Walk Against Warming, Sunday 15th August...

Earlier in the week I promised I’d talk about some ways to make your vote count in this election. This might look like an event announcement, but I think it’s a great way to give your vote some extra oomph. This year’s Walk Against Warming is actually pretty quick after the last one that happened back in December. It’s going to be held on Sunday 15th August, the Sunday before the election, and...

Comparing environmental policies...

From the Carbon Institute's Pollute-o-meter Now that the election campaign is well underway, we can see what the different parties are bringing to the table when it comes to climate change issues. Labor Policy document: Tackling climate change and our environmental challenges (PDF). Although the Labor party says all the right things about climate change (“greatest moral challenge of our time”, “delay is denial”,...

A new Prime Minister - is she green enough?...

Image shamelessly stolen from ABC News Well then - what an interesting 24 hours in politics. We’ve got our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, installed in what looks like a bloodless coup. I’m not sure what this means for environmental issues. She’s backed down on the mining tax, which in itself isn’t a problem but might indicate a willingness to back down to the mining companies. She...

Politics as usual...

by Fiona Katauskas for New Matilda Last week I called one of the WA senators for the ALP, Senator Louise Pratt. I left a message saying that I was very disappointed that the CPRS policy had been dropped by the Rudd government, and that I really think a price on carbon is an essential foundation for fixing the climate change problem. It was part of a GetUp campaign, and I’ve always had good experiences calling politician’s...