This piece was first published yesterday by Larvatus Prodeo.
Massive upheaval is occurring to Australia’s standard employment conditions and minimum wages, with little to no understanding or public attention.
The ‘award modernisation’ process currently underway in the AIRC, following a request from the Workplace Relations Minister, Julia Gillard, will impact on all Australian workers … either directly [...]
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One of the many travesties of the Howard Government was the establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) and its supporting legislation, the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act (BCII Act).
Together they strip away the basic human rights of workers in these industries, taking away the right to silence and giving the ABCC [...]
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Posted in Environment, NRM, Rachel Siewert, World Heritage, tagged CfoC, Environment, funding, landcare, NHT, NRM on June 24, 2008 | 17 Comments »
This piece was published today on ABC Online (minus the picture). Also see my media release on this issue.
At the end of March, Environment Minister Peter Garrett finally announced the Government’s new environment funding package ‘Caring for Our Country’. I say ‘finally’ because the funding under the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) was coming to an [...]
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The folks over at GetUp have put together a petition to the Government for the upcoming review of the NT Intervention:
Watch the brief video appeal from members of some communities affected, read the fact sheet and sign the petition to demand a consultative approach that protects human rights, not strips them away.
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We are one year on from the inception of the NT Intervention, and today is a day we should not be celebrating. It has been a long year for those in the NT communities of this paternalistic, top down approach that will make future generations ashamed.
This legislation was a knee-jerk reaction that seemed designed purely [...]
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It has just come to light that a scientific report presented to the Murray-Darling Basin ministerial council on the health of the Coorong and Lower Lakes in May gave a deadline of October for action. Instead of setting in place an immediate response, the ministers put the issue on the back burner until they meet [...]
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(Between Rudd’s rhetoric on Indigenous Australians and budget commitments)
The level of spending committed to Indigenous disadvantage in the budget barely sets the Government on the right road to delivering on the Government’s election promise to actually ‘close the gap’. Despite the rhetoric from the Government on closing the gap and their signing on to the [...]
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Posted in Environment, GMO, Rachel Siewert, whales, tagged animals, genetically, NRM, senate estimates, transcripts, whaling on June 4, 2008 | 9 Comments »
To follow on from Tim H’s post on Senate Estimates transcripts, I thought I’d also post a few links to some of the more interesting discussions coming out of estimates.
Rach asked some questions on Live Animal Exports, in particular around those Memorandum of Understandings that the Australian Government have with countries to which we export [...]
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During Senate Estimates last night, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission confirmed $1.8 million of funding to support workplace related complaints has been cut by the Rudd Government, placing more stress on the Commission.
HREOC received additional money when Work Choices was introduced, as it was expected that workplace related complaints would increase, given the [...]
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Although the introduction of the Special Disability Trust (SDT) in September 2006 was welcomed by parents and carers of those living with disabilities, it has not been as widely taken up as expected, during questioning in Senate Estimates it was revealed that only 22 trusts have been established Australia wide to date. [...]
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