Search Results
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For the world’s biggest coal export port, the future is just beginning
This month my term as chair of the Port of Newcastle comes to an end. It’s been a time of transformational change for the world’s biggest coal export port, with an ambitious growth and diversification plan ready to weigh anchor. Continue reading »
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Building a new concrete revolution to net zero
No wonder the United Nations is worried. Making one ton of cement emits nearly one ton of carbon dioxide. With an area the size of Paris being built on every week globally, construction contributes heavily to climate change. In Australia, CO2 from building is tipped to double by 2050. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
We start the week with Prime Minister Albanese setting the record on Peter Dutton and nuclear power (and more) from Launceston. At the UN, the double standards for Gaza send a chilling message to the Global South, while in Gaza people follow the planes for the food drop and a young amputee adjusts to his Continue reading »
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A call to all Christians in Australia to strive for a just peace in the holy land
In the Name of Christ, Our Peace – The time has come for people of faith to hear the cries of the people of Palestine, Gaza and Lebanon and to do everything in our power towards the ending of the death and destruction they are suffering. Continue reading »
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Environment: Climate protesters blockade Newcastle’s coal port despite government bans
Draconian laws don’t discourage climate protesters. Hydrogen’s rainbow of colours. CCS continues to underperform. Clean energy investments increasing but so are investments in fossil fuels. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
Israel continue to bomb the homes of civilians in Gaza and Beirut while journalists on the ground investigate the damage under drones. In Pakistan Imran Khan supporters have taken to the streets while in Newcastle climate change activists have paddled in protest on Newcastle Harbour. Clare O’Neil speaks to the housing policy while US Senator Continue reading »
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The Labor Government is morally moribund and scornful of international law
To mark the anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, Jews Against the Occupation ’48 wrote to Prime Minister Albanese, Foreign Minister Wong, and Defence Minister Marles. We have received no reply. Continue reading »
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Leslie landscape prize attracts superb pictures
It’s astonishing enough that 403 landscapes by Australian artists were entered in this year’s John Leslie Art Prize. Even more surprising is the superb quality and diversity of the 52 shortlisted, which are exhibited in Sale’s Gippsland Art Gallery until 24 November. Continue reading »
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We can no longer ignore the poor oral health of older people
We urgently need the Senior Smiles Program in Residential Aged Care Continue reading »
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The dangers of AUKUS, the FPA and nuclear submarines
AUKUS and the FPA will lead us into unnecessary war, compromises our sovereignty and bring with them toxic risks to our health through radiation leaks, accidents associated with the nuclear reactors and the toxic waste from porting US and UK nuclear submarines Continue reading »
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Remembering the US atomic bomb that demolished Hiroshima, killed 200,000
On 6 Aug, 1945, approximately 200,000 people in the hitherto untouched town of Hiroshima perished in the worlds first use of a nuclear weapon in anger. On 9th Aug, a somewhat smaller number in Nagasaki likewise perished. Only the authority of secretary of state Stimson, who had visited the city of Kyoto, famous for its Continue reading »
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How Mike Baird’s privatisation almost crippled the Newcastle container terminal
The terms of privatisation included an anti-competitive restriction on the development of a commercial-scale container terminal at Newcastle, primarily to boost the sale price of Port Botany. Continue reading »
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Is it time for Australia to pass a national Human Rights Act?
Parliament has the power to enshrine human rights protections in federal law. Proposals are on the table. Continue reading »
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“Forever Learning”: the Hoc Mai medical exchange program, 1998-2024
During the 1990’s Associate Professor Phillip Yuile of Sydney University visited Vietnam many times, helping hospitals to establish Radiotherapy there. In 1998 he met with Professor Ton That Bach the Dean of Hanoi Medical University (HMU) who subsequently invited me to visit Hanoi with a view to establishing a connection with postgraduate medical education in Australia, specifically Sydney Medical Continue reading »
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Playing defence Mini-Me for the US will cost Australia dearly
The complaint by Canberra about the latest Chinese military flare-up close to China’s coast is not only hypocritical but highly escalatory. Continue reading »
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Australian Civil Society submits statement on Gaza genocide to the International Court of Justice
As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Australia is obliged to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people and failure to do so risks complicity in genocide. In the absence of a response from the Australian government to the ICJ ruling, at least 100 groups representing civil society are observing Continue reading »
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Climate, health, and the Rising Tide
“Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness” – Antonio Guterres Continue reading »
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I’m an extremist!
A week ago today, I and several hundred other members of Rising Tide and were paddling around the entrance to Newcastle Harbour preventing the export of coal from the world’s largest coal port. The event was incredibly well organised and extremely safe for everyone involved. It lasted from Friday until Monday but the actual blockade was Continue reading »
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The missing link in Australia’s climate change adaptation strategy: Social infrastructure
We have “likely crossed a tipping point for Australia’s temperate broadleaf and mixed forests when a critical level of heat or drought triggers a massive, devastating event. … Climate change is driving a new era of ‘unnatural disasters’ – and as a country we are not prepared to cope.” – Australian Climate Council, 2021. Continue reading »
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Killing for Country: Another plank in truth-telling
At the heart of David Marr’s new book, Killing for Country, is a crucial question. How should we deal with old, ugly secrets within our own families? Should we ignore them as excesses of the past, when and where things were done differently, or should we examine them closely for clues and lessons that might Continue reading »
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The referendum: So little asked, so graciously, but seemingly too much
Why do so many of my fellow non-Indigenous Australians seemingly have such a deep aversion towards the Aboriginal peoples of this land? Sadly, I am compelled to ask that question as we approach a referendum asking for constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament. Continue reading »
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Taking the high ground: let kindness have its day
I lost any reservations about The Voice after seeing a movie. Continue reading »
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Queensland Government slammed for abusing human rights of children
More than 180 human rights and legal experts, social justice organisations and First Nations community groups have signed the open letter below condemning the Queensland Government for overriding the state’s Human Rights Act to lock children in the state’s police watch houses indefinitely. Continue reading »
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Australia’s biggest AUKUS risk? America, our dangerous ally
The biggest enemy of AUKUS is not the resistance of ALP branches and unions but its own over-engineered grandiosity, its naive ambition. Continue reading »
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Indonesia has what we lack – a day of unity
It’s banners and bunting season in Southeast Asia as our neighbours celebrate independence. Singapore finished its wavings on 9 August and Malaysia’s moments of pomp will come on 16 September. Like Australia, both won sovereignty through diplomacy. Continue reading »
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White Australia’s moral backwardness
White Australians like to think of themselves as an egalitarian and frank people, despising pretentiousness, while basking in a reputation for larrikinism and mateship. But this is all a front, papering over a culture that is deeply racist, excessively masculinist, and incorrigibly populist. Indeed, from its very beginnings, white Australia has been a morally backward Continue reading »
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Seven deadly sins in the Defence industry
If previous defence acquisitions are any guide, the enormous cost of nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy will almost certainly escalate well beyond the estimated but un-itemised initial price of $A368 billion. The record of corruption of the two US submarine builders suggests that the project will also probably suffer from mismanagement. The final Continue reading »
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“Like the Hydra”: Strategic incapacitation fails to decapitate the climate movement
Blockade Australia’s return this week, in larger numbers and across three locations, represents a victory over ‘Strategic incapacitation’, a policing technique that aims to smash the organising ability of a group of people, such that the group can no longer function. “Like the hydra, we are back threefold. You cannot decapitate the climate movement,” they Continue reading »
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In the 1800s, colonisers attempted to listen to First Nations people. It didn’t stop the massacres
Note of warning: This article refers to deceased Aboriginal people, their words, names and images. Words attributed to them and images in the article are already in the public domain. Also, historical language is used in this article that may cause offence. Continue reading »
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Environment: Who are the green groups pocketing dirty dollars?
Fossil fuel companies burnish their image with environmental sponsorships. Lakes and reservoirs drying up around the globe. China dominates the production of solar panels. Continue reading »