[recoznet2] Jabiluka solidarity in Spain
Forwarded with permission from Christine Howes: 300 SPANISH ENVIRONMENTALIST GROUPS CONDEMN UNESCO DECISION THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE WAS RELEASED IN MADRID SPAIN BY ECOLOGISTAS EN ACCION, A COALITION OF 300 SPANISH ENVIRONMENT GROUPS ON 13 JULY. Madrid, Spain 13 July 1999 Ecologistas en Acción, the federation of 300 environmentalist action groups around Spain, has denounced in harsh terms the decision by the Word Heritage Committee to reject the recommendation by its own advisory bodies to include the Kakadu National Park in the "Endangered" list, despite the on-going construction of a uranium mine 3 Km from the most important rock art gallery in the Park. "This decision by UNESCO is a humiliating capitulation to political pressure by the Australian Government, which has spent more than 100 million pesetas (AUS$1 million) to buy approval for a uranium mine in an area of incomparable cultural and ecological wealth. It is as if UNESCO had authorised a mine in the heart of Doñana National Park in Spain (southern Europe's largest migratory bird preserve) or at the gates of the Altamira caves. The decision has made it perfectly clear that the World Heritage Convention is not worth the paper it is written on," declared Ecologistas en Acción representative Jaime Benyei. Kakadu National Park contains one of the largest collections of cave paintings in the world, and more bird species than any other single part of Australia. In addition to the Jabiluka mine, there are 29 further mining exploration permits in force in the Park. The World Heritage Scientific Committee, the Australian Senate, the IUCN and the most prestigious independent scientific bodies in the country all recommended inclusion in the "Endangered" list at the Kyoto meeting last November, and gave the Australian Government 6 months to stop work on Jabiluka and present its allegations. The Government's reaction was to accelerate works and spend more than one million dollars (105 million pesetas) on a campaign which directly pressured the individual members of the World Heritage Committee to change their vote. According to Ecologistas en Acción, "The independence and impartiality of the Committee has now clearly been placed in doubt. The decision taken on July 12 is a precedent that places the entire World Heritage system at risk to any sort of government-backed development." In June, the UNESCO Racial Equality Committee catalogued the Australian Government alongside the Ruandan and Milosevic regimes due to its racist policies (minimising the indigenous population's right to reclaim traditional lands, elimination of bilingual education, first sentence jailing, the latter policy resulting in indigenous people forming 80% of prisoners in northern Australian jails, despite their comprising 25% of the region's population. Más información: Jamie Benyei 918 47 12 74 -- Ecologistas en Accion Marques de Leganes 12 - 28004 Madrid Telefono: +34-91-5312739 Fax: +34-91-5312611 http://www.nodo50.org/ecologistas/ e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact: John Hallam, Nuclear Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Sydney, 9517-3903 --- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words:unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
Re: [recoznet2] eGroups.com: You have been added to the radical-science eGroup.
--- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words:unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
[recoznet2] The Age: The opinion business
THE AGE http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990719/news/specials/news4.html July 19, 1999 The opinion business ROBERT MANNE IT IS an illusion to believe the present John Laws case - where bankers were willing to pay a talkback radio host a secret $1.2million to spruik on their behalf - is the only kind of case where corporate money has been used in Australia to influence the shape of opinion on matters of public concern. In the early 1980s significant parts of business in this country made a far less sinister but far more important decision - to invest considerable sums in neo-liberal think tanks such as the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne and the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney. The purpose of this corporate funding was to use their intellectual prestige to assist in the economic transformation of Australia, in the destruction of the traditionally protectionist, interventionist and regulatory state. From the first this intense business interest in public-opinion formation in Australia, which I experienced personally during my unwelcome dissent from economic-rationalist orthodoxy as editor of Quadrant, made me uneasy from a democratic point of view. No doubt the miners and the bankers who sank resources into the neo-liberal think tanks were genuinely convinced that the changes they advocated - the end of tariffs, lower corporate taxes, weakened trade union power - would benefit the Australian economy. No doubt, however, they also believed that such changes would improve their bottom lines. In the 1980s, within the world of big business, the distinction between the national interest and corporate self-interest became hopelessly confused. Moreover, by observing some of my acquaintances, who made new careers within these think tanks, certain potential conflicts of interest - in the new marriage of thought and money - became clear at least to me. In the late 1980s, Gerard Henderson, now a weekly columnist on this page, left his job as adviser to the Leader of the Opposition, John Howard, and set out upon a new career as columnist at The Australian and as director of the Institute of Public Affairs in NSW, soon to be reborn as the influential Sydney Institute. The late 1980s were the last years of cowboy capitalism in Australia. The great opponent of the cowboys was Henry Bosch, chairman of the National Companies and Securities Commission. The legal struggles between Bosch and the cowboys became serious business indeed. In 1988 and 1989, in his role as columnist, Gerard Henderson embarked on a personal anti-Bosch crusade. Time and again he accused Bosch of being a ``media groupie'', of conducing ''trials by media'' and of having an insufficient grasp of the rule of law. Against the bureaucratic state power wielded by Bosch, individuals were ``virtually powerless''. Which individuals did Henderson have in mind? In a column of 24 October 1988, the individual whose cause he defended was one of the businessmen Bosch was at the time investigating, Larry Adler of FAI Insurance. Adler's solicitors had complained about an NCSC media release. With ``enormous arrogance'' Bosch had refused to respond. The dispute between Bosch and Adler over this media release seemed to Henderson a matter of ``utmost importance''. In a column a little over a year later, Henderson turned to the defence of another virtually powerless individual - Christopher Skase. In a radio interview Bosch had described the practice of company directors paying themselves vast sums without reference to their shareholders as ``probably unethical and probably illegal''. Henderson commented thus: ``As a youth, I studied law and learnt very early on how to distinguish between British justice and rough justice.'' Bosch had created an entirely ``new form of legal process''. ``Bosch justice'' had the capacity to inflict on Skase's company, Qintex, very considerable harm. In 1988 and 1989 Henderson wore two hats - as an independent intellectual writing an opinion column and as a director of a new think tank seeking considerable corporate support. I have no idea which corporations supported the Sydney Institute in its early days. Henderson's anti-Bosch campaign, however, highlighted for me the potential for conflicts of interest in a regime where donations to think tanks did not have to be disclosed. So, in a different way, did the case of another old acquaintance, Ron Brunton. In 1981, Brunton, an anthropologist, left Macquarie University to fashion for himself a new think-tank career. For most of the 1990s he has been director of indigenous affairs at the IPA. In this post he has both wielded considerable influence and displayed considerable courage as the bete noire of most academic anthropologists in the field of Aboriginal affairs. Since the late 1980s support for Aboriginal land claims, interest in Aboriginal
[recoznet2] Re: NT will be hardest hit by GST, says Beazley
Hi Trudy, due to the large of number of e-mails this list generates QCC would like to be taken off the list. (for now anyway - we are establishing a new e-mail system here, so will be in touch when everything is sorted). Thanks, Laura Parsons - Original Message - From: Trudy Bray [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: news-clip [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 15, 1999 4:29 PM Subject: AAP: NT will be hardest hit by GST, says Beazley NT will be hardest hit by GST, says Beazley Source: AAP | Published: Thursday July 15 3:17:55 PM Northern Territorians would become the most heavily taxed people in Australia when the GST bites, federal opposition leader Kim Beazley said today. Mr Beazley told reporters here prices would rise despite expectations that freight costs would fall as a result of the GST. "The Northern Territory people will become the most heavily taxed people in Australia with the introduction of a goods and services tax," he said. Price rises for houses would be double those in the south, he said. He said goods generally would be more expensive in the NT because "you have got to pay Northern Territory distant prices". Mr Beazley said the GST would be a horrible experience for the National Party and for the NT's ruling Country Liberal Party which he branded "the newest branch of the Liberal Party". He said the election of former NT chief minister Shane Stone as federal Liberal Party president showed the CLP was just another branch of the Liberal Party. He also criticised the NT's Parliament House, saying its cost could have been used for the building of the Adelaide to Darwin railway. Pointing to the giant white building known here as the 'Wedding Cake', he said: "That ought to be the Darwin to Alice Springs railway line or it ought to be improvement in the road system elsewhere in the Northern Territory ... anything but housing someone like me." Mr Beazley threw his support behind NT Labor leader Clare Martin ahead of two by-elections called yesterday by the CLP. He said federal MP Warren Snowdon's victory at the 1998 election showed it was possible for Labor to win government in the Northern Territory despite never holding power. "This government has run out of puff," he said. * This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." --- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words:unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
[recoznet2] PUBLIC FORUM - CRIME PUNISHMENT - WA PRISONS
Forwarded from: Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (WA) Inc NOTICE CRIME PUNISHMENT - WA PRISONS TODAY 1. A Public Forum is to be held in the Christ Church at Claremont at 2 Queenslea Drive, Claremont, on Wednesday 28th July 1999 commencing at 8pm. SPEAKERS: · Peter Foss - Attorney General Minister of Justice of WA · Glenn Shaw - Chair of the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee of WA 2. All interested groups and people are invited to attend. 3. If you are attending, please advise the Secretary of the Parish, Maria Barry on 9384-9244 or leave a message on the answering machine. Kath Mallott "To monitor and work to ensure the effective implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody" Deaths In Custody Watch Committee (WA) Inc) 119 Mathieson Road, REDCLIFFE, Western Australia, 6104 "The beginning of the cause of deaths in custody does not occur within the confines of police and prison cells or in the minds of the victims. Initially it starts in the minds of those who allow it to happen." Elder Dr. Jack Davis (OA, MBE) * [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.omen.net.au/~dicwc * --- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words:unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
