Bruce Duncan. The extraordinary fires in the Amazon in August 2019 struck dread into the hearts of climate specialists and observers worldwide, since the Amazon forests remain one of the great bulwarks against global warming. They cool Latin America, and generate 20% of the world’s oxygen. Smoke from the fires darkened the sky over Sao […]
While the Morrison government dithers, climate specialists are alarmed that the chances to limit global warming are slipping away, with the likely result that we will be left facing truly catastrophic changes to the weather. The former Liberal leader, John Hewson, in the Fairfax media on 1 August, castigated the Morrison government for ignoring the […]
The Government’s tax package is unfair to low paid workers. In response, the Labor Opposition announced that it will support Stage 1 of the package, within which is embedded much of that unfairness. How might we reduce the unfairness? The current debate about the Government’s tax package, introduced in its April 2019 Budget, includes issues […]
Danusia Kaska. Recently, I attended a training workshop on ice awareness and use, run by 360Edge and funded by the government. Entitled How to respond to people affected by ice, workshop objectives were to explain what ice is, how it affects people, and how we should respond safely and effectively. It also outlined the policies […]
Anne Doyle. Making mosaics is the art of crafting broken pieces into a work of beauty. In her book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, Terry Tempest Williams writes: ‘Mosaic celebrates brokenness and the beauty of being brought together’. In late February, I flew into Nairobi with a group of people associated with the Edmund […]
Marc Hudson, University of Manchester This article is part of a series examining the Coalition government’s record on key issues while in power, and what Labor is promising if it wins the 2019 federal election. It might feel like the past decade of climate policy wars has led us into uncharted political waters. But the […]
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis has made dialogue with Islam a high priority, as he is acutely aware that the scourge of war and displacement of peoples will not stop until these great religious traditions can consolidate effective norms of peace, justice, toleration, and cooperation. As the leader of the Catholic Church and a spokesman for […]
Peter Whiting. With a Federal election being tipped for mid-May 2019, and an April budget to accommodate it, it is hardly surprising that the budget handed down on 2 April had a number of initiatives clearly focused on specific community groups and marginal electorates in the hope of influencing electors’ voting decisions. It just would […]
Tony French. Record greenhouse gas emissions are driving global temperatures to dangerous levels. This is the dire conclusion in the latest World Meteorological Organisation report, WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate In 2018. The WMO is part of the United Nations. The WMO report highlights record sea level rises, as well as […]
Tony French. In January, I climbed Mt Sinai. Readers of the Hebrew Scriptures know Mt Sinai is where God gave Moses the stone-engraved set of Ten Commandments. At the time, you may recall, Moses was escaping Egypt with his Israelites en route to the ‘promised land’. Mt Sinai is geographically roughly halfway there, being in […]
