news
environment
resources September 8, 2018
Climate inaction could affect trade deals
As the change of leadership steers the Australian government even further from action on climate change, the Coalition’s efforts to appease the powerful domestic fossil fuel industry could jeopardise trade deals with the European Union.
resources September 1, 2018
Barnaby Joyce and the Murray–Darling
As Barnaby Joyce, newly minted special envoy for drought, made a grab for Murray–Darling water, the royal commission into the basin faced yet another setback.
environment August 25, 2018
Further Barrier Reef business links
As questions swirl around the Great Barrier Reef Foundation grant, another non-profit group pledging citizens’ support for the reef is revealed to have links to business and tourism bodies.
rural August 25, 2018
Cutthroat politics veil climate change inaction
Throughout all the thrills and spills of federal politics this week, the Coalition’s wilful torching of planned action on climate change escaped scrutiny.
environment August 18, 2018
Accounting trick frames reef grant
The government’s surprise $444 million grant to a private foundation is allegedly being used to fudge its commitment to UNESCO on Barrier Reef protection.
indigenous affairs August 4, 2018
Protesters against a Victorian highway project requiring the clearing of thousands of trees, including some sacred to the local Djab Wurrung people, say the issue exposes the government’s hypocrisy in treaty negotiations.
rural August 4, 2018
High court challenge to Walker inquiry threatens federation
A Commonwealth challenge to South Australia’s Murray–Darling royal commission has become a state rights battleground with implications for the Constitution.
environment May 26, 2018
Who is the group awarded $443m to save the reef?
The largest government grant for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef has been awarded, without tender, to a tiny foundation with no details on why.
rural May 12, 2018
Fuel reduction a smokescreen for logging burns
The smoke drifting into Melbourne from fires in Victoria’s central highlands, described by a government agency as the result of bushfire management for community safety, is mostly due to logging industry burnoffs.
environment May 12, 2018
Dhaka’s climate refugees a warning
Dhaka is on the frontline of climate change disaster, as refugees from Bangladesh’s flooding south are migrating to the capital in abject poverty. Experts fear that failure to persuade regional towns to rapidly expand could lead to anarchy.
resources March 17, 2018
As today’s Batman byelection brings Labor’s coal policy into relief, Adani finds it still has not got approval for its Carmichael mine.
