Greens MP and mining spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has congratulated the Liverpool Plains farming community for their win in the Supreme Court and said the victory has statewide significance.

The NSW Supreme Court yesterday found that BHP Billiton’s licence to explore for coal on the properties of two Liverpool Plains farmers were invalid because the company had not consulted all landholders.

“This is a most welcome decision that brings some balance to the mining approval process that is so weighted in favour of mining companies,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“When the NSW parliament resumes next week I will question the Mineral Resources Minister Ian Macdonald on what action his department will now take to ensure breaches of the NSW Mining Act no longer occur. (more…)

Mr Ian Cohen, a Greens MP, who strongly opposed the now defunct Mogo Charcoal Factory proposal, and who is a long-term opponent of the woodchipping industry, has been ordered to pay $15,000 in defamation damages as well as massive legal costs, after a developer won a High Court challenge late last year.

The politician who said too much will be in Moruya on Saturday March 13 at the Waterfront Hotel for a fund-raiser for his legal costs. The night is aptly called ‘Bite Your Tongue’.  Fabulous local artists Matt Southon, Jeff Aschmann and Lisa & Tony have donated their time but the big news is that on his way to a tour of Japan, world renowned didgeridoo player Charlie McMahon is taking a detour to play on the night. Charlie is well known for his work in the seminal Australian band Gondwanaland but lesser known is that he featured, with the London Symphony Orchestra, on Mad Max - Beyond the Thunderdome. (more…)

The Greens have criticised the State Government for withdrawing funding from Community Cultural Development NSW, the peak body for community
arts and cultural development in NSW.

“The effect of this de-funding will be that arts funding in NSW will now be focused on the flagships of Australian arts funding such as Opera Australia, Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and their like. While these are wonderful and important institutions, they interact with only a very small segment of our community,” said Sylvia Hale, Greens MLC and spokesperson for the Arts.

“With the withdrawal of this funding the NSW Government is reneging on its 2006/07 agreement with Federal arts funding body, The Australia Council, to support community based arts programs in NSW. The loss of funding from Arts NSW means the automatic loss of funding from The Australia Council. (more…)

The dramatic rise in gun theft has serious public safety implications that requires immediate action to be taken by both the NSW and federal governments Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said today. (SMH page 2, http://bit.ly/7Ryjzh)

The Australian Institute of Criminology has found that during 2007-08 there was an 11 per cent rise in gun theft with nearly a quarter of these crimes in NSW. (http://bit.ly/5K8zQt)

“Firearm crimes are traumatising more people and lives are being lost unnecessarily because Australian political leaders have not had the courage to stand up to the gun lobby,” Ms Rhiannon said. (more…)

Sylvia Hale MLC, Greens NSW spokesperson on Police, today said that using sniffer dogs to detect drugs is a waste of police resources. It is not cost-effective and has a 75% failure rate. Police should be concentrating on real crime and alcohol-related violence rather than treating ordinary people as criminals, she said.

“The statistics show that the person detected by the dogs is usually someone carrying a very small amount of cannabis for their own use. The dogs are not catching people with indictable amounts of drugs, and they rarely detect anyone with heroin. It’s mainly cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy.
“Yet the statutory purpose of the dogs is to identify drug suppliers. By that measure, the dogs fail miserably. Only between 0.5% and 2.5% of all people identified by the dogs are deemed to be ‘drug dealers’ – to be in possession of indictable quantities of drugs. (more…)

(letter to the editor, Australian newspapers; published Canberra Times December 18, additional publication unknown)

In 1997 I attended the Kyoto Climate Change Convention with a petition - The Australian Peoples’ Declaration on Global Warming - signed by 150 000 groups and individuals opposing the stance taken by the Howard Government on climate change. At that time I was astonished (perhaps naively) at the hold that fossil fuel corporations had on the governments of the world, including our own, but it appears that despite the 2007 election and its attendant promises, nothing has changed. (more…)

Greens MP and health spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has called on Premier Nathan Rees and Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell to support abortion law reform and work together to ensure women and doctors can access abortion services without the risk of criminal prosecution, (’Labor MPs support new calls to legalise abortion”, p. 8, SMH).”Modernising NSW’s abortion laws should be beyond party politics, with all parties working together,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Premier Nathan Rees and Opposition Barry O’Farrell could refresh politics by joining forces and working co-operatively to bring forward progressive laws.

“NSW is dragging the chain on abortion law reform in Australia, with Victoria and the ACT modernising their laws to treat abortion as a health not a criminal matter. (more…)

The Rudd Government should immediately sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, according to the Victorian Greens annual conference today.

“It is time the Rudd Government put some substance to the apology to the stolen generations and showed their true commitment to righting the wrongs of successive administrations,” said Australian Greens spokesperson on Indigenous Issues, Senator Rachel Siewert to today’s conference in Melbourne.

Senator Siewert called on the Australian Government to deliver on its election promise to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as quickly as possible. (more…)

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown will introduce a fresh bill on euthanasia to the Senate in the coming week.

This coincides with the heartfelt plea for euthanasia laws, to the Rudd Labor government, from young Melbourne writer Angelique Flowers (The Age, 13/09/2008) who died in agony ‘the law wouldn’t let a dog suffer’.

Senator Brown’s bill will lift the 1997 Commonwealth ban on the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory legislating for euthanasia and follows a Senate committee report into his earlier bill.

“Angelique’s brave appeal should shame Australian politicians who ignore the 80% public support for euthanasia and go to water whenever the callous agonizers of the ‘we know what’s right for everyone’ brigade arrive at parliament houses.

NSW Greens MPs are supporting a call for a parliamentary inquiry into Frank Sartor’s new planning Bill, describing the Bill as having potentially devastating consequences for the state’s environment and heritage and being an open invitation for corruption of the planning system.

“This Bill will affect billions of dollars of developments. It will affect the rights and the amenity of every citizen in this state,”
said Greens MP and planning spokesperson Sylvia Hale.

The government today refused a Greens motion to release the submissions that had been received about the planning changes.

Ms Hale referred to a report of the cross-party Legislative Review Committee that raised significant concerns with the planning Bill including that it would trespass on individual rights to have views heard and represented, procedural fairness, access to justice and may erode the rule of law and individual property rights. (more…)