Releasing a list of the Abbott government’s top failures, the Australian Greens say the first 100 days have been a secretive, cruel and chaotic preview of what is to come.

“During the election campaign the Abbott government’s true agenda was hidden behind cheap rhetoric, but you can’t run a country with a slogan,” said Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne.

“The Abbott government has tried to claim a so-called mandate to take Australia back to the last century, but he doesn’t have one. The longer Prime Minister Abbott and his big business mates run the show, the less the public knows about what’s going on behind the scenes. The Abbott government is a secretive, cruel and chaotic government.

“The Australian people didn’t sign up to this, and the Greens will stand against it. (more…)

If honesty and accountability had been a compulsory part of election campaigning we may have ended up with a different result after Saturday’s election, says Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro Catherine Moore.

“The Greens ran a positive campaign, but without the backing of Australia’s biggest media magnate and millions of campaign dollars to use on advertising and leaflets, it was always going to be hard to get our message across,” says Catherine.

“This was compounded by the commonly expressed view of media commentators that there was no point in talking to other parties because only the ALP or Coalition would win the election, and the misinformation that was perpetuated, particularly by the Coalition, about The Greens.

“But the success of Adam Bandt has shown that where Greens are elected, they enjoy enormous support and are likely to be re-elected, no matter what preference deals are done by others in an attempt to keep them out. (more…)

North Coast Greens MP, Jan Barham, has called for the Government to act on photographs that show the logging of Old Growth Forest in Koreelah State Forest on the Far North Coast.

“During question time in Parliament today, I tabled photographs showing the devastation that has happened to six hectares of Koreelah’s Old Growth Forest. These trees are irreplaceable and their destruction is a travesty,” Ms Barham said.

“I’ve asked whether the Environment Minister is aware that this logging has taken place, and that a further 17 hectares is at risk from planned operations. The Government must investigate and announce what action it will take to protect the biodiversity and heritage of our Old Growth Forests from any further planned destruction.”

The photographs, which were taken during a recent inspection by the North East Forest Alliance, show the aftermath of intensive logging that has felled trees approaching 2.5m in diameter. The forest provides habitat for threatened species and its destruction creates a risk of invasive species such as Lantana taking hold.

“I’m utterly shocked to see evidence that the destruction of Old Growth Forests is still happening. The public puts its trust in government to preserve and protect our natural environment. The loss of these great forests is like stealing from future generations,” Ms Barham said.

(Photographs taken at compartment 27 of Kareelah State Forest available from Jan Barham’s office on request)

The Senate has backed an Australian Greens motion recognising the start of legal action in the International Court of Justice against Japanese whaling and urging the Government to ensure any resources needed to enforce a positive ruling are provided.

“The start of this case is an important day for the decades-old fight against whaling,” Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

“The Senate recognised this, supporting the Greens motion and noting that this case will be keenly followed by all those Australians who oppose the continuation of whaling.

“It is also significant that the Senate backed our calls for the Government to consider what resources will be provided to enforce a positive result.

“This court case is an important marker in this long campaign, but it is important to remember that the Japanese Government have a track record of ignoring or bypassing international treaties, regulations and requests. The Government therefore needs a plan to enforce the findings. (more…)

Former speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly Richard Torbay has been directly linked to the lifting of the heritage listing on a property owned by a major campaign donor.

(‘The developer, the $100k gift and the ‘highly effective’ MP’ Sydney Morning Herald 9 May, p. 1)

Documents obtained by Greens NSW MP John Kaye show that Mr Torbay set up a meeting between the then Planning Minister Tony Kelly and the owners of the heritage-listed property Graham and Georgiana McCullagh.

Six months later Mr Torbay received a $100,000 donation from a McCullagh-owned company. (more…)

Greens spokesperson on women Senator Lee Rhiannon has questioned whether women can trust opposition leader Tony Abbott’s promise today that he will heed the advice of technical experts on abortion drugs and has called on him to definitively declare his position on women’s right to access the full range of reproductive health procedures.

“Abbott’s assurance that he will accept the advice of technical experts cannot be trusted if you look at his history during the Howard years,” Senator Rhiannon said.

“As Health Minister in 2005 Mr Abbott relied on limited advice from the Chief Health Officer on whether to lift the ban on RU486.

“Mr Abbott was criticised by the AMA’s rural taskforce and the Rural Doctor’s Association of Australia for failing to consult with them. He instead took the Chief Health Officer’s advice that rural and regional health services and GPs were not equipped to provide medical abortion.

“Women living in regional and rural areas have been disadvantaged ever since.

“The attitude of the Opposition leader to women’s rights is shaping up as issue of public interest in the coming election campaign. (more…)

Queensland land-holders are only signing agreements with coal seam gas companies because they don’t have the right to deny access, say the Australian Greens.

“Qld Gas Corporation is boasting that it has signed agreements with 1700 Queenslanders, but this is only because landholders don’t have the right to say no to coal seam gas,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens mining spokesperson, said.

“Landholders don’t have a choice when coal seam gas companies come knocking. (more…)

“The release of the Climate Commission report today should end climate denial and put higher greenhouse reduction targets and adaptation to existing warming on the political agenda,” Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said.

“Every year as Australians suffer more extreme heat waves, floods, fires and storms, there is a chorus of denial that the intensity or frequency of the events is linked to climate change. Every year these events are described as one-offs or one in a hundred years.

“This must now stop. Climate change is real and urgent. It’s why the Greens drove leadership on climate action during this period of government, with the clean energy package being a direct result of the Greens’ agreement with the Gillard Government.

“The heat is now on Tony Abbott. Australians deserve leadership that anticipates natural disasters and works to avoid extreme weather events, not bring them on. (more…)

Letter to the editor

This week’s ABC Four Corners program highlighted the questionable processes used to determine CSG applications in Eastern Australia. ICAC revelations have already cast a permanent shadow over mining, fisheries and forestry decisions made by previous ALP NSW Government Minister Macdonald. A similar shadow is hovering over mining approvals fast-tracked by the previous Queensland government, now referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission. It is no wonder that the public has little faith in their elected representatives; no mining application is ever rejected, regardless of community opposition and despite existing legislation that would allow the Federal Government to intervene if it had the will to do so.

Inadequate environmental impact assessments pre-approval and no monitoring post-approval has perpetuated the myth that CSG is cleaner than other fossil fuels, if methane measurements made by Southern Cross University in CSG mining areas are proven to be accurate. To ensure the safety and health of our society and our environment now and in the future, the fossil fuel industry must be made to release its stranglehold on governments, politicians must embrace complete honesty and sever all ties to business for the duration of their term, and there must be a strong national framework of legislation that recognises the crucial role played by the Earth’s ecosystems in our survival. That the Great Artesian Basin itself could become depleted and contaminated as a result of mining, as suggested by Four Corners, is too shocking to contemplate.

Catherine Moore
Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro

As the O’Farrell government enters the second half of its term, the Greens NSW MPs have put together a report card on the government’s worst failures, and the Greens’ top achievements for a more sustainable and caring NSW.

The O’Farrell government:

• launched attacks on wages and conditions of teachers, nurses and other public sector workers, and drastic cuts to our workers compensation laws
• overturned the 26-year ban on uranium exploration in NSW, prompting widespread community concern and condemnation
• savaged schools and TAFE, stripping a staggering $1.6 billion of funding from public education
• opened up national parks to recreational hunters for the sake of a political deal with the extreme Shooters Party to enable electricity privatisation
• broke an election promise to oppose mining in drinking water catchments with approval of massive coal mine in the Sydney catchment
• gave tunnel vision priority to more tollways with $1.8 billion committed to the WestConnex without traffic modelling or cost-benefit analysis
• launched a “dob-in a rorter” program that demonised public housing tenants, while failing to clear the maintenance backlog and left tens of thousands on social housing waiting lists.
• watered down coal seam gas policy, failing to protect our farming lands and water with a weak strategic land use policy
• proposed child protection reforms that focus on punitive approaches to parents in at-risk families and prioritising adoption under short time-frames
• eroded civil liberties and failed to deal with police accountability - from the expansion of the sniffer dogs program, the removal of the right to silence and the failure to ensure that police do not investigate police
• squandered opportunity to transition to low carbon clean energy economy throwing $11 billion of wind industry investment into doubt with unrealistic and unreasonable wind farm guidelines.
• trashed marine science with the closure of The Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre of Excellence and continuing the deal with the Shooters Party for a moratorium on new marine parks
• replaced one pro-developer planning system with another, failing to put planning decisions back in the hands of local communities

(more…)