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…)

Australia Day. What does it mean?

For the First Australians, it represents the take-over of their land with the arrival of the first governor and the subsequent events which led to dispossession, disease, genocide and prejudice, not to mention mismanagement and destruction of the land and water systems that had provided for them for so long.

It re-emphasises the failure to acknowledge that Indigenous people were here for tens of thousands of years before the British flag was planted on the soil of what was conveniently called “Terra Nullius” - land belonging to no-one.

This in turn is further emphasised by the flying, draping, parading and wearing of the Australian flag, featuring the colonisers’ Union Jack in the left hand corner. And if that wasn’t enough, the notion of Terra Nullius is rammed home even more by the singing of the National Anthem with its first lines - “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free.”

What’s to celebrate? (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…)

The mining and export of Australian uranium only digs us deeper into the unsolvable conundrum of nuclear waste - while also supporting the growth of nuclear weapons, the Australian Greens say.

Responding to comments this week by Australia’s Co-Chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, Gareth Evans, the Greens’ Nuclear Spokesperson Scott Ludlam said that no one had managed to solve the nuclear waste problem. (more…)

Attempts by representatives of Premier Nathan Rees to lock in a deal with the Shooters Party MPs will further damage the Labor government’s standing with the public, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said today. (Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 2009, Page 1)

“The Premier and his ministers should stop trying to ‘control’ the Upper House and instead work to win a majority of MPs by debating the merits of their legislation,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Today’s report that the Premier’s chief of staff, Graeme Wedderburn, and the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, have been trying to win back Robert Brown and Roy Smith as reliable backers of government business in the Upper House will further inflame the mounting opposition to Labor. (more…)

By Jimmy Carter
Thursday, January 8, 2009

I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided.
After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife, Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions. About 3,000 residents had moved to other communities, and the streets, playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty. Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens in his office to meet us and complained that the government of Israel was not stopping the rockets, either through diplomacy or military action. (more…)

The granting of exploration approval for the Angela Pamela uranium project near Alice Springs raises the stakes in what is set to be a major confrontation between the uranium mining industry and the wider community, say the Australian Greens.

“Uranium mining anywhere is a tragedy. Uranium mining in the Alice Springs groundwater catchment is a travesty,” said Senator Scott Ludlam.

“I am surprised the Paladin/Cameco consortium is so willing to pick a fight with one of Australia’s most tight-knit and self-reliant communities, who have already formed the Alice Springs Angela Pamela group (ASAP), made up of medical professionals, environmental specialists, indigenous peoples and community activists. (more…)

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam gained the unanimous support of the Senate today on a motion that the Australian Government increase its efforts to restore democracy in Burma.

“The Senate unanimously expressed its support for the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma and has called upon the Australian Government to take further diplomatic action to end the injustices in Burma,” said Scott Ludlam, who initiated the motion.

Today marks the first anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising in Burma that became known as the Saffron Revolution. A fortnight later the peaceful uprising was brutally suppressed by the Burmese military regime, resulting in the death, injury and ongoing detention of a large, but still unknown number of people.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam will introduce a Bill into the Senate today that would ensure parliamentary approval for the deployment of forces.

“It is time that Australia joined its closest allies and like-minded democratic states by involving the Parliament in the
decision to send troops into battle,” Senator Ludlam said.

“Decisions about sending Australia’s sons and daughters into danger, quite possibly to their deaths, should not be made by a handful of people, or in undue haste.  Such decisions must enjoy public confidence and the mandate of the parliament”, Senator Ludlam said. (more…)

On Thursday morning Senator Scott Ludlam will be presented with a message from Fremantle Mayor Peter Tagliaferri - Western Australia’s only Mayor for Peace - to deliver to the Mayor of Hiroshima next week.

8.45am Thursday, 31 July 2008

Foyer area of Pavilion Three,
Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre
Mounts Bay Road, Perth.

“I am proud to take a message of peace to Mayor Akiba on behalf of Mayor Tagliaferri, who is the only Western Australian member of Mayors for Peace - a global network of 2,300 mayors and their cities working towards the total abolition of nuclear weapons,” Senator Ludlam said. (more…)