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Shortly after the Minerals Council warned the government to undermine mining “at your peril”, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved three new coal mine extensions. This nature-destroying decision has come just a few weeks before the government is set to host the Global Nature Positive Summit. The government is clearly pursuing a small target strategy but, in avoiding conflict, it risks offering voters a small and unexciting platform at the next election.

The government is all over the place with mixed messaging. To avoid angering the gambling industry, bigots and the mining industry, the government made a series of unforced errors that angered some of its key constituencies. It balked at implementing an outright ban on gambling ads, fumbling a policy with almost universal public support. And, in trying to avoid a “nasty” debate over census questions to capture data about Australia’s queer community, it succeeded only in alienating gay and gender diverse citizens.

But in appeasing the mining industry by approving new fossil fuel projects, the government is not just fuelling climate change that is damaging nature, it is contributing to the extreme heatwaves, floods, bushfires and extreme weather events that are driving up the cost of living – every new coal mine that’s approved means some other sector of the economy has to reduce its emissions even more.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

It has become quite rare to hear any meaningful accountability for Israel’s actions from Israeli citizens themselves. Israeli journalist Gideon Levy is an anomaly in Israel by today’s standards, as for his entire career he has challenged the apartheid and occupation of the Israeli state. On today’s episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Levy joins host Christ Hedges to discuss his book, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe, and explain the spiritual destruction, both of Israel and Palestine, that the current genocide in Gaza is causing as well as the implications of new military operations in Lebanon.

Labor gearing up for a change?

28 September 2024

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The Wrap with Ebony Bennett

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved three new coal mine extensions this week, completely undermining the government’s credibility on climate change.

At the same time Foreign Minister Penny Wong was at the United Nations General Assembly talking about sea level rise being a threat to the Pacific, Plibersek was granting approval for three massive coal mine extensions – one of the key sources of sea level rise – to operate until nearly 2070. Together, the three coal mines approved will produce more than 1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes.

As world leaders are gathered in New York for Climate Week, let’s remember the United Nations, the International Energy Agency and the world’s scientists have been clear about what’s required to avoid dangerous climate change: no new gas and coal mines or extensions.

That’s why the Australia Institute united a group of Australia’s leading climate and environment organisations to publish an open letter in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times this week. The letter calls on the federal government to tell Australians when it will stop approving new coal, oil and gas projects and end native forest logging.

Reimagines ‘the great Australian dream’ of housing as ‘the great Australian right’ to housing

Almost everyone in Australia is feeling the impact of the national housing crisis, which is traumatising individuals, families and communities. In the reconstruction period following World War II, governments ensured that access to adequate and affordable housing was virtually universal. But now, many young people and families are finding it almost impossible to buy, or even rent, a home. During the COVID years, government action took the homeless off the streets, yet homelessness is now at a record high. The fact that significant numbers of women are currently living in their cars is just one tragic example of the depths to which the entire system has sunk. We seem to be trapped in a vortex of minimal government ambition, stale non-strategic thinking and maximum profits.

Housing: the Great Australian Right argues that governments have the capacity and the power to resolve this national plight. The first step is for Australia to rethink its approach to housing policy and recognise access to housing – having a home – as a fundamental human right.

This is the transcript from the Hon Kevin Bell’s speech, “‘Housing and human rights”, recorded 19 September 2024 at Per Capita’s John Cain Lunch.

I thank Per Capita for inviting me to speak at the September 2024 John Cain Lunch on the important subject of housing and human rights.

I have very strong memories of John, the 41^st premier of Victoria. He was elected the member for Bundoora in 1976 and the opposition leader in 1981.  He became premier when the labour government was elected in 1982.  He held that high office for three terms of parliament until, following his resignation, he was succeeded, by Joan Kirner.  He did not contest the 1992 election, which Labor lost.  I saw him frequently in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.

Kosmos Samaras addressed our August John Cain Lunch on the electoral challenges facing the ALP due to the changing nature of Australia’s electoral demographics. Watch the recording of the event below.

Kos is one of Australia’s leading experts in political campaigns and polling. Kos specialises in compiling and interpreting research, statistical data and polling to provide a unique insight into the cause and effects of social and political issues impacting communities across Australia.

Often sought for expert commentary on polling data and its impact on all levels of politics, Kos has a keen understanding of the nature of political parties and government decision-making, drawn from more than 25 years of political experience with Victorian Labor, including as Deputy Campaign Director. This experience has also enabled him to develop an extensive knowledge on how governments and political parties function and what drives them.

The post The Disruptors – Labor’s challenge, with Kos Samaras appeared first on Per Capita.

This week is Homelessness Week, an annual event hosted by Homelessness Australia aiming to raise awareness and build commitment towards ending homelessness. The theme of this year’s Homelessness Week is “Homelessness Action Now”. It must serve as a reminder of the urgent need to change the future state of housing and homelessness in Australia.

In recent years, several countries have responded to the global crisis of housing unaffordability by preparing whole-of-government plans to improve housing affordability and reduce or eliminate homelessness.

In July 2024, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns announced that a ban on “no-grounds” evictions would be introduced to Parliament in the following month. Under the proposed changes, landlords would have to meet “common-sense and reasonable” grounds for eviction, including the sale of the property and instances of misconduct by tenants.

What are no-grounds evictions? 

“No-grounds evictions”, also known as “no-fault evictions”, allow landlords to terminate tenancies in private rental properties without granting a specified reason for doing so, providing that notice periods are followed.  

Some jurisdictions restrict termination without grounds to the end of fixed-term agreements (tenancy agreements with a defined ‘end’ date), while Victoria has narrowed this allowance to the end of tenants’ first fixed term in a property. New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory currently allow landlords to evict tenants without specified grounds during periodic agreements (tenancies which do not have a defined end date, also known as ‘month-to-month’ agreements). These three jurisdictions also allow no-grounds evictions at the end of fixed-term agreements.  

The founder of Per Capita’s Centre of the Public Square initiative, Peter Lewis, discusses the “Civility Manifesto’, a framework for addressing the division at the heart of our broken politics.

The Civility Manifesto outlines how media, politics and the digital platforms have conspired to build a public discourse driven by conflict and anger, where truth and context are sidelined.

Peter outlines the work of the new Centre, including advocating to constrain the power of Big Tech, campaigning for privacy reform and investing in alternate models of civic engagement based on identifying points of connection and giving citizens real power.

Drawing on his work with the progressive research and strategy firm, Essential, Peter shares his work with Yes 23, the disability sector, renewable energy and the introduction of AI, to show how the tools to build a more collaborative politics already exist.

This event was recorded on 17 July 2024. Watch the recording below.

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About Peter Lewis:

The impacts of climate change keep getting worse, but the typical framing of the problem and the solutions so far being pursued are seriously insufficient. As a result, the steps we’re taking to build a clean energy economy and move beyond fossil fuels are far too incremental for the existential nature of this threat. So what’s holding us back?

Climate Clangers calls out three bad ideas that are blocking action on climate change at the speed and scale we need right now:

• Decarbonising our economy must not impact economic growth.
• Net-zero accounting can keep global heating within survivable limits.
• Strong action now will cost us more than we can afford.

Clung to by politicians and leaders of industry, and rooted in outdated and wishful thinking, each of these ideas is fundamentally wrong. With the world continuing to warm, the longer we leave these assertions unchallenged, the more dangerous they become.

In this sharp and lively analysis, Dr Jennifer Rayner makes the case for better ways to gauge the health of our clean economy, track real progress on cutting carbon pollution, and account for the gains from immediate, decisive measures. We need new ways of thinking about the life-threatening challenge of global warming so that we can get on with real climate action.

Dr Rayner spoke at our June 2024 John Cain Lunch. Watch the recording below.