Issue 98: 14 July – 21 July 2022
## Environment
Labor’s 43% climate target is not nearly enough
Alex Bainbridge | Green Left
The “decade of inaction” that Labor accuses the Greens of instigating is a product of the former’s refusal to take climate action seriously.
Climate action is fighting back against big polluters. We don’t need to end Australia’s climate wars – we need to win them
Jeff Sparrow | The Guardian
There is no ‘peace’ to be brokered with fossil fuel companies who stand to make billions. Effective policy is to threaten their gains
Protesters call on Tanya Plibersek to take serious action on the climate
Rachel Evans | Green Left
Extinction Rebellion (XR) Drummers supported by Lock the Gate and Sydney Knitting Nannas have been protesting outside Plibersek’s office every week for for several weeks
After a decade in the wilderness, Labor still lost on the environment
Mike Foley | The Age
The Albanese government has emerged from a near decade in opposition without a plan to tackle the slow train wreck that is Australia’s extinction crisis.
‘Dutton insurance’: crossbench MPs set joint demands on Labor’s climate bill
Sarah Martin | The Guardian
The seven independents want a mechanism to protect emissions target from ‘future governments’ as they signal desire to negotiate
Evil is patient: why soaring temperatures won’t shift policymakers
Bernard Keane | Crikey
Will a catastrophic summer in Europe deliver real change on climate policy? Not while states remain captured by fossil fuel interests.
The case for a global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – from an island nation in peril
Simon Kofe | The Age
We’ve had the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but now we need another treaty to address the greatest threat to humanity.
Defend Blockade Australia—lock up the climate criminals
Lily Campbell | Red Flag
The real criminals, we are told, are those who protest for climate action.
In Australia’s arid centre, ranger groups are working to protect the outback from climate change
National Indigenous Times
A desert ranger team in northern Western Australia are using cooler months to monitor jila and use right-way fire to keep its native title area healthy.
Australia’s farcical climate policy: market forces to cut emissions and subsidies to destroy carbon sinks
Richard Denniss | The Guardian
Our federal government pays some people to protect native forests, while state governments pay others to cut them down
## In Other News
Ambivalence about Albanese: A Reality Check on the Election
Samuel Alexander | Arena Online
If ‘progressive politics’ cannot overcome growth fetishism and the cold logic of profit-maximisation, then we won’t survive progress in any desirable form.
The Ex-Files: where is the life for discards of the parliamentary bubble?
Stephanie Tran | Michael West
Australia is a different place politically, and so is Canberra. Scott Morrison is no longer a one-man employment agency, and ex-Coalition staffers are scrambling for new jobs.
Johnson, Trump, Abbott: the dying light of the age of conservative narcissists
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Narcissism has become a defining feature of modern society, and sadly no one provides a more potent example of it than leaders on the right.
Repealing tax cuts: Albanese needs to forget Murdoch, act now and be bold
Paul Begley | Independent Australia
PM Albanese should defy criticism from the Murdoch press and repeal tax cuts benefitting high-income earners.
July 20, 1972: A sidelight on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.
Humphrey McQueen | Vanguard
…when one of my students, Steve Padgem, burst into the class shouting: ‘The cops are pulling down the tent embassy! We need help to stop them!’
Albanese offers no relief for jobseekers
Rick Morton | Saturday Paper
The Labor government has left in place ‘mutual obligations’, as new tender documents show the punitive system channels billions of dollars into private companies.
Collateral Warfare: The US Proxy War in Ukraine
Alison Broinowski | Arena online
Putting themselves above international law, the American and Russian leaders have made Ukrainians into ants, trampled as the elephants fight.
Sri Lanka and Green Policy
Jonathan Paul Marshall | Pearls and Irritations
Sri Lanka’s food problems do not stem entirely from Green Policies or Organic Farming as is being alleged in some media outlets, but from general economic and external pressures.
Western Sydney nurses walk out over understaffing
Jim McIlroy | Green Left
The New South Wales government’s refusal to address severe understaffing prompted the nursing staff to walk out at the end of their night shift.
Australia’s Indigenous art industry is worth a quarter of a billion dollars, so why do artists only end up with a fraction of the profits?
Dana Morse | ABC News
Around $250 million of Indigenous art was sold in 2019-2020, but a report from Australia’s Productivity Commission shows only around one in three items sold were actually produced by an Indigenous artist or business.
QLD teachers at breaking point
QLD Teachers’ Union Member | Red Flag
Inadequate resources, COVID-19, excessive workloads and an eighteen-month pay freeze have all contributed to a perfect storm in Queensland schools.