Hartland defies government with more Eddington meetings
Document Actions
No Road Tunnel public meetings
Wondering where exactly the $9 billion Eddington road tunnel would go? Where its exits and entrances would be? Who needs to travel that route? And why, when so few people travel that way, it's even on the drawing board?
In May this year, Greens MLC Greg Barber discussed these questions with a packed public meeting at Kensington Community Centre. The meeting was one of a series intended to inform the public about the tunnel's impacts.
Click here to see the meeting video on YouTube. Find out about upcoming public meetings. Download more information about the tunnel route (2.77MB).
West Papuan refugees say they can't go home
11-08-2008 Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda has told the Sydney Morning Herald that a group of 43 West Papuan refugees who arrived in Australia in 2006 now want to return to their Indonesian-controlled homeland.
The Australia-West Papua Association has called this an attempt to mislead the international community regarding the true state of affairs in West Papua. It says as recently as Saturday, a West Papuan man was shot and killed by Indonesian security forces for raising a flag during traditional celebrations.
The Australia West Papua Association's Herman Wainggai is the spokesperson for the group of 43, and disputes the Indonesian Foreign Minister's claim.
"All refugees want to go home. People don't choose to become refugees; it is because their home is not safe. We are the same. We came to Australian because West Papua is not a safe place.
"On Saturday a 35 year old man was shot dead while taking part in a United Nations celebration. How can we return to that?" Photo: Morning Star (West Papuan), Indonesian and SOS flags above crowd on Saturday in Wamena, West Papua. More info, plus photos from the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights
Historic vote for the NT Greens
The Greens in the Northern Territory have recorded an average of 15.9% across the seats they contested at the 9 August election, and their highest ever Territory-wide vote.
In Nightcliff Dr Emma Young (pictured at left) polled a stunning 23.6%, up from 15.7% in 2005 and the highest Greens primary vote ever in the NT. Emma said, "It is a great result. With one in four voters choosing the Greens over the old parties, whichever one forms government would do well to consider carefully the Greens policies favoured by voters.'
More details on NT Greens website
Brimbank Council votes "no" to community needs
30-07-2008 On 22 July Greens Cr Miles Dymott put a motion to Brimbank council that "Council should be allocating resources based on community need".
Today in Parliament, Greens MLC Colleen Hartland said: "Believe it or not, that motion was not carried. A majority of Brimbank councillors voted against the idea of allocating resources based on community need. Every single one of the six councillors who voted against the motion was from the ALP.
"We have all heard the allegations about corruption in Brimbank over many years. The allegations are serious enough to warrant an investigation." See Miles speak at the Council meeting on YouTube.
End mandatory detention
Thousands have signed the GetUp petition which calls for an end to mandatory immigration detention. The Minister has now announced detention will be used only as a last resort and for the minimum possible time. This needs to be followed up with legislative change. The GetUp petition says:
"We call upon you to close a sorry chapter in Australia's history by bringing to an end Australia’s inhumane detention regime. We believe that detention should never be mandatory, indefinite or unreviewable. Now is the time to right over a decade of wrongs and establish a just and fair immigration policy for the future." Sign it now
GetUp Fuel Watch Campaign
Online campaign group Getup says: "The bowser wowsers in Parliament House want to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic rather than address the real long-term solutions to rising petrol prices".
GetUp is seeking donations to air their spoof Fuel Watch Campaign Advertisement on TV. You can view it here.
09-07-2008 Greens leader Senator Bob Brown addressed the National Press Club today. Click here to read his speech.
Climate Emergency Rally
06-07-08 Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown was the keynote speaker at yesterday's Climate Emergency Rally in Melbourne's CBD.
About 5000 people attended the rally to call for renewable energy not coal power, public
transport not new freeways, as well as cancellation of the desalination
plant and bay dredging. The Victorian Greens were among the rally's sponsors.
Bob Brown told protesters Australia couldn't wait for other countries, including China and India, to act on climate change. "We are one of the most vulnerable nations in the world, he told the rally. "Climate change is a disaster which is on our doorstep. We, in this wealthy lucky nation, must take a lead for the rest of the world to follow...By 2050 we need a reduction in greenhouse gases by 90 per cent if not a totally carbon-neutral economy."
Rally participants wore red to symbolise the urgency of addressing climate change. They marched from the City Square to the Alexandra Gardens, where they formed a giant human sign reading 'Climate Emergency'. More information. Click here to watch a rally YouTube video.
Garnaut can't see the forest for the trees
04-07-2008 The following article by Greens Senator and Climate Change spokesperson Christine Milne was published on Crikey today, following the release of the draft Garnaut Climate Change Review.
Professor Garnaut’s much-awaited Draft Report is, in general, strong on the architecture but terribly weak on the big, over-riding issue – preventing runaway climate change. His policy prescriptions are completely out of step with his science.
When we were looking for a transformative vision to take Australia into the post-carbon world, we got an incrementalist approach with a slow start and even a step backwards on the 2050 target. More details
Colombian Green Ingrid Betancourt - Free at Last
03-07-08 "I am thrilled and delighted that Ingrid Betancourt is free after being held captive for six years and 159 days”, said Greens MP Sue Pennicuik today.
"News reached us this morning that Ingrid had been rescued along with three Americans who had been held for five years and eleven other hostages.
On her release, Ms Betancourt described how she and the other hostages had been handcuffed and loaded on to a helicopter, expecting to be moved to a different rebel camp. Once they were in the air, "something happened, I’m not quite sure what", she said, and her captors were on the floor. A soldier said: 'We are the Colombian National Army; you are free.' The helicopter nearly fell out of the sky with all the celebrations." She said that she still aspired "to serve Colombia as president". *
More ABC News story on the rescue Video of Ingrid at the Global Greens congress, Canberra, 2001
Good progress at byelections
30-06-2008 The Gippsland and Kororoit by-elections were held in very different parts of the state, but had one thing in common - both were areas where the Green vote has usually been well below the state average. Consequently we were pleased to see our vote grow from 5.5% in Gippsland to over 7% (postal votes still to be counted). Some voters commented that our candidate Malcolm McKelvie made them take Green policies seriously for the first time.
The Greens got swings of over 2% across most of the La Trobe Valley and our vote doubled at two Morwell booths and Traralgon South (in the last case to 16.7%). These results undermine the media line that the big swings against the ALP in the Valley represent a protest against action on Climate Change.
More
Launch of Greenpeace's Blueprint for an Energy (R)evolution
25-06-2008 Greenpeace is launching a report this month which sets out a practical blueprint for substantially reducing CO2 emissions by securing a clean and affordable energy supply. It is specifically focused on the unique circumstances in Australia.
The report's author, Sven Teske, is Greenpeace International's Renewable Energy Director, and an engineer with more than 10 years experience in renewable energy technologies. He was the Scientific Advisor for Greenpeace Germany's Energy Unit and was integrally inolved in the campaign to "green" the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Mr Teske was the founder of Greenpeace Energy, Germany's only power sector cooperative, which now employs 35 people and supplies 60,000 custumers in Germany and Luxemburg with green electricity.
At the invitation of Greens MP Greg Barber, Mr Teske today spoke about the report at state parliament.
Labor's dead hand smothers solar sector
12-06-2008 Not content with signing the death warrant for the solar panel industry, Labor is now callously turning its back on the pleas for help.
The Federal Government should listen to the solar industry and reverse their decision to means-test the rooftop solar rebate Greens candidate for Gippsland Dr Malcolm McKelvie said today.
"Its already clear that taking away funding to help people install solar power systems was a huge mistake.” said Dr McKelvie. “If the ALP hope to start reducing the country’s greenhouse gasses, let alone have any chance of gaining voter confidence in Gippsland, it must admit its mistake and reverse the decision immediately. More info
Greens bill to stop toxic dredging
11-06-08 A Greens bill which seeks to prohibit the disposal of contaminated dredged material into Port Phillip Bay, or at any other time, was tabled in state Parliament today.
The bill, which is the first Greens private members bill in the Victorian Parliament in the state upper house, was second read by Sue Pennicuik, Greens MLC (pictured). It is expected to be debated in the last week of June.
The bill prohibits the disposal or placement of dredged or excavated material in Port Phillip Bay, whether or not as a result of the CDP, if that material is noxious, poisonous, harmful or potentially harmful to human health, wildlife or plants, or detrimental to any beneficial use made of those waters. More info
Bring physician assisted dying into the light
11-06-08 Greens MLC Colleen Hartland has called for physician assisted dying to be brought out into "bright, clear, shadowless light" in an historic second reading speech today in Parliament.
"The bill provides compassion and support for people who are suffering intolerably, and who want to die. But it also provides safeguards, and regulates a process that is currently going on in the dark," said Colleen Hartland, MLC for Western Metropolitan Region.
Ms Hartland outlined a range of safeguards in the bill, for patients, medical staff and other Victorians. More info Second reading speech Photo: Ms Hartland with Neil Francis of Dying With Dignity Victoria
Greens challenge candidates to a 'hot air' audit
04-06-2008 Greens candidate for Gippsland Malcolm McKelvie is challenging the other by-election candidates to compare energy use in their campaign offices. He has offered a free audit by a professional energy assessor and is keen to help them reduce their energy use during this campaign.
“There's more than one type of hot air which political candidates produce but let's look at greenhouse gases this month," said Malcolm McKelvie. More info
New Bill to stop toxic dumping in Bay
04-06-2008 Greens MP Sue Pennicuik has introduced the Greens first private member's bill into the Victorian upper house. The Port Service Amendment (Disposal of Material) Bill will be made public when it is debated in the state upper house on Wednesday 11 June.
The bill aims to prevent the disposing of contaminated dredged material into Port Phillip Bay if by doing so the condition of waters is made or could be reasonably expected to be made noxious, poisonous, harmful or potentially harmful to human health, wildlife or plants, or detrimental to any beneficial use made of those waters. This provision is based on section 39 of the Environmental Protection Act 1970, which creates an offence of pollution of waters in these circumstances.
The Port of Melbourne Corporation's plan to dredge up four million tonnes of toxic sediment from the Yarra River and dispose of it in the Bay poses serious ecological and public health risks. The Yarra sediment, which is contaminated from decades of industrial runoff, contains cadmium, mercury, arsenic, dieldrin, and DDT and other dangerous toxicants. More info
No Road Tunnel campaign wins over Melbourne City Councillors
04-06-2008 Hundreds of The Greens 'No Road Tunnel' triangles made their way to Melbourne City Council's Planning Committee meeting last night, in the hands of angry Kensington, North Melbourne, Carlton and Parkville residents (Photo: residents in the council foyer queuing to get into the meeting).
The Planning Committee met in the packed-out Yarra room at the council chambers building, after having moved from its initial location due to the size of the crowd, to consider the city's response to Rod Eddington's East-West Link Needs Assessment (EWLNA) report.
The outcome of the meeting was hard to predict: all councillors, apart from Greens Cr Fraser Brindley and Cr Brian Shanahan, had previously given their in-principle support to the East-West tunnel. But the 400-strong capacity crowd made it abundantly clear that they expected council to overturn its original support for the tunnel. More info
No Road Tunnel campaign now on Youtube
28-05-2008: The Greens have launched a campaign against the massive road tunnel proposed for Melbourne's inner north.
The Brumby government will decide whether they intend to proceed with the tunnel by the end of the year. The Greens' campaign aims to help the community express its opposition this economic, social and environmental mistake.
70,000 cars already come off the end of the Eastern freeway. The government's plan would make traffic 30% worse, and have a major impact on local liveability. The Greens would put a train down the middle of the freeway and cut congestion by 20%.
Adam Bandt will run for Lord Mayor of Melbourne at the November 2008 local government elections. He says we're at a crossroads, and the choice is a car future, more traffic and more greenhouse gas or a clean, green, public transport future. If elected, he intends to put on the Mayoral robes and chains and stand in front of the first tunnel bulldozer. We need urgent investment in public transport, instead of wasting money yet on another road tunnel.
More info View the campaign video To get one of the No Road Tunnel signs pictured for your front window, ring 9602 1141 between 10am and 6pm weekdays.
A Flemington/Travancore story
26-05-2008 Moonee Valley Greens Cr Rose Iser spoke eloquently at yesterday's rally against the east-west tunnel and Travancore tower:
"There have been some recently written chapters in the history of Flemington and Travancore, and they tell a story of how we arrived here at a rally on a Sunday in May.
One chapter is called ‘CityLink’. It’s about the creation of the aerial slug above us. $75M of concrete and road space.
In this chapter, Transurban cried foul at the state government because the big aerial slug didn’t attract as many patrons as expected. As Eddington would do well to know, an inquiry found that Transurban’s original predictions of traffic volume on the Bolte Bridge were wrong. The predictions, quite naturally, overestimated the extent to which motorists would pay to get to work more quickly.
Instead, tolls have moved cars onto Mount Road and local streets. Creek life beneath the freeway is deprived of rain and sun. The constant hum of cars and trucks as they emerge from the cone of silence is unbearable. CityLink has done nothing to reduce CO2-emitting freight and private travel". Read the whole speech
High Court rejects Wielangta appeal
23-05-2008 In a 2 - 1 split judgement (Crennan, Hayne - Kirby) the High Court has rejected Greens Leader Bob Brown's application to appeal against the full Federal Court's decision which overruled Justice Marshall's 2006 ban on logging in Tasmania's Wielangta Forest.
Justice Marshall found that logging under Forestry Tasmania's management damaged the habitat of 3 nationally-listed endangered species, the Swift Parrot, Wielangta Stag Beetle and giant Tasmanian Wedgetail eagle.
Two months after Justice Marshall's ban, then Prime Minister Howard and Premier Lennon altered the Regional Forest Agreement to agree that, despite the court, it did protect the rare species. The High Court effectively ruled today that this alteration, which has no parliamentary approval, overrode Justice Marshall's judgement. More info
Federal budget utterly fails climate and oil challenge
14-05-2008 Australian Greens climate change spokesperson Senator Christine Milne says Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan's first Federal Budget looks even worse for climate change in the cold light of day.
"The urgency of climate change action is building rapidly. We have gigawatts of renewable energy projects, from solar thermal to wind, waiting to be rolled out. We have car manufacturing plants ready to be re-tooled and millions of homes crying out for insulation. We could be well on our way to a post-carbon Australia by the next election if we decided to make that change," Senator Milne said. More on the Australian Greens website
Save our Solar
Protestors converged on State Parliament early on 8 May, calling for areal feed-in tariff, not more hot air after the Premier's Climate Summit. Green MLCs Colleen Hartland and Greg Barber were there. Photos: Peter Campbell.
Clearways protest
On 8 May, traders from Melbourne's inner city shopping strips gathered in Bridge Rd Richmond to protest against the Brumby government's proposed clearway extensions. Organiser Herschel Landes pointed out that the government should not be using shopping strips as traffic corridors, and that the longer clearways would damage amenity and community connectedness as well as business.
He said the solution to congestion was better public transport, not extended clearways, and that many small, independent traders would be forced out of business if the proposal went ahead. Further protests are planned in the coming weeks. Photo: Dani Peipert.
 More stories in the Archives. |
Melbourne City Greens present a COMEDY GALA