Please give to Pakistan this weekend

Aid groups have told us that donations from the public to the Pakistan flood crisis are well down on past disaster relief efforts. Bob is encouraging all Australians to make a small donation this weekend to help save Pakistan from hunger and disease.

Greens continue push for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights

The Greens have consistently stood up for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights and I’m proud of the action we’re taken in the Senate on such things as the Stolen Generations, opposing the NT intervention and the roll out of income quarantining, on health services, petrol sniffing, stolen wages and kidney dialysis. It’s been disappointing that we aren’t hearing anything much from the old parties in the way of election commitments for Aboriginal communities. What we have heard of their policies lately makes it clear they will continue to take a top down, punitive approach

Government should lead the way on building energy efficiency

Following my comments about reform of the national electricity market, we’ve been asked to similarly outline our thoughts on the Government’s policies to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings they occupy. According to the Energy Efficiency Council, governments in Australia occupy 32 per cent of the commercial office market, and as highly sought-after tenants they have an even greater impact on the property market than their size alone would suggest. The ability of governments to make bulk purchases also means that they can bring down the cost of energy efficiency products for both agencies and the wider community, transforming the market for energy efficiency services and products

Vote Greens in PNG

Australians in PNG begin to cast their votes this week as polling for Australian elections has started in Australia Foreign Missions around the world. The PNG Greens Party in support of the Australian Greens has called for Australians in PNG and the Pacific to vote for Australian Greens. Today PNG Green Party Acting General Secretary Mrs Ethel Kuto-Sandery also led a small group of supporters to lobby voters outside the Australia High Commission in Port Moresby

Gruen goes Green

The Pitch section on ABC TV’s Gruen Nation was about the Greens last night. The Republic of Everyone advertising agency was tasked with making a positive advertisement about the Greens, and this was the result:

Reforming the National Electricity Market

Many people have been asking about the Greens position on reform of the National Electricity Market – the NEM. While this is not a topic that is of much interest to mainstream media, it is hugely important because the design and regulation of NEM fails to create any incentive to improve energy efficiency – in fact it creates barriers to energy efficiency and peak demand reductions, as well as both large renewable energy generators and small distributed co-generation systems. This is a problem because electricity prices, which have already jumped significantly in recent years, are expected to rise by up to 42 per cent over the next few years (even before the imposition of carbon pricing)

Food security plan essential for the national interest

As TV programs from Masterchef to Food Safari show, we Australians love our food. But many of us, including our governments, are complacent about where it is grown and who produces it. While people discuss the threat of obesity in the suburbs and in the seat of power, nobody talks about the threat of global food scarcity.

Light rail Green light

Today in Canberra the Greens launched an ambitious plan to give the national capital a state-of-the-art light rail system, and called for better public transport planning across the country. With Greens’ transport spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam and leader Bob Brown, the Greens Senate candidate for the ACT Lin Hatfield-Dodds unveiled a three-stage implementation plan ultimately linking Civic and Capital Hill with Gungahlin and Belconnen to the north, Tuggeranong to the south, the airport and Queanbeyan to the east

Action Needed to Secure Our Ocean’s Future

Over 4 weeks ago the Commission of Inquiry into the Montara Oil Spill handed its report to the Government. We are still waiting for this report to be made public.

Climate change impacts mapped in Google Earth

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have produced a Google Earth map displaying the impacts of a 4º C temperature rise across the earth.

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