green`s press release 29/10/07

Australian Christian Lobby does not represent mainstream Christianity


Canberra, Monday 29 October 2007  Australian Greens Senator Christine  Milne rejected  the Australian Christian Lobby's claim that the Greens  did not respond to their  questionnaire.


Senator Milne said "There are many Christians who are Green voters and  party members.  They support the Greens because of our strong commitment  to peace and non-violence,  social justice, anti-discrimination,  inclusiveness, participatory democracy and  protection of the  environment. These are fundamental Christian values.


"It is completely dishonest of the Australian Christian Lobby to claim  that the Greens  ignored their questionnaire. We responded by making the  attached statement, asking  that it be posted on ACL's website as the  Greens response. It is apparent that ACL  did not want a critique of its  agenda to be exposed.


"The Australian Christian Lobby does not represent mainstream Christians  in Australia.  None of the four men who run  the ACL have a long-standing  attachment to any faith  tradition.   


"The Australian Christian Lobby is a front for the religious right in  Australia.  It has shown no interest in the value which underpin the  Howard Government's budgets  after 11 years. It has never condemned the  cuts to funding for indigenous Australia.  It has never questioned the  gap between rich and poor, the lack of access to education and health  services, the low levels of funding to disability services and   homelessness. Where is its criticism of WorkChoices
 and what that has  done to  entrench poverty, particularly for migrant women?


"Instead, ACL has focussed its entire agenda on issues of personal  morality, choosing  to run the line that they are the only issues which  are 'value-laden'.


"The fact that the Australian Christian Lobby objects to legislation  which makes  it illegal to vilify people on the basis of religion  suggests that it supports  discrimination against any religion other than  Christianity. Indeed, ACL was  associated with the recent prayer meeting  conducted by Pastor Danny Nalliah,  who was charged with vilification of  Muslims when he was number 2 on Family  First's Senate ticket in Victoria  at the 2004 Federal election. 


"I do not know of any Christian who would think it was appropriate to  vilify a  person of a different religious faith.  


"The newfound interest of the ACL in climate change, when it has never  made a single  statement on that issue in the past 11 years, is an  attempt to greenwash its  extremist agenda.


"Australians already concerned at Prime Minister Howard's support for  the  Exclusive Brethren cult will be further concerned at his adoption of  US-style  religious right election tactics.

"The Greens have responded in detail to an array of election questionnaires from Christian groups including the Uniting Church, Geelong Catholic Social Justice Committee and the Student Christian Movement of WA. The Uniting Church boycotted ACL's recent Rudd-Howard broadcast because the Uniting Church recognises the big picture interest of Christianity in social justice, environment and public policy."

BBI: We agree with that one. Fundamentalist Christians are as big a problem as fundamental Moslems.

greens press release 24/10/07

Pensioners need a $30 a week increase in their pension now, not the measly $8 a week the Prime Minister is offering, said Greens lead Senate candidate for Queensland Larissa Waters.

"Australia's pensioners deserve a decent income. So far, the Prime Minister has announced $10 billion a year in tax cuts and $1 billion a year to help poorer Australians with power bills, but he still can't find $3 billion a year to increase the aged pension by $30 a week to give Australia's 2 million pensioners a better income," said Ms Waters today.

"The new indexing will not lift pensioners out of their present poverty - it will ensure they stay the same. The fact remains there has not been a substantial increase in the pension in the 11 years John Howard has been in office," Ms Waters said.

"Politicians' wages have lifted 85% above the CPI since Howard came to power - why not pensioners?"

"The Prime Minister's $4 billion utilities payment boost for pensioners and carers over 4 years means less than $8 per pensioner per week."

"The Greens plan for a $30 a week boost for pensions was voted down by the government and opposition in the Senate in August."

"The Greens will increase the aged pension by $30 a week and help all low income earners reduce their power bills by installing energy efficiency devices such as insulation and solar hot-water heaters in their homes," Ms Waters said.

greens press release 17/10/07

 

Howard and Downer's nuclear naivete exposed by global reality  

Canberra, Tuesday 16 October 2007  Australian Greens Climate and Energy Spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, today
called on the Government and Opposition to rethink their support for uranium exports as nuclear jitters spread across 
the region and  destabilise international relations.
Last night, Australia's uranium deal with India seemed doomed, as the India-US deal  was on the point of collapse due to
 domestic tensions over India's continued nuclear  weapons program and seeming subservience to the USA and its
 interests in Asia.


At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew into Tehran supporting Iran's  right to nuclear power and
 increasing tensions in the United Nations Security Council.


Senator Milne said "Alexander Downer has repeatedly assured Australians that exporting  uranium to countries like
 India and Russia is perfectly safe and has accused the  Greens of scaremongering. Last night's events prove, if proof
 was necessary, that  nuclear is not only dangerous but highly destabilising.


"While Labor has been more cautious with the India deal, given India's refusal to sign  the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
 Treaty, they have been solidly backing the Government  on sales to Russia and generally expanding Australia's uranium 
exports.  
"Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has acknowledged that the US-India nuclear  deal has destabilised his
 Government to the point of collapse, fuelling anti-US  sentiment across the country and building support for India's 
nuclear weapons program.  This political reality exposes Alexander Downer's naivete in believing that any deal we 
sign with India might actually restrict their nuclear weapons ambitions. In fact it  increases suspicion of the motives of 
the USA and Australia.


"President Putin's visit to Tehran reduces its isolation and is a diplomatic victory  for Iran. The discussion between the 
two countries concerning their nuclear  relationship should be taken as another clear warning that any Australian uranium
 exported to Russia will increase Russia's ability to export their own uranium to  third countries, some of whom may have 
nuclear weapons ambitions.  


"The only safe uranium is uranium left in the ground.


"Stoking the nuclear power cycle by injecting huge quantities if uranium into a world  which the Bulletin of Atomic 
Scientists has said is already at five minutes to  midnight is a recipe for proliferation and global insecurity.   


 "The Greens are  the realists. It's Mr Downer who is naïve."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

6/10/07

Ben Quin demonstrates no room in old parties for candidates with a conscience.
Hobart, Saturday, 6 October 2007  Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne today  welcomed the decision by
former Liberal candidate for Lyons, Ben Quin, to quit  his party over the decision to give Gunns' pulp mill the go ahead.  


Senator Milne said "There are too few people in the old parties who are prepared to  stand up for what they believe in.
 Mr Quin's actions today are in direct contrast  to those of Peter Garrett and even Malcolm Turnbull.  
"Mr Turnbull lectured the rest of the world at APEC about the greenhouse gas  ramifications of deforestation and was 
 proudly touting the Sydney Declaration  in Washington only a matter of days ago. Now he has given the go ahead, with  Mr 
Garrett's blessing, to the logging of primary forests in Australia and a  massive injection of greenhouse gases to the
 atmosphere.  


"The pulp mill campaign will continue as momentum builds against the mill in the lead  up to the federal poll, and a 
decision by Mr Quin to contest the election as an  independent would only increase the pressure.

"The increased pressure on financial institutions such as the ANZ, and the increased  level of interest from the
investment community, should shine a spotlight on the financial viability of the mill, and especially the wood supply 
agreement, which  must be made public.


"Even more Australians will be outraged when they learn that Gunns can access native  forests to feed the pulp mill at
 bargain basement prices because the Lennon Government  has tied royalties to the price of pulp. If the price of chemical
 pulp falls on the  global market, the Government will reduce the royalties they charge accordingly. This shifts all the cost
 and risk to the Tasmanian community, the taxpayer, and the  environment, while guaranteeing Gunns' profits.


"Which other company in Australia has such a sweetheart deal with government that  discounts the input price whenever 
the market price falls? Tasmanians will end up  paying Gunns to take away their forests. It is a scandal.  


"Ben Quin has demonstrated that there is no place in the old parties for those willing  to stand by their principles, and the
 Liberal and Labor parties will increasingly find  it difficult to attract candidates. Perhaps they should consider the Greens' 
policy to  give representatives a conscience vote on all issues, a decision which would improve  the quality of our 
democracy tremendously."

 

greenhouse on tweed

Posted by Giovanni Ebono

The 8,000 homes on the Tweed Coast directly threatened by coastal erosion would be better protected by solar hot water rebates now, rather than political grandstanding, according to The Greens candidate for Richmond, Giovanni Ebono.

“Aspirational targets were established at the Rio round of talks in 1991 and replaced by the Kyoto Protocol in 1996, it is internationally accepted that they mean nothing,” he said. “We need real action now. A rebate for solar hot water services could reduce our emissions by up to eight per cent, build the economy at the same time and future proof the homes of those who take up the offer.”

If only ten percent of homes in Tweed Heads installed solar hot water services we could save 7 thousand tonnes of greenhouse gas from being emitted and householders could cut their energy bills by up to one third.

Author of Sydney's Guide to Saving the Planet and producer of the popular radio show The Generator, Ebono has been working with energy companies in the Northern Rivers to deliver the best practical advice to home owners in the Northern Rivers and the Sydney basin.

“It is terrifying to me that our homes are threatened by the political grandstanding of a government that thinks climate change is someone else's problem,” he said yesterday.

Conservative voters have been bewildered by the hard line on global warming taken by the Howard government, as documented by Guy Pearse in his book High and Dry. Pearse observes that Peacock and Hewson both promised the voters of Australia and the nations of the world they would reduce our greenhouse emissions by 20 per cent by 2012. This government reneged on that deal and has only recently accepted the very real threat posed to our coastal communities by global warming.