Natural Resources

As we make a plan for a new year of activism, we can take some heart from the growing student movement for real climate action.

Australia has escaped recession for more than two decades, despite the impact of the Asian and global financial crises on the world's economies.

The March in March protests across Australia over March 15-17 were a resounding success – not just because of their size, focus and breadth.

Capitalism’s constant drive for profits cannot be reconciled with Earth’s defined boundaries. Ecological destruction is not a side-effect of capitalism, it is built into the system: there cannot be infinite growth when the planet has finite resources.

Where to start with an analysis of the mining boom in Australia? Perhaps ironically, with the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The Socialist Alliance condemns the Australian government for withdrawing its recognition of the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal of the Laws of the Sea, leaving East Timor with no legal avenues to assert its rights.

Rachel Evans, lead Socialist Alliance candidate for the NSW Legislative Council, has joined those calling for immediate support for the Walgett community in North West NSW that ran out of water on January 3.

Socialist Alliance supports and campaigns for:

• An end to the privatisation of water and water infrastructure (dams, water pipelines, pumping stations). Where these have already been privatised, they should be returned to public ownership
• No public-private partnerships for water projects. All water projects to be 100% in public hands. Establish water allocations for each catchment and region based on the assessed needs (scientific, environmental, agricultural/industrial, or domestic) of that area.

It is now two and a half months since budget night. Remember Treasurer Joe Hockey and Mathias Corman smoking cigars, satisfied and smug after doing a job on Australian workers, pensioners and the poor?

The Great Barrier Reef is almost certainly going to suffer permanent damage due to coral bleaching if countries do not act to reduce carbon emissions, the Fifth Assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said on March 31.

Gemma Weedall from Climate Emergency Action Network (CLEAN) and Socialist Alliance shares her insights into the early days of the campaign that won solar thermal for Port Augusta.

The Australian Climate Commission says this is the “critical decade” to cut emissions. The Socialist Alliance says Australia’s climate response must be based on the climate science, which says we cannot delay action.