Natural 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.

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?

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.

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.

For serious climate action to be a reality we need a society where the majority of people — workers, farmers, students, the poor, First Nations people and refugees, the victims of climate change — are making decisions in the interests of our collective future.  

A primary purpose of its energy policy is to strengthen the broad climate change movement. In particular, the Alliance commits itself towards encouraging the trade union movement to support and adopt adequate climate change and alternative energy plans.

Finance minister Mathias Cormann has threatened the opposition parties that if they continue to block key budget measures — such as the demolition of universal health care and welfare, the deregulation of university fees, and the hike in the interest rate on student HECS debts — then the government would be forced to look at raising taxes.