Walk Against Warming

Walk against warming is being organised around a global day of climate action on December 3rd.

Come and tell the government and media that you want a clean renewable future for Australia, and no more dirty polluting coal. Action is needed to prevent dangerous climate change now.

Call for the federal government to first ratify kyoto, then further reduce coal pollution to save Australia from more droughts, save the Great Barrier Reef. and provide a safe and clean future for all of us.

Sign up to clean energy! dont get your electricity from dirty coal. An organisation called Power to Change will help you to get your electricity from cleaner sources- such as wind and solar power.

Bring your friends!! it will be a fun day for all with bands in Hyde Park North.

Help Create a global wave of protest to press for the urgent action we need to prevent catastrphic destabilisation of our global climate. for more information on international activities visit:

GlobalClimateChange.org

WalkAgainstWarming.org

anna_migdal@hotmail.com

By Anna Migdal posted 21 November 05

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Changing New Orleans
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Nuclear Power PR campaign debunked by report
Anti-nuclear activists replied to advocates of nuclear power with a comprehensive damning report 'Nuclear Power - No Solution to Climate Change'. Fifty people attended the launch held at Northcote Town Hall organised by Friends of the Earth. Speakers included report author, Dr Jim Green, physicist Dr Alan Roberts, and President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Dr Tilmin Ruff.

Pressure remains on Australia as Kyoto takes effect
Australia and the United States have both refused to ratify the deal, arguing it is not in their best interest. They will be denied access to a new international trading market where developing countries will get credits for cutting back emissions.

FREE CHINA: NATIONAL RALLY

Farewell the Chinese Communist Party & Welcome freedom and democracy in China

On the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre we invite you to, 16 years after the tragic events of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to carry out campaign after campaign of brutal suppression of innocent people. From the persecution of Falun Gong, to Christians, to political dissidents, the Tiananmen Square Massacre was just one incident in a continuum of violence and suppression that is characteristic of the CCP's history. Since 1949, more than 80 million people have died as a direct result of the CCP's tyranny.

We invite peace loving people around the world to mourn the young lives that died for daring to seek liberty and freedom from the CCP. At the same time, the event is a celebration in anticipation of the collapse of the world's most deadly regime, an event that will be even more significant than the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

Currently, an average of 20,000 people every day are publicly declaring their resignation from the Party or its affiliate organisations. Come June 4, it is estimated that over

Two million Chinese people will have quit the Chinese Communist Party

The recent flood of departures has been attributed to an exclusive report by The Epoch Times called the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, Published in over 30 countries, the extraordinary report reveals the mass public deception that accompanied the formation and development of the CCP, the untold killings and CCP's pursuit to destroy traditional culture.

Events and parades are to be held in many cities around the world simultaneously. Please join us in supporting the millions of people who are still denied fundamental human rights and liberty.

NATIONAL RALLY - SYDNEY
12 noon, Saturday 4 June, 2005
George Street Parade -- Assembly & Speeches at Martin Place

Thank you
Rally Organising Committee
Sydney Contacts: Kelly Zhan 0410 167 158,
David Rubacek 0425 867 585
Farewell to the CCP. FREE CHINA Free China (Farewell to the CCP)
Fax: (02) 8568 6166
Email: freechina@iinet.net.au

By Free China and Justice Action 2 June 2005

JUSTICE ACTION MEDIA RELEASE:
BY JUSTICE ACTION 2 JUNE 2005

Justice Action supports the right of people everywhere to assemble publicly and peacefully express their protests against repressive authorities.

Freedom the world over is intimately interconnected and repression too is now a globalised phenomena.

Australians have had this demonstrated to us recently in the suppression of free speech that accompanied the 2003 visits of George Bush and Hu Jintao - a suppression that even included the Australian parliament itself.

Justice Action particularly shares the struggle of those fighting for the rights and freedom of prisoners everywhere - whether held in NSW prisons, Chinese re-education camps or Guantanamo Bay. Prison systems, too, are a globalised crime against the freedoms and aspirations of all of humanity.

Justice Action calls on the Chinese government to immediately release all those it has imprisoned for speaking against the government or simply for following a personal or spiritual path.

We also call for justice, humane treatment and quick release for the millions of people currently detained and abused by Chinese authorities.

BRETT COLLINS
For Co-ordinator
Justice Action

HoWARd Gov't could be slued, community warns

The community says the fascist HoWARd Government may be slued from the highest industrial crane if they introduce industrial reforms .

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members will join a rally in Victoria Square today, protesting against the anticipated changes to workplace relations.

The rally is timed to coincide with a visit to Adelaide by federal fascist Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, who will address an employers' luncheon.

CFMEU official John Sutton says under new laws being drafted for the construction industry, workers would lose their right to freedom of political speech.

He says the laws will be retrospective, meaning that in future workers could be sued for protesting today.

"The Government has introduced quite outrageous laws that don't just horrify trade unionists, they horrify civil libertarians because of their pernicious nature," he said.

HoWARd face

He says it is ironic that blue-collar workers risk being sued while their employers are meeting with Mr Andrews.

"They'll have themselves a nice lunch at the taxpayers' expense," he said.

"The workers in Adelaide who go to the local park and listen to the trade union officials tell them the nature of these attacks are under jeopardy for doing exactly the same thing - taking a few hours off work to hear what the Minister has planned for them."

The community are united with the union movement and have purchased their own crane to slue the fascist HoWARd government at the next election, unless they can shift HoWARd off to the Hague war crimes tribunal for his crimes against humanity.

"Whatever comes first said a spokesperson, but we'd rather see him dealt with by the criminal court but, if the voters are too stupid to acknowledge the neo-Liberal's war crimes against humanity maybe they'll just dump the fascists at the next election after more of them have been directly or indirectly affected or criminalised for trying to survive," he said.

UK report shows Iraq war illegal: former defence chief

Former Australian defence force chief Ruling Class Peter Gration says a secret British report on the war in Iraq is further evidence the conflict was legally and morally unsound.

TOGETHER UNITED WE'LL NEVER BE DEFEATED!

By Together United 4 May 05

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'Social Services cheats' may face election next time around
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Single parents deserve a living wage and not persecution
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Labor sees problems in welfare proposals
The Federal Opposition says proposed changes to Australia's welfare system are a cost-cutting measure and will leave disability and sole parent pensioners worse off.

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Costello to force single mums to look for work?
SINGLE mothers would be forced to look for work once their children reached school age, under a draconian welfare package outlined last night by fascist Pastor Peter Costello to bolster funds to spend on military hardware and the ongoing illegal and degrading war in Iraq.

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind
KERRY O'BRIEN: Federal cabinet adjourned today still undecided about the final formula for what has become politically one of the toughest reform challenges the Government will face this term. For the past two decades, the disability support pension has been one of the fastest growing welfare payments [social security payments.]

Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
Corporate Welfare! I think we should start with Ingeus Company. Telling us what we already know for $$$$!

Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
Peter Saunders: Many DSP claimants are older men with limited skills who have had difficulty finding work?

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

Govt plots post-July strategy?
Fascist Prime Minister insists he is not on a mission to punish welfare recipients [social services.]

HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
The Federal Government is considering a system of "coercion" and incentive to force the disabled to work. But what happened to 6 billion-budget surpluses? Why do they need to force disabled people to work? Do they need more money and less disabled people? Or do would they rather spend the money on WAR?

Opposition pension claims valid
The Federal Governments secret agenda to cut pensions, including the disability and single parent payments while spending billions on military hardware is just too much for most disabled people to accept.

Thousands march for disability protest
"We are not prepared to go back to the dark ages. This has to be reversed," Mr Preston said. "We are hoping that the community sees that we shouldn't be taking money from people with disabilities. These people have had it tough all their lives (and) there is already more unmet need than we can cope with."

Howard's Job Network Bailout
Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off welfare and into work.

THE HILLSONG'S ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF ' NEO-LIBERALISM' Only a bent mind would envisage the possibility or think of the concept that a '2nd Neo-Liberal 'front' promoted by the right and posing as a Church would enter politics under the flag of "Family First Party".

Costello, Howard's Disciple
JOHN HOWARD AND PETER Costello lost their vision for Australia from the time they were elected and embarked on a vision for the neo-Liberals.

Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel?
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Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

Unemployed:

Work for the dole is legal slavery
Work for the dole was originally sold to us by Howard as a warm and fuzzy light work project. We would be working for nothing but we would be enjoying giving back something to the community, so it was reckoned.

FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
Peter Costello commended this result in his budget speech. Even if we were to believe this figure it still means more than half a million living at a level much lower than that is recognised as poverty.

Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
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Work for the dole failure for two thirds
THE Un-Australian: " MORE than a third of the people who completed the Howard Government's work-for-the-dole programs last year were in jobs or studying within three months of finishing.

Work for the dole? $10.00?
StandUp! Wishes to draw your attention to a serious attack on all of us--work for the dole. We were assured that unemployed would not be forced to work in areas where employed workers would normally be employed. This has shown to be a lie! Under work for the dole, unemployed have been forced to carry out; concreting, tiling, landscaping, repairs, renovation, painting, gardening, nurses and teachers aid work.

'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
A major independent study commissioned by the Government and released today under Freedom of Information by The Australian newspaper indicates that the 'Work for the Dole' program actually reduces the job prospects of unemployed people.

Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is warning urgent action is needed to fix youth poverty and disincentives for the unemployed to improve their job prospects.

Bringing up children Can we afford it?
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Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
For the Howard government, unemployed people are not even worth thinking about.

Private job network agency blues
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Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
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Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out?
There used to be an old saying in Australia" if your hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

Military Spending

Howard: We as a nation have got to invest heavily in defence?
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Hill primed for war!
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Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Auditor Generals damning defence report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.

John Pilger: 'They are afraid of you'

The following remarks were made by John Pilger (03/20/05) at an anti-war rally in Sydney, Australia.

03/22/05 - - The other day, the Aboriginal filmmaker Richard Frankland said this: "When you've got a voice, you've got freedom, and when you've got freedom, you've got responsibility. Negotiating with politicians doesn't work. You've got to change attitudes." That's the task for all of us here today. It's not an easy one. In fact, many good people in Australia and other countries believe their voice cannot possibly be heard: that the forces of bigotry and violence are far too powerful.

And yes, they are powerful. John Howard can lie repeatedly to the Australian people and get away with it " it seems. There is no Labor opposition in federal parliament. They've become a bad joke, to the point where Kevin Rudd, the opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, refuses to say anything critical of the government that is not immersed in crude sophistry.

We also know that those who are paid to keep the record straight, who are meant to challenge Howard's lies and uphold our right to freedom of speech, a freedom that is a cornerstone of any true democracy " I refer of course to the media: journalists, broadcasters " we know where they stand. We know that, apart from a few honorable exceptions, they are not merely craven and silent, but occupy a place in this society not dissimilar to the media in the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe.

Throughout my career I have reported, often undercover, from countries ruled by repressive regimes where dissidents would read me reports in the press that were no more servile and false than the reporting you read every day in the Murdoch papers in this country. In Eastern European states, for example, the papers had tame correspondents in Moscow who would parrot the Kremlin line. Now read the Washington correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, Michael Gawenda, and there is no difference. The same parroting of Bush's dangerous absurdities, such as his claims of bringing democracy to the Middle East " when the very opposite is true.

Considering this, we might ask: Is there no shame?

Is there no shame that, in its annual review of press freedom three years ago, the international media monitoring organization, Reporters Without Borders, placed Australia 41st in the world. Countries with greater press freedom were the following: Lithuania, Bosnia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, Hong Kong. All these countries have either been run by dictatorships, or racked by war or by civil upheaval; yet in 2002 they had greater press freedom than Australia, which was just ahead of autocracies. None of this, or the reasons why, are ever mentioned at the numerous back-scratching awards ceremonies so beloved by the Australian media.

Honorable exceptions aside, supine journalists, like cynical opposition politicians, like corporate academics, represent unaccountable, violent power and a corrupt democracy that today offers us no more choice that between a McDonald's and a Hungry Jack's. But they do not represent us. And they don't speak for us. And they don't speak for humanity. And they don't speak for democracy. And they don't speak for all the moral decencies by which most people live their lives. In fact, they speak for the very opposite.

I may have first understood this when I reported from repressive Czechoslovakia, with its Stalinist regime, in the 1970s. The dissenters who spoke out in that country seemed so few, yet I wondered why the regime went to such lengths to silence them and attack them and sneer at them, usually via the state press. I put this question to the great protest singer Marta Kubisova, whose thrilling voice sang the anthems of the Prague Spring in 1968. Meeting me in secret, she replied by reading to me the words of one of her most defiant songs, written by a banned Czech group called the Plastic People of the Universe. I have abridged it slightly.

"They are afraid of the old for their memory, They are afraid of the young for their innocence They afraid of the graves of their victims in faraway places They are afraid of history. They are afraid of freedom. They are afraid of truth. They are afraid of democracy. So why the hell are we afraid of them?É. For they are afraid of us."

What all of you should remember on this second anniversary of the brutal assault on Iraq is that you are not alone: that you are part of a great worldwide movement that refuses to accept the dangers and moral indecencies of Bush and Blair and Howard. Yesterday, all over the world, people like you expressed their defiance and anger at the unprovoked attack on Iraq, a defenseless country, and the killing of more than 100,000 people and the theft of their resources and the poisoning of their land: all of it justified by demonstrable lies. Go back to a speech John Howard made early in February 2003. He spoke for 53 minutes and lied about weapons of mass destruction at least 20 times: 20 lies in less than an hour. Even Bush and Blair would have trouble topping that.

Then he sent Australian troops off to take part in an invasion, which, under the universally acknowledged and respected terms of the Nuremberg judgment in 1946, the cornerstone of international law, was "a paramount war crime."

That's not my rhetoric, nor is it agit-prop. It's the law of civilized people. And it's our job to help people understand the great crime committed in their name, and how those who claim to speak for us, such as the media, have normalized the unthinkable: as if no crime has been committed, as if thousands of people have not been murdered, as if it was all merely a respectable adjustment of the "world order." My point is, they are not respectable; they may wear the suits of respectability and travel with their fawning courts, but they are prima facie criminals, be assured.

The other day, an ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation] foreign correspondent was promoting his book of professional adventures in a Sydney bookshop. He told his audience that it was good to be back in a country where politicians at least didn't kill each other. That's true, but what he didn't say was that the same politicians collude in the killing of men, women, and children in other countries: in Fallujah, where the truth remains unreported in the so-called mainstream media in this country " including the ABC, which has allowed itself to be intimidated by the Howard government for giving us, now and then, a glimpse of the truth about Bush's criminal assault on Iraq.

The time is long overdue. That time is for journalists to break ranks and speak up. It's time for teachers to write on their blackboards that great truism of Milan Kundera: "The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." It's time for those who know the dangers, but who say nothing " academics, lawyers, union leaders, even members of Parliament " to break their silence before their own privileges are undermined by the steady assault on centuries-old, hard-won civil rights, vividly expressed in the abandonment of Australians tortured in other countries by their government and the locking up of people in this country indefinitely: indeed, the erosion of the bedrock of our justice system: innocent until proven guilty.

Above all, never forget how important and right you are. It is you, in company with millions all over the world, who have taught again the great lesson of democracy. You didn't stop the invasion of Iraq, but you and the millions like you, in Spain and Britain and France and Italy and Brazil and the United States, have alerted the world to the true darkness of the regime in Washington and its collaborators.

Never in my lifetime as a journalist have I known ordinary people all over the world to be more aware of the dangers and the issues that face us. Many can't be with us today; but their support is, I believe, a presence. Think back to the popular movement, much of it led by women, that prevented conscription being introduced in Australia during the First World War. Those campaigners also felt rather isolated at times; but they weren't: they were the voice of what was right.

Had it not been for you and your movement, I believe Iran and North Korea would have been attacked by now, and in the case of North Korea, nuclear weapons might have been used.

Be proud of these achievements: be proud that the seedy, violent power of Bush and Blair and Howard has been exposed by you and that behind their bravado, they are afraid of you, and of the millions like you, so, in the words of the song, why the hell should we be afraid of them?

By John Pilger 20 March 05

John Pilger Home Page

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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Iraqi civilian deaths put at 100,000
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Rally to seek fresh Hickey hearings

Thomas Hickey.....rally to push for reopening of inquest

A community rally calling for the reopening of the inquest into the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey will be held at Walgett in northern New South Wales today.

Today would have been the 19th birthday of the teenager, who died in Redfern last year.

Two busloads of people from Sydney have travelled to Walgett to take part in the rally and about 100 people have been gathering at the Hickey family home.

Rumours that TJ Hickey was being chased by police when he lost control of his bike and became impaled on a fence sparked a nine-hour riot in Redfern.

A coronial inquiry cleared police of chasing the teenager.

But the Hickey family and their supporters will today march down the main street of Walgett to call for the inquest to be reopened.

Ray Jackson from the Indigenous Social Justice Association says there is evidence to show the teenager was being chased by police.

"We know that there is evidence out there that has not yet been presented to the coroner," he said.

"We have witnesses who have not been called, we most certainly want Michael Hollingsworth, the police office exempted from giving evidence, to give evidence."

By Just Us 9 March 05

Related:

Refutethelies
Recently our Premier, Bob Carr, made an authoritarian edict when he was made aware of the call to re-open the TJ Hickey Inquest.

OUR STORIES MUST BE TOLD. THEY HAVE TO BE
On Sunday 13th February, a Community gathering will be held to enable all people to remember the death of one of our young Community members, 'TJ' Hickey.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey.

Redfern police need education not weapons
NSW police want new offensive equipment including long-range capsicum spray guns and modified armoured vehicles capable of spraying tear gas following a damning report on the Redfern riots in Sydney earlier this year.

Carr defends Redfern riot fallout
But such is the fact that police can do no wrong according to authorities that one wonders what benefit to the community this report would be other than to protect the police again.

The Young Man From Kamilaroi
On Monday, 5 July 2004, the Hickey Family and their supporters will come together in the Glebe Coroners Court with the Redfern Police, the same police, specifically unknown at this time, who pursued the Young Man to his death by impalement.

Police stalkers set to escape
The real issue was posted it read "Wanted child murderers"!

Payback over Redfern riot after death in custody
A 37 year-old woman will appear in court today charged over her alleged involvement in a riot in Redfern on Sunday night.

Riot in Redfern over death in custody
The reported claim that 50 police were injured during rioting in Redfern over a death in custody is nothing more than a counter claim required to balance the argument that Thomas Hickey wasn't chased to his death by police.

Redfern police 'need to be made accountable'
POLICE have no right to demand increased support to patrol Redfern in the wake of one of the worst death in custody cover-ups by police in Australian history.

"If I Could Turn Back Time" Daily Terror, CH/7
THE real cause of last month's violent Redfern riots was the death of teenager Thomas "TJ" Hickey but perhaps only one element of the racism, harassment and bullying by the New South Wales police force and in this case Redfern police at the Block.

Was Thomas Hickey payback?
Yesterday it was alleged police faced a potentially deadly confrontation with locals of a redfern housing block last week when a gun was grabbed from an officer's holster and held to his stomach.

TJ HICKEY MEMORIAL MARCH AND VIGIL
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Howard's Tasmanian Chainsaw Massacre

JOHN Howard yesterday promised to lock up an extra 170,000ha of old growth forest in Tasmania, a pledge he claimed would not result in one job being lost. Releasing his long-awaited policy to a timber worker rally in Launceston, the nervous Howard was soon bowled over when he received a rousing applause from more than a 1000 chainsaws.

Despite being allegedly manhandled by a protester on his arrival - the man was arrested? - Scumbo Howard played into the hands of the loggers amid desperation the Neo-Liberals could pick up vital Tasmania seats.

Howard "the rodent type" admitted he did not consult a single scientist or conservation group on the plan. Instead, the 170,000ha were chosen by the "logging industry" and did not include any areas where logging is under way.

It fell way short of Labor's pledge to protect 240,000ha. But the plan, which was believed to have been finalised only yesterday, received little support of forest industry groups.

The pro-logging Labor member for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons, Dick Adams, says he cannot support either of the major parties' forestry policies.

Howard also ruled out any further scientific studies and claimed the burden of the green aspirations of a majority of Australians should not be borne by a small number of timber workers? Hello! hello!

"Many Australians would like to see an end to old growth logging, I would too [but] that should not occur at the expense of jobs and not at the expense of individual communities," he said.

Communities which depend on old growth forest?

The Wilderness Society says that there is no commitment to ending land clearing, which it says is one the biggest problems.

Greens Senator Bob Brown says Mr Howard is offering to protect about one-third of what Opposition Leader Mark Latham has promised to save.

"What John Howard has done is pick bits and pieces from the Tarkine, from the Styx, from other forests in the eastern highlands and said 'we'll allow those to be protected but we're ultimately guaranteeing that large areas also go to the woodchip mills'," he said.

He has now asked his party to give preferences to Labor in another 26 seats.

"I've asked the party tonight to contact those electorates in the view of this appalling destruction of forests, imminent in the policy that's been greeted by the loggers today with handshakes from Prime Minister Howard, but which sells out this nation's heritage, to review that decision by those electorates," he said.

"I'll be hopefully able to coordinate or collect that data and pass that on to the electorate between now and Saturday."

Unlike the $800 million promised by Labor to ensure job restructuring, Mr Howard said his policy would cost $50 million, much of which would go into plans such as buying land to include in a forest reserve and upgrading forest workers' skills.

The policy is an addition to the existing Regional Forest Agreement signed seven years ago but would only be possible if agreed to by the Tasmania's Labor Government.

By GEORGE BENSON and GREEN NOT GREED 7 October 04

SO PUT YOUR LEFT FOOT FORWARD THIS FEDERAL ELECTION "WITHOUT FEAR" AND "WITHOUT LIES" AND "WITHOUT TERROR" AND "SAVE THE TASMANIAN OLD GROWTH FORESTS FROM THE CHAINSAWS" AND VOTE 1 THE GREENS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FOREST INDUSTRY!

Written and authorised by the community.

Related:

Critics attack Howard's forests policy
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GREEN REVOLUTION, REVOLUTION THINK!
Federal ALP''s Leader Mark Latham's forest policy with a promise to protect Tasmania's old growth forests and rainforest is a revolution. REVOLUTION THINK?

If crime don't pay, why is John Howard still in Canberra?
When Labor and the Liberals took away many prisoner's right to vote. The Greens stood up for your rights.

Potent strike into Howard's heartland before it's too late!
HOPE, urgency and Medicare Gold constitute Mark Latham's now formidable assault on The Lodge. In his first campaign launch Latham has unveiled a mega-initiative -- free hospital treatment, public or private, for all Australians aged 75 and over.

PREFERENCES
Greens Senator Kerry Nettel's reasoning: A vote for Labor or the Democrats in the Senate is now potentially a vote for right-wing Christian candidates is beyond rhetoric.

Annan tells world leaders to respect law
United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan has made an impassioned plea to bring about the rule of law across the globe today. Mr Annan told world leaders to respect international law at home and abroad.

Wentworth voters turn to the Greens: poll
A new opinion poll published today shows voters in the blue ribbon Sydney seat of Wentworth are turning away from the Liberal Party just like everybody else. The party has held the eastern suburbs seat for 103 years and that's far too long.

Defence people need to vote for the Greens
Caretaker Prime Minister John Howard will today unveil a plan to step up the fight against terrorism in the region, using specialist teams of Australian Federal Police (AFP) that could be sent to work in neighbouring countries.

Iraq war illegal, says Annan
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan says the United States decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was "illegal". Australia was a key supporter of the war on Iraq and sent troops to join the United States-led invasion last year.

BREAKTHROUGH AS DFAT TAKES STEPS FOR GUANTANAMO BAY POSTAL VOTE As the electoral rolls closed, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed that they have faxed David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib postal vote application forms, Australian Greens Member for Cunningham Michael Organ said.

PM may be hung in Parliament?
John Howard the rodent may be voted the worst Prime Minister in Australia's History and his portrait hung in parliament.

Major parties urged to reveal adequate climate change policies
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) says the major political parties are yet to reveal adequate policies on climate change as they campaign for next month's federal election.

Cheesed-off voter tells PM he's past his best
Prime Minister John Howard "Scumbo" has been visiting the marginal seat of Richmond on the New South Wales far north coast. It is held by the National Party's Larry Anthony by a margin of just 1.7 per cent.

GREENS NOT GREED
The federal Coalition has stepped up its attack on the Australian Greens.

Bomb kills 30 at Pakistani rally

At least 30 people have been killed and as many wounded in a powerful bomb explosion at a religious rally in the central Pakistani city of Multan, police and ambulance workers said.

A rally in commemoration of assassinated extremist Sunni religious leader Azim Tariq was dispersing at 4:40am (local time) when the powerful explosion took place, police said.

"A bomb exploded in a rally in which 30 people have been killed and almost the same number have been wounded," Abdul Rauf, an official for Edhi ambulance service, said.

By No War 7 October 04