Australia and Oceania news and discussions

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

Now *this* is how you handle a pandemic...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58182418
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

Victoria consents to gas production from well near Twelve Apostles

Sun 15 Aug 2021 18.30 BST

The Victorian government has given consent for a gas company to produce gas extracted from beneath a national park in the state’s south-west, near the celebrated tourist site the Twelve Apostles.

[...]

The Victorian Greens deputy leader, Ellen Sandell, said state support for fossil fuel expansion was “bonkers”, particularly in the wake of a landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that confirmed greenhouse gas emissions from human activity was unequivocally changing the Earth’s climate in ways “unprecedented” for thousands of years.

She said no one would visit the Twelve Apostles “if it’s surrounded by gas drilling rigs”.

“The risks are very profound for our climate. We know that burning any more gas is contributing to more fires, more floods,” she said. “There’s also risks to the marine environment – this is an area that is a migratory path for humpback whales and the southern wright whale.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... e-apostles
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

Violent protests in Melbourne against lockdown.


User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by caltrek »

Before getting too mad at me for being an American that is posting an article that is critical of the Australian government, please note that the author lectures at the University of Melbourne.

Australia’s Man in Washington: Morrison’s Tour of Deception
by Binoy Kampmark

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/28 ... deception/

Introduction:
(Counterpunch) It was startling and even shocking. Away from the thrust and cut of domestic politics, not to mention noisy discord within his government’s ranks, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison could breathe a sign of relief. Perhaps no one would notice in Washington that Australia remains prehistoric in approaching climate change relative to its counterparts. Being known in his own country as “Scotty from Marketing”, he just might pull it off.

Besides, a security compact with the United States and the United Kingdom had just been cemented, one promising Canberra eight submarines with nuclear propulsion. That these promised to be eye-wateringly expensive and available sometime in the 2040s, were they to ever make it to water, was a point not even worth considering.

In the US press, Morrison was careful to toe the line of the partner made supplicant. On CBS’s Face the Nation, he was asked whether the US and its allies were moving towards conflict with Beijing. “I don’t think it’s inevitable at all,” he chirped, claiming that it was “in everybody’s interest” that we all co-exist. But this “happy co-existence” was premised on keeping China in the box or, as he preferred to put it, a committed role of “free nations like Australia” and others in the Indo-Pacific region to stay vigilant.

On climate change, he was also pressed on having not “given a timeline” on placing Australia on the path to net zero emissions. He admitted this to be the case and vacillated. Slipping back into advertising mode, Morrison said that “performance matters” for Australia. The net zero target was being pursued, and would be achieved “preferably by 2050.” The usual half-baked assurances followed: Australia’s record was “strong”. “We’ve already reduced emissions in Australia by over 20 percent since 2005. We committed to Kyoto. We met that target and beat that target.” As for the Paris target? Not an issue: Australia would romp it.

At that point, CBS’s Margaret Brennan could only observe that no country had actually delivered on such targets.
The article also discusses the AUKUS security pact.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by wjfox »

Google: US technology giant to invest $740m in Australia

By Katie Silver
Business reporter
Published 1 day ago

Google has announced that it will invest A$1bn ($740m, £550m) in Australia over the next five years.

It is the US technology giant's largest investment in the country to date.

Google says the money will be used to build a research hub, increase its cloud computing capacity and fund partnerships with local organisations.

The move - named the Digital Future Initiative - is expected to directly create 6,000 jobs and support 28,000 overall.

"Australia can help lead the world's next wave of innovation, harnessing technology to improve lives, create jobs, and make progress," Google boss Sundar Pichai said at the initiative's launch in Sydney.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59257322
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Australia and Oceania news and discussions

Post by caltrek »

New Zealand to Send Dozens of Peacekeepers to Solomon Islands
December 1, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... acekeepers

Introduction:
(Agence France-Presse via The Guardian) New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered police and troops to join an international peacekeeping mission in the crisis-hit Solomon Islands following deadly anti-government riots.

Ardern said on Wednesday the deployment of 65 peacekeepers followed a request from the Solomons government, which was almost toppled during the unrest that claimed at least three lives and reduced much of downtown Honiara – the country’s capital – to smouldering rubble.

She said an initial force of 15 New Zealand personnel would set off on Thursday and another 50 would join them over the weekend.

The New Zealand leader said they would work with Solomons police and about 200 peacekeepers already on the ground in Honiara from Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

“We are deeply concerned by the recent civil unrest and rioting in Honiara, and ... we have moved quickly to provide urgent assistance to help restore sustained peace and security,” Ardern said in a statement.
Image
Solomon Islands
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
Post Reply