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Keywords: Coal Mining

  • ENVIRONMENT

    Communities cooperating to kick coal

    • Colin Long
    • 22 May 2012
    12 Comments

    Mick spent years working for the State Electricity Commission until privatisation saw him made reduntant, prompting years of forced idleness, low self-esteem, financial troubles and family stress. The experience has made him sceptical of politicians coming down to talk about opportunities from the transition to a low carbon economy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    If Clive Palmer was a High Court judge

    • Patrick McCabe
    • 21 May 2012
    20 Comments

    Imagine Attorney-General Nicola Roxon appoints Palmer as the newest High Court judge. Justice Palmer sets about rewriting the law in radical ways, freeing mining companies from regulation and approving disbanding the Australian Greens. Surely such an appointment could be challenged? Actually, no.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tony Abbott's class war

    • Dean Ashenden
    • 15 May 2012
    19 Comments

    One way of conducting class warfare is to accuse your opponent of conducting class warfare, as Abbott did in his Budget reply speech. It is no coincidence that over the period when talking about class became the political equivalent of breaking wind, the actions of governments of both stripes have accelerated social inequality. 

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Warm bums and nuclear activism in Tokyo

    • Ellena Savage
    • 11 May 2012
    6 Comments

    I took the train into central Tokyo, my bum warmed by the heated seats. Each time we stopped, the train's engine shut down briefly, and the bum heater switch off for a few seconds. Over the loudspeaker I heard 'Setsuden chu', the catchphrase meaning 'We're currently using less electricity', which is posted all around the city.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Carbon tax saves Gillard (for now)

    • Tony Kevin
    • 14 September 2011
    11 Comments

    Though Gillard's leadership has started to come under pressure, no one in Labor will want to overthrow her until the carbon pricing laws package is securely in place. This means no challenge before the first half of 2012. Only then, if opinion polls keep trending down, may Gillard be vulnerable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mourning Kevin Rudd

    • Lyn Bender
    • 24 June 2011
    27 Comments

    Since even the best leaders are not infallible, we must decide who is good enough. Abbott is not, and the jury is still out on Gillard. The anniversary of Rudd's fall provides an opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps regret, what we have lost.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia's mining menace

    • Steven Littlewood
    • 17 June 2011
    14 Comments

    To view the mining sector as central to the welfare of the economy is a furphy. The mining industry is not supporting other sectors of the economy, it's holding them back. Even in the states where mining dominates, the positive effects of the industry boom on the wider economy are questionable.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Best of 2010: Gillard's climate coup

    • Tony Kevin
    • 12 January 2011
    3 Comments

    If the Gillard Government manages to serve a full term, there is a good chance that Parliament will pass a well-designed, effective national carbon pricing policy into law in 2012. This would be a major policy success that Gillard could legitimately boast of going into a 2013 full-term election.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Environmental road kill on the highway to Perth

    • H. A. Willis
    • 08 December 2010
    4 Comments

    Like most small settlements along major highways, Eneabba is now bypassed, and reached via a side road. The company responsible for what will be one of Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power stations insists that 'prevailing winds will favour non-populated areas to the east and west'.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Gillard's climate coup

    • Tony Kevin
    • 29 September 2010
    6 Comments

    If the Gillard Government manages to serve a full term, there is a good chance that Parliament will pass a well-designed, effective national carbon pricing policy into law in 2012. This would be a major policy success that Gillard could legitimately boast of going into a 2013 full-term election.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hung parliament could be the making of Gillard

    • Tony Kevin
    • 24 August 2010
    22 Comments

    There was a massive loss of confidence in Labor's policies. The Australian electorate saw through the triviality of what both major parties were offering. Gillard would deserve her party's full support in leading a Labor Government in a hung parliament. This may be the making of her as a great prime minister.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    How to survive the next five billion years

    • Jeffrey Nicholls
    • 09 July 2010
    3 Comments

    Every year we mine about a billion tonnes of iron ore. If we keep this up for five billion years, we will have dug up the whole earth to a depth of about 10 km. Here is a guide to how human existence might continue until the sun dies.

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