Nannas have been at community markets with petitions to sign, at our crafternoon knitting and eating, attending events about native forest logging, Palestine and AUKUS.
Make Polluters Pay – Inner West
Nannas have been attending markets in the Inner West LGA to gather signatures for a petition to make big polluters pay for climate disaster recovery and adaptation.
The petition urges the Council to advocate for a federal Climate Compensation Fund that is financed by major coal, oil and gas corporations. Currently, it is local ratepayers and taxpayers paying the costs, instead of the corporations which fuel extreme climate events. Councils around Australia are struggling to restore buildings, roads and other infrastructure, as well as mitigation, adaptation and community supports.
Last weekend was the final opportunity to ask residents to sign the petition because the Inner West Council is due to vote on the issue on Tuesday 25 August.
Two motions will be discussed, both calling for a federal Climate Compensation Fund. One motion calls for funding from the fossil fuel industry, while the other supports the fund but removes the reference to the fossil fuel industry as a funding source.
Nannas were at the Flour Mill Markets in Summer Hill on Sunday 16 August and at Addison Road Markets in Marrickville last Sunday, 23 August, while Climate Change Balmain Rozelle went to Rozelle Markets on Saturday 22 August in a last push to reach 1,000 signatures.
The response to the petition by Sydney’s inner west community has been amazing. Most people agree fossil fuel exporters should contribute to the climate disaster fund and were happy to sign the petition.
Inner West Nannas will attend the early part of the meeting and speak in support of the motion that calls for funding by the fossil fuel industries. Councillors will debate the motions much later in the agenda. Council meetings start at 6.30 and are live streamed. See Current Council Meetings.
Crafternoon
Nannas gathered at Nanna Elizabeth’s home for an afternoon of chatting, skill sharing and letting ideas flow. Nannas were deep in concentration or in conversations covering many topics. The very relaxed atmosphere away from the public eye allows us to be us — supportive, creative, informed and engaged.
Nanna Crafternoons are held every couple of months and the afternoon tea, mostly home cooked by Elizabeth, is a great incentive to be there!
Native Forest Logging
Australia’s national environment and climate groups with regional and grassroots forest organisations met in Canberra on 17 August to collaborate on a national campaign to protect native forests by ending native forest logging and clearing.
The meeting was hosted by The Australia Institute with forest campaigners from Western Australia, ACT, Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
The Forest Protection Principles outline a long-term vision for Australia’s forests, one where native forest logging and clearing has ended, ecosystems are restored, First Nations rights and leadership are respected and forests are valued for the extraordinary benefits they provide to people, wildlife and the climate.
The organisations are calling for:
- an immediate end to native forest logging, clearing and conversion,
- permanent protection of native forests nationwide,
- strong national environment laws that safeguard forests and wildlife,
- an end to carbon and biodiversity offsets generated from public native forests,
- climate action that protects forests rather than treating them as offsets for new fossil fuel emissions.
The good news is that ACF have joined the forest campaign and the big organisations are going to support local forest campaigns.
This statement by Bob Debus, Chair of Wilderness Australia, provides an explanation of why environment groups are opposing the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) method. The method would allow state governments to earn carbon credits through the federal Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme in exchange for stopping logging in public forests. (The Point)
Pine Creek Update
This week, another koala was hit by a vehicle on Pine Creek Way and died. That makes two in less than two weeks. Their habitat is currently being bulldozed during breeding season, when males are on the move. Despite extensive lobbying, less than 50% of their forest habitat has been included in the proposed Great Koala National Park.
Glenbog Forest Update
Meanwhile in the south-east, NSW Forestry Corporation has logged 1,000 trees in the Glenbog State Forest. Habitat trees for the endangered greater glider have been logged without the usual environmental protections because Forestry is calling the work ‘road maintenance’. (ABC News)
Australian Palestine Advocacy Network Conference
The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network conference, held on 15-16 August in Sydney, featured Palestinian and Australian First Nations speakers, recognising their parallel experiences of colonisation. Both have a history of loss of lives, rights and land as well as cultural devastation.
The conference was a powerful, moving learning experience which began with a smoking-ceremony welcome in a nearby park and ended with a final reflections speech. Over two days, six facilitated plenary panel sessions were separated by a choice of workshops.
Saturday looked at where we’re at right now, and this was followed by a choice of workshops on civil liberties and rights, fighting Palestinian racism and creative interventions. The afternoon plenary was on divestment from involvement in genocide, followed by workshops. Some Australian superannuation funds are invested in Israeli companies. One workshop explored ways to push the funds to divest. Australian Super and Future Super were two we looked at but may not be the only ones. The day finished with a keynote address on Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
If your super fund invests your money in Israeli companies and you don’t want it to, then here is a script to use when you ring them re divestment.
Sunday was devoted to where to from here? What we can do. The plenary panels discussed ways of advocating for Palestine. Workshop options offered strategy and tactics for nonviolent direct action, lobbying MPs, and a session on healing, resilience, maintaining hope and how to sustain ourselves.
The afternoon examined the Murdoch media and how to tell the truth about Palestine in a hostile media ecosystem. Participants were encouraged to join the Boycott the Daily Telegraph campaign.
This excellent conference closed with a powerful and poetic final reflection. It was a privilege to hear personal, often heartbreaking, stories around the suffering of Palestinians and Australian First Nations and the people working to support them.
Nanna Gill.
Note: 79% of Australians have an unfavourable view of Israel, rising to 87% for 18–34-year-olds.
Thousands of students rally against Pauline Hanson
Students walked out of school around the country on Thursday 13 August to protest against Pauline Hanson and One Nation. The protest was organised by the National Union of Students. Politicians, including Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, told the kids to stay in school. Nannas cheered! We know we’ll be alright when the kids rise up!
Students down books to rally in Australian cities against One Nation and Pauline Hanson (ABC Link)
I protested against Pauline Hanson 28 years ago — now my teenager is doing the same thing (The Guardian)
Independent Public Inquiry into AUKUS
Nannas have attended the public hearings for the independent Public Inquiry into AUKUS held in Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle. The lead commissioner is Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett, a former Labor politician.
This is not a government inquiry. A group of former MPs, retired military and naval officers, leading strategists and academics, human rights lawyers and union leaders have acted upon the community concerns about the costs, waste disposal and the lack of government transparency surrounding AUKUS. There are also important questions about whether AUKUS makes us more secure, or less so.
Presentations and submissions are on the AUKUS Public Inquiry website.
This small town has raised questions on AUKUS that every Australian should consider (Cheek Media)
Nannas are watching
Aaron Bastani meets Kevin Anderson
Nannas are listening
A look inside the world’s biggest green bank (ABC Listen)
How the gas industry tricked Australia with Richard Denniss. (Follow the Money)
Nannas are reading
The women campaigners leading Australia’s climate movement with care and connection (Women’s Agenda)
The UN cannot be left to starve while military spending soars — Global military spending is soaring while the United Nations faces financial crisis, even as conflicts rise and the need for cooperative security becomes more urgent. Pearls and Irritations
NASA released the July global land-sea surface temperatures. It shows that July set a record for global temperature — it was 1.45C above the 1880-1905 average. (The Point)
Forthcoming Events