Adani

Adani group acquired the Carmichael lease, then lodged development application for its coal mine in 2010. Then in 2011, they bought Abbot Point coal loading terminal and port from the State government - an investment of over $2 billion.

It was to be the biggest coal mine in Australia - 60 million tonnes a year, all intended to fuel Adani's ambitious plans for new electricity generation in India. But not any more.

Everything has changed for power companies in India since then. It's now much cheaper to electrify the country with solar, wind, and hydro power. Adani's own power plants are losing money and they have no expansion plans anymore.

Adani is a promise to the people of Queensland - but a false one.

This is a page where you can find out about the subjects of various campaigns; and get resources you might find useful

Political integrity

Each State and Territory now operates a permanent, statutary, anti-corruption body. No one doubts that this has been a very good thing - yet Canberra doesn't have one of its own.

The Greens have a proposal for a federal commission; recently Kathie McGowan, independent, proposed one; the ALP has an incomplete bill which is not yet public; and late in 2018, the coalition proposed their own bill - roundly crticised as a sham.

The case for creating an integrity watchdog is overwhelming ... but if it is to match the problems in Canberra, it must be able to look after lobbying, donations, other forms of undue and hidden influence, graft, and election integrity. And because Australia has no bill of rights, it should also act as a guarantor of democratic rights, insofar as that is possible.

Finding your way around

On the following pages, click this little link to open any document or file

Climate change

Some people have suggested this problem is so enormous that it isn't really like a problem at all - more like a new condition of existence that we struggle to even imagine. Be that at as it may, our institutions have prevented, rather than helped us to confront it.

That is deeply disturbing to anyone who thinks about it much - it suggests that humans, the clever species, might succumb to this accidental side-effect of the incredible material progress we have wrought, helpless victims of our own success.

We cannot know the future - only make reasoned surmises. But we are not helpless. It is late, and our tardiness will be costly. But action now will be far, far better than none.

This is the place and the time, if ever there was one, for the citizens of our abused democracies to exert their sovereign rights - and demand that executives do what is necessary.

Refugee policy

This has been a particularly difficult and divisive area of public policy for some years in Australia. Reasons are complicated; debate is fraught - yet most folks now believe this has to be fixed - somehow.

If you want to learn more about this issue - how we got into a mess & what might be possible to get out again, use this link.