At 3:07 pm on Friday 14th May 1999, Senator Brian Harradine rose to address the Senate. As with this week ten years later, it was just after a federal Budget had been delivered – Peter Costello’s third. Unlike this week, discussion over the content of the Budget had been quickly subsumed by speculation over whether the GST – the defining issue of John Howard’s government at the time – ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett is welcoming the kayak trip along the threatened Mary River being undertaken by Steve Posselt to draw attention to the major damage that will be caused by the Labor government's Traveston Dam. Senator Bartlett will be attending the start of Steve Posselt's kayak trip tomorrow morning in Brisbane. Mr Posselt will be paddling up the Brisbane Rover, hiking to the upper catchment of the Mary ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett says that while tomorrow night's Earth Hour is a welcome initiative, we could all make a bigger and more immediate difference by going without meat or dairy products for a day. "Overall greenhouse emissions from livestock are greater than that from all forms of transport put together, yet the significant impact we can make from the simple action of changing our diets is still rarely ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett has urged federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to intervene on the Queensland government's continued refusal to pay back wages rightly earned by Aboriginal people in that state. "Six years after their original inadequate response for repaying wages, the state government has not offered one extra cent, and instead has taken a big chunk of the money back and continued to exclude many people from ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett says the State Government is once again refusing to return money to Indigenous Queenslanders who rightly earned it. "The announcement today by the Queensland Government regarding Indigenous Stolen Wages compounds the injustice of the original inadequate offer made on this issue six years ago," Senator Bartlett said. "It has been established beyond doubt that many Indigenous people in Queensland earned millions of dollars that was never ...
The federal Immigration Minister's aims to fast-track skilled worker visas and consider helping with the wider labour shortage through Pacific Island workers should be supported, according to Queensland Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett. Senator Bartlett said the genuine need to ensure migrant workers are protected from exploitation should not be used as an excuse to put barriers in the way of valuable and needed migration. "Migrants and refugees do not ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett has introduced a Bill into Parliament to establish an independent National Commissioner for Children. "With no political voice of their own, the rights of children are often ignored or marginalised," Senator Bartlett said. "A Children's Commissioner would ensure that the needs, views and rights of people under the age of eighteen are recognised and promoted. "Along with promoting the rights of children, the Commission would monitor ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (4.47 p.m.)—In the five minutes available to me I would like to express the Democrats’ support for this motion. It is a matter of urgency that the Chinese Communist government observe international laws and norms and cease the bloodshed in Tibet. But, of course, another point does have to be made. I appreciate that governments and people in major parties do need to be diplomatic ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (12.55 p.m.)—I would like to also associate on behalf of the Democrats our support for this condolence motion and make some personal comments of my own. This condolence debate does indeed relate to what is literally the passing of an era. Clyde Cameron was the last surviving member of the parliament that was elected in 1949. He had the misfortune to enter the parliament at ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (6.14 p.m.)—This report is the Auditor-General’s Performance audit: Whole of government Indigenous service delivery arrangements, which was handed over to the parliament in mid-October last year, just before the election. It is an important and thorough document and I will not have time to go through the full details here. Given the debate last year and some of the debate that has occurred this year regarding ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (6.00 p.m.)—I move: That the Senate take note of the report. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is of course an exceptional, quite incredible, environmental asset for the people of Queensland and indeed Australia. It is one area in which, as I have said on the record a number of times, probably the most significant single isolated environmental achievement of the previous coalition government was the decision ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett has successfully referred his Stolen Generation Compensation Bill 2008 for scrutiny by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee. The Bill seeks to implement a reparations process for victims of the Stolen Generation, based on recommendations from the decade old Bringing them Home report. "I strongly urge anyone interested in the issue of formal compensation for the Stolen Generations to make a submission to the Inquiry," ...
Senator BARTLETT (2.48 p.m.)—My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. I draw the minister’s attention to the growing boycott of Australian wool by retailers in Europe, following on from a number of US based retailers who have taken similar boycott action against Australian wool because of consumer concerns about the cruelty involved in the mulesing of sheep in Australia. Does the ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (7.04 p.m.)—I move: That the Senate take note of the document. It should be emphasised that when the parliament made amendments to the Migration Act to require the examination of all people in immigration detention for prolonged periods, the Senate specifically included the requirement that reports be tabled in this place about each of these cases. These concern individual human beings who in some cases have suffered ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (6.58 p.m.)—I move: That the Senate take note of the document. This document relates to a similar topic to the one I have just been speaking to. This is the response by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans, to the Ombudsman’s report on people who are in long-term detention, which is the next document on the Order of Business. Again, these reports—this one and the ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (6.53 p.m.)—I move: That the Senate take note of the document. This document, the report pursuant to section 440A of the Migration Act on the conduct of the Refugee Review Tribunal Reviews not completed within 90 days, for the period 1 July 2007 to 31 October 2007, is a report from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on protection visa applications, as is required under subsection 91(Y) ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (9.36 a.m.)—The Democrats support the Social Security and Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Allowances) Bill 2008. As the Liberal Party speaker outlined, it is uncontroversial and provides beneficial assistance to millions of Australians—the vast majority of whom are in significant need of assistance such as this. But it is important at a time such as this to ensure that we do have some honest debate ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (3.59 p.m.)—I join very strongly in lending my support to this condolence motion for former senator Sid Spindler. What an incredible contribution he made, not just to this Senate in six short years but also to politics more broadly, to political debate, to society and to his family. The contribution by his family at his funeral service, held just last week in inner Melbourne, indicated ...
Senator BARTLETT (Queensland) (4.37 p.m.)—The Democrats also welcome this statement. It is pleasing to see ministerial statements being tabled in the parliament—there are four or five of them here—rather than simply being released at a press conference. I hope that signals a return to the parliament being a chamber of debate about issues and significant statements put forward and released by ministers. I would also like to specifically ...
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett has called on the federal Labor government to set up a public inquiry into allegations of bribery and intimidation by Australian government and wool industry officials. Newspaper reports say many large clothing retailers in Sweden have banned Australian wool products; Sweden's Minister for Agriculture Eskil Erlandsson has urged consumers to boycott Australian wool and there are alleged bribes by a representative of the ...
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Every Monday morning during my radio show on community radio 4ZzZ FM, I chat with Peter Black, a constitutional lawyer, follower of social and political issues and obsessive user of social media. I don’t normally put links to those chats on this blog, but given that our talk this morning was all about the federal election, I thought it was worth putting a link to it on this occasion. You can have a listen to it by clicking on this link.
(0)Given I am now running as a Greens candidate, I suppose it is no surprise that I am indicating my agreement with a comment that Bob Brown made today. But I would also say that it isn’t any secret that I haven’t agreed with every public comment that Bob has made, and I would agree with the following comment about the schoolyard level nonsense regarding another possible leaders debate even if it had been made by Steve Fielding:
“What we’re seeing now between the two leaders is an absolute farce and people everywhere are rolling their eyes at Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard not having the maturity to get together to agree to the series of debates which would have enlightened the electorate,“It is a joke and a sad reflection on the optic and image driven nature of political media coverage in Australia. A couple of weeks ago, there was a three way debate at the National Press Club on important ICT issues such as internet filtering, broadband and wider communications policy. More... (6)
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about mountaintop mining in the USA. All mining has some impact, but the sheer destructiveness of this type of mining is astonishing – and that’s before you take into account the greenhouse impact of the coal. This article in the New York Times details the potential impact of a similar project in West Virginia. The significance of this proposal is that there is the possibility it may be stopped, or seriously curtailed, by the Obama administration, which would be a signal of a positive shift on this issue.
(2)Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I’ve done, plus an online one
More... (1)As I noted in my previous post, this week’s Newspoll saw the Greens register 16% support – the highest that party has ever achieved, comparable to the Democrats best Newspoll result of 17% back in 1990. History suggests it is unlikely that this peak will be maintained right through to election day (or even the next Newspoll) but it is part of a continuing trend of solid Greens results. I’ve written a piece expanding on this, and how the party might approach the challenges ahead, at The Drum/Unleashed on the ABC’s site – which you can read by clicking on this link.
(0)Contention over Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation has been bubbling along for quite a while now. Unfortunately, as with many issues which become polarised, each “side” is focused on defending their position, which has meant that some important underlying issues are not getting the attention they deserve. I’ve just had a piece on this topic published at The Drum on the ABC’s website. It’s fairly long, so they published it in two parts – the first part is at this link and the second part is at this one. I should emphasise that the article reflects my personal views, and is not a formal view of the Greens, nor of ANTaR Queensland, who I am also involved with.
(18)Hip hop fans in Brisbane might be interested in tuning in to my radio show on 4ZZZ FM this Monday morning around 7:30am. I’ll be talking with the Gold Coast based duo Choose Mics, who are launching their debut full length album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers at the Step Inn in the Valley this coming Friday night as part of what will be a big night for fans of hip-hop/rap/urban sounds, with Brisbane’s The Optimen also launching their second album “The Out of Money Experience” as part of the same event. Even though there is a steady stream of musical offerings in Brisbane, a double album launch of this magnitude doesn’t come along every day of the week, so I’ll dedicate a half hour or so to exploring not just the words and sounds of Choose Mics, but getting a broader overview from them of the hip hop related scenes locally and nationally.
More... (2)Disclaimer: The inclusion of a blog or website in this list should not be taken as an endorsement of its contents by me.
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