Bartlett’s Blog

The headlines after COAG focused on health and education and the overall size of the money handed out (with the usual uncertainty about how much was ‘new’ money and how much had already been promised or committed).  Jon Altman from ANU has written a good rundown on the various COAG agreements which relate to Indigenous Australians (or at least those in discrete remote communities, who seem to have ...

There has been a mountain of articles, opinion pieces and blog posts about the one year anniversary of the election of the Rudd government, and the end of the Howard government.  I think the jury is still very much out on how substantive the Rudd government will turn out to be, although I have to note and praise a few of the reforms in the immigration area – ...

I’ve written here before about forums I've been involved in on food and climate change.  There are a couple more public forums in Brisbane over the next week for people interested in further exploring practical ways for positive change in this area. One is on tomorrow night (Thurs 20th) at the Southbank campus of Griffith Uni, organised by local group Food Connect, which encourages and supports local farmers.  The ...

I’ve got another speaking engagement coming up next week in Sydney. On Wednesday 26th November, at Customs House in Sydney I’ll be part of a panel at a forum discussing actions on climate change. It’s organised by the Centre for Policy Development.  It is one of their ‘Common Ground’ forums - a concept seeks to encourage public debates that explore areas of agreement to “shine a spotlight on areas ...

For some reason, The Australian newspaper has been running story after story raising fears about long-standing plans to purify and recycle water back into Brisbane’s dams.  It looked bizarre enough a week ago, but we're now reaching the two week mark with no sign of a let up.  The headlines have been a disgrace - from "Flush then drink in the sunshine state" two weeks ago, to today's ...

I’m speaking in Canberra on Wednesday night at the last in a series of three free seminars to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The seminar is hosted by the local branch of Amnesty International.  I will be providing a human rights perspective on the issues of migration and refugee policies. The seminar goes from 6 to 7pm in the ACT Legislative Assembly ...

Palm Island man Lex Wotton has been handed a seven year jail sentence (less one year for time previously served) as a result of being found guilty by a jury of rioting with destruction. Although I’ve spoken with people who were present on the day which led t the charges, I wasn’t there, so I won’t give a view on who did what. If you want to see a ...

Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall will be the site for a gathering of hundreds of men on Wednesday of next week as part of the build up to White Ribbon Day. Former star of the (sadly now defunct) Brisbane Bullets basketball team, Leroy Loggins, will MC the event, which goes from 12.30 to 1.30.  Men from a range of backgrounds will speak about violence against women from their perspective as a ...

One of the major things to assess after all the voting has been done in the USA will be just how big the impact has been of the Obama campaign’s widespread use of online campaigning techniques.  Even a casual user of the internet on the other side of the planet will have found it hard to avoid some sign of Obama’s presence.  I have been impressed by the ...

I went along to a meeting of peace activists held in Brisbane over the weekend, examining ways forward in the current political and social environment.  I suspect promoting peace above conflict has always been a far harder row to hoe, but it’s still something worth struggling for wherever possible. The urgency of now does tend to make us overemphasise the present situation compared to the past, which now seems ...

Over the last few months, New Matilda has been running a competition for political cartooning.  It has all boiled down to twelve finalists, with the winning entries being announced tomorrow night (Wednesday 29th) in Sydney. I am one of the judges of the final entries, along with newmatilda.com’s Editor Marni Cordell and satirist Ben Pobjie, renowned cartoonist Bruce Petty, plus Natasha Stott Despoja. You can see the final entries at ...

On Wednesday I attended a rally outside the Brisbane District Court, held to show support for Palm Island man, Lex Wotton, whose trial had been going for two weeks. The jury started deliberating on the Thursday. When I saw news that they were still going on the Friday afternoon, I decided to go to the court to bear witness with Lex and his family and supporters as they ...

There is certainly a very determined attempt being made around the globe by some of the more ideologically motivated commentators to create a mythology that the genesis of the financial crisis in the USA is somehow due to government measures promoting affordable housing for lower income earners (read: minority groups). The Australian has carried another article trying to make this link, this time by the Director of the Adam ...

Back in March I wrote about Nazanin Afshin-Jan, a campaigner I met at a human rights conference in Taiwan who focused a lot of her efforts on trying to bring about an end to the Iranian government’s practice of allowing the execution of children. Recent news reports suggest the efforts of Nazanin and other human rights campaigners in this area may have born some fruit, with this report quoting an Iranian ...

There are lots of coverage and comment about the report by the independent group reviewing the Northern Territory intervention.  This is one of the more important amongst the many reviews set in train by the federal government. I hope the government is able to ignore the politics and focus on the substance of the report. As I said many times in the various pieces I have written about the ...

The Greenfest being held at Brisbane’s Southbank over this weekend has been getting a lot of media coverage around town. Organiser Colman Ridge has obviously pulled out all stops (and a lot of his own money too by the look of it) to try to make the event a success and help encourage people to improve their awareness and actions about how to live in a more environmentally sustainable ...

Last weekend it was the Love Earth Gathering. This weekend it’s the bigger and broader Greenfest, being held at Brisbane’s Southbank – starting at noon on Friday afternoon with world renowned ecologist Dr Jane Goodall.  The Piazza at Southbank will also be host to a series of other speakers across the entire weekend, covering issues from housing to energy to transport to business.  I’ll be chairing a session on the Sunday ...

Ronan Lee was due to speak just prior to me at the Love Earth Gathering at the top of Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall yesterday morning.  When I arrived, the organisers told me he had sent them a text message that morning giving his apologies, saying an urgent matter had come up.  I must say that, despite his previous record of being prepared to be a bit outspoken, I’d ...

The Courier-Mail’s Environment Blog gave a mention to the event I’m speaking at this Saturday. As I wrote last week, it’s from 11am at Reddacliff Place at the top of Queen St Mall – one of a number of similar events being held around the country to promote the environmental benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets. Even the final report by Ross Garnaut has explicitly acknowledged the significant contribution livestock makes ...

Next week is National Vegetarian Week, so be prepared for a larger than usual number of examples of people seeking to inform you of the environmental, health and ethical arguments in favour of eating less meat. As I mentioned around the time of Earth Hour, going without meat for a week has far greater greenhouse benefits than turning your lights off (although every bit of positive behavioural change helps ...