With the resumption of federal parliament, it is now becoming clear how the Greens intend to advance their social agenda with the assistance of the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. While some were expecting that the Greens would give first priority to environmental issues on which they claim a mandate – including the re-introduction of a…
One of the most insistent claims of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that global warming is melting the world’s ice fields, causing rising sea levels which will create “climate refugees” from island-states such as Tuvalu in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, and inundate low-lying coastal estuaries around…
The most significant aspect of the return of the federal Labor Government is that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has entered into a formal agreement with the Greens which will give the Greens access to real power in Australia for the first time ever. What was most disappointing about the decision of two of the…
A Pentagon report has documented a build-up of Chinese military forces opposite Taiwan since 2008 when Taiwan elected a new government committed to improving relations with Beijing. The build-up comes at a time when China has been extending a diplomatic olive-branch to Taiwan in a number of areas, including the establishment of direct sea and air links across the Taiwan Strait, an economic co-operation agreement, and other moves to reduce tensions between democratic Taiwan and mainland China. The contrast between Beijing’s unadvertised military build-up and its diplomatic offensive is worrying not only to Taipei and Washington, but to other regional…