Peter Westmore

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Article author Peter Westmore

Peter is the former national president of the National Civic Council and on the News Weekly editorial team.

BUSHFIRES: COAG inquiry skirts the real issues

National AffairsFebruary 12, 2005

A recent inter-government report into the 2003 Australian bushfires – the worst since 1939 – has ignored advice on how to prevent a similar outbreak again. The recently-released COAG report into the 2003 Australian bushfires, commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), has failed to deal with the central problems of bushfire management: the need for prescriptive fuel-reduction burn-offs, and providing more manpower for fire control and fire-fighting. The 2002-3 bushfire season destroyed over 50 million hectares, mainly in Queensland, NSW and Victoria; burnt over half the ACT; destroyed some 600 homes in Canberra; and took ten lives. The…

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EDITORIAL: Barking up the wrong tree …

UncategorizedFebruary 12, 2005

At the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister John Howard, was highly critical of the entrenched protectionist policies of the European Union (EU). The WEF is a talk-fest, at which national leaders, businessmen, economists and representatives of non-government organisations (NGOs) swap ideas on encouraging world development. It provides a useful platform…

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS: Labor needs new direction as well as new leader

National AffairsJanuary 29, 2005

The sudden but inevitable resignation of Mark Latham as Labor leader poses much deeper problems for the ALP than merely finding an electorally-appealing alternative to John Howard as Prime Minister. If that is all that the Labor Party does, it will be shuffling deck-chairs on the Titanic. Labor’s defeat in last October’s election owed something to Mark Latham’s arrogance and wilfulness – encapsulated in his deal with the Greens over Tasmanian forests to secure Green preferences, the imposition of rock star and extreme environmentalist Peter Garrett into a safe ALP seat in NSW over the heads of rank-and-file members, and…

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COVER STORY: Lessons of the tsunami tragedy

Cover Story, News WeeklyJanuary 29, 2005

Australians’ magnificent response to the victims of the Asian tsunami has obscured other facets of this crisis, particularly the need for far quicker emergency response to such disasters, and better means of identification of victims. COVER PICTURE: Australian Army Private Anthony Dawson prepares an antibiotic injection for an Indonesian patient at the TNI Army Hospital…

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