Greens spotlight mining profits vanishing offshore

ABC News

More than 80% of the mining industry in Australia is foreign owned, according to a report just released by the Greens. They claim tens of billions of dollars in earnings from mining will leave Australia in the next five years and are calling for a “Resource Super Profits Tax” to ensure more of that benefits the nation.

posted by seamas on June 29, 2011 at 2:49 pm · filed under

National Tree Day (July 31)

PlanetArk

Planet Ark is calling on thousands of Australians to get their hands dirty planting native trees and shrubs on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Register or find a site to join the fun via the PlanetArk website.

posted by seamas on June 22, 2011 at 11:13 pm · filed under

Students for Sustainability Conference (Albury, July 6-10)

The 2011 Students for Sustainability Conference is being organized around the theme “Flows of Change”. This five day camping conference at at Charles Sturt University’s Albury-Wodonga campus consists of workshops and forums on a range of sustainability topics, demonstrating how theory and practice can be used to make positive social and environmental change.

posted by seamas on June 22, 2011 at 11:09 pm · filed under

Greens demand carbon tax revenue investment in renewable energy

The Australian

The Australian Greens are still negotiating with Julia Gillard’s Labor government in a bid to ensure a significant percentage of carbon tax revenue is funnelled into renewable energy development and innovation. Unions and industry groups are also lobbying hard for a slice of the pie as “compensation”.

posted by seamas on June 20, 2011 at 7:23 am · filed under

ACF warns on LNG carbon price exemption

ACF

Exempting the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sector from paying the carbon price would burden other sectors of the economy with $7.5 billion in compliance costs, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation. The group claims such an exemption will ultimately cost taxpayers almost $1,000 per household.

posted by seamas on June 17, 2011 at 9:39 pm · filed under

Secret export of native logs exposed

The Wilderness Society

Thousands of tonnes of high-quality saw logs from Victoria’s Central Highlands forests near Healesville are being secretly shipped to China, against state government policy, The Wilderness Society has revealed. An investigation in cooperation with My Environment discovered that the logs are being taken from forests affected by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and trucked to Melbourne’s docks to be loaded into containers for export.

posted by seamas on June 12, 2011 at 7:25 am · filed under

Thousands rally to support carbon price

ABC News

Thousands of people around the nation’s capital cities have rallied at ‘Say Yes’ campaigns in support of the Federal Government’s plan to set a price on carbon pollution. But CEO of the Climate Institute, John Conner, says the rallies are not a simple endorsement of the proposed carbon tax, because Australians also want policies for clean energy and energy efficiency. Details of the Government’s carbon pricing scheme will be finalised in early July before legislation is brought into Parliament in September and fixed carbon pricing is introduced in 2012.

posted by anna on June 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm · filed under