Catholic Church hides from #children abused by priests – Greens seek law change for Church abuse victims

Greens seek law change for Church abuse victims
A private members bill being introduced to the New South Wales Parliament could see the Catholic Church’s wealthy property trusts sued over sex abuse by priests.

The trusts hold billions of dollars worth of the Church’s assets, but in 2007 a court ruled they could not be held financially responsib…

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This! applies to #australia & prolly your Govt too #auspol

"The government today announced that it is changing its symbol from the Kangaroo and Emu to a CONDOM, because it more accurately reflects the government’s political stance….

A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re actually being screwed!

Damn, it just doesn’t get more accurate than that!"

- not sure who penned this, but it is sadly, stingingly accurate

Things DON’T go better with Coke – 8 Billion cans and bottles are littered or dumped every year in Australia

MEDIA RELEASE – Monday 28 May 2012

COCA COLA’S ‘MISLEADING’ AD CAMPAIGN BEGINS

The ad launched today by Coca Cola’s front group the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), shows the mounting desperation of the forces ranged against a national Container Deposit Scheme (CDS). It’s clearly yet another attempt to mislead and bully decision makers, warned Australia’s peak coalition of environment groups, the Boomerang Alliance.

“We saw the same thing in the Northern Territory as Coke and its dwindling band of allies attempted to intimidate the NT parliament, as it was about to introduce CDS, by running a public campaign described by the NT Chief Minister as misleading lies,” said Robert Kelman, Campaign Manager.

The facts speak for themselves:

- A national CDS will cost consumers just 1/10th of a cent per container and may well be zero

- 8 Billion cans and bottles are littered or dumped every year in Australia despite 30 years of promises from the beverage industry to fix the problem

- Far from costing jobs, South Australia’s CDS underpins 1100 recycling jobs and Scouts Recycling generates $22m p.a. in SA

- CDS guarantees eradication of can and bottle litter, and 80%+ recycling rates of these items

- If the AFGC is true, increasing the price of a case of beer in the NT by around $4 may well amount to price gouging and we will be investigating ACCC complaint options

- Other options to CDS assessed in the RIS are unproven anywhere in the world; if adopted they would not solve the problem, or address the demand from the community for real action on packaging waste

- The 10cent deposit is refunded in full to the vast majority of consumers who do the right thing. The ACIL Tasman report fails to factor this in.

“A national CDS is a long overdue waste and recycling reform, that will finally shift responsibility for wasted cans and bottles to the beverage industry, just as we are seeing responsibility for computer and TV waste shift to that sector,” said Kelman

“Coca Cola’s ideological opposition to a CDS is a menace and these misleading ad campaigns continue to destroy any social and political capital the rest of the sector could benefit from as CD schemes are enacted,” Kelman said.

For more information Jeff Angel 0418 273 773 or Robert Kelman 0423 573278

#wikileaks #Assange New leaks show our #FOI system is broken – Greens @senatorludlam

New leaks show our Freedom of Information system is broken – Greens

Media release: Australian Greens spokesperson for Communications, Senator Scott Ludlam. May 28th, 2012

Revelations of what the Australian Government knew about the US campaign against WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange expose the fatal flaws in our FOI system, the Greens said today.

Australian Greens spokesperson for Communications, Senator Scott Ludlam said the FOI system was in “critical condition” after his December 2011 FOI requests yielded virtually nothing about the potential extradition of Australian citizen Mr Assange to Sweden or the USA.

“The world needs publishing organisations like Wikileaks while governments maintain a culture of non-disclosure and while delays, excuses and redactions are the results of FOI requests,” Senator Ludlam.

“We now know – due only to diplomatic cables published in the Sydney Morning Herald – that the Australian Government has closely monitored the US Department of Justice investigation into WikiLeaks for at least 18 months. The US campaign to get Assange has been the subject of US-Australian intelligence exchanges, and the Australian embassy in Washington reported ‘a broad range of possible charges are under consideration, including espionage and conspiracy’.”

“Yet my requests to the Attorney General, Foreign Minister, Prime Minister, Department for Foreign Affairs, Attorney General’s Department and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet were met with refusal, delay, excuses and one set of virtually useless documents.

“After a four month delay and breaching the timelines set by the Information Commission, the Attorney General’s Department provided some documents blacked out so as to be meaningless, including a redacted versions of my own Senate motion, possibly an attempt at humour.

“A cursory glance at the timeline tracking these requests shows that my office has responded very promptly to every request for clarification, reduction of scope, request for public interest reasons and payment, yet the Departments exploit the times allotted – or even beyond them – for maximum delay.

“While not charging people $30 for FOI requests is welcome, promises made for a culture of disclosure, or assurances that “embarrassment to the government” or “causing confusion and unnecessary debate” would not be used to withhold access to documents have not been upheld when the government is at risk of political embarrassment,” Senator Ludlam concluded.

http://media.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/FOI-Ludlam.pdf

http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/sites/default/files/timeline.pdf

Media contacts:

Giovanni Torre – 0417 174 302

Robert Simms – 0401 843 851