theguardian.com
The green light for the largest coalmine in NSW history is shocking proof that our governance systems are betraying Australians | Georgina Woods
There is no greater treachery than this failure to face up to the climate crisis. How can we now fend off despair?
The Independent Planning Commission’s published reasons for approving the largest coalmine in New South Wales history in the context of mounting death, disaster and despair brought on by global heating reads like a hostage statement.
In its decision, the commission accepts that the extension of the Hunter Valley Operations’ mine for a further 19 years – resulting 809m tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution – will materially worsen global warming. The panel members cite CSIRO’s finding that climate change is having a growing effect on the lives and livelihoods of all Australians and that the severity of that impact “will depend on the speed at which global greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced”. They reject the idea that keeping HVO’s coal in the ground would make no difference to global warming. Continue reading...
![Senator Malarndirri McCarthy rightly called the BasicsCard "discriminatory and racist" when she condemned it during a senate debate in December 2020. She said:
"The hurt was palpable. The anger has never gone away. That sense of deep oppression, of racism, has gone on for 13 years since that Intervention, in the policy of the BasicsCard. [The community] are very passionate about the fact that income management that is forced upon them is unfair, is discriminatory and racist. The BasicsCard was imposed as an income management measure under the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. Twelve years later there has been no evidence to show any success of the BasicsCard."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2452ncj5rptdxorbvjlrrkd2/bafkreihljm2de3j52zcdnbfhomcyohvaughsyesphenzmjjcgglsdt4zgy)
