Author Archive: robyn

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > Articles by: robyn

MAJOR ENVIRONMENT GROUPS REJECT INQUIRY REPORT INTO CHARITABLE STATUS

May 4, 2016

MAJOR ENVIRONMENT GROUPS REJECT INQUIRY REPORT INTO CHARITABLE STATUS

Media Statement, Places You Love Alliance

Key Australian environment groups today called on the Federal Environment Minister, Mr Greg Hunt, to reject recommendations of a report of an inquiry into the charitable status of environment groups.

The CEOs of WWF, The Australian Conservation Society, The Wilderness Society, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Friends of the Earth and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW issued the following statement on behalf of the Places You Love alliance:

Report here, including a dissenting report by Labor members.

The Report of the Inquiry into the Register of Environmental Organisations correctly recognises the enormous contribution environment groups have played in safeguarding Australia’s precious yet fragile environment, protecting icons from the Great Barrier Reef to the Franklin River.

However, the report contains a number of deeply flawed and dangerous recommendations, including an arbitrary requirement to spend a quarter of donor funds on ‘environmental remediation’ and a draconian attempt to clamp down on the type of work organisations conduct.

This flawed Inquiry, initiated by the Abbott Government and driven by a small handful of conservative MPs with the support of the mining industry, failed to uncover any evidence to justify removing the charitable status of any environment group.

We welcome the dissenting statements made by Liberal MP and committee member Jason Wood, raising significant concerns about the two most dangerous recommendations. (*See excerpts below).

We have identified two highly flawed and dangerous recommendations in the report.

Recommendation 5

The recommendation requiring environment groups spend at least 25 per cent of their supporters’ hard-earned money on ‘environmental remediation’ is ludicrous, imposing a huge bureaucratic burden on both the government and organisations, particularly small groups working with local communities. In Canada, the same policy experiment failed dismally, creating enormous red tape with no resulting public benefit.… Read more >>

Environmental Law, FoE, Media releases, Old_Notes

Petition: No New GMOs through to back door

May 4, 2016

Please sign Friends of the Earth’s petition to Fiona Nash Assistant Minister for Health against ‘new’ GMO techniques. Include your street address and ask for a written reply.

https://friendsoftheearthmelbourne.good.do/whatpartofnogmosdonttheyunderstand/tellfionanashtoreinintheregulators/

Big agrochemical chemical companies are trying to sneak crops derived from a range of new genetic modification (GM) techniques into our food chain without safety testing or labelling. And our regulators – Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) – seem only too happy to help them!

New GM techniques such as oligo-directed mutagenesis, zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR pose the same risks as older GM techniques and need to be assessed for safety before they are allowed in our food. They should also be labelled to protect choice for farmers, food producers and consumers.

Most Australians don’t want to eat GM food and it’s high time our regulators stopped letting industry write the rules for them.

FoE, Food, Old_Notes

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FOE Adelaide International High Level Nuclear Waste Dump flyer

May 3, 2016

The Friends of the Earth Adelaide International High Level Nuclear Waste Dump flyer is designed to be printed in Landscape format on both sides of an A4 page and folded in half. We can supply printed copies on request.

FoE International Waste Dump flyer

For printed copies contact adelaide.office@foe.org.au or Robyn on 0423 219 096

Clean Futures, FoE, Nuclear, Old_Notes

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Nuclear Royal commission is a snow job

April 29, 2016

An excellent article in Renew Economy by Friends of the Earth Australia’s anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Jim Green.

SA nuclear Royal Commission is a snow job

“Nuclear Royal Commission is a Snow Job

The South Australian Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission (RC) will release its final report on May 6. It was established to investigate opportunities for SA to expand its role in the nuclear industry beyond uranium mining.

Before his appointment as the Royal Commissioner, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce said little about nuclear issues but what he did say should have excluded him from consideration. Speaking in November 2014 at a Flinders University guest lecture, Scarce acknowledged being an “an advocate for a nuclear industry”. Just four months later, after his appointment as the Royal Commissioner, he said the exact opposite: “I have not been an advocate and never have been an advocate of the nuclear industry.”

Other than generalisations, and his acknowledgement that he is a nuclear advocate, Scarce’s only comment of substance on nuclear issues in his 2014 lecture was to claim that work is “well underway” on a compact fusion reactor “small enough to fit in a truck”, that it “may be less than a decade away” and could produce power “without the risk of Fukushima-style meltdowns.” Had he done just a little research, Scarce would have learnt that Lockheed Martin’s claims about its proposed compact fusion reactor were met with universal scepticism and ridicule by scientists and even by nuclear industry bodies.

So the SA government appointed Scarce as Royal Commissioner despite knowing that he is a nuclear advocate who has uncritically promoted discredited claims by the nuclear industry. Scarce appointed an Expert Advisory Committee. Despite claiming that he was conducting a “balanced” RC, he appointed three nuclear advocates to the Committee and just one critic. The bias is all too apparent and Scarce’s claim to be conducting a balanced inquiry is demonstrably false.… Read more >>

Articles, Clean Futures, FoE, Nuclear, Old_Notes

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