UPDATE, 15th November 2018 – Concerns still remain, and the date has been put back again until January 31st 2019

A huge amount has happened since we posted this overview months ago. The government has come under significant pressure, with many calling for the program to be scrapped completely. The privacy officer overseeing the project has resigned. They have embarked on a desperate advertising campaign, and had major level concerns raised by all levels of government, numerous doctors, NGO’s and privacy advocates. (including this thorough overview by a doctor casting doubt on whether basic compliance would even be possible for the average clinic) Of particular concern is section 70 of the My Health Records Act, which empowers the Australian Digital Health Agency to disclose patients’ health information to police, courts and the Australian Taxation Office without a warrant, if they did … Read More »

This isn’t just a dramatic headline. We wish it was. No, in actual fact it is referring to penalties that citizens could be faced with for nonviolent actions of peaceful protest, under new proposed changes to the Espionage Act which could declare a range of peaceful activities as sabotage.

URGENT (update) – TAKE ACTION, these bills were passed in the Lower House Tuesday 26th with bi-partisan support, and are being debated in the Senate Wed-Thurs.

United Nations Rappoteur on Human Rights has been scathing in a previous visit about our human rights record, and had this to say about the proposed legislation: “We are gravely concerned that the Bill would impose draconian criminal penalties on expression and access to information that is central to public debate and accountability in a democratic society.”

For those following this debate at a distance there was a … Read More »

Eloise joined our team this year, and writes about her experience as an invited artist, to Tarkine in Motion

This year I attended Tarkine in Motion, ran by the Bob Brown Foundation, who are campaigning for 450 000 hectares of forest and coast to be declared a National Park and World Heritage Area. The event, now in it’s fourth year, sees artists venture into the north west corner of Tasmania, to document, experience, and be inspired by the beautiful wilderness that is the Takayna/Tarkine.

At the Arthur River camp the first thing I can hear is the distant roar of the ocean. It’s the end of the day and sunset isn’t far off, but I really want to go down to the waves. Slipping away before anyone can follow me, I crawl through the knotted scrub near the camp, climb over … Read More »

Building a bigger, better movement – Barriers to participation

The climate movement has a problem. If you were to put a stereotype on it, its white, middle class, university educated, and inner city. That was an easy fit a decade ago. Now, less so, but we still have a long way to go. The other issue is that it is hard to define what the climate movement is. If you included everyone who cared about the climate it would be much bigger, but the language used has often been exclusive also. Whilst there have been big leaps in recent years, and leadership shown by young aboriginal people, and pacific islanders, the collective “We” still needs to improve on both how we work, and how we communicate.

We ran a series of trainings for grassroots climate activists in the last six months, and … Read More »