Archive for December, 2011
Telegraph trying to destroy Sydney cycleways
The Daily Telegraph has once again stretched the definition of “news” to breaking point with three articles today ranting about the City of Sydney’s cycleways, (more…)
International Human Rights Day
In 1948 the United Nations declared December 10th to be International Human Rights Day. The Occupy Sydney movement, still soldiering on after two months and repeated police actions against them, held a festival day to mark the occasion on 10th of December this year.
I was asked to speak at the commemoration and my comments on the state of Human Rights in Australia, still a shocking affair in 2011, have been placed online by the Occupy Sydney collective at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3_4-DKicjk.
Council dealing with domestic violence
A proposal for a policy to support staff dealing with domestic violence, as originally proposed by the United Services Union (USU), was debated at the last meeting of Council.
While the policy was well intentioned it sadly consisted mostly of “motherhood statements” – the right words were said but they carried little in the way of substance. (more…)
The myth of the alien cockatoos
A 1788 painting of a sulphur crested cockatoo by John Hunter
One of the arguments repeatedly trotted out by the proponents of sulphur crested cockatoo culls in the last year has been that it’s ok to kill these birds because they’re not native to the Sydney region.
The argument goes that sulphur crested cockatoos were never found east of the great dividing range prior to European invasion, when changes in land use and possible deliberate introduction made them go from absent to thriving. (more…)
More than a sniff of trouble
Living near Redfern railway station I’m all too aware of how ubiquitous police sniffer dogs have become on our public transport network in recent years. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge has obtained figures on the limited effectiveness of this invasive means of law enforcement, and has written an article for the ABC’s online opinion page The Drum – http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3728678.html. I highly recommend it to anyone concerned about civil liberties or the direction of the past and present state government’s “tough on crime” attitude.
Embarking on the Eora Journey
The Eora Journey, a multidisciplinary art and interpretation project to recognise the ongoing history of Sydney’s Aboriginal people, was endorsed for implementation at this week’s Council meeting. Below is the speech that I gave on the issue:
