Friday 27th of September 2024
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no vision...

On the eve on the UN International Day of Peace, I searched ministerial websites for media statements that might reflect the Australian Government’s commitment to this year’s theme “Building a Culture of Peace” but I found no indication that the Albanese Government has a vision of its role as a middle power working to support international law and prevent the ravages of militarism.

 

What has happened to Australia’s commitment to the United Nations?    By Margaret Reynolds

 

Instead, there were various references celebrating AUKUS and increased military expenditure, but I could not locate any official recognition that the Australian Government marked 21 September as an important day in the UN calendar. Fortunately, we can rely on the non-government sector including “Religions for Peace”, “Raising Peace Festival” and other community organisations to ensure that International Day of Peace was recognised in Australia.

The UN Secretary-General Anthony Guterres in his official statement reminded all nations that, “Everywhere we look peace is under attack. From Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine and beyond, we see civilians in the firing line, homes blown apart ,traumatised terrified populations who have lost everything and sometimes everyone. The catalogue of this human misery must stop. Our world needs peace.”

Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau issued a formal statement reaffirming his nation’s commitment to peacekeeping and detailing Canada’s practical steps towards implementing the UN Women, Peace and Security agenda to ensure women’s participation in building an international culture of peace .

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could have timed his recent United States trip to attend the QUAD meeting to include an official visit to the UN in New York. Surely his advisers should have seen the importance of this opportunity for Albanese to speak at the UN General Assembly and interact with many world leaders. Instead, his itinerary included a tour of Philadelphia with Ambassador Kevin Rudd and a personal stopover with outgoing President Joe Biden. It seems unlikely that “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” was included in these discussions.

Had Albanese rescheduled his travel, he could have attended the emergency session of the UN General Assembly to hear an impressive debate focusing on international law as it must be applied to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. A majority of speakers indicated their support for United Nations’ developed humanitarian law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice. Their speeches reflected detailed understanding of international law and their total rejection of Israel’s continued defiance of internationally agreed standards and protocols to respect global law making to guarantee peace and security.

The Irish Ambassador, Fergal Mythen, told the General Assembly:

“We welcome the draft resolution tabled by the state of Palestine. It is our assessment that it is consistent with the conclusion of the Court as set out in its advisory opinion, it is also a testament to the state of Palestine’s continued faith, under the most challenging of circumstances, in the multilateral system, faith in international law, faith in the Geneva Convention and faith in the UN Charter.” Ireland not only voted in favour, but also co-sponsored the resolution.

The Japanese delegation headed by Ambassador Yamazaki Kazuyuki offered this explanation of their support for the vote: “First, as a country that values the rule of law, Japan attaches great importance to the International Court of Justice and its advisory opinions. Japan has been contributing to the work of the ICJ, including this advisory opinion, by participating in the proceedings where we elaborated on the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force. Second, as stated in the Advisory Opinion, Israel’s continued settlement activities are in violation of international law. Therefore Japan has been constructively involved in such discussion as a responsible member state.”

The Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations, Arrmanatha Nasir, said: “International law is the basis of a stable global community and the world’s court has clearly proven that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is illegal.” He pointed out that systemic apartheid, discrimination and injustice must end in Palestine, highlighting the importance of a political solution and a two-state solution. “The General Assembly must act in accordance with the International Court of Justice and the occupation must end.”

The Foreign Minister of New Zealand Winston Peters recognised that Israel had gone “far too far in defence” and after almost a year of war he believed “enough was enough”. He said: “No matter what the justification for this disaster and tragedy is, it has to end, and we have to do the best we can to try and see that this misery is over.”

However, Australia could not summon up the courage to vote with these world leaders, instead engaging in irrelevant semantics to excuse its ongoing failure to recognise genocide and war crimes committed by the state of Israel. Australia’s response at the Emergency Session of the General Assembly could have been led by Albanese finally adhering to international law, recognising and supporting the state of Palestine. Sadly, it was left to a diplomat to defend the indefensible by abstaining from the vote, reflecting Australia’s increasing irrelevance in the United Nations community.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong heads to the UN General Assembly next month, so there is still time for her to make a strong statement of commitment to international law and to the state of Palestine. But first she will have to assert Australia’s independence and ignore several so-called “like minded friends” who are certainly not demonstrating that we “share their values”.

https://johnmenadue.com/what-has-happened-to-australias-commitment-to-the-united-nations/

 

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

carbon non-reductionism....

 

Labor’s hat-trick: three coal mine approvals in one day

    by Zacharias Szumer

 

The Albanese government has now approved or extended at least twelve fossil fuel projects and two carbon capture projects since taking office. Zacharias Szumer updates the tally with three freshly announced approvals.

The Albanese government’s fossil fuel approval tally has risen to twelve after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved three coal mine extensions on Tuesday.

The approvals are for Whitehaven’s Narrabri Underground Mine Stage 3 Extension Project in NSW’s northwest, and two in the Hunter Valley: MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant Optimisation project and Yancoal’s Ravensworth Underground Mine.

The approvals will extend the operating life of these projects into the late 2050s and 2060s; however, in some cases, companies plan to, or have been ordered to, cease coal extraction earlier.

For instance, the Ravensworth project estimates that it will cease production by 2032, and the government’s approval of the Mount Pleasant Optimisation project said the company must “cease extraction by 22 December 2048.”

Australia Institute research director Rod Campbell said the approvals were “inconsistent with Australia’s climate goals.”

“To approve huge new coal mines while bidding to host the world’s major climate conference, COP31, is a slap in the face to our Pacific neighbours, who have clearly and repeatedly requested that Australia stop expanding fossil fuel production,” he said.

In June, MWM reported that the Albanese government had approved or extended at least nine fossil fuel projects and two carbon capture projects since taking office.

MWM’s tally only includes extractive projects – not supporting infrastructure such as gas pipelines or railways for coal mines.

Approvals slammed by Greens, praised by Nats

In a Sky News interview with Andrew Bolt, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan “welcome[d]” the approvals, adding that “it was a little bit late, but better late than never”.

Canavan said the companies had been “waiting with bated breath” for the approvals.

Whitehaven’s Narrabri extension project was first referred to the federal department in 2019, MACH’s Mount Pleasant project in 2020 and Yancoal’s Ravensworth project in 2022.

Plibersek said her government had made its decisions “in accordance with the facts and the national environmental law” and that it would “continue to consider each project on a case-by-case basis, under the law.”

She added that the projects’ emissions would be accounted for by “the government’s strong climate laws that were supported by the Greens political party and independents”, referring to the government’s Safeguard Mechanism.

However, Greens Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the three approvals showed “the Albanese Government has zero credibility on the environment. The Labor Government is deliberately and proactively approving climate-wrecking coal mines under laws they know are broken. It’s wrong and irresponsible.”

Meanwhile, Campbell said:

The fact that these new coal mines can be approved, despite the government’s Safeguard Mechanism being in place, shows just how inadequate the policy is.

The Safeguard Mechanism only covers emissions released by mining and transporting exported coal to port, not when it’s burned to generate electricity or make steel, and the mechanism has been criticised for its heavy reliance on questionable carbon offsets.

 

Economic benefits overestimated?

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment released an analysis of the Narrabri project in early 2020, which found “significant net economic benefit” of an estimated “$599 million” to the state, primarily from royalty and tax payments.

It said this figure, provided by consulting firm AnalytEcon, was “inclusive of estimated costs for environmental externalities and after internalisation of most environmental management costs by [Whitehaven].” However, an Australia Institute paper from 2022, authored by Campbell, said AnalytEcon’s methods “radically overstate the economic case for their client’s project.”

For one, it claimed that the project’s estimated tax payments were “100 times greater than the tax paid by the entire Whitehaven group from 2013-14 to 2019-20, and using “more realistic tax payments” meant the project’s net present value (NPV) would be zero.

It also said that the consultancy had taken “the approach that the whole world bears the cost of climate change equally, so their cost-benefit analysis focused on NSW only includes the very small portion of the climate damage that they calculate would be borne by NSW”.

Over the last few years, a small community group represented by Environmental Justice has sought to force the government to consider wider climate impacts in its fossil-fuel project approval process.

The Federal Court rejected the challenge in September last year, saying it was a matter for parliament, and in August of this year, the High Court declined to hear an appeal.

Plibersek suggested in a recent interview that she might consider inserting a climate trigger into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – a key Greens’ demand – but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quickly shot down the idea.

https://michaelwest.com.au/labors-hat-trick-three-coal-mine-approvals-in-one-day/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.