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As soon as this Friday 19 December 2008, Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett is likely to announce a site for a major industrial development on the Kimberley coast - on land he is prepared to forcibly remove from Traditional Owners, through compulsory acquisition laws.
With no further negotiations or scientific research, a 1000ha slice of Kimberley coast will be given over to liquified natural gas (LNG) industrial development - threatening majestic humpback whales and numerous endangered species including dugong and flatback turtles.
Public protest rallies in Perth, Broome and near the proposed industrial sites demonstrate that WA and local residents do not support the Premier’s plan. The Premier has already received thousands of postcards and emails from across Australia opposing industrialisation of the Kimberley.
The Kimberley urgently needs your support now.
It is time to let Woodside Ltd - the major Australian fossil fuel company leading the charge to industrialise the Kimberley coast - know that the people of Australia do not want to see the iconic Kimberley’s natural environment sacrificed to short-sighted industrial development.
Commercial interests and Government cannot be allowed to think that the public does not care about the Kimberley. There is no need for fast-tracking industrialisation of the Kimberley.
By supporting – publicly or behind the scenes - Premier Barnett’s Kimberley Hub land grab, Woodside Ltd are saying it is ok to railroad Traditional Owners and effectively ignore our precious environment.
There are other options.
Sign this online action today and urge Woodside and the Barnett Government to work with Traditional Owners, scientists, tourism and other local industry, and environmental groups to develop and implement a sensible and comprehensive conservation plan for the Kimberley – one that will protect the natural and cultural heritage of the region.
If development of Browse Basin gas goes ahead it could be processed at sites with established industrial infrastructure in the Pilbara region (but not the Burrup Peninsula), or via floating LNG technology currently under development.
WA’s Kimberley region is remote and untouched - one of our last unspoiled wilderness areas.
Incredibly, the far north-west Kimberley sub-region is the only part of Western Australia - and one of very few in Australia - that appears to have retained its complete native animal species diversity without extinction since European settlement.
But plans for massive industrialisation by mining giants such as Norsk Hydro and Rio Tinto threaten to fragment and degrade this stunning landscape, which includes mound springs, ‘dry’ rainforest patches, vine thickets, mighty rivers, and savannah woodlands.
Furthermore, the Kimberley’s role as a valuable carbon store will be diminished, and the project will be a massive carbon polluter.
There is still hope.
With your support we can persuade the new WA government to adopt a sustainable plan for the Kimberley - one that protects the region’s unique natural and cultural values and our climate and also fully addresses Indigenous rights and interests.
Please help us ensure that the new WA government protects the Kimberley by making a donation today.
Your generous donation will enable us to keep the pressure on the state and federal governments as well as corporations to change their ‘development at all costs’ approach.
PS: The Kimberley is under threat like never before. By donating today, you can help protect the Kimberley’s rainforests, savannah woodlands and oceans, along with the cultural values of a truly unique area. Thank you
Our campaign to ‘Save the Net’ is gaining momentum faster than all expectations, as the Government’s ill-considered plans to slow down and censor the internet is “facing a major backlash”, according to media reports.1
Their internet censorship proposal goes further than any other democracy - making the internet up to 87% slower, more expensive, accidentally blocking up to one in 12 legitimate sites, and missing the vast majority of inappropriate content.
Only a massive public outcry will make the Government see sense on this issue. Please take a moment to sign this important petition:
More than 55,000 fellow Australians have already signed the petition to Communications Minister Senator Conroy, against “draconian government restrictions on the internet that will hold back the digital economy and miss the vast majority of unwanted content.”
His plan has even been slammed by children’s welfare groups, who say the filter is “fundamentally flawed” and simply will not work. Join children’s welfare groups, internet providers, consumers, engineers, network administrators, and 55,000 everyday Australians in defence of our freedoms and internet:
At a time of financial crisis, the Government should not be introducing measures that will hamper our economy for no real benefit to the protection of the community from material that is already illegal.
Stand up in defence of our rights to prevent Australia joining Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Burma in an undemocratic club of governments who view the internet as a threat.
Thanks for being part of the solution,
The GetUp team
PS - 55,000 Australians have signed the petition to save the internet from being slowed and censored. Click here to join them.
yep hardcore geekery all the way - now all we gotta do is have some sort of revolution/liberation from the unsustainables and switch over to the green fuels to run all our computers, machines, cars and soundsystems…
deal with the crooks
drop the money shit - get on the green stuffs - and geek hard and party! Thats it!! Green Geekery all tha way..! I could sit here geeking hard all day with all me sound gear on, me computer and me soundsystem on without feeling like im costing the earth/human and sending us off to the brink!
Yeah i could even grab me beer from my green grid energy fridge and jump in my green fuel car and come and setup a green powered soundsystem for a party for us all to celebrate our geekyness and our achievement of overcoming the corporates and the illuminati and fucking off money to be free to share music, life and culture and our earth friendly green gear!
The Zeitgeist Movement is not a political movement. It does not recognize nations, governments, races, religions, creeds or class. Our understandings conclude that these are false, outdated distinctions which are far from positive factors for true collective human growth and potential. Their basis is in power division and stratification, not unity and equality, which is our goal. While it is important to understand that everything in life is a natural progression, we must also acknowledge the reality that the human species has the ability to drastically slow and paralyze progress, through social structures which are out of date, dogmatic, and hence out of line with nature itself. The world you see today, full of war, corruption, elitism, pollution, poverty, epidemic disease, human rights abuses, inequality and crime is the result of this paralysis.
This movement is about awareness, in avocation of a fluid evolutionary progress, both personal, social, technological and spiritual. It recognizes that the human species is on a natural path for unification, derived from a communal acknowledgment of fundamental and near empirical understandings of how nature works and how we as humans fit into/are a part of this universal unfolding we call life. While this path does exist, it is unfortunately hindered and not recognized by the great majority of humans, who continue to perpetuate outdated and hence degenerative modes of conduct and association. It is this intellectual irrelevancy which the Zeitgeist Movement hopes to overcome through education and social action.
The goal is to revise our world society in accord with present day knowledge on all levels, not only creating awareness of social and technological possibilities many have been conditioned to think impossible or against “human nature”, but also to provide a means to overcome those elements in society which perpetuate these outdated systems.
An important association, upon which many of the ideas of this movement are derived come from an organization called ” The Venus Project” directed by social engineer and industrial designer, Jacque Fresco. He has worked nearly his entire life to create the tools needed to assist a design of the world which could eventually eradicate war, poverty, crime, social stratification and corruption. His notions are not radical or complex. They do not impose a subjective interpretation in their formation. In this model, society is created as a mirror of nature, with the variables predefined, inherently.
One of my favourate Aussie Hip Hop/Dub acts..And they not afraid to challenge the system and minds..
i love em…
Combat Wombat are an outspoken troupe of hip hop punks mainly located in Melbourne. They’ve just released their second album “Unsound System”. Armed with only samplers, mics and turntables, powered by solar energy and an uncompromising belief in Truth over Spin, these desert nomads are the real deal, creating an album that reflects the frontline activism they have become famous for. Unsound System is a bullet to the dark heart of the Australian psyche.
Sonically rugged and funky, Monkey Marc’s beats draw their influence from 70s reggae, Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad and the golden era hip hop of the early 1990s. The album moves from A-grade head thunkin’ hip hop to seriously heavy dub reggae, all laced with relevant and politically charged vocals and samples, with ARIA award winning DJ Wasabi providing cuts.
MC Elf Tranzporter (Metabass ‘n Breath) flows marvelously, rhyming with the gift of enviable flexibility. MC Izzy’s approach is the perfect contrast: her stand and deliver, take-no-prisoners approach, injects high-spirited passion into the mix. Together they add a potent combination of hip hop, ragga and punk political flows.
Combat Wombat delve into issues of national identity, the government’s treatment of refugees, indigenous sovereignty, US military force and uranium mining with a sense of urgency that is balanced by their ability to turn words into action. They’ve collaborated with various people on their journey so far including Ozi Batla (The Herd) and Seed MC (TZU).
At Combat Wombat’s core is the Lab Rats Solar Sound System, which was formed at the Jabiluka uranium mine protests in 1998. Monkey Marc and MC Izzy are Australian pioneers of vegetable oil conversions for diesel engines (which will also fuel their upcoming national tour). Their fully equipped mobile studio runs off the solar panels on the van’s roof, and Unsound System was written and recorded using this same eco-friendly energy.
Combat Wombat have performed alongside Anticon, The Herd and Curse ov Dialect and at venues right across Australia – from shacks in the outback desert to inner city venues like the Prince of Wales Hotel in Melbourne.
Background – Facts Sheet
Whilst endless discussions on the merits of politics in music continue passionately, artists like Combat Wombat keep creating and speaking out without pause to debate.
They’ve traveled and toured Australia constantly, lending their expertise to a wide range of causes; working with traditional owners in the Western Desert to oppose uranium mining on Aboriginal land; providing sound systems for Reclaim the Streets parties and blockades across the country; running workshops in isolated desert communities in Central Australia; assisting with the setup of the Warumpi Studio in Papunya, Central Australia; and showing farmers how to convert their vehicles to vegetable oil.
Monkeymarc and Izzy have embarked on more adventures thus far than most encounter in their lives. Marc grew up in various countries, including Yemen (where his family required a bodyguard equipped with a semi-automatic to accompany the kids trips to the pool) and had flown over 26 international plane trips before the age of ten. After working as a geologist at a gold mine in Cue, Western Australia, Marc had two hair-raisingly close brushes with death in one week (house fire and car crash), causing a complete re-evaluation and a move from working the mines to other ventures. Izzy grew up with one parent working for ASIO and subsequently the family moved home consistently – she ran away at 16 to a life on the road. Izzy and Marc met in Darwin as they forged new paths for themselves.
Below is some of the history of Combat Wombat from the members themselves:
Monkeymarc:
“I’d come up from Sydney after hearing about the blockade. I’d been doing parties with Trevor Parkee and the All Funked Up Crew and had also been doing a radio program with Trevor on a Saturday afternoon with. I’d been playing mainly old black funk music and some reggae and dub from the 60’s and 70’s. I was essentially inspired by bands such as Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, James Brown and bands with songs of political and social struggle. I believed at the time that it was music like this that would give us the strength to take on all the baddies in the world involved in such things as Uranium Mining and cultural genocide. I remember watching TV and seeing loads of worn faces of blockaders up at Jabiluka and thought that if I took this music up there to the front line, we could bring some hope back into the situation and we may even win. So off I went to Darwin armed with my decks, sampler an 808 and a bunch of (what were in those days) dust free records.”
Izzy (on Activism):
“I don’t know how many times I have been arrested, bashed or verbally abused and arrested for some thing I didn’t do, denied my right to a lawyer or a telephone call, strip searched and had our vehicles, camps or houses raided. Once I was even flown with 4 police escorts on a private aeroplane from Eden (home of the Dishoewa woodchip mill) to be imprisoned in one of the worst women’s prisons in Australia for 7 days with no actual charge. I’m just one of many who have felt long arm of the law with all its prejudice and corruption and violent tendencies, its ten times worse if you’re black in your own land.”
DJ Wasabi:
DJ Wasabi was an ARIA award winner in 2004 for his turntable work on the Scared Little Weird Guys. He also performs in numerous other groups around Melbourne including Phat Logic.
Elf Tranzporter:
Elf Tranzporter, founding member of pioneering hip hop group Meta Bass ‘n’ Breath has been performing since the mid 90s. Meta Bass toured Australia many times, and even toured the USA, playing at the world renowned Rock Steady Reunion in NYC. Elf has built a solid reputation running events and weekly hip hop nights such as ‘Phat Logic’ in Melbourne for years. He is also part of live hip hop group ‘True Live’.
Vege Oil-fueled vehicles:
“Well firstly you need a diesel engine. We installed a whole new fuel system so the car in essence runs like a dual fuel vehicle. To get the van running on veggie oil we built a heated fuel tank that heats the oil by circulating hot water from the radiator through a copper coil in the tank. This thins it out enabling it to be used as a fuel. We then installed a fuel pump and an extra fuel line with a re-washable fine filter to clean the oil before it hits the motor. At the end of the oil full line is a tap. The basic principal is to start the van on diesel for ten minutes; this then heats the oil in the tank. When the oil is hot enough we turn the fuel pump on the diesel tap off the veggie oil tap on and it’s fish and chips all the way. Before we turn the motor off we run it on diesel for 5 minutes to clean out the motor. It’s as simple as that.
It is very efficient; we actually get more miles per gallon on veggie oil than we do on diesel. Also all the oil we get is old oil so it’s all recycled and free. We’ve done just over 20,000 km’s around Australia for basically nothing. Environmentally it puts out much less pollution than a normal diesel. It can be done to all almost all diesel vehicles from cars to trucks to generators.”
http://www.combatwombat.org http://www.myspace.com/combatwombatforpresident
