Blog
Looking back on Everything is Connected
13 Dec 2017Everything really is connected, isn’t it? Including how putting on a huge conference is connected to exhaustion and getting behind on other work, with a direct consequence of not uploading content from the conference for almost six weeks. Clear connection there! After such an amazing two days discussion big green…
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Sun Setting On Coal, Rising On Democracy
18 Nov 2017This article first appeared in The Guardian, Nov 17, 2017 Events on opposite sides of the globe in recent days should give us real hope that coal’s deadly stranglehold on our health, our planetary home, and on our democracy, is finally slipping. At the UN climate meeting…
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Views Of A UBI
14 Jun 2017What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t be left behind? Nine Australians’ “Views of a UBI” 14 JUNE 2017 What would your life be like if you—and everyone around you—had a Universal Basic Income? How would it change the choices you make to know that there was a no-questions-asked, non-judgmental, society-wide support in place that we all contribute to…
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Can Less Work be More Fair?
9 Dec 2016We need to talk about UBI and shorter working hours Does a world with more insecure work need to be a world of greater instability and fear? Are protectionism and nationalism appropriate responses? Are there alternative policy approaches which can bring people and communities together instead of driving them ever further apart? With global politics in a state of flux,…
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Mulga Bills – First Ever Analysis Of Direct Action Auctions
3 Nov 2016Mulga Bills won’t settle our climate accounts The first detailed analysis of the ‘Direct Action’ Emissions Reduction Fund auctions, conducted for The Green Institute by former Director Margaret Blakers and Margaret Considine, shows that not only is the scheme ineffective at meeting its own barely credible climate objectives but that, without major changes to its design, it cannot form a…
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The Right To Advocate And Protest Is At The Core Of Our Democracy
15 Apr 2019This paper formed part of the Green Institute Report ‘Rebalancing Rights: Communities, Corporations and Nature’. As an Australian, I am proud that my country was central to both the writing and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The head of the...
Read MoreRights Of Nature, Earth Democracy And The Future Of Environmental Governance
8 Apr 2019This paper formed part of the Green Institute Report ‘Rebalancing Rights: Communities, Corporatations and Nature’. Around the world, people are working hard to protect their local communities and local ecosystems from the destructive impacts of excessive industrial...
Read MoreWhat If We Stopped Punishing Drug Users?
4 Apr 2019Let me repeat a phrase that has been used so often it is almost a cliché: the war on drugs has failed. Existing drug policies have increased drug-related harm, punished the vulnerable and the addicted and bolstered organised criminal networks. Health professionals, lawyers and policy...
Read MoreSigning Up For Extinction
12 Mar 2019“We’re worried that we’re going to see the extinction of [the Swift Parrot] within our careers—before the end of them” 1 Last November, Prime Minister Morrison signed up for extinction. He put his name to the Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) through which the...
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Everything Is Connected: Green Institute Conference
October 27-28, 2017Building A Green Politics For The Next 25 Years Old Parliament House, Canberra, Friday and Saturday, October 27-28, 2017 2017 marks 25 years since the federation of the Australian Greens – a quarter century in which the party has gone from being a fringe movement to an established political force making substantial impacts on the course…
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Keep Canberra Ad Free
May 29, 2017Did you know that Andrew Barr wants to weaken the restrictions on billboard advertising in Canberra? The fact that we have so few billboards is one of the truly special things about this city. Help us keep in that way! “Advertising at its best is making people feel that, without their product, you’re a loser.” Nancy Shaley, ad executive. “Of…
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WELA 2017
WELA 2017 The leadership program for women environmentalists The Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) program is a first for Australia – a leadership program designed by and for women environmentalists. The first WELA program in 2016 was such a success that we have been inspired to offer it again in 2017: read what participants said. The…
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