Latest Campaigns and Advocacy

Melbourne band Blue King Brown has joined more than 80,000 Australians in signing the Close the Gap pledge.

The Filipino community threatened by the proposed Oceanagold gold and copper mine launched a formal action to stop water permits for the mine in recent days with the Philippines’ National Water Resources Board, on the grounds it would contaminate their water supply, cause environmental hazards as well as threaten farming and their way of life.

A Melbourne based mine operator has been accused by Filipino villagers of harassment and the use of strong arm tactics to pressure them to accept its plans to develop a large gold and copper mine, according to a new report published today by Oxfam Australia.

National Close the Gap day on Tuesday 18 September was celebrated at more than 300 events across the nation. The events received extensive coverage from the media including on CH 10, the ABC and SBS, local radio and press in many places across the country.

Campaigners alarmed at the 17-year life gap between Aboriginal and other Australians have called on the nation’s leaders to heed a petition signed by over 80,000 Australians, unveiled today (September 18) to mark Australia’s first ever National Close The Gap Day.

Carteret Islanders Ursula Rakova and Bernard Tunim begin their speaking tour of Australia.

Yesterday’s announcement by Australian-based Emperor Mines Limited to sell the Tolukuma Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea should include a commitment to sell the asset to a purchaser that will work with communities to alleviate impacts and maximize benefits as well as stop the practice of disposing of mine waste in rivers.

International agency Oxfam is concerned that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Head of State meeting in Sydney tomorrow will fail to kick-start an ambitious plan to tackle climate change.

Internationally acclaimed didgeridoo player and composer William Barton and co-lead singer of Brisbane’s multi-platinum selling Australian jazz/rock/pop combo, George, now turned soloist, Tyrone Noonan, will join this week to sign the Giant Pledge supporting ‘Close the Gap’ ‘ a major national effort to end the health crisis facing Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Six years since the Tampa crisis of the 2001 Federal election, urgent reform of Australia’s asylum seeker policies is called for after a new report published today (August 27) found that the Pacific Solution had so far squandered $1 billion of taxpayers’ money, exacerbated mental illness of refugees and was operating without scrutiny.