Australia’s first ever simulated refugee camp opens to the public today in Melbourne. It will give visitors a chance to experience some of the harsh realities faced by millions of people around the world whose lives are affected by war and conflict.
Oxfam has urged Australia’s Minister for Climate Change to press the United States and 16 other nations attending a climate change conference in Honolulu to commit to mandatory emissions cuts as well as substantial new funding to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
John Butler’s first solo album, ‘One Small Step’, has been dedicated to Close The Gap, an Australia-wide campaign to narrow the 17 year life gap between Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians.
Oxfam Australia launches a mobile phone game in which a refugee character, Aissa, flees to safety with her family.
The Close the Gap campaign ended on a high in 2007. At their meeting in Melbourne on December 20, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) committed to close the 17 year life gap between Aboriginal & Strait Islanders and other Australians.
ARIA award winning popular singer songwriter Missy Higgins today visited Australia’s first Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service in Redfern, Sydney.
Campaigners concerned at the 17-year life gap between Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians will show their support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision to place the health of Indigenous people top of the agenda at COAG’s meeting today by forming a welcoming committee outside Melbourne’s Government House.
Bali has for the first time drawn up a roadmap for all countries to tackle climate change. But a handful of powerful countries have relegated the overwhelming scientific evidence to a footnote. The Bush Administration – dragging Canada, Japan and Russia in tow – has thrown away the compass and is trying to force us all to take the journey in a gas-guzzling 4×4, not the solar-powered speedster that the world urgently needs.
Oxfam Australia welcomed today’s announcement by the federal opposition to back the Bali roadmap goal of a 25-40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The aid and development agency now urges the Federal Labor Government to follow their lead and back a Bali plan to dramatically cut carbon emissions over the next decade to avoid climate chaos.
Hours after Nobel Peace Price Laureate Al Gore pointed to the obstructionist role of the United States at the UN climate change conference, the US proposed new language that would swap binding emissions cuts for rich countries with a voluntary approach for all countries, according to Oxfam Australia.