Latest Opinion

A national strategy has to be shaped in partnership with Aboriginal groups.

After two weeks spent in frantic negotiations over commas and semi-colons, the climate negotiations at Poznan have taken only the barest shuffle towards Copenhagen, and on some crucial issues – like the targets for developed countries – have actually retreated from Bali.

There are some forgotten victims of the Nightmare on Wall Street.

Crises like the one we’re experiencing tend to hit people living in poverty the hardest and it will be the case this time around. Developing countries will be hit hard, and people living in poverty in those countries the hardest.

Andrew Hewett calls for Australian Charities Commission – Opinion piece published on ABC Online on 28/08/08

This weekend in the SANFL Round 18, Sturt and the Woodville-West Torrens Football Club are joining forces in support of their Aboriginal players and promoting the Close the Gap campaign, which aims to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Unlike many other developed countries, Australia has not set mandatory targets for biofuel production or use. This is encouraging. The Australian Government should not to go down that path.

Many Australian corporations are doing great work overseas. They are investing in developing countries, providing job opportunities to local people and working closely with local community organisations.

Some Australian companies, however, are also ignoring people’s most basic human rights. They are forcibly removing people from their land, dumping cyanide laden waste in waterways that are integral to livelihoods, and, on the whole, facing none of the legal ramifications they would face at home.

Close the Gap. Three words that symbolise decades of neglect and hope and goodwill for the future. Three words that remind us that the average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian man does not live to see his 60th birthday. Three words that now represent an agreement between more than 40 organisations, state and federal governments that an unprecedented effort is needed if we are to achieve Indigenous health equality within a generation.

Last week Australia’s only refugee camp was dismantled. Called Refugee Realities, the camp occupied Gasworks in Albert Park for four weeks while thousands of school children and members of the public visited. In building the camp, Oxfam’s aim was to help people understand that refugees are no different to the rest of us. They just happen to have lived in extraordinary circumstances.

Opinion article published in the Herald Sun about the conduct of Australian mining companies in Papua New Guinea.