Latest Opinion

JUANITA Cut-ing is just one woman but her story, reported in The Age on Saturday, says much about the way mining companies in search of enormous profits have exploited people in the developing world. Cut-ing and her family live in a stilt home in the remote village of Didipio in the north of the Philippines, but their land is destined to make way for a dam to store waste from an open-pit gold and copper mine operated by Melbourne-based OceanaGold. The company says it will provide jobs and improved infrastructure, but its plans will destroy Cut-ing’s dream of passing her house and land to her children.

Australian mining company, Lafayette, operator of the Rapu Rapu mine on the small island of the same name in the Philippines, has just entered into voluntary administration. The news may raise eyebrows given the current mining boom, however, not everyone is surprised. The story of Lafayette’s mining operation and the company’s financial failure resonates with a lesson that Oxfam Australia has long observed; a company that fails to obtain and retain a social licence to operate, in other words one that operates without community approval, is not viable. Other Australian mining companies operating in the Philippines and elsewhere should pay heed to Lafayette’s rise and fall and take note of this cautionary tale.

The United Nations Bali Climate Change Summit feels akin to climbing Mt Everest in just two weeks. For the last 10 days a myriad of bureaucratic sherpas from around the world have been carrying their loads up the mountain, agreeing what can be agreed and setting aside areas of disagreement to be picked up in a last final push to the summit by Ministers when they arrive today for the final three crucial days of negotiations this week.

Make no mistake ‘ Australians worry about climate change. Labor’s sweeping victory in the Federal Election was, after all, partly due to Prime Minister Rudd’s commitment to ratify Kyoto. And in Bali this week the Government has a one off opportunity to flex some muscle on climate change. In one fell swoop Australia could go from the back of the pack to the front by declaring to the world that it’s ready and willing to take up the challenge, not just for Australians but for all people around the world to tackle the worst effects of climate change.

For the first time in many years, overseas aid has been elevated to the spotlight during an election campaign, highlighting Australia’s potential to play a pivotal role in transforming our region and saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Andrew Hewett’s opinion on the effect that tax cuts won’t have on voters in this election.

It’s time to speak out loudly and clearly for an Australian refugee policy which is non discriminatory and firmly based on the actual humanitarian needs of those seeking to resettle to this country. African-Australians have done absolutely nothing to deserve to be singled out for having apparently failed to integrate in their new home, Australia. They are no different from other vulnerable groups such as South Americans, Cambodians, and Vietnamese refugees who have previously looked to Australia for protection from persecution.

Opinion from Oxfam International Action Partner Rebecca Richards on Indigneous mental health.

Australia’s mining sector is booming with some companies raking in multi-billion dollars profits. Everyone from shareholders to the national treasury stand to reap a reward in the mining bonanza. But have some Australian miners been driven by an unquenchable thirst to mine precious minerals at any price?

His name is Bunlaamb and he lives on the banks of the usually-sanguine Se San River in north-eastern Cambodia. But for the last seven years, the life of this farmer-fisherman, and the rest of his village, has been turned upside down by sudden water fluctuations caused by a series of large hydropower dams built upstream, on the Vietnamese side of the border.