Joan Staples – Writing

Australian Government Action in the 1980s

Twenty years ago in 1989, Environment Minister Graham Richardson took a proposal to Cabinet for a 20% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2005. He was unsuccessful, but two years later Cabinet agreed to a similar proposal, on condition it would not affect the economy. The Opposition Liberal Party after 1987 had a strong climate change policy under Shadow Environment Minister Chris Puplick, and took that policy to subsequent elections

Watching Aid and Advocacy

Activists often look to colourful actions to draw attention to issues, and delivering a birthday cake must surely fall into this category. However, AID/WATCH, the small, non-government organisation (NGO) that monitors the quality of overseas aid, never expected that their ironic 60th birthday cake delivered to the World Bank asking it to retire would be described by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) as unacceptable political activity and used against them