“We as human beings deserve a decent life, but this is being denied to us by governments that deny us justice. We shouldn't have to sell our identity and our land to have opportunities that non-Aboriginal people have.” - Noongar Traditional Owner Uncle Rex Bellotti Snr Noongar land and waters are our lifeblood and form the basis of our culture and identity as a People. To us, land, water and Noongar people are one. Our connection to our ancestors and culture is powerful, it is thousands of generations old and intrinsically interwoven into our land and waters. In 2015, the West Australian government struck a deal with some Noongar people to extinguish Noongar Native Title rights forever, in return for over a billion dollars. The land subject to the South West Native Title Settlement extends over the entire south east corner of WA, over 200,000km2. The South-West Native Title Settlement has been coined by some as the biggest native title deal in Australian history, but we say that it is the biggest native title steal in Australian history. Successful registration of these Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) will mean that half of Western Australia’s Aboriginal population will no longer have native title rights and Noongar native title will be extinguished forever. This extinguishment by the West Australian Government would leave our mineral-rich Country vulnerable to mining and fracking. It removes our right to negotiate on any future development. It is our responsibility to protect this connection and to ensure that it is never broken. Surrendering our native title rights will diminish our responsibilities as Traditional Custodians and consequently erode our connection to our ancestors, culture and Country. Noongar Not For Sale is a campaign for land justice, led by respected Noongar Elders and supported by a groundswell of strong and passionate grassroots mob. We are following in the footsteps of our ancestors and fighting to protect and preserve Noongar land, waters and culture for our children, grandchildren and the many generations of Noongars to come. For the past decade, Noongar people have been pushing the boundaries of native title law despite the State and Federal Governments constantly shifting the goalposts. Last year, we won our case in the full bench of the Federal Court in a major win for land justice. The court recognised that not all Native Title Claimants agreed with the settlement, the ILUA’s were invalid and the West Australian Government could not extinguish our Native Title. In response to this win, mining companies and special interest groups lobbied the Federal Government hard and in the end, the Native Title Act was amended retrospectively. Our justice was taken away but we are unshaken. On Monday 19th November we have again launched legal action against the West Australian Government and the South-West Land and Sea Council. We will continue our fight to de-register the 6 ILUAs that form the South-West Native Title Settlement. In the spirit of our early Noongar resistance fighters we assert that we will not surrender our birthrights. We are not for sale.

Scheme would drought proof most of western QLD & North west NSW. Below are links to all the information I could find about The Bradfield Scheme, a proposed Australian water diversion scheme, To make Western QLD and Northern West NSW Drought free for ever. https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/3295673/beat-the-drought-build-bradfield/ http://www.fnq.cc/bradfield_scheme_a.html

The amount of plastic that goes into landfill or directly into the environment, including soils and oceans is catastrophically high. People do not understand that this is an enormous crisis which requires much more leadership in this country. Other countries are way ahead of us and we could learn so much from them!

Now is the time for Aussies to contact our politicians and tell them that we are very concerned about the fact that since 1 January, China has refused to take our recyclable waste - this accounts for 30% of Australia’s recyclables. The Aussie government has not put in the recycling infrastructure to support waste processing on-shore but now we are at a crisis. Recyclable waste is being stockpiled in warehouses. Little media and press is covering this story. Australian's love recycling, and are deeply concerned about the impact this waste will have on our environment and communities. We want to make the most of it, and create new jobs and ways of recycling, here in Australia. For a united voice to be heard, we need every Australian to sign and share this petition, and contact your local politicians.

The UN announced we have a planetary crisis due to plastics. Single use plastics including bottles, are wasteful, polluting and lethal to marine life. Oil and energy are used in the manufacture of plastic drink bottles. Recycling them takes more energy. Now that China has stopped taking our waste in 2018, waste management contractors have reported that the bottles are piling up by the millions per day and are a fire hazard. There have already been serious fires in Victoria of large piles of plastic bottles and legal action by people in surrounding areas resulting in financial loss and health risks. Neither do we have the space in landfill to bury them and that's also not a sustainable solution. We MUST stop the problem at its source. People can bring reusable drink bottles to fill at refilling stations. To keep up to date with some in the world who are banning plastic bottled water see https://www.banthebottle.net/map-of-campaigns/

V8 car racing outside residential homes is unsafe and unacceptable. The Supercar "Noise Management Plan" recommends residents living on the racetrack "Keep doors and windows closed; seal cracks, doors and window frames using commercial or make shift products. Basic protection measures may include: adhesive sealing strips for door frames and windows , temporary vent seals, under door strip seals/draught stoppers, fill cracks using commercial foam fillers or silicon; remain in back rooms; use hearing protection; leave property during some or all of the race period". Many residents living on the racetrack have no air-conditioning, and cannot afford to go away for the race period. They are faced with living in the above conditions for 3 x 10 hour days. Please note there are at least 3 ladies in the area that are pregnant, one of whom is expecting her baby to born the event weekend. The Heritage Conservation Areas of Newcastle and Newcastle East is wholly unsuitable for V8 Super Car street racing. The race preparations have seriously degraded residential amenity, homes are being damaged and convict hewn sandstone blocks are being sawn up for the benefit of the layout of the Supercars race track. Businesses are suffering some have closed and one successful business has already lost $70000 in takings. To add insult to injury hospitality is being outsourced to Brisbane or Sydney Supercars suppliers. The race will impact negatively on historic houses, buildings, public parks and the inhabitants on, and within, the racetrack. It will impede access to three aged care complexes located within the proposed racing area. There are over 4000 people residing in this predominantly residential area. NCC are unable to guarantee that sound levels are safe for all residents and that there will be no delay in response times to emergency and medical service. Preparations have resulted in reduced public safety and access to major tourist sites including Newcastle Foreshore Park, Horseshoe Beach, The Convict Lumber Yard, The Cowrie Hole, The Soldiers Baths, Nobbys Breakwall, Bathers Way, Newcastle Baths, Fort Scratchley, the Canoe Pool, and Nobbys and Newcastle Beaches. This will also be the case during the event. This race affects every user of the iconic East End in the lead up to and at the beginning of the peak holiday season. Our beautiful peninsula will be scaffolded and barricaded for three months each year and visitors will be discouraged from coming. The vast majority of people would detest having a 3 day car racing event on their street, or in their suburb. Please consider what residents and the wider community have been living through in preparation for, and during, 3 x 10 hour days of this car racing event. Residents are being asked to provide their private details, to a consortium, in order to be "accredited" to enter their own homes. Many residents will also be forced to walk through a concrete and wire structure, less than 1 metre from V8's racing, for over 200 metres just to get to a pedestrian bridge to get out of their home and away from this event. For residents with disabilities or mobility difficulties there is only one entry and exit, with only one lift to help over a thousand people. Supercars refuse to reveal the Sound Report and to add more insult to injury Destination NSW have given no conditions for which Supercars should comply to. We are trapped by this appallling legislation and we will be soon be trapped by an enclosure, and racing cars, circling our homes and suburb. ANALYSIS OF THE MOTOR RACING (SYDNEY AND NEWCASTLE) ACT 2008 (NSW) This is an Act that: 1. suspends the operation of other Acts protecting safety and the environment before, during and after the proposed event; 2. permits the event to be conducted on public land eventhough it would not be otherwise permitted under those other Acts; 3. permits the event to be operated by a private entity without charge and with the aim of making a profit for the private entity; 4. requires oversight of the event by a government agency, but with no right for any other person to legally challenge the competency or quality of that oversight; 5. severely restricts the actions of any other person in and around the public land where the event is being conducted; 6. prevents any other person suffering financial loss as a result of the event from claiming compensation from the private entity or the government agencies permitting the event; and 7. removes oversight of reinstatement of the public space after the event from the local Council and hands it to Destinations NSW, a government department that only has accountability for tourism. If you're interested in knowing more about the comparison of this track location in relation to other s'cars tracks in Australia head to this website https://rightracewrongplace.org/2017/07/07/compare-the-newcastle-circuit/ This video shows some of the destruction caused in preparation for this intrusive and dangerous event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPc_JXgiQB8&feature=youtu.be

Koala populations are already struggling in certain parts of Queensland such as Dalby. Habitat is critical to the survival of the koala and up to 80% of koalas who lose their habitat are likely to be wiped out. The proposed destruction of koala habitat is for new coal seam gas wells on Queensland's Western Downs. Coal seam gas mining is a threat to farmlands and water resources not to mention the public health risks which have not yet been properly assessed. Potential harm could include an increased risk of cancer. What else can we do? Write to minister Hon Jackie Trad [email protected] Write to the Premier of Queensland Hon Anna Palaszczuk https://www.thepremier.qld.gov.au/tools/contact.aspx Join the Animal Justice Party Queensland https://animaljusticeparty.org/join/ Donate to the Australian Koala Foundation https://www.savethekoala.com/

Will you join my call to make this a huge issue ahead of the Manly by-election? If enough of us come together now, we can win commitments from candidates that they’ll save the bushland. Sign now!

The NT is a beautiful place, full of thriving cultures and communities. But right now, the NT government has plans to build a massive gas pipeline, cutting through sacred country, to pump fracked gas from unapproved wells across the Territory. Traditional Owners, Aboriginal Station Owners and community members have voiced their opposition to this project over and over again, and voted for NT Labor on their promise to slow down fracking. How can you approve a giant pipeline for fracking projects that haven't been approved, and when you supposedly have a moratorium on fracking?!

*Most of our open spaces, our public parks, sporting ovals, our beaches (like Bondi), our headlands, our waterways and our bush, are Crown land. In truth, it is simply “public land”. The right of the general public to use and enjoy our public land is an essential part of our egalitarian society and the Courts have always upheld - under the general law - the public’s rights of access. But that is all about to change. Telling us that new legislation was needed to overcome various management issues resulting from out-of-date legislation, the NSW Coalition has just passed new legislation that will in fact facilitate the greatest privatisation of our public land in NSW history. Please read on if you are interested. The Crown Land Management Bill - rushed through Parliament by the NSW Government on 9 November - was the Government’s response to years of allegations of systemic mismanagement and cronyism in its Crown Land Department (“Crown Lands”) and by local councils. Those allegations (by various community groups) were effectively accepted as accurate and substantiated, first, by Mark Paterson as head of Crown Lands on 22 June 2015 and, second, by the NSW Auditor General on presenting her scathing report to Parliament on 8 September 2016. In his admission last year, Mr Paterson admitted the “systemic issues” identified by his lawyers were so bad as to require staff training “in fraud and corruption prevention”. Paterson's media release is here: https://www.opengov.nsw.gov.au/viewer/81b25fee74db45ee92b75d130638203b.pdf The Auditor General found - as alleged by the community - that countless crown reserves were being used for unlawful purposes, including by businesses well connected to the relevant decision makers. Some 90% of these dodgy deals were done behind closed doors, for peppercorn rents. The Auditor General recommended Crown Lands identify all cases of unlawful uses of Crown reserves by March 2017. The Auditor General's report is here: http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/publications/latest-reports/sale-and-lease-of-crown-land. Then on 13 October 2016, an Upper House Inquiry - brought on by sustained pressure from Crown land community groups - delivered yet another report on Crown land mismanagement. This Upper House report made a series of recommendations as to what any new legislation should include. The Upper House report is here: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2404#tab-reports But it was too late: Minister Niall Blair had already completed his new 208 page Bill. It was introduced into the Upper House on 19 October without even so much as an Exposure Draft. It was debated for the first time - and passed by both Houses - on 9 November. Crown Lands drafted this Bill. It will now become law. The new Act allows: the Minister to declare lawful all these previous unlawful activities (Clause 5.26); private businesses to control Crown reserves and to charge entry fees to public land (clause 2.17); and private business to agree on uses that go outside the uses permitted by statute (clause 5.2). And the Bill automatically provides the Minister’s approval to these businesses lodging a new DA to use - or build on - our public land not only for any statutory use but any other use that is allowed by the terms of their own private agreement (clause 2.23(2)(c)(ii) and 2.23(2)(g)(i)). To have allowed Crown Lands to draft this Bill to allow them to cover up their past mistakes, make lawful what was previously unlawful and to not require the Government’s mates to disgorge their ill-gotten gains, is like allowing the greyhound industry to draft a bill to cover up its own past mistakes. It is basic governance that you never give the job of fixing up a problem to those who were in any way involved in the making of the problem. It is unconscionable and a high form of corruption. It is time for the Government of NSW to start governing for the people, not for its mates. Please check the Updates below for links to more information on the internet. And email me if you have any specific queries or know of any further abuses of Crown land. JBOwens, Crown Land Alliance

NSW LAND & ENVIRONMENT COURT JUDGEMENTS: "Mixed-Use is FUNDAMENTALLY INCOMPATIBLE." BUILDING STANDARDS, NSW FIRE & RESCUE plus DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION CRITERIA AND LEGISLATION ARE BEING IGNORED. ONE SET OF RULES FOR NSW TENANTS AND OWNER/OCCUPIERS, NO RULES FOR THOSE USING HOMES FOR HOLIDAYS. There is an AFFORDABLE HOUSING and HOMELESSNESS CRISIS STATE-WIDE. THE RIGHTS OF ACCREDITED ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS ARE BEING IGNORED. SHORT-TERM LETTING STRIPS HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE VALUE OF OUR HOUSING. HOMES NOT HOTELS...COMMUNITIY BEFORE PROFITS...NEIGHBOURS NOT STRANGERS www.neighboursnotstrangers.com

An important Awabakal women’s place – The Butterfly Cave – is at real and immediate risk of damage from a subdivision being built 20m/65ft away. It's contextual bushland setting will be destroyed. If we lose the Butterfly Cave it will be an environmental and cultural tragedy. We have witnessed the destruction of too many precious sites in bush and city Australia. The desecration must stop and it must stop NOW. Women's business matters!