Social Justice
Culture, Democracy, Environment, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021, Social Justice
Policing dissent, enforcing consent
You can’t do it that way! When Extinction Rebellion protesters spray-painted “duty of care” across the front of Parliament House the morning after the latest IPCC Report was released, drawing national and international attention to the fact that the Minister for the Environment is appealing a court decision finding she actually has a legal duty of care to future generations... Read More
Culture, Economy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Autumn 2021, Peace, Social Justice
Green Agenda Autumn 2021: On (in)security
“What’s the most dangerous place you’ve ever been?” People often ask me this question, curious because of my work. I’m a researcher and a practitioner in the protection of civilians from violence, and I have spent time in war zones and refugee camps and neighbourhoods with high rates of gun violence. At the moment, I live and work in South... Read More
Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Autumn 2021, Peace, Social Justice
Together, or not at all: An interview with Scott Ludlam
Scott Ludlam is a former Greens Senator (2008 to 2017) and served as deputy leader of the Australian Greens. He has also worked as a filmmaker, artist and graphic designer. Green Agenda’s co-editor Felicity Gray spoke with Scott about his recently published book, Full Circle, and how our understandings of security must change if we are to transcend the violence... Read More
Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Autumn 2021, Peace, Social Justice
SAS war crimes: (In)security at home and in Afghanistan
Content warning: This article provides details of violence that readers may find distressing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that some of the hyperlinks contain the names and photographs of people who have died. On July 11 2017, ABC journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark published ‘The Afghan Files’, a series of investigative stories that detailed the deeply... Read More
Culture, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Autumn 2021, Peace, Social Justice
Government’s secrecy war makes us less safe
When the Australian government announced in April last year that they would be developing and deploying a smartphone application to assist contract tracing efforts as the coronavirus pandemic started to impact Australia, there was immediate and vocal public scepticism. It came from privacy advocates and the technology sector, but also human rights advocates and the broader public. The trickle of... Read More
Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Autumn 2021, Social Justice
Has COVID-19 made women more insecure at home?
In early 2020 I got stuck in New York as the world came to grips with the COVID pandemic. I had been supporting a group of Aboriginal and Pacific First Nations women who went there to tell their story and build relationships internationally, in their work to end violence against First Nations women. Over the month, I watched the city... Read More
Economy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Autumn 2021, Social Justice
Housing security – do we really understand the challenge?
In the six years I was in the flat, my rent had risen from $300 to $415 a week. Some of this reflected the market, but increasingly the condition of the flat did not reflect the rent… After three months of soggy and ruined food, I finally asked for a rent reduction. No response. So, I asked for compensation. No... Read More
Environment, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Summer 2021, Social Justice
Green Agenda Summer 2021: Into the Fire
As I sit in my study writing this piece, I look outside to the trees in our street and the clean Canberra air. It is a far cry from what it was like just over a year ago. From November 2019 to February 2020 our beautiful city was shrouded in smoke. With fires to our north, east and west, we... Read More
Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Summer 2021, Social Justice
The fire front: Transformative politics in Queensland
Queensland bears a burden of being perceived as a deeply conservative state. One Nation emerged from the ashes in a small Queensland city called Ipswich, a coal town left in ruin once the mining moved further West. We carry the history of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era, and a violent history of colonisation and policing. We’re also home to some of... Read More
Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Summer 2021, Peace, Social Justice
Beirut burning
Some of the worst wildfires ravaged through the mountains of Lebanon in 2019, caused by extended drought, wind and unusually dry weather. The government’s response to this crisis mirrored every government service in the country, at best inadequate, and mostly non-existent. In 2020 more than 100 wildfires spread again throughout the mountains in the southern Chouf and in the northern... Read More
