Social Justice
Economy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Spring 2020, Social Justice
A casual reflection on academia: before and after the pandemic
COVID-19 has thrown Australia’s university sector into crisis. For the past two decades, the tertiary education industry has expanded on the back of rising international student enrolments. However, the coronavirus pandemic, and the resultant border closures, have disconnected universities from these enrolments, one of their most significant revenue streams. Universities have been hard hit: Job losses have already commenced as... Read More
Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Spring 2020, Social Justice
Unions and worker’s rights in the pandemic: an interview with Godfrey Moase
Simon Copland: I want to just start off with a really broad question, which is how do you think COVID-19 has changed the way that unions operate in this past year? Godfrey Moase: COVID-19 has really increased the prominence of organising around safety for unions, and also safety more generally as a set of issues for workers. With COVID-19 coming basically... Read More
Economy, Featured, Social Justice
How Much Does a Basic Income Cost?
When discussing the topic of a Basic Income, the cost of the program is often people’s first question. After all, if the program were to deliver “an unconditional livable wage to every permanent resident” when the Henderson poverty line is ~$24,000/year and the population of Australia is ~24,600,000, back of the envelope calculations cost a Basic Income at approximately $590,000,000,000/year!... Read More
Economy, Environment, Featured, Social Justice
Blak Leadership, Green Politics: An Interview With Senator-elect Lidia Thorpe
Ahead of her swearing in as Greens Senator for Victoria, Senator-elect Lidia Thorpe spoke to Green Agenda editor, Felicity Gray, about the activist history that propels her, her plans for the Senate, and decolonising green politics. Felicity Gray: Congratulations on your recent pre-selection as a Greens Senator for Victoria. Very exciting. Lidia Thorpe: Thank you. Felicity Gray: It’s quite a... Read More
Economy, Featured, Social Justice
Instead Of “Snap Back”, Let’s Rethink Work
Lockdown in my household saw my partner and me working harder than ever, on endless Zoom meetings, frantically redesigning events and teaching for the online world, stuck in our home with two teenagers doing all their studying, socialising and extracurricular activities on video calls. It was noisy and chaotic, and it pushed our bandwidth to the limit, both literally and... Read More
Featured, Peace, Social Justice
Lethal Weapons: The Violent Politics Of Australian Defence Policy
It was hard to miss, and that was kind of the point. As if to really ram home the “potency” argument made in the PM’s press release, the front page of Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph featured a turgid surface-to-air missile, flanked by two smaller silver missiles, ejaculated from somewhere in the far north of South Australia. It didn’t really matter that... Read More
Environment, Featured, Social Justice
Why We Need a Decolonial Ecology
As Malcom Ferdinand explains, environmental destruction is inseparable from relationships of racial and colonial domination. It stems from the way we inhabit Earth, from our sense of entitlement in appropriating the planet. All of which means we must recast the past. His book, Une écologie décoloniale (A Decolonial Ecology), won the Foundation for Political Ecology literature prize in 2019. In this conversation,... Read More
Social Justice
Was Keneally’s Migration Diatribe Fair Dinkum Racist?
Greens Councillor Jonathan Sri from Brisbane argues that regardless of whether Kristina Keneally is racist herself, her views of immigration will bolster a racist system. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a few people have taken issue with my suggestion that Labor Senator Kristina Keneally’s opinion piece about immigration was advancing racist arguments. I shouldn’t need to start with this disclaimer, but: No, just... Read More
Social Justice
Staying Together While Keeping Apart During COVID-19: Part Two
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic and the rapid shift to physical distancing the Green Institute hosted a webinar on 19 March 2020 titled Staying Together While Keeping Apart. Green Agenda is now publishing transcripts of the speakers of the webinar. This week we are publishing the talks from Millie Rooney, Meg Clark, Tim Hollo and Natalie Osborne. Read Part... Read More
Culture, Economy, Social Justice
Staying Together While Keeping Apart During COVID-19: Part One
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic and the rapid shift to physical distancing the Green Institute hosted a webinar on 19 March 2020 titled Staying Together While Keeping Apart. Green Agenda is now publishing transcripts of the speakers of the webinar. This week we are publishing the talks from Nicola Paris, Tim Lo Surdo and El Gibbs. Read Part Two.... Read More