Archive: Can Do Better
Last Updated 24/12/11
CanDoBetter
(13/11/11 - O) Climate change, immigration, population growth, media reform - see what people are saying.
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CanDoBetter Calls For A Campaign On Introducing Switzerland's "Direct Democracy" In Australia
(17/8/11 - O) What do you think?
How would you feel about being able to reverse government policy, for example selling off Telstra or privatizing transport and utilities? Click here to see what CanDoBetter is saying...
(29/8/09 - O) It's what is going on without you knowing
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On-line Petition Calls For A Stop To Repco Rally In Tweed & Kyogle Area National Parks
(29/8/09 - O) Your help needed to convince NSW Premier rally in high sensitivity environmental area isn't a good idea...
The petition applies to those who may visit the area as well as to those who live in it. So please...sign. http://www.petitiononline.com/NRG01e/petition.html Click here for a quick preview of the petition content.
For more information: http://www.norallygroup.org/
(17/9/09 - O) How just is justice?
Read what Sheila Newman of Candobetter says:
Posted September 14th, 2009 by Sheila Newman
On Monday 14th September, the Victorian Supreme Court found grounds for an injunction to stop the Victorian Government from logging old-growth Brown Mountain forest. In an appalling trend, however, the court asked for the complainant to deposit a huge sum of money as an indemnity for VicForests before it applies the law. The complainant is the small but incredibly brave group of volunteers - Environment East Gippsland (EEG). EEG is all that stands between the reduction of Victoria's remaining old growth forest - our Eden - to below 8 %, heading towards zero.
See also: Related articles
The Government should be defending our forests, yet we have to defend them against our rogue Victorian government.
Please dig deeply into your pockets for EEG and for justice and for Mother Nature.
Breaking news:
Posted September 16th, 2009 by Sheila Newman
More detail has come to light in the matter of costs that might be imposed on parties. It seems that the judge, whose name is actually Jack Forrest, recognises biodiversity preservation - which this injunction application is about - to be a matter of public interest, which would mean that the complainants are unlikely to be made to wear harsh costs. This is a development on this story, "Brown Mountain: What price justice?" where it seemed to me that the costs would be high for the complainants. That was probably an error. Let's hope for a very good result here.
(29/8/09 - O) CanDoBetter asks: can you help?
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CanDoBetter: Environment, Overloading Australia....
(16/12/08 - O) Latest from a great website
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CandoBetter: Latest
(10/12/08 - O) Parliamentary Circus and Overpopulation
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CandoBetter: Latest
(28/11/08 - O) Lead Story: The Battle For Brown Mountain (in East Gippsland)
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CanDoBetter Urges "Vote For Democracy In Victoria"
(19/11/08 - O) Another package of hot topics
Oz Parliament: Bob Brown moves for sane population policy: See who voted for & against growth
Federal Government threatens Internet censorship
Rudd dodges hard questions at a community cabinet
Vote for democracy in Victoria - start with this activist-candidate list for local government
Why U.S. immigration reformers can still remain hopeful
Chickens of economic collapse on course - CSIRO
Our Immigration Department should be closed
The Inconvenient Truths of Chris Clugston: Selected Quotations from "Quantifying Overextension-America's Predicament"
Is it game over for immigration reformers in America?
Real change depends on stopping the Bailout profiteers
South Australian tax payers set to bail-out Managed Investment Schemes
Armistice Day, 90 years on our rights are in jeopardy.
Children in Epping tread where adults and politicians fear to go
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CanDoBetter: VCAT Community Forum Highlights Problems, Fixes None
(18/10/08 - O) "VCAT unelected, unaccountable and system has lost all respect from community."
VCAT Community Forum highlights problems fixes none
October 17th, 2008 by Sheila Newman
"VCAT unelected, unaccountable and system has lost all respect from community."
VCAT is Victoria's Civil and Administrative Tribunal. (Australia)
Casey methane scandal
democracy
dystopia
planning and environment
VCAT
Victorian Government
CanDoBetter: The Global Market Crash And Peak Oil
(14/10/08 - O) Can the October 08 global market crash be linked to oil prices, oil depletion or peak oil?
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Next Round Of Can Do Better
(29/9/08 - O) Yet more hotstuff from a hot website
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Can Do Better
(11/9/08 - O) More hotstuff from a hot website
Could Melbourne end up like Jakarta?
Property Council Flexes its Muscle in Victoria
Where is the Regulator to protect Port Phillip Bay from rising pollution?
Mother Nature: dig out your begging-bowl - dem cotton farmers is coming yo' way
Indigenous communities in Peru threatened with mining
Parable of the Co-Dependent Green Wife
US Vice Pres Candidate, Sarah Palin, accused of terrible animal cruelty
Sheila Newman (Ed.) The Final Energy Crisis, Second Edition, Pluto Press, UK 2008
Iemma leaves NSW local government electors in dark about political funding sources
Does Mugabe's record mean that anti-colonialists were wrong?
'Self-storage' industry growth not an indication of improved quality of life
Live exports - a litany of disasters
Minister Garrett can stop massive Shoalwater coal port this week
FOREST/CLIMATE ALERT! Final push needed to save Tasmania's ancient forests from woodchippers
Murray-Darling water - It’s time to use the P-word
NSW Greens defend O'Farrell
Australian aid to preserve overseas rainforests does not absolve it from domestic rainforest destruction
Italian baby-boom summer!
Rainforest Action Network sells-out Canadian Boreal forests
Same money, same message: Barrack Obama (US) and Jack Layton (Canada)
Greens endorse strike against electricity retail sell-off
AWPC Kangaroo trail map restores respect for gentle and beautiful creature
Privatisation debate exposes Costa's hypocrisy and incompetence
Is Garrett a dud? CSIRO pulp mill report on Gunns and other disappointments
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Candobetter
(31/8/08 - O) Latest
NSW electricity privatisation can be stopped!
Good news: Business Council of Australia says members may leave Australia
Population growth threatens UK's future
What's in it for Russia? Georgia, Ossetia, & Caspian oil and gas
Renewable energy - show me the money..
Ills of rampant growth presented as virtues by guilty politicians
Baby Boomers can't win!
Quantock in just released "Planning Backlash" - the movie
As Rudd Government dithers, Greens and Independents act to save Murray lakes
Ideas for affordable housing
Photo essay of a rural Japanese city
Immigration to U.S. increases global greenhouse gas emissions
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"Dear John": CanDoBetter Open Letter To Victorian Premier
(10/8/08 - O) When too much is just enough: a response to Mr. Brumby's announcement that current immigration settings are OK
The Victorian Premier's recent announcement that galloping growth has sent Victoria to the limits of its capacity, but that the current over-the-top growth rate is OK, has provoked a 'face the facts' challenge. Click here to see James Sinnamon's open letter.
Latest News From Candobetter
(28/7/08 - O) Whether you are looking for controversy or grass roots, Can Do Better will have it...
Catholicism and other creatures
In Parliament: The Big Victorian BBQ: 1 million more guests than expected
Oz MP Kelvin Thomson for all creatures great and small - more MPs like this are needed
Ag-Minister, Tony Burke, denies Australians' rights to choose humane farm products
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Can Do Better Samples Hansard
(19/7/08 - O) Recent comments and extracts from Hansard, Victorian Parliament
CanDoBetter www.candobetter.net has sent the following links to Hansard extracts that may be of interest or have been topical recently in the Victorian parliament.
Parliament - Burgess SEITA Bypass speech cut by Yan Yean member
Public transport woes - parliament - Mr Mulder, MP (Polwarth)
Scrap the pipeline - Mr Weller MP (Rodney)
Bass desalination plant - comments in Parliament by K. Smith
Awarding of costs against Blue Wedges threatens all of us
Blue Wedges - Sue Pennicuik
The "collateral damage" of live exports
Latest From "Can Do Better"
(16/7/08 - O) Plenty of issues, lots to learn
God! More babies - Pell
What can YOU do to stop road tunnels destroying Royal Park and Democracy?
Community battles to save historic Willsmere Billabong
Garnaut to provide cover for privatisation of Snowy Hydro?
Orwellian Waterworks: big-agribusiness and Victorian Gov
WA Government bullies coastal communities
Grave concerns: new state residential zones and loss of council planning powers in Melbourne
Melbourne protests mass population growth and its profiteers
The nature of greed
Emigration as a safety valve for tyrants
How can GHG emissions be reduced if Australian coal exports are increased?
We really can do better than this! The Karen People and Cyclone Nargis
Melbourne 2008: Life in a destruction zone
Using the Internet to get yourself up to speed on the half-truths of the GM crop and food lobby
Click here for more information or go directly to http://candobetter.net
"Can Do Better": Some Recent Scorching Articles From The Website
(1/5/08 - O) Topical, very topical
Here are the headings of some recent articles sent to us by CanDoBetter. Go to the CanDoBetter website http://candobetter.net for the latest.
Since when did our taxes go to fund the ABC as a national real-estate agent or an arm of the PCA?
The document below [Scanlon report] probably furnished the blueprint for the Australian government to plan to transform Australian society in a manner which will displace and disenfranchise the bulk of its current population.
The document below probably furnished the blueprint for the Australian government to plan to transform Australian society in a manner which will displace and disenfranchise the bulk of its current population. The Scanlon Report 30/50 - The Technological Implications of an Australian Population of 30 million by 2050
Submission to Australia 2020 Summit says we cannot afford more population growth 18/4/08
Who Owns Port Phillip Bay? 18/4/08 Victorians need proper representation from their government and journalists need absolute freedom to report. Time to turn off the Corporate Machine. Time to stop Brumby's New Army of developers. Time to slow the monster down, Mr Brumby, Mr Paluka, Mr Pallas. Time to listen to your employers and the owners of the Bay, the Victorian people.
Property market propagandist, Wendell Cox, on ABC Counterpoint (again) 17/4/08 ABC's Counterpoint did another Wendell Cox interview on Tuesday. This time Cox is blaming the subprime crisis on urban consolidation! (LOL!) Have a listen and a good laugh. It is minutes 21-33 of the mp3 file).
Channel 7 markets unliveable Melbourne to a helpless audience 16/4/08 On the Channel 7 Today Tonight program 16 April 2008 the audience was told that by 2030 Melbourne would be "unrecognisable" and that owning a house and garden would a "thing of the past. "It seems obvious to us here at candobetter that no group should be granted a commercial broadcasting license to market dystopia.
Courier-Mail editorial beats up on public for complaining about cost of 'progress' 14/4/08 Murdoch's Queensland Courier Mail has long been in the business of marketing unacceptable development, but the 23 May 2008 editorial read more like a medieval sermon on the benefits of floggings.
We "Can Do Better" - Fascinating Political, Social, Environmental Website
(14/4/08 - O) Post your articles or your blogs. This is an interactive website that encourages people to become active and express their views. Check it out at http://candobetter.net/node/3#comments
Is this site something you can relate to? Could it be the site you've been looking for? There's only one way to find out: check it out!
Here's some material from the site that gives you an idea of what it's about.
Mission Statement on candobetter.net:
"To encourage ordinary people to engage themselves with the political processes that decide the fate of our society in order to help make the necessary difference that will allow our society to turn back from the brink of the looming global environmental catastrophe that threatens our survival."
Here's what the site says you can do:
"Above all, become active. If you become active you can make a difference.
Inform yourself by reading material on this site or on sites linked to from this site.
Inform others by:
Discussing these issues with friends, family, work associates and other acquaintances.
Write letters to your local newspapers. If they don't print your letter, send us a copy, and if they do, still send us a copy.
Phone radio talkback shows. If they don't give you a fair hearing, please let us know about it.
Raise this issue in on-line forums and mailing lists. Include, in your contributions, links back to articles on this web site.
If you are active in a political party, a union, a professional association, a church, a political party or other group, raise this issue at meetings.
Join a political party in which members are likely to be receptive to these ideas. Such Parties may include The Greens, The Democrats, the Southern Cross Party, One Nation the Sustainability Party or even the Labor Party. If none of these parties prove willing or able to rise to meet the challenges before them, help us to build a better political party.
Contribute your ideas by posting comments in response to articles on this site. If you are interested in contributing more substantive articles, photographs, artwork or other material, please let us know. Contact us through the site contact forms, or if the response seems to be slow phone or text the administrator on +61 412 319669 (0412 319669 in Australia).
Ask of anyone who holds public office to act to confront these problems. If he or she won't, then give your vote to someone else who will, or consider standing for office yourself.
Support community campaigns against overdevelopment and environmental destruction and for social justice. Some campaigns can be found within the menu structure "What can be done?". "