Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has acknowledged that one of the critical scientific targets in the Prime Minister's May 4 announcement on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was wrong. The mistake has gone uncorrected for 25 days, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should reveal what role the Australian Government is taking to support President Obama's war on overseas tax havens which enable wealthy Australians to avoid millions of dollars in tax payments.

"International action is required to end rich tax cheats defrauding ordinary Australians of millions each year," Senator Brown said.

While the G20 meeting ended up in raptures about the future of growth economics, it turned its back on the plight of planet Earth's environment, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"The G20 found more than a trillion dollars to address the economic crisis but no money to address the environmental crisis," Senator Brown said.

"One paragraph leaving the onrush of climate change to Copenhagen in December was tacked onto the end of the communiqué as an afterthought. Yet the planetary environment and its biodiversity are in a downwards spiral."

Prime Minister Rudd should put a Tobin tax on the G20 agenda, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"The Tobin tax, a levy of one basis point (one one hundredth of one per cent) on international financial deals, would be a means of slowing down the speculative movements of capital that can destabilise economies - a calming measure during a crisis. Prime Minister Rudd should make sure a Tobin tax is on the G20 agenda," Senator Brown said.

Bob Brown addresses the media about his plan to cap CEO salaries, and the Senate Inquiry into the Government's financial stimulus package.

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

The Rudd Government is leading Australia into a deficit squeeze on spending with no clear plan to boost funding for education, hospitals, housing and public transport, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"With recession looming, the emphasis should be on public services and re-skilling for the age of green-collar jobs. President Obama is planning for 5 million jobs in his plans for an American Green New Deal. Prime Minister Rudd has no plan at all," Senator Brown said.

The latest study indicating Antarctica is warming due to climate change has massive implications for Australia's economy, environment and society, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"The accelerated melting of West Antarctica would, along with Greenland, raise sea levels beyond 1 metre during this century, threatening hundreds of thousands of Australian homes, shops and roads," Senator Brown said.

"Sea level rise on this scale will wipe out iconic Australian beaches, as well as damaging marine ecosystems around the country.

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ignored the 20% or so of Australia's greenhouse emissions coming from logging and clearance of forests and woodlands as a huge low-cost opportunity to address climate change, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"Logging, from the Tiwi Islands to Tasmania, is not needed for domestic wood needs as Australia has more than 1.5 million hectares of to-be-logged plantations for its paper and structural timber market," Senator Brown said.