Throughout the entire region the environment continues to face growing pressures. It comes from a growing range of converging issues like urban expansion; destruction of native forests; rapidly expanding populations; growing inequality and poverty; water, soil and air pollution; and the international inaction on climate change.
Many commentators have pointed out how "soft" the Budget was compared to all the "tough" hype however despite this, it still failed to add additional funds into key areas.
Alex Schlotzer spent the weekend at the Climate Action Summit as someone committed to seeing political action taken on climate change. More specifically he was there in his voluntary role as coordinator of the Brimbank Climate Action Network (BrimbankCAN). This is his account of the weekend.
The recently appointed panel to determine how grassroots aid funding will be spent in New Zealand is being criticised as poorly qualified and politically driven.
In a cynical yet unsurprising move, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has decided that the time is right to play the ‘crackdown on welfare recipients’ card.
A report from Roy Morgan Research recently pointed out that Australian society has become more individualistic and “less available”.
As part of theangle.org's "Independent Voices" series for the NSW election, we bring you a question and answer session with Janet Mays, Independent Candidate for the Blue Mountains. Passionate about the community, preserving the environment and healthcare, Janet is well-known as the founder of Blue Mountains HEAL (Hospital Equity & Access Lobby).
Victoria’s alcohol and drugs treatment services are failing to keep pace with the growing substance abuse epidemic after a decade of neglect, a report released by the auditor-general has revealed.
Given the nature of agriculture in this country and the effects of rising populations both here and globally, I contend it is time to re-examine the virtues of a stable productive yeoman farming sector.
The Australian Human Rights Commission today released its 2010 Christmas Island immigration detention report which recommends an end to mandatory detention and offshore processing on the islands.
A study has found population increase to be four times more important than the effects of climate change on water availability.
October 17 to 23 is National Water Week in Australia, a week dedicated to raising awareness of the country's most precious resource
The banning of the toxic chemical endosulfan has been welcomed by the Greens though action on the pesticide should have occurred much earlier, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
By Damian Baker: As part of our new focus on development and human rights issues, theangle.org is reposting old articles printed on the site which still have a high degree of revelance. We start with co-founder Damian Baker’s trip to Papua New Guinea in November 2009 where he encountered the lives of the people...
Aid agency Oxfam Australia yesterday welcomed Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd's proposal to give 0.15 per cent of Australia’s gross national income to least developed countries, saying the move would benefit "the poorest of the poor."
Kevin Rennie, writing in Global Voices, finds the distraction of the footy finals season and the negotiations over the first federal hung parliament in Australia in seventy years as the reason the mainstream media in the country has delivered scant attention to the real reasons behind the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New...
Indonesian companies tend to avoid directing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to water and sanitation projects, preferring instead to provide finance for more short term programs, a recent Indonesian conference has heard.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed a UN health conference in Melbourne by videolink which concluded yesterday saying countries were falling short of some of their health goals with women's and children's health the main focus.
Melbourne youth workers are calling on the Brumby government to release a long-overdue policy framework that would bolster supports for vulnerable young people
Greens' candidate for the seat of Macquarie Carmel McCallum talks to theangle's Rich Bowden about her chances of victory in the western Sydney/Blue Mountains seat, the issues that most concern voters and her opinion of the strength of the asylum seeker issue.
An Australian study has found family financial pressures increase the likelihood of physical abuse on women.
While water activists and environmentalists have hailed the recent decision by the UN General Assembly to grant access to safe water and adequate sanitation as a human right, Australia and New Zealand followed the United States, Canada and the UK in abstaining from the vote.
Reading back over my very first article for theangle.org it's interesting to note the changes (or lack of them) to Australia’s policies regarding treatment of asylum seekers.
The release of a list containing more than 80 of Australia's most dangerous pesticides, many of which are banned overseas, has raised questions of the effectiveness of Australia's regulatory system.
ADB Assistant Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang, editor of a new book on inequality and inclusive growth in Asia, says rising growth rates in Asia have masked rising inequality, leading to two faces of Asia - one shining and the other suffering.
when you look at the statistic that refugee and humanitarian visas make up just 0.03 percent of all visas granted last year, you wonder why this issue has become so politicized and such a sticky policy issue leading into the election.
A study conducted by the University of Melbourne has found professional women with young families are leaving the workforce at an alarming rate.
The Australian Government has signalled its intention to assist the development of its near neighbours' water infrastructure funding a multi-million dollar program to improve people's access to an adequate water supply and sanitation facilities.
In a conference with ramifications in the Asia Pacific region, USAID administrator Rajiv Shah has called on the UN's World Food Program to show leadership in the global battle against hunger.
The Australian Greens have given their support to a legal action brought by traditional landowners around Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory over the siting of a proposed radioactive waste dump, saying the federal Government had acted incorrectly in its attempts to resolve the matter.
The Australian Greens have called for better water monitoring methods to be implemented in the wake of allegations that contamination of creek systems has occurred near the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory.
By Sue Pennicuik and Bob Hale: ‘Fair Share’ was the theme of the second Asia Pacific Greens Network Congress (APGN), hosted by the Green Party Taiwan and Taiwan Friends of the Global Greens, that we attended on the weekend of 30 April – 2 May. It was a huge effort for the small group...
A UN-sponsored report has listed nine recommendations for world Governments and NGOs to reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on sanitation.
Environmental NGO WWF has called on Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke and State ministers to fix the country's national pesticides authority when they meet at a conference in Darwin tomorrow.
The Victorian and NSW premiers have agreed to the Commonwealth health care reform package after another day of tight negotiations in Canberra. The announcement leaves WA as the sole holdout against the deal.
An international health expert has said the Australian diet has changed for the worse over the last twenty years and now rivals the American diet as one of the worst in the world.
A growing population and increasing industrialisation have been listed as the chief threats to water supply in the Asia Pacific, according to a UN-sponsored report released last month.
By Fausto Belo Ximenes: I do agree to a certain degree that the support from the international community has been very limited. Yet it is paramount importance to understand the nature of the so-called international community and to what extent it could be influential in the world politics. The international community functions largely [if...
Sanitation uptake in developing countries can be improved using a more innovative and market-based approach, recent research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has claimed.
By Rich Bowden: Green parties across Australia have offered support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s planned multi-billion Commonwealth takeover of the country’s public hospitals, though have called for a universal dental scheme to be included. Greens Health Spokesperson Rachel Siewert promised that her party would be carefully “…scrutinising the detail of the Prime Minister’s...
By Rich Bowden: Research into schizophrenia received a boost this week with the unveiling of a new database containing information to help researchers treat the condition. The database which was collected by eResearch company Intersect, is being made available through the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank, according to a University of Newcastle news release. The...
By Rich Bowden: An Australian study has found that simple advice recommended to treat back pain is often not received with patients being referred to unnecessary and expensive treatment. Research carried out by the Sydney-based health non-profit organisation The George Institute has discovered that advice for the best treatment for back pain, including to...
By Rich Bowden: More than twenty percent of the five thousand children who die every year in East Timor, do so through preventable diseases caused by poor sanitation and drinking unclean water, according to a new supplementary report released by aid agency WaterAid Australia. The NGO said despite poor or non-existent sanitation facilities being...
By Damian Baker: The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project is the biggest of its type in the history of PNG. Oil was found in the southern highlands 20 years ago but gas has emerged as the energy hope for the future. An Australian company, Oil Search, is in the process of developing its gas...
theangle.org's Damian Baker previews his next assignment in the eastern Highlands town of Kainantu.
The Australian Government has acknowledged the risks to Australian teenagers' health and wellbeing in a report released today.
Lae city in Papua New Guinea’s eastern Morobe Province is struggling to cope with another outbreak of cholera.
Developed Pacific countries such as Australia should do more to help combat the "horrific" maternal health crisis in PNG.
Hundreds of people in PNG have been reported killed and thousands infected by cholera, dysentery and influenza.
Australian public health reports have found a worrying rise in HIV and other STDs among the country's Indigenous people, injecting drug users and men who have sex with other men.
An OECD report on the welfare of children in member countries has found New Zealand to have the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world.
UNAIDS Director Michel Sidibé has underlined the stigma that faces AIDS sufferers and HIV activists in the Asia Pacific.
