Monica Feria-Tinta: ‘You can't separate humans from nature'
The Peruvian barrister has been a pioneer in the 'quiet revolution' over the past decade as ordinary people have turned to the courts to fight the damage done to 'power western civilisation' at the expense of the natural world.
Feria-Tinta has represented indigenous people from the Torres Strait against the government of Australia in a precedent-setting case in which a court ruled that state failings on the climate crisis violated their human rights. And the barrister has represented rivers, a cloud forest and endangered species, becoming what she calls herself in the title of her recently published book, A Barrister for
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The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
The right to peaceful protest must be maintained
Andy Beckett is right that 'the legally safe space for protest in Britain is shrinking again' (Anger, fear and a total rejection of politics: the Palestine Action protest was a snapshot of Britain today, 11 August). Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, might consider this as she ponders why so many ordinary people, not previously political activists, are volunteering for arrest as terrorist sympathisers. The proscription of Palestine Action sits among egregious violations of international law. People outraged by atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank are dismayed at the continued prevarications of our government. This is one motivation for those seated terrorists. However, there is another – the relentless attack on our civil liberties. This did not begin with Keir Starmer's government, but it has doubled down on suppressing freedoms with renewed zeal. When the Terrorism Act (under which Palestine Action was proscribed) was debated in 1999, it was acknowledged: 'We will have handed the terrorists the victory that they seek if … we descend to their level and undermine the essential freedoms and rule of law that are the bedrock of our democracy.' This was the then home secretary, Jack Straw. He reassured the Commons that the bill was 'not intended to threaten in any way the right to demonstrate peacefully – nor will it do so'. Never would a British government misuse the huge power it was being given. More than 700 arrests for supporting Palestine Action testify to his error. Not-so-ordinary people are risking jail sentences, travel restrictions, asset confiscation and ruined employment prospects. They are outraged at Gaza, but also outraged to see counter-terror legislation pressed into supporting a morally moribund government. Dr David KillickKendal, Cumbria Andy Beckett's account of his sortie into the recent London demonstration in support of Palestine, and reports of the rightwing protest groups gathering outside hotels housing asylum seekers, are both indicators that few people now have a sense that Keir Starmer's Britain reflects their views or priorities. As well as in London, people here in Derbyshire and other towns around the country gathered to express their frustration with our politicians' response to some of their deepest concerns. We have become a country without a shared agreement on what constitutes right or wrong, on what is an acceptable form of dissent, or on what constitutes the real threats to the survival of our democratic freedoms. This government thrashes about desperately trying to make sense of the events happening all around it and making ill-judged knee-jerk responses that provoke even more hostility. It seems unable to articulate a narrative that will help people feel heard, or which can help foster a sense of social cohesion. The UK has become a country devoid of spiritual, moral and political leadership. The threats from without and within are beginning to fray the very fabric that once held everything together. The critical task for this government now is how it is going to heal and unite this fractured, divided country before it heads into yet further chaos and conflict and everything begins to fall RiddleWirksworth, Derbyshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
Young Australians may endure worse lives than their parents, ‘worried' productivity chief warns
Young Australians may endure worse lives than their parents, the nation's productivity chief has warned. Danielle Wood, chair of the productivity commission, said young people are facing a future of lower wages, increased costs and the impacts of climate breakdown without major government action to tackle major economic challenges. Wood also urged the government to not put new regulations on AI, claiming existing rules on fraud, safety and discrimination are already sufficient – an argument running counter to human rights experts and unions calling for greater protections against abuse and for workers. On the eve of the Albanese government's economic reform summit, with its key focus on productivity, Wood will address the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday. She said Australia must adopt a 'growth mindset' and boost productivity to solve looming problems for future generations, saying it was 'the only way to sustainably lift wages and opportunities over time'. 'Overwhelmingly, young people today believe they won't live better lives than their parents did. As chair of the Productivity Commission, I'm worried too,' Wood will tell the Press Club, according to a speech notes released ahead of the address. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Wood's speech blames recent Australian governments for key challenges facing young people, pointing to 'policy choices' for house prices growing faster than incomes, and claiming politicians have 'for so long avoided the lowest cost policy choices' in dealing with climate change. Wood will say that productivity comes from better skills and training, new technologies, and policy settings making it easier to switch jobs or run a business. The commission has, in the lead up to the roundtable, released several major reports suggesting changes to tax settings, workforce issues and training, and technology among others. Amid criticism of the summit before it had even been held, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, maintained the exercise had already been a success, claiming it had helped focus Australians' attention on productivity and the economic challenges faced by the government. A YouGov survey of 1,500 people, conducted for community organisation Amplify, last week found 73% of Australians either did not know or were unsure about the summit, and only 29% were confident it would lead to meaningful change. Around two-thirds of people surveyed believed productivity increases would mean people had to work harder, with the benefits going to bosses, but the same percentage believed it would lead to more job opportunities. 'We've focused the country on the productivity challenge. We've gotten people accustomed to dealing with the economic and fiscal trade‑offs that governments deal with every day,' Chalmers said on Sunday. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Among the key issues to be discussed through the roundtable is AI. Business and tech groups have urged the government to embrace a light-touch approach to legislating it, saying over-regulation could stunt the productivity benefits associated with the new technology. The government is still debating how best to respond to AI, with a diversity of views among Labor voices. The former industry minister Ed Husic had set out plans for a standalone AI act to regulate the field, while the new minister, Tim Ayres, has spoken about regulation and legislation among plans still to be decided. It is unclear what Labor will settle on. The commission has set out proposals for how tech, including AI, could be regulated and treated in Australia, suggesting it could add up to $116bn to Australia's GDP. However, the commission was strongly criticised last week for suggesting big tech companies be allowed to mine Australian copyright content – including music, literature, art and journalism – to train their AI models, an idea advanced by the Tech Council of Australia and its chair, the Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquharson. The Tech Council on Monday released its submission to the roundtable, where it again called for 'copyright reform' including 'narrowly tailored text‑and‑data‑mining exceptions and increased access to high‑quality Australian datasets' to help train AI models. 'Australia's current copyright frameworks are restricting frontier AI innovation. Training foundation models depends on text and data mining,' the submission read. Wood's speech notes contain no repeat of the PC's controversial suggestion for a copyright carveout, but she will again call on the government to not over-regulate AI. 'While managing the risks is important, we do not think that a new and overarching regulatory framework for AI is the way to go. That's because the risks posed by AI are mainly existing risks,' she will say. 'AI may make it cheaper, easier and faster for bad actors to create harms, but most of these harms – from product safety, to discrimination, to fraud – are already covered by regulatory frameworks.'
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
The roundtable is a test of Labor's courage and vision. Will it rise to the occasion?
Remember when governments took bold steps – deregulating the dollar, introducing the GST, freeing up trade and rolling out the NDIS? Not any more, even though the need is greater than ever. Treasury explicitly advised Jim Chalmers in its post-election advice that the budget settings are 'unsustainable', that personal and company tax are too high and that 'indirect taxes' are a solution for reform. Addressing the intergenerational inequity in our tax system requires courage and vision. At this rate, we will be passing on a lower standard of living, diminished health and education outcomes, and a degraded environment to younger Australians. The most recent federal election was defined by embarrassing small-mindedness from the major parties – promises of $7 off your weekly fuel bill or a $5 tax cut. These are not serious solutions to the structural challenges we face. When you combine these small target strategies with the increasing need to show an electoral 'mandate' before tackling any policy issue, how will we ever address the big challenges? Sign up: AU Breaking News email There are two schools of thought about how reform happens: one argues that it requires a strong majority government; the other believes it will take a minority government pushed by a principled crossbench. The fact that overall support for the major parties fell again with 33.6% of voters supporting community independent or minor party candidates demonstrates increasing frustration at the major parties' unwillingness to confront Australia's long-term challenges. The election of independents to the crossbench was driven by two decades of gridlock on economic reform, coupled with a lack of a coherent approach to climate change mitigation. During the 2022 election campaign and immediately after, I spoke of the urgent need for broad tax reform. In the last parliament, I raised this issue in the house 10 times. Allegra Spender spoke about it 21 times. The major parties avoided the topic entirely. I was heartened by the treasurer's decision to expand the agenda for the economic reform roundtable to include tax reform. Could this be the moment when the government finally confronts the structural challenges in our budget and the demographic shifts ahead? It was refreshing to hear the treasurer push back against the 'rule in, rule out' game that has stifled meaningful debate for years. But unfortunately, the prime minister is managing our expectations down to tinkering. The case for tax reform is compelling and GST provides an opportunity. Our current tax system disproportionately burdens younger Australians. Bracket creep – the stealthy tax increase on workers – is our only plan for addressing the deficit. We need to explore alternatives with productivity in mind. The economist Chris Murphy has shown that, per extra dollar of revenue raised, the GST causes the least economic harm, followed by personal income tax, and then company tax. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Yet our GST is among the narrowest and lowest in the OECD. It applies to just 7.5% of the economy, compared to an OECD average of over 11%, and its rate is half the OECD average. Broadening the base and increasing the rate could allow us to shift the tax burden from those who work to those who spend. In anticipation of the roundtable, the economist Richard Holden and I revisited our 2023 work and asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to model a 'progressive GST' – a way to relieve pressure on personal income tax while protecting low and middle-income earners. Under our model, the GST rate would increase to 15% and exemptions would be removed. To ensure equity, every Australian adult would receive a $3,300 annual payment, effectively making the first $22,000 of spending GST-free. PBO modelling shows that this could leave the bottom 60% of income earners better off, even before accounting for the personal income tax cuts enabled by the additional $24bn in revenue. This is the test. The Labor government has a 19-seat majority. If a comfortable margin is truly a prerequisite for reform, now is the time to act. If we see no action now and the major parties decide an electoral mandate is required, they are now on notice. The voters are on to you. You have three years to build community support for a bold and viable plan to fix our tax system. Any party that wants to be taken seriously as a contender for government in 2028 must come to the election with a tax plan that is fair, future-focused, and fit for the demographic changes ahead. The small target game is over. Australians are ready for courageous action to secure a prosperous future for our children. Kate Chaney is the independent member for Curtin
