By Chris Taylor 17 March – The Forest Stewardship Council is becoming wedged in the middle of a battle between environmentalists and Australia’s largest paper manufacturer. The Wilderness Society launched its campaign in February against Australian... 
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By Lyn Drummond 16 March 2011 – A carbon tax could cut business costs according to Energetics founder and executive director, Jonathan Jutsen. While Mr Jutsen agrees that a carbon tax will increase business costs, the overall impact on  operations... 
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By Leon Gettler 9 March 2011 – The Liberals  in Victoria – and potentially soon in NSW – have both threatened a new wave of urban sprawl, but planners say there is an opportunity for a new planning body to push through urban consolidation. Either... 
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By Jane Jose 4 March 2011 – It’s been a summer to remember. A summer that saw Queensland go from beautiful one day, perfect the next, to disaster for the next few weeks. Speaking with characteristic calm and control we heard from the Queensland Premier,... 
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3 February 2011 – The fossil fuel industry receives a whacking huge $10 billion a year or more in subsidies. And these subsidies are firm and solid – built into the tax system as automatic deductions or rebates or exemptions for taxpayers, corporate... 
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3 March 2011 – A new report from Consult Australia has called for the integration of existing fragmented sustainability policies and programs. The report, Seizing the Sustainability Advantage, would be used to drive practical action by governments to... 
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2 March 2011 – The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council this week called  for a federal minister and department for cities and urban development to meet the nation’s urban challenges. Speaking at the Green Cities 2011 conference in... 
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By Tina Perinotto 25 February 2011 –UPDATED – The Australian Financial Review today said in its editorial that it was time to “stop playing political games” with the carbon price issue., despite the ructions its introduction was bound... 
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By Tina Perinotto 16 February 2011 – The Total Environment Centre on Wednesday called on government to embrace energy efficiency along with a carbon price, after reports in Fairfax newspapers said some energy efficiency schemes had wasted billions of... 
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By Michael Mobbs 17 February 2011 – Australia’s councils are perhaps the most ignorant and contemptuous of indigenous culture of any part of our society. Councils manifest their damaged psyche unintentionally in their development approvals every... 
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By Tina Perinotto 10 February 2011 –The federal government today launched its promised Climate Commission, appointing leading scientist and climate change activist Tim Flannery as its chief commissioner. It has given the commission wide power to... 
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By Tina Perinotto 9 February 2011 – Australia is way off course on its hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions, making a carbon price and other measures essential, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet said Read More >... 
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The war is over: prepare for battle By Tina Perinotto 4 February 2011 – So the climate change argument from Canberra has changed from a moral one to an economic one .  Good. Money speaks loudest in high places. In any case, the moral argument,... 
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28 January 2011 – The federal government should fund the flood recovery program by ending fossil fuel tax breaks and subsidies that cost the Australia taxpayer $5 billion a year and go mostly to the pockets of the mining industry, the Australian... 
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28 January 2011 – An Australian solar hot water supplier has reassured consumers that the cuts to green programs announced on Thursday to help pay for the Queensland  floods will not affect the federal government’s solar hot water rebates. National... 
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27 January 2011 –The Government will spend $5.6 billion to rebuild flood-affected regions across Australia, PM Julia Gillard announced today. The funds will be delivered through a one year levy on people earning more than $50 000, abolishing certain... 
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From Climate Spectator – 23 January 2011 – It seems that governments everywhere are continuing to grossly underestimate the enthusiasm for rooftop solar. The NSW government has been so overwhelmed by applications to install rooftop solar... 
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By Leon Gettler Special report:  21 January 2011 – With more extreme weather events expected, the Queensland flood crisis could represent the “new normal” that will challenge the property market. Experts have told The Fifth Estate that planning... 
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By Tina Perinotto 21 January 2011 – The federal government has released a consultation paper on the tax breaks for green buildings program which will be worth up to $1 billion. It has even provided a handy set of questions as a starting point for... 
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By Tina Perinotto 23 January 2011 – Adelaide might have ranked best city in Australia to live and Sydney worst in a wide-ranging survey from the Property Council of Australia but among some controversial findings was encouraging strong support... 
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21 January 2011 – The Gold Coast City Council said on Friday that its Hinze Dam was “good planning” and would help protect the city from floods, as it released what it said were among Australia’s most sophisticated flood maps. The... 
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By Lyn Drummond 19 January 2011 – Architects will propose to the Queensland government that building design be considered in its terms of reference for its Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland floods, as industry bodies respond to the crisis. According... 
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By Tina Perinotto 2 December 2010 – The federal government yesterday released the most important document in national urban planning since the Whitlam years – a discussion paper on options for how to manage growth and sustainability for Australia’s... 
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15 December 2010 - Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet today released new maps produced in partnership with the Co-operative Research Centre for Spatial Information that identify the impacts of rising sea levels on low-lying areas in Melbourne,... 
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22 December 2010 – The Federal Government on Tuesday scrapped the Green Start program and instead extended until the end of February the Green Loans Scheme it was intended to replace. The program was to provide energy assessments to assist households... 
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21 December 2010 - The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has released its sustainable population issues paper for comment. The paper, A Sustainable Population Strategy for Australia, includes reports from the... 
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By Joel Quintal 20 December 2010 – Australia is consistently referred to as one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment. However, green buildings come at a price and when is the Australian acceptance of “green” going to pay... 
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13 December 2010 - [Updated] Cancun is over. Was Cop 16 a success? Here are the views of a few leading players and observers: Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet Mr Combet said the main points of the outcome at the United Nations Climate Change... 
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By Tina Perinotto 12 December 2010 - A raft of built environment organisations, professionals, academics and corporations has signed an open letter to call for bi-partisan support for urban policy, in the hope that political rivalries will not kill... 
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By Marcus Spiller 10 December 2010 – One of our assignments as town planning students at Melbourne University in the 70s challenged us to devise a strategy to put “urban policy on the front pages of the newspapers.” It was the time... 
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