As Australia acquiesces in the United States' latest disastrous, illegal war, the Greens last week introduced a bill which would require both houses of parliament to vote before our troops can be sent overseas to engage in conflict. After one hour's debate, this was squashed by the Labor and Liberal parties, despite polls showing 90 per cent of Australians support war powers reform.

The Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy saw some remarkable public exchanges last week, with the propagators of planet-threatening fossil fuel misinformation confronting scientists in Canberra.

Another COP has concluded in Brazil, with petrostates and their corporate allies ripping up the global road map leading us away from fossil fuels, encouraged by the absence of the USA and with China failing to take the opportunity to step into the vacuum. President Lula's hope that the nearby presence of the lungs of the world (otherwise known as the Amazon) might focus the minds of attendees proved forlorn. The fire which broke out in the final days of negotiations said it all.