Over the weekend the Federal Government unveiled its approach to tackling climate change, vowing to set a target for reducing global warming-causing gases in 2008, after the Federal election. Prime Minister John Howard also noted that a re-elected Coalition Government would aim to commence an emissions trading scheme by 2012. While business groups and some economists have welcomed the move as providing certainty to the market, other observers have claimed that action is needed now on climate change – as the phenomenon could pass the point of being able to be controlled by human activity in 2015.

This weekend marked the 15th anniversary of the High Court's decision in the Mabo case - a judgement that overturned the historic presumption of terra nullius and recognised for the first time under common law, that Australia's Indigenous peoples had entitlements to their traditional lands, according to their laws and customs. Anna Vidot discussd the impact of this landmark court case for all Australians with Ray Minniecon, the Director of the Aboriginal Crossroads Mission at Redfern in Sydney, and the President of the National Native Title Tribunal, Graeme Neate.

The South Australian Government has introduced new laws that will allow same-sex couples to be considered as de-facto partners. South Australia is the last of the states and territories in Australia to introduce such laws. The Wire spoke to Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes, who says that these changes have been a long time coming.

Despite the legalization of brothels in many states in Australia, sex workers still find themselves having to fight for basic rights like safety in the workforce and protection from community harassment. To put a spotlight on the perils of the profession, yesterday, the tourist crowds of Sydney Harbour’s Circular Quay were confronted by a parade of red-umbrella carrying, scarlet-clad men and women. Red Umbrella Day is an event organised by the Scarlet Alliance, a sex worker union, to celebrate International Whore’s Day.