No, I don't agree with Greenpeace's rather ridiculous criticism of the IAEA. I am not a fan of Greenpeace in general, and think they have rather lost their way - although I am not of a mind to throw out their many earlier achievements just because the organisation now raises serious concerns for many.

That notwithstanding, what a ridiculous straw man, to use the fact that Greenpeace is against nuclear power to dismiss all other concerns about a proliferation of nuclear power as a process; and worse, to dismiss serious questions about whether nuclear power can actually contribute significantly enough to reducing greenhouse emissions to be worth pursuing.

Let's go through some actual facts shall we?

Many of you, particularly Wes Clark supporters and admirers, would be familiar with the internet-based Win Back Respect campaign that raised millions and produced tv and internet ads againt Dubya, on the basis that the USA has to restore its international credibility to be able to fight the "war on terror". They formed one of the many excellent internet-based,  grass-roots progressive campaigns against Bush. You can check out some of their excellent ads if you haven't seen them already here

Other great campaign activities it funded and promoted was a speaking tour by Wes Clark, and the hired a charter plane for the "Band of Sisters", a group of female relatives of US soldiers killed or serving in Iraq, to chase Vice-President Dick Cheney on the campaign trail.

Well, now the team behind Win Back Respect have a new project in Australia, and you can help them. Read on for more.

In my last diary, I painted a brief picture of the major Industrial Relations changes the Howard Government intends to legislate.

This diary is long, as a result of going through those changes in detail, and offering some analysis in terms of the underlying factors and facts relating to these changes.

I don't apologise for the length, as this is without doubt the most major, fundamental restructuring of Australian working life proposed in probably 50 years. This is Howard's attempt to turn us into, once again, a cardboard cut-out of the US system, focussing on all the bad bits for individual workers, on breaking the back of the unions, and handing all the control to big business. It offers a nightmare vision that must be fought, and I fervently hope, denied.

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In the recent thread on setting up a "Commonwealth Tribune" or similar, I displayed a possibly unhealthy amount of enthusiasm with regard to contributing articles from an Australian/NZ/generally southern hemisphere perspective.

I figured in the interim it was time to get my butt in gear and start providing some diaries on what is happening in Australia & surrounds at present.

So, work permitting (and it continues to be frantic), I will be posting a series of diaries on key Australian issues and such.

First up: Industrial Relations reforms, the hot-ticket political item of the day, week, year and possibly 10 years. Read on for more.