The mouse that roared

Shanahan, M. (1990) The mouse that roared. The Sunday Express, 6 May 1990. p. 11 [Publication] [Special Collections]

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Summary

Newspaper article by Michael Shanahan.

Gives the political context for a major court case filed against Australia by Nauru. Nauru claims the island was decimated by mineral exploitation for the profit of Australia, destroying the landscape and accelerating environmental degradation. As such, the case would see the Australian Government pay for a complete recovery effort to restore the natural landscape.

Explores the opposition to the Nauruan's case, with key arguments being the concentrated wealth amassed by Nauru as a result of the mining industry and that Western governments honoured Nauru's independence in the 1960's.

While a case had only been filed against Australia at the time the article was published, there was the implication that Nauru was going to file against the United Stated and United Kingdom for environmental degradation causes.

This article contains a diagram of Nauru in relation to Australia. There are three photographs: a fisherman landing a canoe near a phosphate quay; the moonscape left behind in the atoll after decades of phosphate mining and the back of a Nauruan person.

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This article is part of the WISALTS (Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment Society Incorporated) Collection.

Item Type:	Special Collections
Collection:	WISALTS Collection
Copyright:	©1990 The Sunday Express
Notes:	1 newspaper clipping
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/55667

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