The was commissioned by the Julia Gillard government in 2011 to make recommendations about funding for public education.
Helen Patterson
Women鈥檚 crisis shelters in New South Wales are in a state of upheaval. There are concerns that critical services are about to be shut down.
In inner-Sydney there will be no women鈥檚 only, specialist refuges operating in the near future. The New South Wales government鈥檚 鈥淕oing Home Staying Home鈥 reform plan will force at least in metropolitan Sydney 20 specialist women鈥檚 shelters to close so that more services in regional areas across the state can be opened.
Community group Save The Old Kings School (STOKS) held a protest in Parramatta in Sydney鈥檚 west on February 2 to demand the historic old Kings School site stay in public hands.
Local residents, STOKS activists and members of the Greens and Socialist Alliance attended the action.
The school site dates back to the early days of the colony. When the school relocated to North Parramatta in 1968, the site was sold to the NSW government. It has been unused for many years.
Threats of a military attack against Iran by the US and Israel have increased after new sanctions were imposed by the United Nations Security Council on June 9, under pressure from Washington.
On July 1, US President Barack Obama signed legislation passed by Congress in June that imposed new US unilateral sanctions targeting foreign companies that sell petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, to Iran. This would include producers, insurers and those involved in transportation.
An article posted at RAWA.org on March 10 by Marc W. Herold said that on February 27, the US/NATO forces occupying Afghanistan 鈥渒illed three people, including two children, in Alasai district of Kapisa province鈥.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, Republican President George W. Bush launched illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush enacted 鈥渁nti-terrorism鈥 policies under which people could be labelled 鈥渢error suspects鈥 without evidence and abducted, jailed and tortured in secret.
Under conditions of deepening recession, millions of working people went to the polls in the US on November 4 with the intention of voting for a change to the pro-corporate and pro-war policies of the Bush administration.