The Victorian Labor Party has gone on a propaganda offensive against the Greens, accusing them of selling out on nuclear issues and taking away Victorians聮 right to protest against nuclear reactors. Large posters have been put up and pamphlets will be sent to households in the four lower-house seats where the Greens pose the most direct challenge to the ALP.
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Australia聮s highest-paid boss, Macquarie Bank chief executive officer Allan Moss, has pocketed a 57% pay rise, now taking home more than double an average worker聮s yearly wage for one day at the office. In a day, he earns more than most workers get in a year.
May 27 marks the 40th anniversary of the overwhelming victory of the 1967 referendum, in which almost 91% of the Australian people voted to give the federal government the constitutional power to override the brutal, degrading racist laws of the states under which Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were tormented. The federal government now had the power to make specific laws in respect to the Indigenous people. The Australian people had sent a clear signal that it was time for Canberra to make laws, introduce programs and provide the necessary resources to end the racial oppression of Indigenous Australians.
The 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights 聴 in which more than 90% voted in favour of including Aboriginal people in the census and giving the federal government the power to override racist state laws and legislate for Aboriginal people 聴 has 聯enormous importance for Aboriginal people and our struggle聰, Queensland Indigenous leader Sam Watson told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
Some 250 people heard from Terry Hicks, father of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, at a May 19 public meeting organised by the Stop the War Coalition. The meeting was also addressed by academic Tim Anderson, Omar Merhi (brother of one of the Muslim men being held in Barwon Prison accused of being terrorists) and STWC聮s Anna Samson. Responding to a suggestion at a media conference before the meeting that one of Australia聮s 聭most notorious criminals聮 would soon be coming home from Guantanamo, Terry Hicks commented that one of Australia聮s most notorious criminals would soon be 聭dis-elected聮.
On May 17, a candlelight vigil was held in in Taylor Square to mark International Day Against Homophobia. The vigil was organised by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) Network of Amnesty International and Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) and called for the immediate release of Ali Humayun, a gay refugee from Pakistan who has been held in the Villawood immigration detention centre for more than two years.
On May 29, an unpredictable drama will begin. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock will try to overcome a series of embarrassing blunders by the entire Australian chain of command at the joint Australia-US Pine Gap spy base in the Northern Territory, and four activists will face trial in Alice Springs for entering a prohibited site.
Packer protest trial
I have serious doubts about the results of the Packer protest trial ("Charges against Packer protesters dismissed", GLW #707). While I appreciate the support of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties (CCL), and the lawyers who
The Wilderness Society (TWS) has taken Malcolm Turnbull, the federal environment minister, and logging giant Gunns Ltd to court in an attempt to stop a pulp mill being built in Tasmania聮s Tamar Valley.
Thousands of Palestinians joined rallies on May 15 throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories to mark the 59th anniversary of al Nakba (聯The Catastrophe聰) 聴 the establishment of the State of Israel and the consequent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes 聴 as renewed fighting took place between Fatah and Hamas.
On May 7, New Matilda published an article by Antony Loewenstein, titled , in which he reports on his impressions of Cuba. Loewenstein describes Cuba as a 鈥減olice state鈥 with 鈥渘o freedom of speech鈥. He takes issue with Australian academic, Tim Anderson whom, he wrote, 鈥渙ught to know better鈥 for arguing that Cuba has more democracy than the US, (see ). Below is Anderson鈥檚 reply to Loewenstein鈥檚 article.
The following letter was sent by 91自拍论坛 Weekly on May 16 to the editor of the Australia/Israel Review, the journal of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council.
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