For many people, gambling merely fulfils a short-term desire to be entertained. Yet for an estimated 2.3% of Australian adults, it has become a compulsion; an uncontrollable addiction which largely affects their personal, social and financial life.
Over the past decade, the gambling industry in Australia has expanded significantly.
Currently, every state and territory within Australia has at least one casino operating within its jurisdiction, offering various gambling options, including poker and gaming machines, to anyone over the legal age of 18.
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Middle East Rebellions and Royal Weddings
While I think the world certainly needs good news stories, I am astounded at the focus of media attention on the wedding of one couple in England when there are truly amazing and historic scenes happening in our world that are real good news stories.
From Libya and Tunisia in North Africa to Syria, Yemen and Bahrain in the Middle East earth shattering events are taking place, that are not only powerfully transforming the region politically, but also are having a profound social and cultural impact there and elsewhere.
"Another Australia is Possible" was the main theme of the Socialist Alliance Queensland State Conference, held on Saturday April 16 in the Brisbane Activist Centre.
A feature panel, 鈥淔ighting for Another Australia鈥, included presentations from Murri community leader Sam Watson, Sri Lankan human rights activist Dr Brian Senewiratne, socialist educationalist and writer Gary MacLennan, and Socialist Alliance national executive member Lisa Macdonald.
The NATO attack on Libya was debated at a meeting sponsored by the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law in Melbourne on April 20.
Don Rothwell, a law professor at the Australian National University, argued that the intervention is consistent with the doctrine of "responsibility to protect".
This doctrine, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, endorses outside intervention to protect people from genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes carried out by their own government.
Pablo Solon, Bolivia鈥檚 permanent representative to the United Nations, made the speech below at an April 20 session of the UN general assembly.
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Victor Hugo, the author of Les Miserables, once wrote: 鈥淗ow sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn鈥檛 listen.鈥
We are here today to attempt to have a dialogue not just among states, but also with nature. Although we often forget it, human beings are a force in nature.
Two years ago, a war without witness was executed by the state against the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka.
In September 2008, after ordering all United Nations personnel, non-government organisations and media out of the Vanni region, the Sri Lankan government embarked on a vicious military campaign.
While it informed the world it was fighting the Tamil Tiger rebels and was following a 鈥渮ero civilian casualty鈥 policy, photographs, video footage and phone conversations with our relatives in the war zone told us a different story.
The family of an Aboriginal man, Herbert Mitchell, who died after being taken to Townsville鈥檚 police watchhouse on April 18, is calling for answers from the current police investigation and coroner's report.
Aboriginal activist and Townsville resident Gracelyn Smallwood said: 鈥淭he Mitchell family is in a state of shock and mourning at the sudden and unexpected death of their family member.
鈥淭he family has no clear information except that he was picked up by police for public drunkenness and within four hours he was on life support in hospital.鈥
Aboriginal elders at Muckaty, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, have called for a weekend of protest in Tennant Creek on May 7 and 8 against the federal government鈥檚 plan to build a radioactive waste dump in the area.
Australian author and commentator Clive Hamilton gave the speech below to Australia鈥檚 Climate Action Summit, held in Melbourne on April 9.
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The difficulty and importance of the global warming campaign is many times greater than every other environmental struggle. Controlling carbon pollution requires a wholesale industrial restructuring and defeat of the most powerful industry coalition ever assembled.
Long-time Perth activist, Communist Party of Australia leader, World War II veteran and retired waterside worker Vic Williams died on April 19, aged 96.
Born on June 28, 1914, Vic joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1939 and was one of its leading members in Western Australia until it split over the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
After running a Google news search on Marrickville+BDS on April 18, I spent a half hour looking at just under 30 articles published over the past seven days on Marrickville council鈥檚 position of support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
I looked at every result published by a major news website (news.com.au, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Age, ABC) and omitted articles that contained duplicate AAP copy.
A 91自拍论坛 Weekly Culture of Resistance dinner, taking place in Sydney鈥檚 west on May 28, will pay homage to the people's power movements in the Arab world.
Each succulent dish served will be from a country in revolt, and speakers at the frontline from Egypt, Palestine and from Jews Against the Occupation will address the event.
Revolutionary Arabic band, Al-Salam (which means peace in Arabic) will perform on the night. Band member Samir Maarbani said: 鈥淎l-Salam is a group established during the Lebanese civil war in 1981 and has expanded into all kinds of musical arts.
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