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Pro-refugee Labor MPs should cross the floor

The released the statement below on September 13. * * * The Refugee Action Collective condemns Labor鈥檚 plan to try and change the Migration Act to make the Malaysian 鈥渟olution鈥 lawful in the wake of the High Court victory. We reiterate our demand to end all offshore processing. Asylum seekers should be processed on the mainland, in the community.

Refugees stage roof protest at Darwin detention centre

Five refugees staged a rooftop protest for a several hours at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre on September 15. The group carried banners reading: 鈥淲e need help鈥 and 鈥淧eople smugglers and [the Department of Immigration and Citizenship] are the same, both playing with our life.鈥 The refugees called for shorter processing times for their claims. One of the protesters said he was from Kuwait and had spent 16 months in detention. 鈥淚 am not the longest one here, either,鈥 he said.

Government should not pay Gunns millions, say protesters

Grassroot activist group released the statement below on September 15 to mark a protest outside forest company Gunns鈥 Launceston office that day. The previous day, Tasmanian premier Lara Giddings announced her government would give Gunns $23 million in return for the company agreeing to end the logging of native forests. Giddings also said she had cancelled Gunns鈥 $25 million debt to the state-owned Forestry Tasmania. * * * Forty protesters today staged a peaceful protest at Gunns Ltd鈥檚 Lindsay St office.

Katter to now walk backwards to Bourke? Protest outside Katter's Mt Isa office.

Right-wing independent federal MP Bob Katter is famously on record as saying he would 鈥渨alk backwards to Bourke鈥 if a gay community could be found living in his north Queensland electorate. A 70-strong protest for equal marriage rights outside Katter鈥檚 Mt Isa electorate office on September 11 showed that he does indeed have gay constituents. However, the MP has not made good his promise.

Order to not offer refugee food & water brings detention centre guard to tears

The Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network released the statement below on September 13. * * * A detention centre worker has contacted the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network (DASSAN) and indicated that a SERCO security guard was in tears as a result of a directive from the Department of Immigration following a hunger strike and rooftop protest at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC) in Darwin. An Afghan Hazara has been on the roof of South 1 compound for two days and has been on a hunger strike for a number of days before that.

Gillard鈥檚 refugee policy breaches ALP platform, say party dissidents

Gillard鈥檚 refugee policy breaches ALP platform, say dissidents Labor for Refugees (NSW) released the statement below on September 12. * * * Labor for Refugees (NSW) condemns the policy announced today by the Prime Minister that legislation will be pursued to overcome the High Court's rejection of the Malaysia deal. Labor for Refugees (NSW) calls on the Gillard government to comply with the unambiguous provisions of the ALP National Party Platform. Ms Gillard was one of many national delegates who voted unanimously in favour of the ALP National Platform in 2009.

Malalai Joya: occupiers never deliver democracy

Malalai Joya, dissident author and former member of the Afghan parliament, addressed a packed Marrickville Town Hall on September 9. More than 500 people braved the cold to hear Joya speak defiantly about the war waged on her country by US/NATO forces for the past decade. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which became the pretext for the invasion of Afghanistan less than a month later, Joya advocated for immediate removal of all occupying troops.

NSW gov't mismanaging rare Red Gum forest, says FoE

Friends of the Earth released the statement below on September 12. * * * The NSW government is mismanaging one of the Murray-Darling鈥檚 most significant wetlands, deciding last week to open up the Millewa section of the Murray Valley National Park to more firewood collection. "The Barmah-Millewa forest is an internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland, and the largest Red Gum forest left on Earth,鈥 said Friends of the Earth spokesperson Jonathan La Nauze.

Congo: Lumumba's US-backed murder -- 50 years on

Fifty years have passed since Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba fell victim to a US-Belgian murder plot. The killing of the Congo's first post-independence leader set the newly-independent central African country (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on a tragic course that has led to the horrors of today. The involvement of Western imperialist interests in this resource-rich region has been disastrous for its inhabitants from the outset. Under Belgian rule, which officially ended in 1960, the Congo became a byword for crimes against humanity.