Rally hits Goss budget cuts

By Nathan Laurent

BRISBANE -- “We are not going to stop fighting until the cuts are stopped, until our education system improves, until students have some rights.” This was the message from high school student Dione Green to Queensland Premier Wayne Goss at a rally outside Parliament House on August 24.

The rally of over 300 people was in opposition to the Goss government's proposed budget cuts to the public sector.

Teaching student Joanne Chapman told the rally, “The government is slashing health, education and railways -- services which support ordinary people and provide job opportunities”.

She expressed anger particularly at the plan to scrap between 500 and 580 teaching positions. “Effectively, this means that class sizes will increase and kids' education will decline”, she said.

Other speakers at the rally included historian Ross Fitzgerald, Queensland Greens convenor Drew Hutton and Jimmy Jacko, a tribal elder from Starcke River in Cape York.

A broad range of groups, including Parents and Citizens Associations, the Freight Rail Action Group, The Wilderness Society and the Women's Abortion Campaign were represented at the demonstration, which follows statewide walkouts by students and industrial action by teachers.

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