BRISBANE -- Criminal lawyers planned to picket the Brisbane Police Watch-house in the week beginning June 6 in protest at prisoner treatment and overcrowding. Picket organiser Peter Russo said that the unprecedented action by lawyers was born of frustration. Lawyers were fed up with their clients being packed like sardines into unhealthy, cramped cells. Although the state government had promised long-term solutions to overcrowding, the problem had become a crisis, and urgent temporary accommodation was needed.
HOBART -- “Dykes and Poofs: Campaigning for lesbian and gay rights in Tasmania” was the title of a politics in the pub held at Round Midnight on May 26. Speakers were Jason Rostant and Lavinia Savell, from the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, Jen Crothers from the Democratic Socialist Party, which organised the forum, and Robert Jarman, a gay actor and artist.
PERTH -- People opposing redevelopment of the old Swan Brewery gathered at the site last week to celebrate after a court decision stopped the development being issued with liquor licences. Judge Rodney Greaves found in favour of the protesters, because of the area's religious significance to Aboriginal people. Developer Bluegate Nominees (a subsidiary of Multiplex) is still considering whether to appeal.
- A video and discussion night on West Papua at the Perth Environment Centre on May 30 heard a Free Papua Movement member give a brief history of the murder, torture and oppression of the West Papua people since the Indonesian takeover. Videos One People, One Soul and Rebels of the Forgotten World were shown.
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