News briefs

News briefs

Abortion charges dropped

PERTH — Six months ago, Dr Victor Chan and Dr Hoh Peng Lee were charged under WA's Criminal Code for performing an abortion. They faced 14 years in jail. On July 30, the Director of Public Prosecutions, John McKechnie, dropped the charges.

Pro-choice campaigners had been expecting the charges to be dropped after the law change in May which expanded some of the parameters for a legal abortion. Pursuing this case would have inflamed the issue, which had already sparked a campaign to repeal anti-abortion laws.

One Nation supports unfair dismissal

On July 14, One Nation spokesperson David Oldfield said that if One Nation won the balance of power in the next federal election, it would support the Coalition's attempt to exempt small businesses from unfair dismissal laws. The legislation has twice been rejected by the Senate.

Oldfield said, "We think that the [current] unfair dismissal laws are not correct in the case of very small business where people have to be able to get along with each other". Millions of workers would lose any kind of employment security if the government and One Nation got away with this change.

Oldfield also said One Nation would "take a generally moderate view" on any second wave of industrial reforms put to it by the government after the election.

From GLW issue 327