News briefs #3

#3

SIEV X book launched

BRISBANE — The story of SIEV X, the unseaworthy, overcrowded refugee boat that sank in October 2001, drowning some 350 asylum-seekers off the Indonesian coast, involves a "massive Australian government agency cover-up", author Tony Kevin told an audience of 100 people at the Powerhouse on September 9.

The launch of Kevin's book, A Certain Maritime Incident: The sinking of SIEV X, was sponsored by the Refugee Action Collective and Avid Reader bookshop.

Kevin described his "implacable determination to get to the bottom of this story", stating: "If it takes John Howard to the International Criminal Court, then I'll get him there."

Jim McIlroy

Survey confirms opposition to logging

HOBART — A survey commissioned by Planet Ark, released on September 10, found that 88% of Australians and 79% of Tasmanians want an end to logging in old-growth forests. This confirms similar results obtained in a January Newspoll.

The Planet Ark poll also found that 84% of Australians (77% in Tasmania) supported an end to the use of 1080 poison to kill native animals (as part of "forest regeneration"). In August, the Tasmanian government announced that 97,000 animals were killed by 1080 last year.

Alex Bainbridge

From Green Left Weekly, September 15, 2004.

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From GLW issue 598