Ben Courtice

  • 1000-strong meeting against Howard's 10-point plan

    1000-strong meeting against Howard's 10-point planMELBOURNE — One thousand people attended an educational meeting organised by Defenders of Native Title (DONT) on August 28. Speakers demystified the

  • Tax Office workers facing sack need support

    MELBOURNE — Management of the Australian Taxation Office has decided to make compulsorily redundant staff in INB Business Line, where there have not been enough volunteers for the redundancies that management wishes to

  • CPSU union activists run candidate

    CPSU union activists run candidateMembers First, an independent group of activists in the Tax Office section of the Community and Public Sector Union, is standing a candidate on the CPSU Challenge ticket in the union's

  • Strip mine in Tarkine

    Strip mine in TarkineHOBART — A mining lease has been granted for five hectares of land in the Tarkine wilderness in Tasmania's north-west, fulfilling environmentalists' predictions that the Tarkine road would open up the area

  • Tasmanian teachers restart wage claim

    HOBART — The Tasmanian branch of the Australian Education Union, having spent more than a year campaigning for a wage rise, has restarted negotiations under the new federal industrial relations legislation for a 22.26% rise.

  • Lessons of the Tarkine campaign

    HOBART — The environment movement was probably the biggest, most vibrant social movement of the 1980s and early 1990s. Many people became involved in environmental groups and campaigns. Half way through the next decade,

  • Tasmanian government plays divide and rule

    HOBART — The long-running wages campaign by Tasmanias non-nursing health workers has taken a bitter turn. On July 17, the state Liberal government announced a 5.5% pay rise for 20,000 public servants, but not for members of the

  • Tas health workers fight for social justice

    HOBART — Despite forcing the state government to the negotiating table on June 7, the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) has been unable to win any government concessions on their wage claim for public sector health

  • Hobart death in custody

    HOBART — On March 22, a 23-year-old man died in a police cell here. The death made headlines when, the next day, a "street gang" (his friends) went on what the local media described as a "rampage through city streets",

  • Anger at ship scuttling

    Anger at ship scuttlingHOBART — The wreck of the BHP ship Iron Baron on July 10, and the resultant slick of 300 tonnes of fuel oil off the north coast of Tasmania, is one the state's worst environmental

  • Anger at ship dumping

    @f24 = Anger at ship dumpingHOBART — The wreck of the BHP ship Iron Baron on July 10, and the resultant slick of 300 tonnes of fuel oil off the north coast of Tasmania, is one the state's worst environmental

  • Faulkner refuses to save the Tarkine

    Faulkner refuses to save the TarkineHOBART — On May 24, federal environment minister John Faulkner was met by about 20 protesters demanding that he take action to save the Tarkine wilderness. Faulkner, on his way to