Hamish Chitts

  • Palm Island: Lex Wotton speaks

    Lex Wotton has been portrayed by the Queensland police, government and mainstream media as the ringleader of the so-called “riot” that occurred on Palm Island on November 26, 2004. A police station and residence were destroyed after a police report on the death of community member Mulrunji Doomadgee that concluded that his death was an accident was read at a public meeting. Wotton will face court in April 2008. He continues to be vilified in the media. He spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Hamish Chitts.

  • Foster's workers walk off the job

    On October 5, 350 union members and their supporters marched through Fortitude Valley to rally at a park in the north Brisbane suburb of New Farm to protest the refusal of Foster’s Yatala brewery to negotiate with unions over the latest pay agreement.

  • Foster's refuses union agreement

    Around 30 workers and supporters rallied outside Foster’s Queensland marketing headquarters in Fortitude Valley on August 9. Foster’s is still refusing to accept a union-backed collective agreement despite it being the choice of the majority of workers at the Yatala Brewery.

  • Oodgeroo honoured

    On June 1, around 150 people, including elders, family members, Noonuccal people of North Stradbroke Island and supporters of Aboriginal rights, gathered at Queensland University of Technology to pay tribute to Oodgeroo Noonuccal. This warrior woman’s life as poet, political activist, artist and educator was honoured with the inaugural public lecture and awarding of scholarships in her name.

  • Court allows Palm Islander to withdraw plea

    In a Brisbane court on May 25, Palm Island resident Lex Wotton was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in relation to riot charges, after Judge Phil Nase found that Wotton had been asked to plead illegally.

  • Australia's Indigenous health shame

    On April 2 the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Oxfam Australia published Close the Gap, a report highlighting the shameful state of Indigenous health in Australia. The report ranked Australia as the worst at improving the health of indigenous people compared with other wealthy nations.

  • Jury clears four Palm Islanders of 'rioting'

    Scenes of joy and relief erupted outside the Brisbane courts complex on March 21 after a Supreme Court jury cleared four Palm Islanders of charges of rioting causing destruction.

  • Modern day Dreamtime fable

    The Mack
    Written by Sam Watson
    Directed by Ian Brown
    Judith Wright Centre for the Performing Arts, Brisbane
    Until March 31
    For tickets & information phone (07) 3872 9000

  • Protests support David Hicks

    On March 2, the day that Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks was finally charged, activists in Geelong led a shackled and hooded figure through the city streets chanting “Free David Hicks!”

  • Community discusses Indigenous rights declaration

    One-hundred people gathered at Brisbane’s Riverside Centre on January 27 to discuss Indigenous self-determination and the United Nation’s draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is expected to be ratified this year.