Brown's seat safe
HOBART — On June 14, Australian Greens Senator-elect Bob Brown was found guilty of "wilful obstruction" of police during a protest late last year against the construction of the west coast link road through the Tarkine wilderness. Wilderness Society campaign director Kevin Parker was also convicted.
Application of the maximum penalty for this offence — one year in prison — would have jeopardised Brown's Senate seat. The sentence handed down, however, was a $200 fine plus court costs. According to Brown, it is the Tasmanian government (which wasted $34 million on the road) and several federal governments which should be in the dock.
Amnesty slams black deaths record
Australia has been condemned by Amnesty International in its annual report, released on June 18, for the number of Aboriginal deaths in custody in the past year. The report says the number of deaths was disproportionately high.Twenty-one Aborigines died in custody or during police operations in 1995, the highest number in a single year since records began in 1980.
The report stated: "Although indigenous people make up only 1.3% of the total adult population over 14 years of age, they accounted for at least 24% of custody-related deaths and more than 14% of the prison population".
Police raid RMIT
MELBOURNE — Six police raided Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology TV on June 18, searching for evidence in relation to an anti-voluntary student unionism demonstration held at La Trobe University on May 8. According to one RMIT student, the police were searching for a "field video" of the La Trobe demonstration in the hope of finding footage of events during the occupation of the council chambers on that day. Unfortunately for the police, no footage was taken during the occupation, and the field tape of the day had already been used for another project.