Huon Valley Environment Centre last night participated in a peaceful action on the Hobart waterfront. Activists used a projector to place images and messages about Ta Ann on the side of a vessel that was in port loading veneer.
Australia
A May 10 rally against TAFE cuts announced in the Victorian budget attracted more than 2000 protesters in front of Premier Ted Baillieu’s office.
“Lock up Baillieu, throw away the key, we won’t stop until TAFE is free” was just one of chants the crowd roared. Lecturers, teachers, students, support staff, community groups, the Australian Education Union (AEU) and National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) joined forces to fight against the $300 million cutbacks.
Organisers of a Sydney Palestine solidarity protest — Commemorate Al-Nakba: Protest Against Israeli Apartheid! — released the statement below on May 12.
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NSW police initiated a Supreme Court action against the pro-Palestine Al-Nakba commemoration march to be held in Sydney on May 15. The police are seeking a court order prohibiting the public assembly and procession. Protest organisers state that they will not be intimidated and will defend the right to protest in court.
In a display of non-partisanship, Marrickville Council put the community first by voting unanimously to lock the gate on coal seam gas (CSG) mining on May 8.
Local stop coal seam gas activists urged councillors to prohibit a private waste disposal and recycling company — Alexandria Landfill — from being allowed to sub-contract its site in St Peters to a CSG miner for exploration and pilot drilling.
After protests against across-the-board staff cuts at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, a new major "restructuring" has been proposed for the School of Music.
The university has two music programs. It announced one would be cut while the other would undergo significant changes, focused on "professional development" and the "portfolio career" rather than the fostering of musical abilities.
About 40 unionists protested outside the annual meeting of mining giant Rio Tinto's board meeting on May 10 against the company's involvement in the London Olympic Games. Rio Tinto is manufacturing medals for the games.
At the same time, the mining corporation has staged a lock-out of 800 mine workers at the Alma smelter in Canada. Unions say the lock-out began after the Canadian workers refused contracts that would cut wages of new workers by half.
An ANZ spokesperson told the Age the bank’s interest rate policy had created “public relations” challenges, but said: “We are in it for the long haul and part of that is an education process for our customers and us.”
Allan Rees, spokesperson for the No Aircraft Noise (NAN) party, believes that the site south of Wilton must be assessed as a replacement airport for Sydney. “This is the only way to end the growing noise nightmare for 100,000 people,” he said on May 9.
NAN has campaigned for decades to get the Sydney airport moved out of the city on the grounds of its detrimental health and environmental impacts.
Suncorp Insurance has left residents of Emerald and Roma in the lurch after it announced it would refuse all new insurance policies to householders in the region. No other insurers offer policies in the area.
The small Queensland towns were hit hard by floods in recent years. Suncorp said on May 7 no new policies for home and contents insurance would be offered until flood mitigation works, including flood levees, are built around the two towns. Premiums for existing policy holders are due to rise dramatically.
Organisers of a Sydney Palestine solidarity protest — Commemorate Al-Nakba: Protest Against Israeli Apartheid! — released the statement below on May 11.
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The NSW Police have contacted the organisers of the Al-Nakba commemoration march in Sydney threatening to seek a Supreme Court injunction unless the march is cancelled.
The protesters have decided to assert their right to public protest, saying that they will contest any attempt to prohibit the march.
Friends of the Earth Australia released the statement below on May 11.
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Today, the Brisbane magistrates court supported the efforts of Gladstone local Mark Driscoll in his stand defending the destructive dredging of the Gladstone Harbour in the Great Barrier Reef.
The statement below was released by the Refugee Action Coalition on May 11.
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A Tamil refugee with an ASIO negative security finding attempted suicide in the early hours of May 11. He is the second ASIO negative Tamil refugee to attempt suicide in less than a month at the misnamed Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) detention centre.
The Tamil man, in his early 30s, had attempted suicide by hanging and was dropped down by fellow refugees who found him at around 1.30am this morning.
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