Activists are fighting to stop logging in a Victorian government-promised National Park in Western Victoria. Chris Peterson reports.
Chris Peterson
Protesters took to the streets on July 3 to support an international initiative to defend Kurdistan against Turkish occupation. Chris Peterson reports.
Trains have been made accessible for wheelchair users, but trams have not. Chloe DS and Chris Peterson report on the campaign to rectify this.
Chris Petersen and Chloe DS report that 14 refugees have been on hunger strike for more than a week in protest at their imprisonment.
About 300 people rallied against racism in Melbourne on November 10. The rally was organised in response to the continued vilification of Melbourne’s African community by politicians and the media.
“Crystalline silica is the new asbestos, but Australians are simply not aware of the dangers involved in working with such a common substance as compressed stone,” Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) secretary Luke Hilikari said at the release of the new silica dust standard in late August.
There has been a significant rise in the number of workers suffering silicosis and lung cancers caused by inhaling silica particles while manufacturing, cutting and installing compressed stone benchtops.
The toxic chemical blaze which started in a West Footscray factory, in Melbourne's west, on August 30, and took firefighters 17 hours to bring under control, has provoked such widespread anger that the state government has been forced to intervene.
The neo-Nazi True Blue Crew held their second "Australian Pride" rally in Melbourne on June 25 and were met with an "anti-racist/anti-fascist" counter protest by No Room For Racism and Campaign Against Racism and Fascism.
There were about 150–200 fascists and about 200–300 anti-racists. Several hundred police, including from the Public Order Response Team, kept the two sides apart.
Five people were treated by Ambulance Victoria after police pepper-sprayed the anti-racists in Russell St after the main rally had broken up.
About 150 people joined an emergency protest in Melbourne on April 17 telling the government to bring the refugees on Manus Island and Nauru to Australia.
The protest came after sailors from the Papua New Guinea navy fired shots into the detention centre and locals attacked refugees.
Council workers at the City of Melbourne went on strike for two hours from 3.30 pm on September 27 and rallied outside Melbourne Town Hall. The rally was followed by a protest march along Swanson Street from Bourke to Flinders streets.
The workers are demanding a new agreement with better pay and conditions. City of Melbourne is the richest capital city in Australia.
About 70 people attended a forum on September 27 in Melbourne on Making Melbourne a Hanson free zone. The forum was hosted by the Victorian Trades Hall Council.
Guardian Australia columnist Jeff Sparrow spoke at the forum. He said: "Billions of dollars have been spent on fighting Islam by the Government so recent polls on racism are no surprise. There is a real danger that Hanson could become the new normal, a right wing version of the Greens."
About 100 people protested in Melbourne on July 3, International Al Quds Day, as part of a global weekend of action for Palestine.
The date marked 50 years since the Six Day War and half a century of Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Nasser from Palestine Advocacy Network said: “We have entered 50 years of occupation of the West Bank and it's been 68 years since Palestine's Nakba.
"It represents such a disregard for human rights it is hard to wrap your mind around.
Dozens of Gippsland dairy workers have been locked out indefinitely by milk producer Parmalat. When workers arrived at the gates of the Parmalat-owned Longwarry Food Park, east of Melbourne, on July 5, they were met with news of the lockout and closure of the site.
The Longwarry workforce is among the lowest-paid in the dairy industry according to the National Union of Workers, and had been calling for improved conditions in their pay deal to bring them in line with other Parmalat sites.
On April 30, 1500 people rallied in Melbourne calling on the federal government to bring the all the asylum seekers in offshore detention to Australia. The rally was part of a national weekend of action.
The rally was called after the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ruled that the Manus Island Detention Centre was illegal.
On April 14 hundreds of disability workers rallied in Melbourne against the state government's proposal to privatise disability services.
Privatisation will reduce service quality for people with a disability and make job security and wages and conditions less certain for disability workers.
Before being elected, Premier Daniel Andrews promised he would not contract out public sector disability services.
About 500 people rallied in Melbourne on April 2 against the proposed 1300 jobs cuts at the CSIRO.
The rally, which follows rallies in Hobart and Canberra, was organised by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), CSIRO Staff Association and Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
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