No government would consider the idea of bulldozing a road through the middle of a historical cultural building. The French government would never dream of toppling the Eiffel Tower, nor would the Australian government contemplate knocking down the Opera House.
Sue Bolton
Speculation and a privatised system of building inspection are the common elements in the evacuation of the Sydney apartment towers and the fires casued by flammable cladding, writes Sue Bolton.
On May 8, Bridgid O’Brien was elected a councillor of the City of Yarra following the resignation of another councillor. She will join Stephen Jolly as a second socialist on the council.
“It’s almost an annual event — year in year out — that people in Broadmeadows have to cop a factory fire [and] have to cop toxic shit dumped on them”, local resident Marcus Harrington told a rally of angry northern suburbs residents after another chemical blaze erupted on April 5.
After a 16-day strike, workers at Chemist Warehouse distribution centres declared victory on March 28. Among their biggest gains were an 18.75% wage rise over four years and the conversion of labour hire workers to permanent positions after six months of work.
Chemist Warehouse workers have succeeded in blocking trucks from entering or leaving the company’s Somerton and Preston distribution centres since beginning an indefinite strike on March 12. Workers at a Chemist Warehouse distribution centre in Eagle Farm, Brisbane, are also on indefinite strike.
Many battles have been fought over the Upfield Line. Here, Socialist councillor Sue Bolton talks about the fight to duplicate the line.
In 2013, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott launched a “war on red tape and green tape”, which he claimed was “suffocating” Australian businesses. The Coalition government even announced a special cutting of red tape day.
No doubt Abbott was able to point to some idiotic and bureaucratic regulations to win public support for cutting so-called red tape that was actually protecting the public or the environment, to allow the corporate rich to pillage and plunder.
I had the privilege of attending the Pascoe Vale Football Club's February 22 celebration of Hakeem Al-Araibi's homecoming after he spent about two and a half months in a Thai jail for no crime other than being a refugee and human rights advocate.
The campaign to stop the refoulment of refugee Hakeem al-Araibi from Thailand to Bahrain is growing, with many football authorities taking a stand.
Bahraini refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi has been held in detention in Thailand since last November 27. He faces the terrifying prospect of being deported to the country where he was tortured.
Bahraini refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi has been held in detention in Thailand since November 27, facing the terrifying prospect of deportation to the country where he was tortured.
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