By Bill Mason BRISBANE — The oil spill from the tanker Kirki off the Western Australian coast (see pages 12 and 13) has dramatically focussed attention on the threat of a disaster on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. A 1988 report to a marine
Issue 21
News
B>ADELAIDE — The SA government has offered about 100,000 state public sector workers a package including a flat $12 wage rise and possible further productivity-linked rises to be negotiated at enterprise level. The offer follows a SA Industrial
By Kerry Parnell SYDNEY — More than 2000 lesbians participated in the inspiring conference "Living as Lesbians — Strengthening Our Culture", held at the University of Technology here July 12-14. Women worked together in a collective over
By Steve Painter The anticipated struggle for the NSW old-growth forest of Chaelundi began with a dawn raid by police on July 23. Forest campaigners have been camped in the forest for several months, erecting barricades to prevent Forestry
By Melanie Sjoberg MELBOURNE — Colleen Hartland, a long-time activist in the western suburbs, will contest the seat of Footscray in the next state elections. She is a member of the Hazardous Materials Action Group, and was until recently a
By Bruce Marlowe SYDNEY — Community outrage has forced the Greiner government to back off from cuts to the Area Assistance Scheme, a funding arrangement that helps poorer people with housing costs. The government has even reaffirmed its
By Chris Spindler MELBOURNE — More than 200 young activists attended the 20th national conference of Resistance, held here over the weekend of July 13-15. The theme of the conference was "Against their order — A new world for all!" Some of
By Steve Painter Six of Australia's largest banks and insurance companies stood close to crisis on July 23 as the federal government bailed them out with special legislation immediately freezing withdrawals from several property trusts. The trusts
By Frank Noakes PERTH — About 80 members and friends of the Greens (WA) registered for a non-decision-making conference at the Perth Zoo Convention Centre over the July 27-28 weekend. They considered the environment, eco-feminism and green
By A. Simmons BRISBANE — Funding cuts to Queensland psychiatric services are resulting in cost-cutting measures that will threaten basic human rights, according to the newly formed Mental Action Group (MAG). The group, initiated and resourced
By Shayn McCallum and Rohan Gaiswinkler HOBART — About 60 people attended a rally on July 26 to protest against the Newstart program, which entails the abolition of unemployment benefits after 12 months to be replaced by a compulsory
By Lisa Macdonald The Socialist Scholars Conference, held at Melbourne University High on July 18-21 around the theme of Ecology, Socialism and Human Survival, was a resounding success according to both organisers and participants. The second such
Story and photo by Kim Spurway SYDNEY — "Living in Sydney" is the title of a conference being held here August 3-4 to address the issues raised by living in Australia's biggest city. The conference is divided into panel sessions followed by
Bush garden in Redfern By Stuart Wax and David Brazil SYDNEY — Inner-city Redfern is to be the unlikely location for an organic garden, established by the Aboriginal community. Community leader Margaret Vincent explains that the garden
Threatened ginkgo Korea's environmental movement may one day owe its birth to a 1000-year-old ginkgo tree, and a dedicated preservationist, Cha Joon Yup, attempting to save the tree's life. Construction plans for one high-rise apartment in
Academics get political PERTH — Australian academics intend standing candidates in the next federal elections as a protest against government education cutbacks. Eight marginal Labor held seats will be targeted, including four in Western
News by telephone SYDNEY — The Byron Bay-based data communications network Pegasus will play a major role in communications for the June 1992 United Nations environment conference. At a news conference here, Ian Peter, chief executive officer
World
By Peter Annear Since the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution of November 1989, there has been increasing debate over nationalism among the Slovak people, about one-third of the country's 15 million population. In the second of a series, PETER ANNEAR
By Fred Weir BUKHARA, Uzbekistan, USSR — Here, in the arid steppes of Soviet Central Asia, any discussion about Uzbekistan's place in a restructured Soviet Union always comes down to a single politically explosive issue: water. The region is
By Norm Dixon The long-held view of the African National Congress that the South African government, its army and police are behind the murderous Inkatha violence has now been proved beyond any doubt. Leaked official documents have revealed that
By Norm Dixon Nelson Mandela's opening address reflected the fiery mood among the 2244 delegates who assembled in Durban July 2-7 for the 48th national conference of the African National Congress. The conference was the first of its kind to be
By Irina Gluchenko MOSCOW — Will New Holland belong to France? This is the question now before the people of Leningrad, regarding the island New Holland, which is part of the city's territory. Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak plans to grant a
Super-exploitation under new act By Ian Powell WELLINGTON — A scandal over the employment of a young worker at a takeaway food shop has demonstrated how vicious the Employment Contracts Act can be on young workers in isolated workplaces. It
By Michael Karadjis ATHENS — "Greek brothers we need your solidarity. We are homeless, hungry and penniless", read a banner at a demonstration in May of Albanian and Northern Epirotes (Albanians of Greek descent) refugees. The refugees fled
Interview by Renfrey Clarke Chemistry graduate PAUL SOLER-SOLA has spent the past 10 months in the Soviet Union representing the US environmental organisation Ecologia. He has spent much of this time travelling through the USSR meeting
Culture
Leningrad em = By Rosemary Evans They starved and died in Leningrad, In darkness and in snow. They starved and died in Leningrad Fifty years ago. They had no water, but each day A little crust of bread. And often it was hard to tell
Terra Australis em = By John Queripel It's a bloody big land this Australia With its great wide brown barren plains. For hour after hour we fly and the landscape's still the same "Is it any different now?" she asks. "No, just the same." and
Alice's dream em = By Phil Shannon The Cabinet meeting was shrouded in gloom as the heat of the summer roasted the room. The air was humid and cloud cluttered the sky from the cyclone battering the beach at Bondi. The Ministers were sweating
The photographs from Belfast on this page are by Irish photographer Frankie Quinn. Quinn, who grew up in Belfast, began documenting his war-torn surroundings at the age of 14. The photos here are part of an exhibition which was recently on
By Rose McCann Diving for Pearls By Katherine Thomson Belvoir Street Theatre until August 18 With Robyn Nevin, Jeanette Cronin, Marshall Napier, John Jarrett and Pat Bishop Reviewed by Rose McCann Diving for Pearls is contemporary realist
By Alan Gemmil Green Political Thought By Andrew Dobson Allen and Unwin. 224 pp. $25.95 Reviewed by Alan Gemmill Is environmentalism Green? Are constructing better sewerage treatment plants and fitting catalytic converters to cars truly Green
Folk music, dance, drama, poetry and short-story telling will be some of the features of the first Newcastle and Hunter Folk Festival, to be held at Morpeth over the August 30-September 1 weekend. Included will be a strong Aboriginal content of dance
By Adrienne Barrett Violence is Ugly. That's the slogan of the Victorian government campaign against domestic violence. Its aims include greater police power in domestic violence situations, streamlining police procedures for initiating
Editorial
National transport plan In a welcome recognition of a huge problem, the July 30 special premiers' conference in Sydney is to discuss a national approach to long-distance freight haulage. Unfortunately, the main proposals likely to come out of this