By Brad Farmer GOLD COAST — Australia's favorite holiday beach, Surfers Paradise, could soon be named "Sewers Paradise" if protests against a $23 million ocean outfall pipeline are ignored. Queensland environment minister Pat "Rubber Stamp"
Issue 27
News
MELBOURNE — The Victorian Secondary Teachers Association and the Federated Teachers Union of Victoria decided on September 6 to step up their industrial campaigns against the loss of 2000 jobs. There will be a full-day stoppage on September 12,
By Lisa Schofield WOLLONGONG — Under the slogan of "Wollongong — Clean and Green in the 1990s" the Active Community Team (ACT) is running three tickets in the local government elections. The ACT has released a comprehensive environment
Picket opposes hospital closure By Stephen O'Brien NEWCASTLE — More than 300 people gathered outside the NSW Industrial Commission offices here on September 4 to demonstrate community support for keeping Wallsend Hospital open. The
Aboriginal woman vs six men By Pete Malatesta SYDNEY — "I see this as a big challenge", Elva Taylor told Green Left, "because I'm Aboriginal and a woman, running against six men". Taylor is standing as an independent candidate for the South
By Peter Boyle and Vannessa Hearman MELBOURNE — The More Not Less Campaign (a coalition of 28 groups) and the Campaign Against Newstart are organising a "rank and file contingent" at the September 10 Jobs and Justice rally to demand a "militant
By Paul Burow BRISBANE — The Queensland government seems determined to steamroll ahead with siting the state's largest toxic waste dump at Gurulmundi, near Miles in southern Queensland, despite expert advice against it. A resident's group,
Threat to deregister teachers' union By Nina Murka SYDNEY — The NSW Teachers' Federation is threatened with deregistration after refusing to call off the TAFE teachers' strike on September 1-2. The state Industrial Relations Commission
By Kate Tregarthen and David Mizon By Kate Tregarthen and David Mizon MELBOURNE — Residents are angry and frustrated over the Kirner government's legislation on rezoning of land around the Altona petrochemical complex — especially in the
Perth police terrorise actors By Leon Harrison PERTH — Police rampages like the one that led to the killing of David Gundy in Sydney last year are nothing unusual in WA. The latest victims of WA Tactical Response Group and Division 79
Pro-choice activists beaten By Rose McCann SYDNEY — A group of women and men from pro-choice organisations were beaten up by anti-abortion thugs here on September 8. At the well-attended pro-abortion rally here on September 7, a demonstration
By Col Hesse SYDNEY — Openness, public participation and environmental protection are among the key issues being pushed by a range of progressive candidates in the local council elections to be held across NSW on September 14. These issues
Bite in SA budget By Anne Pavy ADELAIDE — Despite being described as "almost mild" by current Australian standards, the SA budget delivered by Premier-Treasurer John Bannon on August 29 will have a nasty bite for many people. Government
World
By Norm Dixon The South African government was involved in a plot to assassinate a leader of the African National Congress as part of a coup in the "independent" Transkei bantustan. The target was Chris Hani, a senior member of the ANC's national
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin moved on August 28 to strip the Moscow City Soviet of most of its authority. Taking advantage of the "democratic" euphoria following the collapse of the August 19-21 coup,
By Norm Dixon The African National Congress has condemned constitutional arrangements proposed by South Africa's President F.W. de Klerk. It calls them a "recipe for disaster" and a ruse to "retain the accumulated privileges of apartheid". De
Governor bans rallies in Timor The Indonesian governor of East Timor has banned demonstrations during a scheduled visit by Portuguese parliamentarians later this year. "Demonstrators will face the Indonesian armed forces", Mario Carrascalao
US blocks waste controls GENEVA — The United States has strongly resisted attempts by some Third World and European countries to strengthen international safeguards against the movement and dumping of hazardous wastes. In a carefully worded
Hunger strike at Chinese embassy Li Lu, a student leader during the 1989 pro-democracy demonstration in Tienanmen Square in Beijing, is currently on a hunger strike in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC. He began his fast on August
Interview By Renfrey Clarke An economist and specialist on the problems of women in the workplace, ANASTASIYA POSADSKAYA is head of the Gender Studies Centre within one of the institutes of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. She was interviewed in
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — Since the August coup and the dissolution of the Communist Party, trade union and left activists in the Russian Federation have accelerated their efforts to build a new, democratic mass party fighting for the rights of
By Sally Low Bill Kelty and Laurie Carmichael are often hailed as the brains behind the ALP-ACTU Prices and Incomes Accord but a short overview of the evolution of trade union and left politics in Italy since the late 1970s suggests at least one
Culture
Story and photo by Kim Shipton SYDNEY — Over two nights in August, a team of six graffiti artists created and dedicated a huge mural to the people of Newtown. The mural features planet earth, US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King and a
By Fiona Fort The Edinburgh Years Directed by Cameron P. Mellor Reviewed by Fiona Fort The Doug Anthony Allstars, middle-class Canberra boys and musical comedy group the world loves to hate, wreak havoc once more in their new feature-length
By Peter Boyle Bran Nue Dae A documentary film by Tom Zubrycki State Film Theatre, Melbourne Reviewed by Peter Boyle I wish I hadn't missed the stage musical performance of Bran Nue Dae in Sydney last year — especially after seeing
This year's Perspecta was an understandably Greinerised affair, chopped back a bit (they couldn't afford the two dimensional artists), privatised to the hilt and for the most part lacking a bit of soul.
Thelma and Louise Directed by Ridley Scott Screenplay by Callie Khouri With Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis Reviewed by Rose McCann The fact that a film like Thelma and Louise can excite such controversy and critical comment (including being
By Noel McGuire Patrick White — A life By David Marr Random House. 727 pp. $49.95 hardback Reviewed by Noel McGuire After he won the Nobel prize, Patrick White became a Living National Treasure. The fact that, to a large extent, his work
Editorial
Hawke and Namaliu Bob Hawke and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu, meeting in Canberra last week, agreed that more Australian aid should be directed to solving PNG's "law and order" problems. They agreed that PNG must shift the