PERTH — Premier Carmen Lawrence's recent announcement that 40-49%. of the Rural and Industries Bank is to be flogged off is a familiar litany — privatisation of profit, socialisation of cost. Although Lawrence's statement
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With Fijians facing their first post-coup general election — five years after the first successful military seizure of power in the region — and Papua New Guineans preparing for their election next month amid fresh rumours of a
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On Mother's Day 1992, my village died. It was killed by Serbian mortars, guns and bombs. It never made the news, just like dozens of Croatian and Muslim villages and towns in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. It is another
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What's this? Here's the minister for communicating with Lord Kerry but not with parliament, Senator Graeme Party-hack-son, rushing into the office. Looks like he's going to do a bit of communications of his own: "I've just got to
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MELBOURNE — State opposition leader Jeff Kennett never seems to know when to shut up. Revelations of dubious transactions conducted by the Kirner government to raise some ready cash prompted "foot-in-mouth" Kennett to threaten
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SBS is running some regular and some special programming worth staying in for. Out of Africa (Wednesday, 9.30 p.m.). The continuing series of documentaries from or about Africa and Africans is worth monitoring. Loosely based on
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Sell-offs, contracting out, liberalisation, deregulation, community provision — privatisation has paraded under a number of guises and slogans over the past decade, but in the end they all mean the same thing: theft.
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Hard issues [The following letter was first submitted to the Sydney Morning Herald, which did not print it.] Peter Hartcher's article on Paul Keating's Aboriginal stance (Sydney Morning Herald, 27.3.92) states: "The two hardest issues are
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The state government bus service in Newcastle is the latest target in the Greiner Liberal government's "Privatisation is for everyone" campaign. The bus drivers' union, public transport lobby groups and
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WOLLONGONG — "This hospital is essential to the ongoing welfare of mineworkers and the community", mineworkers' union organiser Bob Graham told a 1000-strong rally at Bulli hospital in early April. The Greiner government's
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Action updates BRISBANE — Sixty students protested at the University of Queensland on May 13, where Federal Liberal politician John Howard was delivering a speech. The demonstration was called by Students Against Cuts to highlight opposition
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Telling all Will there be a point at which the sheer volume of scandal tips the balance, when everyone finally realises that vice is the norm and virtue really rather unusual? What will happen then? A Donahue show in which moderate souls shock
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Reprinted here are major portions of a talk given by Dr PETER BOTSMAN in Port Macquarie last month. Dr Botsman is executive director of the Evatt Foundation. His talk was occasioned by the NSW government's plan to privatise the Port Macquarie Base
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Crisis deepens for DayaksGovernment intimidation of tribal peoples in Sarawak is escalating. This year alone more than 50 Dayak people have been arrested for blockading the logging roads into their forest.
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'The big parties got it wrong'CANBERRA — Phil Cleary is angry. The first non-Labor member for the Wills electorate is in his office in Parliament House, watching a closed circuit television relay of the prime minister's
News
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It was an ABC television reporter who led the question about whether the 34,000 Chinese nationals offered temporary residence in Australia after the Beijing massacre could bring in a further 300,000 relatives under the
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Car workers reject package ADELAIDE — 4000 workers at Holden's Elizabeth plant, covered by the Vehicle Builders Employees Federation, Metal and Engineering Workers Union, Federated Clerks Union and the Electrical Trades Union have voted to
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Dalai Lama tour a success By Cameron S. Boyd BRISBANE — More than 5000 people crammed Brisbane's Albert Park to hear the Dalai Lama speak on May 13, and a further 2000 attended a public meeting at the Cultural Centre the night before.
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More like melodrama "It's a tragedy for all Australia." — An Associated Pulp and Paper Mills executive on the recent defeat of resource security legislation in the Senate. APPM said the defeat had led it to scrap plans to build a $1.2 billion
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SYDNEY — The crash of the paper entrepreneurs of the 1980s — Bond, Skase and the rest — has been accompanied by the waning of "economic rationalism", the doctrine that sanctified the decade of greed. Now "economic
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SYDNEY — A spirited and moving demonstration was held here on May 10 in support of imprisoned Cambodian boat people. Held outside the Villawood detention centre, it showed that a strong coalition against the xenophobic and
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Anti-racism trust set up in WAPERTH — The parents of an Aboriginal youth killed in January in a racist attack have set up a trust to counter racism. Bill Johnson is still deeply angered by the death of his 19-year-old
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CSIRO finds sea levels rising For the first time in the southern hemisphere, there is evidence that the deep ocean has increased in temperature, resulting in a sea level rise. The CSIRO reported on May 13 that its oceanographers had found
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SA transport to be slashedADELAIDE — The South Australian State Government and the State Transport Authority (STA) have proposed a slashing of the government's expenditure on public transport by about 15%, or about $24
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Judith Ward, jailed by a British court in 1974 over an army coach bombing in which 12 people died, was freed on May 11 after an appeal court ruled her conviction unsafe and unsatisfactory. Her release after 18 years follows numerous other
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MELBOURNE — The lesbian and gay community now have a new paper. Called Brother Sister, it hit the streets on May 1, combining local and international news, reviews, information on health and other issues, humour and social
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BURNIE — "It's not just our problem, or a problem for the unionists at Robe River", says Brian Green, a metalworkers' union delegate at the strikebound Burnie mill of Associated Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of the New
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MELBOURNE — The National Conference in Solidarity with Cuba, held in the Victorian Trades Hall on May 9-10, attracted more than 200 participants from all around the country. They represented a wide range of organisations and
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Discrimination charged in teacher sackingADELAIDE — David Jobling, an artist employed on contract by Jamestown Primary School, has been sacked by the Education Department, on the grounds that he has published "offensive"
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SYDNEY — The first week of the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into the Terry Metherell scandal has been a difficult one for Premier Nick Greiner. Far from encouraging the fiasco to fade quietly, the inquiry
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The timber and paper needs of Victoria could be satisfied entirely from existing plantations, creating 2000 jobs in the process and saving native forests from further encroachment. These are the findings of a recent report commissioned by the
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NEW YORK — A new report detailing the threat to coral reefs from global warming was released on May 6 by Greenpeace. Coral reef damage from "bleaching" would endanger low-lying coastlines and island states, says the report, written by Dr Sandy
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The youth organisation Resistance, widely known for its recent campaign around the Fact and Fantasy File Diary, will discuss a charter of youth rights at its national conference in July. The group is seeking suggestions and
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LIVERPOOL, Sydney — Even the rain couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd attending a May 12 rally here against the high rates of unemployment in the south-western region of Sydney. The protest, part of the National Day of
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ADELAIDE — Indonesian environmental and human rights activist Dipa Ramelan spoke here at a crowded public meeting on May 15. Dipa is being toured by Environmental Youth Alliance and AKSI(Indonesian action) to inform and
Analysis
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A small blow for justice In recent weeks the Australian government struck a small blow for justice in the Middle East when it dropped its ban on government contact with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and foreign minister Gareth Evans
World
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NZ Greens endorse Alliance AUCKLAND — Green Party delegates voted by a large majority to formally join the third-party Alliance at a national conference in the city of Nelson. The May 10 vote was 54-11, more than the 75% majority required
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PRAGUE — It has already been dubbed Murongate. Jaroslav Muron, a deputy privatisation minister, was allegedly offered a bribe to favour one bid for a dairy enterprise in the south of the Czech Republic. The manager of the
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MOSCOW — How big a bribe do you have to pay if you want some service performed by an employee of the Moscow mayor's office? Ten per cent of the total value of the business involved. This figure
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Poor vote for British Greens British Green Party national council member Penny Kemp says the party's poor result in the recent national elections was due to a move to the right and an undue concentration on electoral politics. The party lost
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The Bougainville Interim Government says that the Papua New Guinea Defence Force has begun to commit atrocities following the landing of troops in southern Bougainville's Siwai district on May 9. There are also reports that the
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Outgoing Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates has turned the arrest of Damian Williams into a media show, symbolising that Los Angeles is back under police control. Williams is one of three people accused of attacking Reginald
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Striking Indonesians jailed and beatenMEDAN — The obstacles which Indonesian workers face in defending their wages and conditions are revealed by events at three factories here earlier this year. The factories, Sanjo
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BUDAPEST — As the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development held its assembly here last month, and its leader Jacques Attali pointed out the advantages of the Hungarian path to a free market, one-third of Hungarian
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Granma comments on upheaval HAVANA — In a full-page editorial on May 6, the Cuban newspaper Granma says that while vote-hunting in Miami recently, President Bush predicted social upheavals in Cuba. Bush obviously did not realise, it notes,
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The resignation of finance minister Andrzej Olechowski again signals the inability of the fractured Polish parliament to form a workable government or adopt an acceptable economic policy in the face of depression and
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Every day, in the cities or in the countryside, at places of work, factories, farm cooperatives, schools and marginal communities, Salvadorans gather in small circles for a daily ritual — to tune in to Radio Farabundo
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A mission from the French human rights association "Enfants du monde, droits de l'homme" visited Iraq from February 8 to 16. Its aim was to monitor the situation of Iraqi children one year after the Gulf War, especially in
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The executive board of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union in the US released the following statement on May 6. We have abridged it slightly. Sunday's White House statement blaming social programs of the 1960s for the Los
Culture
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Rebirth of the CoolOne of the more interesting and welcome developments in contemporary music is the evolution of what has been tagged "acid jazz". While it's yet to garner a large audience in Australia, the success of the
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HAVANA — Over a year a go Holly Near was in Cuba, and I was reminded of her on April 15, when a group of artists, intellectuals, and AIDS activists and professionals met with the public in the Juan David Gallery of the Yara
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Defending the Earth: A Dialogue Between Murray Bookchin and Dave Foreman Edited with an introduction by Steve Chase A Learning Alliance Book from South End Press, Boston, Mass. 1991. 147 pp. Reviewed by Joanne Dittersdorf In recent years the
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Now And In The Time To Be: Ireland and the Irish By Thomas Keneally Pan MacMillan, 1991. 208 pp. $39.95 Reviewed by Bernie Brian In his foreword, Thomas Keneally suggests that "sentiment is the malaise of the returning pilgrim of Irish
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At the Sydney Film Festival Night on Earth Written, Directed and Produced by Jim Jarmusch Starring Winona Ryder, Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Roberte Benigni Reviewed by Ulrike Erhardt Night on Earth, one of many offerings at
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Whitefella comin': Aboriginal Responses to Colonialism in Northern Australia By David S. Trigger Cambridge University Press, 1992. 250 pp. $45 (hb) Reviewed by Andrew Honey Trigger's book focuses on Doomadgee, a mission settlement on the
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Beatrice goes underground Breathing Under Water Directed by Susan Murphy Dermody Reviewed by Tracy Sorensen Why on earth has humanity set the stage for its own extinction? In Breathing Under Water, the question is explored in a circular