Issue 913
News
The Australian mainstream media has been awfully quiet about the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), of which round 11 is now underway in Australia at the Melbourne Convention Center over March 1 to 9. These talks are being held in secret.
The control measures in the anti-association legislation will limit our rights to freely associate with people by allowing the government to make a declaration on an organisation. This will allow the government to obtain “control orders” over individuals who are members, former members or people involved in the running of a declared organisation.
Please share to counter the lies back by millions of dollars with the CSG industry's "We want CSG" rubbish! Time for truth in ads! Based on this article and also featured here.
The premiere of the new Venezuela solidarity film “Chasing Chavez” hit the big screen at the Schonell Cinema, University of Queensland, on February 29. About 70 people attended the launch of the hour-long documentary and applauded director Katrina Channells and co-producer and cinematographer Nik Lachajczak for their fine work.
Analysis
Dave Kerin from the new community group Enough has helped run a daily picket outside Telstra’s Collins St office in Melbourne for the past three weeks. The picket is a protest against Telstra’s decision to send hundreds of jobs offshore.
Twice daily outside almost every Victorian public hospital there are nurses protesting and waving banners in a spirited display of defiance.
There is a growing disconnect between the official rosy picture of the Australian economy and mounting public anxiety about job insecurity. The latest official unemployment rate (January 2012) was steady at 5.2% and Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson insists there is no reason to worry. Australians, he said, should shake off their misplaced “boom with gloom” attitude.
What with the whole Rudd debacle, sparked by the whole Gillard debacle, Labor has been staggering from one crisis to the next. Time for some fresh and bold thinking!
World
The Kony 2012 film, produced by the Invisible Children NGO, has gone viral over the internet. Viewed more than 14 million times, and widely hailed in the mainstream media, the film targets Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony for his crimes -- but backs forces in the Ugandan military guilty of similar crimes and supports US military intervention.