A February 22 meeting between Western Australian prisons minister Margaret Quirk, Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington and WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairperson Marc Newhouse resulted in some ministerial promises of reforms following the the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder on January 27.
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Western Australian public sector agencies will be closed by rolling stoppages if the state Labor government fails to deliver a significantly improved pay offer before the expiry of the current collective agreement on February 25.
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On February 13, 50 people attended an angry public meeting at the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Services centre in East Perth. The meeting called for an immediate cessation of transporting prisoners long distances in road vehicles following the death in custody on January 27 of an Aboriginal elder.
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The Western Australian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (DCWC) has called an urgent public meeting for February 13 to plan a campaign to demand justice for an Aboriginal elder who died on January 27 in the custody of Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which is contracted by the state government to transport prisoners.
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The Say No to GMO campaign launched a new petition in Western Australia this month, asking that liability for contamination of non-genetically modified crops rest with those responsible for bringing GM crops or food into the state.
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A bill legalising aspects of brothel operation is being debated by Western Australias parliament. The Prostitution Amendment Bill 2007 would change the current legislative approach to brothels from one of containment (brothels, while technically illegal, are regulated by the police), to one where brothel managers and owners could be formally registered.
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Speakers at a 100-strong rally supporting the November 17 national day of action for Indigenous rights condemned the Howard Coalition governments emergency intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and expressed disappointment with the ALP for its me-too approach
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On November 13, 30 people including members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the Maritime Union of Australia attended a community solidarity protest outside Liberal Party headquarters, calling for the immediate abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
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On October 30, a Federal Court judge fined the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) $30,000. The fine was for discriminating against union members when it advised Australian Public Service agencies to refuse leave to employees who planned to take part in the November 2005 Australian Council of Trade Unions national protest against Work Choices.
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Almost 90 Western Australian construction workers are due to suffer fines of up to $22,000 each on November 5, after admitting at an October 24 court hearing to taking unlawful industrial action in February last year. The workers crime was to take part in a 400-person strong strike in February 2006 on the city tunnel section of the Perth-Mandurah rail line to demand the reinstatement of their elected health and safety union representative Peter Ballard, who had been sacked by building company Leighton-Kumagai for insisting on maintaining safe working conditions.
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Assistant state secretary of the Western Australian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Joe McDonald, was expelled from the Australian Labor Party on October 26, on the recommendation of Labor leader Kevin Rudd. Earlier this year Rudd had failed to have the militant unionist expelled, and the ALP had stated that it would await the outcome of McDonalds six charges for trespass on Perth building sites before making a decision.
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The immigration department, Australia's detention centre operator GSL and the immigration minister Kevin Andrews are forcibly deporting asylum seekers who sought Australia's protection after having had the most heinous forms of torture inflicted on