At Sydney Town Hall on January 28, 50 people rallied against the militarisation of Haiti and highlighted that Haiti is suffering from a human-made disaster as much as a natural one. The rally was organised by the Latin American Social Forum (LASF).

On January 18, the 250 Tamil asylum seekers in Merak, Indonesia, had spent 100 days on their boat in appalling conditions. This is despite almost half of them being already recognised by the United Nations as refugees.

In a disgraceful dismissal of the findings of a six-month parliamentary inquiry, the New South Wales Labor government will continue the legal ban on same-sex couples being able to adopt children.

“It’s been a fantastic, energising experience”, Aboriginal activist and Sydney Socialist Alliance (SA) member Pat Eatock told Green Left Weekly at the seventh SA national conference. Her sentiments were echoed by many of the more than 220 participants in the January 2-5 gathering in Sydney.

Sydney-based shock-jock Alan Jones and Harbour Radio have been ordered to apologise and pay $10,000 compensation for comments made in the days before the Cronulla riots in 2005.

The Pacific Trade Justice speaking tour, sponsored by AID/WATCH, reached Sydney on November 19, after meetings in Melbourne and Canberra.

About 70% of TAFE teachers walked off the job on November 19 as part of a branch-organised wildcat strike.

“Welcome refugees”, “No Indonesian solution” and “Bring the Tamils to Australia”, were the main slogans for at a rally organised by the Refugee Action Coalition outside the immigration department on November 9. It followed a rally a week earlier.

On November 10, thousands of angry TAFE teachers attended stop-work meetings across New South Wales. They voted to reject the changes in working conditions mandated by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC).

Sex workers took to Sydney’s streets on November 13 to demand they be included in discussions about proposed changes to sex work laws. Sex work was decriminalised in New South Wales 13 years ago, bringing many positive changes to sex worker conditions.

NSW Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teachers have continued their industrial campaign against an unfair award imposed by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC), which would have TAFE teachers work an additional five hours a week, and teach an additional 36 hours a year, with no right to refuse.