Gadigal Country/Sydney

  • CFMEU protests John Holland shift to Comcare

    On May 8, 150 unionists rallied outside the NSW parliament to protest against the move by the John Holland construction company to abandon the NSW workers’ compensation scheme in favour of the federal government’s Comcare.

  • Students get organised for Bush visit

    Students across NSW are getting organised for a “Stop Bush! Stop Howard!” student conference on June 1 aimed at building the protests when the US president comes to Sydney for APEC in September.

  • Campaigning against anti-worker laws

    An industrial relations forum on May 8, hosted by the Socialist Alliance, brought together trade union and political activists to discuss their responses to the ALP’s recently released IR policy and the campaign against Work Choices.

  • Fundraiser for Barry Hemsworth

    The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) will be holding a trivia competition at 7pm on June 1 at its Lidcombe offices (12 Railway Street) to raise funds in support of sacked union delegate Barry Hemsworth.

  • What tactics for the Stop Bush protest at APEC?

    As PM John Howard prepares to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) in Sydney in September — to which US President George Bush and around 21 world leaders have been invited — a debate has opened over tactics for protests against the summit.

  • Ali Humanyun fights for freedom

    Ali Humanyun, a Pakistani queer refugee seeking asylum in Australia, has been incarcerated inside the Villawood detention centre for two years and four months. He was refused a Protection (Class XA) Visa in May 2006 and rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) in October. Humanyun was not granted legal aid for a Federal Magistrates Court appearance, and so the RRT’s decision was upheld on February 19.

  • Fundraiser for Barry Hemsworth

    The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) will be holding a trivia competition at 7pm on June 1 at its Lidcombe offices (12 Railway Street) to raise funds in support of sacked union delegate Barry Hemsworth.

  • Sydneysiders urged to stay for anti-Bush protest

    “Activists are calling for Sydneysiders to stay in the city during the APEC summit in September to protest against climate change and war, despite the NSW government urging people to go away for the weekend to ease expected congestion”, Australian Associated Press reported on May 3.

  • Sacked for refusing to sign an AWA

    Twelve workers have been sacked for refusing to sign AWAs (individual contracts) with their employer, Vopak Terminals, a Port Botany company that stores and handles bulk petroleum and chemical products.

  • Labor changes its refugee policy, slightly

    The ALP made some minor changes to its refugee policy at its April national conference but maintained its approach: deterring asylum seekers from applying for refugee status after entering Australian waters.

  • The dirty politics of climate change

    “We know more about energy policy than the government does … We know where every skeleton in the closet is — most of them we buried”, boasted a member of the self-described “greenhouse mafia”, a group of lobbyists comprising the executive directors of the coal, oil, cement, aluminium, mining and electricity industries, said Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute.

  • Press freedoms under further pressure

    “The Australian people now know less than they would have historically about what is happening in their society”, Chris Warren, secretary of the journalists’ union, told the April 26 Australian, following the release by the union of a report detailing how press freedom is becoming increasingly strained as a result of Washington and Canberra’s “war on terror”.