Gadigal Country/Sydney

“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.

“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”.

— Speaking on behalf of the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project, Adrian Lovney told the April 26 Sydney SX newspaper that the NSW Police’s lesbian and gay liaison officer program was “utterly inadequate”.

The eight-day trial against seven people facing charges relating to a February 2006 protest against Kerry Packer’s taxpayer-funded state memorial has concluded with the dismissal of one or more charges against each defendant. Four defendants decided to plead guilty to one minor charge each.

The 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras award for “Most outstanding political comment” was awarded to the “Bring David Hicks home” float.

Refugee-rights groups have accused immigration department and GSL management at the Villawood detention centre of collective punishment of detainees in the aftermath of two detainees escaping on the evening of April 19.

Resistance held a NSW activist camp on April 13-15, themed “Confronting war and imperialism, socialism in the 21st century”. The camp was attended by 50 people and included workshops on socialist solutions to the environmental crisis, the Venezuelan revolution, fighting sexism today, racism and imperialism, and the Palestinian struggle.

Tens of thousands of people joined a march on April 22 against the Howard government’s anti-worker laws, followed by an afternoon “Rockin for your rights” concert. In Melbourne, more than 1500 people gathered at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Around 100 people filled Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on April 18 to hear visiting Zimbabwean socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai explain the background to the Zimbabwean people’s struggle for democracy.

Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri and lawyer Adam Houda were racially harassed on the night of April 12, according to the two men.

A snap candlelight vigil was held on April 20 against PM John Howard’s proposal to ban refugees and migrants with HIV/AIDS from entering Australia. The protest, attended by around 100 people, was organised by National Union of Students queer officer Peter Johnson and endorsed by the Queer Students Network, Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) Sydney and the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC).

Sydney city council is preparing a vicious crackdown on the ability to distribute newspapers such as Green Left Weekly and leaflets advertising political rallies and events.