The fact that the NSW Labor governments World Youth Day laws which would have made annoying Catholic pilgrims during WYD activities a crime punishable by fines of up to $5500 was a failed attempt to silence criticisms of the Catholic Church was brought home when WYD organiser Bishop Anthony Fisher effectively dismissed criticism of the churchs handling of cases of child sexual abuse by clergy.
Analysis
Whatever the final detail of the federal governments carbon emissions trading scheme the framework of which is contained in the green paper released by climate change minister Penny Wong on July 16 theres one thing we can be sure of: it wont be of much use in cutting Australias carbon emissions.
The following letter was presented by Sam Watson on behalf of Brisbane’s Aboriginal Rights Coalition to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a protest outside Rudd’s electorate office on July 14.
Following an extended industrial campaign by the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union for better wages and conditions including smaller class sizes, Victorian Premier John Brumby announced on May 5 that an agreement had been reached with the union. The deal, which was later ratified by union members, awarded vastly different pay rates to different groups of teachers and failed to address the key issues raised in the teachers campaign. The following is a response by AEU member and Teachers Alliance supporter Peter Curtis.
What’s the difference between a liberation movement and a terrorist organisation?
On May 5, Victorian Premier John Brumby announced that a deal had been struck with the Australian Education Union that would end the unions 16-month-long industrial campaign. Victorian state school teachers had campaigned to secure better working conditions and pay rises and to reduce contract teaching.
The Rudd government has asked the Productivity Commission to examine the economic, productive and social benefits of introducing a national paid maternity leave scheme. The Commission has heard submissions from a range of unions, business and community groups, and is due to release its report in February, 2009.
PM Kevin Rudd’s “education revolution”, a sad misuse of the word “revolution”, continues to starve public schools of funds. Meanwhile, wealthy private schools are given so much federal money they don’t know what to with it other than bank it or build Olympic-sized gymnasiums.
While the historic elections for a constituent assembly were held in April — a product of the pro-democracy uprising that has ended Nepal’s monarchy and created a republic — Nepal is still yet to have a new government sworn in.
Arctic sea ice reached a record minimum in the Northern summer of 2007, prompting the revision of scientists’ predictions of how quickly it will melt away altogether in response to global warming — perhaps as early as 2010-13, rather than the hundred years later estimated in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports.
Some unionists are angry that despite all the warnings about the climate emergency and Australias high per capita greenhouse gas emissions, the Victorian ALP government has given the go-ahead to a $750 million 400 megawatt brown coal power station in the Latrobe Valley.
Right at the beginning of his draft report on climate change, Professor Ross Garnaut points out that global warming cant be beaten unless an international prisoners dilemma gets resolved.
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