Federal resources minister Martin Ferguson responded to the disastrous August 21 oil spill off the north-west coast of Australia by proposing to set up a new investigative body. The September 7 announcement claimed the new body would have the power to investigate such oil spillages and to “stop it happening again”.
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The following call for support was released on August 24 by Richard Downs, spokesperson of the Alyawarr people of the Northern Territory, who have walked off their community of Ampilatwatja in protest against the federal government’s NT intervention. Visit www.interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com for more information.
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In early September, as federal parliamentarians debated whether to end the repulsive government policy of charging refugees for the costs of their own imprisonment in detention centres, damning revelations emerged that Australian navy personnel prevented badly burnt refugees from climbing onto rescue boats.
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Thousands of staff from 16 universities across the country will strike on September 16 for new union collective agreements. The actions follow strikes at the University of New England and Charles Sturt University on September 9 and at Victorian and Tasmanian campuses on May 21.
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Since April this year, a young Cairns couple has faced a nightmare.
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EM>District 9 'horrific'? I read Mike Ely's review of District 9 with some surprise, having enjoyed the film a few days earlier. Is its portrayal of Nigerian gangsters "horrific"? Definitely over the top, as is the scene where white scientists
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In June, a raft of new legislation was presented to parliament to in effect, outlaw homebirth midwifery in Australia. Indemnity insurance would be a legal requirement for medical practitioners, under a new national registration and accreditation scheme.
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Our neighbours recently moved out. They could no longer afford the rent on their small two-bedroom inner-city terrace, so moved away from the city centre to reduce their rent by $100.
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“We are lucky in Australia to have a national newspaper, Green Left Weekly, not beholden or shackled to big business or multinational corporations, whether they be church or state. Over many years it has remained a newspaper free to critique the capitalist system, which continues to reward those with capital and exploit those without.
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On September 8, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) notified the families of the five journalists killed in 1975 at Balibo in East Timor that it had begun an investigation into the killings.
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The October 17 Fremantle local government elections will take place in the wake of the May by-election that resulted in the historic victory of Greens candidate Adele Carles.
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Carbon capture and storage (CCS), often touted as “clean coal”, has been promoted by the coal industry and governments such as Australia and the US as a way to cut emissions from coal-fired energy generation, in order to avoid dangerous climate change.