Ask an average Australian what they might hope the federal government would spend $300 billion on and the answer would hopefully be vast investment in new jobs and services, given we’re heading into recession, and reducing Australia’s climate change impact.
Analysis
This is an abridged version of the speech given to the Wollongong May Day march on May 2 by Fred Moore.
The federal budget will be presented to parliament by Treasurer Wayne Swan on May 12. While Swan has been officially tight-lipped about its contents, he has already released significant details about the cuts to programs and
government jobs the budget will hand down.
Melbourne-based climate activist Pablo Brait sent the letter below to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) on May 5.
Within 24 hours of the Rudd governments announcement of new changes to the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, 66 climate action groups signed a statement condemning the decision.
PM Kevin Rudds announced changes to the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) has again split the climate movement, and this time its very serious, with three large, rusted-on-to-Labor groups running cover for an appalling policy that wont guarantee a reduction in Australian emissions for decades.
On April 4, 2008, federal workplace minister Julia Gillard announced a review into occupational health and safety (OH&S) laws. The government said the review was aimed at harmonising OH&S laws across Australia.
The article below is based on an April 30 statement by the Stop the War Coalition Sydney http://www.stopwarcoalition.org.
In an act of peaceful civil disobedience, more than 500 Tamils occupied George Street in Sydney’s CBD for more than an hour. The May 1 action protested the genocide being carried out by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil people in the north and east of the country.
The ninth Australian solidarity brigade to Venezuela, sponsored by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN), visited Venezuela from April 16 to 24. Participants saw first-hand the reality of the Bolivarian revolution, led by socialist president Hugo Chavez.
On March 21, Anna Bligh’s election victory night, she answered a question from a journalist about how it felt to be the first female premier to be elected in Australia. She suggested the snide remarks made when she was a young woman, about Queensland being a “backward” state, could now be laid to rest.
Thousands of workers across the country rallied on April 28, including more that 15,000 in Melbourne. The rallies protested the Rudd governments maintenance of the anti-union Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), which was established by the previous government of John Howard.
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