News

Troy McGuinness Earlier this year Australia Post, one of the largest employers in Australia, began cutting full-time jobs at its five country mail centres — Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Seymour and Morwell. This has resulted in a large proportion

Peter Short, Perth "The voice of West Papua must be heard, it has been silenced for 45 years", West Papua solidarity activist Ned Byrne told a crowd of 140 people who packed into Fremantle's Kulcha venue on January 31. Organised by Project

The following letter was sent by the Western Suburbs Community Campaign Against Racism (to the residents of the Redfern Block in mid-February. Dear friends, We wish to express our condolences to the family and friends of Thomas "TJ" Hickey. This

Peter Boyle Have you had enough of the tug of war between John Howard and Peter Costello over who gets to run the government of the corporate rich in Australia? You promised me I could be PM, whines Costello. Howard responds with standard Howardian

Ian Jamieson, Fremantle The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has added its support to the campaign in solidarity with the 107 construction workers facing fines of up to $28,600 each for going on strike. The ICFTU said the Howard

Amanda Zivcic, Melbourne On January 25 and 27, Union Solidarity organised a community picket outside the Fitzroy Postal Delivery Centre. The picket was called in solidarity with shop steward Peter Vining, who was sacked last year. "Peter was

Ian Jamieson, Fremantle For the first time, the Western Australian branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has allowed rank-and-file members to express their opinions at a state conference of the union. Held over the February 14-15

Sue Bull, Geelong On July 5, unionists at the University of Ballarat voted to accept a new collective agreement. The agreement is the result of a long fight led by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) against the university and the

Avery Vincent, Melbourne On November 18-19, the G20 summit of finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's 19 largest national economies — Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia,

Justin Tutty, Darwin The Radioactive Waste Management Act was passed by federal parliament on December 8 after debate was postponed to allow 20 days for an inquiry into the legislation. The inquiry was uncommonly brief — it failed to visit the

James Caulfield, Canberra The University of Canberra became the first institution to endorse implementing domestic full fees since the Nelson Review "reforms" were passed in parliament last year, after a motion put by vice-chancellor Roger Dean was

John Vidovich & Rachel Evans After campaigning for over a year, queer students at Western Australia's Edith Cowan University (ECU) have finally won a space for the use of queer students, — as exists on most campuses. "Women's and indigenous