News

  • Cindy Sheehan calls for David Hicks' release

    Gerard Morel, Melbourne At a lunchtime rally outside the Liberal Party's Victorian head office on May 26, US anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the Democrats' Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja called for an end to the US military's imprisonment of

  • Call for ban on steel jaw traps

    Call for ban on steel jaw trapsOn November 13, National Anti-Steel Jaw Trap Day, Animal Rescue called for a total ban on traps and snares in Australia. Such a ban exists in 68 other countries. Current laws in Australia

  • Fines threaten unionists' homes

    PERTH — Garry Graham is one of the 40 workers being sued by Kwinana contracting firm Total Corrosion Control who will appear in the Federal Court in Perth on August 29 facing fines of up to $28,600. The 43-year-old, who has four children aged

  • Andrews greeted by protesting workers

    PERTH — Federal workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews received a rowdy reception when he arrived at a business luncheon in the outer suburb of Middle Swan on May 16. He was greeted by 100 angry workers chanting, "Work Choices, no choice —

  • Prison bosses misled parliament

    SYDNEY — Acting NSW prisons commissioner Ian McLean misled parliament when he claimed that the women prisoners of the Emu Plains minimum security prison initiated reductions to their visiting hours, Brett Collins of Justice Action claimed on

  • Queensland politicians ignore Indigenous issues

    Dave Riley, Brisbane Members of the Murri community and their supporters rallied and marched on September 1, in the week that the state inquest into the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island on November 19, 2004, wound up. The inquest

  • Cleaning company signs on to union campaign

    Roxana Fuentes, Sydney On September 6, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) announced that the ISS office cleaning company had agreed to sign on to the principles of the union's Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign. "Today

  • NTEU calls for release of jailed unionist

    Jeremy Smith The national council of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), meeting in Melbourne on September 30-October 2, voted to support the campaign to end the imprisonment of militant unionist Craig Johnston. Attended by 200

  • News briefs #3

    #3 NTEU strikes at two universities MELBOURNE — Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) held 24-hour strikes at RMIT and the Victoria University of Technology on September 23. Staff at both universities are in the midst of

  • Greens, socialists slam Latham's cave-ins

    Peter Boyle The Greens and the Socialist Alliance have condemned the ALP's support for the Coalition government's reactionary legislation on pharmaceutical benefits, "free trade" and "anti-terrorism". Greens Senator Bob Brown said that it is now

  • Native title win sparks right-wing hysteria

    Russell Pickering, Perth In a landmark ruling, the Federal Court on September 19 granted Western Australia's Noongar people one of Australia's largest native title claims. Covering more than 193,000 square kilometres, from Hopetoun in the south to