News

  • No help to industry — Democrats

    No help to industry — Democrats The white paper fails almost totally to mention, let alone address Australia's structural problems, according to the Democrats. "It started life as an industry statement, but a sandwich shop got in the way

  • Victory for Shell workers

    MELBOURNE — Workers at Shell's Geelong refinery returned to work on May 5, having won the reinstatement of six colleagues. The settlement of the dispute also set in place a procedure requiring management to prove that a refinery

  • Lake Pedder to be restored?

    The campaign to restore Tasmania's Lake Pedder to its original condition is gathering momentum in Australia and overseas. The original Lake Pedder was a shallow glacial lake covering about 10 square kilometres and situated 320

  • Sydney: Pigsty 2000?

    Sydney: Pigsty 2000? The Waste Crisis Network (WCN) warns that Sydney is at risk of becoming a "pigsty" by the year 2000. The latest issue of the Waste Crisis Quarterly, the network's newsletter, points out that Sydney's waste levels have risen

  • Greens oppose 'employment merry-go-round'

    Greens oppose 'employment merry-go-round' Greens (WA) Senator Dee Margetts, commenting on the release of the government's white paper, Working Nation, claimed it will merely create a nation of working poor. "To quote the prime minister, 'he

  • Unemployment white paper: winners and losers

    The government's long-awaited white paper, optimistically titled "Working Nation", has promised to cut unemployment to 5% by the turn of the century by implementing "reforms" in the labour market and in industry which will cost

  • People's Justice Alliance formed

    MELBOURNE — Prison privatisation plans for Victoria are the most sweeping of any Australian state. Almost 40% of Victorian prisoners will be in a private prison if the Kennett government's plans go ahead., Victoria will also

  • Move-on powers a 'police state tactic'

    BRISBANE — New powers to allow police and security guards to forcibly move on "trouble-makers" at Brisbane South Bank were a return to the "police state tactics of the Bjelke-Petersen era", Susan Price and Ana Kailis said on May

  • Anti-union repression exposed

    Anti-union repression exposed Repression of trade unionists is increasing worldwide, with 92 killed last year, says the International Federation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a report published on April 28. The report says that some 2300 trade

  • Operation Sweep to continue

    Operation Sweep to continuePERTH — On April 27 the state government confirmed that it would be reactivating "Operation Sweep", aimed at getting young people under 18 off the streets of inner city Northbridge and Fremantle.

  • May Day

    ADELAIDE — Stephen Bull reports that around 400 people rallied in Victoria Square on April 30 as part of the city's annual May Day celebrations. This year's march celebrated the victory of the ANC in South Africa and the end of white minority rule

  • Loose cannons

    Ringing endorsement "Whatever my personal feeling is, I'm not going to go out and vilify the leader, no matter what I think of him." — NSW right-wing ALP MLA Peter Anderson, after losing his preselection. Anderson was reported to be upset with