News

Paul Oboohov, Canberra The ACT Labor government, with the support of the Liberal MLAs, rammed a bill through the ACT Legislative Assembly on May 25 to make the Gungahlin Drive extension immune from planning and environmental legislation. The

NEWCASTLE — On July 21, 70 truck drivers protested outside the Coles store in the NSW Central Coast town of Wyoming after being left with no job security by Coles-Myer and the Linfox trucking company following the closure of the nearby Coles-Myer

Well-known Indigenous activist Ray Jackson will run alongside Kylie Moon on the Socialist Alliance ticket for the Senate in NSW. Jackson is the president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association. For more information visit

Ian Jamieson, Fremantle Despite the spin from the Howard government about "choices" for workers and their unions under its new industrial relations laws, the big construction companies in Western Australia are gunning for the construction workers'

BRISBANE — Queensland secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Andrew Dettmer was reelected in a postal ballot on May 19. Dettmer, who was endorsed by former Qld secretary Dave Harrison and AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron,

Susan Price, Sydney On the night of November 22, following threats of eviction, the University of Newcastle moved to changed the locks on the offices of the National Tertiary Education Union on the campus. The NTEU had previously made attempts at

Queensland Rail announces job cuts BRISBANE — Queensland Rail will cut more than 700 jobs from its workforce of 13,500 in the initial stage of a drastic restructure, which follows the loss of a major rail freight contract to private company

SYDNEY — In a March 23 media release, Kate Gauthier, national coordinator of the A Just Australia refugee policy group, said that disclose a third case of unlawful detention of another Australian citizen by the commonwealth ombudsman's report in to

Kim Bullimore, Melbourne More than 500 Aboriginal people and supporters rallied outside the Victorian state parliament on May 10 to protest the proposed abolition of ATSIC and cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services. Both the

Sue Bolton New Zealand unionists in Auckland and Wellington joined unionists in 22 other countries on November 15 to protest outside Australian embassies against the Australian government's attacks on workers. Two Unite organisers, Simon

Jenny Long, Sydney Following two weeks of rolling 24-hour stoppages, cleaners from 100 public schools and TAFE colleges across inner-city Sydney mounted community information pickets at their schools before rallying at the office of NSW education

Ken Turner, Lismore Around 1000 people rallied at the Lismore railway station on April 26 to protest state government plans to close the Casino-Murwillumbah XPT rail link on May 17. Protesters wore red to the rally to symbolise that the community