News

HOBART — The Green Independents' lunchtime campaign launch on January 15 filled the 400-seat Hobart Town Hall to capacity, with another 200 people on the steps listening to speeches broadcast by loudspeakers. With the

This issues union news.

MELBOURNE — An important element of the ACTU's drive to amalgamate Australia's roughly 300 unions into about 20 mega-unions ran into trouble in December when rank and file workers defeated an attempt to shotgun the

HOBART — Ian Jamieson, former president of the Tasmanian Mining Industry Union Council and current chair of the Rosebery Hospital Action Committee, is to contest the seat of Lyons as an independent in the February 1 state

SYDNEY — The 5% swing against the Liberal NSW government of Nick Greiner in the January 18 Entrance by-election confirms the result of last May's general election: working people around the state are angry with the

Community opinion has been outraged by the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold a lesser sentence for convicted rapist Heros Hakopian, on the ground that the victim would have suffered less trauma because she was a prostitute. Melbourne newspapers and radio stations have been filled with the debate.

Human rights groups and spokespeople for the East Timorese resistance movement have condemned as a whitewash the Indonesian government-appointed inquiry's preliminary report into the November 12 Dili massacre.

Anti-bases protest at ToowoombaBRISBANE — About 40 demonstrators gathered at Borneo Barracks, Cabarlah on New Year's Day as "Toowoomba Mobilisation Opposing Bush". Cabarlah Army base, 19 km outside Toowoomba, is

DSS hassles Aidex protestersBRISBANE — People who have attended the anti-Aidex protest in Canberra have been harassed by the Department of Social Security for their involvement. Beneficiaries who were arrested or

Paula Nassif SYDNEY — TAFE teachers in NSW are concerned over threats of disciplinary action for making public comments. Labor Party assistant shadow education minister John Murray noted recently that two Wollongong teachers were reprimanded

Emerald Beach fight continuesThe Look At Me Now headland, at Emerald Beach near Coffs Harbour, is still threatened by a proposed sewage outfall, despite a court ruling against the plans of the Coffs Harbour Council. On

Renfrey Clarke, Green Left's Moscow correspondent, is getting married. Renfrey and Larissa, an actor from Novosibirsk, will be married in Moscow on January 22. Best wishes to both of them from the GL staff. Photo by Peter Annear.