News

Kathy Newnam, Darwin On October 19, social justice campaigner Stuart Highway was sentenced to eight months' jail, suspended after three months, for his involvement in a smoke-in on October 2002. The smoke-in, organised by the drug-law reform

Cascade Brewery workers formed a picket line on September 10 in response to the company's attempt to stand down 30 workers. By the end of the day the jobs were reinstated and the workers won a pay rise. The workers previously imposed work bans

Americans are honorary Iraqis "Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilise their country." — Emperor George Bush II, May 5. On Bushworld "You've got to understand that military options are always my

Alex Bainbridge, Hobart After years of advocating for a bill to legalise brothels, the state government announced on October 5 that it would amend draft legislation to instead ban brothels outright. The new legislation was passed by Tasmania's

Ruth Ratcliffe, Sydney Three years after the Tampa affair, when Prime Minister John Howard's government refused to allow 400 asylum seekers who had been rescued by a Norwegian freighter to set foot on Australian soil, 250 refugee-rights supporters

Office closure angers union members NEWCASTLE — Rank-and-file members of the Community and Public Sector Union have reacted with disbelief and outrage to a proposal by the CPSU National Management Committee (NMC) to close the Newcastle organising

Alex Bainbridge, Sydney Sixty unionists and their supporters gathered to defend specialised maintenance workers at the Sydney Opera House on February 24. The protest was directed against a new anti-union contractor who has refused employment to the

MELBOURNE — On August 21, Irish Socialist Party parliamentarian Joe Higgins addressed a meeting of 70 people as part of week-long Australian speaking tour which included public meetings in Newcastle, Sydney and Perth. Higgins is a member of the

Sarah Stephen The seven judges of the High Court's full bench ruled unanimously on April 29 that the Family Court did not have the authority to release children from immigration detention or make orders about their welfare. Constitutional lawyer

Monopoly capitalism at work "California Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced the distribution of [US]$407,454 in refund checks to 701 California cancer patients who overpaid for the Bristol-Myers Squibb (Bristol) drug Taxol... The Taxol

2 Rio Tinto protest: 'Human rights, not mining sites' BRISBANE — Anti-nuclear, West Papuan and Indigenous rights advocates joined together on April 22 to picket corporate mining giant Rio Tinto's Australian annual general meeting at the

Dale Mills, Sydney NSW Police are to trial Tasers hand-held stun guns that fire two metal probes attached to copper wires, delivering 55,000-volt electric shock that lasts for five seconds. Victims typically fall to the ground and involuntarily