News

  • Joh jury inquiry focuses on investigator

    Joh jury inquiry focuses on investigatorBRISBANE — The spotlight in the ongoing Criminal Justice Commission inquiry into the selection of the jury in the 1991 Joh Bjelke-Petersen corruption trial has now turned to legal

  • Public tenant dies from asbestos cancer

    By Martin O'Byrne MELBOURNE — A legal firm here is planning to take action against the state Ministry of Housing over the death of a public tenant from an asbestos-related disease. Last September 10, Doreen Porter died from mesothelioma

  • Rolling stoppages to protest Kennett cuts

    Rolling stoppages to protest Kennett cutsMELBOURNE — State public sector unions will begin an industrial action campaign throughout Victoria from May 17 in response to the Kennett government's vicious funding cuts,

  • Risks

    Risks People with asbestos material in their housing are at risk of contracting an asbestos-related disease. These diseases include: Asbestosis. Fibres lodge in the lungs, causing a scar which continues to grow even though there may be no

  • Gay man murdered in Adelaide

    Gay man murdered in AdelaideADELAIDE — A homosexual man was murdered here last week, exactly 21 years after the infamous drowning of Dr George Duncan. Duncan, a gay professor at Adelaide University, was bashed and

  • Sacrifice

    Sacrifice While the ACTU is determined to sacrifice wages for the sake of "the economy", some of the highest salary earners in the country don't have the same approach to their incomes. Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett (on $131,771 a year, plus

  • Logging destroys rare possum habitat

    Logging destroys rare possum habitatMELBOURNE — Conservationists have expressed outrage over the destruction of a prime habitat of one of Victoria's rarest mammals, the Leadbeater's possum. Two weeks ago,

  • Nurses impose bans

    Nurses impose bansMELBOURNE — Nurses at Western General have imposed bans on elective admissions and internal transfer of patients due to an increasing strain on midwifery staffing levels. The closure of the midwifery

  • Loose cannons

    Save the rubbish "I don't see the need to tip something out just because it looks as though it's been there for a long time." — New Zealand foreign minister Don McKinnon, supporting continued ties to the British crown. And the winner is

  • ACTU defers national wage claim

    On May 13 the ACTU executive rejected a call by several unions covering low-paid workers for a national wage claim of $8 per week for workers who had not managed to strike enterprise bargains with their employers. ACTU

  • Free speech campaign widens

    Free speech campaign widensBRISBANE — The campaign for free speech in the Queen Street Mall is gaining support against Lord Mayor Jim Soorley's attempt to further restrict the right of peaceful assembly. Support

  • A further battering for public transport

    MELBOURNE — Victoria's already beleaguered public transport system is in for a further battering. More cuts to rail services are to take effect in the next two months, despite warnings from environmental and public