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A postcard to KeatingHOBART — Just hours before the federal budget was released, Resistance here was protesting against it. In the Elizabeth Mall, Resistance members invited the public to write their messages on a giant

A faint sigh of relief conditioned by continued anxiety about the future best sums up the response of welfare and environmental organisation to the 1992 budget. The temporary retreat from economic rationalism into mild Keynesian

On August 18, the Keating government brought in a federal budget designed to convince the public that the Australian Labor Party has returned to its old Social Democratic values. But while the budget purports to give first

Residents oppose new reactorSYDNEY — Environmental and residents' groups have condemned a federal government proposal to build a new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney's rapidly growing southern suburbs. The new

MELBOURNE — Bill Deller, Victorian Public Service Federation vice-president and convener of the Independent Action campaign, warned on August 19 that a future Kennett Liberal-National government of Victoria might face a general

ADELAIDE — 500 teachers and their supporters rallied at Parliament House on August 18 to demand more staff in the city's disadvantaged northern and western suburbs. Speakers expressed disgust with the state government's failure to give

The budget and welfareWith unemployment at a postwar record high, the federal budget offers more bad than good news for welfare recipients, according to Jenny Blakey of Melbourne's Welfare Rights Unit. "It offers a few

MELBOURNE — On August 16, former Democrat Senator Janet Powell and State Public Service Federation vice-president Bill Deller launched the Independent Action Campaign, a broad progressive coalition of candidates contesting the

Envy of the playground? "What happens to your five-year-old daughter who finds that the shares or debentures given to her as a present are suddenly made public?" — NSW National Party MP Duncan Gay, opposing a proposal that a register of

A document leaked to Green Left Weekly indicates that the Department of Social Security and the Australian Federal Police are planning regular exchange of information that has generally been regarded as confidential. It

Students protest against loans scheme Tertiary students demonstrated in four capital cities on August 13 against the federal government's introduction of an Austudy loans scheme. The scheme, according to leaks prior to the budget, gives

Public servants revolt over enterprise dealsSYDNEY — Members of the Public Sector Union have until August 28 to vote on a wages motion endorsed by their national executive opening the way for enterprise bargaining in the