News

Doctors for the Environment Australia released the statement below on May 2. *** Doctors and medical students are calling climate change a “public health emergency” and will join hundreds of Australians for the National Day of Divestment, organised by 350.org and Market Forces, on May 3. Across Australia, doctors and medical students will deliver letters to their banks calling on them to divest from fossil fuels, while others will close their accounts.

The Wilderness Society released this statement on April 19. *** BP, the company responsible for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, plan to start deep sea drilling for oil and gas in waters in the Great Australian Bight off South Australia as early as 2015. The Wilderness Society Campaigner Kathryn Warhurst said: “BP wants to drill in waters off South Australia that are far rougher, and far more remote than the Gulf of Mexico. That disaster was in 1.5 kilometres of water, here BP could be drilling in waters far deeper.

More than 100 people attended a forum on the federal government’s proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act. The meeting, called by the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council, was held in Northcote Town Hall on April 24. Attorney-general George Brandis was invited to attend, but did not show up. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told the meeting the government’s planned changes amount to scrapping the existing law against racial vilification. He said this would give a “green light for racism”.

About 2000 people rallied in Tasmania’s Upper Florentine Valley on April 27 to defend World Heritage listed forests. The rally was organised by the Bob Brown Foundation to oppose the proposed removal of the Upper Florentine from the World Heritage Area by the federal government. Organisers say the proposal will exclude some of the world’s most intact temperate forests and some of the tallest hardwood forests on Earth and would allow them to be opened up to environmentally destructive practices such as logging.

A national gathering of Aboriginal people is planned to coincide with the G20 in Brisbane later this year. The overall purpose of this gathering will be to reignite the push for self-determination and decolonisation. Leaders of the world’s most powerful nations, from [US president] Barack Obama to [Russian president] Vladimir Putin, will converge on the Queensland state capital in November. The summit will take place from November 15-16 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Bank.

Long-time Socialist Alliance member Zoltan Torrey — a gentle, thoughtful, uplifting and inspiring man — died suddenly at home on January 16. He wrote two extraordinary books. Out of Darkness is his memoir. He describes his youth in Hungary when it was occupied by Nazi Germany, and his arrival in Australia post World War II.

The defection by three Aboriginal members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the Palmer United Party (PUP) has the potential to topple the Country Liberal Party government. The three rebel MLAs — Larisa Lee, Alison Anderson and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu — left the CLP on March 27, saying it was failing to deliver outcomes for Aboriginal people in the NT. The three were part of the “bush bloc” that brought the CLP to power in the 2012 election, taking the necessary seats from the incumbent ALP to form government.

More than 1000 people gathered in Sunshine in Melbourne’s west on April 22, to pay their respects to Fiona Warzywoda, a mother of four who was murdered in public after she attended a court hearing in relation to family violence matters. Local resident Sophie Dutertre organised a silent candlelight vigil to show support. Dutertre did nott know the victim but wanted to take a public stand against yet another domestic violence-related murder and also demonstrate that Sunshine has a strong and caring community.

The workers at a Super A-Mart warehousing and distribution centre in Somerton, Victoria, have scored a victory over company management nearly six weeks after they were locked out of their workplace. The workers have won a 10% wage rise over the next three years, improved redundancy conditions, permanency conversions after six months, an Occupational Health and Safety committee on site, as well as a $750 sign-on bonus. Their victory was in partly due to the overwhelming success of the “Low Wage Bus Tour”, which left Melbourne on April 9 with the slogan “Raise the Wage”.

More than 1100 people, including a large number of young activists, attended Marxism 2014: Ideas to change the system, hosted in Melbourne by Socialist Alternative over April 17-20. The event continues to be an important public conference in Australia. This year there was an impressive Indigenous history and struggle stream, including activists such as Lex Wotton, who was jailed following the community response to Mulrunji Doomadgee's murder in custody by police on Palm Island, veteran activist Gary Foley; Marjorie Thorpe; Vicky Roach and former Tracker editor Chris Graham.

The Richmond Valley Council has asked a large protest camp in Bentley, near Lismore in NSW, to dismantle. The camp was set up to protect the local area from gas drilling by Metgasco. Several hundred people in the camp have maintained an ongoing blockade to prevent access to the site where test drilling is due to begin. Organisers of the camp, which is set up on private land, have refused the request.

The Refugee Action Coalition Sydney released this statement on April 16. *** An outbreak of dengue fever has hit Nauru, raising concerns for the short-term and long-term heath and welfare of asylum seekers being held on the island. At least three people (staff and detainees) have been confirmed suffering dengue fever. Another 12 cases are presently confirmed in the Nauruan population by a spokesperson for the Nauru general hospital.