News

Protesters gathered outside the Japanese consulate in Perth on January 9 to demand the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru #2 release Australian anti-whaling activists Geoffrey Tuxworth, Simon Peterffy and Glen Pendlebury.

On December 17, activists gathered in Perth’s city centre for a speakout as part of an international day of action for accused Wikileaks' whistleblower Bradley Manning. The action defied attempts by the Perth City Council to close down stalls and take down banners for the action. In May 2010, 24 year old Bradley Manning was arrested over suspicion of leaking secret US military and government documents to Wikileaks.

The statement below was released n December 12 by the Refugee Rights Action Network WA. * * * Today, just a few hours before he was due to be returned to Sri Lanka, a Tamil father's deportation order was stopped by the High Court. On Friday, the Federal Magistrates court dismissed an application for an injunction on the deportation of two Tamil asylum seekers. However on Friday Mr F's case was added to a High Court Challenge to elements of off shore processing that violate procedural fairness.

Police violence has been increasing against the Occupy Melbourne camp, now located at Flagstaff Gardens. There have been a number of extremely questionable police actions in recent days against Occupy Melbourne.

"The cleaners united will never be defeated," chanted cleaners and their supporters at a lively rally outside Westfield Sydney Shopping centre on December 8.

A weekend of protest at the ALP national conference. A rally for marriage equality December 3 and refugee rights on December 4. Photos by Zeb Parkes.

About 1000 refugee rights activists marched on the national conference of the Australian Labor Party in Sydney's Darling Harbour.

A group of 14 Occupy Sydney activists faced charges at Downing St District Court in Sydney on December 5. The charges arose out of the police eviction of Occupy Sydney's camp in Martin Place on October 23. The cases were "stood over", allowing human rights lawyer Stuart Littlemore to take some of these cases to the High Court in the new year. Occupy activist Tim Davis-Frank quipped "It looks like we'll be occupying the court system for a while!" A solidarity demonstration outside the court involved a few rogue Occupy tents on legs, who were refused admission into court.

Victorian nurses have decided to take their claims directly to the community, after negotiations with the Baillieu Victorian government over their enterprise bargaining agreement broke down yet again. Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick told a mass meeting on December 2: “The government negotiators staged a ‘breakdown’ in negotiations last night to bait nurses and midwives into taking further industrial action that would pull the last forced arbitration trigger.

About 10,000 people marched on the Australian Labor Party national conference to demand equal marriage rights on December 3 in Sydney. The ALP conference adopted policy supporting equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, but also voted to allow ALP members a "conscience vote" on the matter in parliament. The crowd was not impressed with this, which would likely see a vote lose, and vowed to continue the struggle.

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has condemned the federal government's planned increase in the “efficiency dividend” imposed on the Australian Public Service. “Efficiency dividend” is a euphemism for funding cut. In the 2012-13 financial year the “dividend” will be 4%, based on the assumption the public service will increase its efficiency by 4% during the year. Such cuts have been continuing for many years. In 2011-2012 the “efficiency dividend” is 1.5%.

The Australian Forests and Climate Alliance released the statement below on December 2. * * * “During the Durban Climate Conference all countries, including Australia, must take real action to protect the world's forests and deliver real reductions in carbon pollution,” said Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (AFCA) spokesperson Peter Campbell.