Doctors at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital will no longer perform medical terminations due to legal uncertainty, after criminal charges were laid against a 19-year-old woman and her partner in Cairns for allegedly procuring an abortion, said the August 21 Australian.
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From August 10 to 14, the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Environment Week brought together campaigners and environmentalists for a variety of events. The climate emergency was a central focus.
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The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission interim report was released on August 17. It found government and fire authorities failed to properly manage the deadliest bushfires in Australia’s history.
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Community Public Sector Union (CPSU) members of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) launched a “Love Our Leave Campaign” to build support for a strong enterprise agreement.
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More than 500 people attended the launch of the Victorian chapter of the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) on August 15.
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Fundamentalist Christian and NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione has made possible the introduction of a specially created “Police Bible” for the state's serving police officers.
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Unions NSW unveiled its “Better Services for a Better State” campaign at a seminar for public sector union delegates and Your Rights at Work activists in Parramatta on August 20.
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Graham Brown, a retired coalminer from the Hunter Valley in NSW, kicked off a national speaking tour by telling a University of Sydney forum on August 12 that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has “no clue whatsoever” about green jobs.
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Two Geelong council workers who were sacked on July 24 for accepting free steak sandwiches from a Geelong club owner have been reinstated. The victory followed an escalation in the two-week-old dispute, when the Australian Services Union (ASU) members walked off the job on August 10.
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Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union national secretary Dave Noonan said that if building worker and CFMEU member Ark Tribe is jailed for defying the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) there would be industrial action until he was released.
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Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at the University of Melbourne protested outside the vice-chancellor’s office at lunchtime on August 11 as part of a half-day strike.
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Environment minister Peter Garrett announced on August 10 that $9 million will be spent on rescuing 100 Aboriginal languages. However, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre condemned the plan as “cynical and false”.