News

One-hundred-and-seventy Qantas valet parking staff nationally are affected by a company’s last-ditch effort to move workers onto five-year fixed-term Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts) before changes to industrial relations legislation abolishing AWAs come into effect.

The federal Labor government has sought to play down the call made by its chief climate change policy adviser for it to go well beyond its target of a 60% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In an interim report released on February 21, Professor Ross Garnaut said that by 2050 global carbon dioxide emissions would need to be reduced to 90% of 2000 levels if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided.

A February 22 meeting between Western Australian prisons minister Margaret Quirk, Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington and WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairperson Marc Newhouse resulted in some ministerial promises of reforms following the the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder on January 27.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is urging Premier Mike Rann's South Australian government not to agree to a proposal from General Atomics (GA) to increase the size of the Beverly uranium mine from 16 km² to more than 100 km², warning of potential radioactive pollution.

On February 12, almost 2000 people gathered in the rain at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, before marching, in the sunshine, to Parliament House to demand an end to the federal government’s racist “intervention” in the Northern Territory.

NSW firefighters, members of the Fire Brigade Employees Union, took strike action for one hour on February 15 after talks with the NSW state government on a pay offer broke down. The FBEU is seeking a 3.5% pay increase each year for three years, to keep pace with inflation.

Music is an expression of the human condition and human society, so in exceptional moments in history, exceptional music is produced. It is no coincidence that when there is an increased political consciousness in society, new political music and culture accompany it. Whether it’s the unemployed workers of the 1930s or the anti-globalisation movements of today, there are always particular musicians that capture the mood of the moment.

For the first time in Australia, a convergence of climate change groups was held in Melbourne on February 9. While the convergence was focused on bringing together climate change groups from Victoria, several groups from Bondi, North Coast, Albury and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales also attended.

This year is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Each year, people gather all over the world on March 8 — or the closest weekend — to celebrate working class women and the struggle that has gone before us, and to continue the struggle into the future.

On February 13, 50 people attended an angry public meeting at the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Services centre in East Perth. The meeting called for an immediate cessation of transporting prisoners long distances in road vehicles following the death in custody on January 27 of an Aboriginal elder.

On February 8, the South Australian government voted to extend its moratorium on commercial GM crops, despite Victoria and New South Wales recently legislating to allow commercial GM plantings. Western Australia and Tasmania still have bans in place.

Who's the other one? "You know, women are now very active in the Kuwaiti parliament." — Emperor George Bush II, speaking in US ally Kuwait, January 12. Associated Press reported on January 22: "Kuwait's only female politician survived an attempt