This Week's Stories:
The Commonwealth Bank will lose a further 1000 jobs - despite its annual
profit jumping 11 percent, to $2.6 billion.
(Herald Sun).
A Melbourne Nazi leader has been sent to jail for stabbing someone who
criticised his beliefs.
Patrick O'Sullivan was at a party in Fitzroy when someone asked him how
he could call himself a Nazi when he had no German ancestry. Mr
O'Sullivan then either punched or headbutted the man before stabbing
him, causing a 5cm deep wound.
Nazis have been organising from the Birmingham Hotel in inner city
Melbourne, holding regular meetings as well as at least two concerts by
Nazi rock bands.
(Herald Sun).
Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock says globalisation meant that some
types of movements, such as business travel, should be made easier - but
not movement for ordinary people.
(The Australian).
A teenager whose life was threatened while working at a supermarket has
been left to fend for himself by supermarket management.
When Geraint Gardner asked to check the bag of a customer at Greenvale
Bi-Lo, the customer told him he'd 'get his friends on to him'. The man
returned several times over the next week, waving a knife in front of Mr
Gardner, threatening to damage his car, and telling him he could pay to
have him killed.
Mr Gardner was offered a transfer to another store but refused. Bi-Lo
refused to increase security even though Gardner called the police
several times and eventually took out an apprehended violence order.
(Herald Sun).
Detectives have been accused of covering up years of sexual abuse by a
man they had personal connections to.
A women, who has not been named, says she was abused by the man for over
ten years, starting when she was twelve. She provided her diaries which
detailed the abuse, as well as statements by her family. Three other
women have come forward with accusations against the same man. He was
interviewed by detectives in 1998 but was never charged. Four
detectives from the case now say senior officers protected him.
(Herald Sun).
Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski says that the Woomera, Curtin and
Port Hedland facilities were "a bit like mental hospitals, only
without proper staff to run mental hospitals, and without proper
facilities".
While Dr Ozdowski said he had seen some evidence of psychological trauma
12 months ago "there were people who were still functioning well".
"What's happened since then [is] basically it's almost impossible to
find people who are able to behave in a way we would behave - the stress
is written all over them."
Dr Ozdowski says that "when I interviewed people after four months in
detention, almost every second one of them cried".
"The longer people are in detention the more mentally damaged they
are...keeping them in detention centres, and especially young people, is
just inhumane, and creates enormous damage to them in the long term."
Dr Ozdowski said detainees were still awoken in the middle of the night
for head counts.
He said Villawood detainees had complained about counts during evening
meals. If one person was unaccounted for, everyone had to wait.
Sometimes people were made to stand in cold weather for one hour or
more, depending on the officer. "Most are quite humane, [but] some take
pleasure in prolonging [the process]," he said.
He was also concerned about access to information and educational and
recreational facilities.
(The Age, Sydney Morning Herald).
The Federal Government has announced plans to encourage elderly people
to smear faeces on a card and mail them to pathologists, to be tested
for bowel cancer.
However they didn't tell postal workers or consult with them on possible
health risks.
(Herald Sun).
Immigration officials have been criticised in the ACT Coroners Court
over their handling of the case of Shahraz Kiane, who died after
setting fire to himself outside Parliament House last year. Immigration
officials were accused of trying to sabotage attempts by the man's
family to prepare for the inquest into his death.
The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs was strongly
criticised by the family's barrister, Alex Howers, for its failure to
hand over all the material it had on Mr Kiane's mental state at the time.
The department also was criticised by Coroner Shane Madden over its
tardy approach on the release of documents and its claim that it had no
written record of a meeting, just days after Mr Kiane set himself
alight, involving the Minister, Phillip Ruddock, and members of Mr
Kiane's family.
The 48-year-old Mr Kiane, a refugee from Pakistan in 1996, died in May
last year, 55 days after setting fire to himself outside Partliament
House in protest at the long delay in obtaining a decision on whether
his wife and three daughters could join him in Australia.
Mr Kiane's initial request to be reunited with his family was rejected
because of the likely long-term health-care costs - $750,000 was quoted
by Mr Ruddock - due to one of his daughter's cerebral palsy.
Following an investigation by the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Kiane was
invited to submit a further application. By the time of the Parliament
House incident seven months later, the application was still being
processed. Mr Kiane's family asserts that he had been promised that his
application would be expedited but that he gave up hope when told
nothing had happened.
A year ago, the Ombudsman, Ron McLeod, released his final report,
condemning the department over its handling of the case.
Mr McLeod found that Mr Kiane had been denied natural justice and that
history of the case had been marked by ineptitude, broken promises and a
long-standing bias against the family.
Mr Howers described the department's approach to the release of
information as 'a couple of pieces of the jigsaw at a time'.
He cited as an example of a document missing from what the department
had provided, a letter from a Canberra psychologist to a migration
agent, six weeks before Mr Kiane set himself alight, warning that he
might kill himself. Although nothing was said in open court yesterday,
it is understood that the department asserts it did receive a copy of
the letter.
While not explicitly endorsing Mr Howers' criticisms, Mr Madden said the
family probably felt that it had been left in the dark and was 'running
on guesswork'. He responded in disbelief when told that the department
had no written record of a meeting between Mr Ruddock and members and
representatives of Mr Kiane's family three days after the
self-immolation incident. He thought it extraordinary that there would
be no record kept of, and no briefing note prepared for, a ministerial
meeting when a man was on life support and in danger of dying.
(yourguide.com website).
Defence Minister Robert Hill says he 'stands by' the Federal
Government's policies on asylum seekers, despite recent comments by his
wife that he opposes them.
Senator Hill's wife Diana, who is the new president of UNICEF Australia,
made the comment in an interview with the Financial Review newspaper.
Senator Hill denies the claim he opposes the government's policy but at
the same time, as the ABC news website puts it, "admits he is troubled
by the detention of children".
(ABC news website).
quote of the week:
"Behind the bubbles and busts of the capitalist system there is a class
struggle; and that class struggle is the key to modern politics."
Britain's Financial Times newspaper - a paper aimed at business people,
similar to the Australian Financial Review.
anarchist news service
write to James, PO Box 503, Newtown NSW 2042
or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
contact us to get ATNTF emailed directly to you.
All the News That Fits appears in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review
(www.vicnet.net.au/~anarchist - PO Box 20 Parkville VIC 3052).
Some other Australian anarchist websites:
www.angry.at/racists - Anarchist/anti-racist music site with free mp3s, Real
Audio, Real Video, band interviews etc.
www.dolearmy.org - information for unemployed people.
www.activate.8m.com - anarchist magazine aimed at teenagers.
.
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