LL:ART: Opera House protestors get periodic detentionl
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1034882.htm Opera house protesters get weekend jail Two men who painted an anti-war slogan on the Sydney Opera House last year have been sentenced to nine months periodic detention. David Burgess, 33, and Will Saunders, 42, were convicted of a charge of malicious damage relating to the painting of the words 'No War' on the landmark building in March last year. In handing down the sentence, New South Wales District Court Justice Anthony Blackmore described the offence as serious because of the damage done to the Opera House. He said there was a need for a general deterrent to discourage others from damaging public buildings. Outside the court, defence lawyer John Doris said there would be an appeal against the convictions and the sentences. -- Visit the proposed Leftlink web site at http://www.leftlink.net/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDV: Amnesty International Australia - Victoria
Dear Friend and Amnesty International Supporter, Thank you for your ongoing support of Amnesty International Australia. I would like to let you know about a very special Victorian event - Amnesty Internationals Australia's Charity Comedy Gala - Stand Up For Your Rights! I hope that you and your friends can join us for this exciting extravaganza. *Amnesty International Australias Charity Comedy Gala Stand Up For Your Rights* is being held on 25th of October at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. This exciting night will have you rolling around the floor laughing while supporting human rights! Featuring Dave O'Neil, Tom Gleeson, Hung Le, Gerard McCulloch, GUD (Paul McDermott, Cameron Bruce and Mick Moriarty), Charlie Pickering, Terri Psiakis, Dave Williams, Michael Chamberlian, Chris Bennet, Nellie Thomas, Ciel Stowe, Man Bites God, The Pinch and The 6 and hosted by Craig Reucassel and Chris Taylor from C. This impressive line up of some of Australia's leading comedians will be a fantastic night out! Use your freedom to support human rights and enjoy three hours of comic relief. Tickets through ticketek (www.ticketek.com.au or call 132 849 ) $45/$35conc. Visit www.amnesty.org.au for more information. Other events on Amnesty International Australia's 2003 Victorian calendar include: - The 24th and 25th of October is *Candle Day* - a street based fundraising and awareness day when thousands of volunteers across Victoria collect funds and distribute badges on local streets, workplaces, schools, churches and in Melbourne's CBD. Visit www.amnesty.org.au/candleday - The *Freedom Festival* is a national music and dance festival with the motto of do good, feel good. There are four Victorian music/dance events as part of the Freedom Festival - visit www.amnesty.org.au/freedom *- Harmonies - Music of Faith *on the 7th of December is set to be a musical adventure - a concert in celebration of International Human Rights Day. With music from a large variety of religions included, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 03 9427 7055 on Thursdays for more information. *- On Dec 13th Daybreak in Detention* is a public action to celebrate Human Rights Day. Daybreak in Detention is a 12 hour overnight 'sit in' to raise awareness and raise dollars for defending human rights. To start your own Daybreak in Detention Centre or to join up with a local group - contact the Victorian Activist Resource Centre on 03 9427 7055. To keep in regular contact with the activities and events of Amnesty International Australia in Victoria, you can subscribe to our free regular email bulletin - VicActivE. To join, simple send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For information on getting involved with Amnesty International and its local groups, campaigns and activities, please visit our website at www.amnesty.org.au/getintouch/vic or contact the Victorian Activist Resource Centre on 03 9427 7055 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Thank you once again for your ongoing support of Amnesty International Australia and the global defence of human rights! We hope to see you at our Charity Comedy Gala Stand Up For Your Rights!* *Kind regards* *Anna* *Anna Skarbek* *Victorian President* Amnesty International Australia Victorian Activist Resource Centre PO Box 1333 14 Risley Street RICHMOND NORTH VIC 3121 T: 03 94277055 F: 03 94271643 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] USE Your Freedom - Defend Human Rights in the Asia Pacific. Become a Human Rights Defender today call 1300 300 920 -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: Federal Cabinet Reshuffle
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/29/1064687704726.html 'Eight seats from oblivion': PM picks poll team September 29, 2003 Prime Minister John Howard today announced a major Cabinet reshuffle - probably his last before the next election - saying: ``Eight seats is all that stands between us and electoral oblivion.'' Kay Patterson has been dumped as Health Minister and Communications Minister Richard Alston cut from the ministry. Mr Howard made seven cabinet changes as he indicated he was preparing the government for the next election. Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott will replace Senator Patterson, who has battled since taking on the health portfolio after the 2001 election. Senator Patterson will take responsibility for family and community services and also become the minister assisting the prime minister for the status of women. Long-standing Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock was made attorney-general. Mr Howard said Senator Alston would retire shortly. Attorney-General Daryl Williams will replace Senator Alston, while Family and Community Services Minister Amanda Vanstone will take over immigration. Kevin Andrews, promoted at the last poll to Ageing Minister, will become the workplace relations minister, while West Australian backbencher Julie Bishop will take on Mr Andrews' post. Treasurer Peter Costello kept his post, with Mr Howard describing him as the best treasurer anyone could hope for. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, Trade Minister Mark Vaile, Defence Minister Robert Hill and Agriculture Minister Warren Truss also remain in place. Apart from senators Patterson and Alston, the biggest casualty was Local Government and Territories Minister Wilson Tuckey who has lost his post. Mr Howard said Mr Tuckey had indicated he did not want to hold a ministerial post following the coming election. 'Eight seats is all that stands between us and electoral oblivion.' Mr Tuckey will be replaced by West Australian senator Ian Campbell. The prime minister said this would probably be the last reshuffle before the next election which is due by the end of next year. ``I would not anticipate any further major reshuffles between now and the next election,'' he said. Mr Howard said the changes were aimed at keeping the government fresh. ``These changes will continue a process of renewal and regeneration,'' he said. ``They will reinforce the government's commitment to its goals for Australia of national security, economic strength and social stability.'' Mr Howard said he had been mulling over the changes for a week or more. ``It all sort of crystallised recently,'' he said. Mr Howard said the changes to his ministry would make it a more effective government, but warned only eight seats stood between the coalition remaining in office after the next federal election. ``Eight seats is all that stands between us and electoral oblivion,'' he said. ``I hope people understand that and every opportunity I get I just want to tell Liberal supporters around Australia, `Don't imagine that we are some kind of unbeatable or unbackable favourite at the next election'. ``We are not, eight seats and we're out of business.'' He said it was not necessary to create a new portfolio to deal with security and the threat of terrorism. He said Australia's current approach to security was effective. ``The more I look at the administrative arrangements that exist in this country in these areas, compared with those of the United States and the United Kingdom, I'm satisfied that the arrangement here is as good, if not superior, to those that operate in America,'' Mr Howard told reporters. ``I don't think the creation of a homeland security department has simplified the areas of responsibility or clarified the lines of communication. ``I think our whole of government approach in areas of national security is quite effective.'' -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:URL: News coverage of anti-war protests
Thousands walk against war in Sydney http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s811974.htm Thousands protest across Australia http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/20/1047749876856.html -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] .. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: Loach Make Drama Out Of Crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4301199,00.html How to make a drama out of a crisis Ken Loach has never been afraid to experiment. His new film, The Navigators, is no exception. It has an unlikely subject - the privatisation of British Rail - and a cast of northern comics and singers Sheila Johnston Observer Sunday November 18, 2001 Have you heard the one about Ken Loach, the stand-up comics and the comedy about the privatisation of British Rail? Loach's new film, The Navigators, follows a gang of track- maintenance workers whose easy camaraderie and humorous banter dissolve into terrible mutual betrayal under the strain of the new working practices. Many roles are played by comedians and singers with little previous acting experience who have been drawn from the northern club circuit. Their brilliant timing and teamwork are fundamental to Loach's tragi-comedy, but this particular story contains several stings in its tail. On a cold night in Sheffield - the setting of the film - earlier this week, one of Loach's cast, Venn Tracey, has come 'across the border' (his phrase) from Oldham, Lancashire, with a coachload of mates to catch a cinema screening of The Navigators before it goes out on television. Also present is another cast member, Sean Glenn, a dark, intense figure, dapper and besuited. Both were approached by Loach's researchers because of their extensive contacts in the showbusiness community. Trying his own luck at auditions, Tracey admits to anxiety. 'I said to Ken that I was a bit bothered because I'd never been to drama school or anything, but he told me that I was acting every night that I went up on stage.' Glenn is more confident. He's keen to stress that he's an actor of long and broad experience. He played opposite Laurence Olivier in a television production of King Lear (1984), as a spear carrier. He was 'a Rover's Return regular on Coronation Street . One of their best darts players'. He appeared in Budgie , the Seventies television series starring Adam Faith. One of his press cuttings praises him as 'probably the finest singer ever to appear at the Bucknell Ex-Service Men's Club'. The Navigators is his second film (the first was Stardust in 1974). Tey talk about Loach's methods. Tracey says: 'He would give us a script in the evening for the next day. You'd get little notes - Don't tell Charlie or Sean about this line. They would have a note - Don't tell Venn. We never saw the whole thing and never knew where the film was going.' Playing his first scene, in which his depot supervisor lectures rail workers on the impending privatisation, Glenn was discomfited to find his big speech being ignored or heckled. 'Ken set me up. When I went in, I expected all the guys to listen, but instead they had been told to barrack me. I hadn't realised at first that this was a comedy or that I was a fall guy. But Ken puts you completely at ease and makes you feel happy with him.' The following morning brings an invitation to a cup of milky tea at Dean Andrews's neat redbrick house in a neat Rotherham suburban street of ex-council houses come up in the world. Andrews is a singer. He is joined by comedian Charlie Brown, a large man with a booming Yorkshire accent and a contagious, wheezy laugh. The talk turns to Rob Dawber, a former railwayman who wrote the screenplay, his first, based on his own experience: he appears briefly in The Navigators as one of the workers at a derailment. Dawber died last February of cancer, contracted while working with asbestos on the railways. 'It sounds funny,' Brown says, 'but it were the best funeral I've ever been to, that.' Shovelling earth on his coffin, one mourner dropped his spade into the grave, prompting a voice to pipe up from the crowd: 'Try digging your way out of that one, Rob!' Dawber, they both reckon, would have enjoyed it. But the comedy in his script was, above all, a blueprint. 'There were a lot of adlibs,' Andrews recalls. 'Ken would tell us to say whatever we'd feel. He never says action and he never says cut.' He cites one scene in which Brown's character is encouraged by the others to expect a free can of sardines with his order of fish and chips. 'All the quips and innuendos were added by the actors. We were all like tennis players batting each other lines, with people thinking of new jokes all the time. One of the takes must have gone on for 10 minutes, even though Ken only used about 10 seconds.' Many scenes never made the final cut - the comics all regret a piece of lost shtick in which a hated time clock ends up in a canal. 'It would be a danger to be seduced by a whole set of gags,' comments Loach from the cutting-room of his next project. 'But you spend weeks editing the footage, so there's time to get disenchanted with the jokes. And, even if you can't include a scene in the end, it's quite good to let the men play on. It gets everyone
LL:DDN: CPSU Support of One.tel workers
** Rally in Support of One.tel workers Monday 4 June at 12.15pm at the Australian Industrial Relations Commisssion. (80 William St Sydney) The CPSU, the union that covers the One.Tel workers is seeking to have an award created that will give the employees redundancy benefits in case their jobs are lost. NSW Premier Bob Carr will address the rally at 12.30pm. CPSU is calling on the Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott to support the case for redundancy benefits. We are also calling on the two One.Tel directors to give back the $14 million they took out in bonus payments only days before the company announced record losses. The employees stand to lose their jobs and annual leave and superannuation entitlements. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: First M1 Arrest in Melbourne
http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2001/06/01/FFXDKSKAFNC.html Man charged over M1 protest By CHEE CHEE LEUNG Friday 1 June 2001 Police have laid their first charges over this year's M1 anti-globalisation protests against a 46-year-old man from Kyneton. Matthew Taylor has been charged with criminal damage to a city McDonalds' restaurant in Swanston Street on May 1. He has been bailed and will appear in Kyneton Magistrates' Court on Monday. A police spokesman said the charge was the first in connection with the M1 events, but said it was unlikely to be the last as investigations were continuing. He said Australian Federal Police and United States' authorities were also involved in the investigations. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Ruddock's rantings a shot in the arm for Hanson
d financial support and schooling for their children while each case is assessed. Here, the media would never allow such dangerous goings-on. Disease, violence, crime, ritual child abuse ! Stealing Aussie jobs ! There's nothing like a blast of thinly coded wog-bashing to light up the switchboards of the radio shock jocks. Few, though, can top Piers Akerman, the prime ministerial toady and Daily Telegraph hysteric-in-residence. "The criminals attempting to enter Australia illegally who rioted at the Port Hedland detention centre should be tossed out of the country immediately," he snarled on Tuesday. "If they need to be drugged, handcuffed or placed in chains before being bundled onto aircraft, it really doesn't matter." Apart from the acrid whiff of Adolf Eichmann in his luminous prose, Akerman was being just plain thick. As was the opportunist Sciacca. Which aircraft, and to where ? We have no air links to Iran or Iraq ; UN sanctions forbid flights to Afghanistan and, having flick-passed the refugees to us in the first place, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia have no incentive to accept them back. Afghan shepherds on Ashmore are no queue jumpers The Afghan folk who wash up on the Ashmore Reef are, by and large, shepherds and weavers of the minority Hazara tribe. Moderate Shi'ite Muslims, the Hazaras have been slaughtered in the tens of thousands by the Sunni Muslims of the fanatical Taliban regime which holds sway in Afghanistan. It is the lucky ones who fall into the hands of the people smugglers. Typically, young men are heavied by a Taliban thug offering the stark choice of death or ethnic cleansing. The going rate for an escape is about $US5,000, or an extended family's entire fortune. The smugglers pay off the Taliban and the venal Pakistani officials who run the human pipelines through the sub-continent. By any measure, these wretched people meet the UN definition of a refugee as a person who, "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country". The Government's disgusting propaganda calls them queue jumpers, but they are not, for there is no queue to jump. -- Alister Air Ph 9514 1277 IT Manager Fx 9514 1656 Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney "The time of your life is the one commodity that you can sell but never buy back." -- Bob Black -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Police to be feted as Bracks denies 'excessive force'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0009/15/national/national16.html Police to be feted as Bracks denies 'excessive force' By BRAD NORINGTON The Victorian Premier, Mr Bracks, will host a barbecue for about 2,000 police officers involved in the operation to break a protest blockade of the World Economic Forum, dismissing claims that they used excessive force. Mr Bracks, who has already promised the officers an extra day off, said yesterday he wanted to express his gratitude for their "outstanding" effort to guarantee the safe passage of 800 influential world business and political leaders past thousands of protesters. In a show of one-upmanship, Victoria's Opposition Leader, Dr Dennis Napthine, who was trapped in his car on the first day of the blockade, went as far as to say that police should be given a civic reception for their work. But organisers of the S11 protest said they were "astonished" that Mr Bracks could give his unqualified congratulations and even consider rewarding police for using "unlawful" force to beat back protesters. Police confirmed yesterday that an investigation would be held into the circumstances surrounding a woman being knocked down by an unmarked police car - her legs trapped under its wheels - at the forum's closure on Wednesday night. The protester, Ms Monica Brindell, was discharged from hospital yesterday after she was believed to have suffered deep soft-tissue injuries to her legs but no broken bones. Ms Brindell is considering legal action against police. The car, carrying four police officers in plain clothes, sped away after the accident. Victoria's Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Neil O'Loughlin, said the four police in the car were on duty as part of the official security operation and were trying to gain entry to the casino when their vehicle was blocked by protesters in Queensbridge Street. Mr O'Loughlin said a sergeant stepped out of the car to identify himself and explained that the four police were starting duty at the casino complex. When the police officer got back inside the car the protesters became agitated, bashing and rocking the car from side-to-side. Mr O'Loughlin said the driver tried to manoeuvre the car slowly away from the protesters. He believed the driver was unaware that a protester was lying near the front wheel, out of his vision, and drove off to another entry gate. Crown Casino reopened to gamblers yesterday and barricades to keep protesters out of the complex were removed. Victoria's police ombudsman, Dr Barry Perry, said he was considering holding an inquiry into police handling of the security operation following complaints of excessive force by protesters. Dr Perry said an inquiry would consider police planning, operational decisions and complaints about individual police. Lawyers acting for protesters claim police delivered arbitrary punishment and failed to comply with proper procedure by removing their identification badges. The secretary of Victoria's Trades Hall Council, Mr Leigh Hubbard, joined S11 organisers in condemning police actions as "the worst savagery by police in 25 years". But Mr Bracks said: "I discussed [the barbecue] with the police commissioner, Neil Comrie, yesterday ... and indicated that we'd like to have an appropriate reception at Parliament House - a barbecue with families, with the spouses and the police officers and some of the security people at Crown." He added: "The police ... did a sterling and outstanding job." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Lawyers accuse police of endangering lives as 200 claim injury
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0009/13/national/national6.html Lawyers accuse police of endangering lives as 200 claim injury By TONI O'LOUGHLIN Legal observers of the S11 protest yesterday officially complained to the Victorian Ombudsman that the police had endangered lives by using excessive force against the protesters blockading the World Economic Forum. Up to 200 protesters had been injured by police who had hit them on the head with batons, trampled them with horses, dragged them by the hair, punched, kicked, elbowed and bitten them and driven at high speed to disperse crowds, the team of legal observers said. Police are also not wearing their identification badges. Legal observers estimate 90 per cent of officers have taken off their name tags. Damien Lawson, of Melbourne's Western Suburbs Legal Centre, said: "This goes to the heart of accountability at this protest. If they can't be identified then they can act with impunity. "There was a young man who was baton-charged and lost two teeth and had to have emergency surgery." But police said that under the circumstances their actions were remarkably restrained. Four police were injured yesterday and two protesters were arrested for assaulting officers. So far, there have been four arrests. New Zealand politician Ms Sue Bradford, who was part of the blockade that was forcibly broken by the police to make way for the buses carrying World Economic Forum members, said: "We were given no chance to move. Wave after wave of police came stamping over our heads." Ms Bradford said that 50 of the 100 protesters she was sitting with were seriously injured and 11 were hospitalised. The legal team, comprising barristers, solicitors, law students and para-legals who came together to give protesters legal information, has taken 300 statements detailing claims of police using excessive force since the blockade began on Monday. Partners of the law firm Slater and Gordon have given their staff time off to attend the protest as legal observers. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Abbott backs church sacking gay employees
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0009/11/national/national4.html Abbott backs church sacking gay employees David Marr Centacare has a right to sack homosexuals, according to Mr Abbott, the Minister for Work Place Relations, who has endorsed claims by the Catholic Church that its Jobs Network agency has the right to dismiss employees who live "openly at variance with church teaching". The minister was responding to draft guidelines issued by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) designed to protect staff employed by Centacare and the three other "faith based" agencies providing employment services on behalf of the Commonwealth Government. "There are serious problems with the guidelines," he told the Herald. "They show a general lack of sympathy for the principle that a religious organisation has a right to maintain its own ethos." As the minister responsible for the Jobs Network, Mr Abbott has pledged to protect Christian agencies from "unreasonable interference in freedom of religion" - including the right of Christians to hire and fire according to their teaching on sex and marriage. "This is a diverse pluralist democracy that believes everyone has a broad entitlement to live their lives as they see fit," Mr Abbott said. "But I don't think an openly homosexual person has a right to be employed by an organisation publicly committed to oppose that lifestyle." The HREOC draft guidelines are designed to deal with the four "faith based" agencies in Jobs Network now being paid about $700million over three years to shoulder part of the tasks of the old Commonwealth Employment Service. Earlier this year, under pressure from HREOC, the Salvation Army's Employment Plus, Wesley Uniting Employment and Mission Employment dropped controversial claims to favour Christians when hiring their own staff. But now the Catholic Church is asserting its claim to hire and fire Centacare staff according to church teaching on sex. The Catholic Bishops Conference in Canberra is drafting a response to the HREOC on these lines. The church will argue that all its employees - from priests to clerks in Centacare - are subject to church rules and exempt from federal anti-discrimination protection. Mr Abbott, a former trainee for the priesthood, supports this claim. "I am not backing it from a Catholic but a logical point of view," he said. The director of Centacare Sydney, Father John Usher, has assured the Herald that no adulterers, single mothers or homosexuals have been dismissed by his organisation. "I don't want anyone to be hurt by what is the teachings of the church but I would expect them not to hold up publicly any beliefs or behave in ways that would bring the agency or the church into disrepute," he said. The shadow attorney-general, Mr Robert McClelland, believes the proposed HREOC guidelines are "pretty sound" and that Jobs Network agencies should not be allowed to impose religious tests on their employees. "Constitutional protections of freedom of religion should not be contravened by contracting out," Mr McClelland said. "Our founders saw the dangers, and the logic of their reasoning has just as much force 100 years later. "I don't think other members of his party will agree with Abbott. They'll pull him into line.'' -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Nikewages.org
Leftlink subscribers may have heard the story on Triple-J this morning about Nike - ex-US soccer player Jim Keady is living in Indonesia on "Nike Wages" - the same amount Nike workers get paid. This story is being documented at: http://nikewages.org/index2.html Solidarity, Alister -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:AA: AUSTRALIAN TROOPS IN SYDNEY'S STREETS?
EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT TROOPS IN THE STREETS? AUSTRALIAN MILITARY TO GET SWEEPING NEW POWERS With no media attention or public discussion the Howard Government is using the Olympics to justify sweeping new powers allowing the military to suppress domestic unrest in Australia. The Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to the Civilian Authorities) Bill seeks to establish the legal and political basis for using troops to suppress political disturbances, seriously undermining the centuries-old principle that the armed forces should not be mobilised against the civilian population. The Bill was passed through the House of Representatives in one day (June 28) virtually unnoticed with the country in the grip of GST mania, and is due to be voted on in the Senate by the end of August in time for the Olympic Games. Under the pretext of ensuring public safety during the Olympics, the government and the Labor Opposition have combined to rush through the legislation which will permanently and fundamentally change the military's role. The Bill authorises the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and the Attorney-General to advise the Governor-General (the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces under the Constitution) to call out military personnel to deal with "domestic violence" that is considered a threat to the nation or one of Australia's states or territories. The words "domestic violence" do not refer to violence against family members or in the home. It is a vague and undefined expression derived from s.119 of the Constitution, which was intended to cover civilian disorder that the state police forces prove incapable of putting down. Today, the term "domestic violence" is widely interpreted to mean more than just "terrorism" and can include strikes, political demonstrations or riots. Already the term "terrorism" has been used by police and security forces to encompass protests such as those planned for the World Economic Forum in Melbourne in September. It is possible that "domestic violence" will be interpreted to include protests at the Olympics or the WEF. Section 119 of the Consititution provides that the federal government shall protect each state against domestic violence, but only on the application of the state's government. Section 51A of the Bill goes well beyond the existing s. 51 of the Defence Act 1903 (Cth), which is based on s. 119 of the Constitution. The new section will allow a military callout where the three ministers are satisfied that domestic violence is occurring "or is likely to occur" that will affect "Commonwealth interests" (also undefined), regardless of whether there is a request by any state or territory government. Section 51B retains an existing proviso in s. 51 that a state government cannot request reserve forces for use in an intervention to deal with an industrial dispute, but no such restriction applies to the use of the armed forces to protect Commonwealth interests. Nor is there a restriction on the use of the permanent military when requested by a State. Section 51G will prevent military personnel being utilised to "stop or restrict any lawful protest or dissent" but that limitation is for all practical purposes meaningless. Almost any political demonstration can be rendered "unlawful" by refusal of official permission (such as NSW's new Olympic security legislation). Once deployed, the military forces will have wide-ranging powers under Sections 51I to 51Y to seize premises, places and means of transport; detain people; search premises; and seize things. If the three ministers declare a "general security area" these powers will be expanded to provide for wider searches, including personal searches; the erection of barriers; and the stopping of means of transport. If a "designated area" is declared, the powers will increase further to stop and control movement; and issue directions to people. The most disturbing measures, however, are those contained in Section 51T on the use of "reasonable and necessary force". In essence, the section will allow military personnel to shoot to kill. They will be permitted to cause death or grievous bodily harm where they believe "on reasonable grounds" that such action is necessary to protect the life of, or prevent serious injury to, another person, including the military personnel. Both the government and the Labor Party have claimed that the Bill merely codifies the law that already exists. But the purpose of this section is to shield military personnel from actions or prosecution for assault, false imprisonment and homicide. As legal commentators have warned, without such legal protection, soldiers could, for example, face murder charges if they killed someone in the course of quelling a civil disturbance, even if they were acting under superior orders. In recent years, police killings of civilians have become commonplace in a number of states, with the police
LL:ART: Work ethic alive
Work ethic alive and well as people on welfare challenge the stereotype By ADELE HORIN Increasing numbers of people on unemployment and sole parent benefits also receive some income from low-paid or intermittent work, according to new research by the Federal Department of Family and Community Services. The research shows the proportion of welfare recipients who do some allowable paid work has more than doubled in 15 years, challenging theories that welfare payments undermine people's work ethic. The research by Mr John Landt and Ms Joceyln Pech, of the department's welfare review team, will be presented tomorrow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies conference in Sydney. Although the paper notes that the views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the department or the Federal Government, it presents a strong case in support of the current social security system at a time when major reforms are being mooted. At the same time, the research challenges the tougher US approach to welfare reform and the assumptions of its best-known guru, Professor Lawrence Mead, the keynote speaker at the conference today. His visit has been co-sponsored by the Federal Government. The research shows that the long-term unemployed person who is entirely dependent on welfare for years is a "relatively rare" individual in Australia. Rather, many Australians receive payments for short periods or have alternating periods of employment and welfare receipt or get a low wage as well as a benefit or part-benefit. Behind this pattern is Australia's volatile and uncertain labour market, where job tenure with the same employer is one of the shortest in the OECD, the paper says. As well, the reduction in secure full-time jobs, especially for men, the growth in part-time and casual jobs, and under-employment has created a labour market that is "increasingly insecure for many groups". A far larger number of Australians than in the past, for example, move in and out of employment over the course of a year, with turnover highest in lower-skilled white and blue-collar occupations, the authors say. In this environment, the social security system has played a central role in supplementing low income from earnings, providing income in between short-term jobs, and providing support to people in education or training. "Widespread under-employment and casualisation have meant that many people who in previous times might have been independent of the income support system have had to rely on it to top up their inadequate earnings," the paper says. At the beginning of the 1980s few working-age social security recipients were on a part-payment because they earned some income from a job. But 18 per cent were on a part-payment by June 1998. The proportion of sole parent beneficiaries doing some paid work grew from about 12 per cent in 1982 to over 25 per cent by 1996. The proportion of jobless recipients in some work rose from about 5 per cent to almost 20 per cent. As well, an increasing proportion of sole parent beneficiaries were in education or training. The authors' findings are in contrast with Professor Mead's influential theory that poor people's weak attachment to work means a welfare system must use much more compulsion. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Sustainable Development?
May 30 2000 Unsustainable Non Development By Noam Chomsky At a recent talk Chomsky was asked "What are the motivations of the U.S. push for sustainable development in the developing world?" Here was his answer Its the first time I ever heard of that--does the U.S. have a push for sustainable development? As far as I know, the U.S. push is for unsustainable nondevelopment. The programs that are built into U.S policy, take a look at the World Trade Organization rules, like, say, TRIPs and TRIMs--Trade-Related Intellectual Property and Trade-Related Investment Measures are designed to impede development and impede growth. So the intellectual property rights are just protection of monopolistic pricing and control, guaranteeing that corporations, in fact, by now, megacorporations, have the right to charge monopolistic prices, guaranteeing, say, that pharmaceutical production drugs will be priced at a level at which most of the world can't afford them, even people here. For example, drugs in the U.S. are much more expensive than the same drugs as close as Canada, even more expensive than say, Europe, and for the third world this just dooms millions of people to death. Other countries can produce the drugs. And under earlier patent regimes, you had process patents. I don't even know if those are legitimate, but process patents meant that if some pharmaceutical company figured out a way to produce a drug, somebody smarter could figure out a better way to produce it because all that was patented was the process. So, if the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry figured out a way to make it cheaper and better, fine, they could do it. It wouldn't violate patents. The World Trade Organization regime insists instead on product patents, so you can't figure out a smarter process. Notice that impedes growth, and development and is intended to. It's intended to cut back innovation, growth, and development and to maintain extremely high profits. Well, the pharmaceutical corporations and others claim they need this so they can recoup the costs of research and development. But have a close look. A very substantial part of the research and development is paid for by the public anyway. In a narrow sense, it's on the order of 40-50%. But that' s an underestimate, because it doesn't count the basic biology and the basic science, which is all publicly funded. So if you get a realistic amount, it' s a very high percentage that's publicly paid anyway. Well, suppose that went to 100%. Then all the motivation for monopolistic pricing would be gone, and there'd be a huge welfare benefit to it. There's no justifiable economic motive for not doing this. There's some economic motive, profit, but it is an effort to impede growth and development. But what about Trade-Related Investment Measures? What do they do? TRIPS is straight protectionism for the benefit of the rich and powerful, through publicly subsidized corporations. TRIMs are a little more subtle. What they require is that a country cannot impose conditions on what an investor decides to do. Suppose General Motors, let's say, decides to carry out outsourcing, to have parts made in some other country with non-union cheap labor, and then send them back to General Motors. Well, the successful developing countries in Asia, one of the ways they developed is by blocking that sort of thing, by insisting that if there was foreign investment, it had to be done in a way that was productive for the receiving country. So there had to be technology transfer, or you had to invest in places they wanted you to invest in, or some proportion of the investment had to be for export of finished goods that made money. Lots of devices like that. That's part of the way in which the East Asian economic miracle took place. Incidentally, it's the way all the other developing countries developed too, including the United States, with technology transfer from England. Those approaches are blocked by Trade-Related Investment Measures. Superficially they sound like they are increasing free trade, but what they are in fact increasing is the capacity of huge corporations to carry out central managemnent of cross-border transactions, because that's what outsourcing and intrafirm transfers are --centrally managed. It's not trade in any meaningful sense. And they again undermine growth and development. In fact, if you look across the board, what's being instituted is a regime which will prevent the kind of development that has taken place in the countries that today are rich, industrial countriesnot the best kind of development we can imagine, to be sure, but at least development of a sort. If you go back from England to the United States, to Germany, France, Japan, Korea--every one of these countries developed by radically violating the principles that are now being built into the World Trade Organization. These principles are methods of undermining growth and development and ensuring concentration of
LL:ART: Aussie activists tell Nike they didn't do it
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/0006/23/A28876-2000Jun23.shtml Aussie activists tell Nike they didn't do it Source: AAP | Published: Friday June 23, 12:08 PM An Australian-based activist organisation has denied involvement in a brazen cyber attack on the Nike corporate website to promote the planned disruption of a World Economic Forum summit in Melbourne days before the Olympics. The FBI is attempting to track down the hackers who took over the footwear and clothing giant's website at nike.com for more than 19 hours from Wednesday afternoon until about noon yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of visitors to Nike were greeted with the message 'Global justice is coming - prepare now' and a link to a website run by the Melbourne activist group, S11 Alliance at www.s11.org. The anti-globalisation activist group is organising widespread demonstrations and blockades during the World Economic Forum Asia-Pacific Economic Summit in Melbourne from September 11 to 13. Nike spokeswoman Corby Casler said the FBI had been called in to investigate the attack which shut down the companies main e-commerce site. "We don't think it'll be too hard to find out who did it," said Ms Casler, adding "Knowing who did it and being able to prove it are two different things." Phone calls and e-mails to the S11 Alliance today were not returned but in a statement issued on its website, the Alliance said it "was not responsible for the redirection of the Nike website". "The S11 alliance has no knowledge of the identity, whereabouts, motives, or methods used by the disablers of the Nike Corporations' website," the statement said. Hits on the activist site have skyrocketed from a low of 57 an hour before the Nike site was hacked to a high of 66,000 an hour during the hijacking. The S11 Alliance said hits are "going through the roof" with more than 880,000 since the Nike site was re-directed. 'This site's administrators have no idea how or why the nike.com page was redirected to s11.org and do not condone this action, however we do thank Nike for the extra hits,' said an S11 disclaimer. Nike is listed on the S11 Alliance site as one of the multinational companies attending the WEF Summit in Melbourne. Others include BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Dow Corning, Dupont, Exxon-Mobil, General Motors Holden, McDonald's, Microsoft, Monsanto, Nestle, Publishing Broadcasting Ltd, Rio Tinto, Shell, Siemans and Western Mining. S11, which apparently stands for September 11 - the date the WEF summit begins, is a hub for organising civil disobedience and protest action during the economic summit. Anti-globalisation protests almost shut down the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle last December. In April this year there were violent demonstrations against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington DC. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Costello speaking in Parramatta
Peter Costello is speaking next Monday at the Parkroyal Hotel Parramatta. It might be nice to head down and give him a warm reception, particularly over his Government's GST, not to mention racism, anti-worker laws, anti-student policies and contempt for the environment. DEMONSTRATE against COSTELLO Mon 22 May, 5.30pm Parkroyal Parramatta 30 Phillip St Parramatta LL.NE -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Government bosses told how to lie
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0004/26/pageone/pageone10.html Bosses told how to lie By BRAD NORINGTON, Industrial Editor Full details of a Federal Government blueprint for dealing with its own employees advises heads of the Commonwealth Public Service how to deliberately lie, confuse, discredit and provide misleading information as negotiating tactics. The document, part of a training package developed within the department of the Workplace Relations Minister, Mr Reith, is causing a storm in the public sector as unions claim the Government is not willing to bargain in good faith. Included in Dispute Management, a manual prepared so that individual departments can handle their own negotiations on wages and conditions, is the advice to "make false demands". "When you have many demands, introduce a few false issues. This disguises your serious interests and allows you to make concessions thus giving the other party sense of gain," the document says. It also outlines how to stall for time or do nothing, to walk out "when you pretend to have withdrawn but are really still available", to issue take-it-or-leave-it ultimatums, to appear irrational and to make threats. Among the most controversial sections of the document - first mentioned at a Senate committee hearing in February - is the advice to discredit negotiators on the other side by associating them with "some unsavoury connection" and to support a case by providing biased misinformation. The Opposition spokesman on industrial relations, Mr Arch Bevis, said that it was unacceptable for the Government to associate itself "with false demands and to basically lie" and called on Mr Reith to withdraw the document. Mr Reith said he had no comment to make. He said the document had nothing to do with him and that questions should be directed at the minister responsible for Public Service negotiations, Dr David Kemp. This is despite the manual having been written by a consulting group operating within Mr Reith's own department, Workplace Partners Training Services, for circulation to other departments. Mr Bevis said that Mr Reith's department chief, Dr Peter Shergold, was among the leading exponents of the manual. Dr Shergold, when first questioned about the manual in February, alluded to a paragraph which says that the list of tactics was "not meant to be an endorsement of all the tactics included". However, Mr Bevis said: "It is a disingenuous position for Mr Shergold or Mr Reith to put this advice in a government document and then try to suggest that the Government is not negotiating with a clear intent to use some or all of these tactics." The manual does not advise government departments against using any of the tactics. It notes that some may be regarded as "ethically dubious" and says it is important to recognise a tactic, ethical or otherwise, when it is used, in order to counter it successfully. Mr Bevis said Labor would outlaw practices in the manual and legislate to ensure that government agencies "bargained in good faith". DEALING WITH UNIONS: THE WORKPLACE BLUEPRINT Make false demands When you have many demands, introduce a few false issues. Stall for time Call adjournment, caucus, reserve answer until later. A similar tactic is Do Nothing. Give ultimatum State your final offer on a clear 'take it or leave it' basis (but be wary of sounding offensive). Discredit Associations Associate the other party/other party's case with some unsavoury connection. Make negative comments Use for brief periods as this tactic can cause antagonism. Give a biased sample Provide statistical (mis)information. Support your case by selecting the most favourable (biased) sample. Pretend ignorance To delay proceedings, or to put the other party off guard, act ill informed and ask advice. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Welfare Reform Information
The Sydney Morning Herald has several pages giving a broad overview of the reforms proposed by the Federal Government. http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/29/pageone/pageone6.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/29/pageone/pageone7.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/29/pageone/pageone8.html ABC News has a story outlining the government's, ACOSS's and the Democrats' responses to the reforms. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2000/03/item2329081436_1.htm And finally, the Department of Family and Community Services has a page with a number of links dealing with the welfare reform report. http://www.facs.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/whatsnew/29_9_99speech.htm -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Students stage sit-in protest
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/23/national/national21.html Students stage sit-in protest Hundreds of university students occupied the Student Centre at the University of Sydney overnight to force the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gavin Brown, to abandon his support for privatised universities. Students from five universities targeted Professor Brown because of his support for a plan to establish an elite group of privatised "ivy league" universities, which would charge full fees for many more students. A log of claims sent to Professor Brown protested against conditions on campuses, including overflowing lecture halls and large tutorial classes. Professor Brown refused to meet the students yesterday. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Racist police / Police violence at Reclaim the Streets
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/21/national/national01.html Racist remarks by police caught on video By LINDA DOHERTY Four police officers face disciplinary action after being caught on their own surveillance cameras making racist remarks to Australian residents of Arabic appearance. The Bankstown-based male officers were undertaking video surveillance in a car in Bankstown late last year when they made the comments to a group of people on the street, but the tape only came to light during the investigation of a civilian's complaint to police. Mr Jeff Jarratt, the Police Deputy Commissioner (field operations), refused to reveal the remarks yesterday but said they were "racially derogative". "I wouldn't want to repeat them [the comments] because I find them derogatory and for me to repeat them would be simply compounding an already unsatisfactory situation," Mr Jarratt said. "They're Australians, I believe, who feature on the video." The four officers - senior constables and constables - had "expressed remorse" for their actions to Police Internal Affairs investigators. Mr Jarratt said the officers had breached the Police Service Code of Conduct and he was awaiting legal advice on possible breaches of legislation such as the Anti-Discrimination Act before deciding on disciplinary action. He confirmed they could face formal proceedings, including suspension and dismissal. "They're experienced officers and frankly should have known better," Mr Jarratt said. "During the interview with Internal Affairs they've expressed remorse for the comments they've made. That does not lessen their unacceptable nature but it shows that the officers are perhaps in the process of learning from mistakes they've made." The video was discovered when a man charged with an unrelated criminal offence complained to police about the derogatory remarks. During the legal discovery process, police handed a copy to the man's lawyer. Mr Jarratt said he had now asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to withdraw the charges against the man, who was not a subject of the remarks. Bankstown and other suburbs in Sydney's south-west have witnessed a wave of violent crime in recent months, including 40 shootings, an attempt to ram an ambulance, and firings at police and a television cameraman. Mr Jarratt yesterday defended the Police Commissioner, Mr Peter Ryan, who last month blamed rival Lebanese gangs for the violence and called on the Lebanese community to help police catch the "evil gun-toting criminals". "The Commissioner has made very strong his view that we are about working with the community in partnership to target criminals who make this an unpleasant place to live," he said. A flood of new allegations about police conduct in the Bankstown area last week forced the Police Integrity Commission to defer a inquiry into the conduct of some officers in the patrol. The Police Integrity Commissioner, Mr Paul Urquhart, said the planned three-day inquiry had been deferred because of "additional material". It is understood the PIC advertised in a local newspaper, which resulted in the wide response about alleged police misconduct. -- http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/21/national/national11.html Road protest video to Ryan A videotape allegedly showing police punching people in the head and charging on horses at a weekend protest was yesterday handed to the Police Commissioner, Mr Peter Ryan. Two officers were taken to hospital for treatment and another had his nose broken after the clash with about 3,000 road protesters on Saturday night near the Eastern Distributor. Superintendent Donald Graham said the problems escalated when about 60 protesters from Reclaim the Streets - an organisation against car culture - rushed onto the distributor, blocking traffic at one of the northern tollgates. In a letter to Mr Ryan, Greens MP Ms Lee Rhiannon said she had also seen police using capsicum spray and pushing people off and over cement barricades. She said the scenes had been captured on video. AAP -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Work for (all) welfare on the way
Work for welfare on the way By TOM ALLARD, Economics Correspondent Sole parents and the disabled would be required to make themselves more employable or forfeit their full payments under a radical overhaul of welfare being considered by Cabinet ministers this week. In what would be the biggest shake-up of the welfare system, the preliminary report of the Welfare Reform Reference Group also recommends that jobless and parenting benefits, and the disability pension, be rolled into one payment. As unemployment benefits are $20 a week lower than sole parenting payments and the disability support pension, this raises the question of whether some payments will fall or rise. But the report dodges this dilemma by not setting a rate for the new payment. The report has already been sent to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Newman, and ministers have received a briefing paper. Sources said sole parents with school-age children would be expected to undertake activities such as career counselling and other job preparation programs or risk losing their full payments. It is understood that this would also apply to those on disability payments who are not severely incapacitated. The number of people on disability payments has more than doubled in past 10 years to nearly 600,000, raising concerns within the Government about rorting of the payment. It is understood that the report also recommends that money be spent on helping sole parents and the disabled meet their new obligations, including assistance for transport, housing and child care. The Government is also urged to address the rapid rate at which unemployment benefits taper off when income is earned, discouraging the unemployed from taking up part-time work. The report also recommends one-to-one assistance for the bulk of the more than 1.5 million people receiving the payments. This could lead to the tendering of these services along the lines of the Job Network, stripping Centrelink of its responsibilities in this area - or its privatisation - thus dramatically expanding the Prime Minister's notion of a "social coalition". Such a coalition sees the Government working with the non-profit and private sectors to deliver government services, while requiring those receiving benefits to "give something back". The idea will be at the centre of discussion at the Liberal Party conference next month. The preliminary report of the Welfare Reform Reference Group has had a difficult birth. Last year, Senator Newman was scheduled to make a landmark address on welfare reform that was subsequently scuttled by Mr Howard amid claims by the Opposition parties that the sole parenting and disabled pension would be cut. Instead, welfare reform was given to the reform group - chaired by Mission Australia's chief executive, Mr Patrick McClure - for consideration. Submissions were made, but the report is said to have been heavily influenced by Mr Howard and the Department of Family and Community Services. A spokesman for Senator Newman declined to answer questions on the report's details, saying only that "it will be released shortly". "This is an independent report [but] as a matter of courtesy it has been passed to the Government in advance, just as the Ralph report [on business tax] and others have been." After further public discussion, a final report would be released by the end of June. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Games volunteers' new powers
Do as you're told: Games volunteers to lay down law By MATTHEW MOORE and MICHAEL EVANS The State Government is planning new laws to give sweeping powers to thousands of volunteers and temporary enforcement officers during the Olympics to keep tight control over the city and areas where spectators gather. The director-general of the Olympic Co-ordination Authority, Mr David Richmond, said yesterday that the Olympic Arrangements Act, to go before Parliament, would extend the powers covering Homebush Bay Olympic Park to across the city. "The intent is very clearly there to make sure there is as much legislative clout to protect the operations of the Games and the key stakeholders," he told a conference of Olympic sponsors. As well as the powers to control people, Mr Richmond said the legislation would protect sponsors from "ambush marketing", including airborne advertising. The act will also restrict hawking and street vending - which caused problems at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Although the bill has yet to be made public, Mr Richmond said it would broadly reflect provisions in the Homebush Bay Act, which allows enforcement officers to control entry of people and vehicles to the Olympic site. It provides for penalties of more than $5,000. On-the-spot fines for pedestrians and motorists who use roads that have been deemed closed by the enforcement officers are set at $200. Officers will be allowed to search people entering the site and to obtain names and addresses of people breaching regulations. The act also prohibits handing out advertising material, allows the authority to charge for admission to the Homebush Bay site and search the possessions of anyone entering the site. It also allows for the removal of people causing annoyance or inconvenience to other people at the enforcement officer's discretion. Scalpers are banned from the Homebush Bay site under the provisions and face fines of $150. It is likely that large numbers of volunteers will be given the new powers, which is of concern to civil liberties groups such as the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which says the powers exceed those the police have at present. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Pilger - Don't be fooled by debt relief
DON'T BE FOOLED BY DEBT RELIEF by John Pilger 10th January 2000 Don't be fooled by Debt Relief ... it's just another way of reshaping the third world to the demands of capital. The recent announcement by the British government that it is to "cancel third world debt" was a propaganda triumph. What a joy, sang the Guardian. Debt forgiveness, said Bob Geldof, was an "instinct" that was "deeply rooted" in Tony Blair's background. A code word in Gordon Brown's statement ought to have been enough to alert even the gullible. Brown said that poor countries would have their debt forgiven if they used the relief "productively". Later, he wrote, "both the IMF and the World Bank will show how together macro-economic, structural reform and anti-poverty programmes can bring less poverty and more growth". Not a single example exists where "macro-economic, structural reform" - he means laissez-faire capitalism imposed by the IMF and World Bank - has alleviated mass poverty. Throughout the developing world, especially Africa, "structural adjustment programmes" have destroyed jobs and public services, while shaping local economies to the demand of transnational capital. In the IMF's most "successful" countries in sub-Saharan Africa, 13 children die every minute from the likes of diarrhoea and malnutrition. Far from changing this, Brown's "initiative" will reinforce it. To qualify, those countries that have been bled by British banks for 20 years will have to adhere to the "conditionality" of the World Bank's "Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility", which allows limited relief to highly visible projects in countries that have been awarded World Bank/ IMF brownie points for privatising and slashing jobs and services. The British Treasury will now have a fine excuse for not increasing Britain's scandalously mean aid programme. There is a related hidden agenda here. This is the emergence, in another guise, of the discredited Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Had it not been for an international campaign against MAI, the "Paris club" of rich governments, notably the Blair regime, would have signed away, in effect, the sovereignty and independence of developing countries to transnational capital; for the power to override national environmental and employment laws was at the core of MAI. The campaign against it forced governments, notably the French, to break ranks. MAI died. Or so it seemed. Those who follow the chameleon enthusiasms of Clare Short, Blair's Secretary of State for International Development and defender of globalisation and illegal bombing, will note her latest: "untying" British aid from trade deals with British companies. Her stated reasons seem so sensible. Why should poor countries, she says, be restricted to British commercial contracts? Surely that is "unfair"? What she omits to say is that the Blair government is at the forefront of "liberalising" the entire procurement and contracting system in the third world: booty worth three trillion dollars, more than international trade. This "untying" will allow British and other rich-world transnational corporations eventually to secure contracts in domestic markets previously barred to them. By comparison, the 14 per cent of the British aid budget presently exploited by British companies is chicken feed. This was not debated at Seattle, and there is the danger of a behind-closed-doors fait accompli. In Britain, one of the obstacles to mounting an opposition to this is the compliance of leading voluntary agencies, or non-government organisations. The "euphoria" of certain NGOs following Gordon Brown's "debt relief" announcement comes after a long seduction. NGOs represent the "civil society" courted by new Labour. Having become dependent on government funding and gone some of the way with the fakery of "productivity" linked to poverty relief, and having in recent years "restructured" their organisations right down to the use of claptrap market jargon, the more ambitious in the NGOs are in danger of slipping into bed with new Labour, the government of business. A few, such as Action Aid, remain unseduced, and there are those who clearly have serious doubts: witness the report by Louise Jury and Matthew Lockwood, Millennium Lottery: who lives, who dies in an age of third world debt? published last month by Christian Aid. When Peter Mandelson and his co-author Roger Liddle outlined in their book one of the blueprints for new Labour, they identified Britain's "economic strengths" as the transnational corporations, the "aerospace" industry (arms) and the "pre- eminence of the City of London". The evidence is now irrefutable; new Labour is a major facilitator of capital and of the sinister changes planned for the world's economy as part of globalisation. On the day Gordon Brown announced his "debt relief", this overshadowed the news that the Commons International Development Committee had
LL:ART: New police powers to break up protests
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/0001/12/A20551-2000Jan12.shtml University students angry over Olympics protests move Source: AAP | Published: Wednesday January 12, 12:45 PM Powers given to Sydney Harbour authorities to break up unauthorised protests and street gatherings during the Olympics were disgraceful and would be defied, university students said today. Students and other community organisations would defy the ban on demonstrations in the lead-up to the Games, UTS Students Association president Ryan Heath said. 'We have already had our right to protest removed in Sydney city on weekdays, and now any area near the harbour will be subject to the same anti-democratic policing,' Mr Heath said in a statement. 'It is a disgrace.' The powers would only serve to 'ignite the frustrations' of protesters, he said. The Sydney Morning Herald today reported that harbour authorities had been given the right to break up unauthorised demonstrations and charge admission fees and restrict access to public areas during the Olympics. The new regulations were passed without public debate last October and similar controls had been given to the Darling Harbour Authority over Circular Quay and The Rocks, the newspaper reported. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Marxists Refused Entry into Australia
International delegates to a Marxism conference were probably refused entry to Australia because they could not prove they would not stay on, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said today. Mr Ruddock has accused the conference organisers of attention grabbing for airing the matter in the media. The delegates, from the Philippines and Bangladesh, were to have attended the Marxism 2000 conference at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, from January 5-9. While he has yet to receive information on exactly why the three delegates were banned, Mr Ruddock said it was possible they may not have been co-operative. 'What I find normally happens in these matters, and I've asked for this issue to be looked at, is people decline to provide sufficient information for us to be able to make a considered assessment,' he told reporters. 'The fact that you are a bona fide organisation, organising a conference doesn't mean that you will necessarily extend an invitation to people who are always going to intend a bona fide visit.' Australian Democratic Socialist Party national secretary John Percy has said he believed the delegates were the victims of racial and political discrimination. Mr Percy said other delegates, including those from Canada and the US, had no problems in obtaining a visa. Mr Ruddock said the rules did not discriminate against poorer people but acknowledged that people from certain countries were considered to provide more of a risk than others. 'If you are seeking to come to Australia for a conference then it is important to demonstrate to our officials that that is your principal purpose and you don't have another objective in mind,' he said. Mr Ruddock said the government had a policy to ensure any conference organisers could liaise with the department of foreign affairs about requirements and he was disappointed at the way the matter was raised in the media. 'I find it disappointing that the issues are beaten up in a way which is designed to bring more attention to the organisation involved than deal with the principal issue.' Mr Ruddock said the government already had problems with a major conference for the deaf held here last year. 'We found that numbers of people attending the conference of the deaf have remained in Australia at the conclusion of the conference even though their visas had expired.' -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Leak suggests Aust knew Timor violence would come
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/9911/23/A59152-1999Nov23.shtml Leak suggests Aust knew Timor violence would come: ABC Source: AAP | Published: Tuesday November 23 9:23:28 AM CANBERRA, Nov 23 - Leaked defence intelligence documents suggested Australia knew well in advance that Indonesia'a military would orchestrate violence in East Timor after its referendum, ABC radio said today. The documents suggested the Indonesian military clearly covered up massacres committed there, the AM report said. The revelation adds pressure for Australia to release intelligence reports to the UN inquiry into atrocities in the newly-independent country. AM said the documents made it clear the massacres which occurred there were orchestrated by the Indonesian military (TNI) and, contrary to the Australian government's official line, were predictable. The Defence Intelligence Organisation reported on the day of the East Timor poll, the Indonesian TNI would continue to foster violence and that the violence would remain orchestrated and predictable. The document, classified for very limited distribution, said pro-Indonesia violence occurred within strict guidelines set down by the TNI. "We have good and timely indicators of any likely change in TNI policy on violence," AM reported the document as saying. Specifically, in a massacre at a Liquica church in which many people are said to have been mown down by gunfire, the TNI was culpable whether it took part in the violence or simply let it occur. It said the military moved bodies away, wiped away blood stains and plastered over bullet holes. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Baby boomers to blame
Baby boomers to blame says Human Rights Commissioner Source: AAP | Published: Monday November 15 1:20:34 PM Baby boomers are the most selfish generation in Australian history and responsible for the majority of the nation's social ills, Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti said today. Launching a fierce attack on those born into post World War II prosperity in the 1940s and 1950s, Mr Sidoti labelled baby boomers as Australia's 'problem generation'. 'I think most of us will be judged by history as perhaps the most selfish generation that Australia has had,' Mr Sidoti, himself a baby boomer, told AAP. Now in their 40s and 50s baby boomers had received a free tertiary education through the efforts of their parents and grandparents who had funded it through taxation. 'Yet we are the ones who are imposing enormous debt burdens on those who come after us and denying aged care when required to those who have gone before us, simply because of our unwillingness to pay tax,' he said. Appointed by the federal government Mr Sidoti then entered the political arena in implicitly criticising the government's tax reforms. 'I don't think there has been a generation like this, that has been so unwilling to pay a fair share of taxation, to ensure that everyone in the community has the support that's required and the services that are needed.' Earlier the commissioner told a teenage and elderly audience at the Meeting of the Generations conference in Sydney, that baby boomers were to blame for under-funded and strained health care and social welfare programs 'If there is a problem generation in Australia today it is the baby boomers, my generation. 'We are now the people who are in positions of influence with the media, government, business, most walks of life and if we are to say there are people in Australia who aren't doing well, I think we have to look at ourselves as the people who are responsible for that,' said Mr Sidoti. However, he warned younger people could get their own back by refusing to fund social services for the rapidly aging baby boomer generation. The number of Australians over 65 will double to just under five million in 2011. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Levi shooting cop high on drugs the night before, inquiry told
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/9911/10/A36517-1999Nov10.shtml Levi shooting cop high on drugs the night before, inquiry told Source: AAP | Published: Wednesday November 10 2:31:55 PM A policeman involved in the shooting death of a man on a Sydney beach was high on drugs and in uniform late on the night before the incident, an ex-girlfriend of the officer said today. The woman, identified only as SA2, told the New South Wales Police Integrity Commission (PIC) via video link-up that former constable Rodney Podesta regularly used large amounts of cocaine before going to work on Friday and Saturday nights. She said he also admitted to her he snorted the drug while on duty. SA2 also alleged Podesta obtained and used cocaine seized during police raids. She claimed he visited her at her flat around 10pm on June 27, 1997, dressed in uniform and in a highly agitated state and told her he had been using drugs while on duty. The PIC is investigating allegations Podesta and senior constable Tony Dilorenzo were affected by drugs and alcohol when they shot dead Frenchman Roni Levi on Bondi Beach on the morning of June 28, 1997. Both officers fired twice on the knife-wielding Frenchman, who later died in hospital. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Vic Independents to support Labor
http://www.abc.net.au/news/1999/10/item19991018103556_1.htm Vic Independents to support Labor Victoria's three Independents have voted to support the Labor Party. The seven year reign of the Kennett Government will now end, with Labor's Steve Bracks set to become Victoria's new Premier. The ALP will now seek permission from the Governor, Sir James Gobbo, to form a minority Government with Independents Russell Savage, Craig Ingram and Susan Davies. The future of Mr Kennett is still unclear. Liberal insiders say he is likely to quit politics, although Mr Kennett has indicated he will stay on until November 3, when Parliament resumes. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: US-style system? Theirs is better
US-style system? Theirs is better By MIKE SECCOMBE The Prime Minister, Mr Howard, was at great pains yesterday to assure Parliament the Kemp plans for universities did not mean the introduction of "an American-style system". Yet the American system is actually a great deal cheaper for the average student and arguably more egalitarian than that operating in Australia now, let alone the system which would operate under the Kemp plan. According to the most recent available US figures, for 1996-97, for the two-thirds of tertiary students who attended public universities, the average annual tuition cost was less than $US3,000 ($4,600). Compare that with the average cost to an Australian student under the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) of between $4,000 and $5,000. The other one-third of students in the US went to private institutions, and their tuition costs averaged almost $US13,000. Even so, these colleges are vastly more accessible to the less well-off than private courses would be under Kemp's scheme, for two very good reasons which do not pertain here. The first is the the US has a long tradition of philanthropy, which Australia does not. Most US private institutions have enormous accrued endowments to call on to defray costs. For example, the most fashionable of the Ivy League unis in recent years, Brown, has a war chest of more than $US800 million. The second is that even these elite colleges have schemes to redistribute income from their wealthy students to poorer ones. In 1997, 76 per cent of students starting out at US private universities received at least some scholarship aid. At the less prestigious, smaller ones, this figure was 86 per cent. Overall, private colleges redistribute roughly a third of their stated fees back in assistance to less wealthy students. And this ignores the huge number of scholarships provided by the corporate sector and service organisations. Still, the US remains a two-tier system in which the very wealthy can buy their way into the best colleges. A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine claimed the above-mentioned Brown University, once the ugly duckling of the Ivy League, doubled its endowment in eight years by deliberately targeting the children of the rich and famous. Celebrities including film stars, musicians and designers as well as a long list of lesser-known millionaire and billionaire financiers and corporate heavies paid the $29,000 annual tuition fees. Yet Brown helped more more than 40 per cent of its students with full or part scholarships. That means that single university gave out probably more in scholarships than the whole Australian tertiary sector. So when Howard and Kemp say the Government will not introduce an American-style system, it is no cause for joy. They plan something worse. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Australia's under side (John Pilger)
Australia's under side Canberra has looked the other way to protect western business interests in Indonesia and East Timor: special report John Pilger Tuesday October 5, 1999 What is the "international community" really doing in East Timor? After their arrival almost two weeks ago, Australian troops have secured only the capital, Dili, and a few towns. In West Timor, fewer than a dozen foreign aid workers struggle to guarantee the safety of 230,000 refugees, including 35,000 children, while the power of life and death remains with the Indonesian military. An explanation is offered in a remarkable interview given by John Howard, the Australian prime minister, in which he described his government as Washington's deputy sheriff. What mattered was the "stability" of Indonesia, and the protection of western business interests. His honesty, or garrulousness, is to be applauded, along with his historical accuracy. From the Boxer rebellion to Vietnam, Australians have fought the battles of the great imperial powers. In 1989, Australian troops were sent to Bougainville, an island off Papua New Guinea, and site of a huge mining operation by the multinational Rio Tinto. The Bougainvilleans had taken over the mine and the island, in a bid for independence. East Timor is no exception. When Australia's then prime minister Gough Whitlam met the Indonesian dictator Suharto in 1974, his message was that the Portuguese colony was Jakarta's for the taking. The two leaders, reported the Melbourne Age, "agreed last weekend that the best and most realistic future for Timor was association with Indonesia". The East Timorese were not asked. One year later, Indonesia invaded. As the UN security council deliberated on how to respond, the US secretly re-armed the invaders while the Australian representative at the UN, Ralph Harry, presented the invasion as a civil war with "elements" of the Indonesian military. In 1982, Whitlam, although no longer in office, made an extraordinary appearance at the UN, where he declared: "It is high time the question of East Timor was voted off the UN agenda." As he spoke, the sea around East Timor was being explored by Australian companies for vast deposits of oil and gas: a preliminary act of grand larceny at the centrepiece of the Australian establishment's "special relationship" with the Indonesian dictatorship. Richard Woolcott, Canberra's ambassador in Jakarta who had been tipped off by the Indonesians that they planned to invade East Timor, set up a propaganda body, the Indonesia-Australia Institute, funded by the government. On its board was Paul Kelly, editor-in- chief of Australia's only national newspaper, the Australian, owned by Rupert Murdoch. Kelly introduced other editors to Suharto in Jakarta and his newspaper described the dictatorship, one of the most blood-soaked of the late 20th century, as "moderate". For years, none of them heard, or wanted to hear, the cries of the East Timorese. In 1991, when it was impossible to ignore evidence that hundreds of unarmed East Timorese had been killed in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, the Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, described the massacre as an "aberration". Major-General Sintog Panjaitan, the senior Indonesian officer responsible for the massacre, was invited to Canberra as an honoured guest of the Australian military. Ali Alatas, Indonesia's foreign minister and principal apologist for that and other massacres, was awarded the Order of Australia, the country's highest honour. While Prime Minister Bob Hawke raged against Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, saying that "big countries can't expect to invade little countries and get away with it", he neglected to mention that Australia had recognised Indonesia's illegal occupation of its small, defenceless neighbour. A "historic" military pact with Jakarta followed, including plans for Indonesian-Australian operations in "counter-terrorism". The proud heirs of Anzac were formally integrated into Indonesia's war effort against the East Timorese. In July last year, a senior Australian aid worker in East Timor warned that the Indonesian military was setting up militia gangs. He was dismissed as "alarmist". In November, Canberra was told that a 400- member assassination squad of the Indonesian special forces, Kopassus, had been sent to East Timor. The defence minister, John Moore, flew to Jakarta and reassured the regime that Australian policy was to "prop up the institution [of the military] as best we can". As this summer's bloody events unfolded, the Howard government was told by Australian intelligence that Indonesia planned a "scorched earth" in East Timor following the independence vote. Yet it was on Australia's insistence that the UN gave the Indonesian military responsibility for the security of the independence referendum in August - a decision that led inexorably to the deaths of thousands. The
LL:ART: Staff blamed in police guns theft
Staff blamed in police guns theft By LINDA DOHERTY Criminals may be impersonating police and using their guns following the theft of two pistols and a police leather jacket from two police stations, State Parliament was told yesterday. The Police Service confirmed that two semi-automatic Glock pistols were stolen from Newtown police station on June 9, and a 17-year-old youth was cautioned for his undisclosed involvement in "the theft of police equipment" from Menai police station on August 8. Sources said the new semi-automatic Glock pistols must have been stolen by Newtown station staff because they were locked in a secure gun safe. The Opposition said the public had been put at risk because neither the Government nor the Police Service had issued warnings about the unrelated thefts. The Police Minister, Mr Whelan, told Parliament yesterday the "disappearance of the Glocks" was being investigated and expressed concern that publicity may hinder inquiries. Mr Whelan last week told a Budget Estimates Committee that "no gun has been taken, I am advised, and we have not lost any" from any police station. He later sought to clarify his answer but was prevented by the committee from giving evidence in-camera. The Upper House Greens MP who questioned Mr Whelan, Ms Lee Rhiannon, said Mr Whelan and the Police Commissioner, Mr Ryan, then privately confirmed the theft. "Commissioner Ryan took responsibility for the information and said he had given the minister incorrect advice," Ms Rhiannon said. A spokesman for Mr Ryan said last night the commissioner "gave the answer he thought was right but when he realised it was wrong he moved to correct it as quickly as possible". Ms Rhiannon said she asked the question on behalf of youth groups who were concerned at "consistent rumours about Glocks going missing". Stolen police equipment recovered from the Menai theft included bullets and a can of capsicum spray, and "other equipment is still outstanding", police said. The Opposition spokesman on police, Mr Andrew Tink, said there was a "real risk people are out there impersonating police" and the primary concern "should be about informing the public". The Opposition Leader, Mrs Chikarovski, who raised the matter in Parliament, said it was extraordinary the Government "has failed to warn the public of these thefts". "The theft of guns, ammunition and police insignia is a gravely serious incident and the Government should have alerted the public to the risk of criminals using police equipment," she said. A spokesman for Mr Whelan said police had responsibility for assessing the public safety risk. If a risk had been identified, Mr Whelan or Mr Ryan would have issued a warning. A Police Service statement said: "NSW Police today confirmed the investigation into the theft of two police issue service revolvers from Newtown police station on Wednesday, 9 June, is continuing. In a separate and unrelated incident involving the theft of police equipment from Menai police station on 8 August, a 17-year-old youth was apprehended and the investigation is continuing." The youth group Justice Action said the secrecy surrounding the Glocks' theft was symptomatic of the "deceit and irresponsibility" of the NSW Police Service. "That these lethal weapons can go missing from a police station does not show the sort of professional competence the public demands from its police service," a spokesman, Mr Brett Collins, said. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN:East Timor rallies in Sydney
Dear friends, Please find below some protest meetings regarding East Timor: Thursday 9th September 5 pm - 7 pm Martin Place (Amnesty International) Friday 10th September 1 pm Town Hall (NUS and High Schools rally) Saturday 11th September 11 am Hyde Park North rally (lots of groups) Apologies for cross-posting Alister LL.NI Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: East Timor Updates
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/9909/09/A58460-1999Sep9.shtml Director of Caritas East Timor reportedly killed Source: AAP | Published: Thursday September 9 1:37:53 PM Rampaging militia had killed the East Timorese head of the Catholic aid agency Caritas, the organisation said today. The Reverend Father Francisco Barreto is believed to be one of several East Timorese clergy killed by the anti-independence militia, Caritas Australia chairman Bishop Hilton Deakin said in a statement. "The information we have received suggests that other local Caritas East Timor staff members may have also been killed," Bishop Deakin said. --- http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/9909/09/A58589-1999Sep9.shtml Indon rejects Aust offer to guard UN compound Source: AAP | Published: Thursday September 9 3:18:57 PM AUCKLAND: Indonesia has rejected an Australian offer to allow armed soldiers to guard the United Nations compound in Dili. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced the rejection as he conceded Indonesia was unlikely to approve a peacekeeping force for East Timor before October. Mr Downer said Australia had suggested putting more security around the UNAMET compound, where thousands of terrified East Timorese have sought refuge since pro-Indonesian militias began murderous rampages following the successful independence ballot last week, to Indonesia. 'We proposed that there be some armed soldiers go in and assist the security just of the UNAMET operation but the Indonesians have rejected that,' Mr Downer told reporters today. 'They haven't wanted any armed soldiers from foreign countries on Indonesian soil,' he said. --- http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-9sep1999-86.htm Pleas for Aust to be safe haven for E Timor The Northern Territory's Ethnic Communities Council wants Australia to provide a safe haven for the people of East Timor. The council's Nina Lemos has lost contact with her family members who fled Dili earlier this week. Ms Lemos says Australia has an obligation to give the people of East Timor the same support ethnic Albanians received during the Kosovo crisis. "I think it's just really bad and we don't know what to do anymore. "Hurry up please, people are dying you know and there is nothing we can do and there is nothing that the Australian people can do except apply pressure [to the Government]," Ms Lemos said. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Ex-BLF leader Norm Gallagher dies
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/19990826/A30639-1999Aug25.shtml Ex-BLF leader Norm Gallagher dies Source: AAP | Published: Thursday August 26 12:14:52 PM Norm Gallagher, the former secretary of the notorious Builders' Labourers Federation, has died aged 67. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union confirmed that Gallagher had died in a Melbourne hospital last night. Gallagher, who had been ill for sometime, is survived by his daughter Sharon and son Wayne. In a statement, the CFMEU paid tribute to his contribution to the union movement. "The fighting spirit that Norm helped create lives on in the militant, disciplined and united organisation that the CFMEU is today," the union statement said. In 1981, the federal Victorian and Liberal governments announced a joint royal commission into the union's activities, uncovering more than $150,000 worth of gifts to Gallagher and his organisers. Gallagher was eventually brought to trial in 1986, convicted, fined $60,000 and sentenced to 18 months' jail. After a short term in Pentridge, Gallagher was still defiant, saying he had been set up. The BLF was eventually deregistered. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: How your privacy is caught in the Net
This is an extract, as the entire article is too large to post to this list. I would strongly recommend anyone concerned with access to information by governments or private enterprise read this article in its entirety... alister http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990808/news/specials/news1.html How your privacy is caught in the Net By DUNCAN CAMPBELL ``You have zero privacy,'' Sun Microsystems' chief executive, Mr Scott McNealy, told Silicon Valley reporters who expressed concerns about a new tagging system for computer chips. ``Get over it,'' he snapped. McNealy was talking about the Processor Serial Numbers, known as PSNs, that are now built into almost every personal computer being shipped, exposing Internet users to unprecedented levels of surveillance. The introduction of PSNs at the end of 1998 created an international furore on the Internet. PSNs are the Australia Card of PCs, a unique, unchangeable number built into your computer, which can be used to build up personal databases on you and your family - what you buy, what programs you use, what you do with your electronic lives. The PSN can be scanned and recorded any time you connect to the Internet. That includes people you don't even know you're connecting to, in particular the legions of cyberspace marketing agencies whose electronic robots operate undercover inside web pages. Visit the pages that advertisers pay to appear on, and their robots, called ``applets'', can drop in and start running on your computer, gathering data for future use. Back at base, they may merge this new data with information already in their possession to build ever more intrusive records. You, the user, have no way of telling that this is happening. ``We believe that providing a unique PSN which can be read remotely by web sites and other programs in mass-market computers would significantly damage consumer privacy,'' warns the US watchdog organisation EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Centre). ``The records of many different companies could be merged without the user's knowledge or consent to provide an intrusive profile of activity on the computer. The only solution would be to change the processor or computer.'' The idea behind the PSN was to protect business against piracy by preventing music or video recordings or software programs being played by people other than those to whom they had been sold. But a more insidious use is to identify Internet users and to track their activities for marketing or surveillance purposes. Not every computer has a PSN. Apple computers don't use them, nor do computers manufactured before the end of 1998.That's when the world's largest microprocessor chip manufacturer, Intel, started building them into all its new Pentium III chips. Since the row broke over its head, Intel has introduced a fix, allowing users to switch off the serial number. Or so the theory goes. In practice, manufacturers will require that the serial number is switched on before their programs will run or their music will play. In any case, Intel's off switch doesn't really work. In February, it took a group of German computer experts less than a month to show that the serial number could be switched back on by remote control, without the user's knowledge. ENCROACHMENT BY STEALTH The PSN is one more warning that, as we move to an all-electronic society, current concepts of personal privacy may well disappear within a generation. A hundred years ago, US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis coined his definition of privacy as ``the right to be left alone''. Brandeis would not recognise the lives we live now. The scale and power of the information now in the hands of governments and corporations would be beyond his comprehension. Children of this generation will never know what it is not to be recorded on dozens of electronic registers, increasingly linked to each other whether they like it or not. One day, their own children may ask them what ``privacy'' was. In Australia, Europe, the US and other nations, plans for integrated central government databases such as the Australia Card system have been fought off. With the worrying exception of the US, privacy commissions have been created by states and governments to control personal data, especially in the public sector. But their efforts to protect privacy are continually threatened by new technology. While controls have been placed on public-sector personal details such as tax files and Medicare records, the private sector is quietly amassing a mountain of routinely collected personal data. And both legally and illegally, that information is for sale. Many of us know that information is being collected, but we seldom realise how, when, or how much. We are irritated or puzzled when personally addressed junk mail fills the letterbox. Much of it is the result of data-matching, the automatic merging of information from multiple sources to build
LL:ART: Rich get richer as the poor miss out
Friday, August 6, 1999 Rich get richer as the poor miss out By TOM ALLARD in Canberra The booming economy has done nothing to bridge the income gulf between Australia's rich and poor, with figures released yesterday showing the wealthiest 20 per cent earned almost 13 times more than the poorest 20 per cent. In a trend labelled "disgraceful" by the welfare lobby, the three years to 1997-98 saw the average weekly income of the bottom 20 per cent or quintile increase by $7 while the top quintile rose by $121 a week. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also revealed a geographical dimension to the income inequality - the average earnings in cities, at $706 per week, were 24 per cent higher than the $569 average weekly earnings in regional and rural areas. "These figures confirm the unfortunate fact that Australia is a divided country. It's not the egalitarian place people think it is," said the president of the Australian Council of Social Service, Mr Michael Raper. "This is a disgraceful level of inequality which will worsen next year when pensioners and ordinary Australians are faced with a GST while high income earners get a $62 a week pay rise." The introduction of a GST is the first major policy initiative in more than four years and, even in its modified form, is expected to widen the wealth gulf, according to modelling. The level of inequality has barely moved over the past four years, with the highest income quintile accounting for just under 50 per cent of wealth. The bottom quintile, by contrast, earned less than 4 per cent of total income. One of the main enclaves of poverty is the burgeoning pool of single-parent families. There are now more than 500,000, or 20 per cent of all families. Their average income was $463 per week, less than half the $1,074 earned by two-parent couples and well below the average income for all Australians of $658 per week. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Picnic to launch campaign against IR legislation
A FAMILY PICNIC TO LAUNCH THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE SECOND WAVE NOON TO 4 PM, SUNDAY 8 AUGUST SYDNEY PARK, ST PETERS (Cnr Princes Highway and Sydney Park Rd, St Peters, its the old brick factory site - the chimneys are still there.) Speakers: Kim Beazley, ALP leader Jennie George, ACTU President There will be live music, children's entertainment and a sausage sizzle. And feel free to bring your own picnic supplies. All members, families and friends are invited. LL.NH -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Welfare groups facing the gag
Friday, July 23, 1999 Welfare groups facing the gag By TOM ALLARD in Canberra Welfare groups will have to warn the Federal Government in advance when making negative comments if they want to get funding this financial year from the Department of Family and Community Services. Funding for 1999-2000 is contingent on welfare groups providing "early warning for all controversial issues planned for media coverage which might attract public comment". The condition, inserted after initial consultations over the funding agreement, "surprised" the chief beneficiary of the funding, the Australian Council of Social Service and its member organisations. But the ACOSS president, Mr Michael Raper, said he was unconcerned by the clause in the Department of Family and community Services agreement because "we would not expect the requirement was designed to muzzle us". Labor's family and community services spokesman, Mr Wayne Swan, took a far stronger stance, arguing it was "thuggery" on the part of the Government. "This Government is using thuggery with these agencies," Mr Swan said. "The tying of money to an advance warning for the Government makes an absolute mockery of their claim that they believe in some kind of coalition with community agencies. "Apparently, in the Government's eyes, a coalition means the right to tell social agencies what they can and cannot say. This attack on the independence of community groups is unprecedented." However, Mr Raper said the early warning was standard practice for his organisation and the agreement simply codified it. "We always give them a copy of a press release ahead of time and it hasn't stopped us from being very critical of the Government," he said. "We give them a Budget submission each year so they know our position." However, he said the welfare groups wanted the clause clarified so it did not place an onerous burden on them. Mr Raper rejected suggestions that the clause was, in principle, undemocratic. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:REM: East Timor Benefit in Sydney
The Australia-East Timor Association presents: Viva Timor Leste, a concert in aid of East Timor, this Thursday, 15 July at the Metro, on George Street with: Ed Kuepper Tim Freedman David McCormack and Glenn Thompson from Custard Stella One Eleven Karma County Lazy Susan special East Timorese guests and emcee Linda Jaivin lucky draw prizes include artwork by Reg Mombassa, signed CDs by Midnight Oil, Billy Bragg, Whitlams, Custard and more, signed books by John Birmingham, Emma Tom, Toby Creswell Martin Fabinyi, and Linda Jaivin. The doors open at 7:30. The entertainment begins at 7:45 and goes through till midnight. $15/$12 concession, all proceeds go to urgently needed humanitarian aid for East Timor (Mary MacKillop Institute, Timor Aid and the East Timor Relief Association). Tickets available from the Metro box office on 9264 2666 or at the door. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Dole crackdown on 300,000
Thursday, July 8, 1999 Dole crackdown on 300,000 By TOM ALLARD in Canberra More than 300,000 job-seekers are facing a dole crackdown, with the Federal Government ordering a review to ensure agencies such as Centrelink enforce requirements that they do some work or activity in return for the payment. The move reflects fears within the Government that dole payments are not being reduced when the unemployed fail to undertake work-for-the-dole projects, literacy and numeracy programs, part-time or voluntary work, or other activities. "Somehow, thousands slipped through the net without losing payments and we want to know why," a source said. With the doubling of work-for-the-dole places and the expansion of other "mutual obligation" requirements to job-seekers aged under 35, the Government fears that it will not be able to fill these places unless the agencies rigorously enforce the policy. Beneficiaries will get the benefit of the doubt until they fall into mutual obligation," the source said. "After that, we want it to be very strictly enforced." Under policies initiated by the Coalition, recipients of the dole face an 18 per cent cut in benefits if they do not fulfil their agreement to undertake some work or other prescribed activity. The policies initially applied to about 80,000 people aged 18 to 24 who had been unemployed for six months or more. Of those, 42,000 signed a "mutual obligation" agreement but only 28,000 undertook an activity between July and April. The expansion of the plan to 300,000 people - school-leavers out of work for three months or more and those aged 25 to 34 who have been unemployed for at least a year - means the Government faces a much bigger compliance job. The Minister for Employment Services, Mr Abbott, has justified the tough requirements by pointing to the "culture of welfare dependency" and the rise of the "job snob", saying the culture had more to with the high unemployment rate than economic policy. The idea behind the policies was to make unemployment less attractive than working, as much as any principle of responsibility. While the drive has so far centred on job-seekers, the Government has now turned its attention to Centrelink, the Job Network agencies and the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, which it believes are letting people off the hook. An example of leniency given to the Herald was a decision by the appeals tribunal to accept an excuse that the third letter sent to a job-seeker warning of a cut in benefits "flew out the window because there was a draught". The Government believes the problem lies, in part, with the "cumbersome process" to cut benefits, which takes two months, and often longer if there is an appeal. The review will examine ways to reduce that period, with changes to the Social Security Act on the table. Critics in the welfare sector and Labor are outraged by the Government's stance. They argue that a lack of proper training is undermining employment gains and explains the poor response by the jobless to the requirements. The review, to be chaired by an officer of the Department of Employment, is not expected to deliver its findings for at least two months. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL: Happy Birthday to Leftlink!
Leftlink turned three on Wednesday June 30. It was started by Marg Hutton, and has maintained about 500 subscribers for most of its life. This list would have never got anywhere with Marg's work in setting it up, applying for funding to keep it going, and most importantly, spending the large amount of time it takes to keep the list running. I trust you'll join me in congratulating Marg for all her work in setting up what's become a valuable resource for the left in Australia. In solidarity, Alister Air -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL: List problems
Hi everyone, We've had some technical problems with the list and so email was not sent out for a couple of days. These problems have been rectified now... just in case you were wondering what had happened. Solidarity, Alister Air and Marg Hutton Leftlink -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Life in prison for stealing food
this comes from the USA - however, given the NT's mandatory sentencing laws, and the consideration of mandatory sentencing laws elsewhere in Australia, I thought it would be relevant to leftlink readers... alister Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 27, 1999 issue of Workers World newspaper LES MIZ IN BELLY OF BEAST: LIFE IN PRISON FOR TAKING FOOD By Vanessa Lewis On April 26, an appeals court upheld a 25-years-to-life sentence for Gregory Taylor, a homeless person convicted of burglarizing a church pantry in Los Angeles. His "crime" was stealing food. The sentence was a result of California's "three strikes" law. This law requires a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life for a felony committed by a defendant with two previous "serious or violent" felony convictions. The defense argued against using the three strikes law because Taylor's two previous convictions were for nonviolent burglaries. But, according to an April 26 Associated Press report, the prosecutor "disagreed that Taylor's previous convictions were nonviolent, noting that robbery is the forcible taking of property." Taylor had often received food from the church pantry after hours before. This time no one was there to open the pantry and he was hungry. The judge failed to instruct the jury that it could have convicted him of a lesser crime--trespassing--and thus avoided the three strikes law. Anyone would agree that a life sentence for taking food is outrageous--so outrageous that it should be relegated to fiction. Ironically enough, it is fiction. Such an incident in 19th-century France was the basis for Victor Hugo's popular novel--and the long-running Broadway musical--"Les Miserables," in which a man is sentenced to life in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Now it has happened here, at the end of the 20th century, when food is super-abundant and tons are thrown away every day. But to oppressed people, it's not that surprising. The justice system has proved to be no friend to poor and working people. Someone who steals--or is accused of stealing--$10 is labeled a criminal and goes to prison. Someone who steals $10,000 or more is hailed as an entrepreneur. Since 1991, the number of people in U.S. prisons has risen by 50 percent, while the rate of violent acts has decreased by 20 percent. "Three strikes" laws are eliminating parole after a certain number of offenses. Other laws require prisoners to serve 85 percent of their sentences. Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders are putting more people behind bars for nonviolent acts. In California three strikes went into effect in 1996, the year of President Bill Clinton's welfare "reform" law. That same year prison construction in the state skyrocketed, receiving a billion dollars more than university construction. Private corporations spend approximate ly $35 billion a year on the prison industry in the United States, supporting prison bond issues and the privatization of prisons. People in prison now work for multi-billion-dollar companies taking airplane reservations, building furniture and much more. Most are poor, mainly people of color, and their slave labor is highly profitable. Prisoners have become an important population of exploited labor for the ruling class. TERRORIST TACTICS Since Clinton's welfare "reform" law, millions of people have been cut from public assistance. Millions more have been forced into "work experience" programs, where they get decreased benefits. The welfare law gave states the power to screen recipients of food stamps at will. In 1997, the first wave of cuts in food stamps took hold when, in states like Michigan and California, tens of thousands were cut off. Many of those who were cut off work full-time, yet are paid so little they cannot afford food without assistance. Beginning in April 1997, Los Angeles recipients were subject to racist screening that denied food stamps to all non-citizens, with or without legal documents. In February of this year New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced he would eliminate food stamps for able-bodied single adults between 18 and 50. On May 14 the New York Times reported that "a new study estimates that 675,000 people lost Medicaid coverage and were without health insurance in 1997 because of sweeping changes in Federal and state welfare programs." The study was made by Families USA, a consumer group that has worked closely with the White House for the last six years. Of the 675,000 people who lost coverage, 420,000 were children. Federal law requires that people who lose cash assistance be guaranteed Medicaid. But the states have not complied and the federal government has not enforced this law. Recently a federal district judge in New York ruled that thousands of people had been improperly denied Medicaid. This has undoubtedly happened all over the country. The executive
LL:ART: Dow shows rich getting richer
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/19990401/A27527-1999Mar31.shtml Dow shows rich getting richer, group says Source: AAP | Published: Thursday April 1 10:36:58 AM An organisation which fights the widening income gap in America says the Dow's historic 10,000-point close helps justify its crusade. Most US households, according to United for a Fair Economy, have lower net worths than they did in 1983, when the Dow was at 1,000. Only the wealthiest households have profited along with the gains of the Dow Jones industrial average, the Boston-based organisation says. 'We've had over two decades of public policies and corporate practices benefiting affluent asset owners at the expense of wage earners,' said Chuck Collins, co-director of United for a Fair Economy. The group has published a 94-page booklet, "Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap," based on research by Edward Wolff, a New York University economist, and other findings. The report says average US workers are earning less, adjusted for inflation, than they did during the Nixon presidency. Wolff calculates the wealthiest one per cent of households have 40 per cent of the national wealth. Looking at who has prospered because of the stock market's gains, 'Shifting Fortunes' says: -Nearly 90 per cent of the value of all stocks and mutual funds owned by households is in the hands of the wealthiest 10 per cent. -Ten per cent of households benefited from about 86 per cent of the stock market increases between 1989 and 1997. -Since the mid-1970s, the top one per cent of households doubled their share of the national wealth. "Only 45 per cent of Americans have stock in any form," said Betsy Leondar-Wright, an author of the report. "We hear so much about working Americans' access to 401(k) plans, but the reality is that lots of workers who are offered stock ownership through those plans can't afford to buy it because they need their income for living expenses." Separately, the Federal Reserve reports that 25 per cent of US household wealth is in stocks, up from eight per cent in 1984. The United for a Fair Economy report details the comparatively declining fortunes of the less wealthy. It says, for example, that the median inflation-adjusted net worth of US households was $US49,900 ($A78,767) in 1997, down from $US54,600 ($A86,186) in 1989. According to the report, nearly one in five US households has a zero or negative net worth. The report also said average weekly wages in 1998 were 12 per cent lower than in 1973, adjusting forinflation. The Fair Economy point of view is challenged by some economists. For example, W Michael Cox, a senior fellow at the National Centre for Policy Analysis and an economic adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, says measures of real-wage decline and widening wage gaps paint unduly pessimistic pictures. Cox, who recently co-wrote 'Myths of Rich and Poor: Why We're Better Off Than We Think,' says consumption - not real wages or investments - is a better measure of Americans' financial health. Cox contends that even the poorest Americans are better off in terms of how long they have to work to pay for things and what they get for their money. "Even the poor have more," according to Cox, who argues that a "you versus me" scorecard emphasising the widening income gap obscures the reality that all Americans are improving their lot. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Paraguay vice president slain
Paraguay vice president slain, day of tears and turmoil Source: AP | Published: Wednesday March 24 3:11:16 PM ASUNCION, Paraguay: Assailants in camouflage gear have gunned down Paraguay's vice president on an Asuncion street, plunging the South American country into political turmoil. Three men opened fire with automatic weapons on a red sport utility vehicle carrying Luis Maria Argana to his downtown office yesterday morning. Argana was hit by four bullets during the barrage of gunfire and died before paramedics could take him to the hospital, according to a preliminary medical report. 'He died at the scene,' said Osvaldo Garcia Varesini, director of the hospital, Sanatorio Americano. The director said one of the bullets penetrated the heart and severed an artery, causing massive bleeding. He was also hit in the arm and liver. Paraguayan TV footage showed the vice president slumped on the back seat, his white shirt and tie splattered with blood. A bodyguard in the front passenger seat was also gravely wounded. The assassination added to the heap of woes troubling Paraguay, which last month marked the 10th anniversary of a return to democracy with little to celebrate: political infighting, a protracted economic crisis and endemic corruption. President Raul Cubas urged calm in a nationwide address. He ordered the country's borders closed and began a manhunt for Argana's killers. 'Paraguay and its people are in need of urgency, order, and tranquility,' Cubas said later Tuesday. Police held back hundreds of onlookers while forensic experts wearing white gloves pored over the bullet-riddled sport vehicle. TV footage showed a bodyguard in the front seat bleeding heavily and breathing with difficulty. No motive was immediately reported and the gunmen were not identified. He added that three suspects were being sought, that a torched getaway truck was found blocks from the scene and that a full investigation was underway. Under the president's orders, members of the armed forces patrolled the streets to keep the peace. Scores of officers blocked some downtown streets and public transport was temporarily halted. Last night, Cubas named his brother Carlos Cubas as the country's interior minister after accepting the resignation of Ruben Arias Mendoza, who didn't offer a public explanation for his sudden departure. In his new post, Carlos Cubas will head up the investigation into Argana's killing. Some legislators renewed calls to impeach Cubas, now ostracised by many members of his own party amid bitter infighting. 'We will not rest until Paraguay returns to the state of rule that now does not exist,' said Mario Paz Castaing, an opposition senator and vice president of Paraguay's congress. Congress voted last Thursday to begin impeachment proceedings against Cubas, alleging he violated the constitution by freeing jailed General Lino Oviedo, a former army chief sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for a 1996 coup attempt against then-President Juan Wasmosy. The controversy over Oviedo's release split Paraguay's ruling Colorado Party, causing a rift between factions led by Argana and Cubas. Wasmosy yesterday harshly criticized Argana for the turbulent climate leading up to the assassination. He called Paraguay a country of 'chaos, violence and blood.' But Colorado Senator Francisco Jose Appleyard, a former Oviedo lawyer, said he thought the assassination was 'intended to make it seem as if Cubas and Oviedo are the authors.' Funeral preparations were not immediately announced. Hundreds of people, many of them Argana supporters, waited for word outside the hospital were his body was taken. Some raised fists and angrily shouted slogans against the Cubas government and minor scuffles broke out. But riot police cordoned off the hospital and broke up fights. Landlocked Paraguay, which returned to democracy in 1989 after 35 years of dictatorship, has no rules laying out a process for impeachment. However, Cubas brushed aside any talk of leaving office before his five-year term ends. 'I am not considering resigning from office.' He added, 'I will finish out my mandate,' which began in August. The US government called the killing 'a heinous act' and urged the government to investigate. 'There is absolutely no place for violence in the democratic process.' Neighbouring Brazil closed its borders to help apprehend the killers of Argana, whose death is a 'sad stain on the historic effort of the Paraguayan people to consolidate democracy.' -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: ILO ruling a blow to work law
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/19990312/A65015-1999Mar11.html ILO ruling a blow to work law Source: AAP | Published: Friday March 12 12:06:03 PM The International Labor Organisation has delivered a blow to the federal government's Workplace Relations Act, ruling it had been in breach of international treaty obligations regarding workers' rights. ILO's committee of experts, comprising 20 independent international jurists, has found the act breached the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise. The committee's principal finding is that the act restricted the right to strike contrary to the treaty. Its key rulings include workers being unable to strike on an industry or multi-employer basis in support of economic or social issues; and workers not being able to take action in support of fellow unionists. ACTU president Jennie George says the decision confirms the government's workplace relations agenda had breached international standards. Ms George says the ruling should end Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith's plans for further restricting the rights of workers. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART:Treasurer signals tough Budget
Wednesday, March 3, 1999 Treasurer signals tough Budget Treasurer Peter Costello today forecast a tough May Federal Budget, saying the Government would keep spending down. "The first imperative is to hold the fiscal position," Mr Costello told reporters. "We are going to maintain a tight rein on spending. "The Australian budget was in surplus last year, it will be in surplus this year and our budgetary policy is to keep it in surplus right across the forward estimates, which is the next four years," he said. Several key sectors including education are already heavily into their pre-Budget lobbying with the release of Budget submissions calling for increased spending. But Mr Costello said maintenance of the Budget position was crucial to international confidence in the Australian economy. "If we want to maintain confidence in the Australian economy, we have to maintain those surpluses," he said. "If we didn't maintain a decent budget position you would burn up a lot of that confidence. "If we had our budget now in deficit ... things would have been savage for Australia." He warned the voting down of the Government's tax package by the Senate would impact on the budget. "You can't just play around with these huge sums as if it has no effect, it will have an effect," he said. "It will have an effect on our Budget numbers, it will have an effect on the way in which investment is viewed in this country, it will have an effect on all sorts of things." Mr Costello said it was standard practice to include such things in forward estimates, even if there was a chance the changes would not be passed. "When we do our forward estimates, particularly the big tax changes which occur in 2000-2001, the forward estimates will have our decisions in them, which means that every defeated measure affects those forward estimates. "This has always been the way." - Australian Associated Press Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Forums at Gleebooks
An updated version of the forums at Gleebooks is below. The Research Office newsletter which was just e-mailed to you was based on the 'Gleebooks Gleaner' but one evening was double booked. I'd love anyone to copy this blurb onto other e-mail list serves. The revised titles and speakers are: Gleebooks Forums Social change and the new millenium In the last two decades many of the verities of politics have been turned on their head. The end of the Cold War has paralleled the rise of post modern thinking. The experience of 13 years of Labor government has disillusioned many. The definition of the political spectrum as a 'Left-Right division' is clearly much less relevant with social movement which upset the boundaries of class, race, gender and which question humanity's relationship to nature. These two forums are a chance for those who want a thoughtful discussion of issues facing the broad Left as it searches for a new role in the new century. A small entry fee covers drinks before hand. What's Left? Tuesday March 23 6.30 for 7pmat Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Pt Rd, Glebe Speakers: Ian Rogers -- editor of recent book, 'Out of the Rut' and longtime member of the ALP and reporter on the Financial Review. Eva Cox -- well known feminist and social theorist. McKenzie Wark -- writer and commentator, author of the recent 'Celebrities, Culture, Cyberspace'. Social Change the new Millenium: Common ground? Tuesday March 30 6.30 for 7pmat Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Pt Rd, Glebe The different movements for social change have things in common but can they work together more closely for common goals? Speakers James Day -- NSW secretary, Wilderness Society Pat Ranald -- Public Sector Research Centre Peter Colley, -- Research Officer, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. LL.NC -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Reith: More work for less pay
Thursday, February 18, 1999 More working but for less pay: Reith outlines his plan to slash dole queue By MICHELLE GRATTAN and MARK METHERELL The Minister for Employment, Mr Reith, wants to slash unemployment with drastic new workplace reforms - including watering down minimum wages, more work-for-the-dole schemes and US-inspired tax credits to make low-paid work more attractive than welfare. Mr Reith prepared the secret options for the Prime Minister, who asked for further work by February 15. But Mr Howard warned the options developed must not breach the Government's commitment that existing workers not be left worse off. Mr Reith was forced to release his Cabinet-in-confidence paper last night after a draft was made public by the Opposition employment spokesman, Mr Martin Ferguson. The Reith manifesto would take labour market deregulation substantially further. Among the proposals are: Introduction of an earned income tax credit, costing about $460 million and giving about $10 a week to low-income families with children to encourage those on welfare to get jobs. Establishing a single benchmark award that ensures current workplace agreements don't leave workers worse off. Toughening the Government's "mutual obligation" policy to extend to all adults once they have been on the dole six months. This would mean "continued receipt of allowance could be conditional on the recipient being engaged in useful education activity, community service or other productive workplace activity". Separate conditions for the employment of unemployed people, including special minimum conditions and exemption from unfair dismissal laws, and lower award conditions for depressed regions. Changes in the conduct of living wage cases and new provisions to require the Industrial Relations Commission to take more account of unemployment in making its decisions. Mr Reith raised the idea of discounted wages for the longterm unemployed to encourage employers to hire these workers. But he said this would be expensive to implement.He said the Government should pursue Senate reform because without it, it would not be able to put its jobs strategy in place. "Linking Senate reform to fixing unemployment may be a sensible agenda leading up to a third term ... What we are really talking about here is a third term agenda we are announcing now so we can secure a mandate." Mr Ferguson, who released the plan before Mr Reith, said the minister was "hellbent on attacking the most vulnerable sections of our society". In his paper, Mr Reith said that with very low inflation now established, Australia should be seeing a commensurate winding back of wage expectations. "Of growing concern in this context is that the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has granted relatively generous safety net increases, particularly in its last decision." -- Alister Air | The problem is, of course, that Faculty Computing Manager (HSS) | not only is economics bankrupt Information Technology Division | but it has always been nothing University of Technology Sydney | more than politics in disguise. Ph: 9514 1277Fx: 9514 1595 | Hazel Henderson -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Obituary - Neville Bonner
Monday, February 8, 1999 The lonely road from condemned pauper to crowned prince OBITUARY: NEVILLE BONNER, AO, 1922 - 1999 HE was a Queensland senator for 12 years. Yet Neville Bonner, 76, who died in Brisbane on Friday, was unceremoniously dumped by his own party. It was a cynical manoeuvre, the reasons for which his Liberal colleagues steadfastly declined to discuss. His supporters, however, were under no such restraint. As Bonner moved toward political oblivion, they angrily denounced the Queensland Liberal Party machine as racist. Yet the party's repudiation of Bonner could not, happily, diminish the niche in Australian history he already occupied. He was the first Aborigine to be elected to Federal Parliament. Bonner was ousted by being dropped from first to third position on the Liberal Party's Queensland Senate ticket for the 1983 general election, thus effectively depriving him of any chance of success. He ran anyway, as an independent, but failed narrowly to win a seat. The newly-elected Hawke Government appointed him to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Bonner's political demise occurred after he had drawn fire from Coalition MPs for his increasingly unyielding posture on Aboriginal rights. They saw his closer identification with the views of some Aboriginal activists as a betrayal. Ironically, Bonner's earlier, more moderate, stance on these issues and related social questions had been similarly condemned by radical Aboriginal groups. As one measure of white society's feelings on the issue, the National Party's attitude was unambiguous. Joh Bjelke-Petersen, in his pomp as Queensland premier, praised the Liberals for their action on Bonner, declaring: "His position on Aboriginal issues had got right out of hand and he had to go". Certainly Bonner had been a persistent critic of the Bjelke-Petersen regime in 1978 as it sought to wrest control of some Aboriginal reserves from the Federal Government. Yet four years later he appeared to back away from his hard line, refusing to join illegal street marches against the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Instead, Bonner urged that Aboriginal agitation against the Games should be within the law-thus earning him the antipathy and scorn of many activists. It was far from the first occasion that Neville Thomas Bonner had suffered denigration. Born on Ukerabah Island in the Tweed River, northern NSW, he knew the inevitable humiliations of growing up as an Aboriginal person in a country town. In Bonner's case these included scanty education, rejection for wartime army service, discrimination in eating and sleeping facilities in mustering camps, and an Aboriginal reserve job at one eighth the pay of his immediate (white) boss. His interest in politics developed while he was based in Ipswich as a $67-a-week bridge carpenter. However, his decision to support the Liberals has been attributed to a chance remark by Bill Hayden, then Labor MP for Oxley. On referendum day, 1967, both major parties supported the proposal to count Aborigines in the Census. Bonner was helping a friend distribute how-to-vote cards when Mr Hayden suggested he was in the wrong team, adding: "You should be giving out cards for us." As his biographer, Angela Burger, has recorded, Bonner resented Mr Hayden telling him whom he should work for-and joined the Liberal Party. He was welcomed into the One Mile branch of the party on August 22, 1967, as "the first coloured member". After his election to the Liberal State Convention and the chairmanship of the Oxley area committee, Bonner was appointed to fill a Senate vacancy in 1971. He achieved the top spot on the ticket in 1978. As a senator, Bonner led a revolt calling for an independent inquiry into East Timor. He also toured Britain, visited Nigeria and, more than once, voted with the Opposition on Aboriginal issues. A backlash against him within the Queensland Liberal Party inevitably gained strength. After his departure from the Senate, Bonner continued to live in the Oxley electorate as an Aboriginal elder and a champion of Aboriginal causes. His voice was heard by a wider audience in 1996 after the election triumph in Oxley of the Independent candidate, Pauline Hanson, who had been disowned by the Liberals for alleged racist remarks. Bonner spoke on Aboriginal issues to a rally supported by Queensland's Catholic bishops. He recalled his early struggles and his service in the Senate. At the close of his remarks, his voice halting with emotion, he simply repeated the words: "This is a sad, sad day ..." There were to be other controversies. As an elected monarchist delegate to the Constitutional Convention in February 1998, Bonner made a forceful plea for Australia's system of government to be left untouched. He sang a "chant of regret" for his Jagera people at the small number of Aborigines attending the convention. And he declared that a change to a republic would do nothing for them. During
LL:URL: One Nation building links with the BNP
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/daily.html or copied to http://www.cat.org.au/~talisman/onenation/bnp.html The latest effort from the One Nation groupie who writes their daily news web site is this - laughingly termed an 'expose': -- What is racism? - Seems like the UK is having the same politically correct problems as Australia Here is how the British Nationalist Party sees it: What is Racism? There is surely no nation in the world that holds "racism" in greater horror than does Great Britain. Compared to other kinds of offences, it is thought to be somehow more reprehensible. The press and public have become so used to tales of murder, rape, robbery,and arson, that any but the most spectacular crimes are shrugged off as part of the inevitable texture of British life. "Racism" is never shrugged off. For example, when a top football commentator recently admitted he had trouble recognising black footballers, it set off a booming, national controversy about "racism." If the commentator had merely murdered someone he would have attracted far less attention and criticism. -- Those aware of the British Nationalist Party would realise that they're actual real-life neo-Nazis. I suppose that David Oldfield'd feel right at home.
