Feature

Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact would allow national laws to be overruled by corporations

By Systemic Disorder Imagine a world in which which labor safeguards, safety rules and environmental regulations will be struck down because a multi-national corporation’s profits might be affected. A world in which measures to reign in financial speculation are illegal. A world in which the task of governments, codified in law, is to maximize corporate profits.

Imagine a world in which corporations can bypass national laws and courts when they are in a dispute with a government, and instead can have their dispute adjudicated by a closed tribunal controlled by their lawyers.

Unfortunately, the above is not dystopian science fiction; it is the reality of the top-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Related: More analysis of the TPPA -- Occupy the TPPA -- Melbourne protest at TPPA negotiations

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Simon Peterffy cops 40 hours community service for saving numbats

Gerry Georgatos
Forests Rescue Australia (FRA) coordinator Simon Peterffy appeared in Manjimup Court on July 26 and feared that a prison term was on the cards for his activism in protecting the Warrup forest's numbats.

Mr Peterffy said he has never spent time in prison however feared that his persistent activism may have culminated in a prison sentence "because it appears that police have been coming down harder in recent times and the instructions from 'above' are that harsher penalties need apply" to dissuade FRA type protest actions.

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People smugglers they are not, lawful and heroes instead - we have to change the language

Gerry Georgatos
The misappropriation of language and abuse of semantics in reference to ‘perceived people smugglers’ has to begin to change so we do not further erode compassion, and continue to skew the moral compass, bend and circumvent the rule of law- domestic and international.

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Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin on its way to save the Kimberley's coast amidst allegations of sham politics to build the Gas Hub

Gerry Georgatos
The Sea Shepherd, Aboriginal Elders, Dr Bob Brown, the Australian Greens and Kimberley residents have condemned the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) report and recommendations on the proposal to give the go-ahead for the Browse Basin gas hub at James Price Point, and they described the environmental assessment process "as a sham."

"This report and (the) recommendations need to be rejected by the Federal Government. How can anyone expect the results of this sham of a process to be taken seriously?"

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Three years of hell - Rex Bellotti Jnr's first interview

Gerry Georgatos
(This is the first time Rex Jnr has given an interview)

Rex Bellotti Jnr was fifteen years old when a police-four-wheel-drive struck him grievously near midnight on a March night in 2006. In an unfettered debacle since the tragic event the Western Australian police have refused to admit adequate culpability and the now 18 year old is still waiting for the State Insurer's payout.

I have written over 70,000 words on this young man and of the incident that wrecked many of his dreams.

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Picket of workers at Toll Coles Distribution warehouse begins

A picket by workers at Toll warehouse in Somerton in Melbourne began on July 10th. The workers are paying parity of conditions and pay as workers in other Coles warehouses. Workers at Toll are paid significantly less, do not receive RDO's, are forced to work on public holidays and suffer from poor health and safety. A Community Assembly has been called to back the NUW led strike. Differences in terms of tactics exist with many leftist groups urging support for the NUW leadership of the strike whilst the Socialist Equality Party is calling on workers to break free from the NUW and form independent strike committees.
Related: Coverage in The Age -- Analysis from the Socialist Equality Party -- Photos on Flikr -- Solidarity protest at Coles stores -- Workers Solidarity Network fliers -- Updates on strike from Socialist Alternative

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Solidarity message from Sydney Stop The War Coalition

Sydney Stop the War Coalition in Australia extends its solidarity the Philippines Stop the War Coalition and the other groups demanding that your country's Senate not to ratify the Republic of the Philippines-Australia Status of the Visiting Forces Agreement.

This is a military agreement, developed in secrecy by the governments and military chief of both our governments, that will allow the deployment of Australian military forces on Philippines territory for "combined training, exercises, or other activities mutually approved by the Parties".

This military deal is an attack on the peace, freedom and independence of the Filipino people, and the other peoples in Asia.

We understand that under this agreement, the Philippines cannot exercise primary jurisdiction over visiting Australian military personnel accused of a crime or other breach of the law if the Australian military claims that the action concerned was carried out in performance of an "official duty".
Related: Protests hit Phillipines-Australia Military Deal

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Melbourne solidarity for Julian Assange

Around 200 people turned out in the Melbourne rain to show solidarity for Julian Assange (1st July 2012) at a rally organized by Wikileaks Australian Citizens Alliance/ The crowd heard from a range of speakers including Greens MP Adam Bandt, SEP Melbourne by-election candidate Patrick O’Connor, Wikileaks co-founder

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Let us remember Galang and Hei Ling Chau and other regional camps - and who stood up for asylum seekers fleeing the 'killing fields' and persecution

Let us honestly remind ourselves of the 1970s and 1980s in how we treated and resettled our Asylum Seekers, and who really stood up for them however let us not revise the past in some Camelot like myth as is happening by some and by others too young to remember, and by people ignorant of Galang and Hei Ling Chau and other like regional camps.

The hysteria around Asylum Seekers is deplorable and the result of perceptual modifications.

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