WSWS

The Liberal government in the state of Victoria has moved to enact sweeping antidemocratic legislation targeting demonstrations and workplace pickets. The proposed laws give police wide discretionary powers to “move-on” people from designated areas, and have the courts ban individuals from these areas for up to 12 months. Anyone violating such an “exclusion order” can be imprisoned for two years.

Related: Photos from Feb 18 Rally |

Geography:

Victoria

Keywords:

democracy

WSWS

Police powers

Australian government authorises forced interrogation of refugees

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 07:14:50 +0000

By Mike Head 9 August 2012 Reposted from WSWS Australia’s Labor government has given the go ahead for forced interrogations of asylum seekers who have arrived in the country by boat. Australian Crime Commission (ACC) chief executive John Lawler told the Australian this week that his agency has already conducted 31 compulsory questioning sessions in the past 18 months and plans to hold more before the end of the year.

Geography:

Keywords:

Australia: Union shuts down warehouse strike, imposes sell out

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:05:51 +0000

Reprinted from the WSWS By Patrick O’Connor 25 July 2012 On Monday evening, the National Union of Workers (NUW) shut down a two-week strike and 24-hour picket by hundreds of warehouse workers in northern Melbourne, at a Toll Holdings-operated distribution centre for supermarket giant Coles.

Geography:

Keywords:

Australian government proposes sweeping Internet surveillance

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:47:31 +0000

Reposted from the WSWS By Mike Head 14 July 2012 Australia’s Labor government is pushing for unprecedented powers to intercept all Internet communications, in line with similar measures in the United States and Europe. Under the proposals, everything that Australians do on-line, from Skype calls to Twitter and Facebook posts, would be stored for up to two years so that the security agencies could explore the data.

Geography:

Keywords:

internet surveillance

ANF imposes real wage cut in Victoria

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:18:25 +0000

Reprinted from the WSWS
By Patrick O’Connor 17 March 2012 The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) in Victoria has announced a sell-out deal with the state Liberal government for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) covering public hospital nurses and midwives. The agreement, quickly rammed through a mass meeting of nurses yesterday, involves a substantial real wage cut and a significant “flexibility” concession that erodes existing mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

Geography:

Keywords:

Analysis of the causes of the flood crisis from the World Socialist Web

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:40:10 +0000

Below is a very interesting article from the World Socialist Website that examines how "the Australian floods crisis is laying bare a toxic combination of chronic infrastructure decay, government under-funding, and profit-driven development that has become a danger to the lives and well-being of millions of people.". Just like with Black Saturday, the media and politicians don't want to talk about how factors such as climate change or privitisation worsen "natural" disasters.

Geography:

Australia

Keywords:

flood crisis

WSWS