The Coalition dominated Senate will vote on a raft of amendments to the Fair Work Act in July next year that includes the Building and Construction (Fair and Lawful Building Sites) Code.
The code will be voted in as a piece of retrospective legislation. This means it will be backdated to April 24 this year. This is so the code will apply to all new enterprise bargaining agreements (EBA) due to be negotiated by all construction unions with the respective employers.
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Palestinians in Gaza took to the streets on August 26 in celebration. After 51 days of merciless bombardment by the Israeli military, an open-ended ceasefire between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel was announced that appears likely to last for at least the immediate future.
During the assault, homes, hospitals, shops, agricultural infrastructure and schools were pulverised. About 2100 Gazans were killed. An estimated 80% of these were civilians, including more than 500 children.
Thousands marched in Staten Island, New York City, on August 23 to protest against the police murder of an unarmed Black man, Eric Garner, in July.
The action was led by Reverend Al Sharpton, who has been outspoken against police brutality since the killing.
The marchers were inspired by the mass protests in Ferguson, Missouri, against the murder of unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown by police. They took up the chant of the Ferguson protesters 鈥 鈥淗ands Up! Don鈥檛 Shoot!鈥
The Renewable Energy Target could become a victim of its own success. A review into the scheme, released on August 29, has recommended the federal government close new investment into renewable energy because it has produced more energy than originally planned.
But Labor, Greens and Palmer United Party senators have vowed to block any changes to the scheme.
At the same time, a debate has emerged among climate activists about whether we should 鈥渃hange tack鈥 when it comes to campaigning on the issue of climate change.
There has been a dramatic rise in the female prison population in Australia in the last 10 years. This increase is largely due to the rising number of Aboriginal women going to prison.
In 1996, about 21% of women in prison were Aboriginal, last year it was 33%. The rate of increase is much greater than that of men.
Australia has the dishonour of jailing the highest proportion of its Indigenous female population in the world. Aboriginal women are 17 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Aboriginal women.
Palestinian officials have recognised that Latin American countries were the first to condemn the Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, thanked Latin America on August 27 for its solidarity with the people of Gaza and its condemnation of the seven-week Israeli massacre in the enclave.
During a PNC meeting, the Palestinian leaders said the solidarity of Latin America with Palestinians 鈥渋s an inheritance of patriots like Jose Marti and Simon Bolivar鈥.
One of the most frightful ironies of climate change is that it will wreak the most havoc on the people who have done the least to cause it. Pacific Island nations are in the climate frontlines 鈥 affected by rising oceans, coastal erosion and extreme weather.
Forty per cent of Australians do not believe that democracy is the best form of government, the Lowy Institute it conducted earlier this year.
The main reasons given were that what now passes for democracy is serving vested interests rather than the interests of people, and that there is no real difference between the two big political parties.
This is a perfectly logical reaction to the convergence of the major parties around the economic doctrine of neoliberalism.
The charmed run before the courts enjoyed by John Gay, former chairperson of Tasmanian timber company Gunns, may soon be over.
Gunns became insolvent in 2012, owing investors more than $1 billion. The company had been in serious financial trouble since February 2010, when a director鈥檚 report detailing its falling revenue was made public.
Two months before the report was released, Gay used his inside knowledge of the company鈥檚 financial position to sell Gunns shares worth more than $3 million. He avoided what was thought at the time to be a loss of $800,000.
A new environmental battleground is shaping up in Western Australia over the controversial issue of fracking. A small victory was won on August 20 when councillors from the Shire of Coorow, a group of small towns 250 kilometres north of Perth, voted unanimously to suspend all fracking activity in the area pending a full environmental assessment and public inquiry.
Stop the War Coalition released this statement on August 29.
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Sydney Stop the War Coalition opposes the Australian government鈥檚 moves to involve Australian military forces in another US-led war on Iraq.
Spokesperson Pip Hinman said: 鈥淭he [Tony] Abbott government鈥檚 motives are more about trying to shore up support for itself rather than any professed concern about Sunni and Christian communities.
"The last thing Australia needs is a holy war," Nick Deane, spokesperson for the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN), said.
"Our federal government should reject completely any consideration of sending our air force personnel to drop bombs on Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria, or sending our troops or SAS into combat in those countries. We know now only too well the inevitable civilian casualties from such actions.
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