More than 1000 people attended a meeting at the Enmore theatre in Newtown on February 23 to hear from the builders of the $12 billion motorway WestConnex.
The WestConnex Delivery Authority organised the meeting as a community consultation to answer what they call 鈥渕isinformation鈥 about the project. But they faced an overwhelmingly hostile reaction from the crowd.
The crowd booed and heckled WestConnex Delivery Authority chief executive Dennis Cliche as he tried to promote the benefits of the motorway.
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The Australian Council of Trade Unions says the federal government has cut 8000 public sector jobs since coming to power and plans to slash another 8000 more.
Now the government is making a pay offer to public servants that the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says is, in effect, a pay cut.
The government鈥檚 offer of a 3.25% pay rise over three years to employees in the Department of Human Services (DHS) is below the inflation rate 鈥 1.7% according to .
Legal experts have criticised new child protection laws pushed through Northern Territory parliament on February 18 for not including safeguards to protect Aboriginal culture and risking a repeat of the damage done to the Stolen Generations.
The new legislation allows children who are removed from their parents by the Department of Children and Families to be placed on Permanent Care Orders, which would mean that their carers would have control over most decisions to do with the child, free from judicial or DCF review.
A second round of talks between US and Cuban diplomats began in Washington on February 27, with the aim of restoring diplomatic relations.
US President Barack Obama announced, in what he termed the most significant Cuba policy shift in more than 50 years, that he will pursue diplomatic relations and urge Congress to dismantle the US blockade of Cuba.
The other night the phone rang.
I picked it up and a recorded voice said something like 鈥淭he NSW Premier Mike Baird isn鈥檛 going to lease the state鈥檚 electricity assets. He鈥檚 not going to sell them. He is going to create jobs. Don鈥檛 be fooled.鈥
Indeed, I thought.
This happened on the same day that the Hunter Valley鈥檚 unemployment rate topped 10% and set a 10-year record.
The link between unemployment and privatisation is so obvious that Baird can鈥檛 say the 鈥淧鈥 word.
Gladys Berejiklian, Baird鈥檚 Minister for the Hunter, is also coy about the 鈥淧鈥 word.
An alliance of 46 Sovereign First Nations from across the Murray Darling Basin has proposed a new partnership between government and traditional owners to ensure key reforms on Aboriginal ownership and management of water entitlements are fulfilled.
Greece鈥檚 new SYRIZA government submitted its list of proposed economic reforms to the Eurogroup (the finance ministers of eurozone nations) on February 23 as a precondition for its international creditors to approve a four-month loan extension. The deal was signed on February 20.
With Greece鈥檚 existing loan arrangement expiring on February 28 and bankruptcy looming, a last-minute deal was finally agreed after three weeks of intense negotiations. The talks had been characterised by daily 鈥 sometimes hourly 鈥 twists and turns, claims and counterclaims, leaks and threats.
GREEK ELECTIONS REPORTBACK
GLW correspondent Dick Nichols reported from Athens during the Greek elections and will speak on SYRIZA and the fight against austerity. Newcastle: Sun March 28, 2pm at the Resistance Centre, 472 Hunter St. Phone (02) 4926 5328. Sydney: Tue March 10, 6pm in the New Law School Lecture Theatre 024, Sydney University.
CAIRNS WEEKEND ESCAPE
Bellicose and racist jingoism is the last refuge of scoundrel Prime Minister Tony Abbott. His February 23 鈥淣ational Security Statement鈥澛爓as blatant incitement of hatred, bigotry and suspicion against Australia's Muslim minority.
Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Amongst Us
John Quiggin
Black Inc., 2012
265 pages, $26.95 (pb)
鈥淏eing already dead,鈥 says John Quiggin of zombie ideas in economics, 鈥渢hey can absorb all kinds of damage and keep lumbering on.鈥
And so, despite severe reality checks such as the historical Great Depression and the more recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC), classical free market economics continues to lead its undead life in the neoliberal form Quiggin calls 鈥渕arket liberalism鈥.
The devastating effects of the coal industry on public health in the NSW Hunter Valley were highlighted in a public forum at Glebe Town Hall on February 23.
It seems there is no end to the incredible bias facing the poor, beleaguered Tony Abbott government.
If it isn't an , it's the Human Rights Commission releasing a report on the plight of children in immigration detention centres that even the most impartial observer would have to admit shows a distinct and unmistakable bias in favour of respecting human rights.
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