In scenes reminiscent of the Nazi German occupation, French police rounded up almost 1000 Romani people (sometimes called Gypsies) in August and deported them to Romania and Bulgaria.
The mass deportations were foreshadowed by President Nicolas Sarkozy in July in a series of inflammatory speeches in which he accused Romani people of being in an 鈥渦nacceptable situation of lawlessness鈥 linked to 鈥渋llicit trafficking, deeply unworthy living conditions and exploitation of children for begging, prostitution or crime鈥.
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Undoubtedly the best thing about the election result was that people 鈥 everywhere 鈥 were talking about politics. Some of the discussion was about the hung parliament where neither major party won majority support. Because the result wasn鈥檛 clear, it gave everybody an opening to form and express an opinion about what should happen next. Other parts of the discussion surrounded the sudden emergence of political issues that had been completely ignored in the 鈥渂oring鈥 election campaign. The war in Afghanistan is the best example.
In 2007, federal election candidates made much of the seven vultures that were feeding on the carcass of the Howard government as it flailed around shifting further and further to the right.
Those seven vultures were:
鈥 the denial of climate change;
鈥 touting of the war in Iraq;
鈥 Work Choices;
鈥 policy failure on education spending;
鈥 poor vision of infrastructure;
鈥 destruction of research and development; and
鈥 persecution of refugees with the Pacific Solution.
The scientific community has never been more united in its conviction that climate change is well on the way to rendering planet Earth a vastly less hospitable place for most species, including our own. Yet doubt about the gravity of the problem is, paradoxically, on the rise.
Recent polls in the US, Britain and Canada reveal that fewer people take the threat of climate change seriously than five years ago.
A bill legalising same-sex adoption passed the lower house of NSW parliament on September 2. Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory already have laws supporting same-sex adoption.
Put to a conscience vote, the bill passed with 46 votes in favour and 44 against. Labor Premier Kristina Keneally supported the bill, as did Liberal leader Barry O鈥橣arrell.
Nationals leader Andrew Stoner voted against.
On August 31, Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile organised a rally against the bill. According to his press release, 300 people attended.
Socialist Alternative鈥檚 Corey Oakley thinks many on the Australian left have got the federal election wrong. There is nothing positive about the balance of power being held by four independent MPs and one Green, he wrote in an August 27 article on the Socialist Alternative website. He said the left should be fearful of the independents, but some activists were wrongly celebrating the new role of these reactionary politicians.
On September 1, Luke Foley, the newest Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, rose to make his inaugural speech to the chamber.
Foley began: 鈥淚t is with pride and humility that I enter this place, Australia鈥檚 oldest Parliament, as a representative of Australia鈥檚 oldest, and greatest, political party 鈥 the Australian Labor Party.鈥
Oh dear. What a day for Foley to praise the ALP in NSW.
On September 2, Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett began the takeover of land at James Price Point in the Kimberley so the company Woodside can build a gas-processing hub.
Barnett claims this is necessary, after two years of negotiating with the local Aboriginal community and the Kimberley Land Council (KLC). He said any further delays in the project will lose $30 billion after the $15 billion taxpayers have already spent.
The 2010 federal election campaign was notable as being one of the most tedious in the history of modern elections 鈥 at least the campaigns the two major parties dished up were. The field of youth affairs was among the direst, with both the Coalition and ALP using young people as a political football to appeal to older and more conservative 麻豆传媒 of the population. Coalition leader Tony Abbott reconfirmed his status as an out-of-touch, patronising, old white man, encouraging young people to conform to conservative values.
After a long hiatus, the Broad Left Collective has reformed in Wollongong.
Broad Left played a valuable role in circulating left and progressive news in the Illawarra community from its inception in 1987 until its dissolution over the course of 2002-3.
At a meeting held in June this year to discuss reforming the collective it was agreed that Broad Left could continue to play a valuable role in linking up left and progressive people and groups across the Illawarra.
A 21-year-old Tamil refugee has allegedly been the victim of an assault while in detention.
Leela Krishna was recognised as a refugee by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in April this year, but is still held in Villawood detention centre.
He was waiting for security clearance from ASIO before release. But, on August 21, he was allegedly assaulted in an isolation unit by a former professional kick boxer.
The police are investigating the attack, and Serco 鈥 the private contractors who manage the centre 鈥 have placed Krishna in the 鈥渉ousing鈥 component of Villawood.
鈥淎n oil platform explosion on September 2 in the Gulf of Mexico forced the crew to jump into the sea and threatened further damage to waters still recovering from the BP disaster鈥, AFP said that day.
The explosion on the platform, owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy, comes in the aftermath of the BP-owned Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the gulf in April, which killed 11 workers. Bloomberg.com said on August 20 that 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped from the leaking well.
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