News briefs

April 29, 1998
Issue 

Aborigines challenge Century mine bridge

BRISBANE — A temporary injunction halting a bridge providing access to the $1.2 billion Century Zinc mine, in far north Queensland, was lifted on April 15 by the Federal Court in Sydney. The case has been rescheduled to Brisbane next month.

The CLC says the bridge over the Gregory River would disturb significant Aboriginal sites and that the proposal to compulsorily acquire the land was illegal under the Native Title Act and Queensland's Acquisition of Land Act.

Last year, after a long struggle, a deal was struck with a majority of native title claimants over the Century Zinc mine site, promising a $90 million compensation package. CLC general manager Murrandoo Yanner says that none of the promised benefits have flowed to the Aboriginal people and hopes that the delay in the bridge's construction and the provision of power to the mine site will "put an end to the mine."

Great Barrier Reef threatened

Climate change is threatening the existence of the Great Barrier Reef, Greenpeace warned on April 19. High temperatures and extreme rainfall over the last year have caused the worst coral bleaching in decades.

Coral bleaching — when stressed coral turns white — can kill coral polyps and destroy large Â鶹´«Ã½ of coral reef. Over 1000 kms of inshore coral reefs from Bundaberg to Cooktown have been affected. In some areas, 80% of corals have been bleached.

The proposed super dams in central Queensland are also a danger to the reef. The expansion of irrigation in the Dawson River valley will contribute to bleaching. However, the impact assessment for the dam did not include the effects of agricultural expansion on the reef.

School cleaners' jobs threatened

HOBART — Last year, school attendants and cleaners employed by the Tasmanian Education Department were forced to take industrial action to protect their jobs, and school safety and hygiene standards, when the government attempted to introduce competitive tendering and contracting. The dispute ended with the government promising

not to contract out their jobs.

Now the department is denying having made this promise and industrial action in Tasmanian schools looms again. The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union has given the government until April 27 to guarantee the attendants' and cleaners' jobs.

Police officer stationed in school

HOBART — A disturbing new precedent in anti-youth "law and order" campaigning has been set with the assignment, full-time, of a police officer to Elizabeth College in Hobart. The college will cover part of the officer's salary.

Natasha Sinnet from Resistance said, "having the cop paid for out of the education budget is really rubbing salt into the wound. Not only do governments boost the budgets for police and prisons while slashing education funding, but schools must now spend their meagre resources on police and security guards to guard their students".

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