Protest for free education
MELBOURNE — About 250 students converged on the State Library on March 12 in protest against university fees and funding cuts.
Victorian National Tertiary Education Union president Jeannie Rea told the crowd that free education was the only solution to the problems facing staff and students.
Other speakers included Martin Kingham, the state secretary of the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Community and Public Sector Union member and state library worker Jill Sparrow, who spoke about the campaign to defend cuts to the library's VICNET internet program, which will cost union members their jobs while leaving non-union members employed, and Melbourne University queer officer Rebecca Barrigos.
The march, led by a giant papier-mache Howard pig, ended at RMIT, which recently voted to increase HECS fees by 25%. An education campaign position paper was launched on the day by the socialist youth organisation Resistance. The statement condemned the federal government's commitment to privatising education and called for a mass fight against the reforms through rallies and direct actions in every city.
Jal Nicholl
Nurses vote to lift ban
MELBOURNE — A mass meeting of Australian Nursing Federation members on May 4 voted to lift industrial bans that had been in place in public hospitals since April 21. By an overwhelming majority, the workers voted to accept a package from the state ALP government that includes
d a modest pay increase of 12-15% over three years.
Nurses had been struggling to extend the 1:5 staff/patient ratio that had been won for major metropolitan hospitals in 2001, to regional hospitals. The government unsuccesfully attempted to abolish fixed ratios.
Recommending members accept the package, ANF state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick acknowledged it was a compromise but pointed out that successfully defending the country's first mandated nurse/patient ratio was a victory nurses should feel proud of. The meeting agreed — although some disappointment was expressed that the agreement offered no improvement for rural hospitals and the maternity and aged care sectors, where ratios are either significantly worse or non-existent.
The meeting voted to leave bans on in psychiatric services and the Royal District Nursing Service. Fitzpatrick said that there were issues in these sectors yet to be resolved.
Tony Iltis
Socialist Alliance supports East Timor
The Socialist Alliance affirmed its position as one of the few political parties in Australia standing firmly on the side of the East Timorese in the battle to gain control over the oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.
At its third national conference in Melbourne on May 8-9, the alliance passed a motion condemning the Australian government's "theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources by refusing to abide by international law in the determination of maritime boundaries between the two countries".
The conference also resolved that alongside electoral and anti-war campaigning, SA branches would join churches, unions, non-government organisations and others in campaigning for Timor's rights to oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.
On May 20, the second anniversary of East Timor's independence, members of the Socialist Alliance will be actively carrying out the conference motion by organising and participating in rallies in support of East Timor's claim.
Vannessa Hearman
'1 to 4, Make it law!'
SYDNEY — On May 8, more than 600 people rallied against community services minister Carmel Tebbutt's decision not to provide better staff/child ratios for children attending New South Wales childcare centres.
In 2003, a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the Department of Community Services recommended a 1:4 staff/child ratio. The minister, however, decided to maintain a 1:5 ratio.
The protesters marched from the steps of the Sydney Town Hall to state parliament, shouting "One to four: Make it law!", and bringing the city streets to a halt.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 19, 2004.
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