Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told the National Press Club in Canberra on January 30 that he had become increasingly sceptical of Adani鈥漵 Carmichael coalmine in recent months: 鈥淲e鈥檙e certainly looking at the Adani matter very closely,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f it doesn鈥檛 stack up commercially or if it doesn鈥檛 stack up environmentally it will absolutely not receive our support.鈥
Bill Shorten
In response to the decision by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to order Sydney train drivers to suspend their planned 24-hour strike on January 29, ACTU secretary Sally McManus declared: "The right to strike in Australia is close to being dead."
Asylum seeker Abdul Aziz Muhammad asked the in a video question why the 650 men on Manus Island are being used as political pawns in a life or death game.
Aziz, who has been imprisoned on Manus Island for 4.5 years, said he had seen 6 friends die because of violence and medical negligence.
The federal Coalition government is on the skids. It seems only a matter of time before it will be forced to an early election.
The latest sign of panic by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the November 20 decision to delay the last sitting of the House of Representatives by a week to December 4.
The stated justification for this blatant lock-out of opposition and independent MPs 鈥 that it would facilitate the passing of equal marriage legislation by the end of the year 鈥 does not wash.
Coalition finance minister Mathias Cormann told an admiring audience at the conservative Sydney Institute on August 23 that Labor leader Bill Shorten was 鈥渃hannelling鈥 Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders.
If only...
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor might be willing to support the deportation of children who commit crimes.
Australia does not currently deport minors.聽
But the Joint Standing Committee on Migration is examining the screening process when people are given Australian visas and聽support services when they arrive in Australia.
They are also looking into聽whether their visa can be revoked if child migrants join gangs.
Shorten said there may be merit in changing the law.
The morning after the July 2 federal elections, Australians awoke to a still undecided election.
Whether the incumbent Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull holds on by a slim majority, or is able to form a minority government, or whether Labor under Bill Shorten can form a minority government, or whether there is a hung parliament requiring new elections, remained unclear.
Some things, however, were immediately apparent.
Recently Facebook reminded me of a 鈥渕emory鈥 of an article I posted three years ago. I had said that I was doing the happy dance because we were making progress and were finally being heard.
The revelations from the Panama papers continue to reverberate around the world. While the Australian angle has so far been a bit anticlimactic, it did kick off a discussion about the banking sector and tax havens.
Bill Shorten, in an uncharacteristic display of spinal-cord solidification, seized the initiative and announced that the Labor Party would conduct a Royal Commission into the banking industry if elected.
"Let's take the big banks head on over their crimes and their attempts to cover up their massive financial rip-offs, and nationalise them under workers' and community control," Peter Boyle, Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Sydney in the upcoming federal election, said on April 14. Boyle was responding to reports the banks were considering a huge advertising blitz against plans by the Greens and the Labor Party to launch a Royal Commission into the banking and finance sectors.
You might expect that this year's Mardi Gras parade, which came just days after the institutional apologies to the original queer rights activists 鈥 the 78ers 鈥 would be free of the political heavy handedness that launched Mardi Gras as an annual protest march in 1978.
Hundreds of pro-refugee protesters rallied in Melbourne on February 27, calling on political leaders to let refugees stay and close the prison camps.
The action was called in response to a visit by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten to the Lonsdale St Greek Festival. People chanted 鈥淭urnbull, Shorten. Blood on your hands鈥 and 鈥淟et them stay" as they arrived on the stage.
The action was called by Refugee Action Collective and First Nations Liberation.
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