Nationalising, or 鈥渋nsourcing鈥 Rex, including regional and inter-capital city services, could be the first step in taking the airline industry into public ownership. Jim McIlroy reports.
Nick McKim
Labor voted against a Green's motion to bring about 130 refugees from Papua New Guinea聽and Nauru to safety in Australia. Paul Gregoire reports.
The negotiated amendments won by the Greens improved Labor鈥檚 initial terrible climate "safeguard mechanism", but are not enough to make it worthy of support, argues Alex Bainbridge.
The federal Attorney General鈥檚 case against a defendant dubbed 鈥淲itness K鈥 began in the ACT Magistrates Court on September 12. Media reports say Witness K聽is a serving Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) officer.聽
Twelve people have died in Australian offshore detention centres in the past five years as a result of murder, suicide and medical neglect, according to Angelica Panopoulos from the Refugee Action Collective (Victoria).
鈥淧olitical hostages鈥 is an apt term to describe the situation of the several hundred men on Manus Island, Greens Senator Nick McKim told a forum hosted by the Refugee Action Coalition in Sydney on April 29.
McKim gave an insight into the siege on Manus Island detention centre in October and November last year. Aziz, one of the refugee leaders on Manus Island, spoke via video, detailing the desperate situation the men are living in today.
The influence of president-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 attack on 鈥渆lites鈥 is taking hold in the Australian parliament, with the Coalition attacking 鈥渓atte-sipping鈥 opponents of coal mining and joining enthusiastically in a debate questioning climate science in the Senate.
Two forest activists protesting against the clearfelling of native forest in north-western Tasmania have become the first people charged under the state's controversial anti-protest laws.
John Henshaw and Jessica Hoyt were part of a group of nine protesters who walked on to a Forestry Tasmania coup at Lapoinya, 37 kilometers from Burnie on January 18. About 70 other protesters have gathered at the entrance to the coup for the past week to oppose the logging.
The Tasmanian Labor-Greens coalition government has forged ahead with savage cuts to the state鈥檚 health services, causing anger, frustration and despair in the community. More than 7600 people have been languishing on the elective surgery waiting list. Yet the government said on October 4 that it would cut elective surgery by $58 million over the next three years.
This will cause 130 health jobs to be lost and wards to be closed in all the state鈥檚 big hospitals. It is possible that only emergency cases will be dealt with in future.