Australia
Australia: Low-wage workers’ pay cut
By Mike Head, July 9, 2009
Australia’s Fair Pay Commission has inflicted a real pay cut on 1.3 million low-paid workers by freezing the minimum wage for the first time in 27 years.
Australia: League tables and democratic rights—a reply to News Ltd
By Laura Tiernan, July 8, 2009
Behind the moral outcry is a definite political agenda. Murdoch’s columnists and lead-writers are helping the Rudd Labor government push through education reforms opposed by virtually the entire tea...
Australia: Jury acquits truck driver over rail crossing disaster
By Will Marshall, July 7, 2009
A Victorian jury last month acquitted a truck driver of 19 criminal charges—11 counts of culpable driving and 8 of negligently causing serious injury—relating to a railway level crossing crash tha...
Australia: West Gate Bridge construction workers charged with criminal offences
By Patrick O’Connor, July 4, 2009
Twelve construction workers have been charged with serious criminal offences relating to industrial action and picketing in April at Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge project.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
July 4, 2009
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Australia: Man dies after being tasered by police
By Mathew Benn, July 3, 2009
On June 12 in the small town of Brandon in northern Queensland, 39-year-old Antonio Galeano was tasered up to 28 times by police and died in custody 10 minutes later.
Australia: Global institutions tell Rudd government to cut spending
By Mike Head, July 2, 2009
Warning of continuing “weak” and “fragile” conditions in the Australian and world economy, global financial institutions have insisted that the Rudd government must make deep spending cuts in ...
Australia: Coroner attacks as a “disgrace” Aboriginal man’s death in prison van
By Joe Lopez, June 29, 2009
A coroner has described as a “disgrace” the treatment of a 46-year-old Aboriginal elder who died of heatstroke in the back of a prison van in sweltering heat with no functioning air conditioning.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
June 27, 2009
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
Australia: Labor moves to shut down remote Aboriginal settlements
By Susan Allan, June 27, 2009
The federal and Northern Territory (NT) Labor governments last month unveiled a series of free-market measures that will deepen the poverty and suffering in indigenous communities.
Australia: Early election threatened over fake email affair
By Patrick O’Connor, June 26, 2009
Parliament held its last session in Canberra yesterday before the six-week winter break amid media speculation that the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd may use the fake “ute-gate” em...
Australia: Former treasurer Peter Costello quits parliament
By Patrick O’Connor, June 25, 2009
A “man of the boom”, Peter Costello has stepped aside just as a new social and political period has erupted, with the full impact of the world capitalist breakdown beginning to be felt in Australi...
