Australia and South Pacific
Australian academics’strike at UNSW: a few observations from the ISSE
By Mathew Benn, September 19, 2009
Academics and general staff at the University of New South Wales went on strike last Wednesday as part of the National Tertiary Education Union’s “National Day of Action”. Members of the Interna...
Australian court told witnesses were threatened in Julian Moti case
By Patrick O’Connor, September 18, 2009
The Queensland Supreme Court has heard allegations that witnesses called by counsel for the former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti were threatened with the termination of their employm...
Rudd’s Education Revolution “a disaster for universities”
By our reporters, September 17, 2009
Macquarie University’s National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch president Carolyn Kennett speaks with the World Socialist Web Site about the deepening assault on public tertiary education tha...
Australia: University staff strike for “day of action”
By our reporters, September 17, 2009
Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at 16 universities stopped work yesterday to fight increased workloads, a blow-out in class sizes, casualisation and other attacks on jobs and c...
Australian court hears Julian Moti’s challenge to “politically motivated” prosecution
By Patrick O’Connor, September 17, 2009
The Queensland Supreme Court yesterday commenced hearings on an application made by former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti for a permanent stay of proceedings in his prosecution by Aus...
Australia: UN envoy denounced after he describes Northern Territory “intervention” as racist
By Richard Phillips, September 16, 2009
All factions of the political elite came together last month to denounce the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights after he criticised the federal Labor government’s policies towards Aborig...
Paltry GDP growth promoted as proof of Australian “recovery”
By Alex Messenger, September 15, 2009
Quarterly growth of 0.6 percent might mean that Australia has dodged a so-called ‘technical recession’, but a closer study of the figures reveals that Labor’s massive stimulus package is far fro...
Gillard’s “Teach for Australia”: a corporate-backed assault on teaching
By Katrina Morrison and Laura Tiernan, September 14, 2009
Teach for Australia will parachute unqualified teachers into disadvantaged government schools. Part of the Rudd government’s “education revolution”, the initiative is modelled on Teach for Ameri...
Education deans oppose Teach for Australia
“Teachers need a depth of theoretical understanding”
By Laura Tiernan, September 14, 2009
Since the Rudd government’s Teach for Australia program was first publicly mooted at the start of 2008, it has been condemned by education deans at universities in Sydney and Melbourne.
Hundreds die in disease outbreaks in Papua New Guinea
By Frank Gaglioti, September 12, 2009
Outbreaks of dysentery, influenza and cholera have hit remote communities in the northern Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea in recent weeks. According to local authorities, more than 400 people have...
Australia: Bail denial in terrorism case sets dangerous new precedent
By Mike Head, September 11, 2009
Three men accused of a terrorist conspiracy have been denied bail, with a magistrate saying they were politically opposed to the existing legal and political system.
Australia: Ambulance union sells out MICA paramedics campaign
By Terry Cook, September 10, 2009
The federal and state Labor governments, acting in concert with the Ambulance Employees Association (AEA), mounted a major operation this week to suppress a campaign by around 300 paramedics in defenc...
