Bill Mason

  • WWF, ACF back plans to cut reef fishing

    BRISBANE — Conservation organisations have backed plans to ban fishing on around a third of the Great Barrier Reef as a major step forward. Legislation tabled in federal parliament on December 3 will create the largest network of

  • Iraq and Vietnam: Lessons from two wars

    BRISBANE — The current US occupation of Iraq has "great parallels with the US war on Vietnam" in the 1960s and 1970s, Gary MacLennan, Queensland University of Technology lecturer and radical scholar, told a forum held at the

  • Families department workers demand staff

    BRISBANE — On October 23, 100 angry Queensland families-department workers marched on the Crime and Misconduct Commission's hearing into abuse of foster children. The CMC has heard allegations of widespread mistreatment and neglect

  • Liberal senator accused of bigotry

    BRISBANE — Queensland Liberal senator Brett Mason has been accused of being a "dummy-spitting bigot", after he criticised the acknowledgment of traditional land owners at citizenship ceremonies. Mason used a citizenship day speech

  • Queensland teachers debate class size deal

    BRISBANE — A statement issued by Queensland Teachers Union members in the Socialist Alliance has sparked considerable discussion among teachers in this state. Teachers are currently voting on whether to accept the government's

  • Tampa refugees welcomed in Brisbane

    BRISBANE — Fourteen refugees from the MV Tampa, released from behind the barbed wire of the Nauru detention camp, were welcomed by supporters of refugees' rights when they arrived at Brisbane airport on September 3. The 14 Afghan

  • Refugee rights protesters picket Ruddock

    BRISBANE — Around 40 refugee-rights activists picketed a Liberal Party cocktail lunch at the Irish Club on August 7. They were protesting the federal government's proposed immigration detention centre at Pinkenba, near the mouth of

  • Labor MP threatens to quit over mine safety

    BRISBANE — ALP state backbencher Jim Pearce, MP for the seat of Fitzroy in the central Queensland coal-mining district, has threatened to resign from the Labor Party if longstanding concerns over mining safety issues are not

  • Humphrey McQueen concludes speaking tour

    BRISBANE — At meeting of 50 people at the Paddington Workers Club on April 10, Humphrey McQueen — Australia's most eminent left-wing historian — spoke on the theme of the “War on Work”, outlining the links between the war

  • Brisbane Social Forum discusses war, globalisation

    BRISBANE — "We are not anti-globalisation, we are pro-democracy, pro-human rights, pro-food sovereignty. We are not against international trade, it is the capitalist race to the bottom that we are against", declared Anuradha Mittal,

  • Community protests condemn Iraq war

    BRISBANE — A number of suburban protests were held on March 29 to demand "No war on Iraq" and "Bring the troops home". Initiated by the Socialist Alliance, the protests were held in West End, Fortitude Valley, Stones Corner and

  • Teachers union slams Beattie over strike ban

    BRISBANE — Queensland Teachers Union president Julie-Ann McCullough has slammed Labor Premier Peter Beattie's government after the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) ordered the QTU to end its campaign of rolling