Tony Abbott received a much-deserved roasting on the opening night of the Sydney Fringe Comedy festival on September 1.
Unfortunately no actual fire was involved, but the prime minister 鈥 played disturbingly well by Jonas Holt (whose Abbott impersonation has featured on Weekend Sunrise and the At Home With Tones webseries) 鈥 was subjected to an amusing grilling.
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Whatever else he might be, John Dyson Heydon is no fool. When he accepted the job of royal commissioner inquiring into trade union governance and corruption, he knew what was expected of him.
The commission was set up as a political witch-hunt into unions, designed to give the federal Coalition government an issue with which it thought it could win the next election. Heydon was happy to oblige and has been handsomely paid for doing so.
The University of Wollongong has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the immigration department to provide training for Border Force officers in maritime border security.
Under the , the University鈥檚 Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) will train Border Force officers in maritime enforcement, civil maritime security policy development, research and regional capacity building.
Members of Melbourne鈥檚 Kurdish community, along with Australian supporters, held a rally and march in Melbourne on August 29 to protest Turkey鈥檚 war against its Kurdish population.
Speakers denounced the regime of President Recip Tayyip Erdogan for launching a war on the Kurds, who make up over a quarter of Turkey鈥檚 population.
Kurdish cities, towns and villages have been savagely attacked by security forces. People have been killed in their homes, the death toll is rising and hundreds of Kurdish politicians and activists have been arrested.
Within hours of the Australian Border Force 鈥 Prime Minister Tony Abbott's paramilitary amalgamation of the Customs Service and immigration department 鈥 announcing on August 28 that they would be joining the Victorian police and privatised public transport operators in Operation Fortitude to check the visa status of 鈥渁nti-social鈥 elements on the streets of Melbourne, hundreds of protesters had gathered at Flinders Street Station and social media had exploded in outrage.
A delegation of Garawa people from Borroloola and their supporters gathered on September 2 at Parliament House in Darwin to present the NT government with a petition.
The petition, signed by 3600 people, calls on the government to shut down and clean up Glencore鈥檚 McArthur River lead and zinc mine upstream from Borroloola.
Freedom of Information documents recently revealed that several government departments had been aware of the high levels of heavy metals leaking into the waterways for 18 months.
Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance鈥檚 鈥淲orld to Win鈥 series aims to give voice to the ideas and demands of radical young people who are involved in the struggle to make the world a fairer and more just place.
This week, Maryam Allami and Claire Thoen discuss the struggle of transgender people against systemic oppression and the possibilities of liberation.
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I don鈥檛 know about you, but I really enjoyed the August 31 episode of on the topic 鈥淐heating, Climate, War & Democracy鈥.
It was thanks to three solid lefties from overseas, Naomi Klein, Laurie Penny and Tariq Ali, who were in Australia for the Melbourne Writers Festival and the Festival for Dangerous Ideas in Sydney.
The right-winger on the panel, US Studies Centre academic Tom Switzer, had a go at red-baiting Klein. Here is their exchange:
Newcastle City Council voted on August 26 to join the global push to divest from fossil fuel.
This follows the ACT鈥檚 announcement that it would become the first Australian government to divest from fossil fuels and aim to have 100% renewable energy by 2025.
With a total investment portfolio of $280 million, Newcastle council has also told Australia鈥檚 big four banks they need to divest portfolios of assets that include coal and oil.
National Australia Bank (NAB) has decided not to fund the Adani coalmine, rail and port facilities on the Great Barrier Reef coastline.
The Korean company LG has also announced it will not buy the company's coal.
Korean electronics giant LG signed a letter of intent with Adani last year to purchase 4 million tonnes of coal from the Carmichael mine. However Adani has now lost one of its two big external customers when the letter of intent expired and was not renewed.
released this statement on September 1.
A 25 year-old Burmese asylum seeker attempted suicide at Manus Island on August 31.
The emergency unfolded over almost four hours as the man climbed onto the roof of Delta Compound around 3pm and made attempts to hang himself using bed sheets and electrical cable, before making a final attempt to jump just before 7pm.
More than 50 Transfield and IHMS medical personnel were mobilised during the emergency.
From 1954 to 1972, Australia鈥檚 official unemployment rate was under 2% as the economy grew at the most rapid rate in the country鈥檚 history. There was one exception, the credit squeeze year of 1961, in which unemployment rose to 2.4%.
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