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Corporate tax cuts defended by lies

According to federal government ministers, Medicare is unsustainable. The aged pension is also unsustainable. The NDIS is unsustainable. Many other social services are unsustainable. However, billions of dollars of tax cuts to big Australian companies are perfectly sustainable.

In the short term, the government will be stealing $5.2 billion from the public purse and handing it over in the form of tax cuts to companies with an annual turnover of up to $50 million. In the medium term the cuts go further and will cost $24 billion.

US military warns of action against Venezuelan instability

The US military鈥檚 top official for Latin America presented聽聽to the US Senate on April 6 warning that Venezuela could be a 鈥渄estabilising鈥 factor in Latin America.

Adani coalmine granted unlimited water access for 60 years

The controversial Adani Carmichael coalmine was granted an unlimited 60-year water licence by the Queensland government on March 29. Environmentalists fear the mine will drain huge amounts of water from the Great Artesian Basin and say it is yet another example of governments giving the mine special treatment.

'Venezuelans demand respect for our country and people' - Open letter to Foreign Correspondent

Below is an open letter to ABC鈥檚 Foreign Correspondent by Eulalia Reyes, a Venezuelan activist and Brisbane co-coordinator of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. It was written in response to March 21 program titled 鈥淰enezuela Undercover鈥.

听***

As a Venezuelan that has once again had to endure being insulted by you presenting my country as on the brink of disaster and Venezuelans as bring incapable of liberating ourselves from this situation, I am writing to demand respect for my country and its people.聽

Campaign to #StopAdani ramps up

Thousands of people turned out to packed out and sold out in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne between March 28-31. The enthusiastic response is a tangible demonstration that the Adani Carmichael coalmine project can be defeated.

Good news (for a change)

Peter Cundall turns 90

Peter Cundall鈥檚 90th birthday on April 1 was celebrated in Hobart with 鈥淧ete鈥檚 Picnic鈥, a public picnic in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.

Born in Manchester to a poverty-stricken family in 1927, Cundall migrated to Tasmania in 1956.

He became a household name as the host of ABC TV鈥檚 Gardening Australia but his love of nature also led him to become an environmental activist.

He was involved with protests against the Franklin Dam in the 1970s and 鈥80s.

NT royal commission into detention of children admits to system failure

The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory released its . Commissioners Mick Gooda and Margaret White are now due to deliver their final report on August 1.

Sydney property bubble to be sent to Cayman Islands

"The NSW land titles registry's $190 million-a-year revenue stream could soon start flowing towards the Cayman Islands," the Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 3.

A Fairfax Media investigation found that 鈥渂ehind the newly created companies that may house Land and Property Information are an array of foreign players, a mysterious trustee, and business links to tax havens such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.鈥

Government, bosses add insult to injury over minimum wage

As if the decision to cut the penalty rates of around 700,000 low paid workers in the retail, hospitality and fast food sectors wasn鈥檛 enough, restaurant bosses are now opposing any increase to the minimum wage.

Amnesty warns companies running camps they are 'complicit in torture'

A new Amnesty International report , has warned companies considering taking over Australia鈥檚 offshore detention centres when Broadspectrum鈥檚 contract expires in October that they would be participating in a deliberately abusive regime and would be complicit in 鈥渢orture鈥.

Campaign against WestConnex tollway steps up

Opponents of the $16.8bn WestConnex tollway project held a lively protest outside NSW Parliament on April 6 built around two demands: Not another cent for WestConnex; and No new tolls.聽

The rally was called by a broad coalition of local groups opposed to WestConnex and to the new tolls that will soon be imposed on the M4 to help pay for Stage 3 of this disastrous motorway project. It featured speakers from Labor, the Greens, the Clover Moore Team in Sydney City Council and Unions NSW.

School funding inequity worsens

An analysis of the latest data published on the MySchool website for the Australian Education Union, shows that between 2009 and 2015, education spending by Commonwealth and state governments increased nearly three times as much to the independent sector and twice as much to Catholic schools as to public schools.

The analysis showed that between 2009 and 2015, combined state and federal funding rose by 38.7% for independent schools, 35.6% for Catholic schools and only 17.6% for public schools.