Soon after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the September 14 federal election, opposition immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison confirmed the Coalition's startling plans to turn back every refugee from Sri Lanka without exception.
This would include a new plan to enlist the Australian and Sri Lankan navies to detain and return to Colombo any refugee trying to flee the country by boat, Morrison told ABC's Lateline on February 4.
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The article below first appeared on on February 5. *** Tamil diaspora activists in Europe, Canada and Australia staged protests on February 4 coinciding with Sri Lanka鈥檚 official 65th 鈥渋ndependence day鈥, with activists alleging that this so-called 鈥渋ndependence鈥 was only a freedom given to the Sinhala nation to commit a protracted genocide of the Tamil Eelam nation.
A highly publicised report by the United Nations' refugee agency labeled conditions in the Manus Island refugee camp 鈥渦nlawful鈥, but stopped short of pushing the government to close it completely.
The report was released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on February 4 after a visit to the detention centre over January 15-17. It principally called for the release of children from the 鈥渃losed鈥 detention camp. It said the Australian government's regime of 鈥渁rbitrary, indefinite detention鈥 with no legal framework was 鈥渄eeply troubling鈥.
National protests have been held around the country to oppose changes to welfare payments for sole parents. The federal Labor government is forcing parents to switch to the Newstart allowance once their youngest child turns eight, leaving parents up to $140 a fortnight worse off.
A new group, the Single Parents Action Group (SPAG), coordinated protests across the country on February 5. Rallies took place in every state and territory.
Important rallies were held across the country in defence of the single parent payment on February 5. After having the welfare safety net in Australia for some time, it seems insane there is a need to protest to protect such rights.
But protests like these made welfare a reality in the first place. These protests are defending an unprecedented attack, it's a return to the action that made social welfare possible.
To do so, it is important to understand the reason that welfare is under attack in the first place.
Ten years ago, the February 14-16, 2003 global protests against the looming US-led invasion of Iraq involved more than 12 million people in 700 cities around the world. A million people marched around Australia 鈥 500,000 of them in a huge protest in Sydney that was so big that most participants could not move (let along march) from Hyde Park.
It was the biggest globally coordinated protest ever 鈥 certainly the biggest global anti-war protest.
Thousands of government and private school teachers plus education support (ES) staff will stop work for 24 hours on February 14. They will attend two separate stop work meetings, then join to march together on the Victorian parliament to show their determination to win better working conditions and pay. Why are teachers and ES staff striking?
The Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition (SAWC) is inviting people to join their float in this year鈥檚 Mardi Gras parade on March 2.
Spokesperson Linda Pearson said: 鈥淪AWC is entering a float in this year鈥檚 Mardi Gras to raise awareness about Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, and to聽demonstrate our solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex communities. We also wanted to offer our supporters this opportunity to take part in what will be a unique and enjoyable event.
Unemployed workers staged a protest at a Werribee construction site where they say workers have been brought from overseas on subclass 457 work visas, without advertising the positions聽locally.
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鈥淲e've spoken to management on site, they have confirmed there's 457 visa workers here,鈥 protest spokesperson Nick Donohue told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
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鈥淭he 457 workers are welding tanks. We've got an abundance of skilled labour in the area that can do the聽same job, so there's no necessity for these workers to be brought here,鈥 Donohue said.
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Furious protests have exploded onto Tunisia's streets and a general strike has been called after the assassination of left-wing politician and lawyer Chokri Belaid on February 6.
Belaid was head of the far-left Party of Democratic Patriots (PPD). His killing is Tunisia's first reported political assassination since independence.
Perth activist Trish McAuliffe had a run-in with Stirling City Council in Perth's northern suburbs over a banner on her property advertising a public meeting about gas fracking.
McAuliffe is a member of grassroots campaign group No Fracking Way and put up a hand-painted banner on her property that said 鈥淔racking = pollution鈥. The sign also gave details for a public meeting organised by the Clean Water Healthy Land Alliance featuring a speaker from the Lock the Gate Alliance.
The Labor federal government and the Greens said on January 23 that an 8.6% fall in emissions from the energy sector proved the new carbon price scheme was working. But evidence from Europe suggests Australia鈥檚 emissions trading scheme is likely to hinder, not help, emissions cuts.
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