More than 100 residents of Sydney's inner western suburbs attended a public meeting at Leichhardt Town Hall on October 10 to oppose the NSW Liberal government's plan to build the WestConnex toll road.
The road would link the M4 motorway to Sydney Airport. The $10-15 billion project would involve a 33-kilometre toll road to extend the M4 from Strathfield to Mascot Airport and Port Botany, and duplicate the M5 East and M6 tollways.
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I recently had the misfortune of being granted an audience with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and was unlucky enough to conduct an interview with him. I include the transcript below.
* * *
Well, thank you very much, prime minister, for agreeing to this interview.
Well, I am always very happy to be interviewed by my good friends at the Daily Telegraph.
Yes...
You鈥檝e moved offices I see. Nice Che Guevara poster!
Yes... Can I get you something to drink? I鈥檓 having a beer.
You don鈥檛 have any Bollinger do you?
PRIVATISE HECS
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is considering a plan to sell off Australia鈥檚 $23 billion Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) debt, said on October 16.
The debt, owed by university students, could be privatised and sold to investors.
Refugee advocates in Australia reported that 15 pregnant women would be sent to the Nauru detention camp on October 18, as the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) released alarming information about conditions in the camp.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison had earlier overseen the transfer to Nauru of two pregnant women 鈥 one seven months pregnant with twins. He said Nauru鈥檚 hospital had two delivery beds, six post-natal beds and a 鈥渟pecial-care baby unit鈥.
Hundreds braved rain on October 13 to rally against the construction of the East West link in Melbourne's inner suburbs.
The Socialist Party's Anthony Maine, vilified by the Herald Sun as a 鈥渟erial pest鈥 spoke at the rally. He said: 鈥淭he government is making decisions on behalf of the road lobby. We have the potential of mass support on our side of people that want to see more rail [lines] built. Our goal has to be to mobilise these people into action."
A half-day strike by NSW public servants planned for October 22 has been called off after the Barry O鈥橣arrell government agreed to meet with the NSW Public Service Association (PSA) to discuss the union鈥檚 concerns about the high number of redundancies being implemented across the public service.
The PSA central council voted on October 14 to put industrial action on hold pending talks with the NSW government about the axing of 15,000 public sector jobs over four years and concerns about the new Government Sector Employment Act.
Protesters gathered outside the immigration department CBD offices on October 18 to call on the Australian government to allow seven West Papuan asylum seekers to seek protection in Australia.
The seven West Papuans arrived in Australia鈥檚 Torres Strait on September 24. They fled West Papua, fearing reprisal for involvement with a Freedom Flotilla from Australia.
Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill told ABC News Breakfast on October 18: 鈥淭he climatic conditions that fuelled that fire yesterday were just unprecedented ... an unprecedented disaster.鈥
More than 100 fires broke out across New South Wales on October 17. By October 19, they had destroyed at least 193 homes in the Blue Mountains alone and caused at least one confirmed death.
The Victorian treasurer has recently announced a budget surplus, but Melbourne taxi drivers have been forced to protest outside of parliament this week due to the Coalition's austerity-driven taxi reforms.
The Denis Napthine government wants to deregulate taxi licensing and claims that taxi standards have been compromised due to a lack of "competition" in the industry.
Taxi drivers and stakeholders know this is a lie.
The federal resources minister Ian Macfarlane announced early in his term that one of his first priorities was to expand the coal seam gas (CSG) industry in NSW.
This will put him on a collision course with a powerful rural and city alliance 鈥 including activists like mother-of-four Melinda Wilson from western Sydney.
Wilson helped form No CSG Blacktown and CSG Free Western Sydney. She is organising a in Sydney on October 22.
Discussing the last-minute deal in the United States Congress to avoid triggering a debt default, Gail Collins, a columnist in the New York Times wrote: 鈥淲ell, um, yippie. Wow.
鈥淐ongress has decided it won鈥檛 trigger a global financial crisis out of pure pique. Can鈥檛 get any better than that.鈥
Much could be written about the antics of the far right in the Republican Party on display for the world these past weeks.
These photographs were taken on October 17 from Sydney's inner-west 鈥 many kilometres away from the nearest fires (which were in the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Newcastle) in what has been described as the worst bush fires in the state of NSW in decades.
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