Who's ruling who?Perhaps you have wondered what separates the major political parties, one from the other. "A cigarette paper", I hear a cynic say. "Class", yells someone more hopeful.
Perhaps, at the end of polling
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Hear themhaiku. An unrhymed Japanese lyric poem having a fixed 3-line, 17-syllable form [5-syllables in lines one and three, 7-syllables in line two.] — Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary. As a small poetic
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MELBOURNE — The Victorian Liberal government is on a privatisation binge. Its privatisation plans and accomplishments include: electricity generation, electricity transmission/distribution, water distribution, gas
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Radio highlights The People's Parks — Australia's first national park, the Royal National Park on Sydney's southern outskirts, was created in 1879. Its primary purpose was as a place for recreation. The concept of national parks is under
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The politics of 'corruption'Images of brothel owners and small time drug-dealers paying off corrupt police have created excitement at the NSW police royal commission. Some commentators have rather breathlessly suggested
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Women's services cut back in SAADELAIDE — The content of a report compiled by Adelaide Rape Action Link Up (RALU) titled "No Desks Or Doctors" presents the results of a survey of women's health and counselling services
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Write on French nuclear tests What a quandary our mate Paul must be in, with our cane toad friends about to nuke the South Pacific just to show how much they appreciate our existence and him with all that expensive francophilia tickery
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Young people around Australia are discussing the state of world politics in preparation for the 24th national conference of Resistance. The conference will be held in Melbourne, July 8-10. The discussion is wide-ranging:
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Action updates Book picket MELBOURNE — Around 80 East Timorese people and their supporters picketed the launch of arch-reactionary Greg Sheridan's new book, Living with Dragons. The launch, held on June 2 at the head office of the
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On the box Red, Hot and Dance — A global dance party was held in 1991 to raise funds to combat the spread of AIDS. Concerts took place simultaneously in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York, with special guests C & C Music Factory, Dream
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Carr makes early start on austerityThe June 8 NSW economic statement heads NSW down the path taken by most other state governments. Whether Labor or Liberal, state governments are restructuring economies to suit the needs
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SYDNEY — The new Labor government announced its forests industry reform plan for NSW on June 13. A central plank of the ALP's state election campaign in March, the plan has been cautiously welcomed by the peak environment
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In 1993, finance minister (now treasurer) Ralph Willis publicly assured us that the federal government has "no intention whatever" of reducing its ownership of the Commonwealth Bank to less than 50.1%. The statement was made
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News briefs Prisoners of Progress Members of non-government and solidarity organisations attended the Melbourne launch of a booklet on Indonesian workers' rights on June 6. Prisoners of Progress is a joint project of the Federation of Dutch
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That magic date is again approaching. The end of the financial year looms menacingly in the near distance. And with it stand 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳'s creditors, ready to pounce on the paper and demand their pound of flesh. It is perhaps ironic that a paper
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By Chow Wei-Cheng We are witnessing most brazen bank robbery of them all. The top four banks this year alone will reap a massive $5.2 billion in profits from customers and workers. Yet they are crying poor and introducing schemes to increase the
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The Friends of the Forest Campaign arose from the 1994 decision to use non-violent direct action to try to halt the rapid destruction of our old-growth forests in the south-west of Western Australia. Concern for the way in
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Cutting schools off at the knees The recent federal budget contained a little item which was apparently regarded as so unimportant, it didn't even rate a mention in the media coverage. Funding to a gender equity program in high schools was
News
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Save Albert Park forumMELBOURNE — On June 13 a public forum organised by the Save Albert Park group was held at the South Melbourne town hall. The forum, titled "The Grand Prix: where the political parties stand", was
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WOLLONGONG — The appointment of Call to Australia (CTA) leader Fred Nile to the University of Wollongong Council has created outrage here. On June 6, 1000 students attended a meeting to debate the issue; three days later 200
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NEWCASTLE — This city and steel production go hand in hand. For more than eight decades, BHP has been a major employer and has profoundly influenced the culture of the city. In 1912, in contravention of its party
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Socialist slams 'poverty state'BRISBANE — "Why is Queensland, the state which Premier Wayne Goss and Treasurer Keith De Lacy always boast is the best managed economy in the nation, the leader in poverty?", asked Democratic
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Tensions grow in Mt IsaBRISBANE — Tensions are growing in Mt Isa once more as workers express concern over the future of enterprise bargaining at the MIM mine, scene of a major lockout in May. On June 16, Premier Wayne
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Secret plans to expand Sydney airportWhile protests by Sydney residents affected by aircraft noise and pollution continue, it has been revealed that the Federal Airports Corporation (FAC) is quietly hatching a plan for a
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CANBERRA — The results of ACT and national by-elections in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) have thrown a scare into the ruling ALP faction. In the ACT, CPSU Challenge candidate Greg Adamson easily won the assistant
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MELBOURNE — The annual Network of Women Students in Australia (NOWSA) conference will be held at Melbourne University July 3-7. The conference, which has attracted up to 500 women in recent years, promises to be an exciting
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Anti-nuclear campaign takes offSYDNEY — A range of actions, including petitions, consumer boycotts, pickets and demonstrations are being planned in response to the French decision to resume nuclear testing in the
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Loose cannons Error-prone "It isn't that we have wicked people trying to screw up, it's that we have a system that's so error-prone that good people working hard are going to make mistakes." — John Hamre, Pentagon official, explaining how
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CANBERRA — Immediately following the election of the Liberals' Kate Carnell as chief minister of the ACT in March, she announced that a newly discovered hole in the ACT budget meant that she would not be able to keep all her
Analysis
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Why have a head of state? There's been a lot of public debate about whether Australia's head of state under a future "republican system" should be elected or selected. While the PM wants the replacement governor general to be decided by a two
World
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In 1990, Professors Hochstein and O'Sullivan, two New Zealand scientists, experts in geothermal fluid mechanics, presented the results of their four-year "reservoir model" computer study to the conference of the New Zealand
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Solomons army sent to protect logging Greenpeace has denounced the decision of the Solomon Islands government to send a unit of its Defence Force to protect the operations of a Malaysian timber company on the Russell Islands. The
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In an ultimatum issued last month, the US threatened to charge a punitive tariff of 100% on 13 models of luxury Japanese cars, a move that would make these cars almost twice as expensive and strangle their sales. It will be enforced
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Shortly after the newly elected conservative president Jacques Chirac announced that nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific would be resumed on June 13, the French Green Party issued a statement, reprinted below, condemning the decision. The
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Between June 2 and 5, East Timorese members of the resistance, including National Council for Maubere Resistance (CNRM), Fretilin, and the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), met for discussions with East Timorese from within East Timor and Indonesia.
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DUBLIN — On the eve of the Washington meeting last month between Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and the British direct ruler in Northern Ireland, Patrick Mayhew, 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's ROBYNNE MURPHY spoke to An Phoblacht editor MICHEAL MacDONNCHA about
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MOSCOW — Less than six months before the date set for fresh elections to parliament, electoral blocs are being formed, and the press is forecasting the likely distribution of seats in the lower house, the State Duma.
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The June 13 announcement by the newly elected French president Jacques Chirac that nuclear weapons testing would be resumed at Moruroa Atoll has jeopardised the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and increased the danger of a major radioactive leak from the atoll.
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South Africans condemn Helms-Burton Bill The following statement was issued on May 31 by the alliance of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party and South African Congress of Trade Unions. In the face of worldwide
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Death penalty abolishedA ruling by South Africa's Constitutional Court that capital punishment is no longer lawful has been met with celebration by death row prisoners, praise from human rights groups and outrage by
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Antiwar fighter seeks to return to USA self-exiled man, who claims he destroyed draft files of poor and working class kids and destroyed the computer network of Dow Chemical Corporation during the Vietnam War, is
Culture
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Canto General: Song of the people Brisbane City Hall Auditorium, May 31 Directed by Mark Dunbar Presented by BEMAC and Brisbane Biennial International Music Festival Reviewed by Lynda Hansen Canto General was presented to 1500 people
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When Night is Falling Directed by Patricia Rozema Reviewed by Jen Crothers When Night Is Falling is a beautiful love story set against a background of picturesque Toronto. Camille is a Christian academic who is in love with Martin, a fellow
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What do Kurt Waldheim, Macbeth, Hamlet's uncle the king of Denmark, and "Australian Foreign Minister" Senator Owens in Robert Cockburn's play Hotel Hibiscus have in common? All have had trouble with a ghost. The ghost of their
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Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw-ups ... the Sixties By Richard Neville William Heinemann, 1995. 376 pp., $29.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon Capitalist society's high and mighty had every
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I Dream of Peace Published by UNICEF and Harper Collins $25 Reviewed by Norman Taylor "Don't ever hurt the children. They're not guilty of anything." This is the plea of a schoolgirl who is one of a great many still suffering from the
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Poem: A Black ManAboriginal i am a Black man i'm different cause my skin isn't white i'm a Black man a proud one they tried to take it away from me with no hope of success i'm a Black man with nothing to
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Braveheart Starring Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan and Catherine McCormack Produced and directed by Mel Gibson Reviewed by Barry Healy Scottish history is particularly colourful and fascinating. The wild clans of the Picts