On March 13 Australians will brave the gauntlet of How to Vote leaflets to cast a vote which will decide which of the major parties will become the government. They will not, however, be deciding who rules Australia.
Although
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Jim Backwell Nuclear warfare in the Gulf The slaughter that was the Gulf War continues to shock us as the truth of that conflict is revealed. What is now coming to light is that a form of nuclear warfare was carried out by the United
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Queensland Greens optimisticBRISBANE — Queensland Greens are optimistic that Drew Hutton will be elected to the Senate at the March 13 election. "I suspect that more people than ever are disenchanted with the
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PERTH — "What our leaders are trying to tell us is that the world doesn't owe us a living, but instead owes them a profit", said union activist Mick Houlbrook. "The Liberals plan an onslaught on the wages and conditions of
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International Playhouse: Almost Always African — A radio play by Anne Caulfield. Moses Biama, a Gambian musician, is "discovered" and carried off to London with a fat recording contract by Frank, a once successful but fading British rock star.
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Larry Marshall Rainbow Alliance is fielding Christine Craik in Port Melbourne and Nigel D'Souza in Batman and is supporting Janet Powell's Senate ticket. What is the Rainbow Alliance expecting from its campaign in Victoria? Rainbow's
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There are a large number of progressive alternative Beyond the two-party sham candidates standing in this election. But what happens after March 13? What are the prospects of building a stronger alternative to the Labor/Liberal sham for the
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Francesca Davidson Do you see any of the alternative parties breaking through the two-party system? It's unlikely that any of the parties as they currently exist can do this. In Victoria, there's Rainbow Alliance, Green Alliance, the
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Dick Nichols How likely is it that any of the alternative parties will break through the two-party system? I don't think that any of the parties by themselves have got a clear enough grasp of the politics of what needs to be done or a
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Many voters are looking for an alternative to Labor and Liberal, but are fearful of inadvertently contributing to the return of a Liberal government. Some have been asking 91̳ Weekly how the preferences of the various
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Xanana trial Why has no television station shown footage from Dili during the trial of Xanana Gusmao? At least one might have expected the ABC to show film of those involved in the trial entering or leaving the Dili court building.
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Foreign aid dropped from agenda By Joseph O'Reilly With domestic economic issues dominating the federal election, overseas aid and foreign policy relating to human rights have been dropped off the agenda altogether. However, the
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Sam Watson Do you think a third force will ever break through the two-party system? I believe the Australian electorate is moving towards that. There's an enormous cynicism out there in the broader electorate. People who have
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Bob Brown Do you think there will ever be a break with the two-party system in Australia? This election is another stepping stone in that direction. We're not going to form government, or, indeed, form opposition, but the Greens are
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Immigration has had a very low profile in these elections, mainly because Labor and Liberal immigration policies are essentially bipartisan. The ALP talks of a gross intake of around 80,000 per year, and the Liberals
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While many aspects of the Coalition's Fightback 2 document have come under challenge, there is one piece of misinformation that has not yet received any attention. A section entitled "Accelerating stalled investment
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Hidden unemployment The number of women with jobs increased by 21,500 in the year to January, according to figures released in late February by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. By contrast, the number of men with jobs for the same period
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A strange happening Joan Coxsedge, long-time political activist and scourge of spooks, is no stranger to phone taps and sundry other ASIO tricks, which are generally hard to prove. But it seems our bumbling spies have tripped themselves up.
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Powell calls for broader coalitionMELBOURNE — Independent Senator Janet Powell and Di Quin, Democratic Socialist candidate for Melbourne, put the case for progressive politics at a meeting of 60 people organised by the
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I was disappointed by two recent feature articles about election promises targeted at women ("Empty promises: pursuing women's votes" and "Child-care subsidies:only for the rich", GLW February 24). First, some
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Tim Petherbridge (pictured), an independent Senate candidate in Victoria, is one of the founders of the Canticle Bakery in Croydon. The bakery is housed in a building designed to be environmentally friendly and aesthetically attractive, and the
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One of the reasons so many youth, especially black youth, like Malcolm X is because he was so direct. "Do you know why the white man really hates you?", Malcolm asked. "It's because every time he sees your face, he sees the
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In 1948 federal parliament introduced quota-proportional representation in Senate elections, the previous majority-preferential method introduced in 1928 having proved unacceptable all round. Labour's 1948 proposal, which
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John Coulter Do you think the Democrats or any of the alternative parties will ever break through the two-party system? Well, it's depressing that after 15 years of bloody hard work we still have only have 11 members of parliament, seven
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[This is an abridged text of the campaign manager's report delivered last month to the annual general meeting of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group.] Thanks to our well-publicised appeal to the United Nations
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Christabel Chamarette Do you think alternative parties will ever break the stranglehold of the two major parties? The Greens WA are extremely hopeful, because we've just got our first state member of the upper house. However, in the lower
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Janet Powell How do you see alternative, independent and green politics developing after the March 13 elections? If I am re-elected, I anticipate that in the Senate there will be six or seven Democrats, myself, Christabel Chamarette plus
News
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90,000 Victorian workers take to the streetsMELBOURNE — March 1 marked the death of the state award system here. Some 80,000 people marched in Melbourne and several thousand more rallied in regional centres to
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Stop press "GST is not a tax on business." — Title of a talk by the executive director of the NSW Chamber of Commerce at a seminar on GST. No tie? "In Franklin, which the Liberals hold with a 1.8 per cent margin, the big unknown is the
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The hole in Kennett's 'safety net'MELBOURNE — The Kennett government's Employee Relations Act purports to establish a "safety net" of minimum conditions for the new employment agreements being forced on many workers.
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Here is the complete list of seats in which green and left candidates are standing in the March 13 poll. House of Representatives Australian Democrats New South Wales All seats except Berowra, Calare, Chifley, Eden-Monaro, Fowler, Hunter,
Analysis
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Economy and environment A not uncommon comment during this campaign has been that "the election has been fought on the economy, not the environment". In reality, it has been fought on neither the environment nor the economy. The ALP and
World
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JOHANNESBURG — Filling in for a physically exhausted Nelson Mandela, African National Congress chairperson Oliver Tambo addressed 900 delegates from five continents at an international solidarity conference here on February
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SYDNEY — Australian human rights lawyer Rosemarie Gillespie, just returned after four months living and travelling in rebel-held areas of Bougainville, has dismissed claims by the Papua New Guinea government that it is in
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MOSCOW — It could have been any of a series of meetings called in recent times by the outlawed Communist Party. The venue was kept secret until the last moment. Would-be participants were required to appear on the morning
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Suharto still silent on vice-presidentThe Indonesian People's Deliberative Assembly (MPR) began meeting on March 1. It is expected to re-elect Suharto as president and to choose a new vice-president sometime between March 9
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'Gross human rights violations' in Sudan Alarming reports of gross human rights violations continue to emerge from Sudan, said Amnesty International in a report issued on February 19. "There are especially disturbing reports of mass
Culture
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The rise of fascism in Germany and then the war produced the first major break in European cabaret tradition since its beginnings in the years after the 1871 Paris Commune. While some cabarets were formed by exile German
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"We have a responsibility to pass down the history to our children ... It has to be more than just a hat, more than just a T-shirt", said Spike Lee, director of Malcolm X, on a recent JJJ interview. With LA still smouldering
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Close My Eyes (R) A film by Stephen Poliakoff Starring Alan Rickman, Clive Owens, Saskia Reeves Cinema Nova and Brighton Bay, March 1993 Reviewed by Mario Giorgetti This second feature by writer-director Stephen Poliakoff (Hidden
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Davis rescues a formula On My Own Directed by Antonio Tibaldi With Judy Davis and Matthew Ferguson Reviewed by Gabrielle Carey On My Own is a teen coming of age film with a difference. At the edge of 15-year-old Simon's fairly
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>Trainspotting socialist from hell 668: Neighbour of the Beast Attila the Stockbroker Larrikin Records Reviewed by Nick Fredman Attila the Stockbroker (AKA John Baines) is a stand-up comic, performance poet, singer, folk musician
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An unlikely tour de force Punch me in the stomach!D> By Deb Filler and Alison Summers Directed by Alison Summers Performed by Deb Filler Anthill at the Gasworks Theatre, Melbourne, until March 21, then Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, from