Australia and New Zealand
US ends 25-year defence rift with New Zealand
By John Braddock, November 10, 2010
The two countries have signed the “Wellington Declaration”—a document that commits them to a new “strategic partnership”.
Australia: Treasury sets austerity agenda for Gillard government
By Peter Symonds, September 28, 2010
As parliament convenes today, Treasury, big business leaders and the corporate media have already issued their instructions to the Labor government to get on with the job of implementing the next round of savage pro-market restructuring.
Former Australian police chief testifies in Bali Nine appeal
By Alex Messenger, September 27, 2010
Former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty appeared in an Indonesian court this month to give testimony for a man who he helped put on death row.
Australia: Labor government defends mandatory detention in face of asylum-seeker protests
By Carolyn Kennett, September 23, 2010
Desperate protests by asylum seekers in the wake of the suicide of Josefa Rauluni, a Fijian detainee at Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre last Monday, have been met with complete indifference by the Gillard Labor government.
Australia: Local residents offer support to asylum seekers
By our reporters, September 23, 2010
WSWS reporters spoke to local people who had gathered outside the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre on Tuesday to support protesting asylum seekers.
Australia: Gillard government responsible for suicide at immigration detention centre
By Carolyn Kennett, September 21, 2010
On the day he was due to be deported, Josefa Rauluni, a 36-year-old Fijian man, died after throwing himself off the roof of the Villawood detention centre in Sydney’s western suburbs.
Australia: Pseudo-lefts line up behind Greens-backed Labor government
By Patrick O’Connor, September 20, 2010
The Socialist Alliance serves as the “left” defender of the new minority government, seeking to channel widespread hostility to the entire two-party system back behind the Labor-Green alliance as it moves to impose savage public spending cuts.
South Australian Labor government announces deep spending cuts
By Mike Head, September 17, 2010
Nearly 4,000 public servants will lose their jobs, cutbacks will be imposed on schools, hospitals, transport, environmental regulation and other basic services as part of austerity measures to reduce government spending by more than $2 billion over four years.
University of Western Sydney lecture
The global economic breakdown—a Marxist analysis
By Nick Beams, September 17, 2010
SEP National Secretary Nick Beams delivered a lecture on the global capitalist crisis on September 14 to an audience of about 100 students and academics at the University of Western Sydney.
Australia: Former Guantánamo prisoner denied passport again
By Richard Phillips, September 16, 2010
The Labor government has refused to grant a passport to former Guantánamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib, claiming he might prejudice Australian security.
The reality of Australia’s “two-speed” economy
By Alex Messenger, September 14, 2010
Despite the Labor government’s claims of a wondrous boom, workers see no evidence of “world-beating economic prosperity”.
Australian PM Gillard announces new Labor cabinet
By Patrick O’Connor, September 13, 2010
Gillard emphasised her unambiguous commitment to the Australian alliance with US imperialism and the war in Afghanistan at the same time as she appointed her predecessor Kevin Rudd as foreign minister.
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