Oceania
Australia: Business lending dries up
By Alex Messenger, August 1, 2009
Despite media claims of imminent economic recovery, business lending plunged in Australia during the first half of 2009.
“The pain of recovery”: Rudd’s declaration of war on the working class
By Nick Beams, July 31, 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s latest essay “Pain on the road to recovery”, published in the Sydney Morning Herald on July 25, could be more accurately titled “A declaration of war aga...
Australian Labor Party conference showcases “unity” and “discipline” for pro-business agenda
By Patrick O’Connor, July 31, 2009
Yesterday’s opening day of the Labor Party’s 45th national conference saw the assembled parliamentarians, apparatchiks, and trade union leaders issue a united and enthusiastic show of support for ...
Australia: Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe speaks out against Aboriginal “intervention”
By Richard Phillips, July 29, 2009
Powerful criticism of decades of deliberate government neglect of Australia’s poverty-stricken indigenous communities by former swimming star Ian Thorpe has been subjected to a virtual media black o...
Solomon Islands parliament rams through renewal of Australian-dominated RAMSI occupation
By Patrick O’Connor, July 28, 2009
Australian officials in Honiara no doubt exerted behind the scenes pressure to ensure the Act was approved for another 12 months, thereby ensuring that RAMSI forces continue to enjoy carte blanche pow...
Australian government boosts terror laws, while modifying “lexicon”
By Mike Head, July 27, 2009
While expanding the former Howard government’s “anti-terrorism” laws that the Labor Party helped introduce between 2002 and 2006, the Rudd Labor government has moved to abandon the term “war o...
Australia: Aboriginal disadvantage widens under Rudd government
By Susan Allan, July 24, 2009
According to the Productivity Commission’s latest report, the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is either static or widening across 80 percent of social statistics.
Fiji: Military junta proposes new constitution, elections by 2014
By Frank Gaglioti and Patrick O’Connor, July 24, 2009
Coming ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit in Australia early next month, a defiant speech by Fiji’s strongman Bainimarama and the divided response are indications of Canberra’s w...
Australia: Labor government’s new industrial relations body bans paramedic strike
By Chris Sadlier, July 22, 2009
Fair Work Australia (FWA), the Labor government’s new industrial relations tribunal, yesterday banned planned strike action by ambulance paramedics in Victoria.
Australia: Teachers Federation annual conference: a green light for Labor’s pro-market “education revolution”
By Erika Zimmer, July 22, 2009
Last week’s New South Wales Teachers’ Federation annual conference served to deflect widespread opposition among teachers to the Rudd government’s pro-market education reforms.
Australia: Behind the Labor government’s paid parental leave fraud
By Tess Gordon, July 20, 2009
The Rudd government’s proposed Paid Parental Leave scheme is aimed at boosting productivity through increased workforce participation.
East Timor: Trials begin over 2008 Horta-Gusmao “assassination attempt”
By Patrick O’Connor, July 18, 2009
Initial court proceedings in East Timor have underscored the numerous unanswered contradictions and far-reaching political interests involved in the events of February 11, 2008.
