There’s a monumental housing crisis in Australia. Rents are skyrocketing and vacancy rates are the lowest on record, pushing desperate tenants to resort to unofficial rent auctions. In 1996 the cost of buying a house was four times the average wage. By 2007 it had jumped to seven times. Three hundred thousand households are currently… Read more »
economy
Union Eyes
The ABCC must go! The Howard government has gone, but one of its most repressive anti-worker bodies — the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) — remains. Established in October 2005, this body was given sweeping powers that remove the most basic of civil rights from building workers. In gathering evidence, the ABCC operates in… Read more »
Red Earth: Don’t forget the cities!
Hands up who hasn’t had a gripe about one or more of the following, lately: roads, public transport, schools, hospitals, housing, water shortages, power/gas supplies, telecommunications? A lot of raised hands, I guess! All of these are examples of the essential infrastructure that keeps our cities and towns going. Their failure is an important environmental… Read more »
Federal Budget: cheap bribes can’t hide whose interests are served
A few dollars to seniors and a little easing of childcare costs — these were the miserable bribes tossed around by the Howard Government in its pre-election budget. A compliant media kept everyone focused on whether they’d get some personal relief, even if just a bit. But once the dust settled, a couple of details… Read more »
The Victorian government must end the dangerous farce of privatised public transport!
Poorly maintained signals led to this derailment on 3 May 2007. No one was injured — this time. Melbourne’s most modern trains are a safety hazard. They should not be in service. One model, built by Siemens, has a fundamental brake problem that will only be fixed with a costly engineering retrofit. The other, built… Read more »
Work Choices can be defeated!
Australian workers have some decisions of their own to make about the Howard Government’s WorkChoices legislation, currently transforming the industrial landscape. In New Zealand (NZ), workers were attacked with very similar industrial legislation in the 1990s, and the hard lessons kept coming, even after the election of a Labour government. Aussie workers may want to… Read more »
Derailed! Victorian Transport Privatisation Fiasco
I’ve never been a “creditor” before. But on December 30, along with all other train and tram employees of National Express Group (NE), I received notice of a creditors’ meeting planned for January 2. Happy New Year! We had joined the tens of thousands of Australian workers dumped by a corporate collapse. Except for one… Read more »
Maximus: Maximising Profits at the Expense of the Poor
The Federal Government wants out of the “welfare business.” John Howard thinks that “the family” is the best provider of welfare. He would love to dump the entire responsibility for raising children and caring for the sick, the elderly and people with disabilities squarely onto the unpaid shoulders of women — if only he could… Read more »
“Money Now Goes Into the Pockets of Big Business”: A Welfare Warrior Speaks Out
Pat Gowens is an activist with the Milwaukee-based welfare rights organisation, Welfare Warriors. Alison Thorne spoke to Pat about the impact of Welfare Reform and resistance mounted by Welfare Warriors. How did Clinton’s 1996 “welfare reform” impact on welfare recipients? Welfare Reform has caused the loss of millions of dollars to poor communities, resulting in… Read more »
Public Liability Crisis: Insurance for profit is a fraud on society
Rural doctors afraid to practise, private midwives barred from delivering babies, tourist operators forced out of business, houses standing half built, sport and not-for-profit activities suspended as insurance premiums increase by up to 1500%. For many working people, small businesses and communities, the withdrawal of insurance cover is having dire consequences. There is certainly a… Read more »
