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 »
Posts in: economy
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 »
Philip Smith: “The economy is at the basis of discrimination.”
“I am unsure of how I developed my hearing disability. It was gradual. I am diagnosed as having a nerve deafness caused by bronchitis. I left school in Form 5, and I’m not sure whether the hearing deterioration had an impact on this decision. But I do know that the lack of support from disability… Read more »
Quebec City: a first-hand account
In April, I was one of thousands of people who flocked to Quebec City to march against the Summit of the Americas, the first meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Thousands more, including comrades of mine in the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women, turned out in solidarity at the border… Read more »
The “shocking truth” about corporate welfare dependency!
Australian corporate welfare — free handouts to business — is a tale of commercial intrigue, political hypocrisy, back room deals, kickbacks and official cover-ups. The Greens have recently lifted the lid on this corruption with a detailed report, yet for something that should have made headlines across the country, it was mostly stifled and swept… Read more »
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