End the Cruelty – End the Abuse

New South Wales Teachers Federation Senior Vice President Angelo Gavrielatos said today;

"Last year the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry Report damned Australia's detention of children as 'cruel, inhumane and degrading'. Yet, as reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald, 70 children still remain in detention.

"Not only is this a breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires that detention is a measure of 'last resort', it is morally reprehensible.

"Children in detention are subjected to trauma which is detrimental to their physical and psychological wellbeing. Enclosed in an environment where children witness adults engaging in self-mutilation and self harm is unacceptable.

"The NSWTF calls on the government to end the cruelty and respect basic human rights. We call on the government to release the children into the community with their families."

Gutting the AIRC: Baume let's cat out of bag!

In an article in the Australian Financial Review (30 May 2005), long time Howard supporter, and former Liberal MP Michael Baume, writes:

"...leaving the otherwise-gutted Australian Industrial Relations Commission with compulsory dispute-settling powers represents a significantly higher level of regulation of collective disputes than in the UK or NZ."

Workers ponder Howard's industrial relations...

Vinnies challenges PM's views on Income Inequality

In 2005, we in Australia have a clear choice.

We can choose the current headlong dash into the chasm of inequality, the gap that lies between the rich and poor, our own "two Australias". If governments deny that we even have a problem or that we can work towards a solution, then growing numbers of our people will be consigned to the "other Australia". They will be abandoned to market forces that, left unchecked, can only further entrench the ourcomes of inequality and unfairness. If governments refuse to do what the market cannot, this course is guaranteed.

On the other hand, we can choose to face the problem. We can choose to mobilise all levels of government towards producing a solution. International evidence is unambiguous in demonstrating that domestic policy settings are able to achieve this.

We can pay to remove all Australians from poverty if we want to: the fact that we don't do so is a matter of choice, not affordability.

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TAFE workers’ rights ‘not for sale’

TAFE workers will join university staff around Australia on June 1 to protest the federal Coalition government’s attacks on the tertiary education sector.

In NSW, TAFE employees will stop work to participate in city rallies and protests outside federal parliamentarian’s offices.

On May 25, NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O’Halloran said, “TAFE teachers will take action to show their support for public education. They will not allow the federal government to hold teachers to ransom.”

O’Halloran explained that “the federal government is threatening to withhold funding unless the states agree to a range of changes that will undermine working conditions, salaries and the workplace rights of staff in TAFE”.