melbourne indymedia

A document leaked from the the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) shows a secret agenda to junk leave provisions remaining under WorkChoices. Contractors have also become a new IR battleground. Current campaigns on working conditions reported on the newswire include:

• WA metalworkers are facing $28,600 fines for a union meeting that allegedly went 15 minutes over time.
• Jetstar Workers' Pay is being reduced by $160 a week by imposition of AWAs.
• Library Workers Under Attack at Moonee Valley City Council.
• A struggle against the unfair AWA offered by Global Tele Sales (GTS).
• In Indonesia more than 150 security workers for Securicor Indonesia won a 15-month struggle with international help.

Support the 107 | Union Solidarity

The first person found guilty under Australia's new counter-terrorism laws has won his appeal against his conviction. The Court of Appeal in Melbourne has quashed Joseph Terrence Thomas' conviction in the Supreme Court in February, when he was jailed for five years, with a two-year minimum. Victorian Court of Appeal Justices Chris Maxwell, Frank Vincent and Peter Buchanan quashed the convictions, saying the evidence used to find Thomas guilty was inadmissible. [Full story]

Civil Rights Defence | Justice for Jack |
Event 20/8: Oppose the Unjust Terror Laws - Bus Ride to Barwon

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has purchased a bigger, faster and more powerful boat in its campaign to assert international law and stop Japanese commercial whaling. The 'ice class' vessel, 'Leviathan', is undergoing a refit in the Carribean before it joins the 'Farley Mowat' in Melbourne ahead of the next Japanese whale hunting season in the Southern Ocean in December. [Full Story]

Tasmedia: Sea Shepherd calls for Crew | Japanese rorting Tuna fishing agreement

On Tuesday the 25th of July an incident occurred at Forsmark-1 nuclear power station in Sweden that left one of the reactors without power for its safety systems. It took 20 minutes before the reserve generators could be started. "It was the worst situation since Chernobyl and Harrisburg. We were horrifyingly close to a really dangerous situation." said Lars-Olov Höglund, the former head of the construction division of the reactor.

The events in Sweden “in one fell swoop bring back into awareness the terrors of atomic energy”, said anti-nuclear German activist Jochen Stay, who has called on all nuclear opponents in Germany to reinvigorate opposition to nuclear power. A German environment protection group says a nuclear power station near Hamburg is worse prepared for a critical breakdown than the Swedish Formark-1 reactor.

Greenpeace: Sweden closes nuclear plants over safety fears
Nuclear Power No Solution to Climate Change

Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have lost communal control of their land under controversial changes to land rights laws just passed in the Senate. Opponents of the amendments say the new laws severely weaken Indigenous people’s control of their land. Greens Senator Rachel Siewert slammed the changes saying "This will be marked as a tragic day for land rights in Australia,"

The ammendments will alter the 1976 Northern Territory Land Rights Act, which gives Aboriginal Australians control and communal ownership over their land. Under the new regime, NT Aboriginal people will be offered loans and 99 year leases in an effort to force private ownership and economic development.

National Indigenous Times | ANTAR | Laws stacked against traditional owners | Perth IMC