Further reading
Martin Ferguson and uranium mining
‘Angry Darebin residents have launched a massive campaign to protest against Batman MP Martin Ferguson’s support for increased uranium mining in Australia. The Northern Anti Nuclear Alliance (NANA) will hand-deliver 60,000 brochures to every Batman electorate home over the next week.’ Friends of the Earth Media Release, 26 January
Sydney and Surveillance
‘In what will be a world experiment in technical surveillance, police in the Australian city of Sydney will link every close circut video camera with a live feed to police command. Every camera in every bank, on every shop front, every shopping mall, every train station, every local government camera, every department store, every corner shop will be centrally linked with live feeds to police command. ‘This isnt – not science fiction or a left-wing paranoia, but a reality in Australia’s largest state.’ Australian surveillance experiment by Dale Mills, 26 January Z Net
Baxter
‘Following a visit to Baxter Immigration Detention Centre, Peter Job, of the Greens says, ‘Despite claims from the Department to be cleaning up its act, the detainees I spoke to claimed the situation in Baxter is actually getting worse, giving consistent accounts of increasingly repressive and heavy handed treatment by management,’ Mr. Job said.’ Perth IndyMedia
Logging
‘A group of conservationists entered the Eden chipmill last Friday and held up work for seven and a half hours by attaching themselves to machines.’ Melbourne Indymedia
Art and the flag
‘Melbourne artist Azlan McLennan is at the centre of a storm for the second time this month, this time over a public artwork featuring a burnt Australian flag. After complaints from the public, police have seized Azlan’s burnt flag work, which was called Proudly Un-Australian and was nailed to a public display space on the facade of the Trocadero gallery in Footscray, Melbourne. Articulate, ABC News: Arts and Entertainment, 26 January
‘Police are refusing to return a deliberately burnt Australian flag that was seized from a Footscray art gallery almost two weeks ago, despite prominent lawyers having declared the seizure illegal.’ The Age, 31 January 31, 2006
More images and links to McLennan’s banned/controversial art, including a piece critical of Israel and fake Melbourne tram posters warning that ‘Muslim commuters may be subject to suspicion’, can be found on this blog- Slackbastard.
Torture
‘Military autopsy reports provide indisputable proof that detainees are being tortured to death while in US military custody. Yet the US corporate media are covering it with the seriousness of a garage sale for the local Baptist Church.’ Hard Evidence of US Torturing Prisoners to Death Ignored by Corporate Media by Peter Phillips, Project Censored (The News That Didn’t Make The News)
Iraq
‘After securing contracts with the Iraqi government potentially worth hundreds of millions, someone killed Dale Stoffel. IRAQ: Corruption, Missing Millions and Two Dead Contractors by Deborah Hastings, Associated Press, January 28th, 2006 Link through CorpWatch
Lying in the US
‘With great fanfare, Oprah Winfrey asked James Frey a question that mainstream journalists refuse to ask George W. Bush: "Why would you lie?"’ Domestic Lying – Questions Journalists Don’t Ask by Norman Solomon, Z Net
Who’s obsessed with homosexuality?
‘One constituent told BBC Radio Five Live that everybody in the constituency had long known anyway, and that it was not as if he had been caught ‘dressed as a Nazi doing it with donkeys’. The only notable public reaction was from a handful of Muslim Lib Dem party members who switched back to Labour (they had recently switched to the Lib Dems over the Iraq war, so were hardly party faithful). Who’s obsessed with homosexuality? – It is the liberal elite, not the public, that kicks up a fuss about gay MPs by Josie Appleton, Spiked-politics
Donate To New Matilda
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
