Social Justice

The wealthy and corporations got a visit from Santa Claus, but the rest of us got Scrooged again on Budget night.

In Sydney, thousands of workers took to the streets on November 16 to demand an end to the Turnbull government's attacks on workers rights and conditions.

Joseph Elu, chair of the Torres Strait Regional Authority, told Radio National’s PM on January 5 that the islands that have been home to Indigenous people for thousands of years are “being inundated”, right now because of climate change.

The Ruddock Review has shown that the fight is not over to ensure queer kids and queer teachers are free to come out of the closet, safe from the threat of being expelled or sacked.

On the weekend of July 18 and 19 there was another round of right-wing Reclaim Australia (RA) protests. The stated aim of RA and its offshoot, the United Patriots Front (UPF), was to defend what they call “Australian values” from the threat of “Islamicisation”.

Socialist Alliance supports and campaigns for:

• Extensive community consultation on the provision of and the continual improvement of public transport options.
• No more motorways/tollways.
• Upgrading of  rail freight depots and loading systems
• Ensuring railway stations, light rail and bus stops, ferry wharfs and interchanges have adequate seating, shelter, bicycle storage and facilities and modifications.
• Integrating taxis and taxi cooperatives into the public transport system.

Since 2 November the neighbourhoods of Tekel, Mescit and Konak in the town of Silvan in the province of Diyarbakır in South East Turkey have been under the occupation of Turkish police special forces and the Turkish army.

Forty-eight hours to send newly arrived refugees back the way they came and a plan to conceal when boats are “turned around” at sea, were among immigration minister Scott Morrison's statements at his first weekly briefing under “Operation Sovereign Borders” on September 23.

As Invasion Day approaches, Murri leader and Socialist Alliance Aboriginal rights spokesperson Sam Watson told Green Left Weekly that January 26 was “only a date when a motley collection of boats made landfall on Gadigal country to establish the colony of NSW”.

And so it begins — an offensive, on behalf of the Australian ruling class and corporate interests, to steal the future from the majority of Australians, to dismantle what remains of our social welfare system, in order to carry out, in the words of Treasurer Joe Hockey, "the government's solemn duty ... to build a stronger Australia".

What local councils do or don’t do on January 26 has burst into the national political debate, and what a good thing that is, writes Socialist Alliance councillor Sam Wainwright.

Media reports about a deal being struck this week between the Australian government and Cambodia to resettle refugees from Nauru have been denied by Immigration and Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison. However the government has confirmed that negotiations towards a memorandum of understanding were continuing.