The witch-hunt into unions descended into farce last month as the Royal Commission鈥檚 attempt to justify its existence instead showed that it is an inquiry compromised by its politically motivated construction and damned by its own incompetence.
The week began with Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) assistant secretary Tim Lyons attacking royal commissioner Dyson Heydon and senior counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar for confusing workplace bargaining with corruption and failing to understand the role of unions they had been asked to investigate.
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About 1700 people packed Sydney Town Hall, and an overflow crowd of thousands filled the adjacent square, for the official memorial service for former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on November 5.
Sprinkled through the crowd were people who still had their iconic 鈥淚t's Time鈥 T-shirts and badges from the 1972 election that brought the Whitlam government to power.
It was a memorable gathering not just because of the passing of this former PM, but because Whitlam has come to symbolise a long-lost era of progressive reform in this country.
Sarah Hathway and Sean Brocklehurst are running as candidates in the Victorian election. They released this statement on November 7.
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The federal government's concern about 鈥渃orruption鈥 is very selective.
For many months, there have been calls for a royal commission into the Commonwealth Bank and ASIC to investigate how thousands of people were stripped of their life savings as a result of fraud by dodgy financial planners working for the bank.
Residents of Millers Point public housing are supporting the campaign to stop the sell-off and possible demolition of the iconic Sirius apartments in the nearby suburb of The Rocks. The Save Our Sirius (SOS) campaign was launched on November 2 with an open day at the Sirius apartments building.
The Sirius apartments were designed by Tao Gofers in 1975 for the NSW Housing Commission. Sitting beside the southern approaches to the Harbour Bridge, the apartments look out to Circular Quay and the Opera House.
Hundreds of Aboriginal elders and leaders will gather in Alice Springs for the Freedom Summit at the end of this month.
Millions of residents of Catalonia will indicate their preference for the future political status of their country, one of the 17 鈥渁utonomous communities鈥 (regional governments) within the Spanish state, in the November 9 Catalan 鈥減articipatory process鈥.
The 鈥減rocess鈥 will present voters with the same ballot paper as the original non-binding consultation adopted by the Catalan parliament on September 26 鈥 which was immediately suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
Its asks: 鈥(1) Do you want Catalonia to become a state? (2) If yes, do you want that state to be independent?鈥
For those paying attention to the science of climate change, it might seem counterintuitive to talk about hope.
To some it might even seem in bad taste, given that the future impacts include the melting away of the Himalayan glaciers that provide fresh water for 1.3 billion people in Asia and the possibility that many .
Australians for Kurdistan began this petition on Change.org. It asks the Australian federal attorney-general to arrest Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when he visits Brisbane for the G20 summit on November 15. It also asks the attorney-general to remove the Kurdistan Workers Party from the list of terrorist organisations. To sign the petition go to
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Protesters successfully stopped self-described 鈥減ick up artist鈥 Julien Blanc from giving his planned seminar on October 6 on how to manipulate and sexually assault women.
Aboriginal activists in Western Australia are gearing up for a rally on November 12 to protect remote communities in the face of federal government attacks. It will follow a September 16 rally against state government threats to Aboriginal heritage and an October 23 rally against ongoing Black deaths in custody.
The federal government announced on September 24 that it would withdraw funding for 180 remote Aboriginal communities in WA. It will grant $90 million to the WA government for a two-year 鈥渢ransition period鈥.
This statement was released on November 6 by Sean Broklehurst, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Pascoe Vale in the November 29 Victorian elections, and Sarah Hathway, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Geelong.
It refers to the project, set to cost at least $15 billion, to link Melbourne鈥檚 Eastern Freeway and City Link, with the major part of the project being a 4.4 kilometre tunnel.
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About 300 Aboriginal people and supporters from around NSW rallied against legislation being pushed through state parliament that threatens the land rights of coastal Aboriginal communities.
On November 3, Hyde Park was awash with Aboriginal flags and community members, young and old, representing many of the 120 Aboriginal land councils across the state. They were there to protest against the Crown Lands Amendment (Public Ownership of Beaches and Coastal Lands) Bill. The bill was introduced by Minister for Natural Resources Kevin Humphries last week.
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