Reza, an asylum seeker who had been living in the community on a bridging visa, took his life at the Brisbane airport on October 29.
According to friends, he feared being deported back to Iran. 鈥淗e was scared to stay here鈥, a friend of the 26-year-old Iranian told the Guardian Australia. He had grown worried that he was being followed and that he would be taken into detention, the friend added.
The friend said Reza called him early on October 25 and said: 鈥淚 am tired. Always police and people follow me. I want to kill myself. Tell my family.鈥
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Khalid Ismath, a member of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), was arrested on October 7 and later charged under Malaysia's sedition and communication acts for posting allegedly offensive comments on social media.
He was initially denied bail over posts relating to the arrest of lawyer Kamal Hisham Jaafar, a former legal advisor to the Johor royal family. As of October 27, Khalid had been held in solitary confinement for 18 days. His lawyer had not been permitted to visit him.
Faction Man: Bill Shorten's Path to Power
David Marr
Quarterly Essay No. 59
Black Inc., 2015
Even the usually perceptive journalist David Marr, in his latest political profile for Quarterly Essay, is defeated by the indistinct and bland Shorten who, in public opinion polls, trails behind 鈥淪omeone Else鈥 as preferred leader of the Labor Opposition.
Hurricane Patricia 鈥 the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere 鈥 was downgraded to a tropical depression on October 24. It offered a reminder of the consequences of a warming planet.
Portugal's incoming government will most probably prove to be the briefest in modern Portuguese history.
It is headed by conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Pedro Passos Coelho, whom Portuguese President Cavaco Silva appointed on October 22 to continue as prime minister. Passos Coelho has already overseen the 2011 鈥渂ail-out鈥 memorandum applied to Portugal by the 鈥淭roika鈥 (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund).
Members of the Teachers and Education Support Staff Alliance (TESA) have been re-elected to the state-wide council of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU) in elections that took place in October.
TESA also contested the four senior officer positions: branch president, branch deputy president, branch secretary and branch deputy secretary.
The long-running dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and Hutchison Ports is edging closer to settlement.
An MUA member at the Port Botany community assembly told 麻豆传媒 Weekly on October 30 that letters offering voluntary redundancies were being issued by the company that day. MUA members have a week to reply.
They said that substantially improved redundancy entitlements, 鈥渞oughly equivalent to 26 weeks' pay,鈥 are being offered 鈥 a big gain on the previous offer of nine weeks' pay for three years of service.
Paediatricians and health workers and researchers in Darwin gathered at the Royal Darwin Hospital campus on October 29 to make a public statement that "Detention Harms Children".
The protest followed the weekly Paediatric Grand Round meeting that focused on the impact of trauma on refugee and asylum seeker children.
Staff from Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane have held similar protests in recent weeks.
BlueScope's October 26 announcement that the Port Kembla steelworks would be saved from closure came as an obvious relief for the workforce, who had agreed to 500 job losses to save 4500 jobs, together with a three-year pay freeze and foregone bonuses for the next 12 months.
These union concessions are reportedly worth $40 million to BlueScope. The New South Wales government agreed to defer $60 million in payroll tax payments over the next three years, and the company will save a further $100 million through 鈥渨orker flexibility鈥.
Feminist author and career academic Germaine Greer has sparked outrage once again following a controversial interview she gave to the BBC on October 24 where she reaffirmed her position that transgender women are not 鈥渞eal鈥 women.
Greer's devolution from an ideological pillar of the 1960's women's liberation movement to a source of loathing for 麻豆传媒 of the feminist community needs to be discussed. Her comments provide an important opportunity for putting forward a clear argument against trans-exclusionary feminism.
The Refugee Action Collective Victoria has filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court over the Australian government鈥檚 treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.
The complaint requests the ICC to investigate and prosecute ministers and former ministers of the Australian government, specifically former prime minister Tony Abbott, former immigration minister Scott Morrison, current immigration minister Peter Dutton, and attorney-general George Brandis.
Carol Hucker worked in Manus Island Detention Centre as a counsellor for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) and as a case worker for the Salvation Army from June 2013 to July last year.
She has allowed 麻豆传媒 Weekly to publish her account so that people can become more aware of what is happening in Australia鈥檚 offshore detention centres.
She said: 鈥淚t is my hope that through this brief account the men on Manus will not be forgotten.鈥
This is the eight part of a multi-part series and covers her time there in June and July 2014.
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