About 8000 people turned up to state parliament on September 16 for the largest marriage equality rights protest here ever.
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Miss Muriel Matters
Robert Wainwright
ABC Books, 2017
376 pages
In 1909, Muriel Matters planned to rain on the parade of King Edward VII to the ceremonial opening of parliament. She aimed to drop a shower of 鈥淰otes for Women鈥 leaflets on his head from a chartered air balloon trailing streamers in the white, gold and green of the Women鈥檚 Freedom League (WFL).
Women footballers in Australia, playing in the W-League, will receive a sizeable pay rise and improved employment conditions after a landmark collective bargaining agreement on September 11 between Football Federation Australia, W-League clubs and the players鈥 union, the Professional Footballers Australia (PFA).
A noisy group of protesters gathered outside the Australian Infrastructure Investors Forum on September 12 to 鈥渨elcome鈥 its keynote speaker, the CEO of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund (NAIF) Laurie Walker. NAIF Board members are the focus of a campaign by the movement to prevent the massive Adani coalmine in Queensland鈥檚 Galilee basin.
Moreland City Council took a big step forward on September 13 when it voted to drop all references to January 26 as Australia Day out of respect for Aboriginal people. But it stopped short of cancelling its official Australia Day citizenship ceremony.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating loved this quote of his long-time mentor former NSW Premier Jack Lang. I was reminded of its currency and utility recently, when I read that the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) had made an (overdue) entrance to the public debate about the costs and benefits of the emerging 鈥済ig鈥 economy 鈥 let鈥檚 be honest, it鈥檚 mainly costs.
Britain鈥檚 main trade union confederation, the Trade Union Congress (TUC),聽held its 149th annual conference in Brighton on September 10-13. The gathering brought together hundreds of leaders, organisers, delegates and activists from more than 50 TUC-affiliated trade unions.
The conference discussed and adopted motions of support and campaign plans to oppose the austerity measures of the Conservative-Democratic Unionist Party government of Prime Minister Theresa May.
Indigenous feminist and trade unionist Celeste Liddle addressed the topic of 鈥淲omen fight back against misogyny & rape culture鈥 at the Radical Ideas conference hosted by Resistance: Socialist Youth Alliance in August.
The following text is based on an abridged version of her talk.
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Calling for an end to the demonisation of jobseekers, the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) held a rally on September 8 outside Channel Seven's Sunrise studio in Martin Place. They opposed the vilification of Australia's economically disadvantaged in Sunrise programs such as "Australia's worst dole bludging areas named and shamed", in which commentators called for punitive welfare penalties.
An increasing number of employers are asking themselves why they should have to abide by the terms of an Enterprise Agreement with their workers and unions, when it would cost less money if they didn't. Many have come to the conclusion that they should simply escape the obligations of their agreements.
Since the High Court challenge to the federal government鈥檚 marriage equality survey was dismissed and the survey received the green light, streets have been painted all the colours of the rainbow as historically large protests and displays of solidarity sweep the country.
The campaign for marriage equality has been fighting the delaying tactics and homophobic policies of Labor and Liberal governments for the past 13 years.
Staff at James Cook University in northern Queensland 鈥 at least half of whom are employed casually, and often infrequently 鈥 have rejected a management proposal for an enterprise agreement at the university. Of the 54% of staff who voted, 58% voted against the proposal in the non-union ballot held over September 13鈥15.
National Tertiary Education Union members mobilised in the brief one-week consultation and balloting period to secure a vote nearly three times their own numbers.
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