Australia
COVID-19 “state of disaster” imposed across Australian state of Victoria
By Patrick O’Connor, 3 August 2020
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton characterised the sweeping measures as “shock and awe.”
Royal commission into Australia’s bushfires promotes greater use of the military
By Margaret Rees, 1 August 2020
The inquiry will ignore the underfunding of fire and emergency services while justifying rapid and expanded military interventions in domestic “emergencies.”
India: Punjab health workers strike for permanent jobs; Asahi auto glass-making workers strike in Chennai; Woolworths Distribution Centre workers locked out in Australia
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
1 August 2020
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Australian COVID-19 surge continues as epidemiologists urge stricter lockdown
By Patrick O’Connor, 31 July 2020
In refusing to implement the measures demanded by medical experts, the ruling elite has chosen to protect profits over lives.
Report warns theft of international student wages in Australia set to worsen amid COVID-19
By Eric Ludlow, 30 July 2020
Many international students lost their casual jobs as a result of limited social distancing measures introduced in response to the spread of the coronavirus.
Australian government signs up to US offensive against China
By Mike Head, 30 July 2020
The joint AUSMIN statement by top Australian and US officials broadcast all the Trump administration’s incendiary and unproven allegations against China.
Record Australian COVID-19 deaths and infections
By Oscar Grenfell, 30 July 2020
Today’s toll of 723 infections and 13 deaths in Victoria demonstrates that the authorities have completely lost control of the state’s coronavirus surge.
Australian SAS planted weapons on murdered civilians in Afghanistan
By Taylor Bennington, 30 July 2020
Several soldiers said that the framing of unarmed civilians as Taliban insurgents, with planted radios or weapons, “happened on numerous occasions.”
Australia: Committee for Public Education holds online forum on COVID-19 threat
By our reporters, 30 July 2020
“We are either going to have to roll over and accept what is going on, that workers are going to be sacrificed for capitalism, or we are going to have to rebel and have an uprising of some kind.”
Six arrested at banned Australian protest against police violence
By Martin Scott, 29 July 2020
COVID-19 public health orders were used to suppress the demonstration in a blatant attack on democratic rights.
Woolworths locks out workers at Australian warehouse
By Terry Cook, 29 July 2020
Strikers at Wyong speak out as the United Workers Union facilitates the attack by isolating them.
Australian government echoes aggressive US shift on South China Sea
By Mike Head, 28 July 2020
Australia suddenly abandoned its previous policy of formal neutrality on the competing territorial claims, just 10 days after a similar declaration by the US.
Working-class opposition emerging amid Australia’s COVID-19 surge
By Oscar Grenfell, 28 July 2020
Meat workers in Melbourne walked off the job this morning over safety concerns, while teachers and principals are demanding school closures after dozens of classroom infections.
Australian treasurer hails Reagan and Thatcher as “inspiration” for government’s economic agenda
By Nick Beams, 28 July 2020
Frydenberg lauded the “success” of the offensive against the working class in the 1980s, just as he announced a record budget deficit of $184.5 billion for this financial year.
Australian state government bans protest against police violence
By Oscar Grenfell, 27 July 2020
The authorities are cynically invoking the pandemic to block political protests, while at the same time proceeding with a pro-business “reopening of the economy.”
Mounting COVID-19 deaths expose deep crisis in Australian aged care homes
By Margaret Rees, 27 July 2020
“They’ve casualised the workforce so much that this is bound to happen.”
Dozens of Australian schools shut down after coronavirus outbreaks
By Patrick Kelly, 27 July 2020
Keeping the schools open is regarded as a central aspect of the reopening of the economy and the continued provision of an exploitable workforce.
Australian Tamil refugee mother denied urgent medical treatment for weeks
By Max Newman, 27 July 2020
Despite outrage in her Australian home town of Biloela, Priya Murugappan was flown to a mainland hospital only after suffering prolonged abdominal pain.
US demands even greater support from Australia in confrontation with China
By Mike Head, 25 July 2020
Despite the intensifying COVID-19 danger in the US, Australia’s foreign and defence ministers will personally attend the annual AUSMIN talks in Washington next week.
Australia’s COVID-19 death toll rising rapidly
By Oscar Grenfell, 25 July 2020
Through the “national cabinet,” Labor and Liberal-National governments yesterday “recommitted” to the pro-business policies that have resulted in record deaths and infections.
Indian health workers protest over COVID-19 treatment discrimination and wages; Western Australian caterers and cleaners strike on offshore gas platforms
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
25 July 2020
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Huge Australian budget deficits mean intensified assault on workers
By Mike Head, 24 July 2020
Governments and the corporate elite have begun extracting the cost from the working class, via cuts to jobs, pay and working conditions as well as social spending.
Record daily coronavirus infections in Australia
By Patrick O’Connor, 23 July 2020
The pandemic has been exacerbated by the casualisation of the workforce that was engineered over the last four decades by successive Labor and Liberal governments.
Safety expert removed from Australia’s Grosvenor Mine explosion inquiry
By Terry Cook, 23 July 2020
The Queensland state Labor government’s inquiry is shaping up to become another cover-up of how safety is subordinated to the companies’ ruthless drive for profits.
Australian government slashes pandemic payments to workers after suspending parliament
By Mike Head, 22 July 2020
The blatant purpose of the cuts is to give workers no choice but to go back into unsafe workplaces regardless of the rising danger of COVID-19 infection.
Australian coronavirus surge hits Sydney
By Patrick O’Connor, 21 July 2020
The basic reproduction rate (R0) is 1.4 in Sydney and New South Wales, even higher than neighbouring Victoria, which continues to have the largest number of active infections.
Australian coronavirus surge hits workplaces, factories
By Paul Bartizan, 20 July 2020
Some 80 percent of all COVID-19 transmissions in the state of Victoria over the last two months have occurred in workplaces.
Australian bushfire victims still suffering six months on
By Cheryl Crisp, 20 July 2020
Hundreds of people who lost their homes are living in tents, caravans or shipping containers in what is now the dead of winter.
Australian medical experts call for workplace and school shutdowns as Victoria’s COVID-19 surge escalates
By Oscar Grenfell, 18 July 2020
Despite the highest spike in Australian coronavirus infections since the pandemic began, the Victorian Labor government has implemented a “lockdown” that leaves schools and most workplaces open.
Australia: Hundreds of health workers in Victoria contract COVID-19
By Clare Bruderlin, 18 July 2020
A national survey of 500 healthcare workers found that half were experiencing PPE shortages and some were having to source their own supplies.
Destruction of full-time jobs intensifies in Australia
By Mike Head, 18 July 2020
Governments and employers are working with the trade unions to exploit the COVID-19 catastrophe to accelerate the casualisation of the workforce.
India: Over 40,000 Karnataka health workers begin indefinite state-wide strike; Pakistani doctors protest and Sri Lanka nurses demand overtime pay
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
18 July 2020
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“Palace letters” point to the plotting behind the 1975 constitutional coup in Australia
By Mike Head, 17 July 2020
Together with the military coup in Chile in 1973, the Labor government’s dismissal was one of the first acts in what became an international counter-offensive against the working class.
SEP (Australia) holds lecture series on the history of Trotskyism
By Oscar Grenfell, 17 July 2020
The lectures, now all available online, reviewed some of the fundamental lessons of the protracted struggle by the Trotskyist movement for socialist internationalism.
“NTEU Fightback” aims to block revolt against Australian university trade union
By Jack Turner, 17 July 2020
Various pseudo-left organisations are desperately seeking to defend the National Tertiary Education Union after a revolt against its pay- and job-cutting COVID-19 “national framework.”
Thousands of sackings at Australian universities
By Eric Ludlow, 17 July 2020
The job cuts are part of a major assault on universities, being enforced by governments and the trade unions.
Australian governments reject lockdowns, as Victoria hits highest daily infection toll
By Oscar Grenfell, 16 July 2020
Infections are spiralling out of control, because governments are refusing to implement measures that would impinge on the profits of the corporate elite.
Australian teachers and school staff condemn return to classrooms in Victoria
By Sue Phillips, 15 July 2020
Teachers and educators speak out against the state Labor government’s order to reopen schools despite a COVID-19 surge in Melbourne.
Australian authorities sought to cover-up asbestos removal at Newcastle school
By Robert Campion, 15 July 2020
The debacle is part of a decades-long scandal concerning the use of asbestos in public buildings, involving successive Labor and Liberal governments.
Anger grows as Australian state Labor government sends teachers and senior students back to school in Melbourne
By Patrick Kelly, 14 July 2020
The sweeping return to school, amid a worsening COVID-19 surge, represents a threat to public safety.
Australia’s COVID-19 spike spreads to New South Wales
By Oscar Grenfell, 14 July 2020
Venues that were reopened as part of the lifting of safety restrictions, including pubs and gyms, have emerged as centres of infection.
Limited lockdowns fail to halt Australia’s COVID-19 surge
By Oscar Grenfell, 13 July 2020
As is happening globally, the government and business “reopening” is causing a disaster.
Melbourne public housing residents still outraged by Australian police lockdown
By Eric Ludlow, 13 July 2020
The brutal state Labor government operation failed to curb the spread of COVID-19 throughout the public housing estates.
Special Forces commander admits Australian troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan
By Jason Quill, 13 July 2020
The systematic killings and other abuses are the inevitable product of the colonial-style invasions and occupations mounted by the US and its allies.
Committee for Public Education and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (Australia)
Public forum: COVID-19 and the escalating assault on educators and students
13 July 2020
The Committee for Public Education and International Youth and Students for Social Equality in Australia are holding on online forum on July 18 to discuss the critical issues posed by government demands that schools reopen.
Australia’s national cabinet steps up “reopening” despite COVID-19 surge
By Mike Head, 11 July 2020
Since the government leaders started lifting restrictions at breakneck speed in late May, the number of new confirmed infections has begun to soar.
Penalty pay rates slashed for Australian retail workers
By Martin Scott, 11 July 2020
The Fair Work Commission ruled against delaying wage cuts for more than 240,000 workers.
Online book launch of The Most Dangerous Man in the World defends Assange
By Oscar Grenfell, 11 July 2020
Author Andrew Fowler said that journalists “should be more supportive” of Assange “because of what he taught us.”
India: Airport workers in Kerala oppose sackings; Telangana private school teachers hold state-wide demonstrations
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
11 July 2020
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Victoria records highest number of cases since pandemic began, as Australian coronavirus surge intensifies
By Oscar Grenfell, 10 July 2020
Victoria's chief medical officer told the press: “We will see an increase in hospitalised and ICU cases and in deaths in the coming days because of the spike that we have seen.”
NTEU steps up collaboration with Australian university managements amid job cuts “tsunami”
By Mike Head, 10 July 2020
The union is pushing ahead with deals to impose unprecedented sacrifices on university workers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been made to feel like a criminal, but I haven’t done anything wrong”
Melbourne public housing resident denounces Australian police lockdown
By Eric Ludlow, 9 July 2020
Kat, a working-class mother, spoke with the WSWS about the conditions in the locked-down public housing towers, home to some of the most oppressed sections of the working class.
Melbourne public housing residents condemn Australian police lockdown
By Martin Scott and Oscar Grenfell, 9 July 2020
“Instead of nurses, doctors and social workers, they send us the police, which gives the wrong message among the community.”
Australia: Woolworths to slash more than 1,300 warehousing jobs
By Patrick Davies, 9 July 2020
Like other corporations, the supermarket chain is using the pandemic to restructure its operations at the expense of jobs and working conditions.
Oppose the Melbourne public housing towers lock-in! For a health and welfare response, not a police mobilisation!
By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 9 July 2020
The SEP calls for the formation of local safety committees, both within the tower blocks and more broadly, to organise measures to protect the residents and the working class as a whole.
Limited lockdown imposed in Melbourne as COVID-19 surges in Australia
By Oscar Grenfell, 8 July 2020
The spike in Victoria refutes the claims of federal and state governments that the coronavirus could be locally-contained as they “reopen the economy.”
The COVID-19 vaccine and the drive for profit
By Frank Gaglioti, 8 July 2020
As the pandemic rages across the planet, the struggle to develop a vaccine has become an urgent task. But the vaccines will be weaponized for geopolitical purposes, not to provide the treatments equitably on a global scale.
Growing opposition to Australian police lockdown of Melbourne public housing residents
By Oscar Grenfell, 7 July 2020
One resident stated: “We should have seen buses and cars full of healthcare and mental health workers and social workers, not the police.”
Australian court rejects Murdoch appeal against Geoffrey Rush defamation verdict
By Linda Tenenbaum, 7 July 2020
Last week’s Federal Court verdict is another important blow against the anti-democratic #MeToo movement.
Thousands more jobs destroyed in Australia
By Terry Cook, 7 July 2020
Employers are continuing to utilise the COVID-19 pandemic to restructure their operations, shedding thousands of jobs and cutting working conditions.
Organise teachers, parents and school staff committees to oppose reckless school reopening in Melbourne!
By the Committee for Public Education (Australia), 7 July 2020
The CFPE calls for the formation of safety action committees to demand the suspension of the school system as part of a comprehensive public health and safety plan to protect the working class.
Australian police confine Melbourne public housing residents indoors after COVID-19 outbreak
By Patrick O’Connor, 6 July 2020
The state Labor government opted for a police operation instead of having medical staff, social workers, and people in the community lead the necessary preventive measures.
Australian Labor Party vote falls further in by-election
By Mike Head, 6 July 2020
The biggest swings against Labor occurred in Queanbeyan, a largely working-class city neighbouring Canberra, the national capital.
Australian government seeks to place country on war footing
By Mike Head, 4 July 2020
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has identified the Indo-Pacific as the likely arena for another world war, directed against China.
Australia: Melbourne’s coronavirus outbreak continues to spread despite localised lockdown
By Oscar Grenfell, 4 July 2020
It only took days for the Victorian Labor government’s lockdown of ten Melbourne postcodes to be exposed as an ineffectual and punitive response to the rise in infections.
“Deep cleaning” in Australian schools: Image and reality
By Carolyn Kennett, 4 July 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, governments promised thoroughly cleaned classrooms, but school cleaners have neither the resources nor hours to conduct the necessary cleaning.
SEP (Australia) July 7 online lecture
A new period of socialist revolution and the tasks of the Fourth International
4 July 2020
The lecture will outline the contemporary significance of the Trotskyist movement’s fight for socialism internationalism, amid a breakdown of capitalism and an upsurge of the class struggle.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
4 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
The Assange precedent in action
Australian journalist threatened with prosecution for exposing war crimes in Afghanistan
By Oscar Grenfell, 3 July 2020
Like Assange, Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Dan Oakes faces prosecution for publishing evidence of war crimes in Afghanistan.
Hundreds of jobs axed as Australian Broadcasting Corporation imposes government cuts
By Richard Phillips, 3 July 2020
ABC management, in line with federal government and Murdoch media demands, is imposing another round of job cuts at the public broadcaster.
Australia’s largest airline Qantas axes 6,000 jobs to slash costs
By Terry Cook, 2 July 2020
Like its competitors internationally, Qantas is seizing on the COVID-19 pandemic to carry out a further pro-business restructuring of its operations.
Australian state Labor government’s police arrest refugee protesters
By Michael Smith, 2 July 2020
Governments continue to condemn protests and invoke the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to silence dissent, even as they accelerate the reopening of the economy.
Australian cancer testing declines during coronavirus pandemic
By Clare Bruderlin, 1 July 2020
The lack of personal protective equipment in hospitals and shortages of masks, gloves and sanitiser available to the public have forced many people to put off appointments.
Australian government unveils military boost aimed against China
By Mike Head, 1 July 2020
Over the next decade, $575 billion will be spent on the armed forces, including an expanded $270 billion military hardware buildup, featuring “long-range strike capabilities.”
Australian state government locks down Melbourne working class suburbs
By Oscar Grenfell, 1 July 2020
While measures are required to contain the coronavirus, the lockdown will disproportionately affect workers, the unemployed and the poor.
Australian COVID-19 surge continues in Victoria
By Martin Scott, 30 June 2020
Almost 300 coronavirus cases have been detected in the state over the past seven days.
Australian court backs secret trial on East Timor bugging exposure
By Mike Head, 30 June 2020
The closed-door proceedings seek to protect the entire network of spy agencies involved in the escalating US confrontation with China.
Australian Labor Party intent on ousting MP from parliament over “Chinese agent” claims
By Mike Head, 29 June 2020
Labor wants to remove Shaoquett Moselmane despite his denunciation of his “political lynching.”
Australian paper mill workers locked out as company moves to slash wages
By Steve Strietberg, 29 June 2020
The company wants a two-tier wage system, with 15 percent lower pay rates for new employees.
Legal settlement lets Australian military off the hook over PFAS pollution
By Patrick Davies, 29 June 2020
The settlement will see victims share just $126 million of a $212 million payout and releases the Defence Department from any further claim over financial loss.
Australia’s US-backed anti-China witch hunt escalates with raid on MP’s home
By Mike Head, 27 June 2020
The operation is another step towards branding anyone who challenges Australia's involvement in the US offensive against Beijing as a “foreign agent.”
SEP (Australia) June 30 online lecture
The 1985–86 split with the WRP and the renaissance of Marxism
27 June 2020
The split ranks among the most crucial strategic experiences of the Trotskyist movement and the international working class.
Indian and Pakistani health workers strike over coronavirus safety; Australia Paper maintenance workers locked out
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
27 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Australian military deployed in Melbourne as COVID-19 infection rate surges
By Martin Scott, 26 June 2020
The daily rate of new cases in Victoria is at its highest since early April.
Australian unions support Queensland Labor government’s public sector wage freeze
By Gary Alvernia, 26 June 2020
The pay “deferral” sets a new precedent for exploiting the COVID-19 emergency to intensify the ongoing corporate and government attack on the living and working conditions of workers.
Australia: Coronavirus infections spike in Melbourne’s working class suburbs
By Patrick O’Connor, 24 June 2020
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton declared that the state was at a “tipping point.”
Australian police assault Aboriginal man with taser
By Oscar Grenfell, 24 June 2020
The victim of the unprovoked assault has been charged with intimidating the police while the officers involved have not even been stood down.
Ten years since the US-backed coup against Australian Labor PM
By Mike Head, 24 June 2020
Literally overnight, a handful of factional warlords, including US “protected sources,” engineered Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s ouster, entirely behind the backs of the population.
Australian High Court rules tear-gassed youth detainees entitled to damages
By Martin Scott, 23 June 2020
Little has changed at the infamous Don Dale Youth Detention Centre since the high-profile 2014 incident.
Australian government steps up attack on university students and workers
By Mike Head, 22 June 2020
Assisted by the role of the unions, the government is seeking to further transform universities into vocational businesses, churning out “job-ready graduates.”
Australian university lecturers voice concerns about their conditions and the role of the NTEU
By our correspondent, 22 June 2020
“I was just stunned that the union did not even ask us if we wanted to negotiate a deal.”
Julian Assange’s fiancé calls on the Australian government to secure his freedom
By Oscar Grenfell, 22 June 2020
The “60 Minutes” program was the first substantive examination of Assange’s plight by the Australian media since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Australian COVID-19 cases increase as governments ease restrictions
By Martin Scott, 20 June 2020
For the first time since May 20, more than 100 positive tests were recorded in a seven-day period.
Joblessness reaches Great Depression levels in Australia
By Mike Head, 20 June 2020
The rate of youth unemployment and underemployment would be a staggering 48 percent if everyone who had lost their job was counted.
India: Bihar rural health workers demonstrate to defend jobs; Coimbatore textile workers protest over pay cuts
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
20 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Pandemic’s negative impact on Australian scientific research future could last decades
By John Mackay, 19 June 2020
Research in the university sector is expected to decrease by at least $3 billion in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Australian government alleges cyber-attack to ramp-up provocations against China
By Oscar Grenfell, 19 June 2020
Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to provide any evidence of a cyber-attack, but the media rushed to proclaim that China was responsible.
160 Pandemic's negative impact on Australian scietific research could last decades
19 June 2020
SEP (Australia) June 23 online lecture
The ICFI and the war against Pabloism
19 June 2020
The lecture will review the international political context of the emergence of Pabloism, a national-opportunist tendency within the Fourth International.
270 Advert for 4th lecture in History of the FI series
19 June 2020
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