The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) leadership surprised its membership with a unilateral extension of the contract expiration date to 2026.
Under the cover of “anti-bikie” laws, the legislation can be employed against any organisation that the state government deems—for its own political purposes—to be illegal.
The adverse intelligence assessments mean that more than 50 detained asylum seekers are trapped in a legal black hole with no means of challenging their imprisonment.
Beijing told Canberra the 2009 flight to Fiji was a mere “transit” stopover, en route to Latin America, but Vice President Xi Jinping then spent two days meeting with senior junta members.
Australian Labor governments have declared they will maintain legislation giving them sweeping powers to outlaw any “criminal organisation,” despite the High Court overturning an aspect of South Australia’s laws.
Extraordinary powers, such as detention without trial, the banning of organisations by executive order and semi-secret trials have, in effect, become permanent features of the legal system.
In a legal argument with far-reaching implication for basic democratic rights, Australia’s caretaker Labor government last month strenuously defended in the High Court the denial of legal and constitutional rights to detained refugees.
The government’s announcement last week that it was expelling an Israeli diplomat over forged Australian passports used in the Dubai assassination operation last January was a cynical charade.
The Federal Court unanimously dismissed the Rudd government’s application to terminate former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib’s claim for compensation for alleged Australian complicity in torture.
On February 1, the Labor government compulsorily acquired the land of the Ilpeye Ilpeye town camp, establishing a new benchmark in opening up areas presently controlled by Aboriginal communities for unrestrained capitalist exploitation.
The “Walk for Harmony” being led by Victorian Labor premier John Brumby this Sunday is a part of cynical public relations exercise to shore up revenues from the lucrative international student market.
Two decisions handed down by the Australian Federal Court on July 15 confirmed the federal government’s virtually unfettered power to revoke a citizen’s passport or cancel a non-citizen’s visa, without giving them reasons or access to any evidence, thus making legal challenges almost impossible.
The full bench of the Australian Federal Court held on July 15 that a law imposed by the New South Wales state Labor government, outlawing conduct that “causes annoyance” to Catholic pilgrims during World Youth Day (WYD) in Sydney, was invalid.
A “National Day of Action” called by the National Union of Students (NUS) on Wednesday March 19th to issue demands to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government, has made clear the union’s role, along with that of the various middle class radical groups, in promoting illusions in Labor.