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REVIEW BY VANNESSA HEARMAN Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the Independence of East TimorBy Clinton FernandesScribe Publications, Melbourne 2004138 pages Clinton Fernandes, a Melbourne-based writer on politics and international
I have a friend who, along with his family, actively opposes the Howard government's iniquitous policies — the ones that throw asylum seekers in concentration camps and turn Australians into US lap dogs, making us targets for acts of retaliation.
Jess Melvin, Sydney The South-East Asian department at the University of Sydney will cease to exist in 2006 unless students and staff can stop its closure. Indonesian language, Thai language and South-East Asian history and politics subjects are
Sarah Stephen On October 14, the immigration department deported MK, an Iranian Christian, from the Baxter detention centre in South Australia. Australia is the only country that deports asylum seekers to Iran. "Immigration minister [Amanda]
Justin Podur The Venezuelan government, under President Hugo Chavez, has created "missions" to provide services to Venezuela's population. Perhaps the most well-known of the missions is Mission Robinson, which has brought adult literacy programs to
Chris Slee Sri Lanka's clothing industry, which directly employs 340,000 workers and indirectly employs another million, faces a "sudden collapse" when the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) expires next year, according to Kalani Subasinghe, a staff
Doug Lorimer "If the pre-election opinion polls in Australia were anything to go by, Mr Howard was going to be punished by the electorate for his support of Mr Bush in Iraq. But when it actually came to voting, Australians preferred Mr Howard's
Sarah Stephen In the days following the re-election of the Coalition government, the corporate press crowed about Howard's fresh mandate for reform. The October 11 Australian Financial Review editorial argued that PM John Howard "now has a thumping
Margarita Windisch, Melbourne Up to 1800 people marched on Victorian state parliament on October 13 to protest the proposed toxic dump site at Hattah in north-western Victoria. A "toxic" truck and eight busloads of people left Mildura before dawn
Sue Bolton, Melbourne On October 12, a Federal Court judge ordered the Howard government's Building Industry Taskforce to stop accessing the personal banking details of members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) employed
Kim Bullimore, West Bank Thirteen-year-old Iman Alhamas was shot dead on October 6 as she walked to school in the Rafah refugee camp. One of 30 children killed during the 18-day Israeli offensive into Gaza, Iman's body was riddled with 20 bullets.