The development consortium responsible for building Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel has taken inadequate measures to protect workers and the public from toxic contaminants, including asbestos and perfluoralkyl substances (PFAs), according to the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU).
Construction of the West Gate Tunnel project is being overseen by a joint venture involving John Holland and CPB Contractors.
The Victorian Labor government is proposing to widen Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway to more than 20 lanes, arguing this would ease congestion on a thoroughfare that resembles a car park during peak time.
Refugee supporters in Melbourne have rallied four times in less than a week in support of Tamil refugees Priya and Nades, and their two Australian-born children, who the government wants to deport to Sri Lanka.
An attempt to deport Priya, Nades and their two Australian-born daughters, Tharunicaa and Kopika, was halted mid-air by a court injunction preventing the family leaving Australia on August 29.
Climate justice activists are organising a mass blockade of a major mining conference in Melbourne that is being likened to the S11 blockade of the World Economic Forum, held in the same city 19 years ago, and which helped bring international attention to the fight against corporate globalisation.
Homelessness is often seen as the result of personal factors. But, according to Peter Mares, author of No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis, homelessness and housing stress are systemic problems as the housing market is not providing for people's needs.
Located in the suburb of Broadmeadows, Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) has been described as a "hidden hell for refugees".
The Australian Education Union’s (AEU) Victorian branch voted to support a student-initiated call for a Climate Strike on September 20. The internationally coordinated strike, which will be held just days out from a United Nations Emergency Climate Summit, is seeking to pressure governments to take serious action to address the climate crisis.
Eighty people attended the launch of Ben Hillier’s new book Losing Santhia, which was organised by the Tamil Refugee Council on July 27. Santhia was a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka who had been a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and who died in Indonesia in 2017.
Victorian Socialists (VS) held its second members’ conference on July 21, where attendees discussed the next steps for this emergent electoral force, formed a little over a year ago.
The coronial inquest into the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, due to start on August 26, will be the first of its kind to consider the role systemic racism plays in an Aboriginal person’s death in custody.
The Victorian Ambulance Union (VAU) registered as an incorporated association after breaking away from United Voice on July 4. Green Left Weekly’s Sarah Hathway spoke to VAU general secretary Danny Hill about why paramedics and ambulance workers decided on this course.