2
ACT Labor government bans appeals
CANBERRA - On April 16, the ACT ALP government responded to the Save the Ridge group's March 31 court victory by announcing not only an appeal, but also a change to land planning regulations so that objections to developments from the community are simply not considered. It will also exclude the ACT Planning and Land Authority (ACTPLA) from having any say over ACT land designated as nationally significant.
The ACT Supreme Court had ruled that ACTPLA approval (with its environmental assessment requirements) was necessary even on designated land, which includes areas on the Bruce/O'Connor Ridge bushland nature reserves threatened by the Gungahlin Drive extension. The ACT government was ordered to seek such approval before work on the extension could resume.
The government will not restart work on clearing bushland for the Gungahlin Drive extension until early May, when the ACT Legislative Assembly next meets. A disallowance motion on the changes to planning regulations is likely to be put by the Greens, however both Labor and Liberal are determined to proceed with the road.
Save the Ridge is preparing to resume blockading action and a legal challenge to the ACT government's appeal. The group will also hold a community meeting in Gungahlin on April 29 to discuss the best transport options for residents in the area.
Paul Oboohov
Speak-out demands: 'Troops out of Iraq!'
BRISBANE - "Australia is standing on the edge of a massacre in Iraq. Howard and Bush claim 'We need to stay there until the job is done.' What job? US and Australian troops should get out now", Ross Daniels, Queensland University of Technology lecturer and former Amnesty International president, told a speak-out of some 50 people on the steps of King George Square on April 16.
The emergency speak-out, called by the Socialist Alliance, heard a number of speakers address peak-hour passers-by on the crisis in Iraq. Speakers condemned the occupation of Iraq by US and allied forces, and explained that another Vietnam War is in the making in the Middle East.
The speak-out came after the annual Palm Sunday peace rally, held in the square on April 4, on the theme "Counting the costs of war". The rally, followed by a march through city streets, was organised by the Rally for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament.
Bill Mason
Iraq invasion book launch
MELBOURNE - Twenty people attended the April 7 launch of Waratah Rose Gillespie's book Invasion of Iraq: an Eyewitness Account, in which she recounts her experiences as a "human shield" during the US-led invasion of Iraq last year.
The human shields went to Iraq when the invasion was imminent, in the hope that their presence might deter US bombing of civilians or, by reporting on the suffering the bombing caused, help build opposition to its continuation.
Gillespie showed video footage of the horrific casualties caused by the US bombing, and attacked the myth of the "benign invasion". She argued that Iraq is being "raped" by the US, which wants to profit from Iraq's oil.
Chris Slee
From Green Left Weekly, April 21, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.