A new alliance to help New South Wales councils and residents’ groups seeking to demerge their forcibly amalgamated councils has been formed. Pip Hinman reports.
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The new war alliance — AUKUS — formalises Australia’s hostile positioning toward China. It also hands the pro-nuclear lobby a new angle, writes Pip Hinman.
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In a shift of alliances, Inner West Councillors elected the Greens’ Rochelle Porteous its new Mayor, reports Pip Hinman.
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After a heroic effort by the Darwin community, the last family of refugees was freed from unjust detention. But they are not stopping there. Pip Hinman reports.
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Green Left’s Pip Hinman spoke to Shayaan, a member of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan (SPA) about the situation on the ground in the country.
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Anti-war groups are backing widespread calls on the Australian government to swiftly give security to Afghan asylum seekers, reports Pip Hinman.
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A second report on COVID-19-driven anti-Asian racism by the Asian Australian Alliance makes chilling reading. Pip Hinman reports.
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After nearly two decades of war, occupation and political meddling, the occupying United States and NATO forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan, leaving Afghans to pick up the pieces, reports Pip Hinman.
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The NSW government, not local government, must be forced to remediate a community park near the largest traffic interchange in the southern hemisphere, argues Pip Hinman.
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Workers at two council-owned inner west pools have been stood down by their private operators without pay during lockdown. Pip Hinman argues that this is the ugly consequence of councils contracting out community services.
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Asylum seekers like the Murugappan family must be given permanent residency, argues Pip Hinman.
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Labor councillors’ attemps to stop a residents’ poll on de-amalgamation from proceeding at the local government elections in September has been thwarted. Pip Hinman reports.
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Just as Israel is being forced to pull back from its latest bombardment of Gaza, ABC management has been instructing its reporters in the art of misreporting, writes Pip Hinman.
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In a major victory for democracy, the Inner West Council (IWC) decided on May 24 to conduct a referendum of residents on de-amalgamation at the next local government election.
Five Greens and three independent councillors supported the motion to allow the community to have a direct say in the forced amalgamation of three inner west councils in 2016. Five Labor and two Liberal councillors voted against.
But on May 26, councillors were notified by the council’s general manager that three Labor councilors who are not standing for reelection — Anna York, Lucille McKenna and Sam Iskandar — had tabled a rescission motion.
This is unlikely to pass but could cause enough delay to make it hard to get the poll on the September 4 ballot.
The Local Government Act allows councils to undertake polls on specific questions, including at election time, and new amendments set out a process for de-amalgamation. A majority of residents voting to de-amalgamate would not be an automatic trigger but it would add to the pressure on the NSW government which forced the mergers to take place despite widespread opposition.
Colin Hesse, Greens councilor for Marrickville, told Green Left he was pleased the motion got up, saying the forced amalgamations of Marrickville, Ashfield and Leichhardt Councils by the NSW government was “undemocratic”.
“The continued refusal by the Labor councillors to support a referendum of residents on the amalgamation demonstrates just how distanced from the community the Labor machine is,” he said.
“The NSW government’s independent review of local government in 2014 argued that councillors in smaller local government areas were too close to their communities. The clear inferences are that councillors listened to community members too closely, and were less likely to support over-development.”
From prior experience on Marrickville Council, Hesse said the IWC is “more removed” from the community. “I do not believe this has made for better planning decisions or allocation of limited Council resources.” As the NSW government assumes more planning powers and makes direct appointments to planning panels, the role played by local government in this process has gone into crisis, Hesse said. “Bigger local government effectively dilutes the community voice, and that can only suit the already powerful.”
The substantive motion for a poll was put by independent councillors Victor Macri and John Stamolis, and amended by the Greens in discussion. Labor tried its best to filibuster, but did not succeed.
The motion instructed the NSW Electoral Commission to: “Take a poll of electors on the question of whether the Inner West local government area should be de-amalgamated, so as to restore the former local government areas of Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville with respective boundaries as they were immediately prior to 12 May 2016 (being the date of creation of the present Inner West local government area)” at the September 4 poll.
It also called on council to “examine the cost of such a referendum as part of its quarterly budget review”, and to seek to “force the NSW government to pay 100% of costs of de-amalgamation of local government areas that were forced to amalgamate where a referendum of residents has chosen to reverse the forced amalgamation”.
The public gallery was packed for the debate. Seven residents spoke, all but one in favor of a poll on de-amalgamation.
[Pip Hinman is running for the Socialist Alliance in Damun (Stanmore) Ward in the Inner West Council. She is campaigning for de-amalgamation and spoke to the successful motion on May 24.]
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Norm Dixon, a dynamic community leader and communist, passed away on May 11. Rachel Evans reflects on his life.
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Markela Panegyres reports on evidence that the University of Sydney management has been engaged in surveillance of staff and students.
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NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman has commited to reforming antiquated consent laws, including introducing a model of affirmative consent, reports Pip Hinman.
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Mark Kabay-Saleh, from the islands of Masig and Poruma in the centre of the Torres Strait, gave this speech to the climate strike in Brisbane’s King George Square on May 21.
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Residents in the inner west of Sydney will finally have their say on de-amalgamation now that the Inner West Council has voted for a referendum to be held at the September 4 local government election. Pip Hinman reports.
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Refugee rights activists protested at the Danish Consulate against that government’s plans to detain asylum seekers and process them in Rwanda. Stephen Langford reports.
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Paul Gregoire talks to George Newhouse and Ian Rintoul about new changes to the migration act which allow the federal government to lock people in immigration detention indefinitely.
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Keeping older loved ones at home, like other countries do, is not that simple, especially when those who write aged-care policy place no value on humanity unless it turns a profit. Suzanne James reports.
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Health workers are taking action about system failures after seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died while waiting for care. Polly Watkins reports.
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Unions, peace and aid groups are condemning Israel’s air strikes and calling on the Australian government to demand Israel cease fire. Isaac Nellist reports.
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The insistence on Israel’s “right to exist” is really a demand for the maintenance of a supremacist “Jewish’’ state, in which Palestinians are second-class citizens. Sam Wainwright argues that this makes Israel an apartheid state which is incompatible with peace.
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The insistence on Israel’s “right to exist” is really a demand for the maintenance of a supremacist “Jewish’’ state, in which Palestinians are second-class citizens. Sam Wainwright argues that this makes Israel an apartheid state which is incompatible with peace.
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Activist Stephen Langford is refusing to pay a fine for using liquid chalk to make a statement about the treatment of refugees, reports Kerry Smith.
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Commuters in Sydney’s eastern suburbs are angry with the New South Wales government’s plan to cut 25 bus routes in the south-eastern suburbs, reports Jim McIlroy.
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