Dingo bytes

There is no doubt that the Federal Government — with the active 
support of the states — is in the process of killing off the 
nation's public education system. By the year 2010, if the 
current trend continues, Australia's teacher shortage will reach 
30,000. By 2005 the demand for primary school teachers will 
increase by 31 percent and for secondary teachers by 85 percent! 
Access to teacher training in our tertiary education system is 
becoming more difficult as user pays policies bite. So, in 
Victoria alone 3330 people who applied for and were eligible for 
teaching courses missed out in 2004.

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The WA Government has announced a ban on the growing of GM food 
crops. Its decision was influenced, no doubt, by public opinion 
and the findings of scientific research about the implications of 
GM crops for the environment and the unknown effect of GM food on 
humans. But there is another question people should be asking: Do 
we want a few corporations monopolising the global food supply? 
The GM transnationals such as Monsanto intend to ensure that 
everything we eat comes from and is owned by them. They are 
taking over seed companies worldwide and closing them down; 
introducing seeds that do not reproduce; making sure that crops 
cannot be grown without their patented chemicals. It's called 
monopoly capitalism.

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In this election year the Howard Government is frantically trying 
to hose down the obvious conclusion people are making: that 
Australia is now a more likely target for terrorism as a result 
of joining the US in the war on Iraq. So desperate are the 
conniving PM and his lying ministers that they even jumped all 
over Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty when he said that 
the Madrid bombings were linked to Spain's support for the US war 
on Iraq. By inference the same threat applies to Australia. But 
not everyone's swallowing it. In a national Newspoll last week 65 
percent of people surveyed said they believed an attack is more 
likely as a result of Australia's support of the US in Iraq.

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The National Coalition for Gun Control has launched a powerful 
campaign of public awareness about the devastating impact of the 
growing number of handguns. The campaign includes an 
advertisement which shows three dug out grave sites with the 
caption, "If you support handguns place a cross below". NSW 
Premier Bob Carr and PM John Howard were invited to attend the 
launch of the campaign at the NSW Parliament, or provide a letter 
of support. Neither did so.

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CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is Health Minister Tony Abbott. In 
what he described as just his "personal opinion", Abbott last 
week publicly declared his opposition to abortion. Abbott and his 
government are viciously anti-women and as Health Minister he is 
now in a position to take away Medicare access from women who 
decide to have a termination.