Dingo bytes
Students at the University of Western Sydney have hired a Queen's Counsel to take action in the NSW Supreme Court against the university trying to take control of buildings and services that have been theirs for decades. The university has given the students a month to provide documents to prove that they own the five contested buildings. Student Association spokesman Jason Markwick said the university wants to take ownership of buildings and services were bought and paid for by students. He accused the university of asset snatching. "It is quite clear it's a profit motive for the university to take on these businesses", Mr Markwick said.* * * According to a recent survey Australians appear to be very insecure about the future and don't trust politicians to fix the nation's problems. Two thirds of those surveyed by the charity Anglicare have no trust in any level of government and believe that, despite all the election promises, widespread environmental degradation will occur in the near future. Unsurprisingly, the survey found that 10 percent of Australians believed that they were likely to become unemployed in the next 12 months.* * * Greens NSW MLC Lee Rhiannon has received support for the recognition of the importance of East Timor Sea Boundary Changes in the NSW Legislative Council. Ms Rhiannon said that the Greens were heartened by the full support of all political parties on such a vital issue for East Timor. Thirty seven European Union countries have also called on Prime Minister John Howard to guarantee East Timor's rights over its own resources.* * * The ACTU has called the Howard Government's election announcement of a toolkit voucher for apprentices an "absolute joke". The peak union body labelled the voucher as unnecessary as apprentices already receive an allowance of more than $1000 to buy tools. They have also accused the Government of inflating apprenticeship numbers by including short-term trainees such as kitchen-hands in fast food outlets.* * * Conservationists dumped over a tonne of woodchips at the ALP campaign headquarters in Tasmania as a reminder to Mark Latham not to capitulate to the forest industry. Spokesperson for the action, Lauren Caulfield said, "We're asking Mr Latham to listen to 88 percent of Australians who want to see old growth forests protected, and to come out with a strong policy to protect Tasmania's forests". The ALP has so far been reluctant to give a firm commitment to protecting Tasmanian forests despite Mark Latham's visit to the area some months ago.* * * CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: Is the Australian Democrats. In a recent visit to Kalgoorlie, Industrial Relations Spokesperson Andrew Murray announced that the Democrats would resist any moves to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements, thus continuing down their anti-union path. No wonder they'll be flat out getting one percent of the vote on October 9.